Arc_2: Chapter 30: First store opening

The wind was blowing strongly at us. We were using a Wind Shield spell, but some wind still got through and cooled us.

Currently, on the back of Wind Wyrm Berga, summoned by Blanche, were sitting members of the Green Leaf party, aka me, Lena Nomille a fellow reincarnation who reincarnated as a noble; the last member of our group was Blanche who greatly helped me restore my distaste for humans and my one true partner.

Additionally, there were two more people on Berga's back. Those were Hugh and Emma Glister, a runaway nobleman’s son with his wife. They were both elves, but Hugh was of Sea Elf tribe, while Emma was of the Jungle elf tribe. The easiest way to tell the two tribes apart was by their hair color, which was Blue for the former and Green for the latter. Though they call it ‘Tribe’ it is more accurate to say they are separate ethnicities of the same race.

"Oh wow! Route we would take days to finish traversing, we can speed through in less then a few hours! Really magic allowing you to use monsters is so convenient," Emma smiled, looking down at the highway and the great river below us, clearly not afraid of heights, unlike Hugh who had a tight grip on me.

"We will be arriving in Aula city shortly. Once we do, I will take you to the dormitory, and tomorrow I will give you a run down of the shop items and prices. The day after that we will open for the public, is that okay?"

"If you are fine with it, we can start right away, sir," Hugh said with a sharp look in his eye, trying to hide his uneasiness.

"No, I can't force you to start working that soon. Use the rest of this day to rest. I have to go say hi to our friends here and finish some errands, so we will start tomorrow."

"Given Miss Emma is a cook, we could show her our edible commodities, don't you think, Arito?" Blanche asked me without looking away from the front, like a proper driver.

"Good point. I will introduce you to some of the ingredients we have… by the way, do you guys like alcohol?"

"Nothing too strong, to be honest. I do prefer wine to liquor though, especially Lushwine we elves make." Hugh said with a serious face.

"I use some alcohol in cooking, but always checking the quality can be tiring. Not to mention you could get drunk if you are not careful," Emma looked a little surprised and continued "do you sell alcohol in your shop?"

"Not yet. I want to build a base in general goods first and then specialize in the alcohol department. Though, I say it's a general goods store, but all of them are made from monsters, or with a little help from me."

"I see, that certainly is amazing. Alcohol is mostly judged by its taste and aftertaste, strength, affordability, and how well it mixes in other drinks. For example Lushwine is only served with honey in wooden bowls," Emma went on a little rant.

"Hmm…" Hugh frowned, "What you usually see with shops is that they open a specialized store and after that open a general goods store instead, not the other way around."

"Really?"

"Yes. Master Gemma was originally a gem shop owner before he branched out, opening general stores, marine product stores and others."

"I see, though I guess people could have a problem with a kid selling alcohol, though, that’s one of the reasons I want to wait.."

"That certainly is a possibility… You don’t see many kids your age opening shops, but there definitely are kids washing laundry, carrying packs and doing other jobs in most of the towns I visited," Hugh frowned even more.

"Everyone, Aula city is below us, so we are about to start descending," Blanche told us with a soft smile and we started descending to the northern gate. As we got lower and lower, we noticed that near the gate was Laina waiting for us with two carriages.

"Mother!" Lena jumped into her mother's hands in a tight hug the moment we landed.

"Welcome home dear. Arito, Blanche, you too, welcome back."

"We're home," I smiled at Laina.

"We're…back…" Blanche sounded a little taken back.

I guess she still has troubles with acting around adults who're being nice to her.

We quickly boarded the carriages and headed to the inn where we would be staying, but first we stopped by my shop on the main street.

"Such an amazing building…"

"It certainly looks stunning," Hugh agreed with his wife.

"It seems like the construction company did a great job with repairs of the dormitory in the back too," Blanche looked pleased and I nodded with her.

"Welcome to the MonsterWork company's first store. As you are the first employees, you are free to choose which room you want in the dormitory. Of course, you can also buy a house if you wish, I can hook you up with the guildmaster of the Merchant's guild if you want."

"You are far too kind," Hugh bowed lightly.

"Okay now, let's take a look around. This is the main shop area, as you can see, the shelves are only about hip high. That's to prevent stealing. Our items are rather unique as you will be able to see later. Plus the fact that they are cheap could mean there could be attempts at reselling, please be careful when people try to buy in bulk."

"If you plan to sell such items, it might be good to limit the number of items sold to people…"

"I was thinking about that as well. Anyway, this is the pult where you can accept the pay. Under here we have a counting device. When you sell items, remove these colored pebbles from the item and place them on the same colored sticks here. Once the stick is full, the exact amount of pebbles is 100, so you can make a note here in this book and continue stacking. At the end of the shift you count the notes plus the number of remaining pebbles and you have the exact number of sold items of all items. That way, even less educated employees can know how much we made."

