“Is that how it works? The chickens of Mahoira grow fast, huh.” 

The chickens running around are the chicks of yesterday. It took 2 days for those chicks to hatch from their eggs. 

2 days for eggs, chicks 3, and 2 days for growth to get a harvest that’s round and plumb. 

“No, even Dry can tell that these chickens are growing abnormally fast.” (Dry)

The chickens of this room grow completely in just 1 week. 

It is a speed that you can’t even retort at. Even the ignorant Dry thinks this is weird. 

“…Right? Well, it seems like that power doesn’t affect us, so that’s a relief though.” (Chihiro)

“Yup… Didn’t grow.” (Dry)

Chihiro and Dry pat their chests, thinking that it would have changed if the flow of time were faster, and sighed in sadness. 

The chickens of Mahoira grow faster than even broilers. It can only grow a maximum of 1,000, so there’s currently 600 chicks. 100 are chickens, and they produce eggs every day, so 300 eggs are retrieved. 

“Look look, Koume did her beshu! I got these many eggs.” (Koume)

The little girl Koume showed a basket full of eggs. 

She was breathing roughly and her cheeks were red and proud. A number of children including her are staying in this room the whole time because it is easier to live in due to the climate that is similar to spring, but they don’t show any signs of growing, so it is most likely magic that only works on chickens and crops. 

“We hunted chickens too-usa!”

“It was easy with our hands-usa yo.” 

“Share with us too, okay~?” 

The rabbits that should be herbivores were holding chickens with broken necks in both hands as if they were tribal hunters, and hopped happily. 

The rabbit army that has a whole ton of chickens on their backs was a surreal sight. 

There seems to be one that isn’t working and only piling up grass as if making a nest. That one is munching on a carrot and lying down. 

“We have harvested vegetables too, Chihiro-san.” 

“Today’s harvest is carrots and cabbages.” 

“Let’s go sell them quickly. The merchants are waiting~.” 

After the harvesting was over, the children, who were covered in mud and were excited, were carrying vegetables in their hands and their eyes were sparkling. Their feet were also light. 

That appearance of theirs is a large contrast from a few days ago when they were wondering if they would be able to eat that day or if they would be able to survive.

They are innocent like how it should be. It is mysterious how one can feel happiness just from watching this sight. 

“Right. Then, bring the chickens to the butcher room. Let’s leave the vegetables on the shelf.” (Chihiro)

“Oka~y.”

The daily harvest is over and they exit through the portal. 

They felt a bit of the cold that couldn’t be blocked completely by the stoves the moment they returned to the room, and ended up sneezing. 

“The snow has piled up quite a bit. Don’t you feel like there will be heavy snow this year, Dry?” (Chihiro)

“Yup. Might have been troubled with food even today if Dry didn’t meet Peach-oniichan. Probably a bit frozen too.” (Dry)

Snow was blowing violently outside at some point in time. It is not only impossible to search for something of value outside, they might have even died without the heating tools even if they were to spend time indoors. 

But now there are stoves with Artificial Spirits installed into them here and there, warming the place moderately, and keeping alert so that it doesn’t end up in a fire. 

It is a change beyond belief compared to last year. 

They exited the room that was named Home Farm Room, and walked with a whole ton of vegetables and chickens in their hands. 

They arrived at the 4th floor using the elevator, and headed towards the butcher room that’s isolated at a corner of the Lanpeach Complex. 

There’s residents living on the 4th floor and over, so when they saw the children carrying a whole ton of ingredients while they were walking through the corridor, they smiled and approached them. 

“It must be heavy. Come, I will help out.” 

“Oh my, we have to make sure the eggs don’t break.”

They are wearing patched clothes, but their complexion is good. That old man and old lady helped out with kind smiles. 

Chihiro wasn’t wary about this and answered with a smile. 

It is practically set that this will happen every time. There were even some residents who were lying in wait for this. Moreover, it is shockingly out of good will. 

“Then, can you please?” (Chihiro)

“Aah, you rabbits as well. I will help you carry those chickens.”

They also helped in carrying the chickens of the rabbits. 

