Chương 378: Chapter 351. Efforts Rewarded, Hard Work Intensifies

Beginning Of Part 2 John Ericsson's Point Of View" When will it end?"" Just keep working through it, Matthew! Ruby! Bring the rest of that stack to my desk!"" This is ridiculous! How could they all send it in at the same time!? The road took 6 months to finish! The last of them should only be visiting now!" Emily and I were losing our minds... And probably developing carpel tunnel syndrome from the work we were doing.

It's been 3 days since we've returned from Blackstone and finishing constructing the road from Paradise to Blackstone... Or would people describe it the other way? Regardless, Paradise has changed drastically from when we originally left. On the other hand, I haven't changed much at all. Sure, my hair is a little longer than I'd like since I've had to neglect it on the road, but the biggest thing is probably my Mana Efficiency with Gil being much better than 6 months ago.

The reason of course, is that to make the road from Paradise to Blackstone, due to the number of times I've Summoned Gil and used his ability to make the stone road that is better than any roads I've even seen in my world, let alone Diablos, by the end of my travels, I could make around 100 miles of road probably before I would pass out from Mana Exhaustion. That's pretty good considering that before leaving, making about 5 miles of road would have me hitting the floor." I feel like they're falling over!""

It's a trick of the mind! They're just paper walls! They'll stay sturdy as long as we keep the windows closed!" I thought I saw the stacks of paper falling, Emily was quick to snap me out of my hallucination... Speaking of walls... Before leaving on the journey to make the road, we actually finished remaking the walls around Paradise with the same stone as well. So now, I've more or less Mastered a Spell that I won't be needing here in Paradise for the time being.

And that's because like I said, the walls are done, I finished going over the roads of Paradise quite some time ago. Now with that, I've finished my part in fixing up Paradise physically. From all of that work, I'm pretty sure that Gil is my best Summon now in terms of Mana Consumption. A close 2nd is Paula now, from all of the times I've had to warp myself and the orphans I've grabbed from orphanages from the towns and cities leading to Blackstone.

As for warping, taking Sarah and Anna with me anywhere and back shouldn't be an issue anymore. It's almost scary actually. I didn't think that continued use of their Spells would result in such a great amount of mana saved. It truly shows that I need to rededicate myself to my training, which to be honest, I've not been putting my best foot forward. Outside of some light sparring in the mornings and nights during the trip, Sarah, Anna and I haven't really grown at all.

We've just been too busy from collecting the orphans, making Business Deals, keeping to a schedule, etc... It's all been almost too much." Ruby, could you hand me that stack there?" I called out to Ruby, as I just finished a stack of the paperwork that I was working through." Sure thing, Matthew!" Even though I've popped back into Paradise pretty consistently, everybody has been pretty ecstatic that Sarah, Anna and I are finally back for good.

The easiest to see it from are the Staff of the mansion and the ones we see every day. For me, that means Emily, Ruby and Charlotte tend to stick out as it almost feels like they live in the mansion with us with how much time they spend here. Ruby showed this currently as she happily walked and grabbed the stack that I asked for and handed it to me with a big smile all the while. I could almost swear her smile made her glow like it was a source of light. I looked away as I got back to work with the paperwork."

To think there'd be so much, so quickly." Ruby offered a few words before returning to her couch. She really spoke aloud the laments that both Emily, Colin and I had. Colin did his work into the evening, only until dinner of course, since he needs to wake up for the Academy. The paperwork however, was more of what we've seen before. It's all business inquiries for making Contracts with Roseland Products.

Like I stated before, we visited a bunch of different towns and cities and made Contracts with both Nobles and Merchants that we took a liking to. With that, both Commoners that were customers to both the Nobles and Merchants' businesses, as well as rival Merchants and Noble Families who we've turned down, along with people who were just curious about these crazy new foods, have traveled to Paradise as Sarah, Anna and I continued on our way to Blackstone.

This eventually led to a traffic jam at the Western Gate of Paradise as we physically could not fit any more tourists into the city. Even with all of these Demons traveling to Paradise to look at the food, there was a sense of danger to the food for the majority of tourists. The reason being that we've never lied about the use of milk and because of that, it looks like they had to work up the courage to actually eat any dairy products.

