Chapter 77
Chapter 77
“Big sis, big sis!”
“Big sis is busy.”
I tried to measure how much holy power remained, though I could barely feel it.
[SYSTEM | Skill ‘Mass Production’ will be terminated due to insufficient holy power.]
[SYSTEM | Please replenish ‘Holy Power’ quickly.]
No!
[SYSTEM | Skill ‘Mass Production’ has been terminated.]
I let out several screams that sounded like “Waaah!” Seiren, standing beside me, waited for me to calm down without fully understanding what was happening.
After throwing a few more tantrums and complaining to the system about why I was lacking ‘Holy Power’, I finally became tired.
“….”
“…Big sis?”
“Yeah.”
I nodded while staring into space at the careful voice calling me.
“Are you done with your tantrum?”
“Still got a bit left.”
“You’re something else, big sis.”
“Hmph.”
Seiren looked at me with eyes that said I was impossible, then immediately clung to me.
“No, big sis. Today I heard an amazing rumor, that’s all.”
Amazing rumor?
What could it be?
As I stood there with a blank face, Seiren gently patted my head, but when I glared at her, she quickly got to the point.
“They say a legendary creature has appeared all over the capital!”
“Wow, that’s interesting.”
“And you know how strange this creature looks? First, they say it has really hard skin. It can get scratched, but not deeply dented.”
I responded lifelessly, on the verge of collapse with my holy power depleted.
“And it’s really, really big.”
“Wow, amazing. Being big is good. Being big is go- wait, what?”
Responding lifelessly, I suddenly realized that the combination of information Seiren was describing sounded like something I already knew.
“Oh, the light’s back in your eyes, big sis.”
“Seiren, say that again. What about this creature?”
“Just that it appeared. Why, do you know about it?”
Of course I know.
It’s our Vroom-vroom.
[SYSTEM | Pet, Vroom-vroom has been summoned.]
Instead of answering, I quietly pointed at the window.
Outside, a massive ice cream truck could be seen.
“…I wondered if this might be related to you too, and it really was you.”
“Yes.”
“What is that?”
“My companion animal, Vroom-vroom.”
Seiren was examining ‘Vroom-vroom’ visible through the window with a quite bewildered expression.
True to being an ice cream truck, Vroom-vroom had an extremely cute and fancy exterior with alternating pink and yellow colors.
Seiren seemed to like Vroom-vroom’s appearance, as she grabbed my hand with a flushed face.
“I love it! What are you going to do with it now?”
“Now we’ll drive around the capital in Vroom-vroom selling ice cream.”
For reference, I originally planned to take Yen along to sell ice cream, but unfortunately that plan was rejected due to mild motion sickness and acrophobia.
I was currently looking for the rare talent who isn’t afraid of heights and doesn’t get motion sick no matter how rough the road.
“Big sis, how about me?”
“You?”
“Yeah.”
“You go research holy power and that philosopher’s stone thing or whatever. Do you know you’re Luwin’s hope?”
Somehow, it seems rumors spread every time we take Vroom-vroom for a walk.
I really don’t understand how rumors spread so quickly in a world without internet.
“But big sis, rather than suddenly going anywhere to sell ice cream, shouldn’t we first announce Vroom-vroom’s existence through the cart or ‘Ophelia’?”
“You think so?”
“Yeah. That way we can connect the mysterious legendary creature that appeared in the capital with ice cream, and that could lead to sales too.”
It was a reasonable point, so I nodded in agreement.
“And take me with you! I need to earn money anyway since I got kicked out of home!”
“Rejected.”
But Seiren paid no attention.
After thinking for a while, she suddenly said with a regretful expression.
“But it’s too bad. If we had a way to let people know the time and place, we could announce where Vroom-vroom will appear.”
What, is she thinking of something like SNS?
It’s quite a good idea.
If we could notify people where Vroom-vroom would appear, it would make ice cream sales easier, even as an event.
Seiren looked around her small but cutely decorated room and picked up a map.
“How about using a map?”
“How?”
Seiren thought for a moment, then spread the map on the desk and said.
“It doesn’t need to be as detailed as this map, but it would be good to make a simplified magic map.”
“Okay.”
“Then use magic to notify the map owners about confirmed details. Like ‘Vroom-vroom is currently in front of Merta Academy. We plan to sell ice cream for about 5 more hours, so come if you’re interested.’ How’s that?”
Oh, this really is like SNS.
Though, it felt more like a special feature of SNS used for same-day notifications rather than actual SNS.
I thought this could be used not just to announce Vroom-vroom’s location, but also to notify about future directions and confirmed matters for ‘Lu & Cream’.
“Sounds good.”
“Right! Then I’ll tell brother about it.”
“But can it be implemented?”
“Don’t know! Brother will figure it out. Alright then! Now let’s go sell ice cream.”
