After the one-sided lovemaking with Mimon ended, I began fixing my clothes.
She cleaned up her crotch then gathered her clothes that were scattered all over the place and put them back on. She was quick at it.
「You can just go home for today. Rest assured, I won't deduct your pay」
「…Thank you, Sir」
Mimon clumsily lowered her head. Is this color closer to a banana or a yellow paprika? I stroked her hair that had such a shade with my hand.
「If other employees say anything about you behind your back or do anything that troubles you, let me know when you sleep with me next time. I won't let you get hurt」
I casually declared to her that we're going to have sex in the future as well.
There are many employees in this innovation association, but there aren't many females here. Amongst them, only Mimon and Eve could be called beauties. Since Mimon is a precious beauty of the grown-up type, I want to cherish her as I continue to sexually harass her from now on.
「Oh, and I'm going to go to do an inspection at our production department after this. Please let whoever know that I would like to have somebody come with me」
「Yes sir」
Mimon then left my office in tottering steps.
Her pitiful and disheartened figure struck my heart. Next time, it might be a good idea to call her to the villa and make love to her the entire night.
With the middle-aged man in the management position of the innovation association guiding me, we went outside the castle town.
The soap factory, the silkworm breeding facility, and all the other kinds of manufacturing sectors of the innovation association are located near the military base. Since our production department has a lot of confidential information such as the method to make soap and our selectively bred silkworms, there is fairly strict security in place so that nothing leaks out.
The city of Nyuneri has a river that's branched off from the big river that runs through the castle town, and there are several moats built with that river as the water source. The gate of the production department of the innovation association was on an isolated floating island that's surrounded by a moat.
The facility was originally built for holding criminals and prisoners of war, but it was abandoned because it was deteriorating from old age. The building was big enough even with all the criminals grouped together in there. If I were to make a comparison from my past Japanese life, there's enough room to maybe have 3 baseball games going on at the same time.
To note, the jail now had been integrated into a part of the military base and the prisoners' quarters had become a separate facility.
「Oh if it isn't the young master. Are you here for an inspection?」
「Yeah. Let me through」
There is only one entrance to the production department and the area is filled with soldiers of our army. That's because the innovation association is not a private enterprise; it's a state-run enterprise.
Since there is a lot of confidential information here, most of the soldiers on guard here have really solid backgrounds.
「Of course. Oi, open the gate」
「Yes! Right away!」
The gate that once acted as the last line of defense that prevented the escape of prisoners now prevents the employees of the production department from escaping.
The employees of the production department are slaves. Not metaphorically, but literally slaves.
The slaves that we purchased from the slave merchants in the city are locked in here to make soap, raise silkworms, and work in my workshop.
Since I left it to the innovation association headquarter's slave management department to handle that, I have no idea how many slaves we have here. The only thing I know is that there aren't any beautiful women amongst them at all. That's because there aren't any slave merchants in Nyuneri that specialize in dealing with sex slaves.
「I see the number of slaves has also increased 」
I said after I passed through the gate and took a look around. Then, the middle-aged man in the management position who was walking next to me responded,
「That is also a concern of mine. With our production department growing bigger, we have already started to run out of space. We tried to do all that we can, but we seem to be at a point where we're going to end up needing more space 」
I felt that the slave population density here has gotten higher compared to the last time I came here for an inspection. Although it's to be more efficient in mass production, it does feel like it's gotten a bit cramped here.
On top of all this, we used to have a farm for silkworm feed here as well, so it must have been really cramped before. The place has become a bit more roomy since we asked the farming villages to grow food for the silkworms now, but if we hadn't done that, it would really be cramped here.
「The motivation of the slaves would probably go down if they have to work in an environment that's too cramped. I think we're going to need to do something about it soon」
Slavery exists in the Levios kingdom, of course, but it exists in the neighboring Jinkaen empire as well. And both of those countries' slavery systems were hopeless to escape from.
Slaves are slaves for the entirety of their life. There was a system where one could buy themselves out of slavery in the history of my past life, but it's impossible here.
As long as the person who purchased the slave has no intention of releasing them, the slave and any children they have will be slaves. It's sad how helpless slaves are.
In order to keep on using such people who have no futures, I have been taking that into consideration in my own way.
Not only do we give them 3 meals a day if they properly do their job, but they are also allowed to take days off work if they become sick. If they are exemplary slaves then they could also receive treatment from soldiers who could use healing magic. On top of that, they are working in an environment that would never be attacked by bandits or wild animals.
If you take away the fact that they are unable to leave the production department area, you could call it a better life than people who are living in small rural villages outside of the city of Nyuneri.
「So which sector would you like to visit first?」
「The workshop. I have some business there today」
The middle-aged man in a management position nodded, and then we headed to the workshop section.
The workshop is my hobby space. Since it's there for me to make the things that I want to make come true, it basically always runs on a budget deficit.
An example of why it runs on a budget deficit would be charcoal. Nyuneri has a strong tendency to use firewood for fuel, so charcoal is almost unobtainable. Since I wanted to use braziers to warm my room, I made a private shed there to make charcoal for that reason alone. It's my hobby to invest in things whether or not it will yield returns.
When I entered the workshop, the senior employee that was working there lowered his body a bit and humbly ran to me. This old man was a slave as well.
「Sir. What brings you here today? Is it about the gunpowder? Or is it about the guns?」
「Nope, neither. I'm here because of this」
And in this workshop, guns were being produced. They are the so-called muskets.
It was a project started from my grand dream of "I'm going to violate the well brought up princesses from other countries with the power of this new weapon called the musket!". It's a plan that has already suffered a setback.
The reason was simple, it's because it turns out that people with magic power wouldn't die from being hit by something like bullets out of a musket. They wouldn't even suffer a bone fracture.
The wars of this world revolve around humans who possess magic power. The power of guns when amassed is powerful, but it's not enough to overcome people who possess magic power. That's how strong people with magic powers are.
Therefore, we are continuing to make improvements to the gunpowders and guns for the time being. If we can get the guns to become powerful enough to wipe out walls of commoners, then we would have a wider range of strategies at our disposal. However, there's still a pretty long road ahead for that.
I handed a small object the size of a chicken's egg to the senior employee.
「And this is?」
「There is a powder inside it. Mix it in the iron and make some arrowheads with it. There isn't much in there, so I don't mind if you can only make about 5. It's a precious powder. Be careful with it」
Then, the senior craftsman opened his mouth with a puzzled look.
「Yes Sir. If that's all you want me to do then I think I can get it done soon, but…」
He was probably worried about me complaining about the arrow's quality. I will let him know that it's for an experiment.
「I just want to see what happens when you make them with that powder mixed into the iron. It doesn't matter how strong or weak they turn out」
「Understood」
The elder craftsman took the accessory from my hand and took a closer look at it.
According to him, he could possibly have it done in a day or two. Since I want to find out quickly, I asked him to start right away.
After I got done with that business, I freely took a look at the gunpowder and muskets that were in the process of being improved.
Since the soap factory was making a new soap, I decided to snatch one as a souvenir. The slightly pink-colored soap was mixed with a flower extract and flower petal chips.
After I returned to the castle of Nyuneri, I gave the soap to Fanny as a present and she was very thrilled. That's great and all, but the flower that was mixed in this soap was actually the red flower that Minith often brought with her, the maloashina flower.
I realized that when Fanny came to my room to play at night.
The faint scent of that flower that drifted from her hair made me think of my love affairs with Minith, and my crotch ended up bulging.
I almost accidentally made a move on Fanny. That is truly a dangerous soap.
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