Labor Shortage

The seasons changed, and summer arrived.

I was relaxing in a room at the [Dancing Doll's Pavilion]. Granted, it was an inn I'd built myself, but it was a fairly nice room all the same.

Looking up through the window, a pleasantly clear blue sky stretched out before me.

… It's seriously hot. Musing that even another world has proper four seasons, I plunged my feet into a wooden bucket filled with water.

Ahhh, the cool water feels so good… Well, it'll probably get lukewarm soon enough.

It's been several months since I came to this world. One thing led to another and I became a Dungeon Master, and I think I've been working pretty hard, personally speaking… I think I've been working way too much, actually. I went through all that trouble to dig a tunnel through Tsuia Mountain and set up a toll system, and I've finally started getting passive income… but now the inn's getting busier in proportion to the tunnel profits. Well, of course it is. More people means more people using the inn.

As for my actual job of running the dungeon, I decided to have golems carrying knives wander around the labyrinth areas on the second and third floors on very rare occasions. These knives are Golem Blades, of course. Magic sword knives that vibrate and increase their sharpness when you channel mana into them. Beat one safely and you get to keep the magic sword knife. I've only put out five of them so far, though.

I also added Iron Golem spawners. They cost 50,000 DP each, but thanks to Haku-san visiting several times, Iron Golems now wander around freely beyond the Puzzle Area. Getting paid in DP really is huge. Oh, there's one in the labyrinth area too, so it occasionally runs into adventurers. They seem too hard to beat though, since people just run when they encounter one.

Thanks to dangling such rewards, three parties are hanging around the labyrinth today (one of which is a beginner party that came to gain combat experience against goblins).

As for the Puzzle Area on the fourth floor… it's been discovered, but nobody's solved the puzzles. One party managed to reach it by chance, but they were too worn out and turned back out of caution for traps. After that, people keep getting maddeningly close in the labyrinth but can't quite make it there again… Looks like nobody's figured out that the correct route changes at fixed intervals yet.

Between the income from inn and tunnel users, both DP and cash, my current lifestyle has become pretty stable. I can even convert cash into DP. That's why I can laze around in my room like this.

So today, I'm deliberately going to do nothing and just sleep the day away.

Maybe I should add an air conditioner function to the room… Actually, wouldn't there be some life magic for spending summer comfortably? Wait, come to think of it, haven't I only ever used [Purify] as far as life magic goes…? And even though I went to the trouble of learning magic skills, I feel like I've only been using [Create Golem].

What a waste… Right, let me swap out the water in this bucket with Low-tier water magic [Water].

I dumped the water from the bucket out the window.

Focusing my mind, the incantation that had been imprinted into my head from the scroll surfaced.

Hmm hmm, "Water, form a small sphere," huh… Let me tweak it a bit.

"Cold water, form a small-ish sphere. [Water]."

I felt a bit of mana drain away, and immediately a sphere of water appeared before me. Then it splashed into the bucket right on target. Yep, it's cold.

It's been a while since I used any magic besides [Create Golem]. But yeah, magic really is convenient.

"Kehma, me too～"

That was my partner, who was relaxing in my room for some reason. The Dungeon Core, Rokuko. Hey, you have your own room. I even made it pretty fancy.

I chanted again and filled Rokuko's bucket with cold water.

"Ahh, Kehma's magic really is weird. When Niku or I do it, the water doesn't come out this cool～"

"Well, you don't usually modify the chant."

"You can't, you know? Normally."

Language is just patterns, so you'd think someone would have analyzed it by now, but at least as far as Rokuko knows, there's no one besides me with the translation cheat who can modify magic. She's a Dungeon Core who can't stray too far from here, so her social circle is pretty limited though… Wait, isn't it just me and my slaves Niku and Ichika, so three people? Oh, and Haku-san too. Dungeon Core Number 89, our dungeon's god of fortune and a big shot from the Imperial Capital.

"L-Lately, with the inn and all, I've gotten to know the guild's receptionist too! S-Siriana-san."

I feel like there's one letter too many there, but it's probably not a big deal.

Our relationship with the guild isn't bad. A fairly proper guild branch office has been built now, but Receptionist-san still eats her meals here, and once a week she stays over to use the bath. She seems to really like it.

Since the guild is built within the dungeon's territory, we can reliably get over 80 DP per day from Receptionist-san alone. Very profitable. Locking someone in a room with a lock doubles the DP yield, too.

