It was good to get in contact with my mother and have her introduce me to various contractors…
But the time that has passed since then has gone by at an insane speed.
A week ended before I knew it, making me feel the rapid passage of time.
The feeling of the time limit ticking away, second by second, reminded me of the crunch time at my previous company when a deadline was rapidly approaching.
“Please process these receipts along with these documents.”
“Wheat and lumber, got it!”
“I’ll send the metal-related documents and receipts later too.”
“Yeah, yeah. Haa, this alone is a pretty painful expense. If Memoria-san doesn’t work hard and earn, our department will go bankrupt.”
“Hahaha! If that happens, even my general position will be in trouble.”
I found myself wondering how long it had been since I’d last masked my lack of sleep with caffeine, but I worked diligently with high spirits.
While rapidly typing on the keyboard with one hand, I simultaneously processed emails.
With my other hand, I handled the approval documents.
Evia and the instructor’s suggestions were, in a way, a breakthrough for our work, but it also meant more work.
It turned out that there were surprisingly few personnel capable of operating outside the company.
Currently, if I were to move myself, it would attract too much attention, so I had no choice but to have my subordinates handle the negotiations.
Now, here’s the problem.
What would happen if we sent out the few negotiators we had from our already understaffed faction?
The answer is: the internal workload would become incredibly busy…
As the person in charge, I have had less than ten hours of sleep in total this past week due to the increased workload.
Even during my corporate slave days, I never cut back on sleep this much.
“Keiri-san, please take a nap once you finish that task.”
“What about you? You clearly have less sleep than I do.”
“I’m used to this, and based on my senses, I can still function normally for a while.”
This isn’t just burdening me; it’s also placing a strain on my subordinates.
Although I felt the flow was bad, there was no way to break out of it.
If that’s the case, I have no choice but to work harder than anyone else to reduce their burden, even if only a little.
“…Alright. Wake me up in two hours.”
“Please sleep for three hours. Then, please let them rest as well.”
“Understood, I’ll take you up on that.”
However, it was clear that the burden was being concentrated in one area.
Even the tough Keiri-san was approaching her limit, and she could no longer hide her fatigue.
When I told her to rest, she let out a sigh of relief, as if she were a little relieved, and then disappeared into the nap room.
“Alright, this is where the real challenge begins. There’s not much time until the marriage hunting party.”
Thanks to the magic crest, my body has become sturdier, which is a huge help.
My concentration has also dramatically increased, and the difference in my brain’s alertness is also quite evident.
I need to cover for Keiri-san’s absence by somehow using my physically enhanced body with magic, I thought, steeling myself.
I cracked my neck with a satisfying pop, about to get back to work, but then…
“Hiii! How are you doing? Contractor-san?”
Valse-san suddenly appeared in the air, summoned by herself, interrupting me.
“You just drained my magic and I’ve lost my energy.”
“Oh, my apologies.”
Normally, it wouldn’t be a significant amount, but given my current physical condition, Valse-san’s summoning takes quite a bit of my magic.
“But, I wanted to give this to you as soon as possible.”
“Give this?”
I understood that Valse-san had appeared for a reason.
So, what was that reason? While she smiled broadly, she activated space magic, consuming even more of my magic.
“Here, this is Nord-kun, whom I was holding onto.”
A shadow appeared from the gate magic.
I recognized the face.
However…
“My dear elder brother, I apologize for the long period of education. Nord Nordis has now returned.”
I had never met such a polite demon before.
Nord-kun bowed gracefully and smoothly.
He was so different from how he had been yelling frantically before I sent him away.
“It’s a masterpiece. The indecisive Nord-kun from before is gone. In other words, he’s a *new* Nord-kun.”
“Yes, I have reformed my heart and intend to work with all sincerity to be of assistance to the Demon Lord’s Army.”
Valse-san gave a thumbs-up, beaming with confidence in her accomplishment.
From an outsider’s perspective, his personality had clearly been corrected.
It was as if he had attended a long-term etiquette class and passed the exam.
“…”
If he truly intends to work diligently, that would be a godsend.
“Well then, please check these documents.”
“Certainly.”
However, considering his past performance, there were parts that were difficult to believe.
My brain, dulled by fatigue, made it impossible to judge correctly.
For now, I decided to test his abilities… by giving him a simple but somewhat troublesome task.
I assigned him the important but tedious work of checking numbers.
If he were the Nord-kun from before, he would have just faked his way through it.
“What?”
I exclaimed in surprise at the scene unfolding before me.
Nord-kun quickly tapped on a calculator, meticulously wrote down the verified data in a notepad, and efficiently processed the information.
“He’s… serious.”
He was working so diligently, it was as if the man who had desperately resisted working had vanished.
“I told you it was a masterpiece, didn’t I?”
Valse-san showed me a smug grin, noticing my suspicious gaze.
“Indeed, if it’s like this…”
“The beginning was tough. He complained about not wanting to work, cried about wanting to go home, he was such a handful.”
“But how did you manage to do that with Nord-kun?”
“Eh? I just encouraged him to study work on his own.”
