Chapter 137
Chapter 137
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Vine
Chapter: 137
Chapter Title: There's No Such Thing as a Free Lunch
-----------------------------------------------------------------
"Eh, the elves are here!"
"Woooow!"
Like the saying that even a stubborn ox can be pulled out with a single pull, he immediately put the Neruman slaves to work.
To prepare for winter, 10,000 went to the coal mines, 10,000 to the limestone mines and sand quarries for cement production, 30,000 to the road construction sites, 10,000 to the brick production lines, 10,000 to finish the salt pan construction, and the remaining soldiers were assigned to wall repairs or other farming tasks.
And today, the elves arrived at the road construction site riding the king eagles called harpies.
He had gone to the elf village yesterday to ask for their help, and Elder Parkiano had generously agreed.
'Hoo, there must be a hundred of them.'
The elves who flew in using every available harpy they could muster.
They landed one after another around me, two per harpy back.
"May the blessing of the blue branch be with you."
"May the peace of the forest be with you, Brother Kayer."
The eldest male elf leading them came forward to greet me.
'Oh my, even our little cutie is here.'
She was a grandmother who would be around sixty in human years, but in elf terms, Narmias was in her juicy early twenties.
She flashed a bright smile at me.
"Elder Parkiano said to provide as much help as possible. What would you have us do, brother?"
"I offer my deepest thanks once again for Elder Parkiano and all your brothers' kind hearts."
He showed respect to the elves, who valued etiquette highly.
'Who would've thought elves could be swayed with just bread.'
Give them one soft loaf and a couple of fruits, and they transformed into diligent workers for the whole day.
With the spirit summoning power of these hundred elves, even 10,000 laborers couldn't keep up.
"First, we need to finish the road construction that was left incomplete last year. Many of you brothers here likely have experience with it."
My eyes weren't bad, so I could tell quite a few were among those I'd seen last year.
"About thirty of you should be enough here. The rest, please follow me to another site."
"Do as you wish, brother."
The elves, who had suffered from liver complaints for generations.
It seemed Elder Parkiano had given them strict instructions.
They showed no displeasure at my words.
"Sir Andriaf."
"Y-Yes, my lord!"
Andriaf, tense upon finally meeting the elves he'd only heard about.
"Just connect the roads according to this blueprint."
"Understood, my lord!"
Andriaf emphasized "my lord" and shot me looks full of admiration.
"I'll be heading to another construction site, so use communication magic if anything comes up."
"Yes, sir!"
The eastern road construction laborers, numbering about 20,000.
Like Andriaf, they stared at the elves in astonishment.
Elves were a rare sight anywhere on the continent these days—seeing a full hundred would be a memory they'd never forget.
"Clay summon!"
"Gnome summon!"
"Gasp!"
"Earth spirits—advanced ones!"
The elves started strong, summoning high-level earth spirits right away.
Gasps of awe erupted one after another from the dazed prisoners.
'What, getting excited over this much. Heh heh.'
The diligent elves began road construction right away, without even needing orders, picking up where they'd left off last year.
"What are you lot doing? Move it! Pour sand and cement on the leveled ground!"
With a single gesture from the spirits, hundreds of meters of road appeared in an instant.
"Gnome, make the walls solid."
The elves learned one thing and mastered it perfectly.
They steadily progressed through the processes.
"Pour it!"
Hiiiing.
Just recently, these Rabiter warhorses had carried knights into battle.
Now they neighed powerfully as they pulled carts loaded with sand and cement.
'This site's good. On to the next construction area.'
From the fortress near the Habis Kingdom border that would soon be complete, all the way to Denfos—the Kayer Highway.
With these workers far beyond last year's, it seemed it could be finished in just days.
"Everyone, let's go."
The elves divided themselves into groups on their own.
They swiftly mounted the harpies at my command.
"Let's go, Bebeto!"
Kuuoooooo!
Bebeto, brimming with even more energy lately as the number of females he could dominate had swelled into the hundreds.
He flapped his elegant golden-striped wings and kicked off the ground.
Thud.
The pleasant sensation of lightly rising into the sky.
A smile that wouldn't leave my face expressed my joy.
★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★
"Those stingy elves..."
"Hmph! Destroyers of nature!"
'Eh?'
The lord's castle construction site, the most important of all my planned projects.
