I’m Quitting Everything and Selling Cola

Chapter 150

Chapter 150. I Can Do It — If It's Me! (3)

Marianne stood in the middle of the annex that was to be reborn as The Golden Mermaid.

A construction site thick with dust. Marianne, alone in her immaculate dress, shouted at the workers.

"No! I told you, not gold leaf there. Cover it with that velvet wallpaper shipped in from the South!"

"Yes, yes! My Lady, my apologies!"

"Not My Lady—My Lady Countess."

"Yes, yes ma'am!"

The large sum of money she had clutched in her hands, mortgaged against the family's last plots of land, was melting away like candy floss. Butler Bernard, standing at her side, turned the pages of the ledger with an anxious expression.

"My Lady Countess, at this rate the funds will run out before we even open……"

"Bernard, trying to save money and ending up with nothing to show for it—that was Father's fatal mistake."

"……"

"The Golden Mermaid has to be different. Everything must be overwhelming. The moment a guest opens the door, providing them with an overwhelming experience unlike anything they've ever had before—that is our point."

As one could see, Marianne's condition was a textbook case of startup intoxication.

Excessive self-conviction, endless rationalisation against any outside criticism. Judging everything from atop the Peak of Mount Stupidity.

A brake? There was no way one could exist.

"Look at this—the heavens are even cooperating. Chef Gabriel has been in touch."

"……Chef Gabriel, you say?"

Bernard was taken aback. If it was Chef Gabriel, he was the most celebrated head chef in the capital, Albion. And not just any chef, but the chef of a restaurant that catered exclusively to the truly noble-born.

That such a man had agreed to join them? Had Marianne shown some unexpected shrewdness?

"Really, he……says he'll come?"

"Of course. A reply even came like this."

Marianne pulled a letter from her bag and waved it in front of Bernard's eyes. Bernard pushed up his glasses and read through the letter and the enclosed contract.

"Three times his current salary? Is this man out of his mind?"

"I proposed it."

"What? Why would you do such a thing?"

"Because he's worth it."

Marianne tapped Bernard on the shoulder.

"Bernard, you have to think about what a name is worth. You know this, don't you? I hear Y&P Trading Company uses a commoner they picked up from the marketplace as their cook."

"As I recall, that commoner made it to the finals of the Royal Culinary Competition……"

"But we're getting the celebrated Chef Gabriel, aren't we? The pedigree is simply different."

"However……!"

What Marianne thrust before Bernard as he expressed his unease was— a stack of investment proposals that had come flying in from all directions.

"The moment word got out that we'd brought Gabriel on board, the number of interested parties grew. Investors increased. Reservations are already fully booked for a week."

"Is that truly so?"

There were many who had been keeping a close eye on Y&P Trading Company's Culinary Revolution. Yet Y&P Trading Company had always turned away investment.

Marianne had scratched at that frustration and FOMO² with perfect timing.

News that the Blanchard family—the very embodiment of Northern pedigree—was bringing in the capital's finest chef to present true fine dining had sent people scrambling to throw investment proposals at Marianne one after another.

"Well? No more worries about capital, yes? Do you still doubt me?"

"Hmm……"

At this point, even Bernard found himself wavering. There was something strangely persuasive about it all.

Signing a high-profile star chef, securing investment, full reservations. On the surface at least, it seemed the business was getting off the ground.

"That My Lady would have this side to her……"

"Heh heh."

No. Marianne, capable? That could not possibly be.

Bernard shook his head hastily and clung to his last shred of reason.

"However, My Lady Countess. How has the ingredient supply been resolved?"

"Ingredients?"

"The Blue Lobster and Albino Sturgeon Roe My Lady Countess mentioned—are those not ingredients with unreliable consistent supply?"

This was, in fact, the very core reason Bernard had opposed Marianne's plan from the start.

"I believe I explained that the other day. Well, don't worry. It's been sorted."

But Marianne smiled as though she had been waiting for exactly that question.

"Eastern Operin, the Deep Sea Demon Realm."

Marianne thrust yet another contract at Bernard. Bernard doubted his own ears and eyes.

"Th-the Black Sail Guild?"

"Yes. I've signed an exclusive contract with them."

The 'Black Sail' Guild. An adventurers' guild that specialises exclusively in the produce of the eastern Deep Sea Demon Realm. If it was them, even rare ingredients not easily found even in the North with its cold sea might be available in a stable, consistent supply.

However, there was a problem. The transport route from the East all the way to the North was very long.

"What are the shipping costs?"

"Roughly this much?"

"The distribution cost is comparable to the raw ingredient price itself, is it not?"

"It's fine. Consumers are never stingy when it comes to something they've assigned value to."

Now speaking in a fully lecturing tone, Marianne said to Bernard. And as if driving in a final nail, she unrolled an elaborate parchment scroll.

"Look at this. This is the guest list of those invited to opening day. Do I still look like I'm going to fail?"

Written there were the names of all manner of distinguished figures.

And there was one notable feature. The most exclusive 'Old Money' families of even the North were particularly numerous among them.

The very ones who had remained aloof even as everyone else followed Y&P's fashions.

At last, Bernard forgot any further words to add.

Because Marianne's argument was logically flawless.

Marianne stood before the newly installed ornate mirror and straightened her appearance.

"I'm afraid Penelope will be most put out. We'll be monopolising the road she worked so hard to pave, after all."

