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Chapter 60: Side Chapter: Dragon Meat, Nanahoshi Style

As we were walking along the street, however, Eris paused and murmured, "Something smells good."

Hmm. Like the scent of your neck right after a training session? I\'m a big fan of that one, personally. But with one sniff of the air, I understood what Eris meant. There was certainly a tempting aroma wafting around the area.

I glanced up towards the sun sitting high in the sky. Now that I thought of it, my stomach was feeling a bit empty at the moment. "I think it might be time for lunch."

"Yeah..." Eris agreed, nodding slightly.

The two of us had our eyes fixed on the restaurant that seemed to be the source of this interesting smell. Its exterior was less than promising. The brick walls were in terrible shape, with visible holes here and there, and the wooden sign up top was so grimy and weathered that it was impossible to read. Even the front door was about ready to fall off its hinges. It looked more like an abandoned house than a fine dining establishment.

However, the smell drifting from its interior was a whole different story. It wasn\'t the sort of rich fragrance that would get a man\'s mouth watering immediately, but there was something kind of nostalgic about it. I felt my stomach rumbling.

"You want to go in there?"

Ruijerd\'s question startled me slightly. I\'d been wandering closer to the restaurant without even realizing it. "...Yes. Is that a problem?"

Don\'t you always say that we should eat at more visually appealing restaurants?"

I did remember saying something to that effect, yes. But that was back on the Demon Continent, where you could pretty much count on a shabby-looking place to have truly awful food. Sometimes you\'d find an exception to the rule where everything was much better than expected, but...one way or another, I wouldn\'t normally have set foot in a place that looked like this.

For some reason, though, I felt really drawn to this one. "A change of pace can\'t hurt, right?"

"Well, if you say so..."

With Ruijerd and Eris tagging along, I pushed open the front door. It protested loudly at this cruel and unusual treatment.

Unsurprisingly, the restaurant itself was also on the grimy side. Well...maybe "grimy" wasn\'t quite the right word. It looked clean enough to serve as a place to eat, at least. More than anything else, it was just shabby. Half the chairs seemed to be missing legs, most of the tables were cracked, and there were shallow holes all over the floor.

As one might expect, there were no other customers inside. "We\'ve got the place to ourselves," murmured Eris cheerfully. I guess she didn\'t find anything suspicious about a restaurant being totally empty at lunchtime. It was enough to make me anxious, of course. But for some reason, my sense of anticipation was still stronger.

"Welcome, folks..." As the three of us took our seats, a skeletonthin man approached us with a menu. Was he the one who ran this place, maybe? I had to say, his face was seriously gloomy. I mean, it was obvious at a glance that the shop wasn\'t doing booming business, but it couldn\'t hurt to at least slap on a fake smile for your customers...

"Rudeus, are you sure we shouldn\'t reconsider this?"

Wow. It wasn\'t every day Ruijerd second-guessed me like this. Still, you can\'t go around judging people by their appearances, right?

"Now, now. The food might be delicious, right?"

Smiling awkwardly at my words, the skeletal man opened his menu for us. There were only two items listed on it:

Dragon Meat, Nanahoshi Style

Alba Fish Stew

Back in Millishion, the restaurants typically gave you more than ten options to choose from. Even bars that mostly focused on their booze offered a bit more variety than this. On the plus side, the prices here were low. Maybe it all cancelled out.

"What\'ll it be, folks?" So the choice was meat or fish, huh?

The Alba Fish was a species native to the seas down south. It was a standard part of people\'s diets in this part of the world; I\'d already tried some back in West Port. The menu said it was a "stew," but in this case that probably meant a sort of fish and vegetable soup. It was supposedly a very common dish in the King Dragon Realm.

On the other hand, though, we had "Dragon Meat, Nanahoshi Style." Pd never even heard of this one before. I knew that King Dragons resided in a nearby mountain range that took its name from them. They were said to be capable of manipulating gravity itself. Was this actually the meat of those monsters? Or maybe something that looked and tasted very similar...?

Also, what did "Nanahoshi" mean? The term was totally new to me, though it sounded almost...Japanese. Of course, I wasn\'t too familiar with the various cuisines of this world. Maybe it was a popular cooking method in the King Dragon Realm.

One way or another, it definitely caught my interest. "I\'ll take the meat."

"Me too." "Three of the meat, then."

Once his carnivorous guests had placed their orders, the skeletal man vanished into the kitchen expressionlessly.

here was no water provided, not that I\'d expected any different. As a general rule, you didn\'t get much of anything for free in this world. This called for some self-service. I created cups with Earth magic, filled them with water, and passed them to Ruijerd and Eris. With a few ice cubes, you couldn\'t ask for a better tonic for a weary body.

Eris gulped down the contents of her glass in seconds, chewed up the ice, and stuck her cup back out at me. "Rudeus, refill."

