Aside from Raphtalia and Rishia, I set tight restrictions on all of the slaves so that the slave curse would punish them right away if they didn’t take things seriously. On our first day in the village, I went out with the slaves to start cleaning up the wreckage of the buildings that had been destroyed. “This house is important to me! It’s my home!” That was Keel screaming. We’d come to the location where his house had been, apparently. But all that was left now was rubble in our way. “There’s nothing wrong with cherishing your home, but the roof has collapsed, and the walls are destroyed beyond repair. I’m sorry, but you have to understand that there will be houses we can repair and others that we can’t.” I looked through the debris to see if there were any valuables or items that we could use, but everything I found was either covered in rust or wasn’t anything we could use. Luckily the well was still usable. It would take a bit of work, but we could probably use the garden, too. “I can understand wanting to preserve the memory, but if we’re going to rebuild the village, then we need to get rid of anything that’s just getting in the way.” “But—” “Keel! Stop being selfish.”
Raphtalia reprimanded Keel. I wasn’t going to stop her. “This used to be your house, right?” “Yeah!” “Alright, then the new house that we build here will be yours. Only it will be a communal house that you will manage. More people will be joining us, so I’m counting on you to manage it properly.” “Al . . . alright.” Keel mumbled and nodded. “That’s settled. Now, Filo!” “Okaaay!” The instant Keel let his guard down, Filo charged into the skeleton of a house and kicked down the supports, destroying the building. “Ahhhhhhh!” I left Keel standing there dazed and moved on to our next task. The building materials and castle soldiers sent by the queen arrived before noon. There was stone, lumber, and . . . plaster? “Is this the village you are rebuilding, Shield Hero?” I was sure they had already heard from Eclair and Melty, but the soldiers asked anyway. “Yeah. I’d like to at least get something with a roof up by sundown. I know it’s a lot to ask, but I’m counting on you.” “Leave it to us.”
“Thanks. So for now, we’ll leave the building to you soldiers. As for Raphtalia, Rishia, and Filo . . .”
“Yes?” “Yeeees?” “What is it?” The three responded when I called their names. “I’m going to make lunch now. Once you three have finished eating, I want you to take the slaves and go hunt monsters with them.” “Understood.” “Okay!” “I’ll do my best.” “I’ll leave it up to you to form parties. I’m guessing the experience probably won’t be very good if you all hunt in one big group.” I’d never actually tried measuring it. How did experience points work when everyone fought together? Were they distributed somehow, or were they shared by everyone? I wasn’t really sure how it worked. “Does anyone know how experience works in groups?” “Umm . . .” Rishia raised her hand embarrassedly. “I knew it. You can always count on Rishia at times like these. So?” “Umm . . . All members of a party receive experience points. The amount differs depending on abilities and level, but the distribution is unbiased. Six people is the limit. Any more than that and the amount of experience begins to drop.” Aha, so that’s why Itsuki and his group always left you out! I didn’t actually say that, because all I’d get is a loud “fehhhh!” And I’d had enough of those. So as long as we split up into parties when going out in a big group, there shouldn’t be any problem. We’d just form parties of six and that should take care of it.
“If there’s still room and they’re free, you might try inviting Eclair and the old lady, too.” “Understood. I’ll take care of assigning everyone.” I made Raphtalia the group leader and had her create the parties. We currently had a total of ten slaves, so I had her assign four to Rishia and three each to Filo and herself. She put Keel with Rishia since he had already gotten stronger to a certain degree. “Alright, I’m going to make lunch now, so give me a hand.” “Okay!” The three of them got busy doing what they could to help with the preparations. “You’re not going to help cook, Raphtalia?” Keel calmly asked Raphtalia, glaring at me as I prepped the food. He had already recovered from his state of shock. That was quicker than I expected. Maybe it was because he was a kid? “You were always a good cook, Raphtalia!” “Rafu!” “Umm . . .” Raphtalia glanced over at me with a look of uncertainty on her face. What? Was she expecting me to say something? I guess she wanted to show off a bit in front of her friends or something, because she finally said something after hesitating for a moment.
“How about I give you a hand?” “Oh? That’s unusual. You don’t have to if you don’t want to.” “That’s not it. You just work so efficiently that there was never really anything for me to do.” “Oh? In that case, why don’t you cut this meat up for me? It might end up tasting better being cut by the katana vassal weapon instead of a normal kitchen knife.” “Understood.” Now that Raphtalia was helping, what should I make? I guess you could never go wrong with grilling up meat. “Make sure you cut against the grain or the texture will be off. I know you’re not Kizuna, but if you have some kind of skill to break down monsters or animals, then it should show you where to cut.” “Okay.” Other than that, I guess I could make a stew, maybe. I’d have to skim off the foam, though, and that always made preparing stews annoying. We didn’t have many ingredients, so we were naturally limited in what we could make. Something with vegetables could work, but I didn’t want to get too fancy since the slaves would just devour anything I made in an instant anyway. Oh, why not? It felt like a bit of a waste, but since Raphtalia was helping out and all, I figured I’d grill up another dish with cilantro, too. “That smells good, doesn’t it?” “Yeah, not bad. Should we make a soup, too?”
