NOVEL WEB Chapter 197
Chapter 197. Vacation
“Ahh. So tired.”
In the penthouse atop the Amatsugahara Corporation building, Sakimori lay exhausted in the air-conditioned, almost chilly, living room.
The living room, cool and oblivious to the outside heat, was comfortable enough for a hotpot party.
This is what true luxury feels like, I thought, satisfied with the CEO’s lavishness.
“It’s been a week since you got back. You’ve been like this the whole time.”
As I was relaxing in the living room, Shingen, who had come to visit, remarked reproachfully. Shingen, Katsuyori, Karin, and Ohki-kun were here today, with Ohki-kun acting as the tea server. Shizuku was visiting Konoha for some coordination work.
“Narashino City wore me out.”
Sakimori, who had returned from Narashino City, had been back for just over a week. He had been doing the minimum amount of work and taking it easy. The minimum work included checking sales, inventory, crop yields, internal city trade, and making familiars non-stop.
…Does this really count as taking it easy? Being a CEO is busy work.
“We’ve finally finished negotiating trade with Narashino City. We’re importing sugar and salt and exporting buckwheat flour and rice.”
“Nice job, Katsuyori. That place had very few fields. They weren’t utilizing their cores efficiently.”
We had brought the Narashino City people to Amatsugahara Corporation by helicopter. Since their helicopters were all destroyed, we used ours.
I happily checked the contract handed over to me, humming a little tune. The military base was more focused on urban expansion than fields, so they had surplus D-rank cores to trade for sugar and salt. These were significantly cheaper than the ready-made products. Narashino City didn’t sell the cores but had the base collect them so that prices could be lower.
We might need to change our methods later, but for now, this is fine. Once trade with Amatsugahara Corporation starts, there might be core smuggling.
We, on the other hand, were producing rice in abundance. Although the rice was finally harvested, dealing with it afterward was a challenge, as I vividly recall.
I couldn’t understand Hana’s instructions. What’s a threshing machine? Do we need to dry the rice? What do we store it in? Are the bags ready? What does a rice mill look like? We faced various struggles.
…It’s strange. I felt like I had been slacking off, but maybe I wasn’t at all—no wonder I’m still tired.
“Also, gasoline prices have suddenly dropped. Something must have happened in the inner city. They were soaring for a while, so this helps a lot.”
Katsuyori, who had been troubled by the gas price hike, reported with a relieved expression. Recently, prices have been skyrocketing because the Heike and Genji oil fields couldn’t meet the demand.
With the price drop, Katsuyori was relieved.
As for me, I was relieved to be able to make secret imports. I planned to utilize that skill from Narashino City.
“That’s great. Narashino City seems to have played their trump card.”
I picked up the newspaper left on the table and waved it around. The front page had a big news article.
“Special Zone for Narashino City!”
The article contained surprising news.
“Since Narashino City’s base was destroyed by a tree monster, they’ve decided to rebuild the city anew, abandoning military base activities. To start from scratch, it will be treated as a special zone for a while. The inner town won’t provide reconstruction funds, will it?”
Karin reached out and lightly slapped the newspaper. It’s not a cat toy.
“What’s their trump card? Is it something that lowers gas prices?”
“Fufun. It’s top-secret info from Colonel Fuma! Do you want to know? Do you want to?”
Standing up with hands on her hips, cat ears twitching, and tail swaying, Colonel Fuma, the self-proclaimed intelligence officer, wore a smug expression. It’s about time we dropped the “self-proclaimed” part, this catgirl.
Shingen and the others looked displeased. But after exchanging glances and sighing, they asked her to tell. I pretended not to notice.
“Narashino City had disposable geomancy magic tools! They used them to turn the inner city land into a huge oil field!”
“Ohki-kun, get me a café au lait.”
“I’ll have tea.”
“I’ll take an iced coffee.”
“I want a shake.”
“Can’t you all decide on one thing? A shake is impossible!”
We decided to take a break and each ordered a drink from Ohki-kun. He happily prepared the tea…
“Listen to my story!”
“We’ll pretend we didn’t hear that. That’s dangerous information.”
Shingen and the others, also pretending not to hear, looked away. I expected her to be more discreet, but she blurted it out directly, this foolish cat. Time to punish her by fluffing her cat ears.
“Ehh…”
Grumbled Dangerous Karin, pouting in dissatisfaction. This information might be dangerous… or maybe not. It was claimed to be a disposable magic tool.
I secretly used about 1,000 E-rank spirit stones to alter the terrain at the site of the former oil field in the Tama area. The geomancy took several days to activate, and it was only completed a few days ago.
Narashino City’s disposable magic tool. Just creating an oil field doesn’t mean we’ll have easy access to heavy oil, light oil, or gasoline. We need a refining facility. So, we used the magic tool, which was otherwise useless, in exchange for making the inner city a special zone.
