Brand New Life Online: Rise Of The Goddess Of Harvest

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As I talked with my Spirits while cooking, Ignis suddenly suggested something out of nowhere, to ask the Urban Spirits to work for me doing physical work?!

Even worse, to craft items for me and such! Isn't that too much? And exploitative! And some look like children too! Wouldn't it be child labor? That's illegal!

"Hey, what's so bad about asking them to work for what they're getting?" Gardenia, the Great Harvest and Nature Spirit asked. "You're offering them all a new home, food, shelter, and a safe place. Isn't it normal to ask them for something in return? It's not like they're real children, I think they're all very old anyway!"

"Eeeh… But that still sounds quite mean…" I said, looking at the eggs being made. "For now I'll consider it though… But no promises, okay?"

Ignis crossed his little arms as he smiled at me.

"Hahah! Well, there's little you need to consider in actuality, master. I already asked them about that last night," He said nonchalantly. "And don't worry, they seemed to be fine with the idea."

"Wait, what?! Ignis!" I facepalmed, looking at him with slight disappointment in my eyes. "Did you really have to? You can't just force people…"

"I didn't force anybody, master," He said. "They seemed happy to help. They also said they were bored most of the time, so it would be a nice way to kill time. Of course, they're very inexperienced in any of the things I would want them to do for me, but they should be able to learn the ropes from me quite quickly."

"S-So they agreed?!" I asked in disbelief. "But just letting them stay wouldn't be enough for me! I want them to be paid too, if that's the case… Also what do you even want them to make for us?"

"Ah, that's quite simple, you can't be here all the time right master? And it seems that here, you cannot create an Yggdrasil Avatar either," Ignis said. "So I was thinking of asking them to craft special materials, ingots, perhaps magical objects to reinforce the domain and strengthen it. Also if they can learn Alchemy, potions can be produced more quickly. Spirits cannot do most of those things. And big and specialized spirits like me or Gordon over there are rare and hard to get too. And if you can obtain one, they usually go away quickly, like Katherine. Urban Spirits have none of such issues! They're perfect for all of this!"

"I-Ignis, aren't you way too excited about this?!" I looked at him in his fiery eyes, realizing the eggs were getting overcooked. "Ah shoot…"

I quickly placed them away and turned off the seat, Gordon helped me with the waffles.

"I mean, you have to think about it, Elayne…" Gardenia said. "I bet none of them mind either way, just let them work if they really want to! What's so wrong with it? Don't be so humble. Just doing good deeds for everyone isn't going to help you grow stronger. You have to ask them something in exchange sometimes… Especially when it is them staying inside your Domain for perhaps the rest of their lives."

I didn't want to think about it too deeply, but damn it, they're not wrong! If they could work for me making all these things, I could probably make more complex items here, complex armors, weapons, equipment, also magic infused items for our daily lives, such as an air conditioner but magic based, perhaps eventually become completely independent so we won't need paying for water and electricity either expand the domain, potions for healing all kinds of things so we're ready for anything, and so on…

"Hmmm…" I rubbed my chin. "Ugh, fine, fine! I'll go talk with them later, but not right now because-"

"Why not right now? They're already here anyway," said Ignis. "I called them just now."

"Eh?!"

I looked outside of the backdoor, realizing the Urban Spirits were gathered there, right beneath the sun, some of the creepy ones sure looked funny beneath the bright sunlight too, hahah.

A-Anyway, why am I laughing internally? These poor children are going to be forced to work!

"Hey guys… Um, please don't mind what Ignis said and-"

"Lady Elayne, we were told that we could work as payment for our stay here, right?" Wondered Julio the Stabbed. "I think that's a wonderful idea, we are quite bored and learning new things seem exciting."

"I agree," said the cute Wendigo boy. "We've mostly been wondering spirits for so long, we stopped thinking about belonging somewhere and even working hard to remain in such a place."

"If we can provide some help, please let us help!"

"I am quite good at sewing, actually."

"I know how to mix stuff together inside a cauldron!"

"I… don't know anything!"

They were quite enthusiastic about working, something utterly shocking the more I thought about it… But yes they were mostly all humanoid and had usable hands… except the girl that had scissors for hands I think that girl might not be good for handicraft, but she could use those scissors to cut anything and help out.

"I-I… Are you sure about this? Do you really want to do this?" I asked them. "I am fine with you staying without doing this you know? I mean, as long as you help me out defend the Domain, I'm ok… with you staying around, please don't feel forced to work or something…"

"But we want to work and do something fun, goddess!"

"I'm bored."

"I'm bored too! I used to scare kids and now I have the whole day doing absolutely nothing…"

"Might as well spend the day with a new hobby right? And if it helps you out, then that's even better."

"E-Eh? You guys are for real… Okay then, if you… insist so much, fine," I sighed. "It's… fine."

"Yaaaaay!"

All of them celebrated happily, as Ignis crossed his arms and nodded proudly of his new squad of workers.

And like this, the first group of workers inside my Domain was born.

…Against my own will.

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