Chapter 186

Short Story Collection
Mass Migration of the Balding
In Arland, at a certain count's estate of one of the five great races, a group of balding gathered.

“Gentlemen, I trust you understand that a grave situation has arisen.”

As the count solemnly spoke, everyone nodded with serious expressions.

“The Wasteland of Death in the Kingdom of Ostland has been restored. Most likely… it was the Princess. The Elixir of Life is real!”

Bang! The count slammed a newspaper down onto the table. The headline on the front page read: “Elixir of Life Developed?” alongside a photo of the King of Ostland. Newspapers existed in this world too. Cameras were rare and expensive, so subscription fees were high, but they did exist. And the King of Ostland wore a smug expression. Nothing could be more infuriating. No—more accurately, it was envy.

“We dismissed him as merely the king of a small country. To think he had the stature to directly make a request of the Princess… He is… a true man.”

Envy. That was the truth. But the count still found himself respecting the King of Ostland in his heart, for being able to do what they themselves could not.

Then, a viscount raised his hand.

“It’s true the King of Ostland has achieved a great feat. Surely, this means the Elixir of Life will now go into mass production. We too will benefit. Let us praise the King of Ostland’s wise decision.”

The group nodded. They themselves had not dared to ask the little girl to cure their baldness. They would have to be satisfied with the leftovers.

Truth be told, they wanted the Elixir of Life badly. Preferably in bulk, for daily use. And as vassals of the Arland royal family, they had wanted to be the first honored with its use.

But they hadn’t done it—because of their pride. It was by no means the King of Ostland’s fault.

Not so petty as to bear a grudge, they quietly dispersed, thinking that an official announcement of mass production would surely come from the kingdom soon.

A week later, they gathered once more. This time, unlike before, they wore anxious expressions and looked a little worn.

“This is strange… There’s been no announcement from the kingdom.”

“I haven’t been able to eat lately… Why… Why is this happening?!”

One of the nobles lost control and began banging his head against the wall. The others hurriedly restrained him.

“Calm down, calm down. Maybe they're having trouble with manufacturing facilities. This is an elixir that will bring peace to the world. It might be incredibly difficult to produce.”

The count tried to reason with the distraught noble. But the man resisted, his eyes bloodshot.

“The Princess, who built an airship in a day, having trouble? That’s unthinkable! Is the kingdom abandoning us…? If only I had the Elixir of Life… If they would just give it to me, I’d go to the battlefield and cover the rear guard alone!”

Alicetia's strength lay in her extraordinary research and production speed. No one could believe she was having trouble. And in fact, the reality was simple—she had just gotten bored and moved on to something else.

Among them was a man who had been silent the entire time. He had rarely left his domain, and now looked like a ghost with a dead expression in his eyes. He was the one who had once used dance to hide his baldness, then shut himself away after being exposed.

His murmuring silenced the group.

“Heh… The Princess can’t understand our suffering… because she’s one of the ‘havers’... That’s why she can’t understand the greatness of the Elixir of Life… I’m going back to my domain.”

As the man staggered out of the room, his words finally made them realize:

“Come to think of it, it’s possible the Princess doesn’t even understand how amazing the Elixir is.”

“Could it be she hasn’t noticed that if we had it, the strife between the ‘havers’ and ‘have-nots’ would disappear, leading to world peace?”

Of course, while it would eliminate one kind of suffering, other forms of conflict would persist, so peace wouldn’t exactly break out. Still, removing even one kind of misfortune was a step forward.

“In other words… We must go directly to the Princess and plead our case.”

Alicetia doesn’t understand the importance of the Elixir of Life. If that’s why it hasn’t been mass-produced, then it’s up to them to explain it to her.

Suddenly, the count stood up.

“Pardon me. I need to use the restroom.”

The moment the host left the room, the rest of them shot to their feet with alarmed expressions.

“He’s making a move ahead of us!”

“Wait, I’m going first!”

“Out of the way! I can’t get through!”

Everyone tried to rush out at once, causing a bottleneck at the door.

Soon, voices could be heard from outside.

“I shall be the second user! Hahaha!”

“You treacherous snake!”

Thus began the mass migration of the balding lords.

Arland is peaceful again today.
—--------------
The Crown Prince Is Busy Too

Meanwhile, the royal castle in Arland was in a frenzy.

“We can now mass-produce semiconductors for magic tools. This will drastically improve their performance. I’m building a factory.”

“The television is complete. I’m building a factory.”

“We’re building a radio tower.”

“We’re also constructing factories for home appliances.”

“We’re building a magic stone concentration plant.”

“Mass production of magic crystals is also in full swing.”

“We need to build a military factory (sense of duty).”

“We’ve also got to build a factory for magic vehicles.”

Every day, Alicetia and her clones visited Gilbert’s office to report on new inventions and their mass production.

Naturally, all these new technologies required new laws. For example, regarding magic vehicles, the new royal capital itself had already been built with traffic systems like signals and roads in place—but the workload was so overwhelming that the bureaucrats in charge of related tasks were collapsing from overwork.

Gilbert held his head in his hands. On his desk were about ten stacks of documents reaching the ceiling.

“I underestimated Alice’s full power…”

“Your Highness, we’re critically short on labor.”

The Prime Minister gave his report with a serious expression—but an oddly cheerful tone. He was a workaholic.

“Ah... in that case, let’s distribute the controller bracelets that Alicetia made to the farmers. We can use the second sons of farming families as laborers, and the farmers will profit too.”

Currently, most agriculture is done by hand. This means it requires manpower and is inefficient. The plan was to introduce magic tools like tractors and harvesters, reforming the system to reduce the number of workers needed while still maintaining vast farmlands. If manpower was absolutely necessary, they would use golems.

