Early in the morning, the ship secretly landed on the western coast of Deijima . Apparently, the region around there was made up of steep cliffs and rough waves so people and fishing boats rarely came near . We hid the ship behind a rock, disembarked and moved to a nearby cave .
The interior was a little dim as it was not a dungeon .
The transaction was not going to be done there but their plan was to transfer the goods to that location for now .
While the smuggling crew was transferring the goods, we were led to a room inside the cave . It was called a room but it was actually just a dirty space with some thin bedding laid on the floor . There was a door installed but it didn’t have a lock either .
“It’s amazing, I can’t remove all the dirt even after using 「Clean」 . ”
It removed the moldy stench but the brown fabric remained the same .
“It was probably that color from the beginning . I agree that this is a little tough for a former Japanese . ”
Suzuki sighed as well but he didn’t seem to find it as tough as I did . The difference probably stemmed from the various experiences he had in this world .
After all, I could count the number of times I camped outside and just like before, I always used 「Clean」when doing so .
“Well, let’s take turns to rest for now . Oh right, let’s decide that nobody will be allowed to enter the room while either one of us is resting . ”
Strangely, Suzuki added a condition which was obvious .
… Fuu .
“Do you have tissue boxes? Here are ten boxes . The ones in this world are rough . ”
When I asked after taking ten out of the two hundred 400-sheet-tissue boxes that Miri bought for me from my item bag, Suzuki was unusually flustered .
“Hn … yup, thanks . That helps . ”
He said as he accepted the tissues . The virgin Hero sure was honest .
Although I didn’t have any erotic books in my bag, I did have a few volumes of comics with suggestive drawings so I passed those to Suzuki too .
He let me take my break first maybe as thanks for that .
Our break times would be three hours each so my first task was to transfer to My World .
After all, I could not check up on Pionia and Sheena No . 3 when I was on the ship .
After transferring to My World, I noticed a large change .
There was a huge mountain .
“Master, welcome back . ”
Pionia welcomed me with her usual voice which lacked any intonation .
“Pionia, what is that mountain?”
“It’s a silver mine . ”
“Silver mine?”
It seems that Carol mentioned that the price of silver had gone up recently so she consulted her on the possibility of creating a silver mine .
“We have already mined about 500 kilograms of it . ”
” … Ah, thanks . ”
Five hundred kilograms was amazing even if it was just ores . I guessed that I would have to make use of my alchemy skills which I have been neglecting for a long time to refine them .
Oh right, since I was at it, I could dabble a bit in silver crafts .
I will be able to increase my Alchemist level and also create some crafts from silver and gold .
Naturally, I still couldn’t process mithril so the mithril I snatched from the bandit in Florence was still buried inside my item bag .
“Hence, Master, I wish to receive a bonus . ”
“Bonus? You’d like more magical power? All right, face your back to me . ”
“Negative . Magical power is not a bonus, it is something like a salary . The bonus is something else . ”
Heh, it was rare for Pionia to state her desires .
Well, from before, she has always had quite a few wants even though she never said them out loud so I wasn’t that surprised .
“What do you want?”
“I want a younger sister . ”
“Hurk . ”
I inadvertently choked even though I wasn’t drinking anything .
What did she mean by wanting a younger sister?
Was that perhaps an indirect request for me to make a child with Haru?
N-no, it’s still too soon .
Incidentally, we did still make sure to use contraceptives when Haru and I do the deed .
“Master, what are you misunderstanding? I am asking you to create a homunculus . ”
“Oh? Homunculus?”
“Affirmative . Master should have received a homunculus seed from Goddess Torerul-sama in the past . ”
“Hn? Ah, that’s right . ”
I totally forgot about that .
Previously, I received three test tubes from the Goddess Torerul-sama .
Pionia was born from the tiny egg that was inside one of the test tubes .
And I still have two of those test tubes remaining .
“Is it necessary?”
“Affirmative . Shipbuilding in the shipyard, management of the alcohol brewery and the hot spring facilities, working the fields, mining work, and taking care of Fuyun, I am about to reach full capacity . ”
I see . But in that case, can’t Sheena No . 3 just help out when she’s free? I thought to myself but,
“In addition, if you order me to manage the newcomer Sheena No . 3, it will truly be over my capacity limit . She actually caused a cave-in at the mine and we were buried alive . ”
So Sheena No . 3’s presence was not a benefit but in fact, caused harm . That girl once managed the man-made labyrinth on her own for decades so was she actually so useless?
No, maybe Pionia and Sheena No . 3 just have bad compatibility .
Homunculus and Automata are similar but different entities after all .
However, just what are homunculus?
I was a little apprehensive to the prospect of another being like her appearing .
However, I certainly needed to reflect on how I have been pushing too much work onto Pionia .
“All right . ”
Well, if I prepared another homunculus, Pionia wouldn’t get bored even when I’m not around .
I took out a test tube from my item bag .
Then, I opened the lid and let the egg within fall to the ground .
It’s been a long time since I felt this feeling of apprehension .
Eh? I feel like I’m forgetting something?
The egg that fell onto the grass grew at an alarming rate .
“Ah, I remember now, this is bad!”
It was too late by the time I realized it .
The egg grew into a girl with cat ears and long green hair . However, she had the exact same appearance as Pionia below the neck . Just like Pionia when I first met her, she was completely naked .