One of the rabbits had someone carry the rabbit itself, but the residents didn’t mind and were carrying the things with smiles as they talked. 

If this were somewhere else, they would have had to consider the possibility of them stealing, but the Lanpeach Complex has good public order. 

Not only stealing, there’s not even brawls happening. That’s because if they were to do that, the rabbits would show up from who-knows-where with a stupidly big gun after all. 

‘Stealing-usa ne’ -is what they would say. They show no mercy towards stealing. 

They show no hesitation in shooting even when it would punch holes on the walls, and the thieves that try to steal are always welcomed with loud gunshots. None have come out alive. 

In the case of brawls, they would throw a flashbang and incapacitate them. 

This base has extremely good public order because of this. 

The residents don’t have to worry about such matters, so they have fixed their attitudes in their lifestyle comfortably, and have become amicable old men and women. 

Even if the public order were bad, they wouldn’t be able to do stuff like stealing though. 

“Man~, Lanpeach-sama gives us work, so I feel like we will be able to survive this winter.” 

“True. He distributed stoves and even gave us jobs.” 

This base is busy now and work has been created after all. 

“It is natural since the residents of the base treasure Lan. It would be a great help if you were to work hard in your jobs from here on.” (Chihiro)

Chihiro thanked the residents with a gentle smile on her face, and dealt with them in Lanpeach’s stead. It goes without saying that she was calculating how to show that she is the legal wife of Lanpeach here. 

The tattered abandoned building is nowhere to be seen. The corridor is a smooth linoleum and there’s no cracks at all on the walls. 

There are nameplates on each door of the rooms that were most likely placed by the respective residents. And there would be voices of people having fun inside those rooms. 

“Tomorrow will be butchering, the day after tomorrow will be wrapping up the electric appliances, and next…” (Chihiro)

“I will be working in the kitchen. I haven’t cooked much before, so I have to do my best.” 

“All people begin somewhere, so your skills will increase if you work seriously. Fight on.” (Chihiro)

She tightened her fists in a playful manner and the residents laughed, saying that’s true. 

◇◇

What changed the most in this 1 month is that jobs were born. 

This is something that the residents of the slums want the most. There’s prejudice that the people of the slums always turn out to be thieves if they can’t have any documents to prove their identity, so jobs are the hardest thing to get. 

And if they manage to get a job, it can become the opportunity to change for these people that had nothing to do and were nobodies who were just living for the sake of living. 

“Oh, you are here. I have been waiting. Thanks for the big haul today as well.” 

The former big conference room that can seat a few dozen people has now become a butcher room for chickens. 

Lanpeach was yawning and sitting cross-legged as he took it easy. 

The concrete has ditches so that the blood can be washed away easily with water. 

A lot of people were also talking to kill time. 

They are wearing long boots and rough waterproof aprons. Work clothes. 

“It is the same number as always, boss. 100 chickens are waiting for us today as well.” 

“We might get attacked by chickens one day. Guess I should have some feed in my pocket just in case that happens.” (Lanpeach)

“I hope me mom doesn’t discover I’ve been skipping on saving money for her sake before the chickens get their revenge on me.”

“Oi oi, didn’t we all agree to keep that hidden?” 

The residents of the slums laugh cheerfully. There’s also children mixed in with the team. 

“Looking forward to working with you today as well, Lan. The ones of today look pretty fat and tough, so it might be difficult.” (Chihiro)

“Gotta work a bit harder then. Come on, we are beginning, ya rascals.” (Lanpeach)

The chickens were placed one after the other. 

Chihiro winked playfully, and Lanpeach laughed as he called for the people around. 

The men began to pluck out the feathers first together with the children and began the butchering of the chickens.

“Lan, are you not tired? I think everyone is getting better now at butchering, so I think it is fine for you to rest deeper in, you know?” (Chihiro)

Of course, Chihiro wouldn’t do something as wasteful as just delivering the chickens and leaving. She sat by the side of Lanpeach in a familiar manner. 

“Hmm, I can’t act anymore in winter anyways, and it would be boring to laze about with too much free time on my hands.” (Lanpeach)

“But you earn money every day in the dungeons, and I think you are working enough already, you know? You are earning so much, moreover, butchering is a hard job.” (Chihiro)

It is as Chihiro said anxiously. 

