Chapter 38
“Spices?”
“I do have some.”
“I can’t make sense of your sense of humor. Even in the Imperial Palace, rare spices aren’t easy to use, and you’re saying you got spices from...”
Thud.
While Robert was busy looking smug and shaking his head, I took the sack of spices out of my inventory.
“...Huh?”
“Take them out.”
They were originally something I brought to eat myself, but I could at least sell them first.
Robert was horrified when he opened the sack.
“H-how did you get this much spice...?”
Pepper, turmeric, and other basic ingredients I’d swept up from the supermarket.
But in this world, they absolutely aren’t basic ingredients.
They’re all premium ingredients.
If anything, the impressive people are the ones who can get that kind of flavor out of just salt, sugar, and a little spice.
“There are ways to procure them.”
I had confirmed that pepper was used here as well.
It was often used in meat dishes at A Restaurant too.
There were more dishes that didn’t use it, though.
“How about we talk over a meal?”
“A story like that is worth hearing.”
I’d gotten Robert interested for now.
* * *
“Even so, spice trading has plenty of complications. You know that, right?”
“I don't!”
How the hell would I know that?
That’s why I dragged Robert into this in the first place.
“I’m not walking into a trap, am I...?”
“Aw, come on, of course not. That’s what friends are for.”
“Isn’t that the kind of line you use when you’re fleecing a friend?”
“No way.”
I always think of myself as someone trustworthy.
“At any rate, if all this is really spice and you can sell them a few times, you should be able to buy a wand of your own.”
“Ooh!”
Wands are one of the priciest luxury goods in this world too.
As expected, the way to buy a luxury item is to sell another luxury item.
“However.”
Mm. I knew this was coming.
Robert said it with a merchant’s face.
“Basically, jumping into the market means taking on a lot of risk. The most dangerous part is...”
“Hm?”
“If you run off from school to fetch spices, other merchants disguised as bandits will target that route.”
“Oh, that’s not a problem!”
Robert was probably talking about getting attacked outside Reinhardt.
But I’m not planning to leave Reinhardt.
“No problem? This is no joke. The other side could even hire assassins! You’ll need top-tier escorts!”
“You’ll understand roughly if you come to this side later... ugh, forget it.”
I’ll just have to kidnap him to the modern world later or something.
“Haa, well, if there’s a way, there’s a way.”
Okay, I got through that smoothly.
“Then next: testing whether these spices could be poisonous. I’ll handle that.”
Ah, right.
I also have to consider the possibility that our body structures are different.
There had been quite a few times when I ate together with Aris and Adrian.
But Aris had a unique spell that erased status ailments.
And Adrian... probably wouldn’t get sick from anything he ate.
And right now, thanks to my trait, I can’t even feel most poisons if I eat them.
But...
“You’ll handle that?”
“Didn’t you know? The Carter family is famous as a merchant-and-mage family. That foundation is this unique magic.”
Robert raised his wand.
“Merchant Magician, Detecting.”
And he brought the wand up to one spice container.
“Hm. In excessive amounts, it’s poisonous.”
“That’s how it is by default.”
After testing the rest, Robert said,
“Well, even if you ate all of this, you wouldn’t die. I’ll help with distribution. It’ll be business with nobles, so leave all the minor stuff to me.”
It looked like they passed.
But the most important part still remained.
“So, how do we split the profits?”
“Fine, I’ll help. My fee is fifty percent of net profit.”
“Twenty percent.”
“Twenty percent!? Then we won’t have anything left! Until I inherit the family business, I’m just a figurehead in name. I can’t do business at a loss.”
“I don’t know about that. Twenty percent.”
“I’ll go as high as forty percent.”
“Ah, then don’t sell it.”
Either way, the spices’ safety was already assured.
“If I go sell them at the School Market, someone will buy them.”
“Then you’ll have to sell them at a ridiculously low price!”
“Then I will, I guess.”
I was calm.
I have plenty of spices anyway.
Maybe he doesn't know it, but I have plenty of ways to make money without teaming up with him.
If I sold the dagger Karnarov gave me, that would be money too.
Of course, if I sold it and got caught, I’d probably die, so I won’t.
“Haa. Thirty percent.”
“Twenty percent.”
“Twenty-five percent. Anything below that is really a losing deal.”
“Ugh, fine, I’ll be generous! Twenty-two percent.”
“Are you the devil!?”
In the end, Robert lunged at me like he was ready to die over it, so I gave in to twenty-five percent.
“So when are you going to sell them?”
“The first semester has to end first.”
“What!?”
Then what's the point!
“We don’t have a client. Right now I can’t leave school. Arranging it after vacation starts is the best option.”
“I need a wand I can use right now!”
Specifically, a wand that could withstand at least one blow even if I fed it dragon mana!
“Can’t be helped. How did you break your wand in the first place?”
“I cast a pretty strong spell, and it broke on its own.”
“...That’s the first I’ve heard of that. What brand of wand was it? Valerius? Etheria?”
