As you read by the Title, this a chapter focused solely on Loiju.
(But not in a POV way, the mc will be there for most of the chapter)
We're going to see how he's doing after he accumulated an incredible amount of money and the problems that come with it.
Following that, we'll go on a small adventure that will introduce new characters and serve as the background for a rather important character that'll appear after the next Recruitment Arc.
Perhaps even leading towards some advancement in the MCs powers department, 'possibly' is the word here.
As I said before, this Volume's start is more focused on POVs and small interactions as the Mc recovers from his injuries, not exactly dramatic, at least not coming from his struggles at least.
This small Arc is about 3-4 chapters long.
For now, things are going rather well I must say.
Once these POVs end, I'll make another week jump to when the mc will heal his eyes, we'll likely have a few extra POVs including reactions from Outside of Orario followed by another time-skip to the Recruitment day or something in between.
Following that, we'll have a few more chapters before another major time skip going directly into the new Arc.
That's about it, peace.
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/Within a small house somewhere in the Northeastern section of Orario, two men talked leisurely in a cozy living room…/
"So, from what I understood, you're going to keep working?" Silver asked calmly as he grabbed a glass of water from a nearby table
"Most likely… Yes." Loiju replied with a nod as he rested his head on his sofa
'Strangely enough, this time, Silver met with Loiju, not at the Guild… But at his home.'
'And for what seemed to be the first time ever since they met close to half a year ago, he saw him in casual clothing, an unusual look for this workaholic Elf.'
'Hearing his reply, Silver snickered as he said, "Let me guess, is it because you have nothing else to do?" with a mocking smile on his face.'
"Ah come on! Is that how you see me?!"
"Humph!... Yes, I will..." Loiju replied dejectedly
"I figured that one out…"
'Taking a sip of his cup of water, Silver put it down gently on the table, listening to what he had to say.'
"Sigh, it's only when I have nothing on my mind that I realized how empty my life is."
"... You made it sound pretty grim…"
"Because it kind of is."
'Stretching his back and relaxing on his couch, Loiju started to narrate his problems:'
"I made a lot of money, but I have nowhere to use it."
"Buy a house? What would I do with a bigger house? It would only make living more lonely and bothersome, and contracting a pretty maid to work for me wouldn't do well, it would even come out as creepy…"
"..."
Perhaps for a small house like this.
But if you buy a bigger house then it wouldn't be as strange.
Though of course, you would have to contract multiple Maids for it to be effective, and approaching one of them with any kind of intentions... Then it would be creepy.
"I bought a few pieces of furniture, including that magic mattress people talk so much about, I used to be apprehensive about wasting my money on such things, but here I am spending a third of my house's price on miscellaneous items in a matter of days." Loiju narrated as he laughed drily
"Even then, let's say I decide to live here and don't buy anything else, I still have over 55 million Valis to make use of."
"Should I just dump it all on a bank? That might work, but keeping the money inside a vault seems rather anti-climatic no?"
"If I had a family to care for like many others, then things would've been simpler… Become a stay-at-home Husband or something..."
"Even then, I can't help but feel I would be bored in no time."
"The Entertainment district was one of my choices to pass the time, but after scamming many rich nobles of their money with you, I grew apprehensive of going there by myself, especially with all the chaos that's been going on now that Ishtar fell from grace."
Most importantly, I don't know how long it would take for me to get corrupted by that lifestyle...
It wouldn't take long for me to go back to a Casino... Sigh.
'Silver nodded, it seemed his friend was showing signs off… Depression.'
'And this wasn't unusual, it is something many Elves end up feeling eventually throughout their lives, particularly to the ones that left their respective hometowns.'
'The so-called, Mid-life Crisis, but for Elves, it is much more intense, given they live three to four times longer than most Humans.'
'Now that all of his responsibilities had been taken away due to the weight of his own money, he has started to realize the emptiness of his life.'
'No romance…'
'No friends…'
'No goals…'
'His family far away, having fled from them due to the boredom of his past life, he drowned himself in work without realizing, and after many years, what was once exciting became the usual, and he now finds himself bored once more.'
'And seeing people around him succeeding was incentivizing him to go and try, but he doesn't know where to start.'
'His brother arrived recently with his own happy family, which may have impacted him somewhat...'
'But at least he showed them his best side, a hardworking person that had abandoned gambling… In fact, they may not even know he was once addicted to it.'
'The problem is, without people to go on around with him, he has nothing to do all day apart from wasting away at home or reading books like what he did for the last few days.'
'He can't rely on Silver to come and walk around with him every day, in fact, he finds Silver's lifestyle a bit too 'much'.'
'And even if he were to find other things to do and make a schedule, it would end up becoming a chore rather than entertainment.'
