"Good morning."
Rubbing his aching head, Duan Mu slowly walked out of the bedroom.
Sitting behind the counter and drinking strawberry milk, Uzuki looked up and suddenly said in an annoyed tone, "Ah, I really should quit drinking!"
Duan Mu's mouth twitched. The words that had reached his lips immediately died there.
"You complain about it every morning. Why don't you beat up the you from last night for drinking?" Uzuki slammed the ledger in her hand onto the counter with a bang and said darkly, "We just made two hundred thousand, and you bastard spent nearly thirty thousand rings on alcohol and snacks yesterday!"
"What? Are you planning to spend it all within a week? You've owed me two months of wages already. Are you not planning to pay me?"
Duan Mu immediately put on an ingratiating smile. "How could I? Even if I quit drinking, I'd never withhold your wages, Lady Uzuki. Take as much as you need."
It had taken him considerable effort to find a shop assistant, and Duan Mu had no intention of letting her leave. Besides, he would not feel at ease leaving someone else in charge of watching the shop.
"By the way, did we receive any work yesterday?"
Seeing Duan Mu suddenly change the subject, Uzuki rolled her eyes at him, but still brought out the work log. "You were gone for more than a month, so quite a few commissions piled up. Once people heard you were back, many came to place orders yesterday. Other than three urgent ones, none of the rest are pressing. Most of them are house repairs before winter."
Uzuki paused. "Speaking of which, shouldn't you raise your prices a little? Every year, before winter, countless people come to you to repair their houses, but the commission fees you earn aren't even as high as the material costs."
"What material costs?"
Duan Mu shook his head. "You can cut down trees on Kofusan whenever you want. They're free."
"..." Uzuki.
Transporting them, processing them... None of that cost money?
Besides, normally, ordinary people only bought materials nearby when repairing their houses. They would not go up a mountain and cut down trees themselves, right?
But after thinking about it carefully, Uzuki realized that with Duan Mu's strength, none of this really took much effort for him.
With that in mind, Uzuki said helplessly, "If you keep working this hard for several decades, Rukongai's unemployment rate is definitely going to skyrocket."
Duan Mu laughed heartily without answering.
He did not care whether the unemployment rate rose. After all, he did not take commissions from Rukongai solely to make money. His main goal was to meet more female customers through this channel, then win their favor with high-quality service at low prices.
As for truly profitable commissions...
They had to come from big clients like Diao Ao, or from extorting the students of the Soul Reaper Academy.
Unfortunately, a big client like Diao Ao did not show up every day, and the students of the Soul Reaper Academy only had one long break each school year. The rest were merely one- or two-day holidays.
He really ought to develop more big clients. If the Thirteen Court Guard Squads came to his shop to place orders, he would never have to worry about money again.
Of course, Duan Mu was only thinking about it. Even if the Thirteen Court Guard Squads really came to his shop, he would have to carefully consider whether he could complete the commission and whether there was some kind of conspiracy involved... Setting the Thirteen Court Guard Squads aside for the moment, Duan Mu had always been extremely wary of the Central 46.
Bang!!
Suddenly, the shop door was violently smashed open, and a figure rolled straight to Duan Mu's feet.
"...Why is your entrance always so special?"
Duan Mu glanced outside the shop. The door had been completely ruined by the impact, meaning he would have to repair it before starting work.
Outside the door, the wild boar named "Polly" met Duan Mu's gaze and proudly raised its head to snort. This gave Duan Mu the urge to research ways to cook wild boar.
The visitor was none other than Shiba Ganju.
"Haha~~"
Amid a burst of wild laughter, Shiba Ganju rose from the ground, shoved Duan Mu aside, and said to Uzuki, "Uzuki, it's been a month. Did you miss me? Did this brat Duan Mu bully you?"
"Esteemed customer, please compensate us for the shop's repair costs first." Uzuki wore a professional smile. "It isn't much. Just pay one hundred thousand rings."
"Your shopkeeper is my best brother. What's a little money between us? That would hurt our feelings."
Duan Mu moved a chair aside and said with narrowed eyes, "Your brother was shoved aside the moment you entered."
"Brother Duan!"
