Volume 9 Chapter 31: Everything In Motion

“Grr,” The moles stared at Keith with caution. They even snarled, trying to attack through the cage. That was only an afterthought.

“Kwak!” Aria screeched, causing the moles to freeze. Just because the Blizzard Owl wasn’t making a sound didn’t mean it wasn’t an apex predator.

“Thank you, Aria.” The noise made it difficult to talk.

The man was unfazed as he continued, “You guys live here, and I’ll even let you eat delicious food.” Time to increase the benefits.

“…” The moles tilted their heads as if they were conversing with a crazy person. Oh, yeah. Keith turned to Aria, “Aria, translate for me.”

“Hoo!” Aria made a sound that caused the moles to tilt their heads. That was when the mole’s expression changed. Keith continued, “As long as you can make soil like this all the time for the garden, then you will get food,” The soil they made was quite interesting. From touch alone, he could feel the softness and vitality it had.

“Naa!” The moles quickly made a sound, and the owl called.

“Good,” The moles agreed to the terms.

“Logan, can you handle that?”

“If I can handle Blue, a few moles would not be a problem.” Logan laughed. Blue and the other wolves joined not long ago. This was just adding more to it.

“Nice.” Keith turned to the moles, “You guys will get meals, but you can’t just eat any foods you want.” The moles flinched before they had agreed with this.

“So, are you going to be planting things again?” Keith had brought back many seeds. He was quite excited.

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“Mmhmm. But I’m going to need a lot of cacao trees.” For the chocolate factory to work, he would need many cacao fruits.

“I see.”

“Then I will leave you all to it.”

“Understood!” Logan and the other farmers nodded. The next place Keith headed to was an inn. When he did, the beastmen were in the lobby working on something.

“Good morning everyone. How was your sleep?”

“We’re ready,” Walter, the group leader, nodded.

That was when Keith told him, “Today, I’m going to have you guys sharpen your nose before I teach you something.”

“Eh?” Walter and the other beastmen tilted their heads.

“For starters, I will have you guys be a chocolatier. Because of this, you need to learn not to use it.” Keith then took out some beans, “Here are some cacao beans. For starters, I want you guys to smell out which ones are the bad ones.”

“This one, there’s a moldy smell.”

“There’s also this one which doesn’t smell as nice as the others.”

“Good. Sharpen your nose like that to discern what is good to put in and what is not. This will be vital with the chocolate.”

“Understood! Boss!” Walter nodded.

Alright. That’s good to go. Another place that he headed to was the new location.

“…May, is this the place?”

“Mmhmm,” May nodded as she pointed at the store, “This building had been used as a common goods store. However, they decided to retire and sold this place off. It’s near the merchant shop and bakery, where we can send the supplies. Also, it’s a vital place for customers to come over.”

“Mmhmmm,” This place was a good location. Keith looked around the store and realized it was quite well-maintained. But the inside was what was amazing.

It was pretty clean. The interior was a little bland, but it wasn’t broken down where he needed to do a total construction like the bakery. The back was well-maintained as well. It was used as a storage unit; however, he could change it into the factory section. With this, the only things needed for the interior were the equipment and some remodeling. However, the outside would need a change as he would be selling something that had never been sold before.

But I’m not that good at designing. Keith groaned. He wanted to make the exterior pop, but nothing came to mind.

“…” May watched how Keith acted. It was clear that he had a lot of ideas going through his head right now. The two headed to Ignis Hammer, while one was lost in thought.

“Hugo, Is Orin here. I’m going to- “

“Yeah, he’s in the back. You can just go to him,” Keith was already a known person in the shop. He didn’t need to ask anymore. The two went to the back, where Orin questioned, “What you need, kid?”

“I’m going to open up another store. And it will need equipment; you’re up for it?” Keith grinned.

“…” Orin burst out laughing, “Kid, you come home, and this is the first thing you want to do?” He never ceased to surprise him with these types of things. It was supposed to be his break, but he wanted to work.

“What do you want me to build?”