In the reflection in the mirror, she saw the owner of a successful restaurant.

***

Word of The Golden Mermaid spread through Nortaris' social circles in an instant.

"Aah, that restaurant you mean?"

"Word is Countess Blanchard staked the last of the family's fortune on it."

"My goodness, has she lost her mind?"

"That young lady—she's always had a bit of a head full of flowers, hasn't she."

"One never knows, though—they say she's brought in the capital's finest chef, 'Gabriel'. I'm thinking of going."

This news was particularly the talk of the town among old money and landed noble families.

Among those who quietly looked down on Y&P……

"Y&P Trading Company's food is certainly excellent……but it's true they have neither history nor tradition, isn't it?"

"It really is delicious though. But there's just a hint of the merchant about it for truly noble tastes."

"Penelope is a Rosemore, but……she was a wallflower everyone ignored until not long ago, wasn't she?"

"Quite so, quite so."

……For this was the prevailing consensus.

But Marianne was different.

Although being next to Rosemore meant she got rather overshadowed—

The Blanchard family was, in its own right, one of the more distinguished and legitimate count families in the North. And this woman was bringing in the capital's finest chef, with the rarest ingredients from the eastern Demon Realms, to open a salon for 'the chosen few' alone?

"This is exactly what we've been waiting for."

"They say she's exclusively contracted the rare seafood as well."

"From what I hear, the investment capital was gathered in no time. Everyone who had been gnashing their teeth watching Penelope's success piled onto Marianne."

The more a family had maintained their aloofness without riding the coattails of Y&P's popular success, the more they were enraptured by The Golden Mermaid's exclusive membership model.

To them, an invitation to The Golden Mermaid also served as a kind of identity card—one that distinguished them from those who had turned a blind eye to Y&P's success.

And so, social circles were split perfectly in two.

The new nobles and Y&P's allies, open-minded in this direction. And the traditional old money families who valued propriety and principle above all.

And thus the long-awaited, much-talked-about opening day of The Golden Mermaid arrived.

***

Opening evening. Shrouded in veils of rumour throughout its troubled gestation, The Golden Mermaid opened its doors.

In front of the Blanchard annex reborn as a restaurant, carriages bearing the crests of the North's finest families formed a spectacle like a great flowing river.

"Oho. Quite a lot of effort went into the décor, I must say."

"Indeed so."

Penelope, the sole Y&P Trading Company invitee, had come alone. And riding in the carriage alongside her, Baron Keystone.

The two peered out of the carriage window, mouths agape.

From the very entrance, a brazen display of financial might. The entire garden was packed densely with expensive alchemic lights, creating a path like a blue Milky Way. And roses laid out in rows that would all freeze to death by the following dawn.

"They've really thrown money at it. Feeling a bit tense, Miss Penelope?"

Baron Keystone grinned and teased Penelope. On this opening day, Marianne had invited Penelope as well.

As far as Penelope could see, knowing that woman's personality it was obviously out of a desire to openly put her nose out of joint……

"Not particularly, to this extent."

Anyone who thought this would be enough to intimidate Penelope didn't know her well. She had been racking her brain for some excuse to go and spy, and when the invitation arrived she had cheered "Nice!" and come skipping along.

"Oh, good heavens……"

"Is this really a restaurant?"

Wherever one went, sounds of "wow" and "oh my" followed like background music. Amid the exclamations, Baron Keystone and Penelope stepped out of the carriage side by side.

Passing through the extravagant garden, the moment the door to the hall opened—

Another round of gasps burst from the guests' lips.

The floor was fine marble shipped in from the South. The wallpaper was the deep crimson velvet Marianne had insisted upon. From the ceiling, an enormous crystal chandelier was slowly scattering gold dust like a snowmobile.

This opulence continued all the way through to the dining area.

The tableware was essentially all works of craft. Intricate gold thread embroidery adorned every tablecloth.

"It's like a salon."

"If it's a restaurant for the nobility, this is exactly as it should be."

Several nobles expressed undisguised satisfaction. Just as Marianne had intended, they were savouring the overwhelming atmosphere itself like an amuse-bouche.

Just then. An elaborate dress embroidered with mermaids swished through the room.

"Distinguished guests of the North who have graced us with your presence, welcome."

Marianne's gaze, brimming with pride, swept across the hall.

"Tonight, here at 'The Golden Mermaid', you will encounter the true 'Art of Fine Dining'—an experience you could not have found anywhere in Nortaris, nay, anywhere in Britannia!"

That gaze lingered particularly long on Penelope, seated beside Baron Keystone.

"Unlike certain merchants, we intend to prove what noble cuisine truly is."

Baron Keystone burst out laughing beside her.

"Miss Penelope, she's talking about you."

"I didn't think she'd be quite this brazen about it."

Penelope also gave a wry smile in kind.

At Marianne's gesture, the lighting in the hall dimmed slightly, signalling that the first course was ready to be served.

The guests lifted their napkins with expressions full of anticipation.

For now, everything was perfect. Overwhelming opulence, flawless branding, an enraptured target clientele.

It appeared as though she was about to surpass in one stroke what Penelope had built over three years.

And so the dazzling start of The Golden Mermaid began.

FOOTNOTE

² Fear of missing out: the fear of losing an opportunity; anxiety stemming from the prospect of missing out on an investment or purchase opportunity.