The business meeting was quickly settled. It's still morning.
　Maybe I'll go hunting.

　No, but when the logging starts, it's possible that I'll have a whole day free, and that day will be precious.
　It might be a good idea to finish setting up the company, which will take a long time before then.
　I'm planning to hire a president, though.
　I'll give him the money and let him do the hiring and equipment, perfect.
　If you don't have time to run your own business, you can make more money by hunting monsters or transporting goods.
　In order to do that, you need to secure a candidate for president who is good, trustworthy, and can throw away trivial common sense.

　Yeah. That's quite a tall order.
　I don't think it's easy to get one without connections.
　But I do have one thing that can help me get it.

　Money. Money is power.
　Of course, spending too much money to make money is a bad thing, but considering the amount of money I've made so far, I think spending a little money won't be a problem.
　I wonder where I can find materials for demons and food, but where can I find human resources?
　Slavers, perhaps?　Or perhaps a commercial guild.
　Slavers may be simple laborers, but they don't seem to have many talented people in the sense of brains.
　If they were so talented, they wouldn't be slaves in the first place.

　By the way, there was a Kaede Catrine in Photoren.
　I'll ask her about it while I'm looking around.

　So I jump over the wall and leave the city.
　I jumped over the fence and left the city. Then I reinforced my magic armor and flew.
　Unlike the test, it's a straight line, so I'll probably get up to speed in no time.
　Based on my experience of hitting trees, I think that with this strength, I should be okay even if I accidentally exceed the speed of sound and get hit by a shock wave.
　There should be little damage to the surrounding area, or rather, only the demon will suffer damage, it doesn't matter.

　Get off the road and accelerate as fast as you can.
　The area between the photoen and the decibatore is a relatively narrow strip of land surrounded by the sea, and the photoen blocks all of it, so you can't get lost.
　This was done to avoid human casualties.
　You can see demons in some places, but you don't need to worry about them, and if you get caught in one, just consider it bad luck and give up.

　The acceleration in a straight line was still tremendous. It probably took us less than five minutes to reach the speed we had reached when we went around the periphery of the photon.
　It continued to accelerate, and when it reached three times the speed of the photon, it happened.

With a thump, the ground in the vicinity gouged.
　At the same time, the acceleration stopped.
　Some kind of demon in the area of the tentacles moved unnaturally to the side, or perhaps it was blown away.
　It was a little noisy, and it stopped accelerating, but there was no other problem.

　With a roar and a shockwave, I fly.
　It would be very tasty if I could fulfill the request to kill them just by doing this, but unfortunately I don't know if they are dead or not.
　When the meteorite hit Russia, there were no fatalities, only injuries.

　It took less than an hour for me to reach Photon with the pollution.
　Of course, I slowed down before approaching Photoren.
　Of course, I slowed down before approaching the city, but I didn't want to kill innocent people, let alone bandits.

　It feels like yesterday, but it was a long time ago.
　Let's start with the magic store.
　As I walked, I checked my guild card and found that the area where I could check my kill record was filled with black wolves.
　Perhaps black wolves are vulnerable to shockwaves.

　I arrived at the Mage Shop. The place looks nicer than the last time I was here.
　I wondered if it had been cleaned.
　When I entered the store, Catherine was earnestly tinkering with a reddish magic stone.
　After a while, Catherine takes her hand off the stone and speaks to me.

Hello.

...... Oh, hi.

Yeah, how's it going?

I'm doing great, I've been making these magic stones for warding, and they're selling like hotcakes. 　They seem to be doing pretty well.

　I'm sure you've never actually made a wizard's tool before, but that's it.
　Is it really that easy to make a grimoire?　I'm not sure if it's a good idea or not.

So, how much money do you make?

Except for your salary, it's deposited in the Commercial Guild. 　I was going to give it to you when you came in.

I was going to give it to you when you came. 　...... Is that the magic stone of warding?

I'm sure you'll be pleased to know that I'm not the only one who's a fan of your work.

　It's certainly a bigger magic stone than the crab's.
　With 100,000 Tells, you can only use it in a few places.
　It's only the equivalent of two trees in Decibatore.

Can the magic stone of warding be used in battle?　What good are they if you can't attack them without being attacked?

You can attack with magic from within the wards. 　You can attack with magic from within the wards. It seems to be used to protect the wizard in the rearguard.

　Instead of magical armor.
　That sounds useful, but it's too costly for me to use.

"Oh, well, good luck with that. 　By the way, I want to hire a merchant to set up a merchant association.

"You're building a merchant association?　If that's the case, it's probably the Commerce Guild. ...... What do you sell?



I'm thinking we could make a fortune hauling demon materials from Desibatore. 　I'll see what else I can get my hands on.

"Oh, you have an item box. 　If you want to be a store keeper, you can be a slave trader, but if you want to be in charge of a business association, you should be in a commercial guild.

Do you trust people from the Commercial Guild?

　You don't want them running off with your goods or money.

Well, they can be trusted if they use contract magic. 　You can trust them if you use contract magic, though it will cost you about 50,000 Tel because of the disposable magic stones.

　That's a little pricey, but it's good news.
　In a sense, the most difficult item, trustworthiness, can be solved with a piece of wood.

All right, I'll use that. 　Good luck with that.

　With that, I left the store and entered the commercial guild.
　The receptionist is a handsome young man.

"Excuse me, I'd like to hire a merchant, what should I do?

"What kind of business do you want to hire and what kind of role do you want to play?

I'd like to hire someone who's good at what he does and who I can trust to run the business, even if it costs a little more.

