Mushoku Tensei (LN) - Volume 18 - Chapter 6

Chapter 6:

Starting a Business

I COULDN’T LEAVE LINIA in the house. The atmosphere had worsened with her presence, and if she kept tempting me sexually, there would come a point where I could not resist her any longer.

Our family would fall apart if I didn’t do something. If I lost control of myself and cheated, Sylphie might take Lucie and leave. For all I knew, the future foretold in that diary might still come to pass despite how hard I’d worked to subvert those events. I had to stop it before it came to that.

That was why I decided to find Linia another job. I had considered canceling her debt and getting her out of the house, but even though we were friends, there were boundaries still. The amount of money I spent to buy her was obscene by anyone’s standards, and she needed to return it. It would do me no good to compromise on that.

But what job might suit Linia? I couldn’t picture it, frankly. She could manipulate magic and fight, but off the top of my head I couldn’t think of any work that would help her return what she owed.

I racked my brain for ideas. I considered paying her to help Cliff and Zanoba with their research. Her grades were respectable when she graduated, so it was possible she might be of some use. But then I realized doing research didn’t suit her personality. She would not be able to commit to repetitive office-type work. Also, despite the probability of any hanky-panky happening being low, it didn’t feel right to push someone as bewitching as her on Cliff when he’d just had a kid.

I also considered entrusting her with the responsibility of overseeing sales of Ruijerd’s figure, but I quickly gave up on that idea. She went into debt the moment she tried her hand at being a merchant. Since she’d already proved inept there, I was in no hurry to trust her.

Sending her off to the university to be Norn’s personal maid was another option, but I immediately dismissed it. Norn wouldn’t be pleased with the arrangement, and it would most likely cause an encore of what was happening at home.

I could make her work as an adventurer to earn some coin. Except that, while some jobs paid well, most didn’t. Linia wasn’t even licensed as an adventurer. It would take her too long to start making decent money at it, and there was a possibility she’d die in the line of work before she ever did.

None of the options I considered offered a way of paying back the one thousand five hundred Asuran gold coins she owed in a reasonable amount of time. Still, it was too soon to throw in the towel simply because I couldn’t think of something. Maybe she was better suited to one of the options I’d considered than I had realized. For that reason, I decided to bring her to the university with me.

Linia wore her maid outfit as we navigated the school grounds. She walked in front of me, acting high and mighty as she threatened the other students to make way.

“Shoo, shoo! Boss is comin’ through, mew! Make way for him if you don’t wanna be stepped on!”

It was hard to see her as anything but a common street hooligan.

“Yo, long time no see!”

“Heya!”

I considered stopping her antics, but the male beastfolk we passed greeted us happily, so I decided to keep an eye on things a bit longer instead. Only two years had passed since Linia graduated, so many students here still knew who she was. Some of those about to graduate might even have served as one of her subordinates when she ran the place way back. Perhaps the answer as to what job I could assign her lay somewhere in this mess.

“Mistress Linia! Haven’t seen you in a while!”

While I was lost in thought, one of the boys strolled up to us. Who the hell is this? I felt like I’d been introduced to this person before, around the time I was a second-year. I couldn’t recall his name, but I did remember him being top dog of his class.

“Oh hey, it’s you! Got some fighting spirit in you, mew?”

“Sure do!”

“Good! Keep that up, mew.”

“You got it!”

Linia truly acted like she ruled the roost, despite wearing a maid outfit while drowning in debt.

“Anyhoo, Mistress Linia, you sure everything’s okay?”

Linia tilted her head. “Mew? What d’ya mean?”

“I mean, your current situation. I heard about it, you know. They say the student council president’s older brother is keeping you as a slave. That right?”

“I guess. Kinda screwed up big-time and landed myself in this sitch, mew. Still, it’s the beastfolk dream to serve under someone stronger than them, so it’s not so bad, mew,” Linia said proudly.

The student breathed a sigh, and after a long pause, said, “To be honest, I’m kinda disappointed.”

“Why’s that, mew?”

“Before you graduated, you still had guts—like you fully intended on taking back your position at the university from Rudeus and Ariel. But now you’re like…a puny house pet.”

Linia went silent after that. I figured she would bare her fangs and lash out in anger, but…she merely chuckled.

