Chapter 10: Start Of Business
(A/N: First of all, I would like to apologize to everyone for not updating since the 5th of September, I'm currently busy because I'm trying to apply for a job, anyways, here is chapter 10, rushed because I said, I'm busy this month, perhaps I can still update two or one times per week, depends on my free time, I'm also thinking of starting a new series which is an alternative history book and with some references here and there, but I'll try to reach 20 chaps with this novel first. Thank you for your understanding readers! Also, I rewrote some parts of chapter 9, specifically the slave topic since I messed up with the numbers and specific hehe)
By the time Yozora received the slaves, it was already past noon to his annoyance, That day also, he had to brief and train everyone here and there, The young brown-haired girl who was good at math was Anne Schmidt, she was a fast learner and got the hang of how things were supposed to work as a clerk she was a scholar candidate in her village before getting accused of murder, which according to her, she did not commit and later was arrested and punished into slavery without trial.
The elf however was difficult to teach, Yozora had to spend a lot of time so she could get used to her job, The green-haired elf was Edea Olaris, she was a former mercenary who participated in a war and was caught, now she needed to spend her few years in slavery to earn her freedom, but that few years were not that long for elves who lives far longer than humans could imagine.
There were also four beastmen in total, two were young and in their early teens, the two beastmen had the features of a brown bear, they had the body and face of a human, but their round bear's ears, thick brown hair, and cute round and small tail betrayed their human appearance, they were also very strong thus they will be deployed in the storage to move products or cargos, the two was siblings named Oars and Mars.
And finally, the last two beastmen were former soldiers in a foreign country, they were caught in a local war and were turned into slaves. One of them was Ursula who was an aspiring knight, adept in the art of the sword, his body was covered with scars even on his face, he had the features of a dog, his ears hung low, his hair was all black and was quite tall and muscular too.
The other one came from a wolf tribe and was conscripted into the war, his name was Hunter, her hair and fur was color white, his body was buff and the face of a veteran despite him being in his early 20s. Yozora had to buy the two armors, they specifically chose light light armor such as leather with a chest plate. Ursula also chose a long sword as his weapon and Hunter chose a war axe since it was his favorite weapon and was skilled in it.
Yozora also had to buy them some clothes which caused him additional expenses, he also assigned them to their respective rooms on the second floor, in each room two were occupying, Anne and Edea were roommates since mixing them with males might prove to be a problem in a matter of privacy and more.
That day and night, Yozora was busy giving instructions to his new employees, he also made his price tags, he already made minor calculations on how much he would sell his product, his main goal was to earn gold and silver since copper would not sell well in his original world, he also inspected the gold coins and silver coins, then smelt them into bars before selling them since they might suspect it's origin with the strange letters inscribed in the coins, although they will most likely ask as to where did he get the silver and gold bars, they can't really accuse him of theft without any evidence, and gold was mainly controlled by the bank and elites so him stealing it from those people was impossible.
At the end of the day, silver is silver and gold is gold, pawnshops, banks or investors will buy them since they are always in demand.
...
The sun shone brightly as the morning came, the town of Vallas was once again awake, the people were busy doing their everyday routines, shops had begun to open, farmers started to tend their fields and the main street was beginning to bust with activities once again, but today was special, in a specific shop in the main street, a long line of people can be seen, garnering looks from the local populace, Yozora step out of his shop, he was surprised with how long the line was, but with the party, he threw off a day before, it was no surprise since the expectations were quite high for his wares.
He then finally flipped a wooden sign where it said [OPEN], In the next moment, people began to enter the shop one after another while others waited outside with Ursula and Hunter guarding the double door for security and inspections since some might steal some wares, and with strong sense of smell and instincts, they are more than capable of doing the job.
Yozora entered inside and helped Anne and Edea who were getting overwhelmed little by little with customers, Thankfully, the people were smart enough not to push here and there so no chaos ensued.
...