"Huh? Are you sure you want us to use such a rare commodity as paper?"

Little confused, I turned to Lena, "Is paper considered a rare commodity?"

"You can say that again. It's really hard to get your hands on it when you are a commoner," the one to answer me was Laina instead of her daughter, who was being hugged by her mother like a stuffed toy.

"I see…" I said looking at my stack of plant paper, which Romi made as an experiment back in the Kassana Forest.

I guess they didn't hear about plant paper in here. All the contracts since I came to the city were made on parchments, too. Should I introduce it? Hmm… I once read about plant paper making a while back, but I can't really remember much about it. Maybe I should explain it to the kids and have them experiment on it? They can be really curious, but would they stick with it? Probably not.

"Anyway, Mr. Hugh. The paper we use here is made from water plants, so we can always make more, don't worry about it."

Technically it's a papyrus, not a paper, but that's not important right now.

"I see… It's definitely an interesting product, though. I think you could sell it as is to nobles and merchants alike."

"I second that. This material is really light and easy to write on, so it would be really desired by scholars and officials," Laina added.

"Have you heard about it before?"

"Yes. When you were gone, your maid came with a list of items she wished for the orphanage. That's when we spoke about the paper you are using, however, she turned down my offer."

Yeah, after all, we only have one plant we can use for base materials and breeding it is a pain in the you-know-what.

"I see, it's terribly inconvenient, but we currently lack the most basic materials for making it. Sadly, the seedlings all fail to grow enough to be harvested so it would take at least a year until I have enough materials to make more."

"I see, that's too bad."

"Let's get back to the matter at hand. These doors lead to the breakroom, my office and kitchen."

"Yes! Please show me!" Emma raised her hand, wanting to see the kitchen right away.

We walked through the breakroom and entered the kitchen, which we furnished ourselves. My pride and joy was definitely the fireplace, which could easily heat up the pots while not letting any smoke in the room. I even added a heating device and an oven.

"Oh wow! I've never seen an oven this nice! I could definitely think up something delicious with all these tools too!" Emma was singing praises left and right with stars in her eyes. While she did, Hugh was watching her fondly and Lena whispered something in Blanche's ear, which made her turn bright red.

"These stairs lead to the basement where I left boxes with some of our merchandise."

"And the doors behind me lead to cold storage. I'm going to leave some meat and veggies so please use them however you want," Blanche added standing next to blue doors to the side of the room. Seeing her, I took out two Magic bags with stored ingredients and gave it to her to store. It was mostly Skull bear meat and wild veggies from the forest. Once again I'm happy for the time stopping ability of the magic bags, as well as the Item Box.

Leaving Emma to her own devices, we left for the Merchant's guild to ask for more hands and to register Hugh and Emma as my employees. Laina took Blanche and Lena to the orphanage by carriage and we would meet there later.

"Aniki?!" Suddenly, Alma, the catfolk girl from my orphanage, accompanied by the Wooly Wolf like always, appeared at the end of the street and waved at me happily. The wolf had a scarf around its neck, proclaiming it a tamed beast.

"Alma, good to see you again, are you heading to the seamstress' shop again?"

"Yep! I'm going to make my own design today! Make sure you come look at it! I even came up with a little something for the orphanage kids!"

Oh, is she planning to make something like uniforms?

"I see, I will look forward to it. Anyway, did you pick up any children while I was gone?"

"No. We didn't get anyone new, but check this!" Alma formed fists with her hands in a stance I showed them once before.

"Oh! You can envelop yourself in energy, I see. Looks even and steady, great work! I will teach you more later, then."

"Yes!" Alma smiled happily and said left for the shop.

We walked to the guild and were met on our way there with a group of adventurers. They were barely holding themselves on their feet.

"Hey guys, are you feeling okay? You look terrible."

"Huh? Oh, it's the kid the guildmaster fancy. You back from the special request from the knights?" one more talkative member of the party said with a small tired smile.

What I learned afterwards was that the guildmaster spoke of our group as someone who can beat even A rank threats, so the reason we are low ranked is because we still don't have enough credit with the guild.

"We came back about an hour ago. Could you tell me what happened to you?"

"We hunted Murder Ants in the southern hills. There were some that could use Poison and Paralysis attacks. It seems a new queen was born recently."

"I see, please use these if you will," I handed them a pair of antidote vials for both paralysis and poison.

"Is that…"

"A medicine. It should get them out of the worst."

