Chapter 14: Setting up a Bakery

Chapter 14: Setting up a Bakery

Watching the guild master went away to set up whatever it was that he thinks he needs to do, I have to say that this was a bit too convenient. Well, what am I expecting? This is what it means to be so lucky that luck itself has another meaning. If only... No, stop it, Shinichi, you cannot continue that thought.

Shaking my head mentally, I proceed to examine the ground to see which spells would work best. Which spells wouldn't be examinable for that person?

I then freeze the time on the ground using a couple of stealth spells that would hide which spells it was in the surface, making it impossible to use this land now but was also stopping the declining of the farmland itself. Since I am going to be sending my fruits and foods from my farms, I don't see why I shouldn't freeze this land up for now. Although, I guess I can just restore the land since I can... Nah.

Too much troublesome.

Since I don't plan on being the city lord of this city, I won't do it. It's too problematic if I restore the land and vanished afterward. I won't give Prince Yui a reason to restrain me into this Kingdom if I can help it.

Next, the guild master had me wait for a couple of hours so I took Jily and July around the city, as wagon puller, to sells more things.

Sell what?

Alcohol, water, spring water, juices, fruits, salt, sugar, flours (wheat/Rye/Corn/Potato), and Fabrics made from cotton, wool, and leather. The ones that I took out of my Inventory for wasting time.

Honestly, I want to take out the polyester fleece and some of the man-made fibers but... considering that I don't have my own line of product in this world, I won't take it out yet.

According to the sheet of plans that I give Leonardo, the guild master of the commerce guild in this place, first of all, he was supposed to look for the workers that have what I did as listed on the paper. Then, he was supposed to look for a good spot for me to build my shop here. I just hope that the man didn't take too long.

Nope, it didn't take long at all. Finding people who are trustworthy was the longest. The location and place that I want only took him a couple of minutes.

After two hours, the store that the guild master chose for me was successfully purchase.

.... It was an old bakery shop.

*Sigh*... My luck... Yeah...

This is a four-story wood-stone-bricks house that's a bit taller than the rowhouse found in Italy, Earth.

Since this fortress was built half-underground, all the houses here were all more or less, built to be like row houses. Except that there are more spaces between each house. Including all the roads, streets, monuments, buildings, and temples, Frozen Frost Fortress was literally a fortress city.

Do you know how Palmanova, the fortress city in the 16th century Italy looks like? Frozen Frost Fortress City was exactly built like that, except with more row houses and less road, along with half of it being underground rather than in the surface. And yes, there is that huge moats around it. So, a Fortress City.

The first floor was totally 'demolished', the second floors need to be fixed, the third floor needs a new floor, and the top floor needs a new roof. In other words, this house was a rag. The guild master was probably hoping to help me fix this building up so that I could own him a favor but... I don't need his help.

I can do the rest myself.

I signed the paperwork, clean the shop, renovates what needs to be, fix what needs to be fixed and throw away what I don't like. Which, admittedly, what pretty much everything that this place used to have- except for the walls and ceiling. No, even the walls were washed and dried using magic while the ceilings were painted over and refurbished- the lights for example.

In the end, it was like a brand new shop was built there again. All in one hour. Much to the shock of the guild master...

The cookery fireplaces that this place has was taken out and throw away. I made three new stone oven that works both as stoves and an oven. I also took out a couple of my cookery tools and types of equipment. I also built couples of cabinets into the wooden walls, a large storage area underneath the floor for storing milk, liquid, and the likes.

The ten workers that the guild master found was... not to my standard so I only hired three of them.

First, the manager(male). Second, the waitress (female) who have experience with being one. Third, a guard. Well, an ex-mercenary turned guard. The manager was named "Alex", the waitress was named "Sandra", and the guard was called Thomas.

All three of them are hired. Why? Because of their title: Loyal Worker.

The rest, Nah. I can smell conspiracy/trouble from miles away with those people.

Afterward, I show them what is currently on the menu. Since this was a bakery shop. I made a whole bunch of different kind of bread with Bel-chan while I was waiting beforehand to be sold.

