Chapter 2-25 : Business Competition Ⅱ (part 2)

 

「You see. Merchants shouldn’t do business if it’s only to make them happy. They also have to think about the people around them. My family motto is “Doing business with a sincere heart”.」(Sarasa)

「Family motto…? Are you from a merchant family?」(Iris)

「Yes, my parents are merchants. They died in an accident when I was little.」(Sarasa)

「Ahh… I’m sorry to hear that.」(Iris)

「Don’t worry about it. It’s been a long time ago, so I don’t really mind it.」(Sarasa)

I shook my head at Iris-san who awkwardly lowered her head.

Losing parents is a sad thing, but it’s an everyday thing for us orphans. Besides, I don’t think I was unfortunate. I made a few good friends at school and I was blessed with the unexpected encounter with my master, and thanks to that I was able to become an alchemist.

My job is different from my parents’, but it can be said that alchemists have some similarities with merchants. That’s why I have the opportunity to achieve what my parents were aiming for, and for that purpose, I have to eliminate any obstacles that stand in my way.

Currently, my priority is to get better as an alchemist since I’m still a novice, but I will do as best as I can to achieve my parents’ goal as long as it doesn’t affect my job.

「Anyway, I’m glad we were able to get this many Ice Fang Bats without anyone getting hurt. Moreover, hunting bats like this can be a really good magic practice for me.」(Sarasa)

「Now that you mentioned it, you used various spells at the same time to deal with the bats earlier.」(Kate)

「Yep. I wanted to put what I’ve been learning into practice in actual combat.」(Sarasa)

「Ah, by the way, a part of the forest behind our store has disappeared, right? Could it be…」(Iris)

「Disappeared? You’re exaggerating. I just used some trees as target practice.」(Sarasa)

After the Hellfire Grizzlies attack, I consulted with Master and she told me to practice offensive magic a little more, so I started practicing in the forest at the back of my store, but of course I didn’t make it disappear in an instant. I’m not that strong, okay? I cut down the trees one by one while trying various spells.

Of course, I didn’t waste those trees. I gave them to Geberg-san so that he could make use of them.

However, I cleaned up the stumps with wide-ranged area of effect spells, so the ground became a little rough.

「Actually, I wanted to try an area of effect spell too, but it would scatter the bats in all directions and it would be difficult to collect their corpses.」(Sarasa)

「Ah, I’m glad you didn’t try it… Seeing all the bats’ corpses lying around here alone is enough to drive me crazy…」(Andre)

Andre-san looked around and sighed.

A large number of Ice Fang Bats’ corpses were lying on the ground around us.

Because I used long range magic and Kate-san used a bow, there were some bats’ corpses lying a bit far, but they were not many compared to the ones that were lying near us. The bats’ corpses near us were piled up and made several piles up to my waist.

「This is ridiculous… Why are there so many this time?」(Andre)

「It’s because there were no bats running away this time. They all tried to protect their food after all.」(Sarasa)

When you hunt Ice Fang Bats, normally the bats that are alerted will run away.

However, our case was different. Because they thought that we were trying to steal their food, they were mad and desperately trying to drive us away.

Even so, I have to say that we’re lucky. Many fruits can still be obtained in the forest in this season, so we ‘only’ had to deal with this many bats. If this was winter, we might have to deal with all of the Ice Fang Bats in this cave.

「I see… So in other words, we have so many bats’ corpses to deal with because of Gil’s stupid mistake!」(Andre)

「I know! That’s why I apologized! I will act after listening to people’s warnings from now on! I promise!」(Gil)

「Really? Are you really going to listen to what people say from now on?」(Andre)

「I swear I will!」(Gil)

「Andre-san, he has apologized so you don’t need to criticize him too much. Anyway, let’s start dealing with these corpses.」(Sarasa)

「…You’re right. There’s no point criticizing Gil anymore. So, how are we going to deal with all these piles of corpses?」(Andre)

「Hmm….」(Sarasa)

My original plan was to kill the Ice Fang Bats here by myself little by little while Andre-san and the others collect the corpses, take them to the entrance, collect the fangs and throw the corpses into the forest.

