by Funa
But there was no need to tell her such things, so I stayed quiet. It wasn’t my fault she made the wrong assumption, and my skin care products were effective, so what was the harm?
“I will purchase them. Bring me a full set.”
“H-Hey, shouldn’t we...”
“Calamus, pay her.”
“Yes, ma’am!”
“Hey...”
The transaction was done with the husband being completely ignored...
Shampoo, conditioner, skin lotion, serum, milky lotion, and some cream. Since they were for a noble, the products all came in artistic crystal glass containers. I even included a free small bottle of perfume as a bonus.
“That will be six small gold coins. The instructions on how to use them are written here. The amount and order of usage are listed there, so please be sure to follow them.”
“Very well. I certainly hope they’re effective, for the sake of your life...”
My, what a scary old lady!
But I’d succeeded in sowing the seeds for selling more skin care products. All I had to do now was wait for word of mouth to spread!
The nobles left without me even learning their names, and I thought it was about time to close shop for the day. But just as I was about to do so, two soldiers entered. They seemed to be a commissioned officer and a corporal.
“I’d like to purchase the soldier’s disease medicine in bulk...”
Oh, here we go again...
I guess I’d have to deal with these types of people until the lieutenant colonel could get to all of them...
He must have been fast to act and quick-witted for someone of his rank to come here in person, and so soon too... But he did end up saving me a great deal of trouble, so I guess I was thankful. Though he was doing it for his own merits and not out of the kindness of his heart. I guess it was what you’d call a mutually beneficial relationship.
Too bad these guys took the time to come here, when all I’d give them was the rejection speech. I suppose I could at least sell them two bottles each though. The lieutenant colonel’s notice probably hasn’t gotten around to them yet.
Now I can just look forward to more shampoo and cosmetics being sold and go on with running the business...
At that time, I hadn’t realized...
There was no way a noble woman would go around spreading the secret of how to preserve her beauty, and that this was clearly the type of secret she’d try to keep for herself. The shampoos and cosmetic products didn’t seem to be selling at all, and it took me quite some time to realize this.
Damn it!
＊ ＊
“Hey, lady, want me to hold your groceries for you?”
A boy who seemed to be about seven or eight years old approached me on my way back from buying vegetables at the market. He may have been of a western ethnicity, but he was still smaller than me, considering his age.
It was true that it was a bit tough carrying the massive quantity of food like radishes and cabbages, but this wasn’t my first time doing it and it wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle. Using the Item Box would have made it a breeze, but I didn’t intend on abusing it. I was concerned about being spotted using it too.
The first time I went shopping at the market, Francette appeared out of nowhere and offered to carry my groceries, so I shooed her away in a fluster. A little girl making a knight carry her things would’ve stood out like a sore thumb. That would’ve been a surefire way to attract some unwanted attention.
Anyway... this boy surely wasn’t offering out of the kindness of his heart.
“I’ll do it for just two bronze coins!”
Yeah, thought so...
Two bronze coins would be about twenty yen. With the prices here, doing it three to four times would earn enough to buy one radish. That’d be enough food to feed a family of four, meaning four people would be able to live another day.
“All right, hired!”
“Thanks!”
I talked to the boy about various things on our way to my shop. Speaking to people of his status was quite interesting and offered valuable intel. They tended to tell it like it was without unnecessarily worrying about propriety and such.
“...That’s why we don’t really get to eat till we’re full much of the time, so we’re working to earn money too!”
Our conversation had moved on to the boy’s personal life. According to him, he lived at an orphanage. He wasn’t belittling himself or trying to get some sympathy; he was just telling the simple facts. Even then, his words seemed to contain the sentiment of, “Someone as rich-looking as you probably has no idea what this life is like.”
“An orphanage, huh... I had kids at my place who used to be orphans too. Neither of them could get into an orphanage so they lived in an abandoned building and nearly died a bunch of times because they didn’t eat anything for days. Ahaha!”
“Wha...” The boy stopped walking.
“I’m all alone in this world too, but I hired them to work for me... Why’d you stop walking? Is something wrong...?”
If you lived in an orphanage, you were already fortunate enough. Just as there were those with more in the world, there were also those with less. The slight differences in the starting point wasn’t a big deal in the end. This boy must’ve considered himself unfortunate for being an orphan, which wasn’t wrong.
However, there were countless people in the world who were less fortunate than him. The important thing to consider was if they were unhappy one day, would they be unhappy the next? Would they be unhappy the day after that? What about ten years later? Twenty years?
It’s not yet time to be flustered. Nor is it time for sorrow. That’s all there was to it...
“Oh, we’re here. This is my shop.”
The boy seemed a little surprised as he saw “Layette’s Atelier.” I gave him his two bronze coins, then he returned to the marketplace. He was probably going to go find his next customer. I prayed he’d continue on the righteous path instead of turning to pickpocketing like Emile and Belle used to do...
