“We have prepared a nice plot of land on the main road. It isn’t a very big shop, but it’s in a relatively good location and costs about two hundred gold coins per month for rent. Combined with things like labor costs and stocking supplies, think of it as thirty per month.”
“Did you have enough for the initial expenses?”
A plot of land on the main road? That sounded more luxurious than I’d imagined. When I had said “in the area,” he must have taken that to mean the entire town. I was shocked. He’d apparently already prepared the place, so I couldn’t ask him to put it somewhere else. It was all on me for delegating the matter wholesale to them.
“Yes, that was no issue. We created the shop using our own products, so we were able to finish it up somewhat more cheaply than would have been possible had we entrusted it to someone else. In the coming month, we’d like to use the budget you provided and start up operations.”
Judging by his remarks, it seemed they were doing more than a little work for no pay. I mulled over his words, estimating the coming month’s portion. I would have to indirectly thank him somehow.
“Thank you so much for going to all that trouble. I really appreciate everything you’re doing for me.”
“Don’t worry about it. I am enjoying it, myself.”
“I’m happy to hear that.”
“Not to change the topic, but would you like to pay it a visit?”
“Yes, of course. If you please.”
I’d actually wanted to check on how they were doing during my lunch break at my office but couldn’t find a way to get Peeps into the building with me, so it had to wait. The difficulty of going to work with a sparrow was not to be underestimated.
I had the option of renting an apartment closer to the company, but thanks to rent in the city center being so awfully high, I couldn’t afford it with my current income. More than a few ways to mitigate this likely existed, but none were being implemented. Really made you feel how entrenched land ownership was in this nation.
“Then allow me to ready a carriage. It shouldn’t take more than a few moments.”
“Thank you.”
You’re getting me a carriage? You’re so generous, Vice Manager.
Come to think of it, what was I supposed to do with the supermarket shopping cart I’d brought without asking? This kind of thing was exactly why stores were so sensitive about how people treated their carts. I felt endlessly apologetic about it.
A few rattles of the carriage later, and we’d arrived at our destination.
They seemed to have finished doing all the interior decorating, and the view of the shop from the road was neat and tidy. It was like a decked-out, foreign-owned coffee shop. Built entirely of stone, too, which gave it a very cool, retro atmosphere.
When the vice manager and I entered, we saw Mr. French in the kitchen.
“S-sir!”
When he noticed us, he came running up. We met halfway down the hallway. Several other people, probably the kitchen staff, were visible inside. This world seemed to have that “all cooks wear white aprons” rule, too, because every last person in the kitchen had on the same exact uniform.
“I apologize for my long absence,” I said.
“No, don’t trouble yourself, sir! You entrusted this wonderful shop to me, after all…”
“Have you decided on a grand opening date?”
“I talked it over with the vice manager, and we thought it best to discuss it with you first. I’m deciding on the menu myself, but I figured it would be best to consult you at some point, sir.”
“I see.” Nothing special really crossed my mind, though. Except for one thing. “You can feel free to do what you will with the menu. As long as you are respectful to the customers, I don’t see any reason to restrict you at all. Still, I do have one request apart from all that.”
“Wh-what would that be?”
“I’d like you to re-create some recipes I’ll bring with me next time.”
“You can cook, too, sir?”
“Think of it as a dish from my homeland.”
“Oh, I can’t wait!”
“How long do you think it will take to get the shop ready to open?”
“The kind folks at the trading company have been handling all the food procurement, so just say the word, and we could open the day after tomorrow. Hermann Trading Company has amazing influence. Buying things wholesale from them is like a dream!”
“I see.”
In that case, I’d need to get some recipes together for my next visit. If he was somehow able to reproduce them, Peeps and I could eat delicious food without spending any Japanese yen. A Kobe beef chateaubriand might have been out of the question, but if there were any similar ingredients here, a comparable flavor was likely possible.
“Oh, but I can’t really read, so…”
“I’ll handle that, so don’t worry about it.”
“I’m sorry. Thank you.”
I couldn’t read or write this world’s characters, either. I’d probably have to ask the vice manager for someone to help me out.
“Also, I have your pay for this past month. Here, take it.”
I took two gold coins out of my pocket and handed them to the manager. In this world, the amount of money someone could make by working from morning until evening without having any special skills or expertise was said to be about a silver coin to two. Considering my hire’s position as manager of this eatery, I quintupled that. Then assuming I’d been away from things for thirty days, that made three hundred silver coins. I added a little something extra to arrive at five gold coins total. That would probably suffice, right?
Still, compared to my interworld trade profits, the amount seemed very small. I couldn’t help but feel bad about it. Considering I was still a novice in this otherworld, I couldn’t quite grasp the value of money as locals saw it. That was something I’d have to solve step-by-step.
“Huh? Is—is this really okay?”
“In exchange, I want to leave everything about this shop completely in your hands in the future. If that sounds fair, would you accept it? I can promise the same amount from next month on, too.”
“Are you sure, sir? I’m not; I’m just a—”
“Please, take it.”
“…Sir.”
It seemed like he hadn’t been paid very much at the last restaurant. He’d worked his way up from an apprentice, after all, so maybe everyone else had been taking him for granted. Single-manager businesses seemed to always be cutting corners.
“I’ll work like my life depends on it!”
“…Thank you.”
As I watched Mr. French bow, I couldn’t help but compare him to a certain corporate slave. It hit close to home.
What was labor, really?
I wondered what kind of answer Peeps would have for me if I asked him that question.
After we’d checked on the restaurant, Peeps and I went outside the town together.
It was time to practice magic.
Peeps used his teleportation spell to warp us from town into a nearby wooded area. The plains surrounding the town were apparently enormous, and we’d come right to the edge of them. There were zero people in the vicinity, of course. There, I recited the incantations to try to learn the spells.
After a short while of repeating the same words over and over, Peeps asked me a question.
“What do you stand to gain by setting up a restaurant in town?”
“Huh?”
“I don’t remember it being in our initial plans.”
“I figured it would be helpful for when you needed to eat.”
“Then, you did it for me.”
“It’s the first step in indulging in this world’s pleasures. I did want to use this for myself as well, of course. Oh, and there was one more serious reason for it: because purchasing so much stuff is putting a strain on my finances back home.”
“Ah.”
“I’d like to reduce expenditures by eating here.”
“Hmm…”
Each meal by itself didn’t cost very much, but they still added up. Buying sugar and chocolate in kilograms was surprisingly expensive, and I was already scraping against my credit card limit. I had to be frugal where I could.
The time difference between the two worlds only made this more urgent. Still, that difference wasn’t purely a disadvantage. Since one hour in that world was a day in this one, a corporate slave could spend time here in relaxation. Once Mr. French’s restaurant got on track, we’d be one step closer to the relaxing life Peeps wanted.
“Oh, water came out!”
As we were talking, water burst from my outstretched palm like a fire hose.
The magic I was testing was a spell to produce water from nowhere. I’d recited the incantation a few dozen times and had finally managed to cast it.