“Exus! Prepare yourself!!!”
“Yes.”
“Hya?! A-a-a-agagaga!!!!”
As I reduced the unknown assassin in front of the mansion into grated radish on the asphalt, I basked in the refreshing morning sun.
At first, the kids and women from the slums were pretty shocked by it, but after a few months of this kind of thing, they seem to have gotten used to it.
While completely ignoring the person I turned into grated radish, the kids from the slums greeted me.
“Good morning!”
“Ah, good morning.”
Waving my hand casually, I immediately began working on renovating the slums.
Currently, the slum area is a vacant lot, with only my mansion and a dormitory for the kids built on asphalt.
Since that feels a bit empty, I figured I’d build a few more structures.
With that in mind, I gathered the elite executives of my secret organization in the mansion’s meeting room.
There’s Ada, my experiment subject.
Francis, my plaything.
Grace, my western mistress.
Yuki, my eastern mistress.
And two beastmen, Alan and Betty, who are leaders of the slum kids and were promoted to executives because of their high performance.
With these six executives, I slapped the whiteboard and gave them instructions.
“Alright, listen up! Right now, the former slums are just empty land. But since that’s a waste of space, I want to do something about it! Any ideas?”
Everyone enthusiastically raised their hands.
“Yes, Ada.”
“I want to open a candy store!”
“Aww, that’s adorable! Alright, a candy store. Next, Fran-chan.”
“A golem exhibition!”
“Heh, that’s adorably stupid.”
“Stupid?!”
“Next, Grace.”
“How about a church?”
“I’ll build a dark temple to worship magic instead.”
“Huh?!”
“Next, Yuki.”
“Uh, um, how about a specialty game store?”
“Nice, very sensible. Next, Alan.”
“Sir. How about a general store that sells magic items and other goods? It could also provide employment for the children.”
“Yeah, sounds good. Betty?”
“Sir. I propose a restaurant. Not only would it provide jobs for the children, but the mansion’s food is quite unique and extremely delicious, so I think it would sell well.”
“Excellent. So, to sum it up…”
I wrote “shopping mall” on the whiteboard.
“…What is that?” they all asked.
“Oh, it’s something I saw in my past life… a kind of multi-store complex.”
Ah, there’s no need to hide the fact that I’m talking about my past life, so I speak about it freely. Since I mention it so casually, everyone thinks I’m joking.
“First, we’ll build a structure ten times the size of this mansion.”
“Wait, won’t that collapse?”
Fran-chan looks worried, but…
“I’ll fix it with magic.”
“Fix it how…?”
“First, we’ll erect adamantite pillars, attach steel beams to them, and reinforce it all with concrete. If we use generate magic to build it with nanometer-level precision, it shouldn’t collapse.”
Adamantite? Yeah, that’s a superhard metal. A magical material that’s traded at around ten times the price of gold in this world. Apparently, only dwarves can process it.
“Ah, okay.”
Fran-chan gave up on understanding and fell silent.
Let’s move on.
“We’ll pack this giant building with various stores: restaurants, greengrocers, butcher shops, fishmongers… Maybe a clothing store or a bookstore, too. Even a pharmacy or a simple clinic wouldn’t be bad.”
“Um… why such a big building?” Grace asked.
“Wouldn’t it be cool if there was a store bigger than the royal castle?”
“Ah, okay.”
Grace fell silent.
“Um, what about the staff?” Yuki raised her hand.
“We’ll rely on homunculus maids.”
“…Will there be enough of them?”
“Yeah, lately the materials for making homunculi have been showing up even though I haven’t ordered them.”
“…What do you mean by materials?”
“Oh, didn’t I mention? I use human corpses.”
The human brain is apparently quite an excellent computational device.
Lately, I’ve been getting brains from the assassins who keep coming after me.
Creating a human from scratch with generate magic is quite complex due to the amount of information needed. It’s not impossible, but it’s a hassle.
Plus, once created, you’d have to teach them everything from walking, and that’s a real pain. It’s much more efficient to borrow the brains of assassins who already have knowledge and put them to use.
How do I make them? Well, the experience I gained as a kid when I used to mess around with dead bodies to create familiars still comes in handy.
“That’s insane…”
Yuki muttered.
“Any objections?”
“No… it just goes against human decency.”
“Hm. Any practical issues?”
“Well… no, none.”
“Good, then.”
“Would you please turn us into homunculi as well when we die?!” Alan and Betty, full of loyalty, asked with gleaming eyes.
“No, I’ll resurrect you when you die. Just make sure to properly preserve your brains and bring them back.”
“Yes, sir!”
And… right, back to the shopping mall.
“I’d also like you guys to take on more responsibility as project leaders. Once the building is up, I’ll assign each of you a section. You’ll decide what to build there, what to sell, and how to run it.”
“What happens if someone becomes the top performer?” Ada tilted her head.
“If you’re the best, I’ll love you all night in bed.”
“What if we’re the worst?”
“I’ll torment you all night in bed.”
Oh, but Alan is a guy.
I glanced over at Alan…
“Um, could you please torment me too?!”
Ah… yeah.
I guess… that’s how it’s gonna be.
He is a pretty boy, so maybe I can go for it?
Yeah, let’s give it a try.
