Huff huff.

“Bell, put your back into it!”

‘I’m trying, auntie, this is as hard as I can go!’

Huff huff

“Uhn~, you’re doing such a good job. Now it’s my~ turn.”

‘What, already? But, I’ve just finished! At least give me a chance to rest…’

“Here I go~!”

Ssssss…..Clink!

I wiped the sweat off my brow as I begrudgingly began to mush the next batch of berries, observing Andrea holding up our very first product. She handed it over to Ellie, who had prepared a chilled crate to store it in.

This afternoon, we would be heading off to the nearby trading post to debut our new business.

…

What is our business idea, you ask?

BWAHAHAHA. Tis an idea that will change the world. A design that will bend the wills of all slimes and whatever other species exist now, and their future generations to come. I GIVE YOU!

Fizzy soda~

I got the idea when Andrea came over one day to visit my parents during the night. While Lily and I were playing a slime variant of Jacks (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knucklebones) using pebbles we found near the lake, they popped open a bottle of red wine and proceeded to get drunk enough to climb onto the roof and start hollering about how cute their children were.

Although I had no interest in wine myself, it did spark a new thought. There was one thing that I had never seen in the Kingdom, despite there being plenty of Yaksha-based juices and wines: carbonated beverages. I explained my idea to everyone, and tested it out by having the drunk Andrea use wind magic to pump the wine full of carbon dioxide. She didn’t really know what carbon dioxide was, but I described it as the main gas that came out of her breath, and she seemed to understand. The result was sparkling wine, which got the adults even drunker, and the intoxicated Ellie used her ice magic to construct a giant sculpture of me and Lily on our roof.

I was glad when they all passed out, and the sculpture disintegrated without having a steady source of mana to maintain it. While Lily found it funny and beautiful, I was worried that it was going to crush our home with its enormous weight.

Ellie and Jean were still hung over at home while I visited Lily and Andrea in the afternoon the next day. Their home was more spacious than ours, probably because someone didn't turn half of it into a workshop (at this moment, Jean sneezed back at our house). The basic structure was the same, though. The living room was a jungle of books stacked on top of each other and splayed across the sofa, just like in our house at the moment. The difference was that to the right corner of the room was a small dining area, while the left area led to two rooms, one for Andrea and one for Lily.

***Flashback Start***

I sat down on the sofa that Andrea offered me, fighting the lull of her room. The room where this sexy beast laid down every night and threw the covers on. Maybe once after a bath, she may have, without dressing, threw herself onto—

Slap.

“Bell?!”

‘Don’t mind me, auntie. My arm moved on its own.’

“E-eh? O-okay… So, explain this plan of yours to me again. I’m having trouble remembering from yesterday.”

‘No problem! It’s quite simple. I will purchase 200 bunches of white Yaksha berries and turn them into juice. I would like your help to make the juice bubbly before we seal the bottles, and then we will sell them at the market for two coppers each. Ellie will help us keep the juice cold. We can split the profits three ways after subtracting the cost.’

“Hmmm~ 200 bunches? Where will you get the money?”

‘Mom— Jean agreed to help pay for the first 200. She said that in return, you have to help her make more of that bubbly wine you all had yesterday. She was even talking about trying to learn a bit of wind magic from you…’

“*Cough* That sounds like Jean all right.”

Andrea seemed to be in thought, making her look like a sexy, intelligent goddess with her flowing emerald hair lightly bobbing as she tilted her head slightly to the side. Oh how I wished to—

“Okay, Bell. We have a deal!” She beamed.

‘Mommy, let me help too! Pwease?’ Lily hopped onto her mom’s lap and looked at her with expectant eyes.

“Okay, my Lily-willy. You can help us sell the juice at the trading post.”

‘Yaaaaayy~!’ Lily did a little twirl in the air and nuzzled against her mom’s voluptuous chests. A seed of jealousy began to sprout inside me, but I mentally cut the sprout at the stem and asked her about something she said.

‘We’re going to sell them at the trading post?’

“Mhm. That’s probably the best place. The market in the village is too small, and the city is too far out. The local trading post is only ten minutes away, and it will probably sell best there.”

‘Ohhh, I see. I think my parents mentioned a place like that. What do they sell there?’

“Equipment and supplies, mostly. People traveling between cities usually need to restock on the way, and not everyone has time to go to the big cities, after all. We can take our slime-cart out back to carry the juice after we bottle them.”

