In a Different World with a Smartphone (LN) - Volume 30 - Chapter 3.4

Interlude: Brunhild’s Ramen Alley

“A delivery service using Gate Mirrors?”

“Yes. I am of the opinion that such a business would be groundbreaking, given we have access to a magic tool that lets us send letters anywhere in the world.”

Kousaka had placed two long and narrow-framed mirrors on the table; they were the Gate Mirrors infused with my magic. It was a magic item that allowed you to place an object inside one mirror and have it appear through the other paired mirror. Right now, it was primarily being used to send correspondences between countries, but what was being suggested was that we find a way to make it available for public use.

I didn’t hate the idea. To this day, a lot of nobles still used horse-drawn carriages to send letters, but they could send them much faster if we gave them access to the Gate Mirrors.

The problem was that there were a lot of caveats with handling letters addressed to commoners. First was that most people didn’t have a precise address. Getting it to a village was well and good—you just had to put “Blah-blah of XYZ Village” and it would deliver fine. The moment it was addressed to someone in a big city, however, it was nearly impossible to get your letter delivered with just that.

There were tons of people with the same name, and if you wanted to differentiate them, you had to specify not just that they were in the city, but details like the names of their parents.

Even then, telling your deliveryman to search for someone in a big city was a bit of an unreasonable ask. If they were a noble, something could be figured out—they probably had a big estate somewhere, after all. But what about adventurers? Adventurers were a nomadic sort who stayed in inns and other lodgings, changing where they stayed as they needed.

Not only did that already limit who could have letters sent to them, but there was also the issue of literacy rates. There weren’t very many commoners who knew how to write, since they didn’t have the opportunity to learn. There were even countries where royal proclamations required an official reader.

Incidentally, as a bit of a brag, Brunhild’s literacy rate was practically one hundred percent. Sakura’s mother, Fiana, was the headmistress of our local school, and even adults were allowed to learn there for free. Olba’s Strand Company, which sold things like picture books, had also served as a big influence.

In any case, the more widespread low literacy rates across the continent meant that very few commoners sent letters. There was always the chance that people who wanted to learn how to write may start appearing, though, and a functioning delivery service may serve as a good motivator for just that.

I didn’t mind turning it into a business, but I doubted we could do a lot by ourselves. We simply didn’t have enough hands.

Honestly, it seemed like it would be easier to just sell the Gate Mirrors themselves at a luxury price. The problem with that was that the moment I wasn’t there to make them, they’d go out of business, and some noble somewhere would make a delivery service with whatever ones were left.

Felt like a waste to throw away the chance of such a profit, though.

The adventurer’s guild had something called a Tracebook that let them send messages between other guilds. Like Gate Mirrors, it required a partnered item. When you wrote on your own Tracebook, those letters would appear on the other Tracebook.

On the topic of the adventurer’s guild, adventurers had guild cards, so it at least guaranteed you could deliver a letter to a registered adventurer eventually. You just had to send it through to the branch where the card was most recently used.

In that case, should we combine the guild with a post office?

If we got adventurers to help out with deliveries, that would also save on labor costs. We couldn’t afford to let them handle official correspondence, but I didn’t think personal letters would be such a big deal. Even now, it was perfectly normal for people to entrust their letters to merchants or travelers.

There were stories of people who entrusted their letters to people they didn’t know and they ended up taking their money and not delivering the letter. The adventurer’s guild taking on letters would help alleviate that issue.

“Guess I’ll go consult with Relisha first.”

“That would be advisable.”

Whatever we decided to do, it was almost certain we couldn’t handle it ourselves. The adventurer’s guild had branches all over the world, so they would be perfect as a partner for the company.

I quickly teleported to the guild.

◇ ◇ ◇

“So you want to use Gate Mirrors to allow regular citizens to be able to reliably deliver letters, huh?”

Relisha went silent as she fell into thought for a moment. Was there something that bothered her about the idea?

