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"Shirou, Artur. Could you hang out with me after school today?"
I called out to Shirou and Artur, who had become completely friendly, or rather, a group of friends, and they both nodded while making puzzled faces.
"But that's rare. Rai usually goes to that part-time job of yours after school."
"If you're going to say that, Shirou, so do you. Do you have work today?"
"I can hang out for a bit because it's from the evening."
Shirou, making an OK mark with his fingers, laughed.
"So, what are we going to do?"
Artur, with a dubious expression, rested his cheek on his hand and looked at me.
"Market research, maybe."
So, I walked along one of the main roads in the academy city with Artur and Shirou.
The structure of Centoro Academy City is a bit similar to the royal palace.
There is an academy in the center, and main roads extend to the east, west, south, and north from there.
East Main Road [Abent]
There are many stores that adventurers often visit, such as weapons, armor, and magic tools.
Not only students who form parties at the academy and complete quests in the field, but also professional adventurers who already make a living as adventurers stop by.
West Main Road [Merchium]
There are many stores that sell daily necessities such as general goods and food.
Basically, people who live in the academy city complete their daily shopping here.
South Main Road [Dias]
There are many entertainment facilities such as restaurants and theaters. If you want to hang out in the academy city, you usually go to Dias.
North Main Road, [Rasheni]
Mainly clothing-related. Decorations and jewelry. There are many expensive items than the stores in Merchium, and there are many so-called brand stores.
Since the stores have different characteristics in the east, west, south, and north, there are many ordinary people around Merchium, and many aristocratic residences around Rasheni.
By the way, Julia's antique shop is located a little down the alley from Merchium and towards Rasheni.
The products that were originally sold were furniture and tea cups, so this is the location.
That's why only regular customers who know about the existence of this store come to buy things that adventurers want, such as magic stones.
This time, I'm going to Merchium and Rasheni for market research.
The purpose is to find a store that will somehow sell off the furniture that's becoming a fertilizer for the store.
It would have been okay to go alone, but I wanted to hear opinions from third parties, so I invited Shirou and Artur, but when I walk between the two of them, my smallness stands out.
No, in reality, I think I'm taller than the average height for my age.
Artur is older than me and has an average height.
Shirou is even older than that and has a height above the average.
My overwhelming sense of being the youngest.
I can't help it, but I feel like I've lost a lot!!
"So? Which store are we going to see?"
While I was secretly gritting my teeth at my body that was inferior to the two of them, Artur bent down slightly and asked me that.
Stop it. Don't bend over. I'm not small. I'm of average height. If anything, I'm still growing because I'm in my growth spurt!!
"For now, a general store. I want to buy some stationery for use at the academy."
"Okay. I also have something I want to buy, so that's good. Have you already decided which general store to go to?"
Shirou, who bent down further, said that to me.
Why do I have to look up even though you're bending down?
How tall are you??
"Hmm. Should we go to that place?"
General store [Fradino], which has a store in the best location in Merchium, a highly competitive commercial area.
Although it has a store on a commoner-friendly street, its name value is a first-class brand store.
Moreover, according to the story of our regular customer, Fradino was established and grown to this size by the current manager.
I definitely want to hear that know-how, but even if that's impossible, it would be great if I could get even a little hint from inside the store.
When I entered the store, it was crowded with students because it was the time when school ended.
I took some supplies that I use at the academy and walked around the store.
Shirou, as he said earlier, had something he wanted to buy, so he started shopping away from me.
Artur, on the other hand, didn't have anything he wanted to buy, so he followed me.
"Hey, Artur."
"Huh?"
I stopped in front of a showcase next to the cash register that sells slightly expensive items, and there was a corner for cores and magic stones.
I may have said it before, but cores are stones that contain magical power that can be taken from magical beasts, and magic stones are fossils that contain magical power.
Of course, magic stones are more expensive, but cores are sufficient for students to use at the academy.
Even if you only talk about the amount of magic power, the magic stones sold at our store have more, even though they are used.
In other words, the items in this store are low-grade and set at a price that students can't buy if they try hard enough.
Well, even so, expensive items are expensive.
"Do you think this is cheap for the quality? Do you think it's expensive?"
The things I'm pointing at are, of course, cores and magic stones.
"Cheap."
Immediate answer.
"Yeah. The profit you get from selling this is minimal."
I also think it's cheap. It's too cheap, even.
From the purchase price and the selling price, the profit seems to be minimal.
I line up at the cash register to purchase the general goods I had in my hand, which were also much cheaper than other stores.
"I don't know about management or anything, but does the fact that other stores' selling prices are cheap have anything to do with it?"
"Of course. Everyone wants to buy at a cheap place and get a good deal, right? But we can't sell it at this price at our store."
"Hmm...?"
I explained to Artur, who didn't understand the reason, in an easy-to-understand way.
The reason why this store can operate even though the selling price is cheap is that they can recover it with a low profit and high volume.
Even if the profit for each item is small, if they sell a lot, the final profit will be considerable.
"Our store is small, and we haven't been able to purchase well recently, so we can't sell a lot. In the first place, there are few customers."
Even though I explained it, Artur had already lost interest and gave a half-hearted response.
Should I punch him?
"By the way, what was it? The name of your store?"
I stepped forward to the voice of the man who was ringing up the cash register, "Next person, please," and placed the products on the bagging table.
"Antique shop [Giuno]."
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