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nMorning.

nNormally, this would be the time when I leave the house, but I was asked to start going to the store later, so I decided to go and build my house first.

n“For the mean time, this should do for a rough draft…” Ryouma

nTo the side… A long house wall… A house with a door and a window. 1

nI gradually improved the image as I revised the map drawn on the ground.

nI can just restructure the tunnel to fill in the necessary facilities needed for day-to-day living, so all the house needs is a bedroom.

n…But lately ruffians have been coming to the store.

nWhat if they attack my house? It would be worrying if my house was weak then.

nBut it’ll take quite a bit of effort to make the house sturdy enough.

n“Maybe I should camouflage my house.” Ryouma

nI could turn the tunnel until here into a decoy.

n“I could block the entrance of the tunnel with the house, and then make the interior look just like a normal house, so when they enter they’ll think they entered the house I live at.” Ryouma

nThat should buy me some time to prepare a counter attack or run away. I could also set some traps in the decoy house.

n“If I fuss over this too much, I’ll end up taking too much time again, so…” Ryouma

nTo make things simple, I’ll just set some slimes to pour acid, poison, or maybe sticky slime on the intruders…

nHmm… But unlike acid and sticky liquid, poison won’t take effect unless it enters the body, so a poison gas would be more effective than liquid poison.

nUnfortunately, I don’t have a slime that could use potion magic.

nAlthough if I used fire I could create poison smoke…

nAs I thought about it, I ended up going toward a direction that would take time.

nFor the meantime, I decided to just go with the acid and sticky liquid for the traps.

nI should go and make the house first or there’s no point to any of this.

n“The house needs to be easy to repair.” Ryouma

nAfter all, there’s a chance it could get destroyed in an attack.

nAnd the most important thing for a decoy is to look the part, so I just need to focus on appearances while making sure that it’s easy to build.

nIn that case, a prefab should do the trick.

nWith prefabs, the parts are made in the workshop beforehand, and then the structure is assembled at the scene.

nThere’s not a lot of actual work done at the scene, so it’s a lot faster than other construction methods. It’s also a lot more consistent quality-wise than other building methods when building the same structure.

nI have to make the parts myself because there’s no factory to order parts from here, but once I have the basic parts down, the whole process should go smoothly.

nAlso, I’ll be making the parts with Create block, so I already have a sure way of making the building stones in a set size. If I just tweak that a little, everything should go well.

n“Create Block” Ryouma

nI tried making my thoughts into reality.

nI used Create Block to make building stones and tweaked the shape.

nI wanted a concrete block, so I made the building stones into the size of a brick, then I opened a hole in the middle part. Simple enough.

nIf I pile these up, I should be able to make a wall.

nI’ll be needing cement and sticky liquid if I were to just pile these up normally, so I’ll just make a hole in the bottom and make a protrusion in the top so they can fit together without any adhesive.

nI’m going to be using mostly square blocks, so I’m worried that just one protrusion won’t be enough. In that case, let’s divide each block into four and make four protrusions instead.

nAlso, wf the protrusions are sharp, they could hurt people, so I should make sure to round them off.

n“…And there we have it. Lego, basically.”

nBefore I knew it, I’d transformed my building stones into the world famous Lego.

nIsn’t this completely different from what I was aiming for?

nBut it helps a lot with the visualization…

nI’ll name this new version of my magic as Building Block.

n“Building Block Cube!” Ryouma

n“Building Block Rectangle!” Ryouma

nI built building stones as I pleased according to shape.

nI tried making a wall with these blocks, and lo and behold, it actually took me some strength to move the wall. Each block was heavy enough, so after adding them altogether, the resulting weight was something.

nWhen I tried even rubbing some clay on them and letting it dry, I was able to make a good wall.

nIt’s basically precast concrete, but if I keep making the parts like this, I should be able to make my prefab a reality.

n…Now then, it should be about time for me to get going.

n1 – Don’t really get this line. Maybe it’s just a monologue while Ryouma is drawing on the ground.

n“Good morning. How is the store today?” Ryouma

nI clocked in late at work today just as I was asked to yesterday. I wonder how the store is doing.

