101
Chapter 101
The Dwarves emerging from the Shadow Passage.
Rubia's eyes widened the moment she saw them.
"Y-You called all those Dwarves? How did you... no, wait, that's not what's important right now..."
I expected her to be surprised, but she was breaking into a cold sweat, beyond mere shock. It didn't take long to figure out why she was acting like that.
"You have to send them back right now! If those money-crazed maniacs seriously try to bleed us dry, we won't have a penny left, no matter how flush our finances are lately!"
Rubia passionately argued that those Dwarves would suck us dry to the bone.
It seemed the notoriety of these thuggish Dwarves was higher than I had thought. How did the serious, dignified image of Dwarves ever fall this low?
It was truly lamentable, but...
Well, none of that mattered to me right now.
"Don't worry too much. They agreed to work for free."
At my words, Rubia made a face like a broken robot. It seemed her brain simply couldn't connect the keywords 'Dwarf' and 'volunteer work'.
For her understanding, I grabbed a nearby Dwarf and asked.
"How much were you planning to charge for the commission?"
The Dwarf turned pale the moment I grabbed him. With a dumbfounded look, he hemmed and hawed before holding up his fingers.
Five... and next to it, a fist representing zero.
A Dwarf proposing 50 gold per person.
Since this was an unexpected turn of events, I couldn't help but be a little flustered.
"You crazy bastard! Is your brain just for decoration?!"
Before I could even say anything, another Dwarf smacked him on the back of the head.
"Please understand with your broad magnanimity, Hyungnim! I'll make sure to educate this guy properly!"
The Dwarf bowed flawlessly at a 90-degree angle.
Rob subtly called me Hyungnim as he said that.
I couldn't help but be a little impressed.
It sounded like an ordinary statement.
But various intentions were hidden within those words.
I certainly hadn't established any hierarchy among them. Yet he was naturally volunteering to take on the Overseer role for the other Dwarves.
On top of that, he was secretly trying to build a sense of closeness.
'I'm telling you, a sly fox is a sly fox.'
I think I know why he succeeded.
He was living a good life and suddenly became something like a slave, so it would make sense for him to hold a grudge against me.
Not only did he coldly judge that it was too late to escape, but he was even aiming for a promotion in the midst of all this.
"Well, it's their first time, so it happens. Don't be too hard on them."
Rob's eyes darted around busily.
Every word I uttered, and even my facial expressions, he examined closely to gauge my personality.
Soon, flattery began to slip out of his mouth.
It was so thorough that I wouldn't have noticed it as flattery if I hadn't frequently interacted with him in my previous life.
He very naturally praised my generosity.
It wasn't blatant, so it didn't rub me the wrong way; it was a pleasant compliment subtly woven into an ordinary conversation.
He was truly a talent perfectly optimized for a sycophant.
It honestly made me wonder if he was more suited for this than blacksmithing, which was a bit mind-boggling.
'Well, it's not a bad thing.'
If he were incompetent but only good at flattery, that would be one thing, but being capable and good at flattery just makes him a high-tier talent.
He's quick-witted and skilled.
It seemed leaving the management of the Dwarves to this guy would be the right move.
"W-Wait just a moment."
While I was having those thoughts, Ms. Rubia's voice suddenly rang out beside me. I turned my head to look at her.
"Then don't tell me the one who caused the mass disappearance of the Dwarves was......."
Ms. Rubia stared at me with trembling eyes.
It hadn't even been a week, but it seemed the incident had already been given a grandiose name.
"Well... technically speaking, it is true that I caused it. But it wasn't my intention, things just sort of ended up that way...."
Hearing my words, her jaw dropped wide open.
Was it because of her accumulated experience? Even without her saying anything, I could tell what she was thinking right now.
This many Dwarves.
She had a face that seemed to say: You brought in the world's greatest Technicians just 'by accident' and 'on a whim'?
It was obvious she was looking at me as if I were some walking disaster or an incomprehensible entity.
But... I had no words to make an excuse.
It wasn't a false accusation; it was the plain truth. What more was there to explain?
Saying something like, "I went to buy Dwarven weapons but accidentally went shopping for Dwarves instead," wasn't going to make the situation any better.
At times like this, it's best to just change the subject quickly.
"Well, the important thing is that the Dwarves will be helping us from now on. Since the world's greatest Technicians are gathered here, repairing the mansion is nothing to worry about."
"Y-Yeah, you're right! Thank goodness..."
Seeing Ms. Rubia smiling with tears in her eyes, it seemed my attempt to change the subject hadn't really worked.
