Ch.44I Did It, Mister (2)

“What are you saying?”

“I was sincere…”

Adelheid replied with a voice that was not just cracking but withered and twisted.

“I might have just been entertainment for you, but I was sincere…”

Wondering what she meant, I quickly racked my brain.

What was entertainment and what was sincere?

Soon I had a rough idea of what Adelheid was talking about.

She seemed to be referring to when I was kidnapped at the mercenary camp.

I had deliberately showered her with compliments to gain her favor and look for openings.

Though Adelheid outwardly showed anger or scolded me, it seems she was somewhat swayed by the atmosphere.

Is she saying she thought those words were sincere and that she had opened her heart to me to some extent?

Wasn’t it just supposed to end with her feeling good about receiving compliments?

“Answer me.”

While I was lost in thought, Adelheid spoke sharply.

“Which was it for you?”

“Commander. Are you really asking because you don’t know, or do you already know and just want confirmation?”

At my response, Adelheid closed her mouth.

Then suddenly she let out a terrible scream and lunged at me.

But before she could grab my collar, she staggered and fell off the bed.

“Damn it…”

Sitting on the floor, Adelheid quietly muttered a curse and began to sob softly.

Geez, this woman puts me in difficult situations every time.

* * * * *

Fortunately, Adelheid fulfilled her duty as an instructor as promised.

With the 2nd squad leader as her assistant instructor, she taught the knights irregular warfare.

The training ground for irregular warfare was in abandoned houses on the outskirts of the village and the nearby hills.

There, the knights were divided into teams to master urban and guerrilla warfare.

Though Adelheid showed vulnerability in front of me, she was still the commander of the Remugen mercenaries.

With harsh yet professional training, she quickly raised the knights’ skill level.

At this rate, they could be converted into a security force right now without any major issues.

“How strange.”

Liberone spoke while watching the knights’ training.

“I wonder about those instructors’ backgrounds. Such fighting methods are rarely seen.”

“Well, I suppose they have their own know-how.”

I wonder how Liberone would react if she knew the two people before her were officers from the mercenary group she personally destroyed.

“Jack! Jaaaack!”

Looking back, I saw Brasya running toward us carrying several pig legs.

“What?”

“It’s chaos, total chaos!”

“What’s chaotic? Did something happen at the farm?”

“What else would I be talking about besides the farm?! Come quickly!”

Led by Brasya’s hand to the farm, I found all the village children gathered there doing something.

As I got closer, my goodness!

The children were holding tiny piglets in their arms!

Each child held at least three or four, and counting roughly, there must have been over a hundred.

“You succeeded in breeding!”

“Hehehe, didn’t I tell you? It’s just a matter of time before we have a thousand pigs.”

“Amazing, Brasya. But do pigs have short pregnancy periods? They’re giving birth after just a month.”

“Usually you’d have to wait about four months, but for some reason they suddenly gave birth. Maybe it’s the effect of those potions you’ve been giving them for your experiments?”

“Hmm, could be. So if twenty pigs gave birth to fifty piglets in a month, by the end of the year…”

“5,314,410 pigs…”

Startled by the gloomy voice, I turned to see the administrative officer who had approached and was looking at the pigs.

“When did you get here?”

“I followed when I saw Jack and Brasya running…”

“Ah, I see. Wait a minute…”

Both the knights’ irregular warfare training ground and the pig farm were on the outskirts of the village.

Coming from there to here in almost a straight line wouldn’t require passing by the village hall.

Hmm, could it be she was secretly following me?

“But how many did you say?”

“5,314,410 pigs…”

5.3 million? That’s an absolutely ridiculous number.

“Are you sure?”

“Of the twenty pigs now, half are female… Looking at them, each gave birth to five piglets, so assuming five births per month… And assuming half of those fifty piglets are female… Next month we’ll have thirty-five breeding females… Then next month a total of one hundred seventy-five piglets will be born… Calculating this way, in six months we’ll have 5,314,410 pigs… Of course, there are various factors in between, so it’s not an exact figure…”

I understood the beginning part. Dividing the females by half and averaging five births each makes sense. That’s simple.

But to mentally calculate the final number after repeating this six times is unbelievable.

And the fact that the result came out immediately after the question, not even taking time to think—is that even possible for someone who isn’t an artificial intelligence?

I wonder if this is average for Imperial Central Civil Service Exam passers, or if our administrative officer is a special case.

Anyway, 5.3 million pigs would be problematic.

