episode_0104

Of course, the most noticeable change in my territory was definitely the change in its size.

It had expanded from its original size, which was nothing more than an ordinary village, to the size of a decent city. No, to be more precise, it could be said to be surrounded by a steel fence that protects the entire city.

The iron pillars worked hard by the skeletons surrounded the border, and the space between them was filled with logs filled by the territory residents, creating a perfect iron wooden fence.

Of course, it was not completely completed yet. It was completed by cutting the iron plates brought from a type of steel mill that processes them directly from the mine to size and adding them. In addition, considering that it naturally rusts when exposed to rain, it can only be considered complete if it is made with enough time to replace it.

Anyway, after completing the iron wooden fence, the ordinary wooden fence surrounding the village was immediately dismantled. The residents of the territory seemed to feel a little uncomfortable about the disappearance of the wooden fence that had reliably protected the village, but they soon regained their sense of stability when they saw the stronger and wider iron wooden fence.

After the fence, which protected the village but was also an obstacle to its expansion, disappeared, various buildings were built using the remains of the fence. In particular, the place where the most buildings were built was the commercial district.

Starting with my store, which was built first, several stores opened around it. This goes without saying, but because the city was aiming to become a planned city, stores were not opened at random. It was not appropriate to have an herbal medicine room in the center of a place with several restaurants or inns, so some adjustments had to be made.

If restaurants were crowded together, something like an unfortunate event could occur where people from all over the territory flock to one place to eat. So, I did not intend to necessarily divide everything into sections and open a store, but I did plan to prevent any one location from standing out uniquely. Still, in the case of an inn that would accommodate outsiders, the plan was to create a separate specialized street and have them gather in one place.

There were quite a few troublesome things that happened when an outsider had an accident or was involved in an accident. So, they concentrated on one area in advance and made a plan to specifically strengthen security there. In many ways, it was easier to manage by concentrating them in one area rather than spreading them out all over the territory.

And, just as the commercial district was gradually establishing itself, there were people establishing themselves in the industrial district, although not in large numbers.

Workshops, mainly woodworking shops, were built, and businesses similar to butchers that processed the carcasses of animals and monsters into leather and bones were also built. Those who literally created things were gathered in the industrial district like a blacksmith shop.

Just as our blacksmith shop creates quite a bit of noise, other industries have also been dropped because they may cause some harm to people. The target areas were woodworking shops where dust or sawdust easily spread, and butcher shops where damage occurred due to odors or insects.

Of course, those who cut leather from butchers to make clothes were not necessarily assigned to industrial zones. It was located near the border between the industrial district and the commercial district. Or, like my blacksmith shop, they chose to have a workshop in an industrial district and a separate store in a commercial district.

And, like commercial and industrial districts where buildings are being built rapidly in empty fields, there have been major changes in residential districts as well.

Basically, all districts had the same water and sewerage systems, but residential districts were especially careful to create water and sewerage systems. No, more accurately, it was reorganized. Since this is a residential area where people spend a lot of time, special attention was paid to sewage.

A separate wizard was invited and even magic was applied to the sewer. Although it cost a lot of money, the work could be done dozens of times more with the money received from the royal family, and considering its effectiveness, it was not a waste at all.

Reconstruction spread like a trend in residential areas where water and sewage systems were completed. Since an inn had already opened in the commercial district, there were many people staying there and building new homes. It was possible because I mobilized the people of the territory, had them do the work, and paid them wages.

Of course, it goes without saying that the largest reconstruction of all was my mansion. The existing store and the surrounding area were purchased, torn down, and a mansion was being built.

Recalling the time I visited Count Carbon’s mansion before, I had to buy quite a lot of land to put things like a large and spacious garden. But the process didn’t take long. Those who previously owned the building and land very willingly handed over ownership of the land and building to my request. This is because they too were shaken by the wind of reconstruction.

They said that if they handed over the ownership, they would give the land to the residential district at a reasonable price and at a low price, so they even stamped the paper without even looking at the contract.

In the end, my mansion began to be built on a large scale without any noise, and numerous skeletons were put in to build my mansion. To be honest, I wasn’t confident that I would be good at maintaining the garden, so I planned to leave it to people who were good at it later, so I focused on building a large and high wall and a mansion building.

However, the entire process of developing the territory was not without problems.

Store owners were not particularly happy when they announced that most of the existing stores would have to be relocated to commercial districts. This was because I had to leave a good place and find a new place, and the distance to get there was quite long. The road back and forth every day would be quite long, so it was hard to welcome it.

However, that problem disappeared when I first decided to run a skeleton-based transportation system on a pilot basis.

