Our Chloe Has a Hunch!
The next day, at the slum construction site.
"Heave! Heave!"
With cheerful shouts ringing out, huge blocks of stone were being hauled into place one after another.
Thanks to the fantastic collaboration between the elite laborer knights Giselle had assigned and the local workers blinded by triple daily wages, the pace of construction was astonishingly fast.
And right in the middle of it all—
Whoosh, tap!
"Oh! Thanks, little miss!"
"I’ve never been treated this well in my life—getting water delivered by magic like this! Hahaha!"
Invisible threads of mana floated through the air, neatly placing cool bottles of water into the hands of sweating laborers, one by one.
"I told you, I’m not a little kid! Drink it fast! Or I’ll take it back!"
Chloe was still acting like the tsundere she was, but even so, she kept spitting out mana threads with surprising diligence in response to the laborers’ flood of grateful praise.
She looked incredibly pleased with herself, and that made her absurdly cute.
"Hah, sweet."
Watching her, I crunched into a perfectly roasted sweet potato.
"Wow~ Our kid and the old hands work really well together! Nice. Very nice!"
I casually wiped the charcoal smudges from the corner of my mouth and put on the full air of a site foreman.
With a warm heater, sweet potatoes, and a bunch of capable hands working hard in my place...
"This is the life."
I was chuckling in contentment when—
"Y-Your Highness... You summoned us?"
Four men, hunched in on themselves, cautiously stepped into the tent.
It was Baron Killian and his crew—the northern ATM machines I’d summoned with a carrier pigeon last night.
"Oh, you came?"
I took another bite of sweet potato and waved them over.
"It’s cold out there, so don’t just stand around—come closer to the heater. Want something to drink?"
"N-no, no, absolutely not! How could we possibly sit at the same table as Your Highness...!"
The four of them frantically waved their hands, their faces going pale at the thought that I might find some new excuse to shake more money out of them.
"Really? Fine, then."
I brushed the sweet potato peel from my hands and got straight to the point.
We weren’t exactly close enough for small talk anyway.
"Hey. You guys got any more money left?"
"...Eh?!"
One sentence was all it took to make their expressions priceless.
Baron Killian dropped to his knees with a thud and looked ready to cry.
"Y-Your Highness!! We’ve already paid this month’s tribute in full! Our domain’s storehouses are so empty even the rats are starving to death in there!"
"Exactly! If you take any more from us, we’ll really be left out on the street! We’ll have no choice but to hang ourselves!!"
The four men slammed their foreheads into the floor and burst into wailing sobs.
I scratched my chin and looked down at them.
Hmm. Maybe this is a little much?
Of course, I could always threaten them and strip them clean of everything they had, right down to their underwear.
But a rat backed into a corner will bite the cat.
If they decided they had nothing left to lose, they might go crazy and stab me in my sleep, figuring it was kill or be killed.
My stomach scar still throbbed sometimes as it was. I had no intention of getting stabbed again.
As I fell silent and thought it over, Baron Rowen, who’d been nervously reading the room, cautiously lifted his head.
"Uh, Your Highness... why do you need more funds all of a sudden?"
"C-could it be... because of that construction project you’re working on outside right now?"
Baron Rowen pointed timidly toward the site visible beyond the tent.
"Yeah, that’s right. As you can see, it’s a pretty big project. The tribute you guys’ve been paying has kept things moving for now, but once we start raising the frame and buying more materials, we’re going to come up short."
I crossed one leg over the other and added, "So I called you in because I was thinking maybe I could get some investment from you. I’m not shaking you down, so calm down."
"I-investment, Your Highness?"
"Yeah. You got any spare money lying around?"
At my question, the four of them flinched, exchanged glances, and then quietly retreated to one corner to mutter among themselves.
Whisper, whisper. Murmur, murmur.
Apparently they thought they were keeping their voices low, but my seat was close enough, and the tent carried sound far too well.
'Do you really not have any money left?'
'Well... actually, a few days ago, to make a good impression on His Highness the Crown Prince, we cleared out all the illegal gambling dens that might’ve gotten us in trouble. There’s a bit of cash from that...'
'I went and sold off three southern villas just in case. I’ve got some gold bars left over. It’s not like I’ll ever go there again, so I figured I didn’t really need them...'
I let out a snort, half laughing in disbelief.
So rich people really did stay rich for three years after going bankrupt, huh?