Shaking my head ruefully, I filled it back up for her. Ordinarily I might have told her to cast the spell herself, but we were inside a restaurant here. No reason to risk her messing it up and flooding the place.

As always, Ruijerd was just sipping at his water. The man was a fast eater, but he always took his time with his beverages.

"Anyway, it doesn\'t seem like there\'s much information to be gathered in this city, does it?"

"T guess not. I kind of wanted to look at the swords a little longer, but maybe we should just move on to the next city."

There were a huge variety of bladed weapons on sale here. Even your average roadside stall had a range of swords on display. Eris had earlier been looking over some with shining eyes, but she soon realized that they were all blunt pieces of crap targeted at beginners who didn\'t know any better. Her skills as a fighter had come a long way, but that didn\'t mean she could tell a good sword from a bad one at a glance yet. Not too surprising, really.

"Hey! I\'m comin\' in!"

Our conversation was abruptly interrupted by a loud bang. Someone had thrown the door open. A thuggish-looking man stomped his way into the restaurant without even taking off his shoes. Not that anyone did here, granted. That wasn\'t really a thing.

At the sound of this interloper\'s voice, the skeletal man emerged from the kitchen. "Shagall..."

"Hey there, Randolph! You finally in the mood to make the right decision today?"

"My answer isn\'t going to change, no matter how many times you ask. Would you just leave, please?"

"Hah! How long are you gonna keep this empty wreck of a place running, man?"

"Until I die, of course. It\'s been in my family for generations..."

From their exchange, I could make a reasonable guess as to the situation here. Long story short, this business was struggling to survive. The proprietor had probably taken out all sorts of loans just to keep its doors open. This thug was probably some shady speculator who wanted to buy up the land cheap or something.

"Wait out here for a while, at least. \'\'ve got customers at the moment."

"Customers? Oh, wow, you really do. Now that\'s a rare sight!"

"I won\'t give up on this place, not as long as I\'ve got a single customer."

"Hah!" Snorting with laughter, the thuggish man dropped down in a nearby chair. With a sidelong glance in his direction, the skeletal man trudged back into the kitchen.

It definitely sounded like times were tough. I didn\'t know all the details, of course, but if the food was any good, maybe we could try to spread the word about this place.

"That man\'s looking at us..."

I had a feeling Eris might overreact to any eye contact from this guy, so I went ahead and covered her eyes with my hands. A problem like this needed to be resolved through the power of food, not by her fists of fury.

"Hey! Rudeus! I can\'t see!"

Agh. Wait. Not my wrist, Eris! Oh, my bones. My poor delicate bones...

"Sorry for the wait, folks."

As I was playing around with Eris, our food emerged from the kitchen...and my eyes went wide at the sight of it. "No way...!"

"Dragon Meat, Nanahoshi Style" was apparently a meal with three distinct parts.

First of all, there was a transparent vegetable soup of some kind. I could tell at a glance that it would have a simple, refreshing flavor. That was fine. Standard stuff. But the other two parts were a different story.

First, to the left, we had a staple food I hadn\'t seen once after coming to this world. It was white rice! The emperor of all grains!

No...wait. On second thought, the color wasn\'t quite right. There seemed to be other grains mixed in there as well. Okay, so multigrain rice, then. It had been so long since I saw anything of the kind that I\'d gotten slightly mixed up.

In any case, that certainly explained why the smell coming from this place had felt so nostalgic. He must have been cooking rice at the time. No wonder I\'d been pulled in like a magnet.

Finally, there was the third part of our meal. This consisted of golden-brown chunks of deep-fried goodness. In other words... It was, without a doubt, karaage.

Which meant...although the soup wasn\'t exactly miso, and the rice wasn\'t exactly white...this was a classic karaage meal.

"I can\'t believe this!"

"What is it, Rudeus...?" Eris was looking at me dubiously. Understandable, since I was trembling and clutching the table with both hands.

"Uh, sorry... It\'s nothing."

I never even dreamed that Japanese-style fried food might exist in this world. The heavens had truly smiled upon me today! Maybe that Man-God character was finally starting to understand what I wanted out of life.

Okay then! Let\'s go! Let\'s eat! Right now!

Putting my hands together, I offered a quick prayer of thanks to all the spirits of the heavens and the earth.

"Let\'s dig in!"

There were no chopsticks, naturally, so I shoveled a big chunk of rice into my mouth with my fork. "Aaaah..." A single tear trickled down my cheek.

In my previous life, my passion for rice knew no bounds. It was basically what I lived for, especially in my late twenties; I must have gobbled down a gallon of the stuff every single day. And compared to the rice I ate back then, this stuff was lousy. Under the Japanese taste

First, to the left, we had a staple food I hadn\'t seen once after coming to this world. It was white rice! The emperor of all grains!

No...wait. On second thought, the color wasn\'t quite right. There seemed to be other grains mixed in there as well. Okay, so multigrain rice, then. It had been so long since I saw anything of the kind that I\'d gotten slightly mixed up.

