Translator: Dj2203
Editor: Dj2203
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When I returned to my room, the first thing I did was turn on the rice cooker. Personally, I wanted to eat rice. While the rice cooker was doing its job, I got on my scooter and headed to the supermarket in front of the station.
My purpose, of course, was to buy bread to sell at the guild tomorrow. I headed first to a supermarket a little ways from Kochira-ga-Oka-Yuen Station, the closest station to my university. It seemed that the rain had been falling all day, slowing down the number of customers, and there were many unsold discounted items. This supermarket closed early, at 8pm, so I headed there first.
I live alone in a student town, cook for myself, and discounted items are a great way to cut down on expenses. Because, you know, if the same item is half price, you can simply buy twice the amount for the same amount of money. In other words, you can survive for twice as long. I buy every piece of bread with a half-price sticker on it.
Next, at a supermarket that closes at 9 PM, there are a lot of half-price breads. There are only a few minutes left until 8 PM, so they must be trying to sell them all before closing time. In the bread section, half-price stickers are just being put on the bread. I put them into my shopping cart.
In the other world, the jam bun made the seven people who tried it smile, but in modern Japan, it’s not that popular.
Bread was first introduced to Japan in earnest during the Meiji period, but it was something completely foreign to the Japanese people. As a result, it was difficult to sell. Anpan solved this lack of familiarity. In Japan, there was a sweet treat that used “soremade.” Someone noticed this and created a bread that Japanese people would be familiar with, a baked bread made by wrapping bean paste in wheat… manju and anpan… there is a difference between steamed and baked, but the ingredients are basically the same, and that became the base for the filling.
Until then, bread had not been familiar to Japanese people, but with the introduction of anpan, it began to be accepted… I continued shopping, remembering this.
I line up at the cash register with a shopping basket full of bread.
Buy bread not only for my own consumption but also to sell.
Perhaps because I’m now in a new position, I’ve become more conscious of bread. Looking at it like this, I’m reminded again that there are many different brands and flavors.
Selling at the Adventurer’s Guild… I sold 14 loaves of bread to Najina and his friends today. I don’t know how many adventurers are working at the Adventurer’s Guild, but there must be at least 50. If each person buys two loaves of bread, I’ll need 100 loaves.
The sweet pastries were certainly popular. However, Najina also bought a minced meat cutlet bread at the end, saying, “I want some meat after all.” Bread filled with fillings or meat, so-called savory buns.
Cooked bread may also be popular among adventurers who rely heavily on their bodies.
With that in mind, I had croquettes, minced meat cutlet bread, sausages, and today, I was lucky enough to even have hamburgers left. I’m sure they’ll be pleased with these too.
At the first supermarket, I bought so much bread that my backpack was full to capacity, then headed from the supermarket I was at to another supermarket that closed at 9pm. There was plenty of bread left here too. Not only were there some items at half price, but some were even 30% off. I needed a lot, so I bought a lot here too.
I returned home completely stuffed with bread: my backpack, a box attached to the back of my bike, shopping bags hanging from both sides of the handlebars… I put the bread I bought in my room and then headed to a supermarket in the next town over that caters to restaurant owners.
It’s a little far away, so I haven’t been there much recently, but they sell other useful items besides food. I thought I might find something useful there to sell bread tomorrow. With that in mind, I hurried over there, since the store was about to close.
….
The store was called “Supermarket for Businesses,” and while the name sounds straightforward, inside it was just a regular supermarket. They have a wide selection of convenient items, including some unusual seasonings from overseas.
There’s a reason why I called that store a regular supermarket.
In a news program I saw a while ago, this chain’s stores were shown in a bleak space, with vendors and sellers silently purchasing goods, but this store has been expanded to welcome the general public. The store has easy-to-read price tags, is bright, and above all, the prices are cheap. So I headed not to the food section, but to the non-food section, which included disposable chopsticks and other items.
Selling something doesn’t mean just handing over the goods, especially since we’re dealing in food.
