Walking towards my house, I looked around town making me feel like I was home. The only thing that seemed to have changed while I was gone, is the number of adventurers around. When I left, it was rare to see adventurers in town during the day because they had to go out and make money like anyone else. I guess the excess came from the nearby guild branches sending adventurers over just in case the worst came to pass.

I noticed tents set up here and there, so I asked a nearby resident about it. As it turns out, the inns had filled up, causing the adventurers not able to secure a room to ask the locals to allow them to set up camp. Some of them were lucky enough to cheaply rent a room from one of the town residents who had a spare room after a kid moved out or for some other reason, but most weren't so lucky.

Hearing about that and seeing the reality of the situation, I turned on my heel and headed back toward the merchant's guild. As soon as I arrived, a receptionist noticed me and called to have me follow him to a reception room before leaving to get the Guildmaster without me saying a word. I didn't even have to wait a full minute before she walked into the room, motioning for me to stay seated.

She grabbed some files from a shelf as she walked to the couch and sat down, placing the files on the table in front of her. I was almost certain that the files she grabbed were the ones for vacant properties and such, so I could guess what was coming, but I still found the situation confusing.

"How did you know I was going to come back so soon? I had originally planned to go home immediately, but changed my plan on my way there," I couldn't help but ask.

"Anytime I have to leave town, I always have someone inform me of what I missed while I was gone. During the report, I heard many adventurers were unable to find a place to stay and were forced to camp inside of town. After hearing that and thinking about what we had talked about before, I informed the staff to lead you back and inform me as soon as you arrived," she informed me before continuing,

"I haven't had time to look through the documents yet, but my staff informed me that at least two of the properties you asked about were vacant," she said while flipping through the documents. "Here we go, these are the two that are vacant and this is the one that is also available. It appears that the other two are not vacant or available, so you will have to speak with the current owners on your own."

"I don't have an issue doing that, but if you could give me the current property value of those two, I would appreciate it," I responded while looking at the documents she handed me. "I'm fine with the listed prices of these three, so please prepare the necessary paperwork."

"Alright, that is not a problem. Are you doing alright financially? I think I can get you some financial help if you need it, considering what you plan to do." She looked at me with a little concern showing through.

"It's fine, I am making quite a lot from commissions on magic tools and other products. I think I currently have about 170M Lorn, so even spending almost 20 million for these three properties isn't bad. I should be able to reuse most of the materials anyway, which will save me quite a bit of money on the construction," I answered, only taking a second to think about my current assets.

"While that isn't a lot compared to some of the more wealthy merchants out there, your current income is still better than some lesser nobles, which is quite impressive." She told me before passing me some documents she had been writing on, "These are the sale contracts, after you sign these and pay for the properties, I'll send someone to inform the not-yet-vacant property about the sale to have them move out."

"Thanks," I replied while reading and signing the documents. "Please inform them that I can help them move out using my item box if they are not leaving town. If not, they would still have time, as I could just go get the materials I don't already have before starting the project."

"Alright, I'll have them pass your message along. How long do you think it will take you to finish the construction? Do you want me to contact some people that can help you?" It was clear that she asked as a way of helping me, but it was unnecessary.

"Thanks for the offer, but it shouldn't take me that long. I have a much larger mana pool this time than when I built the Cat's Paw, so I should be able to finish in roughly one week. Instead, I would appreciate it if you could find some good employees for me. I will also need a manager I can trust, so if you can think of anyone or find someone, please let me know," I replied while using my guild card to pay for the properties.

"Hm… There may be someone you can use as a manager or assistant manager at least. Come by the guild four days from now and I will have some people ready for you to meet with," She said, seemingly having someone in mind that may be able to meet my needs.

"Sure, I'll come back at that time then. I'll need to come by if these other people are willing to sell, so I may return today as well. Oh, right, I don't mind hiring people from lower-income families, untrained and uneducated is fine, there will be jobs that don't require people to read or have math skills as well. Since I have yet to pay for one myself, can you get me a list of average prices and what you get for that price?

