59 - Episode 3: Fortitude Never Gives Up (1) ~The Gambling City, Berture~
We resume.
Illuminated by the light of the fireplace and lighting magic, four girls stared at the five cards dealt to them. Each wore an expression of fluctuating joy and sorrow.
The fox beastkin girl, Kazuha, lowered the corners of her eyes with a slightly troubled look.
The elf girl, Latia, had a grim expression, her tip-like ears twitching up and down.
The girl with blue hair tied in two tails, Lilitia, wore a challenging smile.
And the silver-haired, green-eyed girl, Marianne, who had been completely expressionless until now, finally let the corners of her mouth loosen and spread her hand.
"Yes, a straight flush."
"Wait...!"
Shown a hand where the Ace, 2, 3, 4, and 5 of hearts were lined up, the three girls were left speechless. For the record, Kazuha had one pair, Latia had four of a kind, and Lilitia had a full house.
During the journey back to the Imperial Capital. While large cities were one thing, simple post towns had no sightseeing spots to kill time, so for such occasions, Marianne had stored several playthings in her storage magic.
Playing cards in particular had been brought in by people thought to be reincarnators, such as the first Demon King Yusuke or the first King of the Gao Kingdom, Kensuke Kadra Saitun, and because the rules were widely known, most people were familiar with them.
Therefore, they were able to play without needing any particular explanation, and as a way to kill time until they grew sleepy, the Serious Breakers party had been indulging in poker, but...
"Geo... Marie is a bit too strong..."
"That is why I told you. If it is just for fun, that is one thing, but if you are betting, you should stop facing Marie."
"Her competitive instinct when something is on the line is out of the ordinary, Princess. If she unlocks cheating with this, even we would not be able to handle her."
It was no longer just for fun, they had started betting. Furthermore, Geoglyph and Later, who already knew Marianne's nature, or perhaps her bad luck, or rather her reckless competitive spirit in adversity, had immediately retreated to become spectators.
By the way, the contents of the bet were...
"O-ho-ho-ho! Now then, you three! It is time to change clothes...!"
They were various outfits she had taken out of her storage magic. Moreover, they were designs brought over from her previous life, masterpieces from Atelier Formula, a subsidiary of the currently popular Romanette Company.
Yes, the content of the bet was quite simple and a direct shot of desire, that the loser would be made to dress up.
Marianne, while pushing the outfits forward with a "come along, come along!", chased the three girls into a separate room and tried to casually follow behind them...
"Hold it."
"Gunu...!"
She let out a sound as the two idiots grabbed her by the scruff of the neck.
"Geho! Goho! What is this!? What is the meaning of this!?"
Because her airway was suddenly blocked, she raised her voice in protest while choking, but the two idiots, while still crowding Marianne, told her this.
"Making you cosplay as a penalty game is fine. I want to see Sailor Elf-san too."
"I want to see a fox-girl maid. But I will not allow an escort."
"We are of the same sex, so it should be fine, right!?"
"Look in the mirror."
Marianne, who was called out with a straight face, reluctantly took a hand mirror from her storage magic, looked straight ahead, looked to the side, and after striking a diagonal pose with a sharp wink.
"...Yes. Marie-chan is cute today as well."
"There is no persuasiveness when you say it with that guhehe face!!"
They pretended not to see that slovenly, drooling state, but there was no way the two idiots would be convinced.
●
At the westernmost end of the Triad Frontier Territory, there is a place regarded as a transportation hub.
It is the intersection of the Matsune Great Highway, a main artery that connects the Empire in a circle, and the Ikuyo Great Highway, which runs east to west through the very center of the Empire, and it is Berture, a land that originally prospered due to underground mineral veins.
It was a major production area for ores that supported the Empire's metallurgical technology, and until a few decades ago, it was a place where one could earn so much that "if you have no money, grab a pickaxe in Berture" became a slogan.
However, at a certain point, no matter how much they dug, ores stopped appearing, and people disappeared like a receding tide.
But about ten years ago, the governor of the time, in an attempt to do something about Berture, which had declined and become like a post town, embarked on a certain project. There was no seed money or tourist resources. Even so, it was a project that could be done and make money. That was...
"We have arrived at the ringing end of the world boasting the largest scale in the Empire, Berture! Also known as the Gambling City...!"
Marianne, who stepped into Berture after passing through a flashy gate, praised this gambling city with three banzai cheers as if she were deeply moved.
Yes, this Berture is now a city that has achieved economic growth through gambling, to the extent that people say "grab cards and betting tickets instead of a pickaxe."
"She is energetic."
"Sensei, this is Triad territory, right? Why are you looking at it as if it is something novel?"
While leaving the control of the idiot who was raising their tension with a hyahha to the three girls, Later spoke to Geoglyph, who was gazing at the cityscape of Berture with interest from the rear.
"Actually, the basic design here was almost my plan."
"Seriously?"
To Later, whose eyes widened, Geoglyph nodded with a "well, yes."
