Chapter 7: Sugar, Peerless
*chirp chirp chirp*
Same as always, morning came.
I crawled out of my sleeping bag and stretched.
“Hey, it’s morning. Wake up, dumb elf.” I called out to the elf girl sleeping on the other side of the store.
“Mmmnnn, master… that’s my meat…”
“Don’t say stupid things in your sleep.”
“Hoguu~”
“Ah, sorry.”
I had just poked her lightly, but it seems I had interrupted a good part of her dream.
Some time had pa.s.sed since I had hired an employee. Both of us were sleeping in the store.
I slept in a sleeping bag, but, perhaps since she had been homeless for so long, she rolled up in her worn out mantle, rolled onto her side, and within three seconds fell asleep.
“Sleeping on a floor is so wonderful!” She said something like that. I suppose happiness is different for everyone.
For me, having just one sleeping bag makes my back stiff.
Sleeping in “my own castle” and the feeling of slow life are difficult feelings to place.
“Breakfast~ Breakfast~. What was left again?” I rummaged around the products.
We had sold many products again, so stock was running low. There was nothing good left.
“Hey, dumb elf. Split some canned food with me.”
“I refuse. These were paid to me as wage, so they belong to me. Even if it’s master, if you try to take them I’ll bite you.”
“Bite!??”
As I looked through the remaining products, I found bag of candy drops.
Since they were there, I put one in my mouth. For now, that will stave off my hunger. Later, I guess I’ll have to go over there. Should I buy some cup noodles?
“Master? What are you eating?”
“Hm? It’s because you wouldn’t give me any canned food.”
“Like I said, what are you eating?”
Dumb elf, somehow full of curiosity, was looking this way.
“Mm, this? It’s candy.”
I looked at the bag of candy. It was something I bought on a whim at the supermarket, and up until now had been leftover, unsold.
Fruit flavored candy drops. Was fruit flavor a bad idea?
Ahh, I see. Fruits from the other world must not exist here…*
Candy flavored like unfamiliar fruits… well that would obviously look like it wouldn’t taste good. That’s why there weren’t any challengers, I see.
*In this case “other world” seems to be referring to j.a.pan, actually implementing that paradigm shift that the main character mentioned a few chapters back.
“What’s candy?”
“Mm?”
“You never heard of candy?”
“This is the first time I’ve heard of it.”
“It’s something Oba-chans give out quite often.”
“Come to think of it, I’ve never gotten any from the cafeteria oba-chan though.”
Now that I think of it… is that true?
Oba-chan treats me to food but she’s never pushed candy onto me.
“By any chance, is there none?”
I took one candy drop, then handed the bag to dumb elf.
She struggled opening the bag, so I handed the extra candy drop I pulled out and gave it to her.
Dumb elf put the candy in her mouth.
There was no immediate reaction.
Several seconds pa.s.sed.
Ten seconds pa.s.sed.
“It’s sweet!?”
Her eyes opened wide in surprise.
“W-what is this? What is this food? For it to be so sweet…!”
“Like I said, it’s candy drops.”
“What is this made of?”
“Ummm…”
I looked at the bags. What was written on the nutrition facts was…
“Sugar”
“What’s sugar?”
“You don’t know?”
“I’ve never heard of it.”
“By any chance, is there none?”
“Master, you’ve been saying the same thing since a while ago. If there is some or there isn’t any… like I was saying, I don’t know what this sweet delicious thing is, that’s what I’ve been saying this whole time.”
The elf girl, for some reason, inched closer to me with her knees on the floor.
“Why are you sidling up to me?”
“Well, I was hoping to get more of those candies from you.”
“A little while ago, you refused to give me canned food didn’t you?”
“Unfair! Master eating delicious things just by himself is unfair!”
“If you give me some canned food, I’ll give you candy.”
“Eh? No, umm.. meat is… but!”
“I’ll give it to you,” I said, smiling while pushing the bag onto her.
“Eh? For me to receive all of it… is that OK?”
“Well since it’s candy, as much as you want.”
I stood up.
The product I would stock up on today was decided.
I bought a large amount at the usual supermarket.
I’ve gone between this world and the other world many times, so I should be pretty well stocked by now. Despite that, I still have about 1.8 million yen remaining.
Today, the product to focus on buying is “candy.”
I went to the candy corner of the snacks section, and started taking everything.
Even though I say that, there were only up to 10 bags of each type of candy on display. Also, there were only twenty varieties of candy.
I don’t worry about choosing, I just toss everything into the cart.
Based on how easily it grabbed dumb elf’s attention, candy is probably going to be a big hit product.
My merchant’s spirit awoke with a kyupi~n.
