episode_0056

I quickly returned to the village from Carbon, shortening the break time, and immediately sent the Skeleton Mage to where Goro was.

At first, I planned to stop by the direct territory where Goro is located, but since it would take more time, I came straight to the village. In addition, one of the reasons was that if goods or people were to be transported through Logy Skeleton in the future, it would be inefficient to go through the direct territory, and there was a possibility that more people would know about the blast furnace.

Anyway, when I returned to the village, I was able to find the villagers moving around busily.

It was nothing different, but they were busy preparing for the cold winter that would soon come. Preparations for winter were in full swing, such as stockpiling preserved food and buying thick clothes.

Of course, since it was a special event, quite a few merchants came to the village. During this time, things that helped people stay warm, such as thick clothes, were expensive.

“Should I buy some too?”

Even the warlock was cold. It may be okay if you become a lich, but as long as you are a human made of flesh and blood, the cold is inevitable. Even if they are people who train their bodies like knights and strengthen their bodies with mana.

Anyway, we moved to the area near the square where we could hear the noisy sounds of bargaining.

“Wow, look at the people. Looks like everyone in town came out.”

There were so many people gathered in the square. There was a carriage at the top that I had never seen before, and there were also stalls open for food vendors. They were selling all kinds of things, so it was quite fun to look around.

Are you selling something like this? There were a lot of things that I wanted to buy right away.

“Ah, I guess I should buy Jienna some clothes… … .”

Meanwhile, when I saw a stall selling clothes, I thought of Zienna. I remembered that the clothes Gienna was wearing when I bought her at the slave market showed that she was wearing some of the things that her mother did not wear. Jiena herself didn’t pay much attention to clothes, so she didn’t even think about it, but she didn’t have any clothes to survive this winter right now.

No matter how much I call him a slave, I decided to pay some attention to him as he is a good worker. Even in winter, you have to be warm to work hard. If you are shivering because you are cold, your efficiency will only decrease.

“This and this… … . This seems to be the right size too.”

I knew Ziena’s body size well because it was provided in great detail at the time of purchase. After choosing and purchasing clothes that would suit Jiena’s body, I also bought a couple of clothes for myself to wear lightly.

“Gamsamdyot!”

I don’t know if it was because I bought several sets of clothes at once without bargaining, but the waiter who was opening the stall bent over so much that I thought his head might be touching the floor.

I’m spending money on this taste – I grinned to myself and moved towards the blacksmith shop. Of course, on the way to the blacksmith shop, several merchants sold all kinds of goods. Not only the peddlers, but also those who were originally engaged in business in our village were selling various items needed for the winter.

“There are a lot of firewood flowers! Have a warm stay this winter!”

“Selling firewood flower seeds and firewood flower seedlings!”

And, what they sold the most was firewood flowers. As its name suggests, it is a flower and burns as well and as long as firewood, making it perfect for use as a winter heating fuel. For that reason, it was used very well as fuel in our blacksmith shop.

However, the downside is that it cannot be used to make charcoal like firewood, and growing it takes a bit of work. Even if wild firewood flowers were burned, they did not burn for as long as firewood, and the burning fire was unpleasant. Firewood flowers grown with proper care can, as the name suggests, serve as firewood.

Anyway, there were quite a few people selling such firewood flowers, and the firewood flowers were quickly sold out. In this world, the only way to stay warm in the winter was to light a wood stove. And, the sound meant that there were many people gathering firewood to use as fuel for wood-burning stoves.

“Wow, the price of firewood and flowers is going to go up… … .”

When I saw that Firewood Flower was sold out, I frowned for a moment. Since our blacksmith shop also uses a considerable amount of firewood flowers, we were not happy about the price of firewood flowers rising.

Still, it was unavoidable since it was winter, so I sighed and started walking again. As I arrived at the blacksmith shop with a somewhat slow pace due to the disappointing reality, I noticed quite a few people standing in line in front of the blacksmith shop.

When I entered the store to see what was going on, I could see why people were waiting so long.

“An ax costs 6,000 Med! A saw costs 8,000 Med per piece! If you want an ax and a saw, prepare money in advance! Next time!”

These people were none other than those who wanted to purchase axes and saws. Those who could not stock enough firewood had no choice but to obtain firewood from the mountains as an alternative, so they had to purchase axes and saws.

I walked over to Giena, who was hard at work, and started calculating. Thanks to this, the line of people lined up quickly decreased, and the store’s inventory of axes and saws quickly ran out.

“Axes and saws sold out! I’ll keep making it, so come back tomorrow!”

With the inventory of axes and saws running out, those waiting were sent away. After that, the store finally became quiet.

“Phew… … . Thanks to the boss, it ended quickly.”

“Has it been like this while I was gone?”

“That’s not true, but it suddenly got very cold the past few days, so people came here. I don’t think it was like this last year, but this year I think winter is coming too quickly and too strongly.”

“That’s right. I also came to the village and it was quite cold. Really, it was a godsend to have the Skeleton Mage move on her own? Otherwise, you would have had to go outside this winter.”

I couldn’t help but shiver as I imagined traveling to and from Carbon in the middle of winter.

“Anyway, good job. Looking at it, it must have been really hard.”

“No. Thanks to this, a lot of sales are made, and I can also receive great incentives!”

I shook my head at the sight of Jiena curling her fingers to represent coins. Even in this situation, what is an incentive?

After shaking my head for a moment, I felt something stumbling at my feet. These were the clothes I bought to give to Jiena and my clothes. I had forgotten that I had put it down for a while because I was busy serving many customers quickly.