“Sure.” We could just simmer some of this meat and turn it into a soup. “Raphtalia.” “Yes?” “I’m going to throw some Hamburg steaks together, too, so help me mince this meat.” “Un . . . understood.” We worked quickly, cooking up all of the dishes. Raphtalia had mentioned that her parents taught her how to cook, and I could tell she knew what she was doing more than most. But now that I thought about it, I’d hardly ever cooked with her. “Do you have a special family recipe or anything like that?” “I guess you could say that. I couldn’t make it with the ingredients we have, though.” “Well, maybe I’ll have you make it once we get the ingredients you need, then.” Having a female friend cook for me had always been a dream of mine, actually. None of my friends had ever really been the cooking type, though. Now I could look forward to finding out what Raphtalia’s family recipe tasted like. “I . . . I’m afraid of all of the mistakes you’d point out if I tried making it for you.” Huh? That wasn’t the response I was expecting to hear from Raphtalia. “You think I’m some kind of food snob?”
“Aren’t you?” “No way.” It wasn’t like I had ever complained about anyone else’s cooking. Just what kind of person did Raphtalia think I was? I wanted to live up to her expectations as much as possible, but a food snob? That was unexpected. If any of us was a food snob, it would have to be Filo or Raphtalia. Filo was especially picky about flavor. “Okay then. I’ll make it for you sometime.” “Good. I’m looking forward to it.” “Rafu!” I loved how Raph-chan hopped up onto Raphtalia’s shoulder and started chirping. “Hey, everyone! Raphtalia and I cooked lunch for you. Hurry up and eat, and then off you go!” “It’s super good this time, too!”
“Yeah! It’s so good!” The slaves all dug in with big smiles on their faces. I went ahead and served the soldiers that were building houses for us, too. “This . . . This might be the most delicious grilled meat I’ve ever had!” “You’re kidding, right? This can’t be that same turtle meat! They served the same thing at the castle, but it was nowhere near this good!” My shield’s cooking enhancement really was something. There was probably a synergistic effect with the enhancement from Raphtalia’s katana that made everything that much better. Maybe rubbing the meat with salt and spices during prep made a difference, too. The Hamburg steaks were gone in the blink of an eye.
The slaves all had their share of my cooking. Considering how they would be when they got back from leveling up . . . Yeah, I’d have to prepare even more food or there wouldn’t be enough. “Okay everyone, I’m going to give each of you a weapon, so get out there and fight!” I gave the slaves their orders and they began to panic. I handed each of them one of the old weapons that I had gotten from the castle storeroom. Most of them were short swords meant for beginners. One of the young female slaves was standing there completely pale with her blade in hand, looking just like Raphtalia had at first. “If you refuse to fight, you’ll feel a burning in your chest, so be prepared. Remember, you’ll never get your village back that way.” “We get it, Bubba Shield! We’re ready to fight, so you just wait!” At least someone was showing some enthusiasm. “It’s not like I can’t find someone else to replace you all. I’m just trying to turn this place into a territory again. But since Raphtalia has always done as I asked without arguing, I decided to reward her by inviting you all to take part. Don’t get the wrong idea.” I had gotten used to playing the bad guy since coming to this world. It’s not like I was here to do charity work. I would be going back to my own world eventually, anyway, so it’s not like I needed to worry about this place.
I just wanted to create a place where Raphtalia could live her life in peace. “He has a sharp tongue, but he’s a good person, so don’t hold it against him.” Raphtalia added some uncalled-for words of support. I was supposed to be the villain here. “Okay then . . . Filo, you load the defeated monsters onto that cart and bring them back. We have plenty of uses for them.” “Okaaay!” They would be our food for the time being. “Maaaster, what kind of monsters do you want?” “Ones with plenty of meat, if possible. If you get some of those sheep-looking monsters, then I can make sausages.” “Okaaay! I’ll see if I can find some!” I pointed to Filo’s carriage and ordered the slaves inside. They hesitantly climbed aboard, and Filo set off to take them hunting. “Watch your speed!” “Okaaay!” Filo’s carriage rattled off into the distance. Of course, she couldn’t actually go all that fast while still suffering from the effects of the curse. “Now then . . . I’ll leave the construction up to you guys.” “Huh? Of course!” I left the construction to the soldiers, set my shield to take care of some compounding, and got started on the preparations for our next meal. It would still be a while before the monster eggs were ready to hatch. I’d have to come up with a way to secure more food before we ran out of Spirit Tortoise meat.