Lanpeach would dive into the Free Dungeon every day, and would bring pork meat and electric appliances. 

There’s no sign of him going outside, and yet, he would disappear at some point in time and be back the same way, so there’s rumors that he is probably using a mini portal. 

“It should be around 2 hours for the dungeon, right? This doesn’t even take an hour. It is just killing time in winter. Killing time.” (Lanpeach)

He plucked the feathers even while he was talking. 

The other people were also plucking the feathers after dipping them in boiling water, and burning the downy hair, but Lanpeach was the only one who was plucking them with his hands with speed that’s on its own plane. 

They began the butchering just like that, inserting the butcher knife with precision, and leaving the pieces of meat on the tray. Of course, they didn’t forget the gizzard and the heart either. 

It took around 5 minutes for the butchering.

“Hmm, so mysterious no matter how many times I see it. There are so many parts to meat.” (Dry)

“Right. I also thought chicken meat was all lumped together. So there’s all kinds of parts, huh. Uhm, the leg and the breast meat, was it?” (Chihiro)

“…I myself also thought all breast meat was 1 kilogram uniformly until I actually began butchering it manually.” (Lanpeach)

Dry poked at the chicken meat with wonder. Chihiro thought chicken meat was just categorized as chicken meat and found it unexpected. And, for some reason, Lanpeach, who was butchering, muttered this with a bitter face, but Dry and Chihiro didn’t question it much and just took it as him meaning butchering is too much of a pain. 

The reality of that statement is that when he activates the Dismantle to do the dismantling automatically, it ends up just being 1 kilogram of chicken breast, but if you do it manually, you get a whole lot of meat, which shocked Lanpeach.

Who knows how much chicken meat he wasted? He was mortified by this to the point that he could only sleep 6 hours that day. 

The one who told him he would be able to get more meat if he were to do it manually was the support character that has been getting more motivated to help out lately. 

It seems like she was pretty threatened by the message that comes every so often asking: [Have you readied the 45,000?].

That said, he managed to obtain a large amount of meat thanks to that, and butchering jobs began to be created. 

Lanpeach says no thank you to work that would require him to diligently work with sweat on his forehead. Moreover, the butchering takes time, and he would need to butcher 100 every day. 

The children were obviously working and the residents began to get employed as well. The residents naturally agreed immediately to work, and are doing their best in improving their skills to become specialized butchers.

And then, once a job is created, a lot of other jobs are born as if a dam is broken. 

Laundries to bars for healing the fatigue. Gold began to flow like blood, giving life to the Lanpeach Complex. 

“Thanks right, young lady. There’s no place to throw away chicken meat. The cartilage can be eaten too. There’s a lot of edible parts.” 

“Also, you rarely deal with natural chickens. It is expensive and there’s a lot of admirers. You can even sell the bones.” 

“Aah, hello. You have come to buy it already, Sage? It is snowing heavily outside, right?” (Lanpeach)

A number of merchants entered the room when he raised his head, and they sat down on the floor as if used to this. 

One of them is a merchant called Sage who came straight to the Lanpeach Complex. 

“Don’t say something so cold, Lanpeach-san. I am the first merchant that came straight away to buy from you after all. I even came here with an armored car today to buy from you.” (Sage)

“The ears of a merchant are incredible. From where did you even hear about this? Moreover, an armored car? It is just a bus with machine guns strapped to it and iron plates attached to it.” (Lanpeach)

“You won’t be getting a real armored car. The only ones that would come to a place like this are handy armored buses. But the number of merchants riding in the bus increased again today. I am earning more for transporting them thanks to that.” (Sage)

Lanpeach smiled wryly at the merchant that was laughing with a gahaha. 

It is the people that showed up the day after they began to sell in the Lanpeach Complex. 

They were apparently half in doubt about it, but once they learned that actual natural chickens were being sold, they have been coming every day to buy them. 

—That’s right. The Lanpeach Complex is currently a hot topic between merchants this winter. 

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