The Man Needs Ambition (2): The Struggle of Making a Fortune in a Romance Fantasy
Business is not about having a fancy plan or complicated formulas.
In dozens of books, people had thrown out different opinions on exactly how to start a business, how to run it day to day, and what dangers to watch out for.
Yet even in every single one of those books, there was one thing that everyone kept saying: the true essence of business is nothing more or less than solving someone’s problem.
You take a problem that belongs to someone else, you solve it for them, and you charge a fee. That is the core of business. The bigger the problem you solve, the more money you make. That was the lesson burned into my head.
If I only understood that one truth, the rest of it did not matter. After all, everything else was just extra knowledge I did not even need.
But I had never been very good with the theories in the first place.
Still, I had complete confidence.
I was going to succeed. No question.
The reason was simple.
“…Because I am a modern man.”
Because I had also learned magic.
Those two facts had always kept my mind steady. Thanks to them, I could face any situation with the certainty that I would find a solution. That had been my constant belief.
Yet…
The moment reality hit me, it was nothing like what I had expected.
“No rooms left.”
“Excuse me?”
I had gone looking for lodging and stood there stunned as the innkeeper’s words landed. The man behind the counter watched my dazed expression and added casually, like he was ordering another ale.
“People have been flooding in lately. Not a single room to spare. Probably the same everywhere else. You should have come earlier. Tsk.”
Late at night.
My first day in a brand-new city.
No, the very first hour of arrival.
‘…If things stay like this, I’m going to have to sleep rough.’
A problem had appeared.
Earlier than I had predicted.
In a form I had never imagined.
…Sigh.
***
“Ugh… I almost died of fatigue.”
I stepped into the shabby room and let out the sigh I had been holding back. Then I dropped onto the edge of the bed, staring at nothing.
…That had actually been lucky.
If I had been even a little later, I probably would have been out on the streets.
I had rushed from the first inn after they told me no rooms were available, then checked every other place nearby. But just like the owner said, every single one had been packed. So I kept walking faster and faster until, on the seventeenth inn, I finally found the last empty room and claimed it.
I paid immediately.
Price, location, food—none of it mattered. All that counted was avoiding sleep on the street.
I had never slept rough, but every time I had tried, I had learned the same lesson: when you can avoid it, you always should. The discomfort was never just one or two issues.
Once the lodging problem was solved, though, my shoulders dropped and I felt a wave of exhaustion.
There was a brief moment of relief.
Then the forgotten sense of reality tapped me on the shoulder.
“…Wait, is this really the price?”
Thinking about it, it was shockingly expensive.
Four gold coins for one night.
The normal rate should have been one coin. I had just paid four times the standard price for a room that was anything but luxurious.
“Well, I’ll just sleep here tonight….”
But there was no choice. The cheaper places I had checked earlier might still be open, and this one at least I could afford.
The real issue was how long this situation could last.
‘…Surely it won’t stay this expensive forever.’
It was clearly wrong.
Why had all these people suddenly appeared?
When I had done my research, there had been nothing like this…
Could something have happened? Whatever it was, I hoped it would turn out to be temporary.
If not…
Then this would be a much bigger problem than I had thought…
In any case,
“I should wash up first.”
I stopped worrying.
I stood up, stripped off my clothes, and walked to the open space in the center of the room.
Then—
Snap!
A single huge water droplet floated in the air. It began to shrink until it broke into countless tiny beads, then all of them flew toward my body.
“Hoo… this is it.”
A warm, soothing feeling. All the accumulated fatigue and grime vanished in an instant.
A shower was the best way to clear your head.
The discomfort I had felt earlier simply disappeared.
Every single time like this, I reminded myself how fortunate I was. That I had become the character “Kyle” in this world, a mage. Even though I was only an extra, because I was from the academy, I was lucky.
If I had been born into the body of an ordinary person in this era, I would have had to wash once a week like everyone else. Could I have endured that life?
