Chapter 25: What a Drag...

The morning of the fifth day since we began making a hundred packed meals per day...

We quickly made the things we couldn’t prepare the night before, like food that went bad or lost flavor quickly, and completed the meals. There were a hundred in total: Fifty pre-ordered meals, and fifty for general sales. We’d only taken up to fifty orders beforehand. This was the limit of how much we could make; or, to be honest, it was already past the limit.

It would’ve been easy to make them with my ability, but that wouldn’t feel right. I didn’t mind making medicine with it, but these meals were a different story. I wouldn’t know the answer if you asked me what the difference was, but I, Kaoru Nagase, would not concede that point.

I felt like I had to protect that line, or I was afraid I’d “make a barrel-shaped container full of gold and a little bit of medicine,” or “make a handsome man-shaped container with some medicine in his mouth,” or other godless acts (and by “god” I don’t mean that so-called god, but a real god like one they worship on Earth).

Speaking of those box lunches, we didn’t just make the same one a hundred times; there were variations. It’d be too much trouble to make a big variety of meals, but we did make slight modifications on the side dishes depending on the preferences of whoever made them.

There were ten types of side dishes, and we each picked five of them as we put the lunches together. Not only were they made by Belle, Francette, and me, Layette made some too. While she didn’t participate in the actual cooking, she picked out the side dishes and put them into the containers.

We stopped general sales once the number of pre-ordered meals pending pick up and the number of meals in stock matched, so the pre-order customers who came after had to pick from whatever was left over. If they wanted a specific one, they’d have to come early. Everyone always picked the one with the shiitake-looking mushrooms simmered in sugar and salt though. That really was a great dish, if I said so myself!

Oh, the condiments like soy sauce and sugar were made by my potion creation ability. That was still within the range of acceptability. I had to allow myself that or it’d be too much. There had to be a line somewhere.

We put the boxed lunches out in the shop and had breakfast with the leftover dishes. Francette had woken up earlier to help out, but Roland was still sleeping at the inn. Emile was asleep upstairs too. This meal was just for the girls who helped make the lunches.

I was going to let Layette stay in bed, but she noticed me waking up in the morning and stayed awake ever since. It’s said sleep brings up a child well, so I didn’t want to wake her... But if I got a separate bed, she’d probably get upset.

Hmm...

In any case, the hunters and on-site workers who left first thing in the morning were already here buying box lunches, but... why did the “Kaoru Box” I made have the most leftovers?! Francette’s “Fran Box,” Belle’s “Belle Box,” and Layette’s “Lay-unch Box” all sold better than mine! Why?! I was confident mine had superior volume and balance for each dish! Besides, I was the one who thought up all the dishes and seasonings. This was unacceptable! I decided to ask the customers directly.

“Oh, the Fran Boxes are filling because it’s like whoever made them forcibly stuffed the dishes into the box. It’s just the right amount for us.”

“The Belle Boxes don’t have any fried foods or anything like that, so they’re the healthy option. I cook the horned rabbits I catch on site or the organs of bigger prey I can’t take home, so this is just the right size.”

“The Lay-unch Boxes are adorable. It feels like my daughter tried her best to make it for me.”

“But you don’t even have a daughter, wife, or lover...”

“Shut up! That’s why I like them!”

“...Sorry.”

Huh?

“E-Excuse me, umm... What about the Kaoru Box?”

“Oh, the Kaoru Box? Well, about that... If I had to describe it in one word, it’s...”

“Yes...?”

“““Average?”””

I was dumbfounded. Speechless.

“Oh, I mean, it’s good though. The Kaoru Box tastes good, too, of course!”

The customer quickly tried to make me feel better after seeing my dejected expression.

Of course it’s good! They’re all good, I’m the one who made all the dishes!

Urrrg... Damn it, I wasn’t about to go down without a fight!

But everyone else’s box lunches were specialized for a certain demographic, while mine was for the general crowd. Since I was so used to cooking for my family, I had a tendency to lean toward the average of what most people enjoyed. If I geared my box lunch toward a certain demographic, there may be customers who wouldn’t have anything to buy because they didn’t like meals that were too peculiar.

Box lunches had so much depth to them!

