By the Grace of the Gods (LN) - Volume 4 - Chapter 11

Chapter 3 Episode 11: A Nostalgic Flavor

I was led to the Saionji Company’s spice shop. Pioro’s house was apparently connected to the store.

“Welcome, what do you need? Wait, why are you here, Dad?”

“Why shouldn’t I be here? Besides, it’s not just me. Ryoma’s here too.”

“Pardon us.”

“Ryoma, we have a guest room ready for you. Settle in and get comfy.”

Miyabi was managing the store as she was earlier in the day. She already seemed to know that I was staying here, as if it were decided in advance.

“I just assumed you’ll be staying at the house. Was I wrong?”

“No, that’s the plan, but we only just decided that a bit ago.”

“We always want to be ready for guests, so we clean the guest rooms on a regular basis. And knowing Dad, I figured he’d want you to stay at our house.”

“I see. Thank you.”

“No problem. Want me to show you the way?”

“Please do.”

Pioro went back to work while Miyabi and I headed to the guest room.

“Make yourself at home.”

The room she took me to looked larger than expected for one person. The furniture wasn’t too extravagant, so it exuded a warm atmosphere.

“You’ll get dinner good enough to live up to the Saionji Company name. Look forward to it.”

“Thank you, I will.”

Miyabi nodded, satisfied by my reply. “Well, I’ll be going now. Take it easy till dinner,” she said, then quietly left the room.

Now that I was alone, I became curious about dinner. Whatever it was, it couldn’t be as bad as the snack food I had the previous night. I wondered if it would be meat, or maybe fish, but this country didn’t have many fish dishes. It was landlocked, so most of the fish available was either dried or caught from a river. Fresh fish was expensive and difficult to acquire. The only exception was in cities by one of a few lakes. Sikum, for example, had a local fishing industry and consumed more fish on average.

Fish made me think of Japanese food, something I hadn’t eaten since coming to this world. I thought that with all the other people who came here from Japan, it would have been more widespread, but I never found any in Gimul. I considered asking Pioro if there was any soy sauce or miso. If his company sold food, maybe I could at least get a hold of something that resembled those. I thought about food for a while as I relaxed and meditated to pass the time until a servant called for me. Dinner was ready.

■ ■ ■

“There you are, Ryoma. Have a seat right there.”

Pioro, Miyabi, and another fox woman were already seated. Her features were similar to Miyabi’s, so I assumed she was Pioro’s wife. She was beautiful.

“Thank you for having me.”

“You don’t have to be so polite all the time. I’m sure you noticed already, but the lady to your left is Miyabi’s mother and my wife. Her name’s Clana.”

“I’m Clana Saionji. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“I’m Ryoma Takebayashi. It’s nice to meet you too.”

“I’ve heard all about you. You have a promising future.”

“Oh, no, I’ve just gotten lucky. I’ve been blessed by all the helpful people around me. All I’ve done is hire talented staff and left all the work to them.”

I sincerely meant that. Without all of them, I most likely wouldn’t have my first store, let alone be opening a second one. The assistance I had gotten from the people I encountered was what helped me make it this far.

“For you to recognize that at so young an age tells me that you’re an outstanding person yourself.”

“She’s got that right. When the young people stumble into success, they tend to let it get to their heads and stop seeing things for what they are. They start to think they can do anything.”

“Customers and employees are what build a business. If you begin to neglect them, you’ve failed as a merchant. At that point, you’ll either need a lot of talent or some unscrupulous tactics if you want to scrape by. You already know all that, so I think you’re more than worthy of praise. You can always learn how to conduct yourself as a merchant later. For now, just being able to communicate kindly and carefully is great. Miyabi has a lot to learn in that department, since she’s usually pretty rude.”

“Dad! Why do you have to use me as an example?!”

“You happen to be a good example that’s sitting right here.”

“Miyabi, you don’t have to make yourself talk differently from normal. Ryoma, I’m sure you’ve noticed that she’s trying to restrain herself.”

“A little bit. I don’t think it’s that odd to watch your tone around customers, though, so I didn’t think much of it.”

“See? Ryoma only just met you, and even he can tell. You’re not as good at hiding it as you think.”

“God, what a pain.”

Miyabi seemed to let it get her down. I didn’t know why this was so frustrating to her.

“Sorry, don’t mind our daughter too much.”

“Miyabi took after me and became interested in business when she was just a little girl. She offered to help out around the store on her own. That was nice, but when I let her watch customer negotiations back in the day, she got just a wee bit aggressive with them. Just the other day, a customer complained that she wasn’t feminine enough.”

“It’s not like I care if they call me feminine anyway, but...”

“But what?”

“I still hate that guy who said I wasn’t! Now I feel like I need to change to show I’m better than him!”

“So you see, our daughter just hates losing. Don’t let her problems bother you too much.”

“Anyway, dinner. We’ve got some rare cuisine here today,” Pioro said and gave a hand signal to a servant standing off to the side. “You’re such a good cook that it might be hard to impress you, so I went with some unique dishes.”

“Hopefully they’re to your liking.”

They brought in the dishes. The smell reminded me of something.

