We were in a small, private room. There was a big desk surrounded with chairs. We sat down across from Milaine, and I pulled the eggs from my bear storage.
“Are these kokekko eggs?”
“I’d like to start selling these eggs. Can you help me with that?”
“How many would you be looking to move, on average?”
“For now, between ten and twenty a day, but later on I’m hoping to aim for a thousand in a day if I can get a lot.”
“A thousand? How can you collect that many?”
“By raising kokekkos.”
“You’re raising birds…is this connected to the land around the orphanage?”
I explained my business plan.
“So then, do you think it’d be possible to sell the eggs regularly?”
“Let’s see. It would depend on the price, but it is possible.”
“I’ll leave the pricing up to you.”
Letting the specialist do what they do best was the right thing to do. I didn’t know how much eggs were worth anyway.
“Are you sure that’s what you would like?”
“What’s there to be worried about?”
“You’ll force the price down if you flood the market with eggs. There isn’t any need to go out of your way to increase the number in circulation…”
“I have a couple of reasons for doing this, but I want regular people to be able to eat eggs. Plus, I think that people will eventually figure out the orphanage is providing the eggs. People would be less likely to try stealing lots of cheap eggs than a few expensive ones. That’d be safer for the orphans, too.
“Plus, if they’re cheaper, then we’ll get to have a lot more egg-based meals.”
Milaine and Tiermina seemed surprised by my explanation. Apparently, no matter which world you’re in, operating a business without thinking much about your profit margin puts you in the minority.
The three of us talked over things and drew up a contract. Every day, someone would come by the henhouse near the orphanage to get the eggs. We’d leave pricing to the guild. It’d be a problem if they were too expensive and didn’t sell, after all. The guild would provide vegetable scraps for feed. That’d take the burden off of Liz. Tiermina would basically be in charge of delivery. We’d keep how the eggs were obtained and who was producing them a secret. In addition, we wrote a certain “something” in for the last clause.
“Is this contract agreeable?”
“Yeah, it’s fine.”
“Well then, I’ll register you at the merchant guild, so if you would be so kind as to allow me to see your guild card.”
“You want me to register?”
“Generally you need to be registered with the guild if you want to do legitimate business.”
I wish she wouldn’t look at me like she was saying “even little kids knew that.”
“So do you only need me to register?”
“I’m afraid I’ll need Tiermina to register as well. When doing any transactions with the eggs, they’ll need to check your guild cards.”
“In that case, can I use the card the adventurers’ guild made me?”
“Yes, all guild cards are fundamentally the same. All we’re doing is adding information to the card, so you can use the same one you created at the adventurers’ guild.”
Tiermina and I handed over our guild cards to Milaine. After taking them, Milaine headed over to a crystal panel in the corner of the room, placed the cards there, and processed them. It took a couple of minutes.
“I should explain how the merchant guild and these cards work.”
I checked the card.
Name: Yuna
Age: 15 Years Old
Class: Bear
Adventurer Rank: D
Merchant Rank: F
As usual, my class was still bear.
“Just like the adventurer rank, the merchant rank indicates your merchant level. The higher you increase in rank, the more your credibility increases. As a result, when doing business in a new town, a higher rank gets you more preferential treatment.”
“Preferential how?”
“For example, those towns might allow you to rent better plots of land, give you introductions to people you need, or let you have better materials, since you look like a good investment.”
I see, I thought. So my reputation goes up along with my rank. That’s basically the same for adventurers.
“By the way, how do I increase my rank?”
“That would be through contributing to the guild. To put it simply, it’s based on how much you collect in taxes.”
That was pretty simple.
“Also, this applies to any town you go to, but you’ll be required to receive permission to trade at the merchant guild wherever you go. If you do business without permission, you’ll end up getting penalized, so please be careful.”
Basically, they didn’t want me to do business arbitrarily. I wasn’t planning on setting up shop or anything right now anyway.
“Also, just as with the adventurers’ guild, you can deposit money here. You should be aware that any money you deposit at the adventurers’ guild is combined with the amount you deposit here. You may also withdraw money at either guild.”
I’d gotten the same explanation at the adventurers’ guild, but I hadn’t used that feature. I had the bear storage and the fortune the god had converted for me. Another hundred million yen wouldn’t make a difference if you already had ten billion.
“How would you like us to handle the proceeds from the eggs then? Would you like that in cash? Would you rather deposit the money in either your card or Tiermina’s?”
“Please deposit it in Tiermina’s,” I said, without hesitation.
“Hold on a sec,” said Tiermina. “Do you mean you’re depositing all the money with me?”
“Well yeah. I need to pay your wages and the kids’, plus there are probably going to be expenses. It’d be a pain for me to prep all the money each time.”
“While I’m glad you trust me, I’d rather not be responsible for what might potentially end up being a large sum of money.”
“In that case, what if we decide on a set amount of money? How about we deposit only the amount Tiermina would need in her card and put the rest on yours, Yuna?”
“We can do that?”
“Yes, we often do that for merchants who