There had to be a good solution. Some way that would make all the customers happy...

Wait, why am I getting so worked up over this?! This whole pre-packed lunch thing was a tool for my plan, and I was only going along with it because it was too awkward to quit. It was a nuisance that took up so much of my time...

But seeing the customers deciding between the options with a serious face, then putting the boxes into their bags with a smile and looking forward to eating what was inside... It just gave me this feeling I never got when selling medicine or when I was an office lady in my previous life. It was... fun? Happiness? Something like that...

Argh, damn, I wish I could think of a good idea...

There were some customers who weren’t out on day trips too. Maybe they needed something that would last? Maybe they also needed drinks?

Ahh, what’s gotten into me...

＊　　　＊

“Battalion commander, the medicine shop sisters are here!”

“Let them through!”

The soldier who led us there announced our arrival as he knocked on the battalion commander’s door, and we heard the lieutenant colonel’s voice respond. The soldier then opened the door and let us into the room.

“Huh...?”

I was expecting the lieutenant colonel to be alone since he let us in, but there were five men sitting around the table on guest sofas. Of course, one of those men was the lieutenant colonel. Judging by the number of lines and shapes in what seemed to be their rank insignia, the other four seemed to be of slightly lower rank than him.

“Ah, allow me to introduce them. They are my subordinates, the commanders of the four companies. These two are the medicine shop sisters I mentioned before. She’s the one who has been supplying us with the medicine you’ve all been fighting over.”

“Oho, so this is her...”

“She’s younger than I imagined. Quite impressive, claiming exclusive distributorship at her age...”

Maybe it was the lieutenant colonel’s influence or maybe they were all good people to begin with, but none of them showed me hostility or mocked me and seemed to be friendly. Though I supposed most people in positions of power wouldn’t try to intimidate a commoner girl who was about the age of their grandchildren. An idiot wouldn’t be able to climb to the ranks of company commander. But I suspected they had a different face for their subordinates and enemies.

“And I hear you handled a noble who tried to interfere in your business?” the lieutenant colonel asked.

News sure was quick to reach his ears. Or could it be he had me under surveillance...?

“...Well, I guess it was like swatting away an annoying bug.”

“Hahaha, she’s got some spunk!” One of the company commanders laughed out loud, rather than the lieutenant colonel. Rank-wise... he seemed like a captain or major?

In any case, the strap of the bag was painfully digging into my shoulder. I couldn’t place it on the table in front of the sofas they were sitting on with all the paperwork on top of it, so I placed my bag on top of the lieutenant colonel’s desk. Then I pulled out the boxes of medicine and lined them up. I’d thought about lowering the quantity for this delivery, but I reconsidered and brought the same amount as last time.

“So, the guard regiment and royal sentries haven’t been getting any of the medicine...” I commented with a bit of an attitude, and the lieutenant colonel replied with a truly confused look on his face.

“What? What does this have to do with them? What are you talking about?” The look on his face told me he was genuinely confused by my comment.

So it really wasn’t out of any malice...

They were completely different organizations, so the thought never crossed his mind. That was all there was to it. It wasn’t that the lieutenant colonel was doing something bad. This was all caused by my lack of knowledge... It was my fault.

Just then, some document on the table entered my field of view.

“...Huh?”

There, it read:

“High grade soldier’s disease medicine, 2 small gold coins. 10g pepper, 3 small gold coins.”

It was cheaper than the selling and market price? The medicine was two thirds the price I was selling for. The pepper was probably about the same rate, considering the market price. I’d heard medical expenses were free for the army because they were covered by the kingdom. So what was with these prices?

“You’re reselling them?! And in plain sight, without even trying to hide it! Are you friggin’ kidding me?!”

Seeing the menacing look on my face, the lieutenant colonel and company commanders all stared with a blank expression. Even if the lieutenant colonel was the buyer, the expenses would be paid by the kingdom, and I’d been prioritizing their deliveries because he claimed it was for his soldiers. This was an absolutely unlawful resale, and an act of embezzlement. I thought they would’ve learned from the incident with the noble that I wasn’t the type to take this sort of thing lying down.

