Chapter 88 – Super Evolution of the Kodris Barbecue (1)
The day after the party of four was reunited.
I promptly bought a second wagon for Burgess and Clarice.
I had to go trouble to get the first one.
The second one I could afford from what I currently have on hand.
I guess that means I am making steady progress as a merchant, little by little.
However, I must quickly recover the investment of about 120,000 mana that I put into the wagons by doing business using those wagons.
As for the recovery of that investment, with Burgess and Clarice…
It was up to Arcana’s skill.
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“What’s this… something smells weird!”
The next day.
At the wagon peddling square before opening.
I set up a second wagon next to the first one for “relics and herbs”.
My second wagon has a cook stall.
I chose to sell barbecued meat to Clarice, who said she didn’t like to sit and wait for customers.
I also plan to have Burgess help her with that.
And that’s not just barbecue!
I came up with this business idea during my recent stay in Yak Village.
I asked Arkana for cooperation, and preparations were steadily underway behind the scenes.
It seems that Arcana’s side is just about ready, so I am going to let Clarice and her team take care of it at the right time.
If they get into it right, they should be reasonably busy.
“Yikes, what’s it…?”
Clarice wes in agony as she peered into the contents of the jar on top of the wagon.
“Don’t you smell it?”
“I know it’s a herb, but… What do you use these for?”
At any rate, I thought it would be quicker to show them.
I began to chop up the meat of the codlice I had taken out of storage.
“Not moo-moo roast? You’re selling kodris roast here? You can’t sell that in Kilket…”
Both Clarice and Burgess look a little dubious.
“Well, wait a minute.”
And I dissolved a few spoonfuls of the herb powder in a jar with water, sprinkled it on the kodris meat, put it on the cooker, and began to grill it.
Then, the distinctive smell of herbs began to spread around.
This medicinal herb powder was a special blend that I had asked Arcana to blend.
It is a mixture of dried and crushed stems of lomari, a numbing herb, and dried and crushed leaves of baril, a poisoning herb.
Then a little dried and crushed kojau berries, a numbing herb, and a pinch of salt.
The substance in the jar is Arcana’s special blend of herbal powders.
Kodris baked after being sprinkled with it has a unique smell of medicinal herbs added to its flavor, giving it a deep and unique taste that bears no resemblance to its original light flavor.
In other words, it is a medicinal-herb-baked kodris.
No…
The parts of the medicinal herbs that are normally discarded are used for fragrance….
It may be more appropriate to call them “herb-roasted” rather than “medicinal-herb-roasted.
So…
So this is “Kodris with Herbs”.
Because of the strange herbal aroma that spreads around the area along with the smoke from the Kodris grill.
Even though it was before the opening of the peddling square for wagons, the surrounding peddlers gathered around my wagon.
They peeked at me from a distance, wondering what was going on.
It seems that even before we start selling, we have already become the talk of the town.
This was a very good trend.
And…
“Yum! Albus! This is good!”
“It’s amazing! The moo-moo baked Albus is good, but this Kodris is also very good! It’s totally different from the usual kodris! It’s a new, super-evolved form of kodris barbecue!” (Loloi)
The attractor-girl repeatedly (unknowingly) advertise with smiles on her faces…
(看板娘(Kanban-musume) is pretty girl who attracts customers to come inside a shop. Source:http://www.romajidesu.com/dictionary/meaning-of-%E7%9C%8B%E6%9D%BF%E5%A8%98.html)
The merchants around me, hearing this, were slurping and slobbering.
I grinned a little and took some more additional kodris meat out of storage.
Then I grilled a few more additional skewers while briefly explaining to Clarice and Burgess the cooking time and the best amount of herb powder to sprinkle as told by Arcana.
They all settled in Loloi’s belly.
And then she said, “Codolis herb-roasted! It’s the best!” echoed loudly through the wagon square.
I turned to Burgess and Clarice.
“I know things are going to get a lot busier with the opening of the plaza, so I’m counting on you two to keep an eye on things.”
And just as I planned.
The Kodris herb-grilled stall, which opened for the first time today, was flooded with merchants shortly after its opening. And then the general customers who showed interest in the line joined them, and the line continued to form throughout the day.
The skewers, priced at 20 mana each, sold like hotcakes.
During the course of the event, it got to the point where I had to step in to help out, but we managed to make it through to the end.
It was a good start for the first day.
Incidentally, the cost of one skewer of kodris meat is roughly four to five mana.
That…the amount of kodris meat that is sold for 5 mana at butcher shops over there, which is the market price.
If you grill it with herb powder on it, it can be sold for four times the price.
Incidentally, the I requested Arcana to recycle as much of the medicinal herbs as possible that were not as potent as the original medicinal herbs.
In making medicinal herb pastes, the parts of medicinal herbs that were originally discarded as unnecessary parts were reused. This time, Arcana has successfully reused them.
Therefore, although it takes a lot of labor, the cost of materials is almost free of charge.
Then, it is calculated that there is a profit of 15 mana per skewer.
That is 500 skewers sold today alone.
That is a total profit of 7,500 mana.
By the way, the kodris I used today is my reserve from before I left the ruins. As for the money on hand, there is a whole 10,000 mana more for the sales.
Furthermore.
Kodris can be stocked as much as I want in this Kilket, and there is still plenty of medicinal herb powder in Arcana.
We can even ask for additional production, and this herb powder specially made in Arcana is not something that other merchants can easily imitate.
So this is a long-term sustainable business using a commercial product that only I can sell.
With this, it was now only a matter of time before I would get back the 120,000 mana I invested in the second wagon and turn it into a pure positive profit.
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“I’m making money!”
After closing the store, I couldn’t stop grinning as I counted today’s sales.
Beside me, Burgess and Clarice were slumped over, exhausted.
“This is… wouldn’t it have been much easier if we had just gone on a quest instead?” (Burgess)
“Albus…go easy on us for a minute. Burgess and I both. If we’re this exhausted, we won’t be able to fight when the time comes.” (Clarice)
I’m making so much money, I’m getting carried away and going a little overboard.
Starting tomorrow, I will adjust our hours of operation and devise new ways of doing things so that the two of them do not lose too much energy.
Incidentally, the relic dealer also made sales of about 100,000 mana that day.