Surviving The Game As A Barbarian Novel 2025 - Chapter 651
Chapter 651: Barbarian Business (4)
After the overall assessment was complete, I took a moment to think through all the results, and in the end, I decided to request help from Count Goldbeard. I was attending the contest set by the marquess as a representative of Melbeth, after all. There was no need for me to limit myself to only the barbarians. Especially since after the contract was secured, the reconstruction efforts would be carried out by all the construction businesses of Melbeth.
The problem is dealing with that old man’s ego…
The alliance leader ended up deciding on his own that House Yandel would be representing Melbeth. I was worried that it might cause issues down the line, but thankfully, Count Goldbeard sent us experts the day after I sent the request to him. He put more importance on the profits he could gain than keeping his pride as a noble.
House Yandel was going to be the main force, yes, but everyone would be able to benefit from my obtaining the contract.
“Hahaha! How’s this? This is the house we’ve built!”
“It’s…not that bad…?”
The construction engineers who had been dispatched to join us initially looked annoyed to be here and didn’t seem to believe the barbarians could build anything, but their attitude changed into amazement when they saw how fast the warriors worked and the product of their work.
“They lack the skill, but they are unstoppable in work that needs strength, maybe because they’re all adventurers and hardy.”
“If we can just hand these guys the simple, time-consuming tasks that don’t require a lot of skill to carry out…”
“The time we’d need to finish the job would decrease significantly!”
The experts didn’t take long to begin assigning and divvying up the work. Barbarians took over all the work that only required strength and unskilled manual labor, and the work that required engineering knowledge and detailed craftsmanship was handed to the dwarves.
It was a shame. As a chieftain, I would’ve liked for the warriors to learn the skills from the dwarves. Still, it was probably the most efficient method. For now, winning the contest was the top priority.
“You’re a fast worker, but nothing will change if you only rely on your strength.”
“You might get away with a few days, but at this rate, you will never be able to continue for long.”
“We’ll need to educate you.”
After identifying the barbarians’ most pressing shortcomings, the experts immediately held special lessons to fix them.
“Look here. When you lift the steel bars, you need to hold this part and use the strength of your back… Like this!”
“Oh…!”
“And when you put them down, use this angle to put this on the ground first. How’s that? It’s easy even if you don’t use much strength, right?”
“Ohhh…!”
“When putting up a pillar, having two people is always the best, but if needed, use this stance and posture.”
“Ohhhhh…!”
The dwarves taught their expertise in construction to the barbarians, who passionately listened and took them in.
From my perspective, they were learning pretty quickly. Even if they were sometimes slow to learn other things, they were all talented in tasks that needed physical labor.
“Not there. Put some force here—”
“Ah! So like this?”
“That’s… That’s right! You just need to do it like that!”
After the training curriculum was put into place, I spoke with the dwarven experts about how to run the construction operation. In the end, we decided to put a dwarven engineer as an overseer who would guide ten barbarians on the scene.
A day will come when a group of barbarians alone can construct something decent.
Such was the process of learning. They just needed to learn one thing at a time as they went about their menial tasks. At some point, they would become experts in their own right.
“Tomorrow, we will send word to the count asking for more engineers. We alone can’t manage this many people.”
“Alright, thanks.”
“So could we hear more about that contest the prime minister is hosting? We might be able to focus our preparations more toward that goal.”
I told them how the contest was going to be operating, and having seen the professionalism shown by the dwarves until now, I entrusted the contest preparation to them.
“…Thank you for trusting in us. Still, is it really alright for us to prepare everything for such an important event?”
“I’m entrusting it to you because it is so important. You guys are the foremost experts in this field.”
“…You’re completely different from what I heard about you, Lord Baron. We will do our best to repay you for the trust you’ve shown us.”
“I’ll leave it to you.”
In a different light, it might seem like I just shoved all of my work onto the dwarves, but it would be more correct to say that I let them take over a few tasks.
I still had a mountain of work to do.
“Shavin, I’ll be going into the city again.”
Hah… When was I going to get all this done?
***
Even though Rafdonia was a brutal city that treated the lives of people lightly, it was pretty modern in other aspects. They had banks that didn’t take any interest, for instance, and a huge sewer system beneath the entire city. Thanks to the existence of magic here, everyday objects sometimes surprised me because they weren’t possible through science.
That aside, let’s continue the story.
Due to how powerful the governmental authority was, there were a lot of steps you needed to complete before you could start a business. It was impossible to just buy and sell land with other residents to build buildings and build up sales. Things got even more complicated when a layered method like mine was being implemented.
Fortunately, it got accepted this time.
The business application request that I had drafted with the help of Shavin Emoor had been rejected twice already, but it was finally accepted today. It was pretty rare for a titled noble with a known identity like mine to have such difficulty getting a request accepted, but it couldn’t be helped.
“We truly congratulate you on the construction of the Yandel Business. To explain one more time, a total of ten thousand people are allowed to be registered as workers…”
A business usually never began at such a huge scale from its start.
Naturally, a lot of things needed to be confirmed, and I needed to hand in a plethora of documents as well. However, that didn’t mean I could start the business small either.
If I wanted to mobilize the barbarians for work, I needed to register them as workers first. The dwarves probably had their own company as well, so they just needed to be incorporated under an outsourcing contract, but our barbarians had none of that. No, even after looking through our long history, we never had a single thing close to a company.
