CH 98

“Second New Product Creation.”

Translated by Dawn

“Second New Product Creation.”

“Alright, let’s get started.”

Muttering to myself in the empty room, I began my work. Incidentally, the golems’ work was up and running without a problem, and my storage now held more than 1,000 bracelets.

The bracelets that were ready when I woke up this morning had already been wholesaled to the store, which meant that this much had been produced in such a short period of time. That was quite a lot of production. They really don’t need me anymore.

Shaking off this sad feeling, I took out from storage the cloth I bought today and some threads I saw in another store, in order to get myself back on track and start developing new products.

Even if I said development, it was not a completely original product, since it was simply a reproduction of something that originally existed on Earth, using materials from another world. I was tempted to spend an hour thinking about the meaning of the word “original” in this world where there was no concept of copyright or patent, but since it would be more meaningful to spend my time on something else, I started work immediately.

First, I cut the cloth I bought into pieces about 15 cm long and 60 cm wide. Fold the cut cloth in half and fix it with a hook made from an iron ingot. Leave a space of 5 cm at both ends of the cloth.

Next, with a space of 1 cm from the edges of the combined cloth, sew up the cloth with a needle and thread. At this point, do not sew the 5 centimeters at both ends of the fabric that had been left open in advance. The finished product was then turned inside out and pushed in using a piece of stick. Then, the fabric came out from the other side, and all the pieces were turned over.

The parts that had not been sewn up overlapped so that they form a loop and the parts that were in contact were sewn up. Before the loop was completely closed, a string made from Poison Minespider thread was pulled through the loop and the ends were tied together. Finally, the hole through which the string was threaded was plugged, and the piece was complete.

“Tadaa. It’s Scrunchie”

The result was a Scrunchie, which, like ribbons and elastic bands, was a type of hair tie, but its function as a hair tie itself was a higher level than that of ribbons and elastic bands. Unlike ribbons, scrunchies were not difficult to tie by yourself, and they didn’t cause hair entanglement and pain when removed, as rubber bands did.

When not in use, it could also serve as a bracelet by being worn on the arm or other parts of the body.

Another advantage of the scrunchie was that it could be made completely to your own liking by using your favorite patterned fabric. In most cases, when choosing ribbons, you must choose from a certain number of fixed colors and patterns, but this scrunchie was not difficult to make as long as you have the right fabric, so if you were skillful with your hands, you could make it by hand.

[Scrunchie]: A trinket that, like ribbons, can be classified as a hair tie, but when worn on the arm, it also functions as a bracelet, making it highly convenient. Market price: 4 small silver coins to 6 small silver coins

“I need to try this.”

It was nice to be able to make a scrunchie, but I found that I could not confirm that it was comfortable to wear or that it would function as a hair tie, which was the important thing. Even if I wanted to do it myself, my hair was too short.

After thinking about what to do, I decided that I should ask the opinion of someone close to me, so I went downstairs to the first floor. It was past the peak of the lunch hour, so I found the person I was looking for taking a break and immediately called out to her.

“You taking a break?”

“Ah, Rolando-kun. This is really nice! It’s always crowded at lunchtime, and it gets so busy that I don’t even have time to fix my bangs, but these bangs don’t hang down, so this is a big help.”

She then points to the hairpins she had me put on in the morning. Apparently, they were functionally sound, so I should start mass-producing them tomorrow for full-scale sales.

With this in mind, I was about to take Nusa to my room to ask for help from her, who was taking a break…….

“What is it? Do the two of you want to do ‘that’ in this broad daylight?”

“Why the hell would we do that!?”

Nusana appeared out of nowhere and said something like that with a grin on her face. What do you mean by ‘that’? The word you are using has malicious intent, doesn’t it?

While refuting Nusana’s words, I took Nusa’s hand, her face reddening, and I led her to my room. From behind me, I heard a voice saying, “If you are unable to move, you can rest until the evening,” but I did my best to ignore it silently. I have absolutely no intention of doing so. Absolutely not!

“As usual, Golem-sans are hard workers, huh.”

When I brought Nusa to my room, she let out that impression. By the way, I told the people at the inn that there were golems moving around in my room. Otherwise, there would be a big fuss when they come in to clean the room.

