Re:START/If {Book 1.0}
Chapter 53: Ordoxi Nigrum (Part 04)
Mylta city, business district. The hustle and bustle of economic activity became a natural thing in that place, various groups gathered to connect and make a profit through transactions. The bustling sound of bargaining was very reasonable, horse-drawn carts dominated the middle of the main road. Shops lined up, shopkeepers hailed by offering their trade goods, merchants small and large looked at what they were selling, exchanged for coins as well as goods, and the conglomerates are watching to reap huge profits from all these business activities.
At the end of one of the major districts in the coastal city, there is a shop whose building is still new and has not run its business. A wooden cart was parked in front of the three-story building, then from inside came several Dwarves who had just delivered furniture orders.
Inside the first floor of the store, there have been arranged neatly several tables and chairs for customers to sit later. Furniture purchased is not only a table and chairs on the first floor, for the second floor also a work table has been prepared and several cabinets for filing have been provided on the upper floor.
In front of the Ordoxi Nigrum shop, a brown-haired youth stood before the five Dwarves who delivered furniture to the store. Accompanied by his personal two Butlers, the Rein family's eldest son faced the boss of the city's craftsmen and said, “Can I confirm the receipt again?” The young man reached out, stared flatly and asked for a report on the purchase and handover of the money.
At first glance the short dark red-haired Dwarf looked uneasy, feeling that the young man before him was too anxious and lacking in trust in others. With the volume of the voice raised, the short man with the old face said, “Can you trust a little with your own subordinates? We have received the money, why do you check again?” The man who spoke was Harka Nog, chairman of the Society of Red Dwarves and Artisans. Unlike most dwarves, the short man had no beards or beards. He looked more presentable even though his face did look old like a middle-aged man.
“Already, just show me, Mr Nog! Nothing to lose for you, right?” force Sculpture.
“Hah, whatever ...” The boss of the craftsman turned to one of his subordinates, then reluctantly said, “Take his receipt on the carriage!”
“Ready, boss!”
While waiting for his luggage to pick up the parchment containing the transaction data, the red-haired old man put both hands to his hips and looked at the shop building proudly. The store was built by him along with Kov Osel, he was satisfied with it and felt that the building was indeed a masterpiece even though it looked extraordinary mediocre.
Nog's subordinate came, then handed over the receipt directly to Arca. Checking the report, the young man from the Rien family nodded because indeed everything was in accordance with what he counted. The price, amount, quality and type of wood, all of it is listed exactly on the parchment paper.
Returning it to Nog, the red-clothed young man said, “Thank you, everything is just right. Although the wood is of medium quality, the price can be said to be quite cheap in my opinion.”
“Consider enough?” Nog slightly piqued, his forehead shriveled and he said, “This I've dropped, you know. Since this is Mr. Odo's shop, I'll give you discounts on teak and mahonya furniture! Don't talk about the no-no .... Do you really know the quality of furniture?”
“Sorry, unfortunately not. That's not my forte ..” The statue slightly turned its gaze, then in a flat voice said, “But, your trading is indeed good. Model your desk and chair according to what I need. I've never seen anything like it before.”
“Of course!” The short man stared confidently, then with a big smile said, “The model is all new! Turn God it really knows how to make designs! I did not know that the table can be made in such a way, especially for the office desk!”
The statue was surprised to hear that. He turned back and stared at the store building, then curiously asked, “Odo ... make the design? I heard Mr. Odo also made the design of this building, is that true?”
“Indeed!” Hog answered excitedly, then proudly said, “He made the design! Well, even if I only met him for a moment! The one who was watching the Osel as we built this!”
Arca was silent to hear that, he could not believe that Odo Luke also had the expertise of a reliable architect. The science of building skeletons was not something that was easy to come by, even in the Felixia empire not many held the title of engineer. Looking at the results of existing buildings, Arca slightly narrowed his eyes because the basic architecture is completely different from most buildings in Felixia even though from the outside it looks the same.
“Do you need anything more, Mr Arca?” ask Nog.
Turning to face the old man, the brunette youth kindly replied, “Thank you, no more. Mr. Nog can go home, hopefully there is another chance we can do business again.”
