CH 43

Warren was lively the day before the harvest festival. A tremendous amount of people had gathered in the town square reading the auction list that the Merchant Guild had posted on the bulletin board.

Everyone’s attention was naturally drawn to the Resistance plate armor that the Thieve’s Guild had apparently put up for auction.

It’s amazing abilities soon spread across Warren.

“Magic damage reduction of 10 is seriously awesome! It’s a Legendary class armor!”

“Forget {Fire Bullet}. You could survive a {Fireburst} with that!”

“It starts off at 300 million ril at auction, but there’s no way it ends there! How much will it end up being worth?”

Amidst the rumors and excited chatter, the neighboring wealthy who were visiting Warren had already sent men back to their hometowns. Naturally, their aim was to procure funds to win the new Legendary class armor.

Meanwhile, the Adventurer Guild which would be closed starting tomorrow, had become quite crowded as well from all the adventurers gathering money from their guild exchange accounts.

Surprisingly, the Flying Swallow great sword that Ellis had thrown out on a whim was also gaining a lot of attention. The starting price was the same as a Flying Swallow Minotaur Maul at 22 million ril.

Flying Swallow’s ability is double damage, so its compatibility with large weapons is phenomenal. Since the Minotaur maul and a great sword are both two-handed weapons that can deal similar amounts of damage, it is natural that their standard prices would be the same, but Flying Swallow Minotaur mauls can be found on occasion at the Minotaur labyrinth. This makes a Flying Swallow great sword a much rarer find.

“The winning bid will also rise considerably.”

“Well the Merchant guild was who decided the starting price for it.”

“If Ellis’s group were to sign it as well, then you would get certain maniacs to throw their hats in the ring as well.”

People anxiously waiting for the harvest festival to begin while spreading rumors and opinions like so.

Ellis had already started setting up her store at the Central Plaza.

Reeve and Katie were also there helping her out.

Ellis had hired two part-timers to help out during the festival. The first was Hanna who would be selling the cakes, and the second was Ken who would be helping out behind the scenes.

At first, Ellis had planned on asking for some help from the girls at Master’s Hideaway. But since Ken had managed to free himself from the Demon Lord’s army, Hanna had left the store. So Margherita sent them both her way.

Ellis recalled Margherita’s words.

I really appreciate everything Ellis-ojousama had done.

Until now, we have been treated like female dogs, hiding in back alleys and enduring the disgust of men. We were terrified of an unwanted pregnancy, and the only thing we would ever think of was how to secure a meal for the day and what happy families were probably eating in their comfy homes. We were all women who had fallen to the bottom of the barrel.

Thanks to jou-chan, everyone is able walk around with their heads held high, and there are no unwanted pregnancies with the little nice thing or the very nice thing that you taught us. The store is clean, and the customer base is solid.

The shop also has implicit rules that help us.

I like my current job.

I am good at making men feel pleasure and making them moan.

But Hanna doesn’t.

For a woman who has fallen in love, this work is torture.

Do you understand? Jou-chan.

Ellis ran a few calculations in her head.

The material costs to make 100 steam cake sets is 10,000 ril which is 100 ril for each set.

At Maria’s recommendation, the ‘special takeaway set’ will be sold for 1,000 ril. Factoring in that the packaging and Jewelry Box brand brand will cost 200 ril from Flint, then there is still 700 ril in profit from every set sold. If they manage to sell all 100 sets in a day, then that is a total profit of 70 thousand ril.

“Hanna. Ken. I will pay both of you 10 thousand ril each day respectively.”

The two nodded enthusiastically when they heard how much they would make. Since the harvest festival is a full seven day period, then if they combine their total wages, then they will walk away with 140 thousand ril.

On the other hand, Ellis, who would be easily making 50 thousand ril a day while leaving all the hard work to her two employees, had a smile that would not lose to them in intensity. All together it would add up to 350 thousand easy ril.

“I should consider continuing operations after the harvest festival,” Ellis muttered to herself.

At the mansion, Frau and Claire were working by themselves, steaming up 100 sets of steamed cakes in the large-sized steamer that Claire designed.

“You can cook a variety of dishes with this steamer.”

A number of new recipes and dinners were running through Frau’s head.

“When the festival is over, let’s play around with it and see what we get.”

Claire agreed with Frau’s interests.

They cut the steamed cakes with a ‘special cutter’ that was also designed by Claire before they are placed in a wooden bread box in preparation for tomorrow’s sales.

The leftover edges after everything has been cut are collected, and Frau adds plenty of cream and fruit to them inside a bowl to make trifles.

She keeps them chilled in the fridge so that Katie can bring them over to the Thieve’s Guild later.

With the preparations for opening the shop over; Ellis, Reeve, and Katie decided to take a leisurely walk around town before heading home until Reeve suddenly tried to hide behind Katie.

“What’s wrong?”

“There is somebody over there I would really like to not see.”

