Chapter 31: Time to hire people!

After talking with Nene, the former assassin, who I hired basically on a spot, I returned to my hidden base in the mines. Lena was filling Laina in on all that happened since we parted, so Blanche and I had time just for ourselves. Blanche stayed in the orphanage as we planned to stay the night there. The only reason I had for coming back to the caves was to plant some new plants like vegetables and some kinds of berries we got on our travels. Food diversity is important after all.

"Master! Master! Come here!" Urza waved me over from where she was feeding the ten separated Fermenting Slimes. All of them were shining with a dim dark red color. They were taking in magical power and releasing it over and over, all while shaking unsteadily. Soon they stopped and lost all the color they previously had. They were now as translucent as clear water. Even regular slimes were more on the blue side than these new guys. These new slimes were completely see-through, not even their core was visible, which reminded me of Bloody Slimes.

Liquor Slime

Advanced species of slime evolved from Fermenting slime, roughly 25 centimeters in diameter. It makes alcohol from fruits and vegetables it ate. Alcohol resistance 9, Alcohol production 8, Fermenting 6, Seed Spit 2, Split 5, Flammable 7

"What the–?! A Liquor slime?!"

"Another new breed, what an interesting blob…" Urza poked the slime slightly with her tiny green finger.

I took out several cups and had the slime fill them with his alcohol. I quickly received five different kinds of liquor. Three of them were Plun, Appo and Peech fruit liquors which the Fermenting slimes could make as well, but these were about 20% stronger than the Fermenting Slimes’. Fourth was Pela Fruit liquor and it tasted just like liquor made from Pears. Last two were pure liquids, looking just like water.

Alcohol (100%)

Pure Alcohol, flammable, can be used for cleaning.

"Pure Alcohol? This might be even better than the drinks. It can be used in so many ways. Cleaning metal, deodorizers, disinfectants… Ah, I can’t wait to make something like that…"

The other one was labeled White Alcohol and it was only 42% strong. I took a sniff that was oh, so familiar to me.

"This is Vodka!!!"

I took a small sip and the slight burning in my throat confirmed my theory, this White Alcohol was definitely Vodka I knew from earth.

Okay, I gotta add this to my repertoire of drinks. Cheers to a fortunate future!

I took another swing and smiled happily. I had the slimes continue eating Popats, aka potatoes.

"Heheh, eat up my sweet children and make papa happy," I patted them each in turn.

"Master!!!" Yue called out to me from another side of the floor, where she was taking care of her five Corpse slimes. Same as the Liquor slimes just now, they were shaking, absorbing and releasing magical power. Once they stabilized, their grayish red color took on a deeper hue and were now blackish red.

Necromancer Slime

Highly rare advanced species of slime monster, lastly seen thousand of years ago. These slimes usually appear only near the deadliest battlefields and places overrun with the undead. Absorb Darkness 10, Dissolve corpse 9, Darkness Regeneration 6, Call Spirits 7, Split 3, Summon Undead 1

The Necromancer slime lost its Deodorize, Odor removal and Play dead skills and even the usual slime skills got dark elements in them now.

"Okay, can you use Summon Undead skill for me?" I asked the slimes and they instantly started wriggling. They enlarged their body and a pack of five undead goblins crawled out of them. I could tame these undead, so it was the same as Yue's Demon Summoning skill. Same as with her, this seemed to take a lot of energy out of them.

"I see, Corpse slimes eating demon corpses evolve them into Necromancer Slimes… what could be the reason though, hmm… demon corpses rot faster than normal corpses and are filled with dark magical energy, that could be a big reason… necromancy is an offshoot of Dark Magic after all… maybe if I got some rotten corpses without the dark element they would evolve differently? This will need more tests… Well, no need to dwell on it now. It's late and tomorrow is still ahead of us… wait that was what she told me once, wasn't it? Whatever…" I threw the memory of my ex-girlfriend behind me and returned to the orphanage to spend the night.

