A Merchant With Zero Combat Power Who Was A Baggage Handler In A Hero Party, Was Finally Banished An

Chapter 105 – Measures to attract customers (2)

And…

Second day of theatre opening.

All the chair seats for the first show were filled and people were even allowed into the standing spaces.

“Great job, Albus!”

Clarice was very excited.

I guess that means my policy of changing the target audience has hit the mark.

Amaranthia listened to the buzzing crowd. She was waiting for her cue, smiling a little.

Today’s performance at the Mistria Theatre was attended by several families from nearby private homes.

And most of them with their children.

Parents plus one to three children.

That’s 3-5 people per family.

If a dozen families come, the 50 or so chairs are quickly filled.

Whether this number of visitors is too many or too few, after all of us had advertised to nearly three hundred households, is a matter of opinion.

In any case, we were able to bring the seating to almost full capacity.

Although some families left when they found out it was going to be standing for running out of seats.

They said they were close to home and would come back an hour later for the 8pm performance.

Further.

In fact, I had a second trick up my sleeve here.

“Vegetable porridge. Forty mana a cup.”

Today, porridge with cereals, which is also a staple food, is sold by Clarice.

And next to her, Burgess was grilling meat, and further next to her, Loloi was selling drinks.

And on the other side of the street, there’s a wooden doll seller that I’m going to go in as soon as the show is over.

In addition to the dolls, I put small wooden swords, mysterious sparkling stones and other things that could be used as children’s toys.

In order to attract the general population of Kilket to the Mistria Theatre, who are not familiar with the theatre, I placed a small wooden sword, a mysterious sparkling stone and other items that could be used as children’s toys.

I said: “This place is like a collection of stalls for a nobleman’s parade”.

There are a few food stalls where you can get your supper, drinks and souvenirs.

It was my hope that those would sell, and if we’re talking about stalls, the residents of Kilket would still be familiar with them.

Aristocratic wedding parades, for example.

Stall festivals associated with those kinds of things are occasionally held here in Kirkets.

Bards and others often gather at such gatherings.

Less familiar theatre things are presented as familiar stalls.

Right.

The second trick I did was ‘redefinition’.

It seems that this trick worked better than I thought it would this time around.

I couldn’t stop grinning when I saw the crowd that had turned up.

Incidentally. The elf Shinri seemed to be cleaning the mansion even at a time like this.

However, when she thought she had finished cleaning one area, she would spill or blunder something and then there would be more work to do.

It was like taking three steps forward and two steps backwards, and progress was slow.

Sometimes she would smash up equipment in the house and ask Burgess or me to fix it.

Still, she was always trying her best anyway, so we all somehow felt that we couldn’t hate this elf.

→→→→→

Then it was time for the show to begin.

The programme was the same as yesterday’s, The Princess of the Cliff.

“Once upon a time there was a land of elves west of here.”

So also began the song of Amaranthia.

Today’s event was another great success.

The food and drink outlets were selling briskly before the show even started, and Loloi, Clarice and Burgess were all very busy.

And in the puppet shop, too…

Immediately after I made the same call yesterday at the end of performance, a few children ran out towards the empty shop and their parents were rushing after them.

They were followed further on by me getting off the stage and rushing into the shop.

A number of wooden dolls of 200 manas each were then bought by parents who had been beguiled by their children.

Parents’ purse strings have loosened considerably.

Along with the extraordinary feeling of the stall, Amaranthia’s singing probably made the parents feel that ‘well, I can buy it’ and ‘I might want a bit of it’.

Another point may have been that the residents of this area, who were invited to the stall, are relatively well-off.

→→→→→

And a second performance at 8pm.

Amaranthia offered to change the performance.

I agreed, as some families were about to pay the flat rate admission again to hear the second song.

As they decided to leave the performance to Amaranthia, I asked myself, “What kind of poetry will she sing?” I was watching with some anticipation…

What a surprise. The song Amaranthia chose for her second performance was “The Tale of Ryan the Hero’s Defeat of the Wind Demon Dragon’.

It is a story that takes place long before Ryan the Hero was awarded the title of ‘Hero’. It is a tale of the young hero Ryan and his wife, a great sorceress, defeating a hand-picked demon dragon.

I only now learn that it has been turned into a bard’s song, but of course I know what it’s about.

I was already a member of that party at the time, after all.

In terms of content.

Black-Iron magician Ruschfeld’s home town was ravaged by a wind-demon dragon born nearby. Ryan’s party heard about this and rushed in, successfully defeating the Wind Demon Dragon and becoming the hero of the town.

However, on the way to slay the demon dragon, his fellow baggage handler get separated on the way.

And when Ryan and his team meet up with the Demon Dragon, they run out of magic recovery medicine. The key to defeating the Wind Demon Dragon, the Great Magician, runs out of magical power and falls into a pinch. Such story.