“How do you intend to profit from this as a country?”

“By only loaning the mirrors to the guild. We’d probably ask for you to pay an annual rental fee.”

“I see. This is under the assumption that we’d get profits from the delivery service, right? Well, assuming we can iron that all out later...”

When Relisha dropped a letter into the Gate Mirror on the table, it popped out of the one next to it. She then smoothly snatched it out of the air.

“We already get commissioned to deliver letters at the guild, though they’re generally only domestic deliveries.”

All the client had to do was entrust their letter to the guild, and the guild would then pass it on to adventurers who would be traveling to the destination or a nearby town. Essentially, the letter would go from guild to guild until it reached its recipient, but apparently, that cost a lot of money and time.

The more stops along the way there were, the more adventurers they needed to get involved, increasing the commission fee. In the worst case, where no adventurers were heading to that area, the letter would simply remain at the guild until someone going in that direction showed up. If the recipient lived in a village with no guild, the adventurer would be expected to deliver it to the village itself directly.

If the guilds began making use of Gate Mirrors, it would become possible for the letter to be sent to the closest guild and for them to only rely on adventurers from there. It would still be tough if the recipient was in a location with no guild, but for cases where the recipient was in the same location as the guild, the delivery would be local, so it was both safe and would let an adventurer get some nice pocket money, perfect for adventurers just starting out who needed to make money to get their starting gear.

“Oh, you’ve caught onto a good point,” Relisha remarked. “I’m sure new adventurers would love simple jobs like these. We’d have to make sure we had countermeasures in place for any potential trouble, though.”

Right, there was still the possibility that letters never made it to their destination or got lost somewhere along the way. We couldn’t just act innocent in those scenarios.

“We’ll also need to select ideal locations to put the Gate Mirrors. We obviously can’t put one in every town and village in the world.”

Even just assuming one hundred towns, you’d have to make a separate ninety-nine paired Gate Mirrors for every town, and that would almost bring us well into needing ten thousand mirrors.

“Something we could do is have all of the letters be delivered to the capital’s branch, and they would then distribute them to the individual towns.”

That was a good idea. That way, only the capital cities would need several Gate Mirrors made, making that process much simpler. It did mean I’d have to make enough Gate Mirrors that the capital would connect to every town, though.

“In any case, allow me to bring up this matter to the council first. I can’t make the decision myself. There may even be countries who outright refuse it.”

“I do think countries in the alliance would be open to the idea, but I know the guild still hasn’t quite managed to expand into the Western Continent yet, so there’s nothing we can do about that.”

I’d heard that over there, those rich enough used bird Gollems to deliver letters, but Gollems themselves were expensive, so it was probably limited to nobles. The common citizens did have horse messengers and regular mailmen, but they didn’t seem to make much use of them, both due to their lacking literacy rates and also because of how expensive it no doubt was.

It would be nice if we could make it easier for people to send letters to faraway friends or family. It’d be great if we could help increase literacy rates as well, but maybe that was aiming a little too high.

In any case, I left the rest to Relisha and headed back to the castle. Something seemed to be going on in the courtyard. Peeking out from the second-floor window, I noticed a stall that hadn’t been there before I went to the guild. On a red flag was “Ramen” written in white.

“The hell’s going on down there?”

I made my way down and, perhaps unsurprisingly, who else was manning the stand other than Lu and Arcia. Next to them were Quun, Parla, Uncle Kousuke, and Karina setting up another.

“Oh, you’re back, Touya,” Karina cheerfully greeted me.

“Uhhh, would someone mind explaining what’s going on here?”

“Long story short, I ended up hunting a bunch of boars. Thought I’d ask Lu if she could do something with them.”

“It just so happened that I also had the same idea with some fresh veggies from my fields. When I asked if she could whip somethin’ up with ’em, the lass suggested that...”

“We make ramen! A new ramen!” Lu declared, raising a ladle toward the sky. Her eyes were burning with the flames of passion.

