"I quit."

These were the first words of Argent spoke after a long silence. Prior to said spoken words, his face was heavily contorted. His eyes were jammed open, and his mouth displayed an unnatural smile.

"On the second week? But we had an agreement!" shocked by his words, Puella exclaimed.

"And I want to back out of that while I still can," the merchant replied with an ersatz gusto, an unusually high pitch.

He dropped the book he was reading, and slowly walked to the room’s exit.

"Wait!"

The girl leaped at him, tackling him to the floor. She immediately got up and rushed to the door of the study, blocking it.

"I'm a merchant, not a miracle worker!" Argent said while picking himself up.

"Miracle worker?" the girl asked.

"Bad business."

"Huh?"

"Let me repeat. BAD BUSINESS!"

The girl stood there scratching her head. The merchant on the other hand, sighed heavily. Although he just recently met her, he had a premonition. He knew that if he was going to explain things to her, it would be a long day. He had put up with this fiasco for a week, thinking that he could fix it, but in the end, he realized he was extremely naïve.

---

"I mean, how can this inn even stay running?"

I raised my arms in surrender asking for an explanation...

"What do you mean?"

... and all I got was another blank stare.

Does that girl really know NOTHING about running an inn? More importantly, what about her brother? He knew about things like collateral. I don't see how it could be this bad with him...

"Forget that 500 gold I owe you. Even if I pay you guys back, according to these records, your inn would still be down 1752 gold!" I began to explain.

"Yeah, we admit that. We do have a slight monetary problem," she said with a straight face.

A perfect straight face.

"Slight? I was suspicious at first about your little place, but this just cements my worries," I shook my head in disbelief.

"Umm..."

"Listen, you have no customers, are situated in the middle of nowhere, are 1800 in the negative, and you still planned to spend another 500 to renovate the place?"

"Yes?"

Her voice had no indication of worry whatsoever.

"I'm doomed... No amount of management will bring you out of this debt..." defeated before starting, I opted to retreat instead.

Noticing a small gap between Puella and the door, I sprang into action. I dove in and rolled through the space. Before I could get away though, I felt something tugging at my clothes, causing me to fall back first on the floor.

That girl has good reflexes. If only that were also the case with running this inn...

A split second after I moved, she had seen it and reacted accordingly. Grabbing onto my sleeve and pulling, she prevented me from completing my roll. She then methodically pinned me down, her arm pushing at my throat.

"Hey, no matter what you do, it's hopeless. I can't do this," I tried to convince her, "I promise I'll pay back the 500 gold, so can you please let me go."

Seeing no response from her, I spoke again to the same effect. Her eyes were staring into the distance. Spacing out, it was if she was collecting her thoughts. Moments later, she began to talk.

"Can you first listen to my story? After that you can decide whether or not you still want to help us."

The history of the inn? Not that it'll change anything for me.

Considering my current predicament, it wasn't like I could refuse anyway.

"Our parents were adventurers, you see. They managed to slay some sort of dragon and get its treasure,” she began, “That treasure trove amounted to a lot of money.”

“How much exactly?” I had to ask.

She bent down and whispered the amount to my ear.

!!!

“THAT MUCH?!?!?!” I exclaimed in the loudest voice I could muster.

Puella just nodded at my words with an unchanged expression.

Such an nonchalant reaction. Doesn’t she know how much that sum would… Wait, if they have THAT much, why would they even bother chasing down my 500 gold debt…

“Anyway, even if I’m working for you, that large an amount is something you don’t just say to others that easily! Aren’t you worried that I might do something?”

Puella shook her head and adjusted her ebony hair by her ear.

“No, there’s no need for that. I trust you.”

A gentle smile appeared on her face. At that moment, her eyes shone as bright as the sun. Her cheeks had the tint of roses. I couldn’t help but stare at the sight.

“H-how are you so sure?” I tried to avert my eyes to no avail.

“Bro trusts you, and I have my own way of telling,” she pressed her index finger to her mouth,” but it’s a secret!”

