The day of the hardtack contract with the Academy.
Callius and I finished our preparations and left the merchant company’s mansion.
Callius packed all sorts of documents and talked with his attendants, carefully reviewing the details of the contract.
Compared to him, I... didn’t really have anything to bring.
One pen to use when signing the contract was enough.
It might look like I had no sense of responsibility, or that I was shoving too much onto Callius.
But I’m a chef, and Callius is a merchant, so I’d like to say we were each doing our best in our own positions.
I create and provide quality recipes.
Callius uses those as a foundation to grow the business.
My personal theory was that, no matter what the task, it was better to get help from an expert than try to do everything alone.
As we walked toward the Academy, the protesters I’d seen yesterday were gathered again today.
“By the way, what’s going to happen to all these self-employed people? They were driven out overnight.”
“What do you mean, what’s going to happen? It’s just unfortunate, that’s all. It’s hardly the first time commoners have been crushed in a fight between nobles.”
“Ah...”
Had I been thinking too much with a modern person’s sensibilities?
I’d assumed that if this was a country where protests were allowed, even if not on a large scale, then of course there would be compensation for damages.
But perhaps the class system was strict in areas like this as well; Callius only gave them a pitying glance and shook his head.
As I passed through the Academy’s main gate, the protesters kept weighing on my mind.
Memories of modern Earth suddenly surfaced.
If there was one thing different between then and now, it was the weight I felt in my chest.
How many customers would come today?
I wasn’t even hoping to use everything—could I at least use half of the ingredients I’d prepared?
If this month was in the red again, things would really get tight. Would I be able to pay rent?
Running your own business meant fighting uncertainty.
Even the most skilled business veterans could only suggest ways to avoid going bankrupt; they couldn’t guarantee even a modest level of success.
Wasn’t there a saying? If you had a weak heart, don’t go into business.
Back on Earth, that uncertainty had made me suffer mentally to an extreme degree.
Insomnia was a given, along with stress-induced hair loss, and even my emotions became difficult to control on my own.
It felt as if a sharp wedge had been driven into my heart and a very heavy padlock fastened over it.
Compared to that, my life now was... honestly, pretty enjoyable.
My chest wasn’t heavy and stifled like it had been in the past. If there were no customers, then so be it.
If there were customers, then I lived while enjoying cooking for them.
Recently, a lot had happened, and today I’d even put the restaurant on the back burner to come sign a business deal, but anyway.
Maybe it was a feeling of sympathy for fellow sufferers. Because I’d gone through hardship myself, my eyes kept drifting toward them.
Feeling strangely sorry, I headed for the Academy’s main building.
But the path there was quieter than expected, and lacking in life.
“The inside of the Academy feels kind of desolate. Is it because everyone’s gone to protest?”
“Most likely. The students’ dormitories are close to the classrooms, so it makes sense we wouldn’t see them.”
“Still, there’s a student going to class over there.”
“Hmm, she must be a commoner who doesn’t live in the dorms.”
Ah, commoners could enter the Academy too, right?
It was more like a university, so the tuition wasn’t cheap by any means, but I’d heard there were scholarships for commoners.
The Academy did proclaim equality in education, after all, so it left opportunities open even for poor commoners.
But that female student... the way she was staggering seemed odd.
Her brown hair was dry and frizzy, and she generally had a hollow look.
I asked Callius a question that suddenly came to mind.
“Does the Academy have school meals? Or do they just buy food outside?”
“I hear commoners mostly use the school meals, while the children of nobles vary depending on the situation. Though I suppose most of them buy food now.”
“Don’t tell me cutting off the ingredients included the school meals too?”
“That’s right. The meal provider that entered the Academy was also one of the businesses run by the merchant families.”
“No, that’s going too far.”
There was a reason that commoner girl was tottering along without any strength.
When I heard they’d cut off ingredient distribution, I thought it just meant the restaurants on the Academy grounds were suffering.
But it wasn’t that—the school meals had been cut off too?
And school meals were what commoners mostly ate. If those were suspended, what were the commoner students supposed to do?
I didn’t know how expensive things were at the Academy, but considering most of the students were nobles, they were probably pricey.
Expensive enough that commoner students would hesitate to open their wallets.
The commoner girl had been walking ahead of us, but we caught up to her in no time.
I spoke to her.
“Excuse me, student. You look like you don’t have much energy. Are you all right?”
“Yes, yes? I’m not exactly all right... but I’m just managing.”
Perhaps finding the black-haired old man suddenly talking to her suspicious, she looked at me warily.
I handed her a packet of hardtack I had stocked up on and said,
“I wanted to ask you something. Are the school meals not coming out properly these days?”
