How to Succeed In Business in a New World

Beginings in Baccaport

It was another night of sleeping on the table for me, but at least with the benefit of clothes the splinters weren’t so bad. Though I did start thinking about if sleeping in the barn would be viable. At the same time I didn’t want to get too comfortable here, there were rooms available for rent at the guild so that seemed like my next step, first I just had to get into the guild. And to do that of course I need cash. That seemed to be the linchpin to all my problems these days. I wanted to go back to the old man at the market in town but there was a more important matter today, not that we had a whole day’s worth of farm work to catch up on but also the matter of Marie’s father. Last night was meant as a cure but he may still be feeling the aftermath of the symptoms, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was still a few days before he was back up and working. Of course...

I didn’t count on him being so stubborn.

“So I take it that you’re the greenhorn that’s been helping out around here? Well I guess I should thank you. Now, I’m sure you can tell I don’t have much in the way of money but I do offer you my sincerest well wishes…” I take it he had been told that I was doing chores when Marie had brought him dinner the other day. 

“Yes sir. It was the least I could do.” Really the least I could do was nothing but I felt compelled to be courteous to him. I imagine this is what it must be like to be picking up your prom date and you have to make small talk with her dad, not that I had gone to prom or ever had a date. I guess it was just the type of thing you couldn’t avoid, fate would find some way to put you in the hot seat. 

“Well you’re welcome to stay as long as you’re willing to work.” I didn’t exactly know what I wanted to do so I didn’t feel a substantial need to answer him. Having a place to stay would be nice but I also want to get out of here. But I also want to take his daughter with me. Adventuring alone was much too dangerous to do alone, and if I could do it with someone who can heal some of my more major wounds then all the better. And I tried to avoid thinking it while in his presence but I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t see the potential to form a harem here. Talk about the perfect cornerstone for one too. Of all the power fantasies I had in my time a harem was never really up there, but since coming here I was really starting to see the appeal. A herd of beauties spanning the width and breadth of the races and body types that the world of fantasy had to offer. 

“How are you feeling this morning? Is Marie up yet?” The more questions I ask the less likely he is to notice I didn’t respond to him.

“I feel ready to work!” He started doing some stretches to prove it. In the few sentences I’d exchanged with him his entire personality seemed to be based around working. “As for my girl she’s still tuckered out, I tried to wake her but she couldn’t keep her eyes open.” She must have been really wiped by that one casting though I’m sure the stress didn’t help, but I’m sure she’d be glad to know that it had worked a charm. But for now she did deserve to rest, even if it did leave me in a more than awkward situation with her dad. Though... had already gone out to milk the cows and collect the eggs. My old life was telling me that I should hide out inside for as long as I could to not only avoid work but the social interaction too, but I knew it would be better to rip the band aid off now. I was going to leave and go into town to earn some money and hope I wouldn’t be kicked to the curb by my now horizontal host.

The conversation with him was actually sort of plain sailing, I was just sure to mention that I was going into town for work and when I found some I’d be glad to pay a little rent if he wanted. My diagnosis that he wouldn’t mind whatever I did as long as I communicated that my work ethic was strong. He was also happy to tell me how to get back to the market stall where they sell their produce. I did have to walk into town by myself but I figured this would also give me a chance to do some exploring for myself. I’d give myself the real tourist experience, or at least as much as I could get with empty pockets. There was also the matter of actually getting into the town, he told me to tell the guards that I was a friend of their family, it was also the first time I had heard their last name LeRoux. It seemed rather French and I was curious if everyone in this region had last names like that or it was just a matter of coincidence. It’s possible that they came from some French analogue region and just emigrated here but it didn’t seem like long distance resettlement would be too common in this world. But then again who knows, it could be some dramatic tale about one of their ancestors fleeing here to escape political intrigue or some other form of accusation. I hope I could find out some time from Marie, it’d at least help me get a little more worldly. I didn’t even know the name of the town I was heading towards, all I remember about the sign post I had seen the other day was that it was the closest, not that I knew what their units of measure were yet. For all I know it could have been measured such that this was a mile and a half away whereas the other points of interest it was directing to were thousands of feet away or on the other side of the globe. Assuming that this was a round planet... I assumed so with how the sun and moon behaved but I didn’t know for certain, it could’ve just been skybox changing for all I knew. Not to mention if it was round did they know that? I knew at this point in Earth’s history people had known for centuries but with all the magic and what not going on I couldn’t be sure. It’s equally possible that they’d been to the moon already as it was that they still believed in a moon goddess. But then again maybe there was a moon goddess. Getting some answers would really slake my intellectual thirst but there was no time for that now, there was money that needed to be made. 

