Chapter 41

1 month after the first community meeting.

The store and workshop were built.

It’s a single story store for safety. Since the villagers who built it are mostly amateurs, and I couldn’t get any experts from the capital.

There is plenty of vacant land in the region so there’s no problem with space.

The metalworker, Randy bought the minimum amount of equipment from the capital so he was able to quickly set up a furnace and all his equipment. Although there is still a lot of equipment missing, he has placed an order to have them delivered.

…Or they were supposed to be, however since the heavy and bulky cargo will take a lot of time and effect to move, Mitsuha planned to take over as the middleman and is going to move it secretly by teleportation.

“Randy-san, I brought some materials but it’s things like this”

Randy was surprised that Mitsuha suddenly came carrying heavy cargo.

It’s natural. Who would think that the lord herself would come to the workshop alone carrying a bundle of heavy metal?

He owns a great debt of gratitude towards the Viscount for finding him because he was reaching the end of his rope from having no income. Furthermore, it’s the Princess Shrine Maiden of Thunder who is the savior of this country. No matter how much Randy’s said to be bad at socializing, he still has common sense so he sprang into a mad rush.

“I’ll, I’ll l hold it! I will hold it okay!”

He forcefully took her package in a hurry.

Heavy…….

“These, they are metal materials from my home country, please tell me if you have any problems. There are a lot of them; some hard, and some soft”

She says and when she opens the package there were various metal ingots inside. Each wasn’t very big, are these samples? Something like a code is attached on each for identification.

Randy took out a few and took a closer look.

He’s keeping the lord Mitsuha standing while she waits, but Randy wasn’t in the condition to be able to notice.

“Eh……”

Odd.

What is this?

The ingots resemble each other, but every single one is slightly different. After striking them, it seemed each of their hardness were different. And, they’re pretty hard.

And, this strangely light metal mixed with them. Is this really metal…? No wait, let’s examine it a bit more first……

Apparently, it was pointless to wait so Mitsuha left Randy as he is. She had something she wanted him to make, but she decided to come back later for now.

It was still a while later until Randy had realized and turned blue.

The salt field is still under construction. Since it’s a flow down(Ryouka) type using branching racks, it’s not very influenced by the seasons and weather, requires less labor, and take up less space than the other types, all good things.

With this, rock salt being transported from a distance will invade the heart of the salt distribution industry… and then all sorts of things might happen, so it’s only planned to be used within the territory and for the manufacturing of salted products for the time being.

The economic impact will be great even from having the ability to make a lot of salted products. Given that the economic influence of this territory was originally very little.

The school is already in operation.

The population was small in the first place so there aren’t many children. As a result, the location they’re using is a room in the Viscount residence. That location is convenient for both teaching and preparing lunch.

Also, for the servants too, not just children like Colette but also some adult applicants will receive the lessons, so using the Viscount residence was convenient for them as well.

It seems that the servants felt not able to read and write was embarrassing, everyone is plenty motivated.

The teachers were the people who can read with nothing to do at the time, like Miriam, Rachel, and Mitsuha. Mitsuha’s monetary lecture, nasty methods for crushing one’s enemies, and lessons using the science experiment kit bought at Tokyu Hands(department store chain) in particular were very popular, to the point that Anton the butler was the beginning to come and listen. Some of the classes weren’t suitable for children, but Mitsuha didn’t care about such details.

Far from dislike going to school, being able to have fun playing with other children of the same age while having the opportunity to learn what feels “clearly useful in the future”, and having their hearts stolen by the delicious lunches they get to eat until they’re full, the children started saying that once every 2 days is too few.

And the store.

It has a sales floor several times larger than that of the capital’s store, and the things that existed in the past store were all present, as in, daily necessities like the groceries: wild plants and meat from animals caught in the territory, marine products, vegetables and grains, fabrics, the metal parts of farm tools and other things. Furthermore, buying fish now uses the purchasing system.

Yes, until now, because fishes quickly go bad, so that the store can avoid the risk of suffering a complete loss if fishes aren’t sold, the supply fee is only paid if the fish is sold and the unsold fish would be returned. (魚は売れた分だけ後払いで仕入れ代金を払い、売れ残った分は返品されていたのである。)

Otherwise, only a very small amount can be stocked for fear of risk, so the store wasn’t particularly unfair. The fishermen can put out as many products as they want, so because of the commission system, they could sell a lot if they get lucky. On the other hand, they’ll earn less if it’s not sold, and have to bring the fishes on the verge of expiring back and eat it with everyone in the fishing village.

Even when evening comes, they absolutely couldn’t lower the price of the unsold ones. No one would buy fish until evening from the next day onwards if they start selling at a discount during the evening.

However, the new store uses a complete purchase system.

So now the store is free to decide whether they want to discount or start a bargain sale.

And they also sell processed, that is, boiled or baked, cooked ones. With the value-added, it raises the profit margin. It appeals to the people who find preparing fish to be troublesome. Also, their expiration date extends when you process them and the barely fresh products are reborn into new products.

