Spending My Retirement In A Game

"There you are! You're always the last one, huh?" Jasmin pointed out with a raised brow, and Benjamin chuckled slightly as he sat down at the table.

"I guess so. I just finished making Girland some helpers, and it took a little longer than I hoped," the old man explained, as Haruo raised his brows.

"Oh? Finally, I see! She is always so busy, I'm sure with some extra hands, she could let loose a bit, huh?" he pointed out, but Jasmin just let out a loud scoff.

"Girland? Let loose? I'd love to see that one," with a laugh, Jasmin rolled her wheelchair up to the table next to Benjamin, but from the stove, Natalie protested.

"Oh come on, she's so nice though! She helps me out all the time!"

"I didn't say she wasn't nice, she's just all about work, you know? She always brings me so much stuff for me to sign and look over..."

Andrew crossed his arms as he leaned back in his chair, "You're the one that decided to found a goddamn magic school. You know how much work goes into that?"

"Oh, don't even start, I know that you're planning on just tacking yourself onto the academy when the basics are all set up."

"Yeah. Like a smart person would do it. I've got shit to do. How do you think we're expanding the country at the moment?" Andrew pointed out, "I don't have time to sit at a desk and sign shit. And even then, I've still got to write up tons of reports... Oh, by the way, how's that train coming along?

Travelling by ship is getting so annoying."

Benjamin couldn't help himself but laugh, "We've built our country on an archipelago, I don't think we can ever fully avoid ship-travel."

"Yeah, but you know what I mean. It's just such a hassle, and it's uncomfortable, and it takes so, so long..."

Jasmin smiled smugly, "Don't worry, now that Benjamin finished the plans for the railroads, I've started preparing all the materials we need. We're deploying the construction drones soon. And then we just need all the train stations, right?"

"Urgh... don't remind me... I'm so stuck on the design of the central stations!" Natalie let out a loud groan as she started plating up the food, "I want them all to be a representation of the people and the culture and habitat native to each of the islands. It was actually pretty easy for the station on the island for the treaty meeting. The people living there are this matriarchal ant-folk, right?

And they make their homes in those large pillar-like mountains, and the architecture is so unique and interesting that I got right inspired. But that was by far the easiest one. Like, what am I supposed to do in Prototype? It's so multi-cultural that I can't ever decide on anything."

Andrew looked over at her confused, "Doesn't prototype already have its own style of architecture? That, and I'll add, you designed? I mean, the former you, but still."

Natalie let out a long sigh as she placed the plates of vodka-sauce pasta in front of everyone, "I mean, yes... but... I don't know, there's something weird about the architecture, that I can't really put my hands on, you know? Like, an inspiration that I can't fully grasp yet? But I'm well on my way to getting there, don't worry!"

"Yeah, but... we do kind of need to get started soon, right? Didn't we plan on inviting the people that came to the treaty meeting to the capital for a few days?" Jasmin asked, and Benjamin quickly nodded his head.

"That was the plan, yes. But we can figure something out. Worst-case, we'll just have to build the base of the building and then use some illusion magic to fill in the rest. You've been working on that kind of thing recently, right?" The old man looked at Jasmin, who slowly nodded her head in contemplation.

"Right... The magic that I've been looking into was more about hiding larger structures, but I can definitely change it into something like that. Especially if we use some of Evalia's element, skills and magic, I should be able to set something up that can't be seen through by anyone.

It would be temporary and use a massive amount of mana though, so I don't know if it's something we can do for a period of a few days."

"Once they're outside of the station, we could narrow it down to just the outside and then continue working on everything inside if we need to," Benjamin suggested, turning toward Andrew.

"What about you? Are the preparations for your 'mystery surprise' going alright?"

"Heh... yup, just caught something perfect for that," Andrew pointed out, and the four others just started staring at him.

"You 'caught' something?" Natalie repeated, "You're not planning on letting loose a monster on the island, are you?"

Andrew silently looked back at Natalie, before turning right to Haruo, "You didn't tell them about it, right?"

"Of course not, you're just not the best at subtlety... But, yes, his plan is to let loose a monster on the island with my help and subjugate it nearby at the right moment. Just a small display of power," Haruo explained, his tail nervously circling behind him.

Everyone slowly turned toward Benjamin to see what he was thinking, but the old man was just quietly running his fingers through his beard.

"That... might not be the worst idea," Benjamin pointed out, "Of course, you've got to do it the right way, otherwise it can have the opposite effect. I mean, look at the opinion that some of the countries have of the wastelands and the orcs in general.

Just because there's a ton of powerful monsters there, they think it's wild and uncontrollable, so orcs have been brandished as barbarians for far too long. If we're not careful, they might think that of our country as well. Since we're coexisting with monsters, we're already too far on the edge anyway."

Andrew grinned broadly, "You think I didn't take that into account?"

Benjamin raised his brow, "What do you mean?"

"Well, Komer told me a lot about all the people that are coming, and there's this one guy that is practically addicted to smoking this one specific type of tobacco. It's nothing too special, but according to Jyuuk, it's known to attract certain species of monsters.

Not an issue if you live in the middle of the capital anyway, as this guy does, but when you're travelling across lands with numerous powerful monsters, that might be a bit too risky, don't'cha think?"

The old man thought for a moment, "So you're planning on making it the fault of that one individual? Well, it's not the worst plan to make them a bit more meek, but who exactly are you talking about? If we're already on good terms with them, I'm not sure if I'm comfortable with that."

Haruo scoffed, shaking his head, "Oh, you don't have to worry about that. It's that Bishop from the Holy Empire that came last time as well. The one that was a massive dick."

"If it's the Holy Empire we're dealing with, then bring three of those monsters for all I care," Benjamin let out a loud laugh.

"Come on, let's not talk about that, I put a lot of effort into this dish... I looked up a ton of recipes online and even practiced for like a week in the other world for when my turn came around... I don't want it to get cold!" Natalie complained with a slight pout, and everyone quickly agreed. They were all fairly hungry anyway, and they could talk about all of this as much as they wanted to later.