2
With no enemies to fight at the moment, we begin pouring our efforts into fortifying Hideout City.
Even the sections of Hideout City without any residents are now equipped with proper plumbing and multipurpose buildings.
The demons inhabiting the city all have homes now—albeit simple ones—and there are plenty of them out working in the farm fields we cut out from the forest.
Still, because the fields are near the woods, monsters still show up the moment we let down our guard.
The scenes of Combat Agents chasing off monsters as the defensive walls go up around the farming sector are the epitome of planetary settlement.
We also have heavy equipment bulldozing a path through the forest to connect the city with the giant lake where Mr. Mogero was found. It is a scene that would probably drive environmentalists into a homicidal rage.
I watch such scenes unfold from afar and speak to Alice as she continues her repair work.
“Looks like it won’t take more than six months to finish the industrial sector. According to Vi, the demons that had been scattered around the world are gathering at Hideout City, too. I mean, here we have cheap labor, a lot of land, and plenty of resources, too. Yeah, I think I’m pretty much over Earth. Couldn’t I just have found my own kingdom here?”
“If you became king, there’d be a coup within three days. I foresee a future where you end up in an intense fight with the Retribution Squad sent from Earth.”
It has been a week since she started repairing Mr. Mogero.
It was a soggy rust bucket when we first found it, but it has since been restored to a brilliant sheen.
“Hey, it’s starting to look pretty good. Is it gonna start moving soon?”
“Doesn’t look like it. I repaired the broken components, but he still won’t start up. It seems that he’s powered by the sorcerer stones or whatever. But he hasn’t responded to any of the stones I’ve gathered.”
Alice gently strokes Mr. Mogero’s armor as she speaks, like she’s soothing a baby.
“Ah-ha! I bet it’s designed just to listen to its creator’s orders. Or maybe only members of a specific bloodline can run it.”
“That only happens in manga and anime. I’ve never heard of a real-world security mechanism like that.”
As Alice and I apply a coat of wax to Mr. Mogero’s armor, a beaming Rose appears with something in her hand.
“Ms. Alice! I’ve finished my math homework! It’s finally all done!”
Having now formally become a Kisaragi Combat Agent, Rose is in the process of training her brains to catch up to her combat ability. To that end, Alice has been regularly giving her homework.
The idea was to start small with elementary-level math problems, but…
“…Nearly half of the answers are wrong. Start over from the basics.”
“W-wait, hold on, Ms. Alice! If you put it a different way, it means half of the answers are right! So that means if I only do half of the basics again, I should get them all right!”
Rose brings out her unique brand of statistics and tries desperately to argue her case.
I decide to give her a hand as a fellow meathead.
“Alice, you should start by praising her for her successes. As someone who responded really well to positive reinforcement back in the day, you can trust me on this one.”
When I was a kid, my mom cried tears of joy when I stopped putting crawfish I’d caught in the fridge.
“And that is what you get when you repeatedly take the easy way out.” Alice points straight at me as she speaks. “…Listen, Rose, if you don’t study and work hard while you’re still young, you’ll end up like him in the future.”
“I’m tired of studying, but…I guess I’ll put in a little more effort!”
“All right. Grit your teeth, Rose. Let’s settle once and for all who’s head is stronger.”
As I try to head-butt her, Rose slowly begins to back off.
A demon merchant who supplies Kisaragi with food runs over to us the moment he catches sight of Alice.
“I finally found you, Ms. Alice! Someone’s flooding Grace Kingdom’s market with cheap water crystals! Now’s the time to buy them cheap and flip them for a profit!”
Alice tilts her head quizzically at the sudden bit of useful information.
“Water crystals… That special mineral produced in Toris? Did the ones who invaded them start dumping them? But why would they flood the market with them and charge next to nothing?”
Alice murmurs to herself and falls deep into thought. Rose smiles innocently at her.
“So that must mean the people who took over Toris are nice people! They’re sharing their leftover water crystals with us!”
…No one’s that charitable. There must be a catch.
Alice then nods slightly, as though she has come to a conclusion…
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