CH 23

Episode 4-5.

“The food was roasted beans, vegetable soup, and hard bread. Very little taste.”

“That’s because it’s a light meal! But Naoya, if you add meat to this, it would be a sumptuous meal for the most common people, don’t you think?”

“You’ve been obsessing over meat for a while now, you elf.”

We went to a few stores after the market, and Chloe and I went into a place to eat.

For a short break and to get a feel for what the city has to offer.

The menu was small and I ordered a basic set meal.

“Considering what was sold at the market, this is what you would expect to find in a typical meal. The spices were very expensive, let alone the fresh herbs.”

The dish came out with roasted beans on a wooden plate, vegetable soup served on a deep wooden plate, and hard black bread.

It was not bad, but it was bland and tasteless.

It was understandable that Chloe and the others raved about the pot-au-feu that I had prepared.

“Kuh, if only I could stock up in real time! I could have been a winner with spices, consommé ingredients, and instant foods!”

“Hey Naoya, can I order some meat? Naoya has never eaten in the city and I think you should taste it. Hey, auntie! One extra piece of meat!”

“Hey Chloe ……, well that’s fine, I’m sure I’d like a taste.”

A blacksmith workshop selling weapons and metalwork, a carpentry workshop for furniture and wooden goods, and a tailor selling clothes that aren’t second-hand.

Most of the stores we looked around after the market were made to order.

The only ready-made items for sale were pots, pans, farm tools, wooden plates and cups, simple clothes, and a few other items that seemed to be best-sellers in each category.

Incidentally, the blacksmith workshop also sold shovels.

They are heavier than the shovels sold at the Aion Mall Otherworld Store.

With a shovel this heavy, it is no wonder that Japanese shovels sell well, even if they are a bit more expensive.

However, there are times when weight is necessary, so light is not always good enough.

“Here is the meat you ordered.”

“Woow! It’s pretty big and looks good!”

“Hey, Chloe, what kind of meat is this? When you ordered it and when it was brought to us, you only said [Meat]. What kind of meat is this?”

“Mhmm, it has a nice chewy texture! You should try it, Naoya!”

“Is there any Japanese who would be willing to eat a dish called [meat] in another world without hesitation? …… not gonna lie, it looks good.”

I think those who participated in the cross-cultural training would be happy to eat it.

Anyway, I cut the meat into pieces.

I held it with a wooden fork and used a knife or a small knife or whatever blade the waiter brought along with the meat.

“Hey Chloe, this meat is really hard. It’s very hard to cut it into pieces, and I don’t know how you managed to bite through it.”

“Because I’m an elf!”

“Somehow the image of an elf is scary.”

I finally put a piece of the cut meat in my mouth.

I couldn’t bite through it.

I chewed and chewed, but I couldn’t bite through it.

The taste? It smells like burning wood and tastes a bit burnt. It must have been cooked over an open fire.

It also has a distinct smell.

“Ah, is this goat? I remember it was served for dinner during our cross-cultural training.”

“Oh, Naoya is a gourmet! How can you tell what kind of meat it is just by taking a bite!”

“You’re so obsessed with meat, but you don’t know what it is! I wish you could have known that, because you may have to deal with them eventually!”

I chewed it, but gave up and poured it down with ale. It’s sour.

It’s no wonder the water was more expensive, even though I was drinking during working hours.

The water is well water, and it’s dangerous to boil it, so the cost of labor and fuel makes it more expensive. I heard that not many people can use [purification] magic.

I’m not a big fan of alcohol, but this is fine. I don’t think I have any right to blame Aion when they find out. If they get mad at me, I’ll go home. I’d rather leave.

“So, Chloe, about what I was saying earlier…”

“Oh, you mean the guild! Naoya, do you want to join the adventurers’ guild or something?”

“No, I’m not going to join the Adventurers’ Guild because I can’t fight. Wait, Chloe, I just had a thought. I thought of something.”

“What is it?”

“Chloe, an elf and a holy knight, Barbera, a dragon, and Anna, a Lich. Are the three of you by any chance very strong?”

It’s still past two o’clock in the afternoon, so there are no people around, but I’m going to lower my voice and ask Chloe.

I don’t know about dragons that can humanize, but it would be better if others don’t hear about Lich. She’s undead. Queen of the Dead.

Chloe smiled gleefully, looking pleased.

“I see you finally realized that, Naoya! Yes, we’re strong!　We are strong enough to defend the Aion Mall’s Otherworldly Store, a place with no walls, with just the three of us! Oops, there’s the captain and the skeletons too!”

