By the Grace of the Gods (LN) - Volume 5 - Chapter 29

Chapter 3 Episode 29: The Music Box Sales Project

Near the end of work hours that night, Serge visited the store.

“I heard that you wanted to talk about the music boxes,” I said.

“Right. Let me start with a report on the current situation. Through our partnership with the Dinome Magic Item Workshop, we should soon be able to put the music boxes on sale. We’re currently manufacturing some to ensure we have enough in stock.”

It had only been a few months, but they were already nearly ready to start selling the things. He showed me some sample products as we talked.

“So there are some targeted at nobles, and some targeted at commoners?” I asked.

“Yes. The music boxes for nobles are, as you can see, decorative boxes with the magic item contained inside. The boxes are specially ordered from a box craftsman, and they were made to order based on the motifs and materials our clients demanded.”

That meant that these boxes were one-of-a-kind luxury items. The boxes came from a separate source, so this also reduced Dinome’s workload. The music boxes for commoners, on the other hand, used small wooden boxes with the branding burned into them, but they otherwise weren’t decorated. These looked affordable.

“It looks like the ones for nobles are only made to order, so is it these ones for commoners that will be put on sale first?”

“Indeed. My company is already prepared to sell the ones for nobles, but I’m planning to unveil the music boxes for commoners at the founding festival.”

“So they’ll be sold out of a stall?”

“Correct. The songs we will be using for the music boxes were contributed by a bard who’s been popular as of late, on the condition that his name and the names of his songs are printed on the boxes. He leads a group of traveling performers called the Semroid Troupe that will be performing in Gimul, and we intend to sell the music boxes where they’re performing,” Serge said. He was quick to find a good way to sell these, from the sound of it.

“I’d love to hear the performance. Where will it be taking place?”

“I actually wanted to discuss that.”

Serge asked if my store could be used as a green room on the day of the festival, and if the vacant space that we use for security training could be the location of the stage. I thought it would be best to ask my employees for their opinions first, so I asked Serge if I could call Carme and Fay over. We explained the situation to them, and after some discussion, decided that it would be fine to use the vacant space. For the green room, however, we went with an empty room in the employee lodges rather than the store itself. This was on the condition that they couldn’t enter any of the other rooms, of course.

“Thank you for your cooperation,” Serge said. “Now I’ll have good news for them too. The troupe is expected to arrive in Gimul in about two weeks. Upon their arrival, I will be back to introduce them to you.”

I attended Serge out the door as he left, then turned to return to the store.

“Wait, did anyone else hear a strange sound?” I asked.

“I think it came from the kitchen,” Fay said. “I’ll go check.” He swiftly headed off. Others asked me if there was actually a sound at all. It was very quiet, so I couldn’t blame them. When Fay got back, he said, “Boss, there’s a barrel in the kitchen that smells funny. It looks like Chelma opened it without knowing what it was.”

“A barrel that smells funny? Uh oh,” I gasped. It was the shappaya. I left it in the kitchen because it was food. “I’m sorry. I put that there. It’s preserved food that I was given.”

“You did? Then you better rush over there if you want to keep it,” Fay said. “She’s going to throw it away.” I didn’t want that to happen, no matter how it smelled. That was a gift from Mondo.

“Excuse me for one second!” I cried and headed to the kitchen. The barrel of shappaya was in the wincing chef’s hands. She was just about to toss it in the trash. “Stop!”

“Eek! Boss, what is it?” Chelma asked.

“I’m sorry, but I was given that food. I know it stinks, but it’s not garbage.”

“Oh my, is that so? I’m sorry about that.”

“No, I’m sorry I forgot to tell you. I’ll deodorize it right away.”

I put a lid on the barrel and had my deodorant slime eliminate the stench in the kitchen. I was used to this by now, so it took no time at all.

“Done,” I said.

“Thank you. But is that stuff actually edible?” Chelma asked, unable to believe it. The smell was certainly intense. I had some tolerance for bad smells, and even on Earth I could eat foods like this without an issue. But for people who weren’t used to it, this was probably hard to stomach.

“You’re supposed to wash it before you eat it, I’m told. That’s supposed to remove some of the smell. Do you want to try it?”

“As a chef I’m curious, but I’m a little hesitant,” she admitted. The shock from opening the barrel must have been big. She furrowed her brow as if remembering when she got a direct whiff of the stench.

After I thought about it a bit, I already had proof that the deodorant slime could eliminate the smell of the shappaya fluid. In that case, maybe I could try soaking the shappaya in the deodorant slime’s fluid.

“Do you mind if I try something?” I asked. “I’ll put up a barrier and do it in there.” I may have been the boss, but Chelma was in charge of the kitchen. She was in the middle of cooking dinner too, so I wanted to get her permission before engaging in my little culinary experiment. Once she approved, I took the shappaya out of the barrel and placed it in a large bowl. I thought the fish would be mushier, but it mostly retained its shape. When I lined them up, they looked like dried fish that you would find at the market. Then I asked my deodorant slime to pour odor-displacing fluid onto it until it was fully submerged. I decided to wait and see how it smelled in ten minutes.

■ ■ ■

Ten minutes later, I took the shappaya out of the fluid and washed it under a weak stream of running water so it wouldn’t fall apart. The deodorant slime’s fluid wasn’t poisonous, but I still meticulously used water magic to make sure no contamination remained. Incredibly enough, the smell was virtually gone.

Next I grilled the shappaya over a fire and gave it a taste. The savory flavor of the fermented fish permeated my mouth. Maybe the flavor had been somewhat diminished, but it was still perfectly good. It did seem like a bit of the fluid’s stench seeped into the fish, however. Maybe it would have been better if I soaked it for longer. I had such a tolerance for bad odors, so I couldn’t be entirely sure myself.