“Ah, that’s right. I thought I needed this so I bought it.”

“What is this… … . uh! It’s clothes!”

“It’s winter now, but don’t you need warm clothes too? So I bought it.”

“Boss! Thank you!”

Jiena looked touched as she took the clothes, and then suddenly jumped into my arms.

I was momentarily startled and surprised by Jiena’s sudden action. This is because the sound of biting off an important part suddenly came to mind. However, seeing that he was hugging me and smiling brightly as if he was in a good mood, I thought it wasn’t dangerous.

When I patted her back and told her to dress well, Jienna came to her senses and slowly slipped out of my arms. Seeing that the tips of her ears were trembling and turning bright red, it seemed like Jiena had done this unconsciously.

And, as if he didn’t want to be seen, he shouted loudly, covering his ears.

“I will continue to sell hard and receive a lot of incentives!”

“… … Yes, yes.”

No matter what his motivation, he nodded when he told him to work hard. All you have to do is work hard.

I don’t know if it was because I didn’t mention what Giena was carrying, but she looked a little more comfortable and started putting on the clothes I had bought. Jiena must have really liked the warm and cozy new clothes, so her ears became very pointed.

As I was feeling rewarded for buying the clothes, the store door opened with a squeak and a customer came in.

“Warlock. Can’t you?”

“Nails? Oh, I don’t have that right now, but I’ll make it by tomorrow afternoon.”

“I… … . By any chance, what is the price? I was thinking of using wooden pegs as usual, but I thought that iron pegs might be a bit cheaper for Smith Skeleton… … .”

The customer looked at me as if he was worried about the price. This is because, in the case of iron products, which are all made by hand, the price is quite high, no matter how insignificant they are.

To make a nail, you first had to make the iron thin and long, cut it to a certain size, and then create the head. The process itself was easy enough that anyone who knew how to use a hammer could do it, but it took a lot of work. So the blacksmith’s disciples and their families made nails, but the price was relatively high compared to the intended use due to the cost of the material called iron and labor costs.

That’s why the customer who came now was worried. Until now, unlike wooden pegs, which can be made by roughly imitating them without spending any money, as long as you have a knife and wood, you had to pay money to buy iron nails, so you had no choice but to worry about the price.

We didn’t have enough money to buy preserved food or supplies for the winter, so we couldn’t invest a lot of money in buying nails.

Anyway, after looking at the customer who was worried for that reason, I started to do some calculations. This is because, as I come from a family of blacksmiths, I have experience making iron nails. Well, I couldn’t actually sell it because the quality was poor, but I was able to estimate the price.

“Well, in the time it takes to make one axe, you can make more than a hundred nails… … . It would be faster to produce nails if the iron was processed thinly in the first place. then… … .”

Talking to myself, I created virtual skeletons in my head and pictured the production process. There are skeletons that process iron ingots into long, slightly thick wires, skeletons that cut the wires thus made at regular intervals, and even skeletons that make nail heads from the cut wires.

Once I pictured the process of making iron nails in my head, it was possible to put a certain price on it.

“I can sell a finger-long nail for fifty med. Oh, this is just a rough estimate, so the price may vary when actually made, considering efficiency, etc.”

Since it was a skeleton that didn’t require labor costs anyway, I figured I wouldn’t lose money if I sold a nail for fifty meds. Moreover, if you use nails, you don’t just use one or two at a time, you use dozens or hundreds of nails, so we decided to sell them at a low price with the idea of removing more nails.

Of course, it is extremely expensive compared to wooden pegs that can be made with just a knife and wood, but it is definitely cheaper if you consider durability and recycling. Although it is not 100% recyclable, it can be reused somehow.

“That’s a good price! It’s a Smith Skeleton after all!”

The customer who visited the nail must have thought the same, and left, saying it was a good price and saying he would come buy it tomorrow.

And, I also left Jienna in charge of the store and went into the blacksmith shop again. If we wanted to make nails by tomorrow afternoon, we had to place the skeletons and start producing nails now.

It was obvious that they would be able to sell in large quantities even in Carbone, where blacksmiths had completely disappeared, so mass production was necessary. The skeleton was placed by processing iron ingots into long wires, cutting them, and making nail heads.

The skeletons processed the iron with a strength that was incomparable to that of humans, and had already produced results even though less than an hour had passed since they were deployed.

With a sound, an iron nail fell into the basket next to the skeleton that was creating the nail head. However, the quality of the finished product was not excellent. This is because the goal was to quickly mass produce with moderate quality rather than high quality.

Although the end is sharp, the body, which is angled in a wedge shape, has a slightly uneven surface as if advertised as being made by hitting a hammer, and the head of the nail has a rough circular shape, and the body of the nail is not even located in the center of the head.

“This is enough. All you have to do is secure the nails properly.”

But I had no intention of making nails of higher quality than that. All I had to do was secure it firmly anyway. In terms of that purpose alone, what we have now is sufficient.

It was enough not to bend easily even when the strongest Orc skeleton bent it. Therefore, what I chose was not to improve quality, but to increase production by adding more skeletons. So much so that one nail is created every few tens of seconds.

Anyway, after I started making nails, I immediately started selling them. The price of 50 Med per piece is not cheap, but the nails are selling like hot cakes, perhaps because they are stronger than wooden pegs and can be used for a long time. There were some people who bought only a few items, and there were quite a few who bought dozens or hundreds of items.

And, as many iron nails were sold, the sound of hammering echoed throughout the village. Efforts were made to withstand the harsh winter by using iron nails to strengthen the exterior walls of buildings or make roofs stronger.