The Workforce Has Arrived!

“......We could use more hands.”

“We could use more hands~!”

On a late-summer afternoon, when it had begun to cool off and was fairly pleasant, the old man and the perverted old geezer moaned like that at our usual after-lunch meeting.

Labor shortage.

It's one of this base's problems, and lately it keeps coming up when we talk things over.

“I can't quite manage the fields on my own any more than this......”

Since the old man's combat ability is low, he usually tills the fields inside the defensive wall.

What he's growing are edible plants that the perverted old geezer and I found in the forest.

Grill greens, vinegar ivy, soboro beans and more: all kinds of plants are growing in the old man's fields.

Every single one of them is a fantasy plant from the demon realm, and they breed like crazy.

Inside the base, where the sunlight is good, they increase explosively.

Thanks to that, our food situation has improved considerably, but they've increased so much that harvesting and processing can't keep up.

For example, if grill greens are dried properly, they become preserved food we can probably eat through the winter, so I want to stock up on plenty of them now.

Soboro beans also seem to be storable without sprouting if kept in a dark place, so I want to harvest as many as possible and save them for winter.

But each of these beans is tiny.

They're roughly the size of adzuki beans.

To take them out of the pods and dry them...... well, that naturally takes a lot of time.

These days, shelling them one by one just takes far more hands than we have, so we pull up whole plants as tall as a grown-up, dry them in a dark place, and beat them with sticks, bashi bashi.

Then, the beans tumble out poro poro. We collect those.

......This has improved work efficiency to some extent, but the work still isn't keeping up.

This one's a problem no amount of strength on my part can fix.

By the way, the cultivation, harvesting, processing, and cooking methods for these demon realm plants, whose names aren't even known yet, are things the old man thought up from scratch and improved.

The old man's contributions are really low-key, but seriously amazing.

He's modest about it, but I seriously think this man is a genius.

I've heard he's a former noble, but rather than a noble, it seems he was someone with an aptitude for being the head of a group like farmers or food processors.

“Now that it's come to this, I'd like to finish the road within the autumn~!”

The perverted old geezer has teamed up with me to keep working on the area around the base.

Starting with the defensive wall, we ran a channel from the watering hole to make a moat around the base, planted demon-repelling herbs around it...... oh, and dug a well inside the base too.

Me, hard to tire and with horsepower to spare, and the perverted old geezer, deft with earth magic: our abilities mesh perfectly, and work on the base is moving along at quite a clip.

And, what we're mainly making now...... what we intend to continue working on from this afternoon, is the road connecting the log bridge at the entrance of Zamago Forest to this base.

The perverted old geezer wants to put an Adventurers' Guild branch office at this base, so he wants good transport links, to make it easy for adventurers and merchants to come all the way out here.

But this road construction was more tedious than I thought.

Roughly felling trees in the direction the perverted old geezer instructs...... that wasn't a problem at all.

It's the same thing we did at the very beginning of building the base.

The problem is after that.

The perverted old geezer uses earth magic to turn the land I've cleared into a road, but to level it properly so carriages can get through, he says you first have to cut the leftover undergrowth, dig out the stumps and rocks...... careful prep work like that.

Careful prep work...... yeah, my weak spot.

In the end, no matter how much horsepower I have, the work doesn't get any smaller, so it takes time.

In other words, either way, we end up at the same conclusion: not enough hands.

But while I'm fundamentally a bad fit for the old man's work, since I might wreck the crops, the perverted old geezer's work is another story.

“......I could, work a bit more, though?”

I still have plenty of energy left, so if I work more, the work will progress that much.

So I suggest it to the old man and the perverted old geezer, but they both shake their heads.

According to the two of them, I'm working too much.

I'm not tired at all, so it's no problem for me, but apparently, as adults, they felt guilty about keeping a little girl doing more work than any normal person could.

“We've secured a safe base, after all! Emi-chan ought to take it easy for a while around now!”

