I woke up covered in sweat and felt sticky. I was reunited with Blacksmith-san and for the first time in a long while, I had a hot night with Blacksmith-san and company.
I decided to bathe in the [Fierce God] hot spring before starting the training, I wanted to try out the [Heat Absorption] skill. Having done so, the heat energy rushed within me, and I felt like I was dissolving into the water. The test from this experiment of enjoyment had exceeded my expectations.
"Fuuahhh", words can not convey the feeling but my brain was dominated by happiness. In my mind, it was like I was dissolved in hot water.
Most likely, this was one of the most dangerous states placed upon my body. I tried to get myself out of this situation, but I could not. My mind fell apart and I fell into a trance. When Minokichi entered and saw me in this strange situation, Minokichi called out to me. Receiving no answer, with one hand, Minokichi pulled me out of the water.
Once my mind returned back into my body, I stopped the [Heat Absorption] skill. So I survived this crisis which was rather pathetic (which looked pretty stupid, so it was decided to keep this our little secret).
Yesterday was very busy, because we had to reconcile with the "Uninvited Guests" for whom it was necessary to keep an eye on. The "Uninvited Guests" were Tomboy Princess and Boy Knight. Lulled to sleep by my poison, they appeared from the 2 extra barrels.
In her words, "I wanted to look at the home of Aporou and his companions but Aporou wouldn't allow us into the secret fortress." Thus she decided to secretly sneak inside! Having come to the conclusion, "while everything was going well, nobody would have thought that we would be put to sleep! We were sincerely waiting for the flight across the sky on a dragon! But it turned out into something like this."
Pouting with her cheeks with an expression that was dissatisfied, she protested as she pounded on the table with both hands.
Apparently after we sent them back to the castle they used a secret passage to the mansion, and during the time Aporou and his comrades were preparing for departure the Tomboy Princess and Boy Knight climbed into the luggage.
Judging by the expression floating on the face of the Boy Knight, who was currently sweating, he tried to persuade the Tomboy Princess not to go but it was a waste of effort.
As the secret base was discovered, I was angry with her for a long time. But since the Tomboy Princess was somewhat like a niece to me, I can't show it or she may become conceited, and I was too tired with continuous problems stacking up I'd rather not be too angry and reflected upon the situation.
But should she cross a certain line, I'll have to get rid of the Tomboy Princess. And there will be no negotiations, for I have no pity towards enemies, but after intimidating her I felt pity for her.
I was convinced after thinking about the reason that the Tomboy Princess cannot betray us and become our enemy, so it's useless thoughts.
Naturally, Tomboy Princess, as a member of the royal family, is well aware of the danger posed by the Holy Kingdom. The fact is that the Lumen Holy Kingdom is making preparations for the Holy War against the [World Enemy - Gluttony] (me). As befits a [Holy War], all who oppose are considered accomplices of the [World's Enemy] and shall be destroyed.
The Lumen Holy Kingdom will not be forgiving. Absorbing the earth, the Holy Kingdom will invade the land, consuming everything in its path. The Holy Kingdom has much more power than this kingdom. There is a very large gap in the number of national forces and [Legendary Heroes], and even considering an alliance with the Empire, there is still a high probability of losing.
If we were to add the Atarakua Demon Empire and the Estgrand Beast Kingdom to the opposing side, we may be able to avoid total destruction but the damage will be very severe. Because of this the Sternbild Kingdom simply cannot leave it unattended.
First of all, the damage from the civil war was quite large and it has not recovered yet, so there is simply no choice.
From the perspective of the Sternbild Kingdom, the relationship with me could be seen as opposing the Holy War. Because information is sometimes worth more than a mountain of gold. Thinking about the national interest as the priority, there is an option to betray me. If I were an ordinary monster the Tomboy Princess perhaps would have made the choice to betray me.
After the Tomboy Princess had seen enough of us and our work that choice no longer existed. Of this I am sure. Although she is still like a kid, with her ability to look into other people's hearts, she has quickly matured and collected a huge amount of information. No one was better than her in gathering information, even if she did not have that she had intellect.
Therefore she knows what would happen if she betrays us. As she's not a complete fool, the choice of betrayal was no longer possible since the beginning.
This time, they didn't get in the luggage to gather information to betray us, but to learn about our fighting potential personally and make sure what was the best to do was for the good of the kingdom. Such were most likely her thoughts.
Well, there was some personal interest too. Slightly anticipating what she was up to, I put the Tomboy Princess on my shoulder, pampering Opushii, as well as holding Nicola in a hand (daughter of Alchemist-san, the only human race of my children), and gave her a tour of our home base.
Currently, our base has grown incomparably to the previous size. Black Skeletons significantly reduce the amount of hard work and their number exceeds a few thousand. Furthermore, many representatives of skilled races have gathered here.
Although I was not here for a few months, the use of the labor power to the maximum has made the base grow so much that it completely engulfed the whole mountain.
