Episode 24: Just because you’re cute (3)
T/N: Sponsored chapter from Kofi! Big thanks to Garnet, Anon, Chrystal, Cherry, Anon2 and NoirJ!
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‘No, this is ridiculous.’
Aristine wanted to point that out, but it was so absurd that she was at loss for words.
“It would be enough to just call it pink nyang-jelly; there’s no need for such a useless addition.”
Zodiac’s silver-rimmed glasses glinted sharply again.
‘Wait, isn’t the point being that it’s not useless?’ Aristine thought.
It was to hide the fact that Zodiac was the delegate owner of Tarkan’s merchant group.
‘If it was a useless reason, then he would have been fired right away, no?’
(Zodiac)“Are you looking down on the cuteness of a jelly paw?”
I pity you for not knowing the cuteness of a cat’s pink paw, his ash-blue eyes behind his coldly gleaming glasses seemed to say.
“No, I think they’re cute but…”
Aristine unconsciously muttered under Zodiac’s persuasive tone. She had wanted to touch one many times because it looked super soft.
(Zodiac)“But?”
(Aristine)“I’ve never actually seen one.”
At those words, Zodiac’s face was dyed in shock.
“You haven’t seen one?! How can that be…!”
He looked at Aristine like she survived 40 days in a desert without a sip of water.
“Let me show you one right now.”
“Nope,” Tarkan grabbed Zodiac’s shoulder, “We are going to discuss work, right?”
Only then did reasoning return to Zodiac’s eyes.
“Oh dear. Please forgive my rudeness, Princess Consort,” He gave Aristine a deep bow in a respectful and polite manner.
“Mn, it’s okay,” Aristine accepted the apology. She was fine, yes.
However,
‘Is this place okay…’
The problem was this merchant group. If he acted this way in front of all their business partners, she was pretty sure they would break off the deal and run.
‘This explains why the name of the merchant group was not listed on the contract.’
The contract explicitly stated that it was Tarkan’s merchant group.
She was curious so she asked but Tarkan strangely avoided telling her the name. She thought it was something else but with a name like that, he probably just wanted to hide it.
‘Why did he approve such a name in the first place? Since Zodiac is the puppet head and Tarkan is the actual owner, he can decide for himself, right?’
Aristine sat down on the sofa, feeling odd.
Studying the merchant group name was pushed to a later day while they finally moved to her reason for coming here today.
“I came here today to see the market reception in person.”
Aristine said and Zodiac nodded.
“When I heard you were coming, I felt that would be the case, so I prepared the materials in advance.”
He gestured to the folder on the table. On top of the white folder, was the drawing of a pink cat.
“…”
Aristine looked at the drawing for a while, then took a deep breath and flipped the document open.
‘Even though I know he’s the puppet head, this is too…should I have signed a contract somewhere else?’
While thinking that, she glanced over the first page and her eyes widened.
It was an unimaginably organized document for a company with the name ‘Pink-pink Nyang jelly’.
It was easy to read and easy to understand.
When she saw the skyrocketing sales graph, Aristine instantly felt at ease. Her distrust towards Zodiac melted like snow and trust sprouted in its place.
‘Indeed, trust is the foundation of every business.’
“The response has been explosive from the first day of sales. It’s not only hospital personnel that have been asking about the scalpel but members of the general public as well.”
The target customers of the medical scalpel were hospitals.
Because of that, the product wasn’t displayed at branches like usual but peddled from door-to-door. Since the number of units sold differed on a case-by-case basis, the basic method of transaction was to show the product to the hospital, get a contract signed, then store the product in the hospital.
“The fact that it is ‘iron that does not rust’ must be drawing interest.”
Aristine said and hearing that, Zodiac’s lips curled softly.
“There is that too,” he said, then added, “but this is also something that Your Highness the Princess Consort made personally.”
(Aristine)“Hm?”
Zodiac only gave a suspicious smile in response and continued, “So, we have prepared a display corner where the general public can also see the scalpel.”
“Oh, that’s a good idea.”
Aristine was impressed.
She only entrusted him with the sales, but he saw the market reaction and prepared a new strategy accordingly. He was a very capable man and she felt sorry for doubting him.
(Aristine)“With this much allure, people’s interest will deepen, and hospitals will want to capture their patients’ attention so they will try to purchase more of our scalpels.”
Furthermore, any ordinary person who saw the performance of stainless steel would be excited about it.
(Aristine)“How is the display arranged? I think it would be great to display it immersed in water.”
After all, that would be more visually effective.
“Oh, I attached a picture of the scalpel corner on the last page.”
Once Zodiac said that, Aristine started flipping through the documents.
(Zodiac)“Normally, I would show you the scalpel display and guide you through it but for safety reasons…”
No one knew what would happen if the royal couple suddenly walked into a store filled with regular people.
“No, that’s fine. I would have refused if you vacated the store and closed the doors just for me to sight see.”
After Aristine said that, her hand flipped to the last page and she froze.
Translator’s Corner:
*I noticed a lot of you were having password issues and I think I wasn’t very clear with the password instructions. The passwords for 152 & 154 has been removed so if you couldn’t get to those, you can do so now.
**Next time, I will try to be as clear as possible or I might just post the password outright. Let’s see.
