Chapter 377: Hiring Servants
In just three days, the exterior of the building was completed. With the entrance to the Dungeon constructed underground, it became possible to travel not only to Isolage but also to other Hinomaru Branches. By the way, I had also made it accessible to a temporary entrance created at the private property.
I had the TYPE Series monitoring the area, so even if visitors arrived, everything would be perfectly in order.
“I recommend hiring some servants, as I can’t manage everything on my own,” El advised.
“Well, that’s true,” I replied.
In the garden that had sprouted in the middle of the highlands, I was receiving advice from El while gazing at the building under construction. I couldn’t help but wonder why I had decided to build such a large house, but I kept my thoughts to myself, knowing it was due to our overconfidence from three days ago.
“Hmm…”
That said, our home contained many confidential matters. Since becoming an S Rank Adventurer, I had been more open about certain things, but when it came to Dungeon-related topics and Dimensional Magic, I hesitated.
“Wouldn’t it be fine to have a slave like me?” El tilted her head, not understanding what I was troubled about.
“Oh right, she’s a slave,” I remembered, realizing I had completely forgotten. El still wore the Collar of Subjugation around her neck. It was obvious she was a slave just by looking at the collar, and being no novice, she could defend herself to some extent. However, a mere servant wouldn’t have the same level of self-defense. It would be easy to extract information from an untrained servant who wasn’t a slave.
“If we hire servants from facilities in the city, we could keep the nature of those facilities hidden, but that won’t work here,” I explained.
It would be difficult to keep them from leaving the base entirely. We would need them to run errands for daily necessities. Therefore, there was no option to avoid using the Dungeon entrance. This inevitably led us to the conclusion that we would need slaves who wouldn’t easily leak information.
“Then let’s have Mesaria-san help us find some slaves,” I suggested.
“I think that’s a good idea. Also, if we’re establishing our headquarters here, it might be wise to call Mesaria as well.”
“That’s true.”
Originally, our headquarters was in Fairy Valley, where Mesaria resided, but she had recently mentioned it was becoming cramped, so this was perfect timing. Just as we had consulted everyone about our home, I needed to ask Mesaria about the necessary facilities or layout for the headquarters.
With that decided, I took immediate action.
“Hello, this is Mesaria.”
When I contacted her via my smartphone, she answered before the ringing even finished.
“This is Shuu. Do you have a moment?”
“Yes, of course.”
“Actually—”
I refrained from asking what “of course” meant and proceeded to convey my request.
“I see. Understood. I will give instructions to my subordinates and head over right away.”
“Um, if you’re busy, tomorrow would be fine too.”
“No problem at all.”
“Oh, okay.”
If she said it was fine, then it should be alright. We would prepare household appliances and beds—convenient and comfortable items available in Japan—but I wanted to leave the rest of the furniture and interior design to the locals.
After ending the call, Mesaria appeared from the building, which had just completed its exterior, within about ten minutes.
“Lord Shu. It’s been a while.”
“Ah, thank you for coming.”
Mesaria greeted me politely, her eyes widening as she surveyed the surroundings.
“By the way, where exactly is this place?”
Oops, I might have skipped over a lot of explanations. While I mentioned building a house and establishing the Hinomaru headquarters, I hadn’t explained where it was being built.
“And that’s the situation.”
“………………I don’t quite understand, but I grasp the circumstances.”
Mesaria furrowed her brow, but after nodding thoughtfully, she turned her gaze toward the newly constructed mansion. Even if someone claimed we had threatened the country to obtain the land, it certainly sounded unbelievable. How did it come to this? Well, whatever.
“Having a butler to manage the household and about two maids should suffice. It would also be good to have a cook and a gardener.”
The mansion had ended up being around twelve LDK in size. The walls surrounding the house had yet to be built, so it was still unclear where the garden began and ended, but since it was all my land, I could do as I pleased.
“I see. It seems that number of staff is indeed necessary,” El said, realizing the situation.
Thinking back, it must have been quite tough for her until now.
“As for the slaves we seek as servants, would you like to assess them yourself, Lord Shu? If you can appraise their Status and Skills, you might find some hidden gems.”
“Hmm…”
I had initially planned to leave the staffing entirely to Mesaria, but upon her suggestion, I realized she was right. Even though they were slaves, those who weren’t criminal slaves had some degree of rights, so it was unlikely I would find a nearly dead slave to buy cheaply and then treat.
“If you wish, I can send a Guild member to the main slave traders in the major cities, and you could peek through a Dimensional Rift.”
“Eh?”
I had been thinking it would be a hassle to visit each slave trader, but Mesaria proposed a brilliant idea. A Guild member would have a smartphone as a marker, and if I opened a Dimensional Rift toward it, I could see through. While I couldn’t view through a screen, I could appraise them directly.
“I’d like to hire a few slaves as servants and for miscellaneous tasks for the headquarters, so please take care of that as well.”
That might have been my main objective all along.
“Ha ha, understood.”
I wouldn’t skimp on the price for the slaves, but discovering hidden talents would be a bonus. Thus began our journey to visit various slave traders.