By the Grace of the Gods (LN) - Volume 3 - Chapter 30

Chapter 2 Episode 30: Personnel Additions

The next day...

After I prepared to open for business in the morning, I went shopping for products to welcome my two new employees with, then returned to the store.

“There are this many people already?” I asked. I left the store when it opened at 8AM and shopped for about an hour. It should have only been around 9AM. Now I wondered what time of day we had the most business.

I pondered about that as I entered through the employees only door behind the store. Carla and Fay were taking orders while Carme and Lilyn were carrying and returning laundry. We didn’t seem to have any problems so far. I left the work to them and started cooking.

There was no telling when it might get busier, so I wanted to feed everyone while there was still time to eat. I kneaded the dough, then rounded and stretched it. Once that was finished, I smeared it with meat sauce.

By the way, this meat sauce was left over from the opening party two days prior. I made a fridge using barrier magic that preserved food better than leaving it outside. I appraised it just in case, and it turned out there were no problems. If, say, Serge heard about the fridge, it might cause another uproar. Maybe Pioro would be more likely to make a ruckus over it. He did say that he handles food.

I sprinkled cheese, sliced onions, and some herbs on top of the base, then stuck it all in a heated kettle to bake it. In the meantime, I prepared the salads and drinks. While I took care of that, the pizza finished cooking. It exuded a fragrant scent. I tried out a piece for myself, and it was excellent. And ready to eat before it got too busy, thankfully.

“Lunch is ready, everyone. I can take over for someone so we can take turns eating.”

“Thank you,” my employees said. First, Lilyn and Carla switched places with me. After they ate, Fay and Carme went to get their share, giving everyone a chance to rest and eat. When noon passed, it got just as busy as yesterday, but we somehow managed to get through it together.

“Good work, everyone.”

“Good work, Ryoma!” they said. It went better than the previous day, but we only went from overworking our employees to being able to function as a normal business. If even one employee were unable to work, we would take a big hit. I wouldn’t even have time to cook lunch for everyone if that happened.

“Another busy day. How much did we make?”

“According to my calculations, 11877 sute,” Carla said and showed me her notes. If we made 1.5 times as much as yesterday, that was a significant increase over a single day.

“Those are some nice sales.”

“More than just nice, business is booming.”

“At this rate, we’ll end up with even more customers.”

“Lilyn, Fay, you think so too? Maybe I should hire more employees. My original plan was to hire three or four people, but if anyone gets sick or something now, it’ll put a heavy load on the rest of us.”

“Yes, I think that would be wise.”

“I know you just did this yesterday, but it would help if you can go to the guild and hire someone again.”

“Understood. I’d also like to hire a cook, but could I find one at the Merchant’s Guild?” I asked.

“Yes,” Carme answered. “But why a cook?”

“If we have our hands full with work, how are we supposed to make lunch? I was thinking I’d hire someone who can take care of that.”

“I see what you mean, but any regular employee could do that job.”

“But if we had someone to do that job exclusively, it gives the rest of us more time. Besides, wouldn’t it motivate you more if there were a good meal to look forward to? Consider it a perquisite.”

“I agree with you, but what is a perquisite?”

“Oh, well, it’s a way of considering what would help your employees work most comfortably, I guess you could say,” I tried to explain. Apparently they didn’t think about employee benefits here. Or maybe most businesses didn’t have them.

“I do think you’ve thought a lot about what’s best for your employees.”

“You’re giving us housing and paying as well at the same time. You don’t find employers like that very often.”

“Good pay, warm, comfortable rooms, and today’s food was great too. My father and I would be lucky to find something better.”

“I’m glad to hear that. So can you handle the rest of the day without me? I’m planning to go hire someone, then head on home.”

“Have a good day,” the four of them said as they saw me off.

■ ■ ■

When I got to the guild, I was once again let into the reception room for a meeting with the guildmaster.

“Nice to see you. Here to hire someone again?”

“Business has been unexpectedly good, so we have the money for it.”

“I see, then how many more employees do you want?”

“I’d like three more employees to work the store, plus a chef.”

“A chef?”

“We’re so busy that our employees barely have the time to cook, so as long as I’m hiring people, I thought it might be nice if they had the chance to eat something good. And for the sake of their health, I want them to get something nutritious.”

“That’s why you want to hire someone just to cook? That’s pretty atypical.”

“Is it?”

“Most stores just have one of the regular employees do it. Bigger stores will hire people to do assorted work like this, but you seldom see anyone go out of their way to appoint a chef. Well, it’s not a bad idea. Hold on a sec, I’ll see if anyone’s interested.”

“Ask people who weren’t here yesterday, please,” I requested. Some time later, the guildmaster introduced me to four people.

“Nice to meet you! I’m Jane!”

“I’m Maria!”

“My name is Fina.”

“I’m Chelma, a chef.”

The first three were young women who came to this town from an impoverished village as a group, looking to make some money. Jane was energetic, Maria was laid-back, and Fina was more the serious type, based on first impressions. Chelma couldn’t have been substantially older than them, but she was to some degree. She came across like a mother.