Once I closed the doors behind me and made it out of the basement, I headed straight to the bedroom I had prepared here. I opened the doors and was almost swallowed by the wave of children that were sitting behind it.

"Wha—?! What is this?"

"Brother Arito!" Misha trotted over to me and gave me a hug.

"Hey there… Why is everyone here?" I looked up as I patted her head.

"We heard about [Good night stories] from Blanche!" Misha smiled warmly at me.

"We got curious, so… you see…"

Ah, they want me to tell them bedtime stories…

"Okay, you don't have to say anything. I'm gonna tell you some, so let's change the room. The common room on the first floor should be okay. But it's only for today, if you want more stories you will have to get better at reading yourself, is that clear?"

"Yes Aniki!!!" The kids grabbed their sheets and pillows they had dumped on the ground previously and moved upstairs.

"Sorry Arito, things got out of hand here when you were gone…" Blanche looked apologetic.

"It's fine, I haven't read story to you in quite some time as well, right? We might remember the old times. Any recommendations?"

"Cinder Ella or Three Veterans!"

If Lena was here, she would probably say I was committing plagiarism, but I could not really call the stories I wrote child friendly. Well, for teenagers it was nearly okay, I guess… Anyway, it's time to enjoy some calm time with the kids.

***

The next morning came and I took a look at the trainees forms. Yesterday's training with Amberia showed some tiny result in improving their postures.

I used earth magic to create a circle and entered it with Blanche while having the rest of the kids watch us. We were dressed in brown, judo-like kimonos, I made specially for the training. As for the belts, mine was black and Blanche's was red. I didn't watch anything by it, because when I made them I had little fabric to work with and even less dyes. It was just a few weeks after this that the Cocoon slimes learned how to make fabric by themselves. Heck, they even got Fabric Creation skill because of it.

Coincidentally, all the kids here were wearing white kimonos with white belts. Once again, that was because of the material I had at hand.

"Aniki! Aniki! Why are we all in white while you are in brown?"

"That is because we are senior practitioners! You can also guess our proficiency by the belt! Masters like Arito wear black, while novices like you wear white. Just so you know I started from yellow!" Blanche boasted with a smug expression.

It's not like that… I just didn't have any fabric on hand and I accidentally destroyed the yellow belt when training with acid slimes, hence I exchanged it for the red one… Aaaaaah, that was so embarrassing…

"AHEM! Now, I will show you the basic techniques of Tesshin style combat. Among them, you can find grapples, throws, punches, kicks and other techniques that require perfect control of your body and energy. Since you know the basics of energy control, we will do this in blocks of three hours of training, two hour meditation and then one hour of training with energy. Is that clear?"

"YES ANIKI!!!"

We started the training by a demonstration with me and Blanche. Just like when I started training her, we first didn't use any energy.

Blanche went right away for my shoulder, but as she got close, she twisted her arm and tried to grab my forearm and twist it. I quickly retreated my extended arm and made a small step back before delivering a punch to her unguarded stomach. Blanche however expected this and blocked the punch with her other hand, grabbing it and pulling it in. I grabbed her shoulder with my other hand and kicked her side. Unable to block it, Blanche retreated before jumping up and going for an ax kick, which I blocked easily. Blanche twisted her body to deliver another kick with her other leg, which I had to evade.

"Wow, they are so fast."

"And they are not even using energy…" The kids were praising us with awe.

"You got faster, Blanche," I complimented her.

"And you got better at holding back," she complimented me back.

"Let's end this before we get serious, it wouldn't be much of a showcase match."

"Agreed."

"Okay, now everyone stand up, we will show you the most basic stance. Though there are two kinds, standing for two styles within Tesshin style. Can you guess the type from seeing the fight just now? …Rifa?"

"Well, you didn't move much, but Blanche was moving a lot. So you showed us both styles?"

"Yes, correct. Blanche was showing you Agile style, while I was showcasing Steady style. Rifa, Venti and Carlos will be training in the Steady style with me. Beth, Alma, Aldo and Lopi will be training under Blanche the Agile style. Let's go!"