'From time to time, going to the Entertainment District to watch a play in a theater, or go somewhere else to enjoy the scenery is fine, but if that is all he has for his life, he'll get bored pretty soon.'
'Honestly, he got bored just from thinking about it.'
'This isn't the age where he could've bought a PC and be done with everything he needed for his entertainment… Even with the Gods present, there is only so much a mortal can do to pass time.'
'Above all, he is just a normal Elf, he can't move around the world as a hobby either.'
'Especially if you consider how... Unsocial he actually is.'
'His options are limited, and he was never given the chance to think about what to do next…'
'He's been living like this for close to 15 years… To stop now and receive "freedom" is rather overwhelming.'
'Loiju was lost.'
"I can understand where you're coming from." Silver replied seriously as he watched his reflection in his cup of water
"Any ideas?"
"I have many."
"Then out with it." Loiju said with a smile
"Well, as a first, perhaps finding a Hobby might help."
"A hobby you say?"
"Yes, having a hobby is the best way to not only kill some time here and there but also to meet new people."
"Considering you have nothing at all to do, looking around the place might be a good start."
"You can go fishing, collect things, even become a small-time merchant by opening some sort of shop, you have the funds to do a lot of things, though that last one was more of an exoteric idea than anything."
"Since you said you have no interest in leaving Orario for now, then the first two are good options, there are several rivers in Orario in many hotspots for fishing, and many families use them for sustenance, if you go there every now and then to fish, you may even find a lady." He said with a few chuckles
"That can wait for now… But do continue."
Fishing is interesting but I never really got interested in those kinds of things…
But it may be good to give it a try since I'm on Vacation.
'Seeing his expression, Silver continued:'
"If fishing is not something you're interested in, collecting is a nice way to learn about things, you can collect seemingly anything, but I would be careful of starting it as some collections can quickly escalate out of proportion, you wouldn't want to start collecting expensive swords for example…"
"Yeah… I could see myself collecting something small… Like clocks? But certainly, not now, I'm not old enough for that yet…" Loiju replied with a thin smile
"Let's see then… You could continue working."
"... You think so too?" Loiju asked with a disappointed gaze
"Well… Who said you had to keep working in the Guild?"
"Huh?"
"I mean, by all means, you can, you could sign for another position, one more relaxed and simple with less workload where you can wake up go to work without much effort, and leave while the sun is up."
"If you keep working at the Guild, even if at another position, this might give you time to rethink your life and once things calm down, you can either resume your previous job, aiming for higher and better positions, or you can just retire and call it a day."
"If you do choose to continue, meeting new people would be a matter of course, but I don't think the Guild is the best place for that if that's your goal..." Silver said as his expression became awkward
"I… Didn't think of that."
"Also, despite it all, didn't you like working there?" Silver asked as he thought of the past
"..."
Yeah… I don't know why I simply started villainizing my workplace.
Everyone there is kind of depressed with their dark faces and all but…
They are the only people I know.
And even then, the work in there isn't even that hard, I was doing just fine until…
'He turned to look at Silver.'
Until… This crazy ass came in!
"Something's wrong?"
"No no, continue."
"Hum… Well, with your money, the best thing you could do is invest it somewhere, as you said, I also think it is a waste of time and opportunity to leave it rotting somewhere inside a bank, it's not even entirely safe, especially from an Elf point of view, you'll be riding for a loooong time."
The only reason why most businesses aren't controlled by Elves is that they, until recently were mostly secluded in their home forests.
Wars in the North coupled with the fact Riveria, a Royal, left the forest for an adventure sure helped them rethink their life choices a bit.
It's the same reason why Dwarves are rich, their traditions and history with mining made them wealthy, coupled with the fact Dwarves can also easily live past 100 and you get the recipe for success.
Over time, Elves will likely grow to control many businesses as well, they do have the time to spare and grow as 100 years is considered middle age at most for most Elves.
High Elves live even more than that, Riveria is at most an adult from their perspective, albeit due to her position and career, she acts like an old lady sometimes.
Or an overworked mother.
"Invest it… I did think of that but I wasn't sure if it was a good idea…"
"You did?"
"... So… I was thinking of just giving you the money." He said in an embarrassed tone
"... What?"
"Well, it's not giving you but an investment, I thought that since you are the person I know and trust most in this city, lending you the money, especially now that your Familia needs it as it's expanding would be the wisest thing to do."
"I know I'm not the only one thinking about that, you must've received similar offers by now but refused them didn't you?"
"... Yes, apart from a few possible people, I decided to refuse most forms of investment." Silver replied calmly as he thought about it
Hephaestus can be considered one.
