Chapter 11 - 11 Selling Destinations for Soba
The amount of buckwheat flour increased. To be precise, following orders from the women of House Archibalt who had realized the deliciousness of Soba, Brian had taken action and harvested the buckwheat. Setting aside the portion to be used for sowing, the rest was ground into flour using a stone mill.
"It's a waste to sell it, isn't it?"
Sherry intended for them to eat all of it themselves. Since it was originally conceived as an emergency food supply, that might be its proper use, but other crops were also growing in the Archibalt Territory, so the stockpiling of emergency food wasn't particularly urgent.
"It cannot be helped. To secure a stable income, we must create products that can sell."
Brian reasoned with his daughter, who was acting like a spoiled child. Thanks to Steve, they had been able to obtain a large sum of money temporarily, but that would eventually run out. Similarly, they knew that the steel made with Steve's magic would end with Steve's generation. Therefore, other industries were necessary.
Reversi and refrigerators were industries that did not depend on Steve. If Soba were added to this, there would be three industries. Furthermore, if it was the harvesting of buckwheat, even clumsy domain residents who were poor at processing could work.
Nick, who was processing rolling pins on a Lathe and making Soba-cutting knives, was extremely busy. In addition to those for individual households, he also had to make the portion to be sold to Emmanuel. Since eating noodles was not common, even if people bought buckwheat flour, they lacked the tools to make noodles. Those would have to be sold as a set.
And the one making Soba today was Emmanuel. Since he had to do live sales demonstrations, he was gaining experience making Soba like this. Incidentally, since the measuring cups were created with Steve's magic, measurements could be done very accurately. Moreover, they were made of stainless steel and shone brightly, so they were valuable in their own right.
"Is it really necessary for me to learn this? Since Steve-sama went to sell it directly to Margrave Sowell, we've found a major customer for now, so there's no need to find other selling destinations..."
Emmanuel let out a pathetic voice.
Yes, when Steve was asked for advice by Aurora regarding the commodity futures exchange, he had brought along the new product, Soba, as an afterthought. There was a reason for bringing it; he had the chefs employed by the House of Margrave Sowell create the dipping sauce, which they hadn't been able to develop well at their own place. Of course, Steve acquired it using his SOP Magic and reproduced it at his own home.
As expected of chefs employed by the greatest noble in the West, the taste suited the Soba—which they were seeing for the first time—perfectly. Because Steve reproduced it, it resulted in Sherry and the others saying they would be fine with Soba for every meal.
However, it wasn't that Aurora liked Soba; rather, she had the intention of using it to show off to her guests that she could prepare such rare ingredients. That also had merits for House Archibalt; the Soba had a good reputation among Aurora's guests, and repeat orders were coming in.
When that happened, other nobles also wanted to eat the noodles served at the House of Margrave Sowell. However, since there were no chefs who had ever made Soba outside of the House of Margrave Sowell, Emmanuel needed to teach the method of making Soba while he was making his sales pitches.
"What is this about a merchant running away from the scent of gold? Since I went to the trouble of putting in a good word for your brokerage license, please cooperate with the sale of Soba as well."
"I am grateful for that."
Brokerage licenses were issued by Margrave Sowell. What was required for the license was proof of solvency. In other words, having money. In practice, the license was something merchants bought from Margrave Sowell. And at quite a high price, too. However, by the initial agreement, House Archibalt held the right to push through a broker, and they had chosen Emmanuel for that role.
The buying and selling of futures and the delivery of goods were to be handled by the brokers, and this would generate enormous profits. Emmanuel had already become one of the major players in the West. Furthermore, as a reward for the Royal Family's investigation, he had gained the right to advertise that his backer was the Royal Family; his peers feared that if they laid a hand on those interests, it would lead to trouble. For a newly established guild to have such a large backer and no harassment from others, business was proceeding perfectly smoothly.
Additionally, regarding the lord's manor in the Archibalt Territory, a reconstruction was to take place since their financial situation had improved, and Emmanuel was also arranging the building materials and labor. To anyone's eyes, he was stuck fast to House Archibalt.
While he was making Soba with Emmanuel like that, a magician suddenly Teleported to the manor from the Royal Capital. Brian hurriedly asked about the business.
"What is the matter?"
"I convey a royal command. Come to the palace immediately, bringing Soba with you."
"Soba, you say?"
