The guard at the port’s guard station sighed as he called out to Rei.

「Didn’t you say you were going to hunt monsters? Why did you end up hunting pirates?」

「Well, why you ask? I was looking for monsters but I couldn’t find any and ended up finding pirates instead.」

They were there, so I had to do it. The guard gave another sigh at Rei’s explanation.

「Normally, a single person wouldn’t be able to go up against a pirate ship.」

「I have a reliable partner with me. In the first place, compared to a ship that sails on the water, a Griffon can fly over the sea and sky. You can see which one would be better, right?」

「Still. Most people would be suppressed by the difference in people……at the very least, the pirates would run away if they couldn’t do that. Well, as a guard of Emoshion, I’m thankful that you captured them. ……Even so, they’re back surprisingly quickly. I guess they must have people here in the city.」

「Probably. That’s why most of them immediately lost their spirit. They realised that they had no chance of winning if they tried to fight me, since I killed the Lemrace.」

Even if they tried to fight an adventurer who managed to kill the Lemrace, they would just die for nothing. In that case, it would be better to survive as a criminal slave. Maybe one day, they would be able to escape. The guard nodded at Rei, who told him what the pirates probably thought.

「Regardless, the city will be happy to receive some criminal slaves. We can sell them at auctions, or if they can’t be sold, we can get them to work in the more dangerous locations such as mines. It’s a great help to the city. I’ll just need you to sign here.」

Rei glanced over the documents that the guard handed to him, but his eyes went wide when he saw how much he would be paid.

The amount listed was 9 gold coins, far more than what he had expected.

「They’re worth quite a lot.」

「You think so? If you consider that most of the money was for the ship, it’s actually the opposite, they’re quite cheap. You would usually need several platinum coins to build a ship of that size. However, because it’s a pirate’s ship, it was in pretty bad condition. The amount also excludes the cost to repair the ship where you broke it.」

「……I see, so it’s mostly the price of the ship. But in that case, isn’t the cost of those slaves really too low?」

「Well, we usually handle them in groups. There’s also the brokerage fee we have to settle. Of course, if you were to sell directly to a slave dealer or auctioneer, you would be able to sell them for double this amount……maybe even more. What do you think?」

With more money was more trouble, hearing what the guard said, Rei immediately decided against more trouble.

If he was a good negotiator, it might have been different. However, Rei understood that he didn’t have much talent in that area other than in extorting people, so he just nodded lightly.

Another important reason was that he wouldn’t be staying in Emoshion for too much longer.

「I don’t care about the price. You can deal with it for me.」

「I understand. Well, here’s your reward then.」

Hearing that, the guard placed the 9 gold coins on the table. Rei immediately stored them into the Misty Ring after collecting them.

「But really, are you lucky or unlucky? No, it would be great if you could deal with more pirates. If you could, please keep heading out to sea from tomorrow.」

At the half joking, half serious words from the guard, Rei just smiled and shoook his head.

「My goal is just monsters. But unfortunately, I can’t seem to find any. I’ll keep looking for a few more days, but otherwise, there are many other things I want to do.」

「What else do you want to do?」

「Just a little cooking. Since I’ve come to Emoshion, I want to taste some of the delicious food here. There are also various other dishes I would like to try.」

「……It’s rare for an adventurer to cook. Well, that’s fine. Just don’t cause a commotion. Although the number of adventurers who came here for the Lemrace has dropped, there are still a few who might stir up trouble.」

「Ahh, I understand.」

Giving a brief reply to the guard, Rei headed out to where Set was sleeping as he waited.

 

 

「Hmm, as expected there are a lot more shops that have a good smell when it gets closer to the evening.」

「Gururu~」

At Rei’s words, Set’s shoulders drooped.

In the end, after towing the pirate ship in, explaining the circumstances, dealing with the procedures for the captured pirates and so on, they barely had any time to eat lunch. Although the guards had given Set a sandwich, the bread had been dry and couldn’t compare with the food he had eaten from the food stalls. As for Rei, he could have taken his own food out of the Misty Ring, but in front of the busy guards, he couldn’t have eaten by himself. In the end, he also had to put up with the unsavoury sandwiches.

Even though some of the people at the port who knew Set gave him dried meat and sandwiches, Set was over 2m in length and it was nowhere near enough. Next to him, sounds from Rei’s stomach could also be heard.

「……Guru~」

With Set giving a cry to say he was hungry as well, they went over to a nearby stall.

「Welcome. Oh, Rei. Would you like something to eat?」

The stall owner, who had grilled quite a few fish and squid, greeted the two of them with a smile.

「Yes, I’d like a silver coin’s worth. ……Hm? Wait. Could that be……」

Rei’s eyes widened when he saw what was on the net grill. It had eight legs with suction cups on each leg. Only the legs had been cooked, but it was clear at a glance what it was.

「Octopus?」

「Hm? Ah, this? People from some parts of the world don’t eat it, but it’s pretty common around here. It looks disgusting, but I can guarantee you it tastes good. ……No, since you know its name, then you should know what it looks like. Would you like some of it as well?」

「Ah, Yes. Please.」

Nodding and seeing the octopus legs being placed onto the grill, Rei couldn’t help smiling.

(Takoyaki……maybe I can make it. It’s not like I can find any sea monsters anyway. Why don’t I try making some tomorrow?)

Thinking to himself, he soon shook his head as he thought of something else.

(No, that might not be possible since I don’t have an iron plate to cook the takoyaki. If I’m going to make it, I’ll have to go to a blacksmith or somewhere else to make one. Come to think of it, that blacksmith was quite good. I’ll head around tomorrow and ask. If it goes well, it might even become quite profitable.)

