Otoko Nara Ikkokuichijou no Aruji o Mezasa Nakya, ne?

Year 7447, Month 4, Day 27

Basutoral first took out the magic stones from goblins.
The number was 8.
Since they"re low-value magic stones from goblins it"s almost like a measurement error so they aren"t a big problem.

And then next he took out the magic stones from the ogres.
After that first day of the test there hasn"t been anything different about either Basutoral or Angela.
That"s why they should have obtained a decent number of them.

One.
Two.
Three...

With an uneasy expression still on his face he carefully took out one at a time, the total amount was 7 of them.

..This is also..Somewhat difficult...

If I remember right Kamu and Kimu"s record was 5,902,200 Z.
So the match is decided by the magic stones from goblins huh...
In any case, the purchase price that the old man from Danhiru puts on them is everything.
If it"s with my {Identify} then I can quickly calculate the results and as a matter of fact I immediately did the mental math so I already know the result.

However, while it"s only slight there"s some measurement error using the magic tool scale.
Even that measurement error is a part of the match.

...

......

The old man of Danhiru was using a wide abacus to do the math. To me it"s something that"s not very easy to use even if you"re used to it. That"s why I made a j.a.panese-style abacus and normally use that one. It"s a compact one with only 12 rows but after all the j.a.panese-style one is easy to use right. Since I didn"t have any bamboo it was somewhat difficult making it. In my past life, it was a technique that I learned when I was still a brat but I guess it"s something you remember with your body.

In the 50s of the Showa period(TL: 1970-1980) it wasn"t strange for a brat to attend sentence structure and abacus cla.s.ses at all. Out of a cla.s.s of over 40 elementary schoolers roughly half of them attended one or the other.

The old man of Danhiru moved the various stones up and down before finishing his calculations.

"7 ogre magic stones and 8 goblin magic stones huh...In total that"ll be 5,902,200 Z."

Voice of Oh~ were raised everywhere.
It"s exactly the same amount.
The magic stone from an ogre that Basutoral brought out was only a bit higher than the ones Kamu brought out.
It was enough that the magic stones from goblins were able to make up for it.

"The same.."

I unintentionally whispered out loud as well.

I can tell that the attention of everyone who was peeking at the counter of magic tool shop Danhiru switched over to me.

As expected the same amount was beyond my imagination.
In the case that Basutoral and Angela won or in the case that Kamu and Kimu won.
Though they were slightly different based on the difference I had ideas in the case that either side won.

Of course it wouldn"t be all that different even if Basutoral and Angela won.
Just, I was thinking that even if Kamu and Kimu lost and it was a close difference(as a matter of fact I thought it would be the difference of 1 or 2 ogre magic stones) then it would be fine for Kamu and Kimu to occasionally accompany the {Slaughterers}, now {Saviors} in order to earn experience.

If it was the opposite of that where Kamu and Kimu won then I would make Angela a fixed leader of the {Butchers} and have Basutoral act as her a.s.sistant.

Still I didn"t think that it would be determined as the exact same amount.
If there"s no mistakes with the abacus in my brain then there should of been a difference of 12 value in the magic stones with Basutoral"s side having been higher.
Though if you convert that into the sales price it"s a small amount that doesn"t even reach 100 Z.

"Everyone gather at Murowa after this."

I said before turning around and leaving.

Basutoral was to my side with a pale face and completely covered in a cold sweat as he looked at me with a crying smile.

I tried to remain expressionless but couldn"t help but make a bitter smile.
Bel sure is amazing being able to completely erase her expression.

After leaving the store everyone was gathered and waiting outside.
They must have wanted to hear the results even just a bit sooner.
Angela who was making a worried expression couldn"t seem to come to a conclusion from comparing Basutoral"s and my expressions.
I smiled and looked at Angela.
Angela closed her eyes and looked down for a bit before raising her face.
It"s the good smile that I"ve occasionally seen recently.

