“I see— So that is your plan.”
My explanation seemed to have convinced him. A frown crossed his face for just a few moments, but his expression quickly returned to normal—and then he smiled.
“Can I count on your support?”
“Yes, by all means. Please allow me to assist you with this venture.”
“Thank you very much.”
The unexpectedly eager response made me hopeful things would go smoothly even after I returned to Japan. Given that he was vice manager for a huge market like this, the level of support he could offer was likely significant.
“I have entrusted the matter of the shop entirely to him, so please ask him for all the details you need. He is a first-rate cook but somewhat unfamiliar with the more delicate parts of the job, so I would greatly appreciate it if your company could assist him on the business side of things.”
“I understand—I’ll send one of my people to help.”
“Really? Thank you so much.”
When I looked at Mr. French, who stood beside me with his face white as a ghost, I felt like I’d started up a temporary personnel agency. I did feel sorry for doing it to the guy, but if this fell through, it wouldn’t really cause any issues, so I wanted to keep things easy and carefree.
“Don’t worry too much about it, Mr. French. Give it your best.”
“Um, yes, sir!”
And with that, I had taken my first step toward fulfilling my promise to Peeps.
After leaving the minor details to Mr. French and the vice manager, I left the Hermann Trading Company. Normally, I would have stayed with them until everything was hammered out, but I didn’t have a choice. Something more important demanded my attention—lunch with Peeps, which I’d put off quite a bit. I didn’t want to make him grumpy and end up stranded and alone in an unfamiliar world.
As planned, we headed for the place where Mr. French worked—well, used to work. With him set up for the time being, we could now return to our original objective.
Still-steaming meat dishes lined the table in front of us.
“…Not bad.”
“Yeah.”
I’d gotten the day’s special for lunch, which the manager had recommended. Peeps had ordered the one thing he’d smelled from outside, à la carte. It was some sort of animal meat cooked and marinated in a secret sauce, and the sauce was in the special, too. It was quite delicious. We were very pleased.
“Despite chocolate bars and sugar selling for so much, this is quite the variety of flavors.”
“That’s simply because sugar and cacao are precious.”
“Would pepper sell highly, too, then?”
“Indeed. If you can procure it cheaply, it would be worth looking into.”
The suggestion came naturally from me, partly since I hadn’t noticed it on the list of ideas Peeps had given me. When it came to valuable commodities, pepper was a sure thing, right? Pepper is always a safe bet. In an Age of Discovery sort of sense.
“I’ve heard there was an era in my world when it was worth its weight in gold.”
“Yes, pepper is certainly valuable in this one as well. However, it doesn’t fetch an astronomical price. In fact, I’m rather curious how it came to be worth its weight in gold, as you say. Why was there such a demand? It is a luxury item like sugar, is it not? And you can substitute it with herbs or other such things.”
“I think they needed it to cover the stench when eating poorly preserved meats.”
“Why would they need to eat poorly preserved meats?”
“Huh? Well, hmm. They didn’t have refrigerators back then, so…”
At the time, the rotting of meat plagued both noble and commoner alike. It had been especially bad in early spring, after the preserved meat had already started to go bad. There must have been so many people with upset stomachs—or worse—from eating tainted meat.
I remembered reading on the internet once that Carnival, a holiday familiar to Christians, had started as a way to consume, all at once, the meat they had stored up during the winter before spring came and it spoiled too much. Whether that was true, I wasn’t sure. But meat must have really been rotting badly back then to produce a story like that.
“Ah, I understand.”
“You do?”
“Magic exists in this world. To preserve meat, one must only prepare ice. Create a room filled with ice and store meat in it. Then you can eat fresh meat whenever, wherever you are.”
“…I see.”
“Spells to create ice are relatively easy to learn. Slightly more advanced forms can also freeze specific objects in ice. Prepared this way, you can preserve foods for long periods of time.”
“I guess there was that icicle-flinging spell you taught me about yesterday. If you could gather the icicles instead of launching them, you could make a refrigerator, just like you say. I’m sorry—it seems I didn’t think hard enough.”
Man, magic was handy as heck. I doubted this world would have proper refrigerators for a long time.
“It is another world. You can hardly be blamed.”
“It’s also giving me a lot more ideas about things to bring here…”
“Mechanical goods would likely be an easy option. The metalworking technology in that world is extremely advanced. I would also suggest luxuries that haven’t yet circulated or taken root here. And the other thing—plastic, you called it? I believe that would fetch quite a high price as well if you stocked it.”
“Yes, I see.”
I’d have Peeps come with me next time I stocked up. I got the feeling I’d be able to pick out the goods more efficiently that way.
After finishing lunch, we went back to my apartment. Having spent half a day in the otherworld, we found upon arriving that a little less than thirty minutes had passed in Japan time. Peeps’s estimation seemed about right; I could safely assume one hour here was the same as one day there.
Exhausted from our exploits, we went right to sleep.
The next morning, this corporate slave went to work, just like the day before. Curiously, the coworker who normally sat next to me was nowhere to be found. Other than that, though, nothing out of the ordinary happened. The little fire incident from the day before had apparently gone unsolved, with the culprit unable to be identified. Mr. Kikuchi, the general affairs manager, was really frustrated about it.
Finally, quitting time rolled around. Except it was after nine by that point. Having gotten home a little early today, this corporate slave decided to take Peeps to the big superstore near the house. The place was open until eleven, so it was popular with office workers of all kinds who returned home later.
Right after leaving my apartment, I spotted a familiar face outside the neighbor’s front door—a middle schooler in a sailor uniform, sitting down with her hands around her knees. I hadn’t seen her when I got back from work, so she must have returned a little later even than this corporate drone. Still, her mom wasn’t home yet, so she was whiling away her time in front of the door.
“…Is that a Java sparrow?” she asked suddenly, looking in my direction—or rather, at Peeps. He was packed in a bird carrying case hanging from my shoulder.
“Yep, it is. I got him recently.”
“……”
The case had a metallic frame base, with the cage part made of clear PVC pipe and a polyethylene mesh. It looked like a miniature travel bag with a perching tree inside. You could see Peeps resting on it from above or from the sides. I’d ordered it online around the time he’d started talking. Luckily, it had come in just as I’d gotten home, and I’d decided to put it to use right away for my outing today. A sparrow sitting on a man’s shoulder while he was shopping would draw some stares.
“Do you not like sparrows?”
“No, that isn’t it,” came the laconic, indifferent answer from my neighbor, before her stomach gave a loud rumble.
I would have expected a girl her age to show some sign of embarrassment at that. She didn’t seem to care one way or the other, though, and just watched Peeps. For her, this was simply another nonchalant moment in her daily life.
“Hold on a second.”
“Actually, I’m just going to bed for today, so…”
Having an apartment made for a single person came in handy at times like these—the front door was very close to the kitchen. One of the cabinets was near enough that I could lean in without having to take off my shoes. I grabbed a pastry I’d had in reserve, then turned back to face my neighbor.
“It expires today, so here.”
“……”