Chapter 93: Mine Operation
Perhaps because I’d made an announcement the other day, quite a number of people had gathered in the town’s central square.
Looking at their expressions, most of them showed faces full of dissatisfaction.
In that case, I decided to start with intimidation, so I had ten armed soldiers on standby, fully equipped myself in my exclusive Maso, and simultaneously created an ominous staircase as I ascended it.
After climbing about two meters, I then created a platform that I made translucent.
It was easy even for me to imagine how my figure, clad in black Maso, would stand out on the crystal-like, brilliantly shining platform.
It was clear from the way the populace stared wide-eyed and remained silent.
For now, the show of force seems to have been a success.
Well then, shall we continue from yesterday?
First, I announced my name and stated that I would free the slaves.
“I told you this the other day, but there were voices wishing for the Slavery System to remain.
I thought it would be hasty to decide based only on the words of those present here yesterday, so I prepared this venue.
Which do you desire? Let me hear it.”
Silence reigned; no one spoke up.
I inwardly smirked at that.
They had been a storm of verbal abuse until now, but they’ve certainly quieted down.
However, if they remain silent indefinitely, the discussion won’t proceed.
“If there are no objections, then that’s the end of this discussion. I’ll request that the Slavery System be kept, as you wish.”
“W-Wait!!”
Several men came forward and prostrated themselves.
“What is it…? Keeping the system was supposed to be your wish, wasn’t it?”
Yes, those who came forward were the ones who had been heckling yesterday. They seemed to be executives of the Leben Company and their cronies.
Although they were prostrating, they were clearly glaring at me.
“W-We didn’t hear anything about us becoming slaves!”
“So what? There’s no need to get permission from the people of an enemy nation.
Surely, after showing that much hostility, you can’t claim to be people of Belfast now, can you?”
I have no intention of simply saying, “Alright then, freeing the slaves it is.”
For now, if I don’t intend to cut down their overgrown egos with a reign of terror, trivial harassment will likely occur frequently.
Reports from the soldiers also indicate that the Leben Company executives are planning something against us. For now, the information is only to the extent that they’re telling those around them they’ll ‘show them the power of the company.’
I’m not weak enough to be overcome by them, but that doesn’t mean I intend to let them off easy. Depending on their response, I’m prepared to seriously enslave them.
“Tch, fine. We’ll accept it! That’s what you want, right?!”
“Is that so? Then, from today, you are a slave. Take him away!”
I had the soldiers take him away, but he cried out, “No! Wait!”
Ignoring his voice, I stared at the populace.
“I’ve decided to abandon the idea of having you become citizens of Belfast.
Let me be clear, this isn’t because you are people of Mildrad. It’s the result of your actions.
Depending on your future actions, I will also consider annihilating you as rebels who have committed hostile acts against our country. What you do is up to you.”
“Oh, and also…” I said, conveying something I had forgotten to mention.
That was the dissolution of the Leben Company.
The story was that contributions to the Leben Company were no longer necessary.
And also, the release of the confiscated supplies.
That if there was no hostility, including from the slaves, they would be accepted as Belfast citizens.
And finally, when I once again declared, ‘I have no intention of harming those who abide by the law and live honestly,’ nearly forty percent of the people prostrated themselves on the spot.
Deciding there was nothing more to say, I descended from the platform and returned everything to Magical Power.
The soldiers, who moved as planned, took away the upper echelons of the Leben Company, and Yuri-san and I followed after them.
And so, we returned to the mansion and gathered all the Sinners we had captured so far from the dungeon.
Their number was already close to a hundred.
“Well now, nearly half of these will have to be executed… May I leave it to you?”
When I turned my gaze to the captain, he nodded, and the individuals confirmed for capital punishment were lined up as their crimes were read aloud, then beheaded by the soldiers.
The remaining Sinners were speechless, forced to witness the scene.
“You guys are slaves, understand?
Even if the Slavery System is abolished from now on, Sinners will be subjected to forced labor, so nothing changes for you.”
