“I see… So while we were working hard to solve the mountain of domestic issues, you were off on a secret little date with Princess Ifriita?”
“No, not at all. Okay, maybe you’re sort of right, but…”
That evening, after visiting the Merchant Union and Adventurers’ Guild, I was enjoying a post-dinner drink when Melty went all in on me. And I mean that literally. She was treating me like a stuffed animal, her arms locked around my neck, and my face was buried between her breasts.
My brain screamed danger, but my face looked way too happy.
“Melty, handle him with more care.”
“Oh, but I am!”
“Geeeeh!”
Liar! You just tightened your grip around my neck!
Meanwhile, Sylphy sat on my lap with her back against my chest, cheeks flushed bright red from drinking. Judging by their expressions, today had been stressful, workwise.
“I’m trying to talk about something serious, so please listen!”
“Mm, I am.”
“That’s unfair, Ira.”
“Exactly! You always act like such a Goody Two-shoes!”
“You only have yourselves to blame for being so all over the place. So, Kousuke, what did you think after visiting the Merchant Union and the Adventurers’ Guild?”
Ira brushed aside Sylphy and Melty’s boos, her calm tone cutting through the noise and willing to hear me out. I really was glad to have her here.
“So, long story short, it’s great that the demi-humans aren’t slaves anymore, but they’re really struggling to find proper employment. It’s not something that can be fixed with the snap of a finger, but if we don’t start making headway now, it’ll grow into a much bigger problem.”
“We know,” Sylphy said. “We’ve been hiring people through the guild to fix the roads and act as security, and we’ve supported the Merchant Union to boost the market domestically and abroad.”
“Yeah, I figured. But it doesn’t look like any of that’s had much effect. That’s why I went to see the situation on-site.”
Sylphy and Melty stayed latched onto me, making themselves at home on my lap, but at least they were listening now.
“To sum it up—even if jobs exist, too many people can’t prepare themselves to take them.”
“Hmm? What do you mean?”
“Folks are scraping by day-to-day. They don’t have the spare funds to buy the tools needed for road work or guard duty. It’s like wanting to leave the house to go shopping, except you don’t even have clothes, nor do you have money to buy said clothes.”
“In other words, they can’t even gear up to start,” Melty said.
“Exactly. Forget weapons or armor. Things are so bad for them right now that they don’t even have duffel bags to carry food and water if they need to leave the city.”
Most of the people I saw at the guild looked like that. They could barely make enough to eat. And when worse came to worst, they couldn’t find work and ended up sleeping outside.
“That means they can only take short, simple jobs inside the city.”
“Bingo,” I said. “That’s why so many end up doing courier work or odd jobs. And there are tons of folks like that.”
“…This is worse than I thought,” Ira admitted. “But we can’t just hand them things as charity.”
“Right,” Melty said. “If the Adventurers’ Guild offered new signees cash for equipment, plenty of people would sign up just to pocket the money.”
“Yeah, straight handouts won’t work. But what if we funded the guild to start up a support system?” I asked.
“You mean lending cash?” Ira shook her head. “That money would probably never come back.”
I agreed with Ira. If struggling folks were given money “for equipment,” odds were high they’d spend it on something else.
“We wouldn’t have the guild hand out cash, but equipment. Each set would bear the Adventurers’ Guild’s mark. When adventurers complete requests, the guild deducts a fee from their payout to recoup the cost,” I explained.
“But if these demi-humans are so strapped for cash, couldn’t they just sell the equipment once they get it?” Ira asked.
“If it has the Adventurers’ Guild mark, they can’t,” I said. “I was also thinking of food tickets.”
“Food tickets?”
“We contract some restaurants and inns to accept them. If you present a ticket at one such establishment, you’ll be able to eat without paying cash. Then, the establishments exchange those food tickets at the guild for actual money. The restaurants and inns benefit by securing long-term repeat guests, and the guild ensures the system stays trustworthy.”
