Redecorating

Mornings started early in the village of Rabbi. The Bunnies left their houses before dawn and headed out to the fields. The craftsmen who answered the wanted ads, as well as the adventures who had no other jobs while the Northern Nations were in war season, got to work early in an attempt to get as much done as possible before the air became too hot. At the same time, the shops that adorned the streets of the Common District stocked their shelves. As the village of Rabbi was in full swing by five in the morning, the shopkeepers usually woke at three, getting ready bright and early.

“A black loaf and carrot soup, please.”

“A raging chicken skewer and sautéed carrots for me. And a boiled egg.”

“Got to make it last ’til lunch. Got some wheat soup?”

Since Holylight was exceedingly warm throughout the year, the working hours in Rabbi were mostly limited from dawn until high noon.

“Heard a new pub’s going up.”

“Rumors say it’s a second location of Kanpai.”

“We’ll get Kanpai food here? This place is insane...”

While the rest of eastern Holylight was desolate, the large population of Rabbi made for a bustling shopping district.

“Check out this pair! Slime Jelly in the soles! Won’t get any holes in it, either!”

“You won’t believe what this is! It’s grizzly liver from the City States.”

“Green peas! Great for snacking! Wanna try a pod?”

“Blackened Sand Lizard, coming right up! This thing packs just the kick to pick you up in the morning!”

The shopkeepers shouted over each other, eager to make their sales. Amazingly, this district charged them no rent and didn’t tax them on any sales. In a sense, their livelihoods were at stake. If they were to be kicked out of their spot, they were back to the miserable conditions of the wasteland. Tahara had notified all shopkeepers that shops with unsatisfactory performance or bad reviews would be swiftly evicted, and had stayed true to his word. Of course, there was no other place on the continent where these shopkeepers could set up with no rent or tax. As a result, the Common District established for the day laborers was always in a cacophony first thing in the morning. Furthermore, as Tahara had hoped, every shop was striving to improve the quality of their products and maintain a good reputation. A form of brutal capitalism was in place, his way of sifting through the sketchier shopkeepers.

“How far’s this village going to spread, anyway?”

“How should I know?”

“The roads are ridiculously wide. You can barely put any buildings up like this.”

In fact, the roads the laborers were laying out were ridiculously wide, enough for four large carriages to ride side-by-side. Moreover, there were crossroads every now and again, suggesting a design for something incredibly large scale. The laborers had no way of knowing what they were building.

“It’s almost time, let’s go!”

“We’re still early, aren’t we?”

“Grand Foreman said to be there five minutes early!”

The laborers chowed down their breakfast and rushed to their posts. Strangely enough, none of them wore the tell-tale ‘pre-shift gloom’ on their faces. This had to do with them being paid for the day’s labor on the same day. Ordinarily, as adventurers were notorious for ghosting day jobs, they were paid at the end of the month. For those who struggled to put food on the table during off-season, a daily pay schedule was a saving grace. While young women and well-endowed men could survive those dry times by offering nighttime services, others were forced to literally do anything to survive. The Demon Lord had adapted the system he saw in action at the dungeon.

“All right, let’s get some work done.”

“Wait for me, dear Bronze Coin!”

A pair of laborers were heading to their post. One was of strong stature and wore rags, while the other was slender and cleanly put together.

“You’ll use that coin up by tomorrow.”

“I did order new clothes, shoes, and even a belt. I’m changing things up a little.” The man was decently dressed for an adventurer. His belt was made of brand new leather, and his shoes contained chilled, rubber-like Slime Jelly in the soles.

“New shoes, huh...? Don’t you think you’re over your head?”

“When I wear these, I feel this...bounce? I don’t feel as sore.”

“Exactly. That’s frivolous, don’t you think?”

The workers, who used to wear clothes until they could no longer be stitched together and wore shoes until they fell to pieces, were now beginning to buy newer things. In the past, all they could afford was enough water and food to get by. They would have never bought any clothes or shoes unless they desperately had to.