There's bagel, white bread, toast-bread, Challah bread, Rye Bread, Baguette, Multigrain bread, Italian bread, cornbread, croissant, flatbread, corn tortilla, damper bread, breadsticks with cheese inside, potato bread, bun/mantou, whole wheat bread, crackers, French Bread, Swiss Roll Bread, buns of all kinds, and dinner rolls.

I had Bel-chan made them in large quantity and put them in the time-freeze cabinets inside the kitchen area. All Alex and Sandra have to do were take them out per the quota each day to sell. Once they ran out, I will be notified via the spell that I augmented into the cabinets. Once that happened, I will send a couple of my familiarity with the next month's bread here.

I made sure to notify the city lord, the guild master, Alex and Sandra which familiar of mine I will be sent once the bread were all sold out, so there shouldn't be any problem.

For now, since there isn't a bakery chef, I will only sell bread like this. That's fine though as all of the bread is fresh.

This Bakery was named "Shirin's Bakery and Milk".

The Milk parts were for selling the juices and milk.

Milk? What milk? The milk produces in my internalized Space World and my SDH, of course. I have far too much milk accumulated up in my Internalized Space World that it needs to be moved into my Inventory, so I decided to sell them here instead.

For very cheap. A bottle of two liters of milk was only 3 copper coin. Something which cost 5 copper coins here.

As for the bread, it has three sizes of various kind of bread so the price was base on it. A 'Small' loaf of the normal bread was 10 copper coin, a "mid" size loaf of normal bread was 13 copper coin, and the large size loaf bread was 15 copper coin each. As for the other bread, such as croissant swiss roll bread, dinner rolls, french bread, and the more 'softer' bread, they cost a couple more copper coins but not much.

Small loaves of bread were made from the 11" x 5" x 2 1/2" mold. Mid loaves are made from 15" x 7" x 2 1/2" mold. While the large loaves are made from the 17" x 7" x 2 1/2" mold.

For example, there is a selection of Sandwich bread that is only sold in the early morning from 7 A.M to 8 A.M.

The seven selection of sandwich bread were: Honey-Oat bread that's soft and spongy with a slight sweetness. There's raisin bread, blueberry bread, cinnamon bread, white herbal bread, green tea bread, and Japanese purple sweet potato bread(Yam).

Since the selection was limited to only once per week, it was a guarantee to be famous.

Since I had decided to set up a shop here in this snow city, obviously I will make sure that this shop is successful even if I am not here.

So, I decided to stay one more night and will set out tomorrow instead.

The store was opened not even 3 hours after I hired the three people.

It might be because of the guild master, or it might be because of the inn. It didn't even take an hour for the customers to come running in.

Inside the bakery itself, there are 9 selves total that are for bread only. Three are out in the open, where the normal bread is displayed along with the price tags. The rest is behind the counter. Right next to the counter, was a small sample of dishes that have all the bread from behind the counter. The customers can have a taste of the bread sample and decided if they want to buy the loaf ones.

Of course, the majority of the customer only brought cheaper bread loaves. Why? Because they were far too hungry.

They also brought the milk too. Since it was inside the Bamboo stalk, it was very warm just like it just came out of the cow.

To my surprise, they buy more milk and less bread when it comes to quantity.

Hmm, if they are buying more milk rather than bread... Oh.

Oh.

"Master, there's no more milk bottle left," Sandra said with a bewildered look on her face.

Sandra was the only person who's out in the counter with me. In front of me, there was a line of customers all the way out. I don't want to know how many customers there are currently outside but I guess I will have to.

"Go ask Alex to ask the people outside. I want to know how many people are here to buy milk and how many people who will buy bread," I said to Sandra as I went back into the kitchen area. While she did as I asked, I went back to the kitchen, after making sure that there was no spy or so, I took out another 10,000 bottles (bamboo bottle-stalks) and put them into the space-augmented cabinets.

Since Symbology was a profession in this world, augmenting was not something new. Only, my level of augmentation was a little far too high and ancient for the people of this world to understand it.