Everyone who came after me was standing in front of me.
Basutoral still has a pale face.
It"s not all that much but as expected Kamu appears a bit tense as well. Also Kimu.
She must have been confident, Miduchi has her usual calm expression on.
Kevin"s already made a face as if he"s given up but can"t hide having some hope.
Jeru and Misu who are holding their heads up in expectation.
It seems they were able to imagine the results after seeing Ginger"s expression.
Ralpha"s eating balddogie at a time like this as usual.
Zulu seems to have guessed the results after seeing Toris"s expression as well.

Other than that, there"s the other members who ended up not making the cutoff for the first test but came along as guards for the second exam and still don"t know what the results are.

"Congratulations, Kamu, Kimu. Also, Basutoral and Angela. It was the same amount after all so all four of you are {Saviors}."

After I declared that things got noisy all at once.

"After that, Ginger, Jeru, Misu. You were close. It was unfortunate for you too Binsu. Rokko and Kevin..you ended up with a bad opponent."

Since things seemed like they were going to get even more noisy I continued with one more statement.

"Kamu and Kimu don"t relax too much? Don"t forget that next time you"ll be on the side to receive challenges."

After I said that, the expressions changed of all the other members who seemed to have completely forgotten.

"Then everyone let"s go to Murowa. Let"s have lunch while discussing our organization from here on out."

...........................

I decided that the new organization of the {Slaughterers} would be just as follows.

First off, the {Saviors}. Fundamentally I"m the leader. We"re primarily in charge of the front-lines of the dungeon, the lower floors. And then, putting aside the porter Giberuti as different, there"s a total of 12 combat members including Kamu and Kimu who joined this time.
Of course, it"s not possible for all of us to teleport at once so at least 2 people and if possible 3 should always be dispatched to other parties. It should end up close to a fixed rotation of the members excluding Gwine as usual.

Next up is the {Butchers}. They could be considered the main force as a normal adventurer party as they have enough skill to pa.s.s through the 6th floor of the dungeon. Though in the {Slaughterers} they"re in charge of the middle floors. This time 2 people are being taken from here so if things were left just like that they"d lose a bit of their battle lineup.
Therefore it"s necessary compensate for that but since the archer {Blast.Back} Kamu and spear-user {Attacker} Kimu are being taken out this time, I had Ginger and Hisu switch parties with the meaning of them supplementing that since they have the same positions.

The organization will be Ginger, Rokko, Kevin, Jeru, Misu, Binsu, Hisu, Henry, and Rubi, the 9 of them and then one member of the {Saviors} will be dispatched as the leader.

And then the {Exterminators}. They don"t quite reach the level of a first-rate adventurer party but their strength is plenty to see as between first and second-rate, and they"ve started to build up some actual results. They"re in charge of the upper floors down to the 4th floor. This time with Ginger and Hisu being taken out their combat strength is expected to have a considerable decrease.

The fixed members are Sanno, Ruttsu, Rodrick, Denda, Karimu, Mekku, and Jesu, the 7 of them.
If it"s possible then I"d like to dispatch 2 people from the {Saviors} to their end. I guess I should take into consideration buying another 1 or 2 combat slaves. I"m already more than half planning to do that.

And then, the greatly antic.i.p.ated Golden Week announcement.

Either tomorrow or the day after that a caravan should come from Bakuddo. It"s possible they"ve already arrived yesterday or today and it wouldn"t be strange for them to be waiting at Boil Manor. Also, if possible I"d like to stop by Sandak Company and hear what the situation is with that one amulet as well. Furthermore, I want to go and visit Tukerin"s place and discuss things in regards to the preservatives and I obviously can"t leave Greed Company alone either. Of course, there"s no forgetting about heading to Mila-shisho"s place as well.

I announced that starting today until the 5th of next month is a holiday, then on the 6th we"ll have group training, and we"ll head back into the dungeon again from the 7th.

Also, at the same time I specially gave all of the members excluding my combat slaves a present of 2% of the magic stone sales we earned this time, the usual compensation amount for the {Saviors}, rounded to 1,360,000 Z per person of the roughly 68,000,000 Z. I gave it to 21 people so around 29,000,000 or so disappeared in bonuses.

Here Kevin gave Rodrick an envious look as he accepted the portion for Denda and Karimu as well.

"Maybe I should buy some combat slaves as well..If they have at least Henry"s level of skill then they"d be pretty useful after all."

