"We accept!"
Ren smiled gently while Zachary clapped his hands. "Congratulations on your new job! Yay!"
The goblins blinked and flushed, nodding both enthusiastically while also being meek at the same time.
Anyway, while Finn was about to settle the goblins, the two young men sat down on the sofa instead of in their room. They wanted to get cleaned up first before heading to bed, which was understandable.
"He’d definitely take a while," Ren said, pointing at the sole bathroom in the inn. "He is quite vain."
Finn considered adding another toilet, but that was 50 gold, which was too expensive. Instead, he patted the lad’s shoulder. "I’ll whip you up a quick snack while you wait," he said, looking at the goblins. "You too."
They brightened, and suddenly all the impatience was gone.
Aaron would indeed take a while. Fortunately, the tea and snacks on the coffee table were so good that they even forgot the time.
Zackary nodded, happily munching on meat wrapped in sunberry leaves. They were not essence food, but delicious all the same.
Ren saw some crumbles falling down from Zachary’s feeding session and apologized in his stead. "I apologize for the mess."
"It’s fine, the inn can clean itself every day," Finn said.
"Goblins, you take a seat as well," he said. "Don’t worry about cleanliness. Just relax."
At this, the goblins reluctantly climbed up the sofa despite not taking a bath yet. They really were self-conscious, but no one was reprimanding them, so they slowly adjusted to it.
Finn also served them some juice, which was at the normal room temperature of the tap water (would be great to have ice, though). There was no electrical mixer, but there were nice sets of mortar and pestle and a wooden dough whisk that’d do the job.
He prepared them brightsweet pear juice, as well as a few slices. He had to climb the tree to get most of these, you know.
He set them on the table, and the group happily snacked as they chatted. Finn stared at Ren. The boy was not only handsome, but he also had a certain bearing to him. He had a feeling there was more to his story, but they were not close enough to ask.
"Are you going back to your mercenary team?" he asked. "How are mercenaries? I mean, as a job. I have always been very curious about the occupation."
"Mercenary work tends to be quite lucrative. Although it earns less money per job than Adventurers, we can take more missions and are safer since we mostly operate within the safe zone."
"We deal with humans more than beasts and mysteries. My advice when dealing with mercenaries though, is never to trust us. Most mercenaries have very flexible moral compasses."
"I see..." "I do hope you stick with a team you can trust."
A team that’d use slaves as bait didn’t seem like good people at all.
Ren smiled. "I’ll do my best."
It was around here that the door of the bathroom finally opened, revealing a well-scrubbed Aaron, who gasped when he saw there was food.
Ren stood up and went to the bathroom for his turn, though not before taking the bathrobe placed on his bed. He also let the remaining moist air come out of the toilet, stepping back as if disgusted with the air that Aaron touched, though fortunately, the blonde was looking elsewhere to notice.
Aaron replaced Ren on the main sofa on the cleaner side, not missing a quip of ’that guy is so immature and messy tsktsk’ before filling his mouth with fruit.
Finn shook his head, but continued to enjoy the conversations with them.
Learning really was fastest through other people who knew their history.
He also took this chance to ask the questions he had ignored before. "By the way, how much do people make on average? I mean for commoners."
"Hmn...," it was Zachary who answered this time. Aaron was a noble, after all.
"Probably less than a hundred danas a day," he said. "My dad usually makes 70 danas for typical work in the quarries. This is in the safe zone, of course."
"I see..." Finn mumbled. "Is that enough to live?" The gold, which had been the smallest denomination he had been using this time, was worth 10,000 danas. It was understandable that it was a bit difficult for him to wrap his head around the actual value of it.
Now that he thought about it, did that mean that a single shampoo was worth more than a hundred day’s worth of a commoner’s work!?
Shit. Did he charge too little?
Small talk continued for a bit, and only got quieter when Aaron finally finished his snacks and he headed straight to bed, and Ren got out of the bath.
Zachary entered the bathroom this time, and everyone else went to bed.
Judging by their levels, even without his Innkeeper 3x buff, they should still recover their stats within a few hours of sleeping. This left Finn with the goblins.
He looked at Pang, who was lounging on one of the side chairs, hereby referred to as Pang’s Throne. "How do I register them as staff?"
"Just go to the Staff Roster, la!" he said. "There should be a "+" sign there."
He opened the tabs, and his eyebrows rose as he looked at it. "Ah, you’re right."
It looked much like the screen used to assign rooms to guests and their rates. He could also set the salary here.
He looked at the little ones. "What is the acceptable salary to you, considering we have food and accommodation (though you’d be sleeping with me until I get a new room)."
"EH? Sir! You don’t have to. Also, we can work with just that, it’s already more than enough!"
"And please do not lessen your space for us. We are perfectly fine here. Very clean, very warm."
Finn was reluctant to let the staff be so pitiful. "But we can’t let you sleep in the amenities."
"Then..." the goblins stared at each other. "We can live in the forest! We are very adaptable, good sir!"
To show their sincerity, they stood up and ran out, definitely setting up their own camp outside before Finn could force them to his room.
Anyway, Finn’s modern sensibility naturally couldn’t accept giving them no salary at all. He just considered that commoner’s wages were less than a hundred danas, so he’d just round it up for them.
A month here was 40 days, so that would be 4000 danas a month. Although they’d be stuck here and wouldn’t need it, it just felt different to have something in pocket. Plus, the customers might sell them stuff back, and he didn’t want them to feel destitute when that happened.
And so, after a few adjustments here and there, the [Staff Roster] looked like this:
[Name: Tumble the Goblin | Race: Goblin | Age: 16 | Level: Awakened Tier 1 | Status: Tired | Task: None | Duration of Working: 0 days | Salary: 4000 danas / month | Mood: Pleased | Natural Skills/Potential : Carpentry | System Inn Skiils: None]
.
[Name: Ranran the Goblin | Race: Goblin | Age: 15 | Level: Awakened Tier 1 | Status: Tired | Task: None | Duration of Working: 0 days | Salary: 4000 danas / month | Mood: Pleased | Natural Skills/Potential : Tailoring | System Inn Skiils: None]
His eyebrows rose.
Carpentry and Tailoring, eh?