Pure love ✕ Insult Complex

licious 」

Kudou-papa added.

「 Really? I don’t think that it’s bad but it’s not that delicious 」

Mariko said.

「 I don’t think that they’re using good wheat flour, do they? 」

Err.

「 It’s just ordinary…ordinary flour.
They don’t use…anything special…for their ingredients 」

Ai said.

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「 Oh, is that so? 」

Mariko said.

「 It’s more than ordinary.
It’s much more delicious compared to the supermarket or convenience store bread around this area 」

Kana-senpai says sullenly.

「 I don’t eat that “ordinary bread” so I don’t know.
What do you think, Haiji? 」

Mariko asks Haiji.

「 It’s a very Japanese taste 」

“Very Japanese”

「 This springy texture of this pastry is what I like about Japan.
The taste is also different from the European bakery from earlier 」

Haiji said.

「 No, I’m not saying that they’re bad.
But, we’re in Japan.
Ever since coming to this country, I’ve seen many things from the West arranged to a Japanese style.
I thought that the Japanese people just like those kinds of pastry 」

「 Is it that different? 」

Kana-senpai’s surprised.

「 Yes, it is 」

Haiji nods.

「 The Japanese people have been eating bread for more than a century now but it seems that the bread eating culture has never really caught on Japan 」

Kudou-papa said.

「 The start was during the Meiji era, the military eats it.
When it’s rice, you need to cook it first before eating, right? You’ll need fuel too, and once it’s turned into a meal, you have to make it a rice ball and carry it with you.
It takes a long time.
It freezes over the northern district.
But, if it’s bread, then it’s perfect for the troops to carry, see? You can eat it without cooking, and it’s light, and it lasts long 」

I see.

「 But, that didn’t work out.
Japanese people from the past can’t gain energy unless they eat rice, or should I say that It seems like they had an experiment where they created a unit that ate a complete Western diet, eating only bread, but the soldiers went one step closer to a revolt, asking to “let us eat rice.” At that time, the unit commander’s office bought rice with his own money and cooked rice for the soldiers and that’s when they calmed down

「 They love rice that much? 」

Mariko asks.

「 Hmm.
Back in those days, they talk about how soldiers get to eat a lot of white rice if you join them.
Making them eat bread means that it’s different from what was promised to them.
During the Russo-Japanese War, many soldiers died of vitamin-deficient beriberi because they ate white rice all the time.
…… That’s because Mori Ogai, the military physician general, thought beriberi was an epidemic, and there is an opinion that if they had been fed brown rice, then they wouldn’t have had such a bad experience.
…… In fact, if they had fed brown rice to the troops at that time, there would have been a mutiny that would have demanded they be fed white rice 」

Kudou-papa said.

「 Well, it’s a baseless story but still, the actual problem is that it wasn’t until after world war one that they established the tech to distribute the insufficient vitamin B1 in large quantity as a drug.
They couldn’t do anything with the problem until then

「 Let’s put the rice stories aside.
What about the bread? 」

Mariko said.

「 Well, that’s it, the Japanese people treat bread only as a snack before the war, and not as a staple food.
It’s served in a cafe and other places but it’s not something an average person would eat every day.
It wasn’t until after the war that bread was served in elementary school lunches due to the influence of America.
Before the war, nobody eats bread at lunch.
So, when you start a bread-eating lifestyle as a kid, you’ll start taking bread as meals more often 」

「 But, bread is still not a staple food even now, is it? You can settle down with bread on mornings or evenings but it doesn’t seem like something that will fill you up during lunch 」

Kana-senpai said.

「 That’s true.
Even the bakery just now serve mostly sweet bread, those you eat for snacks 」

Yomi said.

「 Oh, I see.
I get it now 」

I…

「 It was hard to choose at the first bakery because everyone’s was a bit tight.
They look like a staple food.
That’s why when we sampled them earlier; it was hard to finish just one piece 」

But, for the third one…

Everyone ate the whole piece without problems.

「 This has enough size.
This is indeed pastry suited for the Japanese people 」

I muttered while looking at the bread in my hand.

「 I..uhm…if Yoshida-kun and I…were to open a bakery with just the two of us… 」

Ai looks at the tiny bakery in the shopping district from earlier.

「 I want to do it like that 」

Yeah.

Inside the store has housewives with their children buying pastries.

It’s an ordinary bakery, loved by the people in this town.

「 But, Ai and Yoshida-kun….can’t make a store like that 」

Huh?