"Yes. And also the tools necessary to make Soba."
At the perfect timing of the sudden royal command, Steve began to laugh.
"It seems His Majesty is monitoring our house with magic."
Emmanuel's relief that this was over was short-lived. A sharp pain shot through his stomach at Steve's next remark.
"Well then, shall we head to the palace with the Soba Emmanuel just made?"
"Eeeeeeehhhhhh!!!!!!!"
"The order to bring Soba means he intends to eat it. Isn't that great, Emmanuel? An opportunity like this might happen once in a lifetime, or not at all. For an ordinary person, it absolutely never happens. Besides, if it's Soba that has been presented to His Majesty, it will be easier to sell, won't it?"
Emmanuel crouched down on the spot at the sheer magnitude of the situation. Steve rubbed his back in concern, but since it was a matter of the heart, it wasn't very effective.
"Well then, shall we go?"
Once Steve and Brian picked up the Soba set, the magician Teleported them to the Royal Capital. The remaining women ordered Emmanuel to make Soba once more. However, Emmanuel needed a little more time to recover. In the end, the women, unable to wait, decided to make the Soba themselves.
Meanwhile, Brian and Steve regretted being brought to the Royal Palace in rough clothes because they were told it was immediate. While they braced themselves, wondering what kind of urgent business required bringing Soba, once they had an audience with the King, what he said was:
"Can you not spare some of that buckwheat flour you are supplying to Sowell for us as well? First, we must taste it, but lately, it seems Sowell has been serving something called Soba to important guests in the West. Its reputation is good, and it is vexing that I, the King, cannot serve it."
That was the reason. To Brian and Steve, it wasn't a big deal, but for the King, if he couldn't provide ingredients that even a mere Margrave could prepare, it would affect his prestige.
Furthermore, a foreign delegation that had arrived at the port held by Margrave Sowell was currently scheduled to come to the Royal Capital for an audience with the King. Therefore, it was necessary to obtain buckwheat flour in a hurry.
The Soba Steve brought was immediately subjected to poison testing, and once it was known there was no problem, the King tasted it.
"It does not go so far as to be superb, but it is tasty in its own way, and there is a sense of novelty."
That was the King's impression.
"Since Soba itself is a dish that has just been born, if it is placed in the hands of the Royal Palace's chefs, it will surely be sublimated further," Brian replied.
The Soba, created by Steve who was not a Soba master and with seasoning methods developed by the chefs of the House of Margrave Sowell, still had room to become more delicious.
As for Brian, since he was thinking of buckwheat flour production as a new industry, he was desperate to sell it to the Royal Palace somehow.
"Indeed, it is as Archibalt says. To have it sublimated, let us buy the buckwheat flour and the tools. You brought the tools as well, did you not?"
"Yes. They are here."
Since the King said he would buy them, Brian immediately became high-spirited. The Soba-making tools he joyfully presented were taken by soldiers and carried off somewhere.
After that, a discussion regarding the purchase price for the set began, including the Chancellor. That said, there was no way a mere Knight could negotiate, so the purchase price became the state's asking price. Well, even so, it was a good price.
Once the talk was settled, an official came to the Chancellor and whispered something. The Chancellor nodded at the report and looked toward Steve. Then he opened his mouth.
"Now then, there is one condition for the purchase."
"A condition, you say?"
Brian braced himself. He didn't know what kind of condition would come from the Chancellor, but he even thought that if it was too harsh a condition, they could just sell the buckwheat flour elsewhere.
"Would you allow the state to dispatch technical officers to your territory?"
"Technical officers?"
"Yes. I have just received a report that the rolling pin is a frighteningly accurate cylinder. It has been determined that the item itself is extremely expensive. If possible, for the sake of the national standards creation project, we wish to have the technical officers learn how to make it. Besides, it surely does not end with just making cylinders?"
The Chancellor looked at Steve. Here, Steve came to reflect that using a Lathe for processing the rolling pin might have been going too far. However, it was already too late. He couldn't cover up this over-technology now.
Furthermore, even if he refused this time, they would likely try to dispatch technical officers for one reason or another anyway. If so, he reached the conclusion that it would be better to quietly accept the dispatch of technical officers here, if only to avoid offending the King and the Chancellor.
"Father, would it not be fine? However, we cannot disclose the confidential parts of our territory."
At Steve's decision, Brian also gave his consent.
