Royal Palace, Country of Eruchea:-

Harry woke up the next day, quite refreshed.

After yesterday’s long lecture coupled with the painful carriage ride, Harry was so exhausted that he had quickly eaten dinner and rushed to bed.

Today, his itinerary included writing a letter to the Alchemy Guild about all the chemicals and other products he needed.

As he made his way to his office after breakfast, the system popped up.

[Congratulations on teaching Chemistry to your citizens for the first time.

As a reward, the host is being given a sub-mission of the first mission that the host received.]

‘Oh? A sub-mission? But why is that a reward? It doesn’t look one bit like a reward!’

[The host just lacks the intelligence to understand the jokes.

Keeping that aside, the host’s sub-mission details are as follows.

Sub-mission:-

Title:- Roof over heads

Description: The kingdom has been established. Development has started. However, an old threat looms over the people that threatens to destroy everything.

Task: The host needs to ensure that all the citizens of Eruchea have a proper house over their heads before winters arrive. The houses should have all basic necessities such as water, heating, electricity, sewage disposal etc.

Rewards:

• 5000 SP
• Chance to claim one reward from main missions before completion of the mission
• Knowledge of the production of various basic military weapons such as grenades, automatic rifles, etc.
• Knowledge of making tasers and other police equipment
• Knowledge of creation and maintenance of prisons

Punishment:

• ⅛ of the host’s soul is destroyed
• Half of the country’s population perishes in the cold

Time:- The deadline is on 1st December, until before the snowfall starts.

The system has judged that the host has enough knowledge already and can proceed with this task without much help from this system.]

Harry could only stare at the insane conditions set by the system.

August was just around the corner and he hadn’t done a lot of development in the kingdom.

He figured that he would probably start with the improvement of houses after the winters passed and he could properly build the plants to manage things like water supply and sewage treatment.

“System, do you want to give me a heart attack? Or do you want to overwork me under insane levels of stress till I die?”

Harry’s fresh look from the morning had died out already.

[Why does the host feel that this system is some evil being?]

Harry looked at the system’s reply and ran into his office while telling Stephen not to let anyone near the room.

“Look system, I’m sick of this!

You gave me two very insane looking main missions.

I somehow managed to agree to those.

But now you give me this sort of a sub-mission!?

This is a huge country! The sheer number of citizens makes it impossible to house until next year! And that’s when I make groups of 4-5 people per house!”

[The system realises the error and has already transmitted the host’s plea to the gods responsible for setting the missions…

Receiving response…

Congratulations, host! The request has been accepted and major changes have been made to the quest!

Now, the host only needs to create housing for 7000 of the poorest citizens of Eruchea before winters arrive.]

Harry couldn’t believe his eyes.

The mission’s difficulty had dropped from something like A-class and landed at F-class.

“Say, system, when the original quest was made, was the creator god high or something?”

[This system recommends not asking such questions otherwise the host’s request can still be denied.]

“Okay, okay, no need to start threatening me!

But I’ll need to start rushing a lot of things…”

Harry starting writing a letter to the alchemists.

Initially, he planned to just describe cement, gunpowder and other things to them somewhat vaguely and let them figure it out on their own.

And once they gave him a final product, he’d step in to put the finishing touches and improve the initial thing that they made.

But now, Harry just started describing the entire process in detail.

Everything from what to use, how much to use, how to use and what to call the final thing etc.

He described everything in detail.

He felt that he didn’t have the time to be lax.

He had to build houses for thousands.

If the people ended up declaring him as some heavenly being and started worshipping him, so be it!

It was more important for Harry to preserve his soul!

The letter ended up being fifty pages long.

It looked more like a short story that Harry had written.

But even now, the description had been kept as less as possible and Harry had put page numbers wherever possible to refer to the chemistry books he had given them.

He then wrote letters to the blacksmiths to make more steam engines, bigger steam engines, and several other things as well, like vehicle parts.

Harry also wrote a letter to the masonry guild of Eruchea to inform them that big revolutionary projects would be coming their way in the next few months.

Harry had to make a bunch of the construction material and construction vehicles before he could start with the sub-mission.

So, he went and bought the knowledge about the topics from the system store.

Thankfully, he had a lot of points to spend.

Otherwise, he wouldn’t be able to purchase a lot of things.

By the end of this shopping spree, Harry was left with just 1000 SP (System Points) and, as though mocking him, the cheapest item was set at 1001 SP.

That’s where he got the information that he wrote in the letters.

And after spending half an hour writing letters at high speeds and giving them to his butler to be delivered, Harry finally somewhat got a large burden off his shoulders.

Everyone was now informed and if luck was on his side, he would be able to finish the mission.

“Wait a minute! Hey system, you said that I had to get houses for 7000 of the poorest section of Eruchea, right?”

[That is correct, host.]

“Can you tell me how many slaves and free farmers are there in the country?”

[This system estimates there to be about 6000 slaves and around 3000 free men under the occupation of farming.]

“Last I check, they were the poorest ones due to all those stupid farming superstitions they believed in.

Hmmm…

Say, do I have a limit for the number of people that I can keep in one house?”

[That limit depends upon the size of the houses the host builds. Small houses would only allow for only a few people and larger ones allow for more people to stay under one roof.]

“So, theoretically speaking, if I make one big shelter for all those slaves and one for the free farmers, can I ‘create housing’ for around 9000 people at once?”