The team leader took one of the vials and slightly sniffed the content. Finding it acceptable, he went to his colleague and had him drink a few sips. In a few seconds his face turned from white to healthy pink.

"What an amazing antidote, it must've cost you a fortune…" the team leader turned to me.

"Oh, not at all. I can mass produce these, so feel free to use them as much as needed."

"You make these?"

"Yep! I'm going to sell them in the MonsterWork company, so please pay us a visit," I smiled like a businessman.

"What an amazing sales pitch…" Hugh got a little surprised.

"Thank you! I will make sure to stock up!" the team leader bowed to me lightly.

I guess he is really happy that his companions are saved.

When we finally made it to the guild, we were instantly thrown into the meeting room where guildmaster Marle always welcomed me.

"Welcome back Arito, whatever did you come here for on such a hectic day?"

"I came to introduce my new employee Hugh Glister. I also want to request to see if I could hire some more help."

"I see, I see. That certainly can be done. Anyway, did you hear about the news?"

"You mean the Murder Ants?"

"Indeed. We want to buy out all the medicine for the Adventurers guild. We have a deal to sell them medicine at an affordable price and buy out materials from them for cheap as well."

"I see. Understood, how many vials do you want? I can get you two hundred Poison Antidotes and Paralysis Antidotes each of Middle quality."

"Middle quality?"

"My antidotes are separated into three groups: Low, Middle and High quality, which stand for how quickly the antidotes heal your body. Low quality heals in five minutes and is best for building up Poison resistance skill level. Middle quality doesn't increase Poison resistance as much, but heals poison and paralysis in two minutes. High quality doesn't increase Poison resistance skill proficiency at all, but heals in seconds."

"So that's how it is. How much for them?"

"Given how much I want for a single vial, It should be 132 thousand Alba for all 400 vials."

"One hundred thirty two thousand? That low?"

"The vials are 250 milliliters each, so it seems appropriate."

"No, no, no. Antidotes like this should go at least 500 Alba per vial," Merle deflected me.

"Really? I thought if I sell them for 330 per vial it would be okay…"

"Boy…" Merle grabbed my shoulders, her eyes shooting lightning, "show me your prices."

"O-okay…" I handed her the papyrus and she went over them.

"Haaaaaa… fine, I guess this is fine. Are these all your wares?"

"So far, yes. I might add other items, but I will bring them here to show you."

"Be sure to do that," Merle nodded, "Now, let us talk about what you want from your employees," Merle forcibly changed the subject.

"I'm not really sure. I want someone who can deal with people and keep books to some extent. Being able to read and do math is the most important thing, but we can teach them as well. Hugh, do you have any wish for your subordinates?"

"Hmm… someone with good eyes to pick out pickpockets. Having some guards would be good too."

"If you want guards, you should speak to the Adventurers guild instead," Merle frowned at Hugh, "We are not as fancy as the Capital."

"Understood, please forgive my lack of information," Hugh nodded in acknowledgement.

"Let's put the guard matter away and concentrate on clerks, shall we?" I clapped my hands lightly.

"Yes. I will prepare some people for you. How much will you pay them? Remember that the lowest you have to offer them is 120 Alba a day."

Well, bread usually goes for 75-80 Alba. One Appo is around 15-25 Alba and Popats, the cheapest plant goes for 40-65 Alba per kilogram.

Basically, I have to pay them about 840 Alba per week… hmm…

"Let's say that the pay will be 150 Alba a day with the potential to get higher."

"Hm? What do you mean by that?"

"I mean employee evaluation. Good working employees would receive a little bonus on top of their pay, while the workers who don't work seriously wouldn't get this bonus, just the baseline."

"I see, so you would change the pay depending on their work ethics, while still giving them more than the minimum wage, I see…" Merle frowned as she got into thought, her gray horns shining slightly. "Prepare yellow binders from the second and third shelves. Pick someone who meets the standards and can start working as soon as possible."

"Understood," the guild employee by the doors promptly exited and we prepared contracts for Hugh and Emma. Hugh's contract was signed on the spot and Emma's would be brought here tomorrow.

Since it was still early, we decided to split. Hugh would go to fetch Emma and they would go on a small shopping date, while I would walk to the orphanage.

"Oh, welcome back, Kid!" Grieva, the boss of the Slums waved me over as I turned down from the main street to the slums.

"Hello, Mr. Grieva. Have something good happen?"

"Ah, not much. It's just nice seeing kids eating their fill in your orphanage. Once the word gets out, you might have an influx of more kids."

"You really think so?"

"Yep! It's still summer now, but once it starts to get colder, the kids will start crawling to you in no time flat!" Grieva laughed merrily.

