“Hello everyone. Although most of you probably already know me, I’ll introduce myself just in case. My name is Ron, and by the Demon Lord’s commission, I will be leading you to construct several brick kilns.”
There were nearly two months left before the rainy season arrived, and I only had a little over a hundred people assigned under me for the construction.
To be honest, I wasn’t sure if I could complete this task within these two months.
“Listen up! Those with construction experience, step forward!”
Only about thirty of them? Although fewer than expected, it was still manageable.
Among us City Guard Soldiers, aside from those useless ones who got in through connections, most of the rest had two or three skills.
Most could farm and handle simple combat — after all, they were all poor peasants by origin.
There should be quite a few like me who have done all sorts of odd jobs.
In this territory, most jobs paid poorly, and being a farmer meant carrying heavy taxes.
Only the job of City Guard Soldier allowed a relatively peaceful life with a meager salary, which I believe is why most people, like me, made the same choice.
It’s just a pity that this peaceful daily life was disrupted by that idiot noble.
Of course, if this were before, it would undoubtedly be a complaint, but now, to be honest, I’m actually quite grateful to him.
After all, without him, we wouldn’t have met this Mistress.
Though she looked like a girl of thirteen or fourteen years old, her actions were completely beyond what any human girl could accomplish.
Those terrifying minotaurs, dreadful gargoyles — all of them obeyed her commands.
She was practically a sovereign ruling over monsters.
Not only that, she could effortlessly conjure many other things, such as foods we’d never tasted before, everyday necessities, and, of course, terrifying monsters.
Those first few days were awful. We were constantly on edge, taking turns keeping watch at night, afraid of being killed by the surrounding monsters.
But later, we discovered this Mistress of Monsters was surprisingly easy to get along with.
Though dressed in beautiful dresses, she could easily understand the thoughts of us commoners.
Instead of forcing us into submission by violence, she promised us work and fair pay!
What we wanted was nothing more than these few things — enough to eat, enough to wear, a good place to live, and to find a good wife.
Though the last one was beyond her help, she promised to help with the first three.
In fact, she didn’t just promise — she actually delivered.
Our food tasted much better than the most expensive meals at the Moravia Tavern; our clothes changed from tattered rags to clean outfits.
Though not as fancy as hers or her maids’, they were enough to satisfy us.
The third matter was currently underway. The construction of several large brick kilns was meant to allow us to live in better houses.
What kind of Demon Lord is this? She’s clearly a Goddess!
The nation’s patron deity Athena is said to have taught people the wisdom of survival — ha, a hypocritical deity. The Demon Lord truly brings genuine happiness to the people!
Getting off topic, I had never seen a large brick kiln before. The only kiln I’d worked with was a medium-sized one next to a village.
Luckily, I have some talent in drawing and memorizing architecture, and after receiving some magical tools from the Demon Lord, I successfully drew the structure of the medium kiln.
The kiln bed for placing bricks, the furnace for heating the kiln chamber, the chimney for smoke discharge…
If these were scaled up proportionally, we could probably get a large brick kiln.
No worries about materials either. The Demon Lord gave me ample funds.
She trusted me without hesitation — a whole big bag of gold coins, a total of two hundred.
One hundred gold coins would be used as initial wages and the “overtime pay” she mentioned, and the remaining hundred would more than cover the purchase of raw materials.
Some might ask if one gold coin is enough for a meal since the cheapest dishes at the nearby dungeon taverns cost forty silver coins.
But there’s no need to worry. Dungeon taverns are places only adventurers go. As the Demon Lord put it, those are places she uses to “recover wages.”
We have a dedicated “Food Hall,” located inside a very conspicuous pitfall trap in the dungeon.
At the bottom of that trap is a cloud-like Cloud Monster and an extra corridor with many rooms, including our “Food Hall” and temporary living quarters.
The food these days is personally prepared by the Demon Lord herself, though later it will be replaced by those among us with cooking experience.
I heard that more people will join the construction of the lands around this dungeon in the future, but unfortunately, they won’t get to taste food made by the Demon Lord’s own hands.
I am lucky to have met the Demon Lord and honored to have earned her trust.
Though I’m just an unremarkable and somewhat timid human, I’m willing to work hard for the Demon Lord’s goals.
“Is there anyone who can do math or has experience managing a shop?”
Another dozen or so people stepped forward. Good.
“Those with construction experience, choose one or two people from the group behind you to form teams and dig some foundations here. Leave enough space between each foundation for ten people to lie down!”
“The rest who can do math or have shop management experience, come with me.”
“Oh, by the way, the Demon Lord wants me to pay you first — thank her!”
……
Watching these guys cheer like that, I somehow felt happy too. I hope the Demon Lord will always bless this dungeon and the land beneath our feet…
—————
“How is it, Sophia?”
“Honestly, Miss Suyao, these guys don’t look like soldiers at all. Their strength is probably only a little better than farmers who picked up weapons.”
The ones sprawled on the ground like pupae were carefully selected by Suyao from over 130 new recruits.
They would take on the patrol and security of the small town beside the dungeon.
By the way, eight people with cooking experience and fire magic talent became chefs at the dungeon tavern and the “Staff Food Hall,” currently undergoing training.
Back to the matter at hand: Suyao could have simply boosted their strength with the Swordsmanship Scroll, but as Sophia said, soldiers who don’t undergo hardship, no matter how strong their abilities, cannot bear heavy responsibilities because they don’t understand “Discipline.”
There was no choice but to ask the white-haired, red-eyed beauty to train them a bit.
I hope Sophia is just borrowing the method of “destroying new recruits’ confidence” from some navy’s marine corps, otherwise, she might have picked thirty “weaklings” out of 130.
Wouldn’t that mean she has no eye for people at all?
But these guys seem to be enjoying themselves even while lying like pupae…
Well then, she does have good judgment — at least we don’t have to worry about them being unable to handle Sophia’s training…