"Little Silver business has begun!" (Kaoru)
"Ohhh!!" (Other 3)
Reiko, Mine, and Aral gave cheerful replies.
...That's right, a powerful business has begun. Business is a battle!
In this town, manufacturing and retail businesses must join a commerce guild — although it was too embarrassing to call it that, it's more like a small chamber of commerce you would find in a rural town — and apparently, they had to pay taxes to the lord through that guild.
Well, that's obvious, right?
There wasn't a lord who doesn't collect taxes from craftsmen and merchants...
But!
Apparently, when this place was an orphanage, it wasn't subject to taxation because "It's an orphanage that is struggling to run but is working desperately hard" and "Its purpose is not to make a profit, but to ensure that the orphans don't go hungry." So the income earned by the orphans and the director from working, and the crops grown in the home garden...
Well, it was only a small amount, and taking taxes from an orphanage certainly didn't look good on the face of it. Rather than taking taxes, it would be better to support them from the collected taxes.
So, what I was trying to say was this.
...What I was wondering was whether our business could be exempt from tax.
Fortunately, although that was a bit of a misnomer, we had two orphans.
No, "Even if they no longer have parents, if they have found employment with us, then they are simply 'people whose parents died early,' and are now respectable members of society. And because we are their guardians and protectors, they are no longer isolated or lonely. Yes, whatever the definition of the word, these children are no longer 'orphans'!" I told Reiko and the children the other day, but they had already changed their minds.
Yes, I notified the lord that I wanted to start a support business to help orphans become independent. I used the best of my linguistic ability to write it so that anyone who read it would understand that I was starting an orphanage....
It was not a scam. I was not lying, not even a little bit.
And as a nobleman—after all, as a nobleman—the lord seemed to be a pretty good person, so of course he made us tax-exempt. I had written a request to that effect, so I didn't have to worry about forgetting to mention it in the reply.
Well, apparently that's how it was before, so if we went to the trouble of buying this place with our own money and opening an orphanage (or so he mistakenly thought so), it wouldn't be strange at all if we did the same.
It was not that I was particularly greedy for money—but no—if I were to pay taxes, it would be a pain to have to do all the accounting calculations and paperwork, and the flow of money in the house would be completely understood by the lord's associates, and even if I didn't mean to, if I accidentally committed tax evasion, it could lead to big trouble.
And if we didn't do these things properly and just started doing it carelessly—as soon as people realize we were making a profit, we might be told to "pay taxes"...
Also, even if the lord didn't think so, there was a possibility that his subordinates, merchants connected to them, or thugs wanting a little money might cause unnecessary trouble.
If an orphanage had something that could be a money maker, many people would think it would be easy to take it away—Although we're not an orphanage.
In any case, the better to have fewer opportunities for information to leak or gaps to be exploited.
Little Silver was, of course, the name of our organization.
That's right, it's not a store name, trade name, company name, or business name, but the name of an organization.
On the surface, the organization was a for-profit organization that employed orphans as live-in staff.
...Yes, it's a "for-profit organization." It's definitely not a charity or a non-profit organization.
If you asked me where my name comes from, I'd answer:
Every child is a little piece of silver ore.
They may not be gold, but they are all still valuable "silver." They should never be treated carelessly.
In the future, they may grow into a large silver nugget, take on the refined look of smoky silver, and in some cases the silver plating may fall off, revealing gold bullion or jewels....
It was called "Little Silver" because it was a place to protect and nurture these "small silver nuggets"...
...The real origin?
Many of our products were intended to be sold for the equivalent of a few hundred yen, or in other words, a few little silver coins.
I didn't want to make that much money—Or rather, we made big profits secretly, behind the scenes, so as not to be discovered. On the surface, we ran a "fake honest business" that didn't seem to place much importance on profits.
And Little Silver, which supported orphans, was just one of the faces of our organization.
We planned to have many other faces as well.
New product development and manufacturing department.
Rather than inventing or creating new things, the main task would be to "determine whether there were any problems with making and selling the product."
For now, I didn't want to rely too much on potion container creation skills or magic. Otherwise, it would be too unfair and would distort the correct economic activity of this world.
…Of course, it also meant giving the children a skill.
And we didn't intend to go around making out-of-place artifacts (out-of-place artifacts).
It's not like I wanted to cause trouble for future archaeologists, so I made accessories and little creative products that could be made without any problems using the technology available here.
Well, of course, it couldn't be helped to a certain extent if it was for their own use or something. ...Yeah, that can't be helped!
Commercial department.
We developed a route for mass sales that was separate from the small scale sales made by the children.
...No, we're not doing anything illegal. We just do wholesale business in addition to retail business and small-scale consignment sales to children.
I had a feeling the lord would complain, saying "That doesn't qualify for tax exemption!" but oh well, we'd figure something out!
The lord of the manor would probably think it was odd that an underage girl like me would have the financial means to buy this place, and would naturally assume that we had something substantial behind us—Specifically, wealthy parents who allow their prodigal daughter to freely spend a lot of money, or people in power who think of that amount of money as nothing more than pocket money for a child—So, they would probably understand if I said, "As for the business, I'm doing it because I have to return the money I spent to buy this place to my parents. In other words, it's to repay the debt for the land and building of the orphanage, and currently, far from making a profit, I'm in the red because of my debts."
Because that was the truth. There was no way they'd view the two girls who bought this place with their own money and are trying to start a business for orphans as villains. If we were trying to make money illegally, no one would do something so foolish.
If we're not really short on money, why were we taking such risks? No, this was also a safety measure. When we needed to acquire something expensive that could be explained by modest earnings.
When someone appears who tried to extort money from even their modest earnings, who tried to take this land and building, and who tried to get the children—Mine and Aral—as commodities.
I thought it would be a good idea to have some kind of backing ready in case of such an eventuality.
If we had a slightly larger business, we would find a merchant who would be on our side.
If we sold a new product, some people might help us, not in a bad way, but because they thought it would make them money.
Yes, the "smell of money" attracts enemies, but it also attracts allies.
So, that side was not 'front' but 'behind the scenes' or 'under the surface', so it was not too noticeable to the general public...
Anyway, "money making with no backing, done only by underage children (or those who look like them)" would attract some scum, no matter how small or small the amount was. If it was a small amount, it would attract thugs, if it was a large amount, it would attract gangsters, unscrupulous merchants, unscrupulous nobles, etc...
And the "charm" to avoid those things is to have other organizations or merchants already betting on you. So, it's better to first establish a connection with a "relatively decent place". Even if you can't make a huge profit from them, make them think that you're a decent source of income.
Besides, the fact that they are doing business with the pseudo-orphanage will likely boost their reputation as a "good merchant" externally, so it's a win-win situation.
"Kaoru, you say you're worried that Mine and Aral will become commodities again, but in the eyes of the world, you and I are both commodities that can be sold off at a good price, right? And Hang and Bad are pretty high-end horses, aren't they? They'll probably be priced higher than us... And if people think we have rich parents, we could attract ransom money and other kind of attention." (Reiko)
"Ah……" (Kaoru)
Okay, let's add some security equipment. I need to get Mine and Aral some as well. Mainly along the lines of "the best defense is a good offense"...