Ch 81 -- Soap, Shampoo and Conditioner
Next day I went to the Adventurers Guild to collect the Bloody Horn Bull meat and the Black Serpent's meat and skin.
Johan-ojisan came out when I announced myself at the Guild's purchase counter and I followed him along with Fer into the warehouse, a place I had become familiar with. Sui was in her new bag as usual. It seems that she found this bag quite comfortable.
"Well, the Guild Master hasn't come back yet, he's still talking 'bout the Mithril Lizard thing with Count Langridge-dono so I can't help ya with that." Johan-ojisan shrugged. "I can sort out the Bloody Horn Bull subjugation reward right now."
If the Guild Master was still in discussions with the Count that sounded like it was going to be a problem. Higher-ups and nobles are always trouble. I listened carefully as Johan-ojisan started explaining the payments he was making today.
"First of all, there are 324 gold coins for the subjugation itself. Then there's the purchases -- we're buying the Bloody Horn Bull horns, that's two horns each for 58 monsters at one and a half gold coins per horn, making a total of 174 gold coins. Then there are 57 skins since ya kept one, ummm they're eight gold coins each so that's 456 gold coins. You're lettin' us buy half the meat this time round, ten gold coins for each monster carcass so that makes 290 gold coins." Johan-ojisan scatched his bald head. "And I'm forgettin' something... ah. That other Black Serpent you brought it, you're keeping the meat and skin but the poison sacs, liver, fangs, eyeballs and its mana stone are worth 79 gold coins. That's a grand total of 1323 total gold coins. "
Bloody Horn Bull horns are used to make magical tools and it seems the leather is popular as a material for bags and shoes. Coincidentally, there was a bag made from Bloody Horn Bull leather in Lambert-san's shop. The meat is a bit high-priced but it's still popular and always in demand. Selling this many Bloody Horn Bulls at one time wasn't going to depress the market and hence reduce the price paid by the Guild.
"The Guild here has been making big profits since you came to town, kiddo." Johan-ojisan looked sad though. Why? "Problem is," he continued, "we've got a cash flow problem, paying out so much to you in one lump is a stretch. If you could just wait for a few days..." My face fell. I'm sorry, I'm causing you problems, I'm sorry. Of course I'll wait...
Johan-ojisan suddenly grinned. "Just kidding, sonny. We can pay you right now."
Thump, thump, thump, thump, thump, Johan-ojisan dropped five heavy cloth sacks on the work table.
"There's 300 gold coins in each big bag and another 123 coins in this little one." He tapped a smaller sack to the left of the four big ones. 1323 gold coins ... ....
The money we're earning is just incredible. Well, the money Fer's earning is incredible, I should say. Of course we've still to receive the money from the Mithril Lizard subjugation as well.
"Oh, yes, there was a message from the Guild Master." Johan-ojisan said. "The disassembly cost for the monsters you sell to the Guild here is still free since you're selling us so much, sonny. Anything you catch while you're staying in this city counts."
So they still won't charge for dismantling? Great, but right now we have plenty of meat and there's no need for Fer to go hunting right now. Fer's been complaining about a lack of exercise though and if he does go off and hunt something then I'll happily sell it to the Guild, minus the meat of course.
"Now that's out of the way, here's the Bloody Horn Bull meat and Black Serpent meat and leather you wanted to keep." I got the meat of 27 Bloody Horn Bulls and the meat and skin of the Black Serpent from Johan-ojisan and put it all in the Item Box. That was a lot of meat. I mean, really a lot of meat. A mountain of meat.
Right then, time to go. Saying goodbye to Johan-ojisan I left the Adventurers Guild with Fer in tow and headed back. On the way I bought some things I needed from a general store.
"I'm going back to the inn after this to get some things ready and then I'm going to Lambert-san's store. What do you want to do, Fer?"
"I'm bored hanging around in that beast stable. I'll go with you."
"I understand. Well then I'll be busy in the room for a while so just hang around for a bit." I said to Fer and then went back to my room.
* * * * *
"Well, I've been spending all my time at the Adventurer's Guild in this town up till now. I'm also a member of the Merchants Guild so I think I need to do a bit of selling too." was my thinking. It had taken me some effort to get into the Merchants Guild and I'd paid the membership fees so it seemed a good idea to earn some money that way. My plan was to buy some things from the Net Super and resell them here.
I took a look through the Net Super, wondering if this or that would be sellable but I had no real idea of what anything was worth in this world. I wanted to talk to Lambert-san about that, since he seems to be a top-ranking merchant.
To start with I bought some things I used myself from the Net Super. I bought 3 pieces of basic soap for 1 copper coin and 3 pieces of rose-scented soap for 3 copper coins. Next up I purchased 4 assorted refills of rinse-in shampoo, regular shampoo and conditioner for 4 copper coins total. I figured this would sell well here. It came to a bit over 8 copper coins since I added a pack of hair wraps to the order at the end. I bought the shampoos and conditioner in refill packs since I thought I'd sell them here as special items and I couldn't do that if they were in plastic bottles.
I started by taking the bars of soap out of their other-world packaging and putting them into individual small cloth bags which I'd bought at the general store earlier. Since soap seems to exist in this world, I figured selling soap bars would be easier than trying to sell liquid soap and body wash. I'd price the rose-scented soap a bit higher than the basic soap since I thought it would be a luxury item here.
"Well, let's put the shampoo and such into the bottles I bought at the general store."
I decanted the rinse-in shampoo and regular shampoo and conditioner from their refill packs into longnecked bottles sealed with a cork. I filled three bottles of each. The rinse-in shampoo would be OK for everyday use (although it appeared that in this world baths weren't that common among ordinary folks, richer people would bathe every day). The separate shampoo and conditioner are intended as luxury goods. The shininess of someone's hair is improved if they use shampoo and conditioner properly and it feels better to the touch.
I put the hair wraps I bought as an afterthought into a small wide-mouthed jar I purchased from the Net Super. Since the wraps were an other-world item they might make someone's hair beautiful by magic and I could sell them at a high price too.
So, that's all there was to it. Although this stuff was likely to sell well here I didn't know what price to ask for them. I wanted to consult with Lambert-san about that. I should use any connections I have, I think, to make things easier for myself. I don't know what the people in this world might think of shampoo and conditioner -- surely they've got some kind of hair cleaning products of their own? Anyways I'd take these with me tomorrow and talk to Lambert-san to see what he thinks.
Aaaand, I'm going to take a bath... Although I'm getting used to just wiping my body with a wet towel, I'm Japanese after all and I'd really like to take a bath.
I want a bath.