Around that time in the kingdom, tragedy began

 
 ”It stinks, it stinks! S**t, what the h**l is going on!” (King Carcel)
 
 In the Carcel Kingdom, the young king stood resolutely, his thunder-like roar pouring down on the ministers before him. And the inside of the castle was filled with a terrible stench.
 Thanks to this, his anger showed no signs of abating, with a glare in pursuit of “who the h**l’s responsible for this!”.
 And the eyes of many ministers were focused at one spot. The one at the end of the line — the Minister of Construction, Dowal.
 
 ”Dowal! Construction work is your role! Tell me what the h**l is going on right now!” (King Carcel)
 ”Ye-, ye-! The strange smell that has broken out within the royal capital is the result of faulty construction work, r-, right! The fact that Wirk has been cutting corners in his construction work has now come to light, and its effects are being felt all over the city!” (Dowal) [TL: the “ye-” bits, I imagine, are him stumbling on his words and cutting himself off from saying “yes”]
 ”Tsk, it’s that Wirk again!” (King Carcel)
 
 The young king punched the armrest of his throne, gritting his teeth. He seemed so angry that he didn’t even notice that his gums were exposed.
 At present, the harm of cutting corners is erupting in various places all over the royal capital. Of course, everything that Dowal said was nonsense, but rather, this is a negative chain reaction caused by the craftsmen Dowal hired having thoughtlessly destroyed the infrastructure that Wirk went through the trouble of setting up.
 Thanks to this, the smell of waste leaked out from the sewage pipes and filling the royal capital, the water supply also doesn’t reach each household, the roads are also caving in here and there, and furthermore, as a result of destroying the magic conduits, the magic-reliant vehicles have also been completely destroyed.
 Naturally, even the toilets are no good, so the citizens are left to soil themselves outside, which has become the main cause for the even worse stench. There’s even no water in the taps, so they have no choice but to go and fetch water.
 But the outside of town is full of monsters. Around the same time as the essential utilities failed, the number of monsters and magic beasts began to increase, sending the adventurers into a panic.
 Naturally, it was too dangerous for an ordinary person to go out, and so it was impossible to expect those who had been living comfortably in the royal capital. As a result, there was no choice but to ask adventurers to go fetch water, but now even the adventurers weren’t faring so well, and with capacity completely exceeded, the Guild Master has been screaming that the guild’s system will collapse if this continues as it is.
 And naturally, those claims were all directed to the king and his retainers.
 
 ”So, Dowal. How much time will it take to restore it!” (King Carcel)
 ”Ye-, about three months-, no, one month, somehow…” (Dowal)
 
 The king’s face changed to a devilish expression the moment he mentioned three months, so he hurriedly changed his words. Although he said this himself, a restoration plan hasn’t been put together at all, and he’s only saying this to mislead them for now.
 
 ”Don’t joke with me! Slow! Too slow! Do it in three days!” (King Carcel)
 ”No, three days is definitely…” (Dowal)
 ”Shut up! I heard the dwarves could do whatever in three days! So get them out here immediately! Put them in slave collars and make them work hard like workhorses!” (King Carcel)
 ”Uhm, Your Majesty. We already don’t have any dwarves in this country…”
 
 There, a single minister interrupted. This guy was the Minister of Internal Affairs, and it was his duty to do investigations and such regarding the domestic workforce.
 That’s why he knew. There already aren’t any dwarves or such in the country anymore. Of course, that this was also largely due to the deeds of the Dowal family.
 
 ”Then even if you have to kidnap them from somewhere, just bring them here!” (King Carcel)
 
 Everyone there would have thought it absurd. But Dowal had a different view on it.
 (Come to think of it, a long time ago, I heard a story about an island where dwarves live… if that’s the case, if we just snatch them from there…)
 He thought of such a thing in a good mood. Before, Dowal’s ancestors once tried to treat the dwarves like tools, which made them angry and resulted in all the dwarves leaving the country, and it seems that even this descendant Dowal is no different.
 
 -ZUGOGOGOGOGOGOGOGOGOGO-!
 
 It was then that the castle shook violently. It was an earthquake. Recently, the number of earthquakes of this kind has been increasing in the kingdom, and the shaking seems to be getting more and more violent.
 
 ”An earthquake again, huh! Dowal, what will you do!” (King Carcel)
 ”No, uhm, it surely isn’t an earthquake yet…” (Dowal)
 ”Shut up! If you’re a minister, you should immediately get things like earthquakes under control!” (King Carcel)
 
 Dowal’s fist was trembling while he thought “don’t tell me to do such an absurd thing”. Although that thing which, with a glance, appeared absurd, was possible for the exiled Wirk, who had a magic architect’s techniques.
 
 ”Your Majesty, may I say something?”
 ”Tsk, what is it now, I’m busy!” (King Carcel)
 
 The king shouted angrily at the minister who had raised his hand. Although he said he’s busy, the king just sits on his throne getting irritated. He doesn’t do any particular work worth mentioning.
 
 ”Y-, yes. You see, it’s about time the Grand Festival of Sorcery’s management committee came for their inspection, but…”
 
 The minister who stated so spoke in a halting manner, but that probably couldn’t be helped. At any rate, the royal capital was currently right in the middle of some trouble. Moreover, the situation is so bad that the stench has even drifted up to the castle.
 Naturally, the smell is even worse in the streets, which is where the trouble is at its peak.
 
 ”S**t! That’s it! Oi! The Grand Festival of Sorcery too, Dowal! You’re meant to be in charge of that too!” (King Carcel)
 
 To be precise, it is the Minister of Foreign Affairs who should be in charge of the buildings and their construction work, and inspections. However, the Minister of Foreign Affairs seems to have taken no notice of said situation.
 
 ”But, the inspection is the Foreign—” (Dowal)
 ”I think it is fair to say that the fault lies entirely with Minister Dowal. In that case, it seems best to leave it to Sir Dowal to explain the situation.”
 
 Naturally, Dowal tried to refute it, but the Minister of Foreign Affairs calmly pushed the responsibility onto Dowal. Although the main culprit for this incident was Dowal, so he wasn’t wrong.
 
 ”B-, b*****d, you know that-!” (Dowal)
 
 Just as Dowal was about to let loose his anger, a soldier asked permission to enter the room. He was in quite a hurry, so it seemed to be an urgent, important matter.
 Then, having received permission, the soldier opens the door and enters, kneels before the throne, and then states the important matter.
 
 ”Reporting in! The ship of the Grand Festival of Sorcery’s management committee has just arrived at the harbour!”

 [TL: Wow, a lot has happened in this chapter. We got some foreshadowing for Dowal’s future misdeeds, the royal capital has fallen even further into disrepair, and the committee has finally arrived. Speaking of which, why did it take them this long? If I remember correctly, it took Wirk two days max to go from the kingdom to the island, and his boat was only, was it 3 times faster than current ships? That still means 6 days max. They should have arrived maybe one or two days ago. But oh well, it’s close enough. They probably bumped into another monster or something.]