「Did you say that Ricolette’s subordinates, who received a pardon, disappeared?」

「Not just that, it seems that the second and third sons of nobility disappeared too」

「What is happening?」

「It seems that the Daquet company under Honorary Marquis Versam actively hires them and sends them to his territory」

「What is he trying to achieve in this desolate territory……?」

Such a rumor appeared in the imperial palace. No wonder. Only His Majesty the Emperor, Prince Viras, and the prime minister are aware of the reason.

After the conversation with Mayor Marcel, I immediately returned to the capital. I headed straight to the imperial palace and asked to release Rico’s subordinates. Fortunately, it was quickly approved and her subordinates were released one after another. In the name of Rico, they were allowed to join the ranks of Honorary Marquis Versam. Those who wished to join receive three days to prepare themselves for departure.

Before leaving the capital, I went shopping. On the way, I visited the store and designated the gathering spot.

After buying a lot of food, clothes, and other daily necessities, I returned to the mansion. Then, we spent 2 days preparing the boxed lunches for everyone. We prepared around 3000 lunch boxes. Considering that they were made by 7 people, I count it as an achievement.

We made three kinds of lunch boxes. I wanted to make more, but we had limited personnel.

Still, with Peris in the lead, Rico’s and Ferris’ talents have shined. On the other hand, Mei found gigantic bamboo leaves with sterilizing effect and had the harpies carry them. Gon too decided to harvest his vegetables with crying Luara, who was forced to help him.

I didn’t play around either. I asked Marcel to mobilize all the fishermen in three days and had the guys make various preparations. After that, I just helped with the cooking. I spent quite a bit of MP, but I think I did well.

Three days later. First, I met up with Rico’s subordinates in the designated location. There were 100 of them. There were soldiers and officials, but as expected of the princess’ people, a lot of them were women. Most of them were women.

I transferred them together with Rico to the Kairiku town. [¹] Before the transfer, they received an explanation from Rico and she asked to help with the preparations.

After that, I headed to meet the people from the rumors in the capital. There were soldiers, officials, beastmen, adventurers amongst them. They numbered 150. We returned to the Kairiku town first while Gon interviewed them one by one. He only checked them for「Curse」or other weird skills, but they numbers were still reduced to about 100.

When the preparations were mostly complete, they were finally teleported over.

「Welcome, everyone! From now on, we are going to proceed with the grand plan! Amongst 600 sea tribe people under Marcel, men are to capture the esaraharu, women are to dismantle it. Rico’s subordinates shall protect the town together with the guard, the others shall do as ordered. Pius and the rest of you are to act together with the recently teleported people. The ones who were teleported from the capital should listen to them! 」

The people split up to form their respective groups.

「This plan is to capture the esaraharu. It is a fish that rots in no time. I want to ask the sea tribe to dismantle them as fast as possible. The human tribe will dispose of it! They begin to rot right after their death. It is a race against time! I’m counting on you! If this plan succeeds, we will discuss your future employment conditions. I understand if you are uneasy, but I want you to trust me! 」

I cast a barrier on a vacant house, Mei was inside of it.

「Mei, it’s up to you!」

「Yes, leave everything to me! It will work out! 」

Seeing that everything was ready, I positioned myself on a hill from which I could view the whole town. The sun was slowly climbing upwards. The sea was calm. However, the sea was pitch black for quite the distance.

「Well then, let’s start!」

I created a white sphere in my hands. Inside of it, I created hundreds of explosions. Then, I threw the barrier in the sea with the shockwave and sound confined inside of it. I threw multiple spheres and created an oversized barrier around the esaraharu. A while after they disappeared in the sea, I dispelled the barriers.

「Doon!」
「Dooooon!!」
「Dododooooooon!!!」

Here and there, I could see water rising into the air. I cast a barrier on the beach. After that, a few hundred esaraharu, which were caught up in the explosion, rained from the sky. I gathered them together and passed the baton to dismantling squad.

At the same time, a great number of esaraharu floated on the surface of the sea, after a while, the whole surface was covered in them. The men gave them a finishing blow and delivered the fish to the women. The women swiftly dismantled and put them in the boxes that were prepared beforehand. After that, the men split and some of them headed towards Mei while some of them towards Pius and company. Looking from above I could see a smooth cooperation, unfitting of those who work together for the first time.