I assumed the guildmaster knew how to pick people better than me, and when I asked if they were interested in working for me just to be sure, they all nodded. Apparently they changed their mind after hearing about my store’s success, since I did see them in the lineup when I came yesterday. The guildmaster also lectured them about how safe my store was.

Me and all my employees had been evaluated by the guildmaster, so there probably wasn’t much to worry about with these women either. The three village girls seemed like what I saw was what I’d get. They wouldn’t have any unique skills, but that was fine. Chelma’s previous job was at an ordinary inn, and she said she couldn’t cook anything lavish, but that wasn’t an issue either. They seemed like good people, so I decided to hire them all.

Business was taken care of within ten minutes of arriving at the guild. All the connections I had turned out to be important, to be sure. The four new employees wanted to live in the store as well, so after the contracts were signed, we ended up returning to the shop with the carriage waiting outside. Before that, the guildmaster told me one last thing.

“Ryoma, if this keeps up, I’d consider opening up a couple more stores in other towns. You can do it right away if you want. Just consult with me when you’re ready,” she said. I was stunned to hear the same thing Carme and Carla said. Then she tapped me on the back with her staff and encouraged me to keep it together. When we got to the store, Carme and Carla were still there.

“Boss, I thought you were going home,” they said. I told them about the new employees who wanted to live at the store, introduced everyone, then let them handle the rest.

■ ■ ■

Four days had passed since I hired the new employees. The three village girls worked hard, and Chelma’s cooking was delectable. I stayed at the store on the first day to be sure everything could run well without me, and there were no problems. Two days ago, I even had the time to wash the walls outside and trim the lawn. Yesterday, I had the opportunity to patrol the abandoned mine.

It had only been a week since opening day, but our sales still hadn’t declined. If I lived frugally, I could survive three months for each day’s worth of profit. I was somewhat awestruck, but it was all thanks to my tireless employees.

They could keep everything running fine without me by that point, so I could return to my adventuring work. But just when that occurred to me, I was summoned by Serge.

“Sorry I took so long to get here.”

“Master Ryoma, I’m glad you’re here. Now, come this way.”

“Excuse me.”

“Apologies for the sudden call.”

“That’s fine, my employees are good enough to run the store themselves now. The twins you sent me have been doing good work too.”

“Is that right? It sounds like they’ve proven useful to you. That’s a relief.”

“You’ve done a lot to help me, Serge.”

“Same goes here. I’m making a tidy profit thanks to all the bags and daily necessities you’re buying off us.”

“That’s been great for me too. Everything’s going so smoothly that it’s almost scary.”

“Everyone in town’s been talking about it lately. It’s even drawn the guild’s attention,” Serge said, then sighed before he continued. “And you have the chance to make even more money. Isn’t that a shock?” I cocked my head at that. “Master Ryoma, I’m talking about the waterproof cloth.”

“Oh, right.” I had completely forgotten.

“Did you know that the mass outbreak of grell frogs is coming up soon?”

“Yes, I’ve heard.”

“Grell frogs live in swamps. Their hides can produce armor and their organs make good medicine, so they sell for a high price. During the mass outbreak, tons of adventurers travel to the swamps where they thrive. It would be a good opportunity to advertise products such as boots made from that waterproof cloth, so I was thinking we should begin to produce and sell them soon. As such, I wanted to ask just how many you can make, which is why I called you here today.”

I had 907 sticky slimes at the moment, so it depended on how much cloth I had.

“The process involves modifying regular cloth, so I would need to ask for the material, but how long would a strip of cloth be to start with?”

“If you’re getting it from me, then about seventy meters,” Serge answered. Taking more than I could use would do neither of us any good. Thinking conservatively, ten slimes could do maybe one strip of cloth in a day. If I had twenty of my slimes work on one sheet each day to be safe, that’s at least 45 sheets.

“Then once we’re ready for production, we could create around 45 to 90 sheets a day. They’ll take some time to dry, though, so it may be a bit less than that,” I said. Serge’s face brightened.

“Ten sheets a day to start with would have been good enough. Any more than that is much appreciated.”

“Understood. Shall I get started on that today?”

“Please do.”

“Then I’d like to buy some cloth to use as materials.”

“You can have it for free. It’ll be returned to me as waterproof cloth, so I’ll simply pay the production cost when you hand it over. How much will that be?”

“You can decide the price. Whatever is reasonable, please,” I said. Serge lightly laughed.

“When a merchant has something they know will sell, they’re supposed to overcharge. Your offer is great for me, though. On another topic, where will you be doing the work? If people learn you’re the one producing these, who knows what kind of suspicious fellows you could find on your doorstep. Do you have any safe work spaces in mind? If not, I could get one ready for you.”

“I’d like to set up shop in the mine that was abandoned the other day.”

“You certainly wouldn’t have to worry about anyone showing up there, but are you sure that’s the best place?”

“I can wander around there all I want, since I hold the title of Manager. I can also use earth magic to create a large work space.”

Once that was settled, I took the cloth, left the store, and headed to the abandoned mine.