Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Meeting with the Gentry

They say success usually comes to people who are too busy to look for it.

It's a saying that if you work diligently you'll definitely achieve success, but it was a story that didn't apply to me at all right now.

Why? Because I was a cheat player scamming using modern knowledge and industrial products. Adding future historical knowledge on top of that, the possibility of failure didn't exist from the start.

The business funds of 30 shillings first borrowed from Grandma Main swelled into the large sum of 3 pounds in less than a month. Truly overwhelming success.

Even so, I didn't work busily at all to earn this large sum. Sunday is the Sabbath so of course I rested, and even on weekdays I only did business briefly in the morning.

Even that, I inserted Dad and Emily to reduce the labor I had to do as much as possible. Anyway, as long as I prepared the ingredients, frying was easy work anyone could do so there was no problem.

The front of the house was crowded with people every morning, and it even got to the point where those who couldn't buy got into fistfights.

Moreover, because rumors spread that even cold Chicken and Chips was a delicacy, people started flocking to buy it for lunch or dinner.

But even in that situation, I stuck to limited sales. The reason was simple. Because being a stall vendor wasn't my final goal, there was no need to spend more energy.

I was waiting like in my previous life. For a person who smells money incredibly well.

And that opportunity came faster than expected.

Early afternoon on Saturday, while resting after finishing business today too, someone knocked on the first-floor front door.

"Excuse me. I'm a person named 'Henry Curzon,' could we talk for a bit?"

He was a man with an impressive stylish mustache, wearing a neatly ironed high-quality suit and a low bowler hat. Yes, this was exactly the person I was looking for.

You can tell just from the pronunciation. He perfectly spoke RP (*Received Pronunciation, standard pronunciation) used by the upper class, and his behavior was also very polite.

It was hard to believe he treated a working-class person like me this politely.

This person was definitely gentry.

"I'm Jean. What brings you here?"

"First, please accept my business card. Take a look."

"Barclays Bank... You're an investment officer?"

"That's right. What I have to say today is a business proposal."

Even the business card is luxurious. Rarely seen precise printing and high-quality material in this era.

You can fully guess the financial power. I nodded.

"Please come inside for now."

"Thank you for the hospitality."

The meeting place was Grandma Main's reception room on the first floor. Our house was messy from business preparations.

Anyway, I used the status window ability to peek at this man's true feelings.

[ Henry Curzon: If only I could have the power of Chicken and Chips! / Emotion: Greed / Satisfaction: - ]

It was certain. This person is aiming for the Chicken and Chips recipe.

Pour. I quietly poured him a cup of tea. In situations like this, it's important to spare words as much as possible.

Words unconsciously contain people's emotions. Accent, tone, even the pitch of the voice has information about the current psychological state hidden. So sometimes silence and patience become great weapons.

This person was also hiding his true feelings right now, but my side which opens the opponent's hand one step first could be said to be much more of a veteran in this field.

I quietly waited until the opponent spoke first. There probably wouldn't be anyone who could stay still even after smelling the aroma of this tea.

As expected, he savored the tea's aroma a few times, then opened his mouth wide in surprise.

"Heh, this is Darjeeling... Quite a delicate aroma with a unique floral scent blended... Is it Glenburn? But it feels slightly a little different somehow... May I ask where you obtained it?"

"I'm sorry, but I received it as a gift so I don't know well."

It is Glenburn. Glenburn is a top-grade Darjeeling brand that's hard to obtain even with money in current London.

If this person is gentry belonging to the upper class, he would have tasted it a few times at places like social clubs. But the reason he's confused is separate.

Glenburn is Glenburn, but what I took out is the best version improved several times in modern times. The price was only 27 points so I took it out without burden.

A hundred years is more than enough time to completely transform the variety of black tea. Of course, honestly speaking, I can't distinguish the taste of black tea. I just played a little trick to slightly confuse this person before the negotiation.

Anyway, my intention was successful, and the result was immediately confirmed by the status window in front of me.

[ Henry Curzon: What on earth is this freshness?! There's a brand even I can't identify?! / Emotion: Confusion / Satisfaction: ★★★★★ ]

【 Acquired 5 Cooking Points. 】

Huh, even though I just poured tea, a satisfaction rating appears? Is this also recognized as cooking? Well, thanks to that I got points for free so it's not bad.

Why did I confuse this person? Of course to insert bluffing into the negotiation process without him noticing. Although we've entered the 20th century, to modern eyes it's still uncivilized London Britain.

A world where if things go wrong, even if you slash from behind it's hard to catch the culprit. So I had to make this person firmly believe that I'm not a simple boy. Acting to deceive everything like that.

"If it's someone who could so easily gift such excellent tea... Hmm."

Fortunately, my intention worked properly. His gaze stuck not on me but on a big shot who might be behind me.

Of course. Would he think I stole such an incredibly expensive Darjeeling? He'd think some precious person gave it.

The reason this person approached me confidently from the start was clear. Chicken and Chips that has been sweeping in popularity among London city laborers since a month ago.

It's the perfect superior compatible of fish and chips. It would have been no different from a sensation.

