Unfortunately, I’m Not A Hero 62

Unfortunately, I’m Not A Hero 62

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Commissioned by Shaderic

Wordcount: 2500

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Roseanne thought that agreeing that officially getting my help would lessen the amount of work she had to do.

Naturally, she was completely and utterly wrong, because taking shortcuts with magic fucked over Kindred society fiercely. It wasn’t even just the fact that they were mostly making food with magic to supply themselves, but also the fact that their industry practically doesn’t exist.

For example, the demand for armor, weapons, and tools existed, but that demand wasn’t really high enough to encourage a competitive market. If you had a city that needed arms and armor, you go over to the Dwarves, and they set up shop there and there you go. They produce the arms and armor you need, stick around for maintenance and maybe making new pieces, and that was that.

Contracts like that SHOULD have groups of people vying, competing, and putting forward themselves as the better choice, but when most of the population has natural armor and weapons, the market tended to get cornered to the point growth was a surprise.

That same rule applied to just about everything in Kindred society because of magic and natural talent.

A massive clothing industry with multiple corporations looking for ways to innovate and lower their prices?

It can’t exist when the Kindred are mostly composed of sluts that are barely fazed when wearing nothing.

Massive farms continuously being scaled up and improved to deliver cheap food?

Why would those exist when, if you have a large enough population to need it, you can find plenty of people willing to use magic to just make food?

Etc. Etc. Etc.

The Kindred essentially had a lot of things go their way naturally, so they didn’t need to heavily develop things to the industrial level.

Hell, even the Empire fucked themselves over in that front, since they used Kindred magic and ingredients to jump ahead.

In essence, both civilizations in the continent weren’t progressing very quickly because their environment and situation was plentiful to the point it was unnecessary. There was plenty of knowledge, talent, and ideas floating around, but why would they be implemented when the current way didn’t need any investment, and was already working fine?

Or, rather, why would the tools, talent, and resources of the wealthy elite be wasted on a problem that is already “solved?”

Roseanne’s problem was that she wanted to take ideas, strategies, and innovations from my world and people and implement the bits and bobs that she wanted. A centralized government around her, less power to the aristocracy, and the shrinking of the gap between nobility and peasantry through the use of industry.

But all of those ideas didn’t just work off one another, but also from their own weight and momentum.

Both of which were missing here, because they had to compete.

Agriculture back on Earth didn’t have to compete with literal magic conjuring up food. Arms and armor industries didn’t need to take into account most people were hardy enough to take a steel sword to the gut, kill someone, and get better. Clothing didn’t need to fight the cultural norm of exhibition being accepted and micro-bikinis being considered almost conservative.

Therefore, without a doubt, Roseanne had to take everything, implement them, and do so with the theory behind each one in mind.

And, she had to do it not from scratch like I did, but again competing, entrenched traditions and methods all across her Empire.

Needless to say, Roseanne had way, way too many questions that only I had the right answers to.

Thankfully, thought, I mostly foisted the work onto Tanis and her building full of bureaucrats.

Mostly.

Sometimes there were questions that only I could answer.

…

The latest question from Roseanne arrived with Cellphone-chan while I was entering the slaughterhouse section of Ylstu.

The rails were only half-done, but Roseanne took my advice and finished up the half leading into Ylstu first, so when the first herds matured, they only had to take it halfway to Ylstu.

Nowadays there was a constant stream of cattle cars coming in, and meat cars going out, which were refrigerated from ice harvested from the mountain tops, and a small lake fed by the river and enchanted to stay frozen. The cars themselves were being pulled by teams of particularly strong Kindred instead of locomotives, but they did their job steadily and readily thanks to how easy it was to push something on rails.

As for the non-meat parts of the cow, I had a whole section of Ylstu figuring out how to use it all. Leather, brushes, string, tallow, and loads of other products were starting to come out from the minds of the scholars, inventors, and weirdos Roseanne was sending my way. Glue and soap were getting a lot of attention abroad, but for the most part the cosmetics that came out were mostly being bought up and used in Ylstu, since it was the only place where workers had enough money to spend.

But… back reality and not my latest, successful project towards creating a logistics train that’ll roll over the Empire.

Onto the most recent project, which I put into action to prove a point, and because Roseanne was paying for it.

“I’m telling Roseanne to start planting because it’ll take power away from the nobility, give work to the peasants, and make use of all the land she just has lying around.” The first step I had Roseanne take was start making use of her land. Fields and fields looked after by peasantry, who would plant wheat, cover crops, and more wheat. “It’ll feed the herds, give land and income to the peasants, and lessen how much the peasantry relies on food on the nobility during crisis.”

Tanis slithered along the cobblestone streets, writing everything down with the latest pencil variant, and biting her lower lip as she scoured her head for questions to ask.

With everything going on, I had to go ahead and invest into some good roads throughout Ylstu. Thankfully, the Golems, Zombies, and Witches were more than capable of doing it for relatively cheap, since there was plenty of rock available because of the Dwarves continuing to expand their mountain hold. The streets had gutters, but there were no sewers beneath Ylstu yet, since the main focus of the roads was to let rickshaws begin transporting things without turning up the streets into an incomprehensible mess.

Making bikes took less time than I expected, thanks to the influx of Goblins having their fair share of tinkerers. I was sure they were using the chain-system to come up with a way to make sex machines, but as long as they figured out the basic theory behind the mechanism and applied their knowledge to other aspects of industry, I’ll forgive them after taxing whatever they make as luxury products.

“What of the nobility’s hold on their people? This plan will take many villages and spread them far and wide, as you have proposed. A handful of peoples will not be missed, but even Lady Roseanne cannot take entire villages and scatter them.”

