Ren placed the two fruits on the very top of the tower.
Come to think of it, after he last considered using regular Zoan fruits to create some strange creatures, he had completely forgotten about it. Now that the Tori Tori no Mi had already been sent to Onigashima, the matter would have to be put off again.
Yesterday, after playing in the hot spring with Yuriko and Yukiko, Yukiko had returned to her post today, giving Hiko, who had been working for a long time, a little rest.
Now Hiko was by Ren's side, reading quietly.
After more than two months, Hiko had actually become very adept at handling the affairs of the Finance Ministry, and in this regard, she was even better than Yukiko. Hiko was actually very smart and often found a good balance point, ensuring that all necessary expenditures were accounted for, while unnecessary expenses could be saved.
This work wasn't too difficult for her; it just meant she had less time for reading.
Ren felt that Hiko might be more suited for studying ancient knowledge than Yuriko. Neither of them were learning martial arts, but they each had their own strengths in the arts and literature.
Yuriko was actually more knowledgeable about customs, etiquette, and skills like tea ceremony and musical performance.
Ren felt that if he sent Hiko to Ohara to study, she might truly become a scholar in no time. But it would be too inconvenient to send her there.
Hiko didn't have much ability to protect herself, and he couldn't bear to send her off alone.
"Mmm—" Hiko grew a bit tired from reading, stretched lazily, and then covered her mouth with a hand as she yawned.
"Lord Ren, may I take a nap for a while?" she slowly walked to Ren's side and leaned over.
"Go ahead and sleep," Ren nodded, allowing her head to rest on his lap.
But after lying down, Hiko found she couldn't sleep anymore. She sniffed the scent coming from Ren and pressed her face closer to him.
This quiet feeling was one that Hiko loved, as if all her troubles had vanished in an instant. But in reality, she didn't have many troubles.
Hiko was very content; her life now was infinitely better than the one she had lived in Usagi Torimitsu.
If she had any wish to fulfill, it was only to get revenge on the wealthy family in Usagi Torimitsu that had destroyed her family.
But she couldn't do this on her own; she could only wait for the Black Serpent's plan to unfold slowly.
...
"Phew, I'm so tired," Kaido wiped the sweat from his brow and placed a huge boulder on the ground, sitting down directly on it to rest. "That daimyo of Kuri, always assigning us such hard work, is so vicious."
"But the pay for this work is really high," Kanjuro said.
The work they were doing now was the construction of a reservoir. While Yukiko was in Flower Capital, the surveyors had been searching for a suitable location, and finally decided to build it in the southern mountain range.
By relying on the mountain's terrain, building a reservoir would save a lot of manpower and resources. Moreover, Kuri's terrain is high in the north and south, and low in the middle, and the southern mountains were just upstream of the river.
"But this is too tiring, and we've left Oden Town, traveling such a long distance to this what-do-you-call-it 'Guardian Forest'!" Kido complained.
Guardian Forest was the southern mountains and forest, a name that Ren had given later. To build this reservoir, these people had traveled a long distance, crossing from north to south to get to Guardian Forest, and it was already very hard for them.
More importantly, most of Kuri's population was concentrated in the north. The middle had scattered villages and large areas of farmland, while only the south was natural jungle.
This meant there were few entertainment facilities in the south. Now that they were working here, they couldn't find any fun, the living conditions were much worse, and no matter how much money they earned, it wasn't enjoyable.
"Hey, Kaido, don't forget we still have to pay back our debts," Hitoshiro said irritably. Kaido was the biggest spender among them; he would spend a lot of money every time he went to the pleasure district, seriously delaying their repayment progress.
"If you ask me, what's the worst that could happen if we don't pay? We've passed through so many villages, and only Kuri gives us so much trouble! I say we should just leave, who could stop us?" Kaido said with his nose in the air.
"I don't believe this daimyo of Kuri can come to other villages to arrest us."
"But, the environment in Kuri's pleasure district is much better than in other villages," Raizo said shyly. He was born with a large face and was very unpopular with women.
Although there were few courtesans in Kuri's pleasure district willing to be with him, if he was willing to spend money, there were always one or two.
"I tell you guys, can you stop thinking about these things all the time?" Oden sighed.
Although he did go to the pleasure district, it wasn't often, and his mind wasn't on that kind of thing all day.
Compared to that, he cared more about the matter of going to sea, but that was something he could only approach from Ren.
He had originally planned to wait for Ren to return from Flower Capital and then find an opportunity to test the waters at the daimyo's residence, but before he could act, he was exiled to the frontier by Yukiko.
Now he could only work honestly and hurry up to finish the project so he could go back.
Such a huge project required more manpower than just the few of them; many other people from Kuri were also willing to come and work. Everyone knew that the Kuri daimyo paid above-market prices every time he hired workers.
Although the work here was hard, the schedule was very reasonable. As long as they rested well, they wouldn't fall ill, and the pay was not bad.
Besides men, some women also applied for odd jobs, and some men simply brought their wives along with them.
"I heard there are still some scattered thieves in Guardian Forest. If we can catch one, it would be worth several days' wages for all of us combined."
When the thieves were originally captured, some of them had fled into the southern forest to hide. All of them had been placed on bounty by Ren, and catching one would earn them a good amount of money.
For Oden and the others, it was just the wages of several days for all of them combined. But for ordinary people, their daily work output was far less than Oden's group's.
It would take ordinary people several months to earn what Oden's group earned in one day.
"Those people, I don't even know if they're still alive," Kaido said helplessly. The strength of those thieves was likely not even that of beasts, and anyone who was alone had probably died in the wilderness long ago.
"Sigh, we still have to keep working," after resting for a while, Kaido knew he had to get up and continue moving the boulders. Each boulder moved was recorded, and the more they moved, the more they earned.
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