kscans

Chapter 68 - 6: Second Half, The Demonstration

"The last one is 'Ume'," Dalgan said, placing a basket piled with slices of black bread on the table.

"Eh, it's just bread?" Noel's voice sounded deflated. Where had all her earlier nervousness gone?

"Not quite. You do this."

Rilka took a slice. Roston and Plural brought over several pots. When Rilka held out her piece of bread, Roston ladled some of the pot's contents onto it. The colorful, green-heavy mixture looked similar to the salad sandwich from earlier.

Rilka folded the bread and took a bite.

"Mmm, it's a little tough, but this is good in its own way."

"Th-That's so unrefined."

"Well, that's just how it is for commoners. We eat sandwiches while walking," I said. A chance to live up to my reputation as a former Copper-rank company.

"Customers will first buy this black bread. Then, they'll have it filled at one of the surrounding stalls." The idea was inspired by hand-rolled sushi. Commoners could enjoy a variety of flavors depending on their budget. The price would be a little high, but the quality of the filling would more than make up for it.

"Having a variety of flavors is fun, isn't it."

"Yes, I'd actually prefer to eat this with white bread."

"That's not an option, so please enjoy it while you can."

"But, apart from the bread, aren't the fillings pretty much the same as before?"

Noel looked surprised after cautiously taking a bite of the black bread. Coming from someone who had just eaten the deluxe version, her reaction was excellent. This version had less chicken ham and cheese, bulked up with chopped, inexpensive leafy greens.

"Well yeah, many of the ingredients are shared across Matsu, Take, and Ume. This was the first time I ever had a plan to get this much meat all at once."

"It's the same for the vegetables."

"And even the black bread uses much higher quality flour than usual."

We'd be sourcing the bread in large quantities with the help of Kenwell and Roston.

Of course, the spices used were different. And the dessert was something else entirely. No matter how much the harvest increased, we could never sell such a rare fruit at a price commoners could afford.

As a sweet, we would separately sell the leftover bread crusts from Matsu, fried in oil and lightly drizzled with a thin syrup made from honey and water.

"When we first heard about it, we thought it was a crazy idea, but the logic is sound. After all, you don't need containers."

Exactly. The biggest advantage of Ume was the lack of containers. When serving food to a large crowd, the cost of containers becomes a major issue. Disposable containers mass-produced in factories from petroleum, selling for less than a yen wholesale, simply don't exist here.

The meal might cost 100, but the container would cost 200. We could never offer it at that price.

I'd heard that even on Earth, medieval taverns used bread as plates. That meant a sandwich format, where the bread itself serves as the container, was our only option for serving food to such a large, unspecified number of people.

"Matsu is all about a spectacular presentation. Its closing dessert provides a distinct sense of rarity and luxury. Take is a simplified version of that. And Ume lowers the cost by sharing as many ingredients and preparation methods as possible. That is the economic structure of these three meals."

"Wha... Merchants really think that far ahead...?" Noel mumbled, the hand-rolled sandwich still in her mouth. As a result, Matsu had a high price and a low cost-to-price ratio. Most of the cost was for the presentation. In contrast, Take had a lower price and a higher cost-to-price ratio, but we would sell it in large quantities with minimal effort.

I had proposed the general strategy, but I never imagined it would turn out this magnificently.

And, true to the event's name as an 'exhibition', this structure had another purpose.

"That's not all, is it? We're using the money of nobles and great merchants to promote the new ingredients and dishes we'll be handling to the residents of the Royal Capital," Rilka said.

"Seriously, there's no end to Vinder's scheming. But even so, the pricing is going to be tight."

"You're right. In the worst-case scenario, we might have to write it off as an advertising expense..."

The members handed their cost calculations to Mia. In reality, that would be impossible. But, I suppose we're all in the same boat.

"The respective costs for Matsu, Take, and Ume are..."

Mia displayed the results broken down by sales volume. As expected, the cost-to-price ratio decreased as the quantity sold increased.

"The ratio between Matsu, Take, and Ume is based on the capital's population and class distribution, inflated on the commoner side. Our break-even point at the projected prices is 1,547 and a half sales."

"So we need one out of every two hundred people in the capital to buy something. That's a pretty high bar."

"Can we really gather that many people just by unveiling a new carriage?"

"It'll be difficult to draw the wealthy nobles to the Forum."

"Plural will focus on advertising to our noble customers. But that still won't be enough."

"My aunt and I will help as well, though we can't do anything too overt. Also, Clau can reach out to the Knight Order."

"'Take' is aimed at merchants who might be interested in the carriages, but we still need a way to attract commoners."

"Hold on, some guilds will actively try to interfere. That's too optimistic."

"Ordinary citizens have the least motivation to come to the Forum, but we need them to move the most volume."

One by one, they pointed out the problems. As soon as the conversation turned to money, the lighthearted atmosphere vanished. Noel looked bewildered by how quickly the talk had become so serious and mercenary.

"You're right. Just decorating the carriages and having them drive around the Forum won't be enough. That's where the Knight Order comes in."

I explained the final part of my plan. We were going to hold a demonstration using the Knight Order's carriages.

"You mean, instead of just showing them off, you're turning it into some kind of competition?"

"Exactly. A long-distance one, at that. A four-day race from Bertold to the Royal Capital. This will allow us to demonstrate not just speed, but also load capacity and durability."

"The Knight Order's supply corps will be the ones using the carriages. We'll have them prepare an equal number of their conventional carriages and the new ones fitted with bearings, all under the guise of a training exercise for the baggage train between Bertold and the capital."

Through Alfina, we had already appointed Claudia to act as our liaison with the Knight Order.

"Well, knowing that prince of yours, he'll probably go for it. But man, this is turning into a ridiculously grand event, isn't it," Dalgan said, scratching his head.

"Oh, come on. It's strictly a test for the Knight Order's new carriages. And it's perfectly natural for the finish line to be at the Forum, right where the statue commemorating the dragon subjugation stands."

I myself couldn't decide whether it was better to conceal our new transport capabilities or to use them as a show of deterrence for domestic and foreign powers. But Prince Craig had chosen the latter, arguing that the information would get out eventually anyway.

This would serve as a demonstration that the reformed Knight Order now possessed the ability to complete monster exterminations much faster than before.

It would also help stabilize the western territories, where people were still anxious about the unprecedented Monster Flood, even though it had been successfully suppressed. That was the Grand Duchess's judgment.

"So the performance of the bearings and the improved carriages will be clearly visible to everyone in the form of a Knight Order demonstration," Noel said. It seemed that with her mouth now empty, her capacity for logical thought had returned.

"Any merchant will immediately realize that the commercial distance between Bertold and the Royal Capital has just shrunk,"

"The reformed Knight Order, led by the hero prince. That's bound to become a huge topic of conversation, like it or not."

"...I'm... I'm starting to worry if we'll have enough food."

"It's a Vinder project, so we should have expected it to get this big. I'll talk to Maria-senpai about securing a bit more flour, just in case."

"Haha, using royalty as a crowd-puller. Now that I think about it, that sounds exactly like something Vinder would do."

Everyone began chiming in with their own thoughts.

"Regarding the prince, he's actually the one who's most enthusiastic about it. Oh. And of course, we'll arrange for this training exercise to be held every year. To coincide with the exhibition. It all depends on how this year goes, but I'm counting on your cooperation in the years to come," I said. The improvements to the carriages would become an annual topic of discussion. It's the same principle as the auto races from my past life.

"Haha, so we won't be able to escape even after we graduate."

At Plural's words, all the upperclassmen shook their heads in unison.