Of course I don"t mind.
If they work properly then I"ll pay for that portion as well.

"Kevin, really you~ just think about it for a moment. It"s pretty troublesome even just feeding slaves you know? If it"s a combat slave then they need at least a somewhat decent place to get rest so it"s best to let them stay in a place on the Shuni-cla.s.s like where I"m staying, and you need to properly feed them as well. Also you have to pay them wages and it costs money to prepare equipment for them as well you know?"

Kimu said as if Kevin as a fool.
Certainly that"s true.
There"s also quite a few other things you need to be careful about as well.

"Ha ha..Well the expenses certainly do tend to pile up to a decent amount. Even Denda and Karimu require a reasonable amount every month even if I don"t have them doing anything."

Rodrick said with a bit of reservation.
This time we only entered combat on the way down and were just acting as guards and observers for those taking the test so I wonder if he feels sorry for receiving the same cut?

Although, what Rodrick was saying is just right and using the Henry that Kevin mentioned as an example, it costs 60,000 Z every month in inn costs with breakfast and dinner costing even more than that. Though this is also because I didn"t put any limits on them. Other than that I"m also paying him about 200,000 a month in wages.

It"s questionable if someone part of a normal adventurer party that earns primarily from bosses on the 1st floor would even be able to earn that amount every month. Thanks to the fact that I"m spending as much as a full-fledged adventurer on him Henry"s performance in the dungeon doesn"t fall but if my treatment was bad and their inn and food were of a lower rank, I"m sure the combat slave wouldn"t be able to show their full power.

"Also if they were to die then that"s the end of it.."

Misu joined in on the conversation.

"Since Henry was originally a knight he supposedly cost 20,000,000 and it even cost quite a bit for his equipment you know?"

Hearing that Kevin made a face like he understood. Rokko was quietly listening beside him while seeming to do the math on the table with his finger. And then he slowly started talking.

"Fu..Kevin, listen well. Recently we"ve been earning close to 2,000,000 every month. It should be over 1,900,000. "Aberaging" that out since we entered this year and it"s 2,100,000."

A ? appeared over the heads of everyone who heard that. If it"s "close" to 2,000,000 every month then there"s no reason the average would exceed 2,000,000. Well, in reality ever since we entered this year when Zenom is commanding the {Butchers} they"ve been able to obtain some magic stones from ogres so they should certainly be earning an average of around that much. But, I still felt a bit relieved that this guy wasn"t able to win the replacement match.

"Then you subtract 400,000 from there for your own living expenses. The remaining amount is 1,700,000. If you were to buy a combat slave on the level of Henry then it would take roughly 1 year. It"s necessary to think about the equipment as well, but well, it should be fine."

That much should be correct. Though 400,000 in living expenses per month is the lowest cla.s.s for a first-rate adventurer and on the level of a second-rate adventurer.
Well, it should have been about that for them while they were a part of {Sun.Ray}.

"1 year later you purchase a combat slave. If you were to do that then the amount of money you can use is..subtract 400,000 and 200,000 from double 2,100,000, so 3,600,000. However, for the 1 year up until then you can"t really spend on luxury, if you were to go to {Honey Collection} then you"d end up with even more deductions. After that, you"d have to continue enduring the same sort of lifestyle for a further 6 months before you"d finally be able to recover the portion that you spent to buy the combat slave. If you"re fine with that"s how you spend your final year in your 20s then I won"t say anything more though."

Really other than the first part it was all surprisingly correct. Additionally the fact that it was a pretty logical and well-organized explanation shocked everyone including myself.

"Alright? If you spend a full year and a half giving it your best in the dungeon then you"ll finally earn some profit from it. If you were to die before that then it"s all for nothing and even if it all goes well just watch and see if the slave dies half a year after that. If it comes to that then I"d have to start calling you an idiot."

Rokko closed things up with an expression as if he was completely making a fool of Kevin.
Hm~~m.
I have to wonder about using a former knight like Henry as an example for the combat slave but in the first place it was the request of Kevin so that much should be fine.
But, for that Rokko to...
Kevin is at such a loss for words all he can do is stare at Rokko"s face.

