First Visitor

Carson was missing modern Earth’s distribution lines and delivery speeds even more than usual, he wanted to be able to make cream sodas but his lack of access to anything resembling vanilla was making that a non-option. Just like citrus fruits, vanilla was a tropical plant. Over his time as an adventurer, he had visited a jungle or two, and had actually come across a vanilla-like plant one time, he made sure to document it and register what it’s name was in his personal notes. From the looks of things, it was a commonly known plant, but no one really saw a market for it, so no one was really harvesting and selling it. Carson had reached out some of the communities in the area of the plant to request they harvest some and send it up his way, and he was offering them some generous coin to do so, but had yet to hear back from anyone on that specific request. Citrus fruits actually had some kind of commercial value, so ordering a few for delivery to his establishment was noticeably easier.

Granted, the harvest and delivery would take some time. Given the fact continued orders could eat a considerable hole into his finances, Carson had figured out a way to create a series of special greenhouses to house the plants for his personal use, the building of the structures was another one of those custom requests the builders hadn’t seen before. The idea of having a personal structure for the sole purpose of housing plants was something seemed pretty new to this world. Carson was causing quite a bit of change to the culture of this world, and he stopped caring cultural contamination and things like that four years into his staying here. He was pulled out of his musings when the bell above the door to his not so little shop rang to herald the arrival of his first visitors, it had been maybe three days since he had passed around his advertisement, and maybe five hours since he opened his doors for business for the first time.

Who wandered in was the captain of guard, a well-endowed woman who wore armor that covered most of her body but was crafted to imitate the form of her body with incredible detail, the bust line of her armor gave the illusion that her bosom was a bit bigger than it actually was. “Greetings, Captain Maria,” said Carson as he met her blue eyes with his green ones, his messy brown hair only serving to further contrast her tightly organized platinum blond hair, “to what do I owe this visit?”

“Just here to do the check we talked about when you applied for those business permits,” said Maria, “I swear, where the king gets these ideas for regulations is beyond me, but it’s nice to see at least someone is keeping on top of things like this.”

“It was pretty much like this back where I came from,” said Carson, “businesses requiring a license to operate as a business, and a license to serve ****; along with rules on how those can be kept and lost. We’re just lucky the nation is in the early stages of that sort of system, it might be a few years, possibly another monarch to the kingdom, before we start getting that far into things. And that’s to say nothing about the special regulator bodies for licenses and their holders.”

“Sounds like you came from a place with a lot of bureaucracy.”

“It’s what happens when a nation basically establishes itself on a foundation of not being ruled by monarchs or oligarchs.”

“Not sure if that’s a good thing or not,” said Maria, “but creating special guard divisions for business regulations to go along with these new rules does sound like it could be a good idea. So, what is this ‘soda’ you are advertising?”

“Nothing special, just a beverage with quite a bit of variety to it, made with a water that has gotten filled with a sort of bubbly water and flavors. As things stand, I can only offer two or three possible beverages, the key ingredients for other drinks are still being en route to the location.” Carson was very thankful his powers allowed him to recreate vanilla ice cream from seemingly nothing, but there was something about the materials made this way that made them feel off if you were familiar with what you were interacting with. “A beverage called ‘Root Beer’ and a Beverage called ‘Ginger Ale’ are the only things really on the menu, currently.”

“Well, I do like me a good ale,” said Maria, “but drinking on the job is not in good form.”

“I thought ahead on that, both beverages come in alcoholic and nonalcoholic options; I’ll pour you the nonalcoholic option, and you can come back for the more mature version after your shift is up, or you’re in on your free day.”

“Much appreciated, you’re also going to be serving the nonalcoholic version to the kids, I assume, at least until they prove they’re legal adults or can already handle their liquor,” said Carson as he started filling a mug with the nonalcoholic ginger ale”

“Good man, I seem to recall you being able to handle it like it wasn’t even a thing when you were learning things about what you needed to.”

“To be fair,” said Carson as he finished filling the glass mug he had grabbed and made sure to check was clean as he was engaged in conversation with his guest, “that was more my class feature making itself known, turns out Midnight Alchemists are immune to the effects of things like that. If any of my works do have side effects, they won’t manifest in me. So, please let me know about anything you notice about yourself after drinking my concoctions so I can figure out how to correct the issue.” He handed her the simple-looking mug from across the bar.

“Thank you kindly,” said Maria as she accepted the mug and gave it a test sip, “this isn’t half bad, you said it’s made with ginger?”

“Yes, and I greatly appreciate the work you do for us all,” said Carson with a genuinely appreciative voice. “How much of the facilities do you need to see? How much do want to see?”

“Well, since the records of a shop like this are literally non-existent,” said Maria, “I’m probably going need to see everything, minus whatever you’ve set aside for your personal use as a living space. And to be honest, I kind of do want to see almost all of this. You know how calm this place is.”

“Lost big monster attack was over six decades ago,” said Carson, “and last recorded bandit incident was…what, sixteen years ago?”

“Seventeen, as of last week,” said Maria with a smirk as she finished off her drink and carefully brought the empty mug back down onto the counter, “you’re one of the few that actually pays attention to records.”

“Occupational hazard or the more academic classes,” said Carson as he took the mug back and placed into a hidden wash tub on his side of the bar, “paying to what’s written is a must. Maybe you request one of those to act as a record keeper for the area, you can spin it as wanting to properly organized materials for the royal inspectors when they decide to come in and check on everything.”

