episode_0041

bang! The door opened quickly with a loud noise.

It was none other than the fact that a group of people was approaching the Carbon branch with great strides and had kicked down the door. Since I kicked hard, the door had no choice but to open hard and quickly.

“Kya!”

A female employee who was cleaning the store to keep it neat was startled by the sudden noise and even let out a brief scream.

But the commotion had just begun.

“The president, come out!”

“Come out and see what kind of guy I am!”

A group of people who entered the store immediately started a riot, looking for the owner. They were causing a ruckus, such as kicking the shelves and scattering the neatly displayed items.

It goes without saying, but the employees who had been working in sales for a long time seemed to have a lot of experience encountering such truths. While dealing with the truth, he still kept a smile on his face and began to calm them down. He was such an employee that it made me want to take him to my village and briefly hire him as a teacher to educate Jiena.

“Guest. Can you calm down and tell us why you visited?”

“That’s it! Tell the boss to come out!”

“The boss is away for a while. If you tell me what you’re looking for, I’ll go right away and get the boss. What kind of business are you looking for, sir?”

“No, why don’t you understand what I’m saying! Boss, come out!”

However, as if Jinsang was not Jinsang for nothing, he did not pay attention to the friendly response and went on a rampage.

In the end, the employees seemed to have decided to use the last resort.

“Are you looking for the president of Smith Skeleton? Or are you looking for the manager of Smith Skeleton Carbon branch?”

“You both come out!”

“Okay. Then could you please wait a moment? I will go and fetch our store manager and the baron.”

“… … Baron?”

“Yes. Our boss is Baron Andrew Steele.”

Although I completely omitted the term ‘great nobleman’, I was also a baron. Perhaps that’s why the truth seemed to shrink in an instant. Even if they didn’t know what they were doing, they were telling the nobles to come right away. It was also possible to punish him for insulting the nobility.

“The real boss is a nobleman… … ?”

“Yes. Our owner is a certified warlock, and as the name of the shop suggests, he uses skeletons as blacksmiths. Using that ability, he signed a supply contract with the royal family and received the title of Baron.”

Perhaps the story about me had been relayed to some extent through the franchise owner, but the employee introduced me with a few lies or exaggerations. It was an introduction that was difficult to call false, but also difficult to call true.

However, those who did not know this fact began to break into a cold sweat. It would also be problematic to ask a powerless noble like a fallen noble to come, because not only is he powerless, but he also has ties to the royal family.

“Oh, no! Yes, the boss tells me not to come out.”

The truth was that they immediately changed their minds about the situation that could be dangerous, but I approached them with the thought that it would actually be fun.

“What’s going on? Why is there so much fuss?”

“Baron!”

As I approached, making a noise as if aware of the commotion, the employee in front of Jinsang greeted me with a bright smile. He was an employee who usually called me “boss,” but I didn’t know if he wanted to emphasize my title, but he called me “Baron.”

Since it seemed like the intention was to prevent these truth-tellers from doing any more truth-telling, I decided to sympathize with them in moderation.

“What’s the fuss?”

“Well, these people suddenly came in and looked for the owner and store manager. The reason is that these people are keeping it secret, so I don’t know for sure.”

At the clerk’s words, I turned my attention to the truth. Then, they looked startled as if they had seen a ghost. No, it would be similar to seeing a ghost. Because there was a skeleton standing behind me.

Anyway, the people who found out through the staff that I was a noble fell to the ground. When I told them that I was a warlock and a noble, they seemed to think that they might die and become skeletons right away.

“Gwi, I didn’t know you were there! I definitely didn’t make a fuss with the intention of insulting you! Just take a look!”

“Before you decide whether to let me know or not, why don’t you explain why you’re here?”

“… … That’s it.”

Normally, even if I were a noble, I would treat them appropriately and talk to them, but I had no intention of being polite to those who invaded and caused a ruckus like this.

He looked at the facts with a slightly solemn expression, intending to show his noble authority. Then, the people who looked intimidated by my appearance started tapping their arms. It was as if they were telling each other to say, “You have to say it.”

After watching the elbows flapping for a moment, one person spoke up. He was the one who was hit in the middle by people on both sides. He very carefully explained why they had no choice but to come here and cause trouble.

“We are blacksmiths who run a blacksmith shop around the commercial district.”

“Blacksmith?”

There was something that immediately came to mind when I heard the word blacksmith. And, what followed was almost exactly what I thought.

“Yes, we are all blacksmiths. There are a total of four blacksmiths in this city, and we come from all four. I came here to protest because of the price.”

“… … Because it’s so cheap?”

“For us, we had no choice because it was so cheap that we would lose money even if we sold it for just the raw material price. I don’t know if it’s because the quality is lower than the products we sell, or if we temporarily set the price lower for promotion purposes, but if we continue to sell at such a low price, won’t we all go out of business?”

“That’s right. It’s only been a few days, but customers are already stopping at our blacksmith shop. People who live less than a hundred steps away from our blacksmith shop are coming here, not our blacksmith shop.”

Truth… … . No, the blacksmiths’ words reminded me of one thing. I remember the moment when I returned to the village after my grandmother passed away and thought about running a blacksmith shop. It was a memory of my father’s blacksmith shop being unable to sustain the losses and going out of business due to selling it at a low price even at a loss.

At the thought that I had done the same thing as that guy, my mind went blank for a moment. But that didn’t mean everything could be turned back. This was a good price for those who used Smith Skeleton, but the prices at other places were expensive. Now, maintaining prices similar to other blacksmiths was not a good choice. Many people will criticize me, and it will be difficult to achieve the goal I want.

