Chapter 102

Chapter 102: Two Birds with One Stone, Pheasant and Egg

"You could have taken your time. You haven't rested a single day—haven't you overdone it?"

At my words, Maxim scratched the back of his head and let out a hearty laugh.

"Haha! We wanted to do it this way, Liege Lord. This has been a moment we've been waiting for for a long time—resting and working slowly would be more difficult, honestly. Starting tomorrow, we'll begin the wall construction in earnest."

"Tomorrow? You've all worked so hard—take a few days to rest properly."

"Resting is harder, Liege Lord. My heart pounds restlessly, eager to see the fortress walls rise as quickly as possible. Being unable to work and forced to rest would be agony."

"Haha..."

When they put it that way, there was no way to stop them.

If it had been only Maxim feeling this way, I might have understood.

But every member of the Eckard clan had the same passionate look in their eyes as Maxim.

"Then, even if you start tomorrow, you must not overwork yourselves like you did while mining the Erdotte Stone. Understood?"

"Yes, we'll pace ourselves appropriately. That the Liege Lord worries for us like this is more than we deserve. Thank you."

When Maxim bowed his head in greeting, every single Eckard clan dwarf followed suit.

"Thank you!"

I still wasn't used to being treated this way.

It would probably take a long time before I got used to it.

'Fortress wall construction, huh...'

Stone masonry, stacking rocks up high, was no ordinary construction job.

No matter how strong the dwarves were, their numbers were simply too few.

That was why I had come up with an idea.

I shared it with Maxim.

"Since there aren't enough of you to handle the work alone, what if we received help from the Hunters staying at the Fourth Floor outpost?"

Upon hearing that, Maxim tilted his head.

"Help...? Would they come forward?"

"We can make them come forward. I'm thinking of giving a one-serving meal coupon to any Hunter who helps with wall construction for an hour and a half a day. With a cap of three hours per day."

Converted to an hourly wage, each meal coupon amounted to four hundred thousand won.

If they worked the maximum three hours, they'd receive coupons worth two servings—one million, two hundred thousand won in meal value.

"Oh, a fine idea. There are Hunters who grow bored staying at the outpost as well."

"Right. Most of the guilds or parties are either first-time visitors to the Fourth Floor or on their second trip, so they're still in the stage of getting to know it. They tend to stick close to the outpost rather than venturing far on hunts, and they spend a lot of time at base. And lately, among the Hunters staying here, there's been a workout craze for raising their growth stats, so those Hunters can earn meal coupons and raise their stats through physical labor at the same time—catching two rabbits at once."

"Oh, the Liege Lord really does have an extraordinary mind."

"You flatter me. It's something anyone could have thought of."

After further discussion, Maxim agreed to my proposal.

I should have the coupons made right away.

For today, though, I'd pass.

'I'd told Ria I'd finish work early and head home.'

***

I returned to the Rift house.

And there was Ria, harvesting cherry tomatoes in the field.

"Ria, what are you doing? You should be resting."

"Welcome home, Seon-u. I just get restless sitting still."

"Still, you need to be careful. Let me do it—Ria, you should rest."

"No, I'll do it—you rest, Seon-u. You've been working all this time."

"All I did was run the lunch service. It was nothing. Here, give it to me—I'll do it."

"Really now."

In the end, I took Ria's basket from her and began picking the cherry tomatoes myself.

Then Ruina came up beside me and spoke as if pleading her case.

"Master Seon-u, please talk some sense into Lady Ria. She won't listen to anything I say."

"Why? What happened?"

"Ever since you left for work, Master Seon-u, Lady Ria hasn't stopped doing something—field work, housework, studying. She was even training with the sword."

"Ah..."

So making her skip restaurant work had simply led her to do other things without rest.

"Ria, leave things like that to me and Ruina, and just rest comfortably."

"..."

Ria looked back and forth between me and Ruina with a displeased expression.

"Both of you are too overzealous. At this rate, won't you stop me from doing anything at all once my belly starts showing?"

At that, Ruina nodded as if it were obvious.

"But of course. That's exactly what I'm here for, as Lady Ria's right hand. Please leave it all to me!"

"Leave it to me too."

At our answer, Ria crossed her arms and squeezed her eyes shut.

