Pursuit

“Ahahahahaha… I laughed so much my stomach hurts.”

“My lady, you’re laughing too much… giggle”

Inside the carriage, Josette and her maids were laughing out loud. It felt like a harmless prank, and Josette was enjoying it.

The golden beckoning cat Josette had given Etsigoya was rigged. Inside it, a wireless microphone had been installed, wired to a large-capacity battery box. Placing it in the reception room would make it function as a listening device. The mic’s internal battery would only last about half a day, so we added the external battery box to increase the power capacity for longer use. A receiver for the microphone and a long-duration voice recorder for recording had already been set up outside the shop, so we would keep swapping out recorders while monitoring what happened inside.

Josette returned to her estate once, switched from her usual extravagant carriage to the ordinary carriage she normally used when coming to my house, and headed to Marie’s bakery.

“Kent-san, I delivered what you asked for.”

“Thanks, Josette.”

After returning to Marie’s bakery, Josette reported to me.

“With this, Etsigoya’s conversations should be completely exposed. I hope we can hook him cleanly.”

“Indeed. I never expected you to come up with a plan like that. Watching how Etsigoya changed was so funny…”

I was taking a break in the dining space after finishing the flour distribution. It was simple work—just hauling flour from the back—but it was still physical labor, and I was tired.

“Next time, we should just hire a delivery service…”

I swore that to myself.

Except I’d said it out loud. Rachel looked at me like she wanted to say, That’s my big brother for you… Everyone on the staff was already gathered in the dining space with Josette. I sat up straighter and addressed them.

“Good work, everyone. The flour distribution is done, and the faster shops have probably already resumed selling bread. Starting tomorrow, we’ll restart our own bread production and hit Etsigoya’s bakery where it hurts. But now that other bakeries will also be producing the same kind of bread we do, our bread sales will naturally drop. For the time being, I’m not planning any big changes—think of it as letting everyone rest after all the recent overwork. Let’s take it easy.”

In truth, profits from flour sales had skyrocketed. Flour was precious in this world, but back where I came from, it wasn’t that expensive. By selling at this world’s market price, the difference became a huge amount of profit. Realistically, even if we didn’t work, we should be receiving regular income through autumn that exceeded our previous sales. I knew Marie had been pushing herself hard, so I chose rest.

“By tomorrow, even the shops that couldn’t reopen today will be joining the counterattack, so I think Etsigoya will start making moves. We’ll need to be careful from here on out and watch his actions closely.”

With that warning, we disbanded for the day.

The next morning, I started moving before sunrise. Starting today, I wouldn’t be helping at the bakery—I headed straight to Etsigoya’s bakery. After checking the battery level on the installed receiver, I retrieved the voice recorder, replaced it with a fresh recorder with empty storage, and returned home. Then I analyzed the audio to see if there was anything important.

This work was pretty annoying. I could skip silent sections, but the reception room was being used more than expected—people seemed to be coming and going frequently.

The key thing I needed to confirm was this: all the thieves sent to Marie’s bakery had been caught, but according to the conversation, Etsigoya believed he was safe because he’d used multiple intermediaries when placing the request, so the trail wouldn’t lead back to him. Other than that, there was no major information. At the time I retrieved the recorder, Etsigoya apparently still hadn’t realized other bakeries had resumed selling bread.

Until it was time to go to school, I kept taking notes—writing down what was said and at what time.

Meanwhile, at Marie’s bakery, they were using the ingredients I’d prepared and getting ready to open while baking bread.

“Marie-san, I’ll carry the finished bread out to the shop.”

“Thanks, Caro-chan.”

They carried freshly baked bread out smoothly, one batch after another. With me absent today, production was slower than usual. It was still busy, but it felt like there was a little more breathing room.

“Alright, I’m going to open the shop now.”

“Please do, Rachel-chan.”

Marie answered Rachel when she came to confirm. Then it was opening time. Just like I’d said, the customer line was much shorter compared to the line after the fire—and even compared to before that, it seemed a little smaller. That was because people who wanted normal fluffy bread no longer needed to come all the way to Marie’s bakery; they could buy it at a bakery closer to home.

Since there was plenty of bread displayed in the shop, Marie temporarily stopped making bread for storefront sales and started making bread for the school cafeteria delivery. She left the shop to Catherine and Emily, while Caro and Rachel helped with baking. Right as the cafeteria bread finished baking, it was time for Caro and Rachel to head to school.

“Kent-san, it’s time to go to school!”

Caro returned to my house and called out to me.

“I’m coming!”

I finished getting ready, joined Caro and Rachel, and the three of us headed to school.

When we arrived, we split up and went to our respective classrooms.

“Good morning, Kent-kun!”

“Morning.”

The girl in the seat next to mine greeted me.

“Look, look! The bakery near my house started selling fluffy bread. For a while, bread prices went up and I didn’t know what to do, but they reopened, the prices went back to normal, and on top of that the bread changed into fluffy bread—so I was really surprised.”

She said that while showing me the bread she’d apparently bought this morning for lunch.

“That’s great. But is this all you have for lunch today?”

“Yeah. My family doesn’t have much money…”

I could relate—I used to live on a similar diet.

(Now that I think about it, there was a time I got through it with just mayonnaise…)

Remembering that made me feel oddly nostalgic.

Then classes started, and soon it was lunch break.

“So, did anything unusual happen?”

As usual, the four of us—me, Caro, Josette, and Rachel—gathered behind the school building, and they asked about today’s results.

“As of this morning, nothing really happened. Just word that the thieves got arrested.”

I shared what I’d found from analyzing the audio.

“I see… that’s a bit disappointing.”

Josette said, sounding let down.

“Still, big brother, you worked hard today.”

Normally lunch was just bread, but today there was a sheet spread on the ground, and we were sitting around a stacked lunch box in the center. Audio analysis was basically just listening with headphones and searching for anything useful, so my hands were free—and I had time to make lunch. I made it partly to kill time, and it ended up fancier than expected.

The lunch box had three tiers: one packed with seaweed-wrapped rice balls, one with meat items like sausages and fried chicken plus grilled fish, and one with vegetables and dessert. The four of us were dividing it onto small plates while eating.

“Kent-san, here’s some tea.”

“Thanks, Caro.”

Caro refilled my tea.

“Bread is nice, but this kind of meal is nice too.”

“Most of it’s frozen food, though.”

I replied that way so she wouldn’t realize how pleased I was by Josette’s mood.

After school ended, we headed home. Caro and Rachel went back to the bakery to work, but I went to swap out the recorder at Etsigoya’s bakery, then returned home. Just like in the morning, I analyzed the audio.

Etsigoya’s bakery was in chaos—completely different from yesterday. News had spread that the other bakeries that had been closed had started reopening, so there were almost no customers coming in. And the bread being sold everywhere now was fluffy bread. Etsigoya’s bakery only sold flat bread, so it couldn’t compete. On top of that, their prices were more than ten times higher than everyone else’s, so there was no contest.

“Why did it turn out like this?”

“Y-yes… It seems Marie’s bakery obtained a massive amount of flour from somewhere and sold it at the old wholesale price. And they also shared the baking method, so other shops started selling fluffy bread too.”

“So it’s that damned bakery again…”

Listening to Etsigoya and his employee, I could tell from his tone that he was furious. I kept analyzing the audio, looking for anything more useful.