"I guess I should prepare then. Bye for now, Mr. Grieva," I bowed to the smiling man and went to the orphanage.

"Master!" Romi smiled charmingly when she saw me and ran up to me.

"Hey there, Romi. Is everything alright?" As I returned her the greeting, we entered my office and Romi started with her report.

"Yes! The kids are growing splendidly! All of them can already read the alphabet and write their names! Some exceptionally bright ones even started using magic!" Romi smiled from ear to ear. She really is good with the kids.

"How are the six from my special training course?"

"Five of them were able to concentrate their Energy and learned the Energy Meditation skill. Carlos on the other hand showed a great promise as a magician."

"Oh? Did he awaken his magical talent already?"

"Yes. He is capable of using Water magic. Oh, also that small girl, Misha, is capable of using Space magic, it seems. Last time they were playing tag, she accidentally teleported a few steps away."

"I remember seeing that in her Status board. But, wow, she must have a talent as a magician."

"She wanted to learn about it so I gave her some pointers, but her curiosity is just so cute!" Romi smiled, bright red in the face.

"I see, that's great. Anything else to report?"

"Some of the female Kobolds are pregnant, so you better prepare to tame the newborns as quickly as possible after their birth."

"Yeah, I better do that. Oh, I also bought some new monsters. Blue and Brass Goblins, Celestial Orb, Shade Pixie and Fallen Succubus."

"The last one to pair up with Yue, I hope," Romi looked a little accusingly at me and I nodded to her words with a wry smile.

"I want to see if her feathers will expand the numbers of Light slimes, like Yue's did with Dark Slimes. I also want to experiment with their other skills."

Fallen Succubus

A Succubus that exchanged her demonic powers for Light and Healing magic, it can still lure men to her and suck their magical energy, albeit it's not as powerful as regular succubus's, due to the non lethal nature of this race. Lure (Male) 9, Magic Eye (See Desire) 8, Light Magic 8, Resist Light Magic 8, Resist Dark Magic 6, Fly 7, Absorb magic energy 7, Scatter Feathers 6, Healing Magic 6, Blessed Saliva 5

The last skill was apparently a reversed skill of regular Succubus' Cursed Saliva skill, which had power to cloud someone's mind. Blessed Saliva could apparently heal wounds. I really don't want to get licked to be healed through…

"Well, what about the new goblins?"

"They are getting educated by Yue…"

"I see, should I take over for her?"

"No, you already have enough on your plate with the orphanage. Honestly, I would love to get some people to help you. The two I wanted to place here will be better suited for the shop, so we will need to find someone else."

"Thank you very much. On that note, I've picked up a Foxfolk girl named Nene who works with me here for the time being. I found her half dead on the street and took her in. I hope it’s not a problem," Romi bowed slightly and we exited the office, going together to look at the kids.

"Is she here?"

"I sent her to buy food so no. Would you like to meet her?"

"Yes. We will have to write a contract, after all." I looked at the kids in the distance.

"Hey there!" I waved at the kids training in the yard and walked over to them.

"""Aniki!!!""" The four ran up to me with bright smiles.

"I see you are hard at work. Good. Let's start with another lecture tomorrow, then. Romi, be prepared that they might not be able to move afterwards."

"Understood."

"Yeah! Let's go!" Rifa was strangely excited, but the rest was looking slightly unsure. Especially Lopi, the Sphinx looked worried.

***

Once I left the orphanage, I went to see the Kobolds by the way of the secret tunnel.

"My lord!!" The one to greet me first was the Kobold Priest. Seeing the guy, I thought he was actually a female given his swollen stomach, but as it turned out, he was just overeating for quite a while, making him look quite chubby.

"Long time no see, how is everything going here?"

"Splendid master! We finally got a taste of our hard labor a few days ago and everyone is in a great mood! Praise to you Great Lord!!" He clasped his hands together in a loud prayer.

"I see, that's good, but please, you don't need to do all that," I smiled wryly. I mean, I'm not someone worth worshiping… Anyway…

The combination of Grime slimes' regular fertilizer and sap of Dryas works wonders… I know it makes plants grow faster, but to grow fully in just one week is crazy…

"With this amount of food we can finally increase our numbers and be even more useful to you, master," the kobold priest bowed, his belly wiggling slightly.

"I appreciate your sentiment. By the way, I will bring out some goblins I got recently. <Dimension Home>"

I opened the gate to the Dimensional Home and entered it. When I got there, I noticed the goblins kneeling.

"We work to eat. Give us work!" The goblins declared at once.