Of course, it would not have been good to just put all the existing blacksmiths out of business. If I did that, my influence would increase, but everything would become dependent on me. Since I had to be involved in everything, it was obvious that my personal time would also decrease. I could have been certain that there were many other problems.

“Hmm… … .”

That’s why I had no choice but to think about it for a while. I couldn’t let the blacksmiths go out of business, but I couldn’t close down the business, so my worries continued for a long time.

“I… … . Boss?”

As I was thinking for a while, the employee next to me suddenly broke my concentration. And, at that moment, there was one thing that came to mind.

I lifted up the blacksmiths who were still prone and took them to the resting area I had created in the corner of the warehouse. This is because the story I am about to tell is not good for others to hear.

Although the blacksmiths were briefly frightened by the idea of taking me to a corner, they gathered courage and approached me after seeing me plodding down on a soft sofa.

“Can you tell me how much money everyone has left on average each month?”

“Soo, are you talking about profit? And please speak comfortably! Rather, it makes us uncomfortable! A nobleman treats people like us with respect!”

“What… … . If the parties involved are comfortable with it. Anyway, I wish I could tell you how much money I have left over each month. It’s not about overall sales, but it’s about how much net profit is left after everything is done.”

At my words, the blacksmiths began to murmur among themselves. Since they were asking about the net profit, there was talk about whether or not they should tell the truth. There were even rumors that they were trying to collect more taxes.

“It’s not a reason to raise taxes or anything like that, so please feel free to say so. Because I don’t have that authority in the first place.”

Since I was not the owner of the territory that included this city, I had no way of tampering with the taxes. Doing so would be an overstep of authority and would be tantamount to issuing a challenge to the other party.

When I assured them that I was not asking for tax reasons, the blacksmiths looked a little more at ease.

“I’m a bit lacking in skills… … . There is about 40,000 Med left per month.”

“We share what 150,000 Med left behind, between the three of us.”

“The best blacksmith in Carbon is me. So you can make a net profit of about 100,000 med per month. I have about 400,000 Med left before I share it with my colleagues and assistants.”

The blacksmiths told me about each other’s net profits. If you look closely, it seems like there are people who say things that are a bit understated or exaggerated, but they still seem to be speaking roughly the same way.

“I… … . By the way, why did you ask about our net profit?”

And, the blacksmiths looked at me as if wondering why they were asking about net profit. In particular, some blacksmiths seemed to be holding out hope that I might be able to compensate for their losses.

Of course, since I was not a philanthropist, I had no intention of simply compensating for the losses incurred by the blacksmiths. Instead, I was thinking of making another suggestion.

“Guys, if I keep running it the way it is now, can you survive? Based on the time when a sword continues to be sold for less than 10,000 meds.”

“… … It’s impossible.”

“That’s right. So, I would like to make a suggestion. Just listen carefully and then answer.”

To those who were squirming as if asking me to tell them what I was proposing, I immediately started telling them what I had been thinking.

“You become my employee and work while receiving a salary from me.”

“Yes? Are you saying you want to hire us? I heard earlier that they use skeletons… … . Is there something we can do?”

Even now, in the corner of the warehouse, I nodded at the sight of a blacksmith pointing to a skeleton sharpening a requested sword. In the first place, there was no intention of hiring blacksmiths to make items to sell.

“To be honest, I can say that I am a half-penny blacksmith. First of all, you can do it like this – you just do it because you have to, but you don’t completely know which process is necessary and for what reason. When melting iron ore, they say to add charcoal or coal, and also limestone, but I don’t know why.”

“Are you saying you want to hire us as teachers?”

“Hmm… … . A little different. The main purpose of hiring you is research and development.”

“Research and development… … What does this mean?”

“To put it simply, research can be seen as the act of finding out what you don’t know. Starting with the reason for adding charcoal, coal, or limestone to iron ore, we will find out how much is added to achieve the highest efficiency. If I figure it out that way, how much can I understand? It’s not just that if you put it in, you’ll get better iron. In addition, how much to pound iron to get the best quality, how to quench or temper, etc. The fields of study are endless.”

When I explained the research, the blacksmiths nodded. Because they were also people who had to compete with others and create better products, it was a problem they always worried about. It was obvious that some people were thinking about ways to produce better quality iron from the same iron ore, and others were thinking about ways to improve the results from forging work.

Seeing the blacksmiths nodding their heads, I immediately continued explaining the development.

“And, you could say that development is an area you are good at. It’s about creating a new product. It can be said that we are making things that people will like more, things that can make people’s lives better, and things that can be produced more cheaply than existing products but have the same or better quality.◦ @◦

“I don’t know if it’s my imagination, but it seems like there are some similarities with research?”

“That’s right. If you go into the details, it’s different, but if you look at the big picture, it’s the same. Just as in order to make high-quality products inexpensively, we must first research ways to make steel more cheaply.”

The blacksmiths nodded slowly as if they understood this time.

“That’s why I’m hiring you. I will guarantee you more than the profits you have been receiving so far, so you can become my employees and research and develop.”

If I couldn’t close my business or let the blacksmiths go out of business, the best option was to hire them.

Just as the employees at the Carbon branch that I wanted to bring to my town were experts in sales, they were also experts in metallurgy. It was clear that the benefits that could be gained by hiring them would be unimaginably high.