Bucket Rice in a Giant Washtub

[Outside the West Gate]

Heading toward Iruma, three of Mint's avatars carried out the survey, and on that basis Marie generated the farmland. For safety's sake, the Dungeon Master never met the settlers directly, so it was Marie who met with the settlers' overseer, Okada Tarōzaemon.

"Secretary-General-dono, thanks to you, the clearing of the fields is going smoothly. Everyone's working hard, knowing they can have land of their own."

"The sweet potatoes are everyone's lifeline, you see. Please prioritize getting them planted above all else. We can't very well say, 'If they have no rice, let them eat cake.' The rice will be transplanted as soon as preparations are done, too."

That was Marie, and what's more, it isn't a line she actually said in real history. Her name is even spelled differently from that Marie, the one usually read "Mary."

"All the same, the roads and waterways are awfully straight."

"We use the dungeon's functions to shape the land and designate the roads and waterways as dungeon structures, so straight lines save energy, no, save force. We have to make the fields in a tremendous hurry, after all."

"And then we till the soil, mix in fertilizer, and plant the seedlings."

"That sort of work, at least for the time being, can't be done by the dungeon's functions, so we have no choice but to leave it to all of you. For the procedure, an agricultural high school's textbook is easy to follow and would be good, but…"

"Forgive me. We can't so much as read."

"Not at all. It's entirely the fault of a Daikan who hauled in a thousand people all at once. There's no managing hands-on instruction for several hundred people."

[West of the Kamogawa]

Drawing on the theory of agricultural location, vegetable plots were planned for the area around the city walls. Beyond them, paddies were laid out.

"So this is a 'paddy.' I'd heard there were such things in Fuchū, but… ordinarily rice is a luxury good, grown in a tub."

"A real paddy has a clay layer at the bottom, but this paddy is a washtub built as a dungeon structure. In essence, it's giant bucket-rice."

"Bucket…? You mean a monster spawns it?"

"It means growing rice in a tub. Each single field is a giant washtub of one or two chōbu. The vegetable plots and orchards don't need a bottom, so they come cheaper by that much, but rice is important and effectively functions as currency, you see."

[Two *Ri* Outside the Southeast Gate, Kishi Village]

Kishi Village, two ri southeast of the dungeon. To fix the line of the Nakayama Road, which would serve as the axis of development, stakes were set in a straight line running out from the dungeon. Three of Mint's avatars surveyed the land, and in keeping with it, Mint herself, back in the Core Room, made the fields and waterways.

"Truly, there's nothing here."

So said the knight order's assault captain, Kishimoto Aimi-no-gunji, the District Governor of Kishimoto in Aimi. Kishimoto was a sturdily built, swarthy, bearded man.

"It's like this at first. Even so, a head of the house with a fief of his own. It's been a long road."

Kishida Soeshimo-no-gunji, the District Governor of Kishida in Soeshimo, was the knight order's treasurer and its envoy for external affairs. With his toothbrush mustache, his appearance was a cross between Hitler and Tōjō Hideki. These two were the senior retainers, drawing two hundred hyō.

Their heads, the commander Kishi Harima-no-suke included, were topped with topknots. Rap one and it would surely ring with the sound of hidebound obstinacy. But since this dungeon had adopted an outdated social system, that was no concern.

[Outside the Northwest Gate]

In the northwestward direction, toward the Land of Ke, stakes likewise lined the route of the Nakayama Road. Rāja and Haruna, along with three of Mint's avatars, surveyed, and Rāja generated the paddies and waterways.

"Since there's only the one knight order, the highways other than the western one will only be incorporated into the dungeon's sphere of influence and improved for two or three ri, or so they say."

"At a canter that's about the right distance, so I suppose that's how it goes. A full gallop would be too much, though."

"It tires you out?"

"Yes. Normally once every several dozen days is the most one can manage. Between chasing after Kasumi and the others and the time the Pretas came, I broke into a flat-out gallop twice, so I'm no good for it for a while now."

[Outside the East Gate, Left Bank (East Bank) of the Shibakawa, Minami-Nakano]

Over the dry valley named the Shibakawa, a dungeon-structure bridge had been thrown, and here too three of Mint's avatars surveyed while the maid, Anne, made the fields. Incidentally, Sapien-sensei was busy with his work as physician and teacher and was not making paddies. Mint's avatars had increased by four, for twelve in all.

With no one to talk to anyway, Anne pressed on with her work in silence.

[Outside the Northeast Gate]

Here, too, a dungeon-structure bridge had been thrown over a dry valley, but as there was no one to direct the work, the fields had been put off. Mint, who could share senses with her avatars, was one thing, but for the Dungeon Master to issue remote orders to Mint's avatars from the Core Room was far too dangerous.

[The Southwest Direction of the Dungeon]

This one alone had no gate and had not been touched at all, and was slated to be left as it was for the time being.