Ch.20Chapter 20 – Mina Endras (2)

After Mina’s visit as the first customer of my newly opened repair shop, no other customers had come by.

I wasn’t sure if it was because the concept of a repair shop was still unfamiliar, but people didn’t seem to be finding their way to my store.

It wasn’t like I was tucked away in some back alley either—I had purchased a building on a street fairly close to the bustling part of town.

Ah, of course, I didn’t pay the full price for it.

This repair shop building was owned by Mr. Marcus, who could truly be called my greatest benefactor.

Mr. Marcus passed this building to me at an incredibly discounted price, almost giving it away under the pretext of an “investment.”

The truth is, I had planned to open a repair shop near Glesius Academy to see Mina.

But I never expected to meet her on the very first day of business.

I mean, I started a business hoping to meet someone, and that person actually becomes my first customer?

If this were a drama, people would call it a ridiculous plot, and if it were a novel, readers would complain about the lack of plausibility.

Whether it was divine mischief or truly a fated encounter, I’d like to believe it was destiny.

Or did Epitrina read my thoughts and deliberately arrange it?

No, that can’t be. She wouldn’t be that idle, would she?

Thinking that it’s best to take things as they come, I prepared for my second day of business.

Though “preparation” just meant flipping the sign from “Closed” to “Open.”

After turning the sign, I went inside, tidied up a bit, and restocked the mana potion display shelf that had been emptied after serving Mina yesterday.

‘I wonder what kind of customer will come today.’

I stood behind the counter anticipating today’s visitors, but just sitting there twiddling my thumbs was driving me crazy with boredom.

So I pulled out some rock-hard bread from under the counter.

These were loaves that hadn’t sold at the bakery and had hardened over time.

I remember buying about two cartloads of bread for one silver coin.

Two carts would be about 40kg in weight, but since all the moisture had been sucked out and they were completely hardened, they were quite light for their volume.

‘Ordinary people wouldn’t eat this bread, but I’m different.’

Because I have the ability to fix anything.

Even bread that’s practically turned to stone after too much time—if I tap it three times with my hammer?

“Mmm, smells good.”

It transforms into fresh bread, warm and soft as if just taken from the oven.

I haven’t tested this ability on other objects yet, but at least with this power, I won’t starve to death.

With the money I have now, I could buy enough hardened bread to last me a lifetime.

‘Should I hand out bread to promote the shop? Wait, maybe I should offer repair services outside the shop?’

Students at Glesius Academy can only leave the academy on weekends.

Since Mina came out yesterday, it’s likely that yesterday or today is a weekend.

‘Should I only operate the shop on weekends and do repair calls on weekdays?’

Speaking of repair calls, I remember hearing that hardware stores surprisingly don’t make much money from their retail operations.

So how do hardware stores make money? Through “supply contracts” and “repair services.”

What was it… leak detection, tiling, heating, plumbing—if you look closely, many of these services are operated by hardware stores.

So they make pocket money from retail sales, but their real income comes from repair services and supply contracts to businesses, according to a documentary I once watched.

‘Do I need to offer repair services to make money too?’

But thinking about it again, the concept of repair services didn’t exist in Erasto Chronicle.

Because repair services require something that needs such repairs in the first place.

Erasto Chronicle is basically set in a period between medieval and modern times, with many technological advancements achieved through magic.

However, people’s lifestyles and civilization levels fluctuated somewhere between medieval and modern standards.

And in such an era, there weren’t many things that required the touch of a specialist.

‘There’s no guarantee that repair services would bring in much money either.’

Sigh, I’ll just give up on the idea of repair services and try to make regular customers out of the students attending Glesius Academy.

Many of them come from noble families, so if I play my cards right, I might even receive commissions from noble households.

—Ding-a-ling.

Oh, the bell rang. That’s the signal that a customer has entered.

I set aside the bread I was eating and prepared to greet the customer.

“Welcome to Pathos’s Repair Shop. What would you like to have repaired?”

The customer who opened the door and entered was a female student with flowing blonde hair who looked like she came from a noble family.

Looking at the badge on her casual clothes, I could see the logo of Glesius Academy that I had glimpsed in passing.

