Flirt Chapter 155

Chapter 155

「Thank you very much!」

 

「Phew! We’re done!」

「That was a lot of work today.」

「Kyuu~!」

「Good work everyone」

「「「「「「Thank you for your hard work Ichita-sama!」」」」」」

　The girls close the store after seeing off the last customer. Ichita went from the back yard of the workroom to the inside of the store and called out to Lestina and the others.

「It was a full turnout again this time.」

「Just like last time, we had a lot of customers.」

「And it never stopped at all.」

「I think I went back and forth between the store and the back of the house more than ever before.」

「Kyuu~」

　Ichita said that he made a lot of potions because many customers came to the store today and bought them. Lestina and the others also realized that they had a lot of customers this time. The store was packed with customers, and the cash registers were constantly being manned by customers. Lilylea and Carbuncle, who were in charge of replenishing the potions, looked back and said that they had to go back and forth between the store and the backroom more often than usual and that they were busy with many customers.

「I’m home.」

「Did you get a customer~?」

　Velvet and Gremilia, who had been touting outside, returned. They asked them how it went.

「Oh boy, that was amazing! We had so many customers!」

「It was a lot of work.」

「I see. Looks like it went well.」

　Velvet and Gremilia were pleased to be told that it was very difficult to handle the large number of customers that came in. They were satisfied because they knew that they had been able to attract the right kind of customers.

「It was a piece of cake. They were easily fooled by my charms.」

「Even with your poor charms, the customers would be eaten if you are that strong」

　Velvet and Gremilia used their charms on adventurers and civilians alike, inducing them to go to the store and buy potions.

　Velvet, a succubus, has no problem with this, but Gremilia is not good at using charms. For if they obeyed, sucking blood would suffice. But Gremilia is very strong, stronger than Irithelis, Satyrbell, and Lilylea. So, she forcefully charmed her opponent by force. As a result, Gremilia’s charm worked, and many adventurers and ordinary people went to Ichita’s store.

　Since the two of them charmed so many people, many customers came to the store and bought the potion. So…

「Ohhh! Sales bump!」

「Congratulations, Ichita-sama!」

「We did it!」

「No wonder with that many visitors!」

　Ichita updated the sales again when he calculated today’s sales. Today’s sales were 2 red gold coins, 3 platinum coins, 7 large gold coins, and 4 gold coins, totaling approximately 23.74 million yen. It was completed in just 5 hours of business hours.

「That’s amazing. As expected from Ichita-sama.」

「It’s wonderful that you could generate so many sales with potions!」

「Kyuu~!」

「It must be because the potions are so good. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be possible.」

「Magic is enough. If it’s not worth it, there’s no need to buy it.」

　Gremilia is right, the main use of potions is for assistance. They can be used to temporarily improve one’s abilities in battle, restore one’s strength, or cure a condition. But these things can also be done with magic.

　Adventurers who understand the usefulness of potions tend to use them heavily, but those with some experience and confidence in their abilities tend to disregard potions, accessories with special effects, and other auxiliary items. As a result, they often suffer painful repercussions. Those who have suffered painful repercussions learn the importance of these potions and begin to stock them in large quantities. However, even if they buy a lot of potions, they will not buy them if the quality is not good. They are risking their own lives. Therefore, places that sell poor-quality potions are weeded out. In such a situation, Ichita opened a potion store, and the potion stores that sold a mixture of inferior products from Vaucinia collapsed at once. The stores that sold some in parallel managed to survive, but even so, sales of potions dropped significantly. Ichita, of course, had no way of knowing this.

　Experienced adventurers buy Ichita’s potions in droves, which is proof that there are very good potions there. As many experienced adventurers buy potions, mid-level adventurers and newcomers follow their example and buy more. As a result, Ichita’s potions were bought in large quantities. Also, with the introduction of “Spodori potions,” a sweet-tasting, easy-to-drink potion that had never been available before, even ordinary people who did not normally drink potions began to buy them. This, combined with the fact that the sales of the potions were so strong, led to the tremendous sales seen this time around.

