It was a morning on a sunny day when I turned up at Anima’s office to check on her. After lightly knocking on the door to the room and telling her it was me, a somewhat delighted voice told me “Please come in” and the door opened, allowing me to enter.
[Good morning, Anima.]
[Good morning! Master!]
Smiling at Anima, who greets me so cheerfully that I can almost see some phantom tail wagging behind her, I moved my gaze around and noticed a large number of letters on Anima’s desk.
Anima seemed to be organizing the letters as usual, but I have a feeling that the volume of the letters was much larger than usual.[Are you organizing letters, Anima? I feel like there’s a lot more there than usual……]
[Ah, yes. The volume of the letters sent to Master hasn’t changed, being the same as before, but there are quite a few letters sent out by the trading houses and shops with which we have a connection with.]
[Fumu. Is there some kind of trouble?]
[Ahh, no, the contents of almost all the letters are the same: inquiries about our products. Most of the inquiries are about the ceramics made by Illness-dono and Nebula.]
[Ceramics…… You mean the ones we sold with the mark on them?]
What Anima is referring to are the ceramics I sold at the previous Founding Festival of Archlesia Empire, the leftover pieces of ceramics that Illness-san and Nebula made as a hobby.
It was sold with the brand mark of three mountains lined in a row…… a motif that was almost like a pun of my name. Besides being sold at the stall back in the Archlesia Empire, it was also sold at several shops and trading houses via Anima.Nevertheless, it’s not like there were a lot of them; I just found it a shame to discard the leftovers from what Illness-san and Nebula originally made as a hobby, so I decided to sell them.
[Yes. The quality itself is extremely good and there are only a small number of them, so I set a very aggressive price, thinking that if they didn’t sell, I could just reduce the price later…… but they sold like hotcakes, and the stock seemed to have run out quickly.]
[Eh? Is that so…… Right, the ones I brought to Archlesia Empire’s Founding Festival were all sold, so I guess people who saw it could tell how good they are.]
[Indeed. In fact, it’s not inferior to some of the other brands such as the ones found in royal castles, and even though it’s priced aggressively, being a new brand means that the prices were relatively lower compared to other well-known brands. And so, for those who value quality, it was an opportunity to acquire good products at an affordable price.]
[I see, and that’s why there are those inquiries…… Even so, hmmm. What was sold to them were just leftovers, weren’t they?]
[Yes, they really were just leftovers the two made as a hobby, so it’s not like they were mass-producing it…… I don’t know what to do with this……]
It certainly is quite a dilemma. Since it’s Illness-san and Nebula we’re talking about here, if I did ask them, they would make more for sale, but I’m reluctant to request such a thing from them since they didn’t originally make these items for business purposes.
That said, if we were to leave this situation completely as is, there would still be inquiries from shops and trading companies that have a connection with Anima in the future, which is rough in itself……
[Maybe we should just formally start a brand and supply them with items? Or perhaps, we could just ask Illness-san and Nebula to teach someone how to make them and then we could hire people to make it?]
[That’s true. That seems like a safe option. If we position the brand as a high-quality, luxury-oriented brand and limit the number of items released, it could work…… Considering that there’s also the crafted sugar, branding it as a tea-related brand might be a good idea.]
[There are a lot of people who like tea, so that sounds good. In that case, it would be nice if we could also sell tea leaves…… but it seems that Nebula’s tea leaves are extremely difficult to handle and there aren’t many of them to begin with, so they’re not suitable for————]
[I’ve heard what was going on!]
[———–sale? Unnn? Arehh, Nebula? When did you……]
I turned at the sound of the voice I heard and before I knew it, Nebula was in the room. She then opens her mouth, powerfully slapping her chest.
[I am Absolute! Wherever you are in the world, your call will always reach my ears! ……And once again, I have heard what was going on. If that’s the case, leave it to me. I’ll make delicious tea leaves that can be easily brewed by amateurs to sell under that brand!]
[Eh? I’m very grateful for that but…… is it alright? Won’t that be a burden to you, Nebule?]
[There’s no problem at all. However, if Milord is that concerned, I will make it so that it’s easy to cultivate before transferring how it’s handled to you, so you can cultivate it under the brand you’re launching!]
[In that case, if we’re able to mass produce that, it would certainly not be a burden on Nebula…… Then, since you’re offering, can I ask you to do it?]
[Ye! Please leave it to me!!!]
Seeing Nebula giving me a confident nod, I lightly patted her head. She’s amazing and reliable, so she should be fine. It’s just, I’m still concerned about not putting too much burden on her, so let’s just look forward to the completion of the project with that in mind.
Well, it may take quite a while to make those tea leaves, but since launching a brand and Anima needing to prepare various things must be quite a process as well, so there’s no need to rush……
[Well then, I’ll bring you a prototype tomorrow~~]
……She’s finishing it faster than I thought…… Nebula really is amazing.
<Afterword>
Serious-senpai : [Oiiii!? Hey, you idiot parent!!! Being able to produce new tea leaves in a single day → As expected of Nebula, she’s really amazing…… Seriously, when it comes to Nebula, his judgment is way too sloppy……]
