Chapter 63: Business Development

“It’s been way too long! My customers wouldn’t quit bugging me about stocking more of your dried goods...”

“I’m sorry about that! But we have more employees now, so we’ll be putting out much more product!”

“Ohh, that’s good to hear!”

“Allow me to introduce the new workers. They’ll be coming by for deliveries from now on, so please keep an eye out for them!”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you!” the three newcomers chimed in to greet the customer in unison, as I had already introduced Mine and Aral.

.

Three days after getting back, I had started delivering and selling processed goods again. I needed to prepare the goods and train the newcomers, so I couldn’t just resume operations the day after my return. On the first day, I took the kids with me to go see our clients in order to apologize for our long absence and explain our increase in product volume and variety. I introduced the new kids at the same time, since they would be going around visiting the shops on their own from now on. Kyoko accompanied us just so the clients could see her face, but since would be on the management side of things, she just smiled and bowed politely. There was no need for her to shout energetically like the children.

We explained that our production volume would be increasing, told them about our new product lineup, gave them samples of our new and improved products as an apology for our absence, then moved on to the next shop. We were only doing our public business with a handful of shops, so it wouldn’t take much time to get through them all.

Maybe we’ll start working with more shops once we start making more products.

“Reiko, can I ask you for a favor?”

“What is it?” she asked, after a moment’s pause. Reiko never agreed to anything without hearing the details first, even if it came from me or Kyoko.

“I want you to look into the shop that Mine and Aral were forced to work at. I don’t intend to mess with them or anything, but I want to make sure the kids are safe in case the owners bear some grudge against them. They probably ended up like the business that bought Lucy, but you can never be too careful...”

“Gotcha! Better safe and sorry!”

“You mean better safe than sorry!”

Sheesh, this girl...

“All right, then I’m off!”

With that, Reiko started heading toward the entrance. She was definitely the best person for this job. I was vulnerable to surprise attacks and quick-moving enemies, plus I only had the travel speed of a normal human, even when riding Hang. Meanwhile, Kyoko was just a girl without her ship. As such, this was the fastest and safest way. There was a right person for every job, and Reiko knew that too. That was why I could ask her for help so casually and knew she’d agree without a second thought. We shared a similar thought process as members of KKR.

“Thanks, I’m counting on ya!”

All right, next...

“Ellie, I want you to take Fria and Lucy with you to make a delivery. Just hand off the products, no need to accept any payment. I’m giving you a letter to go with it, so you won’t need to explain anything either. It’s just a delivery...to the lord’s manor.”

“A delivery to the lord’s manor is not ‘just a delivery!’” Ellie said.

She yelled at me...

“Well, you’re just handing off the goods to a servant at the service door at the back of the kitchen. It really is just a simple errand.”

She still didn’t seem totally convinced. To be fair, an orphan going to the lord’s manor was pretty unheard of, even if it was through the service door. It would have been one thing if it was to beg for leftovers, but they could be mistaken for thieves and get thrown in jail. That is, if they looked like typical orphans. The kids had been bathing and keeping up with their hygiene, and were dressed in normal attire. They wouldn’t get in trouble for visiting the manor to hand off a delivery from a legitimate business.

“Don’t worry. You’re not an ‘orphan’ now, you’re ‘Ellie the Little Silver employee.’ You’ll be representing me on an official visit from our shop. If anyone has a problem with that...they’re our enemy!”

“Yes, ma’am!” Ellie shouted as she stood up straight.

She’s really fired up...

It seemed she was now fully convinced, so that was good.

“I’ll be going now!”

“Yeah... Wait, wait, hold on just a minute!” I tried to call after Ellie, but she had already sped off.

Not only had I instructed her to take Fria and Lucy with her, I hadn’t even given her the package yet.

Well...I’m sure she’ll come back as soon as she notices...

When Ellie returned, I had Fria and Lucy accompany her and handed her the items for the lord: a variety of gifts as tribute, like dried goods, jerky, pickled goods, alcohol, candy, and more. Although they were just children, they could carry a good amount of cargo between the three of them. We were sending a lot of stuff, but it wasn’t more than they could handle.

“Oh, but if I only send the new kids, no one will know they work for me... Which means there’d be nothing stopping a bunch of thugs from robbing them...”

This is bad. This is really bad... I almost put the kids in danger. That was way too careless of me...

I had to make sure I didn’t overlook something like this again.

“I’ll go with...”

“That won’t be necessary!”

“Huh?”

It was Mine who had cut me off.

“We are already somewhat well-known in this city. We roamed around town in search of odd jobs every day, walked around trying to sell vegetables we got from farms, and held events to gather donations for the orphanage. The reason Aral and I nearly got harassed when we returned was because Aral is unknown here and I was deemed to be a mere vagrant with no affiliation or anyone at my back, with the orphanage gone. But now that our situation here is widely known, everyone will come to the logical conclusion that Ellie and the others are also affiliated with Little Silver, and understand that making enemies of us would be a very poor decision. However, I can accompany them just in case, to ensure there won’t be any problems whatsoever. At the very least, there’s certainly no need for you to go in person, Lady Kaoru.”

This might have been the first time Mine had spoken so much at once... Her arguments were logical, well-reasoned, and convincing. Not to mention, this was their very first important mission without a guardian escorting them, so it would give them a much bigger sense of accomplishment if Mine went instead of me. Plus, sending Mine meant Kyoko and I could play with Aral while they were gone. Kyoko loved playing with kids and hadn’t had the chance to spend time with Aral yet. Now that Reiko was gone, Kyoko’s “Shota Heaven” would become reality if I stepped aside for her.

“Approved!” Kyoko and I said in unison.

“Take that! And that, and that!”

“Kya ha ha ha!”

Kyoko and Aral’s horseplay just wouldn’t stop... She really seemed to love kids.

As for me, I was getting kind of pale. An hour had already passed since the newcomer trio including Ellie had left to deliver the tribute to the lord’s manor. A round trip to the manor wouldn’t have taken that much time, even for a group of kids carrying cargo.

I can’t take much more of this waiting!

“Kyoko, you stay home with Aral! I’m gonna go to the manor real quick!”

Aral and Kyoko watched me blankly as I flew out the door.

“Hang, get ready for an emergency deployment!” I called out to Hang, who was relaxing in a grassy field a short distance away. Then...

“Gear up!”

I pulled a saddle out of the Item Box and strapped it onto Hang. Time was frozen inside the Item Box, so the saddle retained the same shape it held while strapped to the horse. If it came loose or the ropes came undone, that wouldn’t have been possible. I put my feet in the stirrups, and I was ready to go.

“Destination, the lord’s manor. Off we go!”

“You got it!”

I won’t allow any funny business on my watch. Even if the Goddess lets it slide, I’ll...

“What about me? What about meee?!”

In the distance, I could hear Scary’s cry of sorrow... But I didn’t have time to sweat the little things!

First, I was going to head straight to the lord’s manor. Then I would know if something had happened on the way there or back right away. As soon as I knew that, I could break the series of events down and limit things further. After that, it would be time to bust out the detector. Trying to do a precision search over a wide radius would be far too inefficient, so I needed to get to the manor ASAP. I had my detector (potion container) in case I needed it, but if there was a quicker way to go about it, it would obviously be better to go with that other option first. I wanted to keep my trump card up my sleeve for when it was absolutely essential.

Meanwhile, Hang was totally hyped up about his...