“Yeah, guess I have fallen pretty far. But just you wait, mew. I’ll claw my way up again, mew!”

“Claw your way up?”

“You got it, mew. If you wanna claw your way all the way back to the top, you gotta hit the bottom first, mew.”

The student’s eyes lit up with the realization of what she was saying, a smile breaking over his face. “Mistress Linia, I knew you had it in ya! I guess I just wasn’t clever enough to pick up on your plan!”

“Well, my brain’s built a lot better than most, mew,” Linia said proudly, tapping her forehead.

In no time the student was gazing at her with respect and showering her with praise. Once he was finished, he finally left to return to his classroom. Well, I guess it’s great they get along.

I kept quiet as we made our way to the research building. The whole way, people continuously paid their respects to Linia. It wasn’t until we slipped into the building, where no one else was around, that it finally stopped. As we shuffled through the halls, bathed in silence, Linia glanced over her shoulder at me.

“Boss, just so ya know, that was just me talking tough, mew.”

“You mean with that underclassman?”

Linia rubbed her hands, sidling up to me as if she were trying to ingratiate herself. “The part about me clawing my way up. Gotta save face in front of the younger kids, but I have no intention of opposing you, Boss. You feel me-ow, yeah?”

“Right.”

Knowing her, she probably did mean what she had said. Especially with the weird vibe of her last sentence, I suspected she was just trying to placate me. Her true intentions were probably what she’d told that student.

“There’s nothing wrong with ambition,” I told her. “But I’d advise against spitting on the very people you should be grateful to.”

“Of course, mew. If you think I’m lying, let’s go into one of these empty classrooms and I’ll prove my loyalty, mew. I just ask that you be gentle with me. Mwehehe!”

Hahaha…yeah, no.

I wondered if her talk of clawing her way up was less about trying to outrank me and more like trying to be my personal number one? First by becoming my sex partner, then earning enough affection to be my favorite wife, thereby usurping the ruling triumvirate of Sylphie, Roxy, and Eris. What a crafty little thing! Perhaps she was actually an assassin sent by the Man-God to force my family apart.

“Hey,” I said in a low voice. “In these past few years, have you had a guy claiming to be a god show up in your dreams?”

“What’s this all of a sudden, mew? Some kinda prophetic dream? I don’t remember anything like that, mew.”

“Trying to hide it won’t do you any favors,” I said, threateningly. After all, in Dragon God court, the suspicious get the guillotine. Not that I was quite that violent.

“Th-the dream I had yesterday was about a buncha fish falling from the sky, mew. Uh, the one before that…erm, I can’t remember.”

Must be nice to have such pleasant dreams. No doubt she’d get one point per fish, and by the time she collected a hundred, she’d be rewarded with an extra life. Of course, if she wasn’t careful, she might fish up a dumbbell or something.

That aside, she didn’t seem to be one of the Man-God’s apostles… as far as I could tell, anyway. He wasn’t the kind to employ someone as wild and unpredictable as Linia.

“That’s enough of that then, I guess. But if you do happen to have any dreams like that, you better tell me right away,” I said.

“Yessir, mew.”

I sighed and started toward our first destination: Zanoba’s research room.

“Ah, Master—urk!” 

Zanoba pulled a face the moment he spotted Linia with me. “It’s…been a while,” he said.

“Yo, Zanoba. Sure has been a spell, mew.”

Cold sweat beaded on Zanoba’s forehead as he scanned his room. “Pardon me, but please a moment while I clean up a bit.” He hastily began stowing away every displayed doll or figure into a box for safekeeping. It didn’t matter if they were fragile or not; he did not leave a single one out. Julie was halfway through painting a Ruijerd figure, but she stopped work to mimic her master, cleaning her desk area.

“Hm. This should be acceptable. Very well, let us speak over there.” Zanoba motioned to a table that was a bit removed from his work area.

Julie pulled away from her desk and started tottering over, only for Zanoba to put up a hand. “Julie, you keep working,” he said.

“Understood, Master.”

Linia, Zanoba, and I took our seats at the table. Zanoba seemed restless and turned to Ginger, who was standing in the corner of the room. “Ginger!”