“Hey Argent, I found the missing records you wa-“ just then, Puer walked in.

He looked at the scene which had unfolded. His newly-hired worker being held down on the floor by his sister, and said worker staring at his sister in a trance-like state. It would be obvious what his reaction would be.

“I’m sorry, Argent. Please take care of my sister. She’s a late bloomer after all,” he said as he left the room.

WAITWAITWAIT! Is that how a brother is supposed to react to a situation like this?

---

“I’m really sorry for that,” bowing profusely, Puella apologized, “I just really didn’t want you to quit.”

“It’s fine,” I replied.

We were back to normal, sitting down on two stools inside the study.

“Please continue your story then. What did your parents do after they got the gold?” I asked.

“Well, after they got the money, they acquired this land over here,” she resumed, “They constructed this inn and ran it. Although, it wasn’t very successful then.”

It still isn’t successful now…

Puella then told the tale about how her father and mother met together at the exact spot where the inn stood, how they vowed to do stuff and killed a dragon, fluff, gibberish, hyperbole and romance included. To sum it up, an adventure and things happened. In the end, they got their gold and decided to settle down here.

“So you and your brother want to keep running this inn?”

She nodded.

“This inn represented a lot to my parents and to us too. We were even born here.”

Remembering the records, I did a few calculations in my head.

“Listen, with the amount of money you have, you can definitely keep this place running for as long as you want.”

“That’s not the point though,” she replied,” While they were still around, they always told me that they wanted this inn to prosper, not just to survive. Also, brother gets angry when I spend so much money, hehe.”

“Then why can’t he just stop you from doing so?”

“Father and Mother only told me the location of the gold, so he can’t do anything about it.”

That would explain A LOT, to be specific, why the spendthrift sister and not the frugal brother has the pants on this family.

At that time, I began to laugh. Silent at first, it slowly grew louder. Puella looked at me with a glare.

“This inn is 1,800 gold in the red. It has no customers. It’s situated in a route where almost no one travels. It practically has no security. Getting this in to ‘prosper’ is going to be next to impossible,” I enumerated the problems in front of Puella.

Her eyes drooped and her face fell. That expression, which fell to that of depression-

“Nevertheless, we’ll figure out how to get out of this hole. I can see a way to remedy the problem.”

“We?”

I nodded.

-quickly recovered.

“Though the terms of my vocation were rushed (and is the reason why I’m stuck in such an undesirable situation), I did give my word to help this place. Merchants don’t shirk on their word!”

“… Wait a minute. Weren’t you so eager to quit just earlier?” Puella suddenly looked at me suspiciously.

I raised both of my hands.

“That may be true, but hearing your story changed it!” I technically told the truth.

She grasped my hands and teared up.

“The story is moving, isn’t it? It’s so touching! After my parents told it to us siblings, we both decided to inherit their legacy. ”

“Not exactly…” I tried to avoid eye contact.

“Actually, I think he changed his mind when you mentioned the amount of gold we had,” Puer had entered the room again.

Bull’s-eye!

“Anyway, I see you two have toned down your actions a bit,” he coughed continuously.

Puella and I immediately let go of each other’s hands, while the black-haired man sighed.

“Is it true, Argent? You only changed your mind, because of the amount of gold we had?” she pleaded with the same teary eyes.

Although those tears right now probably represent the opposite emotion of the ones earlier.

“Sadly, yes,” I replied frankly.

Ignoring the broken state of the girl who just heard my answer, I began to speak.

“Capital.”

“Capital?” recovering quickly, Puella asked.

“It’s the amount of money we have initially and thus can work with on at the start,” I explained, “Think of it as your initial investment. In your case, it’s the amount that was spent creating this inn, and I suppose you can also add the 500 gold worth of items you lost.”

“What does that have to do with the situation?” Puella’s eyes were circling around as she spoke.

Does this girl really have no business sense?

“You have to spend a bit before you can even think of earning. You can’t set up an inn without constructing it, and in order to do that, you need gold.”