“......You're not, a slave, after all......”

They say things like that.

I really don't mind, though~.

But because the old man says that line with a face like he's about to cry, I have no choice but to nod and take a break.

The old man is sensitive, so he gets depressed easily over all sorts of things.

Honestly, what a troublesome old man!

Well, thanks to that, I'm given a fair amount of free time every day, and during that time I either train, take a nap, or go snacking in the forest.

Recently, it seems new monsters have started flowing in from the direction of Mount Nanga, so my snacks have increased, which makes me happy.

Noshteruketch, for instance.

“......Well then, that ends the lunch break. Shall we each put our backs into our labors this afternoon as well?”

“Okay.”

“Foooh~~~!”

Now, sensing that the meeting had started to drag a little, the old man wrapped things up.

Alright, alright, time to get to work full of pep!

<Emi!!>

!?

And just then!

Suddenly, Omake-sama called out a warning!

<The 【Magic Sensing Threads】 have been cut. Someone is approaching the base.>

These 【Magic Sensing Threads】 are a stationary detection technique of magic-power manipulation that I developed in Kaise Forest.

By stringing fragile threads of magic power all around, I can pin down the position of anything that comes close and cuts a thread without noticing it.

Now that the defensive wall is finished, I don't really need to set 【Magic Sensing Threads】 anymore, but for training, and just in case, I'd made a habit of stringing them up whenever I was inside the base.

Those 【Magic Sensing Threads】 were cut.

The spot is...... outside the moat, on the road leading from the gate.

What's more, I set these threads fairly high up.

If I set them too low, they'd be cut just by small creatures wandering around, which would be pointless!

To be specific, they're set at roughly the height of an adult's shoulder.

As far as I know, the only monster in this forest with enough height to cut these is the Mountain Topopolock.

And those guys have either been hunted out or returned to the mountains; I haven't seen them lately.

Which means.

<Isn't this...... humans approaching, perhaps?>

I listen closely.

I can't tell the details because of the forest noises, but sure enough.

Sure enough, I hear human voices!

“......What is it? Emi.”

The old man, puzzled at me suddenly turning toward the gate and freezing, calls out.

“People, coming.”

“What?”

“Foh!?”

“Workforce, maybe! I'll bring them!”

I dashed toward the gate!

<W, wait a moment, Emi! Bring them...... what if they're people with ill intent...... a band of thieves, for example, what do you plan to do?>

Huh?

That's easy, just beat them black and blue and make them do what I say!

With 【Grasshopper】, I cleared the gate in a single hop!

◇ ◇ ◇

Now then, sutat.

I land in front of the group that has approached the base.

So they don't look down on me, I give off a fairly strong 【Intimidation】 from the start.

......Looking at their attire, it seems they're adventurers.

<Were they coming to the demon realm to hunt?>

There are four of them.

A grubby man.

A priestly-looking woman who reeks of booze.

A big, brawny man.

And...... a fairly handsome blond man.

Yeah, their equipment is a bit worn but well-used.

And, if I look with 【Magic Perception】, it's clear they have considerably more magic power than ordinary people.

This is it.

All four of them are fairly strong.

Strong enough to be able to operate in this forest.

If they fought the perverted old geezer, the group of four would probably lose, though.

<Naturally. That perverted old geezer, pervert though he may be, is a former special-grade adventurer. For a human, he is quite strong.>

Yeah.

But well, this is good.

These four are quite good.

The fairly blond man in particular had followed me closely with his eyes as I suddenly dropped from above.

He looks the strongest; is he the leader?

Well, anyway!

“......I was waiting. For people like you.”

Old man! Perverted old geezer!

We're really in luck!

People who could become the workforce we wanted came along right after we said it!

Hiding my giddy heart behind a blank face, I led the group of four into the base.

The group of four follow me in silence, their faces deathly pale.

Yeah, people who do what they're told so obediently, I really like that!

I'm so happy, it looks like I can get along with these four too!