/
Chapter 8 – Establishment of the Trading Company
—Two weeks later.
I came back from shopping and opened the front door to find…
“““Welcome back. Master.”””
More than twenty servants lined up on both sides of the hallway, bowing their heads and welcoming me.
In the past two weeks, I’ve hired fifteen maids and five butlers. All of them were in their teens or twenties.
They were the ones I had chosen at the slave trader’s market, and they seemed to be excellent both as servants and employees.
“Thank you for everything, and keep up the good work.”
The servants raised their heads in unison, and one of the women at the front spoke up.
“What a waste of words. I would like to train even harder for master’s sake!”
All the servants’ faces broke into a smile and they thanked me in unison.
“Don’t work too hard, okay.”
Although I was trying to tell them to take care of themselves and take it easy…
“What are you talking about? We have vowed to devote our entire bodies and soul to Master Haruto for the rest of our lives. So, there’s nothing more to say right!”
“You don’t have to devote your entire lives to little ol’ me. You all need to think about your future as well.”
The reason why the maids are so loyal to me to this extent goes back to two weeks ago—the day after I returned to this mansion.
～
I decided to head to Bohbee’s store, the slave trader who led me to meet Ephyr, to buy some slaves.
Finne and Kusel tagged along.
Ephyr, Iris, Asha, Tendo and his five-man party heroes stayed back, saying that they were not pysched about going to some slave trader’s shop.
We parked the carriage in the back of the store and entered the store, and immediately a man who seemed like the shopkeeper approached us.
“Welcome. How may I help you today? I can assure you that if it involves these two, then our offer surely won’t disappoint—”
The man gave a sarcastic smile, but directed a condescending gaze at Finne and Kusel.
At the same time that Finne and Kusel raised their eyebrows, I directed a mild intimidation at the fool.
“Hey, what the hell were you about to say about my friends?”
I wondered if he thought I was here to sell them or something.
At my sharp gaze, the man lets out a small “hieek” scream.
However, he immediately opened his mouth as if to make amends.
“M-My apologies, sir! But I didn’t mean to—”
“Then what were you meaning to do? Just get the owner of the store out of here.”
I have no business with him but Bohbee.
I told him to call Bohbee before he started spewing unnecessary things again.
The man ran to the back of the store, flurrying as if to escape.
After a long wait, Bohbee came out of the back room, mumbling.
“For fuck’s sake. Where is this daredevil that is bold enough to cause trouble…whoa, Master Haruto? What a pleasant surprise, It sure has been a while.”
“Long time no see, Bohbee.”
Bohbee came out complaining about God knows what he must have been told, but his attitude suddenly changed when he saw me.
“What can I do for you this time?”
“It’s him, he’s the one! He threatened me—”
“Would you shut the fuck shut up! Do you have any idea who you’re referring to!”
“Huh, how do you mean…?”
The shopkeeper appealed to Bohbee, but he was rebuffed.
“This is Master Haruto, an EX-rank adventurer! Don’t you know anything about that?”
“EX rank?! You mean this runt?!”
The nerve on this guy, calling me a runt.
“Oh, by the way, weren’t you setting up price tags on my friends just now?”
“S-Setting up price tags…I, I did no such…”
Bohbee’s eyes widened at my comment, then turned to the shopkeeper and shouted with a bright red face.
“What were you doing to our valuable customers? If you drive our customers away, can you take responsibility for it?! You know what, you’re fired!”
“P-Please, anything but that!!”
“Get the hell out! Don’t you ever show your face in front of me again!!”
“No please!?”
“Somebody get him out of here! He’s fired! Do not allow him inside the store again!”
Bohbee called in someone else and had the shopkeeper…or rather the former shopkeeper, removed from the store.
He looked at me as if he wanted me to help me out, but there was no way I was gonna.
He dared to put a price on my precious friend and fiancée. If he had said something worse, he wouldn’t have been able to keep his life.
At any rate, I was glad to see that both Finne and Kusel looked refreshed.
Bohbee turned to me and lowered his head to ask.
“Master Haruto. What can I do for you this time?”
“Right. I’ve decided to open a store and I’m looking for people to work there.”
“Oh really. And what is this store?”
Bohbee reacted when he heard the word, store.
“Well, simply put, it’s a general* store.” (TLN: Jack of all trades)
“…I see. May I ask you about the merchandise later?”