If I remembered my history right, in Meiji era, farmers were introduced to the tenant system of land ownership, where they suddenly found themselves unable to pay new taxes, lost their land, and then were told to start paying rent to their new landowners by farming what wasn’t their land anymore.  That naturally got a few people angry, but I think everything will be fine when the landlord in question was a Demon Lord… and—

“Do not ignore me, Lord Hikigaya.” I was poked in the cheek by Tanis. Even though she frowned at me as I looked at her, I saw a subtle, upward curve in her eyes. The Lamia was more sadistic than I expected.  “Please answer the question. I have many, many missives to write and I know you are very busy as well.”

“They’re not being taken. They’re being relocated. Roseanne’s harpy corps is larger than mine, and she actually has a department of people to keep track of everything now. It’s not stealing if these new people are still paying taxes to the right people.”

I saw that Tanis had more questions in store, so I did my best to explain as much as possible.

As long as the nobility were able to get their taxes, they were no reason at all for them to get frantic. Therefore, as a good stress test of Roseanne’s system, all of the relocated peasants were going to get properly recorded, attributed to a noble, and when they finally harvested their crops and got paid by Roseanne, a portion of that payment was going to the owner of the land that they came from.

Roseanne was raising taxes from the nobility through her own channels to fund the mass cultivation of the unclaimed lands of her crown, but in the end taking people from villages that produced next to nothing and giving them steady jobs was going to be better for everyone. Roseanne sees the peasantry she takes under her wing get more food and funds, the nobility see that their taxes are brining in more money for them, and the peasantry get a chance to be actual people.

In the towns that the peasantry will be going to, Roseanne will be setting up schools, places to learn trades, and markets. If she takes my recommendation of starting up a universal culture for all Kindred, she can start having plays being carried out in these town.

Tanis took a while to write everything down, and by the time she was finished and had me looking over her notes, we were under the shadow of Ylstu’s first set of waterwheels. Three in total, the first was dedicated to grinding and milling the new wheat fields, the second to raising and lowering a massive hammer for the Dwarves’ projects, and the third… well… the third was my best attempt to emulate a certain someone by 10 billion percent.

My memories were foggy at best, but with time and application of that talent Roseanne sent my way… well it was just a matter of time before Ylstu could start exporting our tallow candles instead of using them up faster than they could be made.

My ruminations on how to keep production up during long winter nights stopped as Tanis took out another notebook, and prepared to ask another of Roseanne’s questions.

Even though I thought Roseanne should be less gentle with how she was handling the Kindred, I had to admit she knew how to get the most out of her money.

She was a real slavedriver of a boss.

…

With dignitaries more likely to visit Ylstu with Roseanne’s attendance of my wedding, a lot of renovations were in order for my house. Since it was situated on a hill that overlooked the rest of the town, mostly because I wanted it to get hit first in an attack and make my enemies think I was dead, a lot of landscaping had to be done in order for any extensions to be made.

Leaving me to going back to a home surrounded by a lot of upturned dirt, and construction work, but the work crews did most of their work from nine to five, so I usually didn’t see them. They were working fast though, since they had a lot of practice packing ground, laying foundations, and setting up buildings. Once Ylstu was filled out, I could have them start working on prefabricated housing kits for Roseanne’s agricultural revolution.

Hmmm?

What’s that?

No, I’m not taking advantage of insider information to tackle a demand that’s about to arise.

I’m just… being proactive about settling Empire lands like any other Kindred warlord on the frontline.

It just so happens the houses I want to put on Empire land can be put on Kindred land too.

It’s totes not a big deal.

The preparation for the extensions didn’t mean my actual house was left untouched for the time being though.

Kurama’s mother, despite using a lot of her own province’s finances to fund my recent expansions and acquisitions, still had plenty of money to spare for her daughter in the homemaking department.

So, my large house made of wood and with a shingled roof might’ve looked the same from the outside, but such wasn’t the case for the insides.

Therefore, I had to prepare myself and steel my nerves before entering it every time.

I hesitated for a second, before… deciding that I wanted to go check out the entertainment district. There were a ton of new additions there. The café where Kindred dressed like butlers and spent time with other Kindred was raking in money like crazy, without any signs of lilies blooming, so I wanted to check in on that—

And, the door has opened been opened by the Kunoichi tailing me, because each and every single one of them liked watching.

The moment the door opened I was bathed in the light cast by an enchanted chandelier. Marble tiles lined the entrance hall, each one shining beneath the magical light. The walls were lined with portraits of Kindred, some tasteful and others not, and marble busts of Kitsunes were in each corner of the entrance room.

However, the depravity and wealth of the transformed room wasn’t what I feared.

It was my wife.

“Hachiman!” Kurama you’re supposed to be a Kitsune, so why are you acting like an over-affectionate dog? Why do you always lunge at me the moment I enter the house? Don’t you know you’re supposed to be a proud, noble member of the Kurama clan whose mission is to spread Ylstu and your clan’s influence all over the continent? Please remember all these things and let me get up. “It’s time for our date! It’s time for us to spend time together!”

Yep.

That was the reason why.

In an effort to meet Kurama halfway, and to handle the things involved with marriage, I decided to set a day aside every week to go on a date with my wife.

I decided that I would get to know her, to tell her about myself, and to take control of the relationship, let things happen at my pace, and not give an inch of ground unless absolutely necessary.

Y’know all the things involved with healthy relationships.

Unfortunately, my plan backfired and now every seven days I’m essentially under assault by an amorous Kitsune who’s only growing bolder and bolder.