Roughly explained, the former residence of our group, the "Former Mine", became the living quarters; the "External Training Field" allows us to carry out large-scale military exercises; on the "Agricultural Fields" the agricultural dwarfs and Doriane-san's [Field Workers] took care of a variety of crops; the "Ranch" was inhabited by tamed horses, wolves and other mounts as well as by domesticated animals for food; in the "Workshop" a variety of tools and weapons were manufactured; the "Hospital" was always on duty healing the injured; for entertaining the elves, the "Parabellum Onsen" was established.
All this was greatly improved and greatly expanded, for example the "Farmlands" grew to such an extent that they are better described as "Great Farmlands" and there are more places that deserve to be described.
To begin, the annoying trees were cut down while the ground was made more robust by Half Earth-Lords, so as not to fall apart. The summit became relatively flat making this a good place for an "Airport".
Here we use flying familiars such as Falaise Eagle and dragons, for exporting products from the forest and for importing goods that are hard to find in the forest.
Most of the space is an open platform which made it easy-to-take-off and land, but there were also buildings for the temporary storage of goods, pets, recreation personnel and other devices that reduce the burden of work.
Rails was laid down like a spider's web to reduce the burden of work. [Bone Trolleys] are used for transporting small amounts of products. They are made from black skeletons which made them easy to make and easy to control. If given an order they would move automatically to the right place.
Large [Skeleton Trains] were used for bigger amounts of products, this solved the impending problem of transporting our products. The rails themselves were made with the help of the dwarfs. Originally the dwarfs were ordered to mine for minerals. They knew that the transport of miners and minerals was going to be important for the efficiency of the mine and made some kind of rails. Using those rails as a prototype, the current system of rails and trolleys was made by trial-and-error.
History has preserved quite a few examples of the great use of such structures, this kind of mine still exists to this day. When I was looking for a convenient way to transport goods on a daily basis.
I was lucky because among the dwarfs appeared one familiar with the methods of construction and operation of rail and truck designs. I think I did not even use [Luck] there. The dwarfs use black skeletons as a driving force to lessen the stress on themselves.
At the moment all the facilities at our base were connected by the rails, this made the movement between them much easier and faster. The "Factory" makes the products we sell at our shops. Non-battle personnel, those unable to fight on the front line, and black skeletons are used as a labor force.
The black skeletons were used at the assembly line and the non-battle personnel and those unable to fight had works such as monitoring and quality check. Of course the black skeletons were not skilled enough to make delicate products like magic potions, but for the less delicate product they were enough.
Receiving detailed instructions, the black skeletons showed their worth as industrial machines for the manufactured goods. The goods they make are of good quality, could be sold at a cheap price, and since their workflow is stable this made for a very solid source of income. Because they need no rest, salary and food I began to think the black skeletons were more suitable at the assembly line than at the front.
Incidentally, these basic manufactured products were about the same quality as in the "Workshop". Furthermore, there appeared a significant increase in the number of our member who live in "Residential land".
A lot of members were living in the "Former Mine", but since the population has increased from a few dozen to a few thousand, a newer and bigger "Residential Land" was necessary.
Since a lot of different races live together the houses differ a lot. Some were made of wood while others were made from bricks, stone, or even thick cloth. Not only is there a difference in building material, there also is a difference in building style. There are houses that looked like the ones in Sternbild Kingdom, Kirika Empire, Atarakua Demon Empire and Estgrand Beast Kingdom.
Even if the style is the same, depending on the size of occupants, the sizes were very different. In these houses live the representatives of various races, comparable in size with Minotaurs - their homes are huge. But while passing those you could see relatively small houses belonging to creatures such as Cat Fairies.
Despite the apparent chaos they were all pretty well sorted and the general atmosphere in the "Residential Land" is very harmonious. It looks like a medium-sized city which was in harmony with nature.
It's a major change. Located around the mountain, which has become the center of our base, external areas were completely surrounded by huge solid, magical fortified walls, similar to the improved version of the one that were there before.
Besides the big innovations there are some smaller ones. We now have a "Shopping Street". Here they sell food, necessary items, and products that are useful for training. Since it is not an important facility, I won't go into detail about it.
While I walked around the base it looked more and more like a city. Looking around while walking made me feel emotional. In addition, it only took a few months for the base to grow this big. Honestly, I did not expect this.
Normally it is an impossible growth rate, this is the first time this kind of development took place. I can't help but to think so. But here live selected representatives of different races which all had different useful skills and abilities. By my influence they used those abilities at the right place, that's why the base could develop this quick.
Using black skeletons as the labor force, our home base has become like a fortress city. It is like that, but in fact, it seems very illogical. Maybe I'm the only one who thinks so. "Well, good" the Tomboy Princess said with a gleeful blast. Oh well. I spent the whole day with my lovely kids. That in itself makes this day not bad.