The trip into town was a lot more boring alone, due in no small part to the fact it took closer to an hour on foot. The guard let me in with little trouble, he asked for identification but once I told him that I was a friend of the LaRoux’s he was satisfied with a pat down. Either it was just a formality or he had some sort of detect magic working cause I don’t see how that would help all too much. It was later in the morning now than when I arrived yesterday so there were a lot more people out and about, a lot of housewives doing shopping and some children playing here and there. It was funny how closely it resembled the patronage of shopping districts back home. The more things change the more they stay the same I suppose. No one really seemed to pay me any attention and I blended right in to the crowd, ironically better than I did back home. Or maybe I was just more paranoid back home. Either way no one paid me a second thought and I didn’t pay them any. The actual market area past the square was a lot more hectic, patrons arguing with shopkeepers, getting hollered at to come buy various goods, it was a stressful experience to be completely honest. I’d prefer the casual and low pressure of a convenience store any day of the week. I did manage to wade my way through the throngs of bargain hunters and hagglers to arrive at the familiar stall.

“Look who’s back, what happened to you yesterday kid?” He sounded like all of my dad’s friends when they would come over and ask me what I was up to. This time I had a more concise answer but the situation wasn’t much more pleasant. 

“Oh we had found something that Marie really wanted to try out for her dad back at the farm so we hurried home.” It wasn’t a bluff or even a half truth but I still tried to suppress any tell I might have been giving off. I wasn’t sure how good of a job I had done because he still gave me a suspicious look. “Were you able to find anything for me?” I gave a weak, nervous smile, this was really the closest thing I had ever had to a job interview. 

“Yeah, I found a few things... hope you’re not allergic to a little manual labor though.” As much as I had hoped it wouldn’t be I was fully expecting it. But that didn’t mean I was prepared. “I’ve got a few buddies that are looking for long term apprentices but if you’re more in the market for just some day labor then I got a few options for ya.” An apprenticeship actually sounded like it could be fun but I was really just looking for some quick cash so I could join the guild and take on quests. I figured that a quest would be more exclusive and should therefore pay more for the same amount of work. 

“I’d prefer the day labor, I’d like some quick cash with not a lot of questions asked.” I realized that saying that made me come off as sort of a sketchy personality but, hey maybe getting a little mysterious air around myself would be exciting. Would people be more likely to get a basic bland dime a dozen adventurer, or the legendary and elusive one shrouded in mystery and intrigue. I’d be letting the rumor mill work for me is all. No such thing as bad publicity after all. But before I could cultivate that persona of the adventurer with no past I needed to actually become an adventurer. I got another suspicious glance from the old timer but he wrote me a quick list of jobs that needed doing and where I could find them. I thanked him and was on my way. It seemed like most of the stuff wouldn’t take more than a few hours and they weren’t exactly time sensitive so I could explore the city a little before I got to work. I’d be a lot more efficient if I had a guide with me but unless I found a particularly helpful stranger that wasn’t gonna happen. I feel like I used up on my luck for meeting helpful strangers already though so I would have to just wander until I was content. 

