Chapter 5: Store Summoning

“Is this a store? I’ve never seen a store like this, but…”

“Dear! Cold air is coming from this box…!”

As I stood dumbfounded alone inside the candy store, Father and Mother were making a commotion outside. It seems they opened the frozen showcase and were surprised by the chilly air leaking out. I picked up a square ten-yen chocolate that was right in front of me and tried to open the wrapper, but I couldn’t open it. Why? The plastic jar containing pickled squid next to it wouldn’t open either. I couldn’t open any of the other gum or jellies. Eh, can I not eat this? Is it just an Object?

“Sakuraile, is this a store? There don’t seem to be any clerks, but are these various small items the merchandise?”

“Um, I think this is food… sweets. I don’t know why, but I can’t eat them…”

Speaking that far, I suddenly realized. —-Merchandise. If the things here are for sale…!

“Father! Do you have any money!?”

“Eh, money? I have the donation for the church, though…”

I receive one gold coin from Father. A gold coin. Wait, this is the first time I’ve held a gold coin, me. In the Slums, it was mostly copper or iron coins. By the way, since you can buy one small bread with an iron coin, I think it’s about 100 yen. From there, it goes up in a decimal system: copper coins, silver coins, gold coins, platinum coins, royal gold coins… In other words, one gold coin is about 100,000 yen. 100,000 yen for cheap sweets, what kind of celebrity are you… I thought, but come to think of it, we were unmistakably celebrities. Anyway, I place the gold coin I received onto the tray on the counter next to the register with a clink. Then, when I picked up the ten-yen chocolate I couldn’t open earlier, this time I was indeed able to open the wrapper. Hearing a jingle from behind, I looked back at the counter, and the gold coin had changed into several silver coins, copper coins, and iron coins. Change, I suppose. Counting it, it had decreased by one iron coin. In other words, this chocolate is 100 yen for one? Eh, it’s ten times the price!? It’s a rip-off! But I’ll eat it! The chocolate I hadn’t had in so long was sweet and melt-in-the-mouth delicious. Yeah, 100 yen is fine… After all, I could hardly eat anything sweet until I came to the Ducal House… Even so, nothing beats this sweetness.

“Sa-Sakuraile!? Is it safe to eat something black like that!?”

“It is fine. It is sweet and delicious. Here, you too, Father.”

I buy another ten-yen chocolate and hand it to Father. Father frowned at the color, but after sniffing it, perhaps drawn in by the scent, he made up his mind and popped it into his mouth.

“…It’s sweet. It is certainly a sweet. However, this is the first time I have eaten something this sweet…”

I handed one chocolate each to Mother and the priest as well, captivating them with its sweetness. Both of them were savoring the chocolate with melting smiles.

“Is everything here sweets…? Is [Store Summoning] a [Gift] that calls forth a sweets shop?”

“No, it seems not everything is sweets. If anything, this is a general store.”

Besides cheap sweets, they sell plastic models, bouncy balls, magnets, and water guns, too. Boys used to buy these things often. This store has a long history, and there were also piles of unsold toys from quite a long time ago. To a collector, they might be premium items, but to us kids, they were just old toys.

“A-Anyway, congratulations on obtaining a [Gift] without any problems.”

“Thank you. Ah, here is the donation. Please accept it.”

“My, my… May the blessings of the gods be upon you all.”

Father handed a bag that likely contained gold coins to the priest. Even churches need money to maintain themselves. It seems harsh, but it might be unavoidable. However, because of this, many people don’t have money and cannot receive a [Gift]. Even if you aren’t a noble, as long as you have the donation money, you can take the [Ceremony of Revelation], so maybe it’s still better than nothing. But [Gifts] vary infinitely, and there are many useless or mediocre [Gifts]. In a way, it’s close to gambling. It’s questionable whether commoners would want to spend a large sum of money to obtain one. If they don’t have money to spare, they wouldn’t even think of taking it. By the way, this donation is apparently strictly managed by someone with a [Gift] from the God of Commerce, so embezzlement and such are impossible. Also, although rare, there are apparently [Gifts] that bring misfortune to the person themselves. In that case, if you apply to the church, you can seal the [Gift]. But just because you sealed it, you cannot receive a [Gift] anew. Because [Gifts] are one per person. Sealing a [Gift] is originally something used on criminals, apparently. Sakuraile in the game also had her [Beast Demon Summoning] sealed when she was exiled from the country. [Store Summoning], huh… It’s disappointing it wasn’t [Beast Demon Summoning], but is this usable in its own way…? It seems various verifications are needed, though. Can I only summon a candy store, or…

“Sakura-chan, is this cold stick a sweet too? It’s kind of an amazing color, though…”

Mother took out an orange stick ice candy from inside the frozen showcase. Wow, so nostalgic! I used to eat those a lot.

“It’s wrapped in a transparent film, but do I bite the whole thing…?”

“No, you do this… Hah.”

I took the stick ice from Mother and snapped it in half from the middle. I returned half to Mother.

“The vinyl… um, the film part isn’t edible, so please be careful.”

“Th-Thank you… You know a lot about it…”

Oops. Was it too unreasonable for a girl who was in the Slums until the other day to know too much about the products of a store she’s never seen!?

