Fields of Ice

[Amaterasu]

After the initial rough start - though frankly not one that Kushi could have blamed Mack for, considering the situation that surrounded this all - the sake brewer grew fonder of the dwarf. He helped her with the large sake barrels that she had brought from her home, to store them away in the far back next to the handful of barrels of dwarven beer and ale that belonged to him. And as it was a bar, no restructuring was required, everything was set up to start work immediately.

The bigger questions were customers, bookkeeping and of course brewing. Mack had run the bar all by himself up until then which had been sufficient because of the small number of customers, and even though he had brewed most drinks himself he hadn't had much work to do.

"Does that mean that the bar is in a bad spot? Getting so little work that you could do everything by yourself?"

"Nae", the dwarf replied. "Bu' the competition ain't sleepin'. Got some real good brewers 'ere in Dwarfholm, we do. And I ain't a bad brewer, bu' I ain't the best either. An' if yer not the best, ye don' get the best customers."

"So we just need to be the best, huh."

"Yer sayin' it as if it was easy. Yer sake is good, bu'..."

"... I'm the only one in Dwarfholm that currently knows how to make it. If we get popular other people might imitate us, but if we can establish ourselves before then we'll be good."

"Yer fergettin' the peddlers. Booze is profitable. They're gonna start importin' it as soon as people ask fer it. An' can ye measure up to the pros out there?"

Kushi shrugged. "Maybe? If we can't beat them with taste we have to offer better prices. And if they're cheaper we have to improve the quality of our drinks."

It was quickly decided that while the focus would be on sake, plum wine and shochu spirits they would expand their menu with both dwarven liquors that Mack was familiar with as a "fallback" option and non-alcoholic beverages from fresh water to green tea for patrons not wanting to drink liquor at all. The negotiations regarding furniture were tougher: Mack refused to get rid of the "big" rustic tables, chairs and benches based on the claim that they were dwarven culture and that no customers would come to the tiny tea-tables and tatami mats for kneeling on that Kushi wanted. In exchange he agreed on Kushi's proposal to decorate the room in a nipponese style.

The next thing coming to discussion was remuneration... how and what exactly was Mack going to work for? And how long?

Leaving the salary/compensation discussion to you, Sun!