Interlude: The Merchant from the East

"Milady, the merchant from the Eastern lands has arrived."

I was in my room stirring the nukamiso when Sissi came to announce his visit. Pinching her nose, she handed me a damp cloth.

"Thank you. The nukamiso's in fine form again today. I'll let you have a pickled cucumber later!"

"…Thank you. The pickles are delicious, but I don't think I'll ever get used to this smell."

I wiped the nukamiso off my hands and, Sissi in tow, headed for the room where the merchant had been shown in.

"Good day, Master Yoshihero."

"Ah, if it isn't young Lady Cosette! Well now, hale and hearty as ever — a fine sight, so it is. Today this humble one has readied a most special ware for milady, that he has."

"Oh? And what might that be? How exciting."

Yoshihero, the merchant from the East, has black hair, black eyes, and a face that puts me in mind of Japan in my past life. His way of talking sounds like something out of a cut-rate period drama, funny enough that the other noble houses wrote him off as a country bumpkin and barely heard him out. But our house — an earl's house well used to odd speech, thanks to Old Bob — took to him without a second thought. You shouldn't judge a person by how they talk. What matters is what's inside.

And Yoshihero does his level best to fill even my trickiest orders. A rather capable merchant, all told.

"Ta-da-da-daa! Da-daa, da-daa, da-daa, da-daa! Wooooood Viiiineee-gaaar!"

"Wood vinegar?"

What Yoshihero produced from his robes with that flourish was a brown liquid. It sat in a little glass vial and smelled of smoked wood.

"This here is a liquid drawn off in the very same breath as making charcoal, so it is. Wood vinegar, it's called — keeps the insects away, and a fine thing to add to one's bath besides, that it is. And what's more… it works a cure on the itchy-foot affliction, so it does…!"

"What did you say…!"

It hit me like a bolt of lightning, and I swayed on my feet.

The itchy-foot affliction… that hateful disease so common in men who wear leather shoes, brought on and made worse by feet left to stew and sweat…!

Yes — its name is…!

Athlete's foot!

"To think it cures that affliction! What a splendid product!"

Yoshihero gave a broad grin.

"A secret remedy handed down in the Eastern lands, so it is. Milady has done this one many a kindness, so this is a special favor, that it is."

"Thank you! How wonderful! …But don't get the wrong idea. I do not have the itchy-foot affliction. It's important, so I'll say it twice: I do not have the itchy-foot affliction!"

This is a very important point.

"This one understands, so he does…"

Yoshihero nodded, his face gentle with a kind of enlightened understanding.

No — hold on.

"Don't look at me with those tepid, knowing eyes! I'll state it here and now, in no uncertain terms — I am innocent!"

"…Be that as it may, this wood vinegar can also be drawn off when making bamboo charcoal, so it can."

"Don't just brush past it! Please! …Wait. Bamboo charcoal?"

From bamboo too?! As I reeled, Yoshihero nodded gravely.

"In that case it becomes bamboo vinegar, so it does. The virtues are much the same, that they are."

Well, what a thing. If it could be made from bamboo, then we could put our own bamboo grove to even better use. But if we could make it ourselves, we'd no longer need to import the wood vinegar at all. Was Yoshihero all right with that?

"That it can be made from bamboo too is more splendid still, but… if you tell me that, won't it thin out your own profits on the wood vinegar, Master Yoshihero?"

I studied him warily, trying to read what he was really after.

"…Milady has done this one many a kindness, so she has. Though it's also true this one feels a pang of guilt over how unexpectedly fast that bamboo grove has grown, that he does."

"Master Yoshihero…"

As surprised as he was, it seems bamboo doesn't grow anywhere near this fast back in the Eastern lands. The grove steadily gaining ground in our garden must have found this country's soil and climate very much to its liking.

"But making bamboo vinegar takes a practiced hand, so it does. Which is why this one thinks it best to send craftsmen over to this country, that he does…"

Yoshihero shot me a sidelong glance.

I see — a merchant to the core. Sharp, this one, and no mistake.

"In other words, you want me to put in a good word for you when you set up a base of business in this country."

"…Just so — milady is quick on the uptake, so she is."

The black-haired merchant smirked, well pleased I'd caught his meaning.

To open a shop or do any large trade in the Kingdom of Altria, you need a noble's patronage. I couldn't say whether Yoshihero was planning as far as a storefront, but he clearly wanted the backing of House Edelweiss behind him. Up to now we'd dealt as merchant and customer; from here on it would be as an earl's house — as the Signora Trading Company.

"Very well. I'll speak with Father. But even if you set up here, the rights to sell the bamboo vinegar go to Signora. Until you have a shop of your own, we'll handle your Eastern goods on consignment — and we'll be taking a commission, mind."

"If this one may borrow Signora's good name and standing, steady sales are as good as assured, so they are. And the commission would run to how much?"

"We'll settle that as we go. I can't decide before I've even seen the goods."

If we're lending out the Signora name, we can't have just any old wares sold under it. I'll need to look them over properly.

"Let's set another time to talk business."

"This one has high hopes, so he does."

We shook hands firmly.

---

Some while later, Signora would put a new product on the market called Takesaku Liquid. The strange brown liquid, touted for all manner of virtues, drew odd looks at first, and no small number doubted it did anything at all. But after it set a knight's itchy-foot affliction on the mend when he gave it a try, the military and the knightly orders took it up, and it came to enjoy explosive popularity. This raised Signora's standing and popularity higher still, and the newly stocked Eastern imports in the shop sold like hotcakes too.

"It's a windfall, so it iiiis—!!!"