Chapter 287: Chapter 273 – Cooks and Crooks V

Chapter 273 - Cooks and Crooks V

The days following the shop’s launch were largely uneventful. They were on the slower side, spent sitting at the counter with little to do. Olga’s visit had certainly bolstered the flow of traffic, but it was largely a temporary increase. The surge in visitors lasted for only a few days, slowing to a crawl again right after. That wasn’t to say that the business was a failure, of course. A few people did still stop by each day, often to ask Natalya to help them pick something off the board. Many of the customers were repeats, but it was difficult to say if that was because the service was genuinely valuable. Some, Claire suspected, were only after the thirty-odd minutes in which they monopolised the catgirl’s attention.

With a store of her own, Lia was even more popular among the city’s bachelors than she had been as an ordinary adventurer.

Whatever the case, their day-to-day remained the same. Every morning, the girls would go about their respective routines and convene in the shop after breakfast. Natalya was always responsible for opening the doors. She arrived before rush hour and took care of the early-risers, but perhaps because she was not exactly a morning person herself, she could often be found napping in the infirmary come midday. She would deal with the second wave of customers when she woke up in the evening and teach the kid when he came in at night.

Though technically responsible for dealing with customers while Natalya was busy or asleep, the halfbreeds found themselves with much less to do. The moose had eventually decided to spend her time working on her abilities; she was often training with Boris in the gym or meditating in her seat. For once, she was making decent progress. Sparring with the erdbrechers every morning taught her more about the nuances of close combat, and Alfred’s advice had proven surprisingly helpful. She was finally starting to get a better grasp on the manipulation of her divinity, though for the time being, she was focused entirely on the orderly variety. The more difficult sort would come after she was confident in her mastery.

As stupid as it seemed, the most effective piece of advice that the man had given was for her to grow a pair of horns. She hadn’t the slightest clue why, but sprouting icy nubs from her forehead would always better her fine control. With that said, her pride prevented her from leveraging them long-term. She hated how they distorted her silhouette and gave from afar the impression of a bull. When she did use them, she would always twist them out of shape and ensure that they looked anything but moose-like.

Sylvia was not nearly as productive as her favourite chair. The fox spent most of her time sleeping, often only waking for cuddles and meals. Boris, on the other hand, had happened upon a new hobby. He vanished for hours at a day, sometimes only returning home when called.

As one of the first in the party to reach level 500, the lizard should have already ascended, but he appeared to be stalling for some reason or other. It was possible that he wasn’t quite satisfied with the choices presented, and that he was doing something or other in hopes of unlocking more classes. Whatever the case, Claire had largely kept out of his business and never confronted him directly. Things were peaceful for once. And if they weren’t going to be actively working on their levels, then there was hardly any reason to rush the lizard into a decision.

Of course, not all was well in paradise.

“We’re in the red.” Natalya mumbled to herself as she flipped through her journal. It was already late into the evening, too late for anyone to bother stopping by.

She was ignoring the strictly negative cash flow for the time being. But even with the land depreciated over a twenty-year period and only the sold goods’ cost considered, the shop was operating at a net loss. Granted, it wasn’t a significant loss. They only needed a few more sales to turn things around, but the cat was unhappy about it either way. At the rate that things were going, they would have to do some monster hunting of their own just to keep up with their expenses.

“We’re going to need to figure out a way to knab more customers.”

“Oh, oh! I’ve got an idea!” Sylvia interrupted the catgirl’s thoughts by leaping atop her head. The sudden weight nearly led the soldier to bash her head into the desk, but she managed to stop herself short. Unlike the first few times. “We can set up a stage and sing and stuff. You know, like how all the taverns do it.”

“I doubt we’d be able to afford any decent performers,” said Lia.

“Don’t worry. I’m super good at singing!” She stood up on her hind legs and prepared to demonstrate, but Lia silenced her with a gentle scratch behind the ears.

“We all know you’re a great singer, Sylvie, but you’d probably get bored of it in less than a day.”

“Mmmmnnnn… yeah, I guess you’re right. Singing a bunch just reminds me of leveling, and leveling was boring as heck.” The fox paused for a moment to think. “Oh! What if we set up a lounge where people could play games and stuff? We’re basically using the desk for that already.”