Also, I’m in the position of reselling bread in another world, and I have to prevent adventurers from reselling the bread I’m reselling.
As Maon said, sweets are extremely valuable and can even be sold for just one silver coin. One silver coin is equivalent to 10,000 yen in Japanese yen.
If such bread were to be sold in the city, I could make a considerable profit by reselling just one jam bun. At the same time, it would be so conspicuous that if the merchants’ guild found out, I might be in danger.
So, like a restaurant where you eat on the spot, the cashier will take the food and hand it over to you, and you can eat it at your table. Takeaway is prohibited, so we need to think of a way to prevent that… First of all, we need to find the tools necessary for this.
The plan was to set up two tables side by side as a sales area, but if we left it as it was, bread would be placed directly on the table, which would be unsanitary and would not look good.
So, first I chose a baking sheet, which I plan to lay on the table and then arrange the bread on to sell.
From the day after tomorrow onwards, I will try to find areas for improvement.
Also, the wrapping paper that you use to wrap meat buns when you buy them at a convenience store is actually sold at this supermarket. If you use this, you can put the bread in, but it’s not good to hand it over with your hands, so maybe tongs would be good.
There are other things you need as well, and if you keep buying more every time you remember something, it can get surprisingly expensive…business is difficult.
….
I went shopping at a wholesale supermarket and headed home. I put the things I bought in my room and started preparing dinner. It was already well past nine o’clock… I took out the bulgogi I bought at the supermarket last night and fried two packs in a frying pan.
I was on the move a lot today, and a lot of things happened. I didn’t do my usual trick of adding cheap bean sprouts to increase the portion size. I ate a hearty bulgogi with meat as the main ingredient.
For me, who usually lives a life of saving money as much as possible, this two packs of meat-based bulgogi at the same time is a treat. I finish dinner in high spirits and check the number of pieces of bread I bought today. There are over 60 pieces… Hmm. I wonder if that’s enough…
You might think that two loaves of bread in the morning is a lot, but in the other world, people generally eat two meals a day, one in the morning and one in the evening. So, if you think about it from the perspective of a modern person on Earth, the difference is whether you eat or whether you eat them in just two meals a day, in the morning and evening.
In other words, if you eat two meals a day, you can eat in bulk or eat as many as you like. So, if one person buys two, only 30 people can buy one.
“Huh? Maybe this isn’t enough.”
Also, in the other world, people generally go to bed after the evening. Unlike modern Japan, there are no streetlights outside or lights in the rooms. The world becomes dark as the sun sets.
Stores that are open at night are either bars or red-light districts, which can be dangerous places, and there may be dangerous groups around. In short, if someone is out and about at night, unless they are a guard, there is a good chance that they are suspicious people.
“Now that I think about it, the adventurer hasn’t eaten anything since the evening before… He might be hungry… but this isn’t enough after all.”
I decided to go buy some more bread and head to the biggest supermarket near the same station as yesterday after 10:30pm, when bread starts to get cheaper. Until then, I’ll just relax in my room.
Just after 10pm, the news started on TV.
Today, the news is endlessly reporting gloomy news about how many people in Tokyo are infected with coronavirus and how many have died. I feel good about the gloomy news that day, but at the same time, I want hope.
How can we reduce or eliminate the damage?
There is nothing in the news that will lead to that future, and it seems unsatisfying to those who want to see a way out.
The sound of the news program that leaves me feeling unsatisfied and the lighting that illuminates this room help to ease my loneliness as a single person.
But Maon…
She’s alone in a barn with no light or sound… First of all, even if I can’t provide her with a home, I want to provide her with at least some comfort. I’ll think about what I can do.
“Maybe I’m overthinking it a bit.”
I stood up and headed out to do my third shopping trip of the day since returning from another world. The nearest 24-hour supermarket, Touyu, was probably about to start discounting bread prices.
“Am I a little late? Oh well, let’s hurry. I’ll also fill up the gas in my scooter.”
The clock in the room showed it was just after ten thirty.
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