“Oh, Emile, could you make some deliveries with Belle for me tomorrow?”
“Yeah, sure. What do you need me to deliver, and where?”
Emile was finally learning not to instinctively speak to me in a formal manner even when I talked to him out of nowhere. I was glad the distance between us seemed to be closing in.
＊ ＊
The next day, they loaded up the cart they’d borrowed from a neighboring shop, and Emile and Belle departed from Layette’s Atelier. Their destination was the orphanage Kaoru had heard about from the boy yesterday. The cart was loaded with some of the vast stockpile Kaoru had stored within her Item Box. Roland and Francette would sometimes hunt for rabbits, deer, or boars while they were camping, and whatever they caught were being kept within the box.
As soon as Emile and Belle arrived at their destination, they were surrounded by a large group of orphan children. It was still early, so it was before they went out to try and earn some coin. It was also quite rare for outsiders, young ones nonetheless, to visit bringing such a great amount of goods, which was why they’d come out in such numbers.
An aging woman, who seemed to be the director, and several other caretakers appeared in a fluster. Emile pointed at the cargo and stated, “These are from Lady Kaoru.”
It wasn’t an issue for him to address his employer as such. Every adult besides Kaoru, Roland, and Francette were enemies. This was what Emile believed, and even if these people were there to help the orphans, he couldn’t help that his speech became stiff when talking to them. He could compartmentalize speaking to those at the Hunters’ Guild as work, but he ended up coming off as curt when it came to dealing with adult strangers like this.
“...Kaoru?”
“The person with the scary eyes,” Belle cut in to reply to the director’s question.
Then a boy’s voice responded. “Oh, is she the one who hired me yesterday?”
“I knew it...”
The key phase of “scary eyes” was enough to identify Kaoru in all of the royal capital. It was extremely convenient.
At the same time, however, Belle and the boy were very rude to do so.
“So, Lady Kaoru instructed us to deliver this as a gift to all of you.”
The children cheered in response to Belle’s words, and began swarming all around the cart. The adults tried to stop them, but it was a futile effort.
A whole deer, horned rabbits, fruits, and more were taken from the cart. Cheap, bulky-looking vegetables and fish that were cheap due to being bought at a coastal city had been omitted. It was mainly meat and fruits that they’d rarely be able to eat otherwise. The deer hadn’t even had its intestines removed, but it was still as fresh as the day it was hunted due to being stored in the Item Box. Of course, this meant the intestines were also edible as well. There was no way the orphanage would throw out some perfectly good, fresh intestines.
“““Oooooohhh!”””
A deer. Not a monster like an orc or forest wolf. An actual deer! Even the adults raised their voices in admiration. That was just how rare and valuable of a feast a deer would provide.
They could purchase five kilograms of orc meat rather than one kilogram of deer meat for the same price. This went without saying. This was why deer meat would never be served at the orphanage; there was just no way.
“Everyone, it’s time for a song! A song and dance of appreciation for Goddess Celestine!” the director called out, then the children surrounded the cart and began performing a strange dance.
And so, the orphanage was in a state of chaos.
“...I want to go home.”
At a loss at what to do, Emile muttered. Belle nodded in agreement. But they still had to return the cart they had borrowed. To do that, they had to wait for the dance to finish...
The two stood there, and one of the boys spoke up.
“Is it true you two were orphans?”
It was the boy Kaoru had hired.
“...Yes. Belle and I were orphans when we were young. Orphanages were paradise compared to how we grew up. There were seven of us, crawling on the ground and licking mud, just barely managing to survive, like insects... Every year, more would join us, and every year, several of us would die. That’s what our life was like. That is, until the day we met Lady Kaoru...”
Emile looked off into the distance.
“Please tell me! How did you manage it? How did you become a full-fledged hunter with such impressive equipment so quickly as an orphan? How did an orphan like Kaoru end up owning a shop like that?!”
Before he knew it, the singing had stopped, and the other children were surrounding Emile and Belle.
So many eyes, staring right at him...
H-Help me, Belle!
Emile turned around to find Belle had quietly stepped away to put more distance between them.
“Beeelle!”
And so, Emile began desperately trying to provide an explanation that made sense, while maintaining that Kaoru was just an ordinary girl. It was certainly difficult to explain Kaoru’s story without her goddess powers or her title as an angel.
Lady Kaoru, I’m sorryyy!
＊ ＊
It had been five days after I made a deal with Lieutenant Colonel Vonsas to deliver medicine for him. It was about time I could tell him I’d received my bulk order from my “manufacturer,” so I decided to go deliver the medicine. I’d already paid an orphan child to go deliver the message, so the appointment was set.
It was common to hire orphan children as messengers, and they wouldn’t possibly do a halfhearted job and risk the reputation of their orphanage. This much was obvious, considering no one would trust orphans with such jobs in the future if their reputation was tarnished. That’s why they were much more reliable than asking some random adult to do it.
