I took out the bundle of seasonings I had packed in my bag.
Chili powder.
Salt.
Garlic.
And a few needle peppers.
The chili powder had been made in the restaurant.
There wasn’t only one kind of chili pepper in this world.
I had compared several varieties and chosen one with little bitterness,
a beautiful color, and a faint sweetness, then dried and ground it.
It didn’t have the sharp, surging heat of a Cheongyang pepper.
Instead, it had a gently spreading spiciness and a subtle sweetness coexisting within it.
My bag always contained basic ingredients and seasonings.
Since I never knew when or where I might end up cooking, I kept myself prepared.
Needle peppers, as their name suggested, were long and thin like needles.
They had a distinctive aroma and a sharp heat that struck straight in.
In truth, the Flamberos I had used when making Topliya in the past had been even spicier,
but since peppers from the northern continent were expensive, needle peppers had greater versatility.
One of the sailors squatted down beside me and watched.
When he saw the red powder, he tilted his head.
“What’s this?”
“Chili powder.”
“Ground chili peppers? Why is it so bright red?”
“If you dry chili peppers well in the sun, they turn bright red.”
The peppers used to make this chili powder were a different variety from needle peppers.
The chili peppers in this world also shared the trait of turning red when dried in sunlight.
The sailor sniffed the chili powder.
Then he frowned slightly.
“Is this really spicy?”
“Pretty spicy.”
I put water into the pot first.
Then I cut the radish into large chunks and added it.
The radish had come from the ship’s provisions.
On long voyages, people were prone to illness if they couldn’t eat vegetables or fruit,
so they said the provisions hold was always stocked with things like cabbage, radish, and limes.
“You’re putting radish in?”
“Radish gives the broth a refreshing taste.”
After putting all the ingredients into the pot along with the assorted fish,
I snapped my fingers and lit a fire.
I hadn’t used magic while helping with the ship’s work,
but now that the work was done, there was no reason not to use it.
I poured in a little more water so the radish would be submerged.
The water soon began to boil.
When the radish had cooked somewhat and begun to soften,
I roughly minced the garlic and added it.
Then I added the chili powder.
The broth began to turn red.
“Wow, that color’s incredible.”
Boris peered into the pot.
I immediately put the assorted fish into the pot.
They were the same kinds of fish that had been used in the fish stew earlier,
but this time, I had gutted them and given them the minimum amount of preparation before adding them.
I skimmed off the foam that rose to the surface.
I sliced the needle peppers on a diagonal and added them.
Then a handful of the greens that resembled crown daisy from the fish stew.
When it came to stew dishes using assorted fish,
the one most familiar to me was none other than spicy fish stew.
After tasting the fish stew that soothed the exhausted bodies and souls of these sailors,
I had wanted to let them experience the intense flavor of spicy fish stew.
In truth, to achieve the perfect taste, I would have needed a few more ingredients,
but since I had the most important ones—fish, chili powder, and radish—it was fine.
What mattered was making it here, on this vast open sea, with the ingredients given to me now.
It was especially good that they had those greens resembling crown daisy, used to mask the fishy smell in the fish stew.
Their shape was different from crown daisy,
but the taste and aroma were almost exactly the same.
I lowered the heat a little.
The crimson broth simmered slowly.
A spicy aroma began to spread around us.
One sailor leaned his face close to the pot to smell it,
then rubbed his eyes, apparently stung by the heat.
“Gah! What is that spicy smell?”
“You’ll be fine once you get used to it.”
I added salt to the nearly finished spicy fish stew and adjusted the seasoning.
Then I tasted the broth once.
It was sharp, spicy, and supported by the refreshing flavor drawn out from the radish.
The subtle sweetness unique to this world’s chili powder gently wrapped around the heat.
The savory umami drawn from various fish had melted completely into the bright red broth.
There was no fishy smell at all.
It was exactly the sharp and refreshing spicy fish stew I had intended.
In some ways, it had more depth than the spicy fish stew I’d eaten in my previous life.
After all, I had used freshly caught sea fish without holding back.