“Yes, Your Highness!” 

He didn’t issue any explicit commands, but she moved to stand between the table and the work area, as if protecting it.

“Now then, Master,” Zanoba said, turning his gaze my way. “What business brings you here today?” 

Even as he asked, he kept sneaking glances at Linia, not letting his guard down. He hadn’t said anything, but he probably wasn’t pleased about allowing Linia inside his research room. I felt bad for imposing.

“Nothing too special,” I said.

“Hm.”

Judging by his attitude toward her, there was no way I could let her help out with his research. As I’d expected—or perhaps even worse than I’d expected—the two clashed too much. Linia bullying him and destroying his figure had left a lasting impression. It was just like with Aisha, save for the bullying part: Linia breaking her beloved teacup had been the last straw. Zanoba was maintaining a cool façade, but if I asked him to let Linia help out, that same façade would probably shatter.

“By the way, Master, why is Linia accompanying you today?” Zanoba asked. “I heard you were keeping her as a maid at your house, but…”

I shrugged. “It’s a rather long story, actually. I’m trying to find her a job.”

“Oh…I see…” His eyes darted back and forth. Maybe he had some idea of what kind of work she could do, but at the same time he didn’t want to be saddled with Linia.

Don’t worry. I’ll take her back with me, I promise. This was a good example of how past misdeeds could bite you in the ass down the line.

“Well, that’s enough of that,” I said. “Let’s discuss your research next.”

“Oh, yes, a splendid idea!”

After I indirectly made it clear I wasn’t going to push anything onto him, Zanoba returned to his usual, cheerful self and started discussing the magic armor with me.

We ate lunch in the cafeteria. While I discreetly enjoyed my meal in a corner by myself, Linia sat a short distance away, surrounded by people.

“Mewhaha! And that’s when I told her, mew. ‘Pursena, aren’t you a bit of a chubster?’”

“That’s just like you, Miss Linia!”

“Takes some real guts to say that kinda thing to Miss Pursena!”

I didn’t realize it back when Ariel was around, but Linia had her own charisma, the kind only a delinquent possesses. The people who clamored around her were all unsavory sorts. It occurred to me that she could use that skill to accomplish something, but what? Some kind of job involving gathering people…hmmm.

Well, for the time being, I’ll try stopping by Cliff’s place.

In short, things didn’t pan out there, either. Cliff had some things he could use some help on, but much like Zanoba, he wasn’t too fond of Linia. He didn’t seem keen on having her work with him. Honestly not a big deal: working for him wouldn’t be earn her enough to repay her loans quickly, anyway. It’s not like he had vast wealth at his disposal.

With that out of the way, now what?

“Couldn’t you have her help you out with your work?” Cliff suggested when I asked his advice.

My work? As in, help me make it so Orsted was the world’s master puppeteer rather than the Man-God? Yeah, there was just one little problem there.

“I could do that if Sir Orsted didn’t have that annoying curse,” I said.

“The curse doesn’t trigger unless she comes into direct contact with his mana, so it’ll be fine as long as you don’t let them meet.”

Oh yeah, that’s right. Well then maybe…no, absolutely not.

“If we’re both working out of the same office, she’ll end up running into him eventually,” I reasoned.

Cliff nodded. “That’s a good point, now that you bring it up. Plus, there’s also the fear that, as one of the beastfolk, she might get hit with the curse from his smell alone.”

The curse could affect her via its smell? That was the first I’d heard of that. How intriguing. “Are you implying that beastfolk can smell mana?”

“Yeah. There’s no conclusive evidence yet, but I do feel like it’s a distinct possibility. Since you have Linia with you, it might not be a bad idea to test it out and see. What do you think?”

Perhaps smell was another source of Orsted’s curse, which meant we’d need to work on doing something about his scent as well. If Cliff was onto something here, we could use some kind of deodorizer to completely suppress his curse. That meant testing to see if perfumes and the like could overwrite his natural smell. A dash of floral cologne, and his scent and the curse could be neutralized. He’d smell nice and pretty wearing that big helmet over his head. Mm, yes, it painted a disturbingly bizarre picture.

“In that case, I’ll do a little research into that,” I said.