“A pair of shoes can make a big difference. Not just for your body, but for your spirit.”

“Yeah, yeah...”

People spending money and purchasing goods was a simple yet vital concept to form an economy, the foundation of any nation. If no one could afford to spend money, the economy (and subsequently the entire country) would collapse. The Demon Lord had set up the daily salary schedule for the simple reason that most of the laborers looked poor, but the effect of the system had been both subtle and significant. He had managed to give the working class quick access to money. At the end of each day, pay was handed out to the laborers, who cheered in joy. What’s more, this continued day after day, week after week... In a strange way, this led to stability among their workforce. In addition to financial stability, this had drastically lowered the amount of people who resorted to Satanism.

This adventurer pair was no exception. Who knew what might have happened to them if they had never found their way to the village of Rabbi?

“You keep ragging on my new clothes, but I’m sure you’ve saved up enough to buy yourself a new wardrobe.”

“Well, yeah...”

“If you keep wearing those rags, your soul will get cold. You know you’ll get paid today. And tomorrow. And the day after that... Do you want Aku to see you in that filth?”

“Dammit, fine...! Don’t you think I want a decent set of clothes, too?!”

“I’m more into Tron than Aku, though.”

“No one asked.”

As the laborers jogged to their posts, peace momentarily returned to the Common District. But for the shopkeepers, their day was far from over. In the afternoon, the drove of laborers would return again, causing another rush. The village of Rabbi, for many merchants, had become a war zone of its own.

——As the sun rose and shone full force on the land...

“That about does it. We’ll leave the rest for the afternoon,” a supervising foreman declared, followed by his fellow foremen issuing similar statements to their workers. The laborers clamored to the wooden barrels that lined the streets before chugging wooden cups full of water. In lavish extravagance, there were metal basins filled to the brim with water, solely for wetting their towels.

“We’re using it like it’s nothing... But this is water, right?”

“Huh?”

“Same goes for the salt, but, y’know... It’s because they’re free...”

“Seriously, right?”

Having workers fall ill from dehydration was simply a loss of labor from Tahara’s perspective. This was precisely why he had set up stations with ample water and salt (brought over from the resort) near break areas, and always nagged them about taking enough. On that note, there was a good reason why Tahara had agreed to the pay-by-the-day salary system. This led to most of the workers spending their earnings in the village at various establishments like shops on the street, bars, inns, or the public bath. With more variety in entertainment like casinos and brothels, this trend would only accelerate. In a sense, the workers were giving their earnings back to their boss. The village of Rabbi was almost already too big to be called a village, but the larger their territory grew and the more entertainment attractions they could build, the more return they could expect on investing in their workers.

“H-Hey, look...!”

“Uh...”

Three figures were walking by the adventurers and craftsmen on their breaks, heading in the direction of the village center: Tahara the Grand Foreman; the Divine Doctor Yu, who now garnered adoring looks from laborers and patients alike; and the Demon Lord, the man with an otherworldly presence who kept them both at his side. Although Yu and Tahara had spent much time with the residents and workers of the village, earning their respect and trust, their auras seemed to shift when they were around the Demon Lord. It was reminiscent of the Empire’s Demon Lord, strolling through an occupied area with his advisors.

Both the clamoring laborers and the nagging foremen hushed their voices.

“It-It’s been a while since I’ve seen the Demon Lord...”

“As intimidating as always... You know, I can’t stop shaking when I look at him.”

“Be that as it may, we wouldn’t have a livelihood without him anymore.”

“I heard that the Demon Lord was the one who built that crazy bathhouse.”

“I heard a rumor that he burned a Hydra to death in Rookie. Laughed while he did it, too...”

“Don’t let him hear you say that. He’ll tear you to shreds!”

“Mama... Mama Yu... Mam—Wahhhhhh!”

“Shut the hell up!”

