Peripheral nerve stimulation of a sensitivity akin to the human act of reproduction.
In other words, after finishing “a delicious meal,” I brewed some herbal tea I had procured from Noirdel.
Trickle—
A sweet, refreshing, pleasant fragrance tickled my nose.
“Mm… nice.”
A warm cup of tea to help digest an overstuffed stomach.
With the languid atmosphere of late afternoon added on top, I could hardly keep the drowsiness at bay.
Only after the flowers had fallen did I realize it had been spring.
So peace and safety were this blissful.
A life without sudden monster waves rushing in, or elves drugging and abducting me.
I enjoyed the spring day beyond the window and savored this rare leisure.
And I resolved myself.
No matter what happened, absolutely.
Absolutely!!!
“I’m not leaving my restaurant.”
I should stick to my original intention until the very end.
Hadn’t I decided to live for conviction rather than money, for the dream I’d wanted since I was young?
Of course, it wasn’t as if I’d gotten involved with the wave or Noirdel because I wanted to…
Still, if someone asked whether I bore absolutely no responsibility, I couldn’t confidently answer yes.
Even if my spirit as a chef rejected it, I could have ignored the corrupt quartermaster’s embezzlement,
or reported Seiran and Veila to the duke on the very day they attacked me.
There had always been options that would have let me avoid a troublesome future.
So in the end, the incidents that had happened recently… were disasters I had brought upon myself.
The wave? This year’s was already over anyway, and next year I could just go to another region during the wave.
As for the elves, there was already the precedent of Iseria, Seiran, and Veila being punished, so there was no way the same thing would happen again.
Sip—
Let’s stop sticking my neck out and just live in Silvaerin, where the water is good and the air is clean.
Arthur said he’d strengthen the patrols near my house too, so public safety had improved.
As I pondered how I should live from now on, I quickly finished the tea.
I rose from my seat to put away the teacup.
But then.
Thump, thump thump—!
“Jinu! It’s me, Callius!”
‘Ah, right.’
There was still one disaster I had brought upon myself left.
To begin with, those two troublesome matters weren’t one hundred percent my fault, but Callius was different.
The sin of lying that I had a merchant company, and of cooking far too well.
It was karma made up of one hundred percent Gang Jinu responsibility.
This is the last one.
If I really just handle this matter, I’ll wash my hands of it cleanly.
“Yes! I’m coming!”
Carving into my heart the sort of promise a gambling addict might make, I opened the restaurant door.
“My, it’s been a while! I’m glad you came back in one piece!”
“Haha. Thank you.”
Even though it had been a long time since I’d seen him, Callius was exactly the same as ever.
His warm, generous impression, and the ample pouch of wealth steadily piling up around his belly.
Ah, I take back the part about him being unchanged.
Now that I look, that pouch of wealth seems even bigger.
The last time I saw him, he had loaded up plenty of hardtack and was preparing to head to the capital for trade.
No way. Surely not.
Even if I set aside my subjective bias and looked at it objectively, the hardtack I made was definitely a superior product.
The old hardtack, which had to be chopped into pieces with an axe like splitting firewood and boiled in water before eating.
Its taste, appearance, and cooking process all made it questionable to even call it “food.”
Into a world where those edible bricks were the standard for combat rations, there had suddenly appeared an invasive species in the ecosystem of combat rations.
Overwhelming portability in the form of small rectangles,
and convenience that eliminated the need to soak it in water, as long as your salivary glands weren’t broken.
Crisp on the outside, mild and sweet within, and even the savory richness of powdered milk that made it impossible to stop reaching for more.
K-hardtack, which, despite being a combat ration, smashed the heads of most ordinary meal breads to pieces.
Even I thought K-hardtack was fiercely competitive.
Still… surely not, right?
No matter how much Callius’s merchant company distributed it, there should be established local powers already.
They must have done a good job blocking K-hardtack from running wild… right?
If even the hardtack ends up succeeding here… they’ll ask me to make other things too.
I might even end up having to go all the way to the capital.
I wasn’t hoping for such dismal results that it would count as failure.
As long as it wasn’t a huge hit. I’d be perfectly satisfied with an average performance!
Clinging to a sliver of hope, I asked Callius.
“Ah, now that I think about it, did your trade trip go well?”
“I went and came back long ago. Heh heh. My eye was not wrong. The hardtack you made is wildly popular in the capital! Even noble lords are lining up before the shop opens!”