Slime-carts were the main form of transportation used in our village. A four-wheeled wagon that could be propelled and directed using a tiny amount of mana, it was immensely useful for moving goods and slimes around. It’s also what Jean rode on to get to Faeris whenever she went to deliver her customers’ requested forged or repaired equipment and tools.

‘That would be awesome! Thanks auntie~’

“No problem dearie~”

***Flashback End***

So right now, Ellie, Andrea, Lily and I were gathered at our place in the morning to juice, carbonate, and bottle 200 bunches of white Yaksha berries that we purchased from the market. The grannies were even nice enough to give us an extra discount for buying in bulk, so we got away with only paying 1 silver, 80 coppers.

First, I took out a metal bowl and pestle that I had asked Jean to make for me. The bowl was around 30 centimeters in diameter, and had a stable bottom that would allow me to manipulate it easier without it sliding off the table. The pestle was a thick, stone rod that Jean carved using her Basic Earth Shaping magic. With these two tools, I was able to crush the berries and extract their juice. One bunch was exactly enough for one bottle, which surprised me considering that the bottle was at least 350 mL; the berries were juicier than I had originally thought.

As for how we got the bottles, Jean had contacted one of her handicrafting friends in the city to get us a cheap deal of 100 glass bottles for 10 coppers. Apparently her friend was a glassblower from the trades school Jean went to for blacksmith training. With the 20 coppers we saved from buying Yaksha berries at a discount, the total cost of our initial startup was 2 silvers.

After the bottles were filled, Andrea used her wind magic to carbonate the drink, as well as cap it. Ellie would then store them in a wooden crate, chilled to around four degrees using her ice magic.

By noon, we had 200 bottles of sweet, fizzy, berry sodas, leaving us the entire afternoon to go to the trading post to sell our new product. We loaded four crates that Ellie onto the slime-cart, and headed off to the east of our village.

Tduktduktduktduk...

Emerging from the village’s east forest path with our slime-cart, we found ourselves in a large clearing, about the size of a shopping mall. The trees surrounding the area were at least 100 meters tall, and their trunks and branches were embedded with mana crystals that emitted bright, orange lights. The floor was laminated strangely with compacted, yellow-green leaves that felt like glass to the touch, and glistened under the lighting of the trees.

All along the perimeter of this area were stalls that varied in size and design. One of them were shaped like a wooden crab with giant claws holding a pair of claymores that crossed in the middle of its face; the name of the store was Crabs Have Long Swords. Another one had two large round shields at the base of the stall, which stretched high and long with a gold arch at the tip; the store was named Protection.

In the middle of the area was a brightly lit stage where a gorgeous, rose skinned woman was singing a mystical tune to the strums of her enormous, gold harp. Her ever flowing, pink hair and long eyelashes gave her the appearance of a divine goddess, accentuated by her graceful features, charming eyes, and delicate cheekbones. Her ballad was soft yet emotionally powerful, captivating the thousands of slimes in the vicinity.

The lanterns of the hall were shining

Tea cups young and old were waking

Dancing in the mana streams

Twisting turning all the way into the sky

An array of color and vibrant display

Fireworks of lilies and rainbows filled the air

That's how we felt that day

Why’d you have to go away

…

Baby all I want. Is you~

The lights gradually dimmed on stage during the last line of the song, and the crowd of slimes erupted in cheers. As the singer exited the stage, the marketplace that had been completely focused on the performance suddenly sprang to life, and a clamor of excited conversation filled the forest clearing. Some went to the stalls to purchase or trade, while others started to set up temporary stalls in the middle of the area, where the stage was being disassembled and taken away in pieces.

"We're here, Bell, Lily. This is the Montano Trading Post." Andrea smiled. She led us to a permanent structure that was built of stone, but had a rectangular opening where a few slimes were sitting. We approached a brown slime wearing a white necktie, which complemented his white mustache.

"Hello, I would like to rent a small stall for this afternoon," Andrea said.

"Certainly. The outer rim stalls are all booked for the day. There's a spot available in the central market area, if that works for you. The site label is Z3." the man offered.

"Works for us," Andrea replied, handing him five coppers, as was indicated on the price-board above us.

We towed our slime-cart towards the middle of the trading post, passing by a stall that was selling jewelry, another that was purchasing old equipment and weapons for cheap, and a peculiar stall that sold exotic plants. There was even a stall that was selling strange looking animals, one of which looked like a baby goat’s head with bat wings growing out from either side. It made a loud screeching noise when I tried to approach its cage, so I left it alone.

