Chapter 358

For Sale

“Welco—President! President! Tak.u.mi-san is here——!”

As soon as we entered the Fiji Company’s store, a clerk immediately ran into the back, shouting that we arrived.

It seemed that he was a clerk who knew me.

Tak.u.mi-dono—!”

And so, Stefan-san immediately trotted over.

“As I always say, there is no need to be in such a hurry.”

“No, no, no, we don’t want to keep you waiting, Tak.u.mi-dono. Please follow me into the parlor.”

As usual, Stefan-san lead us to the parlor… while gasping for breath.

“Well, h.e.l.lo again, it’s been a long time. I am glad to see that you are in good health.”

“Thank you very much for your kind attention. Thank you for coming in today.”

“Let me say this immediately… I apologize for all the inconvenience.”

“What? Eh!? What is this about, Tak.u.mi-dono?”

After the greetings, I first apologized.

“I heard that you had it difficult because of an order from the castle.”

“Oh! No need to apologize for that! I am rather grateful to you for your sales pitch!”

“No, but I could have informed you first…”

Stefan-san didn’t seem to mind, but it’s certain I could have contacted him beforehand.

“You really don’t have to worry about it. Oh, I should offer you a reward for bringing business!”

“Nonono! What are you talking about! I don’t need it!”

Not only did he not care, but for some reason Stefan-san seemed to be in a good mood and tried to offer me a reward, so I hurriedly stopped him.

“However, we have also received a contract to deliver curry powder on a regular basis, and in considerable quant.i.ties.”

“Curry powder? Ah~…”

I’m sure it’s that. It’s for use in instant soups. They said they were going to make curry soup too.

“Are you good on the ingredients?”

“You mean the herbs? We have already started growing them, and it seems to be going well, so there should be no problem.”

I was worried that he might run out of herbs if ordered in large quant.i.ties, but the ma.s.s production system was already in place. As expected of Stefan-san.

“I am sure that the contract was obtained thanks to you, Tak.u.mi-dono. So I feel I must repay you in some way.”

“Nonono, if the curry powder sells, that alone is enough for me to earn a certain amount of money.”

I am getting part of the profits from the curry powder, and from now on I will also get part of the profits from the instant soups… This sounds like double exploitation, but is it okay? No, I’m sure it’s ok, but what the heck, I feel bad~

“Oh, yes. I told Grandpa Sol about another icy treat that is similar to sha—”

“What kind of thing is it!?”

At any rate, I forced myself to change the subject before we could get into full-blown discussions about rewards and such. I was just about to tell Stefan-san about something.

However, before I could finish, Stefan-san leaned forward with extreme vigor, so I couldn’t finish.

“Erm… it’s called ice cream, and it’s made from milk.”

“Ice cream, is it! Tak.u.mi-dono, do you have this ice cream on you? I would love to sample it, by all means!”

“Yes. I will prepare it right away.”

First of all, I had Stefan-san to taste the ice cream.

The flavors were the same as the one Grandpa Sol had tasted, milk, chocolate, and Ichi.

“You said it’s from milk, so this white one must be it. And what is this pink one, then?”

“This is also made from milk, but it’s mixed with Ichi fruit.”

“I see. Then, what is the one with these brown chunks?”

“Ah, this is called chocolate, it was made from Kaoka beans.”

“My! From Kaoka beans! So you found a use for those bitter beans!”

Ah, come to think of it, Kaoka beans were first given to me by Stefan-san, weren’t they?

And I think… I might have not reported back to him that I managed to make chocolate out of them?

“That’s right. We managed to make Kaoka beans into something good, so we named it chocolate and processed it into various sweets.”

“As expected of you, Tak.u.mi-dono. Then, let me taste it right away.”

“Yes, go ahead before it melts.”

I am sorry to Stefan-san, but I will keep quiet about the fact that the chocolate was made a long time ago.

“Wonderful! The milk flavor is smooth and very easy to eat. The Ichi flavor also has a great flavor, plus the Kaoka bean… chocolate, you said? That gives it a nice slight bitterness and texture.”

Stefan-san finished the ice cream in no time, raving about it.

“This would be great for our Refres.h.i.+ng Arbour!”

“Erm, excuse me. What is this… Refres.h.i.+ng Arbour?”

“Oh! I haven’t told you yet, did I? Refres.h.i.+ng Arbour is our store that specializes in shaved ice.”

“You build your own specialized shaved ice store!?”

“Yes, all thanks to you.”

I had thought they were selling shaved ice at a food stall or something, but now they have an entire store specialized in shaved ice!

When I asked for more details, it appears that shaved ice is available in the store and various fruit jams are sold there for takeaway as well. As for the magic tool shaved ice machine, they do not sell it on the spot, but they do take orders.

“Of course, a portion of the profits will be transferred to your account, Tak.u.mi-dono.”

“What? Why?”

“Shaved ice is a sweet treat you proposed to us, isn’t it?”

“That may be so, but…”

Stefan-san always allocates a portion of the profits to me, even though I have not said anything. He could have taken all of the profits.

But it’s that kind of Stefan-san that makes me feel close to him~

“Thank you for always being so good to me.”

“No, it’s only natural. Thank you for always imparting good products to us as well. And so, of course you can trust our business a.s.sociation with your ice cream, yes?”

“Of course! Is what I would like to say, but… as for this ice cream, we have already taught a few people how to make it, haven’t we? Is that still okay?”

“That’s not a problem. We sell stir-fried vegetables, which every household can make, but we still have big sales of it in the cafeteria.”

“Now that you say it, that’s true.”

Even if there are people who can make it, there will be those who buy it. I mean, if they were for sale, I would probably buy them in bulk or something, too, to spare the time to make them.

“Also, since ice cream is based on the milk flavor, you can do a lot of different things with it, like the Ichi flavor, right?”

“Yes, that’s—”

“‘There’s lots~””

I was about to say, he can do many things with it, but was interrupted by the kids. They have been quiet so far, but if the topic is ice cream, does that mean they want to partic.i.p.ate?

“Lots, you say? What kind of ice cream do you two like?”

“Allen likes choco~”

“Elena likes honey flavor~”

“Fumufumu. Is there more?”

“There’s one with Maro~”

“Berry-flavored are good too!”

“I see, I see. Not only can you change the flavor, but you can also chop them up and mix them in, like with the chocolate.”

Stefan-san immediately started researching the types of ice cream from Allen and Elena.

“Yes. The milk flavor can be transformed into many flavors with things like chocolate, Maro, or nuts. It is possible to make several kinds of one flavor by mixing and matching. Of course, not all combinations are possible because they might not match with each other.”

“It’s worth researching.”

“For now, I will leave you with the recipe for the milk flavor and a description of how to process the chocolate.”

“Thank you very much. I will make sure it is ready for sale before next summer.”

“I wish you good luck.”

It seems that he will be aiming to develop the product during the coming cold season and start selling it around the time when the weather gets warmer. It would be great to have new flavors of ice cream then.

Incidentally, when I explained to Stefan-san that an ice cream scoop might be necessary for the store, he said that it indeed sounded useful, and he asked me to ask the blacksmith to make it on his behalf. So we decided to go to the blacksmith shop, which we had planned to go to later.