''Rebecca, I hadn't greeted the people in the village about moving in yet. Also, if possible, I was hoping to hire someone who is available in the village who can clean the mansion or cook or something like that .......

Greeting?　Ahhhh, yes. Actually, I've already heard a lot of rumors about Jirou, but should I give him a proper greeting once?

　That guy is a hard man to miss.

"Ugh, a rumor, ......?

I'm the only one who can make it out of the village into the woods.　That's what's been so noisy lately...

　I see. Materials and craftsmen were going to and from the forest to maintain the mansion, and Hetty's conspicuous carriage came and went every day. ...... That's what the people in the village must have been thinking: .......

　It's a good thing I don't have to explain myself. I've been there, done that!

"Then let's just say that we 'built' a mansion in the forest to the people in the village. That mansion wasn't recognized by anyone, or rather, Deanna says that it was protected by a 'ward' and it's a pain to explain.

'Hmm ...... yes ....... That would certainly be better. But that would probably be .......

Maybe?

Hmm... Well, that's okay. Well then, let's go say hello to the village chief.

　Rebecca is a bit of a lump in the throat, but she says she's fine, so I guess she'll be fine.

　I've heard it's not a problem to just say hello to the village head, and it will be spread throughout the village.
　I've heard that the communication speed is very fast in this kind of countryside, the power of word-of-mouth is amazing. I'm glad I didn't go out of my way to say hello to all the villagers.

　---- While I was thinking to myself, "I'd like to choose a girl from the whole village to be my maid! I am a contradiction in terms of the fact that But I'm not hiring for fun, so it's only natural that I want to choose from as many options as possible!　Of course!
　I don't care what your calling is, I don't think it's OK if you're a pretty girl or anything like that, really. Seriously.

"Oh, by the way, maid?　If you were to hire them, what would be the wage and how much would you be paying them? On a monthly basis ......, well, I think I could pay you some. Roughly ----.

　I don't know what the concept of a day off is over here, but if you work from morning to evening as a day off per week, as a lunch supplement, and as a uniform loaner, ......, on a self-pay basis -- which is a lot of secrecy. --6,400 yen for 8 hours at 800 yen self-pay, no transportation because we're walking, and one week here is 6 days, roughly 5 weeks, and it's January, so ......, 6,400 yen multiplied by 25 days is 160,000 yen. So, I'll use our money to convert it to .......

"-- at least one gold coin.

　Rebecca and Hetty look at each other as I offer them the amount of money.
　Sheesh!　They'll find out that I'm actually the one with the smallest a**h*le!

''Ehhh, ...... oh yeah, one gold coin is a joke, hahaha. It's still about two gold coins: ......

'Not that way, Jirou. ...... One gold coin is too much. You can hire a butler for your main job, but he or she is mainly responsible for housekeeping and taking care of the horses, right?　It doesn't matter what your calling is for a job like that, any village boy can do it, so I'd say it's somewhere between three and five ---- silver coins.

''As expected of Elishe. If it was the imperial capital, if it was a live-in, even a single silver coin would be enough to get a flood of applications .......

Yeah, it's still that way.

Still, it's a lot better than it was at one time.

　Rebecca and Hetty discuss the differences between Elishe and the Imperial City. Is Elishe more affluent than other cities, so the labor cost is also higher?
　Even if that's the case, one gold coin is too much, according to them.
　Anyway, 3 silver coins are only 45,000 yen. Do people come for such a thin salary? It's fine because it's cheap, but it's ....... But I'll give you five silver coins at least.


　Rebecca leads me to a slightly larger house. Even though it's large, it's a one-story house made of stone, not much different from other houses. I heard that this is our chief's house. A white bearded old man with a white beard came out of the door while Rebecca called out the mayor's name.

...... Oh, so that's what happened. It's a good idea for a powerful merchant like Master Jiro to have a mansion in such a remote area. This is something I would like to see you get acquainted with in my village of Yates.

　Rebecca introduced me briefly, and I greeted her briefly myself, and then the village chief exaggeratedly said this to me. Since when have you been under the illusion that you are a powerful merchant?

