Chapter Twenty-Nine: The Town Mayor

Alchemy, geological research, and heading out for dragon hunting.
Dragon hunting, gathering materials, modifying equipment, and alchemy.
Alchemy...
Two days had passed, and this cycle had been repeated for two days. The number of Marsh Dragons in the Pure White Forest slightly exceeded Sonia's expectations; it had shifted from "one Radiant-type with five common-types" to "one cunning Radiant-type with no fewer than fifteen lackeys." Recently, there were even reports of Clockwork Cats being attacked. As a breed of troublemaking cat-balls, they had quickly provoked the Marsh Dragons by feasting on medicinal herbs.

It wouldn't lead to anything disastrous, though.
But cats being attacked—that in itself was a disaster.

Aside from the good news on the first day (Melina killing a Marsh Dragon), it was safe to say that the Weeping Peninsula was filled with bad news.
Brightfall Town had been on high alert for two days without seeing even a single scale of a Sea-Erosion Dragon; the townsfolk were miserable and longed to return home to restart their lives. Due to the rough winds and waves, prices in the nearby town of Innsmouth had gone insane. "The rougher the waves, the pricier the fish," Mayor Hutus of Innsmouth had remarked. Raccoon Town sent word of a crisis: a new breed of werewolf had appeared that did nothing but eat, eating so much that they gnawed a section of the town's wooden wall to collapse...

And Hamlet Town reported shocking, tragic news.
Mayor Leon had been drinking heavily at home for three days; he had the misfortune of finishing a bottle of beer this morning.

Every region on the Weeping Peninsula was unsettled. Areas without a permanent branch of the Explorers' Guild were truly struggling to cope with crises. Therefore, one had to rely on oneself.

...

Melina had just gotten out of bed this morning when she was cornered in the bathroom by the indefatigable Senior Sonia.
It was quite... terrifying.

...

"Ah, I drank too much tea last night."
Melina sat on her golden throne, her mind drifting, rubbing her sleepy eyes and yawning. With a sound like a gentle rain falling into the lake within her golden throne, she shook her body, enjoying the refreshing comfort of an elderly person a century early. As she tilted her head back, shook her face, and reached out to the side for toilet paper, she discovered with embarrassment: it was gone!

"Umm..."
There were two solutions. One was to use her astounding intellect to create a spell on the spot that could identify toilet paper, possess a range reaching all the way to the first-floor storage room, and automatically fetch it. The second was to use magic to conjure an adult diaper, then walk downstairs to get the paper.
Right.
Thinking about it now, how would one use magic factors to make an adult diaper...

Suddenly, a hand reached out from under the partition next to her, holding a roll of paper. "Yo, homie, need some paper?" Sonia’s flippant voice drifted over from the next stall.

"..."
Melina, whose breathing, heartbeat, and brain had all briefly ceased, unleashed a "Banshee Shriek." A lethal dose!

...

Sonia had to go out, but she was a person who couldn't stand being alone—at least, in Melina's view. Why did this person, while heading out, secretly check to see if Melina was still asleep? And when she saw Melina was awake, she invited her along. What was that about? Was she worried about leaving her alone at home?

Melina held a parasol, strolling down the uneven, old road alongside Senior Sonia, who was dressed in her knight-errant attire, as they headed toward the only street in Hamlet Town.

"What magic did you cast yesterday?"
Sonia, who had a black eye from Melina’s punch, didn't care about the pain at all and asked with great curiosity. Beside her, Melina, wearing her black gauze dress, looked puffed up with indignation.

She said:
"The Morning Star's..."
"Holy crap, Zhuang Zhou! A group cleanse and group healing? Oh, little Mei, little Mei!" Sonia’s tone shifted from "Little Mei" to "Xiao Meiii~," making one shiver involuntarily.

"..."
After a half-second of silence, Melina couldn't help herself:
"That wasn't a group heal, it was a shield..."

It was Sonia’s turn to be silent for half a second. She couldn't help herself either:
"Sorry, my bad?"
Melina said nothing.

The long street was baked just right by the sun, making those walking on it feel the intense heat—a temperature enough to make the soles of one's feet sweat. Melina felt that Senior Sonia kept peeking at her boots, seemingly studying something.
To avoid the awkward moment, she asked:
"Senior, are we going to Innsmouth today?"
"Hmm? Why would you think that?"
"Because there isn't anything worth visiting in Hamlet Town... Isn't that what you said?"
"Eh? Did I say such a heartless thing?"

Yes, you did.
Melina thought to herself, this woman is a cold-blooded creature who turns on people in a heartbeat. Two days ago, she said she couldn't bear for Georgia to suffer even a little bit, and that such a delicate, porcelain-like Clara... Illya, must be guarded personally by Berserker. Then, yesterday, she heartlessly made Georgia work overtime, claiming that a young loli needs to endure hardship so her hypnotic resistance would improve...
What even is hypnotic resistance?

"Hahaha, did I? I don't remember, little Mei." Senior smiled brightly, but a strange wine-red glint appeared in her eyes.
Melina gently bit her lower lip, which was coated in black lipstick, puffed out her cheeks, and remained silent.

"We're going to find the Mayor."
Sonia quickened her pace, and a doubt arose in Melina’s heart:
"The Mayor?"
"Yes. If you recall, didn't I buy a lot of stone and timber earlier? And didn't the dragon-turtle carriage transport quite a few construction workers?"
"Yes?"
"I plan to apply to build a few Banshee-style structures and an Explorers' Guild on the mountain in East Hamlet, centered around my manor."
"Hmm, hmm... Wait, what?" Melina exclaimed.

