“Students of Arnia Academy. Today is the long-awaited opening ceremony of our school. Merely seeing how much more distinguished all of you have become since last year allows me to appreciate just how much you accomplished over the break. As the president of this academy, I am delighted to welcome all of you back in good health, and I would like to offer a few words of advice....”
The moment the president’s speech began in the academy’s grand auditorium, boredom spread across the students’ faces. It was clearly going to be a lengthy speech, so many of them discreetly allowed their attention to wander. Yulia, however, stood perfectly straight with her gaze fixed on the president.
“Yulia. Did you hear? Maxim Edwell took a leave of absence.”
Her friend whispered quietly, and Yulia merely gave a slight nod. Having already visited the café, Yulia was well aware that Maxim had taken a leave of absence.
“Maxim took a leave of absence? Then that’s good news for Yulia. It’s not as though she’d gain anything from having to see his face all the time.”
“Judging by how suddenly he decided to take leave, I suppose what happened at the end-of-term party must have been bothering him too. Then again, if I got slapped in front of that many people, I’d be too embarrassed to show my face at school either.”
“Maxim got slapped? By whom?”
“Oh, right. You weren’t at the end-of-term party, so you wouldn’t know. Maxim got drunk that night and went around bothering people. He was practically out of his mind and started pestering Yulia too. Then she slapped him so hard he fell over.”
“What? That happened? He was always causing trouble at the academy, and he even managed to make a scene there too. Heh, Maxim really is something else. What kind of noble behaves like that? Is he even a real noble?”
“The fact that he got slapped by a commoner and his family still did nothing about it probably means House Edwell has practically disowned him already.”
The friends who had gathered around Yulia and whispered among themselves glanced nervously toward the president before returning to their places.
Yulia had shown little outward reaction, but in truth, she was remembering her encounter with Maxim at the café two days earlier.
― Our shop has a prepaid ledger. I’ll put this money down under your name, Yulia. That means you can come by for coffee whenever you want.
At the end-of-term party, she had slapped Maxim almost without thinking.
She had not intended to do it from the beginning, but in her humiliation, her hand had moved before she could stop herself.
‘Now I suddenly feel bad. Did I hit him too hard back then?’
The coffee she had drunk two days ago had definitely helped with her swordsmanship training later that night.
Yulia was highly sensitive to changes in her body, so she had been able to tell. Her muscles had felt less fatigued, and her sensitivity to pain had seemed to decrease. In particular, it had improved her efficiency during prolonged aerobic exercise.
Perhaps it was because Maxim had been the one who made that coffee for her.
Yulia fidgeted with the hand that had struck his cheek. The thought that Maxim had helped with her swordsmanship training only made her feel guiltier.
‘I should probably apologize. Next time I go for coffee....’
Just as Yulia was organizing her thoughts, she suddenly realized something.
She had been distracted for so long that she had nearly missed the most important part of the president’s speech.
Yulia quickly collected herself and focused on his voice.
“Now! Finally....”
Even the students who had been letting their attention wander suddenly focused on the president.
They might have ignored everything else he had said, but their expressions made it clear that they had no intention of missing what came next.
“I would now like to announce the class placement examination that I’m certain all of you have been eagerly awaiting this semester. First, I will address the students in the combat-related majors.”
Yulia’s eyes gleamed.
As a combat-track student who had never once lost first place in the class placement examination, she felt far more excitement and anticipation than anxiety.
The nature of the test did not matter.
As long as it gave her an opportunity to swing her sword, she would enjoy it.
“Your examination will be the subjugation of the Werewolves in Aranta.”
A short while later.
Yulia departed for Aranta to take the class placement examination.
***
Today was the academy’s opening day.
After waking up, the first thing I did was check the weather outside the window.
The sky was clearer than usual.
It almost felt as though the weather itself were blessing the first day of our shop’s soft opening.
“More importantly, what the hell is wrong with him?”
I had been hearing quiet chuckles for some time, so I turned around and saw Isaac sprawled across the floor, still wandering through his dreams.
“Heh heh....”
Why did he keep laughing in his sleep?
Was he dreaming about becoming a Swordmaster or something?
“Young Masteeer... at this rate, aren’t we really going to become rich? Mmm....”
Isaac was talking in his sleep, which was unlike him.
Apparently, he had been exhausted lately.
There had been the interior work and the tasting events. On top of that, he had been learning how to brew coffee, and recently, he had even started training before dawn in an effort to catch up to Yulia.
Part of me wanted to let him sleep longer.
Unfortunately, I had no choice but to wake him.
“Isaac, get up. We need to go prepare the shop for opening.”
“Heh heh....”
“Hey, wake up! This isn’t the time to be sleeping!”
When I raised my voice, Isaac finally sprang upright.
He looked around with his swollen eyes, smacked his lips, and wore an expression of deep regret.
“Young Master. I was having an incredible dream.”
“What kind of dream?”
“On the first day our shop opened, huge crowds came pouring in. We were raking in money like mad, then we expanded the shop, bought land, got you your graduation certificate....”
