Chapter 156 – Bear-san Opens The Pastry Shop
Reconstruction of the shop’s interior design was now finished. The furniture had been purchased, and the reopening day was steadily approaching. All that was left to do was for Lala-san to teach my employees how to pour tea.
Everyone gathered for this opportunity. Elena-san, Morin-san, Karin-san, and all of the children who worked at 『Bear-san’s Relaxing Shop』. For some reason, Terumi-san and Fina, who had no reason to be here, also participated.
「Why are you two here?」
I asked them.
「Nothing wrong with learning it, right?」
「Yeah, it might turn out to be useful in the future.」
They told me.
When Lala-san arrived and started teaching, everyone listened seriously and some even took notes. They all did their best to learn how to pour tea.
Also, thanks to Cliff and Mylene-san, I had managed to procure medium quality tea leaves at a cheap price. Well, this much should be expected when the feudal lord and the guild master came together.
Mylene-san took care of some other matters concerning the shop as well, and since I didn’t want to be in her debt, maybe I should offer her a one-month-free-cake ticket? I was sure she would accept it.
Hmm, in that case, should I prepare a scale to measure how much weight she gained?
As for Cliff, he was already in my debt, so there was no problem in doing nothing for him, right?
Anyway, back to the tea and cakes. Thanks to Morin-san kicking her butt, Elena-san managed to improve her cake-making skills. The children who helped make the cakes improved considerably too, of course, and thanks to Lala-san, they now knew the proper way to pour tea.
They weren’t as good as Lala-san, of course, but their tea was delicious enough.
Soon, only one day remained until the reopening, which meant that Elena-san and the children in charge of helping to make the cakes were already preparing for their first day. Interrupting their hard work, Mylene-san entered the shop.
「It was made just in time.」
Mylene-san said, holding something in her hands.
It was that, right?
Mylene-san approached Elena-san, who sensed danger and drew back.
「Mylene-san, is that possibly...」
「Elena-chan’s uniform!」
Mylene-san unfolded the fur in her hands, and a Bear Uniform appeared.
「I have to wear it too!?」
「But of course. I had it made for you, after all.」
Mylene-san said while approaching Elena-san again.
「I also wear it when I work, you know. It wouldn’t be fair if you weren’t wearing it, Elena-san.」
Karin-san interjected, obviously overjoyed to have made a companion.
「But, I won’t be working with the customers...」
「You will also serve after you finish making cakes, you know.」
「Yuna-san!?」
「If nothing major happens, the cakes made in advance will last for a while, so you will have spare time to serve the customers.」
「You’re joking, right?」
When I shook my head, Elena-san tried to flee, but there was no way she could escape an adventurer like me.
Thanks to the explosive power of the Bear’s Feet, I jumped past Elena-san and caught her without a problem.
「Yuna-san...」
I delivered a pitiful Elena-san back to Mylene-san, who dragged her into the changing room. People who worked here had to wear uniforms; it was that simple.
The children followed Elena-san and Mylene-san into the changing room, and after a few minutes, an embarrassed Elena-san and the newly employed children came out wearing Bear Uniforms.
There was nothing to be so embarrassed about... I walked around in this world wearing a costume, even though it wasn’t a uniform, you know.
Also, I was sure I was the only one who did something like that after coming to a different world. I had never seen it in mangas, animes, or novels, after all!
「Yuna-san, it’s embarrassing...」
「Are you trying to say that my clothes are embarrassing?」
They were embarrassing, though.
「No, I didn’t mean it like that! It changes with the person wearing it! Yuna-san, you’re cute, so it’s okay! But, I am...」
「You’re cute too, Elena-san.」
「Ugh, Morin-san isn’t wearing it, so I thought that these uniforms were only for the children...」
Elena-san said while glancing the children, who seemed very happy in their Bear Uniforms.
Also, I wasn’t the one who had proposed this uniform; it was the person smiling next to me.
「Make sure to wear it to work tomorrow, okay?」
「Ugh...」
Elena-san let out in response and dropped her head.
Finally, the day of the reopening came. At first, the number of customers seemed to be normal, most of them coming for Morin-san’s breads.
Still, it didn’t take long for them to notice that the second floor was now remodeled into the『Bear-san’s Relaxing Shop’s Pastry Shop』.
I also posted some flyers at the entrance of the shop and around the tables at the first floor. Well, it wasn’t as much of posting rather than making the bear statues hold the fliers, though.
The customers who went to the second floor were met by an employee running a sampling stand right next to the stairs, where they could taste bite-sized pieces of our cakes.