With this, farming families would no longer need to support their second and third sons, and the money required to support them would go to the sons themselves. Even children like second and third sons could be utilized as laborers. There was a time when it seemed like this would be enough for the time being.

They had already put this into action, and indeed, they managed to secure a large number of workers. The Viceroy Merchant Union had also begun limited production, and once items were completed, they were delivered immediately—it was proving effective.

As a result, even though the number of workers decreased, the increase in harvests made the farmers wealthy—though that would be a topic for later.

However, Alicetia, judging that there were now more workers available, kept building more and more factories. So the labor shortage never actually ended.

“What about immigrants…? Aren’t there more of them than usual this year?”

“Rumors of our country's prosperity have reached the Central region, so the increase in refugees of other races likely won't stop.”

Currently, Arland is one of the few places where non-humans can live safely as people. The Country of Tranquility is safe in theory as well, but since traveling there requires a ship, it’s difficult to reach. Non-humans persecuted in the Central region generally aim for Arland.

Arland’s immigration policy is tolerant. As long as one follows the rules, there’s no problem. But if you don’t, you cannot become a citizen.

Since it originally began as a nation of immigrants, this is something Arland is capable of doing. However, there are no human rights for supremacists. For them, labor in the mines awaits.

“Still, even with the immigrants included, we’re short on workers?”

“We’re currently having the soldiers help with facility construction as well.”

“Well, they are building their own barracks after all.”

Gilbert let out a sigh at the severe labor shortage, to the point that even idle soldiers had to help construct the new barracks.

It was certainly better than a recession. It was hard to complain to Alicetia. Her actions were all aimed at providing the people with jobs and income. In fact, the approval rating of the Arland government was at a historic high.

“Well, we can get new workers even aside from immigrants, so it’s fine.”

Saying this, Gilbert left the office. Near the castle gates, about a hundred people were lined up, wearing slave collars and standing next to carriages with iron bars.

“Welcome, spies! I’ve been waiting for your arrival. You’re probably despairing over your death sentences. But I won’t do anything like that. I’m merciful, after all. You no longer need to continue your espionage. From now on, I’ll have you mining ores in the mines.”

The prince spread his arms wide in welcome, his tone cheerful. Normally, spies are executed on discovery, but Gilbert turned them into mine workers. Unlike the spies who were in despair over their fate, Gilbert smiled cheerfully.

Watching Gilbert smile and wave until the carriages carrying them to the mines disappeared from view, the spies probably realized just how foolish they had been.

“If we get more spies, the dwarves managing the mines will probably be delighted.”

“Though on the other hand, I’m sure they’re grumbling in resentment.”

The Prime Minister held his forehead as if feeling a headache at Gilbert’s muttering. The knights present also looked pale.

Gilbert was acquiring laborers using a method akin to alchemy.

After all, Alicetia’s technological power was practically cheat-level. The Central nations sent spies daily. Truly, he couldn’t stop laughing.

Incidentally, the former spies were also being used for dangerous work outside the mines—like dam construction sites.

Even so, Gilbert’s workload didn’t decrease. Alicetia only did the work that fell under her responsibilities, and revising laws was outside her purview. Since she might force through something like a “Snack Law,” no one wanted her involved. Her economic policy amounted to “throw money into the market and build lots of factories.” And she was actually doing it.

Late at night, while Gilbert was still wrestling with paperwork, the old steward brought him some tea and entered the office.

“Your Highness, please get some rest.”

“Just a little more.”

Gilbert drank the tea while reading documents, and the old steward let out a sigh.

“By the way, I haven’t seen the Prime Minister lately.”

“Oh, one of his subordinates collapsed from overwork, so he went to steal that person’s workload. Not even Alice could cure his work addiction.”

With a dry laugh, Gilbert sighed again. He was clearly overworked.

At present, Gilbert was effectively at the top of Arland. Draconia only returned once a month due to the monster territory liberation within the country, and Sylvia was exempt from government duties due to her pregnancy. Neither could be blamed. Liberating monster territories expanded the livable areas for humans and reduced monster damage. In Sylvia’s case, it would be a problem if her health suffered.

In fact, no one in the royal palace wanted Sylvia to work. On the contrary, they all hoped she would rest. Arland was short on royalty.

And Alicetia… well, it wasn’t that she couldn’t handle government affairs. But if she were forced to do more than she currently was, she would get angry, and letting her do as she pleased was better for the economy and approval ratings. Plus, if anyone pushed her too hard, the people would be outrageously angry.

As a result, Gilbert was handling most of the government affairs.

“Well, I’m not planning to skip training with you, Gramps… I’ve started making sword slashes fly recently. I’ll show you next time.”

“Your Highness… you’re exhausted. Someone, prepare the bath.”

A maid waiting in the hallway entered and announced that the bath was ready.

“I mean, I *am* tired, but I’m not hallucinating, you know? The slash really flied right through the air.”

“I understand. At times like this, rest is what matters.”

“That’s not what I’m trying to say~~~!”

The old steward gathered the butler and maids and ordered them to take Gilbert to the bathhouse.

The truth is, the flying slashes were real. However, only high-ranking magic swords or weapons bearing the name “Holy” were supposed to be capable of that. Since Gilbert’s sword was made by Alicetia, no one believed it—but Gilbert’s sword had undergone so many upgrades that it had naturally become a holy sword. Yes, it had become one of the holy swords made by the Spirit King. That revelation would come a little later.

As the old man was leaving the room, he noticed a report on the floor and placed it on top of Gilbert's stack of papers before leaving the room.

The document said that Alicetia was having the Viceroy's mansion built, but the old man didn't look through those kinds of documents so he didn't notice.

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