“Sure, of course.”
“Thank you, sir. So you’re looking for someone with good sales skills, I take it?”
“That’s the idea. Oh, and you don’t have to worry about whether or not they have any physical defects this time as well, just show me what you got.”
He looked at me strangely for a moment, but then nodded in agreement, perhaps remembering that I had asked him with the same conditions the last time.
Then we were shown to the reception room, and when I was settled, Bohbee asked me.
“…I’d like to ask you, what happened to the one you bought before?”
Thus came the well justified question.
Hmm, he looks a little confused…well, I don’t mind telling him.
“You want to know?”
“By all means!”
“I healed that elf of all her injuries.”
“…All? N-No way!?”
Bohbee’s eyes widened in disbelief.
Would you look at that, such good reaction, sheesh.
I deepened my smile.
“You better believe it.”
“But without the legendary elixir, that feat would have been…?”
“Come on now, who do you think I am?”
Bohbee stared at me.
“…Certainly, as an EX rank adventurer, you must have some methods that I can’t even begin to imagine. Any chance you could perhaps teach me one or two, my good sir…”
Let me see…If I taught it to just anyone, then it’ll definitely get me into a lot of trouble…Bohbee, on the other hand seems to be a good guy, taking care of those unfortunate slaves who have nowhere else to go, making sure that they don’t become yet another batch of commodities. I guess I can trust him.
“Sure. Just don’t tell anyone about it, okay?”
“That goes without saying!”
Come to think of it, I wonder why this guy is in the slave trade business. I think he has the kind of personality that would make him successful as a regular merchant…
I suddenly wondered about it, so I asked him.
“Why I operate a slave trade…you ask? Well, because slaves sell so well and at fairly high prices, I guess. In fact, I also sell horses and houses in another business, and this slave trade is one of the businesses with huge turnover in sales…there’s also the fact that I can’t ignore those who are in unfortunate circumstances alone, you know.”
Bohbee may have started out with a bad tone, but I think he meant what he said at the end.
He’s got the personality of a man without conceit and the talent of a businessman…this is the kind of person I want.
“Hey, Bohbee. Would you like to help me out in my store?”
When I asked, Bohbee showed a slight sign of consideration.
“Can I really be of assistance? I mean, depending on the product of course, I don’t think I can help you much…”
Hmmm, I guess I didn’t give him enough information to get hooked.
I made sure that there were no other employees around before continuing.
“…Between you and me, we’re going to be making some tools and quality potions that only we know about.”
“…Only Master Haruto and the others know about it?”
“I can’t tell you anymore than that unless you swear to keep your mouth shut with contract magic.”
Contract magic is a spell that allows you to make a contract on mutually agreed upon terms, and penalize you when violate it.
Bohbee thought about it for a moment, but he quickly agreed.
“…I understand, I’m in!”
“Okay, then, I will now use the contract magic.”
I immediately cast the spell on Bohbee.
The spell was to make it impossible for him to tell anyone but my friends about the information he was going to obtain when I talked about the product—in other words, about my personal life.
When I finished casting the spell, the binding contract would have appeared in his mind, which is probably why Bohbee looked surprised.
～
“Master Haruto’s personal life story…is it?”
“Yeah, well, don’t worry about it.”
Just to be sure, I erected a soundproof barrier around the room so that no sound would leak out before I started talking.
Well, it would be pain to tell him everything, so I told him that I was summoned together with the heroes, but turned out I wasn’t a hero, and that I’m trying to develop products using ideas and technology from my original world.
“…I see, that sounds promising. I understand. I will join the trading company that Master Haruto is establishing.”
He nodded very easily.
“Although I invited you, are you going to be all right? What are you going to do about this store and your other businesses?”
“You don’t need to worry. I’ve trained my apprentices to be ready for any situation.”
Oh wow, it’s all good then.
“All right, thank you. Speaking of which…when will you be joining us? I’m planning to launch in about a month.”
“Oh right…how about three weeks from now? I also need to find a replacement to take over this store.”
“Yeah, no problem. I guess I’ll see you in three weeks then.”
I held out my hand and Bohbee shook it back firmly.
“I’m looking forward to working with you.”
“It’s my pleasure. I’m looking forward to your performance.”
Behind us, Finne muttered faintly.
“…Haruto. You haven’t forgotten your original objective, have you?”
…Oops