By the Grace of the Gods (LN) - Volume 2 - Chapter 22

Chapter 2 Episode 22: Store Setup 1

Monster Subjugation, Day 5 & Store Construction, Day 1.

“Ryoma, a little help, nya...”

During lunch break at the mines, Miya came over after I had received my meal and was resting. Behind her were Jeff, Asagi, Leipin and the others, and they were all covered in blood. I wonder what happened...

“Could you get rid of this blood for me? It smells so bad, I can’t stand it.”

“Is that goblin blood? Someone definitely went all-out again.”

I swiftly gave my cleaner slime the order to clean the seven of them.

“Ah, I’m finally clean... Ryoma’s cleaner slimes sure are useful.”

“A relief it is. It would have been quite a horrendous ordeal to fetch lunch in my previous state.”

“Honestly, Jeff’s work is so sloppy.”

“I already apologized...”

After the seven of them grabbed their lunches, we ate together and chatted. Apparently, they had eliminated a newly discovered goblin nest. They were survivors from last time, but the size of the nest was small enough for the seven of them and several others to deal with. The problem was after the subjugation. While they were cleaning up the corpses, Jeff had gone for the extravagant method of stabbing bodies with his spear, catching them on the tip and flinging them all to one spot.

“Though it accelerated the clean up efforts, the resulting pile was unstable. It collapsed as we were on the brink of returning.”

While they could evade the falling corpses, there was no evading the blood spray from them — Leipin even got hit directly by a falling body.

“It was a mess...”

“Damn right. If it weren’t for Ryoma, we’d have to eat our lunch and work the afternoon shift in that smelly state.”

“It really is amazing how you can remove goblin filth so easily.”

“Thank you very much.”

That was when I remembered I had yet to tell the seven of them about my laundry business.

“Speaking of which, do you recall how I mentioned doing a possible laundry service?”

“I do. What about it?”

“I’m going to be going ahead with that.”

“Oh, really? From when?”

“The store isn’t ready yet, so it’ll be some time in the future. The price will be as I mentioned the other day, 1 medium bronze coin.”

“Store? You’re going to have a shopfront?”

“I discussed it with a merchant acquaintance and decided on that. I’ve already registered with the Merchant’s Guild, and I was able to purchase land with some old bandit bounties. I’ll either hire employees from the guild or work with the merchant for some help, so I can continue as an adventurer too.”

“I see. It’s a surprise to see someone so young owning a store, but that should have been a given. I, and all the adventurers who know of your slimes’ abilities, of course, will definitely be using your service. Such an odd business will also spread like wildfire on the grapevine. If it flourishes, you may have trouble running it alone.”

“While it wouldn’t be impossible, he would lose time to work as an adventurer.”

“Indeed. The scale of my idea turned out larger than I expected, but I can continue to work as an adventurer, so it’ll work out. I’ll inform you of the opening date, so please come use the service. There’s also a discount offer for people who come in large groups.”

“Oh, really? Then I should invite someone along...”

“Ryoma’s already like a merchant, nya.”

“He had a polite manner of speaking to begin with, so it doesn’t feel out of place at all.”

We finished our meals while discussing things, then worked diligently into the afternoon.

■ ■ ■

“This here is your land, Master Ryoma.”

“It really is big.”

After work, I visited Serge’s place to check on the land I had purchased.

Before me was a two-story building standing on the verge of collapse, located on a plot of land slightly smaller than a kiddy baseball field. Roughly 20 meters by 40 meters, perhaps? Area-wise, it was probably larger than Serge’s store.

It looked smaller on the map, though...

“The pub that used to be here was also an inn, after all. There were guest rooms and a warehouse.”

“I see... and I can really do as I please with this?”

“Yes. As long as it’s within the land, you may act freely. Will you be starting work today?”

“Let’s see. I think I’ll weed the place and start on the demolition today.”

I took the scavenger slimes out of my Dimension Home and ordered them to eat the grass away from the building. That should take care of the weeding.

I kept an eye on the gradually dwindling overgrown grass as I put up a soundproof barrier around the building and demolished it bit-by-bit from the roof down. With all my caution for noise and safety, the neighbors shouldn’t be affected.

Once I destroyed the entire ceiling, I changed the side walls to dirt with Break Rock. After checking the ceiling rubble, ruined furniture, and the dirt of walls to make sure they were safe, I shoved them all outside and cleaned up the inside.

I dismantled the remaining framework and posts with Windcutter.

All my limited construction knowledge came from the simple tasks I did at my part-time job... or so it should have been, but I was bestowed with knowledge for my skill level when I came to this world so I could plan a simple building if I tried now. I also knew how to demolish something so that a building would fall in the right spots, making this extremely easy.

The architecture skill was amazing. Magic was so convenient.

In roughly one hour, half the weeds in the plot had been removed and half the building demolished, but it was getting late so I decided to head back.

For the record, Serge had been watching the entire time I was working, shocked at my number of slimes and tremendous amount of magic energy as I brute forced my way through the tasks.

■ ■ ■

Monster Subjugation, Day 6 & Store Construction, Day 2.

