Chapter 433: The future that man sees
The section of the Rembrandt Company doesn’t lose its lights even after closing shop.
There were only two presences in the night office room.
“Danna-sama, how about resting for a bit.” (Morris)
“? I am sleeping everyday, Morris.” (Rembrandt)
“…I am not talking about naps, but actually proper sleep in your bed.” (Morris)
“I will think about it the next time I go to the hot springs. I am in a good part right now. Don’t stop me.” (Rembrandt)
“Are you? In those scribbles, numbers, figures, and…symbols?” (Morris)
The head butler of the Rembrandt Company, Morris, lets out a short sigh.
It is an action of his after being aware that there’s only his master and himself in the room.
However, if he were to even worry about the eyes and ears of the Kuzunoha Company, there would be no end to it, which Morris himself has already accepted.
Or rather, it would make him have no place for respite in his heart, and he would have to be on guard 24/7 which would only one-sidedly exhaust him.
If he can’t notice it with the best he can do, there’s no helping it.
Meaning that he would have to deal with it with 2 to 3 moves.
“Yeah! My conversations with him are a treasure trove after all. I end up perking my ears at his suggestions. And so, in the moments I have time like this, I would a.n.a.lyze and consider them, which has ended up being a daily routine of mine.” (Rembrandt)
“By ‘him’, are you referring to Raidou-sama?” (Morris)
“At the time when independence was decided, see, we tried to spread business cards, right? What was the result of that? In the present Tsige, there’s already almost no merchant or person working in a company that hasn’t made one.” (Rembrandt)
Rembrandt only alluded to the world of the merchants, but even adventurers are beginning to imitate the practice of business cards.
“…Of course I remember. I even was against it saying that there’s already guild cards, so why even use paper in order to make the same thing enma.s.se.” (Morris)
“Yeah, but it was a big success.” (Rembrandt)
“When thinking about it, even if it is possible to show the guild card, it is not possible to carefreely lend them. Going around giving it away would be out of question. I lacked forethought.” (Morris)
The topic that his master Patrick Rembrandt had touched had brought back a vexing memory of his reading having completely missed.
At the time when Raidou showed a sample of what a business card looks like and proposed the idea, Morris had laughed inappropriately in his mind while thinking that this was a silly idea even if it comes from this young man.
The number one reason being that there’s already a guild card that is far more efficient, and the second being that merchants should try to make an impression with their conversation techniques and a.s.sets in order to prove they have worth in a.s.sociating with each other.
Truly the place to show the power of a merchant.
Not only Morris, there were a lot of people who were against the idea of business cards.
Especially the old types of merchants.
This is also a natural thing.
All of them would treasure the common practices that have worked in this industry.
“You can go around distributing them after all. That benefit is big. It uses paper, so there’s a slight cost on it, but the merits are bigger.” (Rembrandt)
“…Yes.” (Morris)
“Also it is easy to show from what company something is without the need to go through the trouble of putting a crest on the gifts.” (Rembrandt)
“…”
“There’s the need to show some forethought so that it is not used for evil purposes, but it should become a strong intermediary when it comes to making trades with partners of far places depending on how the records are done.” (Rembrandt)
“Good grief. That was a proposal with unbelievable insight.” (Morris)
“I wonder about that. It might have just been Raidou-kun not being able to remember the other party’s face, so this was a desperate measure he thought of.” (Rembrandt)
“…It may be rude for me to say this, but if it is about that person, there’s plenty enough possibility that’s the case.” (Morris)
“Yup, in other words, he simply wants to have it easier for himself.” (Rembrandt)
For good or for bad, their evaluation of Makoto is correct.
“…Yeah.” (Morris)
“But to think that would create such a convenient thing -from simple paper and ink. I am totally fine with him wanting to make things easier for himself. He doesn’t run to shallow means to achieve that, and would think of even better ways of doing things. If this hadn’t been him and was the idea of someone from this city, I would have even thought it would be fine to hire them into our company.” (Rembrandt)
“…Not an invention but a discovery, huh. But you have been amusing yourself since the beginning, Danna-sama. I am impressed that in such a short frame of time…” (Morris)
“Yeah. However…there’s no other way, right? It was unexpected what would show up after freezing until this point, haha.” (Rembrandt)
“This is…” (Morris)
What Rembrandt had taken out from the drawer of the desk and spread out were a variety of business cards.
A small square piece of paper was the business card sample that Raidou had brought.
But what’s in front of Morris are business cards of varied sizes and even material scattered about.
Those in the shape of shields or bottles, those made of cloth or metal processed in a special way, and some made from minerals.
He tried taking one and looking at the back.
Written by hand there were words of grat.i.tude for the business discussion with Rembrandt.
(I see, it can also serve as a letter of sorts. By just adding a few lines, you can create a feeling of being special towards your business partner…from mere ink and paper. Even though it is simply that…I can even feel an air of experience like the schemes of Patrick. The reason why it doesn’t fit the schemes of Raidou is because he himself simply thought of it as having it easier for himself, right?) (Morris)
“Interesting, right? Well, when the surroundings do stuff like this, I have no choice but to tag along in some way. Sorry.” (Rembrandt)
“Understood. I will search for a business card artisan as soon as tomorrow.” (Morris)
Tsige is a city where new work is born every single day.
Just like how the peak of Edo became a city of one million, in a city where people crowd and live, jobs would be divided in small portions in order to fulfill that demand, and there’s often times when a special job is born from that.
In that case, there should already be a merchant that deals with business cards that can be referred to as an artisan.
Morris has decided to search for a business card artisan as his first job for tomorrow.
“Thanks. Well, the matter of the business cards are an extra. Right now it is this.” (Rembrandt)
The place Rembrandt pointed at after standing up was the thing Morris had pointed out before, a white board that had only scribbles on it.
