Securing Personnel

Kazusa and her brother arrived around lunchtime.

I'd sent Azu to tell them to come at this hour so we could talk over a meal.

The ground had been frozen solid before sunrise, but the sun was out, so it was a little warmer.

"Excuse us!"

Kazusa and her younger brother greeted us loudly and politely as they entered the dining room.

Compared to the first time, they seemed less tense, probably because we'd met a few times since.

Knowing the incident had been resolved must have helped, too.

"Um, can I help with anything?"

"We've got enough hands, so just sit down, Kazusa."

"… Okay."

It was a kind offer, but Azu turned her down.

This was the first proper meal she'd gotten to cook in a while, so she'd been prepping since morning. All that was left was serving it.

With four people on it, there was more than enough help.

The menu was lamb stew, simmered until tender, and bone-in lamb steaks.

The bread was soft white, not the hard black kind.

The portions were generous. After all, the stew had been made in a huge pot.

Aside from Kazusa's brother, everyone at the table could really put food away.

After Elza clasped her hands in prayer, we began eating.

Sweet potatoes and carrots had been cooked through, their surfaces soaked with stew, warm and tender on the inside.

The lamb was so tender it could be cut with a spoon, practically melting the moment it entered your mouth.

An outstanding job.

The lamb steaks, too, had been carefully scored to tenderize them, making them easy to eat even for a small child.

Seasoned with nothing but salt and pepper, the savory aroma alone was enough to whet anyone's appetite.

Everything had turned out so well that once everyone started eating, conversation died completely.

I'd been hoping for a lively, sociable meal, but there was no fighting it.

I'd prepared enough for twenty people, and the plates were picked clean.

Azu and Alexia alone accounted for more than half of it, I was fairly sure.

It cleared out the cold storage, too. Worked out nicely.

"Thank you for the meal. It was delicious."

"The meat was so soft!"

"Glad you both enjoyed it."

I accepted the thanks from Kazusa and her brother, Leo.

Circumstances aside, I'd had the two of them subsisting on nothing but preserved food for several days.

Kazusa was used to that kind of thing from her days as a porter alongside adventurers, but it must have been monotonous for young Leo.

"So, um. Azu said we could talk about what happens next. And you said recovering our belongings probably isn't possible?"

"Unfortunately, by the time we checked, the place had been thoroughly ransacked. And with the Kingdom's investigation underway, retrieval is out of the question."

"I see…"

As expected, she was visibly shaken.

She'd barely escaped with her life alongside Azu.

They'd grabbed what they could carry in a bag and in their hands, so their household belongings were essentially a total loss.

Replacing everything would be a serious burden.

Seeing the actual scene would've only made it worse.

"Your main line of work was as a porter?"

"Yes. Azu and the others treated me very well. Exceptional terms. And the second time, they saved my life. I'm truly grateful."

Porters didn't participate in combat, so adventurers tended to treat them poorly.

Even though having a porter increased the amount of items and magic stones recovered from monsters, some adventurers saw an extra person as diluting their earnings.

From where I stood, that was shortsighted.

I could see the reasoning: risking your life made you reluctant to give an equal share to someone who didn't fight.

But human beings aren't built to do multiple things at once.

Some people boasted otherwise, but the actual results were always shoddy.

Reducing the number of tasks someone had to juggle was the key to better performance.

Stopping to pick up drops after a fight and losing time was a complete waste.

And shedding the burden of carrying gear to stay light on your feet made a real difference.

The efficiency gains from having a porter outweighed the cost of one more share. Alexia had confirmed that.

… It was also possible that many porters, soured by poor treatment from adventurers, were deliberately slacking.

Kazusa wouldn't be one of them.

That was clear from Azu and the others' reports, and from talking to her directly.

The important thing was that Kazusa was a trustworthy person.

"Do you plan to keep working as a porter?"

"… If I can't find anything else, yes. I don't have much education, and I don't have citizenship in this city."

Being a porter was dangerous work, same as being an adventurer.

Unscrupulous adventurers could use you as a human shield when they ran.

She'd been doing it to support Leo, but the risk of dying and leaving him behind clearly weighed on her.

"I've heard a bit from Azu. She's your friend, and I want to do something for you."

"Please, you've already done so much just letting us stay. I'm the one who brought trouble to your door. It's because Azu saved us that my brother and I were able to come to this city."

She took her brother's hand as she said it. She meant they were lucky to be alive.

Having survived on their own as siblings, she had no sense of entitlement despite her age.

"Hear me out. This isn't charity. The inn you've been staying at, I plan to start taking guests there eventually, but I don't have staff to put on it. That's why I had you doing cleaning and upkeep. Why not make it official and work for me?"

I'd had more than enough experience with how hard it was to find trustworthy people.

It was up to Kazusa, but I wanted her to consider staying on.

After a set period of employment, she could earn citizenship, and while it wouldn't make her rich overnight, I could guarantee stable income.

Once the inn was up and running, her pay would scale with the revenue.

Not a bad deal, I thought.

When I laid out the terms, Kazusa went blank for a moment.

Had the conditions been worse than she expected?

"I'll — I'll do it!"

The next instant, she lurched forward with her answer.

The force of it sloshed her after-dinner herbal tea right out of the cup.

"Good. I'm happy to hear it."

"I'll work hard. Thank you so much!"

We shook hands, and the contract was sealed.