Mage And Wolf
Chapter 64

Chapter 64: Chapter 64

A large Farmer with sandy blonde hair and a heavy German accent steps forward to my booth.

"They tell me that there’s a good bounty on these monster stones" he speaks a bit slowly, obviously concerned that I might not understand his accent.

"There is, would you like that in cash or materials we have on hand?"

"I’m short on meat and steel, if you’ve got both."

"Certainly" I say, checking the stock here at the Guild’s trading post. It looks like the couple did a great job stocking a little bit of anything people might want. "We have steel in ingots and rods, whichever you prefer. And beef, wild boar and magical beast boar for meats. Here’s the exchange rate sheets."

The town takes 10 percent off of every trade to fund the city and cover the rent for the Guild, which he doesn’t seem to have an issue with, thankfully.

The farmer leaves happy, with a wheelbarrow of steel and a backpack full of meat and ice, drawing attention from the people in line.

"Hey old man, what did you trade for all that?" An even older sounding voice shouts.

"One monster stone" the farmer shouts back with glee. The stones are about worthless to them, but essential to the city.

This exchange causes a furor in line, as the girls return with the exchange price posters.

"They’re worth that much? Why is everything listed in metal coins? Oh, there’s the coin prices! Hey, tell your brother to come bring that stone here, they’re worth a thousand bucks! No, by the time he gets here we’ll be near the front of the line, just hurry! Look, we can trade for farm supplies and food!"

I knew the trading post at the Adventurer’s Guild would be popular, but this is more insane than the crowd for 80 percent off televisions during a black Friday sale.

The sales quickly move along, with most of the crowd opting for Dollars in exchange for their goods, or using Dollars to purchase necessities, but I’ve noticed the local farmers, the ones who all know each other, and who know the ones I’ve seen around on patrol, are all opting either for goods or our coins. Jake and Mary traded a merchant the Priestesses brought in for a few hundred gold coins worth of them this morning, but it seems we’ll be needing more soon.

Finally, the crowd is gone and we get some unexpected visitors. Ellie and Allie show up with Lala, I feel a bit horrible for setting them up a place to stay and then straight up ignoring them for days.

"How have you girls been? I’m sorry for not paying more attention to you, things have just been a bit crazy."

"That’s alright Highness Katrina, Auntie Lelou and Lala have been taking good care of us. We’ve been running errands for them all day everyday and only coming to bed to sleep."

"Well, I’ll have to tell her to relax on your duties, you’ve got schoolwork to do too. You can’t spend all day working."

The girls both giggle.

"Well, we say working, but we spend more time sitting in laps or getting our tails brushed than doing actual work." Ellie finally says.

Yeah, that sounds about right.

"Well, tonight we’ll all watch movies together and relax. We’ve done enough work for the day I think."

The sound of soft footfalls coming quickly interrupt my train of thought, I hope that’s not someone coming to ruin my plans. Oh, good, it’s just Bunnies.

Wow, that’s a lot of Bunnies. There’s got to be 30 of them.

"HI LALA" a teenage girl in front shouts. We heard your friend had work? Like real paying work, and not a slave contract?"

Jake and Mary smile at her bubbly nature, surely this girl has what it takes to work customer service without murdering anyone.

"Yes, I’m Mary and this is Jake, we’re the Guild Masters of the Arcana Adventurer’s Guild. We’re looking for employees to stock and sort trades, count coins, and work the tills. The pay won’t be great, but as we’re an Arcana City business, you’re guaranteed your own apartment and free meals as part of your wages."

Sneaky mages, tossing things that cost them next to nothing into the employee contracts to save on having to pay out. But I suppose they’d get the rent back anyhow, it’s not like there’s another landlord in town.

"We’ve all been staying at the south wall refugee shelter." One of the Bunnies informs Mary. "Its not bad, better than most slave quarters, but it would be great to have my own room for the first time. Like being a real noble, just me in my own bedroom"

The rest are nodding along in agreement. Man these Bunnies are way too easy to please.

"They don’t do well alone. It’s against their nature. It’s best to find them larger places so they can stay in groups" I whisper to Mary and she looks over at Lala with understanding.

"Okay, job interview! Who here likes dealing with people, even if they’re a little cranky?" About 10 hands go up.

"Great! Now stand to the left. Who in the main group can read and maintain an inventory sheet?" Most of the remaining hands go up, leaving just 4 younger Bunnies, all female.

"Okay, what did you girls do before you came here?" Mary asks gently, knowing she’s likely not going to like the answer.

"Well um, you know" one Bunny begins.

"Oh, fine, we fled from a brothel and we can’t read or write." Another says, starting to tear up. Now I know Mary is going to hire them. She’s as much a sucker for cute things as I am, and she can’t stand to let someone cry.

"Never fear, I’ve got a job for you. You can run orders from the pickers in the warehouse to the store counters" Mary reassures them.

"So, when do we start?" The bubbly one who spoke first asks. There sure are a lot of female Bunnies for some reason. There’s only 2 males out of 30 in this group, and they both volunteered to work the tills.

"You can start today. Fortunately for you, Karl made me 50 uniform creation scrolls, so I can get you all dressed and start teaching you the basics right now" Mary is extra happy at this part for some reason.

"Jake, please take the gentlemen aside to change. I’ve primed these scrolls, all they’ll need to do is touch them to their forehead once they’re undressed and it will fit them for work."

Jake takes the male bunnies to a back room without a fuss and I send Lala and Hui’Jin to close the shutters and lock the doors for a moment.

"Alright ladies, welcome to the Guild! Everyone Undress and touch this uniform creation scroll to your head to receive your work wear!"

The tattered garb of refugees and runaway slaves is gladly piled on the floor and scrolls are handed out.

"On three! One, two, three!" Mary calls and the Bunnies touch their scrolls to their heads in unison.

They’re adorable.

The uniforms are above the knee length black Yukatas with white high socks, black shoes and a pink trimmed black sash with the Adventurer’s Guild logo embroidered in pink on the chest. The pink perfectly matches Mary’s arcane energy.

the uniforms are simple, but so distinctive that you could never mistake them as anything but Guild Employees. The long sleeves appear to have small pockets sewn into them for essential items, and each comes with a hair piece that hides a spare pen.

The girls open the door and windows back up and Jake brings the two male new hires back in. They’re both in sharp black butler’s suits with pink bow ties and the logo in pink on the left chest.

"More subdued than I thought you’d be Mary" I compliment.

"Right? Jake yelled at me, told me that I go overboard with dressing people up in fancy costumes, but these dresses are really simple, no patterns or anything, and they’ll take like 2 minutes to put on. Plus, I barely even put any pink on them!"

I note the guys got similarly lucky, only a bowtie and crest in pink made their way into the suits she picked.

"Now if you’ll excuse us, we’ve got some new employee orientation to do"

I take the girls and go stand outside out of the way, to watch how the new hires work out. They’re surprisingly professional. Or perhaps that’s not surprising, they’ve been servants and such all their lives, they’re just at a new job. Either way, they’re catching on fast, and customers are going out as quick as they go in.