I put the medicine I’d laid out on the lieutenant colonel’s desk back into my bag and hoisted it onto my shoulder.

“This will be the end of our little arrangement...”

“...Wait! Wait, wait, wait! What in the world are you saying? What made you upset so suddenly?”

The lieutenant colonel got up in a fluster without even trying to cover the documents on the table. Such nonsense...

“Just what is this document?! High grade disease medicine for two small gold coins, 10 grams of pepper for three small gold coins?! Your medical expenses are free, aren’t they? What are these prices then?!”

“““Huh...?”””

After my angry outburst, the lieutenant colonel’s blank expression turned to that of shock. “Y-You can read this?!”

He must have assumed I could speak, but not read or write. Who did he think wrote the letter I gave to the child from the orphanage last time?

“I know how to read and write the language of this kingdom!”

“N-No, I understand that. I’m asking if you’re able to read this coded message. We confiscated it in a place we suspect is the contact point for the group reselling military property into the market.”

“...Huh?”

“““...”””

“...Whaaat?”

“““...”””

“Whaaaaaat?!”

“The ability to communicate, read, and write in any language here.”

Coded messages counted as a “language” too?

“G...”

“““‘Guh’...?”””

“Gyaaaaaa!!!”

I slowly put my bag back down on the lieutenant colonel’s desk, then took out the medicine boxes and laid them out next to the bag.

“L-Let’s pretend that didn’t happen...”

“““Now wait just a minute!”””

...Yeah, didn’t think so.

I was then questioned rather fiercely.

“Explain yourself! How are you able to read the resellers’ coded message?! No, I’m not suspecting you, so you don’t need to look so scared. It wouldn’t make sense for you to read it aloud if you were one of them. Unless you were incredibly stupid, that is. And I know you are not... Well, you’re not that stupid.”

“Why did you just rephrase that?!”

Damn it. I couldn’t really deny that. It may have been Celes’s fault, but it was true I messed up big time here.

I have to find an excuse!

“I-It’s because this is a really easy code that can’t even fool a child. Anyone could decode it at a glance!”

“...A team of military specialists has been working on it for three weeks now.”

An awkward silence filled the room.

I had to get through this somehow!

It seemed like a series of meaningful letters when I first saw it without thinking, but looking at it carefully, I could see the structure of the sentences. Of course, my ability to “read and write” meant I’d be able to write as well as I could read it. To write it, I’d need to be able to understand the rules of how the text strings were laid out.

“Um, first we read the text vertically... and the first number that appears is four, right? So you convert all the characters to the one four spots before them. And the second number going down vertically is three, so we skip three spots each and pick up the character there, then line them up. Then...”

The men jotted down notes in a hurry as I explained. Once my explanations were complete, the lieutenant colonel posed a question.

“...So you did this extremely complicated conversion process in an instant? All in your head, without taking any notes?”

I’d expected him to point that out, but I was prepared with an answer.

“Huh? Is there a need to take notes on something this easy?”

Aaaaaagh! Such a cringey line!

But I had no other way to explain it, so I had no choice!

“““...”””

...I want to go home.

“How would you like to join the military? If you join now, I’ll let you become an intelligence officer as a major—no, a first lieutenant.”

Oooh, a first lieutenant! A military officer and a leader! That was some favorable treatment, skipping right to a leadership position! Maybe he was offering a rank as a military officer instead of a civilian employee to make it harder for me to quit?

“Like hell I’m joining!”

Haah... haah...

I declined their attempts to get me to stay, and managed to get back home. Layette had blended in with the background and was apparently bored the whole time, unable to understand the conversation. Um, sorry about that...

When we got back to the shop, Belle and Emile passed over the shopkeeping duties to us and departed to do some hunter work. They were off to hunt some beast instead of harvesting today. It was good to see that they were progressing.

Layette sat on my lap and helped me shopkeep as usual. The box lunches had been sold out for a while now. I sold some medicine for stomach aches and soldier’s disease to the customers who came in occasionally.

Soldier’s disease affected the average civilian, too, of course, but it wasn’t nearly as prevalent as it was in the military, so there wasn’t too big of a demand for it among civilians. Not many people spent their time sweating all day or walking around with leather shoes that didn’t breathe well, after all. Besides, closed toe leather shoes were expensive. Even soldiers would have a hard time affording them if they weren’t supplied by the military.