“Chelma, it smells a lot better now. How’s this?” I asked.

“Oh, you’re right. Let me try some,” she said and tossed a piece in her mouth. “Nevermind, it still kind of smells. Compared to before, though, this is some great progress. It was painfully smelly at first, while this is just mildly unpleasant, and it tastes great. If you cooked it with some herbs or something, it might be more appealing.”

If that was enough to cover up this smell, maybe giger would do the trick. I didn’t have any on hand, however. Nor did I have any herbs. But we did have all that semesa, so I grabbed a bag of it from the second floor and used alchemy to extract its oil. The oil had its own unique fragrance, and I knew that heating it up would make the smell stronger. I poured some in a frying pan and put it over a fire until it began to exude a powerful aroma, then I tossed the shappaya on top. Once one side was cooked, I flipped it over and did the other. I kept cooking until both sides were crispy.

“Is it done?” Chelma asked.

“Yes. How is it?”

Chelma tried some. “Well, the smell isn’t as bothersome anymore. This could work for a meal, or it could go well with drinks.”

Just then, I felt someone looking at us from the entrance. “That smell brings back memories!” they said. I turned around and saw the three village girls standing there.

“Semesa reminds us of home, sorry,” said Jane.

“This smell makes me hungry!” said Fina.

“Boss, is that tonight’s dinner?!” asked Jane.

It was only supposed to be an experiment, but there was no reason not to put it on the menu. As a result, we had one extra side dish to eat with dinner that night.

■ ■ ■

Chelma’s cooking was as simple, yet delicious as ever. All the employees also enjoyed the shappaya fried in semesa oil. Removing the odor with the displacing fluid seemed to be highly effective. Now that I discovered this new use for odor-displacing fluid, I somewhat regretted not buying more shappaya. It never hurt to have food, especially delicious food that wouldn’t go bad.

After dinner, Jane made dandelion coffee for me. Everyone else had their own preferred drinks. Jane was in unusually high spirits, but so were the other two village girls. I didn’t know if they were just that happy that we used ingredients from their hometown or what. When I asked them, they said that was part of it, but it also had to do with what I said that afternoon.

“We’re just thinking about how you might hire other folks from the village!” said Maria.

“Oh, of course, it’s fine if we get split up between different branches. I mean, this is a nice, safe place to work. If we’re able to work comfortably here, others from the village are going to be interested,” said Jane.

“And there might be more villagers who have to go out of town for work in the future. If they all have a safe place to make money, it’ll help us rest easy,” said Fina.

“I see,” I said.

“Well, it’d be best if our crops sold, though!”

“Yeah, then we could all live together,” said Maria.

“Throwing out those delicious ingredients would be an awful waste,” said Fay.

“We would never even consider such a thing in our country,” said Lilyn.

“What do you eat in your country?” I asked.

“The staple food in our country is called miang. It’s made by thickening flour with water, similar to bread. But rather than bake it, we put it in soup. You can make it long and thin to create lee miang, or make flat, thick pieces called pa miang,” Fay explained. It sounded like he was describing noodles. Or if it was supposed to go in soup, maybe it was closer to dumplings.

“Sounds neat,” Maria said.

“I wonder what foreign food tastes like,” Chelma said.

“Are you interested? I can make some next time,” Lilyn offered.

“Can you, Lilyn?”

“I’ve been wanting to eat some too. All I’ll neat is flour, water, and some kind of soup. Everyone in our country is poor, so it won’t take any special ingredients.”

“What if we did the same for the stall at the festival?” Carme suggested. “It wouldn’t hurt to simply lend out our space for the performance, but as long as that’s happening, I think it would be ideal if we can profit off it too. We can serve foreign food to the audience who comes to watch the troupe. If we set up something to draw their attention, I’m sure they’ll be interested enough to buy some. Customers are more willing to spend during festivals, and even if they weren’t, it’ll be profitable for us if it serves as a chance to bond with the locals.”

It sounded like a random suggestion at first, but it seemed that he had it all thought out. Business was going well for us, so we had money to spare. This would be sort of like giving back to the community, but if we were going to do this, it’d take more than just me and Carme.

“I can help out. I’ve got nothing better to do,” Dolce offered first, to my surprise. I thought he was focused on writing in his diary, but apparently he was listening.

“I have no experience running a stall at a festival, but serving food to lots of people is fun. Especially if the customers tell you it’s tasty,” Chelma said, getting on board.

“If we take turns having different shifts like during regular business hours, everyone should have time to see the festival too,” I said.

“I’d run out of money if I spent the whole day having fun, so I guess some work is fine!” said Maria.

“I’m in,” said Lilyn.

“I’m with my daughter,” said Fay.

“Same here,” said Jane. “Oh! Carme, can we use wheat from our village as ingredients?”

“We would have to set up a proper environment to store it in, but as long as it’s of adequate quality, I don’t see why not. Why do you ask?”

“So that if any customers want to know where the wheat came from, we can tell them.”

“I don’t think that’s happening,” said Fina.

“No, probably not. But I’m in anyway.”

With that, everyone was on board. I still didn’t feel that excited about the whole idea, though. It was fine, I guess, but it just felt like a spur-of the-moment sort of thing. But that’s the way the conversation went, and I couldn’t complain.

“Then we’ll have to taste-test different dishes, research the cost of ingredients, make the proper arrangements with the Morgan Company, and such. We can think about that tomorrow, I suppose,” I said. I didn’t know if I was still going to feel like opening a stall later, but if I did, I figured I might as well have one for the festival.