(Google dictionary: value added: the amount by which the value of an article is increased at each stage of its production, exclusive of initial costs.)

Furthermore, the raw fish that didn’t sell will be dealt with at the same time as they close and processed into salted and dried fish.

With this, we have realized the complete purchase of fish.

The fishermen were motivated, now knowing that they’ll definitely earn income for each catch.

In addition, there were fishing nets and fishing tackle made in Japan lined up in the store. Their might has already been demonstrated directly by the lord.

… By the way, Mitsuha went to a small fishing village in Japan and was taught how to throw a cast net by an elderly person with free time and she couldn’t escape the elderly people that started crowding around her finding it interesting, so she had continued with the special training until she got muscle pain.

The place used to dry shellfish and seaweed was also renovated. In addition to kelp and wakame, they started collecting and processing a sea lettuce called Hitoegusa and other seaweed like things. In addition, the preparations for the construction of a new ship has begun.

Women and children will also be able to greatly contribute to their family income by collecting and processing seaweed and angle fishing on the rocky areas.

The fishing village was enveloped by the greatest frenzy the village ever had since it was formed.

Everyone in farm villages are fully aware that unlike fishery, agriculture demands time, effort and perseverance. And, after seeing the situation in the fishing village under the guidance of the lord, they started dreaming of a future where their harvests will increase using the results of their experiment at the next harvest period and were burning with hope.

… And, seeing the situation of the gloomy mountain villages, Mitsuha couldn’t stay still and donated a bunch of Japanese saws and axes.

(tl note: The topic jumps back to the store)

Like this, all the standard goods were inherited, and furthermore, Mitsuha had stocked a large number of items purchased from Pez-san and Japan in the space that’s several times her old store.

In addition to standard goods that are normal to the capital’s store like two-in-one shampoo, disposable lighters, CalorieMate, bag ramen, and so on; there are also various useful things such as discount canned foods, sweets with long expiration dates, iron farm equipment, fishing tackles, tools, tableware, LED flashlights, stationery, and so on.

It would be possible to sell them to the territory’s people because their purchasing power increased, but the real targets are customers from the neighboring territories. The goal is not increasing the store’s sales but creating a flow of people towards the territory. And also the flow of goods and money that’ll be created as a result

Most of the goods for people other than the locals may not be sold for a while, but since they are only things that won’t hurt much if not sold, there’s no problem.

“Do you know about the store in the Yamano Viscounty?”

Rumors gradually began to spread in the neighboring territories.

It seems that the Princess Shrine Maiden of Thunder is selling things delivered from her home country.

It seems that they have more items than the stores in the capital and are cheaper too.

It seems you might meet the Princess Shrine Maiden if you are lucky.

It seems that some people who were handed over products directly from the Princess Shrine Maiden, w, were able to touch her fingers!

It’s a territory facing the sea. They are goods from another country was carried over by a ship and are cheaper than what’s in the capital, so it’s not strange that a lot of this stuff is on the market. ……maybe.

The inn and the eatery were also renovated to accommodate the gradually increasing number of customers from other territories.

The inn is open all the time and always has an employee present. A bath was also made.

The son of the eatery who was recalled from Boses Earldom was taught to make Yamano Food at the Viscount residence, which got put on their menu at a slightly higher price.

Little by little, the development of the territory is going smoothly.

…Except for mountain villages.

Unable to avoid it, Mitsuha brought the Shiitake mushroom fungus from Japan.

Put a lot of small holes in some logs cut from the mountain, fill them in with a moist mixture of sawdust and fungus, and seal each of the openings with sponges and melted wax. (蝋を溶かしたものをスポンジにチョイと付けて穴にポンポンと触れて封をする。) This is the wisdom of the predecessors for preventing the fungi and sawdust from drying and to prevent insects from entering.

After that, do not let sunlight make contact and place in a damp place.

Shiitake mushrooms are good for baking, good for boiling, good for making soup stock, it’s a very useful one. More than anything, that you can lightly sanitize it by drying it is good. (干せば軽くて日保ちする、というのが良い。)

The plan is to have the customers who came to shop eat them, and gradually spread them to other territories. As a Yamano Viscounty specialty and exclusive product.

Bamboo shoots can also be sanitized… wait, is that no good? There should be bamboo groves in every territory. (竹林くらいどこの領地にもある。) Wild yams too, fruit trees too ……

As expected, is there nothing but making charcoal and iron? Let’s start collecting sand iron. Wait, do you need a magnet? Should I prepare a powerful neodymium magnet? Let’s test whether its pitch as the world’s strongest permanent magnet is true!

Whether to search for a sediment drift sand deposits on a coast or river bank; or to search for residual deposits of iron sand on the mountain, what to do…

Could this be a way for young children to earn pocket money? No, even if it’s the amount that could be earned by young children, it’ll still become an important source of income for sustaining the family’s finances. The villagers’ lives are not so easy yet. The benefits of reducing taxes will appear after next harvest period comes.

……For now, let’s prepare a magnet and lend it out.