That's quite a tall order, but if you have a lot of money, there are rumors that you might be a good fit.

　Money.
　The sixty million I earned yesterday from a day of lumberjacking should be no problem.
　I'll be cutting a lot more tomorrow.

That's about 60 million, isn't it?

　The receptionist's eyes widen in surprise.

The receptionist looks at you in surprise. "d*mn ......, you don't need that much!　It's about 20 million at most.

　Surprisingly cheap.
　No, a person can't just buy something once and be done with it.
　I forgot, 20 million a year is pretty high.

"Well, is that per year?

　I'm not sure about 20 million a month.
　Even if it's 20 million a year, there's still a possibility of a deficit.

"No way. It can't cost that much a year. 　One of the merchant companies of a certain size went bankrupt, and the daughter of the company became a slave.

　A slave. It's certainly convenient, but 20 million for those specs seems cheap.

Is 20 million really that much?　It seems manageable.

"No way. 　The price of a normal slave is 3 million or less. 　You can't just buy a slave and leave it, because you'll have to pay for it afterwards.

　In other words, slavery is a kind of contractual payment in exchange for a tighter employment contract, lower pay, or no pay.
　It's not as convenient as I thought it would be, but it's not enough to be a problem.

I'd like to buy one, but where do I go?　And can I use my Decibatore card?

"There's a slave dealer around the corner, they should accept the card, it's a big store.

Thank you, I'll go there.

　I'll go there.
　With this in mind, I open the door of the slaver.

"Welcome, what kind of slave are you looking for today?

　Unlike the other stores, I was greeted as soon as I entered the store.
　I wondered if it was because it was an expensive item.

"Oh, I'm looking for a manager. 　I'm looking for a manager. I heard you have good slaves.

Are you talking about the daughter of Brokens?　What is your budget?

　That's no way to negotiate. Don't fall for that trick.
　Don't tell them how much you have, just say it a little lower.

"I can't tell you how much I'm bringing, but I've heard that 17 million is the going rate.

"You're about 5 million short, the going rate is about 22 million. 　Why don't you take a look for now?

　While we were talking, something that looked like tea was placed in front of me from the side.
　Is this a strategy to make it harder for me to get in?　It may be effective for Japanese people, but is it also effective in this other world?
　This view may be too far-fetched, but...

I'm sure you're right, but we won't know if you have the ability until we talk to you.

This way, please.

　You are led to a reception room, where you meet the slave.
　He is not particularly slave-like in appearance, and is neatly dressed.
　She was a little tall and beautiful with a good figure.
　Her breasts were ample.
　However, this is of no concern to the management of the business, and it is not that I am going to entrust her to guard the store.
　Anyway, let's get down to business. There is no need to use honorific language.

"As chairman of the board of trade, I'm thinking of entrusting you with the management.

"I'd love to!　That's what I've been studying for!

　Hmm, that's a good feeling.
　Your motivation will be fine, it's just a matter of your ability and our circumstances.


　It's not a normal business association.

First of all, if you join us, you'll be required to use contract magic. 　For the sake of confidentiality, this is absolutely necessary. 　Is that a problem?

No problem!

　Let's test your abilities and our situation all at once.
　It's like a job interview.
　Now, please tell me why you want to work for us. ......
　It's not like I'm applying for a job. Let's just go straight to the point.

My business is not a normal business, it's a business for selling materials of demons that I hunt or buy from Decibatore, or for selling my patents. 　Therefore, it's going to be different from a normal business association, is that okay with you?　And if you're okay with that, how would you run it?

"I don't think that will work, sir. 　First of all, there is a good reason why almost no demons from Desibatore are coming to us now. 　The reason is that the cost of transporting them is not worth it, except for the magic stones and some particularly useful parts. 　Also, there is no need to create a merchant association for a single adventurer to sell what he or she hunts, and if you have a patent at the moment, you can just maintain the current system.

　Hmm.
　At any rate, I don't see anything wrong with it.
　I don't know if it's capable, but it's not completely useless.

I'm a pretty special kind of adventurer, with an almost limitless item box, or at least the bottom of it has never been reached. 　The other day, I shipped 11 tons of food to Decibatore. 　Don't you think it would be feasible to have this kind of capacity?

If that's true, I'd love to do it.

I don't see the point in lying.

But some people lie for no reason at all, and I'd appreciate it if you could show me some proof or something.

　Evidence or .......

This is the Decibatore carrier card, it weighs over 275,000 kilograms, does that make it somewhat believable?

"Fake ...... is impossible, it's a death sentence. 　As for me, I'm fine. I just need the capital.

Well, you can use this amount of money for the time being. 　I don't know if I'll be able to scale it up that much.

　I show you my Decibatore card. 　The face value is almost 80 million.

That's a lot of money? It seems like a lot from what I've just heard.

"That's no problem. 　I'm sorry, I'd like to buy it, but can I have it for 22 million with contract magic?

　Talk to the slaver.

"Yes, then give me your card. 　To be honest, I was expecting a little more of a discount.

　To be honest, I was expecting a little more haggling.
　You give him your card.
　He operated some kind of box, touched it, and returned the card to me with the face value of 22 million deducted exactly.
　I then asked him to use a contract spell with the basic conditions of 'not running away with the money, basically obeying orders, and keeping secrets', and left the store.

Shall we go then?

"Yes.

　I have to be back in Desibatore by noon tomorrow.
　I have to be back in Desibatore by noon tomorrow.

...... Oh, what's your name?

　Oh, I didn't hear you say that.

Mercia.

　Well, it's none of my business.