"GO!"

***

"Haaah… Haaaaah…" the kids ended up lying on the ground wheezing heavily.

"This was a good warm up," Blanche used a fluffy towel to wipe off her sweat.

"Okay, now let's get to the meditation part of the training. Try sitting up straight and close your eyes. You can use energy to recharge some strength."

"Yesh… anikiii…" Rifa nodded tiredly.

The kids sat up and started meditating by copying us. I started circulating energy through my body and they copied me.

"Good. Now try to steady the flow without letting any energy leak from your body. It will be hard, but the better you do, the better your control will become."

Surprisingly, the best learner here was hands down Beth the Gargoyle, who almost got to Blanches level just before the end of the meditating season. This sparked a competitive side in Blanche who was getting a little lax lately and she started getting serious again.

The final step was training with energy. For this, I wanted them to use the energy as a weapon. One of the most basic techniques was expanding the energy to envelop the weapon of your choosing. When I started using energy on my daggers, they basically became bludgeons. I had to learn how to thin the amount of energy and sharpen it. Precise control turned them from hammers into bullets.

I had a few Kobolds I picked up in the morning to line up the logs in the circle and send them back to the Dimension home to continue their work there, mainly tending to potted plants.

"I will have you guys hit these logs with your hands imbued with energy. But you cannot smash them. You have to concentrate and lessen the amount of damage dealt to the wood."

"It's like cutting with a knife, but you use your hand instead!" Blanche added.

"Let me show you how it's done," I steadied my stance and moved my hand surrounded with energy against the log. Given how much training I already had, the cut log instantly slid from its base. It was the cleanest possible cut. I still have a lot of logs in the Item box so if they smash these, we can set up more.

The kids started practicing, and sure enough, they all smashed the first few batches of logs into smithereens. Surprisingly, each of the kids used the energy differently. Alma, the catfolk girl was using it on her fingers like claws, Rifa the rhinofolk boy used it on his horn and rammed into the first few logs, until he decided to swipe with the horn instead. I never thought the use of energy would be so different when others use it. Maybe I could make new styles for Tesshin based on the use of energy of these guys? Like a Rush style for Alma and a Crushing style for Rifa… Wait, wouldn't it be better if they learned it themselves? Yeah, it would. They need to think for themselves too.

I watched over the kids, sometimes giving them pointers so they would get better sooner. They are good learners. I might've to prepare the colored belts for them soon. Should I do it like a test? Like hiding the belt in a hollowed out log like these… yeah, I could do that.

"Good work guys. Let's get bathed and eat some light snacks. Once that is done, rest properly for the night."

"YES ANIKI!!!"

***

That evening, I was in the former mines checking on everything. I was spending the night in the inn with the ducal family, so I needed to make sure everything was on track here, so I didn’t have to worry.

"Any changes to the Healing slime?" I asked Urza as I was taming newly split Light slimes who overfed themselves and split a lot.

"Not yet. There is a chance that it will take a lot of time, like with the mushroom eating Moss Slime," Urza replied, her words smoother every time.

"I see. What about the newcomers?"

"When they got beaten up by the slimes, they started working as we wanted them. There were some who wanted to propose to Shizu and got beaten up, so we had to heal them. I send those to the Kobold field."

"Great, but how many goblins have already proposed to Shizu exactly? I feel like it happens all the time."

"She is quite a looker for goblins like them. Her being a Hobgoblin means her offsprings would be stronger than regular goblins. And her shy disposition makes her an easy target," Urza added as she served me my favorite coffee-like tea.

"Good thing we taught her how to use Energy for self-defense…"

Once I finished my cup of tea, I went to the aquarium and fed the monsters inside it. After that, I went to the storage room behind it and watched over the monsters there. I had some Lightning squids I got in one separated tank. As it turned out, they loved eating small fish I was breeding in another tank. I also had a tank with the River Sahuagin eggs which hatched recently and now the tank was filled with tadpoles hiding below water lily-like plants. Given they were supposed to be humanoid later, I was surprised by their almost frog-like resemblance. They are apparently useful as food, medicine and even aphrodisiacs. I wonder if they will have some use in other fields too.