Even though it was entirely my expense, confirming the enormous reserves allowed the inner city to slash gasoline prices. It indirectly helped, so there’s no problem.
We had negotiated with Narashino City: in exchange for creating an oil field in the inner city, they would become a special zone and partner with us. Well, I just informed Sei, who passed it on to Narashino City’s officials, making Amatsugahara Corporation indispensable to them. This information probably leaked to the inner city as well.
In return, we were to receive the magic tools that Narashino City had been hoarding for decades. I distributed the weaker tools to Shingen and the others and secretly gave the rare ones to Serika. I’m looking forward to the new equipment.
The allocation of Kou hasn’t been decided yet. For now, we’ve made a contract to deploy about 100 families in both the inner city and Narashino City. Level 5 familiars are powerful. Let’s hope they excel in dungeon exploration. If everyone gets stronger, peace will surely follow.
“This is boring, nya. Information fees are expensive, you know?”
Karin, ever the greedy negotiator, tries to charge us for the information. Time for a little punishment.
“Alright. Stick your head out a bit. Just enough for me to reach.”
“You’re going to mess with my cat ears again, aren’t you!”
She bared her fangs in a wary expression.
“Real cats hate it when you stick a finger in their ear holes. But you’ll be fine, right?”
“No way-nya! Sakimori always touches cats in ways they hate, like brushing their tails backward.”
“That’s why I settle for you, catgirl. You’re so clueless.”
A real cat would probably scratch me.
“You’re sadistic, nya. You’re the type who shouldn’t own pets.”
“I’d just give them a little love occasionally.”
I laughed and leaned back on the sofa. Teasing Karin is quite fun.
Enough teasing. I turned to Shingen and asked casually,
“Shingen, are there any problems right now? They don’t have to be urgent.”
“We don’t have nearly enough doctors. Amatsugahara Corporation now has over 20,000 people, but we only have a handful of doctors.”
“Ah, that’s not an easy fix. Report any severe injuries or illnesses. A new ally will heal them. For everything else, we’ll have to make do with a lot of fake doctors.”
Healing magic is a double-edged sword. It’s a quick fix, but relying on it too much would erode medical skills. So, only the severely ill or injured will be treated.
“Well, that sounds reasonable.”
“Boss, there’s another issue. We need a factory soon. Our city doesn’t even have a steel mill.”
“Hmm. Can’t Jun or the old man from the south handle it?”
Looks like Amatsugahara Corporation has reached that level.
“Currently, many people are engaged in construction work for facilities and walls. Agriculture is the next biggest occupation, and it’s becoming more prevalent. This shift is due to the control of the plains, which secured a lot of suitable farmland.”
“The smart ones are moving to agriculture, huh? With the magical solution and Ryuko’s abilities, construction progresses rapidly, so many are turning to farming before they run out of work.”
Katsuyori nodded in agreement. So, we’ll need a lot of agricultural machinery. My company is diversifying its operations. Feels like we’re on the path to becoming a major corporation.
“That should solve the problem… or perhaps we could ask for immigrants from Narashino City. They must have a lot of maintenance workers. Try negotiating in that direction.”
“Understood.”
Katsuyori is a reliable man.
Is this the end of our discussion? We’re a bit short on funds. Deploying Kou will be pricey. Even if we have billions, it’s never enough. The investment costs for facilities are too high.
“I’d like to start full-scale livestock farming soon.”
“Let’s deal with the steel mill issue first.”
“We never get a break, do we?”
Shingen laughed dryly, and I agreed. Whether rich or poor, there’s no rest. Internal affairs can’t be solved by force.
No matter how smart we are, some things just take time.
As our conversation shifted to small talk, the usual little girl came tottering from the kitchen, carrying a tray, with Ohki-kun following behind with tea.
“Here’s your iced café au lait!”
The girl, breathing heavily with excitement, placed a cup in front of me. It was piled high with ice cream. Café au lait?
She climbed onto my lap and, with a spoon in hand, grabbed the cup.
“I’ll eat the ice cream for you!”
Her eyes sparkled as she scooped up the ice cream and started eating, her cheeks puffing up adorably.
“When it’s done, it’ll turn into café au lait!”
The melted ice cream mixed with coffee would become café au lait, according to her logic. She looked at me with a “praise me” expression, so I patted her head, her soft hair forming a halo like an angel’s.
Ah, this is soothing. I do miss Shizuku a bit, though.
“I said I wanted a shake, but this is just ice cream with milk-nya!”
“There’s no way an ordinary household has a shake maker, catgirl! Stop joking around. Mix it and it’ll become a shake.”
“That’s a fake shake-nya!”
Karin and Ohki-kun were bickering. It was tiring to watch.
“Ahh.”
The girl offered me a spoonful of ice cream, and I took it into my mouth. Cold and sweet.
As I smiled, thinking about how we could now enjoy ice cream like this, I realized how much we had prospered.