10

Jemina beside me didn’t know what to do.

‘If you get flustered, you’re amateur.’

I smiled as if I hadn’t heard at all.

“Please take care of me, senior.”

His eyes faltered at the unexpected response.

“Where should I start?”

“I-I’ll tell you!”

Jemina fussed and pulled a chair up beside my desk.

“F-first, from now on you should attend the management department meetings, take the minutes, and organize them. Here are the minutes written before. It might be good to refer to them.”

He stammered as if frightened.

‘Is it because of him?’

I decided I needed to gauge whether that guy named Bator was worse than I thought.

“Yes, thank you, senior.”

“H-huh, senior…”

Every time I called him senior, his face flushed.

“Oh, there’s a meeting at 2 p.m. today, so just join on time.”

“Yep.”

They didn’t seem to give much work on my first day. Skimming the previous minutes, as expected of the management department, there was a clear difference from the clumsily organized ones by Opel’s incompetent senior.

‘It’s neat.’

To improve it, I thought having a template would help; the pages were filled with text on plain paper, so it’s hard to see what’s what at a glance.

‘But I shouldn’t change it on my own.’

That could be seen as disrespecting the previous staff.

The technology may be behind the modern era, but that doesn’t mean they lack intelligence; apparently only geniuses can enter the Mage Tower.

‘I’ll suggest it later once I’m comfortable with people.’

This place, like a proper large company, provided employee meals.

Jemina invited Bator to join the three of us, but he declined, so the two of us ate together.

I didn’t want to create an awkward situation on my first day.

“Senior, I’m fine eating alone. I have friends who came up to the capital. You can eat with senior Bator.”

Jemina flinched and shook his head.

“Ah, no! Seniors should take care of things like this! It’s only natural for a senior to look after a junior!”

‘His tone aside, he’s an extremely normal senior.’

At first, eating together like this was important for forming relationships and adjusting.

“Yes, um, your friends are probably eating lunch with their department colleagues.”

“I guess so. Thank you for caring, senior.”

“Ah, no! Hurry and eat. Our cafeteria food is good!”

He wasn’t a lying senior. It was really good. After eating dry bread for a while, it tasted all the better. A tasty lunch greatly affects a worker’s quality of life, so it deserved extra points.

‘They say some people come to work just for lunch for a reason.’

And it was free, so satisfaction was even higher.

I liked that the company wasn’t stingy about food.

There was one senior who looked down on women, but overall this balance didn’t seem bad.

After lunch, the scheduled meeting began. It was a management department meeting attended up to the department head, discussing departmental issues.

As a note, ‘issues’ is a word you’ll see used everywhere in office life even if it feels unfamiliar at first; get used to it. Of course, they didn’t use that exact word here.

“What agenda items need to be discussed now?”

Soledad, the aide, replied looking exhausted.

“There are two. The first is the recent decline in Daijo’s sales. We’ve been bringing in higher-quality goods and haven’t raised prices much, but customers are being taken away by the competitors.”

The atmosphere instantly turned serious. To put it bluntly, it meant our livelihoods were shrinking. Samora, the head of management, asked a question.

“What do you think the reason is?”

Soledad bowed his head apologetically.

“We’re looking into the cause now… but we haven’t identified it yet. We’ll explore alternatives as soon as we confirm it.”

“Understood. It might help to analyze competitors thoroughly. Please conduct a detailed market survey. Any other issues?”

“Yes. Understood. The second is store management. Complaints from customers are increasing at stores across the empire. There’s a limit to dispatched personnel, and determining the validity of those complaints is difficult, so we’re struggling.”

While diligently taking minutes, I thought the two issues might not be separate.

‘If store management is poor, customers might be turning away.’

If there’s no standout hit product, customers wouldn’t endure low-quality service; there are plenty of other shops.

“Hmm…”

“It’s not easy…”

“The first and second problems might be related.”

Samora voiced an opinion similar to mine.

“I don’t think we’ll find an easy answer here. But we don’t have much time.”

“I wonder if increasing management staff would help…”

“We can’t increase the budget while sales are decreasing.”

“How about changing the product mix a bit?”

“In that case…”

They suggested various solutions, but none fit perfectly.

I decided to worry about how to neatly summarize the lengthening minutes.

I was a brand-new hire today. Even if I had ideas, I should avoid sticking my neck out at a meeting like this.

‘Should I divide major headings by issue and list one solution under each subheading? That seems best.’

“At times like this, it’s good to hear from someone who’s worked on the floor. What does Cornelia think?”

“…Yes?”

I was so focused on taking minutes that the sudden call startled me.

“You’ve probably heard what’s been discussed so far. You’re the employee who was selected for the once-a-year ‘Praise’ award, right? Speak freely. Constantly writing may get boring.”

I felt pressured.

“Ah… I’m… okay.”

The gazes of the secretary, the aide, the senior, and the department head all turned to me.

When they lay out a stage like this, simply backing out isn’t good either.

‘How should I bring this up…?’

I bowed my head, feeling extremely embarrassed.

“My thought is…”

Rustle, rustle.

A room filled only with the sound of paperwork being shuffled.

A man’s eyes flashed as he quickly scanned the contents with a sharp gaze.

“Sales have increased, huh?”

It was the Merchant guild head Petra. Vice-head Kei, sitting on the opposite sofa, nodded.

“I see. What is the reason sales that were steadily declining have recovered? Has there been a policy change?”

Then the vice-head’s aide stepped forward.

“It seems to be the effect of a new regulation from the management department.”

“A regulation?”

“Yes. It’s called the ‘mystery customer.’”

“Mys…tery customer?”

Merchant guild head Petra straightened up with interest.

“It’s a rule where the head office randomly selects a few stores across all locations and has head office staff pose as customers to inspect the service.”

“Oh ho, and?”

“Branches that receive poor evaluations within a certain period will face demotion or pay cuts if there’s no room for improvement. Conversely, well-evaluated branches get benefits from the head office, like raises or staffing support. The head office will internally announce branches with good evaluations.”

“That’s a clever plan.”

The vice-head stroked his beard and fell into thought.

Since they randomly selected and visited only a few locations, there was no need to hire additional staff.

Moreover, head office employees experiencing the service firsthand gave it credibility. Since it directly tied to the management department’s performance, they couldn’t just overlook poor service.

“You never know when, where, or what form they’ll come in, so you’ll have to pay attention to regular store management.”

“Store management ultimately affected sales recovery. They solved two problems with one method.”

Petra thought the management department’s solution was radical yet highly efficient. Branch managers would be stressed, but what could be done; if sales drop, stores could disappear too. And with benefits, well-managed branches would be motivated.

“The effect of replacing the head of management with Samora is already showing.”

This personnel move turned out to be the right choice. They should’ve stopped him when he said he was going to become a branch manager.

“It seems so. The new head of management manages his subordinates quite well.”

But to vice-head Kei, who had known Samora for a long time, this was not the kind of idea he could have come up with alone.

Unless his entire way of thinking was different…

“He did great work, so we should reward him accordingly. Give the management department a generous budget for a team dinner and actively support any furniture or supplies they need. Charge the amount to my account.”

“Yes, understood.”

They ended the suffocating meeting on a pleasant note for the first time in a while. Kei sent his aide and headed straight for the management office.

And there he found a surprising answer there.

“Who did you say?”