The Crown Prince Who Raises Alt Characters

#Episode 260 Evil Boss Nigel (9) - Canned Goods and Conscience "What goes best with curry is rice! The picture on the package shows it with rice in the first place!! This is the fundamental way!" "Anyone who hasn't tried eating curry with naan should keep their mouth shut!! This savory yet light flavor is perfect for eating with curry!! More than anything, it has history and tradition!!" "Ho, honestly, I think neither has anything to do with our fundamental way...." Humans are indeed creatures of adaptation, as they say. It didn't take long for the slaves who initially trembled at everything to get used to the workplace. Logistics management, document processing, customer service. There were plenty of things to do as they expanded the store, and the slaves actually felt relieved rather than disliking it when given clear tasks to do. Because compensation for labor was easier to understand than kindness without reason. Of course, that labor was also somewhat different from what they generally expected. "Um... Lady Noa. May I ask just one question?" "Yes, please go ahead. What are you curious about?" "Here, this thing called a schedule. Once every seven days, there's a day when my name isn't written on it. What should I do on that day?" "Oh, that? You can just rest!" "......" "Lady Noa. How exactly should I use this thing called a coupon that I received for being an excellent training graduate?" "Oh, that? If you collect and submit a certain number, you can exchange them for goods. New clothes, sweet snacks, alcohol, things like that are possible." "Th, then, are you saying this is money?" "Yes! It's money that can only be used in Master's store. You can check the product list and the number of coupons needed for exchange in this catalog!" "Money, a slave, money..." A harsh(?) schedule where you can only rest one day instead of two days a week. A wicked(?) method of not paying any actual money and replacing it with company currency. The slaves couldn't close their mouths from shock, but unfortunately for them, Nigel was an evil boss. "What's the slaves' reaction like?" "Yes. Reactions like 'This is ridiculous!' 'This can't be happening.' 'This is a dream. I need to wake up quickly.'" "No amount of whining will change anything. I'm not a charity worker. That level is just right for slaves." "You're absolutely right!" Lightly ignoring the workers' shock and cries, the evil boss and his secretary (who had somehow been treated as such) went on to plan expanding the store further. "You said sports drink sales have decreased quite a bit?" "Yes. It seems people who bought the drinks for the bottles have succeeded in securing as many bottles as they wanted. There are still those who buy for the drink itself, but sales are about one-tenth of what they were before." "Well, even if they use plastic bottles as water containers, three or four would be enough for an ordinary household at most. There's no need to buy more than that." Plastic bottles can be used repeatedly through recycling. Unlike glass or ceramics that easily break the moment they're dropped, even if plastic gets damaged it only dents, and can be used again if you straighten it out. Of course, if you dent and straighten it too often, the folded parts might tear, but with normal use that rarely happens. Energy bars are still being sold to caravans and other merchants, but there's no sign of increasing demand, and the collection bread is still selling well, but since its essence is sticker collecting and showing off to others, the day will come when sales drop sharply once everyone has stickers. Considering that tumblers and thermoses have a heavy bribery character provided to Princess Fariza rather than being pure products, it was time to gradually prepare new products. "How about selling the 3-minute meals from the employee cafeteria?" "That's a bit difficult. You need a microwave to eat them conveniently, but installing an electrical grid throughout the entire city is impossible even for me. You can heat them with boiling water, but if you tell people to use water for heating food in places where even drinking water is precious, the reaction probably won't be very good." The items that Nigel materialized with mana have major corporation products as their originals, so strange substances don't dissolve into the water when heated with boiling water. As long as no additional foreign substances stick to the packaging itself, there are no particular problems for consumption. However, this was only theoretical, and people's perceptions could be different. "So what I've prepared is this." What Nigel placed on the table was a cylinder with the distinctive shine and texture of metal. As with most things Nigel made, the picture had strangely many blank spaces (because he didn't implement the text parts), and there was a fruit drawing on it, which was a fruit that even Noa had seen before. It was the fruit that was on the dining table for guest hospitality when they went to Princess Fariza's palace last time. "It's a peach, right?" "That's right. Originally the Liu Empire seems to be the place of origin, but they say the ones grown around here taste better." The desert is very hot during the day, but extremely cold at night. And fruits grown in this environment had much richer aroma and flavor, making them popular. Not only the west, but even the Liu Empire, the place of origin, imported peaches back from here. However, unlike dates which grow easily even in relatively barren places, peaches couldn't be cultivated unless the land received a steady water supply through underground channels, so their price was extremely expensive and they were rare. "But we're different. We're going to sell this for about half the price of the same weight in peaches." Noa didn't ask if that was too cheap. Because it wasn't the first or second time that Nigel brought products with suspiciously high quality for the price. Instead, she asked something else. "...But how do you open this?" There's no place to tear like plastic packaging, nor a twisting opening like a plastic bottle. Perhaps it might be opened using something like a knife, but Noa thought that would be quite