Published: August 15, 2025
When I returned to the temple, I asked Gil to contact Benno for me. We planned to deliver a letter to the shop on a day when it wasn’t snowing.
It seemed that there was less work in winter because Gil returned quickly with a hurried note from Benno saying he wanted to meet in the afternoon.
“Then, we’ll arrange for you to talk in the orphanage director’s office this afternoon.”
“Understood.”
It seemed Lutz brought a message back when he returned for lunch, and by the fifth bell, the people from the Gilberta Trading Company had arrived: Benno, Mark, and Lutz.
I quickly slipped into the secret room and threw myself at Lutz. While making up for the time we hadn’t seen each other much during winter, I told Benno about selling teaching materials at the castle.
“Selling at the castle!? Wait a minute!”
“Huh? I can’t really wait. We need to start selling soon.”
“No, that’s not it! We don’t have any clerks trained well enough to go to the castle right now.”
The Gilberta Trading Company centers on lower nobles and has been expanding into the middle nobility market. Thanks to my connections, we landed a valuable customer in Mother, but as it stands, only Benno and Mark can bring products to the castle because there aren’t many clerks who know how to behave properly there.
They rushed to instill manners in some staff so they could serve at the Italian restaurant, but even they feel a little uneasy about entering the castle.
“...Clerks? Should I dress them appropriately and bring a few well-trained gray priests who serve me? Since this time we’re not taking orders but just selling finished goods, as long as their demeanor is acceptable and they can calculate properly, I think it will be fine.”
Dealing with nobles usually means accepting custom orders. Except for consumables like plant paper, they don’t just bring ready-made goods to sell.
Even Rinshan recently does custom orders for upper nobles, bringing some samples based on the types of oils and scrubs available by season, then taking orders for preferred combinations.
I buy directly from the sample combinations brought to me, but to keep up appearances among the upper nobles, I issue order sheets so it looks like a custom order.
“You’re going to sell what was made during winter as is? Not taking orders?”
Benno’s eyes widened, but I nodded.
“Yes, selling as is. It’s urgently needed. For nobles who want elaborate items with special prices for next year, Benno-san or Mark-san can handle them, but for those who say they need it immediately, we just sell the goods as they are. Using gray priests who can handle calculations should be fine.”
“I see. From our side, Mark, Leon, and I will go. Also, select two adult gray priests. We’ll need to pick out clothes for them, right?”
Of course, I can’t have them wear gray priest robes to the castle. They’ll need proper clothing for the castle.
“Gil, who do you think would be good? Fran will be carrying the Lesser Holy Grail, so that’s already decided.”
“Fritz served a noble family before, so I think he’ll be fine.”
“Then, let’s ask Fran and Fritz.”
Once the people to take with us were decided, next came confirmation of price and quantity.
“The picture book is one small gold coin, karuta is five large silver coins, the black-and-white playing cards are three large silver coins, and those with colored ink are one small gold coin.”
Compared to the picture book initially sold to the wealthy, we succeeded in lowering the prices of plant paper and ink, so the cost dropped a bit, making it cheaper.
The pictures on the karuta can’t all be drawn by Wilma, so we use stencil printing. Since karuta are made with wooden boards, their base cost is cheaper than paper.
Playing cards have fewer cards than karuta, so they’re even cheaper. However, using rare colored ink makes them very beautiful but much more expensive. These are aimed at upper nobles who want to stand out.
“For quantity, let’s prepare 100 of each for now. Considering the number of children, that should be enough.”