Chapter 170 (2/2)

“Yes.”

“I don’t know why, but I understand. I’ll gather them by tomorrow.”

“Thank you.”

The last thing I need to do is refine the pessari grass.

During the alchemy test, I managed to convert the pessari grass into a powder after following one of Edita Sensei’s recipes. I plan on mass-producing this powder then adding it into the bath water. This should add a nice rejuvenating effect to the baths.

I remember when I added that pill to a phial of water it started violently bubbling. I’ll need to be careful how much I add to the water. And also add only a small amount of my mana.

I just need to find the right amount of both to create a soothing, healing bath. Nobody should be drinking the water so the taste won’t matter. It may create a strange smell but some Japanese hot springs smell like sulfur and that doesn’t stop people from visiting them.

“Taking a hot bath is incredible after a long day of travelling.”

“Please, take as long as you need to rest today.”

“With everything we’ll need to be doing, this may be the last break we’ll get for a while.”

“I’m thankful that you want to work so hard, but there’s no need to kill yourselves just to help me.”

“Do you think I brought a bunch of weaklings? These are only the elite members of my clan.”

“I see.”

The rest of the macho men of the Twilight Company were relaxing in the other baths. Even with all of them here, I’d say we’re only at fifty percent occupancy. Even though there’s still plenty of room, these smaller baths are a little cramped. I can’t fully stretch out my arms or legs with Gonzalez and the other macho men in here.

We originally agreed on around one hundred members or so coming here to act as my knights but over two hundred have arrived. It’s only natural that the bath would be cramped when all of them went straight to the baths. Macho to the left of me, macho to the right of me. Macho, macho.

This isn’t my dream.

It’s like an all-male business trip.

On a more serious note, I do see a real problem here. I need to earn fifty gold coins per month and I know that a certain famous amusement park in Japan stated that sixty percent of their revenue went into maintenance and buying various supplies. This would mean I’d need to bring in around one hundred and fifty gold coins every month to cover the taxes and running everything.

I can set an admission fee that’s equivalent to the price needed to enter Kalis. I’ll need to earn one hundred and fifty gold coins per month which is 15,000 silver coins or 1.5 million copper. That means 150,000 visitors paying ten copper.

150,000 people per month. 7,500 per day with only twenty days left in the month. That’s already more than this place can handle. Now that the two countries are at peace I can expect double the traffic. Maybe even triple. If I assume it’s doubled, that means I’ll need to be able to serve 15,000 people every day.

As things stand right now, I’ll only be able to handle five hundred a day. Moreover, with the Twilight Company here, nearly half of that number is already occupied by macho men. If things follow that pattern, before long, my baths will be filled with muscular men washing other muscular men. My public bath paradise will be turned into the gay mecca of this world.

I also don’t know what exactly constitutes a business day in this world.

Let’s assume I have less than a week left. Five days. I’ll need to bring in thirty thousand people a day. We can fit five hundred people in the baths plus each of their respective bathing areas. If we cycle the groups of five hundred out ten times a day we’d be able to service five thousand people. I’d need to increase that amount by six times in order to meet that goal.

“….”

“Something wrong?”

“No, I’m just thinking about everything that still needs to be done.”

I’ve still got a lot of work to do.

I’ll need to develop almost all of my remaining territory. The baths won’t be enough to cover costs on their own. I’ll need to create facilities for people to stay in and most likely some other facilities that can earn me additional revenue.

“O-Oi….”

I stood up out of the water.

I covered my son which is larger than Allen’s and bowed to Gon-chan.

“I’m sorry, I’ll be back later.”

“Are you going out already?”

“I’m going outside the walls to do some more developing. If you need me for anything just give me a shout.”

“Okay, let me help.”

“No, no, no, please, just relax for today.”

Splash

I leapt out of the bath before Gonzalez could get up. I made an unreasonable request of Gonzalez and he accepted, gathered all of my requested supplies and his men, and travelled all the way here over the course of a few days. I’d like it if he took at least a day off. And I also don’t want to change in a humid room with a naked, sweaty, macho man.

Someday, I hope to change with a beautiful woman as her clothes cling to her sweaty body.