「All right, then, let’s start cleaning up. We’ll have dinner when we’re done.」

「Hurry up and finish cleaning up! I’m hungry!」

「Kyuu~! Kyuu-kyuu~!」

「Agree, let’s just finish this up.」

　The store was finished successfully, so they said let’s clean up and get ready for the next one. Irithelis and Carbuncle, who are big eaters, said they want to finish the clean-up quickly and have dinner, and started cleaning up. Satyrbell also cleans up the store.

「Well then, I guess I’ll start preparing dinner.」

「I’ll make something delicious!」

「I’ll help too.」

　Lestina and Mireconia, who are good cooks, head upstairs to the living space to cook dinner for everyone, and Velvet says she’ll help too because it’s hard for just the two of them to cook for everyone, so they go upstairs together.

　Ichita then starts preparing for the next sale. Gremilia was observing the scene.

「Hah~ That’s incredible… Ichita-sama’s potion making.」

「It’s amazing, isn’t it? I was surprised too when I first saw it.」

　Ichita and Lilylea take the potion bottles they bought to the workroom in the back of the store, packing them in boxes. When they put the potion bottles on the desk, Ichita first cleans the potion bottles using the “Cleaning” skill. After that, he put his hands over the potion bottles, imagines in his mind what kind of potion he wants to make, and activates the skill. Then the empty bottle in front of him was filled with liquid.

　Gremilia saw the moment when a green liquid, a potion. Ichita was created in a bottle by holding up his hand without using any tools. Normally, you would have to prepare herbs and other ingredients to make this potion, but Ichita did it without using any tools at all. It is not surprising that she was surprised by this phenomenon. It is a manufacturing method that is out of line with conventional wisdom.

「Next, Ichita-dono, please take this one. I will take the finished product to the store.」

「Please. That’s recovery potion B.」

「Understood.」

　Lilylea replaces the box of empty bottles with the box of potions. She took the replaced boxes and went straight to the store to put them in order. Ichita used his skills to make the empty bottles one after another into potions. Gremilia watched the scene in amazement.

「The bottles are done. The last one is the barrel.」

「I wonder if you can make potions in this barrel just by holding out your hand…」

「Heave-ho… take one of these, Gremilia.」

「Yeah, I got it.」

　When Ichita finished making all the potions in the empty bottles, he activate his “potion-making” skill on the barrels for self-service. Gremilia was stunned to see the potions being made not only in the bottles but in the barrels as well.

　Ichita and Gremilia, carrying the barrels filled with potions, went from the workroom to the store and set them up in the barrel storage area.

「Good. Now all the potions are done.」

「Ichita-sama, we have finished cleaning the store.」

「Kyuu~!」

　As Ichita and Gremilia set up the potion barrels in the store and finished making all the potions, Irithelis and the others who were cleaning the store also reported to Ichita that they were finished.

「The preparations for the next store are finished, huh? Shall we go to the second floor, then?」

「I wonder what we have today~!

「Kyuu~!」

「Speaking of food, Ichita-sama. You said you were going to use rice for dinner.」

「Oh, that’s right! I forgot!」

「Oh, wait, Ichita-sama!」

　Ichita had completely forgotten about the rice because he was busy selling the potions, cleaning up the store, preparing for the next time, etc. Satyrbell’s words reminded him of it. Ichita remembered that they were going to have rice for dinner, so he hurried upstairs to get there in time for dinner. Irithelis and the others had finished setting up the store, so they followed Ichita to the second floor.

「Do you have any pots and pans you haven’t used!?」

「I-Ichita-sama?」

「There are, but…what’s wrong?」

　Ichita rushes upstairs and calls out to Lestina and Mireconia who are cooking in the living room. Ichita asked them if they had any unused pots and pans, and they said there are.