The first company to be created by a barbarian…
I inadvertently ended up accruing another new accomplishment, but that wasn’t important right now.
After registering the warriors as workers over a few days, I officially went into caring for the residents of Bifron. I mean, it would be a waste to leave all that manpower just sitting around, right? I was responsible for the costs of their living and the taxes they would need to pay next year.
“Shavin, start teaching the young men how to work in construction.”
“Sorry? But we’re already doing that?”
“…You are?”
“It’s not every day you get an opportunity like this. I told them to observe the work of the dwarven craftsmen closely and to learn from it. If they can do what the dwarves are doing in the future, that would be ideal.”
“Then what about the women…?”
“The women are working in the background of the site as well. The meals distributed yesterday were all made by them.”
Her response left me speechless. The commands I wanted to give out were already being carried out.
“Ah, right,” she said in afterthought. “Most of the children know how to read now, perhaps thanks to their studies. When we have more time, I think we should educate them properly so they can work on the administrative side of things.”
“…R-really?”
I suddenly recalled what the alliance leader had told me.
“…I truly can’t understand. I don’t know if these talented individuals flock to you through sheer luck…or if being around you has allowed them to shine even brighter.”
To be honest, I didn’t think much of it back then. I was the one who had thought up the jeonse system, after all. However, I was now thinking back on his words with fresh eyes.
Which one was Shavin? Was she one of the former or the latter?
I thought about it, but the conclusion I drew was that it didn’t matter. I was the one who was lucky to have met the talented Shavin, and I was also the one who gave Shavin her job and freed her from any limitations so she could do whatever she wanted.
“Um…are you angry?” Shavin asked out of the blue, interrupting my thoughts.
“Huh? What do you mean?”
“Well, it’s just that you looked pretty serious. Because I just assigned them to work as I pleased—”
“You don’t need to worry about things like that,” I cut her off. “The reason I looked serious was because I was seriously thinking that it was great we brought you here.”
Shavin looked a little embarrassed at my honest words. “That’s good to hear.” Then, with a bashful expression that was rare to see from her, she said, “And I think it was great as well…”
“…Huh?”
“Even though I’m busy, I feel like I made the right choice to leave my previous work behind and follow you. And…I met a lot of great people here as well…”
Wow. I mean, I did notice that she was looking like a maiden in love.
“So you mean, for example, people like Rotmiller?” I asked with a smirk.
Shavin’s eyes went wide with shock. “E-eh? H-how did you know?”
“I didn’t. Until just then.”
She clamped her mouth shut, looking caught off guard. After a long moment of silence, she asked, “Can you…keep it a secret…? If you don’t, I’m going to abandon this head administrator position and everything.”
She then gave a very frightening threat.
“O-of course. I’ll keep this secret, so don’t worry.”
“Then…that’s good to hear.”
“But do you need to keep it a secret? From what I can tell, Rotmiller, that guy, he seems pretty interested in you as well—”
“R-really? Did Mr. Rotmiller say that he’s interested in me?”
“He didn’t, but I got the feeling! I got a feeling he does!”
“… Wow, are you just messing with me right now?”
Now that I saw it, I could tell that it wasn’t just a mood thing. I didn’t know what Rotmiller felt, but Shavin seemed to have fallen head over heels for him.
This is my first time seeing her like this.
I only got a moment to let how odd it was sink in.
Knock, knock.
I heard knocking from the outside, and Shavin quickly fixed up her hair.
“What are you doing?” I wondered.
“That’s Mr. Rotmiller’s knock?”
“…Huh?”
“…Come in.”
After calming her voice by a notch, Shavin invited the person in. As the door slowly opened, I saw that it was really Rotmiller on the other side.
“Yandel?” he asked in surprise. “You were here as well?”
“Oh, it was just for work. I was about to leave.”
“Since you’re here, I might as well talk to—”
“I’m busy right now. We can have our talk later, just the two of us!”
With that, I quickly scurried out of the office.
…Those two can figure it out on their own.
No matter how I thought about it, I wasn’t in a position to comment on anyone’s love life.
***
Time passed quickly.
This had to be something everyone felt, right? No matter how busy someone’s life was, whenever they looked back on it, they would feel like everything passed by in an instant.
It was no different for me.
How am I more busy than when I am in the labyrinth…?
I met the noble introduced to me by the alliance leader, who had been promoted to real estate broker, and afterward, I was called upon by Count Alminus since he needed my arbitration for some work regarding my business.
I also went and investigated what sort of things the other houses attending the marquess’s contest were doing to prepare.
I also figured out how the work and reward would be divided among myself, Count Goldbeard, and the other houses I would be working with if we won the contract.
And so on.
“Mister, are you awake?”
“Wash up and get ready to go. You’ll be late.”
After multiple busy days where I couldn’t even take naps, that day finally arrived.
“Ah! That’s today, right?”
“Oh! It’s time to show the world the innate greatness of our warriors!”
With that, I finished getting ready and walked out to the appointed place. In the open field, I could see the warriors standing there with their shovels.
Ninety barbarians and ten dwarves.
Under the rules of the contest, these were the one hundred best workers chosen among the warriors.
Look at how reliable and manly they look.
After checking the fire in each of their eyes, I only said one thing.
“Let’s roll out.”
It was something I wanted to say at least once.