I made a round around the beach and collected the remaining esaraharu using my barriers to put them in the infinite storage. Then I headed towards Pius and his company. There, the grilling of esaraharu was in process. I created a lot of ice and handed it to them. After that, I joined Mei in her work.

Roughly 2 hours after the start of the hunt. After we dealt with about a third of esaraharu, something strange occurred in the sea. Dozens of gigantic fish appeared and started devouring the esaraharu.

It was dangerous to remain on the beach, so we decided to have lunch.

「Pius! Bring out the esaraharu! 」

Esaraharu sashimi with sliced garlic and onions on top of it. There was also Peris’ creation「Ponzu」.

「It feels the best eating it together!」

I also brought out the hot atasha rice.

「Un, delicious!」

「Such a rich taste!」

「I like this taste!」

It seems to be popular amongst the sea tribe. After that, we finished our meal and the sea tribe delivered the last of the dismantled esaraharu.

When I looked at the sea, the esaraharu were being eaten at the visible rate. In just 1 hour, the esaraharu that were filling the sea disappeared.

「Are they edible?」

「This fish is called orlein. This fish is quite the delicacy」

I made the exploding barrier again and threw it into the sea. [²] After a while, the giant fish that ate the esaraharu floated bellies upwards too.

「Marcel! Can you catch that fish too? 」

「Of course! Hey, you lot, let’s go! 」

The men immediately boarded the ship and left to gather them. This time, the sea tribe people professionally collected the orlein. Approximately 1 hour later, about 90 orlein were gathered by Marcel.

「Can you process them too?」

「Of course, I will handle this personally」

Marcel agile controlled his giant knives and dismantled them in a blink of an eye. 10 of them were directly turned into a vast amount of sashimi. The rest I stored in my infinite storage. I can eat the orlein for a while.

When the sun was about to sink beyond the horizon, our plan finally reached its conclusion.

「Good work, everyone! Look at the sea! 」

There was a calm sea covered in the light of the setting sun.

「Our sea is back!」

「We can sail again starting from tomorrow!」

「Rinos-dono, I didn’t believe that you could restore our sea. I’m grateful. I truly am! 」

Marcel powerfully shook my hand. Not intending to lose to him, I shook his hand too.

「All right, let’s have a party! Drink until you are full! Eat your fill! 」

Orlein sashimi, steak, esaraharu, rice, and drinks appeared on the scene. Soldiers, nobles, adventurers, beastmen, and sea tribe people ate without holding back. When I looked around, I discovered Luara humming to the side as she gazed into the sea.

「Oi, aren’t you hungry? You too should eat. Ah, will eating the esaraharu count as cannibalism for you? 」

It’s all right, she said as she stretched her hand towards the plate.

「……Tasty」

「Right? The meal is tastier after the work. Such meals should be enjoyed together with your coworkers. It would be even tastier」

「…..I’m glad. The sea is clear again. I thought about what I should do……because of me, a lot of people……gusun……」

「Don’t cry. Your tears won’t change the past. It’s all right to fix it once you recognized the problem」

「Yes, thank you very much…….」

「First things first, eat! You won’t have any energy otherwise」

Yes, she said as she joined everyone.

Suddenly, I became aware of Mei’s absence. After I searched, I found her inside of my barrier. It seems that there is some work happening inside.

「O~i, Mei. What’s wrong? Are you all right? 」

「Ah! My husband! I’m fine. Just concerned about something…..」

「Don’t worry. If it doesn’t work, we just have to redo everything」

「I was wondering for a while, what are you doing?」

Marcel and his subordinates approached.

「Ah, I’m drying the esaraharu. Like this, they could be preserved for longer. I thought it could become one of this town’s specialties」

「Drying……I see, they shouldn’t rot as fast if they are dry….I never noticed」

「I still didn’t finish, though. I hope it tastes good. I’m trying to adjust the process, but it will take some time. Please wait for a while」

「If we can sell the esaraharu, this town will prosper……. Rinos-dono, no, My Lord, I can’t express my gratitude」

「No, I’m not a lord, just a manager. Rinos is fine」

「Rinos-dono, we the sea people shall lend you our strength at a moment’s notice」

「Thank you. By the way, did you eat? Let’s have a meal! The drinks are plentiful. Let’s drink with everyone today! 」

「We prepared the drinks from our side too. Feel free to have a taste」

「All right! Let’s drink, everyone! 」

On that day, I drank until my head went blank. At that time, I had no way to know of a sad development ahead of me.