Of course, I was disappointed about the wasted practices. It was not because I couldn't see the girls in their sportswear. Yes, not at all.
◇
"Then the cooking contest is postponed?"
"Yes, I'm really sorry. There's some complicated circumstance...."
When we were greeting Marquis Lloyd's butler whom we found in the airship boarding terminal, he told Lulu about the postponement of the cooking contest.
He's being evasive about the situation, but it's probably because Marquis Lloyd has been recalled to the Royal Capital for suspicion of attacking Duke Bishtal's airship.
The luxurious carriage that passed by us when we were coming here must be of Marquis Lloyd's.
I've also confirmed on the map that Marquis Lloyd is in the royal castle.
I'll visit him with some presents later. Meeting with someone who's under suspicion for attempted murder of the duke might be bad, but we, who are the ones who stopped the attempted murder, should be fine.
After saying farewell to the butler, we leave the bustling airship terminal.
◇
"Hey hey, are those uniforms?"
"Hm? Looks like it, probably the Royal Academy's uniform."
Arisa asked about the boys and girls who are walking down the road, wearing the same clothes. Even on the AR indicators, they're, [Affiliation: Shiga Royal Academy, Preschool].
Arisa could have probably checked it herself with [Status Check] even without purposely asking me.
Royal Academy is like the university in Japan, the school buildings are divided on several grounds.
First, the high class school with scholarly presentations' building like an auditorium and a library are located in front of the royal castle.
The Noble School and Maiden School are in the Noble Street. Nobles go to each of them. The Maiden School is the so-called Finishing School. Lilina, the daughter of Gururian's Viceroy attends the former.
The one with the uniform we've been seeing from a little while ago is the Preschool near the airport. The Preschool isn't only attended by the wealthy commoner's children, but also the children of honorary nobles.
Beside the Preschool, there are the Knight School and Magic School, both which require wide plot of land.
It seems there are artificial underground labyrinths inside the Magic School's plot. It's not even as big as one Area of Selbira Labyrinth though, so it's probably completely for the students' training.
There are the [Labyrinth of Beginning] that's 50 square meters wide and has five floors, and the [Labyrinth of Trial] that's 100 square meters wide and has 10 floors.
Though it seems it's free for the Royal Capital's nobles to use, you have to pay some fee to enter and when you defeat a monster.
And then, monsters that have gotten stronger deep in the labyrinth are taken to the arena at the edge of the Royal Capital to fight against crime slaves as a show which also serves to cull their number.
I knew this information from the letter of Princess Menea who's attending the Magic Academy.
While explaining such, we pass by the Royal Capital's Preschool Academy.
It seems Arisa is remembering her former life, she's sending some nostalgic glances.
◇
Passing through a sturdy-looking inner wall, our carriage enters the Noble Street.
This Noble Street's area is extremely wide, it's as wide as the whole Muno City. By the way, the Royal Castle takes around 30% of the area.
Originally, the Royal Capital was only the Noble Street, but it became too crowded 300 years ago, and after getting repeatedly widened every 100 years, the Royal Capital has become like the present state with the concentric circles inner walls.
We leave the main street that goes to the royal castle, and enter the block that extends to the lower noble area.
"Hey, where is it?"
"It's right after this block, we're close."
After passing under the shadow of an aqueduct and advancing for a while, we got to the place where an entire mansion took the whole block.
"Wall~?"
"The entrance is taking a day off nanodesu!"
"H-hey! Don't tell me this luxurious mansion is our Royal Capital's mansion?"
No way.
This is the head office of Echigoya Firm.
This one is for nobles' use, there are two more shops in the downtown for the commoners.
"You're mistaken. Look, you can see it now. It's the mansion with blue roof over there."
"Small."
--How rude.
The lot area is narrower than the mansion in the Labyrinth City, but the floor space is the same you know?
By the way, the price was far and away higher. The price in the Royal Capital is high no matter the world eh.
◇
"Welcome back, Master."
"I'm back."
I greet back an elderly man who's wearing butler clothes.
This person and the five maids behind him are professional I've employed from the Royal Capital's temporary personnel agency.
