Prologue

Day 250

Autumn turned to winter. It felt like summer was just yesterday, but at some point both it and autumn had slipped by, leaving us in the middle of winter. Anyway, they made a town.

...Yep. They made a town.

I’m not sure exactly how it happened, but I think it started when the adventurers too poor or cheap to buy a room in our inn got too cold in their tents and began building little houses. I let them do it, but thinking about it now, that might have been a mistake. Reason being, they were actually living there now. They say crap like “Hey, Mr. Keima, how ya doin’!” while jogging by in the morning like neighbors. And they said “little” houses, but they made pretty big ones! Nice ones, too! Ones so nice other adventurers latched onto the idea and started building houses of their own.

What’s that? Your name’s Kuusan and your father was a carpenter who built tons of houses with you? Alriiight! I’m not gonna forget your name, punk!

Along the way, they built the bar that a certain subsection of adventurers had been begging for. The Adventurer’s Guild sent another worker over, meaning two people now ran the branch office. All that gave off the scent of progress, which attracted merchants who built stores. That made it harder for us to sell potions and stuff in our own in-house store, but that wasn’t a problem. Money wasn’t our priority here. The merchants staying in one place was practically them paying rent with DP, which was perfectly fine with me.

That turban sure suits you, man.

Oh, you own the Dyne Company? Alright, I’ll send some customers your way.

Ohohoho. Good luck.

I did nothing and they all just built a town around me. Really, you could say the town was built precisely because I did nothing. Things went so smoothly I genuinely started to question whether someone was manipulating things from behind the scenes. Probably the Adventurer’s Guild. I bet Kuusan’s a mole sent by the Guildmaster. Right? Right.

You might think that since so many people had houses now, our inn would be lacking visitors, but that was not the case. Reason being, a lot more merchants were passing by. The road Haku had metaphorically and literally paved was actually pretty nice, encouraging more travel. Those with carriages had something of a bumpy ride, but it was a far cry from before. The ultimate result was increased trade between Tsia and Pavella, which in turn increased how much DP I got from the tunnel. Though it’s a lot harder to use that Golem carriage I made now.

On another note, the Guild started posting requests for lumber. I let Ichika and Niku take care of them to increase my total number of complete quests. It wasn’t long before we had advanced to D-Rank.

Also, Wataru the Hero came visiting every now and again to pay back portions of his debt. He usually ended up in the bar with his dwarf friend Gozou.

“This place’s definitely better with a bar around! Yeah, Wataru?!”

“Sorry, but I’m not drinking until I pay back my debt! I’m glad there’s a bar now, but no alcohol for me!”

“Don’t worry, this is just apple juice.”

“Really? That should be fine then... Wait, isn’t this beer?!”

“Huh? The heck’re you talking about, Wataru? This is juice. Might taste a li’l like beer, but it be apple juice and nothin’ else. Yeah?”

“Ooooh, it’s just juice, okay. If you say so! I have no reason to doubt you! Ahahaha.”

Yeah, he wasn’t fooling anybody. Well, not that I care. He can drink as much as he wants... as long as he pays back his debt.

Haku, however, hadn’t visited in a while. Or to be more specific, she hadn’t visited a single time since I gave Rokuko her ring. Wataru said that she was so busy that she just didn’t have the time to visit. Still, I felt like a prisoner on death’s row waiting for his execution.

Oh, right. I was selling cards and dice to the bar, plus renting them slot machines. Light gambling was a perfect fit for bars, where people could bet the price of their drinks. Since we were earning money just from the rental fees, I set them to be forgiving and more likely to pay out. Just enough that the bar would still profit a little, even after the rental fee. But even if they weren’t profitable, eh, they’d bring the bar more customers.

Again, you might think that since the bar had dice, cards, and even slots that our entertainment building would be a ghost town, but that wasn’t the case. Let’s take a peek.

“Uwooooooh! Go, goooo! Number three! Land of Dreams! Aaaah, don’t stop there!”

