Chapter 5: Bargaining with the Merchant (1/2)

Lute, 5 years old.

This morning, the regular reading, writing, mathematics, general knowledge and history lessons began.

However, I had been joining the lessons since I was 3, and was already able to easily do everything.

Because of that, I helped Elle-sensei assisting and teaching kids who were falling behind on their studies.

One of those who fell behind was, the same age as me, Snow.

She was quick at remembering how to read and write, but seemed to be poor at arithmetic calculations.

「The plate on the left has 5 loaves of bread, the plate on the right has 12 loaves. So all of them together, how many loaves are there?」

「Err… Uhm….」

Bending her tiny white fingers, she started calculating.

「Fi, fifteen?」

「Wrong. The answer is 17.」

「Uu~」

Since she turned 5, she had been tying her long hair in a ponytail.

Her dog-ears flopped sorrowfully.

It seemed that Snow was still bad at calculating things beyond what her hands allow.

While patting her sorrowful head, I consoled her.

「Don’t worry! I’ll be with Snow until you can do addition. But since it’s Snow, you will be able to do it soon!」

「Really?」

「It’s a promise… so cheer up! So… I’ll bring out the next question… The plate on the left has 3 loaves of bread, the plate on the right has 5. So, all of them together how many loaves of bread are there?」

「Uhh, uhh… 8!」

「Correct! Snow is a genius! Excellent, excellent!」

「Ehehehe.」

According to Yamamoto Isoroku: show them, tell them, have them do it, and then praise them; otherwise, people won’t do anything. Making them lose the will to learn is the absolute worst.

Let’s just leave aside my splendid facade.

My real intention in praising Snow was to make her white face clearly redden.

Her tail was also happily wagging left and right.

It was so cute, I developed a habit of quickly praising her.

「Well then, I’ll bring out the next question.」

「Yeah! I’ll do my best so I can do addition properly!」

Snow said while innocently smiling with her whole heart.

Aaaah, so cute! I wonder if I had a little sister or daughter in the previous world they would be this cute.

Actually, what I had in the previous world was a little brother. And not to mention marriage, I was killed before I even got a girlfriend…

Just now, I once again patted Snow’s head.

Not showing any signs of dislike, she narrowed her eyes with a pleasant feeling.

After having finished with the lessons, the 5 to 6 year old kids helped with sweeping, laundry, dishwashing, and cleaning the peacock cage in the afternoon.

After having finished with the chores, all that remains was free time.

During free time, i continued training on how to economize my consumption of magic in the boys’ room.

Tired with practice, I thought about raising money to buy magic liquid metal.

The most plausible thing right now, was making mayonnaise.

This world doesn’t have mayonnaise.

If it’s that seasoning that spawned the word『mayo lover』, selling it should certainly become a hit.

There are eggs, vinegar, and oil, so making it wouldn’t be difficult.

The problem was the lack of initial capital.

No money with to earn money with… the『key to the safe』, to speak off.

Opening the safe requires a key, and the key is inside the safe—something like that.

「Should I sell mayonnaise recipes to the restaurants in town?」

But the age where I was allowed to go to town was 7.

The age to start earning money was also 7.

It would not be good unless I waited for another two years… right?

As I worried endlessly about it, money-making talk dropped in from an unexpected place.

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After lunch, I was called on the way to gather firewood with Snow.

「Lute you came at the right time. I was just going to call you.」

「What can I do for you, Elle-sensei?」

「To be honest, someone came and wanted to see you Lute. Can you come to the reception office?」

「Umm… is it my parents who abandoned me? Or… a relative came to pick me up?」

「….」

Elle-sensei had an unpleasant face.

For some reason, Snow’s face looked like she was about to cry.

It might be cold, but i did not particularly want to meet my real parents who gave birth to me in this world.

Although I lived only for 5 years, just living in this world is really hard.

I think my parents had probably some reasons for it.

So, i did not really have a grudge.

I merely asked because there was not anyone in particular that came to mind who might wanted to come see me in this world, but…

Never expecting to receive such an attitude of pity from these two, I was bewildered by their reactions.

As an adult, Elle-sensei recovered faster and began to talk.

「Lute, I didn’t mean that the person who came are your parents or relatives. I’m sorry for putting in a strange way like that and making it a misunderstanding.」

「It’s ok. I was only worried when i heard it. I dont think i particularly wanted to meet my parents now.」

「….」

For some reasons, Snow sadly hanged her ears and tail down.

「I’m sorry, Lute… The one who wanted to meet you is a merchant acquaintance of Sensei.」

Why did a merchant come to meet me?

Ah, right… I’d probably understand immediately when I meet up and talk with him.

「But don`t we have to gather firewood after this?」

「Since we still have a little surplus, it’s good for today. Snow-chan, can you go and help the other children?」

「I understood, Sensei.」

Snow returned obediently into the orphanage according to Sensei’s instructions.

I parted with Snow and went with Elle-sensei to the reception office.

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I often went in the reception office for cleaning.

There were 4 chairs around a simple table.

On a nearby office desk, there were stationeries, such as inkwells, neatly kept.

Sometimes, there were also some wild grass flowers that the kids had collected and arranged in the flower vase.

The merchant was already seated in a chair drinking tea. For some reasons, there was a Reversi set in front of him.

The set belonged to Sensei.

The grooves, making up the grid on the wooden board, were all crisp, and the stones were also perfectly formed.

A present made with feelings of gratitude for every day by the kids of the orphanage including me; it was definitely well-made. I could recognize it with a glance since it was something I was used to see.

These two had already finished one game, the surface of the board was filled with white’s victory.

I sat with Elle-sensei in front of the merchant.

The merchant was a man in his late 20s.

Having short cut light brown hair, his moustache was also shaved clean.

He gave off a sense of cleanliness.

If he was clad in a business suit and sat in a leather sofa, he would look like a『capable young IT enterprise company president』

He offered a handshake.

「Nice to meet you, Lute-kun. I am a merchant going by the name Malton.」

「My name is Lute. Nice to meet you, Malton-san」

「As Elle-sensei said, your response is reliable beyond your years.」

Well, that is because my mental age is 32. Probably older than you. Leaving those words unsaid, I replied with a suitably childlike smile.

After we exchanged greetings, Elle-sensei proceeded with the discussion.

「As I said earlier, Malton-san is my acquaintance. Today he happened to be passing through the town so he went over for greetings. But after seeing Lute-kun’s『Reversi』, he asked me to have a chat with you.」

「Aah.」

Not really grasping the meaning, I gave a vague answer.

Malton talked details with a smiling face.

「I really only came to meet with Elle-sensei but I saw the other kids playing Reversi, you see. My merchant instincts shouted『This will certainly sell well!』」

Then the merchant elaborated on the reasons why he thinks it will sell.

In short—when people travel in horse-carriages, the driver, who handles the horse, would be busy, but the people inside were not.

Only an agonizing spare time is given while being jolted around.

But if there’s Reversi, they can spend the time playing carefreely.