At this point, the Demon Lord simply needed to stroll through the village to cause chaos. This was nothing short of torturous for him, walking through the peering eyes of everyone in the village. As the crowd watched with bated breath, the trio arrived at a plot that was (intentionally, everyone assumed) left vacant. The Demon Lord produced from the void two items to create a Base.

“Let’s begin... Evolve Base!” The Demon Lord threw one of the items, Holy Water, into the air above the plot. The ball of light morphed mid-air into an unexpected appearance. The crowd began to mutter in bewilderment.

“It can’t be...”

“Am I...dreaming?”

A woman clad all in white materialized, with the looks and aura of a bona fide angel. The woman carried a great pitcher on her shoulder, and divine water poured from it onto the shriveled soil. With a bright flash, an Evolved Base called a Fountain of Healing was formed. At the same time, shocked muttering spread through the masses, followed by sporadic cries.

“A-An angel...?”

“Th-That dried up plot’s all flooded...!”

“What am I seeing?!”

While the fountain was an awe-inspiring sight for those of this world, it was nothing extraordinary by modern-day standards. The statue was merely based on the popular depiction of Aquarius. The crowd had witnessed an angel come down from the sky and turn a plot of dried land into a wellspring, while the Demon Lord only saw a familiar visual effect that played every time this base was created in the Game. Of course, the same went for the advisors.

“Thanks, Boss. Now we don’t have to lug it over from the resort.”

“Hm. Allow the residents and laborers free access. However, strictly forbid them from taking water out of the village. It will only invite trouble.”

“I second that. We don’t want to shake up the economy yet,” Tahara gave him a meaningful look.

(Yet...?) The Demon Lord returned a nod of feigned understanding.

The base had the properties to heal its user when they were engaged in combat in its vicinity, but had no effects on anyone else, other than being a fountain of immaculate, divine water. Divine, and not “holy,” because it obviously held no blessings of any Angel or other entity of the Holy element. The only description of the Base was a ridiculous one, which claimed it infinitely produced mountain water from the Southern Alps. Just like Fuji Water that had seen the light of day in Hellion territory, this water had a hidden property of accentuating the tastes of drinks and dishes, which was sure to be more appreciated here than the fountain’s intended purpose.

Meanwhile, this construction was causing another misunderstanding to spread through the crowd... If this could still be called a misunderstanding.

“Th-The angel created a fountain!”

“It-It’s got to be a magic spell, right...? Like a class-7 or -8 that no one’s seen?!”

“This isn’t happening...”

“I did hear, one time...that ‘Demon Lord’ is what they call the Fallen Angel...”

“Lord... Lucifer...?”

As the crowd muttered on, the Demon Lord prepared to set up another Evolved Base, the Forest of Restoration. This too carried a marvelous effect for the residents. The Demon Lord placed a short tree, a Sapling of Restoration, into the ground. With a flash, the tree rapidly grew, multiplying and expanding into a forest that covered the barren soil. Suddenly, a beautiful wood had sprung up between the Hot Springs Resort and Field Hospital, giving the village a more refined aesthetic. The Fountain of Healing was now surrounded by palm trees that matched the scorching climate.

The crowd blurted out in awe at the sudden appearance of a forest.

“Whoa whoa whoa! Now trees grew out of the ground!”

“I don’t know what’s happening anymore.”

“The Demon Lord...shapes the earth with his own hands.”

It was only natural for the crowd to be astonished, especially after witnessing a fountain and a forest materialize out of thin air. Who else but a higher being like a god or angel could have performed such a feat? When it came to his god-like powers, the crowd’s perception of the Demon Lord was no longer a misunderstanding, but an accurate assessment.

“Direct any overflow patients here, Yu, and tell them to rest in the woods.”

“Thank you, Mister Secretary.”

As its name suggested, the forest had restorative properties. It healed injuries over time in the Game, which would translate into all kinds of different effects in this world. All sorts of ailments like broken bones, cuts, back pain, and joint pain would be healed over time.

