21st Century Necromancer

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At Hiromi Jounouchi's request, Chen Yu eventually brought Mikie Saegusa into his Necromantic Space and settled her in the greenhouse that was almost complete, making her the Gardener of the greenhouse.

Of course, Chen Yu's greenhouse wasn't only filled with Death Palace Roses. A large variety of magical plants grew within, forming a complete ecological cycle adjusted for their individual characteristics. Many of these plants had aggressive and dangerous traits, far beyond what a ghost who knew nothing could manage.

The real caretakers of the greenhouse were four specialized quadruped robots. Mikie Saegusa's job was simply to maintain the cleanliness of a small pavilion within the greenhouse. Even tasks like cleaning the glass were handled by robots.

After all, the vast greenhouse wasn't any smaller than a soccer field. Unless she had the time-stopping abilities of the head maid at Red Devil Mansion, completing such a task would be impossible.

"You will live here from now on. There are no rooms designed inside the greenhouse itself, but I will arrange a room for you here later," Chen Yu said to Mikie Saegusa after bringing her to the small garden inside the greenhouse and giving her an introduction.

Although she was just a ghost, personal space such as a private room still needed to be provided. After all, Hiromi Jounouchi was watching. If he simply left her there without further arrangements, it would seem highly irresponsible.

"Thank you, Doctor Chen!" Mikie Saegusa looked at the pleasant environment of the small garden, bowed deeply to Chen Yu in gratitude, "I really can't thank you enough! Not only did you help me with my burial and arrange for me to serve the Inari God as a Divine Servant, but you also cared for such an impolite request of mine. I am truly grateful."

Before making this decision, Chen Yu did indeed find Mikie Saegusa's request to follow him to be somewhat impertinent, but since he had decided to keep her, he also became indifferent about the matter, "It's nothing. This place is so big it needs looking after, and there are some tasks the machines just can't do. However, now that you have stayed, you should learn how to do some work.

Although it wouldn't bother me to let you live here for nothing, I still don't like to keep idle people around. You understand what I mean, don't you?"

"Rest assured, I understand what I need to do," Mikie Saegusa replied, feeling relieved by Chen Yu's words. If he really let her live there without conditions, she might worry about being kicked out at any moment. Her experiences while alive told her that while some might show kindness, there was no such thing as a free lunch in this world.

Seeing that Mikie Saegusa understood the situation so well, Chen Yu nodded in satisfaction and then left the greenhouse with Hiromi Jounouchi.

"Mr. Chen Yu, why did you build a small garden inside the greenhouse, with glass walls and corridors separating it?" Having left the small garden, the two of them were walking out together when Hiromi Jounouchi suddenly asked with curiosity.

"The small garden inside the greenhouse is for resting, as all the plants here are magical plants, many of which are very dangerous and not suitable for viewing," Chen Yu explained to Hiromi Jounouchi. The truth was, the small garden inside the greenhouse was primarily built for her.

Even though Chen Yu often didn't understand the workings of a girl's heart, carrying some straight male thinking, he knew the essentials of spending money to... cough, enjoy the romance under the moonlit flowers.

The current trend of sipping tea and reading books in a sunroom filled with greenery wasn't exactly to his taste, but when he and Hiromi Jounouchi moved in together, she had mentioned wanting a sunroom packed with green plants where she could lie down with a book and tea. So from the beginning, he had incorporated such a design into the greenhouse.

Although he had loaned the little garden to Saegusa Kyoko for shelter, it didn't mean Chen Yu was going to let her stay in the garden itself. He arranged a room for her along the corridor outside the small garden, which was convenient for her to take care of the garden.

Chen Yu was somewhat worried about whether Saegusa Kyoko knew how to care for a garden, but it wasn't a big issue—if it came down to it, he could just have her sweep the floors, and leave the rest of the work to the robots since the greenhouse was designed to operate autonomously from the start.

Speaking of robots, as Chen Yu and Hiromi Jounouchi stepped out of the greenhouse, a robot was diagonally straddling the greenhouse's dome, installing the last few glass panels.

Seeing these giant metal constructs, Hiromi Jounouchi couldn't help but ask curiously, "Mr. Chen Yu, how are these big guys made, exactly? Last time you told me that souls are stuffed in to make the cores that drive them, but I still can't quite grasp what that actually means!"

"That's... a rather complicated explanation. I think I'll just take you to see for yourself." In response to Hiromi Jounouchi's question, Chen Yu thought for a moment, deemed the explanation too troublesome, and thus directly led Hiromi Jounouchi towards the high tower behind the castle.

While called a high tower, it wasn't particularly tall; the entire tower, constructed from black stones, was just shy of one hundred meters high, and some parts of it seemed not completely finished yet, as clay dolls were performing meticulous decorations.

Together with Chen Yu, they entered a building under the tower that looked like a factory. As soon as they entered, Hiromi Jounouchi was hit by a heat wave. In the thunderous factory, a large crucible about the height of three men was pouring out glowing hot molten iron.

This molten iron flowed along pre-set channels into the casting molds and was then quickly cooled by clay dolls waiting nearby before turning into various components.

The components that had just been cast were taken to be polished and processed without even waiting for them to completely cool down; then, they were assembled together to become the quadruped robots that Hiromi Jounouchi had seen before.

Watching a robot being completed and then taken to storage, Hiromi Jounouchi widened her eyes in close attention and curiosity. Despite the overpowering heat, she couldn't take her eyes off the sight of a robot more than ten meters tall being assembled right in front of her.

However, these robots apparently did not have cores installed yet, so after being assembled, they were merely taken to be stored in a warehouse.

"Mr. Chen Yu, are these robots being stored away? Why aren't they being put to use?" Hiromi Jounouchi asked curiously, not understanding why they wouldn't be used after being produced.

"Didn't I explain it to you last time, Hiromi? Those robots need cores to drive them; without the cores, there's no way to make those big guys move," said Chen Yu as they walked through the factory, which had finished processing a load of molten iron and had come to a halt, to another workshop at the back.

This place was undoubtedly much quieter, but the only worker was a robot that resembled a huge spider with eight mechanical arms.