"So I just need to sign my name here and I would get a stall of my own where I can sell food?" Kurou Ino asked the person behind the counter.
The girl behind the counter nodded. "Correct mister, you only need to sign and you will be able to sell anything at the stall. Though you need to pay 250 Azlos every month, starting next month."
"So that's the currency of this world huh..." Kurou said under his breath and took out a pen out of his chest pocket to sign the relevant information in the form.
"Alright, here."
-----
"Hnngh... Hah!"
Kurou grunted as he put the bag of flour inside the stall.
"I didn't know my inventory had a limit... Though it says that I can expand it but I have to spend money, not just any money but Azlos currency."
He sighs as he looks at the invisible window in front of him saying that he needs to pay 1000 Azlos to buy 10 more slots in the inventory.
"And I can't even buy one at a time, I need to buy it in a single package." He say as he keeps tapping and swiping, trying to find a way to buy a single slot, but it proves fruitless.
With a sigh, he swipes away the window and looks at the inside of the stall.
"Let's see, a counter, some desks, some windows here and there. This is... A modern stall? It's like a small shed instead of those old stalls."
"What's a modern looking stall doing in a mediaeval time? It looks like it's even made out of concrete..." He rubs his hand on the wall before shrugging and starts preparing his equipment and tools.
"A barrel? Must've been from the previous owner of this stall." He inspects the abandoned barrel, running his finger on it as felt the unmistakable surface of metal.
"Metallic barrel... I can use this." With a quick swipe of his hand, he took out a multi-purpose barbeque stand from his inventory that he bought before as he began to pick up the barrel and putting it on the stand sideways.
"If I remember correctly..." With a swipe of his hand, he looks at the shop skill he has, trying to find a handsaw for cutting metal. "Hmm... An electric one may be... Wait." Kurou looks closer at the price and it shows that the price is in this world's currency, not yen.
A tiny feeling of panic shows on Kurou's face as he immediately searches for something cheap to test something.
A ramune bottle. He immediately tried to buy it but after pressing on the buy button multiple times, nothing happens.
"What... I'm pretty sure I used yen to buy a cookbook and that stand before..."
He begins to think of why the currency in the shop changes for some reason. "I bought the cookbook and the stand before getting here... Before learning of this world's currency... Is that why the currency of the shop changed?" He swipes the shop away and stands up.
"I still need to find something to cook with and sell it to others to make money. What other things are here anyway?" He kneels to check what's under the counter and sees a modern looking white packaging and he grabs it to take a closer look at it.
"It uses romaji letters... That means this is probably foreign stuff from a past summoned hero. Harina de trigo? I don't know what that means but there's a picture of flour on it so it's probably flour." He puts the flour on the side and looks deeper to see if there's anything else under the counter. "Some coals and firewood... Oh hey a box of matches! That's good for making a fire... And I guess that's it."
After finding the things here, he checks the inventory if he has anything that's for cooking. "Pencils... Erasers... Textbooks... Ah there it is. The cooking aluminium foil that I was carrying to school for the group project... Though I don't think we'll be doing that work anytime soon." He takes out the food grade aluminium foil and puts it on the side and looks at everything he has here.
"Hmm... There's no pan or anything to cook stuff on, not that I have anything to cook anyway..." He looks at the coals and looks back at the aluminium foil. "... I think I can cover foods in foil and cover them in hot coals to cook stuff... But where do I find things to cook..." Kurou rests his head on the counter as he looks outside, seeing the other stalls selling food, raw meat, and vegetables.
He doesn't have money to buy the ingredients, this world's money anyway. So even if he tried to buy them with yen, they'll just tell him to get lost and find it himself...
Find it himself...
Kurou immediately shoots up from the chair. Yes, that could work, this is a fantasy world after all so not everything is owned by someone. That means fishes from rivers are free, berries from the wild, and salt itself could be free, if he finds a rock salt that is. If there's a sea nearby, it's even better, plenty of fish and salt water, though he doesn't have a pot yet to boil the salt water but it's the thought that counts.
But still, right now the only thing he can do is, if he can fish out one, is making fish wrapped in foil, and it won't even have any herbs and spices because he doesn't have any except salt maybe if he finds a rock salt.
He looks up at the other stalls selling other stuff.
"... Maybe it won't hurt to do window shopping."
-----
[The streets of the Lyre Village.]
"Wagyu beef for 40 Azlos! You won't get this deal anywhere!"
"Soda! Cola! Sweet drinks for you and your friends! Only for 3 Azlos a piece!"
"Meat stick! We sell meat sticks here! Food from out of this world! 5 Azlos for a pair of meat sticks!"
Kurou looks on with curiosity, in a fantasy world, it's very surprising to see foods that are from his own world here. He even sees someone selling satays here, an Indonesian cuisine, albeit they didn't call it that, they just call it meat sticks.
He kept on walking, seeing the various stalls around him until he saw an unguarded stand with a bucket of potatoes right at the stand with a big sign that says free on it.
He raises his eyebrows at such a scene, there's a bowl of perfectly shaped, well cared potatoes for anyone to take and yet no one is taking it.
He suddenly felt someone touching his shoulder, making him jolt a bit as he turned around to see who it was.
A tall woman with long brown hair tied in a ponytail looks at him.
"What're you looking at, boy?" The woman talked with a stern voice, looking at Kurou questionably.
'Whoa you're a big one...' Kurou thinks as he looks at the woman that literally towers him, and with how she looks, you would think that she's a bodybuilder but there is probably no gym here.
The woman notices his stare and chuckles, patting his shoulder. "Don't worry boy, with enough protein and hard work, even you will be able to reach this type of strength."
The woman stops patting him and looks at what he was looking at. "Anyway, you were looking at that dirty poor man's food? Those things aren't good, tasty, nor healthy for you, y'know."
Kurou's body stills after hearing such words.
What? How dare they, how dare they not know about such ingredients that are compatible with almost every foods.
He slowly turns to the woman.
"...What?"
"Yeah,those potatoes are dirty, growing from the ground, covered in dirt, and when we tried to cook one, they just tasted bland. That bowl of potatoes, probably some random schmuck that tried to cook potatoes and failed so they just put it there for anyone to take, but everyone knows potatoes is a lost cause."
"..... No they're not."
"Huh?"
"They're tasty, crunchy and healthy... Does... Does this world not know the gift that is the potatoes?"
The woman raises her eyebrows.
"What are you? Some kind of world renown chef? Being able to turn potatoes into such tasty and delicious foods?"
"No... I'm not, I'm just a home cook chef, and I will prove to you, to this world, that every ingredient could be used to make tasty foods."