The next day.
I woke up refreshed and went to the store before opening time.
“Good morning, everyone.” [Ryouma]
“Good morning, Boss.” [Carla and Carm]
“Good morning.” [Fina, Leelin, Fei, Maria, Jane]
“Thank you for yesterday. I was able to get a good rest as a result.” [Ryouma]
“That’s good to hear.” [Jane]
“It’s bad to work too much. Please take care of yourself.” [Carla]
“Boss, you work too hard. We were all shocked to hear how much you work.” [Leelin]
“Building this store in 10 days… That’s crazy talk. Leelin and I can’t do it. If you work that hard at your age, you’ll have an early grave.” [Fei]
“I’ll be careful.” [Ryouma]
“Please do that.” [Fina]
“Boss, you might act like an adult, but you’re still a child~” [Maria]
“Even an adult shouldn’t work excessively, you know?” [Jane]
It seems everyone in the store was also worried for me. I wasn’t really pushing myself all that much, though, since they’re around, but in any case, I’m happy that they’re concerned for me. I thanked them honestly and went to the kitchen.
“Shermsan, are you here?” [Ryouma]
“Yes, yes. Boss, what do you want?” [Sherma]
Shermsan was completely responsible for the store kitchen. She seemed to be making some kind of soup, as she was mixing something on a pot before I came in.
Shelmsan approached me before we continued talking.
“We went out of town yesterday to take a breather. I took the opportunity to hunt some monsters. I’d like to share them with everyone. The blood was drained from these as soon as I killed them, and then the meat immediately frozen, so they should be in good condition.” [Ryouma]
As I said that, I took the spoils out of my Item Box.
“Well, thank you. This is horn rabbit meat, yes? I’ll put them in the refrigerator for now and serve them to you and everyone later lunch.” [Shelma]
“Thank you.” [Ryouma]
As she said that, she stored the meet into the refrigerator.
“Oh, my. That’s a lot of meat…” [Shelma]
“I found a herd of horn rabbits, so I gathered them and then finished them off.” [Ryouma]
“It’s great we have this refrigerator. It’s really convenient.” [Shelma]
“Really? I mean, sure. I guess it’s convenient.” [Ryouma]
I have to cast cooling barrier once a day, though, so it’s actually kind of a pain. If I were a little better at barrier magic, I could make my barriers last longer, but alas…
Still, this is already a lot better than when I first started using barriers, and the longest one could last was about an hour.
“It is convenient. Normally, any ingredient you don’t use just spoils and gets thrown away. Vegetables maybe you can still keep them, but meat? There’s no saving that. If the weather is hot like in summer or just a particularly hot day, then the meat will spoil super fast. And some ingredients just spoil a lot faster than others. But with this refrigerator, we can just store the meat we haven’t used and serve them the next day. Thanks to that, we also get to save money.
I’ve heard there are magic tools out there that to do something similar, but they’re expensive, so getting one isn’t really feasible.” [Shelma]
“Ah, now that you mention it… When I was living in the forest, I just ate whatever I got for the day, and gave the leftovers to the slimes. so it was never really an issue for me, but I guess that’s also why people make preserved food.” [Ryouma]
“Slimes are also convenient. Animal bones and other food wastes usually need a lot of cleanup, but with the slimes around, they can just take care of it. They’re really a huge help.” [Shelma]
We talked like that for a while, then I recast the cooling barrier of the refrigerator and left the kitchen.
Carm-san and Carla seemed to have something they wanted to talk about, so they called out to me.
“You want to increase the number of employees?” [Ryouma]
“If it were just a normal store, then the current number of employees would be fine, but once we start putting up branch stores, we’ll need to fill them up with new employees. If we wait until then to start training the employees, we will be wasting a lot of time, so I would like to recommend that we start as early as now. At the very least, we should start training the branch store manager.” [Carm]
“Right… Well, if theres a capable person, then I don’t mind increasing our personnel. I also understand your concern regarding the training of the new employees. In the end, it seems I’ll have to leave everything to you and the others, but you’ll be needing another monster tamer, won’t you?” [Ryouma]
“Slime specialists are rare even in the tamer guild… Well, I hear that it’s because anyone can use slimes, but… Yes. As expected…” [Carm]
“In other words, The issue is whether we can trust the person or not…” [Carla]
“Speaking of which, you haven’t ran into those ruffians again, have you?” [Ryouma]
“Other than one time, no one has showed up again.” [Carla]
“…Well, let’s just keep an eye out for now. As for the monster tamer, I’ll ask the tamer guild or figure something out myself.” [Ryouma]
“We’ll leave it to you then.” [Carla]
After that I left the store.
“Fuu! Hmm… Hey, it’s Ryouma!” [Jeff]
I was thinking of going to the store again when I happened into Jeff-san along the way.
It’s rare to see Jeff-san without his armor. He didn’t have his spear with him either. Instead, he had his cheeks filled with some skewered meat as he walked toward me.
“Good morning, Jeff-san. Are you resting today?” [Ryouma]
“It’s exhausting fighting everyday. Are you working today too?” [Jeff]
“I’m about to do my rounds around the mine.” [Ryouma]
“The abandoned mine? You mean that place we hunted at?” [Jeff]
“Yes. I’ve been left in charge of that place, so I need to patrol it regularly and see if some monsters have made a nest there.” [Ryouma]
“You do that too? So, you’re an adventurer, a laundry man, a manager… Isn’t that too much?” [Jeff]
“The laundromat is being taken care of by other people, so I don’t have to do any work personally. As for being an adventurer, I’m free to work when I want. And as for the manager job, it’s not like I have to patrol every day. I’m planning to expand my store, so it might become a little busy, but it’s nothing I would could too much.” [Ryouma]
“Well, that’s good then… Oh, yeah. Want some? It’s my treat.” [Jeff]
As jeff-san said that, he handed me a bag of skewered meat.
“I’ll have one then… Mmm!” [Ryouma]
Tl Note: This chapter part and yesterday’s together counts for the extra chapter part for this week. Next TMPG chapter on Monday. Tomorrow, KmF.