“...Brand?”
“You... how were you even using magic?”
“Well?”
“Wait. Don’t tell me.”
Robert handed over his own wand.
A wooden wand, jet-black with gold threads woven through it.
It looked luxurious at a glance, and I liked it very much.
“Cast a spell once.”
“Why?”
“Hurry.”
I very lightly cast a basic attack spell at the floor.
“Kyaa, now that’s a wand. The mana goes in so smoothly.”
I understood immediately. This was luxury-car class.
More like the high-end sports car lineup.
I turned my Observation Eye toward his wand.
[Solesnis - NO.(SSR)]
I shouldn’t have looked.
“Why don’t I have one of these?”
At this rate, do I have to climb the Tower like crazy until a wand comes out?
“You succeeded with magic on the first try? No adaptation period...? No, that’s not it. This is...”
“Why, what is it?”
“Why are you talking about something only you know about?”
“Just how absurd is your talent?”
“What are you talking about?”
I handed his wand back to Robert.
Come to think of it, if the wand changes, all the variables in the report change too.
If that’s the case, I’d rather get one wand to use for life.
In the end, money is the problem...
“Since you seem to know nothing, I’ll give you one piece of advice.”
Robert said, looking at me.
“From now on, you need to find a wand that suits your hand well. I recommend getting one during vacation.”
“What kind of nonsense are you saying?”
It sounded like he was saying the other wands hadn’t fit my hand at all.
The magic had all worked just fine.
“Think about how you’re going to sell the spices instead.”
I’ll try to somehow get my hands on a rare-grade wand.
Robert shook his head.
“At the very least, I have to go personally. Without the Carter family name, it’d be hard to find customers.”
“Is it really that important?”
“If I don’t go myself, the nobles won’t even bother smelling it. Not without some special occasion.”
“I see...”
Because I’m treated like a commoner.
“Can’t we sell it to the professors?”
“Aren’t they nobles too?”
When I said that, Robert looked at me like I was crazy, so I stopped.
“If we have customers, I’ll handle all the minor negotiations, transport, and hiring.”
Robert said that and left.
By the way, why are there so few wand shops at the School Market?
Even the ones that do exist are either incredibly expensive or only famous brands.
There were tons of sword shops, though.
* * *
“Hmm...”
How do I find customers?
It seemed like there was a way if I figured it out, but the how was the problem.
Thinking that, I went behind the restaurant.
It was time for some black-market dealings.
“Oh, Yumia! You’re here again today!”
The head chef of A Restaurant.
A man with a rough look and cooking skills as amazing as his thick forearms.
He had the strange ability to conjure snacks whenever I stopped by short on them and handed him one or two cans of beer.
“...You brought it again today, right?”
I handed him ice-cold beer.
“Kyaa!! This really is the best. I don’t know which brewery made it, though.”
“Just give me some bar snacks.”
“Of course I’ve got them ready!”
He handed me meat skewers wrapped in paper.
“You’re taking quite a lot today.”
“There’s someone I’m eating with.”
“You’ve already found a drinking buddy? As expected, you’re something else.”
“Not really.”
Even upperclassmen who’ve come of age drink wine and the like.
The only unusual part is that my drinking buddy is a dragon.
“Your skewers are insanely delicious too, sir.”
“Hahaha! Thanks, even if it’s just flattery!”
It’s not flattery.
This guy really grills meat amazingly well.
Especially his skewer dishes are incredible.
No matter what meat he grills, it comes out tender and evenly cooked.
Since it was buffet-style and the quality had dropped a little, getting it directly right before closing time was actually the best.
That didn’t mean he couldn’t make other dishes, though.
Maybe I just liked skewer dishes.
When he grilled meat for me, I usually took it and ate it as a snack with just pepper or sauce on top.
‘I bought lamb skewer seasoning on the way back from clearing the Tower.’
Today I was planning to stop by Adrian’s place too.
Adrian, who used to go crazy over it even if I just put ketchup on it.
I wondered what reaction he’d show this time.
“Oh? Is this a spice?”
“Yeah. I got a little, but I don’t really have any use for it. It feels a bit wrong to sell it too.”
“Oh? Then why don’t you sell it to me?”
“Huh?”
“The food you bring always has fascinating stuff. Spices won’t be any different. This time I have to present a dish to the Imperial family, and I need something novel.”
“I feel like this might be a little different.”
“Don’t be like that. Hmm? How about half a gold coin?”
“Uh...”
Fifty silver was a bit much.
Without thinking, I handed him one can of spices.
It was a decent product that had also passed Robert’s test.
“Well, make good use of it.”
The fifty silver that landed in my hands felt pretty sweet.
Either way, he was a friend, so it couldn’t hurt to give it to him.
I let it pass with that thought...
A little while later, when I went to A Restaurant for breakfast on a whim.
He came looking for me.
“Wh-what did you give me?”
He shouted at me, his expression a mix of joy and confusion.
“Huh?”
“My food caused a scene at the Imperial Palace!”
* * *