This is the first time I meet them since I left the arrangement to Ms. Miteruna. I've asked her to choose people who don't discriminate against Demi-humans.
The maids-san are all normal people, but this elderly man is a level 27 former explorer.
He was a scout during his explorer day so he's weak in a direct fight, but he should be fine against some average thieves alone.
The elderly butler guides us to the living room, and then we enjoy the blue tea that he's prepared.
Lulu has immediately gone to see the kitchen while bringing Arisa along. The beastkin girls are checking the mansion's security. Shiro and Crow are helping the beastkin girls.
Thus, only Mia and Nana are here.
"Shall I bring some sweets for Madam and the Lady?"
"....Madam."
Mia mutters so looking happy, but he was referring to Nana without a doubt.
"That is wrong, correcting it. I am Master's serv--"
"Sorry, but I have two tasks for you."
"I understood--"
I covered the latter half of Nana's line and gave some tasks to the elderly butler.
I ask him to hire some gatekeepers and guards in the mansion plot at night, and remodeling of the basement.
I'm thinking of changing the wine and food cellar at the basement to become treasure warehouse to attract thieves. It's also convenient that it has other entrance beside on the mansion.
◇
I install a teleportation Carved Seal Board in the bedroom, change into Kuro figure and teleport to the Echigoya mansion next door.
The teleport destination is Tifaliza's office.
Only people related to Kuro are allowed to be here, so I've always teleported here whenever I have some business in the Royal Capital.
"Kuro-sama."
"Oh my, Kuro-sama! Your white hair is wonderful today too. This room is dirty as you can see, so please come to my room as the manager."
Tifaliza bowed and only spoke a few words, but the newly appointed manager girl seems to be burning with rivalry with Tifaliza, she's approaching me pro-actively.
It's truly the demonstration of [They're hitting]. I don't need to say what are.
She's one of the female explorers who were left in the Ivy Mansion.
They were people without aim, but since they were formerly nobles, they could read and write of course. I've employed them in Echigoya Firm, since there were educated people available.
Among them, this newly appointed manager girl was from lineage that extended to some Royal Capital's noble and unexpectedly well-known, so it was convenient.
"No need for greetings. Show me the sales list and the reservation list."
"Here--"
"Here it is. Kuro-sama."
The new manager girl took the document that Tifaliza had presented and gave it to me. There's no difference regardless of whoever gave it right?
Documents prepared by Tifaliza are easy to read like always.
"The hair growth medicine and the vitality medicine are selling better than anticipated huh."
"Yes, ever since we gave some samples to the baroness and the viscount who acted as loudspeakers, orders have been coming until we're about to run out of stock."
"Is that so, that's good."
I've prepared around 1000 sets for both, yet they're almost sold out.
The vitality medicine is a medicine for energizing one part of men. It has superior power than the existing medicines, it also lasts longer. The luster skin medicines for women are also selling well, but not as good as the vitality medicines.
The basic-skin products are not really popular.
"The hair-growth medicines are 10 gold coins per bottle, and the vitality medicines are one gold coin per bottle, but I think they would still sell even for twice those prices. How about raising their prices right now?"
"I'll leave that to you. I'll put twice the amount of them compared to the last time to the warehouse, do everything you can to get money in short term from the nobles, not in long term."
"Understood."
I bring the manager to the underground warehouse and take out medicines and built-to-order equipment from the Item Box to here.
Only me and the manager can go in-and-out of this underground warehouse.
Tifaliza and Nell are their seniors, but those two don't have fighting prowess, so they've been excluded for their safety.
It's like I'm ignoring the manager, but in her case, it's partly because she's volunteered for it, but she also has the influence of her parent's house, so something unreasonable probably won't befall her.
I've installed security facilities at the level of the Royal Capital in this underground warehouse.
Among them, there are an Orichalcum Golem that uses Philoshoper's Stone as its power source, and eight Bronze Golems that stand guard all-night long, so they could stop any intruder unless they have special ability that negate physical attack like Ban the True Ancestor.
They can't stop any intruder who can use space magic, but I'm not taking it into consideration since there are only few people who can use them.
As long as it's not Arisa, the Orichalcum Golem would probably knock that kind of intruder down before they could escape.