“No way, but if the three of you took on requests from the Adventurers’ Guild, killed monsters and sold the materials, we could probably afford 100 million yen a month. No, wait, there were Barbera scales, too.”

“Naoya ……?”

“I’m talking about, for example! You see, that has nothing to do with the Aion Mall! I’m not an adventurer, and I’m not an employee of the Aion Mall.”

I, Naoya Taniguchi, manager and supervisor of the Aion Mall’s Otherworld Store, hurriedly excuse myself after seeing the sad Chloe.

That’s right, earning money that way has nothing to do with Aion Mall.

But, well, as a last resort, I can sell the scales of Barbera that have grown back as a product, or set up a staffing business as an escort, or intercept the Aion Mall when it is attacked by a large number of monsters and have no choice but to sell off the materials. ……

Making money that way has nothing to do with Aion Mall, and I’d have to think about a lot of things to include it in sales, but if push came to shove, I think I could manage it.

If the monthly sales are not going to reach 100 million yen in five months, I’ll get down on my knees to the three of them and do something about it. …… And I think it’s safe to say that selling scales is just around the corner. ……

“I’m sure you’ve heard about the guilds, Naoya!　Besides the Adventurers’ Guild, the other powerful guild is the Merchants’ Guild. That open-air market, the food stalls and eateries are under the jurisdiction of the Merchant’s Guild!”

Chloe speaks to me as if to bring me back to my senses, as if I’m plotting something bad.

Apparently, she is going to tell me about the various guilds I asked about earlier.

Forget about the last resort, I decide to ask her anyway.

The blacksmith guild is in the blacksmith shop, the carpenter guild is in the carpentry, and the garment guild is in the tailor’s store! And then there’s the masonry guild, which is huge!”

“There’s a masonry guild. Maybe a secret society has been formed too.”

Chloe bites into a piece of goat meat and eats it without messing around, unlike me. She is too wild. What is an elf anyway?

“But the most powerful guild is the merchants’ guild!　You could say that the various guilds were formed to compete with the merchants’ guild!”

“The merchants’ guilds control the food, drink, and markets. Craftsmen also have influence, and distribution is under the jurisdiction of the merchant guild, huh.”

“Yes! And they do such a sleazy thing as saying, ‘This is a legitimate business transaction!’ They take money from the poor, saying things like, ‘You have to pay for a place to do business here!’.”

“I think that’s a legitimate argument. It depends on the rules.”

“What the hell, ……? Naoya is also …… like those pricks, ……?”

“For example, if you want to do business in the premises of Aion Mall’s Otherworldly Store, you have to pay a tenant’s fee. That’s given as a matter of course.”

“Kuh! W-what if there is a woman doing business on the premises? [Aah, I don’t need money. I’ll have you pay me with your body.]. Just like that prick merchant guild guy who wanted my body! Or like that man who ran away from home and tried to attack me when I didn’t even know the rules of the village! Ugh, kill me!”

“Yes, that’s a ghetto, but Chloe’s at fault, too. I’m not sure if that was a real life experience. D-don’t tell me Chloe was-?”

“Well, I beat up his guards, I defended my innocence, and I turned him in to the authorities! I was then deemed strong enough to be a knight!”

“Chloe was the one who was illegal. It’s a scary world where power is used to twist the law.”

Well, it’s Chloe, she might have been tricked by someone before she was noticed by the merchant guild for operating an unauthorized business.

“If that is the case, why don’t you sell directly to customers yourself?” I’ll obediently pay if they told me “If you do business here, pay for the place” like a match pump. likely. Very likely. I will be fooled in seconds.

“Whenever they see my face after that, they will say. ‘Oh, you disqualified elf who doesn’t follow the rules. What kind of outrageousness are you up to today?’ And so on!”

“The Merchants’ Guild is still watching the Aion Mall’s Otherworldly Store, but it’s not because of that, is it?　It’s because the big-box store is trying to violate the merchants’ guild’s vested interests, isn’t it?”

Chloe bites into the meat with a sniffle and a snort.

But the fact that the Merchants Guild opposed the opening of the Aion Mall Otherworld Store should have nothing to do with Chloe.

It seems that the person who was sent there in the initial stages was a different person.

Generally speaking, opposition from local merchants, merchant guilds, and commerce associations is quite common in Japan.

“There’s too much work ahead …… I hear there are laws and regulations, but they seem to be looser than in Japan. ……”

I chewed on a bean that didn’t taste very good.

So I washed it down with a soup that had a lot of vegetables, but for some reason it tasted so weak.

Along with the worries that I don’t want to think too much about the merchant guild, which has a lot of power in the city, and seems to be a business rivalry.