Consulting the Village Chief
“Please lend us money.”
What came out of Gozoh’s mouth was, unexpectedly, a common thing.
“Gozoh, well, that’s…”
“Nn? Not to me personally ye know? To the village.”
“… Huh? Right. So for the village’s expenses then? What would it be used for?”
It seemed to be more of a ‘please lend us money’ than ‘please pay us’ thing.
The shopkeeper grinned.
“Well, here’s the short of it. Food durin’ wintertime and as much food as needed. Taking a route that’d ensure that, Koo-san’ll build communal warehouses in the village at a discount.”
“… Hey, didn’t you have some place originally to return to for wintertime?”
It’s turned into something troublesome so I said that kind of thing.
As for me, even though I wouldn’t get any DP, it’s not like I really needed it either. It isn’t that bad slowly entering the hot spring without nuisances too. Then pair that with dozing off in the ma.s.sage chair.
… Hm? Everyone, your expressions froze like crazy. You’ve been quiet for a while now.
Then, the shopkeeper was the one to break the silence.
“No way, those iron golems’re great quality, there’s no way I’d do somethin’ that’d be like throwin’ away production durin’ wintertime!”
“Y-yeah, that’s right. We’ve already brought our livelihoods here after all. Right, Koo-san?”
“Yeah! I’ll follow Kehma-san!”
Gozoh followed up as though trying to fill the gap, then Koo-san instantly made his declaration. Why’d you say something like being my follower so proactively? I don’t even remember doing anything really.
“Well it’s fine. But wouldn’t it be a waste of money?”
“Pavuera and Sia’re always runnin’ short on iron, so it’ll definitely be worth it. ‘Sides, soon there’ll even be a huge demand for it flutterin’ in. During the winter too.”
“A huge demand huh… Needing a lot of iron, it’d be for weapons and armor… doesn’t that imply war?”
I think I heard some talks about that? Well, when I said that while recollecting, the shopkeeper had a surprised face.
Ah, looks like I was spot on.
“W-well, there’s some reasons. I don’t want to stop operatin’ here for that time.”
“So you mean it’ll be more like an investment than a loan?”
“Yah yah! Aaah as expected Kehma-han’s the best, the conversation’s already done! Ya definitely won’t lose out, how much can ya take out?” [1]
While the shopkeeper struck the table with a loud bang, he grinned broadly.
Hmm, wouldn’t the amount depend on the market? I don’t know about that at all. Though, isn’t this a good chance to use the gold coins that I’ve just been h.o.a.rding away without turning into DP?
I piled up gold coins on the table after taking them out of my [Safe].
Ten, twenty… eeh, troublesome, this should be around a hundred coins. One month of Wataru’s debt repayment.
“Is one hundred gold enough?”
“A-a hundred—!? Ah, y-yah, t-that’s enough. Yah, this’ll double by spring, wait, that might be a bit hard though, I’ll return around a hundred fifty!”
“You seem reliable. Then in exchange, I’ll leave you to manage things concerning the village’s operating expenses, manager. Show me the profit you’ll make… I’ll be checking the books, so don’t embezzle alright?”
“I never thought you’d do somethin’ like take out a hundred and plop it down… I’ll do it, my Dyne Company will do its best with all its got!”
His shop is the Dyne Company huh. It’s the first time I’ve heard that.
By the way, from the sounds of it even ten gold seems like it would have been enough. Well, there’s no helping it now that I’ve taken it out, it’s better than having too little. I took the chance to leave the funds stuff to him. He looks motivated, so it’s ‘kay.
“So much money… but, isn’t it too much? Aren’t you suspicious that he may swindle you or run away with it?”
Receptionist-san spoke.
It would definitely be a pain to lose 100,000 DP worth, but taking it back now would be troublesome, so I’ll make light of it. My ideal role as the village chief is [Just take an imposing stance, then leave the troublesome things to those around me and sleep soundly].
Right, so in order to push the troublesome things onto everyone else, let’s give the feeling of being a big shot.
“Well, I trust him. You, an adventurer guild receptionist, are also present here, aren’t you? … Besides, if a merchant ran away with just this much money it means they would be just that little of a merchant. Right?”
“Hey, don’t look down on me! I’ll do whatever ya want if I make a mistake and lose it, dogeza, seppuku, anythin’!”
Not just dogeza, but even seppuku? Ah, if you do that be here so you turn into DP alright?
“That’s unexpected… Suddenly pressed into being the village chief, yet already able to take such prompt decisions.”
“Fufufu, this is the first time seeing the Dyne-san this riled up.”
I received a rare praise from Receptionist-san. And next to her, that dandy-mustached Oji-sama… The bar master is grinning with some hidden meaning.
Next is your turn.
“Then, while we’re at it. I’ll leave the village chief stuff to the bar master whenever I’m doing something, so as such, please do your best as the village sub-chief.”