She had seen the golem several times, so she was not surprised and watched the golem working. Well, let’s ask her to lend me her hair for now, shall we?

“Nusa, come sit here.”

“Eh? Not in the bed?”

“….”

“….”

What does this girl think I asked her to come to my room for? She probably now starting to think that we’re going to do what that perverted innkeeper says we’re going to do or something like that……. Good grief…….

“Sit down for now. I want to try a different type of hair tie compared to the hairpin, so I need to borrow some of Nusa’s hair.”’

“Another type? I’m looking forward to it.”

Saying so, she sat down on a chair as I instructed her to do and spoke in a cheerful voice while flapping her legs in the air. Well, let’s give it a try, shall we?

“I’m gonna touch you.”

“Y-yeah…”

After saying a few words of warning to Nusa, I began to wrap her hair around her from the back. I put a strand of her hair through the hole in the scrunchie and bring it to the roots. It looks like it’s working, but I’m not sure.

“Good. Stand up for a second and check it out.”

“Are you done? Let’s see…….”

As she said this, she checked her hair, which was tied back, and shook her head from side to side to make sure that the hair did not fall out of the braid. After a while, when the checking was finished, Nusa opened her mouth.

“It seems to be all right. It looks like it’s holding it tight.”

“Did it hurt?”

“No, it was fine. It was my first time, but Rolando-kun was very gentle with me, so it didn’t hurt.”

…I-it somehow sounds like it’s a different meaning. Or is it my imagination? This is bad, this is really bad. Anyway, the size adjustment seemed to be OK, so all I had to do was to set up the mass-production system.

“Rolando-kun, this hair tie is…”

“It’s a scrunchie.”

“It’s called a scrunchie, huh? It’s a pretty name.”

“Well, I believe the word means something like ‘cute.’”

“I see. So, you know, can you give me this scrunchie?”

She looked at me with an upward glance as she said so. I see, she seemed to like it very much. However, since it was a product that had not yet been sold, I could not simply give it to her.

“I’m sorry, just give me one day. It’s still in the prototype stage, so I’ll give it to you tomorrow, the day of the sale.”

“Yeah, okay. I’m looking forward to it.”

“Yeah, thanks for your help.”

With that, I retrieved the scrunchie from Nusa and she left the room. ……What? Did we not do anything after that? What do you expect from a frail twelve-year-old boy?

Then, I worked on the production of the scrunchie, and as soon as I got used to the work, I decided to try to see if I could automate this whole process using a golem.

The workflow was to cut a piece of cloth that would be the size of a scrunchie from the cloth. Fold it in half and secure it with a hook. Sew up the 1cm end, remove the hook, and turn it over. Sew a loop to join the two ends and tie a string through the middle. Finish by sewing a hole through which the string was threaded to close it.

The number of steps was five, but I wanted to increase the efficiency of the process, so I decided to have two groups work on this task. The last time I made the golem, it was up to No. 12, so this time I will make No. 13 through No. 22.

Then, I taught the Scrunchie work process to each of No. 13 through No. 17 and No. 18 through No. 22 and had them actually do the work. As expected, some of the work was very detailed, so it took a lot of time and effort for me to teach them while showing them by example, but even so, the work somehow took shape.

“Yeah, good job.”

Two hours of trial and error. With various minor adjustments in between, they were finally able to produce something satisfactory, so I immediately gave them instructions to go into production.

While instructing the golems, I noticed something. When I gave instructions to the golem, even if the instructions were complicated, the golem moved properly. Perhaps, this was because I got the hang of making golems in the previous session, or my skill level had improved, or something.

For the time being, I gave them Poison Minespider threads to use as materials for cloth and string, and I also prepared magic stones for replenishing their magic power so that they would not run out of magic power.

“It’s getting cramped.”

Even though each golem was not that big, it was indeed getting cramped in a single room at the inn. This might be a good time to move to a larger room in the near future.

“Might as well just get a rented house.”