I made the stomach pain medicine so it killed off parasites with one dose, killed bacteria from food poisoning and broke down toxins, and relieved pain from internal diseases, curing them slightly. There’d be trouble if rumor spread that my medicines could cure any common illness, so I had to control myself.

Then, once the customers stopped coming in...

“Excuse me, may I purchase five bottles each of the shampoo, cosmetics, and the perfumes you provided as samples the other day?” a maid walked up to the counter and asked. I didn’t recognize her face, but knew what she was talking about right away. She was a servant for the wife of the noble who tried to monopolize the soldier’s disease medicine, whose name I didn’t even know.

Five sets of the shampoo and cosmetics would be thirty small gold coins. I could probably upcharge the perfumes to three small gold coins, so five bottles for fifteen.

Let’s go with forty-five small gold coins total!

“I’m sorry, but the perfume is a bit pricey so the total will come to forty-five small gold coins. Is that okay?” I asked hesitantly, but the maid was unfazed.

“Yes, my mistress has provided me with ten gold coins...”

Noooooo! I should have upcharged even more! She must’ve thought I undercharged last time and lost money just to appease her, or assumed the perfume was ridiculously expensive because they were only offered as samples without being sold...

In any case, I blew it! It seemed like I could’ve asked for seventy small gold coins, which would’ve been seven gold coins...

No, no, hold on. If I charged that much, it would become the regular price, and the average citizen wouldn’t be able to buy it! I didn’t mind pricing the luxury items like cosmetics and perfume a little higher, but I had to keep the shampoo affordable.

I reconsidered as such and began wrapping the products, when a question came to mind.

“How is your mistress doing? Is her hair and skin looking well? Has she been talking about them to other noble ladies and gentlemen?”

It was market research for the advertising situation. We at Layette’s Atelier used the latest business strategies as the leading enterprise in the industry!

“Oh, yes, she certainly has... Her hair is silky, her skin is smooth and supple... She’s been excitedly saying that it’s as if she’s back in her younger years...”

Huh? I mean, they were definitely more effective than the ones on Earth, but their effects shouldn’t have been that drastic... Oh, maybe because the effects of shampoo and conditioner were so clear to see, maybe she thought they were more effective than they actually were? Like that placebo effect thing. Maybe next time I see her, she’ll thank me in Russian.

...Wait, no, that’s “spasiba”!

“So, did she mention it to her other noble friends?”

“Oh, absolutely! Everyone has been envious and asking what her secret is, to which she responds by smiling and laughing. She looked ever so evil... I mean, happy.”

Ah, that was goo... Wait, what?

“They ask her what her secret is...? Wait, what about advertising our shop? She hasn’t mentioned where she got them...?”

“Huh? What are you saying? Do you think a noble mistress would willingly give up a secret that gives her an advantage in beauty? Is your head okay?”

Gahhh! No wonder there hadn’t been any effects from advertisement... I was expecting her to spread word about my cosmetic products, so I hadn’t been advertising for those at all! I didn’t want too many customers coming in from going overboard. But now...

That’s it, I’ll show her!

“...Please, come here.”

“Huh? Wh-What are you...”

I grabbed the maid by the arm and took her into the back room. I pointed with my chin, and Layette quickly entered to switch the sign at the door to indicate we were on a temporary break.

“Wh-What, what are you... Aaahhh!”

One hour later...

A maid with soft, flowy hair, glowing skin, and perfect makeup staggered out of Layette’s Atelier smelling wonderful. Her steps seemed a bit unsteady, but she looked a little happy as she took the shopping bags home.

“All right, advertising pillar number two has been erected! A commoner will have no choice but to answer if a noble or person in power questions her! Muahahaha!”

But even after that, the cosmetic products didn’t sell much. This was the obvious result.

As soon as the mistress received the products, she told her maid to keep her mouth shut. She then prevented her from appearing before guests until her makeup and the effects of her hair treatment were completely gone. On top of that, the mistress examined the makeup put on the maid and practiced on her servants to recreate the effect, improving her techniques even further...