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Chapter 357 part 2

「I’m sorry to interrupt your work, but I need your help with something. I’ll do the talking with the owner.」

A few moments later, several men gathered.
There were three male staff members, one old man and a young man who widened his eyes in confusion, and judging from the atmosphere, they must be the sign maker’s master and apprentice.
When I explained what they were going to do, the male staff and the craftsmen agreed, although they were puzzled.

「Let’s go for one more set! Music, start!」

Then we start the training again, this time with six pairs of men and women.

(Once they memorize the sets, they will be able to do the rest on their own. And I’ll just have to check on them from time to time.)

I did say that I’ll do the best I can, but I only have less than a week to do so. Besides, I have other jobs as a pilot for the merchant guild Knight.
This is as far as I can lead them. But by the time of the opening of the store, their bodies should be all trained.

(After that, they just have to hone their skills through actual battles with customers.)

I only taught them how to build their foundations. And the experience will be the one that pushes them to the next level.

「Go! Go! Finish! Let’s Go!」

I don’t know how the words I randomly shouted are translated in this world. Still, everyone is nodding their heads, so I’m sure everything goes well with the 『Common Official Language of the Human Race Proficiency (D)』.

「Break time! Let’s drink some water.」

We completed one more set after that, then we each took a shower to rinse off our sweat. Then the male staff and craftsmen went to clean up while I headed home.

***

I walked down the street, which was now completely dark, and arrived at my house, located on the top floor of a partially three-story building. Once I entered my room, I gathered all of my familiars in the living room for a chat.

「Tonight’s topic is our new garden forest.」

I drew a large plot of land with a pond in the middle on a piece of paper I put on a board on a bath towel spread on the floor.
Surrounding it are three spirit animals. Surrounding me are three spirit beasts. A fifth instar larva of the swallowtail butterfly, a dung beetle, and a turtle.

「Are you going to teleport the entire current garden forest near the pond?」

Zaratan, a long-lived and knowledgeable turtle who can use transfer magic. As he nodded in affirmation, I drew a circle around a medicinal tree on the north side of the pond.
The circle is only a small portion of the property. When I asked about what to do with the remaining bushy area, Zaratan and Dangorou looked at Imosuke, the leader of my familiars.

『Anything.』

The fifth instar larva of a swallowtail butterfly lifted the front part of his body and twitched his warty legs.
He must have seen my face and realized I didn’t get the message and sent another wave of thoughts at me.

『Later.』

But as I thought, I still didn’t get it.
What I understood from Zaratan who continued in his stead was that 『We can do something about it after we moved to the property and look at the situation』.
Since I don’t have a problem with that, I mention a concern I’ve recently noticed.

「The place will be dozens of times wider than here but… will the barrier be okay?」

What I meant by the barrier is an invisible protection system that Imosuke and co. are deploying in the garden forest. Apparently, it prevents uninvited guests from entering the garden forest.
Specifically, birds, insects, and 『Wind Spirits』.

『It will become thinner.』

『But it’s okay.』

Imosuke said and General Dangorou, who is in charge of 『controlling the defense of the garden forest』 followed while puffing out his rounded chest.

『Powerful opponents who break through the barrier will be knocked down by the garden forest’s air force and taken care of by the ground force.』

Or so it seems, to sum it up.

(Setting ground forces aside, an air force? I didn’t know we have one of those.)

I stared at his round body while furrowing my brow. He must have sensed my doubt, and sent a wave of explanation.
According to his explanation, it seemed that they had somehow pulled bird and bee-shaped magic beasts into the garden forest. Of course, Imosuke and the others couldn’t have done it alone, so they must have had the help of Zaratan.

「The ground forces are heavy lancers, right? They’re certainly strong.」

It is a large magic beast with a height of about 16 meters up to its shoulders, a short neck despite often being called similar to a horse, and huge horns like those of a giant Hercules beetle.
The main part of its body surface is covered with scale-like skin that low-rank magic and physical attack cannot even scratch it.
In fact, the knight order of the Kingdom received a heavy blow from a herd of Heavy Lancer’s assault.

『The Capricorns too.』

The comment came from Imosuke.
The Capricorns are goat-like magic beasts with twisty horns. It is about two times smaller than the heavy horse Heavy Lancer, but it can leap from one place to another, even on bad terrain.
We extracted them from the Spirit Forest to eat the poisonous mushrooms and poisonous herbs that grow in the garden forest.

「They were willing to do it themselves?」

I didn’t know about it, but apparently the Heavy Lancers and Capricorns volunteered to patrol the garden forests on their own as they said that guarding the garden forest was also their responsibility.

『Besides, they don’t come anymore.』

『Yeah, they never come again.』

Imosuke and Dangorou said as I nodded while imagining the sight of the herd of Heavy Lancers running around in the new more spacious garden forest.
When I was wondering what they were talking about, they seemed to be talking about the 『Wind Spirits』.

「The elves must have been the ones who sent them.」

They suddenly stopped showing up around the time when the relationship between the elves and the Empire grew tense. Although there was no proof, it was safe to say that this was the case.
Zaratan seemed to share the same opinion and nodded his head vertically.

(When worse came to worse, we have Zaratan with us.)

He may look like a mild-mannered old turtle, but he is a Great Spirit Beast that is famous throughout the world. Having fought together against the elven Knights at the Spirit Lake, I have no doubts about his strength.
As I recall the scene, Imosuke suddenly turns his head to the outside.

『It’s coming.』

「What is it?」

It shows up just as you talk about it. I thought it was something like that and sharply turned my gaze toward outside the window, but that doesn’t seem to be the case since my familiars were not on their guard at all.

『It’s Unicorn.』

I heard footsteps running up the outside stairs to the third floor, so I went to the front door and opened it. I thought I’d say hello for the time being, but the cool, beautiful woman who seemed to be in a hurry overwhelmed me.

「Boss! There’s an enemy! An enemy has appeared!」

She had an impatient look on her usually expressionless face. I should probably take this seriously.

「Tell me the details.」

I immediately switched my consciousness to my role-playing character, 『Dr. Slime, the leader of a secret evil organization, the Doom Squad』, nodded as I heard her story.
According to her report, some people calling themselves 『Panty-less Troupe』 broke into a tenement house where the only inhabitants were men. And there, they sold “flowers”, or rather, gave them away free of charge.

(I see…)

In fishing terms, it’s trawling. They don’t choose their prey and take whatever is there.
She might be worried if virgins were mixed in among them, or maybe she was feeling like her cherished fishing ground was robbed.

(I get it but…)

I don’t think that this is something that uninvolved people can butt in.
We don’t even know if virgins were mixed in among the victims and I think they’re 『doing a favor』 rather than 『causing trouble』 to the victims.

「I think not paying for the service is a problem. This can be seen as an act of hostility and a challenge to the merchant guild!」

Cool-san probably sensed that I didn’t fully agree with her and tried to approach me from a different angle. She is very good at changing her angle without pushing too hard, even when things get heated. As expected of her.

(Now that I think about it, I guess she’s right.)

It would be a blow to the red-light district if flowers were given away free of charge. And since it was the merchant guild that oversees the red-light district, she might be not entirely wrong.

「Have you told the merchant guild about this?」

When I asked her whether she had informed the merchant guild yet, she shook her head. She thought she should report to me, her boss, first.
Since she went out of her way to inform me, I guess I should do something as her superior.

「I understand. I’ll inform the guild master first thing tomorrow morning and work out a countermeasure.」

Cool-san finally calmed down after hearing those words, apologized for her sudden visit, bowed her head, and left.