Chapter 185:
Business Is Booming Beyond Belief
“The rice is ready!”
How strange. Why is business booming?! Where did everyone’s rice aversion go? All sorts of confused thoughts bounced around in my stressed-out brain as I scurried back and forth between the kitchen and the sales counter.
Back in the kitchen, I prepared another batch of rice to cook. There were four pots next to me, all at various stages of steaming. Two of them were almost done.
Druid ran frantically into the kitchen. “Sorry, Ivy, but we’re almost out of sauce. Where are the ingredients?”
“They’re all here, and so is the recipe… Are you really going to make that much, sir?”
I was a bit taken aback when I saw the size of the pot Druid had chosen for the sauce. It looked about three times as big as the original sauce pot.
“Oh, is this the recipe? You think this pot is too big? But Dad said I’d need to make this much. Do you think I’m up to the task?”
He was making an awful lot. We were bound to have extra.
“It’s okay. All you have to do is mix everything together really well.”
“I guess I can do that with one arm.”
I watched Druid get the ingredients ready to measure while I scooped the freshly steamed rice into a wooden bowl. I’d borrowed a fan, which I used to blow off some of the hot steam.
“This is wild!” I exclaimed. “I never expected this many people would show up.”
“Neither did I. When the first customer yelled at us for giving him animal feed, I thought we were in for an uphill battle. But once the children got into it, customers started flying in.”
“That’s right. They came to the store because they loved the smell. And even when we told them it was rice, they bought a bunch right away when they saw how cheap they were.”
“Right, and then they hollered in front of the shop about how delicious the onigiri were. I panicked at first—I thought Father had paid them to do that.”
The children must have really liked the onigiri. They told all their friends and before we knew it, the front of the shop was packed with children. And the orders just kept coming, so it was hard to steam the rice quickly enough. We even had to call Druid’s mother away from the sales counter to help us. And Druid’s father had also helped out in the kitchen earlier, come to think of it.
Then the children told their parents about the onigiri. They were hesitant at first when they heard it was made of rice, but all it took was one taste and they liked it. Then we started selling so much rice that we were shorthanded, so Druid’s eldest brother wound up helping out. I was really nervous about meeting him.
Okay, I got all the steam out. Now I need to move the rice. It’s a bit heavy… Can I manage?
“Let me help you with that.”
“Huh?” I spun around at the sound of the voice behind me. It was Druid’s eldest brother, Doluka, the one I’d just met.
“Do you need me to carry this?”
“Yes. Thank you.”
“No problem. Druid…Dad says to bring him the sauce as soon as you’re finished making it.”
“Oh! Ah, yes. Copy that, sir.”
Druid! You’re way too stiff! “Mr. Druid, are you done?”
“Huh? Oh, ummm, I just need to stir it, right?”
“Yes, and mix it thoroughly, please. It tastes wrong if you don’t let the salt and sugar dissolve.”
“Understood. But…yeah…this is an awful lot of sauce.”
“Um, of course it is?”
He was using a pot with a capacity of about ten liters. We both made a face when we saw how much sauce was in it. It was just too much, no matter how you looked at it. Did Druid’s father have special plans for all that sauce?
“One of the guys…one of the customers who bought some ryce said he wanted some onigiri sauce, too. Dad’s probably just trying to fill that demand.”
“He’s going to sell it, sir?”
Wait…what? We haven’t gotten the sauce patent from the guild yet, so I don’t think we’re allowed to sell it. The guild had to conduct a thorough investigation to make sure nobody else was trading in a sauce that was too similar. Then, if there were no issues, we could sell our sauce. But until then, we were prohibited from doing so.
“He might be planning on handing it out as a complimentary item with a purchase of ryce instead of selling it.”
Complimentary… That word reminded me of all the times I’d bought something and it had come with something else free of charge. Was that what he was talking about?
“You mean, like a gift?”
“A grift?” both brothers asked, mishearing the word.
Oh no! I’ve done it again. I always say the wrong thing when I let my guard down. But wait…huh? I distinctly remember the fortune-teller using the word once before…
“It means a present.”
“Ohh, right, a gift. I don’t hear that word often, so I’d forgotten about it.”
Oh. I guess they do know that word.
“We usually say ‘present’ instead of ‘gift,’” Druid explained. “So it just feels a little strange to hear the word ‘gift.’”