“I am sorry, but I am far from understanding what this is.” (Morris)
“If it is you, I am sure you will be able to understand if you ask in order. ? of this is regarding the point card system.” (Rembrandt)
“…Aah, if I remember correctly, the objective of it is visibility in the places you frequent.” (Morris)
Morris dug through his memories and somehow managed to dig out the information of the words he was not used to hearing.
Contrary to Rembrandt who had taken off his coat and was on a vest all sweaty with pen in hand, it seemed like Morris didn’t feel that much heat from this.
“That’s right. By adopting this, the training performed by the employees of companies might get turned over greatly again.” (Rembrandt)
“…In a direction where it is easier on oneself? I honestly don’t feel like it is all that good.” (Morris)
“No. It would be able to unify the vague feeling of who frequents which place how often. What’s interesting is that this will decrease the pointless exchanges, and that will allow for more capacity in other areas like servicing customers and knowledge of products.” (Rembrandt)
“If the ones in charge properly know their frequent customers, there would be no need for that in the first place.” (Morris)
And if it is employees of the Rembrandt Company on the level where they can be left with foreign sales and frequent customers, you could say it is work on the basics of the basics.
In other words, there’s no one who can’t do that.
Morris couldn’t understand at all the point of Rembrandt speaking so fervently about this point card business.
“…At the times when the one in charge is not present, there’s the possibility that a frequent customer would come and suddenly ask for a business discussion. With a point card, even a normal receptionist or a normal clerk would be able to understand how they should be serving that person in an instant. Don’t you think that’s an incredible thing?” (Rembrandt)
“…When you put it like that, I do think there are indeed some merits to it.” (Morris)
However, he still can’t tell if that’s just the silver tongue of Rembrandt at work here or because the system is actually good.
That’s why the response of Morris was more on the safe side.
“It might be difficult to imagine. However, having even maids and butlers be able to tell just how important the person they are dealing with is towards the company…is interesting, you know.” (Rembrandt)
“Even so, the thing that Raidou-sama showed as a sample…with that childish design that looks as if it were a reward for a child is just…” (Morris)
It isn’t something a company would use.
That’s the conclusion he came to as someone who has worked as a butler in the Rembrandt Company for a long time.
“That was a worry point.” (Rembrandt)
“?” (Morris)
“It is true that the design is a bit… No matter how fancy you make it, the act of stamping and giving it to them should have a few heads considering if they are being ridiculed.” (Rembrandt)
“No doubt about it.” (Morris)
Even Morris thought that way.
“And then, it came to me after seeing these business cards. There’s no need for it to be stamps. Maybe give it some fanciness by making it their emblems each time.” (Rembrandt)
“…”
“What will be done is the same. If it is a normal customer, a stamp should work. An adventurer wouldn’t be bothered about stuff like that from the very beginning. There’s just the need to prepare something appropriate for your frequent customers.” (Rembrandt)
“Is that how it works…?” (Morris)
Morris was doubting whether this was something so simple.
“The important factor of a point card is the visibility of frequent customers as I mentioned before. It is proof of how much the owner of it is using our place. It is technically like the levels of adventurers or ranks. Being able to properly share this knowledge with employees at the very bottom is a big change. It seems the Kuzunoha Company will be doing it, but I would like our place to do it around the same time as well.” (Rembrandt)
“My apologies, Danna-sama, but it would be one thing if the rising Kuzunoha Company were to do it, but having the Rembrandt Company do it would be slightly problematic in terms of our image.” (Morris)
“Image? Oi oi, Morris, it is still too soon for you to be going old on me, you know? It is true that the Rembrandt Company has a catalogue of products that can satisfy big companies, n.o.bles, and royalty.” (Rembrandt)
“…”
“Even so, I don’t remember saying a single word about not dealing with tourists and commoners of Tsige. If we can gain intimacy with the point cards, then that’s most satisfactory. Rather than trying to profit big and have a pointlessly extravagant mindset, it is more worthwhile to run a company where everyone is happy to drop gold for it.” (Rembrandt)
“!”
Rembrandt grins with sharp eyes.
In front of the very eyes of Morris, the figure of his master had overlapped with the young man that didn’t have a family yet several decades ago.
That’s how much youth was overflowing from him.
He is definitely getting younger.
He is deciding what to do and where to advance one after the other; the Patrick Rembrandt that never stopped.
“We will make a number of ranks… We could even add some magic processing to it and make it into a work of art of sorts…” (Rembrandt)
“It would be nice bait to create a sense of compet.i.tion between customers?” (Morris)
‘Good grief, thinking scary stuff one after the other’, is what Morris was thinking with half fear and half amazement.
He was wondering if Raidou has noticed it.
Just how much this man a.n.a.lyzes one casual chat of them, and how those change shape.
If Raidou, who will be coming here tomorrow with the boyfriend of Yuno, were to be told about this, what kind of reaction would he make?
Morris thinks that most of the reason why his master and him are lacking sleep is because of Raidou.
“Between customers…? Aah, right. If we blatantly show a decent degree of service towards the high ranked customers, an interesting thing might happen! Nice, Morris. You are getting back into gear!” (Rembrandt)
“I am honored.” (Morris)
While thinking his gears can only provide so much, the butler responds to his master.
“And this is the centerpiece.” (Rembrandt)
Credit currency.
Morris switches his gaze to the mysterious scribbles where that was written.
Rembrandt didn’t even wait for his response and began explaining.
At this moment, he had given up on his sleep of today.
It is not rare to make-do with naps, but he didn’t want to pa.s.s a night where there’s no need to not sleep.
Morris was resenting Raidou a bit here.