Chapter 21

 

Daibun continued to admire me, saying that he didn’t know how he couldn’t think of selling things in a place like that, and Loyar also seemed to think that that would be a good idea.

I’ve only been on that train once, but it didn’t seem like there were any guards positioned on it yet. There might be complaints against the vendors getting filed, resulting in countermeasures, but that would be in the distant future.

It didn’t end there.

This was my cash cow. Of course, things had to work out here. They had to earn a lot more and be more stable than they had ever been before.

In fact, it was difficult for me to believe that either Eleris or Sarkegaar would bring in any income.

Hence, this place was my lifeline.

“Of course, just selling candy alone like before would be a little weak. So we have to have something that would draw in everyone’s attention.”

“Attention?”

A place where a large amount of people gathered was overflowing with consumers. Of course, candy alone wouldn’t garner much attention. It had to be a product that was specifically targeted at our customers.

“However, our financial situation isn’t good enough to sell the good stuff, you know?”

“Right….”

Of course, it would have been nice if we could sell good quality stuff that people needed, but if that were possible for us, we’d just start an official business. Simply put, something simple, inexpensive that attracted a lot of attention, something that focused on utility rather than quality.

“Toys would be the best thing to sell in our situation I believe.”

“Toys? I don’t know what stuff they’re selling elsewhere, but d’ya think they’ll sell?”

Loyar seemed a bit hesitant.

I chuckled.

“Toys are products who are demanded by a different comsumer group than the actual purchasers.”

“……Huh?”

“What do you mean?”

Daibun would probably understand, but Loyar wasn’t the sharpest. Well, yeah, this was optimized for isekai characters. Not bad.

An Isekai cliche.

Talking about completely normal everyday things as if they were amazing in front of stupid characters.

Depending on the level of the things the writer makes the main character say one could tell the writer’s knowledge level.

Something along the lines of: “Aah, this is soap. Because of the surfactant in it you can wash your hands really well”

There’s a 100% chance that you’ll feel great about yourself for using the word ‘surfactant’ and about 98.235% of people will think you’re one smart cookie.

Anyway.

This time I was talking about toys.

“It’s the kids who will be begging for toys, but it’s the parents who have to pay for them.”

Toys were something kids demanded, but the actual purchase happened through the parents.

“Let’s say a toddler were to cry for that toy on a crowded mana train.”

They were both staring at me talking.

“Then the parents would buy that toy, whether it was poor quality or not.”

I didn’t know how I should explain knowing this even though I lost my memory, but I was sure they’ll hear me out.

If they keep suspecting me, I didn’t think it would be such a bad idea to tell them the truth. I could even tell them I was a writer, however that would probably sound like nonsense to them.

I had no intention of acting careless purposefully though.

Anyway.

Loyar and Daibun were looking at me almost as if I was some kind of devil’s spawn-

Well, wasn’t I kind of one?

“You’re terrible…!”

Without realizing it, Loyar’s true intentions slipped out of her mouth. I was surprised myself.

Even if you treat me comfortably because I’m a kid. Huh? You want me to be good? Huh? Didn’t you say we should live comfortably together?

I was getting a little mad.

“Come on! Let’s do our best!”

I reached out my palm.

-Pat!

Loyar, of course, gave me her ‘paw’ out of reflex. Her face was completely blank.

Conclusion.

I didn’t have any more plausible bullshit but toys in stock.

* * *

There were many other conditions I added. For starters they needed some neat clothes and a sales book to keep track of the articles they sold. Like that they wouldn’t be shunned at least. They would at first do it like they did so far,  but I’ve been trying to urge them to become more customer-friendly in the future.

We also had to think about our products, though.

Daibun was very impressed with the measures I had taken. He told me that he now understood why his big sis wanted to send me to Temple. He even generously praised me, saying that I’d deserve being their gang’s brain. He even mentioned that it would be great if I received advanced education there.

With just a few words his attitude changed as if he just received a thousand dollars instead of having to pay off a debt of a thousand dollars.