"My belly isn't even showing yet, and even when it does, as long as I avoid any vigorous movement, moderate activity is actually good for both the mother and the baby. Stopping me from doing anything at all would be worse for my mental health, I think. I'm grateful for the concern, but please don't take it too far. Both of you."

At that, Ruina and I flinched.

I protested softly.

"I heard that early pregnancy is actually more dangerous..."

"I'm not an ordinary person. There's no chance of me falling, getting hurt, or growing exhausted. I can manage my own condition just fine."

When she put it that way, I had nothing to say.

"...That's true."

She was close to being a superhuman who had left ordinary humans far behind.

Ruina and I let our shoulders slump.

Truth be told, part of it was that we were worried about Ria.

But more than that, it was because we wanted so badly to dote on her.

Seeing the pair of us with our shoulders drooping, Ria spoke soothingly.

"I won't push myself at all—I'll manage my condition properly, so don't worry. And if I need anything, I'll let you know."

"All right."

"I understand, Lady Ria."

And so, my overprotection of Ria came to an end just two days in.

'Such a shame. I wanted to take this chance to truly pamper her.'

But Ria did not want that.

It wasn't that she disliked being cared for.

It was that she felt bad about Ruina and me putting our own work aside to focus solely on her.

That was the kind of person Ria was.

'Too kind for her own good.'

She could at least fuss at her husband a little and order him around.

It seemed that even when Ria was full-term, she wouldn't be putting me to work.

It seemed she'd handle most things herself.

That was truly disappointing.

Even so, when that time came, I'd be her hands and feet by her side—whether she liked it or not.

***

The next day, I wrapped up the restaurant's lunch service quickly, by one thirty in the afternoon.

Then I took Ria straight out of the Rift and headed to the obstetrician's.

She had her blood drawn at the clinic.

Looking at the test results on the monitor, the female doctor said,

"Lady Emeria, judging from your hCG hormone levels, you're definitely pregnant. You're three weeks along. Congratulations to both of you."

"Three weeks... thank you."

"Thank you."

The doctor then asked Ria several questions.

Was she tired? Did her lower abdomen hurt?

Ria said that, aside from occasionally feeling queasy when she ate food with strong aromas, she had no symptoms at all.

"That would be because you're a Hunter. Awakened pregnant women typically don't experience major symptoms. Their bodies are simply very sturdy. However, perhaps because being Awakened makes the sense of smell more sensitive, they do tend to start experiencing morning sickness earlier, as you are now."

"I see."

So morning sickness came easily because of a sensitive sense of smell.

I'd learned something new.

For the time being, I'd avoid cooking strongly aromatic food at home.

I then asked the doctor a question.

"Are Awakened pregnant women generally safer during delivery?"

Was that too obvious a question to ask?

But the doctor smiled at me and nodded.

"Of course. According to domestic and international obstetric statistics, Awakened pregnant women tend to face fewer risks in various emergencies as delivery approaches. It's a matter of how sturdy the body is."

"Is that so."

If that was true for Awakened pregnant women in general, then for Ria—even sturdier than they—the risk should be minimal.

The doctor continued,

"Yes, and the statistics also show that not only the Awakened mothers, but their babies are born in good health. The rate of premature birth is very low."

"I see. That's a relief to hear. Thank you for telling me."

Beside me, Ria was smiling as she watched me.

"Really, you worry about the strangest things."

"Still, I can't help worrying."

Watching us, the doctor said,

"You two are a lovely couple. From now at three weeks through to delivery at thirty-six weeks, please keep trusting and supporting each other like this. Please come in once every two weeks. We'll do an ultrasound at your next visit. Today's appointment is finished."

"Understood. Thank you, Doctor."

"Um, by any chance..."

"Yes?"

The doctor stopped us just as we were about to stand up at the end of the appointment.

"My son and daughter are fans of Chef An Seon-u and Hunter Emeria. Would you be able to give me just one autograph each?"

"Of course."

Ria and I each signed our names on the stiff sheets of paper the doctor had prepared in advance.

After signing, I wrote below, 'Please take good care of my wife through the delivery, Professor Lee Yeong-seon.'

After leaving the hospital, I called a deluxe taxi and went with Ria to look at my building.

The interior and exterior construction had already been completed, and now an additional residential-use conversion was underway on the fifth through seventh floors.

Once this work was done, the building would truly be complete.

Ria looked around the building and smiled with pleasure.

"I love it—our home outside the Rift."

