Chapter 143: The Bear Opens Shop

Chapter 143:
The Bear Opens Shop

 

A FEW DAYS HAD PASSED since Milaine had taken Sherry and, finally, the embroidered aprons came in. I was impressed she’d been able to make them in such a short time. She hadn’t just made four for the women working at the shop, either—she’d even prepped one for Neaf, since she’d be coming by to help out now and again. The couple who managed the tailor shop had apparently been shocked by Sherry’s speed.

Sherry hadn’t only helped with the embroidery but with making the aprons themselves. She’d been good at sewing from the start—for a while now, Sherry had been mending the orphan’s torn clothes in the headmistress’s place. They probably hadn’t even been able to buy clothes before I came into the picture, so mending had been a given.

Sherry continued going to the tailor even after she finished the aprons. The shop couple had apparently invited her to work at their shop from then on. Even though Sherry hesitated at first, the headmistress encouraged her not to miss a good opportunity, so she decided to take the job.

I guess she still wasn’t all that confident, since she was still muttering, “Are you sure you want me…?”

Still, she seemed happy that others had recognized the skills her mom had taught her when she was young. I didn’t know how far she’d get, but I heard she was going to learn how to make clothes and tons of other things too.

Sherry told me all of this bashfully.

“Looks like someone finally noticed what you can do and how hard you work,” I said, and she beamed.

 

Prep for the shop was well underway and Anz’s group was working hard to get it open.

I was putting some elbow grease into it, too, of course. I made bears for outside the shop, I made bears for inside the shop, I made bears for outside the shop, and I made bears for inside the shop. (They were very important, everybody said, so I just had to tell you a few extra times.)

In addition to the bear at the entrance to the shop—the one with the giant fish to show this was a shop that made fish-based cuisine—I also made bears to put inside the shop. I was gonna have to make bears anyway, so I figured I might as well make a few extra—no escape, you know? So I made a statue of a bear hunkering down in a sitting position with a bowl and chopsticks.

Seemed a little cluttered, but what did I know? I just made ’em.

 

Finally, it was the day before the Bear Bistro’s opening.

We’d sourced the main seafood and rice ingredients from Mileela. The ice mana gems I’d taken off the snowmin from the Elezent mountain range were coming in handy—normal adventurers would have had trouble getting those things, but not me.

Those same mountains were why Mileela and Crimonia used to have so much trouble intermingling. But now the tunnel was done, and people could trade or commute—all of which was making a positive influence on both places, according to Cliff.

The trade guild and adventurers’ guild had joined together to make it all happen too, though Cliff was the one giving out most of the directions. Felt a little weird to think about that, even if the trade guild was also involved; the guild was selling the seafood and salt, but salt production and sales happened at Cliff’s command and under the king’s jurisdiction.

I didn’t know the details of how they made salt from saltwater, but (according to novels and manga I’d read) it was supposed to be some harsh manual labor.

So, when I heard about the salt, I’d told them not to cause trouble for the residents in Mileela. Just in case, I’d let it slip to Cliff that, “If anything happens, the tunnel might end up naturally collapsing on itself.”

I’m very subtle when I need to be.

But Cliff probably wouldn’t do anything fishy, so I wasn’t all that worried.

We’d also revved up publicity for the grand opening of the shop. I’d asked Milaine to put up flyers at the trade guild and other relevant venues. Tiermina had told me she asked the butcher and the grocer we worked with to put some up as well.

I did a sample tasting at the Bear’s Lounge too. Anz prepped the fish, and made seafood dishes, hand rolls, bamboo shoot rice, and seasoned rice for people to try for free. Lastly, we made seafood hotpot and distributed it to the customers.

Like I said, you’ve got to spend some to make some. No matter how great your food is, it’s hard to get people to spend money on something new. On the other hand, if they try it for free and like it, they’ll come by and pay next time. If those initial customers told other people about it after, we were looking at a huge success. There was no way anyone could fail to recognize how great Anz’s food was, even after a single taste.

 

Just like I thought, we had a ton of customers on opening day. I had Rulina and Gil guard the front of the shop just like I had with the Bear’s Lounge. The agreement was that they’d get a week of meals in return. Since I had two adventurers standing at the entrance, nobody made a scene, and we didn’t see any kind of ruckus.

I helped out in the back too. They taught me how to prep the fish, but I wasn’t as good as Anz and the others. I helped more with the veggie and meat dishes.

The seasoned rice-style dishes were unexpectedly popular. I guess folks liked the soy sauce, since those items were practically flying out of our kitchen. The soy sauce also attracted people to the seafood, which got us some promising orders.

Once the day ended, all the people in the shop seemed dead. Neaf had come to help from the orphanage, but it had been so busy that now, at the end of the day, she was collapsed over a table. Anz, Bettle, and I had made the food while Forne and Seno had worked hard at the front of the shop.

“I’m beat.”

“I’m going to die.”

“I had no idea it’d be so busy.”

“I’d like to ask for a raise.”

Everyone looked resentfully at me. Way to put me on the spot. I was pretty sure I’d warned them from the start how popular this would get, given how good Anz was at cooking, but the first taste menu had earned a bigger response than even I expected.

“If you’re going to blame anyone, blame Anz,” I groaned. “This all happened because she went all-out for the food tasting.”

“But Yuna, I wanted to have lots of people try the food.”

“Then you think you can keep this shop running, Anz?”

Anz nodded. “I was anxious at first, but I’m happy that so many people are excited to try my food.”

“But it was so hectic,” Neaf mumbled. “Too many…”

I shook my head. “For now, sure. People will come from far away because the food is novel, but once fish and rice start going around, they’ll be able to eat it at all kinds of other establishments. Things’ll settle down then, and it’ll be a battle between you and a bunch of upstarts. That’s when you’ll really have to show off your skills, Anz.”

“I’ll put my heart into it,” Anz said, managing more gusto than I thought could fit into someone so exhausted.

Yeah. She was gonna be okay.