Riches and Bitches: I have a gate to an isekai and leveling-up system!

Whenever I imagined myself to be one of the pioneers who trod the paths through the newly discovered continents, I pictured finding mountains of gold, romancing with naive yet naturally beautiful local girls, braving through the dangers of the thick jungle, or fighting off vicious tribes.

But now that I pretty much became a viceroy on the patch of land we received from the empire… I ended up smacked by reality to a complete and utter oblivion.

"First wood delivery enters the camp! Are the saw teams ready? We need them ready as soon as they start unloading the trees!"

"Not even three brigades at the housing project can keep up with the diggers! We need at least two more brigades, all the more if we are to start the construction already!"

"I can give you one brigade as soon as they are done digging the latrines."

"I can share two, but only in about an hour, they still need to reinforce the road. If that path collapses, the material delays will be enormous."

Looking at the gathering from the outside, no sane person would ever imagine it to be the beating heart of the entire, massive operation.

Seated behind simple desks slapped right on the plain and with nothing to shield them from the wind and rain, Makary's men furiously fought against the ancient technology strapped together by an electrician's nightmare of messy cables.

A fair distance away, an improvised power plant of several fuel generators continued to consume precious fuel at a worrying rate, all to power the communication center of the camp.

Just like in the army, be it within the garrison or out in the field, constant communication was the one thing that held everything together.

It was this communication center that allowed the planners to juggle their resources around, pushing the hordes of imperials to whatever task was most urgent.

Right in the middle of this nerdy summer camp, I sat at the edge of a massive desk, with Fay, Makary, and Selene accompanying me in the task of sorting through and analyzing all sorts of reports and updates.

"We only have twenty table saws," Selene raised a piece of paper in her hand and announced in a half-hushed voice.

With all the noises of construction and landscaping all over the place, we already had our fair share of loud sounds, leading to a silent agreement of not adding up to the noise unless necessary.

"For now it will be enough, but at the rate of two mistakes per hour and when taking the spare parts we have on hand into account…" Selene took a moment to ponder over some details. "In two days, we won't have any."

"Is it that bad?" Makary raised his eyes from the paper he was currently studying. "I never knew they were that prone to failure."

There wasn't even a hint of doubt in Makary's voice, only pure surprise at the news.

"If we had skilled users, then they could work for months before breaking down. But with the imperials up for the task…" Selene shook her head, unaware that Etaria silently approached our center of the commanding center from behind her back. "The safety mechanism is the problem. Once it fires up, practically the entire thing goes to waste and needs replacement."

Selene dropped the paper down on the table and raised her eyes, giving everyone a heavy glare.

"So, unless we decide to let a huge number of those guys lose their fingers due to some stupid mistake, we are going to be out of the table-saws in two days tops."

Selene shook her shoulders.

"I don't think letting them cut their own fingers off is a good way to promote dedication to the work," I shook my head as I spoke, trying to pretend not to see Etaria's intense glare. "How do we stand on setting up a sawmill?"

If the table saws that we set up to process raw wood into planks to be used in constructing the barracks had such a rapid burn-through rate, then constructing a sawmill was the obvious solution.

With this kind of factory in place, we could use an extremely limited number of people, give them proper training, and then let them process more wood than a thousand men with a table saw each could produce.

But…

"If we rushed everything and paid no heed to the safety code, we could have it up and running in a week," Fay gave out the answer after spending merely half a minute studying some papers that she somehow managed to perfectly fish out from the huge, paper tower ahead.

"Either way, wood is the best material to use in a hurry. That means we need to have a brigade or two dedicated to its construction as soon as possible while having another brigade train on how to operate…" I squinted my eyes and jogged through my memory for a second before raising my eyes to Makary. "Any chance we could get some parts prefabricated on Earth?

Or would that put too much of a burden on our logistics?"

Right now, there were three problems that we had to somehow solve all at the same time.

The issue of housing for all the men we already took responsibility for. The problem of making an efficient use of the manpower we had on hand… And lastly, the problem of logistics.

The last of those problems was a bit more complicated than the other two, though, as it started with the limited volume of cargo we could push through my gate and then move across the forest to the plain. So, in a bid to shift some logistical weight away from our already maxed-out channel, we decided to start sourcing some basic resources locally right on the very first day.

And sure, the caravan of deforesting machines accompanied by loaders and trucks already produced the first three loads of timber from the woods due east from the celestial forest… Those raw logs still had to be processed into planks, cut into shape, and somewhat dried out. Then and only then could the workers use them for construction, assuming it was to last more than just a few weeks or months.

"I'm glad that you think so highly of our city, but do you really think there's a market for prefabricated sawmill parts?" Makary asked with his voice oozing irony. "They could be made to order, but completing that order would take longer than we would take to build it from scratch."

I looked at Makary before heaving a long sigh and leaning back in my chair to the point I balanced on just its two rear legs.

"What do you suggest, then?" At this point, I already gave out all the suggestions I could come up with. And seeing how they were all shot down, I could only hope someone else could come in clutch.
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"I guess we won't be able to buy them from that city nearby," Makary muttered only to twist his head and look over at where Etaria stood in silence, waiting for a window of opportunity to talk to someone.

Noticing the stare, Etaria shook her head.

"I saw the prototype of the tent-shed you are building. And no, while it's possible to get some wood from the city, it will be a drop in the ocean of what you need."

'Figures,' I thought.

It was hard to even imagine that a random city on the empire's very outskirts could somehow have a thriving wood-cutting and processing industry capable of fulfilling the hunger for resources of our mega-project.

"I've already had two brigades preparing a massive heating chamber," Makary reported after waiting some more time to bring the solution up. "It won't dry the wood perfectly, but if we add a bath in preservatives, produced planks should be good enough to work as floors for our housing projects."

With that said, Makary looked over the table, meeting everyone's gaze and registering their nods. And with no voice of concern raised, Selene simply jotted a few notes on the side of the paper she raised when addressing the issue before moving to the next piece.

"Do you have a moment?"

In the short instance of our group moving from one issue to the next, the princess approached the side of my chair and tugged on the edge of my sleeve to get my attention.

"What's up?" Happy to distract myself from the mountain of papers I had yet to solve, I eagerly looked towards the princess, only for the echo of Fay's sharp attention to quell my excitement right as it was about to rise.

"That chocolate thingy you feed to the soldiers," Etaria mentioned before averting her eyes a bit, "I want to give it a try."

For a second, I locked my eyes on the princess's expression, trying to read into it as much as I could. Ultimately though, I turned my eyes to Fay.

"Would you mind taking over for a few moments?" I requested while instinctively reaching down to grab the girl's hand. "As per the terms of peace, she has the right to inspect every aspect of our hospitality. In turn, that means she has all the right to learn more about our food scheme for this community."

Fay raised her eyes and looked into my face for a second only to then cheer me up with a small smile and then agree to my request with a simple nod of her head.

"Don't take too long, those papers are super boring," Fay requested in turn, only to put a small grin on her lovely lips as she raised from the chair and leaned over my ear. "And don't forget to bring me my share of sweets!"