n“Good morning, Boss. There are several things I would like to report on. First of all, Taylor-sama dropped by the store this morning.” Carla

n“The branch head of the tamers guild? He didn’t come as a customer?” Ryouma

n“No. It would appear that the men that caused us trouble the past few days were apparently monster tamers of the tamers guild, so he came to apologize.” Carla

n“In person? That’s really unfortunate…” Ryouma

nWho would’ve thought an important customer would drop by on the very day I decided to come late… It’s been a while since I happened across this sort of misfortune.

nHmm… What to do? I could go to the tamers guild and talk to them now. They’ll probably accommodate me if I did.

n“…What did he say about the culprits? They came twice, right?” Ryouma

n“Apparently, they were working by themselves. As the story goes, they were annoyed that someone like you, Ryouma-sama, was making a killing when you could only use slimes… In other words, envy was the motive.

nThey figured it wouldn’t be a big deal if they just caused some ruckus in the store, so they casually went and caused trouble. Unfortunately for them, that decision cost them a significant fine that they weren’t expecting. If not that, then they would probably be sent to perform some voluntary labor.

nThe guild master said that the guild is willing to negotiate the compensation for the damages caused by their members.” Carla

nDamages? There wasn’t anything too serious that could really be labeled as ‘damages’. And I don’t need the guild master to come personally to know that I need to be careful.

n“I don’t need compensation. They probably have a policy on how to deal with delinquent members like them, so let’s just go with that.” Ryouma

n“I thought you’d say that. The policy of the tamers guild say that the culprits must be given penalty and the members of the guild must be properly informed of the gravity of the crime committed. But…” Carla

n“Is there a problem?” Ryouma

n“There’s no problem regarding to the culprits’ punishment. Instead, it seems that Taylor-sama is being criticized because of his decision to cover for us in this incident.” Carla

n“Criticize? The guild master? Why? Shouldn’t they be criticizing the culprits?” Ryouma

n“It seems that the culprits have been working for a long time and have respectable monsters, so their status is quite high.

nThey look down on us, so things became like this and we unfortunately ended up incurring damages…

nThis morning the customers that caught wind of the rumors were quite worried for us. I reassured them each time they mentioned it that there’s no problem and I also thanked Taylor-sama.” Carla

nIt’s true we incurred damages, but…

n“Is it just my imagination or is all this happening so fast?” Ryouma

n“Maybe it’s because he’s in charge of the tamers guild, but yes… Things do seem to be progressing quickly.” Carla

n“It would be best if we could get more details regarding this incident.” Ryouma

n“I understand. I’ll have Carm investigate it.” Carla

n“Please.” Ryouma

nThere was nothing else noteworthy to report after that, so we just went through the usual reports, then I went off to work on my own stuff.

n“Please divide the horn rabbit meat into five pieces.” Ryouma

n“Thank you for coming! What a nice kid, you are. Are you on an errand?” Butcher

n“Ha ha… Something like that.” Ryouma

nI know there’s nothing I can do about how young I look, but still… I can’t help but feel complicated.

n“Hey, if it isn’t Ryouma-kun. We have feed ready for your slimes.” Zeke

n“Thank you very much. I’ll come get it as soon as I receive my purchase.” Ryouma

nZeke-san stepped out of the room where they prepared the meat to show his face, so I thanked him. When I was about to go back to the store, he asked me to wait for a bit.

n“Ah, could you wait a sec?” Zeke

n“Yes? What is it?” Ryouma

n“Could we ask your slimes to clean the store? Our clothes have gotten a lot cleaner than before, so we’ve started to become concerned about the stench in our workplace… Of course, we clean the place everyday, but the stench is indelibly ingrained into the place and we can’t quite get rid of it.” Zeke

n“In that case, I’ll bring you some deodorizing liquid. Unless there’s some other problem, you should be able to solve it with that.” Ryouma

nAfter saying that, I went back to the store and prepared the deodorizing liquid.

nThat night.

nWhile I was checking the documents, Carm-san came back.

n“Good job out there. Did you find something?” Ryouma

n“Yes.” Carm

nCarm handed me some papers. Apparently, he’d compiled everything already. He sure works fast.

