by SOW
“Yes, I have to admit that you did.”
Sven answered with a bitter look, aware that she should admit that Marlene had succeeded brilliantly, even though Marlene was still her rival.
“Then will you withdraw your rule?”
The rule was that Marlene would stay one meter away from Lud.
“Ugh! About that...”
“I obeyed because I owed you, but haven’t I paid you back a little?”
Marlene laughed with a wicked look on her face.
“Wh-What an evil nun you are!”
Sven’s shoulders shook with frustration, but there was no room for refusal.
“Good job, Marlene. Thank you very much.”
With awful timing, Lud appeared from the back room.
“Oh, Lud! I was so scared! But I did my best for Jacob and for you!”
Marlene quickly stood and snuggled close to Lud.
“Th-Thank you... Really... Um, aren’t you standing a little close?”
“No, this is totally fine!”
Marlene was so close that he could feel her breath. She pushed her breasts, so much bigger than Sven’s, against Lud’s arm.
“Grrraaahhh!”
Seeing this, Sven screamed out in anger, frustration and jealousy.
“Sven... Um, I know how you feel, but you’re scary!!”
Jacob teased Sven, who looked as angry as a demon in a child’s nightmare.
“But, Lud... will things be okay now? You’ll save the shop, but Jacob might...”
Marlene was still attached to Lud as she asked this. They succeeded in establishing a war treaty, but it only earned them a fight with a better chance of survival. It didn’t neutralize the overwhelming financial power of Billions Trading. Tockerbrot was still at a disadvantage.
“Yeah... I might never beat him as a businessman, but at least we’ve brought him down to the level of a baker.”
Lud’s face now showed a small but real hope of winning.
The next day, Bakery Billions launched a major offensive.
“Welcome, welcome! We’re Bakery Billions! Bakery Billions! Opening today! We’re here to deliver the highest quality bread to the people of Organbaelz!”
In front of the shop, musicians were playing instruments, skimpily-clad dancers were singing and dancing, and a clown on stilts was handing out balloons to children. Fliers were scattered about, and fireworks sparkled in the air.
Bakery Billions launched its opening sale with more flare and clamor than even the annual harvest festival in Organbaelz. The townspeople, who had little to entertain them in the countryside, gathered around for the festivity. A crowd had already formed and some, who had misunderstood the situation, had set out their own stalls.
“What the heck is that?!”
Sven, who was watching from inside Tockerbrot, shouted in anger.
“How did they prepare all that so quickly?!”
Shylock hadn’t just bought land and thrown up a store. He must have spent an enormous amount of money to entice new customers.
“Nonetheless, I have to say that you’re foolish, Shylock! If you spend so much on advertising, you’ll be in the red even if you do sell more bread!!”
“No, personnel and advertising costs don’t count.”
Lud pointed this out to Sven, who let out a cry and almost fell down.
“D-Darn him! Shylock must have added that condition to improve his chances!”
“No, I suggested that.”
“Say whaaah?!”
Sven had assumed it was Shylock’s ploy, and when she found out that it was Lud’s idea, she almost fell down again. No, this time she did fall.
“Are you all right, Sven?”
“Don’t worry about me! Why did you suggest such a thing?!”
In business, personnel and advertising expenses can be considerable. In some cases, they could amount to more than production costs.
Removing the marketing costs from the accounting meant that Billions, which possessed enormous capital strength, might as well have lined up a million guns that would never run out of bullets.
“On the other hand, we spend very little on staff. Or, maybe I shouldn’t say that.”
After all, Milly received minimum wage as a trainee under the labor laws of Wiltia, Jacob was working without pay to earn his board, and Sven simply refused to take any pay.
“Also, they just started a new shop, but we’ve been here a while. Our circumstances are different.”
“Master, have you ever heard about the king of Sojo?”
A long time ago, the king of the small nation of Sojo told himself, “It would be unfair to the opponent if we attacked now,” and he waited while the enemy crossed a river, thereby passing up the perfect opportunity to attack. As a result, he lost the battle.
“They have an overwhelming advantage. Why would you forfeit what little advantage we have?!”
Lud was Sven’s beloved master and she admired him from the bottom of her heart. If Lud so wished, she would smile as she ripped from her breast the rezanium reactor that was the equivalent of her heart. However, from the viewpoint of a former combat weapon, any action that forfeited victory was beyond comprehension.
“Because if we hadn’t allowed him at least that much, Shylock would have complained about the provisions of the treaty.”
Lud wasn’t simply abiding by the principle of fair play. He held the war treaty Shylock had agreed to—an agreement with a list of rules for their sales battle. Lud and Shylock were each in possession of a copy bearing their signatures.
“Provisions... What are you talking about?”
Sven looked back over each of the ten sections.
“Hm? What’s this?”
After reading a particular provision, Sven finally understood what Lud intended. At the same time, she realized keenly that she would never have thought of such a strategy. She almost had a heart but she couldn’t have come up with it.
