First, let’s secure human resources as initially planned.
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For the time being, the engineers for building the wooden ship.
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It will be difficult to gather many and firing them when the ship is done is a bit awful.*
It would be more reasonable to first hire a single specialist and then get the villagers to help.
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So that’s why I came to Kunz-san of the woodworking shop.
*No, I have to make the most of my connections and networking.
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……If only I did so last time.
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“Excu~se me, do you have an extra craftsman~?”
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“Suddenly coming, I wondered who it was gonna be, but isn’t it the goddess…?”
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Kunz-san came out from the back with an amazed face.
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“Is it a rush job again? If you are fine with me and 2 ~ 3 greener ones, I can quickly prepare them…”
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“No, this time I looking for people to come and stay in our territory. I’m looking for someone with good enough arms to make anything from farm tools and accessories to fishing boats and buildings.”
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“Huh……”
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Kunz-san makes an awkward, yet troubled expression.
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“No, indeed that’s a bit much…… moving from the capital to the over there will be quite hard for those with families, and young talents are mostly those who want to hone their skills in a town and earn a name for themselves. Besides, most of them are trying to become professional craftsmen in a specific department, not a jack of all trades.
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Even if it’s a request from the goddess, this is no less than a matter affecting someone and their family entire lives…”(いくら女神様からのお話でも、こればっかりは、本人や家族の一生の問題ですからねぇ…)
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It’s hopeless…….
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“Excu~se me, do you have an extra cook~?”
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“Suddenly coming, I wondered who it was gonna be, but isn’t it Mitsuha-san…?”
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Bernt-san came out from the back with an amazed face.
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Somehow, I have a sense of déjà vu, I have a bad feeling…… about this conversation.
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This place is, no need to say, Paradise Pavilion(Rakuentei).
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No, you wouldn’t know if I didn’t say I guess……
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Anyway, if talking about if chefs that I know, there’s no option but here.
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“Do you have any idea of someone who might want to be a cook in my territory?”
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“We~ll, youngins often come wanting to learn Yamano cooking by training at my place. But I’ll be darned, they didn’t want to train seriously and just want to learn Yamano cooking to use it as an asset for making easy money. After learning Yamano cooking, they’ll quit right away.”
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……That’ll be a problem.
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“Besides, it would still be better if it was a noble’s residence in the capital or a territory close to the capital, but a skilled cook for Mitsuha’s territory, somewhere on the very edge of the country, and even more, it’s a dead end rural place that leads to nowhere right….
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No, there’ll still some who would want to go even then, but they’re, well… ”
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“What? Is there something about them?”
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Bernt-san says hatefully and informed her.
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That Mitsuha is thought of quite enthusiastically by some men.
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If whether a young woman can put the food made by a man with abnormal goodwill, affection and obsession towards her in her mouth with peace of mind.
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“Ahhhhh~ ~ ~ !!!”
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“… … right?”
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“……un”
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Having given up, Mitsuha hurried home.
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Oh, I have to look into food carts…
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The “spread the specialty products in the capital tactic”, that I devised as part of developing the territory.
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No, I do think the tactic’s name is exactly what it is, but my family doesn’t have any naming sense.
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So, anyway, spread it in the capital, Yamano Viscounty being the only supplier, that one.
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The first step in it is the shiitake mission, the second is the popcorn plan.
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For shiitake mushrooms, I have instructed for dried shiitake mushrooms to be sent to capital at Petz-san’s convenience as soon as they are done. Then we supply them for the dishes at Paradise Pavilion.
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At the same time, General Store Mitsuha will make offers to supply things for making dishes at noble parties. No one can resist! …For a fee of course.(併せて、貴族のパーティーに雑貨屋ミツハから料理を数品提供すると申し出る。まさか断る者は居るまい！ …もちろん有料ね。)
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Fuhaha, now, it’s only a matter of time before the capital is under my control!!
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So, though we’re waiting for the harvest with the shiitake mushrooms, I’m thinking of going ahead toward sales with the popcorn.
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Since there’s still time before the planted explosive species of corn in the territory can be harvested, I cheated a little with the dried explosive species brought from Earth, as in, the tactic in where a cooking show says, “we have prepared the completed thing here”, the “already in demand by the time of the harvest plan.”
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That the popcorn corn is a different breed in the first place is exposed and other territories get their hands on it and start growing it, all that should buy quite a lot of time before the imitation stores come out. Until then, it can be kept as a Yamano territory branded name product…
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Fortunately, salt and cooking oil can be covered by the territory. Added value by being completely made in Yamano territory…(幸い、塩も食用油も領内で賄える。完全ヤマノ領産で、付加価値を…。)
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So, that’s why I’m going looking for vendors for a food cart for the time being. To the orphanage.
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“Ah, it’s himemiko-sama! Me! This time it’ll definitely be me who’ll get the job!”