I probably burnt a bit more daylight than I should have walking down side streets and looking in shop windows, considering I didn’t find anything of substantial note. There were a few places I made mental notes about that may come in handy when I needed equipment down the line. The first place I decided to check out was down at a fish seller, I didn’t even know this city had a port but I suppose it did, it was a Beginner’s City after all and it would make it easier to get that reputation if people could travel here from as many places as possible. One thing that had never made sense to me was the concept of a Beginner’s Town, do people really come from all over just to get a start in one place? Wouldn’t it be easier to just start wherever you’re from? Maybe the thought process is that you should start somewhere with lower level monsters and less danger but couldn’t it be harder to travel somewhere with softballs? Not to mention if you were born in the Valley of Death or wherever, where raid bosses roamed the land free wouldn’t you be used to that? Your village must have some way to defend itself so you could just use that in some way. Granted all of that had never been decided by logic but by people in offices writing stories for games who wanted to have badass final areas. But in this world, did that really happen? I still knew next to nothing about this place on any larger scale, I could still count the number of people I had talked to on one hand. The guy at the harbor seemed to be expecting me, which was good because I wouldn’t be able to tell him who sent me cause I still didn’t know his name. This guy was rather gruff as well, if I had to guess he had been a sailor before settling into a more land based job though still close to his beloved sea. He had me carrying crates around and packing fish with salt while he cleaned and gutted them. Apparently he usually did all of this himself so I was just there to save some time cause he had a big haul recently. The work was hard and pretty boring so to pass the time I just keeping imagining more backstory for this fish guy. He was probably a sailor who went all over the world on a dozen ships under nearly as many flags. He never dreamt of leaving the sea behind, even when he met a beautiful woman one night in port. From that night on whenever he was back on land he’d send her letters and he’d always stayed true to her and every time he’d come back to her shores as infrequent as it may be he’d spend the night with her until a few months after one of those night she sent him word that she was with child and he came back as soon as he could and settled down with her and that child was now say around six, and they had another since. Of course none of this was true at all as far as I knew but it helped to pass the time. He said he had no further use for me and turned me loose in the early afternoon and for the first time I had some coins jingling in my pocket. I had no idea what a fair wage was around here but he paid me 15 ducats for about three hours of work so I wasn’t going to complain. At this rate if I did all the jobs I’d have more than enough to pay this entry fee for the guild and hopefully a little extra. With all the hoops I was jumping through to get this money I was hoping that it wouldn’t be empty handed so soon. Looking at the list I decided the next place I should check out was the lumber yard, I had a gut feeling that I knew what the job was going to be. The town’s economy must be doing pretty well if all these places are willing to hire chumps off the street just to schlep stuff around. Maybe that meant the economy wasn’t doing well actually, I wasn’t quite sure but whatever it meant for the city’s economy it was good for my economy.

The lumber yard was more or less what I expected, there were stacks of wood all over the place cut to different sizes and lengths. There were builders placing orders, workers filling orders, foreman checking the orders and carpenters cutting wood, presumably for orders. They were a few different areas based on what stage of the process the wood was in and who would be handling it next. On one end of the yard there were bare logs and on the other stacks of uniform boards. Finding the manager wasn’t too hard and I told him I was looking for some work to do. He pointed to a line of papers hanging on the wall and the various boards and told me to fill the orders. It was pretty intuitive work especially since all of the stacks were labeled. It felt sort of like a minigame especially when I started to get more efficient by checking how many of each size all of the orders needed total to cut down on trips. If I didn’t actually have to do the physical labor I’d even say it was fun from a puzzle solving standpoint, figuring out how to be most efficient was always something I enjoyed doing. Once all the orders had been filled and checked I was given my payment and sent on my way, I was paid by the order which meant my rate was technically much higher than the last job, with 14 ducats in an hour and a half. It was too bad that was all the orders they needed filled or else I could have really cleaned up. Once my head wasn’t full of the scent of salty fish or sawdust I started to realize just how hungry I was. After all, I hadn’t eaten anything today and it was well past lunch. It was remarkable that I hadn’t collapsed from overwork. There wasn’t much of a debate whether to get a bite to eat or just go on to the next job, the only question was where I could get something quick and filling. Fast food hasn’t exactly been invented yet but there must still be something to scratch that itch, considering how popular fast food is back home there must be some universal appeal to it so there had to be something half decent playing off the constant human desire. But frankly the best way I could think of to locate said something without any knowledge of the city was to just wander until I picked a smell or so people holding something that looked edible. 