I had thought about a thousand pigs. That would be just right for our current facilities.

We might manage up to two thousand somehow. But 5.3 million?!

Even in the modern world, there wouldn’t be many companies that could handle that many pigs.

Let alone in a rural village in a civilization only slightly more advanced than medieval times—too much would be harmful.

Time to change the plan.

Originally, I just wanted the village to be self-sufficient in meat, but at this rate, we should specialize in exporting pigs.

There are no corporate farms in this world.

Even in Odelin City, they just buy a few pigs at a time from individuals who raise many pigs.

If our village specializes in raising pigs, produces a certain amount each month, and establishes a distribution network to handle it, we can definitely make money.

“But Jack… I’ve had a brilliant idea…”

The administrative officer pressed close to me and whispered with a damp breath.

“If we distribute the potion we gave to the pigs to people… couldn’t we contribute to increasing the village population…?”

“Let’s not say crazy things, please. Pigs and people aren’t the same.”

“Uuu, I’m sorry… I’ve just been sitting as the village administrative officer, not doing anything and depending entirely on you, so I wanted to contribute something… But I’m just having strange thoughts…”

The administrative officer’s mental state rapidly deteriorates.

“Someone like me should just drink a ton of potions and become a sow… locked up at home and just giving birth to lots of babies…”

“That doesn’t sound like a bad life. No need to worry about various things.”

Seeing Brasya snickering, I put my hand to my forehead.

“Then your husband would have to work really hard. He’d have to do it several times a day.”

“Don’t worry about that, Brasya… If he drinks Healing Potion, he’ll recover quickly… And if he’s the one making potions, he could make something like an erection stimulant just like there are estrus stimulants…”

I immediately covered the administrative officer’s mouth with my palm.

Then the administrative officer stuck out her tongue between her lips and licked my palm.

This woman is truly insane!

“Hehehe. Jack and the administrative officer are doing it. You two look good together.”

Only Brasya is grinning happily.

She’s the queen of positivity in everything.

* * * * *

The temporary dock and trading ship were completed.

It’s just wooden pillars driven into the deepest part of the riverbank with planks connected to them.

And the trading ship, made by regular carpenters rather than shipbuilding experts, looks somewhat amateurish at first glance.

But even this is enough. This small trading ship will become our village’s biggest source of income.

“I-I pray for the safe voyage of the Starting Ship…!”

The administrative officer stammered as she threw a wine bottle at the bow of the ship, breaking it.

It’s customary for a woman to break a bottle of alcohol on the ship during a launching ceremony.

The Starting Ship, blessed by the administrative officer, slowly began to move northward, loaded with trade goods.

“This really feels special.”

Mirella said with her hands on her hips.

“To think I’d live to see a village of beggars with nothing now building a ship to sell goods on the river—I’ve lived long enough to see it all.”

“Ha, come on. How old are you?”

“Old enough to know everything there is to know, okay? And you.”

Mirella started calling me “you” instead of “older brother” not long ago.

For some reason, this cheeky redhead has been speaking informally to me since we first met, and now she’s even dropped any form of address.

“I heard from Brasya that you’re marrying the administrative officer?”

“You believe what Brasya says?”

“I do. Her mind is like a blank slate, so she absolutely never lies.”

That’s true, so I have nothing to say in response.

“I’m not, you idiot. The administrative officer has been like that for ages, come on.”

“Hmmmm.”

Mirella looked me up and down with eyes full of distrust.

“You’re so unpredictable that I can’t feel at ease.”

“You have no reason to be uneasy, kid.”

When I tried to give her a light knock on the head, Mirella dodged my fist with incredible reflexes.

She’s been training with Liberone while receiving the Vint’s Opener buff, and her movements have reached a whole new level.

Anyway, the waterway trade is just beginning, and the pig farm seems like it will do amazingly well.

Food is okay, and it’s just a matter of time before we set up the rest of the infrastructure.

I think we can upgrade to a city before autumn arrives.

Upgrading to a city isn’t the end, of course—we’ve just barely made it, so we’ll need to keep developing.

Still, it means we’ve crossed one major threshold.

At first, I just wanted to create a safe environment where I could live safely as a weak NPC.

That’s already been accomplished for the most part.

Now I’ll turn this Starting Village into Starting City, making it function independently.

My ultimate goal is to live comfortably as a respected local figure in a sufficiently developed city.

Perhaps I can achieve that in just a few months.