Finally, the Demon Lord headed to the far end of the village, ready to perform his biggest miracle of the day. Without a second thought, the entire crowd followed as if they were longing to watch another miracle performed by a holy man.

Once at the location, the Demon Lord produced a Game Pass, the item required to evolve the Base he had in mind: the Casino. Tahara’s eyes gleamed, as Yu sighed in exasperation.

“Let it rain gold on this land... Evolve Base!” The Demon Lord gave a dramatic wave, and a grand casino hotel materialized, to the amazement of all who looked on. Akira Ono had designed the construction based on the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas. While the Bellagio was an enormous hotel at 36 stories, the base stood at the still-considerable height of 14 stories. Floors 1 through 3 held the casino, restaurants, and theater, while floors 4 through 13 served as a luxury hotel. A penthouse topped off the lavish building as the 14th floor. The front of the casino held a man-made lagoon, where fountains would dance to the music, although the water was completely still at the moment. Once a fountain show began, they would be speechless at seeing the most precious resource in Holylight used like a decoration.

Tahara whistled at the sight. “Finally! Now we’re talking!” Tahara was, by nature, a man of impulse, far from a functional adult. Of course, he partook in most forms of gambling.

While Yu wasn’t interested in gambling herself, she let out a charmed mutter at the architectural beauty of the building. “I’m sure it will be even more lavish at night, Mister Secretary...”

“In-Indeed...”

Yu had wrapped her arm around the Demon Lord, pulling herself as close to him as she could. In fact, the Casino Hotel was nothing less than the epitome of extravagance. Numerous light fixtures caused the entirety of the building to let off a mystical amber glow, as if it was reflecting the midday sun. Colored lighting would layer onto the current aesthetic once the sun went down, enveloping the facility in indescribable opulence.

“Employee training’s at the top of the list now. Our Bunnies wouldn’t shine brighter anywhere else. Don’t tell me you’ve had this planned from the start, Chief?” Tahara jokingly suggested, to which the Demon Lord simply curled his lips. He didn’t know what to say, but his expression was enough to make a person assume all sorts of possibilities. Silence was golden indeed. Tahara continued, still looking up at the casino, impressed. “Nobles’ve been squeezing coins out of the people of this country for a millennium strong. So many of them can live day to day, no worries or problems. There’s a class divide here alright, and it’s deep.”

The Demon Lord nodded in full agreement, recalling how wide the class divide had gotten in modern-day Japan. This was a topic that hit home after living through the inflation, the economic bubble burst, and rampant unemployment followed by the rise of independent contracting.

Meanwhile, Tahara passionately continued, “Peasants can barely get an education, and the nobles take any business that shows a glimpse of success. Of course the quality of life isn’t rising, nor is the country improving. Any nation that can’t provide hope for the future falls behind. Before you know it, it becomes stagnant before completely breaking down.”

“Does your self-evident rambling have a point?” Yu irritably interjected. “If you do, get to it.”

“Our boss is gonna shove more money in the pockets of the people than before, using everything at our disposal. Doesn’t matter if they kick, scream, or try to throw it back. Ain’t that right, Chief?”

“That’s an amusing way to put it...” The Demon Lord thinly smiled as Tahara cackled and lit a cigarette. While they each had their own thoughts, they came off as being on the same page from the start.

Yu didn’t find this amusing, of course. She had sensed that the Demon Lord and Tahara were thinking on dangerously similar terms ever since Tahara had arrived in this world. She had been the one who served the Secretary most faithfully in the Empire, but now, she couldn’t help but feel a sort of uneasiness at losing that position. She pulled the Demon Lord’s arm even closer to her.

Unbothered, Tahara continued to speak, “Can’t afford to buy stuff. Can’t sell enough to make a decent profit. The nobles drum up an excuse to tax you at every turn, demanding a cut for everything you do. No wonder some of ’em can’t see hope for the future and go join those Satanists, or whatever they’re called.”