Most people might think that the cabinet is enchanted to have a larger space inside but if masters like that certain someone that is coming to this world, he would notice right away that this is a high-level Symbology-mixed with Augmentation and Inscription. Well, of course, after he learns them first.

"!" A small gasped came from behind me.

"What?" What's causing Sandra to look that bewild and shock?

"...Master, you.. Smile... So beautiful," She replied as her cheeks flushed in embarrassment.

What? Ah... I must've had smile because I was thinking of the man that's coming to this world.

What beautiful?

Ah. Sandra, you shouldn't look at me like that. There's a certain prince that's twitching in anger right now.

My eyes narrow and my aura slightly twitches in response to Prince Yui's twitching anger. Even when I am all the way over here, I could somehow tell that Prince Yui's mood was not good.

Ah, that man was still so damn possessive.

"I'm so sorry!" Sandra said as she left the kitchen so fast that I can only see her tails. That's right. Sandra's a dog-demi-human girl. Both Alex and Thomas are human but Sandra is a demi-human.

I ignored her and continue on what I am doing.

Taking out a large wooden barrel that can hold up to about 15 gallons worth of liquid, I make a hole on the side of the barrel and put a valve into the hole. This way, I can just pour the milk from the barrel into the bamboo bottle for refilling.

Next, I filled up the barrel with warm milk and closed the top.

I took the whole barrel with me to the counter and place it behind me. I ignored the gawking looks from the surrounding people and write the price of the milk into the barrel.

[2 Liters of Milk is 3 copper coin. Limited 5 Liters per person.

If buying with three loaves of bread, give one cup free.]

"..." Everyone's eyes were wide open in shocks and bewilderment.

Yep, it's time for me to kick people's common sense out to hell.

"I-I will take 5 liters of milk and three loaves of bread please!" A young, tired-looking, lady said with her face flushed in happiness and hope.

"Please choose your three loaves of bread," I said as I turned around and take out one of the wooden mugs that I had inside the cabinets beneath the counter.

"Please note that the wooden mugs cost 5 copper coins after your first one. The first wooden mug for the first 100 customers is free. However, afterward, if you don't bring your own container than there will be a charge of 3 copper coin for a small wooden mug, 4 copper coin for middle size wooden mug, and 5 copper coins for the large 5 liters mugs." I said as I input some mana into my voice, causing my voice to travels to all the people outside.

The price for the wooden mugs was the market price set in this town so no one complains. And no one wanted to complain anyway since the wooden mugs that I took out were far better than the ones made in this city. Due to the lack of lumber resources, things like wooden mugs was very expensive in this city, so the price that I set up was easily acceptable.

The next hour went by so fast that Sandra starts sweating and nearly panic. Alex was the one that takes the money from the customers while Sandra bagged the items up.

For now, only the first floor of this shop used so it was very crowded. The second floor was for the office, where the cabinets with the paperwork document the earning every day. The third and fourth story serves as the boarding rooms for Alex, Thomas, and Sandra. Since Alex has a wife, they moved to the third floor, leaving the fourth floor for Thomas and Sandra to live.

As for personal privacy? Sandra and Thomas are brothers and sister so I have no worry about that front. And Alex has his wife, Manda, with him. By the way, Manda was currently pregnant so the man was near tears when I had accepted him to work in the shop. Why? Because as an employee of the shop, they got two liters of milk every day for free, along with their own salary.

For the rest of the day, the store was so busy that none of us got any break. Since Sandra have less stamina, Thomas has to stop guarding the door and come to help us. I doubt that there will be trouble but I hired Thomas as a guard anyway.

But from today onward, Thomas will have to work as a cashier too. Why? Because from now on, that's also his job since I am leaving tomorrow morning.

They will have to take care of everything in this city from now on. I will be coming back here but only once every other year, only. I will instead send my familiar here to restocks the bread so I don't need to come here myself. As for the milk, I will just put a transferring teleport augments inscription onto the barrels so I could deposit the milk directly into the barrel itself. Bel-chan can take off that front, I don't need to manage it.