[That is correct. A large community home with that capacity can be considered a house for all of its inhabitants. The sub-mission will be marked as complete if the host does so.]

“Really!?

Did I just waste all that energy worrying about how difficult the mission was when the solution was this easy!?

I even wrote this storybook-sized letter!

I’m so dumb!!”

Harry started cursing his stupidity.

“Wait, as people back on earth used to say, effort is never wasted!

I’ll just proceed at the pace I’m going and use the extra material that those guys produce for building other houses!

Can you give me an estimate for the time it’ll take for building all of this?”

[By the system’s calculations, everything should be over by late November if the host actively participates in the process.]

“Great!

Let’s see, it should take only a few days at maximum for the alchemists to make cement and the other related items.

And the blacksmiths shouldn’t take more than two weeks to make the metal items.

And with your help, the assembly should be done in a few days.

And driving lessons for the construction vehicles will take about a week.

So, by the end of August, we should be done with the basic prep work!

Then comes actual construction.

That should be done in three months if I just throw more people at it.

And I’ll also need to train the workers as the water plants and stuff get built.

It’ll be cutting it real close, but if I do work my a*s off along with everyone else, we should have two large enough shelters with all the basic necessities to hold around 9000 people in total!”

Harry was overjoyed by this realisation.

Though he’d still have to work a lot, it was still better than having his soul ripped. (He didn’t know exactly how much getting his soul ripped would hurt, but he figured that it’s best to not find out.)

He would also have to deal with Qing and Jeanette’s complaining, but he figured that if they let him properly explain the plan, he would be able to convince them.

Just before Harry was about to start dancing in joy, his butler burst into the office.

“Your majesty! I have great news!”

“What happened!?”, Harry said in a startled voice.

“Your majesty, the reports of this season’s yield came in!

The rise in amounts of crops is phenomenal!

And the farmers are reporting that the cursed land isn’t cursed anymore!!”

Stephen looked very excited.

He saw so many good and miraculous things happening around him every day that the butler couldn’t control his joy any longer.

‘That land was never cursed in the first place!

But anyway, no need to be the devil and break this poor guy’s little bubble…

Lemme just play along.’

“Oh, really!?

That’s such great news! It seems that the gods finally decided to send their blessings to our land!”, said Harry as he pretended to be surprised.

“Yes, your majesty!

I feel like all these good things started the day the previous king left and you took the throne!

Yes! You are this country’s saviour!”

“Woah! Stephen, buddy! You don’t need to praise me so much!

All I did was use whatever knowledge I found for the benefit of this country.

I never did anything seriously miraculous!

It’s not like I went and blessed the cursed lands myself!

All I did was be lucky enough to start using the lands right after they were blessed!”

Even now, Harry tried to reduce the chances of increasing his cult following.

He had already two people in the cult and they were two too many for him.

He didn’t want anyone new.

That’s why he did his best to refuse the idea of him being some heavenly character as much as possible.

“Ah, speaking of farming, I had promised to promote all those slaves to free men once the crops were harvested!

Stephen, how long before the harvest?”

“Your majesty, considering everything, I would say that the harvesting should begin by tomorrow only. But are you sure you want to promote the slaves?”

“Why shouldn’t I? I don’t plan to have even a single slave in my kingdom!

I have already passed laws about banning slavery in this country. It would be very cruel of me if I didn’t free the last slaves of the country.

You should instead focus on preparing for the promotion ceremony. I want those people to feel extra special when they become free men.”

“As you command, your majesty…”, Stephen said courteously while bowing and exited the room.

“Phew! Now that he’s gone, I can focus on other things!

I need to prepare some sort of speech for that ceremony as well…

And then there’s this pile of papers to deal with…”

Harry could only sigh in despair as he resumed his regular activities.

He wrote the speech very quickly and then began going through the huge pile of papers in front of him.

“The day barely even started and I already feel like going back to sleep!”

Unfortunately for Harry, he had to continue going through all the reports of various activities around the country and making more reports based on them.

The only change was that Stephen came in a few hours later to inform him about the status of the preparations for the slave promotion ceremony.

At least after a few days, there would be no more slaves in his country.

That was a good thing.

After slaving away at his table for a few hours more, it was finally lunch time.

Lunchtime meant a much-needed break for Harry.

But today, he needed to talk to Qing and the others about his schedule for the next few months.

With this thought, Harry dragged himself to the dining hall.

‘Ah, at least the food is good today.

And I get to have my recharge of Jeanette-Energy while eating!’

Harry always felt some energy return to him when he looked at Jeanette’s smile after slaving away in his office and, like any love-struck person, he had named it “Jeanette-Energy”.

The four of them ate lunch while chatting normally.

However, once they were done eating, Harry decided to talk about the main topic.

It wasn’t easy to convince them.

None of them wanted Harry to work so hard.

They felt that it was all normal for people to go through some amount of hardships in life.

Even Qing and Shin, who did want all the modern tech, were not fully supporting Harry.

Even they told him to take it easy and not force himself to do so much in just a few months.

But Harry had to do it.

He had his soul on the line.

And so, after wasting/utilising an entire hour on this debate, Harry managed to cook up some philanthropic-sounding excuses to convince them.

They especially started supporting him when he told them about his initiative to promote all slaves to free men and end slavery in the country.

But Harry felt that after saying all this, Qing and Shin might officially start some cult-like fan club or religion based on him in Eruchea.

And going by the amount of respect Harry felt the citizens had for him, many of them might even join this fan club/religion.