Chapter 17: Let's Start A Business!

Something strange happened and I ended up teaching our head cook, Damian, how to cook. In this world, there are few seasonings and ingredients, and compared to modern Japan, there is no doubt that the food quality is poor, but I don’t know enough about cooking to teach an actual professional cook.

I’m just making it seem like that with my vague modern knowledge, and I’m just trying to recreate things while repeating numerous failures through trial and error. The food I make is never a perfect reproduction, but rather full of flaws, and because it’s a world of such poor spreads on the dining tables, it’s rare to be able to eat anything with a strong flavor but it’s not as good as Japanese food.

One of those failures is fish sauce. Fish sauce has been made not only in East Asia and Southeast Asia, including Japan, but also in the Mediterranean coast since ancient Roman times, and even in England. That’s why I asked Helmut and Isabella to find it in this world, thinking that it might be possible if they went to a coastal area.

As a result, there was fish sauce. It was almost certainly fish sauce, a unique seasoning made in coastal port towns, but the problem is the smell. It has a strong peculiar smell and cannot be eaten as it is. If you dip sashimi with soy sauce in fish sauce then eat that, it stinks so badly you’ll want to spit it back out.

Perhaps it’s because my taste buds have changed. For example, even on Earth, children prefer simple sweets and salty foods. You can tell by their love of sweet chocolate and salty potato chips.

Everyone has the experience of being able to eat things that they used to dislike or hated as their taste buds developed as they grew older. I think it’s the same with boiled foods, vegetables, and fish. Of course, there are people who have liked that kind of thing since they were children…

Anyway, as you grow older and your taste buds mature, your tastes and what you can eat will change, which is the same on earth and in this world as well. It’s probably because of my body that I, who has developed the tastes of a child in this world, can’t eat the flavors that adults like. Adults eat salted fish with alcohol, but children often don’t like that sort of thing.

However, even if you subtract that, the unique smell is strong. When you hear the word fish sauce, you imagine it to be something like soy sauce, and if you eat it, you’ll be overwhelmed. If you boil it over a fire, the smell will go away, so if you put it in a stew or season fried chicken with it, you can heat all of that and eat it but I couldn’t eat it as it was.

It’s the same case with cheese. I didn’t hate cheese when I was in Japan. I don’t particularly like it, but I don’t dislike it either. I thought it was delicious to eat it on bread or pizza, and I think it was delicious to put it on various dishes.

But the cheese of this world is not like that. Of course, the cheeses of this world are unlike the cheeses of earth, but the smell of authentic cheese is so strong that I can’t even eat it. I could have eaten them as they were then because they were processed cheese with less odor for modern Japan.

This isn’t just about cheese, it’s about fermented foods in general. There are many people in modern Japan who love natto and eat natto every day, but it is modern natto where the smell is suppressed, and many people think that if they want to eat traditional natto, it smells too bad. Of course, some people do like the smell, but…

The cheeses of this world are also local products made in some areas where livestock farming is thriving, and they are not distributed nationwide. It’s a local specialty that even people from a margrave family have never eaten, even those who hail from the same region wouldn’t know about it.

I asked them to find some fish sauce and cheese for me, but I can’t eat them as they are. If you process or cook them, I can eat them, but if you imagine them to their counterparts in modern earth and eat them, I’ll be surprised at the difference in taste and smell.

And the fatal thing is the lack of food. For me and Katharina, the amount that Helmut and Isabella prepared was somehow enough, but since the whole family will be served from now on, the ingredients are overwhelmingly lacking. In particular, seasonings such as sugar, milk, and eggs are in short supply.

I visited the office with the intention of asking my father to solve the problem. Marius, the majordomo, is there as usual.

“Father, I apologize for having to keep coming back to you, but I have another request,” I said.

“Tell me,” Father said, nodding and urging me.

I may have thought of myself as a selfish girl who has come to ask for favors so many times. He’s been relatively receptive to my requests, but I guess I’m a selfish girl who needs a lot of work to humor. This must all be costing a lot of money.

Even though it’s to cure Katharina’s illness, I’m buying a large number of rare specialty products from all over the Kingdom of Ploiss. In an age when transportation would be difficult, buying food from all over the place must have been a considerable waste of resources. I still have to make the request. I don’t have the money to do it myself, so I have no choice but to ask someone who does.