“That makes sense, but the inn is already constructed. Don’t we just need gold to buy supplies and stuff that spoil?” she asked.

“It is true that the inn has already been constructed, but capital can be used in a different way, one which could help us come out of our predicament. Although, that would mean we would be spending more,” I replied.

“Spend more? Interesting comment from someone who was berating us for spending all that gold,” Puer jabbed.

“Shut up. It’s your fault for not planning thoroughly enough. I mean, if I had that amount of gold, I probably would have at least broke even by now,” I quipped.

“Broke even?” Puella tilted her head at the unfamiliar term.

“It means you finally get back your initial investment. Given your example of 1752 gold (although this would include the amount you spent maintaining the inn), I would have ‘broke even’ when I earned 1752 gold back.”

She nodded in response to my explanation. Although, I didn’t know if she really understood it.

“Anyway, the money is in order to correct this inn’s flaw.”

“The lack of security and the fact that no one comes here, right?”

I nodded.

“You don’t have to worry that much about security. Our father was a mage and cast some sort of protection charm. The inn itself is secure from violence and theft,” Puer commented.

“I was going to propose employing someone to guard the place, but that works too. It will save us a lot in the long run. What about the road?”

“There are some lingering effects, but it’s much weaker compared to the inn.”

“Alright, the problem now is the fact we have no people coming here. We have an inn, yet no one comes here except maybe the sporadic traveler.”

I stood up and walked over to a map hanging on the wall.

“Puer, you say that we’re located in this area, right?” I pointed to an area on the map, right in the middle of the two kingdoms.

“Yes,” he gave a short affirmation.

“That means, we’re actually much closer to Phobos and Shimamoto than the usual routes.”

“Are there any obstacles between here and either of the two?” I asked.

“None that I know of. Although the pathway isn’t that known.”

“And that’s the problem! The route we’re in is much closer to the two main border cities of the Human and Demon kingdoms than the main thoroughfares, yet no one knows about this place.”

“So we need to make other people know about this route?” Puella asked.

“That’s right! And that is what we will spend additionally on.”

“Makes sense,” I saw Puer rubbing his chin as he agreed.

“The problem is, how do we do that? We could post notices in the two cities, but that would probably be ignored…”

I paused, trying to think of a good plan, but I drew a blank. I suppose it was hard to just think of a plan on the spot.

“I suppose you two don’t have any ideas?” I fished for a suggestion.

“Something that will make this route well-known and in conjunction, make our inn…” Puer’s voice trailed off.

Puella scratched her head once again.

“Hehe, I’m not good at these kind of things,” she spoke as she approached the map.

“It’s fine. We aren’t that much of a hurry, at least I think we aren’t. Nevertheless, we need to come up with an idea,” I replied.

I looked at Puer, my eyes asking him if he wanted to add anything.

“Sadly, I can’t think of anything at the moment too. Anyway, what you said was true,” Puer spoke, “This route does has a shorter distance, although it’s not that obvious in this map. I think it would be less obvious in those small maps they sell at town.”

“That’s to be expected though. Really detailed maps are expensive; cheaper maps have less details on them,” I answered.

Puer nodded at my statement. It appeared discussing it at the moment would yield no more ideas. We needed some time to think it through.

“All right, let’s try to think about it for some other time. I still have to sift through these papers, and it looks like it’ll take a while, but at least with the amount of capital we can spend, we can get through this.”

I picked up the record book I dropped and resumed and signalled that I didn’t want to be disturbed. Puer left the room, bringing along Puella, who had refused to leave.

“It’s a shame that we can’t just use magic to emphasize the route in all existing maps.” Puella joked as she was dragged outside.

I felt as if lightning suddenly ran through my head.

That’s it! That’s what we’ll do, but will that even be possible?

---

Wait a minute… The fact that Puer knew that Puella told me about the gold amount they had… HE HAD BEEN WATCHING FROM THE START!

---

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