Chapter 250: Queen Competition (3)

Right before noon, Axel finally stretched his arms wide.

“Finally, I can see the top of my desk again!” he exclaimed with a broad smile.

With the help of the three, Axel and Beatrix had cleared all the papers that had been stacking up like a mountain before them for the first time! Although it was mostly thanks to Fenrir, who handled about 80% of the work on her own.

She even took over Ria’s part, which the little witch couldn’t even begin to tackle.

“Great job, Fenrir,” he said, smiling as he patted the gray wolf lady on the head. “You deserve a reward.”

Fenrir’s ears drooped, as if she wanted to feel Axel’s hand for a bit longer. It was a cute gesture coming from her, considering she usually acted proud and powerful.

“Master, if it’s a reward, then… tonight…”

While she fixed her hair after the patting, she spoke with a sly smile. However, Axel wasn’t going to fall for that trick.

He slowly shook his head, smiling awkwardly. “No, I’ve got to keep things fair. I won’t do that until the end of the competition.”

From their earlier exchange, he figured that taking one of the three to bed must be the metric for this competition. Therefore, he wouldn’t promise anything unless he was ready to actually “choose” the winner among them.

Fenrir just shrugged, smiling, almost as if she had predicted his response. Eve and Ria sighed in relief upon hearing Axel’s decision; they were worried he might get “carried away” by Fenrir.

With the paperwork done, the four of them went together to grab lunch.

This time, Eve and Fenrir didn’t hesitate, joining Axel as he ate—competing to feed him.

“Here, master. This slice of steak is really good!”

“M-My King, eating only meat will skew your nutrition. Here, have a bite of this salad.”

“This onion rings thingy is so addictive! You don’t believe me? Here, take a bite~!”

Thanks to them, Axel’s lunch took about twice as long as usual.

’Getting fed like this might be enjoyable once in a while… but not at every meal,’ he noted.

After lunch, Axel set out to complete the last of his daily tasks, doing his rounds and addressing the requests from the paperwork they had finished. Of course, he didn’t need to memorize it all, as Fenrir had created a concise summary on a single page just for him.

It was even optimized so he wouldn’t need to go back and forth, chaining together nearby tasks for greater efficiency.

“Look, it’s Lord Axel!”

“Let’s give three cheers for the Lord!”

“Wait, he’s with three mistresses today! This is rare!”

As they traveled, the crowd couldn’t help but get noisy.

Since Axel usually went around by himself or sometimes with Beatrix, it was quite unusual for him to be seen with the girls. Yesterday, when Ria and Nina tagged along, they also created a similar spectacle, but…

This time felt a bit worse.

The men’s eyes on Fenrir, for one, showed blatant lust.

It was Fenrir’s fault for dressing like that.

However, seeing them gaze at her made Axel feel irritated. To those who dared to stare for too long, he sent a faint strand of killing intent—just enough for them to feel as if the grim reaper had brushed their necks with its sickle.

Within moments, most of the men averted their gazes, their faces turning pale, and large beads of sweat forming on their foreheads. It was clear to them what had just happened and what they were being “punished” for, so none dared to make the same mistake again.

Soon, Axel arrived at a specific home.

This was the first entry on their list, which needed a repair for its broken roof.

Although Axel could technically fix everything within the confines of the walls at once, that did not extend to individual homes. In short, if a house was damaged and required fixing, they needed to repair them one at a time.

This approach allowed Axel to mingle with the residents and observe their standard of living firsthand.

However, due to the number of requests they had—thanks to Fenrir’s efficiency with paperwork—there were quite a few homes they needed to visit.

If they handled the repairs one by one, it would be nighttime before they finished even half of them. Thus, the four of them decided to split up.

“Eve will handle all repairs from here to the north, which includes the northwest to northeast areas. Fenrir, you’ll take care of the repairs to the east, Ria will handle the west, and I’ll manage the south.”

With each of them handling a cardinal direction, they could speed up the process by at least four times!

