CH 94

“We're open, but I don't work.”

Translated by Dawn

“We’re open, but we don’t work.”

The next day, I woke up earlier than usual, packed my bags, and headed to the Greg trading company immediately. When I entered the trading company, Greg and his staff were waiting for me, so without even a word of greeting, I immediately started to take stock of the products.

Even though I was taking the stock, it didn’t take that long to complete the display, since the only products that were currently scheduled to be sold at the store were two types of bracelets that I had made, which was not much to show for the product lineup.

With the store now ready to open, I decided to brief Natalie and Jean about the employment situation.

“So, both of you, I’m going to have you sell these bracelets in this store for now, and I intend to do so. Any questions?”

“No.”

“Me neither.”

“Okay, so, let’s talk about the salary. ……Greg, how much is usually for the salary in this case?”

According to Greg, the daily food allowance was roughly 1 to 3 large copper coins, with a little bit of extra to cover the daily wages. This would mean more than 3 large copper coins, but since people from slums were not so trustworthy, the minimum guarantee was usually 1 large copper coin.

“We are willing to work for minimum wage.”

“Well, then, Greg, you can pay them four large copper coins a day, or one medium silver coin and two small silver coins a month.”

“As expected of you, boy, you are quick with your calculations.”

“Can you give us that much?”

“Yeah,  I can say that no matter how busy I am, I will only give you that much, so work yourself to death.”

“T-thank you very much. We’ll do our best!!”

Natalie and Jean bowed their heads in a bowed manner at my words. Fufufu, but that’s the pitfall……. If it were only for food, it would be 3 large coins a day, but if you include rent, firewood to cook the meals, and other necessities, it would obviously cost more.

And yet, I only paid for the food plus a small amount of wages. What would you call this without calling it a vice? Of course, managers in this world rarely hired people from the slums on a permanent basis. Even if they did, they would often offer worse employment conditions than mine, such as daily work only or compensation of only 1 large copper coin.

In addition, because of the villa, the employment was live-in, so there was no rent, and all I needed to pay was food and other necessities. For Natalie and fellow slum dwellers, this was a dream come true…….probably.

“That’s right. I’m going to set these guys up here, so please take care of them.”

“““Huh?”””

Saying that I took out two golems from storage. When I woke up in the morning, I made a golem specialized for combat as a substitute for a guard, since there was no guarantee that the rough crowd would not come in the future.

It was a little taller than the first Golem I made, about 50 centimeters, and rather than having a rugged appearance, it was more of a deformed, cute shape.

“Is this a golem? Boy?”

“Well, yeah. If anything happens, these guys will protect you.”

“It’s kind of cute.”

Natalie, who also happened to be a woman, let out such impressions when she saw the guard golems. I ordered the two golems to seize any person who tried to violate the store and to neutralize them to the extent that they would not kill the three if they tried to harm them, and had them stand by in an empty space.

The fancy appearance of the store made it somewhat soft, but I convinced myself that this was better than a bleak and empty one, so I decided to go with it.

Then, the four of us had breakfast at Summer Sunlight Through The Trees. Of course, I paid for the meal out of my own pocket. After the meal, we went back to the store. I left the three of them in charge of the store for the day and headed to the Adventurers Guild to take care of the dungeon attack and the other matter that had been delayed. ……Will those guys be there?

When I arrived at the Adventurers’ Guild, I immediately checked to see if Gyrmzak and the others were there. I looked in their direction and saw Maylene rushing toward me, her large breasts shaking in a frenzied manner. She’s using body enhancement…though, that thing won’t hurt me if it hits me.

“Master!”

“Swish.”

“Guh.”

Naturally, there was no need or obligation to catch Maylene’s rush, so I ducked just in time, and she dived face-first into the floor with too much momentum. She was dragging her face as it was, but I judged that she would be fine and called out to the Gyrmzak and the others who were approaching me with a wry smile.

“Yo.”

“Good morning, Master. Today is the day to continue our training……”

As soon as we meet, Gyrmzak started talking about their training. To be clear, their training was almost complete.

By moving from a fighting style that relied on body enhancement to raising their own basic physical strength, the current Gyrmzak and the others were probably more than twice as strong as when I first met them. I had explained this to them repeatedly, but they would not listen to me, saying, “We are not strong enough yet. It was absolutely exasperating. But that would only last until today.

“Oh, about that, I have a task for you guys.”

“Task?”

When Gyrmzak and the others heard this, their faces lit up. Apparently, they misunderstood that they would be given training. Well, it’s not though.