'That's because you said you 'built' a mansion. It's a standard play for big merchants to build mansions in the suburbs without regard to efficiency.

　Rebecca explains in a whisper. Nah, I see. ...... You feel like a villa or .......
　But it may be easier ...... for the villagers to accommodate you if you let them think you're a big merchant, and it's ...... okay.

　Greetings in a safe manner?　I did the work, and I cut the matter of hiring a maid to the village chief. At first I thought I'd ask Rebecca, who I'm sure she trusts, to cut the deal, but she seems to think I'm an influential merchant, and I think she'd be OK with it.
　When the village chief heard the story, he said, "Oh, if that's the case," and immediately started gathering people together, and before I knew it, nearly 50 people had gathered there. The village chief's ability to convey information was astonishing.

　When I heard that the monthly salary was five pieces of silver, not only the young girl, but also the second son, the young wife, the grandmother, and the grandmother, gathered there.
　I should have said, "Oh, it's only for teens!" without being shy!

　I heard that everyone has their own jobs, but when you get a meal for five silver coins and a meal too, it's pretty good (...). At the very least, it's enough to make me throw away my current job. ...... It's hard to say whether you'd be willing to live in this situation.
　It's a good idea to have a live-in job that provides food, housekeeping and horse care, and still pays out five silver coins. If they were to offer such a job in the Imperial Capital, they would be inundated with applications for it by the thousands.
　Well, at any rate, they can choose as many as they want.

　First of all, we had a lot of young farmers who couldn't take over the farm, whether it was the second, third or fourth son, and naturally we passed on these guys. Why did they come here when we were recruiting maids?

　I don't want to give the old lady a pass because I can't give her one. I'm sure she can do the job, but I hear they say it's hard work, like looking after horses.

　I don't think there's any problem with the old lady or the young wife in terms of work, so I'll stay with them. It's too obvious to leave the young girls alone.

　The young girls came more than I expected.
　They are all "the country girls! That's how I like it. The country girl, of course, is not Japanese - she is a country girl of Western descent (though there are oriental girls too, though I don't know what kind of blood is mixed in with her). The way she wears her dull red hair in a braid and a straw hat, she looks like a character from a book I used to read.

...... Now, Rebecca, we've gathered more people than I expected, but I'd like to interview each of you individually if possible, but I'm not sure.

It's okay.　I generally know everyone, so I think I can give you some advice.

　So we had to rent the village chief's house and interview each of them one by one.





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I have a calling to be a cook!　My specialty is herb-roasted laila!
My dad complimented me on how good my massage was!
My calling is to be a nanny, so I'm sure you'll be able to take care of the childcare for me.
'I'm a farmer by trade, but I can also do a lot of housework!　Best regards!
You can ride a horse!
I can count the money.
'The gardener. I can do yard work.
'I'm in the village vigilante group, so I can fight monsters. My vocation is a pikeman.
I'll take care of the smoking!
'She's the stableman's daughter, so it's definitely a bargain. Yes, sir.
Merchant, is it true that you'll get five silvers?
I'm a seamstress. I can mend things, and if I have cloth, I can make clothes too!
I'll take care of the pickles for you.

　And so on and so forth, there is a great variety of people. I don't know if it's the magic of 5 silver coins, but they are all very motivated.

　However, this time we used a rather simple selection method - although not a very good one - and that narrowed it down considerably.

I'm not sure if it's a good idea to have them work with you as my slaves, but it's not a problem, is it?　I guess that makes me a senior citizen, in case you're wondering.

　That said, I just introduced Deanna and Marina, but it had a dramatic effect against the naive villagers.
　-- though the effect was much different than I thought it would be.

　I just told them to keep their heads up, and kept them next to me during the interview.

　Marina was the same no-ho-hon, as usual, but Deanna's was too intimidating, or divine, or the presence (aura) she exuded was too great.
　Deanna sometimes gives off this kind of supernatural aura, but for some reason it was especially strong this time, and the young kids couldn't bear Deanna's colorless gaze and dropped out more and more - for personal reasons - and It's done.
　I know I told you to stand tall, but you don't have to be a king or anything like that ....... I should have told him to stay put .......