“Right. On that note, it’d probably be best if you could get an Adoldia to help out. I hear their noses are the most sensitive.”

So we needed a dog for this rather than a cat, hm? I wondered how Pursena was doing. Had she managed to become the village chief?

“If we’re looking for a keen sense of smell, hm…” I stroked my chin. “It might be a good idea to test this out with all sorts of races, not just beastfolk.” It was said that non-human beings could perceive a different range of colors. Most of the humanoid races in this world didn’t seem all that different from one another, but even so, there were demon eyes that could perceive mana. If we researched the differences between races, we might be able identify the cause of the curse right down to the specific particle responsible.

“You make a good point, but even among beastfolk and demons, there are a bunch of different subraces. It would be a difficult task to gather them all.”

“True enough,” I agreed.

The population of Sharia was quite diverse, in part because the University of Magic accepted all students regardless of race. Though that wasn’t to say that you could find someone from every single race here. People came and went rather quickly. We would have to round up individuals from even the rarest subraces, test them one by one, and use that data to pin down a central cause, which would be dizzyingly overwhelming. Of course, that was the nature of research—testing one variable after another until you’d narrowed it down.

“In any case, we can’t make any progress before we gather test subjects,” I said.

Cliff nodded. “Yeah. Though, I can’t really go anywhere, and I’m no good at drawing people in anyway.”

Which was true: Cliff definitely lacked communication skills. Not that I was one to speak.

“We need someone popular. Someone who can draw people to them without effort…”

Naturally, our gazes were drawn to Linia. True, she had a habit of attracting shady characters, but at least she could reel people in. Plus, the more people she drew in, the more would naturally want to sign up. Rather than selectively gathering only what we needed, we could widen our sample size to begin with and lower the risk of missing out on anything.

Of course, having more people would lead to more problems. There were always going to be bad apples. Sometimes, people who wouldn’t normally do wicked things on their own might feel emboldened in a crowd and go on to commit heinous acts. A group of people with no one to lead them were no better than a bunch of hoodlums.

In the past, Linia had managed to tame the other delinquents at the university and bring them under her heel. To me, that showed leadership potential.

“Wh-what’s this all about, mew? Y-you two planning to gang up on me-ow?!” Linia squeaked. She had been lounging in the corner of the room, yawning to herself, but the moment she felt our eyes on her, she jolted.

But how would we go about this? Sure, Linia could effortlessly draw people to her, but we could reel people in more efficiently if we had something to bait them with. And what usually made people come together? Money. Where there were profits to be had, people tended to congregate.

What about an event with prize money? No point, because the crowd would only be temporary. So, a business then? Though then we would need funds to start out with. I could use my own finances for that, even though that seemed to defeat the purpose, but if I considered it an investment, it didn’t seem so bad.

Ah! That’s it! I realized. We could use the people we brought in to help with Orsted’s work—or mine, rather. 

Thinking on it more, it had been exhausting to do everything by myself. Having an organization to provide support sounded quite promising. And not just that—they could take on the simpler jobs for me as well. We could help three or four people at a time, instead of just one. That would make the future easier on Orsted. It was possible the Man-God might try to interfere by manipulating one of our members, so we couldn’t entrust any of the truly important tasks to them. But since I was under Orsted’s patronage, it wasn’t so easy for the Man-God to interfere with any organization I ran from the shadows.

But what about when I didn’t have any work to do? Having a bunch of extra mouths to feed would be a big financial drain. I’d have to hand out work assignments one by one. How should I go about that? Hire them out as temp workers to other places when we didn’t need them? Nah, Orsted had plenty of money. Perhaps it’d be best to operate like a general trading company; we could invest in people with talent and make them do all kinds of odd jobs.

I wondered if Linia would be able to manage all that. My guess was “Not likely.” Someone would have to be hired to support her. Someone good with numbers. I had the perfect person in mind…and I had something else to talk to them about while I was at it. This was perfect.

“Linia,” I said.

“Wh-what is it, mew?”

“Starting now, you’re going to be recruiting people for us.”

Linia tilted her head. “Recruiting them for what, mew?”

“Good question. We’re going to bring together like-minded people to do all sorts of odd jobs—business sales, mercenary work, you name it.”