For the juices, I will also include that with my familiar. This is the only shop that I planned on opening here in this fortress City. At least, until that man comes to this world and into this city. Until then, I don't see why I should do anything else.

This city would have to have it's own troublesome needs so that when he comes here, he will have goals that he needs to do. A purpose and goals. If I fix all the needs here in this city, then when he came, he won't have anything left to do. And that will make him very depressed instead. Something which I don't want to happen.

After all, that man is someone I know about very well.

I just hope that the other man will soon follow him.

Who am I talking about?

My two older brothers.

Well. Their souls, at least. Wanna know more about them? Well, you will have to wait and see for yourself.

The Bakery was opened until sunset at 8 pm tonight since it was the first day that it's opened. However, from now on, the Bakery will only be opening from 8 am in the morning until 6 pm in the evening. The schedules are like that for 5 days a week, with Rosa Day and Lotus Day being opened from 10 am to 3 pm.

That night, I didn't sleep at all. Instead, I took out a couple normal, ordinary, oak plank and cut them into small plates with numbers on it.

Since today alone, there were more than 500 customers who came into the Bakery, I was thinking that it would be a great idea to get a number plate like this so that it would be faster to serve the customers.

The wooden plates were all inscribed with mana so it will automatically record which bread they want, how many, and what's the cost will be.

For example, two loaves of white bread would cost 6 coppers coin, 2 liters of milk would cost 3 copper coins, 1 small jar of orange juice is 3 copper coins. Total would be 12 coppers coin.

It works exactly like how a receipted would work on Earth. This way, if needs to be, it would be easier for the workers to count and cash the money. I was tempted to make an Invoice-Cash-Register Magic Tool but since none of the three workers were able to use magic, I didn't.

After all, a magic tool was only a magic tool if the person can use magic to turn the tool's functions on.

I guessed that I will have to make a cash register that won't use magic to power. However, I will not make one right now. Why? Because the Emperor of this Kingdom, along with the four other nearby Kingdom, had already talked about changing the current currency system and how much it's worth, to effect this whole Kingdom and the other four Kingdoms.

Let's see. According to my power that I use to peek into this world's future development, the Emperor had already implemented these new laws and system. It's just that Karnosh City was a bit far away from the Capital Cities so it will take some times for the new law and system to take effect.

So, instead of having the Copper Coin, Small Silver, Large Silver, Small Gold, Large Gold, Platinum Coin, and Magic Essence coin, it would changes to this, instead;

Small Copper Coin, Medium Copper Coin, Big Copper Coin, Small Silver Coin, Medium Silver Coin, Big Silver Coin, Small Gold Coin, Medium Gold Coin, Big Gold Coin, Small White Gold Coin, Medium White Gold Coin, Big White Gold Coin, Platinum Gold Coin, and then lastly, Magic Essence Coin.

Each coin will be counted as a piece called Suit (Pronounce Suis with the symbol ⊮, like how the dollar sign is $$$.)

One piece of small copper coin is 1 suit (1⊮). 10 suits make one medium copper coin. You need 100 suits or 10 medium copper coin to be the equivalent of One big copper coin.

The rest are like this;

1 Small Silver Coin= 5 Big Copper Coins= 500 suits⊮

1 Medium Silver Coin = 2 small Silver Coins = 1,000 suits⊮

1 Big Silver Coin= 10 Medium Silver Coins =10,000 suits⊮

1 Small Gold Coin = 5 Big Silver Coins= 50,000 Suits⊮

1 Medium Gold Coin = 2 Small Gold Coins=100,000 Suits⊮

1 Big Gold Coin =10 Medium Gold Coins= 1,000,000 Suits⊮

1 Small White Gold Coin= 5 Big Gold Coins= 5,000,000 Suits⊮

1 Medium White Gold Coin= 2 Small White Gold Coins=10,000,000 Suits⊮

1 Big White Gold Coin=10 Medium White Gold Coins =100,000,000 Suits⊮

1 Platinum Gold Coin= 2 Big White Gold Coins=200,000,000 Suits⊮

Magic Essence Coin= 5 Platinum Gold Coins =1,000,000,000 Suits⊮

Like this, it made it easier for the Kingdom to keep track of their money and economy while saving resources such as copper, silver, and gold more efficiently. Because this new currency and money will be made using ancient magic technology- which I suspected was from Prince Yui- this makes it impossible to counterfeit the Suit⊮. Unlike the current currencies, which was made using a more modern magic technique, the ancient magic technology way of making coins wasn't simple.

