Chapter 2: I Quit Everything to Sell Cola (2)
Chapter 2: I Quit Everything to Sell Cola (2)
Translation: Godtl
There were four great Demon Realms in Britannia.
The Abyssal Demon Realm in the eastern O'Perin.
The Spirit Demon Realm in the western Westforest.
The Jungle Demon Realm in the southern Carcagne.
And finally, the 'Labyrinth Demon Realm' in the northern Nortaris.
Once upon a time, the mere existence of Demon Realms was considered a calamity for humanity.
Hordes of monsters that would spawn incessantly unless people entered the realms to cull their numbers.
High-level monsters that would interfere whenever attempts were made to subjugate them.
Ah, how many noble souls had perished to prevent that horrific disaster?
But now, those were just tales of the past.
Over about five years, the Kingdom of Britannia carried out a national project called the 'Great Subjugation' to conquer the Demon Realms.
From 'Calamity'-class to 'Annihilation'-class, they exterminated the seeds of high-level monsters within the realms.
What did this mean?
It meant the Demon Realms had become mines where all sorts of resources respawned semi-permanently.
Since then, the Demon Realms became the center of new industries.
The sight of multinational adventurers flocking to the realms, drawn by the scent of money, could truly be called a fantasy version of the gold rush.
The city of Nortaris, where the Northern Labyrinth Demon Realm was located, was also one of the beneficiaries of this gold rush.
"Damn it all... Another failed subjugation. We even hired an alchemist at great expense and still couldn't even break even!"
"Party heading to the fourth-floor Orange Reward Room! Seeking an alchemist! 2nd-Rank Knight on standby! Looking for many applicants!"
"Don't skimp on money when it comes to spare lives! Top-grade mana potions from Lara Atelier for just 2 crowns!"
The fervor of adventurers who had gathered from all over the world for a big score.
Merchants busily weaving through the crowd, competing to attract customers at the top of their lungs.
"Hmm, another peaceful day."
Han-bin really liked this city.
It didn't have the orderly feel of the capital, Albion, but there was a certain dynamic vitality unique to a growing city.
Leaving his lodgings, Han-bin passed through the bustling Litchfield Square in the morning and turned into an alleyway.
If you walked for about 30 minutes from the fountain where street performers held their shows, you'd quickly notice the peculiar charm of the commercial district.
Indeed.
Where there is light, there must also be shadow.
If 'Litchfield Square' was the golden commercial district where money was swept up like with a rake...
Then 'Brellum Shopping Street' was a ghostly commercial district where miscellaneous shops and antique stores that couldn't afford expensive rents gathered.
Jurgen's general store, where Han-bin had started his new life, also occupied a corner of this Brellum Street.
—Ding-a-ling
The bell jingled as he entered the general store.
Even upon seeing it again, the interior was incredibly cramped.
Just cramped? The facilities were shabby too.
The wax-worn floor creaked like a haunted house with every step.
The only consolation was that the show window provided good natural lighting, but because of that, the insulation was terrible.
Without lighting the wood stove, the chilly early winter air made his nose sting.
Compared to the Minister of Internal Affairs' office—spacious enough for echoes to reverberate and decorated with fresh flowers all year round—this alley shop was the perfect embodiment of the term 'hole-in-the-wall'...
"Mmm, I missed you. Did you sleep well all night?"
Jurgen looked at the store with nothing but affection in his eyes.
He dusted off the display shelves thoroughly with a feather duster and operated the coffee machine he had made himself next to the counter to brew a strong espresso.
The aroma of coffee washing away the lethargy of the early morning was the perfect routine to start the day.
"This is the life."
It had been about three months since he drank the Polymorph Potion, fled the royal capital of Albion, and laundered his identity.
These three months had been like an incredibly sweet vacation.
No Lily to nag about deadlines, no Lily bringing overtime work, no Lily bringing tedious paperwork he never wanted to deal with in the first place.
Not everything had gone according to plan, but his self-actualization goal of "introducing new delicacies to Britannia" was steadily progressing.
He felt not a single shred of regret over the Minister of Internal Affairs' desertion.
"Sorry about this, Secretary Lily."
Though he did feel a twinge of guilt imagining Lily struggling through the bureaucratic hellscape alone...
He had faith she'd manage just fine.
Wasn't she the elite administrator Jurgen himself had acknowledged as the kingdom's best?
Hang in there, Lily!
"She should be arriving around now..."
Just as he finished preparing for the day's business and was leisurely sipping his coffee—
Ding-a-ling
The brass doorbell chimed heavily, as if it had been waiting for this moment.
"Do come in."
"What an utterly empty and pathetic little shop, as always."
"Miss Penelope, you say that, yet you've shown up without fail for days now."
"Consider it an honor that I keep visiting this empty, pathetic little shop."
The regular customer who strode in with haughty grace was Penelope.
A young lady who always wore dresses as red as roses.
And it wasn't just her silk attire.
Her beauty too resembled a lush, blooming rose.
Her delicate nose and finely proportioned features were as elegant as a rose in full bloom, yet so dazzling they bordered on arrogance.
The way her sharply upturned eyes resembled thorns only reinforced this impression.
If you stopped someone on the street and asked, "What kind of person does that young lady seem like?" nine out of ten would answer, "A villainess noble."
"Hmm?"
One of Jurgen's eyebrows rose quizzically as he observed Penelope.
Strangely, her adornments seemed to grow more elaborate by the day.
He'd previously chalked it up to his imagination, but today confirmed it.
While she'd always maintained expensive-looking attire, this was the first time she wore something that looked ready to burst into a ballroom at any moment.
The Brellum district wasn't exactly the kind of place one would visit dressed like this...
