I walked back to my house with a crowd of 14 people behind me.
When we finally reached my mansion, everyone’s mouth dropped open as they stared at the palace-like building.
Yes, yes, I totally understand your feelings.
For now, I led them to one of the largest rooms in the house. The first-floor living room of the main building. Everyone looked around with huge eyes, amazed by the luxury inside.
There were chairs in the living room, of course. But they were claw foot monstrosities that even I am reluctant to sit in. [6] Not to mention there were just too few chairs in this too huge room. In the end, I asked everyone to sit on the floor.
The floor is luxuriously carpeted anyway, so it should be fine for the time being.
It’s been a long time since I’d addressed so many people at once. The last time that happened was back in Japan at my company, [1] so I was a little nervous.
“Ahem, as mentioned. My name is Mukouda and I am the person who bought you all. I hope we can work well together from now on.”
I shifted back to the standard polite language [6] we Japanese normally revert to whenever we are nervous. The Tony and Alban families obligingly replied with a ‘We look forward to working with you’ while the former Adventurers bowed silently.
“[9] I am something of an Adventurer and Merchant myself. My Adventurer Ranking is S and, ahem, these are my familiars. I have introduced them to you earlier… this is Fer-”
“Umu, I am a Fenrir, follower of the great and venerable Wind Goddess Ninril. As you are the slaves of my masters. You are to follow my orders too.”
Wait, what’s all this about ‘follow my orders too’? Ah, the [8] civilian families seemed to have frozen up when Fer started speaking, while the former Adventurers [8] just looked a little stunned.
“Aah, well, that’s Fer the Fenrir. A lot of people seem to understand he’s a Fenrir but we don’t talk about it. So, don’t go around telling people about this, alright? [5] Just know that he’s a legendary beast and he exists but otherwise, just ignore him.”
“Hey, what do you mean ‘ignore’? Also, you forgot to say that I am the follower of great and venerable Wind Goddess Ninril!”
“Yes, yes, moving on. This is Dora-chan,”
“Gununu…”
“Anyway, Dora-chan is a Pixie Dragon. He might look small but he’s an adult dragon. He won’t grow any bigger so don’t worry about him [5],”
Dora-chan, who was flying around my head, paused to raise one paw in greeting.
“And finally, we have Sui,” I patted my leather bag. “Come out, Sui.”
Sui popped out of the leather bag and bounced around me adorably.
“This is my Slime. Her name is Sui, you can just let her be too.”
After this introduction, Teresa-san of the Alban family, showed the guts of a farmer as she raised her hand and said, “Erm, Master-sama, may I ask a question?”
Master? Oh, right. I am their master now. It feels really weird especially with the ‘-sama’ attached.
I just can’t get used to it.
“Ah, Teresa-san, it’s fine to call me Mukouda. For everyone else as well. Do feel free to call me Mukouda, it’s a little awkward to be called ‘master’… Anyway, what’s your question, Teresa-san?”
“Uhm, Master-sama…”
“Please address me as Mukouda, but do go ahead with your question.”
“If that’s what Master-sama desires. I shall do my best. For myself, it’s fine to just call me ‘Teresa’. My question is, what should we do about food? We can let the familiars be but… how should we arrange the food?”
It’s a valid question. [1] But…
“It’s fine to take care of my portion when you make yours. What I’d like for you to do is…”
I proceeded to explain what I had hired them for:
[4] “The women from the commoner family will handle the general cleaning of the main building. It’s quite big so just do your best and clean it in sections. Especially areas which we use most. [5] It’s fine as long as there is no visible dust.”
[4] “The men from the commoner family should take care of the gardens. General work like lawn mowing, tending to the flower beds, trees and so forth. It’s fine as long as the garden is properly maintained and looks good. You don’t have to exterminate every single weed or get rid of every single dead leaf on the lawn.”
“There’s also another job I’d like the Tony and Alban families to do for me… this is the reason I decided to, [9] um, hire special workers with very strict contracts. I have a unique ability that’s related to my skill and it’s imperative that no one in this room leak the information I’m about to reveal.”
At this reminder, everyone nodded.
“You know the soaps and shampoos sold at Lambert’s?”
Tabasa-san unexpectedly raised her hand, [3] “It’s a little expensive but worth it because of its nice scent. I have one myself.”
“Eh?! Sister bought such a thing?!”
“When did this happen?!”
“Shut up, I’m also a woman!”
Oh my, even a muscular woman is still a woman who likes soaps and shampoo. I had better interrupt before the siblings start a fight in my living room.
“Exactly, that’s the product I’m talking about, Tabasa-san.”
“Mukouda-san, as Teresa mentioned earlier, there’s no need to be courteous with us. Just call us without the ‘san’, we are your slaves after all.”
Everyone nodded seriously.
“I-is that so? Very well, I shall do that.”
Just as Tabasa-sa-, I mean, as Tabasa says it would be weird to address my slaves with ‘san’. [6] Since it’s like this, I have no choice. I’m not in Japan after all and should follow this world’s customs.
“Anyway, back to the earlier topic. I’m Lambert’s supplier and, in the interest of keeping my skill a secret as well as various other reasons,” [5] most of them being the tedious work of transferring things from plastic containers to locally made jars and crates, “I have decided to get some trustworthy help [5].”
[6] Everyone looked at me blankly. I still haven’t gotten to the point yet, have I?
Ugh.
“I guess it’s faster to show you rather than keep explaining,” I turned around and called up [Net Super]. [6] The blue window opened up as usual and I waved at it casually. “So, [9] erm, this is my Unique Skill. The [Net Super].”
Everyone was shocked. The commoners were amazed while the former Adventurers were muttering ‘what skill is that?’ to each other.
“With this, I can order different kinds of useful things from another world.”
“Another world? Apologies, Ma- I mean, Mukouda-san, are you a ‘Hero’?”
It was Bartel, the Dwarf who asked me. As expected of the oldest person among them. Moreover, he’s a B Rank Adventurer. It would not be strange for him to know all this.
“Oh, no, no, nothing like that. I’m just an ordinary person. An ordinary person who got caught up in a Hero Summoning Circle. I have no skill suitable to combat but I do have some other useful skills. Shall we see this skill in action?”
Seeing is believing after all.
[Gumihou: I deleted a lot of things. About 300 words worth]
[1] Structural Change: Combine 2 paragraphs
[2] Structural Change: Combine 3 paragraphs
[3] Structural Change: Combine paragraph & dialogue
[4] Structural Change: Change passive sentence to dialogue
[5] Delete Repetitive or Pointless Information
[6] Additional Information for Aesthetic Purpose
[7] Add Dialogue Tag
[8] Creative Licence Taken
[9] Awkward Dialogue is actually not easy to write without it being boring.
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