Chapter 45 The talk

In the afternoon, Nicholas left the mansion with Maria and Clarice to do another dungeon exploration. Since they didn't do anything yesterday, they have to make up for the lost time and go to a dungeon on a weekend. 

Meanwhile, inside the Curtana mansion

The count and countess are currently in the office of the count about to talk about something. The countess brought a lot of files that have been compiled by Nicholas and herself. Her business for today was to convince her husband to initiate the project of creating a new source of synthetic and natural fertilizer as proposed by Nicholas.

Count: "What did he want to do now?"

Seeing his wife had brought a lot of documents means that his son was planning something again. So he immediately asked his wife about the stacks of paper she brought and if they were connected to his son. Her wife only made a wide smile, not saying anything, placed the stacks of paper on the table, and asked her husband a casual question.

Countess: "How have you been, hubby?"

Count: "I'm fine; its just a lot of things are happening outside of Curtana lately. I'm afraid that things will not be looking so good in the next few years. A huge conflict seemed to be brewing between a terrorist group and the nobles." He answered in a distressed tone; he was clearly troubled by something.

Countess: "Ah, I have heard a lot about the recent terrorist attacks. I hope things won't develop to a worst state. I know, it is really important to have allies in times of need, so here." She handed over a document to the count.

Count: "What's this?" he asked in an inquisitive tone.

She didn't reply again and just passed the summarized proposal in her hands to her husband. And the count found it a bit weird, but he still carefully read the document he received from her wife.

Count: "Is this real?"

His hands trembling at the scale of the project his son has thought of; this might change a lot in the Curtana family and might raise their prestige by a long shot if the project was properly implemented. In his opinion, this project was quite ambitious, and it would take a lot of effort and resources in order to accomplish this project. Realizing this fact, the count suddenly had a headache. In turbulent times like this, a project like this would be like a double-edge sword rather than a guaranteed profit.

Count: "This will be difficult." Feeling adverse about green lighting the idea.

He thought on the possibility of implementing it, and it would really attract a lot of attention, especially from influential people in the world.

Count: "Is this how we make allies? I think we will create more enemies with this idea." He mumbled grimly.

Countess: "Yes, it might look a bit risky. But with this, we can greatly increase our influence if we choose our allies correctly. We can also enhance our power greatly while hiding behind powerful allies." she said with a confident tone.

Count: "Are you sure about this honey?" he asked.

Countess: "Yes, at this rate. Conflict will be inevitable in the next few years. It will be better to have more allies rather than being alone in this endeavor. Plus, this will greatly help expand our wealth and influence without suffering any major backlash." She finally said with a calm but decisive tone.

Count: "Okay, okay. But let me think first about whether this is a 'great idea'."

After that, they began conversing about the politics in the Daedric Empire before the topic looped back around the project, so the count began to talk about the project.

Count: "Will this even work? This project seemed too good to be true."

Countess: "Hmph, you dare doubt my lovely and genius son? I know so that the process will work. Especially the last part of the process, I'm sure it will work." She answered with a bit of an aggressive tone and began to explain the process; she herself wasn't that sure in the explanation and only read the process that Nicholas had written out.

Countess: "Anyways, you don't have to understand the process. Since Nicholas already accomplished it in a small-scale product, it only needed to be industrialized."

Count: "Ohhh, is that so, but how effective is the natural fertilizer?" he couldn't help but ask.

Countess: "The fertilizer is much better than the current lime, bone, and ash mixture on the market. Well, it is only an improved version of it, to be honest."

Count: "How about the synthetic made?"

Countess: "Well, it can be mixed with the natural fertilizer, and the effect is tremendously better than the current one on the market."

Countess: "The raw materials needed for manufacturing are abundant, and the cost is minimal."

Countess: "Overall, the profit when this is implemented will be over the roof. Also, be in mind that I'll personally contact my father for this; we definitely need his help for this project."

Count: "Yeah, we will need my in-laws help for this to work."

After that, they continued conversing about topics relevant to them, but only for a little bit since the tension slowly dissipated and turned into a more casual atmosphere.

…

Meanwhile, inside thedungeon

Nicholas was having conversation about his projects with Maria and Clarice while they were exploring. He discussed his ever-increasing workloads and duties on his new project. So he was hinting to the both of them on reducing time in practicing and dungeon exploration in the future.

Nicholas: "Well, I might be more busy this couple of weeks, so I think we should reduce our dungeon exploration time and training."

Clarice: "Will we stop going to dungeons?" She asked curiously.

Maria: "Will there be more paperwork for me? At this rate things would pile up, Master." She asked in a slightly dull tone. 

