“…Please don’t look this way.”
“Huh? But I think it’s fine on Tina-chan. Your style is nice, even though your body is small…I think it suits you.”
Slightly angered by the reference to her stature, Tina turned her eyes away and clearly declared, “I’ll refuse since I’m petite!”
For the last month, Tina had resided in the Church, which was beyond the residential area on the north side of Balman, and led a life of Dungeon diving in a party with Kagami’s group, as well as giving individual guidance to lost children each day.
“It’s hopeless for Tina-Tina. I don’t know of anything else you could do, other than being a Bunny Girl.”
“I’m not…Tina-Tina. Anyways, what is it you want me to do?”
“Become a Pope.”
“Huh? I’m sorry, I didn’t hear you well. What was it you said you want me to do?”
“Become a Pope.”
Tina hung her head slightly and considered it while muttering, “A Pope is…umm, in other words,” in a serious manner.
“You want me…to start a religion?”
“That’s exactly right, Pope-sama.”
“I refuse.”
In response to Tina’s definite reply, Kagami stood up from his seat and muttered, “This is…are you kidding me?” and looked as if he couldn’t believe her.
“I’m taking this seriously! Rather, what is a Pope?”
“It’s that. Tina would help save the impure hearts of those people who keep on losing and losing in the Casino. You would sell them Luck-Up Items that would make them come back to the Casino.”
Kagami didn’t notice everyone’s dumbfounded condition and continued to speak. He proposed the tag-line, “The world has changed ever since I joined Tina’s Religion. I come to the Casino everyday. I’ve also won the lottery!” and everyone continued to be at a loss for words regarding the new Religion.
To summarize Kagami’s statements, he had just proposed a crafty way to make money by creating a Church within the Casino.
“Must you earn money by using the God that I serve!?”
“Stupid Tina! Tina is Stupid! For now, we’re saving up gold to ultimately beat the crap out of the Gods. In other words, since we’re already planning to beat them up, it’s not strange to use them to earn gold! They’re our enemies after all! Same as the Monsters!”
“No…Well, doesn’t that deny the reason I exist?”
“And whatnot-ugh.”
Afterwards, the result of repeated negotiation was that Tina had consented to establish a Church within the Casino and promote Accessories related to Luck-Up, which were beneficial to the Casino, while progressing with her normal work.
“So, Shishou, what should I do?”
The next one to ask that was Rex as he stood up from his seat at the counter and approached Kagami.
“Hmm, Chikky-kun, won’t you stop calling me Shishou?”
“Then stop calling me Chikky.”
Ever since the attack on Salumeria a month ago, Rex had persistently called Kagami, ‘Shishou.’ He wished to learn various things at Kagami’s side in order to change his way of living.
Rex, who had lived bound by the Role of Hero, destined to subjugate the Demon King, had longed for Kagami’s straightforward lifestyle, which wasn’t bound by his Role. He was determined to observe Kagami’s way of life in order to discover what he truly wanted to do. As proof of his determination, despite not receiving any teachings, Rex had been calling Kagami, Shishou.
It was normally impossible for a Hero to want to be taught by a Villager. It would destroy their personal values. It was unknown whether he was happy due to his new attitude of wanting to improve, but he had been doing many things with Kagami without complaining as he called him Shishou.
“Rex…I’m ordering you as your Shishou. If you stop calling me Shishou…! I will confer upon you a full mastery!”
“Don’t misunderstand. I’m calling you Shishou because I respect you, but we are of equal standing. I’m calling you Shishou freely because I just want to observe your way of life.
“Eh? Aren’t we bad?”
“That’s why you’re helping me with various things in exchange for that, right? Speaking of gathering 10,000 gold, that Demon man… I want to know the meaning of Estellar’s true intentions.”
“Yosh, well then, you’ll be on toilet duty.”
“Hold up, Shishou.”
After several minutes, Kagami finished discussing with Rex about the distribution of Roles. In the middle of this, Alice had continued to observe Kagami and Rex’s unsightly debate, while happily thinking about how a Demon such as herself was mixed in with them.
“Then Alice will be on toilet duty.”
“Please wait for a moment Kagami-san.”
At the end of their discussion, Alice interjected with a serious look.
This time, the discussion wasn’t just between Kagami and Rex, Tina, Krul, and Alice were involved as well, and they were bickering loudly. Observing this scene, Takako and Menou, who were still seated at the counter, smiled.
“By the way, Kagami-chan. Although this seems like a fundamental issue, do we have enough people for this with just us?”
Takako asked Kagami, who was still mired in the conversation of Role distribution. He showed her a troubled expression, as if trying to recall something, and then, with a serious look, said:
“Not at all.”
Is what he replied.
Takako was easily able to understand his response.
Kagami’s total assets totaled 5547 Gold. With this amount, 847 gold was used for the construction fees and set up costs. Kagami’s current total assets were 5000 Gold. He had reached this amount after collecting 300 Gold from defeating Monsters and accepting Quests in the past month. Their urgent goal was to gather the remaining 5000 Gold within the remaining 11 months.
He felt regretful that he hadn’t gone all out in saving his money before, since it looked like “it might be possible if we had two years to do it”.
Anyways, since it was impossible to gather 5000 Gold in a year through normal means, Kagami had proposed building a Casino. It was an evil proposal to have the Guild members, Adventurers, and Nobles spend a lot of their saved up money.
Speaking of being able to do anything if one had an income; although the Casino would be the main attraction, inside would be several entertainment facilities, such as Restaurants, Bars, Taverns, Tina’s Church, Public Baths, and etc.
Even though they would be managing a large-scale Casino, they clearly didn’t have enough people.
Facing the sea, the town of Balman was huge. It was prosperous enough to have plenty of Merchants, Mercenaries, Adventurers, and fellow Guild members gathered.
When a Casino seeks to target a Kingdom’s nobles and the people that gather in such a huge town as clients, it becomes necessary to build such a large-scale Casino. As a result, they had purchased a piece of land surrounding a portion of unused port, and had built a Casino facing the sea around one-twentieth the size of Balman.
“I thought we would somehow be able to do it with our spirits.”
“Since that has yet to happen, aren’t we in a hurry now? We need to gather more hands quickly, right? What have we been doing… in this past month?”
“Well, umm… entering Dungeons… umm… and beating the crap… out of Monsters.”
As a sole proprietor, Takako began to scold Kagami who sat in seiza. With their outlook on the present situation full of troubles, everyone, except for Kagami, let out a deep sigh.