“Yes! Sure did! But ...” Hog briefly narrowed his gaze and stared a little disappointed. Sighing, the old man said, “If I could I would like to meet Mr. Odo and talk to him again! He must still have many more designs!”
“Kurasa ... even if he had, Odo would not give it away.”
“Whatever you want to ask for free!” Hog replied with a slight offence. As he pointed to Arca he said, “I know how valuable a blueprint is! I am a veteran handyman, loh ...”
“Excuse my disrespectful words.”
Sculpture slightly lowered his head. Both of his personal Butlers who saw it were shocked, the personality of the Sculpture they knew was not one who easily bowed his head and said an apology
“No problem! The kha! Kha!” The dwarf laughed softly, full of pride at his work. Turning towards the horse cart with his subordinates, the red-haired Dwarf said, “Then, we go first!”
“Ya ..”.
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Arca entered the Ordoxi Nigrum store with her two personal Butlers. Looking at the arrangement of the table and chairs on the first floor, the young man did not understand the difference with the arrangement of the table of most restaurants that he knew. But looking at the wood material used as the main material of the furniture, the young man did feel that the use could greatly offset the cost.
“They say ... The name of the material is Teakblock, ‘kan? Is it true that its durability is guaranteed?”
The statue walked to one of the tables, touched the surface and indeed he did not understand anything about such wood. Teakblock is a board with the main material of teak wood, but not solid. In shape it is a board that is very similar to teak with a natural pattern, which is, but the composition of the middle is only a type of soft wood because basically it is just three wooden boards that are united by pressing with the concept of triplex.
“Tables on the top floor also use this material ...”
Arca slightly sighed, in the model of the table and chair on the first floor is not too special and the model as is often used in most restaurants. Not to worry about that anymore, the brown-haired youth stared flatly at the people who were employees of the shop he was going to process.
They all sat on the floor that had been mopped, chopping bread into small dice. Whether it was the family of former bandits or Demi-humans, they were all doing work that to Arca looked very insignificant. With them sitting on the floor, a little girl with silvery-white hair was seen taking care of the bookkeeping from the store's money expenditure yesterday.
Seeing the girl adeptly using the abacus and writing financial statements even though the place was not conducive, Arca was at a glance amazed and approached the place of the girl. He sat on the floor with her, then with a faint smile asked, “Nanra, the amount of production touched how many yesterday?”
“Hmm? Still safe .... ” The girl in white dress who sat down preceptively raised her face, looked at the astonished young man in front of her and asked back, “Malah is the most spending today. Can the price of the furniture not go down anymore? Your subordinates can really bargain for goods?”
“Of course you can!” reply Logi who was offended to hear the girl's words. One of the Butlers who was still standing behind the statue was slightly staring dislike towards Nanra who acted as if she was the leader since yesterday, the man frowned and looked like he wanted to snap at her.
Nanra stared back with a look of flat eyes. Back bowing his head towards the paper in front of him, the woman simply replied, “Alright ...” He again dipped the quill pen into the ink bath and continued to make reports. The right hand writes, the left hand counts using an abacus. For a child his age, Arca felt that Nanra was indeed very skilled in her work.
“You can check the financial statements yesterday,” said Nanra with a focus.
“Ada ..” Nanra stopped her hand, raised her questioner and said, “While I wrote behind the first report. The initial five digits of 001.01 for purchase, 002.01 for expense, and the new code in today's report 003.01 for furniture that will go into capital.”
Looking at the encoding used by Nanra, at a glance Arca's forehead shriveled because the number used is very much. Indeed, the initial code used is only five digits, but in total up to ten digits themselves when added with the date code and type of transaction.
Not to blame the way of filing because it was the task of the line, Arca again put the parchment on the floor and said, “The report is neat .... But ...”
“But?”
“Are we just like this? I think from yesterday we have not run a business, loh.”
Nanra stopped her hand. Putting down the pen and staring flatly at Arca, the silvery-white hair girl said, “I feel so too, Mr. Arca. What are we doing, anyway? Wasting money?”
Arca looked away at hearing that, nor did he get any further explanation of what exactly had to be done to build a shop. The young man from the Rein family was indeed good at organizing, but he had never learned about the duties of a store manager.
