Gemini Bais (2)
I was more than willing to bow my head if it meant securing the budget and time I needed. And now I had obtained a perfectly satisfactory amount of both. Though from the start, it seemed Melania would have given me all the time in the world anyway. Dragon or not, she was still a female in the end. Different species or not, she must have felt it too—the inexplicable attraction she held toward me, an Alpha Male.
It couldn’t be helped. This was simply what it meant to be an Alpha Male.
“Department Head, where exactly will you be using this budget?”
Erika asked me with impeccable politeness. It was no longer strange for a knight like her to address me this way. Having produced results, I was no longer a mere Breeder. I had only been the temporary head of a department before, but that was no longer the case. A regular knight like Erika was now clearly beneath me. Had she been a noble, things might have differed, but since she was a commoner, my practical rank stood above hers.
That said, I had no intention of treating Erika like a subordinate. She was one of the few who had never challenged me simply because of her position. In other words, she was a female who knew her place. And I didn’t dislike females like that. Besides, her skills as a knight surpassed even Ertia’s.
“Let’s each carry one box.”
“This? But these are gold coins?”
Each box contained a staggering one thousand gold. Erika trembled as she clutched the container, not because of its physical weight, but because she understood exactly what could be accomplished with such an enormous sum.
“Lady Elisa, lend us a hand as well.”
“…Nngh—!!”
Elisa strained with all her might, but the box refused to budge. In her case, it really was the physical weight crushing her, not the metaphorical one…
“Sigh. For a noble lady to be this frail. I’ll carry it.”
Helen, our department’s investor. Though officially an investor, she spent so much time working alongside us that she might as well have been a full member. Naturally, Luzenda remained on permanent standby in our department as well.
“A mere commoner dares insult a noble?”
“Can you stop? It’s embarrassing. Pathetic that you can’t even lift a box of gold coins. Truly pathetic.”
“You can’t lift it either!”
Luzenda took the box instead. True to her rough mercenary nature, she spoke with considerable rudeness toward the noblewoman. Elisa’s face flushed with indignation, but Helen smoothly intervened. Part of it was that Luzenda and Helen had grown rather close, and part of it was Helen’s habit of automatically opposing anything Elisa said.
“Let’s go.”
Ignoring the bickering pair, I set off. Three thousand gold—a colossal sum. And where would I use it? The answer was obvious… bribes.
The first place I headed was the training grounds where the knights were drilling. Excluding Ertia, our group consisted of myself, Erika, Elisa Soryu, Helen Wagner, and Luzenda. It was essentially the entire core leadership of our department on the move, but it couldn’t be helped. Our department suffered from a chronic shortage of manpower.
“That bastard…”
“Look at him, always surrounded by women.”
“Disgusting.”
The moment I arrived at the training grounds, the knights who noticed my presence each muttered their complaints. This was the price of my own actions. After all, I had been the one to expose the embezzlement they had treated as an unspoken custom—secretly lining their own pockets—and seized their budget. Because of that incident, Leona had even challenged me to a duel. There was no way the knights wouldn’t know.
“All of you, silence!”
Leona barked at them, clearly displeased by their behavior. Swish, swish. Yet even as she scolded them, her tail wagged wildly from side to side like an excited dog greeting its master.
“What brings you here?”
Still, no one suspected anything between Leona and me. They had been completely fooled by her flawless performance—arms crossed, gaze icy as she stared me down.
Knights, to put it bluntly, were ignorant brutes. Both Ertia and Erika displayed horrifying talent for paperwork. Their revered Knight Commander Leona even hired a separate administrator using the knight order’s budget just to handle documents. In short, these people knew nothing about the traits of beastmen. Would they bother reading books? And even if they did, it would probably be nothing but romance novels.
“…? Whose tail is wagging like that, as if happy to see someone?”
Of course, the sharp-witted Elisa Soryu tilted her head in confusion.
“Haha. It seems there have been some misunderstandings between the Knight Commander and myself.”
“What kind of misunderstanding?”
“First, please accept this.”
Erika, quick on the uptake, presented the box.
“Th-this is…!”
Leona maintained her displeased expression as she clicked the box open, but her eyes gradually widened.
“This is a gift from our department. Feel free to use it as the knight order sees fit.”
“Oh… Ooooooh!!”
The sight of gold coins gleaming with brilliant luster inside the box sent the knights into an excited frenzy. One thousand gold was no small fortune. They probably found it hard to believe I was handing it over so willingly.
“Ahem. I shall make good use of this together with the knights.”