“Actually, we don’t have enough ingredients for food. If it was only for Katharina and me, we could have covered it just by buying it somehow, but when it came to feeding the entire family, it’s not a manner of money but the number of ingredients we can acquire. So please invest in me and I will start an agriculture and livestock industry with that money.”

My request is for Father to lend me money and permission to start farming and livestock raising. You can’t get what you want when you want it just by buying it at the market. It is not like modern Japan where you can find all the main foods every day when you go to the supermarket.

In that case, rather than leaving it to the market where you don’t know when and how much will be stocked, you can definitely get it by cultivating it yourself or opening a ranch.

The problem is the initial cost, manpower, and location. Also, in my case, I can’t leave the mansion on my own, so I have to be allowed to leave without a chaperone so that I can give instructions and inspect the site.

“Fuu… Flora…” Father sighed, “Are you saying that you can start a rich agriculture and livestock industry in the Margraviate of Carruthers?”

“The thing is… I won’t know until I try,” I said. “I can’t guarantee that I will succeed, but if I don’t do my best, nothing will change.”

I never did farming or livestock farming in my previous life. Apart from that, I have absolutely no intention of bringing about technological innovation in such areas. I just want farms and ranches that produce the ingredients I want. And without them, the desired ingredients cannot be stably supplied.

“I don’t mind investing in it,” Father said, “but I can’t waste the hard-earned taxes of our people on something that I know will fail. What about the location? What about the workers? What are you going to do about the monsters and the interference of our neighbors?”

“… Huh? Monsters…?” I asked, tilting my head in confusion.

Father was doing the same. He looks pretty funny doing it. When my strict father makes cute gestures, I find it strangely entertaining and almost burst out laughing.

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What does he mean, monsters? And neighbors? I imagined that our territory would be near the border somewhere because Father was a margrave, but I didn’t know anything about the situation around here. I heard that Damian is a chef from a neighboring country, but where is that neighboring country? I don’t even know that, do you?

“I see… I see… you don’t know anything, Flora…” Father said. “Marius, please teach Flora a little.”

“Yes, My Lord, understood,” Marius said. “Well then, then Young Lady Flora, please come with me.”

Marius takes me to another room. And that’s when he taught me things I hadn’t been taught until now.

First of all, the Margraviate of Carruthers is located in the Northwest of the Kingdom of Ploiss. The Principality of Aust is on most of the Southern border of the Kingdom of Ploiss. The Kingdom of Frasia borders almost all of the Western border. And it seems that the country on the Northwestern border is the Demon Country. There seems to be a country to the Eastern border, but we don’t have much contact since they’re considered a barbaric country and there has been no detailed, extensive contact.

It seems that there are frequent clashes with the Principality of Aust, but in general, we often collaborate with each other. Basically, the Kingdom of Ploiss and the Principality of Aust seem to be hostile to the Kingdom of Frasia in the west, so it’s probably an alliance of convenience and shared interests.

The western Kingdom of Frasia is the arch-enemy of the Kingdom of Ploiss, and it seems that they have been hostile for a long time. Damian’s home country is the Kingdom of Frasia, and even though the states have a hostile relationship, it’s not a time of war, and it’s not possible to ban all human traffic. There is also trade, and it seems that people come and go, emigrating normally.

There seem to be a lot of small countries in the east, and Ploiss despise them as barbarians, so there is not much detailed information. It seems that the basic policy of the Kingdom of Ploiss is to cooperate with the Principality of Aust in the south to deal with the west and the north.

I don’t know much about the Demon Country in the northwest. Marius wasn’t very articulate and didn’t explain too well. However, the demons are the common enemy of all humankind, and it seems that in order to deal with the demons, it is possible to cooperate even with the enemy Kingdom of Frasia.

Margrave Carruthers protects the border between the demons in the northwest and the Kingdom of Frasia in the west, and it seems that this region where the borders of three countries meet is a hotbed of conflict.

And there are creatures called monsters in this world. Unlike wild animals, they are ferocious and dangerous beings that seem to exist only to attack people.