It took longer than my stomach would have liked but after a while I came back to the main square area, though it was further north than where I had crossed it in the past. The smell was what I had noticed first, it was the unmistakable aroma of baking bread. Sure enough there was a bakery there but it did seem a bit more upscale, stocking a variety of treats that were absolute luxury items, it seemed uptown was the more affluent neighborhood which made sense enough given its proximity to the magistrate’s palace. Makes sense if the other nobles and merchants would want to crowd around and rub shoulders. At this point I still had no idea what type of government this place had, I assumed it was a standard feudal affair with dukes and barons and counts and so on though I didn’t know which one made their residence here. There was next to no chance this was the seat of a whole kingdom or else I feel there’d be more pomp and circumstance about it being the royal city but given the size it had to be a good way up the food chain. I got some bread and decided to limit my spending to that for the time being. I walked over to the next jobsite while I munched on the plain but flavorful loaf. 

I had been saving this one for last purposefully, the library had recently been renovated and they were looking for some help putting everything in its new proper place. What I was most looking forward to was once I finished up for the day I was hoping I could stick around and do some research about pretty much everything. It probably wouldn’t be too hard to find a book that could teach me something considering the gaps in my knowledge far outweighed the little I did know. In fact I started learning before I even walked into the library. The sign out front that declared it the Public Library of Baccaport. The name didn’t exactly roll gracefully off the tongue but it wasn’t hard to imagine why it was called that given its status as a port city. The first half was probably the name of the founder, the sea, the indigenious people, the god worshipped by the settlers, I’m sure there was some reason. Maybe I’d find out inside but that wasn’t exactly my highest priority. The inside was in an absolute state of disarray, there were stacks of books everywhere and shelves sitting empty, it took a bit of hunting to find the librarian. She was surprisingly young, early thirties at the oldest. She had a large pair of glasses that made her eyes seem absolutely massive. I didn’t know what I was expecting but I guess my perceptive had been sort of skewed by my last employers so seeing a young woman with brunette hair down to her back and a cherubic face was more startling than it should have been. She had a nervous look about her and I only hoped it had nothing to do with my surprise at seeing her.

“Oh I know it’s such a mess, I’m sorry but you we aren’t open to the public right now.” She was kneeling on the ground looking between two stacks of books as tall as she was, this was definitely the kind of person who got paralyzingly stressed easily. 

“I uh… know that, I was sent here to help you get things organized. My name is Katsuo.” Knowing each other’s names would probably be useful if we were going to be working together.

“You were?! That’s great! My name is Catherine… So where would you like to start?” As much as I thought she should be the one telling me that I could see that there was a reason why nothing had been done so far. 

“Well…” As much time as I had spent in the library during breaks at school I had yet to commit the Dewey decimal system to memory so I was struggling to come up with a starting point myself. “Why don’t we start with this stack?” I just turned to the pile I was standing next to and pulled the top tome off the tower. It looked like that was enough to get her started, she clamored up and examined the one I was holding.

“That one? That's a reference, l think we should put it there… Or maybe over here. But they were against that wall before…” I was a fool to think it’d be that easy.

“How about right here, that way it’s nice and close to the desk so when someone asks, ‘Where’s the reference?’ you can tell them, ‘Right there!’” Obviously that reasoning would work for anything but it seemed to do the trick given how her face lit up.

“Good idea! So we’ll put reference books on this shelf, that stack, that stack and the two over there are all Reference too.” It seemed she at least put them into their categories before being stricken with indecision. I carried the stacks over to her as she sorted them properly onto the shelves we had picked out. Every now and again she would ask me something like if D’ should come before Da or after Dz and I’d just give her an answer that had at least a scrap of logic behind it and she would take it as gospel. Every now and again I’d ask her something about one of the books in a stack and oh so cleverly lead it into a larger question about the region, she seemed really knowledgeable about pretty much everything I asked but she’d always interrupt herself to ask whether she should include The when alphabetizing or if historical fiction should be grouped by time period. But it was good to know that if ever I needed something answered for reasons beyond my own curiosity I knew who to ask. I was being conscious to not tip off my otherworldly origin, I wasn’t exactly sure what the consequences would be, I probably wouldn’t have my reincarnation revoked or anything but I could see the wrong company thinking I was a forgien spy. Being put on trial for treason and espionage wasn’t exactly my idea of staying out of trouble.

