Chapter 203: Live to Sienna Pt.203

It would be natural for Carl to think that because of the look she would have made at the time, but Sienna felt sad for some reason.

“Hey, I feel like I’m the loser. Honestly, I was surprised when I first saw you. How can there be such a handsome man, like a prince, as my nanny said? Now I feel like a fool to think like this is what I thought. You saw me as a weirdo.”

“I’m not saying you seemed like a weird person, but…I just felt weird. You called my name then. It felt so… …unusual. I’m sure you’ve never seen me before, and we’ve never met before, and you’ve had a very serious look on your face, and I thought if you knew me, you wouldn’t call me by my name, and you called me by my name as soon as you saw me…”

Listening to Carl, Sienna thought he deserved to think she was strange.

“So I think I saw you for the first time then, when the hell did you see me before that? You recognized me, so you knew me before.”

Sienna mumbled because she could not say she knew him in the past before her return.

“It’s a secret. I’m not going to tell someone who said it was weird when I asked him what my first impression was like. I said I had a crush!”

When Sienna spoke with her cheeks inflated, Carl burst into a big laugh. He seemed quite pleased with what she said.

“If you laugh so loud, everyone looks at you.”

Sienna and Carl rushed to get the pickled miree and moved on because they were worried that someone would recognize them.

“It looks like there are more people than before.”

It was quiet when they arrived at the market early in the morning, but soon it was full of people and there was no room to walk. Carl drew Sienna slightly to his side, fearing that she would be swept away by the crowd.

“It’s too crowded. It wouldn’t be good to walk around too long…”

He looked around and found a place for Sienna to sit.

“There’s a restaurant right there. Since it’s almost lunchtime let’s go have a seat.”

Sienna and Carl entered a store extravagantly labeled “Dragon’s Table”.

She was worried that there might be no seats due to the large crowd, but the inside was quieter than she expected. It was still early and the store seemed like it was always open, so it seemed like the crowds went to the stalls that open once a month today.

However, it was not that there were no customers at all. Some of the early eaters were sitting down with their meal.

Sienna and Carl settled close to the entrance. With the door wide open, they could see the view of the market outside at a glance.

“I’ve never seen you guys before. Looks like you must be from outside. The market has a high quality wool from Carmel that is very good, so you should take a look. Oh, if you’re out of kitchen salt, look for a merchant with yellow baskets across the street. They say they took salt straight from the salt mine, so it’s slightly bitter but it’s okay if you use it well. Last year and this year we had a lot of precipitation, so the price of salt went up, so it’s not bad to replace it with rock salt.”

The owner didn’t even show them a menu, but listed a series of items sold on the market. The diners burst into laughter and said, “Hey, boss. Don’t mind other people’s business, just sell this store’s food. Look at the faces of the guests who just came in. Isn’t he confused whether he came into a restaurant or a house selling sheep fur and salt?”

At the guests’ words, the host burst out laughing.

“Oh, I see! We should sell our food. Most of all, our store is famous for our herbal-flavored beer, and anything goes well with it. I can make anything for you if we have the ingredients.”

The owner patted his apron with confidence that he could make any dish. Seeing his hairy forearm, Sienna doubted whether he could make any food, but she had to order something since they had already entered the restaurant.

“I’m okay with beer, please recommend something to be a meal.”

“Lamb meat is fine today. I have some new meat. How about lamb? You can put a lot of butter on the meat surface to make it crispy, and add spices. It’s especially good when you eat it with pickled cabbage, it tastes amazing!”

Carl nodded and asked Sienna for a comment.

“I’d rather have sweet desserts than a meal…”

“Dessert is good, but wouldn’t it be better to eat it after a real meal? The doctor told me it’s good to have a nutritious meal on time, even if you didn’t want to…”

Listening to the conversation between Carl and Sienna, the host tilted his head and asked.

“Is your wife ill? If you’d like, there’s watery soup…”

“She’s not sick. She has a child.”

Carl told him with a proud look. The host clapped his hands and said, “That’s something to celebrate. Then I’ll make you some amazing stew. If I cut the beef into soft parts and boil the cream soup with potatoes and vegetables, it’s good for your body, and above all, it tastes amazing.”