"Yeah, it's nice."

"The building will be finished well before I give birth, right?"

"Of course it will. The work is scheduled to wrap up within a month and a half."

"Really? That's faster than I thought."

"Right. Anyway, construction's still ongoing and there's dust in the air, so let's wrap up looking around and head back."

"Mm, got it."

I couldn't have a pregnant woman lingering at a construction site for long.

Since we'd come by deluxe taxi rather than bringing the car today, we went up to the second floor, which was empty of construction workers, and opened a Gate Portal straight to the Rift house.

***

Fortress wall construction at the outpost began.

On the first day, the Hunters at the outpost didn't pay much attention to what the dwarves were doing.

Then came the third day.

The single-use meal coupons I had ordered from a design company arrived.

I posted an announcement beside the daily menu board in front of the restaurant, letting everyone know the outpost fortress wall construction had begun.

"So what the dwarves have been working on is a fortress wall."

"It did look like one, somehow."

"Where did they get those massive, flat stones?"

"Right? And it looks like they're building it with a pretty wide circumference."

And the content written below the announcement read:

- Volunteering as a laborer on the fortress wall construction earns one meal coupon for a single restaurant serving per hour and a half.

- Maximum of two payouts per day (based on three hours of work).

The Hunters who saw this responded favorably.

"Working an hour and a half for one serving's worth of coupon? Not bad at all."

"Even as an hourly rate, that's two hundred eighty dollars—not bad."

"Since becoming Awakened, hauling stone is nothing to me. Should I give it a try?"

"Before I got Awakened, I worked fifteen hours a day on construction sites—three hours is nothing. Guess I'll dust off my old labor skills for once."

These were Hunters ranked from B+ at the lowest to S at the highest.

Within the Awakened, they were in a league of their own.

Every single one of them was a premium worker.

And those Hunters who had been enthusiastic about raising their growth stats also took interest.

"Construction? That's raising my growth stats and earning meal coupons at once—two birds, one stone."

"Muscles built from hard labor are the real thing, more than any iron pumping."

As expected, they were showing interest.

And some of them even worried on my behalf.

"Construction material costs must be hefty, and now he's handing out meal coupons on top of that? Is Chef An going to go bankrupt building this wall?"

In a regular construction project, that Hunter would have been right.

Even the restaurant's earnings wouldn't have been enough to cover it.

At best, I would have only managed a small-perimeter wall.

But the Eckard clan dwarves were working for me without pay, having pledged themselves to me as Liege Lord.

And the materials were being mined from the dungeon and used as masonry.

So the cost was next to nothing.

I released Silent Footsteps—the skill I had gained by absorbing and devouring the Named Doppelganger with Acresia—and spoke.

"There's no need to worry about me."

At the sound from behind them, the Hunters whirled around in surprise.

"What—? Chef An, when did you get here?"

"You startled me. I didn't sense your presence at all."

"Your footsteps are incredibly quiet."

Well, I had used the Silent Footsteps skill.

It was an assassin-like skill that let me muffle my footsteps and suppress my presence while approaching.

Anyway.

"I make plenty of money from the stat dishes all of you buy. So I'm always grateful to you."

At that, the Hunters waved their hands dismissively.

The oldest among them, Edgar—an S-Rank Hunter from the Benjamin Guild—spoke up.

"If anything, we should be the ones thanking you. You run a restaurant for us here, and now you're even building a sturdy wall to make the outpost safer."

"Mr. Edgar is right."

The Hunters had taken the bait.

"Thank you for seeing it that way. I hope you'll take a keen interest in the wall construction, and if you're willing, please sign up as laborers to earn coupons and come dine with them."

"Understood."

"Eh, I'll lend a hand."

"I'll sign up, then brag to my kids that I was the one who stacked those Fourth Floor fortress wall stones."

After lunch, a remarkable number of Hunters actually signed up as laborers for the fortress wall construction.

The regular meals sold at the restaurant made up less than twenty percent of total sales anyway.

Most of the revenue came from the buff and stat dishes.

So accepting coupons in exchange for regular meals didn't affect sales much.

In fact, sales actually began to rise by the day.

Since they were already putting in physical labor, more and more Hunters were buying 'Royal Jelly Yogurt Ice Cream' and 'Wild Grape Pie' to raise their growth stats.

Truly, two birds with one stone—pheasant and egg both.