The Next Day
~Ryoma's Side~
Driven by Carla and Caulm’s enthusiasm from the day before—they had insisted we could start business as early as today—I decided to officially open the shop. I arrived in the early morning to get things ready.
It was currently five o'clock.
"I definitely came too early..."
It was a bad habit from my previous life; I had reflexively shown up at the time I used to head into the office. The twins probably wouldn't arrive for a while yet.
With nothing else to do, I passed the time playing with my slimes.
"Good morning, Manager."
"Good morning, Caulm-san, Carla-san. I’m looking forward to working with you both starting today."
Once the two arrived, we did a quick final check and finished the opening preparations. That said, it was a simple matter of moving the cleaner slimes into the standby room and readying the change and laundry bags.
The twins had even brought the bags they ordered this morning, proving their usefulness right from the start.
"Well then... I’m heading out."
"Have a safe trip, sir."
I felt a little guilty leaving things to others on the very first day, but since I couldn't advertise with flyers or posters, I decided to spread the word while picking up work at the guild. Serge-san had provided me with people I could truly entrust with everything... Honestly, was I even needed here? Well, the whole point of hiring staff was so that I wouldn't have to be, I suppose.
Lost in thought, I stopped by my neighbor's place before heading to the guild. I needed to tell Pauline-san that the shop was finally open.
"Excuse me—is anyone in?"
The shop appeared to be open, but since the front was empty, I called out toward the back. Pauline-san emerged a moment later.
"Coming! Oh, if it isn't Ryoma-kun. Are you here to buy more seeds today?"
"No, I came to let you know that the Laundry Agency Bamboo Forest is officially open for business as of today."
"My, open already? That was fast."
"Yes, thanks to everyone's help. That bag I gave you the other day is on the house, so please give us a try whenever you like. Please pass the word to Mary-san and Kiara-san as well. I’ve already briefed my staff."
"You actually hired people?"
"Through an acquaintance's recommendation. While I’m out working as an adventurer, I’ll be leaving the shop entirely in their hands. At least until the business gets on track, I’ll have to cover their wages with my adventurer earnings."
They had gone so far as to say they didn't need a salary as long as they could work for me eventually, but I couldn't bring myself to accept that. Honestly, I still didn't quite understand why they were so determined to work for me. I was certain they could find better-paying jobs that made better use of their talents at Serge-san’s company... maybe it was for the connections?
Well, it made my life easier, so I wasn't complaining.
"I wonder if you really need employees for a shop that size. Well, do your best. I’ll be rooting for you, and I’ll stop by later today to give the service a try."
"Thank you. Well, I’m off to work."
I said my goodbyes and left. When I reached the guild, I was intercepted almost immediately.
"Ryoma, I heard your laundry shop is opening soon?"
"What time do you start?"
"I've been waiting for this!"
Since the monster subjugation in the abandoned mine, I’d been making more small talk with the adventurers I met on the shared carriages. They all seemed to be eagerly awaiting the opening.
"The Laundry Agency Bamboo Forest is open starting today."
"Seriously!?"
"Yes. We even offer a full-body cleaning service for adventurers that covers armor and weapons, so please stop by."
"Hell yeah! I'm definitely going on my way back today!"
After intentionally announcing the opening and the shop's location in a loud voice for maximum publicity, I accepted a medicinal herb gathering quest. I figured I could clear it while I was doing my rounds at the abandoned mine.
A few hours later.
I’d told the twins I was leaving the shop to them, but I was still worried. I finished my patrol as quickly as possible and hurried back.
When I arrived, I was stunned to find a crowd gathered despite it only being the first day.
Wait... are there more than twenty people waiting outside!?
I rushed into the shop, where Carla-san greeted me.
"Welcome—Manager!"
"Carla-san, what’s going on?"
"It’s a happy problem, sir!"
"Manager! The neighborhood ladies have all come to request laundry!"