However, it is considerably dramatized.

More precisely, slightly distorted.

I was just a little bit away from Ryan and his party, who were newlyweds at the time. Ten metres at most.

When I approached the area of the demon dragon, of course I was going to go right to the side. I was in a bit of a hurry because I met the dragon in a completely different place than I had expected.

Also, when I say ‘fall into a pinch’.

I’m talking about the fact that Ruschfeld was just a few seconds late when she wanted to use the magic restoration potion.

In any case, the five explosive magic shots Ruschfeld had released up to that point had rendered the Wind Demon Dragon almost incapable of fighting. So the timing should have been perfectly fine.

And yet, for some reason…

Ryan the Hero played a big stand-up fight against the Wind Demon Dragon, which was unable to use normal sword strikes, to protect his wife who has run out of magic, and so on.

In other hand, the stray luggage handler with zero fighting ability run desperately away when he encountered a pack of monsters.

In this way, the facts are twisted.

This is the birth of the ‘hero fellow hefty baggage handler’ story.

Well, that’s fine.

And Amaranthia probably sung knowing I was that baggage handler.

So much the name ‘Albus, the former hero party’ spreading in Kilket.

I’m pretty sure she glanced at me during the part where the baggage handler appeared, so I’m sure of it now.

Incidentally, the story seemed to be quite well received by the children.

Along with the voices cheering for the strong and cool hero and great magician. Surprisingly, they were also heard cheering for their baggage handler, who desperately run to their friends while running away from monsters.

And after that second performance.

The dolls of the knight and the wicked witch went on sale, even though they had not appeared in the songs.

Perhaps they mistakenly thought they were a ‘hero’ and a ‘great magician’ in story earlier. And I’d been asked many times ‘Do you have any ‘baggage handler’ dolls?’

I’ll ask Mitra later to make proper ‘hero’ and ‘magician’ dolls, as well as a ‘baggage handler’ doll.

→→→→→

And the sales after the two shows were. together amounted to about 8,500 manas.

After deducting Amaranthia’s share and various purchase prices, a profit of about 7,000 manas remains.

And that was more profit than we had expected.

It was significant that 15 wooden dolls with a purchase price of 200 manas, for which there was no purchase price, were sold.

After all, we should have more varieties as soon as possible.

“It’s just marvellous, Mr Albus. It’s hard to believe it’s the same place as yesterday.”

A total of 120 people attended the two performances.

Amaranthia, who received 650 manas, 1/5 of the admission fee, whispered this to me with a smile.

This time, though, the admission fee was 25 manas, since almost all the guests were wooden ticket holders. If only more customers like the ones who re-entered the theatre would like it so much that they would repeat their visit even for the original 50 mana…

Amaranthia will make even more money, along with ours.

“Amaranthia blasted me yesterday. Truth is, I was a bit depressed after yesterday’s debacle.”

“That’s good to hear.” (Amaranthia)

Saying this, Amaranthia stared at me with a jittery look on her face.

“…what?” (Albus)

When a beauty like Amaranthia stares at me, I can’t help but get a little nervous.

I replied, trying to keep my composure.

“After all… the key was children, wasn’t it?” (Amaranthia)

With a bit of a scowl, Amaranthia told me this.

It doesn’t seem sarcastic at all because of the mischievous smile that immediately followed.

“Indeed…” (Albus)

In the end. I was overwhelmed by children who wanted the Mitra wooden doll after hearing the song.

As Amaranthia said, the key is the children.

“That’s true, but the time is night, remember?” (Albus)

Amaranthia said it was better to make it ‘daytime’ and ‘child-friendly’.

However…

“I think the wooden dolls sold well, even if they were a bit expensive, because they brought in a set of parents and children.” (Albus)

After all, the key to selling expensive products is adults.

“Oh dear… so you’ve realized it now. Then I’m going to charge you for my advice.”

Amaranthia stuck her tongue out at that.

I’ve seen that gesture a few times… it’s so cute.

“Then let’s raise Amaranthia’s share of the admission fee from 1/5 to 1/4.”

I was by no means defeated out by her cuteness, you know.

Because this Mistria Theatre now is kept alive by Amaranthia’s arms.

So we negotiated a higher share, but as long as she is doing a job that is well worth it, I have no objection to agreeing to it.

And that’s the way it is.

This is a necessary expense, as I need to get her singing with spirit from tomorrow onwards.

“Thank you.”

With that, Amaranthia bowed and left.

“Wouldn’t it be dangerous to go back to the inn so far away, alone, in the middle of the night?”

With this, I told Amaranthia, with Mitra and the others’ consent, to stay the night…

But she refused, as matter of fact.

Afterall Amaranthia’s combat power would be enough to cope with most things.

Maybe she was just wary of me.

No, it must be Burgess…

I want to believe that it must be Burgess.