Calculator

On the way home, I realized I’d ended up canceling the event.

(Does that mean the flag won’t trigger anymore and it’ll affect something?)

I felt uneasy, but what was done was done. I switched gears and went to do my evening shift.

There were lots of customers again today, but something seemed off about Catherine, who was handling the register.

“Catherine, what’s wrong? Are you feeling unwell?”

“No… it’s not that… I can’t calculate the bread prices anymore.”

She told me that with tears in her eyes.

Right now, the shop only had two kinds of bread on display: bread for 70G and tuna bread for 120G.

She could handle buying multiple of one type, but it seemed she couldn’t calculate totals when customers bought multiple of both types.

Marie or I could take over the register, but then baking bread would fall behind.

After thinking, I came up with an idea. When I went home briefly to restock canned tuna, I bought a slightly larger solar calculator for 400G. My remaining money dropped to 140G.

When I returned to the shop, I gave Catherine the calculator I’d just bought as a present.

“This is a present for you, Catherine. If you have this, calculating will be a lot easier.”

“Thanks, big brother. But what is this?”

“This is called a calculator. You can read numbers, right?”

“Yeah, I can.”

“Okay, say you have three breads and two tuna breads—how much is it?”

“Umm… uh…”

“That’s where this comes in.”

I entered 70+70+70+120+120, and when I pressed “=”, it displayed 450.

By the way, if you entered 70×3+120×2, it displayed 660. It was a cheap calculator that didn’t have the function where multiplication and division took priority. You could do it with the memory function, but I taught her the easy method of calculating using only “+”.

“Woooow. That’s convenient.”

Marie, who had been watching our exchange, also seemed like she wanted to try touching the calculator.

“Mom, go ahead.”

Catherine handed it to Marie, and Marie made up a random expression and started entering it.

“It’s true. It’s giving an answer.”

Marie stared at it in surprise. After that, Catherine’s calculations got faster with the calculator, so the flow of customers improved too. Then the last customers left, and we closed up for the day.

“Thanks for today. Catherine was happy too. Here are today’s wages. And some bread too.”

“Then I’ll come again tomorrow.”

Catherine seemed worn out and had apparently gone upstairs to sleep early.

I went home, ate the bread I’d just received, and thought.

(Today’s wages were 500G. Combined with what I have, I’m at 640G. At this rate, my money won’t increase, and I’m nowhere near a comfortable life.)

I considered simply reselling the things I purchased, but then people might read the writing on the packaging and it could turn into trouble. If I wanted to minimize any trail back to me, I ultimately concluded the lowest-risk option was to make the bakery next door more profitable and increase my own income.

Once I had my thoughts organized, I decided to take a bath and go to sleep.

The next morning, I headed to the bakery and started my morning shift.

“We have lots of customers again today, so we need to bake a lot of bread.”

Marie was kneading dough with sweat beading on her forehead. I kneaded dough too while watching the oven heat. And Catherine minded the shop, dealing with a ton of customers. It was busy from the morning again.

After finishing the morning work, I headed to school.

At lunchtime, I went behind the school building like always, but someone was already there.

Rachel, Josette, and her two attendants were there.

(Was there an event like this?)

I was sure there weren’t supposed to be any villainess-related events for a while, but maybe I’d been mistaken.

“Why did you leave yesterday? Before, you declared you wouldn’t lose to me, didn’t you?”

Rachel was saying that to Josette.

“Y-yesterday… yes, I remembered I had an errand, so I left.”

“Lady Josette has said so. Can’t you hear her?”

One of the attendant girls spoke, as if reinforcing Josette’s answer.

“How dare you speak that way to Lady Josette, a duke’s daughter? Know your place.”

The other attendant also spoke harshly to Rachel. But Josette looked restless, like something was on her mind.

“If you are finished, then I shall excuse myself.”

“Ah, wait—”

Before Rachel could stop her, Josette left the spot. The two attendants chased after her as well.

(Usually Josette, the villainess, is the one pressing the attack, but Rachel was the one going on the offensive. It felt like the roles were reversed today. Why?)

Since it seemed over, I sat on the usual bench and decided to eat the bread I’d gotten yesterday.

In the end, Josette didn’t show up at all today, and I spent lunch break alone.

Then classes ended, and I went home for a bit to drop off my things before heading to the bakery.

“Welcome back. I’m counting on you again today.”

“Welcome home, big brother.”

“I’m home. I’ll start now.”

I started my shift. It was busy again today, and the work ended in a flash.

“Good work. Here are today’s wages and some bread.”

“See you tomorrow, big brother.”

“Good work today. See you tomorrow.”

I went home. Today’s wages were 500G again. My total money was 1140G.

To prepare for tomorrow, I ate dinner, took a bath, and decided to go to bed early.

The next morning, school was off today, so it was a full day of work. Before that, I used the terminal to buy custard cream for 150G, margarine for 300G, and strawberry jam for 130G. My remaining balance was 560G. I took those and headed to the bakery.

“Good morning. I’m looking forward to working with you today as well.”

“Good morning. Same to you.”

“Morning, big brother!”

“Today, I’m going to try making new breads.”

“Yaaay!”

“I’m excited.”

Marie and Catherine were thrilled.

This time, it was very easy since all we had to do was cut the baked bread and put the filling inside.

I made three test items—custard cream bread, margarine bread, and strawberry jam bread—and had them taste them.

“So? What do you think?”

“They’re good. All three taste different, and I think it’ll give customers more options to choose from. And it’s easy to make—Catherine could probably make them too.”

“I can help make bread too? Yay! The taste? It was really good!”

If you wanted to make custard cream, margarine, and strawberry jam from scratch, it would take lots of ingredients and effort. But what I brought was already finished. That meant the entire process got skipped, making it possible to create many kinds of bread that no other bakery could ever imitate.

And then Marie approved turning them into products. For now, we used up the ingredients I’d brought, made the three kinds of bread, and put them out in the shop. Since the cost was lower than tuna bread this time, we decided to sell each for 100G.

With three new kinds added at once, the customers seemed intrigued. This time the filling would spill out, so we couldn’t cut the breads for sampling. Instead, we chopped bread into small pieces, spread custard cream, margarine, and strawberry jam on them, and offered those as samples. The price was also a bit cheaper this time, so people tried the samples, liked them, and bought them—and they sold out immediately. In the end, we repurchased ingredients several times using the shop’s expenses and baked more bread again and again. And in between ringing customers up, Catherine helped with bread-making too. Mornings were still busy, but in the afternoon, people who’d heard rumors about the new breads came in a huge wave, and sales reached a pretty large amount.

After the last customer left, Marie calculated the sales. Beside her, Catherine and I cleaned up the shop.

“I finally finished calculating. Today’s sales are a new record.”

“Yaaay!”

Catherine cheered.

“Thanks to you, Kent-san, this shop is flourishing. I don’t even know how to thank you.”

“You don’t have to thank me. If this shop makes money, that makes me happy too.”

“Well now. What a lovely thing to say. This old lady might fall for you, you know?”

“Huh?”

“Heehee. I’m kidding.”

My heart skipped for a moment. Even though she had a twelve-year-old daughter, Marie still looked young, with well-balanced features and a great figure—she was quite beautiful. In the past, some customers had come just for Marie, but after we changed the bread we sold, the customer base shifted completely. It became customers seeking truly delicious bread, and the ones who came for Marie seemed to find it harder to show up.

And after receiving my wages for the day and some bread, I went home.