「Because you cook rice in the pot.」

「C-Cook it?」

「Not to boil or fry?」

「Yeah」

　Ichita explains that he cooks the rice he buys at Harden Gourmand in the pot handed to him by Mireconia. Lestina and Mireconia wonder how to eat the rice; they had tried it once and found it to be hard and mushy and not very tasty. So, they are not eaten as they are, but are usually mixed with other ingredients and processed. Risotto and pilaf were becoming popular at Harden Gourmand.

　Lestina and Mireconia were surprised when Ichita told them that he eats rice by itself. They wondered if it really tastes good to eat just rice alone.

「Alright. I’ll have to wash the rice first… looking closer, I see some brown rice here and there…」

　Ichita was too excited to notice it when he saw it at the store, but when he looked closely, he found that some of the rice bran had not been removed.

「I guess the rice-polishing method isn’t quite right… well, it can’t be helped.」

　Ichita thinks that there is no such thing as a rice-polishing machine in this world and that it must be very difficult to produce white rice.

「There might be some garbage on the rice, so we have to wash it thoroughly… wash it….」

　When Ichita was about to sharpen the rice, he was caught by his own words.

「Yes, cleaning!」

　The word “wash” reminded Ichita of a skill he has. He wondered what would happen if he used his “Cleaning” skill on rice. For now, he picked up a little bit of rice, not white rice, but mainly brown rice that had not had all the bran removed, and used his “cleaning” skill on it.

「…Ohh! It worked!」

「It became pure white!?」

「Amazing. The brown rice has transformed into pure white.」

「Isn’t that the ano grain!? It looks like a different ingredient!」

「This must be the true form of rice, as Ichita-dono says.」

「I guess we still didn’t know how good rice could be.」

　Ichita tries out his skill and is pleased with his success. Lestina and the others are surprised to see the brown rice with bran on it turn into pure white rice. Then they realized that this was the true form of rice.

「Can this go without washing?」

　Ichita put the rice into the pot, thinking that since he had used his “Cleaning” skill to clean it, it would be no different than no-wash rice. The experiment went well, so the rest of the rice was also “cleaned” and put into the pot.

「The amount of water is ……the first joint of the finger… was it?」

　Fill the pot with water. Ichita put his finger on the rice, and remembering the old days, he thinks the right amount of water was to soak the rice up to the first joint of the finger.

「It should be fine if I do it the same way I did when I made rice in a rice pot as a child… probably.」

　Remembering how he cooked rice in a rice pot with his classmates when he was in elementary school, Ichita tried to cook rice the way he did then.

「I hope it turns out well~…I really feel that a rice cooker is a convenient tool for civilization… Ahhh~, I want one…!」

　After Ichita finished putting rice and water into the pot, he put the lid on the pot, put it on the magic stove, and lit it on fire.

　There were times when he felt inconvenienced by the lack of machines in this other world, but he was able to cover them with the help of magic and magical tools. When he encounters a situation that cannot be dealt with by magic or magical tools, he becomes panicked and can’t calm down, and he realized how much he had to rely on home appliances. And then he remembered how long he had lived without inconvenience.

「Cooking on high heat for 10 minutes and steam for 10 minutes, was it…? That’s how they did it on TV, so it should be okay to do it that way.」

　Remembering a TV program on how to cook rice in a pot, he cooked it in the same way. Ichita stared at the pot on the fire, thinking that even if he was wrong, it would not be such a big mistake that he could not eat it.

「Ichita-sama looks so serious.」

「I can tell how much he wanted to eat it.」

「To Ichita-dono, that white rice must be worth it.」

　Without taking his eyes off the pot for even a moment, he stares at the pot and waits for it to cook. Ichita is desperate to make the rice as delicious as possible. Seeing Ichita like that, the girls wonder if he really wanted to eat rice so badly, and at the same time, they expect how delicious it will be. The dishes Ichita has taught them so far have all been delicious, so Lilylea and the others were eagerly waiting to see if the white rice Ichita had cleaned with his “Cleaning” skill would also turn out to be a tasty ingredient.

　While Ichita was looking at the pot of rice, Lestina and Mireconia were steadily cooking. They were making soup with seafood and deep frying with orc meat “special”. Velvet made a salad that she could easily prepare herself. After that was done, they set the plates on the table and prepared drinks. Irithelis and the others sat down at the table and waited for the food to be ready.

