Oh, by the way…
There was some talk about how whoever sold the most would win, and the winner turned out to be Betty.
As expected, cheap, fast, and tasty fast food has a different rate of turnover.
What she was selling was also food and drink, which was affordable and appealed to a broad range of customers, so a lot of people bought it.
One of the strengths of selling food and drink is that it didn’t cost much even when generated by magic.
Throughout the shopping mall, magical devices powered by the mana from ley lines and customers were used to summon supplies and products through generate magic.
When you hear something like “absorbing ley line energy,” you might think it’s like draining the Lifestream too much until a mysterious yandere pretty boy drops a meteor, but in this world, mana is super-efficient energy. Just absorbing the natural mana dispersed from the earth is enough to easily create food.
If you think about it, that makes sense. Even regular mages can generate water or earth without any issue, so creating food shouldn’t be much different.
The only thing that consumes a lot of energy is generating high-information objects—things that contain a lot of mana, like mithril or orichalcum. For those, I generate them myself using my mana. It’s inefficient, so I’ll think of a replacement system eventually, but that’s for another time.
Anyway, generating food and drinks doesn’t cost much, so thanks to the cost performance and fast turnover, the food court won.
Well, the common folk usually don’t eat anything fancy anyway.
Junk food loaded with umami seasoning sold like crazy.
The top seller was kebabs, which were chunks of meat slathered in spices and grilled on the spot.
Then there were hamburgers sold for a single copper coin (about 60 yen?), and they sold like crazy because they were dirt cheap.
On the other hand, Fran-chan came in last place.
I mean, think about it—there’s no way heavy machinery would sell in this world. It wasn’t priced for regular citizens in the first place.
This world just doesn’t have the mindset of using civil engineering for military purposes. Only Fran-chan’s family has the know-how of “digging trenches with construction equipment to fight effectively.”
Nobody’s going to buy military weapons, and besides, the prices were too high. They were reasonable, but even for nobles, those prices were beyond a hobby budget. I get that they’re powerful, but…
As for civil engineering heavy machinery, no one understood its value. They’d rather just have slaves do the work, which is the typical thought process here.
Moreover, even if the heavy machinery, which contained a lot of difficult-to-generate magical metals, did sell, the profit margin wasn’t great, so the cost-performance was poor.
As promised, I went on a date with Betty for a day, and I completely dominated Fran-chan.
Oh, and as for the other stores…
Ada’s high-end cafe did impress some incognito nobles, but it didn’t make much profit.
The taste for luxury hobbies just doesn’t catch on much in this country and era…
Alan’s magical item store did fairly well, I’d say?
Home appliances didn’t sell much, but small items like lighters and water generators sold a lot.
Stoves and refrigerators will probably start selling from now on. In the long term, the magical item store will likely be the most profitable, but in the short term, tasty food and ingredients made the most money.
Oh, and by the way, Betty’s food store wasn’t actually number one—the real top seller was the supermarket I suggested.
But this result was obvious from the start.
It’s only natural that city residents would prefer to buy out-of-season vegetables, fruits, and meat, all fresh and available year-round.
As for Yuki’s weapon shop… it did alright, I guess?
It sold a bit to nobles and adventurers.
Grace’s bookstore also did okay.
In this world, many of the common folk can’t read, after all.
Even so, since it’s the royal capital, there’s a large intellectual class, and they apparently bought out most of the stock.
The textbooks I casually wrote for elementary-level education sold pretty well too.
So, a few days after the shopping mall opened…
Apparently, there are some merchants spreading negative rumors about our products.
Seems like it’s the guys from the Proxia Republic.
How sad.
So, I had them all tortured and killed.
Oh, and don’t worry—I made sure they publicly declared over the forcibly installed radio system that “it was all a conspiracy by the Proxia Republic! The products from Aurora Mall are completely safe!” before I killed them.
After that, the second prince, Gilbert, came to visit me again…
“Hey.”
“Oh.”
In the parlor of my mansion, as I lounged on the top seat of the sofa, Gilbert appeared before me.
A homunculus maid had guided him in and stood by his side.
I commanded her to serve tea.
“What’s the occasion today?”
“It’s about the Proxia Republic merchants you killed.”
Huh?
“Apparently, one of the men was a ‘senator’ in the Proxia Republic, involved in government… like a noble in this country.”
“Oh?”
And?
What’s your point?
“It’s a diplomatic issue.”
“Oh, really.”
I don’t care.
I mean, I get what he’s saying.
Sure, as a noble of this country, I killed someone with a rank equivalent to a noble from another country, and then sent the body back to them.
Of course, they’d see it as nothing but a declaration of war.
But why should I be the one to compromise or hold back over something like this?
Religious types and idiot teachers often say that enduring hardship and pain is virtuous, but that’s just the mindset of a typical bullied kid. From the perspective of those in power, it’s convenient for the masses to have a bullied-kid mentality, so that’s probably why they push that narrative.
As for me, I’m all about immediate retaliation. That’s the style of a strong man like me. The samurai’s true calling is to kill when disrespected.
So, of course, I killed the Proxia Republic merchant who disrespected me.
I know there’s an issue, but let’s hear it anyway.
“Is there a problem?”
“An upper house senator has come to protest and is demanding compensation in the form of your gaming console technology and part of the rights to your shopping mall.”
“Got it, I’ll kill him.”
“Haha, no, wait, really, please wait.”
Sure.
“It’s true that the Biltria Kingdom, constantly embroiled in wars with the neighboring Domenia Empire and Bainar Federation, doesn’t have the money, resources, or manpower to open another front against the Proxia Republic.”
“Yeah, that’s right.”
“And how does that relate to me?”
As I said earlier, if you disrespect me, I’ll kill you.
Besides, they’re not even worth killing, but I certainly won’t let them live either. If it’s worth killing, I’ll kill them.
“Of course, I figured you’d say that.”
“Oh, so what do you want to do?”
“I want you… or rather, Aurora Trading Company, to accompany our country’s delegation to the Proxia Republic to explain and justify this incident.”
Hmmm?
“Gilbert, you’re not as stupid as your parents and siblings, are you? So, you must be suggesting this because you think there’s some kind of payoff for me, right?”
It might not be a big reward, he lightly prefaced, then said,
“Isn’t it fun to crush a proud nation of merchants by sheer force and make them submit?”
Hmm, hmm…
Quite a proposal.
But it shows that he “gets me.”
If he had tried to use his authority to suppress me, I would’ve killed him, but with this interesting provocation, it brings out this side of me.
“Interesting. Let’s do it!”
