Chapter 147

Caffeine is a Worker’s Friend

The people had received me with great passion. And in order to avoid disappointing them, I headed straight to my office so that I could get to work.

I had stayed in Berneze for several weeks. So it was not surprising to me that there was a mountain of work to deal with.

As he was in charge while I was gone, Gottlieb the Dwarf had handled all the ordinary decisions, but he could not do everything. Anything important that he determined that only I could handle, was set aside on my desk.

“…”

It was enough to make me sigh, but I had no choice but to do it.

I couldn’t just return to my room and start snoring, like Saint Jeanne or Toshizou. At all times, I had to be thinking about my people and their lives.

Eve knew me all too well. And so instead of asking if I wanted to rest, she just prepared some coffee for me.

This coffee was a gift from Berneze. It was a drink that involved roasting a bean-like plant and turning it into powder before dissolving them in hot water.

It had a great awakening effect, and drinking it sent all of your drowsiness away. In other words, it was a good friend to a workaholic.

And so it had become my favorite drink after tea, ever since Ryoma had given it to us.

I drank tea after I had finished my work and could breathe a sigh of relief. Coffee was for when I had a mountain of work and wanted to get through it late into the night. They both had their uses. In any case, I wondered how many cups of coffee I would need today. I couldn’t help but sigh when I saw the mountains of documents, but I was the leader and could not ignore my responsibilities.

After I had been going through documents and drinking coffee for some time, I heard a knock on the door. However, it wasn’t an actual knock. Someone was making the sound with their mouth.

When I looked up, I saw that Gottlieb was in the room. Ghosts were not able to knock.

I looked at the pale dwarf.

His name was Gottlief. He was the chief of the earth dwarves. We’d known each other for several months now. He had been a very capable man when he had a physical body, but he was still capable now that he was a ghost.

I had plenty of warriors among my subordinates, but not many skilled administers. And so he was very useful as a politician and technician. Furthermore, he took care of the Ashtaroth castle while I was gone, and he fulfilled his duty perfectly. It was because I had such brilliant personnel such as him, that I was able to leave without worrying.

And so I thanked the dwarven chief once again. He laughed.

“Ah, but it is an honor to be of service to you, Demon King, even after my death. You have been good to the dwarves of my homeland.”

“The earth dwarves have made great contributions to the development of Ashtaroth. We are grateful to have them.”

“So we are beneficial to each other.”

“Indeed.”

I replied with a smile, and then Gottlied made a rare suggestion.

“Demon King. If you wouldn’t mind, I was hoping you could build a new facility for the earth dwarves.”

“A new facility…?”

“Yes. The truth is, earth dwarves are very fond of chicken. However, there are no great chicken farms in Ashtaroth, and so chicken meat is quite expensive.”

“Yes, it’s true that there are no chicken houses in this town.”

There were places for cows and pigs, but not chickens. More than half of the chicken that circulated in the markets was imported, or from farmers that lived nearby.

‘Hmm…’ I thought with a hand under my chin. And then I put my thoughts into words.

“Yes, perhaps it’s time that we constructed a chicken house. I had put it off up until now, because chicken can not be preserved.”

Beef lasted much longer. And pork could be turned into bacon and sausages. However, chicken tended to rot very quickly.

But it wasn’t just meat. You could also get eggs from chickens. And eggs were nutritious. Perhaps it was time to mass produce so that we could have a steady supply for the market. If chicken and eggs could be bought cheaply, then it would help with population growth.

And so I made the decision.

Gottlieb couldn’t eat anymore, and yet he was overjoyed. He was probably happy that he would be able to see the other dwarves happy.

After that, I called the minister of financial affairs. —Which was Eve.

She knew everything about the town’s financial state. And so she did not look very pleased at first. However, after passionately explaining to her how much the dwarves desired meat, and talking of the nutritional benefits for the people, she finally agreed to scrape up the necessary funds for construction.

Gottlieb and I thanked the minister in the maid uniform, and then we began to talk while drawing up a blueprint for the chicken house.

Eve watched and let out a sigh.

“You really do love to create new things, Demon King.”

I couldn’t object, as it was the truth. Both Gottlieb and I liked to build new things. And so whenever we had time, we would use funds and materials and try to make something.

Eve seemed rather exasperated by this, but she also knew that we weren’t going to construct something merely for fun. And so while she sounded annoyed, she always helped us in the end.

And so she poured us tea and made us some food to eat during the night. And then she stayed up and watched over me until I went to my bed to sleep.

She would always support me. It was the greatest joy that I had such a capable and loyal maid. I was once again reminded of this.