The slaves that had gone out hunting with Raphtalia and the others were back by nightfall. They were all completely worn out. The cart that I had attached to the carriage was loaded up with slain monsters. It looked like they had found some sheep-type monsters, too, just like I’d requested. “Ugh . . .” Grooowwwwl. Grumble, grumble. Rummmmble, rumble, rumble . . . “So hungry . . .” The growling of their stomachs sounded like thunder. Their bodies were growing rapidly and needed nutrition, and that made them ravenous. “Glad to see you all made it back. Did they put up a good fight?” “Yes, they all did their best.” “Fehhh . . . I’m exhausted.” “Well, if they did their best, then that’s good enough. Let’s eat.” I brought out the stew and steaks that I had prepared in advance using the Spirit Tortoise meat and placed them on the table. I figured it would turn out like this, so I’d made a ridiculous amount of food. It was a ton of food, but it would still probably disappear in a heartbeat. “Woooow!” Filled with excitement, the slaves gathered around the table and started eating. “Maaaster, what about meeee?” “Yours is right here.”
I gave Filo her portion. She got about fifty percent more than the growing slaves. “Is that all? I want more!” “If you want more, then go hunt something yourself and eat that.” “Boo . . .” Filo was sulking. That’s too bad. I had already made a ton of food. I couldn’t manage any more than this on my own. “Thank you for the meal!” What?! They had already finished while Filo and I were talking?! I knew that children were supposed to have fierce appetites, but come on! I hope they were satisfied, at least. “Alright, brats, tomorrow will be here in no time. Get to bed!” “Okay!” We herded the slaves into one of the houses that had been repaired by the soldiers from the castle. The rest of us would stay in the other house that was still being patched up. The windows were broken, so the wind blew right through, but the roof would shield us from rain. “I’ll sleep with the others.” “Yeah, see if you can help them get settled in a bit.” “I will!” Raphtalia left to go sleep with her old friends. Filo was already half asleep and nodding off. Rishia was busy deciphering the manuscripts that she had received from Kizuna and the others. She had more stamina than you would have guessed.
I got to work compounding in preparation for the next part of my plans. I checked the levels of the slaves while I waited. It looked like they had all reached around level 15, on average. Their stats had increased across the board, too. Judging from my experience with Raphtalia’s growth, I’d want them to reach level 30 at the very least, and that included the ones that weren’t suited for battle, too. After some time had passed, I heard a knock on the door. “Umm . . .” It was Raphtalia and . . . she had brought several young female slaves with her. “What is it?” “Well . . .” Raphtalia seemed like she wanted to ask me to do something, but she was mumbling. Spit it out! Did she expect me to figure it out on my own or something? “Did they wet the bed?” “That’s not it. Go on, ask Mr. Naofumi yourself.” “Umm . . . well . . .” Their stomachs growled, and the slave girls hung their heads in shame. “Ah, I get it. I should probably make enough to feed the other brats too, right?” “Thank you.” I headed out to the cooking area outside and started preparing a meal.
Jeez. They had gotten hungry again quick. I cut up the monsters they had brought back from hunting and decided to make some simple skewers. Cutting the meat into small chunks was too much trouble, so I just roasted the prepped monsters whole. Once we got things going, we’d need to form a cooking crew as soon as possible, or I’d have no time for myself. And so the next day arrived. “Alright, listen up, everyone. I’m sure you enjoyed your midnight snack, but our food supplies are growing scarcer by the day. We need to make up for losses with hunting. In other words, I’ll be deciding what to cook based on what you bring back. Got it?” “Yeah!” They were almost too submissive. It weirded me out a little bit, but I guess it was fine if they were showing initiative. “I’ll have dinner ready tonight, but the next meal isn’t guaranteed. You’ve been warned!” “Okay!” Last night was rough. They kept asking for more no matter how much I cooked, and they had been genuinely hungry as far as I could tell. I felt like I had been cooking nonstop since we got here. I wasn’t their mother after all! Once they had finished growing to a certain degree, I planned to train them to handle a variety of different tasks. I’d just have to hold out until then. “Thank you for the meal!” “You’re welcome. Now get out there and hunt, and don’t come back until evening!”
“Okay!” Everyone looked more cheerful than they had yesterday as they climbed into Filo’s carriage. I wasn’t letting Filo go crazy with the speed, so I hoped that the slaves wouldn’t get the usual motion sickness common with her carriage rides. It would be good if they reached around level 20, on average, by the time they got back. Securing food supplies would need to be our immediate focus. There was always that . . . But if I used it and it mutated again, who knew what might happen. Even so, it had helped us out of tight spots before, and it looked like the time to rely on it had come once again.
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