Demon's Virtue

670  Harpy Delivery

Boju looked down at the desk in front of him, looking at all the documents that he was currently filling out and creating. There was a lot that they still had to do to even come close to the structure that a settlement of people had, but they were well on their way. However, there was still something that Boju wasn't quite certain of, "But... what do you expect us to sell? Especially to adventurers, what sort of thing do they need..?"

"Well, that's easy. There are three things that you can offer extremely well. Tools, information, and services," Eiro suggested, "There's plenty of monsters here that can create items suitable for beginner adventurers. Swords, knives, clothes, armor, anything, really. They might not be the highest quality, but that's fine. The equipment of beginner adventurers is incredibly bad anyway, so for the most part, it would probably still be quite an upgrade."

The highland Orc thought about it for a while. It was true that there were a lot of monsters, especially amongst the Orcs and Goblins, that have evolved into races that specialize in craftsmanship. That being the case, they didn't really have all that much to do, and were mostly assigned to doing odd-jobs that their skills could somewhat help out with. But if they were to end up selling those sorts of items, then those monsters would have a constant flow of work. And that would also open up the odd-jobs that the craftsmen were doing, which other monsters could end up being assigned to, reducing the level of joblessness in the city pretty effectively. Thinking about it like that, Boju realized that Eiro's method would not only help spread the existence of the city of monsters, but also create more stability in the city by giving the monsters something to do with their time.

The highland Orc started to think about it a bit more, and basically filled in the dots, "So... as for the information, since we have so many different kinds of monsters, we can give different viewpoints to adventurers. Literally, actually... if we have the harpies scout out certain areas from above, or use the kobolds' noses or maybe the masses of smaller spiders to figure out things on the ground-level... then we should be able to provide a whole different level of data to them!"

"That's exactly it. Especially the bit with the harpies. I think they might be a bit harder to really get to do what they're supposed to, but it looks live you've managed to do fine to an extent so far," the Demon pointed out, and Boju quickly nodded, "Ah, yes! They're a bit aggressive and get annoyed very quickly, but they're suprisingly responsive to both food and compliments. So we managed to figure out some ways to motivate them properly."

"I see... I did notice that the harpies were eating quite a lot. But as long as that's not an issue supply-wise, that sounds like a good enough way to handle them. The harpies' boss was also a lot more responsive than most of the others..." Eiro muttered, before pointing out another way they could be useful, "Now, this is something we would have to specifically train them for, but it's probably one of the best ways to make people more responsive to monsters. These other things are mostly targeted at adventurers or mercenaries, but there's one very simple thing that even regular people would love to take advantage of."

15:10

"I see... I did notice that the harpies were eating quite a lot. But as long as that's not an issue supply-wise, that sounds like a good enough way to handle them. The harpies' boss was also a lot more responsive than most of the others..." Eiro muttered, before pointing out another way they could be useful, "Now, this is something we would have to specifically train them for, but it's probably one of the best ways to make people more responsive to monsters. These other things are mostly targeted at adventurers or mercenaries, but there's one very simple thing that even regular people would love to take advantage of."

Boju raised a brow, "And... what's that?"

"Delivery services," the Demon pointed out, "I hear about it all the time. Solomon is constantly trying to figure out ways to improve delivery systems, for things like letters and especially parcels, just because of the danger of traveling on roads. At this point, letters are somewhat easily taken care of, whether through doves or even some magics, though especially the latter is quite an expensive service. And there's a pretty low limit to what either of those can deliver too."

The highland Orc listened to Eiro's words, and his eyes immediately started to glister, "Right! Regular birds are so weak, but the harpies carried tons of bricks with ease for hours on end!"

"The endurance of monsters can't be underestimated. And especially harpies are both strong and fast. Not to mention, they would be much safer than other kinds of delivery or transportation, and considerably cheaper too."

Boju looked down at the table and started cupping his chin and mouth, in thought, "If we train some of the harpies properly for the job, wouldn't that mean that we can easily get things from other cities even before we become more established...?"

Eiro seemed surprised, "What do you mean?"

"Oh, just... erm, you see, there's a lot of places that have specialty products or materials. We're very limited here... we have a lot of iron, coal, copper, and of course magic stones, but there would be some other materials we could use, especially for construction. Not to mention, things like books or scrolls that we can use to teach the monsters more detailed things. That would also mean that we don't always have to rely on you for these things, my lord... Of course, we could simply send some disguised monsters to other cities, but I think that would be pretty limited to cities nearby, and we don't have a lot of monsters that I would trust with that kind of task at the moment, at least not unsupervised. Not to mention that our needs are pretty unique, and from what I found in the books here, a lot of the things can only be found some distance away. But if we set up a system where we can set up a cooperation with other cities or merchant organizations, then we might be able to order things quite... easily..." Boju excitedly explained, pushing his hands through some of the papers on his desk until he found some of the lists that he had written up, seemingly containing a lot of different items or materials that he was going to request Eiro to get for them until the next time he came. But by the time he had pulled this document out, he looked at the demon in front of him and realized that he had started to ramble on without another thought.

"I-I am sorry, my lord... I was just getting a little excited, and-"

"What are you apologizing for? That's exactly the sort of thing I put you into this position for. You're smart enough to come up with those things without me having to feed you every tiny detail. I was thinking the exact same thing," Eiro stood up from his seat and walked around the desk, so that he could take a closer look at the lists that Boju had pulled out, before looking and smiling at the young highland Orc, "You're doing a great job here, Boju."

--- Partax furrowed his thick, bushy brows as he gnawed on the end of the small stick in his hand. A long time ago, it seemed like this resembled an intricate writing-pen, but at this point there was nothing there that would hint at it, if there wasn't the half-rusted metal tip connected to its other end. Considering how well taken-care of all of Partax's other items were, the state of this pen was quite shocking the first time that Eiro saw it. But soon enough, he realized this habit of Partax, since he pulled out that pen whenever he was thinking about something deeply. Considering that, that this thing still held any resemblance to the item it was supposed to be was a shock in and of itself.

However, soon enough, Partax pulled the pen away from his crooked teeth and placed the tip against the parchment held in front of him by the metal arms protruding from the base he was always always sitting on, "This here, and then this here... if this was here then that could connect well to the circuits in the corner over there... and with this, the synergy of the city would be intact..." he  whispered, before clicking his tongue, "Ah, no, this isn't just a mound, it's a molehill... meaning it's probably going to change over time..." the halfling grumbled, before turning his head to his right.

"You, goblin!" he exclaimed, and before long, Gobu came walking over, nothing but annoyed. He didn't like listening to the commands of anyone but Eiro, but since the demon had told him to listen to Partax, within reason, he had no choice to come when called, "I have a name."

"And I don't care to remember it. Here, in this part of the town, you need to control the moles better. Create solid roads, or maybe even small walls around here that they need to keep intact, otherwise it's going to ruin the whole circuit and integrity of the city!"

"...So you're asking me to tell the molemen where they can dig? Really? Are you expecting me to tell the harpies where they can fly next?"

"That would be great. The harpy nests do seem a little randomly placed, so if they interfere or damage the circuitry too much, then that's going to cause some issues too..."

Gobu tried to keep up a smile, or at least, what he considered a smile. In reality, it was a little closer to a scowl, at least when Eiro wasn't around like now.

"...I'll figure something out, I guess. But I just want to remind you, this is a city of monsters, some places will continue to get destroyed or damaged, at least for the next few years. So you can't make that whole 'circuit' thing so... fragile," Gobu pointed out with a slight scoff, something that Partax took as a quick insult, "Fragile?"