Amidst the confusion of the two people, suddenly the shop door opened and a young man with black hair walked inside along with the blonde woman behind him. Sculpture turned his head, his eyes wide open and looking confused because the young man should be under house arrest because of the problems he made a few days ago.
“Odo ..?”
“Yo! Have you guys prepared what I asked for?”
The black-robed young man greeted leisurely, smiled lightly and looked at scanning the inside of the shop. Breathing in with relief as all the members were complete, he excitedly said, “It looks like you collected them well, Arca.”
“Oi, wait a minute ..” Arca woke up, slightly frowning and facing the only son of the Luke family. “Why are you here? Aren't you under house arrest?” tanyanya's a little upset.
“I never said I was under house arrest ..” Odo stared lightly, patted twice on Arca's shoulder and again said, “And so, why are you upset like that?”
“You handed this task to me!”
The Rien family's son stared in annoyance and his voice exploded within the space, making the people who were working in the room stare towards the two of them. Other than the Demi-humans, everyone in the room knew that the young man was Odo Luke, but none of them knew that the woman next to him was Mavis Luke.
“Let me finish it!” Arca felt unappreciated because Odo himself came to the place despite having entrusted the task to her, upsetly she asked, “Why even come here! For what?!”
“Speed ...” Odo just stared flat, then in a serious tone explained, “The time is getting limited, I want to finish it this week. At least until this store can run itself without me.”
“Let me do it!”
At a glance Odo was silent, he did understand the nature of the statue like that but still giving up all the eldest sons of the Rein family would take time. Putting on a flat expression and staring intently, Odo said, “Just calm down, I will also give you a task. I'm here for the initial setup only .... Relax, Arca.”
Odo stared at the people who were sitting on the floor and cutting bread on the cutting board. There sat Isla, Matthew, the Demi-human family, and Elulu. Understanding that the loaf of bread that had been prepared was more than enough, the young man in black hair immediately walked past the statue towards the white haired girl who was still sitting on the floor.
Kneeling one foot and taking the financial report, a glimpse of the cornea of the young man's eyes turned green and analyzed what had been met yesterday. Breathing in and staring at Nanra, the young man in black hair said, “You worked well, continue your work later on the second floor.”
“The chair size does not fit, Odo.” Nanra put the pen to the floor, looked flat at the young man before her and said, “The table I can't reach ..”.
“Hmm, true also.” Odo briefly imagined the position of Nanra who did not reach the table despite sitting on a chair because of her height. Nodding once, the blue-eyed youth said, “Let me buy a pillow to fit.”
Odo stood up and briefly stretched his neck, then faced toward the other officers in the room. With an elevated voice he said, “All of you, can you please wake up? Leave your work first ...”
Everyone who sat on the floor was at a glance bewildered at the command and finally woke up, except for Nanra who still had to finish her report and agenda. Staring at them one by one, the young man with blue eyes understood that these people had not received a neat division of labor.
Staring straight at the Demi-human family, Odo at a glance knew that the black shirt and pants they wore were obtained from the storage dimension. The size did not match them, even the smallest of the Demi-humans did not wear subordinates and only wore overstuffed shirts.
“Did you guys get your wages initially?” ask Odo to them.
“Be-Not yet,” replied the oldest in the family. Staring doubtfully, the demi-human type of garbil asked, “Who are you? What ... You know Mr Odo?”
“Oh, you guys haven't seen this form, huh?” Odo walked in front of them, then with a friendly smile said, “I am Odo Luke, the child you met at that time.”
“Eh? Mr Little Witch?” said the youngest sister.
“If you look around, it is a little similar,” continued the eldest sister.
“Sister witch!” Their youngest brother walked towards Odo, then hugged and sniffed. “This is indeed a big brother! It smells very similar!”
“Oh, you know what it looks like! Great, great ...” Odo stroked the little girl's head, then smiled kindly and let her hug.
“He~he~!” The dark-patterned cream-haired little girl smiled widely, moving her mouse ears lively.
Sighing slightly and gazing towards the third Demi-human before him, Odo seriously asked, “Usually you guys if working elsewhere get what wage?”
“““Eh?”””
The three Demi-humans who were asked were puzzled at such questions, staring at each other and not knowing what to answer.