Disclaimer: I’m not owe the images nor the novel chapters.

Everything belongs to their respect owner.

I’m just simple translating it.

Raw: http://ncode.syosetu.com/n6088cy/

Author: FUNA

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Translator’s Note:

As Reader-san suggests, I will change all 1st POV in the chapter to 3rd person POV.

There won’t be any 1st person POV as narrator.

And when the dialog and sentence really can’t change to 1st POV to 3rd POV, I will make it to an inner thought ( )

This change will be little different from RAW with more inner thought but the meaning of the whole chapter won’t change.

PS: It really not my fault but rather the Author writes it that way.

Sometimes Author use “Kaoru”, sometimes “I” or “me”, sometimes there isn’t any “subject”.

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Potion Maker Chapter 09: Employment in the Capital

ED: Lowe

Kaoru finally arrived at the Capital city of Brancott Kingdom.

Fortunately, there’s a merchant who passed by in the morning and Kaoru took a ride on the carriage.

The merchant is on the way home after he sold all goods, the amount he re-purchased at that town is less the number he carried. There are plenty of room on the loading platform, so he gave Kaoru a ride.

It isn’t much fast compared to walking, as the wagon isn’t in a hurry. Its travel speed is at most about 20% faster.

However, it’s only 20% faster 「If compared with an adult man in this world」.

Compared to Kaoru’s travel speed, it’s 50% is faster.

Even though travel by wagon is faster and she can reach the goal without getting tired …  「But … my butt hurts」

And the wagon arrived at the kingdom earlier than Kaoru thought.

The merchant seems thought that Kaoru was a small child.

He worries about letting such small child walking by herself. Besides, his son seems to be bored at the loading platform.

So he decided to help Kaoru and give his son a partner to talk with during travel.

At the age of 10 and a trainee, the boy isn’t very useful for information gathering.

He is just a boy who wants to become a merchant by following the trace of his father like the way of handling tricks and customers, business, …

Well, Kaoru tries asking but the boy really doesn’t know anything useful.

So Kaoru is asking the merchant himself.

She brings out 3 examples of 「items from the baron’s house」.

Of course, she pretend that she pull it out of the bag she prepared.

The merchant told her that it would be a bit cheaper than selling it properly, but she was willing to sell it.

(With this money, I will be okay for a few days staying at the inn) (Kaoru)

Kaoru got down just before the wagon reaching the gate of the city. She thanked him properly and said goodbye.

Unlike the merchant who having a resident pass and a merchant registration pass. Kaoru doesn’t have anything, from what she heard there’s a procedure.

As expected, the Capital city is surrounded by walls and she has to go through the gate where a lot of guards are checking everyone go in and out.

As Kaoru is a new face and don’t have any pass, she is guided to line up in another line.

And from there, she will recieve further questions in「Would you like to talk a little bit」corner?

(Did the guard suspect me?) (Kaoru)

「So, why are you traveling alone, where’s your family?」(Guard)

The Guard attacks. (T.N: the raw is really “attack” , this is the refer either from Pokemon or Dragon Quest)

「Well, everyone already died …

And because my uncle took away the house that my father left behind, he even planned to sold me, so I ran away by myself …

I thought if I could work in the city, I can live even by myself …」(Kaoru)

Kaoru counters. The guard received a critical hit!

Kaoru was able to proceed immediately. The guard was sorry, But Kaoru still has to pay 3 silver coins, because it’s a rule.

Kaoru received a temporary pass, but it seems that she has to find work early (T.N: maybe they don’t want to have beggar and slum)

Of course, Kaoru originally intended to do so. Her purpose right now is working and gathering information during free time.

She can’t sell Cure potions and Recovery potions anymore. At best, she can use it for herself.

Then she considers something that isn’t valuable medicine but possible to sell it for a while.

(Yes, for example sodium chloride … No no, it’s no good, salt is no good. It’s dangerous to sell something without knowing the distribution of salt, price, monopoly or the like. I don’t even know whether it’s sea salt or rock salt being circulated. Yeah, I will not repeat the same mistake)

(TL joke: Unlike Mile) Kaoru is a girl can who learn from her mistakes.

When she passed through the gate, Kaoru went to the Working Center that the merchant told her about.

She need to go there and find if there’s any live-in job. If she can’t find it, she has to stay at the inn tonight and the money she has will decrease.

Working Center, Unlike hunter guild that deal with rough matters such as escorts, mercenaries, subjugation and dangerous harvesting.

It is the Work Placement Center that introduces work such as ordinary employees, clerks, workers, easy and safe collections.