“Is this miso soup?” I murmured. Pioro opened his eyes wide, then turned to disappointment. Clana smiled, evidently amused.

“You know about miso soup, Ryoma? I thought I could surprise you, darn!”

“Uh, no, I’m pretty surprised. Pioro, you have miso?”

“We do. Not a lot of folks buy the stuff, so we’ve got plenty in storage, if you want some.”

“I’d love some!”

“Well, it’s not worth much anyway, so you can have a little for free. If you like it, you can come to the store and buy more.”

“All right, thank you!”

“No problem. Anyway, if you know about miso, does that mean you know soy sauce too?”

“You even have soy sauce?!”

“Sure do.”

We continued to talk as we waited for the servant to bring out more trays. In the end, I convinced Pioro to give me some miso, soy sauce, and even vinegar and mirin. I had no idea these ingredients were available in this world. Pioro told me that they were produced on an island where some dragonewts lived. Their culture considered meager living a virtue, so they loved simple dishes that made the most use of the flavor of each ingredient. As such, they didn’t seem to use these products in many different ways, and there was little demand for them, so there wasn’t much in circulation. That seemed like a waste to me.

“First, you should eat. We can talk and eat at the same time.”

“Right, then don’t mind if I do.”

I picked up the chopsticks and had a bite of the rice. It was my first rice in three years, and it was delicious. Bread was the staple food here, and while I didn’t hate bread, I was more used to rice. Next I tried the grilled fish with soy sauce, then the miso soup, and it was all as delectable as it was on Earth.

“This brings back memories.”

“What? Ryoma, did you live in a dragonewt village?”

“Huh? No.”

“Really? You’re acting like a dragonewt who hasn’t been home in ages.”

“Am I?”

“Yeah, it’s not just the way you reacted. You know how to use those chopsticks. They were included because they go along with these dishes, but only our dragonewt guests tend to use them.”

“Ryoma, where are you from?”

Now was the time to make up some backstory. “I come from a village in a small forest. My grandmother made miso soup for me a few times back in the day, which is also around when I learned to use chopsticks. My grandparents were adventurers who traveled the world at one point, so that’s probably how they knew about it. For the ingredients, they somehow made do with wood magic.”

“Is that right?”

It sounded like I convinced them.

“By the way, Ryoma, what are you doing tomorrow? Your employees are supposed to get here in about three days, right?”

“I think I’ll make some furniture and train, while doing some adventuring work.”

“Oh, you’re an adventurer, Ryoma?” Clana asked.

“Yes, though I’m not sure whether I’d consider my business or my adventuring to be my main job at this point.”

“What rank are you?”

“I’m an E Rank at the moment.”

“E? You’re a year younger than I am, aren’t you?”

“I only just became an adventurer a couple months ago.”

“E is plenty for your age. You’re taking monster hunting requests to gain some experience, I’m sure.”

After that, we discussed my monster hunting jobs at the mine, and I asked about this town. It was centered around the founder of the Saionji Company when it was built and focused mostly on trade. The managers and employees of old businesses, among other citizens from Lenaf, seemed to have inherited a fair bit of Kansai culture. Clana was also from this city. I didn’t think this culture spread far beyond Lenaf, but the fact that people from Earth naturally left their mark on this world was mystifying. Maybe I would leave something behind for future generations too.

“Anything else you want to ask?”

“I’d like to know about the guild. I’ve never seen such a big building before.”

“I’ll bet, since it holds four different guilds. The building has entrances on all sides, which go to the merchant’s guild, adventurer’s guild, artisan’s guild, and dragoon’s guild.”

I’d never heard of the dragoon’s guild, so I asked about it.

“It used to be a group of tamers from the tamer’s guild who had flying monsters that could carry people and goods, but after the airport was constructed, they became an independent guild centered around the air delivery industry. I hear the tamer’s guild uses monsters for hunting and fighting and all sorts of stuff, but the tamers from the dragoon’s guild are all about transporting people and goods by air, and protecting them in the process. Getting monsters to carry things through the sky is supposed to be pretty hard, so the dragoon’s guild trains tamers for that job specifically. I hear they’re also still connected to the tamer’s guild in some way. When a tamer first makes a contract with a flying monster that can carry people, they’re told to take a class with the dragoon’s guild.”

“I never knew there was a guild like that.”

“Collecting materials is left to the adventurer’s guild. Making those materials into products is the job of the artisan’s guild. Selling those products is handled by the merchant’s guild. Transporting the products is taken care of by the dragoon’s guild. By working together, they help this town develop. We have my ancestor’s hard work to thank for that,” Miyabi said and puffed out her chest.

As with Pioro, she took pride in the airport, the city, and her ancestor from Earth. I got a good sense of that as I listened to them talk about the city and enjoyed Japanese food for the first time in years. After dinner, I returned to my room, had my cleaner slimes wash me off, and went to sleep early. As I thought about what to do tomorrow, the satisfaction from dinner and the fatigue of travel made me sleepy. I could have forced myself to stay awake, but there wouldn’t be much point. I decided to save the thinking for the next day. There would be plenty of time.