I Opened an Inn Next to a Dragon’s Lair - Chapter 156



Only Noblemtl

Episode 156

Arnold is a small merchant from the Kingdom of Partem.

He leads Arnold’s Company, a company that bears his name. Like other merchants, he jumped into the trade via the Delphi Forest trade route, and because he was one of the first among the merchants to jump in, he made quite a bit of money.

At first, it was a small business with only two friends from my hometown, but now it has hired eight more employees and has grown into a fairly decent business with ten employees.

A company with only 10 members. Objectively speaking, it may not seem like much, but it was a great achievement for Arnold.

He earned a lot of money and built a new house for his parents back home, and he provided a generous amount of money for his younger brother, a magician affiliated with the Magic Tower, to study magic. He also provided the entrance fee for his young son, who aspired to become a knight, to enter the knight academy.

Of course, it was natural that Arnold would first purchase his own house. In addition, he recently purchased a building to use as a headquarters for his company!

It’s a shabby two-story building that’s been around for over 30 years, but now it’s a neat office for a company. There’s even a small warehouse in the basement, so you can store your stuff! How great is that?

Arnold has been happy every day lately. His parents have smiles on their faces, his poor wizard brother can study magic without any worries, and his young son is very happy that he can finally become a knight.

The previously unstable trading situation has stabilized. The only source of income was the Delphi Forest Trade Route, but as recognition has grown and more places have been visited, there are more places to trade.

That’s why Arnold naturally stopped visiting Delphi Forest. These days, he often goes on short trips. Short trips that only take a day.

As I was preparing to leave for work today, one of my subordinates suddenly spoke to me.

“What’s going on?”

“Are you planning to run a short distance again this time?”

“Of course. Why are you saying this all of a sudden?”

“Mr. Chairman. How about going for a long distance run this time?”

“Huh? Suddenly?”

Hey, what’s with the long distance? I’m dying from exhaustion. As Arnold grumbled like that, his subordinate took out a piece of paper from his pocket and told him to wait a moment.

“What is that?”

“This is something they give you if you stay at the Delphi Forest Inn.”

“Are there one or two inns in the Delphi Forest? Which one is it?”

“Oh, you know. The original inn.”

“Oh, is that what President Eugene is doing?”

“yes.”

“Then you should say it like that, kid.”

“Hey, if you pretend, you pretend. When you say Delphi Forest Inn, it’s President Eugene’s shop. That’s the unspoken rule.”

The subordinate grumbled. No, why on earth are there so many inns in Delphi Forest, confusing people? The other places are all so bad anyway.

They have also been to the many inns that have sprung up in the Delphi Forest. They have been to all of them. But they were disappointed.

Whether it was a room or food, nothing could match the original.

In particular, the most trademarks among them are the hot springs and the zoo.

Soaking in a hot bath will relieve your fatigue, and watching the amazing animals will be a feast for the eyes. It’s truly an amazing place. Even if you don’t leave the station, you’ll want to go there on purpose.

That’s why the first choice of merchants was always the original store, and he was the same. He was an ardent follower of the original store, to the point where he wanted to completely destroy all the stores because he didn’t want to see other latecomers opening similar stores.

“So, what is that paper?”

“Oh, what is this? It’s a coupon.”

“coupon?”

Arnold tilted his head. Coupon? I’ve never heard of it before.

“Oh, you don’t know our chairman. Every time we visit the inn, he stamps this paper with a stamp. There are nine stamps here, right? That means we’ve been here nine times.”

“I get the gist of it. But what good will it do if I take a picture of it?”

“If you collect ten of these stamps, you can stay at the inn for free.”

“what?”

Arnold’s eyes widened. What? Free?

It’s a word that would make anyone dazzled, but it was especially dazzling to merchants. And Arnold was a merchant through and through.

“Not only is the room rate free, but you can also get one free meal. Isn’t that amazing?”

“Joe, that’s good.”

Arnold nodded sheepishly. He was briefly excited by the word free, but when he thought about it, it wasn’t all that great.

Free room rate and one free meal? Yeah, that’s good. But basically, the rate for that hotel is very cheap. So it didn’t really hit me.

Besides, only one person is getting the free service? There are more people in the company than that?

“But that’s not a huge gain for us. There are more than ten of us. Even if you deduct the fee for just one person, it’s still the same. Isn’t it?”

“No, that’s not it. If you use all the coupons, the entire party will get free admission.”

“Oh, crazy.”

Arnold jumped up without realizing it. What? The whole party is free?

‘Has that boss finally gone crazy?’

No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t help but think that way. In fact, the coupon system itself is groundbreaking. But on top of that, the entire group gets it for free? Then wouldn’t the loss be enormous?

“Does that make sense? Wouldn’t that have huge side effects?”

“That’s not something we should know about, is it?”

“That’s true.”