Following Reeve’s line of sight, Ellis and Katie saw a niisan dressed in bright, flashy clothes and surrounded by other, similarly dressed men and guard-like looking followers.

Suddenly, the niisan caught sight of the girls and immediately walked up to Katie.

“You, the pure white girl there. How would you like to join my personal guard?”

“Nya?”

Behind Katie who was puzzled by the sudden invitation, Reeve turned around and tried to slip away, but she could not escape the inevitable.

“Wait a minute, is that Breastless Reeve? It’s the runaway girl Reeve!”

“Are you Reeve’s acquaintance?”

The niisan laughed and turned to Ellis who was starting to feel a little irritated for some reason.

“Lovely little girl, I am Lake Durkfienance. I was the fiance that Reeve ran from!”

Fiance?

Ellis couldn’t wrap her head around a certain word.

As a result, Reeve turned back around and stood before Lake.

“Lake, I am sorry about that time.”

Lake took Reeve’s apology and responded with a sneer and a look of disgust.

“Hmph, its not like I’m interested in some homely girl with zero tits, but it is a fact that I was shamed because of what you did. Although, hasn’t your family completely fallen now?”

Lake’s own words made him laugh.

“What about compensation?”

Lake continued talking after he noticed a twinge of unease in Reeve’s face at the mention of her family.

“Naturally, when some country bumpkin noble’s daughter abandon’s her engagement to a lord’s son at the last minute, the matter cannot be just chalked up to a bit of rudeness and an apology. I just want you to appreciate how much of a disappointment you really are.”

Realizing that Reeve wasn’t going to give him the reaction he wanted, Lake dismissed her with a wave of his hand.

“This is all irrelevant to a girl who abandoned her house though right?”

Ellis and Katie had had enough by now and stepped in front of Reeve, ready to pull out their weapons at any second.

“Hey, let’s go already.”

“Reeve…”

Ellis softly called out to Reeve.

“Ah, sorry. I made you feel worried.”

Reeve tried to force a smile, but no matter how you looked at it, it lacked heart.

But Katie had an idea.

“We have earned a ton of money from hanging out laundry, so how about bringing some of that to your parents’ house nya? When the harvest festival is over, everyone can travel to Reeve’s home nya. I don’t know how much the reparation money is, but 100 million should be able to help nya.”

After one-sidedly accumulating money this whole time, the realization that they had the ability to spend some of that money hit Ellis like a lightning bolt.

“Reeve, let’s go home.”

“Sorry. Let’s go.”

In this way the three girls arrived home as if nothing had happened.

When she returned to the mansion, Ellis invited Claire over to the studio and began business negotiations.

“Claire, how much would it cost to build a bakery store?”

“If it’s just a store, it would cost about 5 million. If you are adding living quarters to it, then it would go up to about 10 million ril.”

Hmmm.

10 million ril.

If you make a profit of 50 thousand ril every day, then you can make your money back after two hundred days.

“How long would it take to build it?”

“If it is a log house, then the standard is usually 30 days without any added interior decoration. Additional costs will be added in so that the construction period can be shortened more though.”

“Thanks. That was helpful.”

“Is Ellis planning something?”

“Claire understands me too well.”

Fufufufufu.

The two girls were on the same wavelength.

From here on, everyone would see the true value of the black and gold combination.

Dinner was made early that night in preparation for tomorrow. As everyone was getting prepared for bed, Ellis stroked Pi-tan’s head.

“Pi-tan will be busy starting tomorrow as well.”

“Pi~”

And then late that night at the Adventurer Guild.

“Open up! I want to go to the Wight Labyrinth!”

Before the Adventurer Guild’s massive closed doors, the Brave party had returned making the same demands they had before.

But the guild was already closed.

“Let’s give up for now. We can come again tomorrow.”

The Hero Gray only relented at Gise’s intervention.

The Brave party who had given up on their labyrinth search for the night began a new search for an inn to stay in. Unfortunately, there is no way any inn would have a room available the night before the harvest festival.

Everywhere they went was full to capacity.

In the end, the party had to spend the whole night out in an open field out in the suburban area of the city.

“The Brave party with order straight from capitol Sky Castle is sleeping on a hill!”

Dams complained.

“This clearly was not planned well.”

Peach also complained.

“Do you have the wisdom to investigate in advance, my hero?”

Cliff skipped directly to some sarcastic criticism.

“Knock it off. It’s not that bad.”

The three of them went silent after Gise rebuked them, but Gray was already depressingly hugging his knees in a corner of their tent.

This is the Hero charged with slaying the Demon Lord. All muscle, and no backbone.

By the way, unknown to anyone in the Brave party, the Adventurer’s Guild was closed due to the harvest festival. A festival that would continue for the next seven days. Seven days where they would be unable to go to the labyrinth no matter how much whine and yell.

My condolences.

And the night ends.

Warren’s harvest festival is now open!