“Ha… why does it keep…”
“Hm?”
“Why does business keep going so well?!”
Why!! Why can’t I, Gang Jinu, be happy!
I ended up venting all the pent-up frustration I had before Callius.
Callius looked flustered for a moment, then soon smiled brightly and answered.
“Haha! You’re happy because business is going well! Seeing you this pleased makes it worth bringing the news!”
“Ah, yes. Please think whatever you like… Is there more?”
My utter despair could not be hidden no matter how hard I tried.
Whether I did or not, Callius kept smiling broadly.
“Heh heh… Listen without being too surprised, Jinu.”
“Wh-what is it?”
Even nobles of the imperial capital were lining up at opening for K-hardtack, and there was still something more surprising?
Because of Callius’s meaningful air, I stayed tense and waited for him to speak.
And then Callius opened his mouth.
“The Academy. The Academy, where all the talents of the Empire gather, has inquired about a bulk contract for hardtack! At this rate, becoming the greatest merchant company in the Empire is no mere dream!”
Crash—!
At Callius’s shocking declaration, the strength left my fingers.
Only the teacup I had been holding fell helplessly, struck the floor, and shattered.
“This!!! This isn’t reality!!!!!”
“Yes!!!! It’s like a dream!! Wahahaha!!”
You crazy old man. I’m not happy about this.
But as if I, too, had now given up, a hollow laugh escaped me.
Wearing a smile that was no smile at all, I forced myself to answer.
“Fine, let’s give it a shot.”
The water had already been spilled, so I might as well finish it quickly.
I invited Callius into the restaurant and began listening to the details.
***
This time, the sweet aroma of herbal tea rose from both sides of the table.
Serving Callius tea, I caught up on everything we had missed.
“So what exactly happened on the trade trip?”
“I couldn’t take that much this time. At most, it was a little over sixty kilograms? If the trip hadn’t been delayed, I would have taken more.”
“Ah, that’s right. I remember.”
So many things had happened since then that the day Callius left for trade felt like the distant past.
If one thirty-gram pack of hardtack commonly eaten in modern times was considered one serving, then sixty kilograms amounted to about two thousand servings.
Honestly, one thirty-gram pack wouldn’t fill anyone up, so even if calculated as double that, it was one thousand servings.
I didn’t know how many adventurers or nobles with private soldiers there were in the imperial capital… but still, that meant it hadn’t been enough.
If nobles in a class-based society were lining up at opening, that said it all.
“This is hardtack you made, isn’t it? Premium hardtack on a completely different level from the old edible bricks. At first the response was lukewarm, but once word spread, it sold like hotcakes. Since it’s preserved food anyway, people can stockpile plenty of it.”
“True… I suppose so. Then how much did you sell one serving for?”
“I sold out at ten copper coins per serving, so I exchanged it all into silver coins. Two hundred silver!”
“Oh…”
The hardtack I regularly delivered to Duke Kailan came out to forty-eight silver, so this was much more profitable.
Of course, comparing military supply contracts with ordinary retail prices was absurd in itself, but either way, it was sweet.
I had no regrets when it came to money.
After all, food, clothing, and shelter had been taken care of from the moment I was transferred to another world, and I didn’t have much greed either.
But now, this hardtack business was no longer mine alone.
It belonged to everyone connected to it, from the factory workers to the Silvaerin Knights and Callius’s merchant company.
If the scale of the business grew, it was only natural that the profits would increase as well.
Even if it betrayed my attitude of wanting to live quietly, I had no choice but to keep expanding the scale to meet demand.
I could just help until the business settled in, then hand full authority over to Callius.
“So about that… Jinu. We need to expand the hardtack factory. As things stand, we can’t even handle the market in the capital.”
“I was just about to mention that.”
“You may not like it, but how about investing all the profit earned this time? The tide is coming in hard. If we don’t row now, we’ll sink as we are.”
“I agree with that opinion. But I think fifty silver should be enough.”
Hm, or maybe not? It might cost far less than that.
While I ran the calculations in my head, Callius asked in bewilderment.
“I don’t mean to look down on you, but… expanding a factory costs a great deal of money. Even if we expand around the existing first factory, there won’t be enough empty land. Then we’ll have to clear the forest too, and labor costs…”
“Ah, ah… stop.”
Uncle Callius, that is a bad answer.