“A-and how are we gonna fund that, mew?”

I thumbed my chest. “I’ll provide the initial funds. Those who successfully complete missions will have a bit skimmed off the top as a fee. A portion of that will come back to me to repay the initial costs.”

If that wasn’t enough to cover it, then I could always explain the circumstances to Orsted and ask him for support. Depending on how things went, we might even look to Ariel for financial assistance.

Linia blinked at me, clueless. “Uh? O-okay then, mew. So where are we gonna gather these people?”

“I plan to start preparing a location now.”

“Now? You sure this is gonna end well, going into this without any kinda plan, mew?” Linia pulled a face, neither entirely opposed to the idea nor convinced.

Make no mistake, I didn’t think it would be all smooth sailing. We could begin by recruiting around ten people, most of them probably beastfolk. If we could make good use of them, we should be able to bring in some decent profit. We might be able to find someone with a talent for business to sell our Ruijerd figures in the process.

“There’s no way of knowing whether it’ll go well or not till we give it a shot,” I assured her.

“Personally, I’d really don’t wanna add to the ridiculous debt I’ve already got, mew…” Linia frowned anxiously.

It was no surprise that her first failure weighed on her, but she couldn’t keep earning the bare minimum, living the rest of her life as my slave. If things stayed the way they were, my family really would fall apart. I really would have to resort to using magic to leap back through time if that happened.

“Better put your back into it to make sure that doesn’t happen,” I warned her.

“Urgh…” Linia still didn’t look entirely pleased, but she nodded in agreement in the end.

***

We stopped by a real estate agent on our way home and purchased a building to use as our office. It was rather small, and in a poor location, but right now all we needed a roof over our heads to serve as our headquarters. The price was what you would expect, and I planned to count it off as a business expense. I currently had Aisha cleaning the place.

“This’ll be our base of operations for now,” I said.

“Gotcha, mew.”

I really hoped to recruit some good employees to our new business soon. We needed someone to organize documents and oversee paperwork. Sadly, there was a chance we’d have to dismiss them if they got hit with Orsted’s curse, so we had little choice but to hire those who’d be expendable.

“These are our current funds.” I handed Linia the equivalent of ten Asuran gold coins, which was more than enough to jumpstart a business in Ranoa Kingdom.

“W-wow… Y-you’re really gonna give me this mewch?” Linia’s eyes lit up as she fixated on the money.

It was just like casting pearls before swine, or in this case, gold coins before a cat. They had high value, but giving them to an animal oblivious to that value was pointless. Perhaps the takeaway was that trying to teach an impulsive creature the value of money would only lead to them impulse spending, so it would be best not to hand over the money at all. At least, that’s how I interpreted it.

“Heh…hehehehe. Boss, I’ve got your back, mew. With this much cash in hand, I swear I won’t fail you, mew. This time I won’t screw things up, mew.” 

Great. Linia’s eyes had turned into solid dollar signs. Now I was the one feeling anxious. Handing her such a fortune was probably a bad idea, wasn’t it? I had to leave on an assignment for Orsted shortly. By the time I got back, Linia might have doubled her debt somehow and be relegated to churning a giant hamster wheel in our basement. Or maybe Eris would decide to make her a pet for real and slap some kind of fancy collar or ribbon around her neck.

I had an idea how to prevent that from happening.

“Big Brother, I’ve finished the cleaning,” said Aisha.

Yes, indeed. It was Aisha’s time to shine.

“Aisha, I have a favor to ask of you.”

Aisha frowned. After a long pause she looked up at me and asked, “What?” From her sullenness, it seemed she was still sore about the conversation we’d had the other day.

“I’d like you to watch over Linia for me. Make sure she doesn’t use that money I gave her on anything stupid, and while you’re at it, provide support so she doesn’t royally mess anything up.”

“…I have housework to do back home, though.”

I nodded. “And that’s why you don’t have to do it all the time. Checking in once every few days will be enough.”

Aisha stole a couple of glances at Linia. “Do I really have to?” 

After what happened the other day, she probably wasn’t keen on the idea of working together again. Her reluctance made me worry about Linia’s ability to gather people, but…hey, even the Rafflesia flower has no trouble gathering insects to it.