“True,” his brother agreed.
Interesting. Oh, wow! Druid and his brother are talking to each other normally. That’s a relief to see.
“Let’s go back. We don’t want to keep them waiting,” I said.
Still, I was surprised to learn that the word “gift” did exist in their vocabulary. It had been getting harder and harder for me to tell which words in my memory were from my past life and which were from this one.
“Good idea. I wouldn’t be surprised if they started yelling and pounding on the counter.”
Uh, I don’t think anybody would do that. Well, Shurila sometimes shoots meaningful stares at us, but she’s probably too busy to put up a fuss right now.
“Okay, the rice and sauce are ready!” I announced.
“Sorry, dear, can you form the balls for me? I’m really tied up right now. Please?”
I looked at the front of the shop and saw there was quite a line of customers. There were even some elderly people among them, which was a new sight. Apparently, flavor had won over their aversion to eating animal feed. At this rate, rice might become popular much faster than we’d anticipated. All it took was one taste, and we had them.
“I’ll just form a bunch of onigiri, then.” I checked the wooden bowl and saw that there weren’t many onigiri left. Good thing I made it out here on time. And after the sheer number of rice balls I’d formed, their shape was starting to be consistent. The strength of my grip was perfect. There was just one problem…we needed way too many rice balls for one person to make!
“Thanks, Ivy. You must be tired, huh?”
“Yes. After all that work, it was bound to happen.”
“We have a break room, so go have a nice rest in there. Sorry I didn’t give you a break sooner.”
“Thank you, ma’am.”
Rumors of the “strange, yet delicious” onigiri had spread through the town, and the diners just kept pouring in. Because of that, there wasn’t a lag in customers from lunch to dinner and I hadn’t gotten a single break.
“Here, restore your fluids,” Druid said, handing me a drink. His parents were cleaning up. I wanted to help, but I couldn’t move my body. I really was completely drained of energy.
“Are you okay? You were wobbling a little toward the end.”
“I’m fine.” Everybody had said it was okay for me to take a break more times than I could count, but there were just too many customers. I sure was impressed by my coworkers, though. After that hectic rush, they still had energy to spare.
“Ahh, I’m beat,” Druid sighed as he flopped down beside me. He looked awfully tired. “I haven’t been exercising since I lost my arm, so I think I’ve lost some muscle. I’ll need to get back in shape before we go traveling.”
It sounded like I was Druid’s top priority. That flattered me a little.
“We’re Team Tired, aren’t we, sir?”
“Team Tired? Oh, I get it, so my parents are Team Toiling On, then?” Druid asked with a smirk.
“Yes, they’ve still got some life left in them. But I’ve reached my limit, sorry to say.”
“Well, it’s no wonder. You didn’t take a single break all day.”
But we were so busy. There was no way I could have taken a break. I would have been too anxious to rest.
“By the way, our plans from this morning turned out to be meaningless, huh?” Druid said.
I laughed. That morning, before they opened shop, Druid and his father had strategized about what they would do if nobody wanted to buy the rice. They figured that since the most important thing was to get people to taste it, they would give out free samples. When the ladies overheard their plan, they laughed and said that wouldn’t be necessary. Druid’s father skeptically shook his head, asking where their confidence was coming from. In the end, they decided they’d see what kind of traffic they got first and make the onigiri accordingly…and I’m glad we didn’t have to make any free samples.
“So then I guess your mom and sister-in-law were right, huh?”
“Yes, they were. Oh, but then again, I heard a rumor that some people were running out of food in the last day or so. That might have had something to do with it.”
Yeah, people do tend to notice when store shelves get empty. But hearing that we had plenty of rice probably eased some of their worries.
“Good work, everyone! That was the best day ever!” Shurila cheerfully entered the area between the sales counter and the kitchen. It looked like she had good news. All traces of fatigue were gone from her face.
“Did something happen, Shurila?” Druid asked.
“Oh, just listen to this! So, the rich guy who hoarded the most food? Well…somebody from his house came to buy some rice. It was like, ‘serves you right, jerk.’”
Maybe the fatigue was making her extra sassy today. Yeah, that had to be it.
“I’m liking this sassier side of Shurila, and I kind of hate myself for that,” Druid whispered.
And I couldn’t help but nod in agreement. It’s scary what a person can learn to like.
No Comments Yet
Post a new comment
Register or Login