“Older brother, isn’t it tough doing it alone? I’ll help too.”
“Thank you, Rachel.”
Rachel, who realized Kent was handling the store by himself, placed the empty trays she had collected next to the counter and began helping Kent.
“Thank you for waiting. Next, please.”
With her experience managing the second store, Rachel could accurately assess the situation inside the shop and immediately determine where help was needed. She moved to Kent’s side, put on her customer service smile, and worked efficiently without Kent having to give instructions.
“There’s nothing left for me to teach you.”
“Master, there’s still so much I need to learn from you. Thank you for waiting. Here is your merchandise.”
“Hahaha, what more could I possibly teach you? Yes, that’s exactly right.”
“Thank you very much.”
“Hahahaha!”
Kent and Rachel engaged in light conversation while serving customers to keep them from getting bored. Laughter could be heard from the customers waiting to pay, and the store had a cheerful atmosphere.
“Tsk, as expected of you, Rachel. Being able to exchange impromptu witty remarks with Kent like that is something I can’t imitate.”
“Catherine, you’re back. Well then, time to switch. I need to get back to work, so the rest is up to you.”
“Huh? Ah, Rachel! She’s gone.”
Rachel noticed Catherine watching Kent and her interact with envy from the sidelines. She immediately stepped away from the counter, pulled Catherine forward, and stood her in front of the counter. Then, she waved and disappeared towards the workshop.
“Catherine, welcome back. Customers are waiting to pay, so don’t space out and get to work.”
“Y-Yes. I’m sorry.”
Kent also noticed Catherine’s return. After seeing Rachel move to the workshop, he gave Catherine instructions for her work.
“Thank you.”
*Chir*
“Here is your merchandise.”
*Chir*
“Hmm? Catherine, you keep glancing at me. Is there something on my face?”
“N-No, it’s not that. It’s just… you don’t tell me little jokes like you do with Rachel.”
“Huh?”
Kent noticed Catherine looking at his face between customers and asked her the reason. She confessed that she was unhappy that he didn’t tell her little jokes to entertain the customers, as he did with Rachel. Hearing this, Kent let out a surprised exclamation at her unexpected words.
“Alright. I’ll tell jokes at the right moments, so please bear with me.”
“Y-Yes!”
Kent decided to fulfill Catherine’s request and incorporate jokes for her, just as he had done with Rachel. When he told her this, Catherine’s face lit up with joy.
“Umm, your change is 3 million Gold.”
“Wh-What? Kent, you’re mistaken about the change!”
“…”
At the right moment, Kent began a simple back-and-forth with Catherine, feigning an error in the change as a joke. However, Catherine genuinely believed Kent had made a mistake and became flustered. Faced with a reaction different from what he expected, Kent struggled to figure out how to respond.
“Fuh, fuh, fuh, Catherine, you’re still not quite there. In times like these… wait a moment. A new batch of bread is ready! Here we go.”
As Kent and Catherine stared at each other, frozen, Rachel came to their rescue, bringing a tray of freshly baked bread from the workshop. Rachel had collected the empty trays from the shelves after they had all been sold and returned with a tray of the newly baked bread.
“That wasn’t Kent making a mistake with the change. It was a joke, just adding “million” to the 300 Gold change.”
“Oh, is, is that so?”
“That’s right.”
Rachel explained to Catherine about Kent’s remark regarding the change. Catherine looked surprised upon hearing this.
“And this is how you handle the response.”
“Wh-What are you doing with that hidden there?!”
“Fufufu, take this! What a stupid joke!”
“Guh! Ah, here’s the 300 Gold change.”
“K-Kent.”
“Hahahaha!”
Rachel pulled out a large, soft paper fan from behind the counter. Although it was made of soft paper for safety, Kent was surprised that such an item was hidden there. At the same time, the fan hit Kent directly on the head with a loud sound that echoed throughout the store. Kent immediately understood Rachel’s intention and exaggerated his pain. This caused the customers in the store to erupt in laughter.
“Catherine, I’ll leave this with you, so please train hard.”
“Y-Yes, I’ll do my best.”
“Catherine, don’t put the fan back in its place after saying that!”
“Hahahaha!”
(I-I did it! I made the customers laugh for the first time.)
After entrusting the fan to Catherine, Rachel picked up the empty tray and disappeared back into the workshop. As Catherine, who had inherited the fan, tried to put it back in its original place, Kent’s retort caused the customers in the store to burst into laughter. Catherine was deeply moved by her own actions that had brought about laughter. In this way, the store passed the time in a lively yet busy atmosphere.
“Thank you.”
After Kent saw off the last customer, Marie’s Bakery ended its business for the day.
“Kent, I’ve flipped the sign outside.”
“Thank you, Catherine.”
Catherine flipped the sign at the store’s entrance to the “closed” side, indicating to customers that the shop was no longer open.
“Thank you for your hard work, Kent and Catherine. The workshop side is already cleaned up by everyone working together, so all that’s left is to tidy up the store side.”
The shelves were lined with empty trays, and all the bread sold that day had been sold out. Since the workshop side had finished its tasks earlier and begun cleaning, all that remained to complete the cleanup was the store side. Marie appeared from the workshop and informed Kent and Catherine of this.
“Kent, you haven’t recorded the number of each type of merchandise sold today, have you?”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t have the luxury of recording that.”
“When we had the register, we could generate individual sales reports, but there’s no point in wishing for what we don’t have. We’ll think about countermeasures later, but for today, let’s just calculate the total sales.”
Previously, they could easily generate reports on how many of each type of bread had been sold using the register’s functions. However, with the current situation, that calculation was no longer possible. Deciding to consider how to address this later, Marie began calculating sales and writing in the ledger at the sales counter.
“It’s been a while since I’ve written by hand, so it’s a bit tough.”
Sales calculations and ledger entries were usually done on a computer, but those were destroyed in the explosion and were unusable. Fortunately, the sales ledgers from before had been stored in the fireproof safe installed inside the store along with the store’s sales money and operating funds, thus escaping damage. Marie switched from detailed calculations to simplified ones and began writing in the sales ledger.
“Alright, this is about it for the calculations. The two of you waited until I was finished, didn’t you? Everyone else is in the workshop, so let’s head over there.”
After Marie finished the sales calculations, she took Kent and Catherine, who had been waiting, and they headed to the workshop where everyone else was waiting.