“I’d like to ask something. Is this the repair shop with the amazing repairman who fixed the crystal orb on Mina Endras’s magic wand?”

Mina’s name came from the girl’s lips.

She seemed to be asking directly, but judging by the politeness in her tone, she was indeed from a noble family.

“Ah, yes. I’m the one who repaired the crystal orb on Mina Endras’s magic wand.”

“Hmm.”

The blonde girl heard my answer and gave me a doubtful look.

Well, I might look a bit shabby and unimpressive, but at least I’m not a fraud.

“Do you happen to have a state-certified magical tool repair license?”

“Excuse me?”

What is she talking about? State-certified magical tool repair license? What on earth is that? I never heard that I needed such a thing.

“What do you mean, miss?”

“Haah, as I thought… Did you not know that repairing magical tools without a state-certified magical tool repair license is an illegal act defined by national law?”

The blonde girl was pointing at me and bringing up something I’d never heard of before, like this state-certified magical tool repair license.

What is this? If such a thing was necessary, wouldn’t Mr. Marcus have told me?

Or did he not tell me because I didn’t ask? Or did he think I already had a magical tool repair license?

“What is a state-certified magical tool repair license?”

“Haah… You opened a repair shop and fixed a crystal orb without even knowing that? Tell me honestly. You pretended to repair Mina’s crystal orb but actually switched it with something else, didn’t you?”

Huh? What nonsense is this? Me? Replace Mina’s crystal orb?

It seemed this young lady was misunderstanding something.

My shop is officially registered with the city hall as a repair shop.

“What are you talking about?”

“You, did you build this shop illegally too? How did someone without a state-certified magical tool repair license get a permit to build a shop? Did you bribe someone?”

…Is this girl taking me for a pushover?

“Listen, young lady. This shop is officially registered with the city hall as a repair shop. I received proper business permits without any issues.”

I had intended to let it slide, but I was getting a bit heated and didn’t feel like being polite anymore.

“What? Are you saying the Arkenium City Hall gave a business permit to someone without a state-certified magical tool repair license?”

That rude little… Ahem. Let me calm down and think clearly.

The blonde girl was surprised that I had opened a repair shop without having a state-certified magical tool repair license.

From her reaction, it seemed that having such a license granted the authority to open repair shops.

“If you tell me the truth, I won’t report you to the city hall. What trick did you use? Even the Special-grade Magical Tool Repairers, the best repair experts recognized by the state, can’t fix things that perfectly.”

Oh ho. So even the most skilled people can’t repair things as flawlessly as I did.

But isn’t that obvious? A Special-grade Magical Tool Repairer wouldn’t have the same “ability” as me.

“Is a Special-grade Magical Tool Repairer that impressive?”

I took the opportunity to ask the blonde girl about magical tool repairers.

“What do you actually know? Even the Eastern Continent uses magical tools. Are you perhaps from some remote region where magical tools aren’t well understood?”

I inwardly flinched at the blonde girl’s words.

The world I came from truly didn’t have anything like magical tools.

Instead, we had systems to certify top-level skills in various fields, like master craftsmen or technical experts.

Judging from the term “Special-grade Magical Tool Repairer,” it seems that in this world, top-tier skilled personnel are called “Special-grade.”

“I’m not sure what to call you, so I’ll just say ‘miss’ for now. Miss, I don’t know how these magical tool repairers fix magical tools.”

“Obviously, they use magic…!”

“Yes, let’s say they fix things with magic. But, does magical equipment have to be repaired only with magic? The world is vast, and there are many people—couldn’t someone fix magical tools using methods other than magic?”

By now she should have understood. I was speaking indirectly, but even Kim from our company, known as the most oblivious person, would have caught on by this point.

“W-wait a moment. What are you saying?”

“It’s quite simple. I didn’t use magic to repair Mina Endras’s crystal orb.”

To make her believe, I took out a rusty dagger from under the counter and struck it three times with my hammer.

“Let me introduce myself again. I am Pathos, an ‘ability user’ with the ‘ability’ to fix anything.”

And the rusty dagger in my hand instantly became like a brand-new dagger fresh from the forge.

“Unbelievable…”

The blonde girl’s face showed an expression of disbelief as she watched.