Opening The Shop

Morning in the Royal Capital.

I was at the shop together with Teti.

I planned to look for the legendary treasure that would lower the cost of rejuvenation and for the Princess’s soul that Edgar wished to find only after we opened the shop.

Or rather, we couldn’t do either unless the bookstore was open for business.

Inside the cramped shop, I lined up monster parts with prices set at five times the usual rate, along with herbs and mushrooms.

Inside the glass display counter, rows of Puchi Elixirs were neatly arranged.

I also decided to name the shop “Puchi Eli” and hung up the signboard.

The dazzling morning sun shone on the sign.

Looking up at it, I thought,

—I never planned on going into business in the first place.

It was a lot to take in.

Inside the shop, the elf girl Teti was cleaning, her blond hair swaying as she moved. Her feather-dusting motions were light and nimble.

I stepped inside and called out to her.

“Kou can handle the cleaning, you know. You don’t need to work that hard.”

“Even so, this is my place too! I want to make it clean with my own hands!”

Still dusting with a pat-pat motion, Teti answered.

I figured that was just how she felt, and didn’t say anything else.

Instead, I asked about something different.

“When you think of elves, you think of bows and spirit magic, but you’re not that strong, are you, Teti?”

“That’s right. I never learned any of that.”

“Do you know how to get better at spirit magic or archery?”

“If I knew that, I’d have gotten stronger and already become an adventurer.”

“True enough… Ideally, I’d like you to be able to help defend the dungeon. Let’s find someone who can teach you how to use spirit magic.”

This morning’s sudden dungeon attack.

If we were going to be assaulted from time to time, it would be better to have someone strong enough to leave in charge when we were away.

Teti still seemed a bit underpowered for that… But if we wanted to reinforce our fighting strength, that would cost more money again…

—I really wanted to save whenever possible.

Creating an ideal living environment sure was a lot of work.

I pressed a hand to my forehead and shook my head.

Then Teti spoke up with an open, carefree smile.

“Okaaay. Still, I’m so jealous of you, Sir Alec~. I wanted to become a dungeon master too—like in Dungeon Mistress.”

“Dungeon Mistress?”

At my words, Teti turned around with her jade-green eyes going wide.

“What!? Sir Alec, you don’t know Dungeon Mistress!? —Dungeon Mistress Story!”

“No. What kind of story is it?”

“Well, it’s about a duke’s daughter who trained herself hard to become queen, but the First Prince breaks off their engagement and she’s banished from the kingdom. Out in the frontier she finds a dungeon core, befriends it, and using her natural talent for domestic affairs and diplomacy, she builds a labyrinth empire and a reverse harem of handsome men, then gets sweet revenge on her old country. It’s a massive hit novel that passed one million copies sold!”

“I don’t read many books. What kind of dungeon does she make?”

“It was a forest-type field dungeon that healed everyone. She befriended pegasi, unicorns, and fairies there.”

“Oh? So there are even field-type dungeons.”

—It would be dangerous to take fantasy at face value, so I’d better ask Kou about it later.

While I was thinking that, Liricia stepped out of the wardrobe.

“Master, everything is ready.”

“All right, let’s open the shop.”

“Okaaay!”

Teti answered in a cute voice, stopped cleaning, and headed for the entrance.

She drew back the curtains covering the front window and unlocked the door.

She flipped the sign hanging on the door from “Closed” to “Open.” Her blond hair flashed for a moment in the morning light streaming through the gap in the doorway.

Then she spread her skirt and spun around with her whole body.

“Okay, we’re open!”

“Did you memorize the prices properly?”

“I’m fine!”

“Is the change all set?”

Teti hurried back to the counter and peered into the change box.

“Um… yeah. Plenty of coins. We should be fine, probably!”

“Well, we don’t have that many products, so things shouldn’t get that busy.”

“Being too bored would be a problem too… Oh, can I read the books that were in the dungeon room?”

“Sure, use them however you like.”

“Yaaay, thanks—oh.”

Just then, someone came in. A slightly plump middle-aged woman.

She was the landlady of this shop.

Teti greeted her with a bright, cute voice.

“Welcome~!”

“Oh, I’m not a customer.”

I stepped out in front of the counter to face the landlady.

“This is the landlady here. And this is Teti, who’ll be running the shop for us.”

“My, you’ve hired such an adorable shop girl… Oh, that reminds me, I heard! They say you took care of the Eastern Dungeon in the Royal Capital!?”