Today was the last day of the monster subjugation at the mines. So many things had happened along the way, but the guildmaster informed us all that the mission was complete with this.

However, I was to be managing this place in the future. Even if I got busy, I had to do it properly. At the very least, I should patrol once a week until I lived elsewhere. As I was thinking that, the guildmaster summoned me.

“Ryoma, come here for a minute.”

“Okay.”

“First up, good work today. Today’s pile of monster corpses is in the usual spot. With the completion of this job, you’ve been moved up to E rank. Also... I heard from the duke’s butler that you’re going to be managing this mine?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“I’m sure you’ll be fine, but be careful. If you’re short on hands, speak up anytime. Reporting that is your job too, got it?”

“Got it.”

“At any rate, I really am impressed by your determination for independence from the duke’s house.”

“I realized I was being spoiled too much by them, so I thought I’d pull myself together.”

“You’re still a kid, so don’t push yourself. Actually, about that... is it true you’re running a laundry service with your cleaner slimes for that purpose?”

“It’s true. Did you hear about it already?”

“It’s been spread quite a lot between the adventurers on this job, y’know? Seems like they’re all waiting for it to open. Most of them have piles of dirty clothes left lying around.”

“I’m glad to hear that. I’ll move faster constructing the store, so please wait a little longer.”

“Right. There’s one more thing I wanted to ask — could I use the service too? And how much does it cost?”

“Of course, anyone is free to use it. The cost is 1 medium bronze coin per bag, which is provided by the store. There are also two options for groups, which involve a discounted service.”

“Oh? Then I’ll gather the guild employees and ask if anyone else is interested. ...How much of a benefit will it be, speaking frankly?”

“Comparing the cost of one week’s worth of clothes between the individual option and the largest group option, it’d be approximately 20% cheaper.”

“By that much?”

“It was originally a job I came up with to earn the minimum living costs I needed between adventurer jobs, so I intended on making it cheap. The discount isn’t limited to first time customers and will be applied every time for groups, so it’d be a benefit to use the service as a guild.”

“In that case, I’ll have to talk to others even more.”

“Thank you for your consideration.”

Our conversation ended there, and I returned to town to finish demolishing the building.

Because the job at the mines ended before lunch, I still had time leftover after finishing all the weeding and demolition. The land foundations were still good, so now I had to decide on a building...

It was at this point that my gaze wandered to the front of the land, where I noticed several children were watching me.

“Do you need something?”

I called out to them gently, and a particularly young boy among the group answered.

“Never seen you before! Who are you, anyway?!”

“Hey, Rick! Don’t be rude!”

The hostile words made a girl standing next to the young boy scold him, and the oldest-looking boy bowed his head instead.

“Sorry for that. Rick is a bit of a brat. And sorry for disturbing your work.”

“Oh no, I was so focused that I didn’t notice at all. I’m almost done anyway, so it’s not a problem.”

Rather than that, I was more curious about these children’s ages.

Were they children? Could they be like that adventurer group, where the smallest was actually the oldest?

“Really? Thanks. You seem cool. You don’t look that much different in age to me, yet you can use magic so well.”

“Are you a magician, mister?”

“An adventurer?”

The group of kids fired one question after another. Their carefree and outspoken questions were a little overwhelming, but I would do my best to answer — when a woman’s voice called over them first.

“Calm down! The poor boy can’t answer if you all ask at once!”

I looked in the direction of the voice to see a woman of good physique standing there.

“Sorry if the children were bothering you.”

“They weren’t a bother at all, but thank you.”

“Hmm, you seem rather polite for your age. I wish my son would be the same. Are you an adventurer?”

“Yes, I registered just the other day.”

“I see. Well, do your best. Are you here on some job today? This empty lot’s looking clean for the first time in ages.”

“No, I’m preparing to open a laundry service here. ...Ah, sorry. My name is Ryoma Takebayashi.”

“I’m Pauline. This cheeky one is my son Rick, and that tomboy is my daughter Renny.”

“I’m Rick, currently accepting henchmen!”

“What kind of rubbish are you on about?! Sorry about him, I’m Renny. Nice to meet you.”

“I’m Thor, hello.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, I’m Ryoma Takebayashi. Are you all locals of this neighborhood?”

“Yeah, both these kids and my kids live in the residential area over there. And I own the florist next door.”

“Oh, then that makes us next door neighbors. I’ll pay you a proper visit at a later date, so I hope we can get along in the future.”

“It’s fine, don’t worry about that. Anyways, did you mention a laundry service? Will you wash clothes for money?”

“Yes.”

I took out one of the individual sized bags from my Item Box and gave a simple explanation.

“This is the bag for single households. It’ll cost 1 medium bronze for a bag of this size to be washed.”

When I said that, Pauline expressed her interest.

“1 medium bronze for this? That’s cheaper than I expected.”

“If you’d like, I can give you a free trial once the store is open. Since we’re next door neighbors.”

“Really? Then I’ll take you up on that offer.”

After that, I asked her about the local area before thanking her and going home.