Chapter 52

When I got back to the store, there was a large crowd of customers gathered. It wasn’t as big as the crowd from this afternoon, but the 2 employees were very busy.

“Welcome back, Boss!” [Carm and Carla]

“What an amazing crowd…” [Leelin]

“This is the owner’s store? It’s really doing well.” [Fei]

“I’ll help them out. Carm-san, Carla-san, I’ll help. Let’s deal with the customers first.” {Ryouma]

“I’ll work too, Boss. I can at least carry stuff.” [Leelin]

“Me too. I can at least carry the laundry.” [Fei]

“Thanks! Don’t push yourselves too hard, though. Just do what you can.” [Ryouma]

They offered to help themselves, so I won’t hold back. Fei-san was supposed to be just a receptionist, but it seems he can work a little too.

Like this we dealt with the lunch rush of the customers, and we were somehow able to finish everything by our closing time.

After hanging the closed sign in front of the store, I closed the store for the day.

“Fuu… Good work, everyone!” [Ryouma]

“You too, Boss!” [Carm, Carla, Fei, Leelin]

“Ryouma-sama, are they the new hands you employed today?” [Carm]

“Yes, the man is Fei-san and the woman is Leelin-san.” [Ryouma]

“My name is Fei. It’s nice to meet you.” [Fei]

“My name is Leelin. It’s good to meet you.” [Leelin]

“I am Carm Norad.” [Carm]

“I am Carla Norad. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” [Carla]

“You were supposed to start work tomorrow, but you ended up working today instead.” [Ryouma]

“You’re also providing us a place to stay, so this much is a given, I believe.” [Leelin]

“Helping out when it’s busy is only natural. That being said, there’s something I’d like to ask.” [Fei]

“What is it, Fei-san?” [Ryouma]

“We carried a lot of laundry today, but when did you wash them? We just put the laundry we got from the customers into the wall, and then retrieved them from the slimes.” [Fei]

“Oh, right. I still haven’t explained to you how we wash clothes here yet.” [Ryouma]

After giving them the usual explanation regarding the cleaner slimes and the goblin loin cloth, the two was able to understand. Moreover, after seeing how busy the store was today, they were able to confirm with their own eyes what the guild master meant when she said that my store was promising. When I told them that today was actually the store’s opening day, they were shocked.

Even in my previous life, the only place I could think of that could attract so many customers on the opening day is probably… a pachinko parlor, at most. Anyway, it’s really weird in this world for a shop to attract so much customers on its opening day. But after talking to the customers, I was able to figure out what made the store so popular. Apparently, the adventurers had spread rumors of the store.

The adventurers who participated in the goblin subjugation told their adventurer friends, families, and even the general public about my laundromat. And then Pauline-san and her friends spread even more rumors themselves. Other than those two major sources, there were also people who found out about the store from other places.

“Laundry here is very affordable, so there were plenty of people who wanted to try it this morning.” [Ryouma]

“Then the people who tried it in the morning told others of their experience, and people came in droves in the afternoon to experience the store for themselves. It seems this situation is likely to continue for a while.” [Carm]

Even though there’s no phones or twitter, word of mouth is still really powerful. I may have underestimated it a bit. Or maybe it’s just not a good idea to just casually use what I could to promote my store… But, no… Having a lot of customers is a good thing.

Well, putting what’s done aside, since we finally have time for a breather, maybe I should heal Fei-san’s legs.” [Ryouma]

“Carm-san, Carla-san, can I ask for your to take care of the rest?” [Ryouma]

“Of course.” [Carm and Carla]

“Thank you very much. Then the two of you please come with me.” [Ryouma]

I led Fei-san and Leelin-san to the store’s break room, where I asked them to sit and wait for a while. A little later i came back with 2 heal slimes.

When I told them that the heal slimes could use High Heal, they were shocked, but were nonetheless thankful if Fei could be healed.

I ordered the two heal slimes to heal Fei, and Fei’s leg was completely healed. Fei had broken his leg, so it took 3 casts each slime to fully heal his leg, totaling to 6 casts of High Heal all in all.

“Thank you. I’m glad that my leg is finally healed. Thank you. Really.” [Fei]

“Normally, it would cost a lot of money to ask a healer for treatment. Are you sure it’s really okay for us to receive your help for free.” [Leelin]

“It’s my job to make sure that the employees can work efficiently. If it’s something I or my slimes could do, then there’s no need to charge for it. That’s why it’s okay to make this treatment free.” [Ryouma]

There’s a healer in town who can use intermediate healing magic, but because of the skill and mana required to cast such a spell, it costs quite a bit of money to ask him to cast his spell once. For something on the level of a broken bone, which would require more than just one casting, the price easily shoots up. Apparently, the reason Fei-san had been doing odd jobs here and there within the guild while refraining from receiving treatment from the healer was because he was hoping to heal his broken leg with time.

