Chapter 289: I Got Seduced by a Customer!
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Starting with the next day, Bennyboy invited his long-standing business partners. The invitees and their companions were the target here. Though I asked him to turn down any companions below an age of fifteen.
After all, you wouldn’t know what might happen if a child entered the store and started to play around. And it was much better for both sides to simply forbid children to enter the store instead of demanding restraint from the child itself.
Well, you wouldn’t know what might happen with adults either, though! Even so, I can’t believe that the customers invited by Bennyboy would go around and break stuff inside the store.
After a few days passed, rich people, who had received written invitations, showed up in smaller groups, just to become flabbergasted after stepping inside.
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And then, as the days flew past, letters inquiring for permission to visit started to flood in like an avalanche from many nobles.
Bennyboy’s sister Pumilla read all of them, sorted them into categories, and wrote replies to each and every one.
――Yeah okay, I’m pretty sure she’s way too busy now to fret over her fiancé.
Anyway, the ducal couple and their friends must have bragged about this place quite a lot. Of course that was a very welcome act of kindness for the store, but it also increased the burden on Damsel Pumilla manifold.
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Some nobles also came over in person. But, we told them that they had to contact us in advance since we didn’t prepare the store in a way befitting noble customers and sent them back home.
Noble customers, who grumbled about this, were kindly persuaded by the Ryokus, horbs, and me. For the most part, it was their usual modus operandi to run away screaming as soon as the Ryokus, horbs and I showed up.
“I’m Indra of the S-Rank adventurer party 【Allrounders】. This store has been built by Sword and me for a merchant who’s close to us. It’s a store for commoners made by a commoner like me. However, Scarlet Chaudgal, the daughter of Duke Chaudgal, is among my friends and since she helped us out in various ways during the construction, we invited her families and their friends to our big unveiling.
…Well, I can guess that this might have led to some people misunderstanding this store to cater towards nobles, but that’s wrong. I won’t go as far as saying that we won’t sell to nobles, but the ones serving you will be commoner employees who have no experience in the etiquette required to deal with nobles.
Since the store is aimed at commoners, the employees are commoners as well, so give us a bit more time with the invitations for nobles. Sure enough you’re not going to tell me that you’ll shop together with commoners, are you? We’ll be troubled if you tell us that this is your intention, so if that was your plan, I’d like you to refrain from going through with it since it’d make our commoner customers wither away.”
Everyone withdrew as soon as I gave them this sermon. No one person held on. Or rather, they all nodded while trembling all over, before going back home as if running away in dread…
“I haven’t even tried to threaten them, so why are they so scared anyway?”
When I tilted my head in confusion, Damsel Borque, the deputy shopkeeper, told me, “I’ve gotten completely used to seeing it, but anyone witnessing the guard golems appear with a poof for the first time would think of them as monsters. Also, the horb exude quite the pressure if they gather in numbers.”
Or so she says.
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As might be expected, or rather because of the flood of inquiries and the great number of invited visitors, it was impossible for the store to handle all of this just with their employees and since Bennyboy clamored about running out of good to sell before things calm down, if he didn’t leave to stock up right away, it was decided for Sword and me to stay here for a while.
Sword guarded the store while working down all the requests in the capital during his freetime. I was in charge of consoling the bickering guests.
At present, the number of people simply visiting to take a look was ridiculously high. The store was constantly surrounded by a throng of people.
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――Among all those people, only one man stood out.
He was wearing a commoner outfit and was looking at the store while erasing his presence, but his outward appearance pretty much screamed noble at you.
He paced back and forth in front of the store many times over, his eyes sparkling all the while. He was an old guy, but just his eyes looked like those of a boy.
He probably knew that he wouldn’t be able to enter, so he watched from the shadows without trying to intrude into the store. Somehow that man reminded me of Duke Chaudgal.
…Yep. He’s very much like Duke Chaudgal.
Even though he could have gotten the duke to introduce him to us, if they’re related. It’s just my intuition, but I feel like those two would get along very well!
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Since it bothered me quite a bit, I called out to that old man.
“You are not by chance the companion of someone, are you?”
He apparently got quite startled when I suddenly appeared and addressed him like that. After jumping up, he immediately looked very troubled when he saw me.
“…No, I’d really love to claim that to be the case, if only I could, but I do not have any such connections, young lady.”
This time it was my turn to blink in surprise. He referred to me as a young lady on our first meeting!
At this moment, I was wearing my adventurer clothes. In short, I was using pants. Because of that, most people thought of me as a pretty boy!
As I thought, some nobles do have discerning eyes. My uncle immediately realized that I was cross-dressing as a man, too!
“I see. I was certain that you would have such a connection… Going by your appearance, are you traveling incognito?”
“Eh?”
I grinned at him, “Well, you appear to pretend to be a commoner, but I think that is bound to fail. To me you look like nothing other than a noble who is moving around incognito.”
The old man became dumbstruck for a moment, and then scratched his head with an embarrassed grin.
“…I see, so it was impossible after all, huh? But, nobles would need to go through several procedures to visit this place frequently…so I thought I could slip in when the store would be opened to the general public while pretending to be a commoner.”
He wants to get in so badly?
“Is there something you desire from our store?”
As soon as I asked, he immediately replied, “First off, your liquor.”
Whoa, the people of this world truly love their booze.
“There are many other things I want to look at as well. The building itself is quite interesting. Also, those brooms.”
Oh, he’s interested in those crowd-pulling brooms, eh?
“Those are not for sale.”
He nodded at my remark.
“I know. But, I would like to see them from nearby. The same applies to many other things.”
……
This is…is he possibly an acquaintance of the duke? He totally feels like he heard something or listened to some sort of bragging, and came here to see things for himself.
“…Do you know the price of our liquor?” I asked while thinking that limiting his visit to just window-shopping would be out of the question
However, he confidently nodded.
“Of course I have heard of it. A person, who bought it, pretended to lament over how much it cost, all so he could brag to me.”
Oh, just as I thought then. This guy has to be an acquaintance of Duke Chaudgal. They do seem like two peas in a pond.
I stroked my chin, and after pondering for a bit, I told him, “……Hmm, in that case, I will invite you. You seem to be a calm person with a certain level of refinement, so I assume the possibility of you complaining about the employees’ lacking level of customer service is rather low. Seeing how you are interested in our products, it will be of profit for us as the sellers, so I will lead you through the store as long as you promise to not just window-shop. However, you will tour and purchase things alongside commoners. Is that alright for you?”
The old man blinked his eyes in surprise. And then broke into a broad smile.
“Of course! You have gratitude! ――Young lady, would you be so kind as to tell me your name?”
“I am called Indra. Or would it be more understandable If I were to refer to myself as 【Partner of Hero Sword】 of the S-Rank adventurer party 【Allrounders】?”
The old man became speechless. After remaining frozen for a bit, he booted back up.
“……I see, you’re…… No, I’ve heard rumors that Hero 【Thunderclap Whitefang】 formed a party and that his partner is a genius who is a great magician and great sorcerer.”
“Hmm, I see, I see! Is that so? That’s great to hear. It sounds like the truth has turned into a proper rumor. While at it, it’d be a big help if I could have you add the fact of me being a beautiful girl to all of this.”
The man laughed at my reply.
“Is it alright for me to ask about your name as well?”
He fell silent for a bit, but then he politely introduced himself, “…My name is Ark. Because I’m pretending to be a commoner, I’d prefer to keep my surname a secret.”
“Sure. Well then, Sir Ark, I’d be very obliged if you could refer to me as 『Indra』 or 『Young lady』.”
Sir Ark laughed open-heartedly.
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