Over 300 dwarves waiting in front of the site grounds in transport baskets.
At the sight of the elves, they scowled and muttered about stingy elves.
The elves, in turn, snorted at the dwarves and called them destroyers of nature, hardening their expressions.
This wasn't part of the plan.
'So they really are sworn enemies.'
A chill spread over the elves' previously calm faces, while the hot-blooded dwarves growled like hunting dogs spotting the neighbor's mutt.
'Their help is absolutely essential.'
The grand Neruman lord's castle I envisioned in my mind.
I couldn't let it run aground before it even started.
"Haha, everyone, get along from now on. You'll be seeing a lot of each other."
"Hmph, why should we bow our heads to those rude beanpoles!"
"How can we share the same space and breathe with those who don't cherish nature? Absolutely impossible!"
'Make up now while I'm asking nicely.'
The two races, puffing up their pride over nothing.
Sure, there was an ancient grudge, but to me, it seemed like pointless stubbornness.
Dwarves might destroy nature, but that was just their artisan spirit at work; elves might be rude, but wasn't it their naturally prickly temperament?
And once, they had allied together to war against humans.
Reconciliation was entirely possible.
"Come here a moment."
I pulled aside the eldest dwarf leader, with his white chin beard.
"You too."
"No."
"We absolutely need the elves' help."
"Still no. Once we say no, it's no."
The stubborn old dwarf.
"Fine. Then we won't force the construction."
"..."
When I pushed back hard, the dwarf blinked his big eyes.
"Once the lord's castle is done, I was planning a massive beer warehouse inside and to invite brewmasters from across the continent... but whatever, who needs beer."
"..."
At "brewmasters from across the continent," the dwarf's eyes flew wide open.
"I hear Indes Kingdom's black beer uses guavis leaves and sticks to your mouth so well... Ah, too bad. So long, beer with pork belly... lamb-stuffed sausages, farewell."
I bid goodbye to beer and sausages in a gloomy voice.
"Gulp."
For dwarves, whose life's joys were crafting and beer, new beer flavors were an irresistible temptation.
"Sigh, no motivation at all. I cleared out the warehouse beer recently to make room for the new lord's castle brewery. No drive to brew now. I can live without booze... maybe go full teetotal this time?"
In the 21st century, even kids wouldn't fall for this threat.
But this was the otherworldly continent, where innocence still breathed.
"Ha, haha. Why go that far? You're not scrapping the castle, right? Kayer, aren't we brothers? We dwarves never turn away from a brother's hardship."
The old dwarf, who moments ago had stubbornly refused, now clasped my hand with his thick one, prattling on about brotherly loyalty as if nothing happened.
"You'll have to face elves every day—can you stand it? If you're saying this now but might change your mind tomorrow and quit, better stop here."
"No, how can you belittle dwarf loyalty like that! I swear on my name, Chalbayna, second elder of Luhalumer! Until your castle is complete, I won't quarrel with those rude beanpoles!"
'Heh heh, shoulda done that from the start.'
The pledge from Chalbayna, the highest-ranking dwarf here.
The dwarves were settled just like that.
"Then go tell your brothers. We need to get along great with the elves for a while."
"Got it. If any dwarf disobeys me, I'll smash their skull with this axe!"
The hot-tempered Elder Chalbayna.
He stomped over to the dwarves on his short legs, fuming.
"You there, elf brother, come here."
And so began the elf persuasion operation.
He called over the displeased elf elder who'd led them.
"What is it?"
"The dwarves agreed to help. Cooperate and build the castle."
"Impossible. How can we work sharing breaths with a race that knows no manners?"
"Aren't you dreading this winter?"
"..."
"I hear it takes a month of groaning to recover—guess you can endure it."
I hated to, but I dragged out their dire situation for leverage.
"Just close your eyes once—it's that bad? Didn't Elder Parkiano say your tribe is on the path to extinction?"
"Th-That..."
The elf panicked at the mention of Elder Parkiano.
In elf society, the grand elder wielded near-absolute power.
It was their respect and etiquette for the ancient ones.
"Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet, as they say. Work with dwarves just this once, and elves gain much. You'll be hailed as the great race that embraces even wicked dwarves, worshippers and lovers of nature."
The dwarves would foam at the mouth if they heard, but the tight-lipped elves would never repeat my words.