"I-I see. Go out of the Dimension home and you will find fields to work on. I will give you your own fields later, but now learn from Kobolds!"

"Under-Stood!!!"

The goblins left separately by their original group i.e. Brass Goblins first and Blue Goblins after them. Once they left, I noticed the Fallen Succubus, which I named very originally Akane, lying on the ground, eyes rolled back and her mouth wide open. Next to her was standing a Healing slime not healing her at all.

"Um, what happened to her?"

"It's because of her saliva," Yue said with an indifferent look.

As it turned out, during the training, Akane wanted to heal the goblins with her saliva when the Healing slime jumped at her and drank all her saliva, almost choking her in the process.

"I guess we will have to extract her saliva for experiments, too. How is the experiment with the Corpse slimes going?"

"I summoned a few demons for them to feast on, but I guess I should summon some more?"

"I will allow you to do so, but please remember to always put your life first. Summoning demons is dangerous and it could kill you. So, please be careful."

"Yes, understood!" Yue smiled brightly and proceeded to go pick up the Corpse slimes.

We both exited the Dimension home and I headed upstairs to meet with the Goblin trio. Once I checked on the three of them I checked on the slimes and collected all the alcohol created while I was gone.

"We started making the wine according to the paper you left us and this is the stage we are at, right now," Urza showed me the two molding barrels.

"This looks good. Did any barrels fail to form mold?"

"No, these two barrels are all we managed to make from the Rappo berries that were ripe enough."

"I see. Let us continue with the experiments."

"Understood, master."

I know I said we would continue with the experiment, but selecting the best people for the job is also a job of a leader, not like I ever was a leader, but I believe I read it somewhere…

"Anyway, were there any problems?"

"No. Chika proceeded to fill the left behind Magic bags with stones and as ordered, she expanded the fourth, fifth and sixth floors. Sadly we don't have anyone with an Analyze spell that would allow us to see what kinds of stones she dug up, so we had to leave them be."

"It's fine. I can go through at least some of it today."

"Thank you very much, master. Should I help you with it?"

"Okay, come with me," I smiled at the enthusiastic Urza and we spent the evening sifting through the rocks and ores. I also used alchemy to make some mid-grade elemental-less Magic crystals.

Late in the night I took out the box left behind by the Sage, aka my Father from this world and tinker with it a little. It looked like a solid block of wood, but the weight hinted at it being hollowed and filled with something heavier than regular wood. Grrr… this thing is a puzzle… I need to move all movable pieces in the right place or I won't get to the thing inside… haaaaaaaaaaaaaa, this is so hard… Well, he was a Sage, if it was easy, it wouldn't be any fun.

***

The next day, I woke up early in the inn and was surprised to receive some letters right away. First was from Merle, stating that I could come choose my employees the day after tomorrow. They sure work fast…

Second letter was from Graldingr, the master of a local Adventurers guild. He informed me about the Murder Ants and that we would be able to easily raise our ranks if we took the related quests. Given that Blanche and I are both D ranks now, we should let Lena raise her rank before taking on those guys. Plus it would be a great experience fighting something with hard carapace for a change. That Herding crab was pretty weak, after all.

The Murder Ants have different rankings depending on their type. The common Worker ants are D rank, Soldier ants are C rank, Elite Ants are B rank, Guard ants are A rank and the queen is SS rank, just like the Spider Skull bear in the Kassana forest.

Third letter was from Grieva. He had a job for me that could take some time. Apparently, there was an orphanage on the same street as my own and they expressed a wish to be allowed into my orphanage before winter. Their house is apparently old material storage, which means it's quite spacy, but also that the cracks are quite big and temperature can get intensely cold. I would hate seeing kids die on streets, so let's get them in. First though, I will have to increase the sleeping places and get more staff for the kitchen and teaching the kids. While I'm at it, I should also increase the amount of food we produce on our farm. Good thing I got the extra hands now.

Fourth letter was from Eeva the sub-guildmaster of the Fishermen guild in Gallun village. She told me that she heard everything that happened in the capital and that she and the guildmaster will be keeping everything a secret. Also, she sent me a wooden box with a Mud slime inside as a gift.

It's a little sad I could not get it myself, but I already got four slimes as a gift so I should not think about it too much.

Now, the reason why I woke up sooner than normal —even though I was tired as hell— was that I wanted to experiment with the new slimes before breakfast so that after I ate with everyone, I could go and open up my store. I would stay there until lunchtime, after which I would head to the orphanage and look at the kids training.

I opened up my Dimension home and took out the four new slimes and placed them next to the box with the Mud slime.