Caulm-san, who had been hauling laundry in the back, stepped out to join us. Regardless of the reason, we had to handle this crowd.
"I'll help too! You two handle the customers; I'll take care of all the heavy lifting!"
Following my lead, I spent the next several hours doing nothing but serving customers and hauling bags of laundry.
Even so, the flow of people didn't stop. What was happening?
The wave of customers didn't finally die down until past three in the afternoon. The total number of people wasn't massive yet, but since we had to explain the service to every single person, it was incredibly time-consuming.
Apparently, our prices were so low that people were suspicious. I was asked repeatedly, "Are you really doing it for this price?" and "You’re not going to hit us with a huge bill later, are you?" It was a struggle to convince some of them. At one point, the crowd was so large that a city guard on patrol stopped by to see if there was a disturbance.
But that turned into a stroke of luck. The guard captain, having heard the report from his subordinate, came by to request laundry for the entire guard force. He signed up for a thirty-five-person course and bought two extra bags.
Apparently, they had hired someone to handle the guard force's laundry until last year, but a previous official at the town office had cut the budget, making it impossible to keep the staff. He grumbled about the bureaucracy for a bit, saying they were lucky their actual salaries hadn't been cut, and told me he’d start with this order and add more later if the quality was good. This was shaping up to be a major contract.
However... we had opened at eight in the morning. If we spent an average of three minutes per customer... I didn't know exactly when the rush started, but Caulm and Carla must have been working for seven hours straight without lunch or a break.
This is bad. I might be okay, but those two... at this rate, my shop is going to become a "black company." I have to avoid that at all costs! For the honor of my previous life!
"Good work today, Caulm-san, Carla-san."
"Good work, Manager."
"That was quite the crowd."
"It certainly was. I’m thinking we should increase our staff immediately. What do you think?"
"I agree. The sooner the better. We’ll likely need four to six more people so we can rotate and take breaks. Today was mostly spent explaining things to customers, but judging by their reactions, we’ll be short-handed just with the manual labor soon enough."
Carla-san gave me a clear answer regarding the necessary numbers without missing a beat.
"The customers seemed very satisfied with the speed and quality of the finish, so the clientele will only grow from tomorrow. If you place a request at the guild, they should be able to find people who can start immediately."
"I see... and what would be a fair wage for new hires?"
"One hundred and twenty to one hundred and fifty suut a day would be sufficient. That's enough to live on and still have savings. For a starting wage, that’s an exceptional offer, so people will gather quickly."
"If this weren't an emergency, we could have taken our time to find people for less, but right now, prioritizing those who can work immediately is the right move."
"Then I’ll head to the guild right away. The sooner we settle this, the better."
"We'll leave it to you."
Trusting their professional opinions, I hurried out of the shop. Problems were best solved as quickly as possible.
As I stepped outside, however, I ran into the family of four from next door, all carrying large bags.
"Oh, Ryoma-kun."
"Pauline-san, Leni, Rick—and Sieg-san too. Is all that for us?"
"We wanted to request some laundry. Being a butcher shop, we have plenty of clothes with deep blood stains," Sieg-san answered.
Sieg-san was Pauline-san's husband and the owner of the butcher shop next to her flower shop. All the meat for my shop-warming party had come from his store.
Whenever I thought of a butcher in fiction, I imagined a hulking, muscular man, but Sieg-san was the opposite. He was tall enough, but he was thin—incredibly thin. He looked so frail and unhealthy that he might blow away in a stiff breeze.
"I heard from an adventurer that your shop can even get out blood stains."
"We were planning to replace these clothes anyway, so we figured we'd give it a shot."
"Thank you very much. If you don't mind me asking, how many employees do you have at the butcher shop?"
"Ten, including myself."
"In that case, we have a special course for groups of seven or more. If you use that, a bag that holds clothes for fourteen people only costs one medium copper coin and eight small copper coins. It's much cheaper that way."
"Is that so? That’s quite a bargain."
"We'll take that deal then."
