Helping with Adventurer Party Management - Chapter 88

Sara and I arrive at Leather Street.

“Is this the right place?” she asks.

“It is,” I reply.

Even though Sara has been gathering information on her own, it seems she has completely forgotten the important details. The leather workers on Leather Street, who have grown familiar with Sara, have shared various insider information with her.

“Hey! Little lady, you’re here again!”

Sara is popular enough to be greeted like this from various places.

“…So, it’s Kenji, huh?”

“Yeah. As promised, I’m here to buy out the whole store.”

I am addressing the man with whom I have worked with for over a month to create the heels for the shoes. His name is Gorgoro.

Gorgoro is a skilled leather craftsman in his forties, specializing in leather innovations. When the folks on Leather Street face issues with leather processing, they first turn to Gorgoro for help. He loves coming up with new techniques and throws himself into solving problems to the point of forgetting to eat or sleep.

As a result, while he gets a lot of challenging work, his workshop doesn’t turn a profit. He was married once, but his wife left him out of dissatisfaction. Now, Gorgoro is a seasoned craftsman with a workshop that is constantly in the red.

Though I cannot rate Gorgoro highly as a workshop manager, I hold him in high regard as a developer. The materials and processes for making the shoe heels are at the core of the secret components developed by Gorgoro. Until we have a secure system to protect the innovation, I want to keep him within my company. I have informed him of the risks and said I would buy out his entire store.

Of course, I won’t transcribe the information on paper. Doing so would be like announcing to the literate and privileged that something secret is happening here.

No official paperwork will be done, as this would loudly signal to those who can read and have access to knowledge that something secret is occurring. Since Gorgoro can’t read, the necessary elements for the contract include the trust built over a month of work, the allure of the money to come, a guarantee of ongoing work, a promise to protect him from danger, and the threat of violence from the Sword Fangs Legion if the promises are broken—all bound by tangible and intangible benefits, promises, and threats rather than documents.

I then give him a piece of jewelry guaranteeing his rights to 100 pairs of shoes.

“This is like a guild master’s share,” I say, and Gorgoro seems to understand.

I make sure that if he ever needs money, he should consult me or the Sword Fangs Legion. If he doesn’t go through us, there’s a high chance that the rights to the shoes will be bought off at a low price.

I ask Gorgoro to provide a workshop building for shoe manufacturing while working as our company’s development head, focusing on improving the shoes.

“Hey Kenji, the thing you gave to the old man is the same as the one you gave to Captain Jilboa, right? You’re being pretty generous,” Sara asks in a puzzled whisper.

It’s understandable that Sara might not see the same value in the scruffy Gorgoro as in the handsome and prominent Jilboa. The rights to 100 pairs of shoes hold the same value as the rights given to the Sword Fangs Legion. Is that an exaggeration?

But I don’t think so. In my company, I don’t want to evaluate people based on their status or power. I want to assess them based on how much they contribute to enhancing the value of the business.

In terms of contributing to the business’s value, Gorgoro’s worth is on par with the Sword Fangs Legion in my view. However, giving a large sum of money to someone like Gorgoro, who isn’t used to handling money, could lead to problems.

So, I decided to give it to him in the form of rights and gradually convert it into cash over time.

“Kenji is like a mother in some ways,” Sara says.

I understand. I lack the innate charisma to attract people, so I have to use my head and pay attention to details to get people to work with me. Moreover, using my head and being considerate doesn’t deplete with use.