The Otherworld Antique Bookstore is a Life-Risk Chapter 16

 

Chapter 16: At the Adventurers' Street Store in the Eastern District

 

It's Yuki here.

I'm currently in the bustling street known as "Adventurers' Street" in the eastern district of the royal capital.

This area is always crowded with adventurers hoping to make money by hunting monsters in the publicly accessible part of the "Abyss Labyrinth," which serves as our base. There are numerous shops catering to adventurers, including weapon and armor stores, material shops, and apothecaries.

The reason I'm here is to deliver a specific business order to one of our directly managed bookstores on Adventurers' Street. Although we call it a directly managed store, its operation is outsourced to White Trading Company. Normally, White Trading Company could issue the business order themselves, but I wanted to see the store with my own eyes. So when Mr. White informed me about starting this new business, I volunteered to convey the message personally.

The origin of this situation was a casual comment I made during our carriage ride back from the "Tower of the Fallen Kingdom's Witch."

"Even if we sell magical toilets, won't maintenance be difficult if the elemental magic stones are quickly consumed? It seems challenging to hire magicians to replenish the various elemental magic powers in the empty non-elemental magic stones..."

"Yuki, tell me more about that. More details!" Mr. White exclaimed excitedly, grabbing my shoulders and shaking me vigorously in the swaying carriage.

So, I proposed to Mr. White a "medicine box" style of business where we would place boxes containing replacement magic stone sets in the mansions of magical toilet purchasers, then make regular rounds to replenish used magic stones and collect payment for the used ones.

This would require White Trading Company to independently collect large quantities of elemental magic stones. Elemental magic stones of earth, water, fire, and wind can only be obtained from monsters in the middle layers of dungeons or higher, and their sizes vary, making it difficult to amass large quantities of a specific size. On the other hand, non-elemental magic stones can be obtained from low-level monsters that are hunted en masse, so material shops buy them at throwaway prices, and adventurers often leave them behind.

That's why we focused on this opportunity. We decided to buy large quantities of non-elemental magic stones of the size used in magical toilets at high prices, then have magicians hired by White Trading Company replenish them with elemental magic power to mass-produce elemental magic stones.

 

Although elemental magic stones obtained directly from monsters have richer magic power and last much longer for the same size, for our business, it's more efficient if they can be replaced quickly. We can offset this by lowering the replacement fee.

Given this background, the business order I'm delivering to the store today is to "start high-price purchases of non-elemental magic stones."

 

* * *

 

The Adventurers' Street store I arrived at has one floor above ground and one below, and it's not a particularly large shop.

Leaving my guard, Mr. Huey, outside, I entered the store alone. First, without revealing my identity, I made a complete circuit of the interior.

Many of the products dealt with dungeon-related items, mostly things like labyrinth maps for each floor and monster encyclopedias. A map of the 20th floor even costs 10 gold coins. Impressive.

Now, let's switch to work mode and begin.

"Good morning, everyone. I'm Yuki from White Trading Company. Please call the store manager, Mr. Cutter."

When I said this to an employee who had just finished accounting work, he disappeared into a back room and shortly after, a man in his late twenties appeared.

"You must be Yuki. I'm Cutter, the store manager."

As he was about to guide me to the back, I stopped him and conveyed the business order right there.

"I'll explain the details later, but first, let's quickly create a purchase announcement. Time is money, you know."

Upon hearing this, Mr. Cutter called out to another employee who was restocking products, instructed him to follow my directions, and then returned to the back room.

Since both the accounting and restocking seemed busy, I had intended to suggest working together with Mr. Cutter, but oh well.

I worked with the two employees to create a purchase announcement written on a wooden board, discussing where to post it and producing what I thought was a pretty good result.

This is the quickest way to understand the store's atmosphere and the employees' attitudes. They don't need to know who I am. Once I join the work, I'm just another employee with a "position."

 

Soon, a crowd began to form in front of the announcement. It's an announcement about buying items that were treated as trash at high prices, albeit with conditions. The murmuring voices of the adventurers are pleasant to hear.

We'll need them to work hard collecting magic stones.

Mr. Cutter appeared several times to observe our work from a distance but ultimately kept returning to the back. I felt this was not a good trend.

In the back office, I asked Mr. Cutter why he had been behaving like this.

"That's only natural, isn't it? I'm the store manager. My job is to oversee the entire store and efficiently direct the employees. If I get caught up in minor practical work, I won't be able to give instructions."

