“But a festival, though, eh? If we’re talking a large-scale event, I imagine you must have people jumping up and down to join in. A good opportunity for a merchant like myself, hmm?”
He had reason to think so. Many people, merchants and adventurers in particular, were now filing in and out of Tempest. It was starting to get heavily advertised; Mjöllmile was sure they were attracting curious travelers from the nearby towns and villages. That was exactly the kind of situation a merchant stood to profit from.
“Oh, you’re interested?” Rimuru took a sip from his tea, apparently picking up on Mjöllmile’s muttering. “You know, to tell the truth, I’m still wavering on a few things with this festival. I know you’ve helped us decide on some of our attractions already, but I’m still trying to think of a big, flashy centerpiece for the event.”
“A centerpiece?”
“Yeah. Basically, my plan is to turn our town into a kind of health resort. We’ve got our hot-spring infrastructure in place, along with lodging and guest houses suitable for royalty…but I feel like we’re still lacking in entertainment.”
“I see,” Mjöllmile replied, figuring it wouldn’t hurt to hear him out.
As the excited Rimuru then explained, Tempest already boasted a healthy amount of high-end accommodation. Mjöllmile had stayed in it before, so he knew that much. The rooms on offer ran the gamut, providing a selection of things to enjoy—a nice meal with a fine view of the gardens, an open-air hot spring to relax in, and so on. In the smaller nations of the world, it’d be hard for even the nobility to maintain their own private baths. That went double if there wasn’t any water service, forcing you to physically dump water in a tub and heat it up manually.
To Mjöllmile, who took that for granted, a facility with a hot spring you could enjoy any time you liked was nothing short of mind-blowing…but apparently Rimuru wasn’t satisfied with just that.
“I understand all that,” he said, “but if you already have good food and relaxing spaces, how much more of a resort do you need?”
Rimuru shook his head. “You aren’t thinking big enough, Mjöllmile. Me, I think that won’t be enough on its own. I’d like some kind of project that everyone can have a little more fun with. Like, for example…”
What Rimuru then laid out for him was a complete recreational tourism strategy for the Forest of Jura. They’d provide travelers with day-long walking tours deep into the forest, accompanied by a guide/bodyguard. They’d hold fishing tournaments at the nearby canyons, hunting tours amid untouched natural reserves, and so on and so on. All the needed equipment would be available to rent for anyone interested.
“That does sound exciting. It’d certainly attract the kind of nobility with all the time in the world on their hands—and for those with more active work lives, it’d be a fine way to relax.”
“Right, you see? That’s what I’m hoping for, but I’m just wondering if there’s something we can get everybody in on, you know?”
One of Rimuru’s aims with the Founder’s Festival, it seemed, was to encourage repeat visitors to Tempest. He was coming up with all kinds of things to keep travelers engaged and interested in the area. Mjöllmile was both amazed and exasperated. How many years ahead was he even thinking?
“Well, why not use Englesia as an example to imitate? The theater is quite popular over in their capital, I hear. They hold operas and stage plays nearly every day of the year there. You also see fighting tournaments held live at the arena…”
“Oooh! Oh, yes! Where the Hero Masayuki is, right? Isn’t he really popular?”
“He certainly is. Lightspeed Masayuki, as they call him. He’s dominated the tournaments for years. I’m actually rather a fan of his.”
“You are?!”
Even a hardened merchant like Mjöllmile had his sports allegiances. He began giving an in-depth explanation of the tournament system to Rimuru, failing to notice how he began to yawn almost instantly.
“…So really, nobody’s seen a man’s sword flash that way before. Hence the name Lightspeed, as you see. Occasionally, they hold to-the-death battles with captured monsters, but the Hero’s fighting companions are pretty strong themselves. I’ve been in the audience for some real white-knuckle matches myself. And if you had a spectacle like that… Ah, but I’m sorry. I’ve been talking for far too long. But come to think of it, isn’t your staff pretty strong, too, Rimuru? Who’s the strongest out of—?”
“Whoa! Stop right there! I can’t let you go on, Mjöllmile.”
It was obvious Mjöllmile’s interest would shift over to Benimaru and the rest of Rimuru’s officers, sooner or later. He had met Rigurd and the others several times, and to him, their muscles couldn’t have been just for show. Between them and all the other powerful magic-born he saw around town, he couldn’t help but wonder who was champion among them all. Now seemed like a good time to ask, but Rimuru’s reaction was chilly.
“Listen,” Rimuru said, voice lowered. “Between you and me, if you start talking like that around them, it’s gonna cause some serious disputes, you know? There’s this paladin named Arnaud, and he actually asked the same question back when we were all negotiating earlier. It led to the most insipid argument you ever saw—they were all trying to rank themselves on some impossible-to-understand scale, and it was starting to get pretty heated before I stepped in. I was lucky enough that only part of my staff was there, but seriously, better avoid topics like that. It’s a real powder keg with those guys.”
The one official who’d likely pitch the biggest fit of all about the question wasn’t there, Rimuru said, so he’d managed to talk everyone down from their fervor. He’d been trying to avoid such delicate questions ever since. If his