The Demon Lord answered in an anatomical metaphor, an attempt to keep Yu from growing more suspicious. “Indeed, the economy of a country is like the blood in our veins. No circulation, and any part of the system can be damaged.” In fact, if the blood stopped circulating in an economy, the only thing waiting for the country would be a slow death.

Yu, her arms still curled around his, wore a gentle smile, ambiguous as to whether she was satisfied with the analogy or the fact that she was holding the Demon Lord close.

“So, a bit of a golden transfusion on our part. That kind of blessing will snap grandpa out of a coma.” Tahara saw this operation as a ruthless phase of the wealth distribution initiative. Steady work, decent pay, and now entertainment... The positive effects this village’s facilities would bring to the people were sure to exponentially increase the popularity of the Demon Lord. How could they not? While this might have come across as a lazy way of governing, simply appeasing the masses with handouts, Tahara thought the people of Holylight deserved some by now. “All the nobles in the heart of the country have been sucking up all the blood, leaving the people that make up the limbs close to rotting.”

The Demon Lord put a cigarette in his mouth as Tahara delved into this metaphor, apprehensive of the direction their conversation was heading. (Give me a break... I’m not getting any of this economic mumbo-jumbo.) Yu immediately produced her lighter, igniting the end of his cigarette.

Leaning into him as if they were newlyweds, Yu glared at Tahara. “Are you trying to talk the Secretary’s ears off?”

“Th-This is as good a time as any,” the Demon Lord hurriedly interjected. “I want to hear what you have to say, Tahara.” He wanted to extract from Tahara a good reason for setting up the casino, since he had none of his own. The best he had so far was that he wanted to drink the fancy drinks in the restaurant and sleep in the lavish penthouse.

“Not only does the Secretary want to garner reputation and support,” Tahara answered, “but also to pump some blood into our limbs. Down to the fingertips in poverty.”

“Is that true, Mister Secretary?” Yu asked with her brows slightly pinched. She had appreciated him ordering medical treatment of the sheep, since it was aiding her personal research projects, but thought monetary support to be a touch too merciful.

The Demon Lord replied with the usual ostentatious reverence, “Gambling can be a door to both heaven and hell, that has never changed. It can be a reward one minute, but a striking crack of the whip in the next...” He had managed to throw together a sentence that seemed to imply he had been thinking about this.

In fact, he had experienced both sides of the coin himself, through pachinko and slot machines. The statement was a complete platitude, but coming from the mouth of the Demon Lord of the Empire, it carried a sense of threatening persuasiveness.

“I see,” Yu muttered with an entranced expression. “Managing the happiness of our citizens... Of course, this is precisely in the Secretary’s department.”

Seeing that Yu was satisfied, Tahara threw a pebble into the water and watched the ripple spread, as if to foreshadow how the money (or blood, by Tahara’s analogy) would spill and spread through the anatomy of the nation, until it came back to the center.

“First thing, we have to spread the coins to the very end of the road. More pocket money, more spending. More spending, better business and production.” Tahara’s explanation was a simplified crash course in economics.

Humans were powerless without money, after all. And enough money could buy almost anything, which perhaps made humans a bizarre species in the eyes of the rest of the animal kingdom. Money was the difference between a full and empty stomach. In fact, excess money enticed many people to eat more extravagant meals. Naturally, some would use their money to drink or stay at a nice inn. Others would have new outfits tailored or new shoes cobbled. Money would enrich and invigorate various industries, making farmers and craftsmen wealthier. The more money that actively circulates through the country, the more people will grow stronger, their lives bettered, and the more they will show support for the ruler who provided them with that enrichment. Considering how the Empire had ruled their occupied territories with an iron fist like the nobles of Holylight were doing now, the Demon Lord could not have made a more contrasting approach.

He wisely met Tahara’s lecture with silence, and Yu followed his lead, thinking about the Demon Lord’s declaration to follow the opposite path of the Empire. The Demon Lord, on the other hand, wanted to demand Tahara tell him how he could have thought so far ahead.