I heard heated yells and shouts. The entertainment room was in the middle of holding a rat race. Of course, people were betting on the results. Both customers of the inn and those who had built their own homes were participating.

“Number one! Blue Avenger! Go forth! Chaaarge! C’mon, goooo!”

“This is your chance, number four! Take the lead, Nazzy Nazzy! I’m betting everything on you! Wait, why are you just sniffing around?! Keep moviiing!”

“Aaand we have a winner! Speed of Sound Sonic reached the finish line first! Number five, Speed of Sound Sonic won! Our champion has won again! Payment being distributed over heeere.” Cheers and groans filled the air as the failed tickets were thrown into the air. A rat race was a game where rats were put into a race course and the first to find the exit won. To avoid unnecessarily complex calculations, second place and beyond was awarded no prize whatsoever.

“The next race will be held in one hour! It will be the last race of the day! You can see the list of competitors here!”

“Depper is showing up, huh? He always rushes to the end when you least expect it, can’t let your guard down around him.”

“C’mon, you’ve gotta go with Elec-Mouse. He can go at lightning speed!”

“Hold up, hold up. Battler’s got crazy determination. Who knows who’s gonna win this race?”

“Walky Walker’s smart and tough, but he’s just not forceful enough. That makes him a dark horse. Alright, I’m buying ten tickets on him! One whole silver!” As the gamblers started betting on the next race, the rats who had just performed chomped happily on their reward cheese. They were the same rats who had been summoned for the Dungeon Battle with Haku before sending them off to the forest.

To be honest, I had accidentally turned them into Named monsters by giving them stage names for the races, which had in turn made them more intelligent than before. They obeyed my orders and worked together to make the races more interesting. Ahahaha. Now I can use these guys as spies and whatnot. Just as planned... not really. I didn’t actually mean to Name them. Also, pretty much this whole area is within my dungeon’s region, so I can just use the monitor to spy on whoever I want.

＊ ＊ ＊

And so, basically, a town ended up being built around my inn.

On one winter day, Gozou called me over to the bar. I brought some food with me since I figured he was planning on partying, but that wasn’t the case. I lightly stepped into the bar and saw before me:

Gozou, the bearded dwarf who kept the other adventurers in line.

Kantara, another dwarf, but a blacksmith instead who made weapons, armor, and even everyday utensils.

Kuusan, the mohawked adventurer who built a ton of the houses around here.

Wozma, an old man who ran the bar and had the fashionable hairstyle to match.

Dyne, a fishy looking middle-aged man with a turban around his head who owned the Dyne Company.

And finally, Cilia, the Guild receptionist... the manager of the Guild’s branch office.

Six people. To sum things up, it was a gathering of all the people with the most power and authority around these parts. Myself included.

“Heya. Been waitin’ for ya, Keima.”

“What’s going on here? It feels pretty tense.”

“I figure you’ve got an idea. We’re gonna be discussing somethin’ serious about this [Cave of Greed] town.”

“Oh, it really is a town now, huh...? Wait, right. I brought some food. Here you go.”

“Oooh! That looks real good! Alright, Keima’s the town chief! Any objections?!” Wha? Town chief? But before I could figure out what was going on...

Quoth Kantara: “Keima’s the best choice we got.”

Quoth Kuusan: “Yeah, I can definitely trust Keima!”

Quoth Wozma: “No objections from me. Oh, is that fried food I spy? I certainly do love this stuff.”

Quoth Dyne: “Hey, no objection from me! He’s makin’ my company lots of money.”

Quoth the receptionist: “...I have no objections either.”

In other words, everyone but me agreed. Uh... Could someone stop this please? I don’t like where this is going.

“Wait, wait, wait. The heck’s going on here, Gozou? What’s all this about me being the town chief?”

“Ye seem like ye’ve got the most spare time! We’re all busy n’stuff. Dooon’t worry, being town chief’s just about being an arbitrator in disputes and not much else. Things’ll be basically the same for ye!”