"How long does it take for them to grow up?" Urza asked me from behind me, like a servant she styled herself after.

"It should take two months to grow up to half your size, then after that it will take a month for them to be fully capable of walking on land. I guess that in three and a half months from now they will start breeding between themselves and their numbers will increase. Hmm? Oh, would you look at this! The Thunder Squids have eggs," I smiled widely when I saw the tiny brownish yellow crystals partially hidden in the pure white sand.

"I was not expecting that. Why did they start breeding so quickly?"

"I guess that's because there are no predators and a lot of food. The saltiness is probably also of a good quality."

Anyway, once I finished taking care of the monsters, I returned to the inn with a happy grin on my face.

"Arito, good to see you again. It wasn't too long, but it definitely feels like it," Henry greeted me with a smile. I was the only one here with the ducal family, as Blanche was reading stories to the kids this evening before she would come here for the night.

"I second that. The Ellee problem has been taken care of, so you can relax."

"Welcome back, Mr. Kalvig, Mr. Henry."

"Now that this is done, here. This is for the magic bag with the receipt."

"Thank you… what?! Fifty million Alba?!"

"What's so surprising? The Magic bag was a national treasure grade," Henry shrugged his shoulders.

"But it could only work as a purse…"

"Uses are mostly up to the owner, but that magic bag could easily carry around potions, spears and many other stuff like that. The storage space is quite enormous."

"I see… Well, I guess I made more money than I used, so it's okay. At least it will make it easier to set up everything."

"I heard you will be hiring tomorrow for the shop. How many people do you think will come?"

"I'm not sure, but I need to hire at least four people to run the shop smoothly."

"I see, that's good. Do you have any plans for after the shop is running?"

"Hmm… I want to experiment with making magic weapons from monster parts. Luckily there is a nest of Murder Ants nearby now, so I can get my hands on such materials more easily."

"I heard from Lena you made a Herding sword, could I see it?" Kalvig asked, so I gave it to him.

"Hmm… certainly not the worst first try I saw, is this really your first try? Usually first magic swords can't even be used to cut, but this could pass for a self-defense weapon at the very least."

"Yes, it was my first time. I have some knowledge of smithing from my mother, but that's mostly for working with regular metals, like iron, brass and such."

"I guess she really didn't want you to get hurt."

"Accidents when working on magical weapons are not rare. Mess up your Magic control and the materials could explode."

"Uh, that's news to me…"

Well, the book from gods did say I should wait until my Magic control is at least level 4… Speaking of, I haven't visited the church in quite some time, so I should take Blanche with me, too. She’s much more of a believer than I am.

"The outbreak of the Blue-tailed Lizards is still quite some time away, so we will go check on other towns in the meantime. Laina will stay here however. What about you, Father-in-law?" Henry asked.

"Hmm… I guess I will go check on Reva duchy for a little while. We have quite a number of lakes, so spreading information on Ellee cooking will be important for us. I definitely want to have the fishermen informed as soon as possible."

"That makes sense, brother is 'seeing is believing' type, after all," Laina nodded, patting her slightly swollen belly.

"I'm going to finish as soon as I can so I can be here!" Henry took his wife's hand, fires burning in his eyes.

"Oh my…" Laina blushed, Kalvig grunted and Lena's eyes rolled back. They are really sweet, I guess I understand Lena's previous words now.

Seeing the opportunity, I excused myself from the room and went to sleep.

The next morning I met up with Hugh and we both went to the Merchants guild. Nene and Emma were taking care of the shop in the morning.

"These are sales for yesterday, sir," Hugh handed over documents and I looked over them.

"I see a lot of the Deodorant solution getting sold, how did that happen?"

"Well, there was a delegation from Amoeba Principality who purchased in bulk and several small nobles seeing that, followed suit. We are nearly sold out on that front."