They were just obsessed with curry the other day, and now we’re rushing straight to ramen?

“Haven’t you made ramen a ton before?”

They’d made regular ramen, bizarre ramen, and even chilled ramen. Why were we back here?

“It’s because of this,” Quun answered, handing over a thin magazine.

“Ramen Kingdom?”

Flipping through the pages, it seemed to be introducing a bunch of famous ramen places. It was literally a ramen magazine. Was this something Lu had bought while we were on our honeymoon on Earth?

“For some reason, it was among the books that mother bought. She handed it over to Mother Lu and, well, this is the result,” Quun elaborated as she continued setting up the neighboring stall. It was among the books that Leen had bought?

Back on Earth, Linze and Leen both bought books like crazy, no matter what language they were in. It was easy for me to pull them out of [Storage] in bulk, since all I had to specify was “books we bought from Earth.” That also meant that I had no idea what they actually bought, though. One of them must have bought it by accident.

“I was positive that ramen was simply made with soy sauce, miso, and salt, but to think there was a whole other world of flavor out there!” Lu exclaimed, shaking her head forlornly, showing her great regret. Technically, I was the one that taught her that, and I hadn’t eaten anything other than your average ramen, so I hadn’t been able to teach her anything else...

There were already all kinds of ramen from tonkotsu, to niboshi, to chicken paitan—was it that easy to find a new flavor?

“I’m aware. Both cooking and the arts all begin with imitation, you see. It is through making all manner of ramen that I gain experience points. Plus, there is ramen that can’t be made on Earth that we can make here in this world!”

Hearing Lu say that only reminded me of the meat ramein made from troll flank we’d had in Heilong... Sure, you could make ramen here that you couldn’t on Earth because of the different meat available, but that didn’t mean it would taste good.

“I was thinking it would be nice to let the residents of the castle town have some if we make anything exceptional.”

“Explains why you have these stands, I guess.”

“For now, let’s start with this! Ryukotsu ramen where the broth is made with the marrow of crushed Dragon bones instead of pork bones!” Lu said as she pulled out a bowl of ramen and slammed it down on the counter.

Ryukotsu ramen! This is what I wanted to try!

“I thought the broth would be cloudy like tonkotsu ramen, but it actually looks clear...”

It even looked like shio ramen at a glance... Actually, there was barely any visible oil on the surface, so that wasn’t a good comparison. It just looked like hot water.

Doesn’t it look nicer than you’d think? It’s like someone took ramen, bamboo shoots, chashu pork, green onions, seaweed, and eggs and neatly layered them all in hot water.

“Tonkotsu ramen’s broth is a cloudy white because the collagen in the bone marrow becomes gelatin when it’s heated, which then encases the fat and mixes with the broth. However, since the collagen from Dragons doesn’t have that property, if you strain it carefully enough, you get this clear soup.”

“You know a lot about this.”

“It was all written in this magazine!” Lu stated as she proudly held out Ramen Kingdom.

Oh, so she’s just parroting the magazine’s words. It must have a lot of info about ramen in there.

“Give it a try!” Lu insisted.

“S-Sure...”

It wasn’t like I was succumbing to Lu’s persistence, but I reached for the ryukotsu ramen anyway. I really had wanted to try it, after all.

It smelled...like normal ramen, honestly.

First, the soup broth...

I used the spoon to take a scoop of the clear soup and put it in my mouth.

“...”

“Touya?”

Whoa! My focus got completely shot ’cause of how delicious that was! It’s amazing! The broth has so much umami condensed in it.

Just one more scoop... No, this is bad, I can’t stop.

I’d end up drinking all the soup before even getting to the ramen at this rate.

Eat the noodles, Touya. Eat the noodles.

I slurped them up, unable to resist letting out a satisfied breath.

“It’s delicious. The soup so perfectly coats the noodles... I can’t get enough...”