“No, I mean, how?”
I was impressed by Valse-san’s skill in reforming Nord-kun, whom even Evia had given up on, and I was curious about her methods. She said he started studying voluntarily.
If he could do that, Evia wouldn’t have had any trouble.
I tilted my head, unable to come up with any method, when Valse-san giggled and held up one finger.
“The space where you and I first met.”
“The space where we first met… you mean that empty space?”
“Yes, I left him there.”
“Left him… you mean, in a situation with absolutely nothing?”
“That’s right. Utterly empty, with only the clothes on his back, left in an empty space. He couldn’t get tired, couldn’t sleep. I just left him in a void.”
“…Ah, so that’s what you mean.”
Hearing that hint, I thought about how cruel she could be.
Valse-san is a spirit.
The time limit imposed by lifespan is virtually non-existent for her.
Moreover, as a spirit who governs time and space, she can manipulate time at will.
What happens when that power is fully utilized?
Simply put, it’s the one hundred million year switch.
When you flip the switch, you get a million yen in an instant, but the fact is that you’ve experienced one hundred million years in that instant.
“If you keep leaving him there, he’ll get exhausted, fall silent, and eventually be unable to bear the loneliness.”
“Yes, and at that moment, I gently bring in a little something. A textbook is offered in the empty space. For him, who was bored to tears and on the verge of madness, that textbook was like water to a shipwrecked survivor dying of thirst in the desert. He really latched onto it.”
I don’t know how long she left him there, but having nothing to do, nothing at all, is nothing but agony.
He could probably use magic to some extent, but Nord-kun’s talent isn’t that high.
Perhaps practicing magic might have distracted him, but he didn’t think that far.
Or maybe even using magic didn’t distract him.
“Someone else over there managed to distract himself with just sword practice.”
“I wonder who that could be.”
I had the goal of replicating the instructor’s technique, so I somehow managed to distract myself.
Clinging to the vague hope that it was possible might have been an act of madness, but I was able to continue because it was a situation that required it.
I reminisced, shrugging my shoulders, and Valse-san chuckled.
“From there, it was easy. He read that textbook until it was worn out, and once he memorized it, I handed him the next one, and so on. It took seven hundred and thirty-two years just to build the foundation.”
“Seven hundred years for the foundation alone? What about Nord-kun’s lifespan?”
“Don’t worry about that. Not a single second of his lifespan was used.”
He was left in a void for over seven hundred years, given textbooks, and repeatedly memorized them…
Valse-san said that the compulsion of having nothing else to do was effective on Nord-kun, and he ended up reading the textbooks just to distract himself.
The lifespan consumption, which was a concern, was also nullified by Valse-san’s power.
I gave a wry smile, thinking how truly cheat-like her abilities were.
“Once he had the basics down, I just tossed him over to Tris, who acted as his teacher, and voila! He turned into this beautiful Nord-kun.”
“If you break their spirit from the start, this is what happens.”
Valse-san’s methods, which forcibly aimed to break his spirit, were something that even Nord-kun’s degenerate spirit could not resist.
He was steadily ground down and meticulously trained.
And before I knew it…
“Hoo, it’s wonderful to be able to work.”
A perfect corporate slave was completed.
“Being able to do nothing is, in a sense, a deadly weapon.”
The sight of Nord-kun lovingly using his documents and calculator with a smile was something not even a well-trained salaryman would normally witness.
The phrase “you don’t have to do anything” is usually used in the context of being declared unfit for work, but if one is pushed into a situation where they literally cannot do anything, even work can turn into entertainment.
Being unable to die or sleep, and spending time alone in an empty space is incredibly harsh.
Valse-san’s forceful method, which turned a metaphorical weapon into physical destructive power.
Her power sent a momentary shiver down my spine.
“If one can feel moved by being entrusted with a task, then one can truly come to enjoy work.”
Then, I shrugged my shoulders, feeling convinced by the sight of Nord-kun working energetically.
“Well, you said there was no need to choose your methods, Contractor-san, so I finished it according to your order. I may have warped his personality, but I did not warp his spirit.”
“It is indeed joyful that he has become a true human, or rather, a true demon, but knowing the process makes it hard to celebrate wholeheartedly. I have no complaints about the work, and I am grateful. In our staffing shortage, this assistance is invaluable.”
I made a gesture of apology with one hand to Valse-san, who seemed to want to say something about my attitude, and she softened her expression.
“Ah, that’s right. Here, I finished this for you while I was bored during Nord-kun’s education.”
“This is…”
“There are so many things you can do with a PC. It even got the kids excited, and they made something far more powerful than I imagined.”
She then gently handed me a laptop.
It was the high-end laptop I had given to Valse-san.
I placed the laptop on the side of my desk and looked at its powered-on screen.
“Wow, this is…”
“Yes, that is your dungeon. A next-generation dungeon equipped with an agricultural plant.”
The blueprint of the dungeon I was about to manage was displayed.
“This is my dungeon.”
I felt a sense of emotion I had never experienced before at this information.
Today’s word
The closer the deadline, the faster the work pace becomes.
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