10 bags × twenty varieties summed up is 200 bags. This amount will probably sell out immediately.
Perhaps I’ll go to a different supermarket, or maybe a convenience store so I can stock up even more.
Hmm, wait a second.
I had an unexpected revelation.
Candy is made from sugar. Dumb elf said that it was delicious because it was sweet, and that she had never tasted anything so sweet before. In that case, there’s no need for it to specifically be candy, wouldn’t just sugar be fine?
I looked in the spice section.
The sugar was right next to the salt I had recently visited. At the time I only had salt in my head, but now that I look sugar also has many choices.
“Hmm. Powdered sugar, table sugar, soft brown sugar, granulated sugar, sugar cubes, muscovado, and…”
I had no idea. There are so many varieties of sugar.
Muscovado is an alternative sweetener I recall…
The eyes of me, who was thinking of such things, suddenly stopped on a certain item.
“…sugar crystals*?”
There are some sort of white crystals. I guess this is sugar too.
It was being sold in big bags by the kilogram. I looked at the sign – it seems that this is used in making plum wine. That seems to be why it’s being sold in such quant.i.ties during this season.
I see. However…
These sugar crystals… as I look at them more… they’re candy. They’re just not colored. They probably don’t have any scent either…
These are probably 100% pure sugar crystals.
Ah, this is OK too.
I took the bags of sugar crystals and added them by the kilogram into my cart.
Going back and returning the candy that I picked up seems like a pain, so I just headed to the checkout like that.
The total cost of my restocking trip to j.a.pan:
200 bags of candy, thirty-thousand yen plus a little.
Sugar crystals, 20 kilograms. 3000 yen plus a little.
Other items, this and that. forty-thousand yen plus a little.
My remaining funds were about 1.72 million yen plus a little. Anything under ten thousand yen is a pain, so I won’t count it.
When I returned to the shop, there was a huge number of children gathered around.
I can’t see the ground. Black, yellow, brown, white, red, blue, light blue, purple, green, and pink – children of all different hair colors obscured the front of the shop.
“Whoa! Wh! What!? Is something happening!?”
“Ah! Master! Master! Welcome back!”
Dumb elf pointed her finger in my direction.
All at once, the children swarmed me.
“Whoaaaa”
“See, master brought candy.”
“What is this!? What is this!?”
One after another, the children’s hands reached out towards me. I was trapped. All of the children from this town had gathered here.
“OK, OK. Line up. Line up in order.”
I made the children form a line, and gave one sugar crystal to each child.
The children, unexpectedly, lined up without a fuss.
I thought there would be a riot! I was a bit unsettled.
“One per person OK? Next time, make sure to bring pocket money and buy it OK?”
As I said that, there were some children who secretly put the sugar crystal in their mouth and went to the back of the line to line up again.
Even when I saw it happen, I pretended not to notice.
When I asked dumb elf what had happened, she said she had given candy to the children. I a.s.sumed she would enjoy all of it by herself, but I guess she actually has a good side.
I’ll stop calling her dumb elf for five seconds.
One, two, three, four, five! OK, five seconds!
After giving it to one child, it seems that the news spread by word.
“Please give me some. Please give me some.”
With a bright face, there was a pretty girl, around twelve years old, holding her hands out. I made a bitter face.
“Oba-chan, what are you doing?”
“What are you saying? Who are you calling oba-chan, look at my appearance, I’m a child!”
“OK, OK.”
I gave oba-chan a candy.
Usually, oba-chans should be the ones giving out candy, not receiving candy…
“Whoa, this candy has color!”
The children made a fuss.
The candy I gave oba-chan was not a sugar crystal, but one of the colored ones. A real candy. It was orange-colored, so orange flavor.
“What flavor!? What flavor!?”
The children crowded around oba-chan. Their heights were not very different. Oba-chan, who looked like she was in the latter half of elementary school, had a feeling of seniority over the other children.
“Fuu, this is a flavor that children wouldn’t understand.” Oba-chan struck a pose and acted cool.
“You’re definitely a rich family’s son. I was surprised when you brought salt, but bringing sugar confectionaries? Just how rich are you anyways?”
She kept hitting me on the back. The snap of her wrists worked well, so it kind of hurt.
Oba-chan laughed. The children laughed.
With cheeks stuffed with candy, saying “delicious,” their smiles seemed to float on their faces.
Dumb elf laughed.
And I also laughed.
Candy became the main specialty product of C-mart. However, this was just aimed at children. Since they’re paying out of their allowance, I went ahead and made it super cheap.
Profits? Who cares about that.
Everyone’s bright smiles – for me that’s the best compensation.