Wholesome, Legitimate Business Ventures (2)
In the world I originally came from, a place where men served drinks to female customers and kept them entertained was called a host bar, or 'hoba' for short.
The very name had something vaguely violent about it, and in practice, it was an industry that hovered close to the underworld.
Anyone with money got treated like a customer, drunk patrons made unreasonable demands and were more or less looked away from, and the whole process left wounds on both sides more often than not.
But I had absolutely no intention of pursuing the shady route.
Wholesome and respectable.
And above all, safe!
Truth be told, going back to the direction I was aiming for, what women really wanted wasn't a lavish spread of drinks.
It was a space where they could laugh and chatter to their hearts' content, free from being suppressed or judged by anyone.
In that sense, what I was going to build wasn't an underworld host bar at all─
It was the Empire's very first, fully aboveboard Women-Only Salon.
"So how exactly did you arrive at that conclusion? That... a women-only drinking establishment?"
"Not a drinking establishment — a Women-Only Salon. Anyway, I've thought about it now and then for a while. If I ever ended up running a business, I wondered what kind it would be."
For the record, there had been several candidates, and one of them was, of course, the maid cafe.
"A maid cafe...?"
Louis, seated across from me, tilted his head as if the words were utterly foreign.
"Right. A maid cafe. Cute female staff in maid uniforms greet customers with 'Welcome home, Master!', serve them tea, make light conversation, and shower them with charm."
"Wow... the young master — no, forgive me, the boss — truly is a pervert from another dimension after all."
"Hey, a maid cafe is strictly about the service, okay? There's no real physical contact involved. It's simply a beautiful space for experiencing moe."
"...Moe?"
"Uh... that would take a while to explain. Just think of it as a genre that sells feelings like 'how adorable' and 'I want to protect her.'"
"I roughly understand. And there might be a certain demand for it, at that. May I ask what kind of clientele you were targeting when you came up with this idea?"
"No, I just came up with it purely for my own enjoyment?"
"?"
Louis stared at me with an expression of pure contempt.
I had the distinct feeling that ever since yesterday, I kept getting branded a pervert by an actual pervert... and yet I stood my ground with pride.
A maid cafe in a romance fantasy world?
Ooh... just imagining it made my mind and body heal on their own.
And really, nobody else was going to build one. How was I supposed to resist?
"Then why did you give up on it?"
"Well, the decisive factor was that it didn't seem like it would make all that much money. It might generate a fairly steady income, but hitting the really big money would be difficult."
And besides, the essence of the service industry ultimately came down to 'selling emotion.'
The Women-Only Salon I wanted to build wasn't selling alcohol, and a maid cafe wasn't selling coffee. In the end, both sold people's hearts.
That meant emotionally exhausting work, and finding the right talent for it wouldn't exactly be easy.
Especially for the women of this world, who would likely recoil hard from the very idea of a maid cafe — which made it all the more difficult.
"So the maid cafe project has been definitively scrapped, then."
"No. I will build a maid cafe someday, without fail."
"Er... Boss? Do you really need to say that with such a grim, determined expression?"
"Of course. In a way, it's my dream — the key to a comfortable old age and all."
"Ah... yes. Do plan away on your own, then."
Louis gave a lukewarm, couldn't-care-less response.
But the guy was overlooking one tremendous truth.
"By the way, Louis — why is it that you assume the world only has obedient maids?"
"Well, that's just the image maids have always had, isn't it? Obedient and devoted to their masters — that sort of thing."
"No, no, no. Louis, you're laboring under a great misconception. The fact that the world may well contain maids who specialize in abuse..."
"?!"
Louis's eyes flew wide open, as if he'd just stumbled upon some profound enlightenment.
"B-Boss...! Such grand vision! I will cooperate with you on this without fail!!! The world clearly needs maids who will step on worthless masters like me!"
"Uh... right, sure."
Louis gazed at me with an excited voice brimming with reverence, his eyes overflowing with admiration.
Hmm... well, whatever the case, it meant I'd found a comrade who shared my cause, so good was good, I suppose.
"Anyway, for any of our dreams to come true, the Women-Only Salon ultimately has to succeed first."
"Indeed. It will require quite a lot of capital."
"Well... there's that, but honestly, there's a rather interesting reason too."
"An interesting reason, you say?"
I grinned and slowly walked Louis through my plan.
And when he'd absorbed every detail of my scheme and blueprint, Louis laughed in sheer disbelief and broke into applause.
"Haha... how on earth do you come up with these ideas? You're starting to look like a genuine demon to me, Boss."
"That's a compliment, right?"
