After shopping at the market, everyone returned to the clan house.
"Stop it! Please don't argue in front of the shops in the market! It's embarrassing and disgraceful, and it's a nuisance to the shop staff and other customers!" (Mile)
As soon as she entered the house, Mile criticized Pauline.
"No, I couldn’t give in on that! I couldn’t let the standard price of meat used in our clan be about three small silver coins per 100 grams!! Of course, I'm not saying it should be worth four copper coins, but three small silver coins... To begin with, we have Mile-chan and Reina, who are huge eaters! Mavis also eats more than the average woman... Ah, no, Mavis is a frontline job that requires a lot of stamina, and she's the biggest out of us... I'm feeling even more depressed now... Sorry, nope just now! ...Anyway, that's why, less than two small silver coins per 100 grams! I won't compromise on that! Well, exceptions are made for special occasions such as celebrations..." (Pauline)
Mavis was upset when Pauline treated her like a big eater, but it was nothing compared to Mile and Reina.
In fact, the process of determining the levels of the ingredients used by the clan at the market was going quite smoothly. ...Between the six people other than Pauline. But Pauline was reluctant when it came to spending money. Even though she was not short of money now... On the Old Continent, apart from the budget of her own territory, she had a huge amount of personal assets through the trading company she set up and ran herself...
The butcher was probably also annoyed by the argument taking place in front of his shop, but he was flustered and unable to stop it because it was a very serious discussion about purchasing goods for his shop. …Perhaps he was hoping that the maximum price for meat these girls could purchase would be raised even a little…
Then, when Pauline started to mention the amount of meat Mile and Reina were eating, everyone quickly covered her mouth and left the place, deciding that they would discuss the matter at their leisure at the clan house.
"There's a reason why cheap meat is cheap! From a cost-effectiveness standpoint..."
"The nutritional value is not going to change much, right?"
"Well, let's also think about the taste, texture, and satisfaction..."
"I don't like it if it's not delicious!"
Wonder Trio was listening to Crimson Vow's debate with a dumbfounded look on their face, when Marcella pointed out something.
"...Um, we and Mile-san have a huge amount of monster meat stored in our storage magic..." (Marcella)
"Ah……" (All CV)
That's right. That was the absolute defense battle in the Albarn Empire. There was a huge amount of monster corpses at that time. If left unattended, it would rot and cause great disaster. Also, the price of monster materials would temporarily plummet, ruining the hunter's livelihood.
And if the meat and materials related to monsters that temporarily plummeted in value were left untreated, they would quickly rot and become unusable. If that happened, then the situation would suddenly change and there would be a shortage of products... In any case, this would cause trouble for many people, and the land would become a terrible mess covered with rotting corpses.
So, in order to prevent this from happening, Mile and the Wonder Trio stored a large number of monsters in their item box. ...In particular, they focused on items that were likely to sell for a high price and items that were delicious...
However, in order to avoid destroying the market price, they were stored as excess stock in the item box and treated as "non-existent", and unless there was a specific reason, they would not be sold to the guild. ...Hunter Guild, merchant guild, artisan guild, all the guilds...
However, there were no particular restrictions on them cooking and eating the food themselves. Besides, aside from the rare creatures that couldn't be hunted around here, if it was normal orcs or horn rabbits or the like, they could replenish their supplies through regular hunting.
"We are hunters, so if we come back from hunting and have some meat for ourselves for a few days, it's not weird, right? However, it would be strange if so much time had passed, or if we had a large amount of meat other than the monsters we could hunt in this area, so when I borrowed the kitchen at the inn to cook, bought that kind of monster meat and livestock meat from the butcher. ...In Mile-san terms, this is called 'creating an alibi'." (Marcella)
Although the large capacity storage magic had been made public, as expected, the time stopping function had been kept a secret. So, even though they weren't out hunting, they couldn't keep providing raw meat for too long.
"Because of this, when Mile-san cook in public, she's limited in the types of meat allowed to use. However, if we cook in the clan house (here), we don't need to worry about being seen by others, so we can use as much of the various types of monster meat that have been stored away as you want. So, from now on, what we will be buying at the market will not be monster meat, but livestock, namely cows, goats, sheep, chickens, and so on, as well as eggs and milk produced from them, and processed products. ...In other words, it's only a small portion of the meat that the clan actually consumes..." (Marcella)
"Approved! I will approve the price of meat purchased at the market up to 4 small silver coins per 100 grams! Restrictions are lifted for celebrations and special occasions! Also, if Mile-chan uses it to research new dishes, it will also be exempt from the restrictions!" (Pauline)
"Ohhhhh!!" (x3)
Pauline had generously given them permission.
In particular, Mile's research funding was now unlimited. Although it was called research, a prototype was made for everyone to eat, so everyone could eat it. Well, since the budget for meat had been drastically reduced, maybe that was within Pauline's acceptable range. However, in Mile's cooking research, the spices and seasonings used usually costed more than the meat itself...
After that, the group went through various adjustments regarding the purchase of shared supplies, deciding to some extent which stores they would definitely not buy from and which stores they would favor based on the price and quality of the items for sale...
"So, Reina-san, don't go shopping alone..." (Mile)
"What's that?" (Reina)
Reina was furious at Mile's suggestion.
"Ah, no, well… Reina-san, you can’t use storage magic, so I thought it might be difficult to carry the things you bought… For seven people, several days' worth of food is quite a lot..." (Mile)
"That goes for Pauline too! Why did you name me out when you left out Pauline who is weaker than me and can't carry any luggages?" (Reina)
"..." (x3)
Mile, Mavis, and Pauline were left speechless when they were told the truth. The three members of Wonder Trio didn't understand why Mile said that, so they were unable to say anything.
……yes. Reina couldn't cook. In fact, it was devastating. And she had no talent for discerning good ingredients. Crustaceans that are not firm, fruits that are hollow and not sweet, vegetables that are not fresh. ...And then there are the tasty parts and meat that's starting to go bad... When they left the grocery shopping to Reina, she bought those kinds of things because they were cheap.
At first, Mile would rack her brains to find ways to cook the food so that it would be edible, but there was a limit to what she could do, and if the ingredients were poor quality, it was inevitable that the finished dish would be of poor quality. In addition, it was time-consuming and expensive to prepare the food, as it had to be simmered for a long time to make it soft, and many seasonings and spices had to be used to mask the flavor.
So, in Crimson Vow, the purchasing of ingredients was left to Mile, but as the number of people consuming ingredients increased, the number of people with item boxes and storage magic increased, and more people were able to discern ingredients, the decision was made to share the procurement of ingredients, and this was the result.
The Wonder Trio group, unaware of the situation, were confused and didn't understand why Mile and the other Crimson Vow members were so anxious, but to them, this was a battle they could not give in to...
Author's Note
Announcement!
As usual, we will be taking two weeks off for the New Year holidays.
Therefore, there will be no updates next week and the week after. (^^)/
Thank you for everything this year.
We look forward to your continued support next year! (^^)/
And on Friday, January 12th, the new year, the second volume of the comic "I Want to Avoid Reincarnation in Another World at All Costs!?", an original work by Mori Kiyuki-sensei, who illustrated the spin-off comic "I Want to Avoid Reincarnation in Another World at All Costs!?" (4 volumes in total), will be published!
This is a publication during the holidays, so it's a little early, but I wanted to let you know... (^^)/