If Eyna's outburst had taught him something—
'You mean that you were humping with her? Cheeky bastard,' Paula interjected.
But let's ignore that.
"Enough moping around," Konrad announced once he got out of the carriage. "There's work to do. And if I want to make the most of my time, I must focus on the stuff only I can sort out."
"Y-yes, Master," the girl mumbled. "We'll make sure everything's in order on our end."
Which still sounded like he had taken advantage of them, but—
'Oh, you definitely did with the little beauty on the way back,' the voice noted.
Yeah, touché.
But—whether it was thanks to a charm or an actual mind trick?
He didn't actually feel bad about that part. Not even a little.
"Don't overwork yourselves," Konrad commanded. "No overtime. If you're not finished by sundown, deal with it next time. And if the work starts to pile up, we'll hire more people."
That's what a good boss would say, right?
His own never did back on Earth, but that guy was trash, so that might have been a good sign.
'Why yes. And sleeping with your employees is especially good practice—not. But, well. Guess it's still better than tearing them apart and stuffing them into a vat of acid.'
Ugh. Why would she want to destroy his mood when he was finally inspired again?
'Oh, don't mind me,' Paula scoffed. 'But I'm curious if you'll bed the one-armed old man, too?'
"As far as I know, he's not in love with me," Konrad pointed out. "But thanks for the reminder. That's another item on my list, and I still haven't learned proper healing or restoration magic."
How long had he wanted Maple to teach him?
But he never had the time, and now the dragoness was gone, and—yeah.
He might have gotten more mana, but still nowhere near enough to use Lily's wasteful method.
But he wouldn't let that dampen his mood.
"All right. Let's tick off the basics first," he grunted. "Eyna and her tribe can take care of the paperwork without me. But without a working, large all-season mill, people would still starve."
That had to be the number one priority, and—
Good thing he had ordered the materials weeks ago.
He was on his way to the blacksmith, trying to recite the runes Midori-kun taught him.
"We didn't start working on it yet because they were still fine-tuning the plans," he noted. "But the bottleneck was the low-quality iron and the lack of metallurgy skills this world had."
And that, he could have solved right now, without any outside help.
He had a spell that let him study materials down to the molecular level. And enough mana to create steel from scratch, if he had to. Then, shaping it all the right way would have been trivial.
"Then I'll talk to Brigida," he said, more to himself than to Paula. "That spell she used—"
'The one she restored the temple with?' the parallel brain asked. 'I thought so, too. You could definitely use something like that to restore bones and organic matter as well.'
Exactly. That was the closest thing he had seen to healing magic so far.
Well, unless he counted Lily's brute-forcing organs back into existence.
"And since she wasn't using holy magic, she might actually know how it works," Konrad noted.
With a little luck, she might have even learned it from Kaede, so—
'Plan B: you can ask Stella how she makes her homunculi,' Paula noted. 'That also creates organs from scratch. It definitely has an application in general healing, too.'
"She had that magic a hundred years into the future, though," he pointed out.
But yeah. It wouldn't hurt to ask.
And now that the bishop agreed not to kill her, she would return to Halaima tomorrow, anyway.
"That would take care of food and healing, and I can't expect anyone else to sort these out, so—"
He had finally found his priorities.
'Meaning, your slaves can toil away in the office, and your wives can fight back the hordes of invaders. As long as you get to play with your steam engine and lie with your workforce—'
Someone was grumpy. But he had the perfect comeback.
"I always felt like the old guy lost his arm because of me," Konrad said. "A big milestone would be to restore it with magic. But after that—I could also build you a personal vessel, you know."
'I, too, think that focusing on healing magic would be the best for all Kasserlane,' Paula boomed.
Hah. So that finally changed her mind.
'But if it turns out that Brigida used a spirit magic type you can't learn,' she warned. 'And that Stella won't actually know that spell for the next hundred years, I'll riot and tear you apart.'
"We're turning this low-quality iron ore into pressure-resistant steel first," Konrad grunted.
And yeah, he might have been a little less confident now.
But once he reached the blacksmith, the raw materials were where he expected them to be.
And also someone he didn't expect at all.
"Oh, coming for repairs?" Welf asked, sharpening his massive, two-handed sword. "Or did you even use the blade I forged for you lately? How did it perform in that other world?"
"Um, I didn't use it that much," Konrad admitted, head swiveling to see if Helena was there, too.
How much he knew was one thing.
Welf was Lily's not-a-sibling, and he must have seen some weird stuff already.
But even if the Silver Mage and Crimson knew about some of the stuff happening in the back—
Konrad didn't want the king's sister to get any weird ideas.
"That world was much more advanced, though. They had firearms and the like," he noted, keeping his voice low. "Whenever I needed a blade, I used a blunt machete instead."
But seeing that disgusted face?
"When it mattered the most, your blade still cut through them all, though," Konrad added.
"Oh. Good," the redhead sighed. "Couldn't have lived with the shame of forging an adamantite blade that was worse than a blunt weapon. Modern or not. Especially now that I'm discharged."
"You're what?" he scowled, caught off guard.
"Oh, your friend didn't tell you?" Welf asked with a grin. "He finished reorganising all your armed forces as of today. Bor is still there as a lieutenant, but I'm no longer leading the scouts."
"He fired you?!" Konrad yelped. "I've only returned from Haiten, so we haven't talked yet."
"Fired is a strong word," the blacksmith laughed. "But with the nomadic threat over—and whatever Liliske is doing is way above my pay grade? I told him to let me go back to the anvil."
Right. Welf was the Blood Moon's blacksmith after all.
He went on many adventures and was a strong warrior, but—
When Konrad enlisted him, it was a temporary solution, out of sheer necessity.
Damn, he was so out of touch, even with his own friends.
"Then we have to celebrate," he said, adding another point to his list. "You were one of my greatest assets, as a friend, as a soldier, and as a blacksmith, too—so let me honor that."