Sienna nodded and said, “Then give me the stew. But do you have anything sweet? I suddenly wanted to eat something sweet…”

At Sienna’s question, the store owner looked concerned.

“Dang! I can make any kind of meal or dessert, but we don’t have the ingredients today. The sugar prices are like gold prices right now… I can’t remember when the last time I baked a cookie was. Ah, how about this? I’ll prepare you some yogurt with poached fruit and fruit syrup. It won’t be that sweet but still pretty good. Unless you can’t handle sour…”

“That sounds good. I’ll have some please.”

“Then I’ll bring that dessert.”

The store owner got their menu and went into the kitchen.

“By the way, sugar must have gotten a lot more expensive. I’ve never heard sugar being compared to gold. But can sugar be expensive? Isn’t that weird?”

“I know. It’s strange…”

Carl frowned.

“Is someone playing a prank?”

There were no sugar-growing districts in Leipsden, but ordinary people also did not find it difficult to get sugar because raw materials were imported in large quantities from abroad at cheap prices. Thanks to that trade situation, sweet desserts were obtained without difficulty.

Salt tends to fluctuate in price. Because it was usually made by boiling of seawater, the price of salt would rise if the price of wood used for firewood increased.

If it was salt that fluctuated in the market, Sienna might not have thought it was suspicious. But sugar was different. Sugar was a widely used item in daily life, so she wondered if someone was playing with price differences for their own gain.

Carl shook his head at Sienna’s word.

“Sugar is not a good item to play with for bulk purchase. It’s widely used, but it’s not a must-have item like salt. If prices go up a lot, you can make fewer desserts like they are doing now, or you can control demand by adding fruits or sweets instead of adding sugar. Moreover, it’s usually bought in big bulks compared to the cheap cost of it so people can store it longer. In many ways, it’s not a suitable item to play with.”

“That’s strange, then. Why did the price go up?”

“Given the fact that the problem of sugar price fluctuations has yet to come to my attention, I think the change has been recent. A storm may have caused problems such as delaying shipment for a long time or the ship’s stranded. It’s just that…”

“But, what?”

“It’s on my mind that Count Ferrer is the owner of the top importer of the sugar in the capital.”

While he was the Crown Prince, Carl provided much of the benefit to the Ferrer family. One of them was this.

The capital city was very sugar-intensive and was able to import sugarcane at a low price due to contracts between countries, so it was able to consistently make a lot of profits.

That moment, the owner came with a large tray full of food in one hand. Because of his huge size, a tray as big as a table looked just right for him.

He first laid down a bowl of stew in front of Sienna. A number of ingredients, which had been cut in small pieces, were mixed in a white cream soup, with a savory aroma of butter stimulating the appetite. He said, putting down the hard-looking rye bread.

“If you rip this bread and eat it with a stew, it would be amazing. The surface is hard, but it’s very moist inside, so it’ll be fine. Ah! And this is yogurt. The apricots are very sweet.”

He put down the food one by one, accompanied by an explanation. Next, the owner put the thick, crispy lamb in front of Carl and said bon appetit.

“Thank you for the meal. Oh, I have a question.”

Sienna caught the owner trying to turn around.

“Ask anything. I’ll answer everything I can. Especially, I know everything about the market. What’s good, what’s cheap.”

Said the owner, looking at Sienna with a pleased look. He seemed to like talking.

“You said sugar is the price of gold.”

“Aha, sugar? You really wanted to eat a lot of sweets. The price is one thing, but it’s not going to be available in the market… It’s expensive, but how about honey? I know a merchant, so I can ask him to sell it in small portions.”

Carl didn’t want him to get distracted, so he asked again.

“How long has it been since sugar was off the market?”

“Not that long actually. A little over a month? Since I’m doing business, I’m sensitive to this kind of thing. The sugar dealer said they haven’t had sugar in a month. Not just one place, every store said the same thing. This happens when a boat carrying sugar turns over once every few years. Usually, this kind of thing gets solved in two weeks when the next ship comes in, but this time it’s hard to see sugar in the market for over a month. I would need sugar by next week…”

The owner went to receive other guests who came in.

“That’s suspicious.”