“Master... Are you serious about this?”
“Yes. It has been about a year and a half since I opened this bakery. After all that, if I were to beat out a newly-opened competitor by relying on the power of money, then that would be the end. I enter this challenge prepared to close up shop!”
Lud’s face as he said this brought back memories to Sven. It was the face he had often made when they were at war. It was the face of a man entering deadly combat.
“Hmm!”
“Huh? What is it, Sven?”
“N-No, um, nothing!”
She was too embarrassed to tell him that she was gazing with love at the dignified face of her master.
“Well, shall we see how this goes for a bit? I’ll cut the amount I bake, and I’ll focus on simple breads like baguettes and boules.”
Thus, the first day ended in complete defeat for Tockerbrot.
On the second day...
“Welcome, welcome, welcome!♪ Would you love some delicious bread?! We’re Bakery Billions!♪”
Again today, there were musicians and other performers in front of Billions, and many customers had gathered. A long line had formed before a cluster of pretty employees.
The second day also ended in complete defeat for Tockerbrot.
On the third day...
“Girls and boys! Would you like some bread?! We’ve got a grand sale going on right now!♪”
In addition to the performers, the employees had also come outside to attract customers. However, compared to the first two days, the crowd was not as large. Customers were surprised to find space inside the shop when they expected long lines.
In particular, there were no housewives. They were once again flocking to Tockerbrot. They bought the plain breads like baguettes, coupes, boules and loaves of sandwich bread, and little by little, Tockerbrot’s sales were returning to normal levels.
“Well, it’s about time!”
Lud decided to increase the amount he baked in preparation for the next day.
The night of the
third day...
“What’s going on?”
Shylock groaned after looking at the daily sales report sent to his hotel room in Saupunkt. The first and second days had shown more than exemplary sales. However, on the third day, sales dipped.
“It’s our third day since opening. The shop may not look new to people anymore.”
Shylock’s minion Poracho tried to explain, but it wasn’t convincing. Shylock wondered if he might have missed something important.
“Shall we increase the number of attractions? We can order more posters and fliers. After all, personnel and advertising costs don’t count.”
Since sales at Bakery Billions were still higher than Tockerbrot’s, Faran made this suggestion flippantly and with no sense of the danger.
“They suggested that rule themselves. The fools!”
Suddenly Shylock realized something.
“Hey, bring me the agreement!”
He had confirmed all suggested rules himself. None of them had presented a problem, so he was confident about winning a decisive victory. However, after watching the sales drop on the third day, he now realized that one sentence could be taken a different way.
“I see it now! Drat that baker!!”
Shylock yelled and stood up with a grim face.
“What’s our situation regarding stock and delivery of goods?!”
“Well, the goods are baked via sequential production in Wiltia and delivered across the border. Everything is transported in freezer cars, so there’s no problem with freshness.”
“I’m not talking about that!!”
Unable to control himself, Shylock yelled angrily.
“Right now! Stop incoming deliveries right now!!”
“But that’s impossible!! We requested production of a specific amount for seven days and it’s on the way! We can’t stop it!”
“Blast that man! He was counting on this!!”
Shylock hit the table with a loud bang. This was the moment when a baker who had placed everything on this bet outmaneuvered a battle-hardened businessman like Shylock.
On the fourth day...
“How did you do this?”
Jacob was surprised to see the number of customers returning to Tockerbrot.
“Nothing. We didn’t do anything.”
Despite this denial, Sven answered with an air of pride. The number of customers inside the shop was more than half—about 60 percent—the normal number. There were many more customers today than two days ago.
“It’s just that Master does wonderful work.”
On the other hand, Bakery Billions didn’t have half the customers it had on its first day. Bread remained stacked on the shelves like the corpses of soldiers who had died at the hands of a bungling commander.
On the fifth day...
The customers at Billions had decreased even further. In contrast, Tockerbrot had recovered 80 percent of its customers.
“This is great, Lud! Will you tell me now? How did you do it?”
During a break, Jacob asked this question of Lud, who had reappeared from the oven room.
“Well, let’s see... Give this a try.”
It was bread he had asked Marlene to buy from Billions. It was a simple and basic bread called a batard.
“Munch, munch...”
“How is it?”
Lud asked Jacob, who was chewing a piece he had torn from the top of the bread with a dubious look.
“Hm? Nothing is wrong with it. It tastes all right. It’s just...”
“Just?”
“Something is different.”
Lud’s face tensed sternly. That didn’t mean he was angry, sad or disappointed. For this man who was had such trouble smiling, his grim expression was the result of his facial muscles moving in a slightly odd way because he was very happy.
“Ahh... That’s the best compliment you could give me!”
“What do you mean?”
“At Billions, they bake the bread at the shop, but they don’t do any of the preparation.”