Besides, I was used to asking the orphanage to complete jobs for me. I’d done so with the children of the Eyes of the Goddess.
Now that I thought about it, Emile and Belle were orphans too. They couldn’t get into an orphanage, had no food, couldn’t get medicine when they got sick, had lice, and were uncertain whether they’d live the next day. Though that was hard to imagine now...
But ever since I sent them to the orphanage, the orphans had sure taken a liking to me... I’d occasionally send them food, so maybe they appreciated me as a sponsor or patron, or some sort of generous supporter. There were usually some orphans on standby in front of my place, but there had to be a better place than that...
Not to mention that the gate guards of the army wouldn’t turn away orphan messengers. They were aware those children would take on such jobs, and some soldiers used to be orphans themselves. There were even some orphans who’d lost parents who used to be soldiers. Very few soldiers mistreated them for that very reason.
In any case, the message of my delivery had been communicated to them already. I was also bringing Layette with me of course. This was part of my plan to get recognized by some soldiers so they’d help me later, so there was no reason not to bring her.
Yes, the idea was to make them think Layette and I were to be protected if they didn’t want their supply of medicine to be cut off. Even if Layette wasn’t directly involved in the creation of the medicine, if I ever caught wind of a soldier seeing her in trouble but ignoring it...
I was going to make sure the lieutenant colonel knew what I’d think if such a thing ever happened. Oh yes, I’d tell him in great detail.
Now, the problem was the quantity of medicine to be delivered. It would be suspicious if I brought too much, and he’d complain if I brought too little. Striking the right balance was the difficult part.
I’d only be delivering the ones priced at three silver coins and three small gold coins. He thought I was losing money on the three small silver coin ones, and it’d be a problem if I gave the army medicine that only prevented the issue from getting worse instead of curing it.
It took about a month for the silver coin one to cure the condition, while the small gold coin one took about five days. The amount of time varied based on factors such as the degree of the condition upon starting the treatment, the user’s body chemistry, and the method of application. In terms of amount, it required about forty applications for the toes on both feet. I overestimated the amount to make sure it’d be cured with one bottle.
Though the silver coin one could require more than a bottle if the condition spread further from the toes or the medicine was applied poorly. This was part of the reason as to why I limited purchases to two bottles per person. So the silver coin one should’ve been enough for one person a bottle, and the small gold coin one should’ve been usable for about eight people per bottle. Although it was ten times the price, it could be used on eight times the people and took less time to cure, so I thought it was pretty fair.
For the first delivery, I settled on seventy-two bottles of the three small gold coin, and twenty-four bottles of the three silver coin medicine. Each box contained twenty-four bottles, four boxes in all. Doing the math, 72 x 8 + 24 equaled 600 people total. Ten deliveries would provide for 6,000 people. I doubted every soldier needed treatment, so they probably wouldn’t need that many.
Yeah, that should do it.
Once most of them were cured, I’d sell some more to anyone with recurring symptoms.
...Wait, my sales for this batch will be twenty-two gold coins, three small gold coins and two silver coins? Whaaa?!
I need to open a bank account... Wait, there’s no such thing here! I’ll go to the Merchants’ Guild... Wait, what about my Item Box? C-Calm down, me!
The reason I was bringing more of the small gold coin one was because I wanted to decrease the number of patients as soon as possible, considering there were so many of them. Surely it was important to make it seem like I
needed stock for retail sales, but I was prioritizing the good stuff for the army.
Okay, let’s go!
I held hands with Layette and began walking toward the army facility, located near the northern gate of the royal capital. The military-related buildings and facilities were located on the inner side of the outer walls, but the training grounds, which required much more space, were located outside. I mean, if there was ever conflict there may be a siege, so it only made sense to have military facilities inside the walls. In the case of a conflict, they’d go directly outside from the northern gate instead of through the city, but if they weren’t short on time or if they wanted to increase morale, they’d march through the city and out through the southern gate.
Hm, I guess they do bother to use their brains...
I put twenty-four bottles in each of the four boxes, then put two boxes each into two bags and carried one on each shoulder.
Uuugh, so heavy...
Roland and Francette followed from behind, pretending not to know me. I think they were worrying a bit too much. It was still morning in the middle of the main road, and I was heading to the army headquarters. You couldn’t really get much safer than that.
How was I supposed to have privacy if they worried and followed me everywhere I went? I wouldn’t even be able to go on a date in peace. Not that I had anyone to go on a date with...
When I arrived at the main gate, they let me pass right away. It seemed they were aware of my arrival, as there was actually a guide waiting for us there. Though I guess they couldn’t just have us wandering around without knowing where to go, and it wasn’t like we could use a phone to call someone over, which explained why someone was waiting for us. I guess that much was to be expected of a capable lieutenant colonel who outperformed all his colleagues.
Roland and Francette couldn’t follow me inside, so their secret send-off ended here. Now they could go on a date or something.