Honey Slime

Advanced species of slime looking like honey. Around 15 centimeters in diameter. Poison Immunity, Create Honey 10, Trap setting 5, Absorb 5, Harden 5, Split 3

Wooly Slime

Advanced species of slime seemingly made out of wool. Around 25 centimeters in diameter. Its wool is extremely smooth and feels nice against the skin, however it's also extremely flammable. Wool scatter 10, Jump 10, Regenerate 9, Absorb 8, Heat resistance 6, Cold resistance 6, Split 6

Feather Slime

Advanced species of Slime monster. Its body looks like bird skin with feathers growing from it. The feathers can be scattered. The slime can move its feathers and even float for a short while. Around 15 centimeters in diameter. Scatter feathers 8, Slow falling 8, Regenerate 8, Harden feathers 7, Jump 6, Wind Magic resistance 5, Split 2

Light Slime

Rarely appearing advanced species of slime. Many people believe they are slimes of All-light plane, but they are completely wrong. Around 10 centimeters in diameter. Light Magic 5, Light Magic resistance 8, Light Magic Absorption 7, Regeneration 3, Darkness resistance 10, Absorb 2, Jump 2, Split 2

Mud Slime

Advanced species of slime almost unrecognizable from mud. Absorb moisture 10, Split 8, Regenerate 8, Harden 5, Synchronize (Mud) 9

Running <Monster Appraisal> on all five of them, I started the experiments.

First on my list was the unusual Honey slime. Given I know it lived near Giant Bee farm, its poison immunity skill was easy to understand. The Trap setting skill seemed to be spitting out balls of extra sticky honey. And speaking of honey, this slime could create two varieties. Insect honey and Plant honey. The insect honey most likely referred to Bee honey, but I found out that certain species of Ant, Beetle and Spider monsters created honey in this world too and while Bee honey is the most popular and pricey, Ant honey and Ant Mead are the most spread commodities on the entire southern continent..

Next slime was the Wooly slime. This one looked like a ball of wool and it strangely reminded me of Fluff slime. It's Wool Scatter skill worked in pair with regenerate skill to quickly replace scattered wool. As for food, it seems it prefers bodily hairs. This might come handy when skinning monsters. But if it can eat any body hairs, why it isn't Fur slime or Hairy slime? Is it because it grew up on a sheep farm? So many questions…

After the Wooly slime came Feather Slime. It looked like a ball of feathers growing out of its core, but it actually had a thin layer of liquid between them with hardened bird-like skin membrane. This slime seemed to enjoy eating feathers and did not differentiate between the feathers of Yue's dark feathers and Akane's light imbued feathers. Given it could scatter even the fluffy feathers, I believe it will be good for filling bedding, winter clothes and such.

The Light slime was the same as the one Lena tamed, so I skipped looking into it past confirming it liked the light element infused feathers from Akane and went straight for the Mud slime.

The Mud slime had the synchronize skill, same as the Moss Slime, but it was much higher leveled. In the box it looked just like a puddle of mudd. What surprised me was that it reacted to me releasing Water and Earth magical energy. Intrigued by this, I went to retrieve a Sand slime and released Earth and Wind magical energy. Sure enough, the slime liked it. I wonder if I could use it somehow… I should check the other slimes' preference in magical energies…

"Arito, the food is ready."

"I'll be right there, Blanche," I sent the slimes back to the dimension home and went downstairs to eat.

"So you are opening today, hm?" Laina smiled from across the table.

"Yes. Hugh and Emma are already acquainted with the shop's location and layout, so I will go there to start it up and teach them about our merchandise. I don't think we will be swarmed with people right away, so when we have the time, I will be showing them the items."

"If that's the case, would you like to have Amberia and her right hand to look after the kids? She can teach them a thing or two about combat too," Henry offered.

"That is incredibly kind of you, but are you sure you want to leave behind your knight captain and the best soldier?"

"It will be fine. We are not leaving town today, so there would be no need for armed escorts."

"I see, thank you for your generous offer," I bowed in my seat.

"Oh, no need for that, Arito."

"Yes. We help you because we think it's beneficial work for the town. There were some small skirmishes on our borders in recent history, so we had little time to strengthen the core."

So they ended up neglecting this region because of the skirmishes in the south?

"Mother, Father, I believe Arito isn't aware of our past except for the forming of the Southern Alliance," Lena threw a lifeline for me.

"Oh, that makes sense. Those skirmishes were greatly influenced by the past of the kingdom, so should we explain it later?"

"If you are willing to share, I will listen."

"Yes. Me too. I want to know more about the past… it might help me understand things…" Blanche's fists clenched.

With this decided, me and Blanche headed to the shop. It was still early in the day, but many shops were already opened up, as the adventurers were already pouring in and from the guild with accepted jobs.

