Greatest Alchemist? Chapter 500

As Expected, A Great Demand

Perhaps because Charlotte and the other two were excellent, they quickly mastered the soroban.

The study was filled with the clacking of beads.

The girls’ desks were placed either side of my desk, so the documents to be processed were divided into sales that need calculations, and documents that need to be sorted.
During this, Sophia sat on the sofa in the center of the room, drinking tea.
As to be expected, it wasn’t necessary for her to stand guard behind me while I’m working, after all. Actually, there was no need for a guard inside the Sanctuary, but Sophia doesn’t want to do anything but guard me.

「I’m glad that calculations are much easier now, but this amount of money makes me draw back.」
「You are right. I was in charge of the management of the Vold Barony, as such, I constantly see the taxation earnings in the fief, as well as the profits from the company of our house, though…… it is literally several magnitudes higher.」

Gina and Charlotte were astonished by the sheer enormity of the cash flow. Ana was cool and quiet though.

There were several unexpected occasions where Sebastian came from the Volton mansion to top up the documents, but by the time we had managed to finish sorting and processing the documents, Akane and Maria casually walked into the study.

「You’re working hard. You girls are great too.」
「Thank you for your hard work, Takumi-sama.」
「Ahh, it’s you, Maria, Akane. Are you done talking to Papeck-san?」
「No, we’re not done yet.」

Akane handed me a bundle of papers.

「That, is our contract relating to design fee from the sale of clothes with our design. Review it for us. If there are no problems, we’ll sign the contract.」
「Ah, I see…………」

I skimmed through the pages and returned it to Akane.

「I think there’s no issues.」
「Is that so? Then we’ll sign it. Ahh, oh yeah. Takumi, Papeck-san said he wanted to meet you regarding bowling.」
「Uhhuh, gotcha. I’ll pick a time to go to Volton.」
「You don’t need to do that.」
「Eh?」
「Papeck-san said that he would like to personally experience bowling, so he’ll come to the Sanctuary soon.」
「……okay.」

When my shoulders drooped as I responded, Maria saw the sorobon that was on my desk.

「Eh? What device is this?」
「Oh my, how nostalgic. Isn’t this a sorobon? I also learned it during primary school.」

Then Akane grazed her hand on the soroban, and as I listened to her speak nostalgically, I had a bad feeling.

「Y-yeah, right? I also learned to use it when I was in primary school.」
「This is perfect. You can use it to make the most detailed calculations without errors.」
「Ah!」

Without listening to my reply, Akane grabbed the soroban on my desk and was leaving the study.

「See ya. I’ll give it back soon so lemme borrow it. Let’s go, Maria.」
「Akane-san, please teach me how to use that too.」
「Leave it to me. It’s easy so you’ll get the hang of it soon.」
「W-wai, waaaait!!」

I spoke out futilely, Akane and Maria already left the study.

「…………」
「…….merchants would pounce on it, would they not?」
「……yes. You can tell how handy it is at a glance, after all.」
「……that’s just great, Takumi-sama. Now it seems we have even more work.」

As I stood there, dumbfounded and with my arms outstretched, Charlotte and Gina spoke about what would happen, and I slumped down in defeat with Ana’s extra shot in.
Sophia spoke gently to me in such a state.

「Now, now, Takumi-sama, how about you drink some tea and calm down?」
「Sophia………」
「It’s the same as usual. It is vital that you get over it.」
「Sophia……」

It was different from kind words.

Afterwards, Akane and Maria, who came back upon finishing their discussion about clothing designs, asked for the delivery of several sorobans and talked about patents.

「About bowling, they want to sell the magic devices for the time being. Laeva is already doing her best at that. As for the soroban, constructing it is simple enough so even the Papeck Company can produce it, but they want a certain amount prepared right away.」
「……so where’s my soroban?」
「I gave it to them as a sample.」
「It seems we will have to add on various things to the patent fee.」
「Ha, haha, is that so……」

Was it inevitable for something made for office work would increase office work……?

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TLN: Thank you for reading 500 chapters with me! I appreciate you all.