Chapter 174 - Melty’s Job

The next morning.

naofumi: “Come to think of it, the messenger knight isn’t here.”

I didn’t see the female messenger knight. Where did she go?

Raphtalia, Rishia and some of the slaves were taken to a training camp by the Granny.

Gaerion was playing with Atla and Taniko……..

*Growl*……..

Gaerion complained of hunger.

His consumption of the Bioplant’s fruit was so fast, its production couldn’t keep up.

naofumi: “Then you guys go hunting again today.”

taniko: “Oka~y.”

gaerion: “Kyua!”

atla: “We’ll be going.”

fohl: “Atla! I’m going too.”

Fohl joined the Party again today.

Well, isn’t it fine.

fohl: “I won’t let any enemies come near Atla!”

atla: “It’s alright, Brother. And besides, Gaerion-chan will protect me.”

fohl: “Alright shmalright! As if I’m gonna entrust Atla to this monster.”

gaerion: “Kyua!”

taniko: “You’re not a monster, Gaerion!”

And so they left, with such a hubbub.

I’m glad that they seem to be having fun.

sadina: “Well I guess I’ll also go hunting in the ocean~ I wanted to raise my level anyway.”

Sadina said that naturally, and headed to the ocean.

Now then, I should also go do some land management.

The villagers had my instructions, and it became relatively deserted in the daytime.

And when the peddling group leaves, the personnel will decrease.

I taught a simple medicine recipe to the Lemo slaves, the other dexterous slaves and also those with an interest in making medicine.

Just after noon, I announced that the food made by the slaves learning to cook was ready, and we had lunch.

Somehow it was a peaceful day.

I felt uneasy about what Rato could be doing, but she should’ve been looking after the monsters in the monster hut.

rato: “Count.”

Rato made an appearance as we were eating lunch.

rato: “The Count is also letting the monsters Class Up, right.”

naofumi: “Yeah.”

rato: “I’ll pick out some of the monsters to Class Up soon, so would you be able to take care of it??”

naofumi: “Got it.”

That reminds me, monsters can Class Up as well.

naofumi: “The Caterpilland?”

rato: “That’s just it. If I research on the Caterpilland, it won’t get much stronger even with a Class Up. It grew up but it’s abilities aren’t that high, despite this being the Count’s place.”

Hm…….

Speaking of which, she said that before when wondering whether to modify it.

Including that aspect, it’s a rather weak species.

naofumi: ”Nevertheless, isn’t it better than to not do it?”

rato: “That’s true.”

After we finished talking about the monsters’ Class Up and so forth, I made an appearance in the town.

The shops’ products have improved, it seemed to have expanded favourably. The problem would be the formation of factions, but the Accessory Merchant seemed to have them all under his thumb and there weren’t any big movements.

I made an appearance at Melty’s estate.

….Melty was there struggling with a stack of official documents just like the Queen had been.

No way……she dealt with them promptly, just like her mother.

That Melty did.

That Melty did. [Note: Repeated for emphasis. Not a typo.]

melty: “Firo-chan Charm.”

firo: “Yeah.”

She struck a pose at Firo to relieve some of the stress from her work.

At first glance, she looked like an idiot.

naofumi: “You guys…..”

Every one of them were idiots.

But I won’t say that.

Yeah. I’ve heard before that intelligent kids have some sort of strange habit.

I’m sure this is something like that.

Look, Melty’s a bird enthusiast, so she probably has that kind of fetish too.

melty: “Huh? Well isn’t it Naofumi. What do you want?”

naofumi: “I came to see how the state of affairs are.”

melty: “We’re doing well.”

Melty took a break and rode on Firo’s back while massaging her shoulders.

Why did she ride her.

Was she pretending to ride on a horse or something?

I really don’t understand the relationship between these two.

melty: “The people in the castle are working hard and the people in the Commerce Guilds are also putting in effort for Naofumi’s sake. I guess the problem is the matter of the Demi-human adventurers not understanding the whole situation.”

naofumi: “I see, sorry about all this. By the way, the knight who usually passes on messages hasn’t been seen…..and I also don’t know the whereabouts of a number of the soldiers.”

melty: “Huh? You didn’t hear? We received a leave of absence saying that she and a number of soldiers were accompanying the Battle Instructor and were secluding themselves in the mountain.”

I almost fell over.

What was that.

She did say she wanted to be taught, but she was going so far as to take a vacation for it!?

How motivated was she.

melty: “Well, Naofumi’s obtained the warping skill so moving has gotten easier, right? We only need to receive messages from the castle now so the priority dropped.”

naofumi: “So it’s that kind of thing……I’ve never tried using her to send instructions to the castle though.”

melty: “It’s just that Naofumi didn’t use her. We relied on her when Shadow had other official instructions. Really……”

The documents in the seat Melty was sitting at…. there was some sort of cross written on it.