Several more figures entered the shop. The moment they came in, they bowed to Duan Mu in perfect unison. They were Shiba Ganju's four top lackeys.
Hearing what they called him, Duan Mu felt a toothache coming on. "...Just call me Little Duan or Duan Mu."
"How could we? If you hadn't risked your life to save us, we might have died in West District 79." Hawk was the first to speak. The other three nodded in agreement. "Besides, Brother Iwao said this title suits you best."
"That's right."
Shiba Ganju turned around, patted Duan Mu on the shoulder, and said solemnly, "You deserve this title completely!"
Duan Mu sighed. He was too lazy to argue with them any longer about whether the title sounded good. Instead, he asked curiously, "Why did Sister Kūkaku suddenly let you out?"
"What do you mean, 'let me out'?"
Shiba Ganju proudly raised his head. "I turned all ten training platforms into sand."
"That fast?"
Duan Mu was stunned. When he had been released, Ganju had still been struggling with the fifth platform. He had not expected Ganju to destroy the remaining five in just two days.
"Uzuki, did this brat Duan Mu bully you while I was gone these past few days?" Shiba Ganju rolled up his sleeves and displayed his muscles. "If he bullied you, tell me. I've been training hard this past month. I can kill him with one punch!"
"..."
Duan Mu watched Ganju warily glance at him from the corner of his eye every now and then. He vaguely understood why this guy had suddenly exploded with strength after Duan Mu left...
"Give me those urgent commission slips."
Shaking his head, Duan Mu said to Uzuki behind the counter, "Let's try to finish these urgent jobs today. Then, starting tomorrow, we'll work on the house repairs and try to finish everything before winter... Wait, let's start the day after tomorrow. I'll go to Districts 43, 58, and 64 tomorrow."
Since winter was approaching, he could repair the houses in those orphan gathering places while he was at it. That would also let him earn a wave of goodwill from the children.
Uzuki nodded and handed Duan Mu copies of the urgent commission slips.
Duan Mu took them and looked them over. One was to find a lost pet, another was to harvest a rice field, and the third was to deliver goods to West District 1. None of them were complicated jobs.
Tucking the slips into his chest, Duan Mu said to everyone in the shop, "Stay here. I'm going to work."
"Go on! Go on!"
Ganju waved his hand as if shooing away flies. Anyone who did not know better would have thought this was his shop.
"Brother Duan, is there anything we can help you with?"
Hawk and the other three eagerly crowded forward with ingratiating expressions. The sight made Duan Mu feel uncomfortable, and he said, "Just act as you did before. You don't have to be so polite to me..."
Before Duan Mu could finish, several more people entered the shop.
Seeing people coming in, Hawk and the other three, who were blocking the doorway, instinctively moved aside. But after seeing who had arrived, their faces instantly turned pale. Hawk asked in panic, "You... What are you doing here?"
Shiba Ganju looked over when he heard that. His expression changed when he saw the newcomers—not with fear, but with anger. "I didn't go looking for trouble with you, yet you actually dared to come here!"
Smack!
With a crisp sound, Uzuki smacked Ganju on the back of the head from behind the counter and shouted, "Why are you yelling? You'll scare our customers away. Are you going to pay us for that?"
Thinking that Uzuki did not know the newcomers, Shiba Ganju hurriedly said, "Uzuki, listen to me. They're..."
"Customers!"
"No..."
"Customers!"
Ganju blinked and seemed to understand. He tentatively asked, "Could it be that they came here while I was gone these past two days?"
Uzuki nodded.
Ganju was stunned, but before he could ask anything else, the newcomers bowed to Duan Mu in a disorderly but synchronized manner. "Boss Duan Mu!"
"..."
Ganju and Hawk's group exchanged glances, all of them utterly bewildered.
What had happened during the few days they were gone?
Why had this group of dangerous people suddenly become so respectful toward Duan Mu?
The newcomers were Diao Ao and the others. After greeting Duan Mu, they turned around and bowed to Ganju. "Boss Iwao, we offended you some time ago because of that bastard Daimaru. But now that Daimaru is dead, we hope you can forgive us."
After Diao Ao finished speaking, he stood there uneasily. If he had known that this young master of the Shiba Clan was here, he would never have come...
