Chapter 42
Chapter 42
“Such an uneducated…!”
“Ah, I’m not that ignorant. Please look upon me kindly.”
I smiled good-naturedly with a “hehe” and pushed the report forward again.
“In such a situation, forcing a luxury industry will only backfire.”
Absolutely not luxury.
What luxury?
I stood in front of the magic chalkboard that Rosalyn Freya had complained about as soon as she entered Cassis’s office, saying what kind of low-class item this was.
“By the way, Lady Rosalyn, I purchased this magic chalkboard with my own money.”
To Rosalyn’s gaze that seemed to say ‘So what?’, I smiled again.
“Just saying.”
And I briefly summarized Luwin’s financial and external relations status on the chalkboard, explaining what I had organized so far.
Rosalyn Freya seemed to be angry with every word I said, but that wasn’t important.
[Is our Irina really just good-natured?]
[She’s got qualities of a general.]
“Money? We don’t have it. Debt? We have a lot. Noble families we’re maintaining somewhat decent relationships with? Not none, but there are no families who will pay off our debts or lend us power.”
This was the first thing I figured out as soon as I came here.
“Irina Seike, do you know that what you’re doing now is making your master look bad?”
Rosalyn was trembling as if she was really angry.
She was the younger sister of the previous Grand Duke Luwin and also the older sister of Marquis Cloi who caused all this mess.
So she was taking a very contradictory attitude.
‘My beloved Luwin that I cherish.’
‘The proud head of Luwin, Cassis, whom I cherish.’
She says this, but she even cherished Vedic Cloi, who actually ruined the family like this, saying he was Luwin’s person.
‘My poor brother who has roots in Luwin.’
I quietly looked at Rosalyn and shrugged.
So she sincerely thought that for Luwin’s revival, the wealthy Marquis Cloi should become the Grand Duke.
In the end, only Cassis was wavering helplessly and becoming unhappy.
“I didn’t come here to pity Luwin. And I certainly didn’t come to sell off the Grand Duke Luwin’s family to another family.”
I came to make Luwin powerful again.
“Then tell me. With that smart head of yours, I hope you can explain how we can succeed again, better than investing in our Vedic’s business.”
I stood blankly in front of the chalkboard and finally sighed.
I didn’t want to tell Cassis in a situation where even I wasn’t certain.
“Let’s think about earning 100,000 jurang.”
I wrote ‘100,000 jurang’ on the magic chalkboard.
“100,000 jurang is an amount that can be gathered if you have 10,000 jurang ten times. Or it’s also an amount that can be gathered if you have 10 jurang 10,000 times.”
100,000 jurang is about the price of a foreign car if calculated at the 21st century Earth exchange rate.
10,000 jurang is the amount for a very expensive luxury bag that could be used as a wedding gift.
And 10 jurang is an amount that may or may not be enough to eat one meal.
“Here, I’ll ask one question. Is it easier to sell a 10,000 jurang item ten times, or to sell a 10 jurang item 10,000 times?”
Cassis and Roen quietly looked at me and the chalkboard with their arms folded without answering, and Rosalyn Freya looked at me with eyes full of intent to mock me somehow.
“The correct answer is that it’s much easier to sell a 10 jurang item 10,000 times.”
This is because once a 10,000 jurang luxury item is purchased, that’s it, so people who have already bought it are unlikely to buy it again.
But 10 jurang, which is closer to a consumable, is different.
10 jurang is a price that can be purchased without much consideration, and the probability of repurchase is overwhelmingly higher compared to luxury goods.
I briefly explained these facts and added:
“And if you compare things like the ratio of wealthy people to the general public, repurchase rates, and so on, you can see that selling cheap things in large quantities is much easier and can make more money.”
But I’ll substitute such detailed explanations with data.
“In the end, it’s much more advantageous to sell many cheap and consumable items to make money.”
Now, is there anyone who didn’t understand up to this point?
Looking around, it seemed that Roen and Cassis had understood even the parts I hadn’t explained just from the materials I had handed over.
‘Our cute smart ones.’
[But Rosalyn Freya over there doesn’t seem to want to understand.]
Right.
Rosalyn Freya, who disliked me so much, seemed not to care what I said.
“Fine. I understand well enough from your wine alone that you intend to make money by selling cheap and low-quality goods to the lowly commoners.”
I opened my eyes wide.
‘It seems she understood?’
As expected, a noble who had received elite education was still a noble.
It’s just that she kept saying nonsensical things due to her obsession with status and love for Luwin.
“So. What is it that you want to sell to those lowly ones in the name of Luwin?”
I closed my mouth for a moment.
The system window showed that my cooking skill was ‘C+’.
The grade of the ice cream recipe was also ‘C+’, so now I can make ice cream freely as long as I have the ingredients and stamina.
I’m confident that I won’t care much about how Rosalyn reacts.
But I hope Cassis doesn’t criticize or doubt me too much.