"I see… The deodorant solution comes from a slime specialized in cleaning, so I might have to come up with a way to boost its breeding speed. Feeding them would be hard, I don't have that much dirty clothes on me…"

"What about opening a laundry shop then? You could get mountains of dirty clothes and an easy way to mass produce the solution. This town has a lot of fishermen and with the Blue-tailed lizard season starting in a few months, even adventurers would love to have a place to clean their clothes," Hugh offered a solution and a way to make even more money.

"That is a possibility… how do you normally take care of clothes?"

"Normally? Well, one or two employees wash them by hand and hang them in the backyard so no one could see them. That slime for cleaning and slime for garbage disposal you left in the kitchen were very helpful, so thank you… This place seems even busier than two days ago," Hugh looked up at the Merchant’s guild, which was almost full to the brim with merchants and information brokers.

"I guess that's because of the Murder Ants. Their materials can sell for a lot, after all. You can use pretty much every single part of them for armor, and their meat is delicious when bleeded properly."

"Have you fought Murder Ants before?"

"Just once. They were wanderers who lost their queen and were searching for a place to stay. That didn't make them any less dangerous though. I almost lost a few wolves to them."

"Wolves? You have tamed wolves too?" To Hugh's question I simply nodded and a wolf jumped out of my shadow, surprising him.

"This is one of my Shadow Wolves, Kurde."

"You really know how to surprise someone… But it will be good for our protection," Hugh jumped back when he saw Kurde, who had a big grin on his face.

"Woof!" Kurde agreed with Hugh, sounding really proud of his scare, and hid in my shadow again.

We entered the Merchants guild and unlike the previous days, it felt much more oppressive. Eyes fell on us left and right. Maybe it was weird for them to see me taking a lead with confidence and having an adult following me. We definitely didn’t look like a father and son.

"Hugh, could you find out what's going on? It seems the atmosphere here is a little off putting."

"Yes sir. It's never good seeing merchants this grim. Please proceed to the guildmaster."

"Okay."

I went upstairs with one of the clerks and entered the designated room.

"Good morning Miss Merle."

"Good morning Arito. I already have gathered people you might hire."

"Oh, before we go, there is one thing. Could you leave this bottle in the room with participants?"

"Is this alcohol? Aah, you want to see if they drink it even though it's work hours, right?"

I nodded to Merle's wicked grin and we proceeded with the plan. Once the liquor was poured into small glasses and left for the room with waiting applicants. As we waited until someone caught themselves, Hugh returned, looking grim.

"So what did you find?"

"It's not great, sir. There is talk about the possibility of a civil war happening in the near future, as well as lowering production of Treant wood and rise in criminality in the nearby territory. There is also talk about demonic beast appearances in places with high populations."

Hmm… this seems… a little sudden… is it forced by something… or someone?

"I see. Please look into where these talks come from. We might get offers to sell our medicine and other equipment in bulk."

"Understood."

"Do you plan to inform the ducal family?"

"I probably will, but they are most likely already aware of the rumors. Shall we head in?"

"Wait. You first separate those guys," Merle made the clerk enter the room and lead out five burly men and eight women, probably of the night variety. "Great. Now you can go."

I entered the room to see six people remaining, all of which were women between fifteen and forty years of age.

"Ladies, thank you for your patience. My name is Arito Aruze and I am the owner of MonsterWork company. First, let me congratulate you on passing the first test. As it is still work hours, we can't have you drink alcohol as we will be selling it in the future as well. For starters, why don't you introduce yourself?"

"I-I'm Miya Gatto, as you can see I'm a catfolk and I came from Macedia city. I worked as a waitress there." The first girl said with a timid look. I could see her becoming a popular singer on Earth, if she had a little more confidence in herself, and her looks.

"I'm Jamie Rex and I came from the Capital! Nice to meetcha!" a girl with black scales on her hands, shins and tail, a sign of being from a Black Scalefolk race, smiled broadly. She had a feel of eastern beauty with sharp eyes. Quite the energetic one, I must add.

