I walked back to my house with a crowd of 14 people behind me.
When we finally reached my mansion, everyoneâs mouth dropped open as they stared at the palace-like building.
Yes, yes, I totally understand your feelings.
For now, I led them to one of the largest rooms in the house. The first-floor living room of the main building. Everyone looked around with huge eyes, amazed by the luxury inside.
There were chairs in the living room, of course. But they were claw foot monstrosities that even I am reluctant to sit in. [6] Not to mention there were just too few chairs in this too huge room. In the end, I asked everyone to sit on the floor.
The floor is luxuriously carpeted anyway, so it should be fine for the time being.
Itâs been a long time since Iâd addressed so many people at once. The last time that happened was back in Japan at my company, [1] so I was a little nervous.
âAhem, as mentioned. My name is Mukouda and I am the person who bought you all. I hope we can work well together from now on.â
I shifted back to the standard polite language [6] we Japanese normally revert to whenever we are nervous. The Tony and Alban families obligingly replied with a âWe look forward to working with youâ while the former Adventurers bowed silently.
â[9] I am something of an Adventurer and Merchant myself. My Adventurer Ranking is S and, ahem, these are my familiars. I have introduced them to you earlier⦠this is Fer-â
âUmu, I am a Fenrir, follower of the great and venerable Wind Goddess Ninril. As you are the slaves of my masters. You are to follow my orders too.â
Wait, whatâs all this about âfollow my orders tooâ? Ah, the [8] civilian families seemed to have frozen up when Fer started speaking, while the former Adventurers [8] just looked a little stunned.
âAah, well, thatâs Fer the Fenrir. A lot of people seem to understand heâs a Fenrir but we donât talk about it. So, donât go around telling people about this, alright? [5] Just know that heâs a legendary beast and he exists but otherwise, just ignore him.â
âHey, what do you mean âignoreâ? Also, you forgot to say that I am the follower of great and venerable Wind Goddess Ninril!â
âYes, yes, moving on. This is Dora-chan,â
âGununuâ¦â
âAnyway, Dora-chan is a Pixie Dragon. He might look small but heâs an adult dragon. He wonât grow any bigger so donât worry about him [5],â
Dora-chan, who was flying around my head, paused to raise one paw in greeting.
âAnd finally, we have Sui,â I patted my leather bag. âCome out, Sui.â
Sui popped out of the leather bag and bounced around me adorably.
âThis is my Slime. Her name is Sui, you can just let her be too.â
After this introduction, Teresa-san of the Alban family, showed the guts of a farmer as she raised her hand and said, âErm, Master-sama, may I ask a question?â
Master? Oh, right. I am their master now. It feels really weird especially with the â-samaâ attached.
I just canât get used to it.
âAh, Teresa-san, itâs fine to call me Mukouda. For everyone else as well. Do feel free to call me Mukouda, itâs a little awkward to be called âmasterâ⦠Anyway, whatâs your question, Teresa-san?â
âUhm, Master-samaâ¦â
âPlease address me as Mukouda, but do go ahead with your question.â
âIf thatâs what Master-sama desires. I shall do my best. For myself, itâs fine to just call me âTeresaâ. My question is, what should we do about food? We can let the familiars be but⦠how should we arrange the food?â
Itâs a valid question. [1] Butâ¦
âItâs fine to take care of my portion when you make yours. What Iâd like for you to do isâ¦â
I proceeded to explain what I had hired them for:
[4] âThe women from the commoner family will handle the general cleaning of the main building. Itâs quite big so just do your best and clean it in sections. Especially areas which we use most. [5] Itâs fine as long as there is no visible dust.â
[4] âThe men from the commoner family should take care of the gardens. General work like lawn mowing, tending to the flower beds, trees and so forth. Itâs fine as long as the garden is properly maintained and looks good. You donât have to exterminate every single weed or get rid of every single dead leaf on the lawn.â
âThereâs also another job Iâd like the Tony and Alban families to do for me⦠this is the reason I decided to, [9] um, hire special workers with very strict contracts. I have a unique ability thatâs related to my skill and itâs imperative that no one in this room leak the information Iâm about to reveal.â
At this reminder, everyone nodded.
âYou know the soaps and shampoos sold at Lambertâs?â
Tabasa-san unexpectedly raised her hand, [3] âItâs a little expensive but worth it because of its nice scent. I have one myself.â
âEh?! Sister bought such a thing?!â
âWhen did this happen?!â
âShut up, Iâm also a woman!â
Oh my, even a muscular woman is still a woman who likes soaps and shampoo. I had better interrupt before the siblings start a fight in my living room.
âExactly, thatâs the product Iâm talking about, Tabasa-san.â
âMukouda-san, as Teresa mentioned earlier, thereâs no need to be courteous with us. Just call us without the âsanâ, we are your slaves after all.â
Everyone nodded seriously.
âI-is that so? Very well, I shall do that.â
Just as Tabasa-sa-, I mean, as Tabasa says it would be weird to address my slaves with âsanâ. [6] Since itâs like this, I have no choice. Iâm not in Japan after all and should follow this worldâs customs.
âAnyway, back to the earlier topic. Iâm Lambertâs supplier and, in the interest of keeping my skill a secret as well as various other reasons,â [5] most of them being the tedious work of transferring things from plastic containers to locally made jars and crates, âI have decided to get some trustworthy help [5].â
[6] Everyone looked at me blankly. I still havenât gotten to the point yet, have I?
Ugh.
âI guess itâs faster to show you rather than keep explaining,â I turned around and called up [Net Super]. [6] The blue window opened up as usual and I waved at it casually. âSo, [9] erm, this is my Unique Skill. The [Net Super].â
Everyone was shocked. The commoners were amazed while the former Adventurers were muttering âwhat skill is that?â to each other.
âWith this, I can order different kinds of useful things from another world.â
âAnother world? Apologies, Ma- I mean, Mukouda-san, are you a âHeroâ?â
It was Bartel, the Dwarf who asked me. As expected of the oldest person among them. Moreover, heâs a B Rank Adventurer. It would not be strange for him to know all this.
âOh, no, no, nothing like that. Iâm just an ordinary person. An ordinary person who got caught up in a Hero Summoning Circle. I have no skill suitable to combat but I do have some other useful skills. Shall we see this skill in action?â
Seeing is believing after all.
[Gumihou: I deleted a lot of things. About 300 words worth]
[1] Structural Change: Combine 2 paragraphs
[2] Structural Change: Combine 3 paragraphs
[3] Structural Change: Combine paragraph & dialogue
[4] Structural Change: Change passive sentence to dialogue
[5] Delete Repetitive or Pointless Information
[6] Additional Information for Aesthetic Purpose
[7] Add Dialogue Tag
[8] Creative Licence Taken
[9] Awkward Dialogue is actually not easy to write without it being boring.