I was excessively and thoroughly stroked by Sword, just to get tightly hugged in the middle of it all.
âHey, whatâs wrong? Youâre acting weird, you know?â
âThe weird oneâs you. âŠI havenât said anythinâ since itâd have been useless anyway, but you havenât forgiven the brat from before, have you?â
âŠâŠWhat is he talking about?
âWhat did I not forgive?â
âThatâs what I mean⊠âŠHe didnât want to apologize to the last, right? But back then he apologized, no?â
I tilted my head to the side in confusion.
âAnd how does that have anything to do with forgiveness? Itâs also different from the story with you. I just donât feel like ever seeing him again since ăI hate that childish, dependent personality of his, and I also hate his family whoâs been pampering himă. It makes me feel bad as it reminds me of the past. Thatâs all there is to it. It doesnât really have anything to do with forgiving or not, okay?â
Sword was lost for words.
âAs for the past matter with you; I misunderstood you having dragged me along without thinking anything, just to dump me right at our destination. But that was wrong as you had prepared all kinds of things while considering my well-being. Since I understood that, I reassessed you to be a human I can trust. I ăhateă the pampered brat because heâs been pampered so much. So it didnât really matter whether he apologizes to me or not. Watching him and his mother simply upsets me as they remind me of that man and his dumb daughter.â
âGotcha.â
He profusely stroked me.
ââŠItâs nothing you need to worry about, really. Or rather, you should seriously learn the spell to shut out sound. Iâll be troubled if you get anxious each and every single time something like this happens. I donât care about such people and their shenanigans at all, just so you know.â
âThe more you donât care, the more I do!â
What the hell? Iâd like him to give it a rest, seriously.
To put it into a single word, âAnnoying.â
âArgh! How dare you sling mud at my kindness!â
My temples were ground.
âOu-Ou-Ouuuuch!â
How unreasonable!
ïŒ
After we returned to our base in Ys as fast as physically possible, I had Sword buy us a farm. Or to be precise, we extended the mansionâs grounds.
I celebrated my reunion with the home-staying Ryoku by hugging him tightly, introduced the charge cows to the mansionâs residents, and asked them to take care of the cows.
With this, itâs about high time to pay them wages. ThereforeâŠ
âWeâll bring up the liquor brewing to speed! Weâll commercialize the wheat honey! Weâll open a restaurant! Thus, itâs time to establish a company.â
Everyone froze.
A moment later, Sword raised a hand.
âWhat is it, Cadet Sword?â
âCaptain Indra, I donât get what you mean by company.â
Ah, this world doesnât have a corresponding term for it, huh?
ââŠThe closest to it would be a merchant business, but a company procures and sells goods, Iâd say. No, maybe itâd be better to describe a company as a distributor.â
âYou mean like stores?â
âLeaving aside restaurants, companies usually donât sell directly. They do consignment sales. Weâll start by finding trustworthy merchants. Do you have an idea?â
Sword groaned, âItâs not that I donât, but⊠I think you understand yourself, but weâre goinâ to sell quite expensive stuff. And if transport becomes an issue with such things, youâll need S-Rank adventurers to handle it.â
âThatâs just perfect then. Iâll build a transport vehicle.â
ââŠHey, just a sec, what kind of magic insect do you intend to build this time?â
Magic insect? Whatâs up with that!?
âNo, this time Iâll stick to a plain, old transport vehicle. Anyway, I just need to build one, right?â
âLet me consider it for a bit, âkay?â
Consider what?
The cook raised a hand.
âThe opening of a restaurant is a dream come true for me. But, are you going to cater it towards commoners?â
âItâs pointless to run a restaurant that targets people with no money, right? Of course you could also doubt whether nobles really have money at hand, but for now weâll target wealthy people. Iâve still got plenty of the pocket money I obtained from that man, even if I pay you guys a salary, so we might as well build a gorgeous restaurant!â
Itâll be fine if we basically use a membership system. Since nobles are a pain, I donât want to deal with them, even if theyâre rich. Rather than that, the restaurant might be better received by wealthy people who want to experience the splendor of nobility.
âWhat about the detergent? Wouldnât that be quite popular as well?â I was asked by Sword.
But, shaking my head, I answered, âProducing the chemicals, which form the base of the detergent, would be next to impossible. I suspect that no one besides me can produce it with the current technological stage of this world. Should I meet an exceptionally skilled engineer by chance, Iâd like to join hands with them and try to build magic tools for producing distilled liquor.â
âI see. An engineer, huhâŠ?â Sword brooded.
âLetâs shelve that for the moment. For now the amount I can produce myself should be enough. Sword, Iâm sorry, but our adventuring will need to wait.â
Sword laughed.
âOh well, this is kinda like an adventure as well. Makinâ liquor is fine with me since I enjoy it to be honest. Anyway, letâs do our best at it!â