“So it’s a race?” Ria giggled. “I won’t lose!”

“No, wait…”

Before Axel could warn her otherwise, Ria had already dashed off to the west, clutching a copy of the list. Fenrir and Eve exchanged a brief glance before exclaiming in unison,

“I shall take my leave, my King!”

“Master, leave it to me!”

The two of them also sprinted away, disappearing from sight within seconds.

Axel felt a twinge of concern that if they treated this like a game, they might make mistakes along the way. But in the end, he decided to let them be. “Must be something to do with the rules they kept from me,” he speculated.

Suddenly alone, Axel resumed his task, tackling repairs while systematically clearing each repair case from the southwest to the southeast. Given the number of homes he had to fix and the time spent chatting with each resident for at least five minutes, it took him hours to reach the final one.

Just as he was finishing the last repairs—

“Master, I’m back! I’ve completed the task you assigned me.”

“Ah! I lost by a few seconds… How vexing!”

Fenrir and Ria arrived almost simultaneously. Ria had her cheeks puffed up in irritation, looking both cute and cuddly, while Fenrir was dusting off her hands after a job well done…

Axel raised a brow, staring at Fenrir’s nails. “Wait, is that blood?”

He wasn’t particularly worried about Fenrir. If someone from the regular residents could make her bleed, the world would already be ending. No, what concerned him was whose blood it might be.

If Fenrir so much as punched someone seriously, that person would undoubtedly become a red blot on the wall—a vaporized stain that could even take the whole house down with it.

However, given that he didn’t hear any panic erupting nearby after witnessing someone turn into a piece of modern art, he deduced that Fenrir had managed to hold back. To what extent, he couldn’t be sure—and he certainly wasn’t desperately curious enough to ask for confirmation.

After about five minutes, once Axel had finished speaking with the residents, Eve finally returned.

“S-Sorry for the delay, my King!” She quickly apologized. “The house owners just wouldn’t let me go, so it took a while for me to find the right moment to slip away.”

Axel smiled and patted Eve’s head. “It’s fine, no worries.”

“Actually, compared to these two who rushed to complete their tasks, you who prioritized the residents’ feelings probably did better than them.” He gestured toward Ria and Fenrir behind him.

Ria, for her part, likely treated it like a time attack trial, fixing the buildings without even exchanging a word with the owners.

Fenrir was a different headache altogether. She must have threatened the owners who were pestering her, which likely explained the blood stuck under her nails.

“N-No, I… just did my job as my King’s liaison,” Eve said, bowing and acting humbly.

Of course, Axel noticed the subtle change in her tone—the giddy hint in her voice and the faint blush on her ears. He thought it was cute how she downplayed her perfect work.

And so, the “game” that Ria had started was won by Fenrir for speed, while Eve claimed victory in terms of satisfaction with the work completed.

“Alright, to the next location,” Axel announced, not wanting to delay as their itinerary was still quite full.

They needed to fix a few more infrastructures—not homes, but rather various buildings. Afterward, they planned to build a few additional structures and spend some time playing with the kids before moving on to their last task just as the sun was setting.

The four of them stopped by the farm, specifically the orchard—the World Tree.

Axel needed to feed the tree with the fertilizer he prepared every day: exactly five tubes, mixed with about ten gallons of water, poured right at the base of the trunk. The water would spread as it sank, reaching the roots.

This tree was anything but ordinary.

With the girls’ help, they finished applying the liquid fertilizer in minutes.

As soon as they poured the water, the World Tree began releasing bright dots into the air—solidified Mana particles.

“Looks like it’s thanking us,” Axel said with a smile, gazing upward.

Though he was accustomed to witnessing this phenomenon, it remained a truly enchanting sight.

As he stared at the canopy of the World Tree, he pondered how long it would take before it became an asset…

[C-C-C-Contractor…!]

“Huh?”

Suddenly, a panicked penguin appeared before him.

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