n“It seems rumors of the Gimuru branch’s tamer guild master being criticized have spread quite far.” Ryouma

n“Yes. There are some slight differences to the rumors, but not one of them is saying anything good about Taylor-sama. Grisiera-sama of the merchant guild has also taken notice of this event and is quite concerned. She says it’s possible there’s someone intentionally fanning the flames against Taylor-sama. His position in the guild is delicate, to say the least.” Carm

n“Indeed…” Ryouma

nAs I went through the document Carm gave me, I got to the part with a figure of the tamer guild’s influence framework and a simple explanation of their history.

nI knew there were two philosophies in the tamer guild, but it seems that has also led to the formation of different factions.

nOn one hand, you have tamers who prioritize strength among monsters, and on the other hand, you have tamers who prioritize the wellbeing of monsters. The former is the main faction presently, while the latter is a faction that seeks to coexist with the monster beasts.

nIn the first place, it was Shiho Jamil, a previous otherworlder, who completed monster taming and spread it throughout the world with the purpose of paving the path for the humans and monster beasts then to coexist.

nI’m sure it wasn’t easy. Not much details were given about Shiho’s endeavors, but after showing to the people the benefits brought about by the monsters, people gradually started accepting the tamer guild and Shiho Jamil’s ideas. As a result, the tamer guild has continued to exist until now.

nUnfortunately, with every passing year, less and less people are adhering to her ideals.

nMost of the work in the tamer guild is mainly for monsters to replace human labor.

nAfter all, there aren’t a lot of jobs that only monsters could do. If people needed to subjugate a monster, they could turn to the adventurers guild. If they wanted to send a letter or have small miscellaneous job done, a fast horse or a person could do it. There’s just too much competition.

nSo, in order for the members of the tamers guild to work more efficiently and make a living, they prioritized the taming of stronger monsters.

nAs such, and especially for the humans and the members of the dog tribe whose life spans are short, people gradually forgot the ideals of the founder.

n“Presently, only elves and other species that have long lifespans are the only ones capable of spending a long time teaching and studying. And other than them, only the people who have received their teachings are the ones who have been able to inherit the will of the founder. Taylor-sama is one such person, but even though he holds a high position, there are still people who hate him.” Carm

n“I see. Is this related to why some people caused trouble at our store?” Ryouma

n“They’re not wholly unrelated.” Carm

n“Figures…” Ryouma

nCould it be that they weren’t actually aiming at my store and instead just decided to use it as tool because it was convenient?

nHmm…

n“Can we start a rumor of our own? Not to spread a lie, but to spread a truth.” Ryouma

n“The merchants guild is a treasury of information and there are a lot of merchants sensitive to new information and rumors, so if we make use of that, it should be possible. What would you like to spread?” Carm

n“Actually, I’ve recently formed a contract with a rimel bird. 6 of them, in fact. So, I’m no longer a monster tamer who can only use slimes.

nAccording to the documents you gave me, it seems some people might be trying to find fault with the branch leader for favoring a useless monster tamer. And the rumors also seem like they might bring down our reputation, so… What do you think? Can we use a rumor like this to dispel the current rumors surrounding the branch guild master and make it appear as if he is a man of foresight?” Ryouma

nRimel birds are known to be difficult to tame.

nWhen I proposed this to Carm-san, he smiled.

n“Yes, that should do. It could end up as a funny story with the critics being the ones with no foresight in the end.” Carm

n“Also, if you can, please don’t be too harsh. We don’t want to make more enemies, after all.” Ryouma

n“I understand. Well, then. I’ll get right to it.” Carm

n“Ah, wait… It’s already nighttime and we don’t know what our opponents are capable of doing, so just to be safe, get Fei-san or Leelin-san to tag along with you. This won’t be a part of their contract, so I’ll pay them extra. Also…” Ryouma

nI also informed him that I will be taking steps to fortify the abandoned mine.

n“So, you don’t have to worry about me.” Ryouma

n“I understand, but please make sure not to do anything reckless.” Carm

nAfter that he left the room.

nI waited for him and Fei-san to come back, then I went back to the mines.

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