As I was finishing my sales pitch, Rick cut in.
"What are you doing out here, Ryoma? Slacking off?"
"Hahaha, I suppose it looks that way. But I’m actually on my way to the Commerce Guild."
"Oh? For what?" Leni asked.
"The shop is doing way better than I expected, and we're already running out of hands to help."
"No way! It’s only your first day!"
"I did a bit of advertising, but I never expected this many people. I’m going to hire more staff in a hurry."
"Goodness, that many people came?"
"Yeah. The two staff members I have now just worked seven hours straight without a single break."
After parting with the four of them, I visited the Commerce Guild. Despite being alone, I was shown into a reception room immediately, where the Guild Master joined me.
"You're here. Weren't you supposed to open today? Did something go wrong?"
"The shop is an unexpected success. It's so busy that we're going to be short-handed from day one."
"On the very first day? Even I didn't see that coming... So you need more staff. Fine, I'll gather everyone who can start tomorrow. You can pick from them yourself."
No sooner had she spoken than the Guild Master left the room, leaving me to wait.
Shortly after, I was notified that the candidates had been gathered and was guided to a conference room. About thirty people of all ages, genders, and races were already waiting.
Wait.
There was a strange pair in the crowd. They glanced at me for a split second before looking straight ahead again. Were they sizing me up? Plenty of others looked at me for a moment before looking away as if they had lost interest, but...
"Now then, these folks have all mastered basic arithmetic. Any one of them can start working at your shop immediately."
"Understood. Hello, everyone. I am Ryoma Takebayashi, the owner of the Laundry Agency Bamboo Forest. Thank you for gathering here today on such short notice."
A murmur rippled through the room. Judging by the whispers, they had assumed I was just an errand boy, not the owner.
I guess they weren't sizing me up earlier after all. Well, I did look like an eleven-year-old child...
Ignoring the people whose enthusiasm had clearly plummeted, I continued.
"First, I have one question. Does anyone here have an objection to working at my shop?"
At that, several voices of protest rose, mostly from the younger people.
Even if I was short-handed, I didn't need people who were unmotivated or would work grudgingly just because their boss was a child. It seemed I should save the talk about the high wages for last; I didn't want people flocking to me just for the money. There were quite a few of them, so I decided to weed out the ones I could.
I told them that I wouldn't force anyone who didn't want to work for me to stay and asked them to leave.
One, two, three... Wait.
The stream of people leaving didn't stop. They were giving up that easily? I thought they would at least stay through the interview even if they were skeptical... though I did tell them they could leave.
In the end, five-sixths of the group walked out. Only five people remained. Well, I could understand their frustration. I turned to the remaining few with a grateful expression.
"Since the five of you stayed, I will proceed assuming you have the will to work for me. First, let me thank you for being willing to work for a youngster like myself."
I bowed to them and then got down to business.
"Now, as for the details. The Bamboo Forest is currently seeking personnel for customer service and manual labor. Although I say manual labor, the items you'll be carrying are clothes, so it shouldn't be a problem even for women. However, there is one important point to note: I am a tamer, and I use my tamed slimes in the shop. They are part of our workforce."
The remaining five looked surprised. They had heard I was a tamer, but they hadn't expected the slimes to be actual employees.
"Therefore, anyone who is afraid of or dislikes slimes will find it difficult to work there. How do you feel about that?"
One woman raised her hand.
"Yes?"
"Are you using slimes because you don't have enough people? Or will you keep using them even if you hire more?"
"I will continue to use them. You might not like to hear this, but I expect you to treat the slimes as your colleagues."
Hearing that, she and two others declined, saying they couldn't imagine working alongside monsters, and left. Now, there were only two people left in the room: a middle-aged man and a young woman.
Is this really what interviews are like here? Or is my approach just that bad?
Even if these were just people who wanted immediate work and hadn't specifically sought out my shop, this was still a shock. At least they were decisive... but what about these last two?