Chapter 22: Sales Trouble

Uniforms, it turned out, were not really a thing for food stand owners. The associated gaggle of friends who had shown up to watch him set up the shop had been very clear on that subject.

“No paper hats, or anything?” Arthur asked.

“No, why? It’s not like it’s hard to tell that you work there. You’re the guy on the owner side of the counter. Who else would you be?” Rhodia said, leaning on the side of the stand. “Are those cups going to work? I’m going to rework them again later, especially once I get glass.”

Arthur held one of them up to the light. They were the best work he had seen her put out, by far. They had lids to hold the straws, though it seemed to fall short on the keeping the liquid inside the cup. But since locking lids weren’t really a thing yet, from what Arthur had seen, that was probably fine. She had glazed them a dark gray and overall, they were pretty, functional objects.

“Yeah, these are going to work just fine. And the tools, which are fantastic, Milo. And this water…” He took another sip of it, and felt Food Scientist’s general approval of it for the tenth time that morning. “Where is Mizu, anyway? I haven’t seen her and I really need to thank her for this.”

“No idea. We weren’t here when she finished, and nobody has seen her since.”

“Well, okay. But everything’s fine, really. I just need to get started on prep. If anyone wants, the first drink is on me.”

Of course, everyone wanted a free drink.

Arthur poured a generous amount of boba pearls into boiling water, then stirred them as they inflated to their full glory. Once they were fully cooked, he pulled them out of the water with a sieve Milo had put together and dumped them into one of the large bowls that Rhodia had made. And he covered the finished pearls with a weak sugar syrup to keep the air from drying them out too fast.

“Does anyone want it hot?”

“You can make it hot?” Chuck asked. “You’ve always iced it before.”

“That’s just the more common way. I can make it hot, if you want.”

Most people still took it iced, given the warmth of the morning, but both Milo and Spiky tried the hot version. For ten minutes or so, Arthur and most of his young friends joked, drank, and had a good time.

It really does help to take the edge off. Maybe if I had more friends at my old job, it might have been more bearable.

Then, gradually, people cleared their drinks. Spiky was the first to go, having work that he described as “a lot of books to sort through.” The others peeled off one by one, until eventually only Rhodia and Milo were left.

“You will do fine, Arthur,” Rhodia said. “If nothing else, you’re new. Things will pick up over time.”

“And it’s good. Just wait,” Milo said, “for it to happen. You don’t have to do anything besides that. I think.”

“Got it. And guys? Thanks again. I couldn’t have done it without you two, especially.”

They walked off, and Arthur got to work washing the last of the glasses his friends had used while he waited for the morning rush to begin.

“Pensa means small. Coin means coin. And Majna means large,” Arthur said as he worked. He hadn’t really used money since he got to the demon world, mostly having been freeloading off his hosts. Now he’d have to be fluent in the money system, which wasn’t impossible but added up to another thing he’d have to learn.

He looked again at the small change-taking tower Milo had made him, a sort of primitive cash register made of three tall tubes the coins could just drop into, with cuts in them so his fingers could get in to force coins up and out. It was a nice touch. He sat there practicing making change until he heard a voice.

“Ahem,” the badger-mayor cleared his throat.

“Oh, hello, Pico. Look, I made it.” Arthur gestured at the whole stand. “Everyone helped a lot, or I might not have been able to do it.”

“It’s very nice.”

“It is! Look at this change counter Milo made.” Arthur spent the next minute or so showing the mayor everything, hoping it came up to his standard. The mayor was polite, oohing and aahing at the correct times, and generally appreciating the stand. But at the end, where Arthur expected him to either approve or disapprove of his setup, he stood there, quietly. Like he was waiting for more.

What does he want? That’s the entire store.

“I think the store is very nice, Arthur. But…” Arthur braced for the bad news. “I sort of want to buy some of your drink, and you won’t sell me any, for reasons that escape me.”

“Oh!” Arthur said. “Oh. Very sorry. I was confused as to why you were here. We have pep tea, no pep tea. And you can have either in a stronger or lighter brew. And of course, you can decide how much cream you want.”

“The weaker pep tea, and heavy on the cream, please.”

“Got it!” Arthur put together the tea quickly, handed the cup to the mayor, and then asked. “Is it… good?”

The mayor hadn’t drunk yet.

“Arthur, do you know why I’m glad I stopped by early today?”

“Um… I’m hoping for the tea. And the conversation? My sparkling conversation?”

“It’s because you have the jitters. Which is fine, Arthur. It’s understandable. But I’m glad I can help you work them out. And part of that help is telling you that when you give a customer a product, it’s customary to make them pay for it. And to tell them how much.”

“Oh! Yes. Of course. It’s seven pensa or one coin.” Ella had helped him work out the price. From what Arthur could tell, a coin was about ten dollars in terms of what it would buy in a demon market. But that came with some complexity. He had bought a set of clothes, for instance, for about four coins. But things like clothes and other durable goods were cheaper than on Earth, at least by a bit.