I joined amidst the group to get to know them a bit better at least. To be honest, it felt pretty uncomfortable, but I couldn’t avoid them anyway. It seemed like Loyar usually doesn’t do anything but sleep.

She apparently did make an appearance when it was time to punch someone.

“I heard that Daibun praised that guy.”

Although Loyar acted as the boss, it seemed like it was actually Daibun’s role to manage the organization. Loyar said she’d send me to Temple, and Daibun didn’t hold back with his complements, claiming that I wasn’t an ordinary person, so the other members seemed to be looking upon me quite favorably, albeit still a bit skeptical.

“Hey, have a drink.”

They offered alcohol to me without hesitation. Although one could see I was a minor at first glance, it seemed like they didn’t care about that.

“Hey, all of this.”

I, who was in my thirties, also wanted to have a taste, but I was rather surprised.

“Hey! What’re ya givin alcohol to some kid?!”

There were some who said things like that, but I just giggled slightly and downed the drink in one go, before they could dissuade me.

“Woah, awsome.”

Everyone burst into laughter seeing me do this.

It’s a little bitter, but who cares.

Alcohol is alcohol and water is water. So it wouldn’t matter anyway.

The old man who poured me the drink chuckled. His breath didn’t smell that good, but it didn’t really matter.

“That young and already knows how to drink! Hah!”

“Is there a life without alcohol?”

“Well said!”

“This is it! Oh, we can become great friends!”

“I’ve been getting drunk ever since I was your age, now look at me! Hahaha!”

“Then let’s get drunk again today! Let’s goooooo! Let’ssss gooooo!”

“Let’s driiiink!”

“Here we goooooo!”

Without them I probably wouldn’t be able to live, so I couldn’t be picky and ungrateful.

I drank vigorously with the beggars until far into the night. Surprisingly, these gents knew how to drink the right way. No, well, I actually was an old man, so of course I couldn’t help but match these old men’s pace.

They asked me this and that, and I wasn’t that drunk, so I answered them as I planned.

“But how didcha get here?”

“I don’t even remember anymore when I was abandoned. I was just drifting from place to place.”

Too young to remember when I was abandoned, Loyar found me while I was wandering around the streets, so she took me in.

My origins were unknown. Everyone patted me on the shoulder saying that I must have had a hard time while still being so young. I was also told that I should go to Temple and become a great man.

“Don’t be like us.” They said. They gave me some advice that almost brought me to tears.

“By the way, what’s the name of this gang…?”

It seemed that Loyar was called by the nickname Irene’s Wild Dog and she repeatedly called this organization a gang.

Didn’t they have another name for it? What the hell, the name can’t just be ‘Gang’ right?

“Oh, yeah. There’s a big intersection up there.”

Intersection? What did that have to do with anything?

“What, does the newcomer not even know what this gang’s name is?”

One of the middle-aged man burst into laughter.

“Rotary gang, dude. Remember that.”

Ah.

*                           *                               *

After seeing this drunken chaos in the middle of the night, Loyar got mad, saying: “What gave ya the idea to make a kid drink alcohol?”

It felt like I got drunk and my elder sister dragged me away to scold me. I actually did get nagged, but it was very different from my old days. Did the former Prince not drink before?

Still, probably because I played around with the others at what felt like a welcome party, everyone seemed to see me as a very nice guy.

The next day, I made it my goal to somehow sort out the situation of the Rotary Gang.

Even though they were on my side, I didn’t make the mistake of thinking that I knew everything about them. The reason I drank with them yesterday was obviously because I wanted to get to know the Rotary gang as well as its members as much as possible.

The Rotary gang had about 200 members. That’s quite the number.

I didn’t know what the exact income of the solicitors was, but if it was enough to support the everyday life of a nobleman, then one could assume that it was quite high. However, not only were they able to support a noblemen, but they were also able to cover food costs and received compensation money, you know?

Just how many candies did they have to sell a day for that to be possible? Even if every single one of them sold one candy worth 5 bronze coins every day, which would just amount to a thousand bronze coins and 10 silver coins.

That would just be a hundred thousand won. Even if everyone sold 10 pieces each, it would just be a million won. Moreover, not everyone is mobilized at once to sell candy. It seemed impossible to even maintain this group with just that.