As for the means of transportation, I initially thought about using a skeleton cart, which is used when interacting with other cities, but since more than one or two vehicles were needed, I decided to connect the skeleton wagon to the wagon. It was a carriage designed to make it easy for people to get on and off, and it was quite large, so it could easily transport about 20 or 30 people at a time.

People were very happy to see a skeleton horse pulling such a carriage go back and forth to the village periodically on a fixed route, just like the bus in my previous life. There could be no complaints as they operated several skeleton horses with different routes so that each district could travel from one district to another.

In fact, most people were satisfied, saying that life itself had become more comfortable. As the village grew to city size, it was natural for the travel radius to expand, but since that problem was solved, it was natural to like it.

Of course, there were some other minor problems as well. But those were just minor issues that would be resolved over time. For example, materials were starting to become scarce due to reconstruction, or the number of workers was decreasing. Once the reconstruction project was over, it was possible to return it to its original state.

However, it was not as if there were no problems that needed to be resolved immediately. It was a problem related to the newly created store.

“I’m the boss… … . I’m having a hard time… … .”

Jienna’s ears, which were always standing upright as if she were vigorously expressing her opinion, drooped, and her whole body began to cry, pleading with me. This is because as the store expands, there is more work for Ziena to do. Because the number of guests that could be accommodated at once increased, it was as if the total amount of work had increased.

If things continued like this, even after the mansion was fully built, I felt like I would only see Jiena falling asleep from exhaustion instead of spending quality time with her.

“… … Should I at least find some staff?”

“Employee? Well, that’s good for me, but… … . The boss said he wouldn’t hire humans as employees.”

Jienna, who knew the story of people who had stolen my money and ran away before becoming a mannequin skeleton, looked at me as if asking if I was okay.

“Then what should I do? They say you’re going to die from hardship.”

“Boss!”

Jienna seemed to be very moved by my words, as she gently placed her clasped hands on her chest and gave me a bright, impressed look.

“Still, there’s a lot you have to do. Although you’ll be handing over some of your work to the people you’ll hire as employees, you’ll still be responsible for managing the entire store. We also monitor employees to ensure that they do not have bad intentions and embezzle money.”

“As much as you want!”

Jiena nodded, looking very happy to be able to relieve herself of her workload. However, Jienna, who had been nodding for a moment, suddenly tilted her head.

“Boss. So wouldn’t it be better to use a skeleton mage? There is no risk of betraying the boss.”

“I would like to, but using a skeleton mage is a waste. There are no infinite number of Skeleton Mages, so they are bound to be limited. Rather than having them serve customers in the store, it is better to use the money they earn in the process to do other work and hire employees. It is also helpful in the development of the territory.”

For the moment, I was thinking of using people rather than skeletons for the service sector. Normal skeletons lack intelligence, and it was more efficient to use skeletons with high intelligence elsewhere. Moreover, in order to provide comfort to customers visiting the store, it was better to use the same people as employees.

“It’s a shame. It would have been a big help to have a skeleton available… … . Otherwise, it would have been a lot easier if I could just use regular skeletons.”

“But… … .”

I nodded slowly at Jiena’s words. This is because I thought it would be great if Jiena could use regular skeletons, which cannot be properly operated without a skeleton mage due to their lack of intelligence.

And at the same time, I thought that if I did it well, wouldn’t that be possible? The method of a warlock or skeleton mage using a skeleton was closer to channeling the master’s dark magic with will. In that case, I thought it would be possible for Jienna to possess my dark magic and use it to control the skeleton.

Of course, since there was a lot of work ahead of me, I had no choice but to conduct research on it slowly. Even if we did the research, the results wouldn’t come out right away, so we had to find staff to help Jiena.

“Boss? Why do you stop talking?”

“Uh, no. First of all, I’ll find an employee right away, so don’t worry a little bit.”

“Yes… … .”

When I said that I would save the employee, Jienna nodded as if it eased her worries. I smiled at that sight and headed toward the central square.

A plaza was created in a place that could be said to be the center of the space that would become a city, and where residential, commercial, and industrial districts were adjacent to each other. It had been made quite large for the purpose of becoming a leisure space for the residents of the territory or to be used for various events.

And, there was a bulletin board erected in the central square. It was a bulletin board made for the purpose of posting announcements to the residents of the territory. Of course, it would not be used well because most of the people were illiterate, but there was no problem because several people who knew letters were going to take turns reading to the residents.

Naturally, I was planning to use that bulletin board to recruit employees to work in my store.

“Andrew Warlock!”

But when I went to the square to post a notice on the bulletin board, a familiar face greeted me. It was Father Thomas, who could be said to be the general manager of the temple being built in our village.

Because it was good in many ways to have a temple in a location where many people could easily access it, a temple was being built around the square, and while he was at the site, he discovered me and came to visit.

Father Thomas may have been helping with the construction of the temple, but his body was full of traces of sawdust or glue.