　To put it bluntly, the reason for the two of them being in the same room (due to the incident with the chubby merchant) was that I wanted to choose a girl who wouldn't be averse to finding out that Marina, a Turk, was a colleague. ...... How did this happen: .......
　The girls who went out were like, "Oh, I can't work with that stern-looking Elf-sama! I can hear her blurt out things like, "E...... they say if you're rude to an elf-sama, he'll turn you into a pig, and ......" and "The Turk boy seemed kind. Deanna's appearance - is it because of her surprisingly good upbringing that she doesn't make fun of her tattoos?
　At any rate, maybe she doesn't have the gall to work with the "stern-looking Elf-sama" or maybe there's something else going on, but the young girls have all declined. Aunts and young wives didn't decline. ...... Something is wrong .......

'Hmmm ....... Deanna, did you do some kind of magic?　It's something about the pressure of your gaze that I can't bear, and the younger kids keep withdrawing from it.

'It's an accusation. I didn't do anything.

　Deanna, in her own right, is a shill.
　Hmmm ....... I told her to behave herself, so she was just behaving as she said she would: ...... and the little girl who was overwhelmed by it all was just running away on her own: ......

'But hey, for some reason, only the young ones all declined. Out of fear of Deanna.

You shouldn't hire a girl who's going to drop out after that, Master.

　That much (・・・・・) must have been something you did after all!
　No!

Besides, ............ your master has no scruples when it comes to girls.

　And there was even an unprovoked rant!
　Well, I'd be lying if I said I didn't moan about an innocent, makeup-less country girl!
Oh ...... this girl is a diamond in the rough ....... I don't know if I remember saying something like, "I'd really like to polish .......
　But what can you do? I just got a little carried away.





　◇◆◆◆◆◇.





'Oh, um, ....... Merchant, would you be willing to interview my daughter as well?

　After that, I gave Deanna a stern warning (I just asked her to be quiet) and the interview went smoothly.
　When I was about to start the selection process, a hard-looking woman in her 40's came through the door with a pasted-on smile on her face.
　She wanted me to interview her daughter, but the daughter, who was all she needed, waddled over and tugged at her mother's sleeve and complained that she couldn't do it, that she was too old for the job, that she was too old for the job, and that she was too dumbfounded to be interviewed.
　She has an unevenly cut short bob and gray hair with bangs that are long enough to cover her eyes.

'Yes. You'll still be fine.

　When she affirmed that she was, the mother came in, rubbing her hands. The daughter wanders around the entrance.

My daughter has ability, but she is very shy, you know. I'm ashamed to say that I, as a mother, brought her here, but she wouldn't move even when I told her to go.

　Then the mother leaves her daughter behind and starts talking. The smile that's stuck on is scary, this guy. It's not like his eyes aren't smiling or anything: ....... The same eyes as those mothers I've seen on TV before who are trying their best to make their children into celebrities.
While I was thinking, "I guess I shouldn't get involved in this ......," the mother's sales pitch continued.

I'm sure you'll be pleased to know that my daughter's vocation is the only one in this village that is a scribe. Naturally, she reads and writes perfectly, and her handwriting has been praised in town for its beauty. And of course, I can take care of the house and horses. I've even cooked enough to interest me as a mother: ......

　The mother, with her daughter wandering around behind her with her eyes wandering to her odo, laid out her daughter's sales pitches, but she stopped talking when she noticed something.

'What ............?　Why Rebecca? ......

He was there from the beginning. Mr. Belka.

　Rebecca-san responds with a smirk. Apparently, this Belka-san didn't realize that Rebecca-san was there.
　Hmm?　What was the problem with Rebecca's presence?　Well, you can ask Rebecca about the details later.

　The mother's machine gun talk was cut off, so we asked her to leave, saying that we would let her talk to her daughter to decide. Belka-san left with great regret (she never forgets to blast her daughter half to death with a threat).
　However, there are people like that in this world too. If there was a school or something, I wonder if they'd become monster parents: .......
　Anyway, the only thing left to do is to ask the gray-haired girl who is still wandering around the entrance a couple of questions, and then we'll get on with the selection of my maids!