"You doubt my abilities?"
Again, reading Axel's expression as easily as reading a book, Teruria showed a boastful expression.
"Then, try ordering them to do anything. They will 100% follow whatever you tell them!"
Axel stared at the men below, seeing that they were still cursing like there was no tomorrow. They didn't look like someone who was starved and deprived of water for a full night at all.
'Well, it wouldn't hurt to try...'
He took a deep breath before ordering in a loud voice, "You guys form a human pyramid!"
"Fuck you! Why should I follow your orders?!""Eat shit, you damn bastard!"
But just as he expected, curses rained on him like there was no tomorrow. Just as he was about to look away, disappointed, he noticed a change.
"Huh...?!"
The bandits, despite their mouths saying profanity at every single moment, were moving distinctly. They formed an array below, before another line climbed up and formed a shorter line. They did this repeatedly until all 24 of them managed to build a proper structure.
A human pyramid!
Of course, it was a crude one, as they were not skilled. However, it was undoubtedly a clumsy yet honest attempt at forming a human pyramid.
"See~?" Teruria crossed her arms, proud of her success. "This is the Obedience Curse! As long as they're under it, they will follow the orders of those above them perfectly!"
"Obedience Curse, huh..."
Of course, the "real" Obedience Curse would make the target docile and completely submissive. However, Teruria's skills were far from reaching mastery. Thus, the bandits still retained their ability to spout profanities despite their bodies moving on their own as ordered.
However, Axel knew none of that. No, rather, he didn't care. All he needed to know was the fact that these rebellious bandits now followed his every order!
"With this, work will progress beautifully...!"
At that moment, he truly felt thankful for Princess Teruria's presence... though it wouldn't last for long.
...
With the obedient bandits—rather, slaves—the construction of the prefab house was proceeding quite nicely. By Axel's estimate, at their pace, they should complete assembling the entire tenant building made from arrays of prefab homes before noon comes.
"Then, Arianne, I'll leave them to you."
Thus, he found it redundant for him to watch over their work the entire time. Instead, he delegated Arianne to watch over their work, commanding them regarding finer details.
"Please relax and leave everything to me!" Arianne replied heartily. "I'll make sure that by the time you return, their foul mouths are reformed...!"
"Ah... Alright."
Right, even as they worked, the bandits were still spewing confusion and curses every passing second. It was as if profanity was filling more than half of their verbal dictionaries!
Teruria, after having done her "share of work," was already resting in the first prefab home along with Eve and the rest.
"I guess the two princesses hit it off quite well, huh?" Axel thought before he left.
With how deep he was in "debt," he couldn't dare to waste time doing nothing. Thus, he moved to a quiet corner to inspect the progress of his money-making attempt.
"Oh, they're piling up~!"
It had been roughly three hours since the time he started automatic crafting. Within that time, he managed to make a pile of 90 Voodoo Dolls, 36 Substitute Dolls, and 18 Holy Water Bottles. It wasn't much when compared to him manually crafting everything, but thinking about how it crafts even as he sleeps or does something else, it was quite convenient!
If there's one thing he could pick on, it's that the auto-crafting products were sub-par to him manually making them.
For example, the Substitute Doll. If he made them manually, he'd get them at High Quality, max level. However, the ones that were crafted automatically were only Medium Quality and at half the level, Level 5!
"I guess I can't expect exorbitant prices from them now..."
Albeit his grumbling, he didn't delay and put everything into his shop display. The Substitute Dolls were sold at 2x market price as promised, 20,000 Colts. Same with the Substitute Dolls that were sold at a quarter of the max level's market price, 500,000 Colts each.
Although it was still an astronomical amount, with astronomical profit considering his investments, having sold a few items marked over a million made him feel these prices were still "too low!"
The Holy Water, however, still needed one more auction before it could be sold.
The past 9 auctions had yielded prices from as low as 300,000 Colts to as high as 10 million! Against his guess, the price dip happened in the middle, the 5th item, with the highest being the 9th one!
"Did they panic, thinking it might be the last one?"
Axel couldn't help but sigh. If he didn't, he was quite sure his lips would curl up to his ears, after all! His trick worked perfectly, albeit not as he predicted!
He already placed the 10th Holy Water on the auction, and it was already priced at 5 million. He was sure it could easily go past 10 million at this rate, making him hesitate on simply selling them in his shop instead of auctioning all!
"... No, let's not be too greedy. It might bite me in the back later on."
In the end, he revived his long-lost conscience and shook his head. After all, even if he set the price at 300,000 Colts, the lowest, that's still almost 20x the market price!
But now that he'd reached this point, Axel noticed that he wasn't taking full advantage of his auto-crafting system. He checked his crafting list and sighed, feeling a bit discouraged.
"I have too few crafting items to sell!"
At the moment, only those three items existed.
There were others, but since they're from the recipes the system "stole," he might attract unwanted attention if he sold them. At worst, he might be found out faster than the 300-day limit! Thus, he couldn't even touch them yet!
"At times like this..."
Axel checked the shop list and licked his lips. His eyes were like a predator's, searching for prey!
"It's time to look for more recipes!"