"We naturally understand that as well. We will select the personnel and send them immediately, so we count on you."
"Lord Chancellor, there are no inns in my territory, so we must build a place for them to live. Even if you say 'immediately'..."
"I am not worried about that. What, you are building a new lord's manor and will be increasing the number of rooms, will you not?"
The Chancellor had a firm grasp of information regarding the Archibalt Territory. Thus, the fact that they were renewing the lord's manor was common knowledge. Since there were no inns in the territory, Brian had been preparing rooms to accommodate guests when they visited.
However, he had no intention of having technical officers stay there long-term. It was originally for guests addressed to Brian, and if they stayed there long-term, the original purpose could not be achieved.
In the end, Brian thought about building an inn as well. Since Emmanuel would likely be the one using it most, he decided to consult him upon returning. Since the scale of the merchant caravan had also grown large, it would be difficult to keep putting them up in the lord's manor forever. He was fully prepared to leave the scale and fees to Emmanuel.
While Brian was thinking about accepting the technical officers, Steve was thinking that their information-gathering ability was amazing to be monitoring even a weak Knight of the frontier so thoroughly.
However, the cause of that was Steve. In truth, they did not monitor other Knight territories to this extent. The King, feeling threatened by Steve's magic and knowledge, had ordered the Chancellor to conduct special surveillance.
Once the talk about accepting the technical officers was over, Brian and Steve moved to the kitchen to instruct the chefs on how to make Soba.
Steve performed a demonstration of Soba making.
"This is all."
The head chef, who was watching, was impressed and praised Steve.
"To think you could come up with such a new dish at that age. The pasta from before was the same, but normally, for several years, one can only imitate someone else's cooking. Well, it is biased toward noodle dishes, though."
It was known that Steve had also devised the pasta. On top of that, now it was Soba. In a place where there was no culture of noodle dishes, he was merely conveying things he knew from his previous life's knowledge, but to those who didn't know, it seemed original.
(I was thinking of Ramen or Udon next, but it's annoying to have people think I can only come up with noodle dishes.)
So Steve thought. The other party didn't necessarily think that far, but his craftsman-like spirit, which hated being thought of as only capable of one thing, reared its head here.
It was a thought typical of Steve, who in his previous life had once said he could process not just iron, aluminum, copper, and stainless steel, but magnesium as well.
However, he had become sensible enough to know that now was not the time to say that.
"If there are no children, it would probably be better to have some spiciness. It would be good if there were Wasabi or chili peppers..."
"I don't know much about Wasabi, but we have some mustard. We will try that here. It will be difficult to find the point where it doesn't destroy the flavor, though."
Having said that, the head chef fell into thought for a moment.
"By the way, was it alright to disclose the recipe? This sort of thing is usually not even taught to disciples easily."
"The price offered included that as well."
The idea was Steve's, but since the developer was the chef of the House of Margrave Sowell, it wasn't completely original. However, the current Soba was what Steve had further tested with new ingredients. Even if a complaint were made by Margrave Sowell, he could tell the Margrave that he had sold the original recipe.
Besides, the Royal Palace chefs wouldn't serve the exact same thing. They would also improve it uniquely, so it would become something different from the source. Therefore, Steve believed that selling the recipe would not lead to trouble.
"If you need additional buckwheat flour to test changing the amount of binder, please let me know early. Since we are developing new selling destinations, we might run out."
"I heard you made it for stockpiling, though."
"Since we had a harvest of potatoes and beans, we decided to sell this. If we have cash, we can also buy wheat. We tried various things that can be cultivated in lean land, but in the end, it comes down to wanting to eat wheat."
"That's right, speaking of lean land, will you take some pumpkins? Those should grow even in lean land."
"I would love to."
Steve was delighted to obtain pumpkins in an unexpected place.
Soba, potatoes, pumpkins, and beans—it was like the food situation in Japan immediately after the end of the war, but in short, it meant they could be cultivated anywhere. As a side note, Ashikaga Yakisoba, a specialty of Ashikaga City mentioned in discussions about Soba, contains potatoes. It is also called Potato Yakisoba, but it was born during the era of food shortages immediately after the end of the war. Since Yakisoba alone wouldn't fill the stomach, it began by adding potatoes to increase the volume.
With this, the business for which Steve and the others had been called to the Royal Capital was finished, and they were to return to their territory to prepare for welcoming the technical officers.