“My sister does have a daughter that did get one of those more academic classes, she’s worried about the kid’s safety and security, and extending the invitation for my niece to work as our record keeper would get two monsters with the same spear. To be honest, I didn’t consider that option before now. I probably would have come to this if tavern we had here hadn’t up and moved a few years ago.”

“Not nearly as profitable of an area as owner had thought,” said Carson, “happens more than most people would like to admit. Didn’t the town turn it into storage a few weeks after?”

“With the intent of turning into a proper inn if something starts drawing in more folks to the area,” said Maria.

“You know, I’ve only been in this land for about five years, right?”

“I’ve read the reports, you just appeared in a small fringe farming community about 5 years ago through some unknown magical incident, that town’s gone through a few different names over the years, seems the populace of the area just can’t seem to agree on a name for more than a few months. Makes the maps for the area a pain.”

“That’s the way it is with all border communities that haven’t really reached hamlet status yet,” said Carson with his own annoyance, silently casting a cleaning spell on the mug that then floated with his magic back to where he had them all place. “But arguing about that is kind of like the pot calling the kettle black, seeing as this place is pretty much in the same predicament.”

“Ugh, thanks the reminder,” said Maria as she rose from her seat, “I thought we were finally done with the debate when we called the place Forest Edge for the past two years, then they decided the name wasn’t good enough four months before your little project was set to start in the area. This is the closet thing to a tavern or bar the town seems to have, you’re going to be hearing a lot of complaints and gossip before you know it. And I like that expression you used, where you hear it from?”

“Common expression back where I’m from, you can figure out its implied meaning by the context, I hope. I really hate having to explain terms of phrase to people, I can not to begin to explain my annoyance at having to explain the expressions ‘two birds with one stone’ and ‘and bird in the hand is worth two in bush’ to almost everyone, at least those with hunting backgrounds were able to puzzle out the meanings pretty quickly, but everyone else.”

“I can see the annoyance, but I think that term you just used in our conversation won’t cause as much confusion.”

“We can only hope. So, where do you want your tour of the facilities to officially start?”

“How about outside, you can explain those other structures on the property to me, and we can move on from there.”

“Certainly,” said Carson as he led her outside. Once they were outside, he led her to the greenhouses. “I suppose you were wondering about these, am I right.”

“Yes,” said Maria, “these structures are unfamiliar to me, and I have seen quite a few…distinct facilities built on commission from nobles.”

“These are what are called ‘greenhouses,’ their primary purpose is housing and protecting plants from the outside world,” started Carson as he gestured to the three glass house-like structures, “they’re also designed to let in as much light as possible while keep everything inside noticeably warmer. I will be setting up additional features inside for plants with more demanding needs when I start growing things in these. While I have no intention of ruining potential business arrangements with the more local providers, some plants aren’t economically sustainable for purchase…”

“So you plan to house the harder to acquire plants used for the business on the grounds in these facilities?”

“Yes, some of the plants used in production of the beverages are used to warmer, wetter, and possibly drier conditions than are found here. And given the transit distances, even when factoring in shorter delivery times with transportation magics, the time and cost of delivery are currently not fiscally friendly. I had a few samples of those products in the past to work with, but that was back when I was wandering around with others in my Adventurer days. Any samples I might have been able to keep from back then have either been used up or have reached the point where their storage has managed to make them age out of the point of usefulness for projects like this.”

“I have a feeling there is one general exception to that,” said Maria.

“You heard of the delicacy known as ice cream, I assume?”

“Yes, a product made by culturing milk in a very specific way…wait a minute, that started showing up two or three years ago, and you’ve been in this realm for five years. Did you…”

“Unintentionally introduce ice cream to this world,” finished Carson, “yes, glad to see you’re close to things for this. But the ice cream they’re all excited about, is just the plain variety.”

“Wait, variety?”

“Where I come from, ice cream is an established dessert item enjoyed by people of every economic and social standing, and is usually pretty cheap for purchase, it comes in a variety of flavor options. So, the Plain flavor is what you would consider the foundation on which all the other options are built. I made that inquiry to say this, making the beverage known as ‘root beer’ involves the base ingredients being mixed together with a kind of ice cream made with a plant where I’m from calls ‘vanilla,’ so the ice cream is also called by that name. The ice cream is made part of the mix at a specific part of the brewing process.”

“I see, and you found a similar plant during your adventuring days, and used the last of that remaining sample to make this ‘vanilla’ flavor of ice cream.”

“Yes, all of it,” said Carson with a hint of annoyance, “if some had been kept, I could have used it to make a ‘cream soda’ as part of the menu as well. I could technically use my alchemical skills to recreate the extract from the plant used in the process, but that’s already done back where I came from, and the imitation just doesn’t hit the way the authentic stuff does. So, I want to avoid making imitation mixes for needed products before introducing the genuine stuff to the populace. Also, on a quick note, I also managed to keep a bit more than that when it came to plant resembling ginger I encountered, but since the root is used, storage is able to last a bit longer for the samples.”

“Fair,” said Maria, “now, about the rest of the facilities.”

“Right,” said Carson as he turned his attention to the storefront. “As you can see, the storefront has a distinctive sign hanging on the brass pole above the door, that bottle design is what is known as ‘soda bottle’ design back where I am from, and it just made sense to put in a spell circle, mainly because part of the facility is a sort of modified atelier.”

“Makes sense,” said Maria. After that, the two made their way back into the facility, Carson then proceeded to spend the next forty or fifty minutes giving Maria a tour of the facilities and explain everything she needed to know. Chances were her report on everything wouldn’t reach anyone who really cared about this sort of thing for a few months, that’s usually how it was with places like this so far from the capital.