Isekai Yururi Kikou ~Raising Children While Being an Adventurer~ Chapter 535:

More and Furthermore

“Also…”

““Y–yes!?””

When I spoke up, both Cordy-san and Tzen-san stiffened visibly.

… It was as if I’d turned into one of those customers who make impossible demands.

Well, maybe that’s exactly what I was doing.

“Um, could you make a doll from a lump of resin? Or do you know a shop that could?”

““Ah!””

“A doll of Allen?”

“A doll of Elena?”

The moment I said what I wanted them to make, Allen and Elena’s eyes started sparkling.

“When you say resin, do you mean something like amber?”

“It’s not actually a gemstone, but… it’s faster to show you, I guess.”

I took several resin figurines and one lump of raw resin out from my Infinite Storage.

“Takumi-sama, may I take one in hand?”

“Go ahead.”

“This is… indeed like amber, but it feels a little different as a material. Still, these figurines are truly adorable.”

Cordy-san first picked up the lump of resin to check its texture, then studied the resin figurines.

““Hey, hey!””

“Make a doll of Allen, please!”

“And one of Elena too! We wanna ask for it!”

The kids had been quiet while we were ordering things like hair ornaments and lapel pins,

but the moment the figurines were mentioned, they suddenly came alive with energy.

“So you’d like to make figurines of the children using this material?”

“That’s right. Though, I’m not asking for something highly detailed — more like these monster figurines here.”

Maybe I was asking the wrong shop for this kind of thing.

Still, there’s no dedicated doll shop around, so honestly, I had no idea where else to go.

“I’m just asking on the off chance, so if it’s impossible, please say so.”

“Well, we’ve had a few requests for decorative figures made of gemstones before…”

Oh, so people do mission gemstone ornaments.

“However, since this is a material I’ve never seen before, to be honest… I’m at a bit of a loss.”

So the issue is whether the resin can even be worked with or not, huh?

“Takumi-sama, if you don’t mind, could you sell us a small piece of this material? I’d like to take it back and study it.”

“I’d appreciate that, but if I sell it to you just for that, I’d feel guilty. So how about this — I’ll provide both the material and the funding, and you can experiment with cutting or melting it, see if it can be worked, and at the same time try making a prototype doll? Would that be okay?” ʀΑ₦ȎᛒΕȿ

““Eh?””

Cordy-san and Tzen-san widened their eyes at my unexpected proposal.

“… Not only will you share the material, but also the funding?”

“Of course. I’m the one making the request — isn’t that how it usually works?”

Experimenting takes time, materials, and labor costs. If I’m missioning it, shouldn’t I be covering those costs?

“““……”””

“Hehe.”

While Cordy-san and I were both at a loss for words, Rebecca-san let out a small laugh.

“Takum-san, are you asking for rights to the finished product?”

“Eh? No! I don’t need that! Wait— is that what we were talking about?”

“That’s right~ Say a shop develops a new product after a lot of trial and error. When they sell it to noble houses like ours, the price includes not just the materials, labor, and production costs, but also the development expenses from all that research. For mass-produced items, the added development cost is small; for one-of-a-kind items, it’s a large portion of the price.”

“Ohh?”

“If someone like you provides the funding, that means you’ve invested in the development, so the rights to that new product would also belong to you. The shop wouldn’t be able to sell it freely on their own.”

“… I see.”

Now that she mentioned it, the sake brewery I funded was like that —after the liquor went on sale, I started receiving royalties.

Lionel-sama handled all the paperwork and the business side, and people like Cedric-san and the Fiji pany probably did the same.

Ah— dang it, I haven’t gone to the Merchants’ Guild in ages. Well, that’s a problem for another time.

So basically, at jewelry stores, they usually avoid accepting funding like that, to keep the rights from being split up.

“So in this case, I shouldn’t provide funding, right?”

“Well, it’s not about right or wrong — it depends on whether you want the rights or not. In your case, you don’t, do you? You just want to thank them for the trouble of experimenting, right? Then instead of giving money, why not sell them some of the material at a cheap price for testing?”

“I see. Yes, that might be the best option.”

I didn’t need any rights to sell the figurines. But I did want to thank them for taking the time to experiment with what’s probably a new material.

Rebecca’s idea — selling the resin lumps cheaply — sounded perfect.

“Would that be acceptable to you, Cordy-san?”

“Yes, we’ll follow your wishes, Takumi-sama.”

If I’d visited their shop as an ordinary customer, they’d probably have negotiated harder, but since we were talking in the Count’s mansion and with Rebecca-san present, they couldn’t exactly speak too boldly.

I felt a bit bad about that — but since the deal wasn’t unfair to them, we settled on selling the material at a reduced price.

“We’re not sure yet if the material can be worked, but if we make figurines modeled after the children, the size would be about this big — does that sound right?”

““Ohh~! That’s perfect~!””

At some point, Tzen-san had already sketched rough drafts of figurines inspired by Allen and Elena. They were nicely stylized—cute little chibi versions, really.

Seeing the drawings, Allen and Elena let out delighted little cheers.

“That looks great. Please go with that style. As for the resin lumps, there are four colors in total—is it okay if I hand them over now? If it’s too much to carry, I can bring them to your shop later.”

“May we take a look at them?”

“Of course.”

I took out the four colored resin lumps from my Infinite Storage and lined them up.

“Will this amount be enough?”

“It’s more than enough! Are you sure it’s all right to part with so much of such a precious material?”

“Uh…”

I was about to say it’s not that valuable, but considering only a handful of people could reach floors 27 through 30 of the upper dungeon, even if it was lying around everywhere there, it’d still count as rare.

“We have a fair amount of it, so it’s fine.”

I answered vaguely to dodge the issue.

“I see! Takumi-sama, you truly are a top-class adventurer.”

““Oniichan’s amazing!””

“Yes, yes, he certainly is.”

After that, Allen and Elena and Cordy-san got into a back-and-forth of praise for me, and, well… let’s just say I was in a very awkward spot until Cordy-san and Tzen-san finally took their leave.

What do you think about this chapter?