If Table Turnover Is Low
If Table Turnover Is Low
Before Piel arrived, there were those who supported the North from below to keep it from collapsing.
That was the Mage Corps.
Unlike mages from other regions, they did not put on airs or become buried in saving face.
They thought only of war efficiency.
The first to step forward and lead by example was the fire mage Brigadier General Rodiel.
This was a story from long before Hildea was commissioned.
"Starting today, mages will be divided into combat standby squad, rest squad, and cooking squad."
"Cooking squad? Does that mean we have to cook?"
"Then we can reduce or eliminate combat losses from troops foraging for fuel oil and firewood."
Mages who cook rice.
At the time, it was an unprecedentedly groundbreaking shift in thinking, but Brigadier General Rodiel pushed it through despite opposition.
Once actually implemented, even the opposition among the mages died down.
"This is pretty good?"
"Since we cook, the rice gets done faster, and the soup doesn't burn either."
"We should have been the ones cooking all along."
The mage unit became an indispensable, most respected comrade in the unit.
They cooked day and night, and when the Elf Legion attacked, they rushed out to the front lines.
Thanks to them controlling the cauldrons, the fatigue of soldiers who had to cling to cooking was reduced.
Since food came out quickly, knights and soldiers also cut down on waiting.
But after Piel came, their status changed.
"From now on, we will use this kerosene for fire. The kerosene supply? Don't even think about it, just use it freely."
The mages were driven out of the cooking area.
"Mortar, this is really incredible? We're unilaterally pounding those Ancient Tree monsters from a safe distance. Whahaha!"
"How many can break through a barrage? Then we just slice them up with this machete."
"It never breaks in combat, truly a comrade you can trust your life with."
The mages were driven out from the battlefield too.
They once boasted magnificent twin wings of cooking and combat, but both wings were broken.
Piel drove the unemployed mages out of the barracks.
"We have established Public Bakeries for the residents everywhere. Fire mages, please bake delicious bread for the residents who have no ovens."
The barracks that Piel changed no longer needed mages.
They briefly served as living stoves to prevent residents from freezing to death in winter, but even that was said to be improved from next year.
The only thing the mages of the North could do was improve the perfection of bread-baking through advanced flame and heat control.
At first, many were frustrated at being no longer useful as soldiers.
But now it's different. The mages found a new sense of reward.
"Magician-nim, the bread is so delicious!"
"It's golden and so delicious! I've never had such soft bread before!"
"Magician-nim, why is this bread so white inside? Why doesn't the crust crunch?"
"Mom! I want to become a fire mage when I grow up! I'll be the best baker chef in the world!"
Brigadier General Rodiel, who had gone to work at the Public Bakery with the super-peak beautiful orphan girl as usual, smiled at those children and encouraged them.
"Then, you will surely become excellent baking mages and work at the Hot Hot Bakery Café in the capital. This old man will pray for that."
***
The first day of Hot Hot Bakery, after closing.
The fire mages who had to bake bread like mad all day lay sprawled here and there, exhausted.
They had to clean the kitchen that was like a battlefield, but they had no strength to lift a finger right now.
Luna clapped her hands and came in, and everyone tried to get up.
"Everyone rest comfortably. Listen while you rest."
At those words, they lay down comfortably again.
Luna gave a briefing while looking at the sales status recorded on the tactical PDA.
"The coffee and bread you sold today have been exchanged for living supplies that 1 million residents of Ainshuvan can use for 15 months."
Luna smiled and added.
"In other words, your one day of hard work has secured 15 months' worth of supplies for 1 million people. You can be proud."
"Whahaha!"
"Waaaaah!"
"Colonel Marshall, hurrah! Brigadier Luna, hurrah!"
Even in their exhaustion, the mages got up, embraced each other, and rejoiced.
It was hard labor.
But thanks to it, their families, neighbors, and comrades back home could get abundant supplies.
The barren North, where nothing grows except iron ore and construction timber from the Elf Forest.
All that is only a miserable past.
"I specially requested Colonel-nim and received Marshall stew canned. This is a special banquet for you who worked hard today."
The mages who worked as bakers and the knights who worked as hall servers swallowed their saliva.
Luna took out a bunch of 3kg Marshall meat stew canned from her subspace magic tool.
The eyes of the knights and mages looking at the cans shone as if about to burst.
It was the first Marshall meat stew canned they had seen since the Triumph Ceremony.
"10 cans per person! Today, open only 2 cans each to eat, and save the rest to enjoy little by little!"
"Yes, Brigadier-nim!"
Luna gazed contentedly at the written pledge hanging high (Ainshuvan's Unlimited Moratorium Event Guarantee) and then left the bakery.
Even in their exhaustion, everyone poured stew into new pots and lit the fire with magic.
"Commander-in-Chief and Commander-nim, it seems like the two of you have made quite a lot of progress?"
"How do you know that?"
"Ever since the Imperial visit, the look in your eyes when you see Colonel Marshall has suddenly completely changed."
"Indeed, travel is a factor that rapidly brings men and women closer."
"Our Brigadier Luna-nim ought to have some progress too."