In any case, the whispering continued.
'But if he says invest, what’s he planning to do? You don’t think that construction is really for building a bathhouse, do you?'
'Come now. Would someone of the Empire’s imperial blood really build something as humble as a bathhouse in the middle of this miserable slum? Look at that enormous lot and the pipes being laid in the ground. That is clearly going to be a massive entertainment complex built for huge profits!'
'Exactly! It’s bound to become a luxury V.I.P. casino or social club for nobles only! There are no amusement facilities in the North at all, so once it’s finished it’ll be a golden goose that rakes in every coin from Northern nobles and anyone else who comes here!'
These lunatics were letting their imaginations run all the way to the horizon.
No, I’m telling you I’m building a bathhouse.
But in their heads, a giant casino resort that would make Las Vegas look small was already under construction.
'Think about it carefully. If His Highness intended to use us as disposable cards, he would have handed us over to the Grand Duke long ago. But by giving us an investment opportunity, doesn’t that mean he’s recognizing us as true subordinates—and business partners at that!'
'Exactly! If we secure a share and split the profits, we can recover every coin we’ve ever paid in tribute and make an absolute killing on top of it!'
'A genius! His Highness is truly a genius of business!!'
"..."
I pressed a hand to my forehead.
Were these guys actually broken in the head?
The North must be so cold their brains had frozen solid too.
Still, so what?
Oh? Is that how it is?
If these idiots were going to mistake my welfare project for a casino and willingly pour money into it, did I really need to correct them?
On the contrary, this was fantastic. I could launder the black funds into legitimate investment money without a shred of guilt and cover the construction costs. What a sweet deal.
After finishing their whispered conference, the four men stood before me again, their faces set with determination.
"Your Highness!"
Baron Killian raised his voice on behalf of the group.
"We have given it considerable thought! No matter how difficult things are for our domains, how could we possibly sit out Your Highness’s great enterprise!"
"Really? Didn’t you just say you didn’t have any money?"
"Hahaha! If we squeeze hard enough, something always comes out, does it not? We’ll sell the domain’s cooking pot if we have to—no, we’ll even sell the underwear we’re wearing to raise the investment!"
Such tearful loyalty. Though I didn’t think they needed to sell their underwear.
I smiled in satisfaction and crossed my legs.
"Fine. Good. But I’ve got a conscience too, so I won’t just pocket it and forget about you. I’ll give you shares equal to the amount you invest. And once the place is finished, I’ll make sure the profits are distributed properly in proportion."
"Ooooh...!"
"And."
I delivered the killing blow.
"If construction wraps up smoothly and the profits stabilize, I’ll even think about handing over operating rights to the guy among you who works the hardest."
Honestly, I had no intention of planting my ass in this frozen backwater forever as a crown prince, and even less intention of becoming a bathhouse manager.
Once the place was finished, the easiest thing would be to throw it to these guys and make them run it for me. So it was a baited hook I was dangling for the future.
But to them, my words seemed to sound like a sweet promise that one of them could become emperor of the Northern amusement trade.
"O-operating rights!! Your Highness!! Thank you!!"
"We’ll bring the investment by cart no later than tomorrow!!"
The four of them bowed over and over, wiping away tears as they went, overwhelmed with emotion.
Negotiation settled.
With that, the slum reconstruction funds had been resolved very peacefully indeed.
Honestly, if things had gone south, I had considered borrowing from Viola instead.
Though if I’d done that, I might have ended up living under Viola’s thumb for the rest of my life.
In that sense...
Phew. What a relief.
"Good. Go fetch the money, then. Get out of my sight."
"Yes! As you command, Your Highness!!"
The four nobles left the tent with brisk, hopeful steps.
Watching their backs, I shoved the last of the sweet potato into my mouth.
I could already imagine the looks on their faces when they found out this building wasn’t a casino at all, but a public bathhouse where even the poor could come and relax cheaply.
Just thinking about it made me laugh.
---
After the four nobles left, I got back on my feet and watched over the construction site, where work was still in full swing.
Right now, things were moving forward in two main directions: the walls and the demolition work.
Hmm. Come to think of it...
I might have done my share of laboring, but that didn’t mean I knew anything about this field.
And then a very basic question suddenly crossed my mind.
Where the hell are we getting the water from?
What I was building was a massive public bathhouse. It would need an enormous and constant supply of water.