In the recent week, there was a buzz regarding a new store which sells products ranging from food, spices and even luxury products such as perfumes and soap, they sound nothing new, but what was interesting about the store which is called The Old Bard's Convenient Store is that they said to sell their products for affordable and reasonable price, what's more, their products was praised by the big three elites of the town which was Father Claudio and the other two guild masters of the adventurers and merchant guilds.
Ruben was one of the curious common folk who heard of the new shop, he was a simple government employee working for the Lord Mayor of the Vallas Town, he was curious whether these rumors were true, it is said the owner was also a summoned "Japanese" though the man repeatedly denied it.
It was early in the morning when Ruben went out just to buy food and spice in the rumored shop, to his surprise, when he got there despite being this early, he could already see long lines waiting for the store to open, with further ado, he stepped into the line.
After some more minutes, the owner, a handsome black-haired man opened the double door of the shop and flipped a [OPEN] signage signaling the shop's official opening, the lines of people slowly poured into the shop, and two beastmen guards decently armed were guarding the doors and constantly checking on costumers if some of them steal goods, though the costumers were sane enough to not get the ire of a person that is personally protected by the Church.
After 10 minutes, Ruben was able to go inside the shop, as he went in, he couldn't help but marvel at the sight of rows upon rows of shelves full of various products varying from food, spices, hygienic products, and more, the packaging was also very alien, he couldn't understand them, but thankfully, there was signage that introduces the products, how do they work, etc.
Ruben then headed to the [Food Section], There, he stumbled upon strange products inside a strange packaging that had words that he couldn't read except for the visual design which highlighted a seemingly soup dish, he read the signage and the product was called [Instant Ramen], a type of soup with noodles and various ingredients such as dried vegetables and fish, he also saw the price differs in the flavors and sizes.
Ruben was specifically attracted to the beef and shrimp flavor, so he first checked the price of it, both beef and shrimp flavors cost 15 coppers each, it's quite pricy for a common man, but if the rumors were true that this product indeed had such mysterious flavor, then it was definitely more than worth it and the price was reasonable too, Ruben then proceeds to buy two for each flavor, he then headed to the [Hygiene Section] as he plans to buy soap and other strange products.
In that section, he saw rows of products from soap, shampoo, toothpaste, toothbrush, etc. He then picked up two pieces of soap and put them in the basket an employee gave him so he wouldn't struggle to hold them all together, The soap only cost 12 coppers which was cheap because the nobility uses soap that costs an average price of 3 silver.
He also can't help but sniff the soap, it has a rosy smell unlike the soap he used that is made from animal fat and whatever abdominality the alchemists put in it. He also bought two shampoos that cost 10 copper each, Ruben glanced at the goods he chose today, but before he could go to the shop cashier, he saw the [Medicine Section] which piqued his interest, disease was common in this era, a simple fever can kill you since only people that have enough money can buy medicine from the Alchemist Guild, they also often extort too much money, meanwhile the peasant and serf class, having a fever or any kind of disease or injury can be a death sentence.
Arriving at the section, he also saw many people buying medicines, he also saw a signage that customers can only buy up to five pieces of medicine since the supply is said to be scarce, Ruben began to scurry for the medicines, there were so much of them, some of them he can't understand especially the alien terms, after spending around two minutes looking, he finally saw something might be useful.
The [Paracematol Tablet] can cure an individual with a fever, There were also additional instructions as to what to do when an individual has a fever and what actions might help to cure or at least ease their fever.
Ruben quickly took five of them, putting them in the basket before finally, the cashier began to scan and calculate the price of the items he bought.
The cashier, which is an elf to his surprise smiled at him, "This is all for 2 silver and 29 coppers Sir."
Ruben then brought out the amount from his pouch, The purchase was quite expensive, but he could also how useful it could be if the rumors were true, but if all of it were a lie, then his wife would kill him.
During that day, Yozora and his employees were busy tending to the customers and bringing more items that were sold out, but first of all, Yozora was smiling all day, happy that his business was a massive success!