"Huh?!"

Both me and Blanche let out confused sounds as we noticed a group of people standing in front of our shop. I recognized some faces, though. There was the party that I helped on my way to the Merchant's guild just the day before, as well as the Azure Snakes and Deep Darkness parties.

"Oh, Arito! So you are also a merchant on top of adventuring, eh?" Taugmirg called out to me with a huge grin. I guess he realized I'm doing merchant stuff because I don't wear any armor today.

"Taugmirg… Yes this is my shop, but how do you know about it?"

"Ah, when these newbies came to report about the Murder Ants appearing in the south, they also talked about a kid that handed them antidotes that worked wonders on their party. We scouted a little and found the shop here. We wanted to know the truth to the claims, you see? After all, new pharmacies tend to promote themselves by paying adventurers to promote their wares. But, given you are the boss here, I guess we can be calm. You got recognized by the Blade tornado after all," Taugmirg grinned and we parted ways.

I quickly teleported to the inside of the shop and found out that Hugh was about to unlock the doors while Emma was placing merchandise on the shelves. Leave it to professionals. She had it sorted by size and probability of people buying it even before I had to say anything.

"Oh, Manager, I saw you and went to open the doors for you, but it seems you still have aces up your sleeve," Hugh bowed politely.

"I'm here, so you can open up the doors for business. Did you look over the paper with prices?"

"Yes!" Both of them smiled confidently and we opened for business.

Right away we got stormed for the antidotes, followed by All-heals and lastly Jelly Drops. As for the containers, I introduced a return booth, where you could exchange the used containers for money, this could help lower ranked adventurers get some money, which they would always need.

"Hmm… I see, I see," Ghystel nodded, "Us higher ranked adventurers have no need for some pocket money, but H and G rankers who struggle to make ends meet could get some pocket money by bringing you the bags and bottles back. And given no one would buy small bags and bottles like these, you can also secure a steady return of your wastes, lowering your expenditure on producing these."

I can't really tell her that I don't buy them, but make them as well.

"Anyway, this Skull Bear plushie is really cute! How much is it?" Ghystel looked at me with sparkling eyes of a girl in love. I guess she really loves cute things… I guess even Paladin of God of War and Strategy can act girly.

"That plushie is 200 Alba."

"Here!" she practically pushed the money in my hands and was about to leave when…

She stopped before the doors. She most likely saw the people going around the shop, so she spread her wings a little and carefully hid the plushie between her feathers before going out.

The people passing our shop looked inside and on many occasions entered as well, making smaller or bigger purchases.

"How are things on your end?"

"Good!" Hugh called back at me.

"I just finished stocking the antidotes!"

"Next customer please!" Blanche called out to the people forming a line.

"Okay, I will go prepare lunch, so you guys continue the good work!"

"Ah! Let me help you Manager!" Emma ran up to me and helped me with the lunch.

We continued selling our wares even in the afternoon, shifting through our positions all the while, so that each of us would get some time to rest.

"Good Work everyone! Let's count our sales and get some well deserved rest!" I announced after closing the doors for the day. We went to the counter and started counting the remaining marbles and written notes.

Our sales for the first day were as follows:

129 Mild Poison Antidotes = 61 770

99 Strong Poison Antidotes = 46 230

111 Mild Paralysis Antidotes = 48 930

75 Strong Paralysis Antidotes = 57 750

15 Raincoats = 40 100

5 Repelia Carriage Rain shield = 270 000

25 All-heals = 27 500

1 Stuffed Toy = 200

23 Jelly Drops = 9 150

And the grand total was 561 630 Alba. Amazing sales for our first day, I must say. For the most part of the day I just showed people the effectiveness of my raincoats and few adventurers bought them. The biggest surprise was the Carriage rain shields bought by a merchant for his caravan.

Still, the healing items were selling like hot cakes. The All-heals didn't do as well as I originally thought, but given they didn't spoil like Magic Potions, recharged stamina as well as healed wounds, I was expecting them to start selling more down the road. Sadly, I had only 10 Healing slimes right now, so I could only get enough All-heals as they could produce during the Blue moon. Well, each of the slimes can make about one and a half liters, so that's fifteen liters each month and I sell them in 100, 250 and 500 milliliter bottles. I just sold 2,5 liters today…

"Today was quite hectic, but we all did our best. Hugh, Emma, how many people do you think we will need to hire to make the workload easier?"

I don't want to run a sweatshop here. Nor do I want to make an exploitive workplace.

"Hm… If I may… let's start with two or three people. The four of us were quite effective today. Have you heard from the guildmaster when she will have people prepared?"