This might sound reasonable at first, but from my experience, it's a typical excuse made by ineffective managers I've seen in my previous life.

"The store manager is a business executive. So from now on, my job is to direct employees and run the store."

I know a company president who mass-produced store managers who would say such things and then hole up in their offices, never appearing on the sales floor. Yes, it was the used book chain store I worked for in my previous life.

At first, I thought that was just how things were, but as I moved up in rank, I began to see the hidden meaning.

In that company, the highest position a regular employee could reach in their career model was store manager. Higher executive positions were filled by bringing in family members or personal acquaintances.

From the company's perspective, employees who had reached the store manager position had served their purpose. They needed to be quickly laid off and replaced to make room for others.

So the president himself would declare "store managers are executives" and turn employees who had become store managers through excellent performance into incompetent employees who couldn't even operate a cash register, then lay them off citing diminished abilities.

Why would they do such a thing?

"We don't want to employ them until retirement age and pay full retirement benefits." "If we don't recruit a certain number of new employees every year, banks will think the company is in poor condition and stop lending us money." Ridiculous, right?

The words Mr. Cutter just said to me are the same ones uttered by store managers who were deceived by such a president's words.

I have no intention of firing Mr. Cutter or leaving him as he is. Mr. White, who judged him capable of managing the store, couldn't have chosen an incompetent person. He simply hasn't had anyone to educate him since becoming a store manager.

Shall I get serious for the first time in a while?

"Mr. Cutter, that's not enough. A store manager should not only manage the store but also be the top-class salesperson and the biggest earner in the store. That's the kind of figure White Trading Company is looking for in you."

"That's..."

"You should emulate Mr. White. Look at how he continues to refine his business sense by driving a carriage around town himself, not relying on his position as company president. How can the manager of a store belonging to White Trading Company, the best in the royal capital, be on the same level as managers from run-of-the-mill trading companies?"

"You're right, I've been neglecting practical work, taking advantage of the term 'management'."

Saying this, Mr. Cutter fell silent.

There's no point in just winning an argument here. In fact, if he's capable, being bested by someone who looks like a young girl could become a source of resentment later.

So, let's use the proposal I brought today to our advantage.

"Actually, I've brought a very good opportunity for you today, Mr. Cutter."

I said this, but Mr. Cutter didn't seem enthusiastic. That's understandable; he probably thinks a proposal from someone who looks like a young girl can't amount to much.

"Our company is about to release a new high-class magical item. This is top secret; currently, only Mr. and Mrs. White and I know about this."

As soon as I said this, Mr. Cutter's back straightened. With these words, I should have instantly transformed from "just a young girl" to "an important figure in the company" in his eyes.

"So the magic stone purchase you instructed today is..."

"Indeed, you're quick to catch on. This high-class magical item consumes large quantities of elemental magic stones, so President White plans to launch a new business where we lend out boxes filled with replacement magic stones and make regular rounds to replenish them and generate profits. This store holds the key to its success."

"This store is crucial for the new business. How many magic stones will be needed?"

"According to the president's estimates, we're looking at a minimum of 200 boxes, each containing 50 elemental magic stones."

"Ten thousand magic stones of a specific size!"

"Yes. Depending on your performance, Mr. Cutter, I'm thinking of recommending you as the person in charge of this new business division."

"M-me?"

"Of course. You're now the fourth person to know about this company secret. That's how much everyone expects from you. That's why we can't have you being satisfied with just being a store manager who uses employees at your beck and call."

"I understand. I, Cutter, will tackle this task with the determination to give my life for it."

Good, Mr. Cutter will be fine now.

As I was leaving, I suggested that it might be good to post announcements at the labyrinth entrance and the adventurers' guild, but Mr. Cutter said, "I'll do it myself until I'm satisfied," and ran off alone.

 

* * *

 

Later, I was summoned to the company's main store by Mr. White and asked:

"I only asked Yuki to make the magic stone purchase announcement. What exactly did you do to Cutter?"

Apparently, during the free time on the day of the regular meeting of store managers, while other managers were chatting idly in the conference room, Mr. Cutter went down to the store floor and enjoyed working alongside the main store employees, serving customers. Upon seeing this, Mrs. Yuna reportedly exhorted the other managers to "learn from Cutter."

"I only asked Mr. Cutter if he felt anything when observing your work style, Mr. White. Isn't this the result of his own reflections?"

That's how I answered. It's fine. I don't like complications.

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