"First up, the standard items for otherworldly domestic affairs cheats: salt, sugar, and spices! I'll make these with my abilities. "Well, if you use your ability to make bulky things like flour or corn, which are commonly sold here, then your source and transportation method might be questioned, but if it's something that can be easily transported in small quantities then you can disguise it in any way, right?" (Kaoru)
"...Isn't it better to avoid sugar in its entirety and go for sweet treats and luxury items instead? The processed kind. If you sell sugar itself, many people will gather to find out how you can get it, so if you sell sweets using a small amount of sugar, people will be less likely to ask you to send them your procurement route. That way, it'll be the technology that makes the money, not the supplies." (Reiko)
Reiko said that in response to my domestic affairs cheat plan.
"I see……" (Kaoru)
"Let’s only use salt for cooking and processed foods at home. The rights to it seem to be quite rigid, and while it’s fine if we’re only using it for our processed foods, there’s bound to be a dispute if we were to sell it… Also, since 'creating something out of nothing' with your potion goes against the laws of nature, it's best not to use it when you can avoid it. "Let's extract salt from seawater." (Reiko)
"Eh? But if we use your magic to evaporate a large amount of seawater at once, the magnesium chloride will remain, and the warm air containing a large amount of moisture will become an updraft, causing a sudden change in the local weather..." (Kaoru)
"Let's separate it by storing it." (Reiko)
"I see……" (Kaoru)
"Spices are expensive and can only be used in small quantities. If we dealt in large quantities of them, it would attract bad guys... Let's use it only as bait to lure merchants and nobles. If we let it go on sale normally, lords from other territories, nobles from the royal capital, merchants from other countries, and many others will gather from a wide range of places and it will become uncontrollable." (Reiko)
"I see……" (Kaoru)
"It's something that doesn't exist around here, its ingredients and value are unknown, so there's no problem if it spreads, and we'd be happy if it led to more delicious dishes....I mean, what about soy sauce or miso? We could make it underground, and it's unlikely anyone else would be able to imitate it, and no one would want to go after something so incomprehensible...
Of course, I've memorized the recipe. I'll have to get you to provide the initial koji though. If your powers are backed by Celes, I'm sure you can get the koji from Earth." (Reiko)
"I see……" (Kaoru)
Damn, all I've been saying so far is "I see"! That's just too convenient, Reiko! I need to come up with some ideas here... That's right, speaking of the classic otherworldly creation cheat, this must be it!
"Um, mayonnaise..." (Kaoru)
"Mayonnaise is a no-no because eggs are scary. Outside of modern Japan, eggs should generally not be eaten raw without being cooked. There is a high probability that they contain large amounts of salmonella. That's because Japan is abnormal in that it is basically okay to eat raw eggs. Besides, in a world without sterilization and sealing technology or refrigerators, food would go bad in an instant. Because it is expensive, people tend to use it little by little and it goes past the expiration date, and people have poor hygiene standards, so there are many reasons for this... It's fine for us, but it might be a bit bad if the customers who buy it end up with food poisoning." (Reiko)
I see... well, then it can't be dismissed as "it might be a little bad"... Damn, the sure-fire "Mayonnaise Warrior" is a no-no...
"Japanese sake……" (Kaoru)
"Do you have any idea how difficult it is to build something, and how much skill and equipment it requires? Besides, even if we have everything we need, we'll still fail. Things will spoil and go bad… It might be possible to make a little bit with your abilities, but it's impossible to produce it ourselves. It's too heavy and the container is too fragile to sneak it in from somewhere else." (Reiko)
Damn it. Well, let's make a few potions for ourselves. It's fine, in my previous life I was already 22, and the age of adulthood here is 15, so it's already been five years since I was reincarnated in a 15-year-old body... no, no, almost 80 years... no, no, no, no!! Anyway, I'm a full adult now, and there's no drinking age here.
"Plum wine!" (Kaoru)
"Maybe it'd be good to make it with brandy." (Reiko)
Ah, finally accepted!
"For now, let's avoid the extreme measures like changing eye colors, fighting recklessly, or even resorting to murder to secure supply routes. Instead, let's prepare something that a reasonably established merchant house would be willing to deal with. Increase the variety of spices but reduce each quantity. And once we've gained a certain level of trust, we can be introduced to large stores and nobles..." (Reiko)
"Use our special move!!" (Kaoru + Reiko)
Yes, at that stage, release a powerful product.
"Well, that's it!"
Umm, let's go with that for now.
"Eh? Oh, please wait a moment!" (Clerk)
Yes, today Reiko and I were working together to develop sales channels. Mine and Aral were at home taking care of Hang and Bad and working in the fields. Today's new business development was for the "underground business," and it was still too early for those two to start selling. Then, a mid-sized trading company from the city arrived with samples of their items for sale.
Normally, the people of this continent would have just brushed us off if we had shown up to make a cold call, since we looked like minors around 12 or 13 years old, but since Little Silver (our company) was already fairly well-known for various things—I didn't know if it was in a good way or a bad way—but the person who dealt with us seemed hesitant to turn us away on his own accord. …Yes, there were all kinds of merchants who have bothered me. And then the person who was called in, fearing the worst, led us to a room in the back for business negotiations. ...Special treatment. No, I was not particularly happy about it, though.
"...So, you want to sell some goods? However, we purchase goods in bulk, so even if you bring in a small amount of vegetables... Wouldn't it be better if you took it to a smaller shop, or to a retail greengrocer, or perhaps sold it themselves at the market...?"
The man who was looking after us, perhaps a clerk or a store manager, suggested this to us. I didn't think he was just treating us like that to drive us away. Given his understanding of reality, he was probably teaching us properly, for our sake.
If we were selling only once, he might have bought a small amount. But if we want to continue doing business in the future, it would be better to secure a suitable buyer from the beginning. With that in mind, he was recommending what he thought was the best option. Otherwise, there was no way they would have gone to the trouble of going into a back room to be greeted by someone decent person. ...But that was because this person thought that what we were selling was just a small amount of vegetables grown by the children at the orphanage, or a few fish we caught ourselves. That's why…….
"These are the things I want to sell. They were sent to me from my territory... my parents' home..." (Kaoru)
Saying this, I took out small bottles containing samples from the bag and placed them on the table—A variety of rare spices, housed in exquisite glass bottles. Pepper, sauté, cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, cloves—Yes, humans and other living creatures were inhabiting the planet just like those on Earth, so it made sense that those plants would be there too. And of course, they were very expensive items around here.
"…………"
The merchant stared intently at the vial on the table. …Of course, no merchant would miss the words "our territory" that I purposely let slip. Yes, with just that one sentence, it should have been clear to everyone about our status and position, and the fact that these items were only available to us. ...In other words, it was absolutely impossible for others to cut into our route to obtain them, or to take them away, and if we were to be eliminated, the route itself would disappear... In the first place, if they were to harm us, they would have to wonder how the people at our home, who we still had connections with and support, would react... We were around 12 or 13 years old and cute... Yes, "cute"!... The people from their family who had harmed the daughters... Yes, the chances of someone doing something weird were pretty low.
All of these had been carefully made by "Celes Workshop (Potion Creation Ability)." It can't be helped! There's no way they could get hold of something like this here by normal means. Even if they could get it, it would be for as much as the store would sell it for, so it wouldn't be worth anything. Well, the spices are not meant to give the children a trade skill or to earn money with, but rather as a means to connect with wealthy merchants and nobility, so it's within my acceptable range personally! So, what will this merchant do? Well, if I don't get a good response I'll just go to another store, you see.