Now for a bit of the chashu. Wait! This isn’t chashu pork? Is it chashu Dragon?!

Actually, maybe using chashu was inaccurate, since it wasn’t pork, but either way, it was absolutely delicious, and it suited this ramen perfectly, which...felt like stating the obvious. Of course Dragon meat would taste perfect with broth made from Dragon bones.

And then it occurred to me: this had to be expensive as hell to make, right? Probably no less than one million yen a bowl... It was so delicious that I couldn’t stop eating it, though. I kept mindlessly slurping away, and before I knew it, I’d finished it.

“That was insane...”

“I’m glad you liked it. It costs so much that it definitely is not something to be served to the common people. If you convert it, it costs around one hundred silver coins.”

Oof! That’s ten times what I expected! Ten million yen per bowl of ramen...!

I shouldn’t be surprised. Dragon bones were a valuable material used to forge both weapons and armor. Naturally, they came with a ridiculous price tag. Crushing them was tantamount to grinding their value down to dust.

The only part the soup needed was the marrow, so you might have still been able to do something with the crushed bones, but it was undeniable that even then, the price would be so high that commoners wouldn’t stand a chance of trying it.

“And so, here’s a ryukotsu ramen using Wyvern as a substitute!”

This time it was Arcia who slammed a bowl of ramen down on the counter. Unlike the ramen I’d just had, this soup was a little thicker, but it only had as much color as shio ramen, and not as white as tonkotsu.

“Because Wyvern meat has more off-flavors, I used curly noodles instead. These don’t absorb much of the soup the way straight noodles do, so it should prevent it from tasting too strange.”

“They don’t absorb them as well?”

I’d always thought curly noodles would grab the soup easier.

“If you considered just the single noodle, then maybe, but when you lift multiple at once, it picks up less than straight noodles. This is due to the capillary force of the liquid entering the small gaps between noodles. Curly noodles have too much separation between them, so their absorption power is much less!”

“Y-You know a lot about this...”

“It was written in this magazine!”

And so, Arcia proudly presented Ramen Kingdom to me with the exact same expression as Lu. They really were related.

“Now, father, please give it a try.”

“Sure...”

Arcia had such a bright smile on her face, but a second bowl of ramen would be tough. I could probably manage, but...

For now, I’d at least try the soup broth. It really did look like shio ramen.

“Oh...!”

Just one spoonful had a variety of flavors exploding in my mouth. The Dragon soup had a more refined taste, a more defined flavor, but this Wyvern broth wasn’t losing to it. It had a very lively flavor. I could see it starting to taste a little too strong if I had too much, though.

Next, I slurped the noodles.

I see. I do mind the flavor of the soup a lot less with the curly noodles. Or at least, I think I do.

The chashu was... It wasn’t Dragon meat.

“It’s wild boar.”

Wild boars were magic beasts that looked a lot like boars, as the name implied. They weren’t very dangerous—green-rank adventurers could take them down easily. It wasn’t the cheapest meat out there, but this amount likely wasn’t that expensive.

Oh, is this how they used the boar meat that Karina had an excess of?

I looked beside me and saw Karina and Uncle Kousuke enjoying their own bowls of ramen. Karina’s was chashu ramen with the meat arranged like a lid, while Uncle Kousuke was having tanmen stacked with vegetables. They looked delicious too...

“Wyverns may be cheaper than Dragons, but they’re still pretty expensive, no?”

They were a red-rank monster. One alone could destroy a whole small village.

“Right. We managed to cut down on overall costs, but it would still go for about a hundred gold coins per bowl.”

Even cheaper, it cost a million yen?! This would be just as impossible to serve to the common people...

“And that’s why we have this Swiftdrake ramen instead!”

Lu once more proudly slammed a bowl of ramen down onto the counter.

You’re kidding me, a third kind? I haven’t even finished the Wyvern ramen... Swiftdrakes are those creatures that look like Ornithomimus dinosaurs that people raise as a form of transport in the Sea of Trees, right?