Perhaps she had a date afterward?
Under Jurgen's suspicious gaze, Penelope met his eyes—her own rose-red—and snapped sharply:
"What? Have something to say?"
Though he couldn't fathom why, there was a peculiar hint of expectation in her tone.
"Nothing in particular. Shall I prepare your usual?"
"...Are you this bad at business and reading moods? If it weren't for your coffee, I'd have no reason to visit this back alley."
Clicking her heels irritably, Penelope took her usual seat and, as always, placed a silver coin on the table.
"Fold some napkin origami while you wait. I'll have it ready shortly."
"I won't. Such childish nonsense."
As if her personality matched her appearance.
Regular customer Penelope remained as sharp as shattered crystal.
Like a mimosa plant that recoils at the slightest touch, she reacted sensitively to even the smallest jokes.
Jurgen didn't particularly mind her mannerisms (in fact, he found them somewhat amusing), but objectively speaking, she wasn't what one would call a good customer.
Yet Jurgen remained remarkably cordial toward the antisocial Penelope.
Because she always left tips several times the price of her coffee.
"..."
No.
Let's be honest.
He wasn't in a position to pick and choose between good and bad customers.
After all, Penelope was Jurgen's General Store's sole patron.
This heartbreaking truth had its backstory.
Shortly after Han-bin arrived in Nortaris and began his second life as Jurgen...
The grand starting point of his mission to spread culinary enlightenment was a "café franchise."
You might wonder, "A café? For spreading cuisine?" or "Since when is coffee considered food?" but this was a calculated beginning.
What Jurgen needed to change was culture itself.
The monumental task of altering perceptions, habits, and notions rooted deep in unconscious foundations built upon vast history and accumulated time.
A challenge of entirely different dimensions from simply slaying monsters.
He reasoned that this undertaking had to start by creating small cracks, like those that eventually topple great dams.
Now, let's examine that plan in detail.
Step One.
Coffee did exist in the Kingdom of Britannia.
However, it was little more than bean water—simply steeping roasted coffee beans.
Here, only Jurgen would manufacture coffee machines and start selling coffee.
The espresso, americano, and café latte extracted from cutting-edge coffee machines would spread by word of mouth for their near-revolutionary aroma.
Step Two.
As word spread and nearby shops took notice, Jurgen would supply them with coffee machines, leading the retail stores of Nortaris toward café culture.
From that point on, he would also introduce desserts—not just coffee—that doubled in flavor when paired.
He would awaken a primal curiosity for gourmet cuisine.
There were steps three, four, and five beyond that...
But at this point, they hardly mattered.
"I ordered a cup of coffee. What's this tiny cup supposed to be?"
"Ptooey! Disgustingly bitter! You call this coffee?"
"So how much is this coffee machine? What? Six crowns? Are you joking? There's a limit to scamming people! Pfft! No thanks! What's the point of being able to brew thousands of cups of this garbage?!"
"Shopkeeper, since these machines on display aren't gonna sell anyway, mind if I buy them as scrap metal? I'll pay a good price."
Because that plan had already met its heroic demise at Step One.
Even now, the thought made his blood boil.
The plan itself wasn't bad.
The attempt to gradually spread gourmet philosophy starting with relatively less polarizing food and beverages—
The prediction that coffee, doubling as a stimulant, would find demand among hardworking adventurers—
The expectation that the spatial concept of a café would efficiently propagate culture—
All of it hinged on clearing the bare minimum threshold of taste.
He had overestimated the taste buds of Britannians.
At any rate, after the grand failure of his "I Became the Starbucks Founder in Another World" plan, all that remained was his steadily dwindling savings, twelve coffee machines decorating the display shelves, and...
"...Don't you know it's the height of rudeness to stare at a lady's face like that?"
"I must've been unaware of that, my apologies."
"Be more careful next time. You're only getting off with a warning because it's me."
...And the sole remaining customer—a sharp-tongued young lady who had been complaining for no reason since earlier.
Here, he asked himself:
Should he give up?
No.
Absolutely not.
If he were the type to quit over a minor setback, he wouldn't have fled the royal palace in the first place.
Lily—who had been sacrificed to the brutal workload in Jurgen's stead.
For her sake, he had to turn something into profit.
Otherwise, he wouldn't be able to face Lily, who had willingly offered herself to the flames for the sake of a lofty ideal.
Thus, immediately after hitting a snag in his coffee franchise venture, he prepared his next plan.
Fortunately, references were abundant.
Hadn't his homeland, Earth, been filled with countless beverages that changed history?
"Miss Penelope."
"What?"
"I'm grateful that you always visit our shop."
"Out of nowhere?"
"Why such a cold response? I've always been thankful. That's why I've prepared something special for you."
Jurgen poured his second business venture into a glass.
As a native of Britannia, this young lady had an unusually keen interest in gourmet cuisine.
Her curious eyes darted around the glass.
"What is this? The color's similar to coffee, but the aroma's completely different. And it's cold."
"Take a sip. You won't regret it."
"You didn't put anything weird in here, did you? There are suspicious bubbles rising. Just so you know, tricks like that won't work on me."
"...Do you enjoy novels or movies by any chance?"
"Hmm, what's it called?"
This time, he was certain.
This beverage would be the second weapon to shift the paradigm of Britannia's food culture.
Officially sold in roughly 200 countries on Earth—
Averaging 1.9 billion servings sold daily, competing not with other beverages but with water itself—
Capable of enthralling even the staunchest communist, whose ideology stood at the opposite extreme—
Transcending mere consumables to become a symbol of capitalism—
A trendsetter that reshaped lifestyles before ultimately embedding itself as culture—the ultimate king of mass appeal.
"Cola."
Cola.