The reason we had set it on the second floor was so that it wouldn’t steal Morin-san’s customers away.
Anyway, the customers who tasted the cakes were assaulting the girl who was in charge of the stand with questions, and like all of the children who had been eating the cakes for a week now, she was able to answer all their questions, which mostly concerned what fruits were used and how sweet the cakes were.
She didn’t forget to recommend our drinks as well, of course. We still served the ones from before, like fruit juice and milk, but now we also served black tea, just the way Lala-san had taught us.
The girl also recommended salty foods like potato chips.
Cake and potato chips were the best possible combination to eat together.
Hmm, they were also the best combination to make people fat...
Well, we got money only if the customers ate our food. Maybe if I just posted a warning not to eat too much?
Meh, I should deal with that when we get more people who ate cake like Mylene-san.
Anyway, after the customers barraged the stand’s girl, they all rushed to the second floor’s counter and ordered some more cake.
Even though we didn’t advertise it in advance, the cake completely sold out.
Still, we didn’t make any more for today but rather focused on tomorrow’s share.
It would probably be a good idea to make a few more than we had done for today, right?
「Yuna-san, I can’t do it anymore...」
「Do your best, please.」
「But, I can’t move at all...」
Elena-san whined, collapsed on a chair, and laid her face on the table.
「The children can see you, you know.」
「Ugh.」
Elena-san raised her head to see that they really were looking at her.
「Go on. Do your best!」
「Ugh, fine. Well then, shall we prepare for tomorrow?」
The children all happily agreed.
「Yuna-san, it’s really nice be young, huh.」
Elena-san commented on the enthusiasm of the children.
「Elena-san, aren’t you still in your teens?」
「I feel old, though...」
「If you’re old, what does that make me?」
「Morin-san!?」
Morin-san came to check on us from downstairs and was now giving Elena-san a slight glare. Was it because of what Elena-san said about her age?
「No! Morin-san, you’re young! There is no way you could be considered old.」
Elena-san did her best to retract her statement.
「If I’m young, that means you are still young too, right?」
「Yes. I will do my best!」
When confronted like that by Morin-san, she had no other choice but to get back to work with the same enthusiasm the children had.
Morin-san smiled seeing her like this.
「So, why are you here?」
「Well, Karin acted just like this when she was a bit younger. She would ditch her work often and scolding her in such a way always worked.」
「Yeah, I remember you telling me something about that before.」
「Anyway, when you’re young, of course you want to play and fool around. Honestly, I think that the children from the orphanage are too diligent in that regard.」
True. In Japan, children of their age just went to school and played around.
「Headmistress told me that they do their best since they know what it is like not being able to eat.」
「There is that, and also the fact that they want to be of help to a certain someone.」
This time, Morin-san gave me a smile of a profound meaning then went to kick Elena-san’s butt again.
On the second day, a short line appeared in front of the shop from all the people spreading word, however, thanks to Rurina-san and Gil, the day went smoothly.
On the third day, the number of customers increased again, some coming for the first time and some already for the third. Mostly women, of course.
I was happy that we had so many customers, but it wasn’t good to eat cake everyday.
I would really have to put up a big poster warning them not to eat too much by tomorrow.
Since I wanted it to be easy to understand, I decided to draw a woman becoming fat from eating too much.
I only wanted to stop the women who were coming in everyday, so I also wrote down that once or twice per week was fine.
I wasn’t sure if it was thanks to my drawing of the fat woman, but the number of customers coming daily decreased, so things were able to calm down a bit at the shop. We were still busy, though.
「Yuna-san, I’m exhausted!」
「Tomorrow is your day off, so you can use that time to rest.」
「I heard that there was a fixed day off here, but is it really okay for me to enjoy it too? There was no day off at the inn, so...」
「Still, there were times when you had no clients, right?」
「There were, but we had to be ready since someone could arrive at anytime.」
「Oh... So, how was your week here? Want to resign yet?」
「Hmm, it’s really busy, and I have to work hard, but I don’t want to quit; seeing people eating things I make and find them delicious makes me happy. Well, it’s all thanks to your recipes, though. It might be difficult, but working with Morin-san and the children is also fun.」
Elena-san said with an happy expression.
Author’s note:
I will be disabling the comment section temporarily. Sorry for the inconvenience.
(TL note: From what I can gather from skimming the comment section, some readers didn’t like the introduction of a strict/mean granny, so the author decided to rewrite the chapter in a way that the granny doesn’t appear anymore.)