CH 416

Laeva and I made several security golems.

They were Iron Golems made of steel.

If on the off chance that they get hit by magic attacks, we plated them with mithril so they wouldn’t break immediately.

There were golems equipped with 2 meter hexagonal poles and golems with two pronged man-catchers. Because they were security golems, they had nonlethal weapons meant for suppressing.

Having had fun making golems for the first time in a long time, I was on cloud nine. Naturally, Laeva wouldn’t act as brakes but rather as an accelerator and so the two of us made golems.

I made a commander golem that would command the other security golems.

Five Great Shield Golems, two Man-Catcher Golems, and a Commander Golem make up one platoon.

The commander Golem was also equipped two nonlethal jitte[1] for weapons.

The jitte was my doing. It had the image of a hitsuke touzoku aratamekata[2] . Perhaps this was the vestiges of my time as a salaryman in my 40’s, Akane had absolutely no understanding for me.

However, Laeva and Sophia, who I asked for her opinion, were amused by the jitte. When I explained that it was a nonlethal weapon meant for subduing opponents, I excitedly gave ideas about the length and shape of the hook of the jitte.

Well, you could say I was escaping reality.

「Maybe we should have just bought slaves to be maids after all……」

「I imagine the difficulty of finding the perfect person for it would be the same.」

I couldn’t help but complain at the situational report from Xervus-san, and hearing this, Sophia denied it.

「In any case, it’s quite fortunate that all of the slaves that Takumi-sama bought were the best of people.」

「Definitely……」

Sophia, Maria, and Laeva were undeniably extremely talented people. I could tell just how lucky I was.

Fundamentally, unless it was an outrageous order, a slave can not disobey their master, but even so, one can’t tell what that slave’s inner feelings really were. Cases where the slave contract was irrelevant like in Sophia and Maria’s to serve me were apparently rare.

「This time, we’ll borrow the Great Spirits’ assistance for the interviews. They could simply pick out the spies sent in by the nobles and merchants.

「Gotta thank Undine and the others.」

Three days later, we received word from Xervus-san that the date of the interview had been decided.

The interview was scheduled a month from now to account for the participants from distant areas. Hearing this, I dejectedly thought that that wasn’t too bad.

「What do you think could have happened with the construction of the churches in the former Sydnia?」

「He also wrote about that. At present, negotiations regarding which cities the church would be build and where the officials of the Genesis Faith would be located in.」

Sophia said so, reading the letter from Xervus-san.

I couldn’t stop myself from being fed up.

I just want to build churches in the Divine Empire of Sydnia, but they’re really holding me back.

I understand the feeling of accepting a religion different from what they believe in. However, if the negotiations weren’t advancing, that’s a different problem.

「With questions like how much and which country would supply what building materials, which countries would be useful for missionary work, the influence of opinions of the citizens of the former Sydnia about the Trination and the Genesis Faith, it was understandable why the negotiations weren’t advancing.」

「If we build the churches fast, we could have already established orphanages and have soup kitchens going……」

The two matters in question, the labor shortage and the revival of the former Sydnia, had deviated far from what I had planned, and it had become troublesome.

Afterwards, I escaped from reality and built security golems.

In the meantime, I spent my days creating potions, and maintaining the bases in the Sanctuary, the Sky Island, and Demon Continent.

Then the day of the interview arrived in Volton.

We teleported to the Volton Mansion early in the morning, ate breakfast there, then went to training camp of Margrave Volton’s knights, as designated by Xervus-san.

「……you’ve gotta be kidding me.」

「「………………」」

「……there’s all sorts of races too.」

「This is beyond my expectations.」

「There’s so many people nya」

「We have to choose from these……?」

The spacious grounds of the training camp was filled with far more people than we had expected.

Sophia and Maria were at a loss for words, Marnie was surprised by how many races had gathered, while Akane and Lulu-chan were surprised by the sheer number of people. Laeva was horrified at the thought of needing to interview this many people.

Yep, I feel the same way. Do we have to choose from this many……?

I never thought hiring people would be this difficult.

***

Footnotes:

1. Jitte – or jutte (十手, “ten hands”) is a specialized weapon that was used by police in Edo period Japan Looks like this.

2. 火附盗賊改- A position that would crackdown on serious crimes such as arson, banditry, and gambling during the Edo period. Looks like this.