“When one receives a [Gift], one sometimes simultaneously gains knowledge about that [Gift]. Milady’s [Gift] must have been that type.”

Nice, Priest! Probably so! Let’s go with that! “I see,” Mother seemed convinced, and put her mouth to the ice and took a bite.

“Mmm! It’s chilly, sweet, and delicious…! I’ve never eaten such an ice sweet before. Even the castle doesn’t have this, something like this…!”

“Indeed… I want to present this to my older brother as well…”

Before I knew it, Father was also sharing and eating an ice candy with the priest. A blue one. Cider flavor, maybe? Wait, older brother? Present?

“Father has an older brother? Is he my uncle?”

“Eh? Ah, you forgot that too… That’s right. He is the King of this country. Let’s go meet him later.”

…………Eh? King? Eh, my uncle is the King!? Ahhh!? That’s right! The villainess of [Starlight Symphony], Sakuraile, was the fiancée of the Imperial Crown Prince, and his cousin! W-Wait a minute…! Could it be that I’m already the Prince’s fiancée!?

“U-Um, do I have… a marriage partner since birth or something…?”

“Eh, what’s wrong, all of a sudden… You don’t have to decide on a fiancée in such a hurry, you know? Sakuraile can stay at home forever, okay?”

“Hey now, dear… I think that is also questionable. It’s okay, I’m sure a wonderful person will appear for you too eventually.”

Judging by this tone, it seems I don’t have a fiancée. Phew. I panicked… But the Emperor, the King of this country, is my uncle, huh… Being a Duke, I thought royal blood was involved, but… I wish I could remember the character settings more clearly. Going to meet the Emperor is fine, but I don’t want to meet his son, the Prince. I can’t handle being made his fiancée on the spot. I have to think of a way to avoid it somehow… While biting on the broken ice pop, I was searching for a way to break the destruction flags in the same way.

◇◇◇

A few days after returning from the church, there are several things I understood from testing [Store Summoning]. First, as of now, this [Store Summoning] can only summon the candy store. Once summoned, it can exist for twenty-four hours. After twenty-four hours, the store and all merchandise disappear. If you pay money, you can buy merchandise. If you haven’t paid, you cannot open wrappers, nor can you take it outside the store. Ah, things bought do not seem to disappear even after twenty-four hours. And you cannot buy things that aren’t merchandise. I tried to take a ballpoint pen that was next to the register, but it was no good. However, strangely enough, even though it wasn’t merchandise, I could use it inside the store. I don’t really understand around here. I cannot enter areas other than the store. This candy store is a single house combined with the owner’s home, but I couldn’t enter the rooms beyond the counter. I was blocked from entering by something like an air cushion. It’s probably because it’s a home, not a store. It seems to have electricity. And water too. Water came out of the faucet outside the store. Come to think of it, when I was in elementary school, they let me drink water here on my way home. Is this water also a 0 yen Merchandise? Questions came up in droves, but since I couldn’t find answers, I stopped thinking. I can make the store disappear at my will even before twenty-four hours pass. It uses magical power when summoning, but it seems unnecessary when making it disappear. When I summon it again, the items inside the store are reset. Merchandise is replenished, and melted ice cream returns to normal. In other words, it always returns to the state when I first summoned it. However, with my current magical power, summoning it once a day is my limit. Lately, I summon the store in the Ducal House garden in the morning, Father pays money, and the servants carry out the items inside in bulk. The reason we are doing this is because there is a theory that magical power capacity grows the more you use it in childhood. I wonder if it’s true? Well, it’s better than not doing it, so it feels like we’re just doing it. The purchased goods seem to be stored in the mansion, but since ice cream and such melt, we are distributing them to the servants. Naturally, they were delighted. Because ice sweets are something even high-ranking nobles can rarely eat. Some people ate too much and got stomach aches, though. For some reason, there were ice cube trays inside the frozen showcase, so although not much, ice became easily obtainable too. Normally, only those with ice-type [Gifts] or ice-attribute mages can make ice, apparently. It comes in handy for cooling drinks. Also, this candy store had a small refrigerator inside, and it sold bottled juices too. Just cider and cola, and other soft drinks full of artificial coloring, though. Since the bottle opener couldn’t be taken out of the store, Father said he would have a blacksmith make a bottle opener. Father is now a captive of cider. I noticed looking at the calendar, but could it be that this candy store is in the state it was when I first visited it? I remember even as a child that when I bought gum for ten yen at this store for the first time, the box was missing only the middle part. And in this store, it’s in that state. The pile of ten-yen gum boxes has a gaping hole only in the middle. I think that’s probably it, though. I think [Store Summoning] is a convenient [Gift]. However… how can I use this [Store Summoning] to avoid destruction flags… Well, even if I get exiled from the country, I can survive, maybe? Eating only cheap sweets every day would be pretty tough, though… I was worrying about such things every day, but right now, I am being prostrated to by a certain person. You don’t understand the meaning? Me neither.

“…Um, Grandfather, please raise your face.”

“No! I don’t expect to be forgiven, but please let me apologize! Because of me, you were…!”

The person prostrating with his forehead on the floor. This person was Mother’s father and my grandfather, the Margrave Zalbag On Einsatz.