“Ah, me? … Fumu, Kehma-san is an adventurer as well, so although I don’t know what might happen… understood, I’ll accept.”
Fufufu, looks like he’ll work. Let’s shove away most of my work.
“Then how about we summarize? First is our policy. These winter preparations… to speak more accurately, preparations for iron golem mining during winter.”
I looked at everyone one by one, allotting the minimum work to everyone.
“Koo-san, begin to build the warehouses immediately starting tomorrow. Kantra, give him priority and make nails or whatever else he needs. Receptionist-san, put out a commission for wood collection from the guild… For funds, please discuss with the Dyne Company. The Dyne Company will be in charge of supplying materials and financing. Concerning materials, you may use the inn’s storehouse for now. For the village sub-chief, review the Dyne Company’s plans for any insufficiencies. Other than that, I’ll leave the detailed instructions to you. Well, for Gozoh—”
“Aye, my work is to hunt iron golems in the dungeon! Leave it to me!”
“That’s also true, but I’m going to give you an even more important job.”
“Nn? What important job?”
Gozoh inclined his thick neck to the side. I responded with a grin.
“Please think about this village’s name. I’ll leave it to you.”
“Wha–!? You’re throwing that to me!?”
As expected, Gozoh let out a hysterical voice.
“It was your idea after all, think about it however you want. You could name it whatever you want, even if it was something stupid as Gozoh+Roppu’s Love Love Village. Well, please think about it properly.”
“What!? G-g-got it! I’ll think about it, I’ll do it!”
And like that, I a.s.signed work to everyone present such that I’d have no work of my own.
… So far so good, these guys will be thinking about what they should do from here on, so they won’t notice that I don’t have work to do.
“Looks like it will be busy… I’ll do my best even if I’m just a figurehead. Well, I’ll go back and get some sleep. Good night.”
Now then, let’s get back for some sleep.
*
After Kehma left, while the village’s leaders.h.i.+p ate karage in the bar, they talked about Kehma becoming the village chief.
“Seriously, that guy’s a super big shot. He easily gave out orders after having the position pressed onto him.”
“As expected of Kehma-san! I’ll follow him for life!”
“My my. Why did he place me as the village sub-chief?”
“My store’ll be dealin’ with finances… Easily just pullin’ out a hundred gold, seriously a big shot…”
“Just when did he prepare that much money…? Even though he’s a D-Rank adventurer…”
“Ah, he ripped Wataru off of twenty-three hundred gold by gambling. He’s paying him a hundred gold a month.”
“… Against Hero-sama?”
For now, everyone had their own opinion regarding the ‘figurehead’.
Listening to their opinions and laying down policies, giving out directions, and even having discretion.
It was the work of an excellent village chief.
In truth, they’d just planned on asking him to put a good word in from them to the inn to lend the money after he declined being made the village chief.
They never thought that the person himself would acknowledge becoming the village chief and make a quick judgement, taking out as much as ten times the highest amount they expected to get.
Thanks to that, they had been completely deprived of their leaders.h.i.+p.
“Even though I thought that I’d be able to more or less pay back Kehma-san lending the slots and giving me the snack recipes.” [2]
“Really~. It’s thanks to Ichika-han workin’ part time that my shop’s even survived.”
“He’s even handled rescue commissions for the guild several times…”
“Hahahaha! We’re no match for our village chief.”
By the way, concerning Ichika, even though she independently went to work at the shop part time on her rest days and break times in order to earn money for the slot machines, they a.s.sumed that she was sent over by Kehma.
Even her wasting money on the slot machines, they just took it as Kehma decentralizing the area’s wealth.
“He even entirely saw through my profit scheme…”
“I’m sure that he has his own information network. There’s no way he doesn’t as the secretary of an inn with an A-Rank purveyor behind it.”
“Add on to that that he said we could use the inn’s warehouse, which in other words means that he expects the price to hike up quickly. And he gave so much, it’s like he wants me to buy enough to control it.”
“Did he predict that far?”
The bar’s master was amazed.
Meanwhile, Gozoh poured apple wine into Silia’s gla.s.s.
“… Hey, Silia-chan. What rank is Kehma now?”
“He had his examination a few days ago, becoming D-Rank. Rather, wasn’t Gozoh-san his examiner?”
“I know, just wanted to ask… D-Rank huh… He’s an even lower rank than me, despite how it looks… Isn’t he already good enough for C-Rank?”
“As expected as not even one year has pa.s.sed, he does not have enough achievements to be C-Rank.”
The guild’s receptionist said that while picking up some of the karage before drinking a mouthful of the apple cider.
And then, there was Koo-san.
“So good, so gooood—!”
While filling his mouth with karage, his respect for Kehma elevated another level.
Footnotes:
Think this is the first time this has come up, but -han is the kansai dialect’s version of -san.
As in, he’s so much of a big shot it’d be hard to show thanks…