Volume 2 Chapter 56
After closing the store, I gave the cleaner slimes some water for cleaning the store, then Carla-san came to give me the store’s daily report. But for some reason, the air about her seemed different than usual…
“Boss, it’s about the store’s revenue…” [Carla]
“What’s wrong? Did we make a loss?” [Ryouma]
“No, that’s not it.” [Carla]
“Then in that case, we must’ve made a profit.” [Ryouma]
“Yes, but it’s not like the days before, Ryouma-sama. Because our income for just today is 26,0326 suits.” [Carla]
26,036 suits!?
“W-Wait a moment. Didn’t we only make 16,000 yesterday? Why is there suddenly a 10,000 suits difference?” [Ryouma]
“Today, right after you left the store, we got a huge contract. Apparently a manager of smiths and carpenters had heard the rumors going around and wanted to enlist services. And then after that, workers from the metal industry came one after another. They bought large bags and enlisted our services immediately.
But that’s not all. Our individual and group customers have also increased. There are a lot among the individual customers who get more than one bag. The sales of the bags show no signs of ending either.” [Carla]
“Can you give me the details of our revenue? I’m not suspecting your o anything, but I’d like to confirm it with my own eyes…” [Ryouma]
“Of course. Please wait at the office for a bit. I’ll bring the records.” [Carla]
I did as she told and waited in the office.
…Come to think of it, this is my first time using this room. I’m always carrying laundry or dealing with the customers or at the break room…
While I was thinking that, Carla-san came with a sheet of paper.
“These are our sales for the day.” [Carla]
“Thank you.” [Ryouma]
I took the sheet of paper and looked at the sales for the day.
Umm…
Individual Course: 10 suits x 998 = 9980 suits
14-Persons Course: 18 suits x 152 = 2736 suits
35-Persons Course: 40 suits x 55 = 2200 suits
Individual Bag: 20 suits x 159 = 3180 suits
14-Persons Bag: 25 suits x 68 = 1700 suits
35-Persons Bag: 30 suits x 50 = 1500 suits
Equipment Wash Service: 15 suits x 316 = 4740 suits
Total: 26,036 suits
Yep, the record checks out.
“You were right. Wow. I can’t believe things actually got this far… Just wow.” [Ryouma]
Even if you take away the sales from the bags, you still get something close to 20,000 suits. But this too is because of everyone and the cleaner slimes’ efforts.
“By the way, what about the others?” [Ryouma]
“They’re in the break room right now. They’re double checking the sales for the day.” [Carla]
“Double checking?” [Ryouma]
“There are medium and small copper coins, so they’re separating them and confirming that the coins add up to what’s been calculated.” [Carla]
“Oh, so that’s what you meant. I’ll help out then.” [Ryouma]
“But this is a job for the employees…” [Carla]
“Technically, I’m also the manager of this store, so I’m also one of your coworkers. Let me help out.” [Ryouma]
Actually, you twins are just too good at office work. Although there is still some work to be done, it’s too little, and with how good the two of you are at supporting me, everything just gets wrapped up so quickly… For someone like me who always has an energy drink ready, this just isn’t enough.
“I understand. However, Ryouma-sama, you are not technically our this store’s manager, but are in fact the store’s manager.” [Carla]
After Carla-san said that, she accompanied me to the employee break room. It was just the room next door, though.
“Good job today.” [Ryouma]
“Thank you for today, Boss.” [Carm]
“Thank you for today.” [Everyone else]
When I entered the room, the 6 employees greeted me. A large number of copper coins could be seen gathered on a giant table. They seemed to be counting them one by one by hand.
“Thank you for working so hard everyday. It is a huge help to me to be able to leave the store to you.” [Ryouma]
“No need to thank us, Boss~ Since this store really pampers us~” [Maria]
“Exactly, Ryouma-sama. Hired workers are expected to do at least this much.” [Carm]
Everyone nodded in agreement to Carm-san’s words. Even Carla-san who was behind me nodded.
“I see… I’m glad to hear that. Anyway, let’s continue. We just need to count these copper coins, right?” [Ryouma]
“Yes. But we can really just take care of these ourselves.” [Carm]
“The more wands the better. Besides, that’s a crazy amount, no?” [Ryouma]
Our income for today is 26,036 suits. All of that was paid for in either small or medium copper coin. In other words, 1 or 10 suits coins. Naturally, that meant an absurd amount of copper coins.
Once everything has been counted, we will be putting them away in the safe in the basement, and then we regularly entrust the money to my account in the merchants guild. But that’s also a hassle…
“Please take a seat then.” [Fina]
“The seat beside mine is free.” [Fei]
“Excuse me.” [Ryouma]
Volume 2 Chapter 56 part2
I took the seat beside Fei-san and started counting copper coins, but as expected, having to count by hand will really take a long time… Although it won’t take too long since there’s 8 of us here, but still…
One minute into the work, a light bulb flashed. Oh, right! I had that!
I took out the bag of leftover lime from my Item Box.
Everyone turned to me, but I ignored them and just used identify on the small copper coins. What is the diameter and thickness of this coin?
Small Copper Coin 1 Suits
A coin of the smallest value. Made of Copper.
Diameter: 0.9cm
Thickness: 2mm
It worked! I take back what I said this afternoon. This Identify stuff might actually be useful.
“Boss? What are doing? Why would you use Identify on the coin— Could it be? Is it fake?” [Fei]
“Oh, no. That’s not it. I just thought of making a tool is all.” [Ryouma]
“A tool?” [Fei]
“Watch. ‘Create Block’ ” [Ryouma]
After checking the size of other copper coin, I transformed the lime within the bag to become longer, while I made its interior to be shaped like an empty box. Naturally, I made the inner part of the resulting stone box hollow, then I removed a part of one end of the box with Break Rock, resulting in an object that would allow things put inside to fall if the box were to be inclined.