Arnold stared at the coupon paper. It had nine stamps and one blank space. For some reason, Arnold couldn’t take his eyes off that blank space.

“What do you think? Isn’t it harsh to listen to what I have to say?”

The subordinate shook the coupon paper. Arnold’s eyes followed the shaking paper from side to side.

Gulp. Arnold swallowed. There was concern in his eyes. Should I take that? Or not?

“Miss, this is not right. I don’t want to run long distances.”

“But it’s free, it’s free. It’s what our CEO likes the most.”

“Ugh.”

“Plus, as a token of our appreciation, we will be giving a small gift to customers who fill out their coupons during this summer season.”

“What? A gift?”

“Yes. It’s like a souvenir, but aren’t you curious since they also give gifts?”

Arnold squeezed his eyes shut.

“Hey, I don’t know. Let’s go! Let’s go!”

“Yay!”

“Let’s try it for free!”

Free things were floating around in Arnold’s head. Free food, free room, and a little gift… .

Today, Arnold’s Company, which was so eager to get a free ride, set out on the rough forest path again.

* * *

Irina wiped the sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand.

In fact, it wasn’t just her forehead. Her body was soaked with sweat here and there. Why was that? Was it because it was summer now?

There is that reason, but there is another reason.

Because I’m so busy.

“What happened? Did we get more customers?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“I’m so busy.”

“I feel like even two bodies wouldn’t be enough.”

The staff also agreed with her grumbling. Not only Irina, but also the other staff members looked exhausted. This was because there were always a lot of customers.

“What do you think, Eugene?”

“yes?”

“This situation.”

Eugene just scratched the back of his head at Irina’s question while looking straight at him.

Sometimes, even when business is going too well, it can be a problem. That’s the case right now.

Thanks to this, the employees’ hard work is shining.

“That’s right. I didn’t know that the coupon system would become so popular.”

Did I know? Honestly, coupons are so obvious. Every store does it.

There are a lot of people who throw away coupons they give out without even filling them.

But what Eugene overlooked was that this was not Earth, but Karnis.

In this world where there is no culture that can be called service, there is no coupon system, let alone a similar system. So, Eugene is said to be the founder of the coupon system in this world.

‘No, it was just one freebie, what’s that? Why do you come to the inn so often?’

Eugene felt the tenacity of humanity for the first time on this occasion.

Honestly, even if you get a stamp, when you first get one or two or three or four, you won’t feel anything, right? If you keep stamping like that, you’ll eventually get seven or eight, and only then will you think, ‘Oh, if I stamp this, it’s free.’

That regret. I thought it would bring more customers, but it wouldn’t be that big. It’s not a nearby store, it’s a remote inn in a remote forest.

That’s why Eugene thought it was just a minor event…

What the heck? It wasn’t.

‘I didn’t know I would come here every day to get the free coupons… … .’

A customer who used to come once a month now comes twice a week. He kept stamping stamps, and finally got 10 stamps for free. His obsession was truly monstrous.

But there weren’t just a few customers like that.

Eugene really wanted to applaud that persistence.

‘I lost, I lost.’

Actually, there was another problem. It was that when you use the coupon for 10 free items, you bring a lot of people with you.

It was all a kind of trick used by customers who heard the coupon description that it was free, and that’s why the staff were busy at the moment.

“There’s nothing we can do. Let’s change the system a bit.”

“You’re going to fix it?”

“Yeah. Let’s adjust the number of people a bit.”

“great!”

Immediately after, Eugene limited the number of people in the coupon chance, which previously had no limit on the number of people, to 20.

Up to 20 people are exempt from usage fees.

If 21 people come, you only have to pay the fee for 1 person.

I think it will be a fun event because it will help small business owners breathe a sigh of relief and large businesses will think of it as a small profit.

It got a lot better that way.

That was a good thing.

* * *

It is no coincidence that as soon as Eugene introduced the coupon system, the inns of the latecomers that opened in Delphi Forest also immediately introduced the coupon system.

It meant that they were keeping an eye on Eugene’s inn.

“No, bro. Look at them. Those damn things are following your great idea right now! I need you to go and… … .”

“Hey, leave me alone.”

“Leave it alone. Isn’t that so annoying! What kind of idea was that? It’s a new concept system that my brother came up with after racking his brain for days, no, a week, without sleeping!”

“What are you talking about? Who said that? That’s not the right way.”

This guy is talking nonsense and then he falls asleep. Who would have thought that would be a headache for a week?

‘Actually, I copied that too.’

I also just thought, ‘Huh? Should I try it? It’ll be fun?’ Do you understand? In fact, it’s based on data accumulated through experience by countless scholars on Earth…

But Eugene couldn’t bring himself to say that.

The misunderstanding has already spread far and wide.

Eugene was truly dumbfounded by the fact that followers were even emerging, saying that it was a great idea that would be remembered for a long time in the continental inn industry.

No, do you have nothing better to do so you follow an innkeeper?