Every race has its own areas of expertise. The Elves have large chests, the Fairies are young... no, no, the Elves are skilled in culinary and artistic culture, and the Dwarves are skilled in ecological surveys and geological exploration. The Banshees, however, are experts in construction.
Not ordinary construction, but magical construction.

With the help of magic factors, Banshees can easily function like a fully automated assembly-line factory, completely automating the production of certain goods, processing raw materials into secondary materials, and finally using those secondary materials—such as silk fabric, canned mushrooms, refined salt, and sugar—locally to produce even more commodities. It can be said to be the first step toward prosperity.

But it's very expensive, and it attracts a lot of Clockwork Cat-balls...
It’s not that it’s bad, but the Clockwork Cat-balls bring very poor urban planning concepts. These cats don't live in the residential areas planned by humans at all; they often live wherever is convenient. For instance, those who are good at business live directly on the commercial street, and those who are good at gardening live on the botanical street... and the food street is basically occupied by them entirely.
This is a major headache for town management.

And the Explorers' Guild—that is an even more heavy-duty project.
A harvester guild can already provide most of what the residents of the Weeping Peninsula need, and a building department like the Explorers' Guild, which requires official certification and official presence, would also significantly impact the local ecology. It’s equivalent to setting up a paid hunting zone in a nature reserve.

No wonder Sonia had to go see the Mayor; this couldn't be done without his nod...
Because another issue was involved here.

If an entire region consisted of a certain Banshee’s factories, and the people and cats ate the food produced in her factories, lived in the houses she built, bought her goods, used her factory’s daily necessities, and finally, she was the one paying their wages—wouldn't that form a terrifying monopoly?
The answer is: Yes, that is a monopoly.

Due to their immense power, nobody in the academy would dare provoke the Banshee race to which Melina belonged. However, they were often met with strange gazes during history class—every race has a "original sin." For example, Elves are gluttonous, Fairies are arrogant, Dwarves are masters of lewdness... The Banshees, on the other hand, encompass the shortcomings of all: not only gluttonous, lewd, arrogant, and lazy... they even have a grand future based on their original sin, which is monopolizing.
Ninety-nine percent of monopoly crimes come from Banshees. The remaining one percent are the Banshees who haven't been caught yet.

So...
Has Senior’s Banshee blood finally gone out of control?
Has she revealed her ambition to occupy the entire Weeping Peninsula?
Melina didn't feel afraid; on the contrary, she felt incredibly exhilarated! If Senior Sonia becomes the Great Emperor, and Senior Maria becomes the Middle Emperor, surely she herself would at least get to be a Little Emperor, right?
No, no, "Little Emperor" sounds unlucky, it sounds like an Executive Vice-Goat.

...

The Mayor's cabin was very easy to find. It wasn't big and was located at the entrance of the street. It had a wildly overgrown small garden and a wine barrel warehouse.
Mayor Leon’s cabin was divided into an office in the front and a personal living space in the back, with the wine barrel warehouse serving as a card room. This was a characteristic of small places; it was common for the post office, tavern, office, and living quarters to be mixed together.

Melina actually had a favorable impression of the name "Leon." One of the protagonists in a horror game her sisters used to play was named Leon. Perhaps it was a nostalgia for her past life, or perhaps not.
However, the good impression lasted only a minute.

The "creature" behind the only desk in the Mayor’s office could be described as a "middle-aged man in the midst of a mid-life crisis." He had dry, split, dull blonde hair, a scruffy beard, and a double chin beneath his cleft chin. His stocky body reminded one of a wild boar or a bear that had gained 50% more weight. He held a smaller-than-average wine glass—Melina noticed that this Mayor... sir, had hands and calves that were a bit too small for his frame. Like a ball with slender limbs.

"There are two types of mayors in the world," Sonia said.
"One type is shrewd and capable like G... Georgia, and the other is like our Mayor Leon of Hamlet Town—used to be shrewd and capable!"
She expressed her disdain without any attempt to hide it, hands on her hips, looking puffed up in a rare display of temper:
"My dear Uncle Leon, wouldn't you agree?"
The sword’s edge was pointed directly at the Mayor, who was still drinking beer.
The Mayor’s expression was a bit awkward:
"Uh, uh... hah, the weather is nice today, isn't it?"
"Hmm-hmm?" Sonia tilted her head and narrowed her left eye. "Uncle, did you read the documents from Mayor Georgia yesterday?"
"Re... read them, yes."
*He definitely didn't read them,* Melina thought.
"What did you think about the road construction mentioned in them?"
"Very, very good!"
*He definitely didn't read them,* Melina thought again.

Sonia walked up to the desk and slammed both hands down on it: "Good, my ass!? Georgia didn't send you any documents at all! What the hell have you been doing all day? You can't even grasp the basic principles of document applications for town management? You useless waste!"

The "f-bomb" density of that sentence was off the charts.
Melina stood up straight, much like a prized cat watching its owner scold a dog, wearing an expression that said, "I had no idea this person could be this furious."

And that fat man.
The Mayor.
His face turned beet red.
The next second, Melina thought he would get angry and resist, but to her surprise, his eyes suddenly turned teary, and he burst into loud sobs:
"You're goddamn right, I'm a goddamn waste!"

Melina’s eyes widened, her eyebrows shot up, her torso leaned back slightly, and she couldn't help but press her lips together tightly.