As mentioned before, this is a place that prospered due to underground mineral veins and is part of the Triad Frontier Territory. In other words, the tax revenue is under Triad's jurisdiction, and the rise and fall of this place affects the Triad's financial situation.
Then, over ten years ago, the mines suddenly ran dry. Of course, since this was not the entirety of Triad's tax revenue, they did not suddenly go bankrupt, but that did not mean it was small enough to be ignored.
That said, the head of the Triad family, Radglyph, was troubled, not knowing what to do about reconstruction after the mineral veins dried up.
Hearing that ores could no longer be taken, he worried for three days and three nights, and at dinner time, he let out a complaint-like mutter to his family.
Geoglyph happened to be there at the time and casually said, "It is a transportation hub, so why not just turn it into a tourist spot?"
To this, Papa's eyes were opened, and he jumped on it without hesitation, grabbing his son, who likely had the ideas, and flew to the site. After that, for about two months, Geoglyph ended up being confined in Berture to do the city design and basic development.
"That is how it happened. Since I was not stuck there the whole time, seeing the completed form is deeply moving. Man, I was receiving progress reports, but it has grown huge in less than ten years..."
Honestly, the tax revenue had increased compared to when they were digging mineral veins, and if anything, it was now earning more than the Triad main territory.
"In this world, mine carts did not exist yet, so they used horses to transport the dug ores. Because of that, this place also became a small-scale horse breeding area. So I thought it would be good to spread horse racing as well."
"Heh, horse racing. Did you create thoroughbreds or something?"
"No, originally I created it for the purpose of military horse breeding and training. I wanted to collect a wide variety of horses and be able to utilize them in multifaceted ways. However, as expected, breeding and utilizing animals costs money..."
Originally, Geoglyph did not intend to make it into a gambling city to this extent. He thought that even if it was small, creating an entertainment district would move money, regardless of public order, and from there, he could secure the breeding costs for military horses, while making the races using them the highlight of tourism to attract more people and money, and eventually, by selling them to foreign countries as Triad-bred horses, it would become a means of acquiring foreign currency.
What he miscalculated was that there was too little entertainment in this world.
To put it simply, people began to fall for gambling in succession.
From a general social common-sense perspective, gambling is decadence, but from an economic perspective, it is nothing. It is just a story of money passing from someone to someone. Geoglyph also wondered if this was okay, but then again, in this world, self-responsibility was stronger than in his previous life, so he did not tighten the reins too much.
That said, it was not that he did nothing, he shut out the mafia and cracked down on debt relations, and since city expansion work is still ongoing, he prepared reasonable relief measures, such as arranging well-paying construction work for people who had become completely broke.
Looking at the culmination of that, he felt somewhat refreshed.
"Marie is a gambling maniac, so she probably does everything, but what about you, Rei? Pachinko, as expected?"
"Nah, I guess I do horse racing. I like hearing the engine sounds of boats and autos at the actual venue, and for bikes, I just like seeing the heckling in places like Kishiwada. Pachinko parlors take too much time, and I cannot stand going there even on my days off. If I have that kind of free time, I will be sleeping. I do not want to have an accident the next day due to lack of sleep. What about you, Sensei?"
"A long time ago, I tried touching it voluntarily as a sort of social study, but after I realized that the system is designed so that the house wins, I withdrew. My heart froze seeing the Yukichis melt away smoothly. I do not have that kind of courage. Investment is the same."
"Heh, that is unexpected. Since you are Sensei, I thought you would be doing stocks or FX."
At Later's words, Geoglyph gave a distant look and began to speak extremely fast.
"Listen, Rei. Investment is essentially gambling. People often say that investment and speculation are different, but they are only different in the sense of medium-to-long term and short term, and basically, it is a scramble between players on the stage of the market, and if you want to make a profit 100%, instead of being a player, you should create a securities company and suck the execution fees from the players, or as a state, it is far safer and more profitable to skim the top of the investors as taxes. Unless a company that absolutely will not go bankrupt exists, in reality, it is just difficult, but even large companies go bankrupt, get acquired, or cause scandals and lower their stock price. Just because there is even a slight possibility that the stocks you hold become scrap paper and you lose money, no matter how you sugarcoat it, investment becomes gambling. It is the same as pachinko manufacturers using the expression 'likely' instead of 'confirmed'. As long as they do not claim it is absolute, if the prediction is wrong due to uncertain factors, it is self-responsibility."
"I see. Sensei, you melted it, didn't you?"
Geoglyph did not answer Later's retort.
"That is why I aimed to be the house...!"
"This man suddenly became suspicious. Or rather, as I thought, you are the type who melted everything and retired, right, Sensei!"
"The five million yen I worked so hard to save!!"
Geoglyph, whose expression melted, remained like that for a while, then suddenly became his usual self.
"For now, shall we try going to the governor's place?"
"Sensei, when your trauma is triggered, you get a hint of manic depression."
Furthermore, Later's retort was ignored.
●
Bethlehem Dover was originally the second son of a Knight Baron. Unable to inherit the Dover family, his birth home, he was in a position destined to be a spare for when something happened to the eldest son, or to run away, or to be banished.