They immediately started squawking, so when I said, “Shall I have your heads cut off right now for lèse-majesté against Royalty?” and forcibly exposed their necks with my Maso, they quickly fell silent.
“Hey you lot, did you complain to the Mildrad Royalty in the same way?
If not, does that mean you’re looking down on the Belfast Royal Family?”
When I asked that, they remained silent. I wonder if they thought it would be fine because we were Royalty from a small country, exiled to such a remote frontier.
No, on the contrary, they probably weren’t thinking anything at all.
I strongly felt they were just acting on their emotions.
I heard this place was originally called the Town of Slaves and was shunned by the surrounding areas, a closed-off space.
Well, looking at the confiscated documents, it seems the Chamber of Commerce President and the top brass were connected to Mildrad’s central authority through the power of money.
Because of that, they were able to completely outmaneuver the Lord and continued to mistakenly believe they were the most important. This must be the result.
To pick a fight using their connections with Mildrad nobles as a shield, even though Mildrad has been destroyed, is foolish beyond measure.
Having lost the war, there’s no way that would work…
It’s at a level even I can understand without thinking.
Well, I guess there are hopeless idiots everywhere.
Taking such Sinners with us, we next came to the slums.
I had the soldiers gather the Former Slaves, and also had the soldiers call for the former female prisoners.
In the meantime, I created a simple Dismantling Yard with my Maso.
I lined up the Monsters I had hunted this morning there.
I had the gathered Former Slaves dismantle the Monsters, handing them over one after another to whoever came, and had them dismantle them.
Just as you’d expect from people who still think they’re slaves, they moved as a matter of course with just a single word.
Ah, no… I think I told them I’d decide whether to free them from now on.
By the way, even though I entrusted them with dismantling, it wasn’t for sale but for a soup kitchen.
I told them it was their food, so it didn’t matter how much they failed.
“Those who undertook the dismantling can take home five kilograms of meat.
After that, those in charge of cooking can also take the same amount home. Is there anyone good at cooking?”
When I asked, many people came forward, saying “Me! Me!”
So I decided to cook with them.
Naturally, if I left everything to them, the taste would vary too much, so I lectured them on how to make it and had them imitate me.
Even saying they imitated me, it was only up to having them cut a large amount into bite-sized pieces and coat them with flour.
After that, I just deep-fried them relentlessly.
I divided the fried chicken onto several large platters and placed them here and there on the Platform.
It was a simple affair where they could freely eat it using skewers I made with my Maso.
The seasoning was just Salt and pepper.
It wasn’t dinosaur meat, but it was high-quality meat, so it was delicious enough with just that.
The population of the slums is about a thousand people, so the quantity was also sufficient.
That’s what I thought, but no matter how much I fried, it disappeared immediately.
I was getting tired, so I asked one of the guys assisting me to take over and waited until their appetites settled down.
Then, when they were full and couldn’t move, I introduced myself for the first time.
At the same time, I explained that the country of Mildrad had lost the war and been destroyed, and that this place was under Belfast’s occupation.
Immediately after, everyone prostrated themselves with pale faces, but I continued speaking.
“From your actions, I have judged that you have the will to submit.
Therefore, I intend to welcome you as citizens of Belfast. Is that alright?”
They remained prostrated, looked up once, then lowered their heads again.
“Then, by my authority, I free you from slavery. From this moment, you are subjects of my country.
Naturally, you are free to come and go through the wall that divides the Town.
If you receive unjust treatment, as your Lord, I will protect you as much as possible.”
By the Lord’s authority, I freed everyone from slavery.
I ordered them to report to the soldiers if they were forced into employment.
I also told them that employment below the Minimum Wage would naturally be punished.
By the way, the Minimum Wage is three silver coins per day.
That’s about three thousand yen.
It’s quite low for a daily wage, but raising it to the point where employment disappears would be counterproductive.
So I set it at an amount where one could survive by living as frugally as possible.