"She wrote to me in a letter that she called them for the day after tomorrow. Would you like someone sooner?"

"Well… I guess one person, if it would be possible," Hugh looked apologetic as he said so.

I guess even in this world hiring on a short notice could lead to troubles… wait…

My mind wandered to the person Romi said she took in. I might be able to ask her to help out here with Blanche for the time being. I have to look at the kids training after too.

"I think I could send you one person, so I will be going now. I will stop by the Merchants guild to store the money in the Bank, first though, so you can rest for the evening."

"Good work and rest well, Manager," Hugh and Emma bowed slightly and Blanche and I returned it in kind.

Once we stored the money we headed to the orphanage. The kids looked a little tired, but happy nevertheless. Amberia was still in the yard, training with her subordinate.

"Wow, she's moving so fast."

"They both are… it's hard to keep up with their speed, I guess this is what true masters of their craft can do, huh?"

While I'm decently confident in my hand to hand combat and marksmanship skills, I'm but a novice sword fighter. Same goes for the spear handling skills.

"They are still at it, huh?" Suddenly, a catfolk girl appeared next to us.

I didn't sense her at all.

She had black hair, ears and tail and golden eyes. Her figure was slim and dressed lightly. She was wearing shorts and a tank top with a headband making her look like she was in the middle of changing into a maid outfit. That belt…

"Who are you?"

"Huh? You new here kid? I work here for Miss Romi," the catgirl looked surprised.

"So you are the new hired worker, I see. I'm Arito Aruze, the owner of this orphanage."

"Huh? You're the boss?! I'm sorry for my rudeness, I mistook you for one of the kids. My name is Nene, I was hired by Miss Romi. I know I might not look it, but the regular clothes are too stuffy for me," she girl, Nene, went on a small rant.

"Feel free to dress however you want. I know that feline beastkin tend to wear light clothes due to their unique disposition, but… doesn't that make it harder to hide weapons?"

Nene shivered slightly and jumped back, her hand on her belt.

"H-How did you…"

"Bandits tend to hide their weapons to attack when your guard is down. Given how silently you appeared I guessed you are highly skilled."

"Not to mention that smell of blood," Blanche added with a smile that was downright terrifying.

"Hey! I wash myself! Don't lump me together with those second rates!"

"Oh, Blanche didn't mean actual smell, she is just sensitive to the air that surrounds people who kill a lot."

"I guess there is nothing I can hide from you…" Nene went on her knees, placing the long bendable sword on the ground. "I never thought that there would be anyone other than Miss Romi to actually see through me. Are you an assassin like me? No… the feel is different. You certainly possess certain elements of assassins, but with no official training, nor Thief guild backing… just who are you?"

A transferee from another world with over thirty years of practice in archery and close combat stuck in an almost eleven year old body… Why do I sound like someone desired by modern time companies?

"Just an Ancient with little extra training."

"Bullshit. From your posture I can see you are equal to my Master. That girl next to you looks much more appropriate to her age… Well, let's not fight right now. If those two saw it, they would most definitely overpower me. And I owe to Miss Romi a lot, so I would rather not upset her."

"I also wouldn't like to fight if I can avoid it," I signaled to Blanche to lower her bow she picked up, "Let's go to my office. We can talk freely there."

We walked to my office and I used Soundproof barrier. Nene looked confused for a second before calming down quickly and taking on a much relaxed smile.

"I will explain everything, then," Romi appeared next to me, probably sensing my magic and teleporting in.

What happened was that Romi found Nene in the streets on the verge of death when she was going to buy meat and took her in. Nene was an assassin working for a group called Red Drops. She destroyed them because they threatened to destroy a place she was protecting. Now that the place she was protecting evacuated and people there scattered across the land. Nene herself managed to escape the capital as the last one, but because there were others after her, she had to deal with them first. Because of that, when she arrived here in Aula City, she was dead tired and under the effects of strong poisons.

Ah, I see. Romi used Medicine Slime's antidote to save her. That thing is a really broken medicine…

"I see. Well, then, do you wish to return to your job, miss Nene?"

"No. I don't want to kill people to feed myself anymore."

"Okay, then welcome aboard. I might ask you to work as a security guard, or gather intel sometimes, would that be alright?"

"If I can continue my work here for the most time, I will be fine."

"Great. Then, may I ask you to watch over the shop on main street tomorrow? I would like you to check whether or not the place is safe and if an easy escape route could be secured in times of emergencies."

"Okay, that can be done. Leave it to me," Nene nodded and we separated our ways for the day.

An assassin eh? Never thought I would meet one so soon after moving to the city.