"Rokko, you, did you eat anything strange?"

Ginger said with a surprised face.

"An? Anything strange, you mean this?"

Rokko made a lewd face while running his forked-tongue over a baldoggie with lemon gra.s.s spices on it as he replied to Ginger.
Ginger yelled "Die!" before starting a different conversation with Hisu.

"Jeru, did you understand what Rokko said just now?"

Misu asked Jeru at a table a bit of distance away.

"Yeah, I understood it. It"s only obvious right?"

Jeru casually replied. Misu made a satisfied expression as well.

"Then, tonight explain to me how different it is if we were to go to the {Saviors} rather than just staying in the {Butchers}. Convert everything other than money into money as well."

"Ah~ I think I can properly explain it..all?"

Ah, I want to try listening to that as well.
But why was it a question? I guess he"s still not that confident?

.....................

After having lunch we returned to our inn.
I had a shower and changed clothes, then as I was returning after depositing money in my locker at the shrine it was just as the caravan from Bakuddo was arriving. This time the one leading the caravan was surprisingly the head squire, Sean.
Miduchi was having a good conversation with him.

He"s saying that they"ll stay one night in Baldukk before heading towards the capital tomorrow morning.
There"s no real reason for me to refuse.
Since the {Slaughterers} are just starting a long holiday I"m sure a number of members will want to come along to the capital.
Ralpha, Gwine, and Basutoral have already packed up a change of clothes and should be jumping on the pa.s.senger carriage to the capital about now.

After being pestered by the young squires accompanying him I was made to tell stories about the dungeon as the day ended.
Going to Ronslail"s place to make orders for combat slaves..should be fine when I have spare time anytime after tomorrow.

That night before going to sleep Miduchi came to my room and said something like, "You might be a bit surprised tomorrow?", but I have no idea what it"s about and when I tried asking she wouldn"t tell me.

..............................

Year 7447, Month 4, Day 28

After waking up in the morning I went running with everyone the same as usual.
It seems it wasn"t just Ralpha and the others who went to the capital last night and the only ones left were mostly the {Saviors} and my combat slaves. The only other ones running with us are Kamu and Kimu who"s entry into the {Saviors} has already been decided and are putting some spirit into it. Well, that"s fine. It"s the first day of a long holiday so it might just be that everyone else is simply sleeping in. Particularly Rokko and Kevin who had stayed up from two days ago through to yesterday fighting against ogres. I"m sure they"re reasonably tired.

When we returned from running it was after Sean and the others had already finished preparations to depart. Seeing that Miduchi and I took a shower in a hurry and then changed clothes before hopping on our horses. Sorry for the wait. When I tried to have us depart right away Miduchi started going on about not having eaten breakfast yet. But, I guess that"s true. We should be able to eat breakfast in about 10 minutes. I had the caravan wait for a bit and the 2 of us went to eat breakfast.
Miduchi even started drinking some tea acting as if we have plenty of time.
Though it"s the same for me too.

Supposedly Toris and Bel are planning to head to the capital together this afternoon and Zenom said he would take his time going to buy some vodka and smoked meats as well. The same for my combat slaves and Giberuti, since Kamu and Kimu are going to play in the capital they"ll supposedly accompany them. Only Zulu seems to be going to the capital at a different time. Ha~han~ it must be that sister from Murowa.

Well, the escort squires of the caravan Miduchi and I will be accompanying are walking so we"ll take our time heading there over 2~3 hours.

We arrived at Greed Company in the capital just before noon but surprisingly almost all of the members of the {Slaughterers} were there. Furthermore, everyone was wearing pretty nice clothes.

The only ones not here are..Ralpha, Gwine, Cathy, and other than that is just my slaves.
Even Toris, Bel, Basutoral, and Zenom are here.
Kamu, Kimu, Ginger, and the others are all here as well.
I guess they went ahead of us while we were slowly taking our time eating?
Let alone that even Rooko and Kevin were wearing clothes that don"t suit them.

"Hey, why is everyone here? And those outfits..."

I reflexively asked Miduchi.

"Fufu..Surprised?"

I"m surprised.