“Haven’t you heard that dreams mean the opposite of what they show?”
“...What? That would be bad.”
“Get yourself together and hurry up. We can’t be late on the very first day.”
Once we finished getting ready, we hurried toward the shop.
As we drew closer, the sound of people murmuring reached our ears. The crowd was not quite as large as the ones during the tasting events, but there were still far more people than I had expected.
Most of them were merchants on their way to work.
The tasting events had clearly paid off as a promotional campaign.
Once people knew how something tasted, they were more likely to crave it. Apparently, those who had sampled our coffee before had seen the inexpensive prices and gathered here.
“Isaac. Maybe that dream of yours was prophetic.”
There were already enough people lined up in front of us that the shop would barely have room to stand.
Even if we set tables outside, there would not be enough seats, and lunchtime would undoubtedly bring an even larger crowd.
“Didn’t you say dreams mean the opposite?”
“There’s another saying too. Dreams come true.”
“...I think it’s coming true even more dramatically than it did in my dream.”
We asked the gathered customers to wait for a moment.
We still needed to prepare before we could begin business.
Some people left because they could not wait, but others quickly filled the spaces they left behind.
“Huh? Young Master, look over there. Students are pouring out of the academy.”
Isaac pointed through the window while preparing the shop.
“The opening ceremony must have ended a little while ago.”
“Where are they all rushing off to on the very first day of the semester? You know, don’t you, Young Master? You attended the academy.”
“Them? They’re probably heading out for Operation Rescue the Hazelnuts.”
The first main episode of Chapter 1 was the class placement assessment.
Watching the academy students, including the protagonists of LotSH, stream out in groups to take their respective examinations filled me with satisfaction.
‘Everything is going according to plan.’
Yulia would take first place in this class placement examination too, so the academy students, with her at the center, would take care of the Werewolves in Aranta without me having to do anything.
Once that happened, the Genova Merchant Company would be able to enter the Duchy of Arnia more quickly.
Then all I had to do was buy the hazelnuts delivered to the grocery stores and make syrup with them.
“...Operation Rescue the Hazelnuts?”
“There’s such a thing. Anyway, all we have to do is make sure today’s business goes smoothly. Then everything else will naturally fall into place.”
On the academy’s opening day, our shop opened its doors as well.
And just like that, Isaac’s dream began becoming reality.
***
A week passed.
Perhaps because business had ended successfully every single day from the first day until now, Isaac had recently developed a particular fondness for counting money.
After I taught him how to close the books at the end of our first day, he had insisted on taking care of it himself ever since.
As I wrote something on a large sheet of paper, I glanced over at Isaac.
“Heh heh. Young Master, our sales increased compared to yesterday. Yesterday we made forty-four gold, but today we made forty-nine! At this rate, aren’t we really going to become rich soon?”
“Good grief. Weren’t you the one who said my graduation mattered more than the business?”
“Why choose when both can go well? It’s better if we succeed at both!”
Sales were respectable.
The novelty of opening day had been strong, so we had made sixty gold then. Afterward, sales had gradually declined, but today they had risen again.
For our first week, it was not bad at all.
I had set the price of a cup of coffee at thirty silver to match what commoners could afford.
Even with a rough calculation, we were selling between one hundred and fifty and two hundred cups a day.
That meant the two of us had essentially reached the limit of what we could physically handle.
But I could not be satisfied with this.
This was merely respectable.
It was still nowhere near the scale I had envisioned in my head.
“Isaac. What do you think we need to do to increase sales?”
I suddenly asked him.
I already had a plan for what came next, but I was curious to hear Isaac’s thoughts.
After working alongside me all this time, what conclusion had he reached?
“Hmm. Don’t we need to break through our current limit?”
“What do you mean by that?”
“It’s only been a week, but we’ve already reached the limit of how many cups of coffee we can make in a day. Customers sometimes leave because they get tired of waiting for their coffee. Doesn’t that mean we could clearly sell more, but we simply can’t keep up with the demand?”
“Oh?”
Isaac’s thoughts were the same as mine.
When we first met, he had shown absolutely no interest in business.
The fact that he could now analyze things this far meant he had undoubtedly grown during our time working together.
“So what’s the solution?”
I asked with a pleased smile.
“Well, there’s a fixed amount of time required to brew coffee, and we can’t really shorten that process immediately....”
Isaac glanced cautiously at me before continuing.
“Don’t we need more people to work here?”
“You don’t have to watch my reaction. That’s the correct answer.”
From my perspective as well, the best solution was to increase our workforce.
Pour-over coffee inherently took time to brew, so if we wanted to produce more cups in the same amount of time, we ultimately needed more people.
RUSTLE—
I handed Isaac the large sheet of paper I had been writing on.
As he read the words written across it, a satisfied smile appeared on his face.
“Put that somewhere clearly visible in front of the shop.”
There were various details written on the paper.
But the most important part was undoubtedly the single line printed prominently across the top.
< NOW HIRING >
It was finally time to recruit Isaac’s juniors.