Arc 1 - Part 2

Chapter: 6 Shopping with the client

Immediately Kenji sprang into action.

Kimberly earnestly followed Kenji.

First, I call Ginger, Garang and Gorum.

I go to the guild with Kimberly and their party and ask for a goblin subjugation quest.

“Will this quest be fine?” Kimberly (TN: That’s It, it only says her name at the end.)

“It’s okay, because the purpose of this quest is for practicing party management so, any quest would do.”

We leave the Guild counter and sit at a table to begin making our preparations.

“First of all, this is a quest to kill goblins.” said Kenji as he observed the party.

“How many days will it take?”

“Three days.” Gorum replied.

“What do you need?”

“4 days’ worth of food.” Garang.

“Magical catalyst” Ginger.

“There are 30 arrows left.” Kimberly.

“Other than that?”

“We are out of alcohol for disinfecting.” Gorum.

“Well, let’s go shopping.” Kenji leads the party as they walk out.

I lead the party to a market near the Guild, entering from the back.

I am thrusted into a crowd of housewives.

Kimberly in her leather armour is being pulled arounds while Kenji’s progress does not stop.

“I will buy 2 days’ worth of regular meals, 2 days’ worth of preserved meals and Sake.”

“Regular meals are bread and cheese, the preserved meals are dried meat and biscuits. Sake is distilled alcohol. It is cheap if you buy it all in bulk at this shop. This store more caters to housewives, anyway I have negotiated and paid.”

“You managed to buy all this with only 3 coppers?” Kimberly spoke sounding surprised.

The Food looks fresh and there is lots of it.

“The local people get to eat this? I am going here next time.”

I lead them to the Blacksmith next.

“Boss, we only need iron arrows heads rather than steel ones.”

“Hmmm well I guess I can sell you it if you buy 100 pieces.” The old Blacksmith gives in from Kenji’s firm negotiations.

“It’s only 1/10 of what it costs me to buy an arrow.” Kimberly says feeling down.

“Stupid, how can buying 1 and buying 100 be the same. Moreover, I use to come here every day, so I know what the usual market price is. Because Iron ore was bought just last week, the price of steel is rising while the price of iron is falling. Beside, I only bought arrowheads. You’ll have to make the arrows yourself. You can sell the excess to Sarah.”

“Hah… I see.”

“Seems you understand, next we will be going to the Magician’s Guild.”

Swordsmen usually do not come to the Magician Guild however Kenji walked in as if it was nothing.

“I am here to buy magic catalysts.” Kenji Talks the Guild staff without hesitation.

“You do not look like a magician.”

“I am buying for Ginger” pointing out a petite mage.

“How much and what type would you like to buy?”

“5 catalysts for small fire shot and 3 catalysts for small wind shot.”

“That will be 8 small coppers.”

“That expensive?!” says the astonished Kimberly.

They had known that magic requires catalysts, but they hadn’t been aware they were so expensive.

They though Ginger was being negligent by only using magic in emergency situations.

“Well, honestly I cannot negotiate the price of the catalyst. When we find catalysts in labyrinths or on quests I always treat it as a copper coin saved” said Kenji.

In the end, it only took us an hour to purchase all our goods.

“Because you are an acquaintance, of Sarah I will postpone my fee, so go and quickly do your goblin subjugation quest.” Saying so Kenji sent off Kimberly.

Chapter 7: Settling of payment with client

A couple of days later, Kimberly and her party returned safe and sound.

“Welcome back, let’s go to the blacksmith for the time being.”

I stop Kimberly who is about to go to the tavern and lead them through the streets.

When we reach the blacksmith, we pay in advance for the sword to be sharpened.

Next, we go to the leather craftsman asking him to repair the armour and again pay in advance.

Finally, we headed towards the Guild.

After we receive the reward from the Guild we calculate our expenditures.

Deducting the total amount by the cost food, arrowheads, catalysts, sharpening and repair fee. Leave 3 Big coppers and 5 coppers remaining unspent.

I stop Kimberly from immediately trying to divide the earning amongst them.

“Ginger, how many magical catalysts are left?”

“There are 2 fire and 1 wind catalysts left.”

“Kimberly, what about the remaining arrows?”

“There are seven.”

“Well we will take that out as expenses, is market price when we bought them fair?”

Regarding the prices they had all been together when they bought them, so they noded in agreement.

There was only enough money left over for 8 coppers per person after everything was done and dusted.

‘Is that all…’ Was how everyone felt.

“Well, that’s just how Goblin subjugation is, but you guys knew that didn’t you?”

My words reminded Kimberly of their previous quests.

Well at least they were not losing money.

“The cost of my service is 1 copper per person coming up to 4 coppers in total please.”

Well it is better to not ask for too much from novice adventurers.

I spent an hour before and after their quest, guiding them around the city.

So, to earn 4 coppers in such a short amount of time was not a bad deal at all.

Compared to the novice adventurers that earned 8 coppers after 3 days of hard, life threatening work.

Still, I could see that without my help they would definitely be in the red.

With this service, you can put half of the reward away to save. It also decreases the likelihood of fighting with part member over money. Then in one month you can upgrade your equipment.