In any case, that certainly explained why the smell coming from this place had felt so nostalgic. He must have been cooking rice at the time. No wonder I\'d been pulled in like a magnet.

Finally, there was the third part of our meal. This consisted of golden-brown chunks of deep-fried goodness. In other words... It was, without a doubt, karaage.

Which meant...although the soup wasn\'t exactly miso, and the rice wasn\'t exactly white...this was a classic karaage meal.

"I can\'t believe this!"

"What is it, Rudeus...?" Eris was looking at me dubiously. Understandable, since I was trembling and clutching the table with both hands.

"Uh, sorry... It\'s nothing."

I never even dreamed that Japanese-style fried food might exist in this world. The heavens had truly smiled upon me today! Maybe that Man-God character was finally starting to understand what I wanted out of life.

Okay then! Let\'s go! Let\'s eat! Right now!

Putting my hands together, I offered a quick prayer of thanks to all the spirits of the heavens and the earth.

"Let\'s dig in!"

There were no chopsticks, naturally, so I shoveled a big chunk of rice into my mouth with my fork. "Aaaah..." A single tear trickled down my cheek.

In my previous life, my passion for rice knew no bounds. It was basically what I lived for, especially in my late twenties; I must have gobbled down a gallon of the stuff every single day. And compared to the rice I ate back then, this stuff was lousy. Under the Japanese taste ranking system, it wouldn\'t even have earned a C.

And yet, it was still rice. Real, honest-to-goodness rice.

For the first time in my life, I truly understood that all rice was created equal.

"R-Rudeus? What\'s the matter?"

"Oh, it\'s nothing...nothing at all!" I wept silently as I ate, doing my best impression of a Japanese soldier who\'d just returned home after years in a Siberian internment camp. Every bite filled my mouth with the familiar, comforting flavor of rice.

Oh, wait. There\'s not that much, is there? I should eat it with the side dishes...

It was about time I gave this karaage a try. With a greedy stab of my fork, I skewered a deep-fried piece of meat and brought it to my mouth.

"Mergh!" Instantly, my joy gave way to shock.

This was deep-fried meat, to be sure. But it definitely wasn\'t karaage. The coating was wet and oily; the meat inside was dry and tough. And the more I chewed it, the stronger its rancid odor grew.

It was actually making me nauseous.

Anger bubbled up inside me. You expect me... You expect me to eat rice with THIS?!

I could eat rice all by itself, of course. I could eat unlimited amounts, as long as I had a little salt. Yes, salted white rice was all the samurai in my soul really needed.

And yet. I couldn\'t manage to suppress my fury. This karaage was nothing less than an act of blasphemy against rice itself.

"T want to see the chef! Right now!"

kek

When the owner of the restaurant anxiously emerged from the kitchen, I started things off with a few compliments.

First of all, the pseudo-miso was quite passable. It was a simple clear, salty vegetable soup, but it complemented the distinctive flavor of the multigrain rice very nicely. In combination, those two dishes almost felt like a complete meal all by themselves. Only a skilled artisan could have pulled that off.

The way he\'d cooked the rice was also impressive. It seemed like he\'d used the right quantity of water and the perfect amount of heat. In this, too, you could sense the touch of a veteran professional. Every grain I tasted brought a tear to my eye. If he\'d gone just a little further and paid more attention to the quality of the water he was using, it would have been worthy of a perfect score. And I was perfectly willing to present him with a few megatons of delicious Rudeus-brand H20. The stuff I carefully conjured out of thin air was tastier than anything sitting in your backyard well.

With all that said, I moved on to topic of the karaage...or rather, the Nanahoshi Style Dragon meat.

I shredded it. I shredded it thoroughly and brutally.

That stuff wasn\'t fit for human consumption. How dare he serve it to a paying customer? Did he have any idea who I was? I was Rudeus Greyrat of the party Dead End, damn it! He\'d pay dearly for this insult!

Long story short, I flipped out on the guy like a psychotic celebrity chef in a particularly foul mood. In retrospect, Pm not even sure why I got so angry. Maybe the fact that I was still hungry had something to do with it.

Eris and Ruijerd must have thought Pd lost my mind. By the end of that ugly episode, they had to drag me out of the place kicking and screaming.

Honestly, I went too far. My love for rice had gotten the better of me, yes...but that didn\'t justify some of the things I said. Especially since I was only an amateur myself.

This world didn\'t have the kind of ingredients that were readily available back in Japan. Even the oil you needed to deep-fry meat was probably of a much lower quality here. At the end of the day, I\'d learned that some people in this world ate rice with side dishes, and that deep-frying was a thing here. That was fantastic news. So why the heck had I let myself get so furious?

By the time we left his restaurant, the owner of the place had shriveled up completely, and I could see tears shining in his eyes. I\'d definitely been a childish jerk.

Let\'s do better next time, Rudeus.