"Goshujin-sama, please replenish the food."

Niku, who was in charge of serving food in the dining hall, came in… It's a pain, but I have to prepare the meals. I used DP to produce the missing dishes and side dish breads, then handed them to Niku.

Niku stowed the food I handed her into a time-stopped subspace using the time-space magic [Storage]. She'd take them out again in the kitchen and serve them to customers. Meals like what you'd get at Japanese convenience stores or family restaurants are incredibly popular in this other world, and lately there are even adventurers who come here specifically for the food.

… Actually, Rokuko could handle the DP exchanges too, but for some reason the results are better quality when I do it. Maybe it's a difference in perception?

Just then, Niku fumbled and dropped some of the food I'd handed her. Fortunately, what fell was just a side dish bread in plastic wrap, so it landing on the floor wasn't a big deal.

"… You don't look too good. Are you okay?"

Only now did I finally notice Niku's complexion was off. Her skin was a beautifully tanned brown, which made it hard to spot. If she were as fair-skinned as Rokuko, it would've been much more obvious.

"Um… I'm fine… I think."

Niku's a dog-eared beastkin, so her body is sturdier than a regular human's. But she's still a child whose age might not even be in the double digits. I placed my hand on Niku's forehead. Her sweaty skin clung to my palm… She was burning up.

"… Go rest!"

"Hya… e-eh, y-yes…"

I laid Niku down in the futon, then left the room to work in the dining hall in her place.

 

＊ ＊ ＊

 

Niku's fatigued. Probably exhaustion combined with the heat. I need to let her rest properly.

And that made me realize something.

… We have a labor shortage!

Well, yeah. I'd vaguely been aware of it for a while now. Ichika joined us, we started the inn, and lately things have been stable so we've been getting more and more guests.

First, you need one person at reception. Then one person in the dining hall. Those two are absolutely essential as long as the inn is open. And we only have four people total, including me, to run this dungeon and inn.

That's clearly not enough. And even two is the bare minimum.

Golems can help with physical labor like carrying things, so human work is basically just customer service.

Thanks to life magic like [Purify], laundry and cleaning are overwhelmingly easy and take little effort in this world, but customer service still takes physical and mental stamina.

Having worked in the dining hall today in Niku's place, I have to say: even though we get fewer customers than a restaurant in town, the fact that Niku had been managing the dining hall all by herself is seriously impressive.

I mean, the dining hall almost never gets complaints. When one does come in, Ichika rushes over from reception to deal with it, but the number of people who've complained about Niku being a beastkin, or a slave, or a child can be counted on one hand, and it's always a one-time thing with no repeat offenders.

Yet today, the moment I took over serving, we got complaints that were practically people just picking fights. What the hell. Things calmed down once I asked Rokuko to help, but what, are these guys lolicons or what?

And this is something I tend to forget since I'm not really conscious of it, but using magic consumes mana, which is something like mental stamina.

Niku uses [Storage] every time she takes food in and out, so it must be quite a burden on her.

I carelessly overlooked it because she'd been working with a straight face, but she must have been incredibly tired every single day. And yet… I've been using Niku as my hug pillow when I sleep, and she never even frowned, just smiled through it all… As I say this out loud, I'm starting to wonder if she's really okay being my slave. What a super girl.

"… Goshujin-sama…?"

"Oh, you're awake. How do you feel?"

I stroked Niku's head. Beyond the towel blanket draped over her, her dog tail wagged happily, clearly pleased.

"I'm fine now."

"Stay in bed. You don't have to be my hug pillow today either."

"… Ugu… B-But, then where will Goshujin-sama sleep…"

"I'll just use one of the empty rooms. Luckily, we run an inn."

Hearing that, Niku looked dejected.

Sad she can't work, what a truly loyal dog-girl.

… Come to think of it, I never properly set up days off for them. I sleep whenever I feel like it, and I told Ichika and Niku they could do whatever they wanted when there were no guests, but lately days without guests have become rare… or rather, we have guests every single day now.

On top of that, Niku has her job as my hug pillow.

No days off… And while I provide food and lodging, they basically don't get paid, so it's no rest and no pay. Saying "mukyuu～ mukyuu～" might sound cute, but this is black company-level exploitation and that's terrifying.

In other words, we have an overwhelming labor shortage.

For Niku and Ichika's sake, and for my own sleep, I need to do something about this…