Fairy Tale Chronicles

Volume 4 Snippet 2.2

At Kurt’s good news, not only Handsome, but another woman also let out a happy exclamation.

「Oh, Irva. How long have you been here？」

「Just now. It’s going to be a long haul over here too, so my side is also looking into getting a more than decent amount of curry powder.」

The one who spoke up was Irva Miil, leader of the adventurer team comprised of only women called “Bloody Rose”. Everyone knew her via Makoto. Needless to say, she was approaching the age where it was natural to be concerned about finding a suitable marriage partner, although she didn’t want anyone to know this.

「So is that information correct？」

「Yes, Nora said it so I think it is. She never talks about fake info or things she isn’t supposed to.」

「Right. If so, I really am grateful for that.」

And so the adventurers chatted excitedly about the usefulness of instant ramen for long trips outside the city.

「I always get nervous when this happens……」

「But hey, it’s better than going to the palace, right？」

「Yes, but either way you don’t see people from the slum like myself around……」

Somewhere around noon, leaving Nora behind to watch, Fum and Teres were at the department store in the center market to deliver goods. Usually Meriza’s company came around to do so, but as they were gradually becoming purveyor with political ties to the imperial household, the company was becoming more and more busy, some days not even able to come and collect the goods from the workshop. So at times like these, members from Azuma Workshop would directly come to deliver and receive payment from Meriza Association. They were selling on credit anyway, so there wasn’t an issue as long as the vouchers were accurate.

「Thank you for waiting. We’re always grateful for your assistance.」

「Likewise. Here are the goods for today.」

As Teres handed over the list and vouchers, Fum began stacking up all of today’s goods atop the trolley. Everything gathered would be several hundred kilos, so this definitely required a trolley. The soy sauce and miso were especially heavy, and Fum couldn’t even take anything out with her arm strength if it weren’t subdivided. This only served to demonstrate just how much stamina and muscle the forest giants had when they could easily lift barrels full of these.

「……Yes, all right then.」

「Negotiations in that regard can be with either the workshop leader (supposedly in Forre right now) or the head of Meriza Association.」

「Ah, so this won’t work.」

「Not with only us in charge here. Besides, I doubt we can do much with our numbers anyway.」

Teres cut off the person in charge at the department store who had stood up to examine the items, and so they sighed at this quick response, knowing it wasn’t going to work. The department store in the middle of the marketplace was the secondary partner that all the associations and workshops in Farlane dreamed of for direct trade. When you factored in the palace as the number one partner, you could almost argue that this store was the real number one.

So even with this department store, direct trade with Azuma Workshop wouldn’t be possible. This fact only served to boost their cognition of the workshop’s value.

But still, with requests blasting in from the number one palace, Azuma Workshop with its small size could never contrive resources for direct trade with the department store. Lately even Darl’s palace had been making connections with the workshop and ordering detailed items, so honestly, this was more of a mental blockage than a question of production. Adding more and more new trading partners was just not viable.

「All right, I’ll send over the vouchers, so please pay via Meriza Association as always.」

「Understood. Thank you for your continued support.」

Any more arm twisting than this and their business connection with Meriza was in deep waters. The person in charge swallowed a sigh and smiled as they sent off Fum and Teres.

Evening.

「Is everything there we asked for？」

「Barely, but yes.」

「Thanks for your hard work as always.」

Rayna would come from the palace to collect instant ramen and curry powder. Soy sauce and miso were yesterday, ketchup and every sauce variety she got three days ago in ten barrels, so with this amount it wasn’t necessary to come daily. The trainees were doing their best to replicate mayonnaise every day, so there was no need to procure any from the workshop.

Rayna came all the way over because she was one of the few people who had direct connections with the workshop. For several reasons, the royal family did not want to increase the number of people who knew the workshop, but didn’t want to have royalty coming to take large amounts of baggage, so Rayna was used as an errand girl.

「So it seems we can finally buy up the site.」

Rayna started a conversation as Fum finished writing the vouchers. Her superiors had told her it was best to let the workshop know ahead of time.

「So you finally got to it？」

「Yes. With this we can cancel out a certain amount of the instant ramen deficit. We do have plenty of raw materials after all.」

「You sure do. I remember you saying that items like wheat that couldn’t be stocked up last year are filling up storage.」

Fum nodded with a wry smile at Rayna’s expectation-filled words. Instant ramen wasn’t currently circulating around the marketplace other than to a select few adventurers via Azuma Workshop. However, via large-scale knight military subjugation and specific adventurers, the existence of the workshop was widely known. More and more people could say they had actually tried this food before, and it was currently the top on the list of items in demand, so the workshop also wanted to find a way to increase production.

Also, Rayna and Fum weren’t lying. These last few years, in addition to increase in agricultural technology, harvests had continued to be abundant in Farlane, with wheat overflowing in stocks despite max exportation to other countries. Residents of the slums like Fum and the others were able to somehow survive despite not being able to get jobs because of the country buying up these overflowing stocks of weight, processing them into bread, and distributing them to the slums free of charge as part of welfare. It was clear as day that the slum’s public order didn’t get any worse thanks to this food policy.

There was also a large decrease in wasteful products, as small shrimp and fish not often used in cooking could be inserted into instant ramen or used as soup stock, as well as shellfish that had previously been discarded more than used. Not only did this reduce the amount of mouths that needed to be fed, it also guaranteed the employment of many young people coming from the countryside to work away from home, so in many ways, the instant ramen factories had a big influence on the economy.

「So did you spread the rumor？」

「Yep. All that’s left is to gather a bunch of people once the factory’s done, right？」

「Seems that way. I don’t understand much in that field, but I think His Highness Layotte will do something about that.」

「Well, there’s also the issue relating to soy sauce and other things, so even at completion with all the human resources gathered, I doubt it would be possible to suddenly increase the output of ramen manufacturing.」

And so the two of them engaged in enthusiastic conversation in light of the hopes of the big project tomorrow. This would actually begin after the site acquisition and Hiroshi had gotten back to make the factory and equipment, but both of them already knew this and saw no point discussing that part.

「Okay, it’s about time to leave. Keep me updated next month too.」

「For sure. Thanks as always.」

Taking the finished voucher from Fum, Rayna checked a few required portions before standing up from her seat. And just like that, another day in the life of Azuma Workshop had ended.