“Despite their names, Swiftdrakes are not considered true Dragons—they’re even further branched off than Wyverns. Their bones contain a lot of mana, though, so very unique flavors are concentrated in them. Swiftdrakes are already raised as livestock that can be ridden in the Sea of Trees, so we can get them at a cheap price, making it a perfect substitute for ryukotsu ramen.”

I knew what she was trying to say, but in that case, she should’ve given me this to try first. I was already pretty full. But being watched with eyes twinkling with confidence, I couldn’t refuse her.

“Hm? What are these stands?”

“Lu-dono? Have you made something new again?”

The moment I heard those voices from behind me, I could tell that my saviors had arrived. I turned around, and there Yae, Yakumo, Hilde, and Frei were, wiping sweat off their brows with towels over their shoulders—did they just come back from training?

“Lu and Arcia are trying to make a new ramen flavor. They want to popularize it like this if they find a good one. Do you guys want to try some?”

“Ramen, you say? It is one of my favorite foods, it is!”

“Same here! I love ramen!”

Yae and Frei, our resident big eaters, easily took the bait. I not-so-subtly shoved the bowl of Swiftdrake ramen to Frei when she sat beside me.

“It looks delicious!”

Frei picked up the chopsticks without hesitation and dug in, slurping up the noodles with gusto.

“And it is! I’ve never had this kind of ramen before, but it’s amazing!”

With a massive smile on her face, Frei continued chowing down. The same was placed in front of Yae, who sat beside her, and she also began to eat.

“Hm?! This is indeed different from any ramen I have had before, this is! The broth is especially delicious!”

Yae continued eating with the same vigor as Frei. They seemed to like it, but these two would say anything was delicious... It wasn’t that they had no sense of taste, but their standards for what was bad were pretty much on the ground. They would never say it was bad unless it was really disgusting, and they weren’t very picky eaters either.

Hilde and Yakumo, who had sat themselves down at the stall next to ours, were also happily eating away. This ramen seemed fine, in that case. Not that I could vouch for it myself.

When I glanced at Yakumo, it looked like she was enjoying her meal, but her head was also tilted slightly.

“What’s up, Yakumo? Something wrong?”

“Oh, no, it’s nothing big. I was just thinking that the broth tastes so nice that the flavor of the noodles is almost too subtle.”

Yakumo’s honest critique left Lu and Arcia in shock.

“The noodles don’t have the strength to take the flavor of the Swiftdrake broth!”

“The balance with the noodles...! I was so focused on the taste of the soup that I neglected something so basic!”

I gave the Wyvern ramen another taste. The soup was delicious, but right enough, the noodles felt like they were losing to the taste of the soup. In this case, it barely mattered what noodles you used. I understood Yakumo’s criticism.

“This isn’t good! The broth should be the noodles’ partner! If the partner pushes them aside and steps right to the front, the whole meal falls apart!”

“Mother! How about we use some flour from Horn? I’ve heard there’s a special kind that is only produced in one region! It’s a mysterious flour that can make dough without even needing to rest.”

We were left sitting there, ignored, as the mother and daughter began discussing possible improvements to their noodles. It wasn’t as if the ramen tasted bad, though. If you could eat this in Japan, people would pay for it. Maybe not a million yen, but...

Oh, wait.

“If you want flour from Horn, I got some as a gift from the Prime Minister during one of the world summits. I think he said it was a rare variety used only by the royal family or something.”

“What?! You never told me anything about this!”

“Really? I thought I gave you it.”

“You did not!”

I didn’t? Maybe I thought I could hand it to her later and forgot. Was it still in my [Storage]? I glanced up and was immediately greeted by Lu and Arcia staring at me, eyes begging for me to hurry up and take it out. Actually, forget staring, they were practically glaring at me.

“U-Um, okay, let’s see, flour, flour...”

I took out sacks of flour one after another, though none of them were the one I wanted.

