Chapter 81

Ch 81 — Soap, Shampoo and Conditioner

Next day I went to the Adventurers Guild to collect the Bloody Horn Bull meat and the Black Serpent's meat and skin .

Johan-ojisan came out when I announced myself at the Guild's purchase counter and I followed him along with Fer into the warehouse, a place I had become familiar with . Sui was in her new bag as usual . It seems that she found this bag quite comfortable .

"Well, the Guild Master hasn't come back yet, he's still talking 'bout the Mithril Lizard thing with Count Langridge-dono so I can't help ya with that . " Johan-ojisan shrugged . "I can sort out the Bloody Horn Bull subjugation reward right now . "

If the Guild Master was still in discussions with the Count that sounded like it was going to be a problem . Higher-ups and nobles are always trouble . I listened carefully as Johan-ojisan started explaining the payments he was making today .

"First of all, there are 324 gold coins for the subjugation itself . Then there's the purchases — we're buying the Bloody Horn Bull horns, that's two horns each for 58 monsters at one and a half gold coins per horn, making a total of 174 gold coins . Then there are 57 skins since ya kept one, ummm they're eight gold coins each so that's 456 gold coins . You're lettin' us buy half the meat this time round, ten gold coins for each monster carcass so that makes 290 gold coins . " Johan-ojisan scatched his bald head . "And I'm forgettin' something . . . ah . That other Black Serpent you brought it, you're keeping the meat and skin but the poison sacs, liver, fangs, eyeballs and its mana stone are worth 79 gold coins . That's a grand total of 1323 total gold coins . "

Bloody Horn Bull horns are used to make magical tools and it seems the leather is popular as a material for bags and shoes . Coincidentally, there was a bag made from Bloody Horn Bull leather in Lambert-san's shop . The meat is a bit high-priced but it's still popular and always in demand . Selling this many Bloody Horn Bulls at one time wasn't going to depress the market and hence reduce the price paid by the Guild .

"The Guild here has been making big profits since you came to town, kiddo . " Johan-ojisan looked sad though . Why? "Problem is," he continued, "we've got a cash flow problem, paying out so much to you in one lump is a stretch . If you could just wait for a few days . . . " My face fell . I'm sorry, I'm causing you problems, I'm sorry . Of course I'll wait . . .

Johan-ojisan suddenly grinned . "Just kidding, sonny . We can pay you right now . "

Thump, thump, thump, thump, thump, Johan-ojisan dropped five heavy cloth sacks on the work table .

"There's 300 gold coins in each big bag and another 123 coins in this little one . " He tapped a smaller sack to the left of the four big ones . 1323 gold coins . . . . . . .

The money we're earning is just incredible . Well, the money Fer's earning is incredible, I should say . Of course we've still to receive the money from the Mithril Lizard subjugation as well .

"Oh, yes, there was a message from the Guild Master . " Johan-ojisan said . "The disassembly cost for the monsters you sell to the Guild here is still free since you're selling us so much, sonny . Anything you catch while you're staying in this city counts . "

So they still won't charge for dismantling? Great, but right now we have plenty of meat and there's no need for Fer to go hunting right now . Fer's been complaining about a lack of exercise though and if he does go off and hunt something then I'll happily sell it to the Guild, minus the meat of course .

"Now that's out of the way, here's the Bloody Horn Bull meat and Black Serpent meat and leather you wanted to keep . " I got the meat of 27 Bloody Horn Bulls and the meat and skin of the Black Serpent from Johan-ojisan and put it all in the Item Box . That was a lot of meat . I mean, really a lot of meat . A mountain of meat .

Right then, time to go . Saying goodbye to Johan-ojisan I left the Adventurers Guild with Fer in tow and headed back . On the way I bought some things I needed from a general store .

"I'm going back to the inn after this to get some things ready and then I'm going to Lambert-san's store . What do you want to do, Fer?"

"I'm bored hanging around in that beast stable . I'll go with you . "

"I understand . Well then I'll be busy in the room for a while so just hang around for a bit . " I said to Fer and then went back to my room .

* * * * *

"Well, I've been spending all my time at the Adventurer's Guild in this town up till now . I'm also a member of the Merchants Guild so I think I need to do a bit of selling too . " was my thinking . It had taken me some effort to get into the Merchants Guild and I'd paid the membership fees so it seemed a good idea to earn some money that way . My plan was to buy some things from the Net Super and resell them here .

I took a look through the Net Super, wondering if this or that would be sellable but I had no real idea of what anything was worth in this world . I wanted to talk to Lambert-san about that, since he seems to be a top-ranking merchant .

To start with I bought some things I used myself from the Net Super . I bought 3 pieces of basic soap for 1 copper coin and 3 pieces of rose-scented soap for 3 copper coins . Next up I purchased 4 assorted refills of rinse-in shampoo, regular shampoo and conditioner for 4 copper coins total . I figured this would sell well here . It came to a bit over 8 copper coins since I added a pack of hair wraps to the order at the end . I bought the shampoos and conditioner in refill packs since I thought I'd sell them here as special items and I couldn't do that if they were in plastic bottles .

I started by taking the bars of soap out of their other-world packaging and putting them into individual small cloth bags which I'd bought at the general store earlier . Since soap seems to exist in this world, I figured selling soap bars would be easier than trying to sell liquid soap and body wash . I'd price the rose-scented soap a bit higher than the basic soap since I thought it would be a luxury item here .

"Well, let's put the shampoo and such into the bottles I bought at the general store . "

I decanted the rinse-in shampoo and regular shampoo and conditioner from their refill packs into longnecked bottles sealed with a cork . I filled three bottles of each . The rinse-in shampoo would be OK for everyday use (although it appeared that in this world baths weren't that common among ordinary folks, richer people would bathe every day) . The separate shampoo and conditioner are intended as luxury goods . The shininess of someone's hair is improved if they use shampoo and conditioner properly and it feels better to the touch .

I put the hair wraps I bought as an afterthought into a small wide-mouthed jar I purchased from the Net Super . Since the wraps were an other-world item they might make someone's hair beautiful by magic and I could sell them at a high price too .

So, that's all there was to it . Although this stuff was likely to sell well here I didn't know what price to ask for them . I wanted to consult with Lambert-san about that . I should use any connections I have, I think, to make things easier for myself . I don't know what the people in this world might think of shampoo and conditioner — surely they've got some kind of hair cleaning products of their own? Anyways I'd take these with me tomorrow and talk to Lambert-san to see what he thinks .

Aaaand, I'm going to take a bath . . . Although I'm getting used to just wiping my body with a wet towel, I'm Japanese after all and I'd really like to take a bath .

I want a bath .