I thinks that I should also accompany them when they go to upgrade their equipment.

Chapter 8: Sarah’s reward

The next morning, while I am having my breakfast on the first floor of the inn as usual.

“How was Kimberly’s request?” Sarah who had visited today asked.

I wonder if he has finished his request. Seems I am getting worried about his circumstances.

“As a business for novice adventurers it is okay.” I replied

“Here is your commission.” I said handing over 1 copper.

“eh what for?”

“Didn’t I say the payment was 3 coppers? Kimberly and her party gave me 4 upon completion of her request. Because you introduced them to me you get 1 copper.”

“Wow…” Sarah’s eyes glittered.

“Well, if you know any other parties and adventurers having financial trouble please bring them my way. I will help them just like I did with Kimberly’s party. The fee is 1 copper per person, half being in advance with 1 copper going to the one that introduced them to me upon completion.”

“Is there a reason for part of the payment being in advanced and for the introducer to get paid.”

“There is. Novices tend to not have a lot of money on hand. Besides I would not trust myself if I were in their shoes nor do I trust them, therefore half of the payment in advanced. The introducer is only paid upon the completion of the request to prevent them from brining in a lot of irresponsible parties.”

“You have put a lot of thought into how you can help adventurers haven’t you? Though It is only possible for you to be able to do it due to your extensive knowledge.”

“Listen, because adventurers are not as knowledgeable about local businesses, they just stupidly enter streets meant for high class citizens wasting their money.”

Sarah nodded enthusiastically with a clueless look on her face while she tightly gripped the coin in her hands.

“Well I will introduce more novice parties to you.” Sarah says while trying to run off.

“Wait, I can only guide three groups a day, any more than that will only cause an unreasonable alteration to the schedule.”

“What schedule adjustments?” Sarah says as she comes closer to listen.

“So…”

Chapter 9: The feeling of a regular schedule

There is a reason as to Sarah’s confusion over the concept of a schedule.

All the people of this world, not just adventurers have only have a vague sense of what a schedule is.

While they do have months such as, the month of dawn, month of the Green Start and the Month of the Blue moon. There is no fixed time period called a week.

Instead they bundle approximately 3 days together and count them as 1,2,3. It is one month when 16 of these passes.

So, adventurers live with a sense of yesterday, today and tomorrow. Many quests also take place over 3 days.

Thankfully they have determined that Wheat planting day is the beginning of the year so, they do somewhat understand.

Most Japanese businessmen are dividing one day into four parts and separate it using weeks, this creates 20 parts to schedule meetings and other work in a week.

Of course. I do not have a schedule table, nor a business book with me.

A business book… Could I sell one? It is useless, I have no capital to create one.

Well wealthy merchants may feel differently about it.

The farmers and adventurers are people that live day by day.

If I said, “A meeting between the high noon bell and evening bell, five days from now”, they would either be confused or forget about it due to drinking. (TN: The translation was actually noon bell but…)

This is a world where mechanical clocks do not exist yet.

The bells of churches will inform you of the time using mysterious methods I do not understand. While it would be nice to have one in this town, they are very expensive.

Either way I have arranged a way to secure Adventurers. Next it seems necessary to find a way to organise my meetings with adventurers.

Chapter 10: How to make an appointment

I decide to make Sarah wait a little longer, because her eyes are dazzling like coins.

I consider how to handle appointments.

“Sarah, you are familiar with counting, right? How many of those adventurers do you think can count?”

“I understand. Because I must be able to count the number of arrows I have left! I cannot write much though… Even farmers can count because they need to do taxes”

“How do you work out taxes?”

“The village chief and government official use a scale and board. Everyone in the village is watching in case they make a mistake.”

I see… While mathematics is not popular, it is necessary for one’s lively hood.

Excess tax is life threatening so Farmers and peasants take it very seriously.

While knowledge is restricted to only a limited group, wisdom is equal.

I guess in a rural village there aren’t very many ways in which you can learn numbers through.

I pull out a piece of wood and start making cuts in it with my knife.

“What are you doing?” Sarah asks as she leans in to get a better look.

“I am making a letter of introduction and reservation form.”

From the 10cm long piece of wood I made 3 sticks with different shapes on the cross-section, triangle, circle and square.

You mark the appropriate stick and section by burning a mark on it.

That’s why I made reservation sticks dividing the 3 days in to 3 parts.

I explain to Sarah.

“From now on introducers will receive this. The circle is for today, triangle for tomorrow and square for the day after tomorrow. The top is after breakfast, middle is after lunch and the bottom is before dinner. Sarah, tell me the clients name when you come by the inn to hand in the stick. I will take the stick and await the client’s arrival. Can you do that?”

“Hmmm? In other words, I should hand this to the client and explain that Circle is today, triangle is tomorrow and square is the day after tomorrow. Top is morning, middle is high noon and bottom is evening.”

“Well your job is to introduce them to me, I will do the rest.”

“I understand! I will be off then.” Sarah took off with the sticks.

I took out a flat rectangular piece of wood and started making a schedule table.

“I did not expect to make a schedule table when I came to another world.” I murmured with traces of sorrow.