The job didn’t take too long, that or the time just went fast. Though we ended up filling the shelves before we ran out of books.

“Why do we have some left over? I thought this place had just been renovated?”

“Yes, but it was actually a renovation to make the library smaller… You see the property next door is owned by an… associate of the local government and with the low traffic the library sees that was all they needed to justify selling him a bit more land.” That sounded almost cartoonishly evil. 

“Well at least they didn’t take everything. What’s gonna happen to the books there isn’t room for anymore?”

“They said I could take home as many as I wanted to but that doesn’t really solve anything. These days most books are held in private collections, be it in mage colleges or just as decoration in the ridiculous personal libraries of the upper class. Sure literacy rates may not be as high here as in the capital or other cities but those that can read still deserve to don’t they?” It may have taken the better part of the evening but she finally asked a question that had some weight behind it. The answer was obvious to me at least but it wasn’t exactly my opinion that mattered here. She was able to convince a no name with no power in this world, not that I had much power to speak of in my last life. I didn’t exactly want this turning into something I have a personal stake in again. As good as helping people was on paper I had enough delays already, and this problem didn’t seem like I could just throw a few dollars at it and sink an afternoon and come out the next morning right as rain. At best this’d take a petition or some other show political force to fix this. Though she probably didn’t share her woes with me expecting me to rectify everything, that might be how NPCs talked but in real life people just felt like venting occasionally. The whole fantasyeality thing was taking some getting used to. But since this was reality now there was the unpleasant matter of payment. I wanted to be as tactful as possible while still getting what’s coming to me.

“Of course they do…” I realized I never answered her question so addressing that matter was first on the agenda. I laid an arm lightly on her shoulders, it didn’t look like her venting was quite over yet.

“Sometimes it feels like I’m the only person that thinks so, everybody else just thinks about what they have to gain from a situation.” Sounds like it was a bad time to ask for my cash. “The whole system is corrupt, things only get done when there’s something to gain or if they think you’ll be able to return the favor in the future.” I didn’t expect her to get so heated and by the look on her face, neither did she. It seems her outburst was a long time coming and it was only now that she had someone to unload onto. “I’m sorry, this has nothing to do with you.” She looked dejected and like she was crazy about something no one else cared about. 

“N-no, it’s fine. I get what you’re saying.” I mostly just didn’t want her to feel that way, but what she was saying did make sense. “If you want to talk about it more than we can—’

“Really? Would you like to come have dinner with me then?“ Her mood really could swing like a pendulum. I wasn’t sure if I should accept but I had been having a pleasant time with her up to now and it wouldn’t hurt to be on good terms with such a reliable source of information. But on the other hand it was getting dark out and I should probably be heading back to the farm soon. But on the other other hand, a free meal sounded like a good reason to stay in the city for a little longer. 

“Sure thing, just lead the way.” More than anything I was trying to stay casual but this was the first time I’d be having with another person, let alone a woman, in years. Did… this count as a date? Dear lord what did I just get myself into.

The walk wasn’t far but I still had plenty of time to worry about what would be happening once we got there, half my worries were dispelled once we arrived but the other half of my fretting doubled in intensity. We had arrived at what must be her house, it seemed to be a decent size compared to the other buildings I had seen, especially if she was the sole inhabitant and from all the evidence it seemed that was the case. That suspicion was all but confirmed when I saw the interior, it looked like she would have been right at home if we had never straightened out the library. The stacks were so high or widespread that it made getting around difficult but it was far from a tidy house. I suppose it did fit rather well with her personality of being a tightly wound ball of stress.

“I apologize for the mess but I just can’t bear to see books thrown away.” I told her it was fine but mostly because it wasn’t exactly my place to tell her off for how she lived her life given what my place looked like back home, and as a matter of fact, probably still looks like. She started preparing dinner and started to ask me about myself to pass the time.

“I come to a big city on an island far away from here.” It worked well enough last time and there was no point fixing what wasn’t broken. 

“That’s so fascinating, why did you come here?” 