Good. It was done.
I ladled the finished spicy fish stew into bowls.
Boris was the first to drink the broth.
“……”
A moment later.
“What on earth is this flavor……”
Boris’s eyes widened in astonishment.
I said nothing.
“My whole body’s heating up! A cook really is a cook!”
Boris exclaimed in admiration and emptied a bowl of spicy fish stew in an instant.
The sailors, one by one, picked up bowls of spicy fish stew as well.
At first, some of them frowned after taking a bite.
Some coughed.
Even so, none of them put their bowls down.
Though sweat poured from all their foreheads,
in the end, they buried their noses into their bowls as if addicted and inhaled the spicy fish stew.
“Krrr! This is good, isn’t it? It’s got a taste that smacks you right in the throat.”
“It’d go well with strong liquor.”
“This would be incredible to eat on the winter sea!”
The sailors each threw out a comment as they ate the spicy fish stew.
It was a stew made from the same assorted fish,
but it had an entirely different charm.
I had been a little worried it might be too spicy for them to eat,
but as expected of men of the sea, that didn’t seem to be a problem.
As Boris came back with a second bowl, he looked at me.
“Klaus.”
“Yeah.”
“Watching you make it, it didn’t look that hard. Do you think we could make it too?”
It seemed Boris had taken quite a liking to the spicy fish stew.
“It has the same foundation as the fish stew. Chili powder, radish, salt, and—oh, right. What’s this called? I haven’t seen this ingredient before.”
While explaining the recipe,
I lifted the crown-daisy-like greens from the bowl and asked.
“It’s seaweed called anchorleaf. It grows by clinging to the bottom of ships.”
“Seaweed……?”
This grass that tasted like crown daisy was seaweed?
At a glance, it looked like a plant that grew on land.
Now I understood why the sailors put so much of this into their food.
Anchorleaf, huh…… As expected, studying new ingredients was truly endless.
I told Boris the basic ingredients and recipe for spicy fish stew.
After hearing the recipe from me,
Boris and the sailors were sincerely pleased, saying it was surprisingly simple.
The dented pot that had been full of spicy fish stew was completely emptied.
Having finished our meal to our satisfaction,
we happily set off on the way back to port.
* * *
When land began to come into view,
I stood at the edge of the deck and looked toward the harbor.
The docks of Waterhorn slowly drew closer.
The sound of the waves changed.
The smell of the harbor touched the tip of my nose again.
I quietly went back over the things I had thought about throughout the day.
Assorted fish stew.
A food the sailors had eaten for a long time.
That taste eaten aboard a ship, right after grueling labor.
Objectively speaking, it couldn’t be considered an especially delicious food.
There were probably people who would take one spoonful, feel repulsed, and be unable to eat it.
Even so, it felt special to me.
The fish stew I’d eaten at the tavern
and the fish stew I’d eaten aboard the ship were the same dish, yet their taste had been completely different.
As for where that specialness came from,
I felt like I could now see it a little more clearly.
Food wasn’t completed on the plate.
The person eating it, the moment they ate it, and the place where they ate it all completed it together.
For the sailors, fish stew was that kind of food.
Something boiled with different ingredients every time, without even a fixed recipe.
I stood for a while with my hand resting on the deck railing.
Perhaps the food I ought to pursue at my restaurant
was connected to that kind of thing as well.
The ship reached the dock.
* * *
After arriving in Waterhorn,
I slowly prepared to return to the restaurant.
Boris finished unloading the cargo and walked over to me.
“Getting ready to head back?”
“I should get going. I’ve left the restaurant empty for a long time too.”
“It was good seeing you after so long. Want to take a box of fish?”
“No, if I need some, I’ll come buy them properly then.”
At my answer, Boris chuckled.
“Contact me if you need anything else.”
Boris came closer and held out his hand.
I clasped it and shook hands with him.
The rough hand unique to a man of the sea.
I only held it lightly, but I could feel tremendous strength in it.
I slept the whole way back in the carriage.
