Soon enough, we closed the shop. After cleaning up for the day, we paid the three guards, letting them leave first, before regrouping on the first floor. It was now time to check our first day’s results. Since I still had the children next to me, Poitr came to whisper in my ear again. It felt like he liked conspiracies and the like.
“Boss, isn’t it better to ask the children to leave before counting the money?”
I shook my head.
“It’s fine. No, it’s good if they see and understand what amounts we’re working with.”
“They might get tempted. It’s a lot of money.”
“I’ve already warned them about this. If they still choose to ignore it, then that’s it. Better betray me now than later when the stacks are higher. As for you, you should be careful our employees don’t get tempted either.”
“Yes, boss. I’ll be extra careful.”
He went to report the revenue from behind our main counter as soon as our short strategy talk ended. Each sale was registered, with the corresponding amount, to avoid issues and help with accounting.
“Everyone, we’ve sold eleven meals, six fans, four refrigerators, and four ovens. Our total earnings are… 113 golds, 49 silvers, and 90 coppers.”
“Whoa… I’ve never seen so many gold coins in my life.”
“This is incredible.”
“I didn’t sell a single thing…”
“Dumb rich people.”
The last comment was obviously from Erin, who still couldn’t help staring at the gold coins as if she were mesmerized. Aren, next to her, was gulping hard, together with my clerks. Even my manager wasn’t left stoic in front of that amount. I clapped my hands to attract their attention away from the coins.
“Good work, all of you. You did great. Today was the first day, so we attracted a lot of curious people. We can’t expect to have such earnings all the time. I also believe more meals and raw materials will be sold when it gets known that we’re handling those. The main income will always be the selnic items, but that doesn’t mean the rest should be neglected. Small amounts eventually pile up to large fortunes. We’ll also probably sell other goods later on, but that’s a story for another day. For now, feel free to take the leftover meals back home. Kids, you can take some too.”
They cheered, thanking me for my generosity. Such consideration for basic employees was rare in the outer work, where manpower was cheap and plentiful. Another employer would have just put the food in the fridge and sold it again the following day. On top of wanting to avoid that, since I was aiming for a certain level of quality and class in the store, giving away the food for free raised morale at a low price. It was well worth it in the long run.
My four employees left one after the other, each with a couple of meals in their hands. After that, the children picked a few, and I grabbed the rest, ready to use them for dinner. We had been doing that a lot since we started selling cooked food. It saved us a lot of time, and it was delicious. Even Suuru admitted the food was better than what she cooked herself.
I put the money in my fake pouch, transferring everything to my storage, only leaving a little in the store to use as change for the following day. After locking the place carefully, I gave my little friends a satisfied smile.
“Okay, you three. I’ll walk you to the inn.”
Erin nodded, but Aren seemed a bit hesitant.
“What’s wrong, Aren?”
“Can we… Can we walk around together?”
“Is there something you want to buy? Something you want to see?”
“No… I just…”
He didn’t finish his sentence. I waited until his thoughts were clearer, but Erin became impatient.
“He’s busy, Ren. We can walk around the three of us together.”
“But…”
“Why are you acting all indecisive like that? Just speak your mind already!”
Aren bit his lips, looking down for a moment. He then lifted his chin, staring me straight in the eye.
“I didn’t even know what you were selling before coming to the store, Tila! You should talk to us more!”
“Oh…”
That was unexpected. I checked the time and thought it wouldn’t matter if I reached home a bit later than anticipated.
“What about Orun?”
Judging by how quiet the small one had become, it was clear he was getting a bit tired. Erin alternated between watching her two brothers, especially Orun.
“We can go for thirty minutes maximum. It’s time to sleep after that.”
Joy filled Aren’s face.
“Yes! That’s enough!”
“Is there anywhere you want to go, Aren?”
“Anywhere is fine.”
That was the trickiest response. At least, I knew the city a little bit better now. If we had more time, we could have gone to one of the common attractions, like a theater, a street show, or even visited my sky house. In this situation, the best thing was to stroll around, maybe passing through one of the markets. It wasn’t the best time to check them since it was now the transition between the day and night markets, but it didn’t matter much.
We walked around, with Aren initially asking me questions. He was curious about the store, but also about me. For example, he wanted to become a mage together with me, even if our affinity was different. He also asked me about other things, like the house in the bunnies’ village, where I was getting the selnic items from, and so on.
I tried my best to answer him, and soon enough, he was the one talking about his experiences. What he was learning in the morning, how mage training was so hard, how the city was completely different outside of the slums.
After a bit, I understood he just wanted to share everything with someone other than his family. I noticed a glint of approval-seeking, too, in this strange, informal report of him. It was true that I didn’t have the time to take care of them too much.
At least for this short while, he unpacked his daily life to me, going on over a lot of what was on his mind, and I carefully listened to him.
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