ocean-life Chapter 433
Chapter 433
Day 100 – Daytime, the Town of Omui, General StoreWhat a turn of events, despite heading from the inn through the commercial district all the way to the Lord’s Mansion, I’m now going right back with the delivery health girl service, to pay the visit to the General Store. Yeah, I’ve already hit it in the morning to deliver goods, you know?
And this we enter the giant General Store. Yep, it seems to have grown again.
A stuffy air. The heat and humidity that comes from a crowd packed together, warmed by body heat, creating a stuffy air from the mass of people stuffed together. A muggy, suffocating heat that you can only find in a large crowd. Basically, what I’m trying to say is, it’s annoyingly hot in here!
I press my hand to the wall and use 『Alchemy』 to make vents near the ceiling to let the heat escape. That trapped heat was making things feel stifling. While I’m at it, I also use 『Atomic Manipulation』 and 『Temperature Magic』to cool the air, and 『Holding』 to ventilate the place. With this many people the architectural design and magic tools alone just are not enough.
「I’m Eriwth Deiribauru. It’s been a while. I came by today to gre… kyaa!」
Wait… the General Store Lady is hugging The Delivery Health Girl and shaking her around? Well, people have all kinds of preferences, and even if we don’t understand each other’s tastes, respecting them is an adult way of dealing with this. I’ll just imagine lilies blooming in the background. Magnate-sama is watching over us? Is this the R-18 version? Or is it the all-ages edition? I want to see both!
「Errie-chan! What are you doing in such a dangerous place?! Are you okay? Are you hurt? Did any monsters attack you? Did that boy over there do anything weird to you? Yeah, he surely did, didn’t he? There’s no way he didn’t! He only does weird things! I can’t even go on business trips to Errie-chan’s place anymore because that boy over there went and remodeled the entire frontier! Even our General Store turned into such a building, and the whole city’s suddenly overflowing with money so the people just keep coming to buy stuff! I’m so busy I don’t even know what to do! Even though we have plenty of mushrooms, there aren’t any sick people! I seriously have no idea what I’m supposed to do, but I’m super busy anyway! And it’s all that boy’s fault, but nothing happened to you, right?!」
Calling this place dangerous, when it’s literally her own shop, in the town she lives in? Also, didn’t that suddenly turn into vile slander for no reason? And what the hell does she think I would do to a Delivery Health worker in the current situation?
「Ah, ah… ahhh, yes, I’m alright. He treated me very kindly… I finally managed to come see you. I’d heard the rumors, but this store is incredible. They say it’s the best on the continent now, and I can see why, it’s such a bold and functional design. I’m really impressed.」
To think she could see right through the interior layout, designed to subtly guide customers’ movement and sightlines, making them want to look around, gradually feel like buying more, end up staying longer, and ultimately spend more money. Aren’t she a sly one?
「Stoop! It was a General Store, okay?! Just a regular shop! I scraped together whatever wares I could just to keep that tiny little place going! Errie-chan’s father helped me out so much back when he was alive, supplying me with products and whatnot. And now… Every time I take my eyes off it, the building gets bigger! The culprit is obvious! But even when I ask, 『Doesn’t it look bigger in here?』 he says, 『Vertical growth? Like weight gain?』 And when I say, 『Isn’t it taller now?』 he goes, 『Growth spurt maybe? Yeah, it’s getting plenty of sunlight?』 And when I go, 『It’s definitely gotten bigger, hasn’t it?!』 he replies, 『Ah~ might be a level-up?』 That little punk! No matter how much I work, it’s never enough! No matter how many people I hire, we can’t keep up with the store expansions and the growing inventory! What kind of world has a General Store that keeps expanding and multiplying its products all on its own?! It’s all this boy’s fault! What the heck does he even think a General Store is supposed to be?!」
I mean, if the store doesn’t get bigger, it would cut the fun of shopping in half, wouldn’t it? Custom orders are fine and all, but the essence of shopping, and the noble path of reckless spending and glorious price-gouging, is window shopping, where you don’t even know what you want until you see it, hold it, and suddenly need it? Well, thanks to a sneaky nineteenth renovation, the town’s General Store is now about the size of a respectable department store: twelve stories above ground, six underground, and a game center on the top floor. But technically speaking, a General Store is a place that sells a variety of daily goods, from everyday tools to household items, all neatly categorized, so I’m not wrong.
「I mean, sure, for a normal General Store, that might be a bit much. But when you’ve got a General Store taking orders for the stuff like 『houses』 and 『villages』 then of course the variety of merchandise is going to explode? So, naturally, the floor space has to expand too? You should reflect on your lack of restraint you’ve shown as a merchant and realize you are the cause of all of this? I mean, if you’re going to sell houses or villages, you need a store that’s even bigger than that. The General Store’s still growing, and its appeal is that it has everything, all sorts of goods and wares. So really, I’m not the one at fault here, right?」
Yup, this bizarre economic phenomenon goes beyond the bounds of any regular General Store, freely accepting orders for houses, villages, streets, rivers, walls, and then routing them my way mixed in among the normal stuff!
「…Houses…? No, villages?! You sold those?! I-I’d heard you’d become the continent’s strongest merchant, but your business has expanded into a realm no ordinary trading company could step in? That’s incredible.」
Anyway, the General Store lady and Delively Health Girl seem to be already acquainted, close friends, in fact. Originally, the General Store lady did business with Delively Health Girl’s father. But after he passed away and both women got too busy, they hadn’t seen each other in a long time. And now Delively Health Girl is just staring in awe, scratching her head in confusion. Did she give ger the wrong change or something?
She’s giving me this totally exhausted look, but this lady’s already running the entire frontier and basically serving as the head of a major trading company with clients all across the Kingdom, but since she lacks awareness of this fact she is still working the counter herself, so she ends up needlessly tired? Honestly, can’t she look at her situation a little more objectively? I can’t even imagine lacking self-awareness to such an extent? Yeah, could you stop glaring at me?
「Well, that aside, have a seat.」
She probably showed up here with the mindset of a proper company head, ready to form a formal trade agreement between the companies, all serious and businesslike, avoiding relying on personal connections. But of course, that approach didn’t work on the General Store lady, who immediately hugged her, spun her around, sat her down, and started feeding her snacks. Now she’s just sitting there in silence.
「So, what about you, boy? What are you going to do?」
「What do you mean, what am I going to do? About the delivery health service? I mean, I’m not opposed to calling one, but what sense does it make to call one to a General Store? She was already here before I even had the chance to call, so the whole delivery premise of the delivery health service is completely undermined. The meaning’s totally lost now, and we’re going into a rather un-healthy zone of confusion?」
「…Listen. All the workshops, factories, tailors, artisans, and smiths that are popping up around this town, they can all produce top-quality goods now. Even the neighboring villages have started producing their own specialty goods. The city and the frontier economy came to the point when they can function without needing your side work anymore. It’s all developing and progressing exactly according to the plan, you know?」
「Yeah, so?」
「So what do you mean so? What are you gonna do about it?! This is all your fault!!」
Once again, I’ve been falsely accused. Just how many false accusations are there in this world? At the very least the inn I’m staying at keeps a permanent stock of them, always ready to serve a fresh one. Day after day, accusation follows accusation, each more baseless than the last, a horrifying epidemic of false charges spreading without end might soon end up with me being condemned before even getting accused? I return to that inn every day, and somehow they never run out. Truly, it boasts an industrial-scale inventory of infinite false accusations.