inconvenient and might even cause injury during opening. "How? Like this." Nigel raised the ring on the surface of the metal can upward, hooked his hand on the ring, and pulled it straight. Then, as if paper was being torn, one side of the metal can peeled off. "I deliberately chose one that doesn't need a can opener. If eating it requires a special tool, I don't think anyone would buy it. Well, anyway. Try it once." "Yes!" As always, Noa roughly brushed off Nigel's incomprehensible explanation and stabbed the contents inside the can with a fork. The moment she took out the fruit soaked moistly in liquid and put it in her mouth, something like a moan unconsciously leaked from Noa's mouth. "Mmmmm!" If you judge pure sweetness alone, dates would be more intense. But the overwhelming refreshing sensation that burst throughout her mouth and the smooth texture of the fruit flesh were so excellent that such things didn't matter at all. Even the liquid she initially thought was just water had the fruit's aroma and flavor thoroughly dissolved in it, to the point where it could be sold as a beverage on its own. "Now, there are other ones too. Pineapple, mango, green grapes, assorted fruit for punch, corn, peas, chestnuts. It would be tough to eat all of them alone, so it's fine to just taste them and move on to something else..." "I can eat them all!!" "O, okay." Leaving behind the master who had gotten slightly intimidated by her terrifying vigor, Noa conquered the canned goods with terrifying momentum. The pineapple was tangy, the mango was even sweeter, and the assorted fruit had the joy of picking and choosing. Among them were quite a few ingredients that Noa was seeing for the first time, but she didn't mind. Everything was delicious anyway. 'Ah, this is life.' Before meeting Nigel. The days when nausea would surge every time she ate anything, making meal times nothing but painful and frightening, now seemed like an old dream. Not to mention her slave days, but even compared to when she was a free person, her current happiness level was superior. "Huh, all of that is going into that body." Nigel looked at Noa in amazement, and thinking the quantity might be insufficient, went into the room and brought out more new canned goods. However, was carrying too much in his arms all at once the problem? Nigel's foot slipped and his body swayed greatly forward. "......!!" Noa's reaction was swift. She leaped over the table with almost wind-like movement and supported Nigel's body as he was about to fall to the floor. Catching each of the canned goods that were about to scatter was a bonus. "A, are you alright, Master? Are you hurt anywhere?" Nigel blinked his eyes. Because he had boldly gone all-in on material manifestation ability, his combat ability was seriously low. If it came to bare-handed fighting, he would compete for last place with a certain H musician. So it wasn't strange for him to make the kind of mistake an ordinary person would make... but Noa's reaction and movement just now were definitely strange. If he had to estimate, it would be around 3rd rank level. Even if it seems low by national power standards, this level could compete with most wild beasts in terms of physical ability. Moreover, if she's a beastkin who originally had high physical abilities, she might be able to go beyond competing and actually beat them up. "No, um. Noa?" "Yes?" "Why were you captured and made into a slave?" At those words that contained some bewilderment, Noa began to tell her story somewhat sheepishly. *** You know that most of the different races on the continent live together in the Beastkin Alliance in the Great Forest, right? For those who were pushed out of power struggles with humans, that place is their last refuge. But in fact, even though it's called an alliance, not everyone is equal. First, the center of the Great Forest. The ones occupying the most livable and safe place are the Elves. Since the reason people can't touch the Beastkin Alliance was because of the Elves' Guardian in the first place, it's natural that their voice is strong. In the middle layer that formed surrounding that perimeter live Dwarves and Fairies, Giants, and some rare species of beastkin. They earned their place by having their unique technical skills, magical abilities, and combat power recognized. And on the outermost edge are beastkin like me who don't have special abilities, or those with poor social perception like orcs. In the old days, that wasn't a problem. The Great Forest was vast, and conversely, the number of races that had fled to the Great Forest was greatly reduced. But... a long time has passed now. The number of races living in the Great Forest increased, and as that happened, the three circles also grew larger and larger. As a result, those like me who originally lived on the outskirts were pushed out of the Great Forest one by one. And that means we went outside the range where the Elves' Guardian could protect us. Actually, when I first came out of the Great Forest, I didn't know what that meant. I even thought I had escaped from a stuffy place and gained freedom. The humans outside the Great Forest weren't malicious or hostile toward us as we had heard in stories, and in some ways they were kind. But I guess letting my guard down like that was the problem. One day, after eating food I received from a human I had been interacting with, my body wouldn't move properly. I don't know if that neighbor was in cahoots with bandits from the beginning or was threatened into poisoning me, but either way, I was captured as a slave. Whether my stomach was damaged from the poison, for a while I could barely move and couldn't eat anything properly. Later, when the poison was completely gone, my body had already become as weak as possible, and everything I ate just felt nauseating. If Master hadn't helped me, I might have starved to death just like that. ...Eh, Master? Why are you sweating cold sweat like that? You're sorry? For what? Huh? You'll change it so I can rest twice a week and get separate paid leave? You'll pay proper money instead of makeshift company currency...? No, you don't need to do that, waaaaah!? Don't bow your head!! I'm really fine!?