Chapter 696

An unexpected encounter.
The next day, I entrusted half of the mangoes I’d bought out from Prince Kaldor’s stall, along with some of my remaining shiratama flour for test batches, to the head chef before leaving the mansion.

Oniisama said that since Crown Prince Raymond was at the royal palace, he had to attend him there.
Reluctantly, he went off to the palace with Otousama.
Oof… good luck, Oniisama…

After picking up Mariel-chan, I planned to head over to meet Sei—but just then, Kurogane stopped me after receiving a telepathic message from Byakko-sama.

Apparently, “We’re heading to the main store in our territory by teleportation to pick up supplies and place a new order, so let’s meet up later!”—so instead of going to the Bastea Company’s capital branch, I decided to stroll through the market where the food stalls lined the streets.

Since I was there anyway, I figured I might as well look around for anything useful being sold in the capital.

After all, the royal capital gathers goods from all over other territories—surely, I’d find something worthwhile.

Mariel-chan and I wore simple one-piece dresses that gave off the impression of merchant daughters.
We browsed various stalls, chatted with shopkeepers, and eventually bought some fruit water before sitting by a fountain to cool off and rest.

“It’s still cheaper to buy some of these things in our territory, huh.”

“True! Ellisfeed’s agriculture’s been doing great these past few years. Maybe it’s ‘cause of your… you know, Cheat, Cristea-san?”

“Eh, n-no, not exactly…”

Well—there was that time I made the supposedly livestock-only raasu (rice) edible, and when I filled the backyard garden (that was totally a vegetable plot, not a flower bed!) with plants that bore edible fruits, talking with the gardener about crop rotation and soil fatigue—
And Otousama somehow caught wind of that and quietly implemented it across the domain…

But no, really, I didn’t intend to advance the territory’s agriculture. Nope. Definitely not.
I just did whatever I personally wanted to do.
The ones who worked hard were everyone else. Yep.

“… You’re totally making the face of someone who did something, you know?”

“Eh!? No way!”

“So you did do something.”

“N–N–No, I mean, not exactly…”

“You totally did.”

Mariel-chan’s gaze was way too sharp—it was like she could see through my soul—so I hastily looked away.
And right in my line of sight… was a stall selling bacon from Ellisfeed territory.

And not just any bacon—it was priced higher than what it cost back home.

In my previous life, reselling was despised with a burning passion—“Scalpers must perish!” kind of hatred—but in this world, it wasn’t illegal.

I mean, no commoner’s going to travel across domains just to buy a single slab of bacon.
Unlike my old world, you can’t exactly go, “Let’s travel the country sampling gourmet food!” on a whim.

Ahh… I’d love to go on a food tour someday…
—Ahem. Anyway. Back to the point.

Since reselling isn’t prohibited here, people basically operate in this gray area—
Saying things like, “This is a specialty you can only taste in XX territory! Sure, it’s a bit pricier, but if you think about the travel costs, it’s totally worth it!”

It’s kind of sneaky but technically fair.

Right now, Ellisfeed’s bacon is only sold at our territory’s Adventurers’ Guild.
So people have to hire adventurers to go fetch it for them, and when you factor in labor and risk, the high markup makes sense.

I’d thought about registering the recipe and curing method with the Commerce Guild to make it public—but with the decline in orc numbers lately, bacon production would immediately plummet.
And then I’d get accused of fraud for selling a recipe that couldn’t even be used anymore.

Orcs are monsters, so having fewer around is a good thing…
But as a source of meat, they’re honestly too valuable. It’s complicated.

“Oh, bacon, huh? Whoa, that’s a bold price tag,” Mariel-chan said, noticing what I was looking at.

“Eh? Is it really that bad?”

“Yup. It’s about five silver higher than the going rate.”

“Yikes… Ah, wait—huh?”

I blinked as I spotted someone at the stall about to buy that overpriced bacon—someone I recognized.

“… Y–Your Highness!?”

Even though his distinct red hair had been dyed a dark brown, there was no mistaking him—
It was Crown Prince Raymond!

What do you think about this chapter?