Journal from Another World

レストランを始める 下

“I wonder if we could sell this food for everyone to eat.” Although it looked like a query, my intention was clearly, for the Romaria’s to realize that they had their gold mine lying around from day one.

It was while eating Lady Anna’s delicious food when the epiphany knocked some sense on my head. A way to help the couple, without me doing almost anything.

Lady Anna is good with the kitchen her meals are quite delectable in presentation and equally palatable, even though she said that she is only self-taught her cooking skills is clearly more than that of a hobbyist.

Therefore, an idea came up on my head to transform the Mansion into a fancy restaurant to cover their livelihood and with people coming to see how nice the Romaria’s were, their reputation should also skyrocket, or so at least that is how I had seen it on my head.

The idea was that Lady Anna operated the kitchen as head chef and cook good food while Sir Heid who can use his former noble skills to deal with management, operation, and the finances.

“Ace that is a good idea!” while Lady Anna had some reservation however Sir Heid immediately stood and patted my shoulders in appreciation.

Really, I did not think that I was much of help. The two would eventually get this idea eventually, but since they are still wallowing in their current misfortunes, they were unable to think positively. In a sense, I am only giving the two a slight push to hasten the process.

Faster than a bolt of lightning, Sir Heid started calculating the finances needed to operate a restaurant. He also started running around looking at interior of the mansion checking for places that needed to remodeling to accommodate the mood of a diner.

“Tables, chairs… we also needed to think about decorations…” Sir Heid’s mouth was muttering none-stop as he thinks what the mansion might lack both in structure and in management.

Looking at her dear husband’s enthusiasm, Lady Anna finally revert her pace, match her husband’s line of sight and started to think of the menu for their very own restaurant.

*****

The next day we put our thoughts into action, and did a little of ground works, thankfully Sir Heid although demoted -is a former noble and is quite knowledgeable of the processes needed to open shops.

First Sir Heid needs to secure the inheritance and ownership of the land and mansion by annotating the titles Anna received from her family at the Land Operations Registry. Since she has all the necessary documents to prove that she is indeed owner of both the land and the mansion there was almost no problem in securing necessary files. While, the stares were heavy, we easily dismissed them with our enthusiasm.

However, the problem came next when we came to get license to operate a dinner. Their shop needs registration with the Merchant’s Guild. However, rumors of treason made it difficult to deal with merchants. As treason is a serious crime, whoever associates themselves with traitors gets will be branded as traitors as well, so the merchants were a bit hesitant to get in contact with the Romaria’s business no matter how profitable it may seem…

While the Romaria’s were stripped off with their nobility, they were still citizens and there was the fact that both have all necessary documents, thus the Operations Registry that is a government entity could not completely harass the couple. However, the Merchant’s Guild as a semi-independent body was able to scrutinize who they allow to join the guild and became an instant nuisance.

Thankfully, sir Heid is knowledgeable of bureaucracy and was able to negotiate albeit for a much higher price, the couple knew they were being lynched, but the two had no choice but to pay for both the License to Operate and the sanitation permit to get started with the business.

However, that was where our luck ended.

“I’m sorry, what was your name again?”

“I am sorry we are out of stock…”

“Sorry, we are not allowed to sell anything to you.”

“We have nothing for traitors!”

While we have the necessary permits to operate, we were unable to get the ingredients, materials, tools, and equipment necessary to operate.

“So that is why those guys were so smug.” apparently, after paying the large amount of money to pay off the license at the Merchant’s Guild, the guild representatives had worn confident grins and the reason was quite evident. They knew that no merchants would sell anything to people charged with high treason.

While sir Heid was able to do a little of bureaucracy with the guild itself, he could not do so on individual entities, more so that he lacked the backing of his family name.

While sir Heid convulsed in anger. Lady Anna was clearly disheartened; she did not even utter a single word while on the drive towards the mansion.

“Is there anything else we can do?” once we were in the comfort of the mansion, Lady Anna muttered. Although, she is saying something that she still wants to proceed, her face looked like she was ready to give up.

Sir Heid wanted to assure his wife but could not find the proper words to ease her mind. As a bureaucrat, he knew there was little they can do to go about things without the proper connection, a connection they had lost together with their status as a noble.

“Mmmm.” While the two were mopping, another idea came to my mind. “Sir Heid, are there any regulations hunting or foraging in the forest?”

“Hunting is the domain of the Hunter’s Guild…” sir Heid answered half-heartedly “However, since the Hunter’s Guild does not operate here in Amarante, there should be no one to regulate such matter.” He was still mopping and could not completely see what I was thinking.

“So, both the government and the Merchant’s Guild will not be able to stop us from getting our own ingredients…?”

“Ah!” the two who were in thought, finally getting where I was leading. If we cannot get it from someone, we will have to get it ourselves.