Thanks to magic, I no longer needed to buy hot water like other people did. This alone saved me a lot of money and made many things far more convenient.
Magic really was too convenient.
Far too convenient.
“Haa… perfect.”
After the bath I changed into my pajamas and flopped onto the bed, letting my tired body sink deep into the mattress.
From the imperial capital all the way here.
And from here to the inns in this area.
I had walked far more than usual today.
The fatigue had come rushing in all at once.
I lay on the bed and let my mind wander through every worry.
The lodging problem. The very first business problem. All of it.
Eventually I shook my head.
“…Time to sleep.”
I would put the worries aside and move forward tomorrow. Worrying alone would not solve anything.
I would leave tomorrow for tomorrow’s me.
Right now, I would do the best I could.
I resolved to do that, and cast a sleep spell on myself.
Snap!
***
“I’m looking to stay long-term. How much would that cost?”
“One gold coin per month. Including two meals a day, it would be two gold coins.”
“Hmm… if I stay even longer, can you go as low as possible?”
“Six months and we can reduce it to one silver coin per month.”
“Is there any way to make it even cheaper?”
“This is already a very reasonable price. Other places are even more expensive. People have been coming in nonstop lately…”
The innkeeper’s words made me frown.
Oh no…
The worry I had feared had actually become reality.
The flood of people was not limited to just yesterday. The innkeepers must have decided that it would continue for some time.
“Why are so many people here all of a sudden?”
“I don’t know the details, but… there’s talk that something ancient near here was discovered. That’s why all the mercenaries have been showing up from every direction.”
“Hmm… I see. Thank you.”
“Yes, yes.”
An ancient artifact…
My luck had really been terrible.
How could this have happened exactly on the day I arrived?
‘…This is a big problem.’
How am I supposed to pay for long-term lodging?
Every place was far more expensive than I had expected.
Almost three times the amount I had anticipated.
I had only saved about twenty gold coins in total. If I spent two gold coins a month including meals, that would run out in ten months.
Then there were the paperwork fees, the business investment costs, the sudden expenses that might appear at any time.
Even trying to stretch six months felt impossible. My entire plan would collapse. I was in real trouble.
‘Should I just change my base?’
Under these conditions, moving to a different region might actually be better.
Even if I succeeded quickly thanks to my luck, it would still take at least two years. The money I would spend on lodgings during that time would be enormous.
I could never afford it.
‘I have to make a decision right now.’
If I was going to move, I had to do it immediately.
Delaying a choice still cost money.
So, what now?
‘…Leaving this place feels too wasteful.’
This city was the one I had carefully searched for after spending days and nights lost in the novel, filtering through countless possibilities.
I could not give up on it so easily.
I kept thinking until I finally made my choice.
“…It can’t be helped.”
No matter how I looked at it,
I could not give up on this region.
I had to find a way out from inside it.
I already had one idea in mind.
Whether it would work or not, I would figure it out somehow.
Somehow.
***
Late at night.
Creak.
“Welcome! Looking for dinner or lodging?”
As I opened the door, a young woman with short brown hair greeted me. She was holding a broom bigger than herself, probably because she had just finished cleaning.
I gave her my friendliest smile.
“Hello. Is the owner around here?”
“Excuse me? The owner? He is around here….”
Her gaze shifted as she pointed somewhere.
There stood a man whose left leg looked a little unsteady.
When I nodded, she rushed over and said,
“Dad! There’s a customer looking for you for a moment!”
The man behind the counter was the innkeeper’s father.
As I had researched earlier, this was clearly a family business.
I walked over to him.
The man scanned me with a businesslike expression.
I told him,
“Hello. Are you the owner?”
“Yes, I am. What can I do for you?”
To cut the long-term cost, I would need a new angle.
“Not really, I just wanted to make you a good offer.”
“What kind of offer?”
“Would you be interested in partnering with me?”
“…Excuse me?”
A partnership with the inn. The perfect angle.