Barry and I had gone to see the mayor, and after we met up with him, we all took a break in a nice clearing near his fields. The minotaur towered over the rest of us. I got the feeling he could pick us all up in one hand, wooden bench and all. It was always strangely charming, seeing him sipping tea from his giant wooden cup.
“My, my, Aoi and Mary, and Barry too? What an unusual combination! Ohoho.”
“Good day, Mayor Hopper. There’s something we wanted to consult with you about, if you have a moment.”
“I was just taking a breather myself. Your timing couldn’t be better. If you’re here with Barry, maybe you’re planning to dig a well?”
Surprisingly not far off. We would certainly be doing a lot of digging, at least.
“I’m looking to expand the labyrinth, and I’d like to hire some of the villagers. I realize it’s the middle of the harvest season and people are busy, but I’m willing to pay accordingly. Do you think the villagers would be able to help?”
“Hmm. So you need some extra pairs of hands.”
The mayor folded his arms and looked thoughtful. Would they be too busy?
“We’re all greatly in your debt, so I’d like to help you out. You’re right that we have our hands full with harvest season, but I think the chance at earning a little money on the side would be a boon to many, out in this distant country village.”
It was a difficult trade-off for the mayor. He couldn’t diminish the labor force too much during harvest season, but he also didn’t want to give up the rare chance to earn money.
“I do have one concern. Aoi, are you planning to feed the workers you hire? And if so, how?”
I sure was glad Ann had brought that up earlier. In my own world, the expectation was that employees brought their own food, and I was sure if I’d been put on the spot without preparation I would’ve just said that.
“We don’t have enough food stockpiled in the labyrinth to feed more than the three of us, so I was hoping to buy additional food from the village. I was also hoping that I could hire some of the housewives in the village, both to transport and to prepare food for all the workers.”
Suzu’s symbiotic relationship with her surrounding community had led me to that conclusion. If my labyrinth could benefit everyone in the village, and they could all help me, that would be the best outcome. And I realized I’d already begun to make some progress in that area myself, with the way I provided health potions to the village and Deneb provided me with food. Though it wasn’t like I was running some kind of charity. I got no donations, and no support or financing from the top. Hell, I was paying money out of my own pocket just to save my boss’s skin!
“Ah, that’s great! If you would do all that for us, then the village would be happy to support you. You’ve been such a boon to us, helping with your construction project is the least we can do.”
And that was the moment the locals and the labyrinth manager joined forces. Though arguably it was more of a business deal than an alliance.
“Thank you very much. How many people can you spare?”
“Let me see. I think the most we could manage would be about thirty men and fifteen women. Any more than that and I fear we wouldn’t be able to do everything necessary for the harvest.”
So, forty-five people, all told. He sure did come up with that number quickly. I was curious exactly who he had in mind, specifically what races they were and what they were good at. But forty-five adults was nothing to scoff at regardless, especially for a tiny village like Milt. I certainly couldn’t complain.
“Barry, do you think that will be enough?”
“That’d really depend on how big a project you have in mind, but with that many, I reckon we can do decent work. To be frank, any more than that and I don’t think my old eyes could look after everyone properly.”
Huh, so he had a cap on the number of people he could manage. I hadn’t thought about it, but in retrospect it was obvious. It’d be one thing if all he’d had to do was bark instructions, but these were mostly inexperienced workers, so he’d have to show them the ropes and keep an eye out for accidents. If I wanted to do construction on any larger scale, I’d have to do like Suzu said and hire specialists.
“Negotiations sure are fun! Sharing what you have and making everyone’s lives better is important, don’t you think?”
While Mayor Hopper and Barry discussed who exactly we would be hiring for the construction work, Ann and I were having a chat. Ann had apparently gotten pretty excited watching me negotiating with each of them. Her enthusiasm was both reassuring and a little alarming.
Ever since I’d let her play that company management game, she’d been thinking about these things in game terms. Enterprise management games were a classic genre. The one I’d shown her had you giving detailed instructions to little franchise shops of your company to help them grow. But the bigger your conglomeration grew, the busier you got, leaving you unable to deal with the minutiae of every shop. At that point, you had to start working with middle managers, negotiating deals with them so you could solve higher-level problems. It was the perfect game for leveling up Ann’s view of the world.
“When did you become such a smooth talker?!”
“Hey, Ann, that’s unfair. It’s not like I’m bad at negotiating or anything. I just wasn’t familiar with how things worked around here.”
“Is she wrong? To tell the truth, I share her doubts.”
Even Mary expected me to be a bad negotiator?!
“Okay, seriously, both of you are being too hard on me. I just don’t understand how things work around here, and I have no head for money, that’s all. I happen to think I make an excellent labyrinth manager, thank you very much.”
“Those both seem like excellent reasons to worry about you.”
“...Actually, I can’t argue with that.”
“Now I feel kinda bad.”
Then maybe you should’ve kept that thought to yourself!
“Um, I don’t think you’re dumb, Aoi! I rely on you!”
Aw, that gave me a little jab to the heart. Like, the painful kind, not the good kind. Just how much of a hopeless failure did Ann think I was?! No, wait, better not ask that. If she thought I was a lost cause, should I be happy that at least she still wanted to look out for a failure like me?