“That would just attract deadbeats,” said Claire. She walked out of the auditorium as she stifled a yawn. She wasn’t sweaty. In fact, she was never sweaty, given the nature of her constitution, but the subtle, satisfied smile on her lips was evidence of a session gone well.

“I know they’re supposed to be extremely profitable, but I’d rather not run a gambling den,” said Lia, with a frown. “It might be nice to throw in something like a snack corner.”

“None of us know how to cook,” said Claire.

“Mmmnnn… It kinda looks like Ciel’s got it all figured out, and she’d probably be happy to help,” said Sylvia.

“That honestly doesn’t sound like a bad idea. We could ask her to make something simple with a longer shelf life, like cookies maybe. It’ll be hard to compete with the sweets shop, but the queen brand might drive sales up.” She muttered for a bit before shaking her head. “But I can’t possibly do that to her with how much she already has on her plate.”

“I doubt it’s as much work as you think,” said Claire. “Stop for a moment and consider how much she must’ve wasted on her cooking skill.”

Lia smiled awkwardly. “That was just her way of telling us how much she loves us.”

“Now you're just making it weird,” said Claire.

“You know I didn’t mean it like that,” said the cat, with a sigh.

“Maybe not. But the fact stands that she invited us to join her harem.”

“I know, but she has her reasons.” Natalya adjusted her glasses with the back of her quill. “She's actually really sweet, you know?”

“Mhm,” agreed Sylvia, with a nod. “You'd think she'd be a little more on guard around us, after Claire tried to kill her that one time. But she wasn't even bitter about it the next time we met.”

The statement was followed by a moment of silence. The cat moved her eyes back and forth between the fox and the snake, opening and closing them at least a dozen times. “Claire?”

“I'm innocent.”

“Sylvia, can you please elaborate?”

“Well, you remember that thing Matty said about Claire almost blowing up their HQ?”

The cat leaned forward in her seat for a few moments before nodding. “I vaguely remember him mentioning something like that.”

“Well it was right after Claire finished ascending, and she was like really, really, reaaaaaaaaaally excited to test her breath attack.” giggled the vixen. “So uhhh, Ciel picked a fight, and Claire blew up her whole castle thingy.”

“Of course she did,” mumbled Natalya.

“I'm innocent,” repeated the lyrkress, with her eyes averted. “Now stop talking about me and start coming up with ideas.”

“Ideas?” Lia blinked a few times before looking back down at her notebook. “Oh, right. While a gambling den is less than ideal, I think Sylvia hit a pretty good point. We’ll be more likely to get requests if we have more traffic. Auntie's still the only one that's given us anything.”

As one of the busiest women in town, Olga hadn't personally stopped by after her first visit, but one of her lackeys had dropped off a binder full of documents. It was filled to the brim with generic requests for high quality materials. There were hundreds of items with their prices and specifications listed, but the mountainload of work was not quite enough to drive traffic on its own.

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Only particularly experienced hunters would be able to satisfy Silkroad Company’s needs. It took a fair amount of knowledge to understand which pieces were valuable to begin with, and a significant amount of skill to subjugate the associated creatures without damaging the goods.

For the most part, common parts like pelts and meats were practically worthless. There were few monsters that tasted as good as domesticated livestock, and their skins were typically too frail to serve as armour while also being too coarse to use as clothing. It was only when they had special properties that they were worth anything at all, and not even that was any sort of guarantee.

It was simple supply and demand. The fireproof leather harvested from the infernal hare, for example, was an expensive commodity on paper. Its properties made it the perfect protection for anyone looking to enter a burning building. It was useful in business and private residences as well; any flame covered with the material was almost sure to find itself extinguished.

But in reality, the leather had little to no value. While high-level mages were rare, half-baked casters were common enough amongst the populace that fires were typically handled by passersby. Though just about anyone would suffice, fire mages were considered the most effective; they could easily seize control of any organic blaze and see it immediately suppressed.

One could argue that an adventurer intent on summiting a volcano could find some use for the fabric, but that too was a false assumption. Monster hunters were only ever interested in acquiring gear made from creatures in their own level range or above. Infernal hares rarely came in anything beyond the single digits; their skins could easily be melted by fire mages only double their level. There was simply no market for their pelts. No matter how useful its fireproof properties might have seemed.

The same logic was often applied to stronger monsters as well—the only parts of value were the special ones, those that were particularly tough, luxurious, or magically endowed, and it just so happened that those parts were often tied directly to the monsters’ key abilities. Natural catalysts like unicorn horns, snake eyes, and golem gems greatly empowered their owners while still intact, and destroying them was a common tactic to better one’s chances of victory.