“But… Ace are you sure…?” While Lady Anna was hesitating to ask for my help, sir Heid stood firm as if hoping to solicit my help. Both are aware that they are accused with high treason. There was no merit what so ever for me to help them. Therefore, they needed to confirm my resolve.

“You have hired me. Thus, I am at your command.” And voiced my willingness to help them out.

With the couple assured of my goodwill, we decided to check what we needed for the remodeling of the mansion to a restaurant:

1. First, we needed small tables to accommodate the guests, the size does not have to be big. Tables that could seat two to four guests should be enough. It goes without saying, that the number of tables do not have to be many. With our limited manpower, we cannot completely serve many guests. 10 tables and enough chairs to match them should be enough.
2. Then there are the utensils for eating, Tableware, Serving trays, and Cups or mugs for drinking. Truthfully, this tools are going to be hard to procure. As we are unable to buy from any stores, just like the tables and chairs we are left with no choice but to making them ourselves.
3. There is also a need for Cupboard and cabinets for storage, thankfully the mansion had some cabinet that were not completely damaged from the previous ransacking, and so we will only be making only few more that can be used in the kitchen.

While on the subject, I also asked the couple if we could just buy the needed items out of town. But sir Heid just swayed his head.

“The Merchant Guild will have spread the word to nearby towns. We would have to go to another fief… or perhaps another kingdom just to buy the needed items without the guild harassing us.” and bowed to me. “If it is not much trouble, let’s go with your initial idea instead.”

I frantically swayed my head, telling him no to mind. I guess businessmen can really be scary, to think that one must go to another fief or kingdom just to run away from their influence sure is a hassle.

We had one thing less to worry though, thanks to lady Anna who had cooking as hobby, she had personal cooking equipment she had packed from their previous estate which she can use in the kitchen to cook the food.

And so, we started making what was not on our possession and could not buy in town.

*****

Using my combat skill, I made quick demolition the walls to make the diner slightly bigger, I made sure to be extra careful not to destroy the beams that support the whole building. My crafting skills practiced on the mysterious island was also put in use, as I will be making the woodworking.

The dining tables and the furniture can be made by cutting a few trees in the forest. While I did not have any background in crafting tables in the previous world, I did happen to watch a few videos on how to craft easy to do DIY woodworking and utilized it to create the simple circular tables and ladderback chairs.

Fortunately, the Lumberjack Division of the Merchant’s Guild could not penalize us for our actions. While we are indeed using the forest resources, we are not selling the chopped wood or the crafted tables and chairs, so we were safe and were able to do with our woodworking. So long as we abide the plant 5 seedlings per 1 chopped tree rule, all tables and furniture can be made from the trees that we have chopped and processed.

Allow me to digress here a bit, but no one sold us seedlings but thanks to the ‘marcotting’ skills that I had experimentally used on Grimoire Atelier’s ‘Garden’, I was able to get the necessary replacements for the cut-offed trees.

We made the said items on the forest and using sir Heid’s trusty truck, we were able to transport those tables, chairs, and the furniture. Soon enough we had 10 tables with 30 chairs made of pine. We were also able to create 1 medium sized cupboard and 1 large cabinet made from the same wood.

For the plates, ceramic would have been ideal, but since none of us have knowledge how to make them, we decided to make the plates from the leftover lumbers. The same held true for the cups and mugs, since glassware was still not in my skill set, and so we opted to make them on wood.

Thankfully, wooden plates were not outdated in this world and is still being used even by nobles; of course, if the wood used and craftsmanship is on par with the taste of the noble. However, for our end, simple design should be enough.

For the serving tray and utensils, I was able to make them from melted steel. Using metal-crafting I had somehow practiced on the mysterious island.

With the mansion already having a pleasant vibe of a noble’s house, we did not have to do anything much on interior design. Instead, we focused on making it look more of a diner that anyone can enter and not just of those noble birth.

*****

Next on our preparation list was Water.

“Ace, can you affix the tubes?”

“Got it.”

We needed ample supply of clean water that can be used for both cleaning the workstation (aka kitchen) as well as clean water to provide to our costumer, and so needed to get hooked-up to the Government Water Management and Regulation Office (or GWMRO for short). Thankfully, we had better luck here compared to the other government regulations office.

Lisa Salsa –Head Manager of the GWMRO was a good friend of both lady Anna and sir Heid in their academy days and so was able to gain their support in getting the permits needed to operate food services. “I will be sure to eat their once it opens” -she says. First costumer GET!

Back on track, what we are doing now is making sure that water was going to be readily available for the workstation, dining hall and the relief stations (aka toilets). Now I do not know pipe work and so is the former noble sir Heid, what we are really doing is a mesh-mash work of making sure the water goes to the right place without any leakages. Since we are not encountering any problems so far, we must be doing a pretty good job.

The diner was looking like… well like a diner, added it with clean water we are half-ready with the restaurant operation.

“Now let’s see here?” What else do we need to get started?