“On Vroom-vroom?”
“Of course.”
* * *
And so I began going out to sell ice cream with Seiren occasionally.
Not just Seiren, but Isiel, who was nearby, would also tag along whenever Seiren went out.
“Irina, aren’t you tired?”
Ah, Vroom-vroom doesn’t just appear in the capital.
Since I’m affiliated with Luwin, I’d been traveling between the north and the capital until the shop was completed, and during my stays in the north, the ice cream truck would appear in Leknes.
“No. I was about to go out for some fresh air, would you like to join me, Lord Cassis?”
“…Yes.”
And so Cassis also ended up being recruited for ice cream sales.
Though we called it ice cream sales, it was really more like flying drives.
We’d just go out for drives regardless of day or night, and sell ice cream wherever we happened to land that seemed nice.
Since we often suddenly appeared in neighborhoods that didn’t know us well, most people didn’t even know I was selling ‘ice cream’.
But that was fine.
I thought it was actually good to be able to promote to people who didn’t know us.
“Yes, this is the famous ice cream everyone’s talking about, ‘Lu & Cream’.”
“Why are you here? Is this some kind of special event?”
“Hahaha, here, isn’t the ice cream delicious? Take this paper, it shows information about where this magical carriage appears.”
By the way, Seiren and Isiel… who would believe they were high nobles?
They had quite a natural talent for sales.
They drew maps on the back of posters designed by Yuri.
And it was Isiel who enchanted these maps with magic.
However, needing someone of Isiel’s caliber just to cast the magic didn’t seem very cost-effective.
Isiel was just doing it as free volunteer work because he liked it.
If there came a time in the distant future when we needed to make tens of thousands of these maps, the magic costs alone could be considerable.
‘Maybe we should contract a decent mage.’
[But this isn’t bad at all…]
‘Right? Give it to me as a skill!
Hand it over, hand it over!’
[…..]
The current map showed the ice cream truck’s location, which was on the road behind the Imperial Palace.
The people struggling to sell ice cream with me were Isiel, Seiren, Cassis, Jane, and myself – five people in total.
Everyone had somehow gotten involved, and they all readily agreed to work without pay, probably because they had some degree of affection for ice cream.
And people were forming very long, very patient lines in front of the ice cream truck.
“Ahhh, Irina! Come here right now and make ice cream!”
“I’m dying…”
“With all these people waiting? Die after you make this.”
“Siiiigh, Lord Isiel, why are you working me so hard? I’m going to tell Lord Cassis.”
“Go ahead and tell! Just hurry up and make it first. We need five more.”
It definitely started as just a casual drive.
Really.
We had no intention of making money, just thinking we’d go out for a walk, sell maybe 10 ice creams and come back!
That was the mindset.
Since our Vroom-vroom looked unique anyway, I thought that alone would be good promotion for ‘Lu & Cream’.
After all, ice cream was already selling like hotcakes at the cart.
But this popularity completely destroyed that casual attitude.
I had underestimated people’s obsession.
An ice cream truck appearing randomly around the capital like some kind of game, with flyers providing real-time location updates.
And with the official shop not yet open and the cart operating much less frequently than before.
Ice cream had become a dessert that wasn’t easy to get just because you wanted it, and both nobles and commoners alike were consumed by madness searching for ‘ice cream’ with no class distinction.
In this situation, a stunningly beautiful ice cream truck suddenly appearing in the capital?
They must be going crazy.
[At this point, we should probably call it ‘The Empire’s Obsession with Ice Cream’…]
“Can I have an ice cream too?”
“Huh?”
I looked up in surprise at a voice I shouldn’t be hearing.
In front of me stood Sian Terezia alongside a strange woman wearing a mask.
While I was stammering in confusion, Seiren appeared and skillfully scooped ice cream, placed it on waffles, and handed one each to the woman and Sian.
“That’ll be 6 jurang for two.”
“…..”
Who on earth was this woman?
The dark brown hair was unfamiliar, and the curled lips that seemed both arrogant and benevolent were also new to me.
Yet somehow, I felt a growing instinctive urge to run away.
“No money? It’s 6 jurang.”
Regardless of my reaction, Seiren did her job.
“…I don’t have any money.”
“Why did you line up if you don’t have money?”
To Seiren’s light scolding, the woman responded in a soft voice.
“It’s fine. I’ll pay.”
Why am I so uneasy?
Why do I feel so strange?
As I stood there frozen, Sian suddenly approached.
“Irina, relax your expression.”
“Who is she?”
“Someone you’ll get to know someday.”
“But who is she?”
But Sian didn’t answer.
He just gave a dizzying smile and disappeared, holding the woman’s hand.
The woman’s back view seemed strangely familiar.
Or maybe not.
But it was familiar.
Why?