“If we’d left the country a little wealthier, we would have immediately been able to heal it with magic, but unfortunately, we already used most of our wealth as bribe just so we could leave.” [Fei]

“So that’s why you don’t have any money.” [Ryouma]

“The guards of our country’s borders are greedy. So long as you pay them, they’ll turn a blind eye to a crime and even someone fleeing the country. In the case you don’t have money, they’ll catch you and hand you over to the country to get the reward, so we couldn’t not pay them. And if we tried to cheap out on the bribe, then if the reward was higher, we would either be caught or it would become very difficult to run.” [Fei][

“Because of the kind of jobs we did in the country, if others found out, our reward would be much a higher than a normal person’s. Because of that there are people who catch normal people, hoping that they’d turn out to be our sort of people that would net them a huge profit. Because of that people who run usually pay up with almost everything they have. There’s no point trying to save money when your life is on the line.” [Leelin]

Fei-san and Leelin-san quietly spoke.

Zilmar sure sounds like a dangerous country… They also mentioned that plenty of wars are being fought in it. I wonder if the country is going to be destroyed soon.

After talking with them for a bit, I alloted Fei-san and Leelin-san their rooms, then I let them sort out their luggage in their respective rooms.

After that I went back to the store and listened to Carla-san’s report regarding our store’s earnings.

“Today we earned 791 medium copper coin and 8 small copper coins, totalling to 7,918 suits.” [Carla]

I asked the two pros how this sort of income compares to other stores, and apparently, the daily income of a medium-sized store without any noble customers is about 4,000 suits.

Today’s income was quite shocking even after subtracting the expenses incurred. It was even more shocking when you realize that this is actually the store’s income for its opening day.

“What amazing profits!” [Carm]

“At this rate, we might be able to equal the profit of a large store without any noble customers!” [Carla]

“How much would that be daily?” [Ryouma]

“About 20,000 suits. More than that and it’s hard to categorize them. After all, once the nobles start getting into the picture, the income of a store shoots up. Being able to sell a high-class item just gives so much profits even after subtracting expenses.” [Carm]

“There’s also a lot of people who love to splurge their money on excessively luxurious goods.” [Carla]

“I see… Well, in our case, nobles probably won’t come into the equation, so if we could make 2.5 times tour income today, then we should be able to make the same income as a large company.” [Ryouma]

“Considering how much we made today, we might be able to achieve just that within a month. The adventurers guild still haven’t come and we’re also likely to get more customers.” [Carla]

“In fact, there might come a time when our income in a day is more than a medium gold coin.” [Carm]

“Ha ha ha, that’s probably impossible.” [Ryouma]

A medium gold coin is 50,000 suits. There’s no way…

“It’s possible!” [Carm and Carla]

Huh? Really?

“This is a miner’s town. There are plenty of miners and people engaged in the steelworks industry. Although there are less people today compared to before due to one of the mines being abandoned – or at least that’s what I heard – but even then, there should still be about 10,000 people.” [Carla]

“Those customers won’t just bring one bag when they get their laundry cleaned. Although it might be difficult to get a medium gold coin regularly, but it should still be possible if for example the adventurers guild were to come with a big job.” [Carm]

“I see…” [Ryouma]

So in other words, it might be possible occasionally.

“Moreover, if Ryouma-sama builds a branch store in another town, reaching that daily medium gold coin income shouldn’t be difficult.” [Carm]

“You’re already thinking of a branch store? That’s too fast.” [Ryouma]

“Perhaps, but there’s no harm in thinking.” [Carm]

“If we can get our hands on some trusted workers, building a branch store should be a trifling matter.” [Carla]

Well, it is true that we made so much today even though it’s our first day. But let’s put that aside for now. Right now what we should be doing is testing the waters and seeing how things go.

“Oh, right. I forgot. Here’s the resume of the two new workers that I hired.” [Ryouma]

“We’ll look into it.” [Carm and Carla]

The twins started treading the resume I gave them.

“You said it’s enough to pay the employees a liveable wage, but they’re also going to be working as bodyguards, so please give them a bigger salary. MAke it 150 suits a day.” [Ryouma]

“You two have experience in the military? That’s reassuring.” {Carla]

After that I exchanged greetings with the four and went back to the lodging.

When I got back, I reported to Reinhart-san and Co.

When they heard how much I made, they were shocked.