“Yes... The principal cut off all the companies, so they’ve gotten really poor. This hardtack... is it okay? It’s hard to find.”
“I’ve got piles of it at home. Eat it comfortably. So then, what do commoner students eat?”
Since it was packaged nicely as a product and was hardtack popular throughout the capital, the girl accepted it without much suspicion.
The hardtack’s fame probably helped, but so did Callius and his attendants, who were with me.
They wore the merchant guild’s emblem, and they belonged to the only merchant company selling this hardtack.
The commoner girl immediately opened the package and began nibbling on the hardtack.
“Mm, it’s plain and tasty. Thank you. Commoner students mostly bring bread from home, or more and more of them just skip lunch.”
“Wouldn’t that make you hungry? Is it too much of a burden to buy food outside?”
“It is, but there’s nothing we can do. Lunch break isn’t long enough to go outside the Academy grounds, and the shops inside the grounds are too expensive... Ah, I have to go because of class. Thank you for the hardtack.”
I didn’t know how Academy classes were run, but she probably needed to get there early and prepare for her studies.
The commoner girl didn’t sprint, but she left ahead of us at a fairly brisk pace.
Haa... I hadn’t originally planned to do this.
I’d really intended to just sign the contract with the Academy, then go back to running my restaurant properly.
“When I was her age, I used to get three servings of school lunch.”
Students in the prime of their growth.
It was one thing if such kids were too full to eat more, but to think they couldn’t eat because there was nothing to eat.
Well... if someone said I was changing a resolution as easily as reeds swaying in the wind, I had nothing to say.
But what was I supposed to do? The kids were going hungry.
I’d normalized the Silbaerin Knights’ trash-tier mess officer and Noirdel, and I was going to turn a blind eye to this?
That would make my meddling inconsistent in its own way.
“If I’m going to be nosy, I should at least be principled about it.”
Consistently, I would interfere only when there was a pitiful problem involving food.
And there were few problems bigger than growing students not being able to eat properly.
I felt sorry for the self-employed workers too, but it would be best to start with what I could do.
It would be difficult for me to enter as a school meal provider, and renting a shop building would be quite the hassle...
“Should I try running a food stall?”
I remembered when I was young and didn’t know anything, when I watched the movie Chef and lost my mind enough to run a food truck.
I hadn’t even had my driver’s license for long, yet I went and made that damn fuss, only for it to end in a traffic accident.
I really almost died back then.
Since I used to carry an LPG gas cylinder in the back of the truck, if it had exploded, I would’ve come to another world fifteen years early.
“Callius. Could we perhaps add something to the contract conditions?”
“Hmm? This is the first time you’ve made such a proposal. If it isn’t unreasonable, let’s add it. What is it?”
I rambled to Callius about the plan I had in mind, and even the motive behind it for the sake of persuasiveness.
And his reply was,
“Running a stall is your freedom, but... must you really go that far? The merchant families’ distribution networks have all been cut off, so how do you plan to procure ingredients?”
“I’ll manage somehow. You know me.”
“I can do it. If it’s me...”
As long as I had the [Mana Market], ingredient distribution and whatnot weren’t a problem for me at all.
At my confidence-filled attitude, Callius softened his stance a little.
“Fine, let’s say that’s all well and good. But why bring this up so late? We’ve practically arrived...”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know even the school meals had been cut off.”
“Haa... Let’s go in first. As a merchant, being late to an appointment is forbidden. We can ask for a moment’s understanding during the contract instead.”
“Yes. Let’s head in!”
I was sorry for bringing it up late, but I’d only just found out, so it couldn’t be helped.
When we entered the Academy’s main building, a person from the Academy who had been waiting approached.
“Thank you for making the trip, Sir Callius.”
“It’s been a while, Finance Director. This is the chef friend I mentioned before.”
“Hello. I’m Kang Jinwoo.”
“Hmm, that is an unusual name. Pleased to meet you. I am Edman, the Academy’s Finance Director.”
So he was the finance director.
Now that I’d heard his title and looked at him again, I could feel that sort of atmosphere from him.
His dark circles were deep, so he must be suffering from overwork.
I shook hands with the finance director, then followed his guidance toward the principal’s office.
Without saying much, the finance director led us to the front of the principal’s office, confirmed we were ready, and knocked.
“Principal. Merchant Company Head Callius and the chef have arrived.”
“Come in.”
At the answer that came back immediately, we opened the elegant door.
And the person who appeared before my eyes was...
“Huh, the principal? Not a student?”
Snow-white hair and snow-white skin.