No, well, they’ve lived on wages of a few hundred to a thousand yen, so it’s not the absolute limit, but…
The poverty is enough to make me, someone from the slums, cry…
It seems they can’t survive unless they do other work and also maintain a home garden like a field.
They say that if they don’t make it unsellable produce, even that will be taken away.
“However, if you commit a crime, you will still be captured as a Sinner. That doesn’t change.
Don’t cause me any trivial trouble, alright?”
In return, I promised to provide constant employment at the mine.
This is because if wages suddenly rose, many people would likely not be hired.
I clearly told them that I wouldn’t force them to overwork, so those who were struggling for food should come to the mine.
After that, I called the two former female prisoners and held a discussion about restarting the mine.
The residents of the slum, who had gathered at the prospect of earning wages, also joined our group, and we all walked towards the mine, talking as we went.
Including the captured Sinners, the total number was roughly two hundred people.
I was told that with this many people, operations could begin for the time being.
When I asked if that many people were truly necessary, it seems that considering the entire process up to turning metals like gold, silver, and copper into ingots, quite a number of personnel are required.
Since they were quite knowledgeable, I asked them—the women from the Sinner group—to become leaders and take on coordinating roles.
“I’ll assign soldiers to protect you all. Can I count on you?”
“That would be a great help. If we were suddenly told to lead, there’s no way the others would listen to us.”
Apparently, the former Lord had treated them as a separate group because they were women and children, and had them protected by guards.
While exchanging such idle chatter, we arrived in front of the mine entrance. There, one of the women picked up a black stone lying on the ground.
“This is the type of ore most likely to contain gold. Basically, we diligently collect these, crush them, sort them, and smelt them to extract the gold.
Occasionally, if we hit a real vein, we might find golden streaks, but otherwise, it’s a difficult job for amateurs.”
We trailed after her in a group, and in a garage-like area, she tossed stones similar to the one she had picked up earlier into a container resembling a large tub.
“After a certain amount of appraisal, we soak the stones in a liquid and leave them overnight. This turns them into a sandy substance, and we use their weight to let them settle at the bottom. Once it reaches that stage, even an amateur can tell the difference. After sorting, we melt them again to remove impurities and then smelt them solid.”
Saying that, she took out a small, seemingly already smelted stone from another place.
It was a dull, ochre color, but if someone told you it was gold, you couldn’t exactly deny it looked somewhat like it.
It would probably turn into a proper gold color once made into an ingot.
It seems the mine workers will mainly be concentrated here.
She had said that for this process alone, they’d need at least twice the number of personnel assigned to excavation.
Perhaps because the folks from the slum were people who had worked here before, they didn’t seem particularly dissatisfied.
Naturally, the Sinners were making sour faces.
“Alright, since it looks like we can get operations running, shall we move on to discussing wages?” I said, turning to the assembled personnel.
Bathed in their gazes, a mixture of anxiety and entreaty, I couldn’t help but give a wry smile as I proposed a basic daily wage of five silver coins.
This was a fairly standard wage in the Oldam slums.
With two days off per week and nine-hour workdays, it wouldn’t seem like a bad workplace for those who had lived as residents of the slum—but of course, that’s by slum standards.
Even at that amount, they erupted with enough excitement to shout.
“Those with official positions will receive extra, but as long as you perform your duties normally, the basic wage will absolutely be paid, so rest assured.”
I announced that those who took on coordinating roles in each department or handled difficult jobs would receive a bonus. After having them evaluate the difficulty and hardship of the jobs, I decided on the bonus amounts, and let them discuss the rest amongst themselves.
After that, it seemed like things would run smoothly even in my absence, so I asked two soldiers to supervise the Sinners and handle wage payments.
For the time being, the funds are planned to come from the gold coins collected from the Leben Company.
Since we have a surplus, I’ve told them that as long as funds aren’t an issue, they can employ as many applicants as there are.
With this, they probably wouldn’t end up unemployed and starving, at least for now. Deciding to observe the situation, I entrusted future matters to Rose, the somewhat intimidating-looking former female Sinner, and returned to the mansion.