“Why not Rokuko, then? She’s got way more spare time than me.”

“...Keima. Do ye really think Rokuko’s got what it takes to be town chief?” Ah. You’re right. Forget I said anything.

“But if you’re asking me, it must not be a serious job, yeah? Seems kinda like you’re just pushing it on to me to be done with it.”

“Yeah, kinda. Like I said, it’ll basically be the same as always. Ye’ll just need to swoop in when there’s a problem to settle things. We’ll help ye out.”

“Yeah? Well... If that’s all, well...” And so, I accepted the role of town chief, because why not. It felt kind of like I was being pressured into it, but I got the feeling nothing good would come from making someone else do it.

“Alright, with that settled. We’ve got somethin’ to talk about, Chief.” Knew it. Pretty cliché for this kinda thing to only come up after there’s already a problem.

“And what’s that, Gozou?”

“Ye gotta lend us some money.” His request was something a lot more... greedy than expected.

“Uhhh, what, did your bar tab get too big?”

“Eh? I’m not talkin’ about money for me. I’m talkin’ about money for the town.”

“...Oh? Really? Guess you’re talking about, like, a town budget. What do you want it for?” He asked me to lend money, not give, so I could tell he wasn’t actually being greedy here. Dyne, the merchant, grinned.

“My man, glad you know what’s up. Food for winter, firewood and such, y’know. Lots of stuff to buy. I’ll set up a trade route and Kuusan’ll build a storage building for the town to share. All doing our part, y’know?”

“...Uh, hey. How about everyone just goes back to their actual homes for the winter?” All that seemed kind of tedious, so I kinda just let that idea slip out. I’d be missing out on some DP, but I wasn’t desperate for more of it or anything. Plus, it’d be nice to relax in the onsen on my own once in a while. I could even get into the massage chair and sleep for a bit afterwards. Perfect.

...Huh? Everyone’s frozen in place, looking like they never even thought about that before.

There was a brief moment of silence. Eventually, Dyne spoke up and broke it.

“Don’t say that, man. The Iron Golems in the dungeon are hella high quality. Don’t tell us to abandon all that sweet loot for a whole season!”

“Y-Yeah, he’s right, Keima. Some people’ve already started bringing their stuff here. Yeah?”

“Yeah! I’m sticking with Keima forever!” Kuusan backed Gozou up, brimming with confidence. Uh, why’re you so invested in me? I don’t remember doing anything for you.

“Well, whatever. That’s fine. My money’s not gonna be wasted though, right?”

“You’re gonna earn it back and more, trust me, dude. Tsia and Pavella are always hurting for iron. Not to mention that there’s about to be a pretty big demand for the stuff. During winter, too.”

“Big demand, huh? Are they gonna start a war or something? Guess they will need a lot of iron for their weapons and armor then.” I’ve read about that kind of thing happening before. Unsurprisingly, Dyne gave me a stunned look. Looks like I was right on the money. Wow.

“H-Hey, let’s all just calm down for a second here. Let’s not crash the gig we’ve got going here, yeah?”

“So rather than me lending each of you money, you just want to me fund the workings of the town?”

“Yeah, man! Sure am glad you’re a guy who knows how things work. And listen, you can trust me. You’ll earn it all back and more, for real.” Dyne slapped the table while grinning broadly. Hmmm, yeah, I’ve got no idea how much they’re expecting me to pay here. But I guess this might be a good way to use all the gold coins I’ve been stocking. Nothing else I can use them for but emergency DP, really.

I used my {Wallet} skill to take out gold coins and pile them onto the table. I wonder how much I should give them. Maybe a hundred. That’s as much as Wataru pays me a month, so yeah, it seems good to me.

“Will a hundred gold coins be enough?”

“A-A hundred?! Bro, Keima, those aren’t silvers, are they?!”

“Huh? No, they’re golds. Is that still not enough?”

