That’s right. I needed money if my plans were going to succeed. Rebuilding a village with ten or so slaves just wasn’t possible. And that wouldn’t change much, even if the slave trader did manage to deliver more of the slaves I had asked for.

“Don’t worry. I won’t be making any crazy modifications that might make it difficult to manage. Producing food supplies is the priority until the slaves are grown up enough to handle problems on their own.”

“Sigh . . . Really, please do be careful.”

“I know!”

I couldn’t afford to do anything that might result in a radical failure, but beyond that, I had to do what I could. I planned to have the slaves help earn money, too—not just fight. And while I was mulling over such things, all the food I cooked vanished.

“Thank you for the meal!”

“You’re welcome.”

I could hear a clamor of voices as they all talked to each other excitedly. It had only been a few days since we had arrived, but they all seemed to have adjusted to their new life for the most part. And Keel and the other three from the village were already familiar with the area, having grown up here. I was sure this had to be better for their mental health than living the usual life of a slave, at least.

“Alright, everyone. I have something important to say, so listen up.”

“Huuuh?”

The slaves were listening with their heads cocked to the side, just like Filo did.

“Everyone come with me.”

I walked over to the garden and then checked to make sure they had all followed.

“I have a single seed here. It’s a seed from a plant that caused a bit of trouble in a village to the southwest of here.”

The castle soldiers seemed to be familiar with the story. They started whispering to each other.

“I made some improvements to that plant, and this seed is the result. You all got hungry last night and ended up eating in the middle of the night, right?”

“Umm, yeah . . .”

Keel nodded.

“You have to understand that I won’t be able cook every day like this forever.”

“But . . . the Shield Hero’s cooking is so good!”

“Yeah! I want to eat your cooking every day!”

“I can’t get any work done if I’m always cooking for you all. Of course, if you’ve worked hard enough to earn it, I’ll indulge you all and cook something up.”

When it came to development and reconstruction efforts like this, securing food supplies had to be the top priority. That meant that there was only one thing to do.

“Now then, starting tonight, when you get hungry and I’m not cooking, this is what you are going to do.”

I dropped the seed onto the soil and poured some water over it. It sprouted and began to shoot up right before everyone’s eyes. The bioplant grew to a height of around three meters tall and began to produce large fruit that resembled tomatoes.