"Very well... Brother Kayer, you make a point."
Praising them softened his stern face, and he nodded.
'Surviving ain't easy, huh.'
Even as Neruman's lord, I had to bow to eternal vassals.
"Forgive the dwarves' rudeness. They're just a race that loves eating and noise by nature. Embrace their flaws with hearts as vast as the wilds."
"Don't worry. As an elder of the blue tree tribe, I'll tell the others."
"Thank you."
'Where does age go, really?'
Elders were at least 300-year-old immortals.
I shook my head at the elf who looked barely past thirty.
'Heh heh heh... Now it begins. Finally, my house on the continent!'
The massive castle grounds I'd claimed.
The finished castle was already vivid in my mind.
My home, Kayer Great Castle, rivaling any empire or kingdom's capital.
★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★
"Wh-What do you mean, my lord!"
"I've ordered all finished prisoners armed."
"My lord, how can you issue such a command..."
The elves and dwarves worked silently on the grounds, heeding my warnings and threats.
Dozens of earth spirits summoned in an instant leveled and compacted the vast site.
The dwarves began construction using special red bricks made for the castle.
Other kingdoms took decades splitting rocks, but I had no time or leisure for that.
'Modern apartments go up fifteen stories in months—what's one castle?'
Without spirits and magic, I'd never have planned it.
I wasn't idiot enough to pour every resource into one castle.
"Just follow my orders."
"What if the prisoners revolt en masse? Over 100,000 armed troops could doom Neruman in a heartbeat."
'Derbal, trust me.'
I had to seize this heaven-sent chance.
The Neruman stabilization plan that never left my mind even amid imperial preparations last winter.
Food sovereignty, securing export specialties to shake the continent, and subjugating for territorial stability.
Many plans, and I aimed to tackle them all at once.
180,000 young, sturdy Rabiter imperial soldiers who could chew iron.
Plus full support from elves and dwarves.
"This northern Kobiran range, near the Luar Mountains—I'll drive the monsters here."
I pointed on the map, conveying my will.
"Sigh. If you're clearing them, why not wipe them out this time? Why just drive them?"
Having decided to arm the prisoners, Derbal sighed and shifted to monster questions.
"Food warehouse."
"Pardon?"
"This will be a food warehouse for wyverns."
"Ah..."
"Plenty of space for tens of thousands of orcs and other monsters. We'll wall off the introduced perimeter to protect our people."
"So you'll use the prisoner soldiers to drive out the monsters."
Derbal finally grasped my intent.
"The prisoners can't flee or revolt anyway. Knights and mages— their officers—are all isolated. They've even elected their own captains. But orders come from Neruman knights. Rabiter prisoners, used to discipline, will move as we wish."
"I see..."
"Plus safety guaranteed, treated like Neruman troops—they've seen it. No one risks their life fleeing or rebelling in that setup. Would you, a regular soldier, stake your life on empire loyalty while getting paid? Not a knight."
"Brilliant, my lord! I finally understand your deep intent."
'What, over this?'
"I misunderstood briefly. Couldn't fathom paying prisoners wages. But now it all makes sense. As expected, my lord—you're a great one I can scarcely follow."
Derbal bowed low, radiating respect.
'Derbal, nothing's free in this world.'
Truth was, I hated spending real coin too.
But investment was needed for Rabiter soldiers' strength.
One gold per month? 180,000 gold total—peanuts, recouped dozens-fold from monster hunts.
No risking Neruman troops, and cleared land becomes stable farmland this year.
'No real costs anyway. Heh heh heh.'
Rabiter soldiers used their own imperial supplies.
Bent on claiming Neruman, the enemy brought vast stocks.
Quality mobile tents for sleeping, month's rations, even farm tools—everything.
But skimping a few coins to idle them? No.
Healthy bodies loafing was squandering heaven's gifts.
Even enemies deserved recognition for holy labor and its rewards—my philosophy.
"No time. Before Rabiter's envoy for prisoner release, use them max. That's investment for Neruman's stable future."
"Understood, my lord. I'll execute your will with all I have."
'Busy as hell, but happier than ever.'
Like crisis births opportunity, the Rabiter invasion brought this golden chance.
My mind raced overtime to squeeze max profit.
I knew better than anyone—fortune, once gone, takes ages to return....