“U-Uh, well, I’m gonna say that’s more than enough. Yeah! By spring you’ll have twice that number, iiif things go super well! If not, well, one hundred and fifty should be a piece of cake!”

“Sounds good to me. I’m leaving you in charge of the operating funds, Dyne. Show me what you can do. And yes, I’m going to check the ledgers, so don’t even think about embezzling any money.”

“I totally didn’t expect you to just take a hundred golds outta nowhere... Alright! I, head of the Dyne Company, am gonna give this all I got!”

By the way, they apparently only needed about five golds from me. Converted to Japanese currency, a hundred gold coins was equivalent to about a hundred million yen. It was definitely more money than a freshly built town really needed. Yeah. But, well, I’ve already given it to them, and having more money is better than not. Also, I gave him control of the funds because eh, why not? He’s got the motivation for it.

“When did you acquire that much money...? If I might be so bold, I think you are giving him too much. Aren’t you afraid of someone running off with the money, or something of the sort?” The receptionist expressed her concern. It would hurt to lose 100,000 DP worth of gold if someone ran off with it, but it was too late to back down. I’d look weak. Not to mention that it’d be a pain. My ideal town chief is someone who just sits there while leaving the finer details and actual work to everyone else while he sleeps. I made up that ideal on the spot by the way. Right. If I want to make everyone else do the work, I’ve gotta earn their gratitude here.

“Well, I trust him. Especially since you, an employee of the Adventurer’s Guild, are here with us. Besides, if he ran away with a sum this small, that would just prove that he was a bad businessman anyway. Dyne. Are you the kind of weak-willed coward that would run away with a paltry one hundred gold coins?”

“As if, man! I-I’m not s-s-s-so lame that this s-s-small sum of money would satisfy me! I’m not that small of a guy! If I fail here I’d just, like, genuflect! Or even kill myself! No running!”

I called it a small sum just to see what would happen, but maybe I shouldn’t have. Dyne, your voice is shaking. A lot. And if you’re gonna kill yourself, please do so within the dungeon so I can get your DP. Thanks.

“Well, anyway, that’s how it is.”

“I’m surprised. I didn’t expect that mere moments after being elected town chief you would be able to make hard decisions of this caliber.”

“Ahaha. This is the first time I’ve ever seen Dyne get this shaken.” The receptionist gave me a compliment, which was rare for her. Wozma was grinning a meaningful grin beside her. Guess it really must be rare for Dyne to sweat like this. Well, Wozma, it’s your turn next.

“And while we’re here. I think we should have this bar’s owner act as emergency town chief if anything ever happens to me. So. Looking forward to working with you, vice chief Wozma.”

“Oh, me? Hmm... I suppose you are an adventurer, Keima. One can never know what might happen to an adventurer. Very well, I will accept that role.” Heh, good. You look like a diligent worker. I’m gonna offload everything I can onto you.

“Alright. I figure you all know what’s up, but I’ll start giving everyone my instructions. First is our general goal here, which is obviously preparing for winter. Or more specifically, preparing to mine Iron Golems during winter.” I looked at each of them and started giving them basic jobs to do.

“Kuusan, I want you to start building that storage building immediately. Behind the Guild’s branch office should be a good place. Any extra room it has can be used as storage space for the Guild. Kantara, prioritize making nails and other things essential for the town. Cilia, please put up wood gathering quests in the Guild. You can discuss where the payment will come from with the Dyne Company. And you, Dyne, focus on buying materials and getting a cash flow running. For now, you can use the inn’s storage room for holding the materials. Vice Chief Wozma, check over the Dyne Company’s plans and make sure they’re not missing anything. You can all sort out the more specific details yourself. Now, with that out of the way... Gozou.”

“Yeah, yeah, I just gotta hunt tons of Iron Golems in the dungeon! Leave it to me.”

“That too, but I have another, more important job for you.”

“Huh? What’s that, then?” I grinned and told him.

“Think up a name for this town. Thanks man.”

