I Shall Survive Using Potions! Volume 1 Page 9

  The reason the merchant picked me up in the first place wasn’t just because the merchant was worried about seeing a small child who looked dead tired as she walked by herself. The merchant’s son was also in the back of the wagon, who seemed pretty bored from the trip, so the merchant was hoping I could keep him company and chat with him—and chat with him I did.

  He was only about ten years old, so he wasn’t much good for figuring out what the deal was with this world. He said he wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps and get into the trade as well, so I taught him a few tricks to get by in business, as well as how to handle customers. Basically, I drilled the type of customer service they had in Japan into him. I took no responsibility for anything that happened because of that though.

  In exchange, he taught me all about the geography around here. I was shocked, frankly, at just how much he knew about the surrounding countries and what their relationships were with each other, despite how young he was. I guess I should have expected that sort of knowledge from a merchant’s son.

  According to what he had to say, the Kingdom of Brancott (the country we were in now) was located just around the base of a peninsula sticking out the west from the continent, with four more countries located just beyond it. Of the two countries sharing a border with Brancott, the Kingdom of Balmore lay to the north, while the Kingdom of Aseed lay to the south, both of which were stable monarchies. Even further to the west of those two, located on the very tip of the peninsula, was a millitaristic nation headed by a dictatorship: the Aligot Empire. Now, there was a series of steep mountain ranges that separated the two kingdoms from the Aligot Empire. It wasn’t anything that couldn’t be climbed over as long as you tried hard enough, but since the only route available was a long detour by boat, it acted as an inhibitor for trade between them all.

  The last thing worth mentioning was the Holy Land of Rueda, a religious state located just on the coastline northwest of Balmore. The country shared a border with the Aligot Empire, but possessed very little military might on account of them being a fairly small country. Putting it as simply as possible, imagine the Tohoku region of Japan (or look it up), but flipped ninety degrees to the left. Aomori would be where the Aligot Empire was at, Iwate being the kingdom of Balmore, Akita being the Kingdom of Aseed, and Yamagata and Miyagi combined would be the kingdom of Brancott. If you wanted to head to the continent itself from any of those countries, you would need to pass through Brancott first.

  The capital of Brancott was actually located a good deal west of the center of the country, while Balmore’s capital was the opposite, located farther to the east. The two countries were on friendly terms with each other, and the locations of their capitals made them feel even closer together, but in the literal sense of the word. Well, “close” as far as this world was concerned anyway.

  The merchant was nice enough to buy three of the “going away presents” I had snagged from the baron’s mansion. I made a big show of making it look like I was taking it out of a bag I already had on me of course. He told me it was going to be a bit less than I’d get at any of the proper shops, but I was more than happy to sell them. Now I wouldn’t have to worry about inn fees for the next few days.

  I had him drop me off in front of the city gates, said my thanks to him, then we parted ways. Unlike the merchant and his son, who had proof of citizenship and a card showing they were registered merchants, I was a fresh, new arrival. It looked like there were still some hoops to jump through before they would let me in.

  As you may expect from the royal capital, it was a completely walled off city, and anyone trying to get in had to pass through a gate under protection from the guards posted at it. I was directed to wait in a different line since I was a new arrival, which was when we ended up playing the “What business do you have here?” game. Maybe a young girl all by herself was too suspicious after all.

  “Now why are you all alone? Where’s your family?”

  The soldier attacks!

  “They’re all dead... My uncle stole the house and land my father had left me, then tried to sell me off as a slave as well. That’s why I ran away by myself... I thought I might find someone to work for in the city so I can get by...”

  I strike back. The soldier takes a mortal blow!

  He got to taking care of the rest of my paperwork right away. He said he was sorry to ask, but new arrivals needed to pay three silver coins to finish the process, but I was more than set thanks to the merchant buying my stuff earlier.

  After getting myself a temporary entry pass, I was told I needed to find myself some actual work if I wanted to get an official pass. I was already planning on doing that from the beginning of course. I was going to get myself a job while figuring out more about this world. I’d decided I wasn’t going to sell any more of my healing potions. At most, I would only use them on myself from now on.

  I might be able to sell other stuff else as long as I don’t make it too valuable. Maybe something like good ol’ sodium chloride... No, no, bad idea. Salt is bad. It’s too dangerous to try anything when I don’t know how widely distributed it is, or how much it sells for, or even if there’s a monopoly on it or something. Nope, not making the same mistake I did with potions again... Gotta live and learn, me.

  After finally getting through the gates, I began heading toward the place the merchant was kind enough to tell me about that was supposed to help you get work. If I didn’t find a good job right away, I’d be sleeping at the inn tonight. If anyone was hiring that’d let me live in-house with them, then my plan was to head over to check it out ASAP.

