'Oh! My lord. Are you awake?

　I noticed that the maid was changing the water in the vase by the window in my room.

　The afternoon sun crisply disciplined the navy blue and white of the bed sheets and maid's clothes.

'Hmm, hmm ...... what time is it?'

Well, it's about one o'clock now.

　Apparently, I had slept through the entire morning again since then.

Hmmm. I've got to get up now.

Uh-huh.

　The maid opened the window a little as I half-raised myself on the bed.

　The scent of snow in the winter sunshine.

　In the sunshine, the white lace curtains were puffed up like a bride's veil and waved in the air.

"W-......

　I couldn't quite make up my mind to get out of bed, but after a while I went down to the living room, bobbing my head.

''Good morning!　Master.

　Then the three maids immediately prepared a warm meal for us.

　Warmth~!

　By the way, although they are maids and dress in maid's clothes, they are purely Tohun's daughters, so the food they prepare is from the Far Eastern culture.

　White rice, miso soup, pickles and grilled fish......

　Well, the meals that Igarashi-san has made for me with her daughter-in-law skills have been similar to this one, so my taste buds are used to it now.

　But using these chopsticks, though, is still difficult.

Oh, sir! Are you finally awake?

　As I'm eating my meal in this way, Garcia comes over, tapping himself on the shoulder with the abacus.

'Ah, good morning.'

Ha-ha, that's not very fast.

Shut up!

　Moggy Moggy: ......

By the way, where's Igarashi-san?

She said she had to go to her parents' house earlier.

Hmm.

　Oh, is that your parents' house?

　I thought Igarashi-san was avoiding her parents' house.

'Did she say what time she'd be home?

I don't know. I'm going to tell you a story from my parents' house.

　What's the story that came from your parents' house? When I was about to ask him back, "......

'Master. Would you like a cup of tea?

　I got sidetracked by the maid, Watermelon, who asked me, "What do you mean by that?

'Well, ...... is, hmm?　Can you guys make a cup of tea?

Yes!

I heard you were fond of it, Master!

The three of us are studying together.

　Hmm.

　But when I told them that I would ask for tea later, they all started to take notes.

They all started taking notes.

　I muttered to Garcia.

　The three girls who heard that beside me all muffled their maid's aprons, "Dehehehee..." and they all looked cute as expected.

By the way, sir.

Hmm?

It's about their salaries.

　Ugh .......

　He's the guy who talks about being realistic when he was just getting comfortable.

'What is it?'

No. ......

　Until now, we've been doing this for a salary or something like that.

　For example, the 150-man squad is known throughout the territory as "doing quests" and has a star quality, so under the assumption that each village will continue to share in the distribution of equipment and pocket money each time they go out on an expedition.

　That's the extent of what we've been doing.

　But recently, they've begun to use people directly in their domestic politics by hiring maids, accepting apprentices from the blacksmithing workshop, and recruiting help with Akira's drilling.

　This is a new industry that is separate from the existing industry in each village.

　I've been thinking that we can't just rely on the customs of each village to get to this point.

　But ......

　Honestly, it's a pain in the ass to think about money.

'You're going to have to come to terms with it. You're a businessman, right?　I've decided to leave the payroll and finances and all that money stuff to you.

That's basically what I'm going to do, but there are some things you should at least know about.

　Well, sure.

　Whether or not the directly hired territorial residents can make a decent living or not, that part is a concern even for the lord.

　Particularly, the people of this enclave are somewhat 'ho-ho-ho-ho' and are naturally diligent, so even in the case where we were 'inadvertently doing their job', they seem to keep working without saying a word.

　This is not good, so I have to be careful and keep an eye on her.

　It's not just about 'it's a pity if you jerks off just because they're obedient' or something like that, but it's also about distributing wealth and resources in a well-balanced manner among the lords of different industries and professions and positions, otherwise the territory as a whole won't be able to become a powerful country in the long run... ...because, in my amateur lord's opinion, that's what I think.

But we don't have any money. I've got my hands full with everything for the expedition.

If by 'bond' you mean 'bond', there's no need for that. This is not Hafenfeld, it's your husband's territory.

You don't even have a double tail.

　The two "tails" were left in the care of Nao, who was working on the Onigashima quest, so the only thing left to pay for was the cost of a business trip to the upcoming Congress.

I don't even need the two tails to pay my salary. It's true that the most circulating money in the Far East is a two-tailed one, but only a few people in the Far East use a two-tailed one.

　You're right. I've never seen any of the local people using money.

So it's grain, rice?

Well, we haven't even collected our taxes yet, have we?

What do we do now?

Yes. Why do you think we'll issue a "charge" of 2,000 pts per month to Manaka, Watermelon and Icoca for the three of them?

　What about ......?