However, everything changed with a single little Commoner girl during a hot July day... Or should I say 7th Month day? Regardless, she was sweating and uncomfortable, the way that Ms. Suzi, the Drink Bar on Main Street's owner had explained it to me, she noticed this little girl and served her a secret weapon that I shared with no one outside of Paradise, the milkshake. One sip and that bubble of cautions and worries for health died in an instant. This book is hosted on another platform.

Read the official version and support the author's work. / Creak! /" Truly, it's almost never ending now." My office door opened to Aaron, Brandon and Chris bringing in 3 more stacks of paperwork for us to sign. They left it on the floor and since they didn't say that was it, I'd wager they'll be back with more. Continuing on, trades became common place. Our excess produce from the farms and hunting sold out after a month of constant sell outs for any given day.

Granted, I gave orders not to sell the veggies and meat that the population of the town needed and from what I can tell, the orders were followed. Then came the other products, weapons, tools, utensils... If I name it, it sold, the next day, its replacements flew off the shelves. Both from the Private Business Owners and from my own stores that I opened shortly before leaving to make the road.

Because of all of this, Paradise has gone from one of the poorest cities in Diablos to entering the top 20 richest in Diablos, and we're closing in on 19th place. Quite a jump if I say so myself. And it's all thanks to our combined efforts. However, the townspeople disagree. They think it's only because of me, to the point where they wanted me to take the lion's share of the profits we've all been making.

I fought back hard on that, since my personal bank account had quite a few added 0s and that's not even adding into the fact that the Treasury has grown nearly 50 times what it was before I left. I eventually had a compromise reached with my People pressuring me to take their money on the first day that Sarah, Anna and I had returned to Paradise.

I told them that regardless, they would take 60% of their earnings and in return, I'd take 20% and the last 20% would go into the Treasury to help Institute any programs that I will think up to improve the city. They finally relented when they realized that it was going to be my final offer and it would only happen once.

Because of that, the Town's Treasury had jumped to a ludicrous amount, from around 50 times when I first arrived, to after collecting all of the money from the People who were almost too happy to give it, now being around a 100-fold increase. I honestly wonder if Paradise could out-spend Blackstone now? /Creak! /" This is the last of it, Lord Matthew!" Aaron walked in with the last of the paperwork apparently." Thank the Gods."" It's almost over!"" Come on, you 2! Fight on!"

Emily and I were relieved at Aaron's words, Ruby tried to cheer us on. We continued the system, more or less, Emily uses her abilities as a Secretary and hands to me the papers that she's approved of. Then I look over the wording and see if I like what's written down, then I move them to a stack of fully approved proposals, which we'll then draw up a Contract to send back to the senders. As for the ones that we've denied, well, they'll be good fire starters at any rate.

Continuing on from what I've been thinking about, once I received the reports about the financial gains, I found the little girl who started it all and gave her family a few gallons of ice cream and a few cheesecakes as well. Her father was more of a fan of cheese however, so I gave him a charcuterie board that even Warrick would think is excessive.

Of course, her mother received her pick of the litter as well, strawberry shortcakes with different customized toppings and a few different styles of pies were her choice. The family started to cry after I explained in no uncertain terms that all of it was free and I'd personally deliver it to their home in the tiny town of Bloodwind, it's a little past halfway to Blackstone from Paradise.

There were many thanks as I also threw in a refrigerator that could hold all of the food, as well as a freezer for all of the ice cream. Thinking back on that day before I headed back to have cutthroat Business Dealings with a gaggle of Merchants filled my mind as I overlooked the papers that were on my desk. By the end, it finished up slightly before sunset, thankfully." It's over..."" How many did you approve, Matthew?" Emily asked me a question after I breathed a sigh of relief. I thought for a moment."

361 in all."" We went through 2200, didn't we?"" That tells you how valuable our products are. We can slowly go through this in addition to the normal day-to-day operations from now on. We should finish up shortly before the Summit, right?"" That means we have less than a month, right?"" It's doable, because we have Colin now. Otherwise, it'd take 2 months." Emily nodded her head to my words. Then there was silence, Ruby had already begun to take a nap. Emily and I just enjoyed the relief in the silence.

Then I was interrupted by an apologetic voice." Hey, good job, John... I hate to do this to you, but... Could you spare me some of your time before dinner? I have something important to tell you." It was Angela, I wondered what she had to tell me? I mean, it's not every day that an Archangel has something important to tell a Human.