I called over the construction foreman, who was wearing a rough hat that looked vaguely like a safety helmet while directing the site.
"Hey, Foreman."
"Yes, yes, Your Highness. You called for me?"
"Building the place is fine, but where do you plan to get all the water for it? Are you bringing it in from a nearby lake or river?"
At my question, the foreman answered with a warm, easy grin.
"Aigoo, Your Highness. This here is the cold, barren North. Fresh water on the surface freezes solid, so it’s no good. We’d naturally have to dig down and pull up groundwater."
"I figured as much."
"Yes. Even if the ground looks frozen over, if you dig deep enough beneath the ice, the water down there doesn’t freeze and keeps flowing just fine. You pump it up, then heat it with firewood in the furnace or mix in a little low-grade mana stone, and send it through the pipes."
"Mm. I see."
As expected, the knowledge of a true field expert was on another level.
From anti-freeze measures to water supply and heating systems, everything had been planned in meticulous detail. Worth every coin I paid for an expert.
I was nodding in understanding when—
"Um, hey."
Chloe, who had finished delivering water bottles to the workers, came over and nudged my sleeve.
"What? You hungry?"
"No, that’s not it."
Chloe tilted her head and lightly kicked at the ground beneath her feet.
"Ever since I was at the orphanage, I’ve had this strange feeling. The ground beneath areas three and four over there feels kind of weird."
"Weird feeling?"
"Yeah. I’m a mage, remember? So I’m kind of sensitive to energy and stuff. I can even sense that feeling immediately when a pack of magical beasts gets close."
"What? Then you’re saying there’s some burrowing magical beast hiding under here or something?"
If it was a magical beast, we’d have to stop work immediately and call Hexion to dig the thing out and kill it all at once.
But Chloe shook her head.
"No, it doesn’t feel ominous like a magical beast at all. It’s more like... I don’t know."
Chloe shut her eyes, concentrating, and moved both hands limply through the air.
"It’s like this super hot current is sloshing around deep underground."
"...What? Sloshing around?"
"Yeah. It feels really warm."
Wait.
Underground.
A super hot current.
Sloshing around.
Isn’t that obviously a hot spring?!
If Chloe’s sense was right, that would mean natural hot spring water was flowing under this frozen northern land.
If we struck hot spring water, there’d be no need to draw groundwater up and heat it by force!
That would mean heating costs and mana stone maintenance costs for warming the water would drop straight down to nearly zero. It was an insane jackpot!
This was a no-brainer. Absolutely worth trying.
"Hey!! Foreman!!"
I widened my eyes and roared at the top of my lungs, and the foreman, who’d been about to head back, startled and came running over again.
"Y-yes, Your Highness! What is it?"
I pointed to the patch of ground Chloe had been kicking.
"Change of plans! More than anything else, dig here first! Dig deep—no matter what!"
"Eh? You mean here, Your Highness? All of a sudden?"
"I said dig, so dig. Hurry up! Our Chloe says she’s got a hunch!!"
"R-right! Bring the excavation equipment now!!"
The foreman shouted to the workers and ran off.
Then Chloe, standing beside me, yanked on my arm.
"Wait, hold on! What the hell is going on here!? I just said I had a weird feeling, that’s all!!"
"Yeah, I know."
"Nooo!! Not 'yeah, I know'!! You’ve already set up this huge project, and what if we dig and nothing comes out?! Then everyone’s going to laugh at me and call me an idiot!!"
Chloe shook my arm frantically, trying to stop me, but by then I was already completely possessed by the word hot spring.
I flicked her forehead with my knuckle.
"Ah, don’t be such a scaredy-cat. Worst case, we lose nothing. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, right? The brave are beautiful, don’t you know?"
I clapped my hands and shouted to the laborers as they came running with tools and rope.
"All right, everyone, listen up!! Our genius mage Chloe says there’s a jackpot buried under here!! So don’t question it—just dig! If nothing’s there, we’ll just fill it back in, okay? Get moving!!"
"Wh-what are you even saying!! Are you crazy!!"
Chloe covered her bright-red face with both hands and plopped down into a crouch as if she wanted to hide in a mouse hole right then and there.
"What do I do... I’m seriously going to die of embarrassment... idiot, moron, insane bastard!!"
I looked down at Chloe, who was suffering the full agony of humiliation, and laughed to myself.
---