"The low-grade potions sold for ten billion Aul, yes!"
At Linlin's smug report, punctuated with a peace sign, Felice spat out the tea she had been sipping next to Rose.
"T-Ten billion—whaaat?!"
Felice sputtered the figure in a trembling voice, but Rose, who had anticipated as much, calmly sipped her tea without batting an eye.
Zack, on the other hand, let out a massive yawn, utterly indifferent. Seriously, that guy has zero interest in anything outside of a fight. Well, Asta was busy reading a book, so they were essentially cut from the same cloth.
"Ten billion, huh. Even after deducting our payments to the Tao Family, labor costs, and upkeep, we can easily channel four billion into new ventures. Which leaves manpower as our immediate bottleneck."
Manpower—human resources. The single most crucial factor in an economy. That was the one thing Ket Gwy critically lacked. To begin with, as long as potion sales were capped, starting new enterprises was vital to developing the territory. I already had a few ideas lined up, and there was plenty I wanted to accomplish. Unfortunately, we simply didn't have the essential hands to do the work.
"Indeed. Akegarasu is dedicated to defense, and the Lost Forest is essential for urban development; we have no personnel to spare for new ventures. The same goes for the eighty or so members of the Wind Cats. Even if we wanted to begin, we are overwhelmingly short-handed."
Nothing is more disastrous than an incompetent lord. Ideals alone achieve nothing. That was why I had Rose reading carefully selected dungeon-origin books on management every single day. As a result, she absorbed economic knowledge like a parched sponge soaking up water.
"Yeah, our only choice is to bring in new residents."
My plan called for tens of thousands of people. We had to secure them somehow, but Eastend's fundamental problem had always been its complete lack of inhabitants. If finding them were easy, we wouldn't be struggling like this in the first place.
"Do you have anyone in mind, Kai?"
"Sorry, but no."
At my blunt denial, Rose shot me a deadpan squint.
"Is that really how you feel?"
Her question dripped with suspicion.
Look, I'm not that omniscient, omnipotent god or whatever shady deity you people worship. What I don't know, I don't know.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm dead serious this time. Unfortunately, using standard methods, I'm drawing a blank. What to do, what to do..."
I shrugged with my palms turned upward.
"How about recruiting folks from the underworld, like this lot here?"
Felice pointed her thumb toward the representatives of the Three Great Powers, but—
"Rejected."
I shut her down immediately.
"Why so? To me, it seems a rather fine idea."
"Because the situation has already changed completely."
"That is correct, yes. With the sale of those potions, this city has become the center of attention for the entire underworld across the world, yes. What is more, word has likely already spread that we, the Tao Family, have joined hands with you, yes. In such a volatile powder keg, anyone willing to take the risk to settle here would only be a spy from another syndicate or scum blinded by greed, yes."
Just as Linlin said, information regarding this city had already leaked throughout the underworld through info brokers. It would soon reach the ears of wealthy merchants with ties to the syndicate as well. In other words, welcoming underworld figures now would mean harboring rival spies within our walls. It would be the height of folly.
"For the same reason, buying up people through slave traders is out of the question. It has to be a group completely cut off from the rest of the world, like a commune of hermits."
"That certainly is a tall order, isn't it..."
Lucas murmured thoughtfully, acknowledging the deep gulf lying before us.
"Yeah, it is. People who belong to no organization and live without dealing with anyone simply don't exist. Even if they did, they'd probably end up dead in a ditch before long."
"However, Master said 'using standard methods' a moment ago. Does that imply you have an extraordinary method in mind?"
Lucas asked with an upturned smile, bringing up the exact thought I was about to voice.
"Well, it's not particularly extraordinary. They're just a somewhat different breed."
"And what would that be?!"
Slightly taken aback by Rose leaning forward with terrifying intensity, I gave a brief summary.
"Recruiting the demon race from the north. I hear the demons living in the northern part of this forest are suffering in deep poverty due to the harsh environment. If we invite them, they'd probably jump at the chance, but since they're within the territory of Aldebaran, one of the Four Great Demon Kings, it'd likely be tough."
"Of course it would! The Holy Amelia Kingdom is currently at war with those demons! If we were to welcome them as citizens right now, we would turn the kingdom's government—no, the entirety of mankind—against us!"
Fascinating as always. The fact that she said 'right now' implied she was open to accepting demons down the road. Quite the radical mindset for royalty of the fanatic Holy Amelia Kingdom.
"Yeah, which is why I said they were a different breed."
Rose stared at me warily for a moment, but once she realized I had ruled out the demon race from the get-go, she finally let out a breath of relief.
"People who live entirely detached from the world and belong to no existing organization aren't easy to come by, after all," she muttered with a sigh.
She had a point. That was precisely why we had gone through so much trouble to recruit the Wind Cats.
"'No humans exist,' huh... True enough. In that case, why not just make monsters our new citizens?"
"M-Mon... sters?"
Rose flapped her mouth like a fish out of water before barely managing to parrot the word back to me.
"Yeah. In Northground, just north of Eastend's Forest of Deep Magic, numerous tribes of monsters like goblins and orcs have formed settlements. Wouldn't they make surprisingly good candidates?"
Eastend was split into two distinct areas: the Forest of Deep Magic, a dense jungle spreading beneath towering cliffs, and Northground above the cliffs, which consisted of wastelands, dense woodlands, and marshes.
To the north of Northground lay the territory of Aldebaran, one of the Four Great Demon Kings. However, thanks to the sheer cliffs separating it from the Forest of Deep Magic, the Demon King's army was incapable of launching a large-scale invasion into Eastend. On top of that, Northground was mostly barren wasteland with zero productivity. There was no practical reason to govern it. Having no strategic value, it had been left completely abandoned, turning into a paradise for monsters.
After sending the entities in the Subjugation Compendium to scout it out, I learned that Northground was home to an unruly mix of goblins, orcs, kobolds, and other monsters, locked in constant, daily turf wars—a veritable warring states period.
Normally, monsters lacking reason and intellect might gather in packs, but they held no desire to conquer others. They simply lived day to day on pure instinct. Yet the monsters here waged fierce, organized battles on a regular basis. The exact reason was unclear, but it proved that the creatures living there possessed a baseline level of reason and intelligence. If that were the case, naturalizing them should be entirely possible. And if they turned out to be mindless enemies of humanity lacking any intellect, we could just exterminate them. It seemed like a pretty solid plan to me.
"Hm? What's with the faces?"
I asked dubiously, noticing the impolite stares directed my way, as if everyone were looking at some bizarre alien creature.
"Um, Kai... that's just one of your usual bad jokes, right?"
Rose pressed, her cheek twitching.
"No, I'm pretty serious."
"That's insane! Totally insane! How in the world did you even come up with that?!"
With blank, hollow eyes, Rose finally clutched her head in both hands, muttering unintelligible curses under her breath.
"Bwahaha! First the Three Great Underground Powers, and now you want goblins and orcs as citizens?! As expected of Master, your ideas are completely off the wall!"
Bursting into laughter, Zack slammed his hands against the table.
"Is it really that bizarre an idea?"
Watching everyone nod in unison, I let out a heavy sigh.
"Well, if you're all against it, so be it."
I said that, but we wouldn't be able to launch any new enterprises at this rate. To achieve my ultimate dream of a slow life, winning this royal selection was non-negotiable. For that, new citizens were an absolute necessity. Maybe I ought to pay a visit to their turf on my own.
As I smirked, formulating a plan in my head—
"Master has not given up in the slightest, I see."
Asta, who had remained silent the entire time, delivered his very first, deeply sarcastic observation.