I have so much flour! Why do I have so much? I really need to sort through this at some point.

“That’s it!”

“It has the seal of approval from the Royal Court! This has to be it!”

The mother and daughter were getting excited over one of the bags I took out. I guess that was it.

“We can definitely make the perfect noodles for a Dragon broth with this! Arcia, let’s go make some dough!”

“Yes, mother!”

The two of them took the flour, called out the personal kitchen I’d given Arcia as a present, and began making the noodles right then and there. The flour was mixed and kneaded into dough, and then they used a large bamboo stick to stretch it out.

Wow, they’re serious about this.

“This is amazing dough! With this...!”

“I’ll make the soup!”

They were totally off in their own world as they made the noodles.

You know I can’t handle a third bowl, right?

I couldn’t eat ryukotsu ramen, Wyvern ramen, and Swiftdrake ramen all at once. At least if we had to wait for the dough to rise, I’d have a chance of being able to eat it! Not that I really badly wanted to or anything!

“Nothing else for it!”

I whipped my phone out of my pocket and sent a message to everyone in the castle: We’re having a ramen fair in the courtyard.

Just as the two were finishing their noodles, the staff, who were free for their lunch break, had already started lining up in front of the stalls. I left my seat, together with my leftover ramen, and moved to a couch and table I’d taken out of [Storage]. I set up similar seating areas for everyone else as well.

“We’re done making the noodles...! Whoa!”

Lu’s eyes opened wide as she saw the line in front of her stall. Arcia was looking over at me with wide eyes. I continued slurping away at my ramen, feigning innocence.

“Why is there suddenly a queue? Is it time for lunch already?”

“M-Mother, let’s just get some ramen made, quickly! We can have this serve as a pre-opening!”

“R-Right! Arcia, I’ll handle boiling the noodles! You get the soup!”

The mother-daughter chef duo immediately began getting to work. Crea popped out from the castle’s kitchen in order to lend them a hand.

At this rate, the cafeteria’s gonna be deserted.

I couldn’t help but feel bad for all the kitchen staff who would’ve prepared meals for everyone. There was a fridge equipped with [Storage] in the kitchen, though, so at the very least, they could store it there for the next day so it wouldn’t go to waste.

“This is amazing! It isn’t soba, but I could work with this!”

“I can see myself getting addicted to this...”

When I heard a loud shout from behind me, I turned around and saw two of Takeda’s Four Heavenly Kings, Yamagata and Naito, slurping down their own ryukotsu ramen. Opposite them were Baba and Kousaka.

So even they’ve fallen for it...

The knights had come here for lunch as well, including Lain, Nikola, and Norue. Over there was Tsubaki and her three kunoichi girls, Homura, Shizuku, and Nagi. Laim and Renne were here too. I guess it was perfectly timed with their lunch break. Lapis and Cecil weren’t here, but it seemed they were going to swap with Renne afterward.

Everyone seemed to be enjoying their food. There were even those asking for seconds.

“It was a huge success! But it’s so much of a success that it’s becoming a huge failure instead!”

“Mother, we’re going to run out of noodles! We have to start making more!”

The portable kitchen was becoming a battlefield at this point. Lu kneaded the dough, while Arcia prepared the broth and Crea boiled the noodles. The other kitchen staff, who had arrived to help, were cutting any toppings and putting the bowls together.

Maybe I called too many people to this thing...

We were starting to run out of free seats, so I pulled some more out of [Storage]. Our courtyard was starting to look like a ramen alley.

At least it being this well received among the castle staff meant revealing it to the castle town was a good idea. If we could get it popular in state-run restaurants and inns like Silver Moon, people would start to imitate it. That meant those people had the potential to come up with their own ramen. New types of ramen unique to this world could be born.

Wait, but I guess Lu and Arcia have already managed that.

I prayed that more ramen beyond just this ryukotsu ramen would be born as I slurped down what I had left.