“Wha?! You’re gonna leave that to me?!” Gozou let out a surprised yell, just like I had expected him to.

“It’ll just be a suggestion, so don’t worry too much about it. And hey, if you don’t want to, that’s fine too. I’ll just name this place ‘Gozou and Roppe are Lovey-Dovey Town.’ Anyway, that’s that. Good luck.”

“Hey, what’s Roppe got to do with this?! Alright, alright already! I’ll think up a name for ya!”

In one fell swoop, I had offloaded all of my work onto other people. Luckily, it looks like all of them are so caught up on what they need to do that nobody’s noticed I didn’t give myself any duties.

“Looks like things are gonna be busy for us. I’ll do my best to be a good fake town chief. Welp, that’s that. I’m outta here. Night everybody.” Alright, time to go home and sleep.

I left the bar.

# The Town Authorities’ Perspective

After Keima left, the other authorities in the town started eating the fried food he brought while talking about him, their new town chief.

“Sheesh, he’s sure got big balls. Can’t believe he started listing out orders right after we made him town chief like that.”

“Just goes to show how great Keima is! I’m gonna follow him for the rest of my life!”

“Good grief. He even went and made me the vice chief.”

“He’s treatin’ me like a minister of finance or somethin’. And man, he just popped out a hundred golds like it was nothing... He treated it like it was frickin’ change to him. He’s on anotha level from us, dudes.”

“I truly do wonder where he obtained that much money... He’s only a D-Rank adventurer.”

“Aaah, I remember Wataru talking about losing a two-thousand-three-hundred gold gamble to him or somethin’. He’s paying Keima a hundred gold a month to pay back his debt.”

“...He would do that to a Hero? Now that is truly heroic courage.”

In any case, they all agreed that he was far from a “fake” town chief. He made his plans after hearing their thoughts, gave clear instructions, and listened to their feedback. That was the work of an excellent town chief. Their initial plan had just been to ask him for a loan from the inn after he rejected the position, but he had both accepted it and promptly presented the necessary funds himself.

By becoming town chief and providing an operational fund twenty times larger than what they had expected, Keima had obtained absolute authority within the town. No one questioned that.

“I had been hoping to repay Keima as much as I could for lending me the slots and recipes he did, but I suppose that’s a pipe dream now.”

“Damn straight. And my shop’s getting hella good business thanks to him letting Ichika work there part time.”

“The Guild is quite thankful to him as well, given how many relief-centric quests his party completes...”

“Hahaha! There ain’t nobody like the town chief.”

By the way, regarding Ichika, she was actively seeking out part time jobs on her days off to buy extra food and play the slot machines. However, everyone mistakenly thought Keima was making her do that, given that she was his slave. Some even thought Keima was distributing his own wealth to the bar by having her play the slots there so much.

“He even figured out the best way to make money here...”

“There is no doubt that he has his own information network. He’s not the secretary of an inn backed by an A-Rank adventurer for nothing, shall we say.”

“Plus, when he said I could use the inn’s storage building, he was def predicting prices going up during winter and telling me to buy a ton now before that happens. And thanks to how much money he gave us, I can buy a hella lot more than I expected.”

The bar owner looked stunned, having not expected Keima to look that far ahead. On the other hand, Gozou was pouring alcoholic apple cider into Cilia’s mug. “...Hey, Cilia. What’s Keima’s rank right now?”

“He became D-Rank after his recent examination. Did you not administer it yourself?”

“Yeah, yeah. I just wanted to ask. ’Cuz I mean... D-Rank? That’s a lower rank than me. Can’t ye just raise’m up to C-Rank already?”

“Naturally, he has not accomplished enough to be raised to C-Rank yet. It hasn’t even been a year.” Cilia grabbed onto some fried food and gulped down her apple cider in one go.

Also, Kuusan was shouting “SO FUCKIN’ GOOOOD!” while shoving fried food into his face and feeling even more admiration for Keima than ever.