By the Grace of the Gods (LN) - Volume 3 - Chapter 39

Chapter 2 Episode 39: Laying the Foundation

I popped into the Merchant’s Guild in the morning, where I was once again let into the reception room. It happened every time, so I got used to it.

“Good to see you, Ryoma. Looking to hire again?”

“Yes, but I also wanted to discuss something.”

“Hm? What?”

I started by talking about the situation.

“I see, I see. Well, I did introduce you to some unique employees on your first day myself. Fine, if you find someone you can trust, bring them on over. It’s not a crime or anything, and I’ll have the paperwork ready when you are.”

“I’ll do that, then, thank you.”

“No problem, and good luck to you.”

The conversation ended smoothly, so I got off the couch to leave.

“Ryoma, hold on a second. I forgot to tell you something, sit back down.”

“What is it?” I asked as I lowered myself back onto the couch.

“It’s about those hoodlums who came to your store. We looked into them and found that they were hired by someone, but couldn’t figure out who their employer was. They could be connected to a dark guild, so be careful.”

“Are dark guilds for thieves and assassins or something like that?”

“Right. They don’t just have the guys who commit the crimes, but guys who give them the tools to do it, guys who set up communications between these two parties, that kind of thing. They specialize in theft, extortion, and even murder, so watch out.”

“Understood. Thank you for the warning.”

“It was nothing. Besides, you’re about to go give Taylor a visit, right? There’s something I’d like you to bring over there,” the guildmaster said, then shouted to a staff member outside the room who came inside with a glass bottle. It was filled with a thin green liquid, and powder sat at the bottom. I assumed it was medicine. After the guildmaster confirmed it was the right bottle, the staff member put it away in a wooden box. Judging by the color and thickness of the liquid, and the powder it contained, I could tell it was a health drink. Not only that, but it was highly effective as a dietary supplement.

“Curious?”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” I said, figuring I shouldn’t pry, but I certainly was curious, so I asked about it.

“That reminds me, you’re the one who tipped off Worgan, aren’t you? If you know what kind of medicine this is, I’m sure I don’t need to tell you, but it’s not for any particular illness, so don’t worry about that. When you get old, you have days where you can’t help but feel fatigued, that’s all,” the guildmaster said as she wrote something up and handed it to me. “Give that letter to the receptionist. They receive these same boxes regularly, so they’ll know what it is. I wrote that you’d give it to Taylor personally, so you can have your discussion with him in the meantime.”

“Thank you for everything.”

“Tell the old man that I said hi,” the guildmaster said, seeing me off as I left the guild.

■ ■ ■

“So, there you have it. I was wondering if I could hire through the guild, or register employees who I find outside the guild.”

“I see,” Taylor said. With my delivery as an excuse, I got to meet with him. I also brought up what I had discussed at the Merchant’s Guild. The conversation over there went well enough, but for this one, Taylor looked conflicted.

“Hm? Oh, sorry, I’ll make tea.”

“You don’t need to do that. Anyway, is there a problem?”

“Well, I don’t know if I’d say that. Hold on a second, let’s sit down and talk about this,” Taylor said, getting up to take a tea set off a small shelf to the side of the room. There was also a magic item similar to a portable stove which he used to start preparing some tea.

“You make the tea yourself?”

“I’d rather not waste my time getting someone else to do it, and it gives me a nice little break anyway,” Taylor replied and readied the tea as well as the duke’s maids would have, then brought it over. “Now, like I said, there’s no problem with your idea in itself. You can bring people you trust if you want, and of course you can recruit someone who’s already registered with this guild too. That’s one of our regular services. Besides, I’d love to offer support to your store, but there are some things that make me uneasy.”

“What would that be? And why do you want to support my store?”

“Well, see, if your store hires through the Tamer’s Guild, that gives us another place to do business. If you open up a couple more stores down the line, that means even more employment opportunities. That’s something any guild should welcome. The fact that the monsters you need for your store are slimes is another reason I want to support you. Remember what I said back when you registered?”

“About how there were no jobs I could do?” I asked. Taylor nodded.

“When the Tamer’s Guild determines that a tamer and their familiars can accomplish a task, then they’re assigned to the job. If they clearly can’t complete the job, we can’t give it to them. We introduce some other jobs they might be able to handle, but based on what types of monsters you work with, you’ll always be better at some things than others. Some folks have trouble finding jobs, don’t earn much, or have familiars that are expensive to take care of. They have a rough time getting by, but sadly there are only so many jobs I can give them. I hear they sometimes even try to switch to monsters they’re not compatible with, which never ends well. I try to get around this by having as many different sorts of jobs on offer as possible, but there are limits. Slimes, for example, are slow and weak. They’re generally considered useless, but every tamer’s worked with them at least once.”

“Because they all start off by practicing with slimes, right?”

“You got it. I’ve been doing this job for a long time, and every year I hear of a few cases where slimes are the only monsters someone can form a contract with. If you can’t even form contracts with slimes, then you’d have to have no skill with taming magic at all. That’s how easy it is, which is one reason they’re used for practice. I don’t know how much you pay your employees, but if it’s a job that could support someone’s life with their slimes, it might decrease the number of tamers who live in poverty. That’s my idea. After I said I have no work to offer you, I guess this sounds selfish of me.”

“No, I wouldn’t say that,” I said. I understood why guilds wouldn’t provide work they thought would be impossible.

“I’m glad you don’t think so. Anyway, that’s why I’d like for the guild to support your store. The issue is with the upper brass within the guild,” Taylor said with a nod and drank a gulp of tea. It contained sugar to make it fairly sweet, yet his face looked bitter. “If it’s simply a matter of providing my support, I’ve got the authority to do that, but to have the whole guild support you, I’d have to report to them. Then they might interfere in some weird ways,” he explained. He must have meant the guild’s shareholders. Maybe they’d demand something in return for the support. “Some of them could also be stuck in their old ways and refuse to believe slimes are good for anything.”

“The same way you have people who managed to pull themselves out of poverty, there are people who’ve managed to make a living with the weakest and most easily captured monsters. I’m sure they can look at these examples and understand it to be reality, but in their hearts they can’t accept it’s true,” I speculated. It would be annoying if they got angry with me as a result, but I wasn’t going to stop running my store regardless.

“Well, from what I hear, you don’t really need the support anyway. I don’t know how much that’ll help you find employees, though, so I’ll go ask a few people I can trust.”

“Thank you, please do.”

“Hey, I feel sorry that this is the most I can do, if anything. By the way, are you busy for the rest of the day?”

“I was planning to go to the Adventurer’s Guild after this. I’m supposed to meet with someone who’s introducing me to workers, like we discussed.”

“You’re in a real hurry, huh? I was hoping we could take the time to chat more.”

“After hearing what you had to say, I’ve changed my mind somewhat. It’s true that I have to act cautiously, but if opening more stores will help people out of poverty, that’s a good thing. Maybe I should be a little more proactive. Anyway, I’ve more or less decided on hiring people, so I need to go discuss these matters and consider my options.”

“Hm, I’m glad you’re considering opening more stores, but I wouldn’t worry about it too much. Also, could you at least stay until the tea is gone?”

“Gladly.”

The branch manager poured some more tea. We chatted about a variety of subjects until it ran out.