The day after Min and Rhodes had been rescued, Rei was walking alone through Abuero.

……Yes. Just by himself.

As expected, the previous day had been and emergency situation, so Rei had requested that Set be able to enter the city with the guild master’s authority. However, it wasn’t possible to let a Griffon walk around freely during the day. That was what Tirage had told him.

Currently, Set was enjoying himself outside the city as he freely hunted monsters to fill his stomach or napping as the weather warmed.

However, it was only for today.

Originally, Rei and Set were planning to return to Gilm as there was no need to help Min and Rhodes any further. However, without Elk, who was the greatest strength of the Axe of the Thunder God, they decided that it would be too dangerous for them to return alone agreed to head back together.

Min and Rhodes had to stay in the city for an extra day as they explained how they had been taken hostage and how Rhodes had been attacked, leading to Min’s capture. Because of that, Rei spent the day off, looking around the city which he had barely any time to see when he had been on the escort request.

「Heh. This spear is a fine item.」

「Isn’t it? That’s something that came from a blacksmith I’ve made a deal with. It’s not a magic item, but it’s a superb weapon when evaluated purely as a weapon. But……it’s not something you can buy kid. As it’s a excellent weapon, it has a price to match.」

「How much is it?」

「……Let’s say 2 gold coins.」

There was no doubt that the price was quite high for a weapon. However, it was easy to see that the spear in Rei’s hand was worth the price……no, more than the given price.

As a result.

「2 gold coins? I’ll take it.」

Rei simply took the gold coins out of the Misty Ring and handed it over to the owner, as if the coins had come from under his robe.

「H-Hey!? Kid, who are you……is this gold coin real?」

Seeing the gold coins being handed over, the owner hesitated for a moment, looking to see if they were real or fake. However, from his many year of experience in business, there was no doubt that the gold coins were the real thing.

「T-Thank you for your patronage……」

「Since I bought something expensive, don’t you think it would be fine to throw in a dagger as an extra bonus?」

「A-Ahh. I understand. Here, take this.」

Before the surprise of the gold coins had cooled down, Rei asked the owner to throw in some bonuses. The owner handed over two sheathed daggers without a word.

「Heh. This dagger is also pretty well made.」

Rei was also surprised by the quality of the daggers that were handed to him. He pretended to put them into his pocket as he stored them into the Misty Ring.

Rei left the weapons store with a happy smile. All that was left behind was the figure of the shopkeeper, who was wondering if the events that had just occured were a dream or not.

However, as soon as he grasped the gold coin in his hand, he knew that it was all real.

After leaving the store, Rei, who had unexpectedly bought something good, continued his walk around the city in a good mood.

「……What?」

At the end of his line of site was a stall, which he stopped to look at.

The stall itself wasn’t unusual. There were stalls selling skewers, stews and some that sold udon, which was invented in Gilm. But, in terms of udon, most of it wasn’t complete, like what was sold in Sabrusta.

However, the food that was being sold in the stall that Rei was looking at was fundamentally different from the rest. Even in this world, hot plates were used for barbecue. An iron plate was placed in the center of the stall as meat and vegetables were fried on the heated plate. Udon noodles were boiled in water and drained with cooking utensils at the corner of the stall before being fried on the hot plate. The moment the udon was put on the hot plate, some sort of demiglace sauce was sprinkled on top before being stir fried.

The seasoning that was added a demiglace sauce and not soy sauce, but the recipe was definitely that of fried udon which Rei knew of. What surprised Reiw as that instead of the salted fried udon that Rei had taught in Gilm, this was served with a demiglace sauce instead.

「Welcome. Would you like to have some, kid?」

A man in his late twenties to early thirties noticed Rei walk over and called out to him.

Nodding at the man’s question, Rei paid the slightly pricier cost of two copper coins and sat down at the stall. Then, in less than a minute, he was served a plate of fried udon with a fork.

「……」

Silently wrapping the fried udon around his fork, Rei brought it to his mouth……

「It’s delicious.」

「Hehe, isn’t it? Udon and fried udon were ingredients that were created in Gilm, but this sauce was made by me. That said, the way the dish is cooked is the same way it’s cooked with salt.」

「Fried udon, is it.」

Because it had be fried quickly on high heat, the texture of the fried meat and vegetables was chewy but not tough.

This mostly depended on peoples tastes, but Rei liked it to be a bit more chewy, so he had no complaints.

The Udon was boiled, drained and not fried for too long, so it still had a firm and chewy texture. At the very least, the udon was cooked well enough that it the udon he had eaten in Sabrusta couldn’t compare to it at all.

(Well, demiglace sauce isn’t the same as the original……but it can’t be helped. I’m used to eating fried udon with soy sauce, but I don’t dislike the taste of this sauce.)

Rei ate the fried udon while thinking to himself. Seeing Rei eat it, the owner of the stall spoke with a smile.

「How’s the taste? I can say with confidence that it’s been popular recently with how good it tastes.」

「Ah, it’s delicious. ……But, can I only buy it on a plate? I would like to buy some to take away if possible.」

「Ah……I’m sorry kid. Unfortunately I haven’t considered take away. It’s a matter of the tableware. I can’t sell all my plates as a street stall.」

「……In that case, I’ll provide the container then. How about you sell the udon you make and put it into that?」

「Hm? Hmm……well, that’s true. If you provide the container, I can sell it to you, no problem. But, you won’t get a discount on the udon for providing the container okay?」

「That’s a deal. Please wait a moment. I’ll get a container right away.」

Saying that to the stall owner, Rei immediately went to a nearby general store and bought a container.

