CHAPTER 51 ……………………………………….
Turis, who had been reeling off tempting things that might hook Rin—like how there were lots of kids their age there and fun things happened from time to time—tugged on Rin’s hand to get her attention and said,
“I don’t usually go out, but if you come, I’ll go too. You’ll come to see me, right?”
Tilt.
Tilting her face at the angle that made her look the prettiest, Turis blinked her eyes.
Unlike Kaidan, who looked on with open disgust, Rin—who had just engraved a new kind of cuteness into her heart—nodded.
“Yeah! If I can, I’ll go.”
“Good. Promise.”
“No, I said if I can.”
“Promise!”
After repeating herself several times, Turis was finally pulled into the carriage by an attendant, since it really was time to leave, and departed through the main gate.
Unlike Kaidan’s family, whose estate was way up north across the continent, Turis’s family had their main estate nearby—just a short carriage ride away.
Even so, Turis kept waving her hand out the carriage window as if she were going somewhere very far away.
The day after the noisy farewell.
After seeing Kaidan off when he went out saying he had things to take care of, Rin headed to the herb garden to meet Julien.
“So this is the Lores grass! Just like you said, Miss, its vitality really is incredible.”
“Right?”
Julien scraped away the soil with a scritch-scratch sound, pointing at the roots that had greedily spread out and even invaded the space of other plants, marveling as he did.
Rin chimed in naturally, then stood up after patting down the newly planted herbs and checked how far she’d walked.
Phew. Nice. I’ve already done this much!
Rin’s herb garden wasn’t just planted with Lores grass—there were all kinds of medicinal herbs for health, as well as edible flowers she planned to try using as mocktail ingredients.
At first, she’d gotten tired quickly after planting just a few flowers and patting them down.
But thanks to drinking health-boosting medicine every morning—three full cups, which she gulped down with her eyes squeezed shut to enthusiastic applause—and diligently going to the knight order to exercise, she could now easily walk all the way from here to the far end near the trees.
I got even healthier today.
As Rin puffed out her chest, savoring pride in her improved health, Julien approached, brushing dirt from his hands, and spoke.
“Rin-nim, congratulations on successfully completing your ability ceremony. I wanted to tell you right away, but there were just too many people at the banquet hall…”
“Oh, right! Julien, where were you during the party?”
Julien wasn’t a noble, but as part of Julie’s household—a vassal family supported by the Pegasus family—he had been allowed to attend the party.
So Rin had naturally expected to see him at the ability-awakening celebration, but no matter how much she looked, she hadn’t seen even a hint of him.
Seeing the question on Rin’s face, Julien gave a smug little heh heh heh laugh and answered,
“Of course I was hiding. I stayed out of the path everyone was watching—yours, Rin-nim.”
“What? You avoided me?”
“Oh! That’s not what I meant. It’s just… since you were the main character that day, everyone’s eyes were naturally drawn to you. And just imagining myself stepping near you and ending up in the nobles’ field of vision too…!”
Apparently the mere thought was terrifying, because Julien’s protruding deer ears trembled and quivered.
Only after Rin gently patted him with her small hands did he calm down. Shaking off his fear, Julien adjusted his glasses again and continued,
“But thanks to hiding well in the shadows, I was able to collect people’s honest reactions.”
He said he’d already written up a list of anyone who’d been secretly saying nasty things, proudly giving a thumbs-up.
As Rin clapped for him, Julien scratched his head shyly, then straightened his glasses again, eyes gleaming as if this were the main point.
“I also memorized all the reactions to our masterpiece mocktails.”
“Wow! Great job, Julien.”
“Hehe. It was nothing. I just blended into the shadows as naturally as if they were my own body…”
Though bashful at Rin’s repeated praise, Julien felt proud of his acknowledged talent for stealth.
“So? How did people react after drinking the mocktails?”
“First of all, the kids’ mocktails were a huge success! A lot of young nobles were thrilled that they could drink the same thing that was on the adults’ tables. Everyone said they looked pretty too.”
Rin listened with sparkling eyes as Julien relayed people’s reactions.
When she heard that the child of a mouse beastkin—famous as a gourmet—had practically jumped up and down in delight over the cotton-candy mocktail, a grin spread across her face.
“Heehee, awesome! Come here, Julien. A celebratory champagne!”
Calling it champagne but really meaning golden-colored sparkling water, the two clinked glasses with a clink and happily celebrated the successful debut of their mocktails.
“Alright. Next up—monetization!”
“Harvesting?”
“No, monetization. It means making money with it.”
Rin remembered the word from Earth’s You×Tube, where it came up just as often as stocks or real estate.
People on Earth who were obsessed with making money always talked about needing to do something right now, and they always mentioned this word.
“I already asked Uncle Theo. He said we can sell them at cafés inside the city gates. Oh—and at salons too!”
More precisely, these were cafés and buildings owned by the Pegasus family’s merchant guild.
They had the lord’s castle, salons, several buildings within the city, and land outside as well—but for her poor uncle and family members who had to work every day, Rin clenched her little fist and made a vow.
I’ll make tons of money for sure! I’ll get rich and let everyone play every single day.
Her eyes sparkled like gold coins as she dreamed of explosive sales.
And for a successful business, she decided to use one of capitalism’s classic lures.
“Hey. You made a lot of the mocktail menus, right, Julien?”
“Oh, no. Not at all. I just carried out what you instructed, Miss.”
“Nope, nope.”
Pulling out her memo pad, Rin tapped each item she’d written down one by one.
“This one, this one, and this one here… these menus were developed by you, Julien.”
They say that even a village dog will recite poetry after three years at a school.
Rin, who had toured Earth in her dreams far beyond that, knew a terrifying method for getting workers to voluntarily work harder.
With capitalist zeal shining in her eyes, she declared,
“So every time these mocktails sell this much, I’ll give you a bonus.”
“A b-b-bonus?”
There were few words in the world more beautiful than that.
Trembling with emotion as if he’d heard something utterly sublime, Julien was struck with the final blow when Rin added,
“The amount will be… this much!”
“H-h-huh?!”
Scribble scribble.
After seeing the number Rin hastily wrote on the memo pad, Julien’s mouth fell open wider than seemed possible.
“Rin-nim! I will follow you for the rest of my life!”
Dropping to his knees on the dirt, Julien grabbed Rin’s hands with both of his and shouted.
Normally gentle like a deer, his eyes now blazed with unmistakable roe-deer beastkin madness, as if they might burst straight through his glasses.
Julien really likes money, huh.
Everyone did, of course—but judging by Julien’s path in the original story, Rin knew she was especially fond of it.
After being scammed so many times yet endlessly devising new money-making schemes, her obsession was obvious.
I wonder who she got that from…
It wasn’t hard to guess, even without anyone saying it.
“Hm? Why are you looking at me like that, Miss?”
Nanny Julie tilted her head at Rin’s sudden glance.
“Anyway, Julien.”
“Yes! Rin-nim!”
“Let’s research ways to make people want mocktails even more once we start spreading them through cafés.”
“Yes! Shall I write up a proposal right away?”
“No, I already have something in mind. Want to talk it over together?”
And so, Rin and Julien put their heads together, scheming ways to sell even more mocktails.
Changing the “Mocktail of the Month” every month, or having special menus made in limited quantities each day.
With Rin, who had seen many ideas in her dreams, and Julien, a talent destined to become a successful café-chain owner, working together—the synergy was incredible.