However, the number of bats we have killed exceeds my expectation. This is too many.

「How about we collect the fangs here? We can take the corpses to the entrance after that.」(Sarasa)

After thinking for a moment, everyone nodded to me.

「Yeah, let’s do that. Gil, do your best, will ya?」(Andre)

「I will but there’s a limit to how many bats’ corpses I can take at once, okay?」(Gil)

「Ah, by the way, the average weight of Ice Fang Bats around here is one kilogram, so be careful.」(Sarasa)

「Seriously…?」(Gil)

Most of the Ice Fang Bats that attacked us were old. Their bodies are about thirty centimeters tall, and their wings are about one meter wide when spread out.

The Ice Fang Bats that have grown this old are rare, and that’s why their fangs are valuable.

Selling them is great, but perhaps I should consider keeping some for myself just in case.

「Alright. Gil, your quota is 100 corpses at a time.」(Gray)

「Oi, Gray. It took us a few hours to get here from the entrance, and you told me to carry a hundred kilograms of bats’ corpses to the entrance? Well, it’s not that I can’t do that, but I probably can only do that twice at most for today.」(Gil)

「Oh, Gray, that’s a good idea! There are five Collectors here. I don’t know how many bats we killed, but if we Collectors go back and forth to the entrance twice carrying the corpses while Shinjini collects the fangs, we can get rid of a thousand bats’ corpses by the end of the day.」(Andre)

「Ehh…. It’s not an idea though…」(Gray)

If Andre-san, Gil-san, Gray-san, Iris-san and Kate-san each took a hundred bats’ corpses to the entrance twice, they would be able to get rid of a thousand corpses.

However…

「Ah, I don’t think I can carry a hundred corpses…」(Kate)

「Me, me neither…」(Iris)

Even though they are Collectors, Kate-san and Iris-san are girls. Carrying one hundred kilograms is too much for them.

「Hmm…. How about seventy five? Can you carry that many?」(Andre)

「Umm… maybe?」(Iris)

「If you both do it twice, you will carry a total of three hundred corpses.」(Andre)

「Well, that’s correct, but how about the remaining one hundred?」(Iris)

「Shinjini will carry them. She will return to the entrance with us after collecting all the fangs anyway. Shinjini, you can do it, right?」(Andre)

「Yeah, with body strengthening magic, of course. But…」(Sarasa)

I nodded to Andre-san, but after thinking twice about it, I think carrying all these corpses to the entrance is a bit too much for the six of us.

「Andre-san, I don’t think we need to get rid of all these corpses today. I will hire some other Collectors tomorrow to carry them out.」(Sarasa)

「Eh? Are you sure? If you want, you can leave them all to Gil, you know? He was the one who caused all this trouble after all.」(Andre)

「Oh, give me a break!」(Gil)

「Ahaha… Don’t worry. They won’t rot right away so I think we can leave them for a day.」(Sarasa)

The temperature here is colder than the outside, so I don’t think they will rot anytime soon.

「Alright then. You saved us a lot of trouble. Anyway, shall we start collecting the fangs?」(Andre)

「Okay. Everyone, I’m counting on you.」(Sarasa)

「「Roger!」」

 

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6 Comments

    1. ah, have you still not finished reading it?

      honestly, I’m too lazy to reupload XD
      but if there are still people who want to read it, I guess I will

      1. Yeah, I didn’t have a chance to read it before but, haha I feel you. Well it’s okay if you’re not gonna reupload it, I’m already grateful if you update Alchemist and 7th Daughter daily >v<

        Btw, is Lumberjack girl a yuri yuri?? I'm trying to MTL it if you do not reupload it.

        Have a good day~

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