Then I decide to rent an empty room to explain to them the details. Just in case, I put up wind magic to block the sound in the whole room, and Maylene started to look ecstatic, saying, “As expected of Master.” Apparently, the face-sliding she did earlier was okay. Is this what you call someone with thick skin?

“I want you to accept a certain request from the guild of commerce. That’s the task this time.”

“The Guild of Commerce? What kind of request is it?”

“The request is to escort a merchant from the guild to the royal capital.”

“Why is a mere escort request considered a task?”

Gyrmzak replied on behalf of all of them. The other three seemed to feel the same way and nodded their heads. From there, I tried to persuade them by making full use of my best verbal skills.

“You are now stronger than before. However, strength is not just about wielding power. Fighting while protecting something is also a part of strength. Think back to my actions when you guys were fighting the Orc King.”

“If you put it that way, then surely Master was protecting something at that time.”

“That is the true power……strength. The power that you wield just for your own greed is not strength. That’s just violence. That is why I want you to realize what real strength is by carrying out this request perfectly.”

““““Master!””””

Impressed by my words, the four of them got a twinkle in their eyes. Yes, of course, it’s all just me saying things, you know? Strength was the power to crush any unreasonableness, and that was the real strength. Strength was the power to swallow up any kind of violence. Strength was justice…….it’s good, indeed. Hahahaha.

Oops, I seemed to let my imagination get the better of me, and Gyrmzak and the others were looking at me suspiciously. Just when I thought that I had to say something, Maylene gave me an unexpected shove.

“Master, you just made a bad face.”

“A-am I?”

“Yes, just like a greedy person who wants to take all the greed in the world.”

(What kind of face is that!?)

I barely managed to suppress the thought that I was about to burst out, so I released the spell I had cast on the room and returned to the Adventurers’ Guild reception desk.

When I returned to the reception desk, I was suddenly confronted by a huge wall in front of me. I looked up at the wall and saw that it was apparently an adventurer with a gigantic physique. Come to think of it, I think I’ve seen this face somewhere.

“Boy, it’s been a long time.”

“Who?”

“Oh, you don’t remember me. You know, the adventurer that you gave me a meal within the dungeon?”

“Oh, yes, I remember. The adventurers from that time. Steak?”

That’s right.”

There appeared Olberto, an adventurer I had met while conquering the third level of the dungeon. I was grilling steaks for lunch that time, and he asked me to sell the steaks to him, so I sold them to him at a rip-off price.

As I wondered what on earth he wanted, he bent his huge body into a vigorous bow, then bowed his head and pleaded with me.

“Please. Will you let me eat your food, again? I’ll pay you.”

“Hmm…”

With that said, I analyzed the adventurer in front of me. Surprisingly, he was a C-rank adventurer, and although his overall stats were more physical, his highest value was B+, not much different from those of Gyrmzak and others before they were trained up. Perhaps he was the opposite of Gyrmzak and the others, who had risen to C-rank by virtue of their basic physical strength and not by relying on body enhancement.

His companions, watching from afar, also had a high status for their ranks, and judging from the results, I judged them to be useful human resources for this one case.

“I’d be happy to make it for you, but I need you to do me a favor.”

“What is it? I’ll do whatever I can to help you.”

I had no feelings when I heard such words from the man, but I decided to ask for their help in escorting the commercial guild this time since I had obtained their word for now.

“If you escort that merchant, I’ll feed you for free.”

“R-really?”

“But it will be a round trip between this city and the capital, so it will take quite a long time. If you are okay with that, I will feed you.”

“I understand. I’ll get the other guys to join.”

Okay, I got the right people. If the best person would be assigned to escort them, it would increase the security of the group. In terms of strength, Gyrmzak and the others would be enough, but nothing was absolute in the world. It was better to be prepared for overkill at times.

I told Olberto and the others to check the details in a request from the guild, and then left the guild with an appeal to the Gyrmzak and the others to “make good use of these guys to make sure the escort is secure.” Gyrmzak and his party immediately started to have a banquet with Olberto and his party to deepen their relationship. They were careful not to drink too much.

Needless to say, I was invited to the banquet, but when I politely declined the invitation, Maylene attacked me again and I had to cool her down by dropping a chop on her head.

I left the newly started store to Greg and the others, and Gyrmzak and the others to escort the merchants of the commercial guild, and headed for the dungeon by myself. What, why am I working why am I not solving it by myself? …Because it can’t be helped, it’s me.