……Of course, it wasn’t a plate or a bowl but a huge pot, which Rei had been aiming from the beginning.

Then, holding the huge pot, he returned to the place where the stall had been.

「Hey, hey, hey, hey, you said you were going to buy a container, but why is it so big? Rather, it’s going to cost you a lot you know? Can you afford that kid? No, well, if you have enough money to buy that big pot, then I guess that’s fine.」

The stall owner couldn’t hide his surprise at the size of Rei’s pot as Rei took out a gold coins as if it wasn’t anything major.

「……Kid, who the hell are you? Why do you have gold coins?」

Rei silently handed over this guild card at the stall owner’s question, who was stunned by the pot and even more so by the gold coins.

「I’m Rei, a C rank adventurer from Gilm. So the money is something I made fairly, it’s not something I got from shady means.」

「I see. ……But, I’m sorry, I can’t believe your story.」

「Why not? I’ll even pay you the full amount for it.」

Rei asked with a puzzled expression. The owner gave a big sigh before speaking.

「Listen okay? The fried udon is certainly delicious. That’s natural because I made it. However, delicious food doesn’t stay delicious forever. There is a duration which it will remain delicious. But if the noodles get cold or is kept for too long, the fried udon will spoil.」

「Ah, I see. Come to think of it, this is Abuero.」

Rei nodded when he finally understood the owner’s words.

For Rei, he had always bought a large amount of food back in Gilm, so he had thought of it as something normal. He never thought he would get stuck on this point here.

「No problem. I’ll eat all the fried udon while it’s still hot.」

「That’s why I’m telling you, if you buy so much in a pot, it will cool down as you eat it. Or what are you going to do? Are you going to eat everything in one go?」

As he spoke with Rei, blood seemed to rise in the stall owner’s head as he set his eyes on Rei.

In a sense, that was understandable as Rei wouldn’t take a step back regardless of what he said.

However, Rei just shook his head again as he replied.

「Even though I look like this, I have an item box.」

Then, to give an example, he took out some dishes from the Misty Ring.

Stew with large chunks of meat and vegetables, freshly baked bread with a crispy texture and meat skewers that if the stall owner was told that they had just been cooked, he would have believed it.

「……」

The owner could only silently watch the many dishes appear out of nowhere one after another.

Eventually, Rei stored all the dishes he had taken out back into the Misty Ring as he spoke to the stall owner.

「As you can see, food can be kept hot. ……how about that? Can you sell me the fried udon?」

「……My cooking, in an item box, you want to use such an expensive magic item to store food?」

「Yes. fried udon with demiglace sauce……it’s excellent. However, maybe you should consider the types of vegetables and frying the vegetables for a bit longer.」

Rei spoke with some regret that there were no leeks in the fried udon he had ate.

Onions may have been the more common ingredient for fried udon……but because Rei’s family had used leeks, he was more familiar with those.

「Vegetables, vegetables, is it? Well, it might be a good idea to look into it a bit further. Alright, I understand. You’ve given me such a good evaluation of my dish. Even wanting to use an item box to eat it. As a cook, I also have to respond to those feelings. Wait a moment, I’ll make it right away!」

Then, the owner started to cut up the vegetables and meat as he started to boil the water for the udon.

Then, as Rei was watching him cook……

「Ah, isn’t that Rei?」

Someone suddenly called out.

Turning around, Rei saw four people from the night before. Bilt, Begriff, Birke and Carla, the four members of the D rank party Azure Blades.

「Ah, that’s right. Just right after yesterday’s events……hey.」

Begriff, carrying his poleaxe, noticed the stall owner as he called out to Rei.

The stall owner was making a large amount of grilled udon on the hot plate……the amount of fried udon being made was enough to get heartburn just from looking at it.

「Hey, Rei. How many people did you order for?」

「I mean, what’s with that huge pot? Are you going to put the fried udon into that pot?」

Birke followed up from Begriff’s question and Rei nodded as he replied.

「Ahh. It’s a fried udon with a taste that I’ve never seen before in Gilm, where udon was invented. He deserves credit for inventing his own sauce.」

「……Isn’t that too much? Certainly, I thought it was delicious as well the last time I ate it, but it didn’t seem like something to be praised that much.」

「The fried udon here can be considered excellent. Especially if you smell the scorched flavour of the original blend of sauce, it makes me want to eat as much as I can. ……Well, if you only know about the fried udon here, then this would be the standard……but I’ll be honest, there is no fried udon in Gilm, the home of udon, that is more delicious than this fried udon.」

「Hahaha. Saying that makes me happy kid.」

The stall owner smiled as he fried a large amount of ingredients, wiping his sweat with a nearby cloth.

The boiled and wet udon was thrown in, followed by the sauce.

Immediately after that, the smell of scorched sauced started to drift around, stirring the apetite.

To Rei, the smell was slightly different, but it was reminiscent of yakisoba, takoyaki and okonomiyaki that he had eaten at summer festivals back in Japan. However, compared to oknomiyaki, the toppings of the fried udon was mostly cabbage.

Gulp.

As Rei looked at the fried udon with a watering mouth, he was given a plateful.

「Here. You don’t need to look so hungry, don’t worry about this udon, it’s yours so feel free to eat it.」

「Ah, ahh.」

He had just eaten a plate, but Rei’s stomach was still not filled, insisting on eating more.

Giving in to the temptation, he reached out to the plate with his fork……in the end, the four members of Azure Blades were treated to fried udon by Rei and ate some as well.

Like that, the scent drifted along the street for a while, in turn stimulating the appetite of passersby passing through.

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