Now… while Aisha was reluctant to honor my request, I had a good reason for entrusting this to her.

“You absolutely don’t have to do it,” I said. “But I do think it would be best if you did.”

“Why? Because I was the one who said I wanted to make her a maid to begin with? Or is it because you think it’s my fault the mood in the house is so gloomy?” Aisha grumbled.

I knelt down to meet her gaze. She normally looked me in the eye, but today she kept turning away. “That’s not it,” I told her.

She pursed her lips.

“It’s just…when you realized that Linia was a big screwup, you immediately tried to get rid of her, didn’t you?”

“Yeah, because she’s absolutely useless. I figured it’d be best to get rid of her before she caused any more damage.”

Linia was standing in the periphery, looking hurt by the conversation. I ignored her.

“But if we flip that around, we could also say you weren’t able to properly draw out Linia’s real talent,” I said.

“…Yeah. I was the one who taught her the work, so I guess so.”

“Which means,” I continued, “it was your failure.”

Aisha’s eyes widened for a moment, but her expression soon turned indignant. The look in her eyes seemed to say, I haven’t failed at anything! Perhaps I didn’t word it well enough.

Erm, let’s try this again…

“You see, Aisha, I don’t think it’s right to immediately discard someone simply because they did something wrong.”

Aisha shrugged. “Yeah, I know. I think that part of you is pretty amazing, too.”

“Thank you. And that’s why, while I realize I’m forcing that ideology on you by saying this, I don’t want you to be the kind of person who abandons people in the future.”

Aisha was a capable girl. Moreover, she was a genius, which meant she could do anything she put her mind to and do it well. Unfortunately, it was for that very reason that she had a hard time understanding people that weren’t as competent as her.

My future self’s diary told me that Aisha stuck by me until the very end, but the future had already changed in the present. Perhaps she would eventually leave and try to find work elsewhere. I figured she’d have no trouble making it out there, but I didn’t want her to be a nasty piece of work who cut everyone off if they couldn’t do everything perfectly. She would just wind up ostracized, a black sheep. Or worse, it could encourage someone else to try taking her down a peg.

I wanted Aisha to learn her lesson before any of that happened. I didn’t know that lesson was, exactly, but it was definitely something she could only learn by associating with others.

“Can’t I convince you to start over from the beginning with Linia one more time, as equals?”

Aisha glanced between Linia and me. Then she closed her eyes. One second passed, then two. She spoke not a word, as if lost in thought.

“Are you asking this for my sake?” Aisha finally asked.

“That’s my intention… Although honestly, I do think that with you supporting Linia, we can at least avoid the worst possible outcomes.”

“All right. Thank you for being honest.” She opened her eyes, gazing at me anxiously. “Say, Big Brother, if I refuse…would that make you hate me?”

I shook my head. “Of course not. If you really don’t want to do it, it’s fine if you refuse.”

Aisha timidly reached for me. When I opened my arms in turn, she wrapped her arms around me and squeezed tight.

“Okay,” she said. “If it really means that much to you, I’ll give it my best.”

“Thanks.”

Despite how arrogant I must have sounded, I didn’t think I was wrong. This would be good for her; surely she’d learn something hopping into a new line of work with Linia. And that, I thought, was wonderful. Or I want to believe it will be, anyway.

Totally off-topic, but boy had Aisha’s breasts grown without me noticing. She had to be somewhere around a D-cup. Her back was so tiny, but her chest was so voluptuous. I guess she is what they call busty petite. With a little bit more volume, they’d be about the same size as Lilia’s. Not that it mattered, of course. She was my little sister.

“Thank you,” said Aisha.

“No, I should be the one thanking you for listening and letting me explain.”

“I’ll do anything you tell me to.” Aisha grinned mischievously pulled away. At least her smile was still the same. She beamed at Linia as well and extended a hand. “Well, there you have it. Let’s give it our all!”

“You got it, mew!”

The girls exchanged a firm handshake. Things hadn’t gone well the last time they were boss and subordinate, but I hoped they would forget the past and make things work this time.

Before we finished, I explained the gist of my plan to Aisha as well as my hopes for its future. Then, we adjourned.

In the meantime, though… I can only pray that I don’t come home to anything too horrible.