The Man Picked Up By the Gods (Reboot)

I took the seat beside Fei-san and started counting copper coins, but as expected, having to count by hand will really take a long time… Although it won’t take too long since there’s 8 of us here, but still…

One minute into the work, a light bulb flashed. Oh, right! I had that!

I took out the bag of leftover lime from my Item Box.

Everyone turned to me, but I ignored them and just used identify on the small copper coins. What is the diameter and thickness of this coin?

Small Copper Coin 1 Suits

A coin of the smallest value. Made of Copper.

Diameter: 0.9cm

Thickness: 2mm

It worked! I take back what I said this afternoon. This Identify stuff might actually be useful.

“Boss? What are doing? Why would you use Identify on the coin— Could it be? Is it fake?” [Fei]

“Oh, no. That’s not it. I just thought of making a tool is all.” [Ryouma]

“A tool?” [Fei]

“Watch. ‘Create Block’ ” [Ryouma]

After checking the size of other copper coin, I transformed the lime within the bag to become longer, while I made its interior to be shaped like an empty box. Naturally, I made the inner part of the resulting stone box hollow, then I removed a part of one end of the box with Break Rock, resulting in an object that would allow things put inside to fall if the box were to be inclined.

After that I used earth magic to erect 50 2mm tall 1cm squares on the hollowed part of the box along a line. Like this a copper coin could enter each square. I also treated the surface of the box with a thin layer of the sticky slime’s hardening liquid to protect the surface and make it safe to use barehanded.

Identify.

Coin Box [1]

A tool used during the Edo period to count coins. Made by hardening lime with earth magic.

Success!

“Boss, what is that?” [Jane]

“I was just thinking if we could use this.” [Ryouma]

I took two hands full of coins and put them inside my counting tool, then I covered the open end and shook it for a bit. The coins made jingling sounds for a while. When I uncovered the open part, a lot of coins fell, but if you look closely, you’ll see that there are coins left in the squares.

“Fei-san, could you count these coins that were left behind?” [Ryouma]

“Sure.” [Fei]

Fei-san counted the coins carefully.

“Exactly 50 coins, Boss. Looks like you’ve invented another useful tool.” [Fei]

The moment Fei-san said that, Carm-san, Carla-san, and Leelin-san already understood the purpose of this stone box. The 3 young women, however, did not seem to understand it just yet, so I filled the box with coins, let the excess fall off, then distributed the leftover coins for them to count. Like this they were able to understand.

Jane-san is a cheerful and hardworking young woman, but she’s a little slow when it comes to stuff that needs thinking, so I just let her figure it out on her own pace while I started mass producing the coin box. For the small copper coin version, I made it so that they could accept 50 small copper coins, while for the medium copper coin version, I made it so that it could take up to 100 coins. The original coin box could accommodate every type of coin, but I’ll just make some adjustments later.

It turns out making the coin box was a great idea, for in just 10 minutes after making it, we were done.

After counting everything, most of the coins were small copper coins. I thought there was a lot of medium copper coins, but apparently the customers mostly paid with small copper coins.

After that I asked about the store and if there was anything they were having difficulties with.

“Difficulties?” [Jane]

“Nothing really comes to mind~” [Maria]

“This store treats us really well, so I don’t have any complaints.” [Fina]

“A person who complains despite such good treatment is just too entitled.” [Leelin]

“Really? I mean your salary may be fine, but what about your brea—!!” [Ryouma]

Oh no! I forgot about their rest days!! What employee welfare? I’ve been making them work without rest!!

“What’s up, Boss? Your face went all pale all of the sudden.” [Fei]

“…I forgot to allot you your rest days.” [Ryouma]

When I said that, everyone doubted their ears and stared at me. And then Jane-san said in loud voice.

“Boss! Are we going receive regular rest days!?” [Jane]

Huh? What’s with that reaction? Isn’t that a given? Though I suppose I really shouldn’t be saying that considering I forgot.

When I got a good look at everyone, they all seemed to be equally confused.

“How about once a week? You could rest once a week or take turns…” [Ryouma]

When I said that, the three young women became very happy. Seeing me so confused by their reaction, Carla-san went ahead and explained.

“Boss, the people who leave their home and go far away to work like these three normally don’t get rest days. Unless they have some sort of special ability, they are usually treated cruelly as servants and are paid less compared to others. But this store not only treats them well, it even pays a lot. Given such conditions, it’s only normal to expect that there won’t be any rest days.” [Carla]

“But it’s not just them who don’t get rest days. Small companies and retail stores like a grocery stores also don’t get any unless there’s a festival or a special event of some sort. Having rest days do take a toll on the business, and it’s also not strange for there to be circumstances wherein one needs wo work without rest. That’s especially true for newly opened businesses, which would often prefer to keep working nonstop to get the ball rolling.” [Carm]

Businesses ran like a bicycle, huh. [2] Well, I suppose there are those too.

“Boss, do you know? Our family apologized to us a lot when they sent us away~ ‘Sorry for making you take on such a hard role’, they said.” [Maria]

“Apparently, if our luck was bad, not only would we paid dirt poor, even our chastity might be in danger.” [Fina]

“You were worried about that, huh.” [Jane]

Does this world treat its employees poorly? As I wondered that, I turned to Carla-san.

“Abusing one’s position as the employer to seek sexual relations is against the law, but unfortunately, there are still those who do it. It’s one of the things an employee needs to look out for when looking for a job.” [Carla]

Sexual harassment was a thing in my previous world too. I guess that sort of stuff is the same even in other worlds.

“My store makes it a point to take care of its employees, so you don’t have to worry about that. Let’s continue working together.” [Ryouma]

As I said that, everyone smiled and nodded.

As for their rest day, since the wave of customers still show no sign of stopping, they told me that it would be a waste to designate a rest day now. As such, they decided to take turns resting once a week.

After discussing that and having Shelma-san’s delicious supper, I noticed that it was already almost 9, so I bid them goodbye and left the store. I might be scolded since I ended up coming home late again.

When I got back to the inn, the ojousama and the others had already returned.

As I drank tea and listened, apparently, the Jamil family was welcomed by the government office today. Part of the reason was because there was a new head, and another is for the remaining members part of that recent scandal to curry favor with the duke. Of course, all the efforts of these sycophants probably wouldn’t amount to anything.

I couldn’t help but imagine a party with a showy banner that says ‘welcome party’ on one side and a sign on the other side that says ‘hearing in session’.

As it turns out, something similar actually did happen.

Other than Reinbach-sama and Sebasu-san who told me all these, everyone else was already asleep.

It would probably be a bother if I were to stay here too long, so II excused myself.

[1] – Not sure of the exact reading of the kanji for this or if it has an English equivalent, but this is what comes up when I search it

[2] – Businesses that are barely hanging on. They’re ran like a bicycle since they need to keep the wheel spinning or else they fall over.