Of course, there were people who begged as well as those who solicited, but I didn’t know if that would be enough to maintain such a huge group.

The Rotary gang must have had a different source of income.

There was no way that Sarkegaar and Eleris didn’t know about this.

It appeared that they didn’t tell me on purpose.

Loyar, Eleris and Sarkegaar kept some secrets from me about the Rotary gang’s source of income.

I was wondering what was going on, so I asked Loyar directly.

Loyar usually hung around the bon fire deep in the sewers, where no one ever set foot in, whiling away her time or sleeping.

I believe you have a different source of income somewhere else, but just what is it?

“You don’t need to know.”

Loyar cut me off as if she didn’t want to tell me.

“Okay, then just answer me one thing.”

“Yeah.”

“Are you hurting people?”

“It’s nothing like that, but sometimes that’s what happens as a result of it.”

That was how Loyar answered. It wasn’t something that necessarily hurt people, but in some cases it might happen as a result of it.

“I heard that the gang has about 200 members.”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“However, I believe there are only about 50 people living here.”

50 was still a large number, but it certainly wasn’t more than 200. This was an indirect question pertaining as to where the rest of the members were. Loyar let out a short sigh.

It’s like she understood that I wouldn’t back down so easily.

“I didn’t tell you because I thought it would be better if you didn’t know about these kinds of things. I had no intention of deceiving you.”

“Yeah, it might be a little dangerous if I knew about it, right? That’s what you were thinking.”

“Selling candies is just a disguise.”

Soliciting wasn’t their main goal.

“We are supported by the Gardium Thieves’ Guild.”

Their main goal was collecting information that organization wanted, when they wanted.

That’s how it was possible to maintain a group of this size, Loyar added.

So, I was right about this being the Fantasy version of the Beggars’ Sect.

The Rotary gang was the information gathering organization the Gardium Thieves’ Guild outsourced. Even if beggars were driven out, they were rarely suspected. Then, at my question of whether my proposed change in soliciting method was meaningless then, Loyar shook her head.

“We are inextricably linked to the Thieves’ Guild, but the more dependent we are on them, the more they will try to control us. If the gang can operate only with the gang’s profit, that alone would be meaningful.”

In the end, the proposal I made yesterday meant a lot to Loyar and Daibun.

If the group couldn’t maintain themselves without the support of the Thieves’ Guild, they would try to use the Rotary gang more and more freely. However, if the Rotary gang’s own revenue grew, it could be freed from further interference from the Thieves’ Guild.

I did notice that Daibun was unusually excited, so that might have been the reason.

It’s complicated in many ways, but in the end it was all about money.

I could also understand now what she meant with that it could end up harming someone, as they didn’t know what the Thieves’ Guild would do with their information.

“You don’t need to know much about this. You can just go to Temple using the fact that you are from this side and forget about us.”

She told the gang members that I was their future, however what she truly meant was that I should just focus on training myself at Temple. I didn’t have a reason to care about the Rotary gang’s matters.

Even if there were problems with the Rotary gang, Eleris suggested that I should just cut ties with them after I got them to pay tuition for me and I entered the school.

If I developed some kind of talent, I would be exempted from paying tuition fees and I would no longer have a need to be involved with the Rotary gang.

That was why Loyar, Eleris and Sarkegaar didn’t tell me about the gang’s secret source of income, which I didn’t need to know about.

“If I’ve satisfied you now, go with Daibun. You need to make an ID.”

Aside from gathering the admission fees, I needed an identity first. Let’s take a single step at a time.

Shit.

I had chosen a path when I was at the crossroads between just quietly waiting for the ending to pass and setting foot in the main story.

I wanted to live comfortably, but in the end, I ended up having to join Temple. If it couldn’t be helped, I would just have to do something about it, just like I did when I saved Charlotte the other day.

After entering Temple, I had to clench my teeth.

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The future would change greatly depending on how strong I became.

At that time, Sarkegaar, Eleris and Loyar.

They all would find out that the Demon Realm wasn’t that important.