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The small children rush over in full force. Umumu, I’m as popular as usual. If only it was with stern uncles…….
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“Today, I came to make a long-term contract. if it goes well, I’ll keep making requests for a long time. Is the director here?”
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The children didn’t understand very well but seemed to have sensed a good deal, they ran to call the director. He seems to be in the field apparently.
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I had a meeting at the director’s office with the director returning after having wiped off his sweat. Maybe running the place is hard, it’s a plain room with no accessories. No, if you say that, the whole orphanage’s the same though.
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For the time being, I’ll pass over the food I brought as provisions.
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The food that Mitsuha brings over when she makes requests at the orphanage were at both extremes.
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Sometimes, real food like potatoes, large Kanya biscuits, rice balls, etc.; refugees from somewhere kind of the・food.
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And other times, sweets, chocolate, shortcake, etc.; a lineup the managing adults would want to say if they saw it, “if you have the money to buy this then please buy something that’ll stay in their stomachs”.
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It wasn’t alternating, totally random.
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It was a mystery what Mitsuha was concerned about.
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……This time it seems to be “the・food”. The children’s dejected figures can be seen. The adults were happy though.
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“Thank you as always, himemiko-sama. So today’s request is……”
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I have already given up on the matter of being called “himemiko-sama” at the orphanage.
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“Yes, actually, I was planning to sell something in a cart… So, I wonder if I can ask the children to be the vendors…”
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“Bam”, the thin eyes of the gentle director opened wide.
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With merely slight aid from the country and merely small donations. Merely a few chickens in merely a few fields.
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Unable to let the children do more work than simple chores, unable to let the adults leave the children alone to earn money…….
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Even though it’s not to the point of definitive collapse, chronic funding shortage, and chronic nutritional deficiency. Painful days as if being slowly strangled with a silk cord.
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Then, a cash ・ income opportunity is brought here!!
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“W, with pleasure!!”
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No, like I said, what kind of sweatshop is…….
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“… and well, it’s like that, I thought I’d sell the new product on the streets for a while…”
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“Leave it to us! If you have several children take shifts, it can do business every day without holidays, from morning to night!”
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The director bites after the detailed explanation.
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No, you don’t have to do that……
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I wonder if things are that severe at this orphanage ……
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“Then, there will always be 3 vendors, change shifts freely as needed, the sales time will be from morning to sunset, regarding this thank you. The wages will be 30% of the net income”
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“Huh……”
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The director is so surprised his eyes became round.
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Well of course, usually, no establishment would give 30% of its profit to vendors. If you sell 1 gold coin worth, even if you subtract expenses it becomes a profit of 6~7 small gold coins. If it’s 30% of that, its 2 small gold coins. An amount equivalent to 20,000 yen. There are no shopkeepers who would pay 2 small gold coins for 3 children working part time. It’s so large an amount of money that even if everyone in the orphanage eats to their heart’s content, there’ll be still much left over.
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In this country where the vegetables are cheap, 200 can be purchased if its radishes. more than 600 if small potatoes. And that’s daily. No, a children’s uprising will happen with only potatoes and radishes every day.
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Well, that too, is if there is 1 gold coin worth sold though.
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“Then, I will come again when the cart and tools are all ready.”
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When I said so and was about to go home, I was told to stop by the director.
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“P, please wait, if it’s a cart there’s one here!”
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……Huh?
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Listening to the director’s story, what, it seems that the children who thought they wanted to do something themselves continued building something for a long time using scrap materials, and the nearly completed thing was in the storeroom
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However, they had no idea what to sell even if they had a cart, it seem to have became a question of what to do.
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But, a cart at the level of a toy made by children is out of the question. A table that the sample products can be placed on would likely still be better. But, well, I guess it’s wrong if I don’t give it a look if it’s just a look since they gone through the trouble…
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Thinking so, I got taken to the storeroom and was shown the cart like thing that the children made.
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W, what’s this～～～！！
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It’s not the small thing that I’d expected but with a size that can be called a fine cart.
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And 4 wooden wheels. There is no axle, each has independent suspension. No, that doesn’t mean that each has a suspension, it only means that it is not a beam axle type, but even still its well made. It’ll definitely withstand being moved if you only slowly pull it down the stone-paved road to the town square.
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Coming after being summoned, the 11-year-old boy said to have been in charge when making it explained various things, the counter section is expanded by shifting the stacked planks, there is storage space inside and a mechanism to extend the roof section in preparation for rainy weather……. All this, with scrap materials, by children?
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I, is he a genius!!
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“D, do you, want a job at my place?”
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That’s right, if established craftsman are no good, I can just train a promising child! It will work out somehow using Japanese carpenter tools and instruction manuals, maybe.
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Fu, Hahahaha!
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The boy and the director were staring blankly with open mouths when I suddenly came to.