If Ganju still held a grudge against them, then given Boss Duan Mu's personality, he definitely would not mind keeping all of them here.
"Huh?" Ganju looked at Duan Mu in confusion.
Duan Mu ignored him and simply nodded at Diao Ao.
Now this is what you call knowing how to speak.
I really ought to have Hawk and the others learn from them. They should be calling me Brother Duan too. That's the proper way to address me.
Seeing that Duan Mu ignored him, Ganju turned to Uzuki behind the counter. Uzuki did not answer him either, merely looking at Duan Mu questioningly.
Although Duan Mu had not said so explicitly, any commission that was not recorded was inconvenient to disclose to others—even acquaintances.
"There's nothing to hide," Duan Mu replied. He then ignored the two of them and asked Diao Ao, "Why are you here? Did Habutae bring more people?"
"N-No..."
Diao Ao smiled obsequiously. "I was thinking that Boss Duan Mu helped us so much, so I came to ask if there was anything we could do to help..."
Duan Mu said nothing and merely stopped smiling.
Seeing this, Diao Ao's heart leaped into his throat. He hurriedly said, "We're scared!"
How could he not be afraid? Before they had fought the villains from District 80, they had still had the courage to stay in District 79 and fight them. But after realizing the gap between themselves and those people from District 80, they had been unable to sleep peacefully the previous night, afraid that the people from District 80 would come for them in the middle of the night.
After all, Boss Duan Mu had not killed Habutae, but Diao Ao also did not dare tell Duan Mu that the commission had failed...
In the end, everyone gathered to discuss the matter and decided to split up and hide in the various districts of the western region. They would return after some time, once they were certain that no one from District 80 would come.
Splitting up was easy enough for the others. As long as they did not cause trouble, they could hide in a district and no one would know where they came from. After all, Habutae could not recognize every resident of District 79.
But Diao Ao, as their leader, was different. Habutae had targeted him directly the day before.
Therefore, after a great deal of internal struggle, Diao Ao brought several people here. Although Duan Mu was equally terrifying in his eyes, he was clearly easier to communicate with than the people from District 80.
Duan Mu was stunned when he heard this, then understood. He could not help laughing wryly. "Didn't you say before that you would rather die in District 79?"
Diao Ao chuckled. "There's a difference between possibly dying and definitely dying."
"I don't have anything you need to help with... Hmm?" Duan Mu was just about to drive them away when he seemed to think of something. He turned to Uzuki behind the counter and said, "Uzuki, give me those house-repair commissions."
Uzuki, who was explaining the situation to Ganju, instinctively pulled out the commission copies. "Are we starting work today?"
"We're only doing some preliminary preparations."
Duan Mu took the slips, carefully looked through them, wrote some figures on them with a pen, and handed them to Diao Ao. "Since you want to help, go cut down trees on Kofusan. I've written down approximately how many we need. After cutting them down... just leave them at the foot of the mountain."
His original plan had been to have them cut down the trees and transport them directly to the clients' homes. But after looking at the people Diao Ao had brought, he decisively abandoned that idea.
Every one of these men had thick, fierce-looking faces, and all the exposed skin on their bodies bore various scars. They practically had the words "villain" carved onto their foreheads.
If he sent them to the clients' homes, the clients might be frightened enough to abandon their houses altogether.
After all...
Most of these commissions came from female customers.
"Huh?"
Diao Ao stared blankly at the slips in his hand. Cutting trees?
He really wanted to shout at Duan Mu, I only know how to cut people, not trees! But after considering the consequences, Diao Ao could only slap his chest and say, "Boss Duan Mu, rest assured. Cutting trees is what we're best at!"
As long as they could gain Duan Mu's protection, they were willing to do anything, whether it involved cutting people or cutting trees. Either way, all they needed was a blade!
Meanwhile, Ganju had learned the whole story from Uzuki. The hostility in his gaze toward the group lessened, replaced by curiosity.
Because...
The way these people looked at Duan Mu was not the gratitude of people who had received help. It was a mixture of fear and respect.
What had Duan Mu done yesterday? How had helping these people left them so frightened?
As for that, Hawk and the other three felt it was perfectly normal. A month ago, they too had been frightened into having nightmares for several days by their own "comrades."
Before you continue