A bad answer that takes a long time and is boring and pedantic.
I lowered the palm I had raised to tell him to stop and gave him the solution.
“We can just have the elves do it.”
I never thought I would end up using the free pass I received from Noirdel this quickly.
Need labor to build a factory and raw materials for hardtack?
If we had elves, who were friends of the forest from birth, then clearing the forest should be a piece of cake.
On top of that, all of them had magic and spirit arts as passives.
It might even be all right to hire a few and turn them into hardtack-making machines.
They’d be good at controlling fire, and they could probably dry the hardtack neatly with wind magic too.
It felt like I was thinking of working them too hard just because I had received one free pass…
But what were they going to do about it?
‘They shouldn’t have abducted me in the first place.’
Of course, Callius, who had no way of knowing this, still wore an expression that said he had no idea what I meant.
To that Callius, I declared confidently.
“I have quite a lot of elves who will serve me without pay. They know how to use magic too, so they should be fairly useful. Don’t worry, and just pick the location.”
“I-is that so? I don’t know what on earth happened after you were taken away, but… I’ll trust you for now.”
It was only because of the World Tree’s barrier magic; Noirdel was closer than expected.
Once the construction start date was decided, I could make another trip.
No, I thought, surely I wouldn’t go there again… but I ended up going back way too soon.
This time, Callius thought hard as he calculated something, then spoke in a clear voice.
“Mm. Then the major problems are solved. I’ll tell you the location and construction date again soon. And…”
“Yes. Is there something else?”
“The bulk contract with the Academy. Since it’s a rather large contract, I think it would be best if you came along and saw it too.”
Ha… so it comes to this after all.
I had expected it from the moment the Academy was mentioned.
When you think of another world, it’s the Middle Ages, the North! Elves! And the Academy, isn’t it?
I don’t know who sent me here, but it seems they’re determined to feed me the “full-course otherworld experience.”
At this rate, I’ll end up as the porter and chef for a hero’s party, and even enter labyrinths or dungeons.
With a faint sigh, I asked.
“Phew… I guess there’s no helping it. But how big is it for you to say that? What, do they want two thousand servings every month?”
“Higher.”
“Yes?”
“A quantity higher than that. Five thousand. They asked us to deliver five thousand servings of hardtack every month for one year.”
“No, pardon?”
Five thousand servings means… they want us to send one hundred fifty kilograms of hardtack every month?
Even the Silvaerin Knights didn’t receive hardtack in such an absurd quantity.
No, to begin with, if they stockpiled that much wartime emergency food, wouldn’t the imperial family come investigate?
Like, “You bastard! Are you preparing for war on your own? Are you a reactionary?” or something.
It was a quantity I hadn’t expected at all, so I was genuinely curious about their intent.
“Why on earth are they trying to get so much? What, are they preparing for war with the students?”
“No, it’s not that… It’s complicated to explain.”
Callius muttered, wondering where he should begin.
“To put it simply, all the food ingredients supplied to the Academy have been cut off.”
“What? All of them?”
“Yes. All of them. There have been a few times when the Academy’s food distribution was unstable, but this is the first time it’s been completely cut off.”
“Why would the distribution be unstable? It’s a place where noble children from all over gather, so shouldn’t they be serving only the finest food instead?”
That was what an academy was supposed to be, wasn’t it? The world’s top private university among private universities.
A place where commoners could enter, but in reality nobles made up an enormous proportion, making equality in education exist in name only.
I couldn’t understand how such a place could suffer trouble with distribution.
“The nobles who gathered from all over the country each demanded that food ingredients be distributed through the merchant companies of their own regions, their own families. They shook the Academy principal around so much…”
“And because of that?”
“They say the principal simply cut off all distribution and decided to give them hardtack instead.”
“What.”
So… the principal, whose mind had gone hazy from being yanked around by the nobles’ fights over interests,
had turned into a darkened teacher and replaced all the meals with hardtack?
Wasn’t this exactly the military way of handling things?
A place of learning where the passion of fresh young people burned bright.
Romantic love stories between young men and women in the springtime of youth.
Memories of eating Boreumdal cream bread or cheap hamburgers with friends at the school store after class…
‘There’s no such thing…’
Apparently, the academy of another world was very different from what I had imagined.
I hadn’t even gone to the Academy yet, but I already had the feeling that things were going to get tangled up wildly.