I don't want to cause any strife among other merchants in the same line of business. As they say, it is better to make friends than to make enemies. While competition is necessary for business, it's not good if things go too far, and it would defeat the purpose if what I'm doing puts others out of business," I said while receiving the property deeds.

"I will have that list ready for you when you come in four days from now. I'm glad you're not causing problems for the other businesses, but I'm surprised that you're not trying to make as much money as possible from this," Livia replied with the kind of smile that one would see on a grandmother speaking to her grandchild.

"Do you know the difference between a good king and a great king? A good king provides a safe environment for the people by having a strong military and a strong economy while keeping an escape route should things go bad. A great king is similar but is truly loved by the people and should something go bad, he will remain behind and fight along with his people who will fight to help the king they love.

I prefer the method of the great king because having everyone wanting to help you when things go wrong means you don't have to worry about something bad happening. I would rather make less money and have my business and employees protected by our customers and neighbors should it become necessary than make more money and have everyone turn on my business and employees in a time of need," I replied.

"That's an interesting take on things and not something I would expect from someone so young. Where did you learn such a thing? If I didn't know better, I would think you are a wise old man from a long-lived race." It sounded like she wanted to laugh while imagining it.

"I'm just paraphrasing something I read and adapting it to the situation. The same principle can be used for just about any leader in just about any situation, it doesn't have to be a monarch," I lied, not willing to tell her that it was in the knowledge granted to me by some god or gods when I gave up the memories of my previous life.

"Something you read, huh? How many books have you read?" She asked, perhaps thinking that I couldn't have read too many books outside of the alchemy and apothecary-related ones.

"Hm… it's not like I've been counting, but I think I have purchased between 60 and 80 books and have read all but 7 of them so far. I have also read all the books my parents own, plus everything in the reference room at the adventurer's guild. I have also already read the reference materials in this room. So, to answer your question, probably about 180 in total," I told her while thinking back on everything. I didn't try to remember everything I read because some of it was redundant, while other information was proven wrong later on, so I could only give an estimate.

"That's a lot more than I had expected, probably even more than I have read throughout the years…" She was not expecting such a large number I guess. Since books are all handwritten, they don't spread very easily, and they cost a lot more than books on Earth.

"I have already been reading for more than five years, and it's not like I have a lot I need to do, so I have a lot of free time that I often use for reading. If I had to work as much as you, I probably wouldn't have been able to read more than 20 books, even if I did have the money," I said, trying to defend my habits which was probably completely unnecessary.

"Oh right, I almost forgot to ask, can I place a bulk order for mid- and high-grade potion ingredients? Particularly mana potions if you have the materials, but I will take ingredients for other potions as well," I asked in a bit of a hurry, remembering that I had sold many of my potions and hadn't replenished my reserves yet. I would need a lot of mana potions to speed up construction, and the town would need a lot for dealing with the dungeon.

"Don't you usually buy in bulk anyway? There is no need to place an order, I can just have the materials prepared for you like usual," She replied, thinking that I was only making my usual purchase.

"No, I think I will need to place an order this time. I want five times the usual amount of mana potion ingredients and three times the usual for the others. I will also produce a few elixirs, just to be on the safe side. I know status ailments will be quite common with the new dungeon, so I will make the necessary potions and sell them back to the guild in bulk to keep prices from jumping." That was how I responded to her, causing her to look surprised.

"I know the guild ordered more potions than normal, but do you think that will be something consistent?" She seemed bewildered as to why that would be necessary.

"Perhaps, did I not mention this to you before? All but one of the monsters that we are sure came from the dungeon and caused problems for other towns and villages, caused status ailments. The cockatrice and one other caused petrification, some were poisonous, and some were venomous. So far, we have confirmed cases of paralysis as the most common, but there have been other poisons confirmed as well," I listed off the confirmed cases so far.

