Chapter 14:
Company and Branch Manager
I OPENED MY EYES to the dim, pale light of dawn. Two spellbound crimson eyes peered into my face.
Whoa, your face is so close! O-oh, it’s just Gol…
This always surprised me, and I really wanted her to stop doing it. I did wake up, though.
“Good morning, Gol. You get up early every morning, don’t you?”
Waking up to Gol bending over me reminded me of how my dog used to lick my sleeping face to wake me up. Golems really were dogs… However, Gol didn’t slobber over my face, so all things considered, she was quite tame.
✦ ✦ ✦
It was still early in the morning and felt a bit chilly. The white light of the sun shone through the cobblestone alleys between the rows of buildings. In that light, we left the inn and departed for the Paisley Company’s Zibil branch office.
We were an odd group, composed of the Sorcerer King, his golem, and an old man and his five-year-old child.
Even though the morning sun was still climbing over the horizon, the people of Zibil were already coming and going. It seemed the people of this world woke up pretty early. Come to think of it, even Master Speria had woken up before daybreak, although I think that had simply been because the monkeys always attacked him at sunrise.
Before long, we arrived at the entrance of our destination. I stood in front of the door and gazed up at the impressive building. This Paisley Company branch office was profoundly huge by this world’s standards.
It was a two-story building made of wood, but it was several times larger than the other buildings in the area. The architectural style was also different, with clearly expensive and high-class decorative features like columns and ornate latticework.
Mr. Chotos’s shop had seemed slightly on the large side, but compared to the building in front of me, his was nothing more than a meager shop. There could be no doubt that this company was immensely profitable.
“Well, at any rate, I just want to hurry up and finish so we can grab some breakfast…” I said, letting out a pale breath as I looked up at the Company building’s decorative roof.
We hadn’t yet eaten. Right after we woke, we all got dressed and left the inn to head straight to the Company. Mr. Chotos had probably been so nervous that he forgot about breakfast. He didn’t even hear my indirect demand. A thin shadow lined his lower eyelids, meaning he probably hadn’t slept very soundly.
Well, that was a given. Even though we had only dealt with an outside party sent by the Company, we’d still indirectly had a dispute with them the other day. Then again, it was really my Gol who was the most guilty.
In any case, our goal for today was to peacefully repay the debt. This was an extremely ordinary procedure, so normally I would’ve let Mr. Chotos go to the Company by himself, but I decided to accompany him. I thought it would be a good opportunity to observe the business processes and study the contractual terms of this world. In other words, it was social studies.
It wasn’t like I was worried about Mr. Chotos or anything. I was a cultured man and had a passion for learning. I just so happened to get a sudden urge to learn about society. I didn’t care about this guy at all.
I really, really need you to understand that!
In a vast and splendid wooden entrance hall, a well-dressed, middle-aged representative of the Company greeted us. He was in his early fifties with salt-and-pepper hair and wore a monocle, but I was surprised to see he was quite the beauty. He certainly stood in stark contrast to Mr. Chotos. Even though they were both old men, for there to be such a difference between them… The gods were truly unfair.
I ask of you to please endow upon my ugly old man even just 1 percent of the ingredients you used to make this handsome, dashing gentleman.
With the two of them facing each other like this, my old man was just too pitiful.
Two younger men stood on either side of the dashing man. Whoa, these guys are also astonishing beauties. They had a kind of strange, delicate feel to them, so rather than looking manly-man cool, they were more the type of beautiful the average woman would prefer.
This was really bad! Our party of the disheartened Mr. Chotos and the pathetic-looking me had lost to this gorgeous army before the battle even began.
Hey, mister, I’m dropping out of this fight…
The first one to open their mouth was the dashing, monocle-wearing man. “Why, hello, Mr. Chotos. Welcome to our office. To take time out of your busy schedule and come all this way to our humble branch…I’m very much obliged.”
His voice had the lovely tenor of an actor, and as he greeted Mr. Chotos in his genteel manner, he led us inside. Even though we had caused such a ruckus the other day, no resentment was evident in his attitude, and I detected no signs of antagonism. What an extremely adult response.
Once inside, the gentleman lowered his head in such a precise manner that it almost seemed unnatural, like a mannequin. “I say, I heard of some horrid mismanagement by an outside party we hired to collect your debt,” he apologized to Mr. Chotos. “I deeply regret it, and I apologize for any inconvenience this caused you. The staff member in charge of the incident will be severely reprimanded.”
Hmph. So it really was mismanagement. Yeah, that’s right. Of course. No proper loan company would hire such an aggressive group to collect debts.
I could overlook this mistake. However, if they made another scandalous error in judgment, no matter how gentle a man I was, I wouldn’t stand for it. A lawsuit would be coming their way.
I decided to believe their words for now. I was just an outsider, after all. I had no basis on which to judge them.
At last, Mr. Chotos sat at the reception desk and began the procedure to repay his debt. I stood behind him and looked over the contract document he held while I propped up Teru in my arms. She was a little drowsy, but that couldn’t be helped, since it was still early in the morning.
Huh, I guess this is how contracts look in this other world.
From what I could tell, this one required signatures from both parties. The texture of the paper was smooth, and even at a glance I could tell it was special. For some reason, I felt that it resembled Selvei scrip. Had some spell been cast on it as well? The scrips didn’t burn, so could it be that important documents in this world were thus protected to prevent damage, or even forgery?
At any rate, I was bored. Standing around with Teru was so mind-numbing that I finally began to read the contract’s contents. In fact, I had a rare burst of motivation to meticulously examine the calculations, since they would concern Mr. Chotos and Teru for the rest of their lives. That was why, instead of like when I flippantly counted my coins on the restaurant counter, or when I bought as many spare pairs of underwear as Gol wanted without thinking about conserving my funds, I focused in with real clarity of mind and assumed the rarest of serious-about-money modes.
At first, I was primarily interested in the unique phrases this world used in contracts, but as I went on, my serious mind gradually came to understand what I was reading, and I unconsciously raised my voice in astonishment. “What?!”
What was with this interest rate? Were they serious?! This was worse than the sort of thing you would’ve seen in the Japanese consumer credit crisis before the 2000s reform laws. Even the brutally high interest rates of the Edo period hadn’t been this cruel.
Worse, when I read more closely, the Company’s calculation method proved downright wicked. These nasty credit tricks felt strangely modern to me. In any case, with this contract, the payments would have swelled rapidly from interest before Mr. Chotos even realized it. It would have been a cyclic hell where no matter how much he paid back, the debt would increase.
This was unreasonable. The contract reeked of malicious intent to destroy the borrower and devour their life. Was the remorseless Paisley Company some kind of gaki or other hungry ghost…? Even if I dreamt up an idea like this, I wouldn’t be able to stomach putting it into action.