「 That shop…it’s a family business…there might be some helpers, but…the people making and baking the pastry…is just two to three people 」

Looking at the scale of the shop, that’s likely to be true.

「 Those people are skilled, so their pastries are delicious 」

「 Yeah, I think so too 」

「 But, they have a limit 」

Ai?

「 Yoshida-kuun…we’re learning a lot from Katsuko-san, don’t we? 」

That’s…

「 That shop….
only uses normal ingredients… because of budget constraints…they make it the ordinary way…and sell it at a normal price 」

「 Yeah, I think so too 」

「 We…try out a lot of ingredients with Katsuko-san…including expensive…flours, and rare yeast… 」

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「 Oh, you’re right 」

Katsuko-nee teaches us about various materials.

Then, she teaches us the methods of using it finely.

「 Thus…our bakery sells regular pastry and some special ones mixed in…and we know how people react when they eat it 」

Our bakery is still just our training in the end.

We don’t need to make a profit strictly.

Therefore, we can sell pastries made from expensive ingredients with prices that aren’t much different from the others.

Well, it’s students who buy it so we can’t do anything about that.

「 If we…if we’re to open a store like that…we won’t be… able to use such ingredients

If we’re opening a bakery that blends with the ordinary people in the street…

「 But, Ai and Yoshida-kun…we don’t want to use ordinary wheat flour in our pastry…right? 」

I…we…

We know how delicious pastries with expensive ingredients are.

「 So…if we were to be employed in the first bakery, the high-end one…we can learn how they make pastries in that bakery…but I don’t think that we’ll learn anything else…the manager decides everything in that place…and the staff only do what they’re told to do 」

That’s likely.

They won’t let us do research and suggest a new product.

I mean, I would be busy filling up my quota of bread to place on the shelves.

「 This is why…I think it’s a good lesson…for us 」

Ai said.

「 I know…what kind of wheat this bread is made of..how long it takes to make it…how much it costs…all of it 」

「 Yeah, me too.
Katsuko-nee did train us every day 」

The price of each ingredient we use and the efficient process we use…

She teaches us every day.

「 Yoshida-kuun…the bakery we’re making…isn’t like that one 」

Ai points at the small bakery in the shopping district.

「 It’s not like the high-class bakery we were in first, and it’s not a shop where one does everything alone like the second… 」

「 Yeah, that’s true 」

「 Then, Nobu and Ai, what kind of bakery do you want to create? 」

Kana-senpai asks.

「 That’s…we don’t know yet 」

「 What’s with that? You’ve gone and said that far but you don’t know yet? 」

Mariko blames Ai.

「 We don’t know for now..but, Katsuko-san told us…to not hold a concrete image of what kind…of the shop, we will create 」

「 Yeah, Katsuko-nee sent us to have a tour over the bakeries to study from them 」

I…

「 It’s not like we’re going to make the three bakeries our objective.
We looked at the various formats of bakeries and use it as food for thought for what kind of store we want to build.
That’s why she showed us three extreme examples 」

It’s to teach Ai and my skills and knowledge.

It makes us think of the specifics of the bakery.

That’s why…

「 Right.
If you look at it from a business standpoint, then the three of them are interesting 」

Mariko said.

「 But, it’s not enough 」

It’s not enough.

「 On the first shop, you call it a high-class bakery but for me, it’s just a mass-market bakery pretending to be high-class.
The second one has an amazing baker but it won’t suffice as a business.
And as for the third one, they’re cute for the common people but it lacks the taste for me

That’s because Mariko’s a young lady.

Then, Kana-senpai;

「 As for me, I thought that the first bakery was lovely but you’re right, after hearing your opinion, I can only see it as a shop that put on airs.
The second one is an amazing baker but it’s too expensive for me that I will never buy it.
As for the third one, I like how cute it is and I think that it’s delicious.
But, I don’t want Nobu and I to make that kind of shop 」

You don’t want us to do it?

「 After all, I want you to be a bit more ambitious.
A bakery in the neighborhood is loved by the locals but isn’t that a bit lacking? 」

Lacking.
The two used the same line.

「 Should we visit another one? 」

Mariko, what another one?

「 I want Kou to try out some pastries 」

Mariko said, then faced Kudou-papa on the driver’s seat.

「 Let’s go to “Hotel Astral Tokyo” 」

「 Oh, the foreign company high-class hotel? 」

High-class hotel?

「 Yes.
They do have pastries over there too 」

Mariko smiled at me.

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