He would have definitely tried similar cooking methods. But the implementation would have failed. Korean-style chicken wasn't a recipe you could copy just by tasting it.

This is like Columbus's egg.

From the start, who would even imagine frying chicken twice because it's troublesome? It was a recipe impossible to reverse-engineer from the beginning. That was also the reason I chose this cooking method.

This person who looks polite on the outside, in fact would already have finished all the background checks on me. Until I sold Chicken and Chips, I was just a newspaper-selling boy with no backing roaming Baker Street.

Moreover, seeing this shabby house he would have been convinced. That if necessary, he could lure me with sweet words and take the cooking recipe. That's why he didn't send an agent but came to negotiate himself.

Can't I just kick this person out and meet someone else? Absolutely not. The way of thinking of the rich that I realized while adapting to this world was all the same. Even if they don't show it outwardly, they can't hide the attitude of looking down on the lower class.

Even if I met someone else instead of this man, the situation would have been similar in the end.

But the fact that he approached me first is evidence that this person smells money incredibly well. So I couldn't miss this person.

Before this kind Henry comes to his senses, I decided to quickly seize the initiative.

"Then shall we get to the main point now. What brings you to me?"

"Ah, excuse me. I was lost in thought for a moment. What I want to propose is that our bank wishes to purchase the cooking method of the Chicken and Chips you're making now. That taste I've never eaten anywhere! I've completely fallen in love! I'm convinced that if we commercialize this cooking on a larger scale targeting the wealthy, we can earn big money. Not just London, but spreading Chicken and Chips worldwide!"

This man has a bigger ambition than I thought. Already thinking of the franchise concept in the early 20th century? He's absolutely not an ordinary person.

From here on it was the realm of acting. I deliberately trailed off my words, deciding to give the impression that the decision-making power wasn't with me.

"It's really a great plan. But that cooking isn't something I made alone, so it's not a problem I can decide so easily..."

"Then we can discuss it together with those who have the decision-making power. Who are they? Your parents? I can wait sufficiently."

"It's not my parents. Actually, this cooking method isn't something I developed independently, I also learned it from someone. The black tea was also gifted by that person."

"Heh..."

A bewildered expression appeared on Mr. Henry's face. Of course, this was also the reaction I intended.

"By any chance, where is that person now...?"

"I don't know well either. I heard he likes exploring various places around the world. I received a letter that he'll return soon, but I don't know well when it will be."

In fact, all this talk was fake that I made up.

Mr. Henry made a confused expression fighting fiercely in his head with this virtual person A. Of course he would. A person who wasn't in the investigation suddenly appeared, how could he not be flustered?

The reason Mr. Henry fell into such a simple trap was simple. He probably couldn't even imagine that I, a teen boy, would consistently lie from beginning to end against him. By this era's common sense, it was an absurd thing.

An uneducated boy only tells lies that are easily exposed. So if it doesn't look like a lie on the surface, it's 100 percent the truth, that logic.

Of course this is an absurd thought, but this was the way of thinking of an ordinary gentry of this era. And if he was the typical gentry I thought, the next words were obvious.

"But I think young Jean also has a sufficient stake in this cooking. If you give me the contact of the person who first devised the cooking method, I'll meet separately and pay sufficient compensation. Of course, I also want to buy young Jean's stake together."

It was a plausible statement. But this is bait.

Even if you copy the cooking method the same or slightly modify it, you can't claim copyright. In fact, that was the same in modern times too. Recipes have no copyright. Since reverse-engineering is impossible, right now they're trying to tempt with money at least.

That is, if I hand over the Chicken and Chips cooking method, the lifespan of Chicken and Chips will end with just this one-time transaction.

But that doesn't satisfy me. How grand a future does Chicken and Chips have? It hasn't even properly bubbled yet? I'm thinking of inflating its value as much as 17th-century Dutch tulips?

So at this moment, I decided to extract the maximum profit I could. And in fact, that method had already been in my head for a long time.

"Still, since it's not a cooking I made alone, carelessly buying and selling would be rude to that person. But the idea of wanting to open a big restaurant seems really cool. So what I'm saying is..."

I paused my words for a beat. This part was the main point.

"How about me working as the main chef of that restaurant? There's no need to complicatedly buy and sell stakes, and all problems will be neatly resolved. Above all, I know the core know-how of this cooking best. I also want to join that grand business plan."

20th-century London. An era where various barbarisms still run rampant in the back alleys. A world where without a solid background it's hard for any business to succeed, where the rich grasp all the vested interests.

The food service industry was also a business that required a lot of initial capital in this era. With earnings of only 3 pounds a month, it was a reality where you couldn't even dream of opening a restaurant.

But I had to do business targeting the rich. Against poor laborers who find even 2 pence a day wasteful, I wouldn't be able to earn big money.

So I resolved. If I'm going to open a restaurant anyway, I'll use the money of the sucker who appeared first in front of me.

And that opportunity finally came to me.

The sucker in front of me, Mr. Henry, tightly held my hand with an extremely moved expression.