Lud had been watching the construction of Bakery Billions on the first day. He noticed that the workspace was much smaller than the sales floor. Lud had served as a special service soldier before becoming a Hunter Unit pilot. From experience, he could determine a building’s site area, the number of floors and windows, and general floor plan.
“Billions has its bread prepared somewhere else. Maybe they bring in bread that is fermented and shaped at a factory somewhere in Wiltian territory. Then they just thaw and bake it in the shop.”
“Is that possible?”
The process made use of advances in freezing and refrigeration technology developed so that remote areas could enjoy freshly baked breads. There was nothing wrong with that. In fact, such bread was undoubtedly much tastier than bread made by inexperienced bakers.
“But what does that have to do with this?”
“Like you just said, something tastes different.”
As he said this, Lud’s face was hard and stiff—but with joy.
That night, Shylock was in his hotel room in Saupunkt frowning deeply as he looked at the sales numbers, which had dropped dramatically, just as he had feared. And unlike Lud, when Shylock frowned, it meant he was aggravated and angry. He had been outmaneuvered and hadn’t realized it in time.
“What’s goin’ on? What’d they do?”
Poracho was baffled.
“They didn’t do anything. That baker hasn’t done anything.”
Which only made Shylock angrier. Lud hadn’t pulled any tricks or changed recipes. He had just baked bread as usual. He had adjusted the amount he baked, but that was all.
“Maybe there’s a difference in people’s taste between Wiltia and Pelfe?”
Wiltia and Pelfe were very similar. They belonged to the same cultural zone and their languages were almost identical. However, even a slight change in location could make the same meals prepared in the same way taste slightly different.
“It is said that Sparians, who have a delicate palate, won’t eat meals from a neighboring town because of the difference in taste.”
“B-But I can’t believe that people here would have such sensitive tastes.”
Tastes differ by region, but those differences can be small.
The inexpensive bread that Billions prepared had been good enough that people wouldn’t notice such a slight difference. In another town, Billions might have been the clear victor. However, this was Organbaelz.
“The bread from that bakery was tasty. It was just tasty. It wasn’t anything fancy or unusual... and that was his weapon!”
Shylock made a tight fist.
Every day, Lud baked bread with extreme care. He considered temperature changes in the daily weather, and selected the best possible flour, so people would enjoy his bread. He had done this every day for over one year. And the townsfolk had been eating his bread ever since Sven had joined the bakery. If these were industrial products, it would be a different story. The customers might have grown accustomed to a change in standards. But, this was food.
What’s more, bread is a food staple that people eat every day.
The bread at Billions wasn’t bad. It was perfectly good. But those who were accustomed to Tockerbrot’s bread, wondered if something was different. They visited the new bakery for the first few days out of curiosity, but by the third day, many reverted to the bread they preferred.
“That baker made everyone in town fussy about their bread!”
Meanwhile, inside Tockerbrot...
“We’ve already won!♪”
Sven declared victory with a big smile after calculating the balance from that day’s sales.
“Isn’t it too early to say that for sure? There are two more days to go.”
Despite Jacob’s caution, Sven’s smile didn’t change.
“Sure. Today, we made a little over 80 percent of a normal day’s sales.”
“But Billions had a lot of customers on the first two d
ays. Even though their numbers have decreased, their shop isn’t empty.”
Billions was nearly twice as large as Tockerbrot in floor size. Therefore, they could display nearly twice as many products. Even if their sales fell to half their peak number, they would still be the same as Tockerbrot’s normal sales.
“Tee-hee-hee! That’s just it, Jacob! That’s why they fell for my master’s stratagem!”
Sven showed the agreement listing the rules for the competition. Among the many clauses was one very important sentence. Victory or defeat would be determined by net profit.
“Net profit?”
“Profit comes from total sales minus costs... Um, right?”
Jacob tilted his head as Sven picked up a nearby croissant.
“Take this croissant, for example. We sell this for 10 krants. And it costs 7 krants to make. So what’s our profit?”
“Well, 10 minus 7, so... 3 krants?”
Jacob frowned as he answered, certain he knew at least that much.
“Okay. So how about if there are two but only one sells?”
“Um... Oh!”
Jacob finally understood what Sven wanted to say.
The croissants were priced at 10 krants and cost 7 krants. If you sold one, you would make a profit of 3 krants. But if the other one didn’t sell, you would lose 7 krants. As a result, you didn’t make the 3-krant profit and you would be 4 krants in the hole.
“Then net income equals total sales minus cost, and then subtract loss. Simply put, the more items that don’t sell, the lower the net income.”
It would be different with some low-cost items, but bread typically makes small profits and quick returns. If there’s one item left over, the profit from selling two disappears.
So if a store twice as big with twice as many products sells only half its goods... Right now, Billions was accruing enormous losses merely by staying open.
“We had more goods left over in the beginning, but the scale of our shop is small. We limited the amount of product in order to incur smaller losses.”
“Oh, I see... Then their profits from the first day are long gone!”