"Of course. It means you're that meticulous and that persuasively logical. Just how did the count's house manage to keep you reined in all these years?"
"A comfortable environment does that to a person, I suppose. But say... that thing you said back then — you were serious?"
"Ah, about working as a player?"
"Yeah. If it's just for a cheap thrill, I wouldn't really recommend it."
Working as a player at our establishment was going to demand a great deal of suffering and endurance, by all appearances.
But there was one supreme advantage that instantly offset every single one of those drawbacks...
And that was money.
Why else would the term 'financial therapy' exist in this world?
No matter how exhausted the body and mind, before overwhelming income, one inevitably lost all composure.
Viewed from that angle, Louis was remarkably free of greed for money.
How free? Free enough to hand over 5 gold without a second thought as investment capital.
"On that point, if anything, I'd like to ask you a question in return. Do I actually have any value as a player?"
"As a player, huh?"
I considered it for a moment.
Louis had a reasonably handsome face, a fit physique befitting a former knight, and a bright, cheerful personality.
On that alone, he possessed considerably solid qualifications and credentials for the job.
The problem was, this guy was a masochist.
Whether that counted as a negative or a plus was anyone's guess...
"Uh... I'd say there's a niche demand for that, at least?"
"Oh? If the boss says so, I suppose I'm in with a chance. I might just take this opportunity to find myself a fiery mistress. Eheheh..."
Louis chuckled with an insidious little smile. Even his choice of words was disastrous.
The real problem was that his smile looked so utterly blissful that it almost inspired a grudging respect.
I was letting out a deep sigh along with those thoughts when the train lurched and spat out an announcement.
"We will soon be arriving at Velos. Please prepare to disembark."
I gazed out the window.
In the distance, a colossal harbor opened onto the sea.
Dozens of sailing ships lay at anchor, their sails billowing in the wind, and the flags of merchant companies from every nation fluttered above them.
The warehouses and shops lining the docks were packed so tight with people there was barely room to step, and above them rose marble mansions built by trading magnates and the ornate guildhalls of the great merchant houses, stacked tier upon tier.
The Empire's largest commercial district, where money and goods flowed in without end──
One glance was enough to tell: this was a city where gold coins came pouring out of the sky.
"Well, it is the most thriving region after the capital, so I suppose the scale would be different. The number of buildings, the number of people."
Louis marveled at the world reflected in the window.
"Though it reeks of money just as much as its size suggests."
At his words, the corners of my mouth curled upward.
Yes — the smell of money.
This place wasn't merely a commercial district; it was a vast wallet lying open to the sea.
Should I say that to my eyes, it looked like one enormous marketplace with gold coins cascading down like a waterfall...
Clatter─!
The train came to a full stop, and the doors slid open with slow ceremony.
In an instant came the swelling murmur of the crowd, the clatter of horseshoes, the rumble of carriage wheels rolling over stone.
And the air of Velos was unmistakably different.
A briny breath of the sea mingled with the scent of spices and fruit, leaving a faint tingle at the tip of the nose.
Anyway.
"Let's go. For the sake of our dreams."
"Yes sir!"
For the sake of my verdant dream called the maid cafe, I stepped onto the platform.
"Ah, but a thought has just occurred to me."
"What is it?"
"Oughtn't you leave Lady Dorothy a letter of greetings, at the very least? She was terribly fond of you, young master. Heaven knows why."
"Hmm... that's fair, I suppose. Knowing Father's temperament, he'd never tell her I got thrown out. It really would be quite a shock to come home from her expedition and suddenly find her little brother gone."
"Precisely. And once she learns you were cast out, I have a feeling she'll raise all manner of havoc, one way or another."
"Pfft, well, Father's the current head of House Hartwell, so what can anyone do about it? It's all my own karma, anyway. Maybe Sis just hopes I'll pull myself together, seeing as this is my chance."
With that, Eugene waved a hand as if it were nothing and strode on ahead.
Louis watched him go, blinking blankly.
Over the past few days, he had been falling for the man called Eugene without the slightest resistance — so much so that he could even feel a flicker of genuine admiration for him.
By now, he'd reached the point where it hardly mattered to him whether the sweet dreams Eugene painted for him were lies. Eugene simply looked like a brilliant businessman and a master of persuasion.
And yet...
'Unfortunately, it seems I know Lady Dorothy rather better than the boss does.'
Louis murmured those words only to himself.
He had, of course, no intention of ever sharing that particular fact with Eugene.
It seemed likely to make the situation considerably more entertaining that way.
And while it went without saying, he was quite certain that his present course of action would do Eugene absolutely no harm whatsoever.
Hmm...
Probably.