Our mansion is built with its back facing northwest. The border area between the Kingdom of Frasia and the Demon Country is the forest behind my house. House Carruthers is here to stop the forces invading from outside the border.

It seems that there are no monsters in the forest behind my house. I don’t know why. One theory is that monsters are controlled by demons, so there are no monsters in the forest to the northwest where you’ll find the Demon Country.

Of course, the credibility of that theory is uncertain. To begin with, if demons can really control monsters, wouldn’t they try to devastate their enemy countries and damage their national power? However, there seems to be a story that monsters were used systematically during the war, so it may be possible that the demons are using monsters.

Anyway, by coincidence, monsters rarely appear in the forest where I raise chickens, so the chickens haven’t been harmed so far. However, monsters appear around the town, so if you want to run a ranch, monsters will immediately come and attack your livestock.

That cows in this world are so ferocious may be that they evolved to protect themselves from monsters. And the strangely underdeveloped livestock industry is probably due to the influence of monsters.

Even so, I have no intention of giving up. If I don’t do farming and raising livestock, I can’t afford the food I want. I’m not sticking around just to eat the food I like. Imbalanced nutrition will create sick people like Katharina, and having a rich diet is directly linked to the breadth of your national power. If food is poor, there will be many early deaths and few births, and the population will not increase. 1

In addition to Marius, I also called Helmut and Isabella and told them my plan. I think I’ll try it on a trial basis with the cooperation of these three people.

First, secure a place. Monsters rarely appear in the northwest forest. That’s why I decided to build a ranch in the north. The west side facing the northwestern forest does not need to be protected so much. I only need to protect the east side, and it’s not too far from my house’s training ground, so it’s easy for Father’s army to rush there.

The farm is going to grow sugar beet first, so I have no choice but to find land suitable for cultivation. Each crop has its own suitable conditions. Even if I choose a place on the spur of the moment, it doesn’t make sense if the crops won’t grow in it, so I hire an old farmer who had retired from day-to-day work to guide me. The workers are mostly orphans and children from poor families in Kazan.

In a normal family, the children should also help out with their work, so there is no point in forcing someone who is already working to come along. We are also looking at revitalizing the economy by giving new jobs to those who have no jobs or are in need of work, so we will hire such people as an economic measure.

The old farmer who is no longer expected as a labor force on a normal farm will instruct the children of poor families to grow sugar beets.

As for livestock farming, it would not be possible without a leader who is used to the work to some extent, so there is no choice but to bring in a veteran from somewhere. The labor will be hard, so we need to hire young, energetic, and strong people.

I’ve been able to raise chickens to some extent, and it’s not that hard, so I’ll let the children work to some extent. It will be difficult to take care of cows, so the focus will be on those who are reasonably older. Of course, some of the children who will be future laborers are also included and learned about that side of the farm, but very young children and those who do not have physical strength are sent to other jobs.

And I entrust important secret work to some truly trustworthy people. That job is to make sugar from sugar beets. If it’s just sugar beet cultivation, it’s just considered livestock feed, so there’s nothing wrong with cultivating it. I am already trying to make a ranch, so everyone will think it’s fodder for the livestock.

In fact, sugar beet waste is used as feed for livestock. But before that, squeeze it to make beet sugar. In this country where sugar is precious, if we make sugar on a large scale and monopolize it, we will probably make a lot of money. Use the profits to expand the farm. Increase the number of species to be cultivated, expand the ranch, and increase the number of livestock.

Since it is the first major product for cash flow, it would be a problem if it was imitated by other places immediately. That’s why sugar-making can only be entrusted to people who can be trusted. Someday it may leak out and beet sugar will be made here and there, but I’ll be in trouble if I don’t get it until I can afford it. Otherwise, even the initial cost may not be recovered.

When I told the three of us about these plans, they nodded in surprise. Let’s go hunt the monsters that are approaching the north side of the ranch. If you do that, it will become a battle training and kill two birds with one stone.

Thus, I submitted a proper plan, received permission from my father, received funding, and started my first business.

Footnotes

The key problem here with births is more “child mortality” than “pregnancies successfully carried to term.” Once a child survives past their early years, they’re generally good for the rest of their life.

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