"You've been killing it, girl."
There was no fakeness in my words.
Through very subtle ways, just by staying by my side, Shen made a few things quite a lot easier. Just like she was currently guiding me to the next best place for me to get the other end of the company up and running.
Still, there was one question that still stood. A question I couldn't leave unanswered.
"As for what I brought up earlier," I fixed the position of my head and calmed my expression down. "I don't plan to turn you into a soldier. But with how much gold I'm throwing everywhere I go?"
I shook my head as my gaze affirmed, fixing right on the young woman's eyes.
"If the expected comes to happen, can I count on you, or should I make finding a bodyguard the next order of business?" I asked, putting on a slightly absentminded look, as if this whole thing didn't concern me at all.
"I can hold my own."
Shen finally spoke.
And damn, now that she didn't play that rapscallion of a songstress, her voice filled with a new, sultry note. She still sounded like an angel, but this time like an annoyed one.
"But don't raise your expectations…" Shen measured me with her eyes for a little longer before dropping her shoulders down as she exhaled. "It's always best to get more protection than less. And if your strategy remains as I saw it…"
Shen breathed out a long, exhausted sigh.
"Yeah, it's best if you get someone else. But for now…"
Only now that she pointed my attention to it, I've realized we somehow arrived at our destination.
Even though I was paying perfect attention, I still ended up just sinking into her angelic voice and nearly losing my mind over it.
What was certain, I appeared to either have lost consciousness without realizing or have some of my recent memories go missing.
Either way, now that we were here, Shen already raised her hand over to a huge farm.
Contrary to my expectations, we weren't in one of those city-sponsored, well-organized farms.
No, this place was much smaller, much closer to actual poverty than anything one could see in the royal domain farms.
And yet?
The fields grew higher here. The livestock appeared much bigger and more… fertile here.
'Curious, isn't it?'
"This is Clark's farm," Shen introduced. "While he can only provide a pig or two every now and then, he has quite the extensive network of facilities he rents out."
Once again, my bet proved right when Shen somehow revealed the levels of value I never actually expected to get out of her.
She knew someone like that?
Seriously?!
I took a deep breath to calm down.
'At this rate, everything is going to get so easy, this whole thing will get boring!'
Despite complaining in my thoughts, I couldn't actually wipe the grin off my face.
It was one thing to have cheats in a game, effectively reaching the ceiling of what it could offer much faster than expected.
But this was real life.
And if this random whore I picked off a classy brothel not only knew valuable craftsmen that were the best fit for my new company and then just the right place to visit to set up my outer workshop and butchery…
Then with all due respect to what wonders she could summon on the bed, it was nothing to just how much time, money and effort she was saving me with just her connection!
And that, as I was fully aware, was the unexpected part, uncalculated boon that I honestly never expected.
I only asked if she knew this kind of people because it would be stupid not to.
But that's not why I even hired her in the first place. Then, taking account just on how high of a level she kept up her act throughout — as I was fully aware — rather shocking and unexpected change of circumstances…
Just how much of a jackpot did I just… stumble upon?
'Phew…'
I alternated my eyes between the nearby buildings and a shadow of Shen's satisfied smirk.
"Oh boy," I muttered as I felt my knees cave in a bit.
This woman… She was dangerous.
"Seeing that look on your face…" Shen spoke, only to raise her hand up to cover her mouth with just the tips of her fingers. "Woops?" she pushed the tip of her tongue out of the side of her mouth before tilting her head to the side and gently striking at its top with a curled-up fist.
I merely smiled back at her.
"It's not like that," I then quickly shook my head as I dragged my hand down my face.
To be frank, I had no idea what Shen was going on about. I appeared to be missing some context she assumed I knew about.
Either way, I could tell it was in my best interest to pivot away from whatever it was that was happening.
"You underestimate just how much livestock we will go through on a weekly basis," I revealed. "When working alone and with hardly a tool, I went through eight pigs in three days."
Shen wasn't stupid.
She couldn't be, if she could maintain such a near-perfect role.
Honestly speaking, I was surprised by how quickly she showed me her real self.
Was it because I literally threw her into what could be compared to a bathtub of money?
"Once things get on the right track, I fully expect to go through three, maybe even four pigs a day. Then, we might scale down to a stable two pigs a day."
I looked around.
This, ultimately, was the disadvantage of the local farmer against the royal massive, royal farms.
Sure, saddled by bureaucrats and administrative workers, they could never work as well as a farm managed by an actual, traditional farmer.
But it won through the power of scale.
Four pigs, in this area, often meant most of the livestock kept by the smaller farmers.
Shen, however, showed absolutely no concerns.
"Sure, you wouldn't be able to get that many pigs from the locals," she raised her eyes and looked around the same area I just inspected.
And quite obviously, we both arrived at the same verdict.
The farms here were simply too small to fit our needs.
"Then again, the points you brought up earlier still stand…"
There was a lot of good that could be done with one of the workshops I could see out in the distance.
They were unlike anything I saw back in the royal farms. In fact, the workshops here were the size of the whole building that already housed a total of six different workshops, split into separate work-stations each with its own array of tools and materials.
"We could always just get the pigs from the royal farms and bring them here. But horse-carts carrying the pigs one way only to then depart for my shop in the town?" I looked back the way we came. "That's too conspicuous."
For the first time, I arrived at an impasse.
I could always just give up on the perks of having a proper workshop at the back-end of my company, just so I could have the convenience of having all of its parts in one place - a royal-owned farm.
But was I really going to start taking this kind of unnecessary shortcuts right off the bat?
Even with all the help this weird system of mine kept offering, was there really any reason for me to hold back?
"That won't be a problem," Shen shrugged her shoulders. "Now I get it, you sell meat," she spoke with confidence, earning a slightly raised eyebrow from me. "In the end, pretty much all the meat from the pigs will go into the city. And as long as you allow them to offload some of their stock, they will be perfectly happy to exchange it for solid coin and then deal with everything else."
Shen shrugged her shoulders.
"Blind the right people with enough gold and you will start seeing wonders that even in the wildest of stories they would come off as implausible."