That was where the hunter’s skill was factored into the equation. To acquire more than just experience, one would have to carefully deal with a monster’s greatest strengths and subsequently eliminate them without breaking or even striking the wrong thing. Of course, lower-end shops would take damaged goods as well, but an enterprise as prestigious as the Silkroad Company refused to deal in any such goods, and any monster hunters capable of supplying them likely already had pre-existing agreements with some rich patron or other.

“Mmmnnnn… so what you’re saying is that you need more people to put jobs on our board?” asked Sylvia.

“Exactly,” affirmed the cat. “I know food is out of the question, but I was thinking we might be able to set up some sort of bar or something.”

Claire rolled her eyes. “That’s not going to work. If you have drinks, people will want food.”

“Right. Good point.”

“Oh, oh, oh!” Sylvia raised a paw. “What if we sold them imaginary food? We can say it’s good for diets and stuff.”

“I’m surprised you know what a diet is,” said Claire.

“What the heck is that supposed to mean!?”

“You have an infinite stomach.” The abyssal horror lifted the hat off the cat’s head and poked at her belly. “Is it even possible for you to get fat?”

“Uhhhh... hmmm... I'm not really sure,” said the fox. “I've never really tried.”

“You gorge yourself every single time you have the chance.”

“I dunno if that counts 'cause it's not like I'm actually getting full. But anyway, that doesn’t really matter right now! Imaginary food sounds like it could be super neat. We could make people feel like they've totally eaten a bunch of stuff even though they've just been gulping air.”

“It’s a great idea, but I feel like it'll attract the wrong crowd,” said the cat. “No one that fights a lot is going to be all that worried about having to go on a diet.”

It was only post-retirement that most wealthy spelunkers and monster hunters would inflate, and at least typically speaking, only mages ever did. Most other classes had at least some degree of inbuilt obesity resistance, be it the overinflated muscles sported by warriors, the passive skills granted to chefs, or the heavenly blessings granted to dancers.

“I guess you have a point.” Sylvia’s ears drooped as she collapsed onto the desk. “I guess we gotta find someone that can cook.”

“Yeah,” said the cat, with a nod. “Do either of you know anyone?”

“Windia?” said Claire, with a tilt of the head.

Lia pursed her lips. “That involves poaching her from Gulfweed Reef, and I’d rather not sour our relationship with the manager.”

The orcaped in question was both a waitress and chef, working for one of the restaurants located in close proximity to Olga’s hotel. She had an unenthusiastic air about her, and her cooking was fairly average—more than good enough for their purposes.

“Oh, oh! What about Kally?” said Sylvia.

“Kal’syr will be hunted by the lion god’s lackeys the moment she steps out of the dungeon,” said Claire, with a shake of the head.

“Mmmnnnn… I dunno then.”

“I might’ve been able to ask Mom if we were closer to home,” said Lia, with a frown.

A brief silence ensued, with each of the girls failing to suggest any additional candidates. It lasted for roughly two minutes before a child made his way into the shop. The nervous bear cub walked through the door in his usual grubby attire, a torn up cloak, a few rags, and an excessively oversized pair of boots. It was doubtful if he would ever grow into them, but according to the child in question, they were free.

“I’m here for my lesson,” he said. He began heading over to the auditorium immediately, but Lia waved him towards the desk instead.

“Over here,” she said, with a cheeky grin. “I’ve got something special planned today.” She looked across the desk and immediately earned herself an annoyed, suspicious stare. “I think you’ve got most of your basics down pat. Let’s move on to some practical training.”

She grabbed a bag from under the counter and plopped it down in front of him.

“What’s this?” he asked.

“Some basic weapons and armour. Go get changed, and meet me back here.” She pointed at one of the private rooms before turning back to the others. “I’m going to close up shop so I can take him into the forest. You’re free to do whatever for the rest of the night, but I’d really appreciate it if you could try thinking up a few more ideas.”

“I’ll try, but no promises,” said Claire.

“Don’t worry, Lia! I’ll think of something awesome,” said Sylvia.

“Thanks.” A bright smile on her face, the cat grabbed the building’s keys and stepped out from behind the counter. It was time to give her apprentice his first taste of blood.