Translator: Dj2203
Editor: Dj2203
Advance chapters available for patrons on Patreon. And a chapter can be sponsored by buying me a ko-fi.
Maon and I were taking shelter from the rain in a barn, and as the rain stopped, we started walking side by side. Maon was concerned about me being unfamiliar with this town and taught me various things along the way.
“By the way, Genta, how much do you plan to sell this jam bun for?”
“Well, I don’t know the market price… How much does bread cost in this town?”
“It’s smaller than the jam bun we had earlier, but a little bigger. It’s actually an empty bun.”
So… how much should I make it…?
The regular price of jam buns and bean paste buns was 88 yen before tax. But at half price it’s 44 yen, and even with tax it’s less than 50 yen. Even if they weren’t half price by any chance, the cost would still be less than 100 yen… In that case, I guess I’d need two or three pieces of white copper…
“Hmm, I was thinking two or three pieces of white copper…”
“…Hmm.”
Maon tilted her head.
She was a head shorter than me, about 150cm tall. The tiny Maon-san left my side and walked briskly towards the street vendor at the crossroads.
Looking around, I saw a simple wooden stall where people were buying something. It looked like grilled meat on skewers.
….
“Genta, try this.”
Maon-san came back with two skewers of meat. She handed me one of them. I picked it up and looked at it, but I couldn’t tell what kind of meat it was.
The size and shape were like a piece of deep-fried tofu cut into pieces about 2 cm wide and skewered. I thought I’d take a bite, but the aroma that rose from it made me feel strange. How can I put it… it smelled bad.
There were many meals in Japan that used meat. For example, if you compare it with beef bowl and pork bowl, the taste is obviously different, but the aroma that comes up in your nose when you put it in your mouth is also completely different. If you eat only pork bowls, you will notice that the aroma that comes up in your nose when you eat beef bowl is surprisingly strong.
If you say that’s the flavor, then yes, it is. On the other hand, once you get used to beef bowls, you’ll be surprised at how mild the smell of pork bowls is.
For a moment, the smell of the skewers took my breath away, but I made up my mind and put it in my mouth. It was meat from a beast I’d never eaten before, and even as I chewed it, I couldn’t really tell what it tasted like.
And no wonder, it had almost no flavor. There was barely any salt on it. The protein and fat in the meat itself certainly had some umami flavor, but it only became distinct and flavorful with the addition of seasonings like salt.
“Genta, that skewer is worth one piece of white copper.”
Maon, who was eating skewers with us, said quietly.
“I’m used to it, but… Genta, you must have been surprised. In this town, we live on bread like stone, meat that has almost no flavor, and soup that has no salt at all.”
Maon continued.
“The townspeople eat the thin soup with hard bread, soaking it while munching on the skewers from earlier. A whole set of that costs about four or five white copper coins.”
“I, I see…”
“Now, Genta, you were saying that in addition to jam bread, there is also bread with meat in it. What’s more, they come in a variety of flavors. Even if that’s expensive, if you were to charge three copper plates, what do you think would happen to the bread and meat sold here now?”
Maon asked me.
“Sales will decrease…”
Maon smiled.
“That’s right. Or it wouldn’t sell at all. That’s how amazing Genta’s bread is. I’m sure, Genta, the bread you were talking about… that meat- filled bread is also delicious, right?”
I imagined hamburgers, minced meat cutlet sandwiches, fried chicken sandwiches, etc. Frankly speaking, the taste is worlds apart from the skewers I’m eating now.
So I nodded.
“Genta’s bread is stuffed with ingredients. The meat is so delicious that it can’t be compared to any skewered meat you can find anywhere. The bread is also soft, so you don’t need any soup. You have to wash it down with unappetizing meat and watery soup… Hard bread like a rock… If Genta’s bread is cheaper than that meal… then of course it’s a loss in business.”
So… Maon continued.
“You have to set a fair price for things. If you sell them cheaply, the local street vendors might get criticized for no reason. Like, ‘Hey, that shop’s bread is so cheap it’s like a delicacy, but yours is so expensive even though it’s like a rock!'”
“Stone bread is the norm…”
“Well, I’d like to serve soft bread, if I could bake it in the morning and eat it by lunchtime or dinner… But if they don’t eat it right away, I can’t let my guard down except in the middle of winter. If they get diarrhea and can’t move, it’s a big problem for someone who earns a living every day! And if they have to go to the doctor, it’ll be a huge loss!”
You can’t be careless about things like food poisoning, right? Even in modern Japan, there are cases of food poisoning, and norovirus can kill the weak and elderly. If you think about it, it makes sense to remove all the moisture down to the size of a stone. If you wanted to preserve it, you probably had no choice but to sacrifice the taste and texture.
“That’s where the merchant guild comes in! There are big merchants who run the guilds, or people who have just made a fortune selling goods to the guild.”
“Oh! So you’re selling it to those wealthy people…”
“That’s right, Genta! You know what I mean! All you have to do is sell it to rich people for a high price!”
She then looked up at Genta with a grin, a smile that seemed like it could be accompanied by a sound effect.
Guys, ads are my only source of revenue, so please do not turn on the AdBlock when you are accessing this website…. Thank you, this would be a great help…
You can buy me a ko-fi and sponsor a chapter on: https://ko-fi.com/midnightrambles
Or become a Patron on: https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=45665005
If you support me, I would be able to provide more chapters….
Previous • Table of Contents • Next