By the way, I've copied the beastkin girls fighting pattern into the Orichalcum Golem.
One Orichalcum Golem is about slightly weaker than Pochi. The eight Bronze Golems are weaker than an Orichalcum Golem even if they band together, but I've installed an algorithm that make them disregard any damage on their body.
Even Tama would find it difficult to run away from the cooperation of eight Bronze Golems and the Orichalcum Golem. No, Tama in Ninja Mode probably could easygoingly run away from them....
I put the payment, the gold coins and some precious metal ingots, into my Item Box.
There's an unusual metal among them.
"What is this platinum ingot?"
"Yes, we received it from a weaselkin merchant we were acquainted during the merchant assembly. Usan-dono and--"
"The name doesn't matter. Buy three times this amount next time, you can use the money as long as it matches the market price."
I've been searching for platinum since it's needed for an indispensable magic tool. I've only gotten around 10 grams of it from the magic-mining, so I won't miss this chance to acquire kilograms worth of platinum.
Still, it's been a while since I heard that weaselkin's name.
◇
"There are many upper nobles who wish for credit transactions...."
"Reject it. My Master wishes to collect the nobles' money until the auction that's held after the Kingdom Conference. If there is anyone who threatens us, lodge a complaint to the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister knows the true owner of Echigoya Firm. He will surely give a hand."
The tiger has lent his leather, so I'll fully make use of it without reserve.
I've already defeated two demon lords that appeared in this kingdom, so there is no need for reservation.
Moreover, some secret agents of the Prime Minster are hiding nearby this mansion, if anything happened, they probably would intervene before I called him.
Knights who seem to be the Prime Minister's private army are regularly patrolling the area, looks like they're here as a deterrence for other nobles.
"Kuro-sama, this isn't directly related to Echigoya Firm, but I want you to hear this--"
When I'm confirming Tifaliza's stock letter, the Manager tells me the rumors she's gathered.
Last night, a monster appeared from the Royal Capital's underground, it went into hiding in the sewer after eating people who were present at the place. It seemed to be a Scarab Beetle-type of monster with red figure.
The place where the monster appeared was the jail, and there might be some criminals who had escaped by taking advantage of the disturbance.
It seems the guards have been searching criminal slaves called [Violet] in the sewer since this morning.
I've tried searching the map, but the only monsters in the Royal Capital are the tamed monsters accompanied by Tamers.
If I exclude the Royal Academy's labyrinths, there are only ghost-type monsters here and there in the underground tunnel and the slum quarter. The soul magician who dwells in the underground tunnel seems suspicious, but there's no insect-type monster anywhere to be seen.
There's a very small group of orcs in the underground tunnel, but they probably won't make a blunder that would get them caught by the searching guards.
There are a lot of groups with high levels and great fighting powers in the Royal Capital, so it should be no problem even if I don't butt in.
I think I should give some warning to the people I know when I get back to the mansion just in case.
"By the way, what happened to Nell?"
"Yes, there's not enough people who can use life magic in the factory, so she's currently helping over there."
I see, so that's why I didn't see her.
I don't feel like I've come back to the Royal Capital before hearing Nell's peculiar way of talk. Maybe I should go visit the factory where Porina is later.
"I forgot. Here's a souvenir."
I give a necklace made of True Silver with a small gem attached to Tifaliza. It's a reward for her who's supporting Echigoya Firm silently.
It's a magic tool that has the effect of relieving fatigue, so I don't doubt that she'll work even harder now. It also has a secret function as an insurance, but if possible, I hope it'll stay an insurance.
I'm going to give silver earrings for the other staff members, I'll leave it to the manager before going out.
The one at the managerial position probably need better vanity to show, so I've prepared a necklace with gold chains and a big ruby for the manager.
Since it seems like it's hard for Tifaliza to put the necklace on her neck, I do it for her.
Tifaliza's white skin is turning red, maybe because I'm putting it from the front.
"It suits you well."
"Thank you very much."
She's expressionless like usual, but her voice is a half octave higher than usual.
She must be pleased.
I lightly wave my hand to reply Tifaliza's thank, and then teleport to the factory at the edge of the Royal Capital.