「Mmmm! They both smell so good!」

「Kyuuu~!」

　The smell of seafood soup and the aroma of battered meat fried in oil and breaded release a savory smell from the bread crumbs. Irithelis and Carbuncle smelled it, waiting for it to arrive.

「Ten minutes had passed. Turn off the heat and let it steam for 10 minutes…」

「Is everything all right, Ichita-dono…?」

「…I don’t know. I hope it goes well. ……」

　Ichita, who was staring at the pot, turned off the heat after some time had passed. He looked anxious, so Lilylea called out to him. He answered that it was his first time cooking rice in a pot, so he was not sure if it would go well. Ichita hoped that it would go well.

「It’s done~!」

「Oh! I’ve been waiting for it!」

「Kyuu~!」

「I’ll bring it now.」

　The food is ready and brought to the table. And the cooked meat, seafood, vegetables, and other dishes were placed on the table.

「It’s ready, Ichita-sama~!」

「Ah… it’s about time…」

　Irithelis calls out that this one is done. Ichita, too, had finished steaming, so he nervously opened the lid of the pot.

「….Oh, it’s cooked somehow…!」

「Wow! What an amazing aroma…!」

「I never knew rice could smell like this…」

「I’ve never smelled anything like this… it’s not bad.」

「Give me a plate. And a large spoon.」

「Okay.」

　When Ichita opened the lid, steam comes out and the aroma of rice spreads. Ichita assesses that the rice looks well cooked. Lestina and the others who smelled the rice for the first time that rice has such an aroma. They had never smelled the pure aroma of rice before, because rice is cooked with other ingredients, so the aroma overlaps with other ingredients. So, for the first time, they smelled the true aroma of rice.

「Wow! White and beautiful!」

「It really is!! It’s beautiful!」

「So this is what rice really looks like.」

「I can’t believe this is the same rice I ate before.」

　Ichita takes a large spoonful of cooked rice and puts it on a plate. The girls look at the rice placed in front of them and are excited by its pure white appearance. It was unimaginably beautiful, and they were surprised to see how much the cooking process could change the appearance of the rice.

「How should I eat this, Ichita-sama?」

「It’s like eating meat and fish around this.

「I see…」

　Lestina and the others, who had never eaten white rice before, did not know how to eat it, so they asked.

「Rice goes well with most dishes, so I think it’s a good way to eat it. I’d rather eat it than bread.」

「More than bread… that’s incredible.」

「I thought the bread was the best accompaniment… but if Ichita-sama is right, my future dining table will be completely different.」

　Ichita tells the girls that rice, like bread, can be a staple food that complements side dishes. He thought that if they could have staple foods other than bread and noodles, their future tables would be more varied.

「You can make it a main dish, by the way, it’s cooked. I’ll try it next time.」

「I’m counting on you, Ichita-sama!」

「Kyuu~!」

「Sure. Let’s eat then」

　When Ichita told them that it is usually served as an accompaniment to the main dish, but depending on how it is cooked, it can be a main dish, Irithelis and Carbuncle said they would like to try it, but Ichita decided to talk about it another time and started dinner.\

「Oh, my!」

「Wow!」

「This is totally different!」

「Rice tastes so good!」

「I had an image of it being dry and hard.」

「This is so good! It’s so soft and fluffy in your mouth!」

「Indeed it would go well with the main dish. I’m sure the rustic flavor will complement the main dish.」

　Lestina and the others tasted the white rice for the first time to see how it taste.

　Although the taste of white rice is simple and not too staple, they can still taste the deliciousness of the rice. They also appreciated that it would definitely go well with the side dishes.

「Ahhh…rice…the best ……」

　Ichita is impressed by the white rice he hasn’t eaten in a long time. He had thought he would not be able to eat white rice again after coming to another world, so he was so happy to be able to eat it again that Ichita continued to eat white rice without eating any side dishes.

 

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