Not only does the coins sizes going to be different, but the component make-up of the coins itselves will also be different too. The magic within the coins themselves are small but it has a very secretive emission of a wave within it that made it possible to track the currency.

The features of the coins themselves will also be different too. Since before, the Kingdom keep having an issue with counterfeit currency, so this Kingdom was never known for its richness. However, this was to be changed so that the people of this kingdom will have a safer and easier life.

This decision was created by Prince Yui to the administrators of this kingdom, which was mainly influences because of the mana pool that we found half a year ago.

I don't see how this will make life easier for the common people but I do see that this Kingdom is getting its financial and economic power up. Well, I can smell a bunch of dark-actions from Prince Yui within this topic so I won't say anything but... this man... Yeah, he still has his hand in a lot of pies even in this world. Is he planning on being the "George Washington" in this world? So that his face will be on the bill?

So, for now, I will wait until this kingdom finished implementing the new currency system and then make the cash register device that won't use mana or magic to empower it. It would take another three weeks or so until it reaches Karnosh City. But by then, I would have returned already. As for here, a couple more months will be enough for the new cash-currency system to take place.

Well, I am returning tomorrow morning.

After everyone wakes up, I told them that I was leaving so they will have to take care of the store. I also show Sandra how to use the three new stoves that I build along with the password to open the augmented cabinets. Since this Fortress City do have a Commerce Guild and the Adventurer's Guild, no matter how small it was, it made it easy for them to deposit the earning later on into my accounts.

Yes, accounts.

I made a small banking/cashing/money account for this store. This way, it would be easier for me to keep track of which and which store has better sell records so that I can keep track of what needs more stocks and what isn't needed in certain time.

Returning back to Karnosh City with Jily and July took longer than normal for me. Why? Because it was on purpose. And because I was collecting the fruits, flowers, herbs, and animal/beast/monsters/mutated/savages carcasses that I killed into the wagon and the two Storage backpacks. I know that Prince Yui will be waiting for me regardless if I took my times or not so I didn't bother to rush back.

Since he knew that I won't like it if anything happens to the kids, Prince Yui had to behave himself. Since he didn't go home, he had the knights returned to the capital city while he stays in Karnosh City to wait for me.

But, because I- as the house-owner wasn't home, the City Lord had invited the Prince to their residents. Well, of course, I know that Prince Yui would only stay there for a couple of days and then come back to my house to wait for me but nonetheless, that man better not scared the kids anymore.

I stopped by as many villages and towns as I could, selling all the carcasses that I had accumulates to the people a bit cheaper than normal. While I was at it, I research their daily needs for more data to fall back on to. I also bought a lot of whatever seeds that the towns that I passed by has.

By the time that I had reach anywhere near Karnosh City, I had already earned around 60 Platinum Coins. I put that away into a separate purse for the new store that I have in mind.

What store? The restaurant that I am going to open as a chef, of course. Right here in Karnosh City. Although, this so call store will not be a store but rather a booth. Just slightly larger than a normal large booth.

As I plan to sell Chinese-Korean-Japanese and Western foods in that booth, I might want my own restaurant but I have a feeling that if I did that, Prince Yui will drag me to the capital city with him, with the excuse to open a branch store there. So, no, a booth/stall, it is.

With the two Cards from the two guilds, I didn't have to pay taxes to go back into Karnosh City.

I first went to the Adventurer's Guild to turns in my quests and missions, earning 50 small gold coins, and then went to the Commerce Guild.

The ice elemental fishes that were requested needs to be delivered to the requestor and have them sign the forms to complete the quests. So, let's do that.