This topic made the two girls a bit sad, since they were inseparable when dungeon hunting. But Nicholas denied that they would stop exploring the dungeon since they still needed to level up and get stronger; it was just a temporary change of pace.

Nicholas: "Well, its not that we are stopping; I just wanted to spend a little less time clearing dungeons, and I will be focusing on the business instead. If you guys want, you two could continue without me the next few weeks since I might be too busy to go. Or..."

He also proposed the idea that they can increase the number of members in their dungeon runs. But this idea was immediately shut down by the girls.

Maria and Clarice: "NO!"

They both argued that they don't need new members since they were fine working with just the three of them, even if it sacrificed a little bit in efficiency. Also, bringing in more people might slow us down since they might need training or the new person might hinder their coordination.

Nicholas: "Well, we will not come to any conclusion at this rate. So how about we talk about it later in a more comfortable setting? We should focus first in clearing this dungeon. Okay?" He finally ended the conversation, and both of the girls nodded that they really needed to discuss this sudden decision of Nicholas to steer away from dungeon exploration.

Nicholas was running out of ideas to maintain his free time; he had to sacrifice some of it in the meantime to juggle his new business and dungeon exploration. Since he promised himself when he was a kid that he would live a slow and wonderful life his second life. But at this rate, his currently relaxed and slow life is slowly deviating to a more complex and busy one.

Nicholas: "Did I choose the wrong decision?" He couldn't help but ask himself.

Since their team cannot come to a conclusion now, they continued to explore the dungeon and decided to have the talk later after they finished the dungeon.

---

Finishing the Dungeon took a little bit more time, but right after they finished the Dungeon quest. They immediately went to a café they usually eat at to talk about the situation. There Nicholas explained the situation.

Nicholas: "It's not that I wanted to stop going to dungeon with you guys. But the thing is that I just need some time off in the dungeon for a couple of days or maybe weeks. I will be a bit busy this time around in the office because I will be focusing on expanding the business and some other things. I hope you guys understand."

.Clarice: "... I understand that my liege..." She could only reply sullenly.

Maria: "Is this some other thing related to what we talked about yesterday, Master?" she asked in a polite tone.

Clarice: "What did you guys talk about?" She looked at Nicholas and Maria while asking curiously.

Nicholas: "Well, just a little bit. Nothing much, just exploring the forest for a little bit," he replied in a nonchalant tone.

The Clarice pouted at Nicholas's answer because it looked like he didn't want to share too much information about his exploration in the forest.

Clarice: "Then can I help you in your forest exploration, my liege..." she said in a bit of a desperate tone.

Nicholas: "Well..." He didn't want to reject Clarice's offer, so he cannot answer directly.

Clarice: "I understand my liege... I'm sorry I overstepped my bounds." She replied immediately in a more sullen tone.

Nicholas: "Maybe you could help Maria if you want?" He couldn't help but say after hearing Clarice's sad voice.

Clarice: "Maybe I could help for a bit. But I'm clumsy, so forgive me, my liege, if I make some mistake."

Nicholas: "Then let's talk about the additional help."

Maria: "Well, I don't think we needed additional help for the dungeon." She replied in a decisive tone.

Clarice: "Yeah, we could manage just the three of us, my liege. We don't need any additional help." She followed up Maria's words with a low voice.

Nicholas: "Not in the dungeon. The office is really understaffed at the moment, so I'm considering hiring more assistants."

His office really is currently understaffed and needed more hands to do the work for him. He looked at Maria to gather some sympathy since she knows his schedule best and she also knows he doesn't like working that much. Maria looked at Clarice and approached her to whisper some things to her. They talked silently for a while and then looked at each other and nodded.

Maria: "I think we should help you in hiring the new set of staff, Master." She said their piece to Nicholas that he could hire some help but he needed to let them know before hand so they can also evaluate the person.

Nicholas: "No, its not like that." He shook his head.

Nicholas: "*Sigh* I'm really understaffed. Maria, you are my personal maid, so you have to manage my new sets of employees if I ever employ a new set. And Clarice, since you also want to help, I have a separate task for you."

The girls were speechless and only nodded; they thought that Nicholas wanted to add some unknown girl to their group, so they were adamant on disagreeing on the addition. Since, although they are young, they are treated as early in this world as adults that needed to work. And as their status with Nicholas was very far, they always worried about this kind of thing.

Nicholas also understands their hardship, but even though he is technically an adult now in this society, he still needed that time to let their relationship blossom. Plus, he didn't want to prioritize such things since both didn't really prioritize advancing their relationship. He just let time do its thing since he was still very young in this life.