After that I used earth magic to erect 50 2mm tall 1cm squares on the hollowed part of the box along a line. Like this a copper coin could enter each square. I also treated the surface of the box with a thin layer of the sticky slime’s hardening liquid to protect the surface and make it safe to use barehanded.
Identify.
Coin Box?[1]
A tool used during the Edo period to count coins. Made by hardening lime with earth magic.
Success!
“Boss, what is that?” [Jane]
“I was just thinking if we could use this.” [Ryouma]
I took two hands full of coins and put them inside my counting tool, then I covered the open end and shook it for a bit. The coins made jingling sounds for a while. When I uncovered the open part, a lot of coins fell, but if you look closely, you’ll see that there are coins left in the squares.
“Fei-san, could you count these coins that were left behind?” [Ryouma]
“Sure.” [Fei]
Fei-san counted the coins carefully.
“Exactly 50 coins, Boss. Looks like you’ve invented another useful tool.” [Fei]
The moment Fei-san said that, Carm-san, Carla-san, and Leelin-san already understood the purpose of this stone box. The 3 young women, however, did not seem to understand it just yet, so I filled the box with coins, let the excess fall off, then distributed the leftover coins for them to count. Like this they were able to understand.
Jane-san is a cheerful and hardworking young woman, but she’s a little slow when it comes to stuff that needs thinking, so I just let her figure it out on her own pace while I started mass producing the coin box. For the small copper coin version, I made it so that they could accept 50 small copper coins, while for the medium copper coin version, I made it so that it could take up to 100 coins. The original coin box could accommodate every type of coin, but I’ll just make some adjustments later.
It turns out making the coin box was a great idea, for in just 10 minutes after making it, we were done.
After counting everything, most of the coins were small copper coins. I thought there was a lot of medium copper coins, but apparently the customers mostly paid with small copper coins.
After that I asked about the store and if there was anything they were having difficulties with.
“Difficulties?” [Jane]
“Nothing really comes to mind~” [Maria]
“This store treats us really well, so I don’t have any complaints.” [Fina]
“A person who complains despite such good treatment is just too entitled.” [Leelin]
“Really? I mean your salary may be fine, but what about your brea—!!” [Ryouma]
Oh no! I forgot about their rest days!! What employee welfare? I’ve been making them work without rest!!
“What’s up, Boss? Your face went all pale all of the sudden.” [Fei]
“…I forgot to allot you your rest days.” [Ryouma]
When I said that, everyone doubted their ears and stared at me. And then Jane-san said in loud voice.
“Boss! Are we going receive regular rest days!?” [Jane]
Huh? What’s with that reaction? Isn’t that a given? Though I suppose I really shouldn’t be saying that considering I forgot.
When I got a good look at everyone, they all seemed to be equally confused.
“How about once a week? You could rest once a week or take turns…” [Ryouma]
When I said that, the three young women became very happy. Seeing me so confused by their reaction, Carla-san went ahead and explained.
“Boss, the people who leave their home and go far away to work like these three normally don’t get rest days. Unless they have some sort of special ability, they are usually treated cruelly as servants and are paid less compared to others. But this store not only treats them well, it even pays a lot. Given such conditions, it’s only normal to expect that there won’t be any rest days.” [Carla]
“But it’s not just them who don’t get rest days. Small companies and retail stores like a grocery stores also don’t get any unless there’s a festival or a special event of some sort. Having rest days do take a toll on the business, and it’s also not strange for there to be circumstances wherein one needs wo work without rest. That’s especially true for newly opened businesses, which would often prefer to keep working nonstop to get the ball rolling.” [Carm]
Businesses ran like a bicycle, huh. [2] Well, I suppose there are those too.
“Boss, do you know? Our family apologized to us a lot when they sent us away~ ‘Sorry for making you take on such a hard role’, they said.” [Maria]
“Apparently, if our luck was bad, not only would we paid dirt poor, even our chastity might be in danger.” [Fina]
“You were worried about that, huh.” [Jane]
Does this world treat its employees poorly? As I wondered that, I turned to Carla-san.
“Abusing one’s position as the employer to seek sexual relations is against the law, but unfortunately, there are still those who do it. It’s one of the things an employee needs to look out for when looking for a job.” [Carla]
Sexual harassment was a thing in my previous world too. I guess that sort of stuff is the same even in other worlds.
“My store makes it a point to take care of its employees, so you don’t have to worry about that. Let’s continue working together.” [Ryouma]
As I said that, everyone smiled and nodded.
As for their rest day, since the wave of customers still show no sign of stopping, they told me that it would be a waste to designate a rest day now. As such, they decided to take turns resting once a week.
After discussing that and having Shelma-san’s delicious supper, I noticed that it was already almost 9, so I bid them goodbye and left the store. I might be scolded since I ended up coming home late again.
When I got back to the inn, the ojousama and the others had already returned.
As I drank tea and listened, apparently, the Jamil family was welcomed by the government office today. Part of the reason was because there was a new head, and another is for the remaining members part of that recent scandal to curry favor with the duke. Of course, all the efforts of these sycophants probably wouldn’t amount to anything.
I couldn’t help but imagine a party with a showy banner that says ‘welcome party’ on one side and a sign on the other side that says ‘hearing in session’.
As it turns out, something similar actually did happen.
Other than Reinbach-sama and Sebasu-san who told me all these, everyone else was already asleep.
It would probably be a bother if I were to stay here too long, so II excused myself.
[1] – Not sure of the exact reading of the kanji for this or if it has an English equivalent, but this is what comes up when I search it
[2] – Businesses that are barely hanging on. They’re ran like a bicycle since they need to keep the wheel spinning or else they fall over.
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