Food was the thing that tracked the best, which meant he was charging either seven or ten dollars per drink, depending on whether or not the person was the kind to carry Pensa around. To the extent that demons tipped, it seemed to be through an informal hatred of small change. Just another thing to get used to, he supposed.

“A coin for you, then. And you don’t have to say the last part. People know how to round up themselves.”

“Got it.”

Drink in hand, the mayor finally sat down for a bit. It turned out that Arthur didn’t need to impress him much. Actually making the deadline was enough. The fact that he was capable of serving a drink had bought him much more time all by itself.

“Where this gets hard, Arthur, is that you now need to progress. What the city cares about from here is the number of customers you serve. You do have a tally sheet, correct?”

“I do. Ella gave me one.”

“Good. If you serve sufficient customers, the city is pleased, that and the taxes you’ll eventually pay. If you have trouble getting that many customers, you can always lower prices, but…”

“I have to make money. The city won’t subsidize the business end.”

“That’s right. We can help, but there’s a point where it becomes unfair to the other vendors.” The mayor stood. “This was good, Arthur. Not the best. But your class is growing, and the uniqueness of this experience will help you more than you know. But you need to keep pace with your skills. More kinds of tea. More kinds of these things that you call pearls, if that’s possible. I’m sure Ella has talked to you about that, but work hard to make sure you don’t lose that initial edge.”

“Of course. And thanks for the advice.”

“No problem.” The mayor walked off. “And Arthur?”

“Yes?”

“You might want to check your status sheet. I’m guessing there might have been a bit of a change.”

Arthur cocked his head a bit, confused, then pulled up his sheet. What he saw there made him sit down in shock.

Arthur Clarendon

Level 7 Teamaster

Stats:

STR 5

VIT 5

DEX 5

PER 9

WIS 5

INT 5

Unassigned Stat Points: 8

Primary Skills: Teashop Brewmaster (Level 5) Food Scientist (Level 7)

Achievements: Shop Owner, First Customer (Rolling into shop owner)

Food Scientist had leveled in his mad rush to get ready for the shop opening, moving to a new tier and starting to work in a different, more subtle way. Its suggestions now felt more and more like his own thoughts. But Teashop Brewmaster had barely progressed.

That one cup of tea, from a paying customer, had driven his class skill forward three levels as well as a bunch of personal levels. He moved to examine the skill closer, then aborted as he saw another possible customer approaching, a large elemental hybrid of the rock variety he had seen around town a few times before.

Luckily, I know just where those stat points are going.

Dumping the points in a way that rounded him out a little better took no time at all, and he got in one last glance before the customer made it to the table.

Level 7 Teamaster

Stats:

STR 5

VIT 6

DEX 6

PER 12

WIS 8

INT 5

Primary Skills: Teashop Brewmaster (Level 5) Food Scientist (Level 7)

Achievements: Shop Owner, First Customer (Rolling into shop owner)

The sudden rush of stats hit hard, leaving Arthur just enough time to clear his head before the customer started talking.

“What is this?” the rock-man said. “Tea?”

“Boba Tea,” Arthur replied. Using his new-found dexterity, he speared one of the pearls out of his bowl with a small, dual-pronged fork. “It’s a tea, with cream, usually served cold. And it has a healthy handful of these at the bottom.”

The rock-man eyed the pearls suspiciously before pinching it off the fork, and popping it into his mouth.

“You suck those through these straws as you drink,” Arthur explained.

“It’s a tea you can eat? Like a meal?”

“More like a heavy snack.”

“Got it,” the rock-man said, then turned to leave. “Thanks! I’ll see you later.”

Arthur almost reached out for the demon, unsure of what he had done wrong. But he let the man go. Whatever norms he was about to learn at his food stand, he doubted that included hard-selling boba to reluctant customers. With the rock-man gone, he waited for his next chance.

That opportunity came in the form of a busy-looking rabbit woman. Like the rock-man, she took a sample, then thanked him and left as soon as she learned what the overall drink actually was.

Has everyone just been pretending to like this?

As the morning wore on, Arthur got more and more worried. He managed to sell one more drink to a wind-elemental, who took the cup with them. But mostly, he was way under quota, and it was almost entirely attributable to the fact that he wasn’t closing the sales. There was plenty of interest and curiosity, but almost nobody bought.

“Hey, Arthur. How’s it going?”

Arthur startled out of his worry to see Ella standing there, smiling and shoving a sandwich into his hands.

“I thought you could use a little food. Worry burns a lot of energy.”

“Thanks. This helps.” Arthur started chewing. “It’s not going great, honestly.”

“I could tell that from all the way across the street, Arthur. You have to smile, you know. Nobody wants a sad shop keep.”

“True. I’ll try to do better.”

“Now, why do you think you are doing poorly?”

“I’ve sold two drinks. Lots of levels for that, oddly, but nobody else has bought. It’s like the drink sounds bad to everyone.” He frowned. “I’m failing, Ella. Nobody wants this.”