"Willie Hilma from village of Strunz."

"El Appa, also from village of Strunz."

"Quida Marsh. I'm from Strunz village as well. We came to the town looking for work because there wasn't a way for us to survive in our village."

The three girls that introduced themselves back to back were all human with different shades of blonde hairs. All three of them looked to be still in their teens, but there was a somewhat mature look in their eyes— which were blue, red and green respectively— which made them strangely cute. You could say they have this older sister vibe going on, especially the green eyed Quida who was the most talkative of the three.

"I'm Palsha, a local… As you can see, I'm a mother of a child… no, children…" The last one to introduce herself was around forty with an infant fastened to her chest.

She looks like…

"The payment is 150 Alba a day, there is a dormitory on land, so you can stay there. There is one thing though. There are monsters living in the shop so if you have a problem with that, you can walk out." When I said that, the girls looked a little uncertain.

"I'm not really good with monsters, but I need the money, so please let me work."

Palsha is in only for the money, huh?

"Mrs. Palsha, could you tell me why you need that money? I'm not really keen on hiring someone who is in only for the money, as those types tend to pocket the cash and run away."

"I understand your worry, sir," Palsha bowed a little, her eyes downcast with no light in them, "This little one has two older siblings. However they ran away almost a year ago. I was looking for them through the city when I was off work, but failed… I need the money so I can continue looking for them."

"I see… um, pardon this question as it might be too personal, but don't they happen to be a human boy and Half-Gnoma girl by the names of Paul and Misha?"

"Huh? Y-you know… them…" Palsha practically jumped from her seat, making the chair fall to the ground, as her voice grew weaker and her eyes moistened.

"I'm not saying they are your children, but I run an orphanage at the edge of the slums and two of the kids go by those names. The older one is especially similar to you in eye and hair color."

"Thank goodness…" Palsha broke into tears.

"Do you want to meet them? I could send you to work there, we kinda need someone to help raise the kids as well."

"I— no… I can't… I want to meet them, but… if I do now, I wouldn't be able to look them in the eyes. I need to save up so I can afford a place for us to live…"

"Okay, let's make the contract later, Miss Palsha. Miss Miya, Miss Jamie, Miss Quida, Miss El and Miss Willie, could you tell me a little bit of yourself as well?"

"Okay! I'm first!" Jamie jumped up with a bright smile, completely ignoring Miss Palsha, who was drying her tears, "I said I'm from the capital, but I originally came from the Draggera Empire, where I lived until just a few months ago! It's a tradition of our kind to travel the world to look for strong mates, but I haven't found anyone strong enough in the capital. I ran out of funds so I had to start working, but during my adventurer mission I almost died and now I'm too afraid to fight!" Jamie said with a bright smile, completely betraying her own words.

"I see… My condolences…" Too much! Too fucking much! How can someone speak of something this terrible with such a sincere, bright smile?!!!

"My inn burned down in Macedia, so I had to look for work elsewhere. The guildmaster there tried to assault me so I scratched his face, taking his eye and he made it impossible for me to get any decent job there… so I took a boat here," Miss Miya said as she scratched the back of her head.

"Just to make it clear, we already dealt with that fool," Merle grinned darkly.

"As Quida already said, we left the village because there was no way for us to survive, but please don't think the other villagers hated us or anything…" El said while playing with her hair.

"Yes. We were actually quite loved by our families. It was just that our village has a problem with selling our produce," Willie added.

"I see, and what was your product, if you don't mind me asking?" Hugh looked at the three of them.

"Medicinal herbs and salves we grew and made, and different kinds of grains and Popats," Quida answered with a straight face.

"I see, thank you for your answer," Hugh smiled warmly.

"Do you have any other questions, Hugh?"

"No Manager, that was all I wanted to know. Though, you said you want to open a Liquor store, when do you plan for that?"

