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Chapter 292: My Employee is Slightly Black Bellied

「Hey, I locked the door of the room where the 『Spirit Bough』 is placed, so when did you notice it? 」
「The people on duty during the nights of the full moon reported that it is bois — they could sense a presence within the room, so I unlocked the door to check. 」
Auro, you were about to say ‘boisterous’, weren’t you?

Eh, so did my spirit boughs hold a party during the eve of the full moon? Ack, I imagine the Haniwas dancing now.

「And why did the priests come? 」
「I spread the rumors, although only internally and not to outsiders. I already knew that the spirits are beginning to gather, so before people start to gossip about it naturally, I decided to conduct a small experiment. 」
Auro bowed with a smile.

So he was checking the flow of gossip, huh. Ack, this is getting scary, it’s like this society is becoming a controlled one, it’s scary!! Just where is this island heading to!?

「… Do it in moderation. 」
I warned Auro while a goat munched on my sleeve.

「Yes. 」
It’s good that you understood, but why is your smile getting happier than earlier, huh?

「Is there anything else you wish to tell me, MiLord? 」
「Hmm. First of all, the spirit boughs that I brought here don’t repel black spirits. It’s kinda similar to the scope of Nalluahdid’s bough, and I don’t think the black spirits will approach here if the number of spirits increased, but it’s better to let them know about it. 」
「Understood. 」
「There’s nothing you have to do in particular for maintaining the bough — ah, no, one of the conditions is to strive for proper sanitation and good hygiene, so inform everyone about that. 」
Let’s use the bough to legally force everyone to take a shower everyday, or else regularly take a bath, change clothes once every three days at the very least, throw trash in the trash cans and all that.

「I understand. Some people might not know what to strive for, so we will regularly post a tangible standard of conduct in the square’s bulletin board, and have the town criers read it. 」
The illiteracy rate is high, so it’s not enough to post it or distribute it to the people.

The town criers are employed to publicly announce official proclamations and the like. They would be dealing with notices from the kingdom as they go around, so those who are trusted in town would be hired. Larger towns would have one of them in every street corner shouting, but since the island is small, they only have to read them aloud in four to five places.

However, newly established countries like ours have frequent detailed announcements to make, so it’s quite challenging for them now. Actually, I already established a school, or should I say temple school, or perhaps it’s more accurate to say tutoring places where folks can learn how to read and do arithmetic regardless of age. The literacy rate is bound to go up, so hopefully everyone will work hard.

「Will those priests return just like that? 」
「They will not have any choice but to withdraw docilely. However, we can’t disregard the possibility that they might declare their willingness to abandon their status in the temple in order to remain here. 」
Right, the high-ranking priests might not do that, but the small fry dispatched to this island would benefit more if they were to serve the genuine thing.

「Seems like a pain in the neck. 」
「It is customary to choose those who have affinity with the bough and assign them in the 『Fae’s Bough 』; however, it is difficult to determine the goal or trend of the bough itself. 」
Uh, but it’s tough answering what the goal is.

Unlike King’s Boughs, Spirit Boughs normally don’t have any personality or goals. They just exist, period. By ‘trend’, Auro was asking ‘what sort of attributes did the spirits that gather together normally have?’

But my bough didn’t have any specifications on the attributes of spirits… Did Khan’s bough have something? I couldn’t help but feel that whatever it was, it had been overwritten and it was now accepting whichever comes. Moreover, the ‘personality’ had been patterned after their shape? I was told that it’s boisterous, after all, so you can’t blame me for feeling bothered that one out of the three boughs seems to be extremely assertive.

「We need a person who can stop the bough’s ‘rampage’, I think. 」
「Wasn’t a rampage only supposed to happen when the vow to the King’s Bough changed? 」
Auro looked puzzled, which was quite rare for him.

「I’m talking about the bough arbitrarily holding parties and whatnot. It’d be fine if it just stayed inside the room, but it’ll be a disaster if it decides to break into the fields night after night — oops, sorry. Spirit Boughs normally don’t move, right? 」
My imagination ran wild for a moment there.

「Let us appoint an overseer then. We must choose someone, doesn’t matter if he or she’s a bit eccentric, as long as they can manipulate public opinion without resorting to dealing with it roughly or causing fear among the residents. 」

Ack, this Auro, talking about manipulation so nonchalantly again!!

I don’t mind if he spouts things like that in front of me, but it’d be better if he were to be more mindful with his words when he’s with other people. I wanted to tell him off, but gave up in the end. He rejected me with a smile before our contract, and now that we’re contracted he’s acting suspicious, although he treated me well. It’s also the first time that he directly talked about people as if they’re pawns.

Seems like the Changelings are aware that they are being mistreated in human society. Auro and Kiel had been treated as pawns themselves, apparently. So, yeah, I guess there’s no need to force them to be friendly to the majority of humans, assuming that they’re not aggressive either. As long as they manage their relationships appropriately then that’s fine with me.

「By the way, huge leaves have fallen in front of the Spirit Bough’s room. 」
「Huh? 」
「They have pictures of musical instruments drawn on them, so does that mean we should prepare those? 」

Haniwaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!