Chapter ex68: Tsuki Extra 68: Background Circumstances Sudden Emergence of Christmas, Revival of Valentine

The days of Tsige are always dazzling.

The importance of sales promotions is naturally common knowledge in modern days.

These things that are only recognized roughly in this world of the Goddess, including stuff like market research, were rapidly becoming common knowledge in Tsige thanks to the existence of Makoto.

That said, Makoto is simply talking about his own experiences, and it is not like he is trying to spread modern day business practices.

Or more like, he doesn't have the wit for it.

The problem is that there's someone in Tsige who can understand the structure, pros, and cons after hearing those customs of a far land, and would put them to practical use.

To be more specific, it is the person called Patrick Rembrandt.

The person that most people would be shocked if they were to hear about his young days, managing to obtain massive power in Tsige.

But he is now skillfully doing personal history laundering and is now known as a virtuous person.

"By the way, Raidou-kun." (Rembrandt)

Rembrandt sat at the sofa of Raidou's -Makoto's- office as if it were the most natural of things and spoke.

"What is it, Rembrandt-san?" (Makoto)

Raidou also didn't seem to be bothered by this and urged him on.

"About this 'valentine' event that you spoke of before." (Rembrandt)

"Aah, the talk that was triggered when you were talking about having begun something similar to a fair, right?" (Makoto)

"Right right, that time." (Rembrandt)

Rembrandt learned from Raidou about the existence of an event called valentine where a woman tells the man their love.

"I was thinking about opening up something like an elven market as a trial."

Rembrandt had set his eyes on the idea of distorting facts in order to create events, and so for the short term event where elves and their families come, he was thinking of opening an elven market. After several trials to achieve things like that, in the end, the Rembrandt Company is celebrating men's day and lady's day every week naturally.

Of course, the other companies also stealthily tried to copy this, and it is already not a rare sight in Tsige.

"That time, I was wondering why you didn't recommend the implementation of valentine." (Rembrandt)

"A-Asking that now?" (Makoto)

"The love between men and women is a field with a lot of business opportunities after all. I was wondering what reason there would be to avoid it." (Rembrandt)

The reality is that Rembrandt began something similar to valentine.

However, it didn't liven up as much as he thought it would.

Love can become money.

Rembrandt thought this was a wise saying , and yet, the reality was that it didn't show much results which he found strange.

"But didn't you do it, Rembrandt-san? An event that was like valentine's with sweets and dishes..." (Makoto)

"But it didn't go that well. At that time, I just assumed by myself that you were saying that because things like love were being watched over by the Goddess, but now, it is clear that you wouldn't even give a thought to the Goddess, right?" (Rembrandt)

Rembrandt said this as if pointing out that he himself also doesn't think like that.

There wasn't a single bit of reservation.

"It is not really about the Goddess though..." (Makoto)

"I certainly would like to know the reason." (Rembrandt)

"It is nothing about the chances to succeed or anything like that. It is just that there will obviously be men and women who won't be the target of such events." (Makoto)

"Doesn't it also apply to things limited to elves, dwarves, men, or women?" (Rembrandt)

"...How to say it. Uhm...the problem would be that it is unexpectedly hard to cross that horizon with effort in this case." (Makoto)

"It is rare to see you being so vague." (Rembrandt)

"Putting it simply, it is an event that is directed eyes of resentment by unpopular people -including me- so no matter how sparkly it is made to be, my wicked hidden feelings of thinking 'I am not having fun though' simply came out and I was against it." (Makoto)

"The prejudice of the unpopular? You?" (Rembrandt)

"Yes, me. I now have Mio and Tomoe, and I have no intention of self-deprecating myself though." (Makoto)

"In that case, was there some sort of different reason that made it fail? Hmm..." (Rembrandt)

Rembrandt falls in thought while looking at the table in front of the sofa.

"Could it be that you are trying to bring back valentine?" (Makoto)

Raidou wasn't even trying to hide that he isn't too into the idea.

"It doesn't have to be that specifically. Just that, we are now an independent nation, so it would be a good idea to properly set a commemoration day and events." (Rembrandt)

"...And the real reason is...?" (Makoto)

"The more chances to earn big, the better." (Rembrandt)

Rembrandt was at least trying to smooth it over, but being asked by Raidou, he immediately spilled out his real feelings.

"There's events for men and women, and also young and old of varied races. There's even been idol events recently at the times when a base is created. I think it is already prospering to a fearful extent though." (Makoto)

Raidou was counting the event days of Tsige with his fingers.

There's no doubt there's quite a good amount of events every week and every month.

It is an outrageous amount that would be impossible even in the main cities of the 4 major powers and the Academy Town.

Rembrandt obviously notices this, but it seems he has no intention of stopping yet.

"I feel like I can stuff in more if I use the pretext of our founding nation... If possible, I would like the business opportunity to drag the adventurers in too, and stimulate the young ones... Hmmm..." (Rembrant)

He has already thrown away the sugar coated words like 'events' and was directly saying business opportunity.

In contrast, there's Raidou showing a wry smile at the greed of the merchant he respects the most.

For Raidou, this topic of why Rembrandt wants to loosen the wallets of adventurers and why it has to be in the timing of the founding of a nation could also be put to use in Kaleneon which he is involved with, so this is also a good topic for Raidou, but he still couldn't react to that part.

"Valentines were done every month before and were reduced to around 3 months later, so what's important is how special it feels..." (Raidou)

"Feeling special?" (Rembrandt)

"? Yes." (Raidou)

"If I remember correctly, Valentine's Day is a day where women confess to men though." (Rembrandt)

"Yes." (Raidou)

"...Eh? Why does it require the day to feel special?" (Rembrandt)

Rembrandt honestly brought out an 'eh' from the bottom of his heart.