「Here, one silver coin’s worth. ……Is anything wrong? You’ve be quiet for a while.」

「No, it’s just been a long time since I’ve seen an octopus. I’ve bought a lot of seafood so far, but I haven’t seen it sold anywhere.」

「There’s a lot of people who can’t stand how it looks, so it’s not displayed in stores very often. If you ask the counter directly thought, I think they should sell it to you.」

「Is it disliked that much? Anyhow, thank you for letting know how to buy it……isn’t this a bit too much?」

The fish and shellfish that had been handed to him was clearly more than 1 silver coin’s worth. In fact, it was probably closer to 2 silver coins.

However, the stall owner just replied to Rei with a smile.

「Don’t mind it, it’s a sign of gratitude as a resident of Emoshion.」

「I’ve already been thanked enough. The Lemrace materials I had were even bought out at a higher price.」

「No, no, it’s fine. It’s my way of showing thanks, so please just accept it.」

「……My bad, thank you.」

「Heh, I’ll start to go crazy if you keep on like that. Just eat it. Net grilled food is best eaten freshly cooked. Here, pass some to Set.」

At the owner’s words, Rei passed part of the pile of seafood on his plate onto another.

「Gurururu~」

Set ate all the fish that was given to him. As for the prawns and crabs, he ate them without peeling the shells, chewing right through them.

「……」

Standing next to the stall owner, who was surprised at how Set ate, Rei also bit into the fish on his plate. Naturally, he didn’t have any forks, knives or chopsticks, so he just used his hands. Normally, it would have been hot to touch, but Rei skillfully removed all the bones without worrying about it at all. The prawn and crab shells were peeled of and their meat taken out with a wooden skewer and brought to his mouth.

It was a bit messy to eat. Nevertheless, Rei and Set still ate as cleanly as they could as they filled their bellies with the seafood on their plates, as if to make up for the lunch they missed.

The large amount of seafood that had been on a 50cm diameter plate was eaten up by the two of them in less than 15 minutes.

 

 

「Oh, you’re back. I’ve heard about it, Rei-san. You caught some pirates.」

「Ah, that just happened somehow. Thanks to that, I was able to make a bit more money.」

「Right? In that case, do you want tonight’s dinner to be a bit more luxurious? I don’t know if it’s because Rei-san killed the Lemrace, but there aren’t any monsters around the sea. The fishermen are delighted. I’ll give you a bit more service today because of that.」

As soon as he entered the Blue Sea Coral Inn, the innkeeper’s daughter called out to Rei.

「I know there aren’t any monsters, but there are still fish?」

「Yes, for some reason, they weren’t affected. No, rather, it seems that the recent catch has been quite big.」

「……Really. That’s strange. Well, anyhow, let me have dinner first. I’ll eat as much good food as I can. Also, if you don’t mind, please give a bit more to Set as well.」

「Yes, leave it to me.」

On the way back to the inn, Rei had eaten some more grilled seafood, but he was still feeling hungry as he went to the dining area on the first floor.

In the end, as the innkeeper’s daughter had said, the dinner was more luxurious than usual and he was able to eat until he was satisfied.

 

 

「Octopus? No, well, we have some……so you like it as well.」

The day after catching the pirates, Rei and Set went down the main street of Emoshion. Rei planned to use the money he had earned from catching the pirates yesterday to buy some octopus and other seafood.

When Rei had first come to Emoshion, he had bought several gold coins worth of seafood. However, as he was still based in Gilm, he decided to buy as much as he could right now, so he didn’t feel he was wasting his money.

However, it was only because Rei had the Misty Ring that he was able to do this. Usually, the seafood would go bad if he bought this much.

「Next……」

At those words, Rei stopped as he thought about what he need for his cooking.

(Whether it’s takoyaki or okonomiyaki, I’ll need soup stock. But……)

Looking at the products displayed at the shop, he could only see seafood like fish, there wasn’t any sort of seaweed or kelp.

「You don’t sell seaweed?」

「What? Seaweed? You can’t sell stuff like that, can you?」

「……What?」

Rei asked back without thinking at the shopkeeper’s words.

His expression was one of disbelief, surprised that things such as seaweed and kelp weren’t sold here.

Rei didn’t know, but even on Earth, there were far more cultures that didn’t eat seaweed than those that did. Aside from Japan, there weren’t many other countries that ate seaweed. It was probably the same in Elgin. Even the shopkeeper in front of Rei seemed to think seaweed wasn’t anything useful.

「Ah, I see. That’s fine. Don’t worry about it.」

「Oh, if you need anything else, stop by again.」

Saying goodbye to the shopkeeper, Rei left the shop with Set. However, he had a difficult expression on his face as he frowned.

(I never thought that seaweed wouldn’t be sold. If I don’t have any soup stock, I won’t be able to make takoyaki……Oh, I won’t be able to make okonomiyaki either. I should be able to find yams in a port city though……should I just give up on takoyaki and okonomiyaki for now? Or……should I just use meat broth to make the takoyaki and okonomiyaki? Well I guess I’ll just have to try it. However, in that case, I probably shouldn’t go to the trouble of getting a blacksmith to make a griddle for the takoyaki. If it doesn’t work, I’ll probably just end up storing it away. For now, I’ll stick with okonomiyaki since it can be made on an ordinarly hot plate.)

Collecting his thoughts in his mind, he walked around the market again in search of someone who might have a hot plate or something similar he could use for okonomiyaki.

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