“Thank you,” Bach said, choking up a bit, “thank you… I promise you that I’ll make a man out of myself and repay this favor!”
“I hope you do,” replied Mjöllmile, smiling ear to ear.
Now he went to work, choosing who to bring and who to keep behind.
“If you ever have any problems,” he advised Bach, “tell me about them, and I’ll help. But I believe in all of you. I know you’ll do just fine. Don’t disappoint me!”
The group remaining in Blumund all nodded at him. Mjöllmile had trained them thoroughly; none of them would fall out of line. Even if they were dealing with high nobility, he was sure they’d never do anything ill-advised.
“You’ve taught them all well. Rest assured they will not let you down!” Bach said in return.
“Well said. Also, while I’m sure you’re aware of this…”
“Do not worry, sir. I promise we will maintain the sales markets you’ve built up here. If you ever need access to them, we’ll give you first priority.”
“Good. I hope you will!”
Just in case, Mjöllmile wanted to be sure he got first dibs on any goods he might need. He always kept an eye on every facet of the situation, and Bach was in perfect sync with his thoughts.
He’s still a little green, but he’s starting to look the part, at least…
Now he was sure Bach wouldn’t let him down.
The last of his affairs were now squared away, and it was time for Mjöllmile to make the journey to Tempest with his retainers in tow.
Leaving Mjöllmile’s house, I breathed a sigh of relief. So glad he said yes to that. He seemed ready to take the invite, too, so I should be expecting him shortly.
One thing I couldn’t say about my monsters is that any of them were good on financial matters. I was having Shuna handle the account books for us, but she couldn’t do that forever. A village is one thing, but a full-fledged nation is another; Shuna would be in over her head. Lilina in the management department and Vester from the Dwarven Kingdom were helping, but I’m not sure even that would be enough.
That’s why Mjöllmile came to mind. His brain revolved around money in ways few people ever experienced, he had connections with nobility, and he was running businesses in multiple countries. It seemed a waste for him to remain a merchant forever; I was sure he’d be a great help to me. Besides, we had a good working relationship. If he could handle finances for us, maybe he’d allow me a little more spending money to work with. I had been running a few side hustles with him before, but now I could picture that extra income ballooning.
I mean, our treasury’s pretty well-endowed, you know? But taking money out of it for myself, despite not paying any salary to my staff, seemed kind of low. Everyone always said “Oh, it’s all yours, Sir Rimuru,” but that just made me all the more reluctant. It felt wrong, and I wanted that money to help with expanding our nation.
Still, I needed some of it. I wanted to take people like Gobta out at night every now and then, even if I didn’t have much interest in it. Veldora was whining at me about that, too, and you know how you go through cash pretty quick at nightclubs…not that I had much interest, that is. (No, really.)
But while it was a drop in the bucket for our treasury, if it was my personal money, I’m sure Gobta and Veldora would burn through it like it was nothing. Plus, Shuna usually provides me with money, but if I tell her where I’m going, she snaps that wallet shut, and I can’t really tell her it’s “my” money then, so…
This was why I was running a few side jobs for extra spending cash. And with my future expansion, I had a feeling money wouldn’t be a worry for much longer.
That battle tournament was a pretty neat idea, too. Mjöllmile is such a talented guy. I wasn’t sure how he would take it, but he demonstrated some real enthusiasm as we brainstormed the plan. It barely took him a moment to suggest running a tournament to attract visitors, then take advantage of the crowds to sell potions and equipment. He’s got a forward-looking eye and a knack for great ideas, that’s for sure.
Once I get back, I’ll need to get ourselves an arena to work with. Geld was busy with urban-planning work over in the Beast Kingdom, and Mildo was supporting him. Without our two main building specialists, I’d have to oversee the operation. But that’s fine. After running all these construction projects, one after the other, we were starting to build a well-trained staff, enough so that I was mostly giving orders and not doing much else. I knew about this craftsman named Gobkyuu, who worked under the tutelage of Mildo, and he was involved with town architecture enough that I thought an impressive circular arena would be in his wheelhouse.
The job would normally take a decade or so, I’d imagine, but if you run the job with monster muscle, I thought we could cut that down a lot…like, down to maybe the two months or so we had until the festival. Even I had to admit that was far too little time to get everything done, so for now, I at least wanted the central fighting stage to be completed.
But how would we design it?
Understood. From my master’s memories, I have found the Colosseum of Rome. Building blueprints using it as a base…