  Unlike the Hunter’s Guild, where mercenaries and soldiers would take on the dangerous jobs like hunting quests and the more perilous gathering missions, the job-hunting agency was a place you could find much more normal lines of work. This was the place where the agency could find you jobs working at a store or as a hired hand, all sorts of unskilled labor work, or even safe and simple gathering quests. The employer would fill out a request application and pay a fee to have it put up. Once they found someone they wanted to hire, they would next have to pay an intermediary fee to the agency, since the ones applying to these requests usually didn’t have much money in the first place. Even if the person they hired quit immediately after being hired, there were no refunds. They’d picked out the person themselves, and the agency wouldn’t hesitate to point that out if they tried saying anything.

  After I made my way to the job-hunting agency, I went ahead and checked out the details for the help wanted requests posted on the board. I looked a bunch of them over, but there were all sorts of extra requirements I couldn’t compromise on, such as location, the type of work, their terms for hiring someone; stuff like that. There was one that was in some far off mountains, another one that was all heavy-lifting, one that was for guys only, and another one where you needed prior experience...

  I couldn’t pick one that took up too much of my free time either, since it would interfere with me going out to gather more information about where I was. I was fine with them taking money out of my paycheck as long as I got a place to stay out of it, but working as a maid in a noble’s mansion didn’t seem like I’d have much “me” time. I tried applying for a job at a bar, but the lady receptionist turned me down, saying it wasn’t something minors could apply for. No matter how many times I told her I was fifteen, she just told me it wasn’t good to lie, no matter how much I wanted a job. It would’ve been perfect for finding out more about this world, and I probably could’ve made a good bit of cash off tips too...

  In the end, I was finally hired as a live-in waitress at a restaurant in town. I’d be completely free to do whatever I wanted outside of my shifts, so that worked for me. It even came with meals included, and you shouldn’t think I wasn’t grateful to hear that.

  “Though it may be a little late for this now, how about we take a break for lunch?”

  After finally reaching a place to stop in the mountains of paperwork, the F
irst Crown Prince of Brancott, Fernand Brancott, let out a long sigh at Fabio’s words.

  Fabio was the son of the kingdom’s prime minister, and, along with Allan, the son of another minister, they’d both been friends with Fernand since they were kids. It wasn’t like they all just happened to become friends by chance though. Their parents had decided it was best for them to be together, and their relationship started off as something like the one you would have with a classmate at school. Though it was because of their parents that they had met each other, the three of them actually got along quite well. Before they knew it, they’d actually become true friends.

  Unlike Fabio, who just seemed like the spitting image of what a prime minister’s son should look like, Allan was more like a rugged hunter you’d find in the rougher parts of town. Though he was skilled with a sword, there were parts to him that just didn’t seem to fit the noble lifestyle at all. It never crossed their parents’ minds that Allan would turn out this way, but Fernand and Fabio liked that about him.

  The boys had already turned eighteen, and were already having marriage proposals falling into their laps. As the next in line for the throne, Fernand also had to worry about potential candidates to be the royal consort on top of all that. That said, they were all at the age where they just wanted to mess around and have fun.

  “Finally... Are you guys eating in your rooms, or should we just have them bring it here?”

  “No, Allan and I were thinking of going into town to grab something to eat.”

  Fernand already knew Allan would go out into town often since he didn’t like food at the castle, but it was a rare event for Fabio to go along with him as well. As Fernand thought that, Fernand had an idea.

  “All right, I’m coming too.”

  “I don’t know if that’s a good idea...”

  Talking down the bewildered Fabio, Fernand got to work getting his outfit together so he could travel incognito into town.

  “This is it. The food’s good, but it’s also a pretty cool place in general.”

  This was a restaurant Allan had been coming to recently, and had invited Fabio to have him to see it for himself. Fernand and Fabio were hesitant at first to enter a commoner’s establishment, but there was no way they could back out now—and that went especially for Fernand. Fernand had been so insistent on tagging along and couldn’t embarrass Allan by refusing to go.

  When the group went inside, they found the restaurant fairly devoid of customers since the lunchtime rush had passed. It didn’t seem strange for them to be taking last calls for lunch orders any moment now.

  Allan picked a table at random to sit down at, then showed the other two the menu.

  “Take a look at the stuff they have down on the bottom-right. It’s all pretty interesting.”

  When Fernand and Fabio took a look for themselves, they found a variety of dishes listed there...or what they assumed to be dishes at least.

  “‘Big and Soft Soup Pasta,’ ‘Soup Rice, Plum or Salmon Edition,’ ‘T(omato) C(hicken) R(ice) E(gg) Wraps’... What the heck is all this?”

  Fabio was flabbergasted by all this cuisine he’d never heard of before.

  “You can just leave that part to me. ‘Scuse me! Three orders of TCRE wraps over here, please!”

  “Ah, hey! Don’t just decide for us...”

  Allan went ahead and ordered for the table, though the looks on the other two’s faces seemed less than happy about that.

  After waiting a bit for the waitress to bring the food to the table, Allan asked her a question.

  “Hey, Aimee, do you think we could get some advice today?”