The employer issues a recruitment request, and at that time pays for some request registration fee.

In the event that the job is decided, The Working Center will receive the completed commission fee. This is also from the employer side. Job seekers usually have little money on their hands after all.

Of course, even if the hired person quits immediately after getting hired, that fee will not be refunded. It was the employer who decided to hire after seeing the employee after all.

After Kaoru arrived at the Work Placement Center, she quickly confirmed the recruitment content on the board.

There are various jobs but the place, industry type, recruitment conditions etc. aren’t compatible with her.

Like working in the mountains nearby, heavy labour work, men only, experienced person etc …

It’s also no good if Kaoru doesn’t have enough free time. Because it will hinder her information gathering.

She can save money if she has a live-in job. Of course not a job with no free time like living as maid on a nobleman’s mansion … and so on.

She tried to apply for as a salary girl once, but as a minor, she was refused because she can’t be a receptionist.

Even of Kaoru says she is 15 years old. Others will just think that she lied to work, and when they already thinks she is lying, of course they can’t choose her.

In the end, she choose to become a live-in waitress of a certain dining hall.

Outside of office hours, she is free to do anything like information gathering.

She is also thankful that meals will be served as well.

◊♦◊♦◊♦◊♦◊♦◊♦◊

(T.N: I don’t know how long but it must be at least weeks or months later)

「Oh, It’s already this late. Let’s take a break for today」(Fabio)

With Fabio’s word, Fernand Brancott, the first prince of Brancott Kingdom stops his paper work with a big sigh.

Fabio is the son of the prime minister of this country.

Alan, son of another minister.

The two of them are Fernand’s childhood friends.

Of course, they didn’t happen to become friends by chance.

It is the so-called 「school friends」what were decided between parents.

Three people became friends with the speculation of their parents, but their personality matched well, and they had become real friends.

As for Fabio, he behaves like the president’s son.

And Alan is like a hunter who lives in a downtown, a man who lives with sword.

When choosing him as a school friend, his parents would have never thought that Alan would become like this.

However, Fernand and Fabio liked that part of Alan, too.

Everyone is already 18 years old, they’re already at the age for marriage.

Especially Fernand, the prince of this Kingdom. However, the three of them still wanted to fool around with each other.

「Finally … It’s time for lunch, shall we have it here?」(Fabio)

「No, we should go eat outside with Alan today」(Fernand)

Because the meal of the castle sometimes doesn’t suit his taste. He should bring Fabio to eat outside, as Alan always goes eating out of the castle. Fernand thought so.

「Okay then, let me treat you today!」(Alan)

「Well, that’s kinda …」(Fabio)

Alan pushing the embarrassed Fabio out while Fernand immediately preparing clothing for going out.

♦◊♦

「Here, It’s just a small shop, but it’s a fun place」(Alan)

This is the shop that Alan started eating in recently.

And as friend, he wanted to bring Fabio by all means. He never thought that Fernand would follow them though.

Fernand and Fabio hesitates for a moment in front of the dining hall that everyone is commoner. They feel out-of-place, especially Fernand. But Alan invited them today, they decided to get in.

When entering the dining hall, there’re only a few customers because they are far passed the lunch time.

Alan picked up the item put on the table, take a seat appropriately and showed it to them.

「Here, there’re the name of the cuisine over there, It’s really interesting」(Alan)

Fernand and Fabio turned their line of sight, and saw that there were some cooking names written there.

「Let’s see,『Soft soup pasta』, 『Soup rice plum or salmon』, 『egg wrapper tomato chicken rice』…, what is this?」(Fabio)

Those are dishes that he has never heard before, Fabio has a dumb face as he says that.

「Well, leave it to me. Hey, 『egg wrapper tomato chicken rice』for three!」(Alan)

「Hey, you selfishly decided for us too…」(Fabio + Fernand)

With Alan deciding everything by himself and orders three portion. The other two are quite unsatisfied with that.

Alan asked the waitress when she carries the dishes to their table.

「Eme-chan, is the shop okay with the consultation today?」(Alan)

「Well, for now, only some parents and children left. I think it’s okay, so which course?」(Eme)

「Yes! 5 silver coins course」(Alan)

「U wa, heavy! Maido~!」(Eme) (T.N: Maido = welcome)

As Alan said that, the Waitress Eme left the table happily.

「What is this all about … Alan, what are you plotting …」(Fabio)

「Well, it will be fun time afterwards! By the way, if you do not eat it sooner, it will cool down and lose the taste!」(Alan)

Alan told them so, they also thought it was strange but they began to eat the dishes.