The turning point came 20 years ago. He met Radglyph, who was renowned as a young genius even then, and served as his attendant for a while. Up to that point, it was a common story. Then, four years later, 16 years ago, there was a war with the Kingdom of Karim.
Bethlehem should have followed Radglyph and gone to the battlefield, but as a result of the death of the Triad head of the time, a military inspector dyed in the Empire's inland-centrism, and the enemy country acting as they pleased, difficulties piled up, and no matter how much it was Radglyph, it was a situation where he could not handle it alone.
The one who saved him was Bethlehem. Although he did not have much combat power as the second son of a Knight Baron, he was capable as an internal affairs officer, and he saved the young Radglyph by being peerless behind the scenes.
As a reward for that time, he was entrusted with Berture in place of the previous lord whose management had declined, but Bethlehem firmly declined this due to his status. After much fuss, in the end, it was settled in a form where Berture was a direct territory of the Triad family, and Bethlehem was merely the governor.
However, shortly after being appointed as governor, the mineral veins suddenly began to dry up. No, it seemed there were already signs of that during the previous lord's time, but it was not mentioned in the handover items, and by the time he noticed, it was too late. No matter how excellent an internal affairs officer is, they cannot produce something from nothing.
Also, Radglyph, who received the report, was distressed. He had entrusted Berture to a loyalist who had saved him from his predicament as a reward, but that had resulted in troubling him.
In the midst of that, a single word muttered by Geoglyph became the breakthrough.
And as a result of Berture's reconstruction, Bethlehem came to respect and love Geoglyph just like Radglyph, and since his savior had visited, he hurriedly came to the guest room, believing that he must meet him even if he threw away all his work.
"Oh! This is, this is Lord Geoglyph! It has been a long time!"
"Hi, Bethlehem-san. I am intruding."
While the Serious Breakers party was chatting, a portly middle-aged man entered the guest room as if rolling in.
The upturned mustache, the rounded potbelly that one would strangely want to pet, and this man wearing a fierce smile is Bethlehem. Honestly, he has the typical look of a nouveau riche evil governor who would be wearing a bathrobe, holding wine in his hand, and cradling a cat on his lap, but he is a loyalist.
"I heard that you have started as an adventurer. I see, those people over there are your companions? First time meeting you, I am the governor of Berture, Bethlehem Dover. Please be mindful of me from now on."
Bethlehem, who bowed and smiled, or rather, wore a villainous face to the extent that an onomatopoeia like 'smirk' could be heard, is undoubtedly a loyalist.
Marianne and Later directed gazes at Geoglyph like "Are you okay? Is this person almost a villain?" or "He looks like he will explode while holding tea utensils soon, is Triad safe with this person employed?", but Geoglyph nodded and guaranteed, "It is okay, for this person, the Miyoshi Nagayoshi is Father." Furthermore, the two idiots looked up at the sky, worrying about the future of Triad, saying "Rather, I can no longer feel relieved after that."
"The economy... looking at that belly, it seems to be good?"
"Thanks to you, it is now the largest in the Empire... no, the largest gambling city on the continent. Both I and the city have grown fat!"
"Even though it was a desolate regional city ten years ago."
"That too was a series of deficits after the mineral veins dried up. The location is not bad, but because it is close to the Imperial Capital, there was an outflow of population and few highlight industries..."
Geoglyph nodded to Bethlehem, who had a distant look. It is true that Berture is an intersection of major highways, but in the past, even if it was capable as a supply base, it was not enough to stop people's feet.
As long as people pass through, a minimum amount of money drops, but if asked if it is profitable, one would tilt their head. Especially if there were promising cities nearby, the evaluation of Berture was that people might pass through, but they would not stay, and even if they did, it was just a stay without meals. With this, the city would not prosper, and because it did not prosper, it would not develop, and because it did not develop, the residents who were originally there would flow out to work elsewhere, creating a negative spiral.
At that time, Bethlehem reportedly worried considerably about this, and while feeling ashamed of his own inadequacy, he consulted with the main house.
"But that is a story of the past. Now it is a major industry. Man, I cannot stop laughing!"
"It feels like the flow of Las Vegas somehow..."
"No, I actually used it as a reference. However, since it would be troublesome for public order to worsen due to the influx of mafia, I used legal power for a serious reinforcement, and since it was also a small-scale horse breeding area, I added horse racing to the general casinos. Since it is also a transportation hub, I thought it would prosper if guests did not just pass through but stayed for multiple nights."
Berture's luck was that Geoglyph's previous life knowledge included the origin of Las Vegas. Or rather, the situation was almost the same, and considering that taxes directly link to the power of the territory, he thought it would be better to have at least one entertainment city, so he used his city as a blueprint and executed it.
As a result, Geoglyph's plan worked, and ten years later, it had transformed into an entertainment city that is not an exaggeration to call the largest on the continent.
"Now then, you all must be tired from the long journey? Since it is a special occasion, I have reserved the highest-class hotel in this city. Please, make use of it."
Thus, the Serious Breakers party came to stretch their wings in Berture for a while.
Next time is next week.