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Chapter 520: Takumi is scolded yet again
The day after the very satisfying fish dinner, I was spending some time in the living room after having lunch when Sebastian, who should have been in the Volton mansion, came up from the basement where the Teleport Gate room was.
At that moment, I got a very very bad feeling about it, but Sebastian walked straight to me without any hesitation.
「Master, you have a summons from Margrave Volton.」
「Urk!」
I didn’t want to accept the summons.
I can pretty much imagine what’s written in it.
Bowling, reversi, mahjong, playing cards, jenga, sugoroku, table tennis, billiards…… the various games that Papeck-san had discovered. Papeck-san said he would stagger the release times, but some of their respective workshops have already begun operations.
Oh yeah, sugoroku was under Earl Rockford’s company. And they aren’t games, but there was also the Soroban and the sewing machines.
These weren’t leaked to Papeck-san. Akane and Maria apparently met Papeck-san at the games room when he visited while I wasn’t there. I would have loved it if they stopped playing to meet him in the living room.
She said she was in the middle of a mahjong session with some off-duty maids. “It was such a good match that I didn’t want to cut it short” said Akane.
Papeck-san who came for bowling related matters was dreadfully excited.
That said, even Papeck-san knew that releasing all of the games at the same time would be a bad move, so he was using his discretion to carefully time their releases.
That must be what Margrave Volton was pertaining to. He must have wanted me to take other companies into consideration. But until recently, the countries that have been approaching me were good for nothing folk.
Some of those folk were fools who just demand that I give them lucrative money-making ideas, and even more foolish ones that threaten me if I refused.
Well, I do feel like I’ve overdone it without any restraint. But was it so much to be summoned?
Was Margrave Volton getting scorn from nobles of other territories?
At any rate, because my mansion was in Volton, the president of the Papeck Company was in Volton. Their Royal Capital branch was indomitably bigger, the Head Clerk Thomas-san is mostly in Volton, and Papeck-san was moving around a lot, but he always frequents the his flagship store in Volton.
Of course, the tax yields of the Volton Margravery was increasing. He became the target of jealousy. Moreover, Margrave Volton was on guard as well for anyone who would contact me.
Or could it be another matter?
The cherry blossom season had ended, but the only people I’ve given cherry blossom trees were the royal family, Margrave Volton, and Earl Rockford.
Huh? Am I being resented a lot?
I teleported to Volton, and I headed to Margrave Volton’s castle in a carriage with Sebastian. Accompanying me as my guard was Sophia.
I was shown into a specific room by Chamberlain Xervus-san, and Margrave Volton, whose eyebrows were furrowed, was tehre.
「My apologies for having made you wait.」
「Well, sit down for now.」
Urged to sit by Margrave Volton, I was internally afraid of what he would say, when the words that came from Margrave Volton’s mouth was different from my expectations.
「Iruma-dono.」
「Y-yes.」
「About this vehicle known as a 「Bike」 that the maids and butler working in your mansion were riding……」
Ahh, the Papeck Company making various moves all at once, so perhaps it wasn’t just about Margravery being envious, but rather, was he trying to say something because Earl Rockford’s company was selling the sugoroku? But it was neither and just about the bike?
「Did something happen?」
「These last several days, there had been several people who have tried to steal or rob it. The maids employed by your mansion and the bikes they ride are unharmed because of the Barrier MD, but I would have liked to have been informed when such an item is being put out into the world.」
「M-my apologies.」
I didn’t hear about it from the maids, but they seem to have experienced attempted robberies and stealing. The maids had been given accessory-type magic devices for their own protection, so it was alright, but……
As of recent, there has been an influx of people into Volton as it experiences its boom, and this has caused the deterioration of public order.
Until now, Volton, a city of rowdy adventurers, had managed to maintain security thanks to the combined efforts of the knights and soldiers of the Margravery and the Adventurers Guild, but they’ve asked that we do not hasten the increase of new crimes.
「Sell it as fast as possible. Do something about the current situation, where only your servants have something.」
「Ha, haha, I will tell Papeck-san to hurry.」
「Umu, is there anything that you would like to advise for the city?」
「Let’s see. I would be grateful if you could build bike storage areas around the markets. Ah, and, I believe it would be better to have another bike storage as well along the carriage storehouse of the nearly complete bowling alley.
If I didn’t put down the rule that bikes must into the bike parks from the beginning, the social problem that it would have become my responsibility in the distant future.
「Fumu, I see, so it could be seen as a personal horseless carriage? Very well, we shall make steps in that direction immediately. It is thanks to you that the city’s budget is plentiful, after all.」
「Please do.」
He would probably be angry if he found out that the frame of the bikes that the maids ride was made of mithril alloy.
I need to discuss bike theft measures with Papeck-san. If I give extra work to the city guards, I’d be scolded yet again.
***
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