Even if it sounds like an absurd story to them.
“I…”
[Irina, you can do it. You can say it!]
I hesitated until the moment I opened my mouth and made a sound.
“I’m thinking of selling ice cream.”
* * *
Rosalyn tasted the ice cream in an extremely elegant manner, and I watched the scene blankly.
Honestly, since I only needed Cassis’s approval, it didn’t matter much whether Rosalyn Freya knew what ice cream was or not.
However, for the sake of appearances, I had to let her taste it, so I asked Apple to hand the ice cream to Rosalyn.
“The taste isn’t bad. Since it’s a frozen dessert, it could become a high-class dessert.”
“Thank you.”
“But how much could you sell by selling this? This can’t handle Luwin’s current finances. Even nobles won’t continuously spend big money on desserts.”
I shook my head.
“We won’t sell ice cream as a high-class dessert.”
I quietly added.
“We plan to price it below 10 jurang, and it will become the best dessert that can be enjoyed by everyone from nobles to commoners without worrying about the price.”
Rosalyn looked at me with an expression of disbelief.
And she stuttered as she opened her mouth.
“Now you’re saying you’ll make money by selling food to those, those lowly ones in the name of our Luwin?”
I nodded as if to say what’s wrong with that.
“Yes!”
She stood up as if she had been seriously insulted and immediately threw the glass containing the ice cream on the floor.
With a shattering sound, the glass broke, and the ice cream inside was miserably smashed on the floor.
“How dare such a vulgar thing enter our family and ruin everything. Cassis, is this how your aunt taught you?”
“Aunt, please calm down.”
“How can I stay calm after hearing such words?!”
The screaming continued for quite a while.
So only after Rosalyn Freya’s maid took her away to her room did Cassis’s office finally calm down.
Cassis collapsed on the sofa, exhausted and worn out.
I felt guilty for no reason at the heavy sigh he let out as if the floor would cave in.
If I had known it would be like this, would it have been better to just stay quiet as Rosalyn Freya wanted?
[No. Even if you had acted like the tongue in her mouth, the villain would have treated you badly.]
I looked a bit sadly at the carpet that had become sticky with melted ice cream.
“Then Irina. Shall we have our conversation now?”
“Yes. Where should I start explaining from?”
“From the beginning.”
I explained from the beginning.
From the content I explained earlier when Rosalyn Freya was present to why I thought we should sell ice cream.
“But at the same time, I’m fully aware of the risks as well.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes. That’s why I didn’t mention it in the first place. Originally, I planned to confirm with my own eyes how promising this business item is and then report to you.”
I buried myself in the couch and crossed my legs.
My shoe dangled precariously from my toes.
“I plan to confirm it in the capital this time, and I’ll organize it neatly and report back like the other materials before. If the response isn’t good, we’ll wrap it up cleanly and look for another item.”
[No, it will succeed. Why do you keep assuming failure.]
[That’s right! As long as you’re doing quests with us, you won’t fail.]
I alternately checked Cassis and Roen with a slightly anxious heart.
Cassis’s expression was hard to read, and Roen was skeptical.
Roen answered first.
“I’m relieved that you’re aware of the risks, Irina.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes, because I’m skeptical. Well, it’s not an impossible story, but I wonder if it’s possible to pay off such a huge debt by selling this dessert I’ve never seen before, and to commoners at that.”
If we can just establish a foothold, we can succeed.
I can guarantee it!
If this ice cream can just succeed in becoming popularized like in 21st century Earth, becoming a billionaire through monopoly will be instant!
‘The question is whether it can be popularized, right?’
“Irina.”
“Yes?”
Cassis quietly called me and met my eyes.
“Are you confident?”
“If we can succeed in popularizing it, I’m confident.”
“Assumptions like ‘if we can’ won’t do.”
Cassis continued quietly but firmly.
“If you’re confident in ‘ice cream’, you must succeed in popularizing it.”
“……”
“If you’re going to deal with both nobles and commoners in the name of Luwin, you must do so.”
Faced with this unfamiliar firmness, I stared blankly at Cassis, forgetting even to breathe.
His dark red eyes were looking down at me calmly, filled with a dignity I had never seen before.
It might hurt my pride a little, it might be a bit upsetting, but I felt strangely overwhelmed.
Because there was the gaze of the protagonist of the world, the hero I had vowed to protect.
The original story that I thought I had ruined might not have been damaged to the point of being irreparable after all.
“…Yes.”
“Good.”
Cassis relaxed his firm gaze and smiled, curling up the corners of his mouth.
The atmosphere eased in an instant.
“Then please confirm it in the capital. Whether it’s worthy of bearing Luwin’s name. Whether it shows promise.”
I felt Roen shaking his head next to me, but that was outside my concern. I nodded towards Cassis.
“Yes. As I first told you, you’ll never regret hiring me.”
Just as Seike Winery did, Luwin will also achieve dazzling success.