First of all, was Lady Luciana. The quest was requesting for 10 Ice Salmon, 10 Frosty Bass, and if possible, 2 Blue Seabeam.

A normal size Ice Salmon cost 30 small gold coins each, but the ones that I caught are far larger than normal so the cost was 33 small gold coin per salmons, making the cost of the ice salmon to be a total of 330 small gold coins.

The cost of a normal size Frosty Bass cost more than an Ice Salmon, at 40 small gold coins each but since the size was larger than normal, and because the fish itself was intact with no injuries in sight, the price end up at 45 small gold coins per fish. Making the total cost for the Frosty Bass to be 450 small gold coins.

As for the Blue Seabeam, because the seabeam itself was a normal size, the price was at a normal price of 49 small gold coins. So, the total cost of the seabeam was 98 small gold coins.

In total, Lady Luciana paid 878 small gold coins.

The next client, a noble whom daughter's 15 years old birthday was coming up. His request was similar to Lady Luciana, but with no Blue Seabeam and instead, requested 5 Rainbow Tuna.

Since the price of a normal Rainbow Tuna cost between 45 small gold coin to 48 small gold coins, the total was amount to 240 small gold coins for the 5 Rainbow Tuna.

Anyway, I was too lazy to count who request what for what, so I won't bother saying it. Let's just said that all the request for the ice elemental fishes were accomplished.

In total, not counting the money from me selling the carcasses outside of Karnosh City, the money that I got was already 12 Platinum coin.

Soon, the changes of the currency system will hit Karnosh and I will have to change all my money into the new currency, but for now, I can hold onto the current money.

How do you exchange the currency money for the new one?

First of all, you will wait for the guards that went around the city to make it through your house, store, restaurant, etc. They will give you 3 sheets of Magical Paper that a certain prince had made. On those sheets of paper, you can fill out the information needed and then the guard will give you a plate number and the date and time that you could go change your money. The locations are either the Adventurer's Guild, the Commerce Guild, the Arciors Bank, or the City Lord's Mansion. Chose one of those locations to go to while bringing the Magical Paper that you filled out (For people who can't read or write, the guard will have someone with them that could do it for you). Once you got to the location of your choice, give the paper to the workers and they will file it into the Magic Status Board. In return, the workers will give you a gold plate with your information on it to you. The gold plate is bound to you through magic so it can't be stolen or misplaced.

On that gold plate, it has your name, account number, how much money you have, and your magical imprint. With that gold plate, you can go to the bank and bring all your money with you to exchange it there.

Ah- you don't need to physically bring the coins as the gold plate work as a spatial storage pocket.

According to my knowledge of how such a thing was possible, Prince Yui infused in a lot of spatial rocks into those gold plate. Hmm? How large was the gold plate going to be? Not large. And no, it wasn't made out of gold. It only looks like gold. It's not real gold. The actual material makes up was just wood coated in brass that Prince Yui mass produce. It wasn't meant to last long.

Anyway, once you are ready to exchange it to the new currency, you have the option of either storing them inside a magic card, like a credit card or debit card that Earth has, or physically storing them as coins inside the bank. If you chose to use the magic card, then like how credit card was used on earth, magic will be used to record how much you have inside your card.

As for the coins storing option, you will have to deposit and withdraw them physically every time that you need money. That's too much of a hassle for some people. Me? I preferred the physical deposit and withdraw since Bel-chan will take care of my Financial Management but in this case, as I am still only a Visitor to this Kingdom, it would be best if I actually use the magical card option, too.

After all, I can carry as much of money as I wanted because Bel-chan could change them into whatever currency system I need at whatever world I would be in, but I do know that doing so cause a lot of suspicious. Especially when I already have three stores.

Which was why I chose to use both options. Having some physical money on me or at home was what people called insurance while having money in the bank was called having financial credits.

Having money at the bank means that I can use my card anywhere on this continent with no problem. It also means that I can pay my workers easier and safer.

That's for when the new currency system truly took effects. As of now, I can only hold on to the money that I have, currently.