“Hmm… It sounds good, but it’ll take work,” Ira said. “We’ll need standards, and we’ll need to decide whether the government or the guild runs it. I suspect there will be a bit of conflict over who takes the profits.”
She wasn’t wrong. Establishments that accepted tickets would see a rush of hungry adventurers, earning more money and building a positive reputation in the process. And then whichever organization authorized them—the Adventurers’ Guild or a government department—would also profit. And if the government created a new department, that meant more posts to fill, which in itself was profit.
“You ladies can handle that.”
“You’re going to make me mad.”
“Look, I think we should throw this in the guild’s lap. It’ll expand their authority and create jobs. We can subsidize them as a nation, then let them finalize a plan and we can fund them accordingly,” I suggested.
“Hmm…” Melty sunk deep in thought. From her perspective, we as the country would have the final say, and ultimately, collect more taxes. The real problem was that we didn’t have the personnel to loan them.
“I can serve as the bridge between us and the guild,” I offered. “I came up with the idea, and since the Holy Kingdom’s meetings ended, I’ve had nothing but free time.”
“We didn’t have any ill intentions leaving you out of that work, Kousuke.”
“I know. But it’s not in my character to sit on my ass while the rest of you are working so hard. I want to do what I can to support Merinard, and I hope you’ll let me.”
“Argh… What am I supposed to say to that?” Sylphy said.
“I’m fine with you working, but…I worry about finances,” Melty said.
To reassure Melty, I squeezed some gems between the fingers of my left hand and lifted a mithril ingot with my right.
“I’d appreciate it if you didn’t just use those willy-nilly. You’ll crash the market,” she said flatly.
“Then maybe I’ll make the equipment myself?”
“That would undercut every artisan in the area, so please don’t. All right, fine. We’ll supply the—”
“Oh, and before I forget. I already gave the Merchant Union a fair number of coins and raw gems as an investment.”
I still needed to talk things over with the union. Man, there was a lot on my plate!
“Um, Kousuke? You do realize you cause me endless headaches when you act without permission, right?”
“Pwease fwogive me.” I pretended to pout as I used my best baby voice.
Melty tugged my cheeks with an oppressive smile.
I’m sorry, I really am! Forgive me!
When Melty pinched my cheeks, her grip was so strong I worried she’d peel off the skin!
“Ha ha ha… What’s done is done. I won’t say anything else, but seriously, keep yourself in check.”
“I’m sorry… I just didn’t have any money of my own to play around with.”
“That in itself is a problem,” Sylphy said. “Melty?”
“Understood,” Melty said with a nod. “I don’t know if we can afford to pay you a full stipend as the prince consort, but I believe we draw from our national treasury. That said, most of it consists of the money you raised for us anyway.”
“In the end, you’ve carried us this far on every front. We aren’t exactly in a position to tell you what to do with your money or abilities.”
Sylphy’s mood suddenly took a nosedive, so I ruffled her hair as she sat on my lap.
Mm, I’ll never get tired of how smooth her hair is.
But if I kept ruffling it, it’d look like a mess, so I kept it to a bare minimum.
“Let’s not dwell on it. You scratch my back, I scratch yours. Good enough?”
“Yeah.”
“Ira, why are you the one answering?”
“Early bird gets the worm. More importantly, Kousuke?”
“What’s up?”
Her large eye fixed on me, steady and unblinking. “If you’re going to study magic, you have me.”
Ah. She objected to the fact that I’d asked Ifriita to teach me about magic and magic tools. And she had a point. Learning from Ira would be best.
“But you seemed busy, so—”
“You have me.”
“But—”
“You have me.”
The light in Ira’s large eye started to dim. Honestly, it was terrifying.
“Right. I’ll have you teach me too, Professor Ira.”
“Excellent.”
I succumbed to Ira’s persistence, and she nodded in satisfaction. And just like that, I had two professors. I certainly wasn’t going to be bored.
Ha ha ha.