"Est-san, are you ready?" (Morena, via letter)
"Yes. I am currently in my country's breadbasket. A huge amount of agricultural produce has already been collected, with the warehouses full and mountains piling up outside.
There are several such collection sites in the area, and similar collections will be made in various locations as I move around.
Furthermore, if we can build up a track record of purchasing and paying for agricultural products, we are likely to be inundated with offers from neighboring countries. Anyway..." (Estrina, via letter)
"The condition is that they will buy it at 20% off the price before the crash. Of course, the lords of the grain-producing regions would jump at the offer.
Here too, my current location is inside an empty warehouse in a poor harvest area.
Well then, let's get started." (Morena, via letter)
It was a bit of a hassle to communicate by letter via storage magic, but since I was constantly checking what was inside the storage magic, there was almost no time lag.
In the warehouse, besides me, there were my guards, the village chiefs of the surrounding villages, the lord of this town, his vassals, and his guards. …It seems like no one believes the explanation I gave beforehand, huh? Even though I might have become famous from the battle six months ago, I only fought with magic. I didn't demonstrate any miraculous powers or anything like that. And the Goddess only recently bestowed upon me this extraordinary storage magic, which I had only told to Father and a very few other people.
...and now I am making it public. Am I being targeted? Am I being used?
Compared to the lives of the common people, such things are trivial matters that didn't even need to be considered. If ones had the courage to oppose me, the beloved of the Goddess, I would take them on as many times as I like.
...It's time. I opened the storage magic and put out the contents inside. The onlookers were silent. Although it was unusual to take something out of a storage magic, anyone of a certain rank had seen it many times, so it was not something to be surprised about. Well, they were probably surprised that I, a princess, had been hiding the fact that I could use storage magic, and that I was only just revealing it now...
I took out the items from the storage compartment.
Take it out. Take it out. Take it out. Take it out. Take it out.
Take it out. Take it out. Take it out. Take it out. Take it out.
Take it out. Take it out. Take it out. Take it out. Take it out.
Take it out. Take it out. Take it out. Take it out. Take it out.
Take it out. Take it out. Take it out. Take it out. Take it out.
Take it out. Take it out. Take it out. Take it out. Take it out.
Take it out. Take it out. Take it out. Take it out. Take it out.
Inside the warehouse, there was silence without a single throat being cleared. And…….
"Woooooooo! It's a miracle, a miracle from the Goddess!! What are you doing?! The space at the Angel-sama's feet is buried, making it difficult for her to take out her next load! Move the load and line it up from the back, help the Angel-sama! Hurry!!" (A Village Chief)
One of the village chiefs shouted, and the others quickly began carrying the luggage. ...That would be helpful. The guards, the lord, and the vassals were all frozen, their mouths agape. Well, don't worry about that, just leave it alone. I have to do what I have to do... Over there, Est-san is bringing items into the open storage space one after another. I took them out just as quickly, one after the other.
Take it out. Take it out. Take it out. Take it out. Take it out.
Take it out. Take it out. Take it out. Take it out. Take it out.
Take it out. Take it out. Take it out. Take it out. Take it out.
Take it out. Take it out. Take it out. Take it out. Take it out.
Take it out. Take it out. Take it out. Take it out. Take it out.
Take it out. Take it out. Take it out. Take it out. Take it out.
Take it out. Take it out. Take it out. Take it out. Take it out.
"Ahhh! Aaahhh! Aaaaahhhh!!"
"Oh, Goddess! Ohhhhhh!!"
I heard a voice from behind me that sounded like it was deeply moved. The lord, his vassals, and their guards.
It's not like food spawns endlessly. There were expenses involved in purchasing the goods, so you will have to pay for them later. It's not free, it's not free! Also, if you make people believe that the Goddess will give them free food if they ever get in trouble, they will become optimistic and lose their sense of crisis and motivation to work. That has to be prevented, yes. Ah, dear vassals, if you have time, I'd like you to help me carry the luggage at my feet...
As I was thinking that, they must have noticed my gaze, as the guards, retainers, and even the lord himself all took off their jackets and began helping with carrying the luggage. Ok, now we can get things done. Est-san only took in the loaded cargo, so it was fast because there was no need to carry the cargo— Wait, am I stupid? I should just move around and take my things out myself! How stupid and embarrassing!
Since then, everyone has treated it with kindness and moved it to the next stockpile warehouse (empty). Over there, Est-san had been moved to the next warehouse (full). I would then travel around the coastal areas where the harvest was bad, before heading to the neighboring country Aubram Kingdom, where the situation was also dire. In order to give Est-san the funds to buy up all the grain over there, I used all of my assets, and even borrowed money to buy up gold ingots, gems, and other items that would sell for a high price over there and sent them via storage. Father also contributed capital from both the national treasury and his personal assets.
Est-san used all of this to buy up surplus food on the other continent. On the other hand, due to poor harvest, it was impossible to obtain no matter how much you paid. On the other hand, prices plummeted due to an abundant harvest. Both of us were connected using a shared storage magic as a tunnel. By using this miraculous power bestowed upon him by the Goddess, I was able to save the lives of many people. I'm sure even the Goddess will praise me!
I had travelled around the coastal areas of our country and were currently in the Aubram Kingdom. To my surprise, I was informed that my activities had inspired food aid from the southern neighbors, Kingdom of Marlene and Kingdom of Trist, who shared a long border with our country. Although those two countries did not experience a poor harvest, their harvests were still quite poor, so they should not have had much leeway.
Apparently, "If we cut our food intake by two-thirds, we can somehow raise enough money to donate to relief efforts," and the entire nation was working together to provide relief. ...You're all stupid. But I didn't hate those kinds of idiots.
Of course, this support was not free, but must be paid for later. That's right, because it costed money to collect and transport relief supplies. And in the future, there might be a case where their own country experienced a poor harvest, so rather than relying on the good sense of the other government at that time, I needed to make sure that they would pay in the form of money.
And most importantly, if aid supplies from neighboring countries were to be provided free of charge, then our position as someone who had to pay for them would be lost. Thank goodness. Somehow, everything is safe...
Author's Note
The spin-off comic "I Shall Survive on Potions! Hanano and Lotte's Journey (1)" (Sirius KC), by Sukima-sensei, the illustrator of "I Shall Survive on Potions!", is now on sale! (^^)/
And the first volume of the "Potion" comic is now available for free on Young Magazine Web! (^^)/
The second episode of the anime will be broadcast on the 14th (Sat) at 2600 (2am Sunday) on the Asahi network!!
Thank you very much!