「Huh?」(Fabio + Fernand)

They looked surprised and stopped holding the spoon for a moment, but immediately moved the hand and resumed the meal. They’re eating quite fast.

「How come it taste so good, I shouldn’t make a fool out of the common people」(Fabio)

「Yes, certainly. It was something worth going out to eat」(Fernand)

Alan have a smug face when hearing and Fabio didn’t refute this time. And soon after Alan had a mischievous face and said.

「What are you saying? Although cooking is also good, I won’t bother to take the busy Fabio out of the castle just for this」(Alan)

Fernand is wondering what’s so interesting, so he quietly listens to Alan.

「Looks like it’s time they stop Order」(Alan)

After Alan said that, a girl appeared from the kitchen, heading towards a table next to Alan. There’s someone looking like a merchant.

Her age was about 10-12 years old, she has a rare black hair with black eyes, a somewhat exotic style of facial features

It’s cute … she is definitely cute, but how did we say about her, her gaze is slightly harsh … or, to be clear, her appearance is cute but her eyes is bad.

「That girl is Kaoru, I wanted to show her to Fabio today」(Alan)

「That girl?」(Fabio)

Alan giggles to the surprised Fabio.

「That’s right, as soon as we get an order stop and wait a little. She will open a consultation shop with permission from the master. She will also share the profit with other waitresses. Everyone willingly accept to do the remaining work」(Alan)

As Alan said so, the girl arrived at the next table.

Three people try to listen.

「Thank you very much, Boman-san, what kind of consultation are you having today?」(Kaoru)

「Oh, today’s client is my son, Charles. It seems that there is something he want to hear from you」(Boman)

「I see, it will be 5 small silver coins. Well then, Charles-kun, please asks me anything」

The cute girl smiled at him, and the boy about 10 years old asked her while blushing.

「Uhm, I heard about you before, what I want to ask is: There are 『customers that keep complaining』… It is just a few in many customers. So I want to cut down such troublesome customers. It would be better for me to take care of a large number of customers. I don’t want to bother with such customers … even if I please them, we can only get a small profit after all. Is it good to do that?」(Charles)

With the question from the young boy, Kaoru gently smiles and answers.

When the boy see her smiling face, the boy feels un-rest.

「No, in fact, many people don’t complain but it doesn’t mean that there’s nothing to complain about. They just don’t bother to do such troublesome thing. They only need to go to another store after all.

• It’s not like those people don’t complain at all because they’re satisfied. And even if they don’t say it to the shop, they will complain to other people.

Then, the number of customers will gradually decrease before you notice it. But if there are some people who bother to complain and tell you the bad place of the shop. Doesn’t Charles-kun think that you can improve your shop and satisfy more people when you already know where to fix? Don’t you think you should say thanks to that customer instead? 」(Kaoru)

「Yes」(Charles)

「And sometimes, there are people that demands money by threatening your shop. (でも、時々、ありもしないことを言ってお金をせびろうとする人がいます) For this kind of person, You absolutely shouldn’t give out any money. You may think『Such trouble can be avoided just by losing a little profit』. But if the news that ‘your shop will give out money when get threatened spreads out. The rogues throughout the country will target your shop. For that reason, such person must be crushed. Even if we lost some profit for that」(Kaoru)

「Yes」(Charles)

「Also, if the shop will change when the customers give advise, don’t you think the customers will be glad and keep returning?」(Kaoru)

「Yes, indeed …」(Charles)

「Charles-kun, customers are not a duck for merchant to suck up money. They are equal trading partners, friend, and a teacher who will teach a lot of things」(Kaoru)

「I see…」(Charles)

The girl’s explanation continued, and the parents were also impressed.

[Hey, what’s with that girl! Who is she!] (Fabio)

[She is an interesting girl, isn’t she?] (Alan)

[It’s true!] (Fernand)

[Wasn’t she saying that the fee was 5 small silver coins? But Alan, you said you put out 5 silver coins?] (Fabio)

[Fabio, I will hand over your question right to you, think about it now] (Alan)

[Don’t suddenly drop it on me …] (Fabio)

Oh, here she came.

「Alan-san, 5 silver coins course, right? Eme-chan was dancing 『Shares dancing』over there」

(What kind of dance is that !!) (Alan + Fabio + Fernand)

「Oh, well, as you can see, I brought my friends today, Fa and Fer. There is something we want to hear!」

And Alan shakes Fabio.

「E, eeeee…」(Fabio)

Fabio was thinking about the content of the question in a panic.

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