"Not right away, that's for sure. I still need to finish some details, but I left some bottles in the shop for sake of seeing if there is some demand for it."

"Understood. Ah, now that I think about it, why didn't anyone of you drink that prepared alcohol?"

"It's bad for milk," Palsha patted her child's head.

"We never drink it in the village before," Quida spoke for her friends from the village.

"I like Mead more than fancy liquors," Miya blushed as she put her fingers together.

"I swore to only drink sake!!!" Jamie hit her chest with her fist.

"You have sake here?" I raised my eyebrow.

"You know that alcohol, Manager?"

"It's a kind of wine made from a grain. My Mother called it Rice, but what are you calling it back home?"

"We call it Min! Do you know about it?"

"Min… Ah! I believe the Rishan word for that is Rinz," Hugh clapped his hands together.

Good work figuring that out guys, but Rice is Rice. Well, maybe I could add acquiring it to my [To do] list…

"Would you like to get some, Arito?" Merle asked.

"Hmm… I'm not sure how much it would cost though. I don't really want to spend too much on a passing fancy of mine."

"Oh, it would be quite cheap. The capital's branch of Merchant’s guild have some big stocks right now given they have to host all those nobles from all over. It means it's high quality and cheap," Merle grinned.

"Well, let's talk about that later, okay? We have asked all that we wanted, so if there is something you want to ask, please do so now."

The girls looked from each other, glanced at Hugh and then at me.

"Ah, I forget to mention it, but Hugh here works as my right hand and his wife is the chef." When I said that, the girls seemed to relax quite a bit. It looks like sexual harassment is even greater problem here than it was on Earth.

We signed the documents and the six girls became my employees. I better start thinking of how to make the shifts… should I also give them one or two days off? I need to think about this carefully. I will talk with Merle about this.

"Alright then, shall we go?"

"Yes!"

We headed to the shop, seeing the sulking guys in front of the guild. They were the guys who failed the alcohol test. I was expecting them to try something, but they probably received some harsh words from the guild staff as some of them looked completely soulless.

"So the shop is on the main street? So amazing!"

"It was originally a rundown inn so it was quite cheap— what the heck is this?!"

As we got close, there was a giant mob of people, blocking pretty much half of the sidewalk.

"Let's go by the back entry."

"Right." Hugh nodded to my words and ushered the girls to go after me. We went through a side alley and entered an open space between my shop and the shop next door, that was half flower shop and half laundry business.

"Manager!" Nene and Emma looked pleased when I emerged from the back.

"I came with help. Hugh, please join them. Miss Miya, Miss Jamie, Miss Quida, Miss El and Miss Willie please look at how they are working and check the merchandise list so you know what you are selling. Once you get accustomed to the process, take free counters. Miss Palsha, come with me, we will prepare refreshments for everyone."

""""Yes Boss!""""

As we were cooking, I had to go to the basement a few times to replace sold out merchandise, which Hugh and Nene helped me out with. The day was hectic, but we managed to close on time and start counting our earnings.

"So, if these numbers are right, then we made quite a lot…" We are getting closer to breaking through six-digits and entering the realm of seven-digits…

"Yes. Apparently, some nobles heard of Amoeba Principality's royal family buying something here and sent their people to investigate. Today we almost sold out all our glassware, food supplements and ink on top of our regular sales from antidotes and other healing agents. We also sold our first alcohol to some dwarves."

"Hmm… we sold Appo Liquor and Vodka? Who bought it?" to my question, Emma averted her eyes, so I turned to Nene.

"Vodka was bought by the Duke, Mr. Kalvig and guildmaster of the Adventurers guild, Graldingr."

Kalvig, Henry, what are you doing?!!!

"This brought attention from the servants of the nobles and they all bought a bottle each, later returning for more."

Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh……

"Are you okay, Boss?" Nene asked me.

"I'm fine, it was a long day though… Alright everyone. I will bring this to the merchants guild’s Bank and you take your well deserved rest."

"You too manager!!!" the employees chorused in unison.