When the delayed muscle pain finally came over me,
a groan escaped me the moment I opened my eyes again.
“Ugh…… Recovery.”
For the time being, I cast recovery magic on myself.
But my recovery magic was weak,
so while I felt a little more energized, there was nothing I could do about the pain that made my body feel as if it were breaking apart.
If I’d known it would be like this, I should have learned recovery magic more diligently too……
* * *
It was around evening when I arrived at the restaurant.
The closed sign in front of the door was still flipped over.
The area was peaceful.
I had worried that people might come from all over after seeing the newspaper,
but it seemed that had been needless concern.
Well, who would come all the way to a restaurant in a place like this when it was expensive and reservations were inconvenient too?
Still, going to Waterhorn had been a good experience.
I took hold of the doorknob and went inside.
Jingle—
The inside of the restaurant was quiet.
As if there really wasn’t anyone there.
I set down my bag and looked around the dining hall.
The tables, chairs, and counter.
Everything was just as it had been when I left.
“Aris.”
There was no answer.
“Aris!”
There was a brief silence.
Then a rustling sound came from the kitchen.
After that, from the very back of the kitchen, Aris slowly poked out her face.
“……Manager?”
“I’m back.”
“Y-you…… You’re finally…… finally hereeeeeee!”
Aris flung open the kitchen door and shot out.
“You’re here?! Finally! You’re finally here?!”
“No, wait, what is it! Hey! What’s wrong with you! And why were you coming out of the corner of the kitchen?”
“I’ve been hiding the whoooooole time until you came back!”
I looked at Aris.
“……Because of the customers?”
“That’s right! They came every single day! Some people banged on the door! One time, two people came together and said they were going to complain to the newspaper! They even looked inside through the windows! Do you know how much trouble I was in?!”
Customers had come every day after I left……
So being featured in the newspaper really had worked after all.
Aris clasped both hands in front of her and narrowed her eyes.
“I’m sure you had a wonderful time in Waterhorn, Manager. Do you know how hard it was for me here? I ate alone every day, and I was scared, and bored……”
No, the ones who should have been scared were the customers who came here……
It hardly showed, but if you thought about it, there was a ghost haunting the restaurant……
Well, I understood Aris’s position too.
If I wasn’t here, there was no way for her to deal with customers even if they came.
If customers had really come every day and ignored the closed sign to bang on the door,
she must have been completely at a loss.
“Did you eat all the stew?”
“……I finished that in three days.”
“What?”
I was pretty sure I had made enough for about ten servings before leaving.
Then again, this girl had said she could keep eating endlessly if she set her mind to it.
Aris slowly turned her eyes elsewhere.
“……The stew was delicious.”
I let out a short sigh and headed for the stairs.
Aris pattered after me.
“By the way, did customers come yesterday too?”
“Yesterday? Um…… No. No one came yesterday or the day before.”
I stopped and looked at Aris.
“Since the day before yesterday?”
“Yes.”
Was the effect of the newspaper finally starting to wear off?
If the customers who had been coming every day hadn’t come since the day before yesterday……
There probably wouldn’t be any major problem if I opened the restaurant as usual.
Should I resume normal business starting tomorrow?
“Ah, and Manager, how was Waterhorn? Did you eat anything delicious? Did you see the sea? What did you do there?”
Aris kept following me and poured out questions.
I gave Aris a quick glance,
then turned to head up to the second floor where the bedroom was.
“Manager?”
“I’m going to sleep.”
“What?! Now?! It’s evening, but it’s still early……”
“My whole body feels like it’s going to fall apart.”
“Wait! You haven’t had dinner yet! I’m hungry too!”
“That’s fake hunger. You’re a ghost.”
“I haven’t eaten anything in days! Manager! Manageeer!”
Aris’s voice gradually grew distant behind me.
My steps up to the second floor were heavy.
Every time I set foot on a stair, terrible pain surged through me.
My palms stung as if thorns were embedded in them.
The moment I opened the bedroom door and lay down on the bed,
all thought vanished.
My eyes closed just like that.
* * *