“Remember what you told me before, Boss?”

(Coming again from left field?! Which thing is he talking about?!) The Demon Lord struggled in vain to recall a conversation he had with Tahara that matched the current topic. So, he simply nodded without saying a word.

“Business can’t just be about making money for yourself. It’s about passing on the profit to your partners. That’s how you build trust, you said.”

“That...takes me back.”

“Your business of taking over this country couldn’t be going better. Personally, I’m a huge fan of your new policies, Chief.”

(They’re your policies...!) Of course, the Demon Lord lacked any foresight to build such a plan. The only objective in Akira Ono’s mind was to regain all of his admin features and control of the world he had created. As uniquely talented of an artist he was, he didn’t have a single political bone in his body.

“The crowd has begun to stir after witnessing your power, Mister Secretary.”

The Demon Lord turned around to find a hoard of people crowded around him wearing varied expressions, ranging from shock, respect, fear, and uncertainty, to hope. Some were even kneeling before the “golden temple.” His advisors curled their lips, satisfied to see that their plans would be even easier to execute now.

(Just setting up a base made quite a splash...) To the Demon Lord, building a base was as easy as breathing, and wielding any items from the game came as naturally as moving his limbs. However, every move he made and every word he said had been seen as a genius political scheme by his advisors, and worshiped like he was performing miracles by the people. (Can’t I do one single thing without everyone acting like...) It was quite the woeful situation for the Demon Lord, but this wouldn’t stop him from setting up everything he had created, painting over the entirety of this world with his own shade. While he hadn’t a smidgen of talent for governing, he wasn’t forgiving enough to lay dormant in someone else’s world. No matter what others thought of him or saw in him, he would ultimately follow his own gut.

“Why don’t you give the crowd a word or two, Chief?”

(You little...! What am I supposed to say?!) The Demon Lord secretly panicked, before astutely spotting Luna in the crowd, her eyes glimmering with the reflection of the casino, the speechless Eagle at her side. He strode over to Luna and smiled at her. “‘Golden’ was your epithet, was it not?”

“Huh...? Y-Yeah...” Luna answered.

“This Base shall be a castle becoming of it.”

“A castle...becoming of my...?”

The Demon Lord walked back towards the casino without explanation and called, “Tahara, until it’s ready, the casino’s open to employees only.”

“Yessir.”

(I’ll leave the rest to Luna,) the Demon Lord happily decided. (She’s the lady of the land, after all! This is all part of her job!) He walked away, a solemn mask concealing his contentment. After the Demon Lord had left Luna with cleaning up the mess he had created, the crowd exploded in excitement. It now seemed like the Demon Lord had constructed the Golden Temple just for Luna.

“H-He built this temple...this miracle...for Lady Luna?!”

“The Demon Lord and the Holy Maiden, huh...?”

“Look at the size of that thing... He calls that a gift?!”

“This is nuts!”

Luna was stunned for a moment before her true self emerged, beckoned by the astonished cheers of the crowd. She let out a self-important scoff, before puffing her chest and proudly declaring, “That’s right, this is my castle! You better worship it up and down!”

The crowd replied, cheering even louder. They saw nothing wrong with Luna’s claim as they gazed up at the grand temple that shimmered in the sun.

“L-Luna... Are you sure you can say things like that?” Eagle whispered, tugging her sleeve.

Of course, Luna took no heed. In fact, she arched her back even more, encouraged by the crowd’s reaction. “I’ll keep a room, even for a servant like you. Be grateful for it!”

“Um, no thanks. This place is scary...”

“Wait... What do you mean, ‘scary’?! This is my castle!”

As Luna shouted, the chatter in the crowd only grew. First a large fountain, then the sudden appearance of a forest, and now a grand temple that shone with golden rays. This seemed nothing short of a series of miracles, the likes of which were only recorded in myths.

While the Demon Lord had performed these with no more care than as if he was redecorating a room, they would be immortalized through the people who witnessed them.