Chapter 44: The Company and The Slave (2)

I arrived at the Commerce Guild.

The receptionist was a man who looked like he was a good young man.

「Excuse me. I want to hire a merchant with management skills, what should I do?」

「What kind of industry do you want to hire?」

「I want to entrust my future company to someone with chief skills. In other words, I want someone who is excellent in supervising so that I can entrust the management of the company to that person. I don’t have any issue even if it costs a little money.」

「That’s a very difficult order, but if you have a lot of money, then I don’t see a lot of problems. First, how much can you afford to pay?」

Money was the key after all.

I earned about 60 million as a lumberjack yesterday, so it was okay.

I would cut many trees tomorrow too and earn some more.

「How about 60 million? 」

The receptionist opened his eyes in surprise.

「Eh…It’s not needed that much, you know!? Actually, the slave you want costs about 20 million at most.」

It was surprisingly cheap.

No, regular humans wouldn’t be able to buy it.

I forgot. 20 million a year was quite high.

「Ah, is that the payment for a whole year? 」

I wondered if I had to pay per year or per month.

Having to pay 20 million per month would be too much. I would be in the red zone of my finances.

「No way. It doesn’t take that much for a year, does it? A decent sized company collapsed, and the daughter of the owner became a slave, but she was both beautiful and excellent, and her price became very high. Who would buy her now? Well, this is all rumors, anyway.」

A slave girl, huh. It sounded certainly convenient, but I thought 20 million with specs was quite cheap.

「Is 20 million expensive for a slave? I think that’s a good amount, though I’m not sure how the slave market works.」

「It’s outrageous. The price of an ordinary slave is 3 million at most. It costs money even after you buy a slave. For example, if the slave is unpaid, he or she will lose their motivation to work, and if you give them a reward, their overall cost will further increase.」

In other words, even if that person was a slave, the employment contract was quite strict. If the salary were cheaper or unpaid, the slave would could stop working altogether because his or her rights were forsaken. It was like a contract money*.

It didn’t seem to be as convenient as I thought, but it was not much of a problem.

「I want to buy that slave. Where should I go? And can I use the Decibator card?」

「It’s the slave shop just around the corner. You should be able to use the card, because it’s a big store.」

「Thank you very much. I will go now. 」

Apparently, the card worked on slaves too.

With that in mind, I opened the door of the slave shop.

「Welcome. What kind of slave are you looking for today?」

Unlike other stores, the clerk greeted me as soon as I entered the store.

Was it because the slaves were reasonably expensive products?

「Ah, I was looking for a slave with management skills. I heard you have a good slave. 」

「Do you mean the daughter of the owner from the collapsed company? How much is your budget?」

What kind of negotiation was this? I didn’t want to fall for that trap.

I decided not to tell him how much I brought with me. So I took a different approach.

「I can’t say how much I brought with me, but I heard that about 17 million is the market price for that particular slave.」

「You are 5 million short. 22 million is the real market price. Why don’t you take a look at the slave for the time being?」

The clerk placed something that resembled tea in front of me while talking.

Was it a strategy to take time deliberately in order to prevent me from paying a lower price? It may be effective for Japanese people. But did they also use this tactic in this different world?

This could become an overindulgence practice.

「Well okay. I won’t know her capabilities until I talk with her. 」

「This way please. 」

He guided me to a place that looked like a drawing room, where I could meet the slave.

She didn’t look like a slave at all. Her appearance was neat.

She was a little tall and had a good style.

Her bust was plump.

However, such a thing had nothing to do with management, and it did not mean that her skills were great.

I decided to speak about the business for the time being. I decided that I would not use honorific words with her.

「As the owner of my company, I’m thinking of entrusting its management to you. What do you say about it?」

「Please let me do it! I’ve been studying just for that field! 」

Hmm, her reply was good.

There should be no problem with her motivation. The rest was all about her ability and the way she would cope with the demands of my company.

It was not an ordinary company after all.

「First, if you join my company, you will have to use the magic contract. This is absolute for the sake of confidentiality. Do you have a problem with it? 」

「I don’t have any problem! 」

Should I test her abilities?

It felt like a job interview.

I wanted to know her motive for aspiring to be the manager for my company… I didn’t want to ask several questions separately. Therefore, I decided to go the straight way.

「The company that I’m creating is different from the ordinary company. It’s a company for selling monster materials that I hunted or bought at Decibator at a lower price. Therefore, it feels different from an ordinary company, but is that okay with you? If that’s okay, how will you manage it?」

「I don’t think that your idea will work, though. First, there is a good reason why the monsters from Decibator are rarely coming here now. You must know that the journey is not worth the transportation cost except for magic stones and some particularly useful items. In addition, it won’t be enough to create a trading company to sell the hunted items by one solo adventurer. If you have a patent management at this point, you will just maintain the existing system without making much profit. In short, I don’t think your idea will be established as a company.」

Hmm.

I didn’t see any point for bankruptcy.

Well, I didn’t know if my idea was competent or not, and there was a possibility that it wouldn’t work at all.

「I am a special adventurer. The capacity of my item box is almost infinite. I mean, at least, I haven’t seen the bottom until now. During this time, I transported about 11 tons of food to Decibator in a single journey. Will this capacity, don’t you think my idea will work fine?」

「I would like to do it if that were true. 」

「I don’t think it makes sense for me to lie about it. 」

「But some people lie for no reason. I’d appreciate it if you could show me some evidence or something.」

Evidence…Huh.

「I have a Decibator transporter card, weighing over 275,000 kg. Can you believe it to some extent if you see my card?」

「Impersonation… You can’t do that. That’s death penalty, you know. But you can show it to me, anyway.」

「Well, I can also use the amount I have as a fund for the time being.」

I said those words and showed her the Decibator card. The face value was close to 80 million.

「That’s too much. I think it’s way too much from the story I’ve heard earlier.」

「If you agree, then, there is no problem. Excuse me. I’d like to buy her. Is it okay if I propose a 22 million payment as a set along with the magic contract?」

I spoke with the slave trader, the clerk of the slave shop.

「Yes, please show me your card. To be honest, I thought you wanted a bigger discount.」

Well, it shouldn’t be a problem for me to get only this small discount.

I gave him my card.

The face value of my card, after returning to me, showed exactly a 22 million reduction from my original value after touching the box.

As it was, I asked him to use the magic contract under the basic conditions such as “Do not take anything away, basically just obey the orders, keep secrets”, and left the store.

「Well then. Let’s go.」

「Yes. 」

I had to be in Decibator by tomorrow noon.

By then, I had to prepare the creation of my company.

「…Ah, that’s right. What’s your name?」

By the way, I didn’t hear her name before.

「I’m Mercia.」

Well, it had nothing to do with business.

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*Contract Money means amount to be paid by the contractor to the Department for raising/winning the “mineral” from the area allotted on contract.

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