“No, no. Please use that as the official knight order budget. I’ve prepared this separately.”
I approached the watching knights with a warm, friendly smile, bowing my head slightly toward the wide-eyed Leona. Having witnessed me deliver an enormous sum of one thousand gold for the knight order’s sake, they no longer looked at me with pure hostility.
“How could I not know how hard you sirs have been working? Here, please accept this. I have received explicit permission from Lady Melania.”
I had indeed received permission—that I could use the budget however I wished. Therefore, personally distributing bonuses to the knights posed no issue whatsoever.
The Viken Duchy had a total of fifty knights. I distributed the coins from two boxes among them.
“You’ve all worked hard, Sir Knights.”
“Th-thank you.”
The very knights who had been cursing me moments ago now regarded me with friendly eyes as I personally took gold coins from the box and placed them into their hands with a polite handshake.
“Ahem.”
The women were even more blatant, their fingers massaging my hand with obvious intent.
“I also plan to commission new armor and swords for all of you soon. Therefore, I hope you can forgive my previous rudeness.”
“Hmm… Now that you mention it, perhaps we were the ones in the wrong?”
“Yeah, exactly.”
The moment I offered an apology, the knights nodded as if they had suddenly realized their embezzlement had been wrong all along, acting as though they had never spoken against me.
“Ah! Additionally, I will provide two bars of soap per month free of charge to every member of the knight order.”
“Woaaaaah—!!”
“Is the Breeder a god? Is the Breeder a god?”
Though most of the knights were nobles, even they had to pay exorbitant sums to priests for treatment whenever they contracted the black plague. To receive soap that could prevent it for free? Even if soap had become cheaper, thirty silver was still a significant amount. Their cheers were inevitable.
Leaving the jubilant knights behind, I returned straight to our department.
“New armor and swords? Is that true…! I mean, is it really true?”
The moment we returned, Erika asked excitedly, even slipping into informal speech in her enthusiasm.
“Of course. Lady Erika has helped us tremendously while still belonging to the knight order. I’ll make sure you get the very best.”
I planned to spend an additional two thousand gold on crafting the armor and weapons. Naturally, they wouldn’t be only for the knights. When I considered how much money I would be raking in later, preparation from this stage was essential.
“Then let’s gather the boxes again and visit the other departments.”
I hurried the others along. I needed to quickly reshape both Elisa and Erika into females who listened to me obediently. Having to keep using polite speech was starting to seriously irritate me.
The next destination was the treasury department. For them, I had prepared five boxes. Since they managed the money, they required far more bribes than the knight order.
“Treasury Director, I apologize for the previous incident.”
“…The amount is too large. I cannot accept this.”
However, the treasury director was not so easily swayed. From his perspective, the various corruptions and embezzlements I had exposed must have been quite unpleasant. After all, those were matters they should have verified themselves. I had anticipated it wouldn’t be easy after wounding their pride.
“What are you saying?”
“What do you mean?”
The treasury director’s sharp eyes fixed on me, as if demanding assurance that accepting this would bring no consequences. As expected, he was nothing like the knights whose brains seemed composed entirely of muscle. No matter Melania’s permission, using such a massive sum for personal purposes would inevitably cause problems. Well, I would bear the responsibility.
In any case, the treasury director needed certainty that I would take full accountability for this matter.
I handed him the document I had prepared in advance.
“Since the investment has succeeded, it is time to receive your due compensation.”
“…Kahaha!! This is quite the item. An investment, you say… Yes. It’s me properly securing the taxes that the merchants slightly tampered with and receiving the invested amount…”
The document stated that the treasury department had invested in the soap factory. The date was even set in the past, before the factory had been constructed. It was impossible to run a territory while remaining at odds with every other department. After using the whip, it was time to offer the carrot.
“I look forward to working well with you in the future as well.”
Having seen my clean handling of the situation, the treasury director extended his hand first, requesting a handshake.
“The pleasure is mine.”
I politely clasped his hand with both of mine.
After that, I visited various other departments—the intelligence division, the administrative office, and more—spending a total of twenty thousand gold before I could finally send out requests for smooth collaborative work with the other departments.
“Then, shall we start hiring personnel soon?”
“With what money?”
I stared directly into Helen’s eyes as she questioned me. The total amount we had earned from primarily selling soap came to forty thousand gold. Of that, Helen had taken ten thousand. Moreover, soap production continued without pause. It meant even more shares would fall into her hands going forward.
“Eh…?”
Your money is my money, you bitch.
Now it was time to clean the streets.