I have even started to invest in others as well or plan to.
Takamikazuchi, Miach, Artemis, and even Leto are such examples.
Considering 3 of them are mostly exploration-type Familias, and lower ranked ones at that, they would fit well with the current layout of the Hestia Familia.
Making friends as you grow isn't a must, but having people you can rely on is definitely nice to have, even the Loki Familia doesn't have this many close alliances.
"So yeah, why not just give you my money and just call it a day? I don't see how leaving my money with a Familia that is going to rise even further is a bad deal."
"That… That is something…"
"But it would be weird, wouldn't it?" Loiju interrupted with a cheeky smile as he gazed at Silver
"..."
"I… Think there are better places for you to invest your money." Silver said with a serious expression as he tapped his fingers on the armchair
"Yes, leaving your money with a growing Familia can benefit you, but we're not a business, it's not like you can give us money and take out a small part of our winnings every month or something."
"What merchants do is often sponsor a Familia with gear and items in the expectation they may do something for them when they need, or advertise them, perhaps both, maybe something else.'
"Or sometimes, if the investment is considerable enough, then rake in part of the profits on a monthly basis, as you suggested."
"The problem is, for the current Hestia Familia, the merchant approach wouldn't work."
"We do not collect the earnings of our members that actively, so it would be difficult to support such a transaction."
About 45% is collected, so if a party makes 100K in a day, 45K goes to us, while the rest is divided among themselves.
Then, at the end of the month, an additional salary is given based on contribution, with a minimum value given based on their Level and position.
This is the best we could come up with since everyone, be it the Familia or them needs money.
Mostly the adventurers individually, need gear and items, and in essence, a Familia is its people, without proper care, every bit of investment in them is lost when they die.
Even then, for that purpose, the Familias has all sorts of things, we give them gear, we give them good rooms, food, a roof, training rooms, and more, so we also need money to maintain that.
If Loiju or a merchant were to invest in us, where do we make the cut?
From the money flowing into the Familia, our 45%, or the 55% they make?
It's important to know when and where to draw the line.
"... And uh... Currently, 50 million Valis may help us, but it would end up extremely spread out once the new recruiting started, that may be inconsequential on the whole."
"We also just received an injection 10 times that amount plus all of the money we made from the bets and the items I sold from my stash"
"Our coffers are… Full in a sense, and even if we are investing greatly in other areas such as real state around our Manor and the like, investing in the Familia itself wouldn't be wise…"
'But before Loiju could reply, he continued:'
"What I can recommend is to invest in either one of our Groups or directly in one of our future businesses."
"What? What do you mean?" Loiju asked with a surprised expression
"Let's take you as a merchant, one that is already quite accomplished, you have money and a great connection with the rising Familia."
"You cannot invest in the Familia itself, it is already too big and even trying would be greedy, you cannot claim a big part of it for yourself…"
"But you could claim smaller parts of it, such as a small potion shop the Familia runs, or a specific adventuring group, and you are an advisor, you already know how to help and manage Adventurers."
"Of course, even if your word comes second to them after mine… Hestia's and even some others, you could still greatly influence them."
"Ohh! I see. Instead of aiming at the whole, I can just invest in smaller things?"
"That's the gist of it, I'm a bit unsure of what this sort of action would be from a merchant standpoint, but it should be safe and profitable enough for you to start."
"I mean… As safe as someone that knows nothing of trading and managing a business could get, better deal with us than with someone else."
"True… If I were to invest in a shop while knowing nothing of the business, it would be very easy to rip me off, at least with you, I could help you guys set up something and let you all manage it."
"It's just an idea of course, we have nothing close to that done, and even if we were to push it forward, we have at most an Apprentice potion maker and an aspiring Smith… Not really what a Merchant in your position would've liked to hear."
"Guess that's true… Ha!"
"So, if you don't mind waiting a few years, that is an option…"
"But I think there are better places for you to put that money on, even if they aren't directly affiliated with us… What do you think?" Silver asked as he raised his index finger
"Well… I made this money thanks to you, so I don't think it would be a problem to follow what you have to say again, it was my idea from the very start."
"Then… What do you think about investing in a rising Familia from overseas and in a potion making Familia that is rising in popularity?"
"Hum?..."
'Loiju's interest had been piqued.'
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Notes
That's it.
Pretty simple chapter, can 100% be considered filler.
But I wanted to add Loiju and show how he's doing, I like him quite a bit.
Anyway, this conversation would lead to a development that will have effects over the course of the Volume so I think it's fine.
What do you think Loiju should do with his life?
Remember that we'll likely still have a second side chapter about Loiju's family in the future! People seemed to like Silver's and the Elf kid adventures.
Aside from that... Peace?