Chapter 185: After Story III – Grown a Little? (2/2)

“Well, that’s true. Fortunately, laundry work is in season, so there’s more customers. The deodorizing liquid are also selling a lot better than expected.” [Ryouma]

“Oh, that stuff. Well, even the duke’s family is using it, so I guess it’s only natural that it would start gaining popularity even in other cities.” [Pioro]

And yet despite that I still haven’t heard of cheaper variants circulating the market.

Looks like the mysterious defect of the deodorizing liquid that makes it impossible for humans to dilute ended up as a boon to our store.

“To be honest, we make more nowadays from selling deodorizing liquid than we do from washing laundry.” [Ryouma]

“Oh, really?” [Pioro]

“With just our laundry service, the most we can make a day is a few small gold coins at most, but the deodorizing liquid easily makes twice that up to a two-digit figure. This trend is especially clearer for the second branch store.” [Ryouma]

“If that’s the case, then there’s no reason at all to rush securing the startup funds of your next store. Besides, just dipping your hand in a new field should be a big enough job by itself. That’s probably what that Carm kid was so concerned about. It’s no wonder that he’s not very receptive to your new ideas when you told him about them right after he told you that you were doing a good job.” [Pioro]

“I know the timing wasn’t the best, but ever since opening the store, I’ve been gradually getting a better understanding of how I should work. For example, just a few days ago, I spoke to the duke’s family about the various uses of the slimes, as well as various other stuff.” [Ryouma]

“Right. You did talk about that.” [Pioro]

Just like the knowledge and uses of slimes I shared then, I think one way for me to work, is to think up new businesses and propose them.

It wouldn’t be much different from my laundromat now. I would be essentially relying on the slimes to perform in various fields.

I think that this might be the best way for me to work.

Before starting my laundromat, there were three things that concerned me:

• Free time for my adventurer work.
• The experience of the manager.
• The ability to communicate with the customers and my subordinates.

The first of the three mentioned above is more of a desire thing, while for the second one, well, I had no experience whatsoever in being the manager of a laundromat. As for the third one, I did have experience communicating with customers and subordinates, but I was bad at it, and I still am.

…Fortunately, Carm-san is here to take care of the first store, while Carla-san is able to take care of the second store. Thanks to Serge-san introducing these two brilliant people to me, the three problems mentioned earlier have all been dealt with.

This is proof that as long as I have a skilled manager, I can leave most of the work to them.

Even without me around, the laundromat will operate just fine, and there won’t be any problems with the relationship between the employees either.

Serge-san did advise me regarding this point, but experiencing it for myself allows me a much deeper understanding.

But if that’s the case, then what’s left for me to do?

It’s no waste of effort to try and do what Carm-san and the others are doing, but if it’s just doing the same thing, then it would be much faster for me to just look for another person who could do the same jobs as efficiently as Carm-san and Carla-san instead of training myself.

Hence, the question remains.

As I thought about it to myself for awhile, eventually, the answer became clear. ‘I’m going to propose new businesses’.

In the first place, my original job was that of a system engineer. In other words, I used to ‘design’ systems.

I could use my experience as a system engineer to propose work and improvements that incorporate slimes.

Moreover, I could use my lack of this world’s common sense to my advantage, and provide an alternative point of view to the people of this world.

I could get everyone to help me understand this world’s culture and customs, as well as the feelings of the people here, and then I can use their input to help me design a more effect solution to any problem that needs solving. So to speak, I could propose a smoothly operating ‘slime workflow’.

Yeah, I think this might just be the best way for to make myself useful.

…When I told Pioro-san that – of course, without the system engineer part – he was able to understand.

“You have your own way of thinking, so I’ll support you. Just make sure not to push yourself.” [Pioro]

“Thank you very much. But everyone has already told me that, so I think I’ll be fine. And besides, I will first be focusing on increasing my laundromat’s branch stores. I won’t rush securing the capital anymore, but depending on how things go, I might ‘ask for a loan’.” [Ryouma]

“Oh?　You were strongly against it before. Did you change your mind?” [Pioro]

“A little.” [Ryouma]

I didn’t have any dealings with loans previously. And I also wasn’t sure if the laundromat would succeed or not, but looking back at it now, I think I might have been excessively averse to it due to fears of it becoming an ‘unpayable loan’.

But when I calmly think about it now, I think I can afford it. I’ll be in debt for awhile, but there will also be an increase income from the new store. If I can comfortably pay the debt on time, then expanding the store sooner will net me the most profits.

“I know I’m being rather selfish given how I was the one who refused the offer previously…” [Ryouma]

“It’s fine. We just met back then. And I also think borrowing money from someone you just met is careless.

That aside, seeing how you now understand that defending all the time isn’t always the best course of action, and that you sometimes have to take a risk to net the most profit shows that you’ve grown as a merchant.” [Pioro]

“If you put it that way, I guess that means I’ve grown a little. That puts a smile on my face.” [Ryouma]

While I was saying that, it suddenly occurred to me.

“It’s a bit late to be realizing this, but it just occurred to me that you mentioned something earlier about me coming at a good time? Did something happen?” [Ryouma]

“Oh!　I forgot. You know ‘that’ thing I talked about before? I just managed to get some. And by ‘that’, I mean that thing that’s normally used as food but can also be useful when you go to the Great Shurus Forest.” [Pioro]

“!!　Could you be talking about ‘that’?　Wasn’t it going to take some time?” [Ryouma]

“That’s what I thought, but I don’t know if you can call this lucky or unlucky, but due to some circumstances, well… I think it would be faster if I just showed you.” [Pioro]

I was really excited by ‘that’, but before going to other matters, we decided to first conclude the reason I came here, which was the contract of the slimes.

Entrusting the three slimes to the staff here is a priority.