“I heard this is a good place for beginner adventurers.”

“Have you always wanted to be an adventurer?”

“Not always. But I always saw the appeal of it. Just things have happened recently that made it the obvious choice.”

“I see, the concept of adventuring has always struck me as being so romantic. A group of comrades or even a lone wolf putting themselves to the test against nature and the darker side of humanity, besting villains and beasts alike all for a noble cause. I would never be able to do it though, but how about you? Have you had much success?”

“To tell you the truth I haven’t even joined the guild yet. I came here with nothing and I haven’t been able to come up with the entry fee yet.” A gentle mention of money woes such as that may be enough to jog her memory.

“That reminds me I do owe you for helping me out tonight.” She gives the pot an exaggerated stir before scampering off up the stairs. The smell hits me and I realize what’s in that pot. It was curry, honest to goodness curry. It smelled exactly like when my mom used to make it. Not that my mother was the best cook, but it still relaxed me a good deal. It seemed this place wasn’t completely devoid of the comforts of home, it was just a matter of finding them. She came back down with a piece of paper in her hand. She had a pleasant smile so it didn’t seem like she was gonna be handing me an IOU, but could it really be? Bills? Paper money? I had no idea it even existed but here I was about to be the proud owner of some. I had seen coins for one, five, and ten so did this mean… I’d be getting a twenty? That’d nearly pay for guild membership on it’s own! This was the easiest job of them all and yet it paid the most. I couldn’t help but feel I had wasted my time now but hey I’d rather have the money for all the jobs instead of just one. She extended her hand with the tender lightly gripped, inviting me to take it. 

“Are you sure? That seems like a lot for just an hour or so of work.” 

“Trust me I never would have gotten that done working on my own. Plus they really pay me too much, so I might as well pass along the favor. The civil service test is apparently too hard for a lot of people so those that do pass are rewarded handsomely.” Good to know I suppose, if I ever wanted to live life on easy street I’d just need to cram for a few nights, pass a test and reap the benefits. 

“That’s interesting, what made you want to become a civil servant?”

“I had to if I wanted to work at the library. I had always loved reading so it seemed like the perfect career for me, and as I grew older I really started to get passionate about preserving knowledge. Did you know that past civilizations understood magic magnitudes more than we do? Sure we may have come up with a few spells they didn’t know but some of the very skilled mages knew how to communicate with the dimension which all magical energy was siphoned from?”

“I didn’t know that.” Not that I had anyway I could have known that. “Are you interested particularly in magic or just general preservation?”

“I’d love to preserve everything, most of the material relating to magic has been snapped up by prominent Wizard Colleges who aren’t too keen on sharing but at least someone has that information, so I just busy myself with everything else. The boring stuff I guess…” She had ladled out the curry and we were sitting down now, it looked amazing but that likely had more to do with it being the first meal with meat I’ve had in half a week.

“Hey that’s not true, I’m sure there's lots of useful stuff that you’ve preserved.”

“Well, this recipe did come from a cookbook that I’ve only ever seen one copy of. I’d never heard of the dish before but the book called it an all time classic from back home.”

“Huh, no kidding…”

“So why don’t you try some and tell me if you think my life’s work is worth it for this one recipe.” She giggled a bit so she probably wasn’t attaching her entire sense of self worth to my reaction to her curry. 

“It’s really good!” I wasn’t just trying to spare her feelings but the fact that it was one of the most nostalgic tastes possible and her history with the dish were enough to make me exaggerate at least a little. The conversation slowed to a trickle as we both dug into the hearty meal. She told me a little more about herself and I told her a little more about myself. There wasn’t much to tell other than where I was staying, what I planned on doing while in town and how long I planned on staying. Of course even my answers to those weren’t the most straightforward but at the end of our repast we told each other what a great time we had and wished each other a good night. The walk home alone in the dark was cold but the warm meal did a fine enough job counteracting it.

End of Day Report

Start:      ¤0.00

            + ¤15.00 Fishpacker

            + ¤14.00 Lumberyard

            - ¤4.00    Lunch

            + ¤20.00 Library

Change: ¤45.00

End:        ¤ 45.00