"That many? We will have to ask others to increase production as well if we don't want prices to increase. Perhaps we should also put out more collection requests in the adventurer's guild to stay ahead of the issue. Thank you for letting me know. I will see if we can fulfill your order. It will take a little while to confirm our stock, so please come back in an hour or so," she told me while writing something down.

I said goodbye to her and left the guild after that, heading to the area where I had purchased the three properties. I didn't know how my negotiations would go, but I would do my best to get the last two properties, but even if I couldn't, I would just have to make some adjustments to my plan. When I got there, I noticed that one of the two was a bit run down, so I figured I would have better odds convincing them and headed there first.

When I opened the door of the business I instinctively took a step back letting the door close again because the smell of alcohol was too strong. Not willing to give up so easily, I covered my mouth and nose with a cloth and opened the door again, trying not to breathe in deeply. I looked around the shop and discovered it was a smithy that dealt with tools rather than weapons and armor. There was a snoring sound coming from deeper in the building, but the smell was getting worse the farther in I went.

I decided to open the door all the way and used wind magic to circulate some fresh air through the place, thinning out the alcohol smell quite a bit. After another minute or so of using wind magic, I figured it would probably be safe to go looking for the owner of the smithy, whom I assumed was the one snoring. While walking through the smithy, I was looking around at the floor, shelves, and products, noticing a large amount of dust that had built up.

The products for sale were very high-quality goods, much better than the tools I usually see in Jay's store and other places. Considering the quality of the goods, I was not sure why the blacksmith doesn't make weapons and armor which would sell better. Eventually, I came across someone who could only be a dwarf, but if I didn't hear them snoring I would assume they were dead. Not wanting to waste time as I did with the last dwarf I tried to wake up, I moved straight to using water magic to wake this dwarf up.

"Bwag, pbbt, pbbt…" He yelped, spit, and sputtered from the water, much like the last dwarf I woke up using this same method.

"Sorry to wake you up like that, not that I expected to have to wake someone up at lunchtime," I said with a wry smile, "I came here to ask you something, but after arriving I only have more questions."

"Bah, what do ya want? That's not a very nice way of waking someone up," He grumbled to me, clearly discontent with the method I used.

"Well, I was hoping I could convince you to sell me this property, but now I'm curious why someone would make such high-quality tools, but not make any weapons or armor," I decided to get right to it, not wanting to deal with an angry dwarf that smelled like a barrel of ale left open for a few days.

"I make things that help people, not things that hurt 'em. Why should I sell ya my place?" He gave a very reasonable answer and didn't dismiss my offer to purchase outright.

"Tools can only help people if you actually sell them and depending on the person who wields the tool, it can be used as a weapon. Similarly, a weapon is only a tool until someone uses it to harm another. I have purchased three of the five lots on this block and want to purchase the remaining two so I can make a large inn with additional amenities for the large influx of adventurers that are currently camping on the side streets up against buildings," I answered, perhaps a bit harshly.

"It's about intended purpose, weapons are tools for war while these are tools for building things. Since when do we have so many adventurers and why?" He seemed a bit stubborn, but I figured things were going well.

"Actually, weapons are tools for protection, they only get used for war because they are convenient and too many people are greedy. It hasn't been released to the public yet, but a new dungeon was discovered and Gale is the closest town to it, so most of the adventurers will pass through Gale to get there. The ones that are camping on the streets are the ones that couldn't get an inn or rent a spare room from a resident and they are here to protect the town while the higher-ranked adventurers are going through the dungeon and clearing the surroundings." I decided to just tell him about the dungeon, figuring he wouldn't say anything about it anyway.

"Maybe you're right, but I still don't intend to make weapons and armor, these tools are less likely to be used in war. So you're using the dungeon discovery as a way of making money, eh? Are you saying that I should sell my property to help you with that?" Perhaps talking to him right after waking him up, when he is probably still a bit drunk wasn't the best idea. He was getting caught up in certain parts, not considering a broader perspective.