“It was getting in the way of the shop.”

“So the shop being ‘cursed’ was all because there was a dungeon here, huh. Lately there were even rumors people heard a woman sobbing… I’m really so happy.”

The landlady smiled from ear to ear as tears spilled from her eyes.

Surprised, I asked,

“Is it really something to cry over? It wasn’t that big a deal.”

“That’s not it. The Eastern Dungeon in the Royal Capital was my husband’s killer!”

“What?”

“He wasn’t all that strong, but on his days off he’d always go into the dungeon. He kept coming back with worthless junk.”

“So dungeon exploring was his hobby.”

“But one day, he just never came back. You have no idea how long I waited for him to return. I’m sad, but I’m happy too! You really did a good thing for me!”

The landlady’s plump body shook as she laid her emotions bare.

An idea suddenly occurred to me.

—Maybe I could get a discount for the time I couldn’t use the shop.

“Right, about the rent…”

“I got three months’ worth from you, but I’ll count it as six! It’s my way of saying thanks! And from now on, I’ll make the monthly rent fifty thousand! —Ahh, I won’t feel right unless I do at least that much!”

“Seriously… That helps a lot. In that case, here’s the remaining six months in advance.”

I rummaged through my pouch, took out three large gold coins—six months’ worth, three hundred thousand Gort—and handed them to the landlady.

If she had changed the rent on a momentary impulse, I didn’t want her changing her mind later and causing trouble.

Clutching the coins, the landlady laughed through her tears.

“Paying so promptly is wonderful too! Makes me want to take you as my husband!”

“T-That’s not allowed!”

Liricia suddenly latched onto my arm from the side.

The landlady threw her head back and laughed.

“Ahahaha! I’m only joking! I’m not about to steal a man who already has such a cute wife!”

Watching the landlady’s belly shake with her loud laughter, I remembered what I’d been thinking about yesterday.

“Come to think of it, you own other properties too, right?”

“Hm? Well, I’ve got houses and rental warehouses and such, but what’s with the sudden question?”

“Oh, it’s just… It’s still a vague idea, but I was wondering if there’s any large plot of land available.”

“What are you planning to do?”

“I’m thinking of trying something like a bathhouse.”

The landlady’s smile faded, and she looked at me suspiciously.

“What, you planning to open some shady kind of place?”

“No. Just a normal public bath. A bathhouse with lots of different medicinal baths.”

“A public bath run by a private person? Never heard of that before. Would it even work?”

The landlady frowned and tilted her head.

I turned back to Teti and asked her,

“The bath you took yesterday felt good, right? I was thinking of offering different kinds of water like that which helps with various illnesses.”

“Yeah! That bath felt amazing! Like I’d come back to life. —I think it’s a great idea. If it heals injuries and sickness, customers will be thrilled.”

Teti’s cute smile bloomed as she nodded, her blond hair swaying.

Even so, the landlady only frowned harder, her expression growing more doubtful.

“Even if that’s true… There’s no such big, empty plot of land left in the Royal Capital. Not just with me—no real estate agent has land that big.”

“Yeah… Then I’ll have to think about places outside the capital, or in another town.”

Personally, I thought it was a good idea, but realistically it had way too many problems.

They say a fool’s schemes are no better than taking a rest, and they weren’t wrong.

The landlady gave a big nod.

“Well, that sort of thing might work better in some rich person’s summer retreat or a resort town. I’ll look into it a little. —Anyway, I’m counting on you from here on too!”

“Oh, wait a second.”

I called out to the landlady as she was about to leave the shop.

I grabbed one of the Puchi Elixir bottles from the shelf and handed it to her.

For reference, I had priced each bottle at twenty thousand Gort.

“If you like, please try using this potion. It’s the star product we’re going to be selling here.”

“Oh yeah? Thanks!”

The landlady accepted it without fuss, raised a hand in farewell, and left the shop.

Liricia and I headed for the entrance as well.

With my hand on the door, I glanced back.

“Okay, Teti. We’re going to the Adventurer Guild and the bookstore. I’m leaving the shop in your hands.” “We’ll be on our way.”

“Got it, see you later!”

Seeing Teti’s smiling face as she saw us off, Liricia and I stepped out into the sunlight of the morning.

The things Edgar and I were looking for were supposed to be found at the bookstore.