CH 32

“Selection and focus, you say?”

“That’s right, Anna-san. The Aion Mall Otherworldly Store has only four employees, and we don’t have a lot of manpower. It would take too much time to do everything.”

“Naoya-san, we can increase the number of skeletons, you know?”

“As expected of Lich! But even if we increase the number of skeletons, they won’t be able to serve customers. Couldn’t they ……?”

At my question, Ann-sana just smiled at me.

“No, wait a minute. With a skeleton, you don’t have to pay for labor, and even right now, they’re all useful for security, surveillance, and cleaning, but wait a minute, I’m not sure. A store full of skeletons is not a good idea. It’s like a grave dungeon.”

Any manager or administrator would be tempted by Anna-san’s offer of a labor force that requires no labor costs, no fatigue, and no sleep.

“I almost fell in the dark! As expected of Lich!”

The fifth day since I became manager of the Aion Mall Otherworld Store.

This afternoon, there were still hardly any customers coming into the store.

I was cleaning the space that had not been used for business with Anna-san.

Anna-san and I, or rather several skeletons with aprons on, were cleaning the empty space.

For your information, Chloe and Barbera are not here.

Barbera, who is not good at meticulous work, is waiting in the store to see if any customers come in.

It seems she can’t operate the cash register, so when she comes in, I ask her to call me or Anna-san.

As for Chloe, she’s out of town on an errand I’ve sent her on.

She’s out in the city, carrying the huge, large, protected, magical, tool, [Item pouch] that she borrowed from Anna-san.

“Anna-san, are you sure about that? I heard that the [Item pouch] is very expensive.”

“No problem, Naoya-san, I didn’t use that one. I have another one in my room, you know?”

“Eh? So, the [Item pouch] was so expensive and valuable that it could not be bought with the salary of the Aion Mall Otherworldly Store. How did you get them?”

“Once upon a time, before Aion Mall was built, I lived here. Sometimes adventurers, grave robbers, or rather bandits, would come to my place.”

“I shouldn’t have asked. Grave. What kind of adventurer would come to the home of a Lich who uses skeletons and ghosts? Seriously, it’s a grave dungeon! Oh, I noticed something else, too.”

“What’s the problem, Naoya-san?””

“The armor worn by the skeleton captain and the other skeletons around him seemed to be decorated and colored in a ‘holy’ way. I don’t think they are adventurers who have come to conquer a tomb dungeon.”

The apron-wearing skeletons stop moving. They all look at me at once.

As usual, Anna-san is smiling at me.

“It was just my imagination, I know it! And you see, there’s nothing wrong with exterminating thieves! We need to deal with the thieves as we see fit!”

“I’m home, Naoya! Hm? What’s going on?”

“Welcome back, Chloe! Well, I must say, you elves are very fast on the return trip! Great job, Holy Knight!　You’re a real help!”

Great, great, great timing!

I am grateful to Chloe who came in suddenly.

There are things it’s better not to know about other worlds, it seems.

“D-don’t expect anything from praising me, Naoya! If you want to make me feel better, Naoya will probably say something like, [You ‘come’ pretty fast! No worry, I’m pretty ‘Fast’ too!]. H-how shameless you beast!”

“Ah, yes. I appreciate that vibe from Chloe right now. It feels so peaceful.”

Anna-san and the skeletons went back to cleaning as they had been doing earlier.

The strange atmosphere has gone away thanks to Chloe.

Chloe is still very imaginative, but I ignore it. Rather, I appreciate it.

“Naoya, you want to get this out of the way? What are you going to do? Ha, you’re going to bake it just like yesterday! And you’re going to serve it to us! That’s our manager!”

“You’re too excited. Well, it’s no wonder, since you bought the meat.”

That’s right, Chloe bought us meat.

The amount is not enough to fit in the small capacity [Item pouch] of the storage magic tool that Chloe has.

“So, put it out here.”

I pointed to a large vat on a stainless steel table.

Anna-san along with the skeletons and I were cleaning the kitchen, which had been unused for some time.

We were cleaning the kitchen, which was not in the food court, but in the kitchen near the fresh produce section.

“Chloe, did you find that too?”

“Yes, Naoya, this is it!”

Chloe takes out an unglazed urn from her own [Item Pouch], not from the [Item Pouch] she borrowed from Anna.

I had thought that a butcher shop like that would have them, but it seems they were there after all.

After placing the jar, Chloe puts the meat out on a huge vat that I had prepared.

“First, here’s the Horned Beef Thigh! I recommend grilling the whole thing up and then biting into it!”

The thigh was placed on the table with a thud, and the bone was still attached to the meat.

Smelling the scent, Barbera came in through the door.

“Next, this is the back of an Assault Wild Boar! I would recommend you to cut it into pieces before grilling it.”

Chloe places a different piece of meat next to her, thumping it down on a vat next to her.

This time the meat has a noticeable white layer of fat.

Barbera drooled from the sight of meat.

“The last one is a whole war chicken! The feathers have been plucked, and I recommend grilling it as it is!”

“The whole thing is ‘roasted’! You’re a real meat lover, Chloe! It’s funny that you are an elf and a meat lover!”

I couldn’t help but to butt in on Chloe’s comment about meat.

I knew Chloe had only mentioned the crunchiness when she ate meat at a restaurant in town and when she ate rabbit meat on the rooftop, and I knew she didn’t have much conception of what to do with the meat.

“But Naoya, are you sure you want to do this? We don’t have to come all the way to Aiwon Mall, we can get meat at the market or at the butcher’s, you know?”

“Ah, that’s okay, Chloe. We don’t have to sell only meat when we say [select and focus].”

“What? I see, I knew this was for us to eat!”

“This goddamn meat lover Elf! Well, I’ll let you have a taste.”

Chloe, Barbera and Anna-san all stare at me.

The elves and dragons are drooling.

Aion Mall’s goal for the Otherworld Store is 100 million yen in monthly sales.

But there are only four employees, we can’t stock products from Japan, and there’s only limited things we can do right now.

That’s why I decided to be selective and focus.

There is a good reason why I chose meat. I made my decision based on the location of the Aion Mall Otherworld Store and the current customer trends.

Most of the customers who visit the Aion Mall Otherworldly Store now come in the morning and in the evening.

Most customers are on their way from the nearest town to another town, and merchants and guards stop by on their way home. Adventurers heading out of town. And then there are the farmers who come to sell vegetables wholesale.

“Naoya, what are you going to do if you’re not going to sell only meat?”

Chloe asks, tilting her head.

The answer is obvious. I’ve already decided.

In Japan, it is a very competitive market, a red ocean, but as far as the city is concerned, it is a blue ocean.

The color of blue is as close to clear as possible, and if we expand, we can expect sales.

I announced to the three people who still didn’t seem to understand what I was talking about.

“The first thing we need to do to increase sales at the Aion Mall Otherworld Store is to sell food inside the store!”