Should I write on it as a prank? I drew the design of a paper aeroplane.

naofumi: “Which reminds me, was it a rule of the town? I’m sure it was written down somewhere.”

melty: “Yes, this region is under the protection of the Hero of the Shield but nevertheless, the Demi-humans have been trying to discriminate against the humans.”

naofumi: “That’s troubling.”

Discrimination is forbidden, the Hero of the Shield treats Demi-humans and humans alike; I had rules written down for everything.

It’s not like I didn’t understand.

But there were fools who felt like they could do whatever they liked here, just because I was the God of Demi-humans.

Of course, I won’t tolerate that sort of thing.

I won’t forgive anyone discriminating without a proper reason.

Just for the record, if they do have a reason, I may forgive them to a certain extent.

Otherwise I wouldn’t be able to discriminate against the other heroes, right?

melty: “Ah, so lucky. Naofumi’s slaves are patrolling around so we’re managing without problems but when the town grows further, there might be some commotions we can’t ignore.”

naofumi: “……..It should be similar to what happens in the castle town.”

melty: “That’s true. We have to be tolerant to a certain extent, but I wonder if the people from Silt Welt and Schild Frieden know that.”n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Melty took a deep sigh.

That this child has to be burdened with middle management, being a queen is hard work.

melty: “I’ll be honest. We kept it from Naofumi, but there are many abandoned Demi-human children, it’s troubling.”

naofumi: “…..huh?”

melty: “Naofumi only made the Demi-humans he chose into his slaves, right? However, there’s no end to the people abandoning their children near this town and village, wanting them to become Naofumi’s subordinates without knowing that.”

naofumi: “What are you doing about it?”

melty: “For now, we’re deporting them back to what we think is their own country, judging by their language and species. It’s not like we can’t discern their species and we’re also receiving the deportation costs from the other party. But we don’t know how serious they are.”

naofumi: “So the Demi-human countries have really become active.”

melty: “Now, can you warn them in some public place? Its troubling.”

naofumi: “Is that so…..I understand.”

Not directly interfering with me was something they said when they were peeved.

I wonder if there’s any way to handle this problem.

Of course, it’s not that I can’t pick up the abandoned children and turn them into slaves.

But if I do, it’s likely there will be more children being abandoned.

I understand that, so I can’t do it.

melty: “It’s true that we profit from the money left by the Demi-human adventurers, but regulating them is hard….and besides, humans come too.”

One way or another, there’s an emphasis on Demi-humans.

Come to think of it, if you look at the streets, there are many Demi-humans.

melty: “If Firo-chan wasn’t here for the disturbance before, it would have been dangerous.”

naofumi: “I see, I’ve been helped in many ways.”

melty: “If you think that, won’t you warn them? At least by the end of today.”

naofumi: “I understand.”

I brought Melty with me and headed to the town square.

I stood on the platform established in the square and vocalised loudly.

naofumi: “Er….everyone who put in effort for the sake of the town’s development, and all the adventurers who are utilising the town, I have some things I want you all to hear.”

After I checked that everyone had gathered, I started talking.

I didn’t have a memo but it was a simple task to say all the lines I had memorised earlier.

naofumi: “Lately, some people have the misconception that we are a privileged class and have been causing some disturbances. That’s why I’m giving this warning. In this town there are no social statuses between races.”

A third of the demi-humans started to make noise.

naofumi: “I’m not really saying to forget the past and make friends. However, whether it’s this town or the village, our purpose is the reconstruction. My goal is not to create a town in Melromarc that will provide Demi-humans with hospitality, but I want no more than to have a government like what the previous head who lived here created. Please don’t forget this.”

As far as it goes, I heard that what the previous head wanted to do was to spread the awareness that Demi-humans and humans were equal living beings, in both hospitality and discrimination.

I also joined that cause.

naofumi: “In the same way, my raising of slaves is a not a charitable enterprise, but for the sake of increasing the war potential during the waves. Please bear in mind that I don’t have the intention of raising any abandoned children.”

This was a problem I had to bring up in public.

It’s not something that can be forgotten.

Jeez…… did they really think they could ask anything of God.

Whether it was Silt Welt or Schild Frieden.

They’re nations which I may visit eventually, but I hope that they’re the kind of nation that doesn’t like to be influenced if possible.

That is, when these problems occur.

I finished the announcement with no problems, and returned to the village.

After that was the trivial addition of Melty coming to blame me for a delay in her work, which was actually by caused her playing around with a paper aeroplane. She had Firo teach her how to make one and had used the paper on her desk – the document with a cross that I had drawn on as a prank. [Note: This sentence was combined with the one before it as a massively long sentence in the raws and I had so much trouble figuring out how to word it/split it up.]

Come to think of it, I’ve made paper aeroplanes with the children before.

Although they didn’t fly very well because we used the leaves of the Bioplant instead of paper.

I was told that that paper had the plans for the town written on it.

Indeed, you’re still a child..

When I said that, Melty’s face turned red, she became hysterical and left, together with Firo.