It seems like he doesn't understand at all what this 'feels special' means.

"About that, uhm...because it is a special day to tell the precious feelings they have hidden? I think?" (Raidou)

Raidou answered with his confidence dwindling at the end.

He has no experience of being confessed to in valentine's, so it would be difficult to say it with confidence when he is an outsider in that matter.

"..."

"..."

A moment of silence controlled the room.

"...Ooh." (Rembrandt)

Rembrandt resumed operation after that.

"You probably lived a life being super sought for regardless of things like that after all, Rembrandt-san." (Makoto)

Raidou looked at Rembrandt with lukewarm eyes while having a bit of a misunderstanding.

His hands that were moving around busily just a few moments ago had stopped.

He had finally finished the work he had for the day.

By the way, Rembrandt had calculated that moment to show up in the Kuzunoha Company.

That was something that happened around 1 hour ago.

This is truly an aside here though.

"Fumu, there has been no moment where I have failed in getting into a relationship I have aimed for." (Rembrandt)

Blunt statement.

Raidou felt as if he had been shot there and tilted a bit forward.

"T-That's impressive." (Makoto)

"But that's the result I aimed for. It is not a matter of being popular or not." (Rembrandt)

"?"

"I would thoroughly research what the other party wishes or likes, and I will act exactly as so to conquer them. That's basically what love is, right?" (Rembrandt)

"Yeah..." (Makoto)

It was an extremely dry and unexpected answer for Raidou.

The Rembrandt couple are super intimate with each other, and Raidou thought that they were living a married life that didn't feel calculated.

And the reality is that getting to know the other party and trying to get closer to their ideal is a really effective move in love.

And the man called Patrick Rembrandt doesn't cut corners for the sake of his objective.

If there's the need to get close to a specific someone of the opposite gender, he will put as much effort as needed.

He has the money and is also capable.

That's why there's barely any chance of losing.

The only ones he has one-sidedly lost to when it comes to this type of gambles are his daughters, Sif and Yuno.

Having interest, working hard to get close to that ideal, and being faithful.

He doesn't have the thought of being himself from the very beginning.

As a result, there's no way he wouldn't be popular.

You could say this is a point that Raidou should copy without his eyes turning blank as he says 'yeah...'.

On the other hand, if he doesn't need it or his interest is gone, he would easily throw it away, so it is not like everything Rembrandt does is correct.

"I see... The feeling of being special. Being popular and not being popular, huh. A fresh point of view." (Rembrandt)

On top of that, in order to not be stabbed in the back because of resent, he also properly thinks of countermeasures and ways to break up with them.

It can't be helped that he would find it fresh to see people who go in without plans and be lazy with simple demarcations like being popular or not.

Rembrandt has a severe lack of empathy.

"I would say it is a pretty normal opinion though." (Makoto)

"No, it is truly good. As expected of Raidou-kun. I was wondering why you would make an event that only has a span of once every year for something as mundane as going out with someone, but...I see. So that's where the reason lies. In that case, the idol's entertainment industry...no, I am aiming for artificial love there, so if I think of it like a date, this sort of feeling would instead be ideal? Fumu fumu." (Rembrandt)

"Well, everyone would get bored by it if valentine's were to happen every month." (Makoto)

And the reality is that there's an actual past record of it flickering away when it was every 3 months.

"Yeah, I probably failed on these types of events because my perspective was one-sided. Because of the series of new things, the employees at the store wouldn't know how to give their opinions to me, so it would actually be natural for them to not tell me even if they had a grasp of the sense of distance between us, huh." (Rembrandt)

"You did bring out one thing after the other for a period of time after all." (Makoto)

And they would flicker away one after the other; there would also be some who would stay and become staples.

Just as Raidou said, the events that targeted races, and the young and old, the card point system, and the business cards were clear successful cases.

It is true that those kinds of things were so novel on a fundamental level that it would create an atmosphere that normal people would find it hard to give their opinion on. Raidou nodded several times at this.

"In other words, the standard here should be to make it a more indecisive and half-baked thing then." (Rembrandt)

"...Eeh." (Makoto)

That way too blunt statement made Raidou groan reflexively.

"I see. Splitting Valentine's Day and White Day would be beneficial for us then. We will make it have staying power with time, so...making it feel special, huh. Then, we will make it once every year and call it something like 'the night of lovers'... Right, if we make some sort of event that excels at dyeing the inside of their heads in pink while using the founding of our nation..." (Rembrandt)

"Uhm, Rembrandt-san?" (Makoto)

Rembrandt was mumbling and had become an idea machine.

Internally, Raidou was thinking 'that's christmas'.

He thought 'speaking of which, there was an event called christmas market', but he didn't say it out loud. He felt as if that was a bit too late though.

"Being popular and not being popular, huh. Haha, how vulgar and truly easy to understand desire. Wonderful, Raidou-kun! You really see what must be seen!! Sorry, but I will be excusing myself for today with this. I now have a matter I want to do a meeting for at once!" (Rembrandt)

"I-I see. I am happy to have been of use." (Makoto)

"Well then, later! Thanks for this most enlightening time!!" (Rembrandt)

The present Tsige has special markets somewhere every day.

It is prosperous to the point that you could say every day is a festival.

There's ones that happen every week, and there's some that happen every month, and even once every year.

And, with this day serving as the trigger, an event had been added within the events of the independence day festival called the festival of lovers.

At the same time, Valentine's Day and White Day were brought back once every year.

Secretly, on the same day as the festival of lovers, a black market with extraordinary special prices where singles with swirling resentment would gather had been born, but the strange thing is that there wasn't much confrontation between the two sides, and they managed to coexist in harmony(?).

There's truly only a few that know that the one who guided all of this to happen was the first chairman of Tsige and the one who ruled as the top for a long time, Patrick Rembrandt.