Up to now, the inn had been sufficient for accommodation, but now a space large enough for the golems to work in would be needed. The cost of staying at an inn would be ridiculous in the long run, so it would be cheaper to rent a good place to stay. I would have to go to the commercial guild soon…….

With this in mind, I continued to produce hairpins until the evening. If it were true, I would like to automate the production of hairpins with a golem, but in that case, it involved working with fire, and I was still afraid to leave the work to the golem. Above all, there was no space to place any more golems, so hairpin production would be my job for a while.

It was now evening, so I finished up my work and went downstairs. Since it was dinner time, the cafeteria was crowded; I had asked Nusa once and was about to ask Nusana what she thought of the hairpin. However, after seeing how crowded the cafeteria was, I decided it would be better to wait until later and headed to the Greg Trading Company for the time being.

When I entered the closed store, I found that it was not as crowded with customers as it had been yesterday, but the employees were still slouched on the chairs in the store, like before. Maybe we’re still understaffed.

“Ah, master.”

“Molly, I’m not your master.”

Then Molly and I had a master argument, and we finally decided to call me “owner”. I would have preferred to be called by my first name, but I didn’t want to get into another argument with Molly, so I agreed to settle the matter.

“So, how does it feel to work here? Are you comfortable with it?”

“Yes, no problem. I was a little surprised at how many people came in, but I’m finding the work worthwhile.”

“I see.”

After a brief discussion with Greg about today’s sales and how the products were selling, we discussed the two new products that will be added to the sales lineup.

“The hairpins we were selling on a trial basis today reportedly sold out quickly, so we’re going to start selling them officially as is. With that, I am thinking of raising the price of the hairpins from 1 small copper coin per pin to 1 small silver coin, and for three pins to 2 small silver coins and 5 large copper coins, what do you think?”

In terms of the price of the hairpins, as long as there was no cost involved, even a single small copper coin at the lowest price would generate a profit. However, in order to make a large number of sales, it was necessary to sell a large number of hairpins. Moreover, since the only specialized skill required to manufacture these hairpins were blacksmithing skills, it was obvious that similar products and imitations would soon appear on the market.

I proposed to raise the price a little in order to make some profit and, above all, to improve the so-called “hourly rate” for their labor, but there were no complaints about this.

“If you are going to sell them as a commodity, I think it would be better to raise the price a little more.”

And the merchant Greg, Molly, and Letica, who worked for the trading company, voiced their approval, and the decision to raise the price of the hairpins was quickly made.

“Next, I’m thinking of putting this item up for sale tomorrow, in addition to the hairpins. Please let me know if you have any questions.”

With that, I pulled out the scrunchie, which was met with mostly “what in the world is this?” Well, It was only natural that they would have that reaction if they had never seen anything like that before…….

“Boy, what’s this?”

“This is a Scrunchie, which is a kind of hair tie, similar to a hairpin. However, it differs from a hairpin in that it looks cute and can also be used as a bracelet by wearing it on your arm like this when you are not using it.”

When I explained to them what a Scrunchie was, the women’s eyes lit up with interest, and Greg, too, seemed to perceive the functionality and convenience of this Scrunchie, and he expressed his admiration.

“So this is Scrunchie? How much are you thinking of selling it for?”

The market price was quoted as 4 small silver coins, so I thought about setting a minimum price, but since Greg Trading Company had the advantage of being the first distributor in terms of business, I decided to be aggressive and set the price at 6 small silver coins. Since the materials for the cloth and thread were costly in terms of purchase cost, I really wanted to charge a little more for the item.

Since anyone with sewing skills could make this Scrunchie, there was a possibility that similar products would appear in the market, even more than hairpins. However, since it was difficult to secure a route to obtain the Poison Minespider thread used as the string for the Scrunchie, I also believe that it was unlikely that something more functional than our Scrunchie will be available.

“Tomorrow may be even busier, so I would like each of you to take a rest early so as not to be exhausted from today’s work. That’s all I have to say. Are there any questions? If not, let’s eat.”

Since there were no questions, we moved on to the inn across the street. We all had dinner together, and after hearing Nusana and the others’ impressions of the hairpins, we called it a day.

After that, I did more hairpin production and checked on the golems, and then went to bed to prepare for the next day.