But since we couldn't undo what was already done, I had Rob gather the Dwarves in front of me and continued the conversation.
"Let's take this opportunity to completely turn the mansion into a fortress."
My romanticized vision of having a secret base was a big part of the reason.
But even setting that aside, refurbishing the mansion was an absolute necessity.
Our forces were constantly expanding.
Ciel, Rien, the heroic Ms. Rubia, and Lucy, a Villain we had rehabilitated. Then there was the Black Fang army under our temporary protection, the newly recruited Dwarves, and the promising talents we were currently raising.
We already had so many members. In my mind, this number would only grow, not shrink.
The need for a base to block intruders and serve as a foundation for our activities was higher than I'd thought.
"If we're going to build it, we might as well do it perfectly."
There was no guarantee that the Empire's Knights wouldn't come knocking again. So we needed a perfect fortress capable of withstanding even an Imperial Army invasion.
"There are prying eyes. To avoid suspicion, we shouldn't change the exterior of the mansion. But we do need to replace the building materials."
We needed to infuse the most powerful defensive Spell Formulas into the strongest materials available.
And it wasn't just about the exterior; there was no rule saying we couldn't touch anything else.
"It wouldn't be a bad idea to build an underground base. We can hide the real base in case we get discovered like we did this time."
I made that decision and immediately thought of something else. If we were going to build an underground base anyway...
"It would be nice if the base connected to the temporary army's Lord's Base."
Doing so would be far more convenient.
This time, the Dwarves were able to arrive here easily thanks to Ciel's Shadow Passage.
That was only possible thanks to the Amulet Ciel had infused with her power. Now that the Amulet was gone, we couldn't use it anymore.
Teleportation was originally a High Magic.
The stronger the targets being Teleported, and the greater their numbers, the difficulty rose exponentially.
"How about we install a Mana Train underground? That way, we can freely travel back and forth between the mansion and the garrison while saving time."
In other words, a subway.
Moving underground meant we wouldn't have to worry about being spotted by people.
And the benefits didn't stop there.
'Warp Point.'
An essential element found in any RPG.
Getting my hands on fast travel myself.
If we're going to build a subway, it's only natural to build stations too, right?
Until now, we had no other choice but to use the Mana Train. But come to think of it, that was an incredibly risky thing to do.
Even if we hadn't been caught yet, we had committed hostile acts against the Empire multiple times.
But if we build a subway and can freely roam all over the Empire, we won't have to take that risk anymore.
I don't think it will come to that anytime soon, though.
Still, if we ever end up in an all-out war with the Empire, it would definitely come in handy.
"We need to be thorough with security, too. Let's slap Curse Formulas that react to enemies all over the place."
We could just get Lucy's help for this.
She seemed quite proficient when it came to Curses. If she personally engraved them, they would surely display power beyond imagination.
"What do you think?"
After pouring out all those ideas, I asked Rob for his opinion.
The Dwarves who heard my plan looked... well, let's just say they looked like they'd bitten into a turd.
Even Rob, a master of reading the room, couldn't hide his dismay. After agonizing over it for a long time, he finally opened his mouth in a calm voice.
"So... let me get this straight. You want us to rebuild this mansion out of Adamantium, something we could never even get our hands on. Then we have to build an underground base beneath it, which needs to connect to a garrison that takes over a month to walk to. Not only do we have to recreate the Mana Train—the greatest masterpiece in history and the pinnacle of Imperial technology—but we also have to install it underground. And on top of that, we have to link it to every corner of the Empire. And you want us to imbue every single inch of that massive area with powerful Curse Formulas?"
Hmm....
Hearing it laid out like that, it did sound a bit absurd.
I mean, I know how to mass-produce Adamantium, and I roughly remember the Mana Train Blueprints from the game Artbook.
But even taking that into account, this was definitely a bit unrealistic.
It was essentially an unreasonable demand on par with asking someone to build a Bluetooth showerhead.
Sure enough, Rob asked me with a troubled look on his face.
"How exactly are we supposed to build something like that?"
But still....
Let's toss my conscience aside for a moment and act like the protagonist of an alternate history novel.
Right here, I had hundreds of geniuses gathered—a race born to be Technicians with talent that rivaled history's greatest inventors. And if you just grind enough talent into a problem, most things will somehow work out.
I smiled wickedly as I answered Rob's question.
"I have no idea. That's exactly why I need you guys."
Free labor, free labor.
Let's squeeze these Dwarves for all they're worth and pump out a badass secret base.