Unlike Eilenna’s lively blue eyes, hers were an endlessly deep shade of blue.
She was said to be the greatest magic genius of all time, and perhaps all the energy that should have gone into her height had gone into her mana instead, because she was tiny too.
In many ways, she had an appearance that didn’t suit the position of principal.
She was Ermia Velfart, the principal of Arcadia Academy.
I’d expected an elderly person with age and overflowing charisma...
This negotiation might be easier than I expected.
***
“There was a time when I thought that too.”
Gripping the pen with fingers full of tension, I finished signing the contract.
Only after Callius and Ermia had finished signing as well did I feel like I could breathe again.
I was catching my breath while trying not to show it as much as possible when Ermia said,
“We didn’t put it in the contract, but I’ll come take a look at you later. Your mana is peculiar, so I want to research it once.”
“Research? My body?”
“Don’t get scared. It’s not like I’m going to kill you.”
No, when someone evaluated as the greatest mage in imperial history says that, it’s terrifying.
Her first impression had been somehow student-like, so to be honest, I’d underestimated her. But the more we talked about the contract details, the more I was overwhelmed by her unique atmosphere.
I couldn’t sense mana, but didn’t people instinctively sense something like another person’s aura?
Something like, “Uh, that one feels kind of dangerous.”
Ermia was exactly that kind of case. Her spiritual pressure was so strong it was hard to endure.
When I brought up that I wanted to run a stall, my hands were drenched in sweat.
She suddenly raised her eyes slightly and glanced at me, and I wondered if she was about to fire off Zoltraak or something.
Well, anyway... if she said she was going to research me, what choice did I have?
I just hoped she’d make it so it didn’t hurt.
“Yes... Please handle me however you like...”
“You suddenly got boring. Well, fine. Callius. When can you start delivery?”
“We’ll deliver by this afternoon.”
“Understood. During the contract period, deliver at the same date and time each month.”
“Understood.”
With the contract fully concluded, Callius and I rose from our seats, and the finance director approached.
“Sir Kang Jinwoo. There are documents you need to fill out regarding the stall, so please visit the administrative office soon.”
“Ah, understood.”
It really made me realize all over again that until now, I’d been cooking in a very slapdash way.
It was the scent of an administrative system I hadn’t experienced in a long time.
“Then we’ll be going. Lady Ermia. Thank you very much for doing business with our merchant company.”
“A transaction is established when interests align, so there’s no need to be so grateful. And... you said Jinwoo, was it?”
“Yes. That’s right.”
“When you open the stall, I’ll stop by once. Goodbye.”
A random farewell directed specifically at me.
I was so flustered that I couldn’t even answer properly before leaving the principal’s office.
More precisely, I was made to leave.
My body moved on its own, but it didn’t feel like wind magic.
It was like something had been draped over the surface of my body and forced me to move.
In any case, it was such an unfamiliar sensation that it gave me chills for no reason.
Callius must have felt the same, because he looked at me with a dumbfounded expression.
“No, Lady Ermia’s charisma is insane. I was genuinely scared stiff.”
“I was scared stiff because of you, Jinwoo.”
“Well... it worked out, so isn’t that all that matters? Let’s hurry back.”
“Yes. If we’re going to deliver by afternoon, we need to hurry.”
Callius and I quickly left the building.
Not much time had passed, but in terms of how exhausted I felt, it was as if half a day had gone by.
Were humans counted among the strongest in the empire such terrifying beings...?
“Duke, just what are you?”
I knew Duke Kailan was also quite strong, but he really had treated me comfortably.
Gratitude toward the duke welled up in me all over again.
As we retraced the path we’d taken, Callius asked,
“So what kind of stall are you going to run? Do you have a menu in mind?”
“I have a few ideas... but I’m still thinking about it. I think I’ll need to test them.”
It would be nice if it were food that could provide balanced nutrition, but it wasn’t easy to make that at a stall.
Even if I prepared outdoor tables, there would only be one or two, so food that was difficult to eat wouldn’t work either.
A menu that was easy to eat, provided nutrition, and was reasonably priced...
“Toast wouldn’t be bad, would it?”
Not the kind of toast Americans eat, smeared with every kind of cheese.
The hearty thing that always gets mentioned when people talk about Korean street food.
Thick egg pancake tucked between slices of bread seared fragrantly in margarine,
with ketchup and sugar making the flavors explode.
Fold it in half and stuff it into a paper cup so the cup can serve as a handle.
If you wolfed it down with milk, there was no way you’d be hungry until lunch.
“I’ll make sure they can’t be hungry, whether it’s breakfast or lunch.”
The first menu for the Academy stall was decided: Korean-style street toast!