"Her frame is so small that I think Colonel Marshall doesn't see her as a woman. That worries me greatly."
"No, she's a 24-year-old, unprecedented 8-class Wind Mage, so shouldn't Colonel Marshall naturally embrace that bloodline and leave an excellent heir? That's exactly noblesse oblige."
"That's right. Brigadier Luna-nim is someone who won't have a love marriage at all unless it's with Colonel Marshall, so Colonel Marshall absolutely has to do something about it."
The Public Bakery work and the bakery job are both rewarding and enjoyable.
Because they could feel every day that they were clearly contributing to the prosperity of the North.
Moreover, the mages did not idly spend their leisure time.
"No matter how delicately I control the flame, it's unavoidable that the outside and inside don't cook evenly. Is there a way?"
"How about a method where you send the flame in countless, very fine, invisible sizes at high speed to cook the entire volume evenly? Would that be impossible?"
"If we could divide all parts of the dough and ingredients into countless 3D coordinates and individually, precisely control the cooking, it would become a fantastic dessert."
They were once cooks, combatants, and now are bakery bakers.
But they were still mages who never lost their endless spirit of inquiry into fundamentals.
"The reason a shell flies on an accurate trajectory every time it's fired is that the propellant inside the barrel explodes evenly in all directions, releasing even pressure...."
"If we could apply that to baking...."
"Perhaps even producing this kind of uniform flour involves advanced magical knowledge we can't comprehend...."
***
From morning, nobles' carriages were lined up at the entrance.
"Colonel-nim, they say all those are empty carriages."
"What does that mean?"
"You'll know when you see."
As the admission time approached, astonishingly, nobles appeared one by one and boarded the carriages.
A dawn carriage queue, how amazing.
"On the first day yesterday, there were many carriages that couldn't even enter due to lack of seats, waited outside, and eventually went back. So they said they've been lining up with carriages since closing time."
"We'll have to add more tables. Because the nobles who hear the rumor and come will increase."
"I think we need to deploy more bakers, I mean mages. Shall we pull them from the Public Bakery?"
Luna likes castella so much that she even uses the fentanyl kit and healing grace to eat it.
Maybe that's why she's the most earnest about operating the bakery.
I checked the kitchen.
Fire mages sitting or standing in front of ovens were adjusting flames with serious expressions.
Beside them, fire mages were boiling large amounts of water for coffee production.
Adolescent-sized rock golems summoned by earth mages were also diligently kneading flour.
Low-class wind mages were generating wind and whisking egg dough vigorously.
Though it couldn't compare to the mass production of a modern bakery factory, with the help of magic, they were making bread at a high speed relative to the number of people.
'Becoming a bakery franchise tycoon was one of my bucket lists in my previous life, and I'm achieving it after coming to this other world.'
The current monthly budget is about 39.5 million, and total expenditure is around 10 million.
Northern residents now eat North American flour bread at every single meal.
Rye is used as livestock feed or only eaten at commemorative ceremonies to remind them not to forget the hunger of the old days.
Though I can't feed them meat at every meal, calorie supply is in a completed state.
【Remaining Budget: 49,168,710】
Perhaps because there haven't been any big battles recently, the budget is more than enough left over.
So I could aggressively secure general supplies like this, and also operate a bakery targeting nobles.
'To continue securing general supplies stably, I must capture the nobles' souls with the bakery.'
Budget 49.16 million.
Though this seems like a lot, if I were to purchase all the general supplies needed by 1 million territory residents with the supply cheat, it wouldn't even come close.
Exchanging for flour like this and monopolizing nobles' tongues is a business that yields hundreds or thousands of times the profit.
While observing the hall atmosphere, I felt a sense of puzzlement.
"Why isn't anyone ordering more, just leisurely reading books?"
"They placed a huge initial order, ate their fill, and are resting until digestion."
"If they're done eating, they should leave the shop. That way, tables won't turn over."
"But we can't tell them to leave. Should we set a table occupancy time?"
"No, that's not noble-like. We must not forget that our Hot Hot Bakery Café is, to the end, an upscale café serving the upper class."
Is there a way to elegantly increase table turnover?
Suddenly, Count Yunes, leisurely drinking coffee while fiddling with his Monopoly ticket, caught my eye.
'Ah!'
A good idea popped into my head, and I approached Count Yunes' table.
"Your Excellency Count Yunes, there's a board game that can soothe boredom and savor intellectual activity. Would you like to try it?"
"Board game? What is that?"
"It's a game you can play sitting around a table like chess. You can enjoy it using the Monopoly tickets you have."
"Hmm, I was indeed bored just holding down my seat until digestion was complete. Well then, show it to me."
A stack of numerous Monopoly board game boxes with only the game bills removed.
'I thought I'd never need to use these, but now I've found a use for them.'
The original game that everyone knows as Blue Marble.
But it's a bit spicier than Blue Marble.
Because except for the final winner, the rest are structured to go bankrupt.
'The hall table turnover is low? Then just increase the glucose turnover of the brain.'
Rolling dice, getting excited, shouting, fighting — after all that, they'll crave sweet things quite a bit.