  “Sure thing. The only people you have ahead of you is that parent and his kid, so it should be fine. What kinda course you goin’ for?”

  “How about we go with five silver coins today?”

  “Whoa, look at Mr. Generous over here! Thanks a bunch!”

  The waitress they’d been talking to, Aimee, looked in pretty high spirits as she walked away.

  “What was up with that just now... What are you trying to pull, Allan?”

  “That’s just something you can look forward to finding out! Anyway, you better eat before your food gets cold!”

  Though the other two were plenty suspicious over what Allan was up to, they both dug into their meals.

  ““Huh?””

  The two were in shock after taking a bite of their food. Their hands stopped for just an instant before digging in with added gusto. Their spoons were practically a blur as they ate.

  “Whaddya think? Pretty good stuff, right? Just goes to show you can’t underestimate commoner restaurants!”

  “You’re right. You went out of your way to bring us here for it after all.”

  Fabio had no retort to Allan’s smug look of satisfaction. But still, Allan kept a mischievous look on his face.

  “What are you talking about? I know the food is good and all, but I wouldn’t bring the ever-busy Sir Fabio all the way down here for just that.”

  Fabio had a blank look on his face, like he didn’t understand what was going on. Fernand seemed keen to know the details, but kept quiet watching the two of them talk.

  “I think they should just be about done taking orders now.”

  Right after Allan said that, a girl appeared from the kitchen and headed over to the merchant family sitting near their table. She looked to be about eleven or twelve years old, and had black hair and eyes, which was a little unusual to see around here. The way her face looked seemed to suggest she came from a foreign country. She was cute, there was no doubt about that, and she looked like an intellectual to boot. It was just...the look in her eyes was a little on the harsh side. Actually, way on the harsh side, to be honest. Children who were faint of heart probably wouldn’t want to get within five meters of her, it was so bad.

  She’d killed at least four or five people. That was how bad the look in her eyes was.

  “That’s Kaoru, the girl I wanted to show you today.”

  “Her?”

  Allan gave a wide grin after seeing how surprised Fabio was. “Yup, once they stop taking orders, it frees up some time for the other waitresses. After the manager gives the okay, that’s when it turns into a sort of counseling center. All the other waitresses get a cut of the profits, so they all seem pretty happy to take on whatever work is left from whoever is doing the counseling.”

  The girl had made it to the table next to them by the time he finished saying that. The three of them pricked up their ears and listened in on the conversation.

  “Thanks for always stopping by, Bohman. What did you want advice on today?”

  “Actually, it’s not me asking the questions today, but my son Charles. Seems like he has something he wanted to ask you about.”

  “Five small silver coins should be enough to cover that then. All right, Charles, let’s hear it.”

  Despite the harsh look in her eyes, having a cute girl smile at him caused the ten-year-old boy to blush slightly as he asked his question.

  “Um, it’s what we talked about last time... About customers who come to complain. They make up such a small portion of all the customers you get, so wouldn’t it be best to forget about them and treat the other not-rude customers better instead? Then you wouldn’t have to go out of your way to deal with those kinds of people, and you wouldn’t have to practice how to work it out with them... Isn’t it all just a big waste of time otherwise?”

  The girl answered the young boy’s question with a smile, the scary look in her eyes being replaced with something a little more gentle.

  “Actually, it turns out there are tons of people who won’t go out of their way to complain to you, even if they’re not satisfied about something. Instead of dragging themselves all the way to the store to complain, they can just move on to the next place. Just because they don’t come to complain doesn’t mean they’re all satisfied customers. People like that won’t go to the store to complain, but will tell other people inste
ad. When they do, the people running the store will start seeing less customers without knowing why. But, among all those customers, there are some who will take the time to tell you the parts about your store that need improving. Wouldn’t you be grateful to have people as kind as them do that for you?”

  “Ah...”

  “Still, there are some people who are just trying to get money out of you by making up nonexistent problems. You have to make sure and never give them money, even if you think parting with a bit of cash is worth avoiding the issue altogether. If rumor spreads that your shop will just give up money when pressured, you’ll get all sorts of unsavory types coming to extort you. You have to be firm and hold your ground against those people, even if it means a loss of profits on your end.”

  “Got it.”

  “Also, don’t you think customers would be happy to see a shop take their advice seriously and put it into practice? Happy enough that they would want to continue giving them their patronage. Catch my drift?”

  “Y-Yeah, that’s true...”

  “Listen, Charles. Customers aren’t just suckers for merchants to take money from; they’re people you do business with on fair terms. They can be friends, and they can be teachers with tons to teach you.”

  “I see...”

  The girl continued her explanation, an expression of admiration on the father’s face as he listened intently as well.

  Who is that girl?! Fabio whispered. Rather, what is that girl?!

  Pretty cool, right? Allan replied.

  This is way beyond it being “cool” or not!

  You get all that for five small silver coins? Fernand interjected. Didn’t you say five whole silver coins earlier, Allan?