"It's your choice to make and sell whatever you want, I just wanted to understand why you had made the choice you made. While it's true that I will make money from this, it will take a while to recover the amount I'm spending to prepare the business. I don't intend to overcharge just because there are people who would pay it right now. I plan to make rooms affordable for every level of customer, from newbie adventurers who spend everything they make that same day, to nobles that could just as easily afford to buy a new mansion and everyone in between.

It is dangerous to have people camping on the streets, and the influx of people is only going to grow once they release information about the dungeon to the public and start building a dungeon town. It would be better to get ahead of the situation and construct an inn that can house these people before the problem becomes worse. This would also create more employment opportunities for the current and future residents, which means fewer people falling into poverty." I tried to answer in a way that would prevent him from thinking that I was just being greedy.

"Hmm… and what's in it for me?" With his question, I knew I had a bite, I just had to be careful when reeling him in.

"Plenty," I began confidently, "not only would I give you above the market price for your property, but I would also purchase some tools I need to replace, and I would even throw in a small barrel of alcohol you have never tried before. I can also advertise your tools, as I have never seen such high-quality tools before, and believe there are plenty of people who would be willing to pay for such high-quality goods." Considering how he looked when I mentioned alcohol that he had never tried before, I was sure my tactic worked.

"If the alcohol is good, I'll sell it to ya," he replied after thinking for a little bit. That was all the confirmation I needed, now I just had to talk to the owner of the other business I wanted to buy.

I let him try a cup of my strongest mead, saying he would only get more after the sale was concluded. He was suddenly ready to get the sale done immediately, and I had to convince him to sell me some tools and get cleaned up first. It took a while to convince him but I eventually got him to agree, which gave me the time to go speak to the one remaining store. I was almost disappointed at how easy it was to get the final shop to sell. As It turned out, the last shop was a shop run by an old couple who were ready to retire and had no one to take over for them, which made them thankful for my offer to the property above market value.

I went back to get the dwarf before heading back to the merchant's guild to fill out the paperwork for buying their properties. Upon conclusion of my purchase, I paid to have a carriage take them both back and they took the carriage after the old man found a place to rent, and the dwarf found a new place to buy. I was also able to buy the potion ingredients I had requested from Livia earlier. I was told that they were low on multiple ingredients so they wouldn't be able to sell me such a large amount again anytime soon.

I figured it wouldn't be a problem if I couldn't buy a large amount again soon because I had most of these ingredients growing in my garden. I was thinking that I might need to expand my garden at this rate, but I also didn't want to feel like I had to make potions. Right now, I only made potions to improve my skills and prepare for the future, if I continued down this path, then it would feel more like a job, which isn't something I wanted.

After stowing away all the ingredients I had purchased, I left the guild to head for the bulk materials store that I frequent. At some point, I heard that this store is affiliated with the adventurer's guild, which only slightly surprised me. When I got there, I stocked up on some metals, stone, lime, crystal, and magic stones, before looking around and buying a few other things. After that, I stopped by Jay's store and ordered some mattresses, and purchased all of the available ones. I then stopped to purchase some more wood and asked about the regions the wood was brought from and a few other questions.

Once I had finished with my errands, I once again started heading toward my house, I was pretty hungry by that point, so I got some food from a stall on my way. By the time I could see my house, it was already mid-afternoon, meaning I had already been in town for about 5 hours. I was looking forward to going in and relaxing again, mostly I was looking forward to my bathroom though. It had been a while since I was last able to enjoy soaking in hot water and I missed feeling how refreshing it is. With those thoughts on my mind, I reached the front door and opened it yelling 'I'm home~' as I walked through the doorway.

ShadowWolfGuild

Sorry for the delay, due to work I have not had much time to write recently, I will hopefully be able to put out 2 chapters a week still.

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A special thanks to Yeuromain, Gareth, and Kuba 15 for the support