We finally arrived at a dingy corner of the center area, where we parked, and set up our banner using two poles on either side of the cart. Ellie had purchased paper and paint for Lily and I back at the village, where we had spent an entire day making the perfect sign for our new business. Now that it was splayed out for the public to see, I was a little embarrassed at our work. It honestly looked like one of the pictures kids drew for their parents to hang on their fridge, with half-assed shading of our families to the left and right, and too many different colors used unnecessarily. At least we got the words right.

"Phew. You ready, Ellie? Lily? Bell?" Andrea asked.

'Aye~'

'Yes mom.'

"Let's do it." Ellie said with a determined expression.

Andrea exhaled and took a deep breath.

Haaaaa... Huuuuuuu...

"LILY AND BELL'S JUICE EMPORIUM IS NOW OPEN~!"

Our business was a go!

‘…’

‘…’

“…”

“…”

An hour later, the four of us sat on our empty slime-cart in a daze, Ellie holding a pouch of 600 copper leaves. Maybe it was because the product was new, but we were shocked to have sold out already. Well, shocked was an understatement.

It started out with an adventurous brown slime whose bulging muscles made him look like Mike Tyson. At first, he was only going to buy one to help support the two children who were cutely sitting atop the stall, as well as the two beauties next to them. But, after he bought one, he bought another one, then two, then three, and then suddenly hollered that everyone had to try this insane drink.

The stampede that followed was nothing short of madness. I felt like the boss of a criminal organization who was dealing out narcotics. After the first 100 sales, we had to raise the price to 4 coppers to prevent our stock from selling out too fast, but it didn’t do anything to stop the onslaught that ensured. People fought each other to get one before the stock ran out, which prompted a very annoyed Ellie to use her ice magic to chill everyone the fuck out.

“Please form a single file line~

This helped to slow the purchases down, but not enough, it seemed. Hence our current situation. The four of us, sitting there on our cart. Empty bottles strewn on the ground all around us.

“El, I think we can quit our job at the SDF.” Andrea gazed up at the sky like she finally understood the meaning of life.

“I was just thinking the same thing.” Ellie, too, was drifting into an alternate dimension where unicorns and fairies existed. Oh wait, maybe they did exist in this world.

‘Mom, can Lily and I walk around to do some shopping? We won’t go very far.’ I asked.

“Eh? Yah, sure…” Ellie said, still in her strange trance. She handed me the entire pouch, making me reel a little bit. Mom was surely somewhere far, far away, where rivers were made of gold and her house was made of diamonds.

I quietly counted 200 coppers, which was my share as we had agreed upon (Andrea got 195, Ellie got 200, and Lily got 5), and stored it in my own pouch which was tied around my body using a rope made of Yaksha stems. I gave the rest back to mom and hopped off the cart, motioning for Lily to follow with my pseudopod.

With a budget of 100 coppers for presents, I hopped around from stall to stall looking for something cute that I could give to Lily, Ellie, Jean, and Andrea. This was my way of saying thank you. After all, none of this could have happened without their help.

For Lily, I ended up purchasing a potted, rare variant of the Yaksha plant that changed colors every morning and wouldn’t grow any bigger than its current size.

For Andrea, I was tempted to buy a giant black rod made of obsidian imbued steel, but decided to settle for a glass house ornament instead, a cheaper and more appropriate gift.

For Ellie, I bought a lesser magic enhancement hairclip that she could store a little bit of mana in for future use.

For Jean, I bought a new pair of blacksmithing gloves, which could replace the old ones she had been using for over a year.

Afterwards, Lily and I made our way back to the slime-cart where our moms were already discussing plans for getting a patent for the fizzy juice and expanding this business to reach the four corners of the Kingdom.

“Here they come~ Ready to go, kids?” Andrea smiled.

‘‘Yep, let’s go!’’ Lily and I cheered in unison.

As the cart rolled back towards the village, Ellie and Andrea were both exclaiming how beautiful their gifts were, and complimenting Lily on having been such a cute salesgirl. Lily blushed, and our parents used the opportunity to tease her some more, giggling and taking turns putting her on their heads.

I smiled and sat on the cart, thinking that it would be nice if life would be like this for a while. But there was work to do. This evening, I would begin phase 1 of my mana acquisition strategy: Project Manaborn. Project Science? Berry Good Project?

...

Ah, that might work.