One morning, a few days after the Hollow Bottom Chapter opened.

　When I woke up and left my room, I was taken aback by the odd silence in the living room.

　I couldn't help but be surprised at how quiet my house was.

　The living room, where the morning sun shines through, is filled with an almost uninhabited silence, and my every movement as I walk through the living room makes a louder noise than I expected.

'(Just the absence of Garnett makes such a difference: ......)

　As previously promised, Garnett was taking an extended leave of absence from Green Hollow to show up for a meeting at his parents' house.

　He was leaving before dawn, which meant he left town while I was still asleep.

　I wondered if I should get up at the same time to see him off, but I decided not to, as it wasn't exactly the farewell of this lifetime and it was too much of an exaggeration.

　As for Garnett's original role as my bodyguard - which I doubt is even necessary anymore - the Silverwing Knights are replacing it by increasing their patrols around the area during the holidays.

　Felix, the commanding officer, apologized to me for being less certain than a live-in escort, but it can't be helped since we can't afford to raise the manpower for that.

　It's not a good idea to have a newborn baby.

''(Hmm?)　(That's ......)

　I was about to prepare breakfast when I noticed a plate covered with a cloth in the corner of the table.

　Its contents were a simple breakfast.
　I don't need to think about who prepared it and when.

Totally ...... I'm sure I was busy myself. ......

　I tried to smile bitterly, but I couldn't help but let my mouth fall into a normal smile.

　If you ask Garnett, she'd probably say, 'I wanted to eat it, so I made more of it as an afterthought,' but it didn't change the fact that she was still happy.




　Soon it was time to open, and customers began to trickle in here and there.

　Today's employees are Noir, Alexia, Erica, and Leila, plus me, for a total of five people.

　But even so, the number of customers is enough to run the store without any problems.

...... I knew that ...... is about as good as it gets, but ...... is just about as good as it gets.

　Noir mutters in relief.
　I'm in full agreement with him about that.

'Since the branch opened, all the adventurers who go underground have been using that one. Considering the size of the store, it's been overstuffed so far.''

　The store was twice as large as this building, and the Hollow Bottom branch was twice as large as this building, and had almost double the number of employees ready to work.

　On the flip side, there were enough customers crowding into this modest shop to need that much more than they should have.

Before, I was really, really busy ...... with my research on magic tools and ...... no research at all, so I wanted to try out ...... the idea of... ...I'm going to get a flat tire: ......
'Bad, bad. I'll have to make something up to everyone who's worked for me for a while, later.

　Noir is not very good at socializing or talking anyway, but she's quite the nagging and obsessive type when it comes to magic tools.

　The days when she was so focused on her work that she couldn't devote time to it were probably causing her quite a bit of stress and frustration.

'What's a make up for it, for example?'
'Yes, ...... so-called bonuses, or longer vacations like Garnett's that you can take back to your hometown, or ......, what's that, Alexia?'
What do you mean by 'what'? I'm more interested in what I have to say.
You can take all the money you want. I'm not gonna rip it up.
'I'm looking forward to it!　In!

　Alexia walked away with the merchandise she brought from the back of the store, humming poorly as she walked away to the back of the store toward the merchandise racks.

　As a matter of fact, none of the members working in our store are from Green Hollow Town at all.

　As for me, of course, Garnett and Leila are from a family of knights ...... which means that the territory and the royal capital are equivalent to their hometown, and Alexia is from a multi-level city far away from here.

　I don't know where Noir's hometown is, but I'm sure it's not here at least, and the branch members are all from other regions that came through the intermediary of the Sundial Chamber of Commerce.

　Only Erica was from Walnut Town, the next town down the mountain, so it wouldn't be wrong to say she was a local.

　Erica is in the position of having fled her parents' home, which they oppose, in order to become an independent pharmacist in the future.

　That being the case, she might not be the only one who might not be pleased with the 'long vacation for a homecoming'.

　As she was thinking about this, a regular customer of the potion Erica made came into the shop.

''Yo, White Wolf!　I've got an empty bottle for you to take back!

　A group of men working in the Green Hollow pile slid a crate full of empty potion bottles onto the counter.

'You're collecting empty bottles. Erica, get this one!
Yes, sir!

　Erica, who was re-displaying the display, runs back and counts the number of empty bottles that have been cleaned and washed.

　The price of the glass bottles is also added to the selling price of the potions, and when you buy ten or twenty bottles in large quantities, this is an amount that is hard to ignore.

　Even if it's not as cheap as it was a year ago when glass was as precious as precious metals, it's not cheap enough to be thrown away carelessly.

　So we adopted a system whereby if you cleaned the empty glass bottles of potions you bought at the store and brought them to us, we would refund you an amount of money equivalent to the cost of the glass bottles.

　It was Erica, of course, who suggested this.
　She had been running this system at her parents' house in Walnut Town on a trial basis, and she said it was a good idea because it gave her a substantial discount with no loss to the pharmacist.

　Furthermore, our store is able to buy back bottles that have been broken, depending on their weight.

　Naturally, this service was based on my [restoration] skills.

''Since there are 20 empty bottles, that's two small silver coins.
Oops. We'll split up the money among the five of us later.
Then I'll give you 20 large coppers. I just mixed some fatigue recovery stuff, would you like to buy it?
All right, I'll take another box. Can you deliver it in the evening?
I'll take a box of potions, a delivery fee and a fraction of ...... as a bonus and make it a large silver coin.
I'm always sorry!

　Erika seems to have mastered the art of customer service.

　At this rate, her dream of owning her own shop may come true within a few years.

　As the customer leaves, I decide to take the box with the empty bottles to the back of the store.

'Garnett!　Don't go crazy with this guy on the back of .......

　Good grief. I can't help but work under the assumption that Garnett is here.

　Noir and Erica are looking at me with a puzzled look on their faces, but I could only fake it by laughing appropriately.