Mushoku Tensei (LN) - Volume SS - Chapter 18

Short Story:

Spoiling Dinner 

IT WAS A FEW DAYS after we rescued Roxy, and we were planning on exploring the labyrinth the next day. On that day, I went to the market with Paul. We didn’t have anything to buy—but we would be down in the labyrinth for a good number of days. For more than a month, we wouldn’t know sunlight. That stresses a person out. It was important that we took it as easy as possible while we could...and so Paul, saying, “Come with me for a bit,” had brought me here.

Me, I would’ve liked to spend the day reading with Roxy, just like any other day...but such is life, eh? Paul probably wanted to spend some quality time with the son he hadn’t seen in ages. As a good son, I had no choice but to go with him.

“Woah, see that, Rudy? A Luciano steel sword for only five hundred cinshas.”

“Wow... Um, is that cheap?”

“You’d pay ten times that much on the Central Continent.”

“Does it have a good edge or something?”

“Ah, never used one, so I dunno...”

It seemed Luciano steel was a common material in these parts. When I really tried to remember, I had the feeling that the desert warrior I’d traveled these parts with had used a weapon made from Luciano steel. But then, I didn’t have the skill to identify metal by sight, so chances were I was imagining things.

“Huh?” Just then, something stirred my nasal passages.

“What’s up?”

“Just now, did you smell something good?”

Paul looked around us, then his eyes locked onto a female adventurer who had just passed us.

“Ah...” he said. “You listen to me, Rudy. When a girl smells good, it’s usually perfume.”

“Not that.”

Are you for real? Also, Sylphie and Roxy didn’t need perfume to smell good, all right? Okay, Sylphie might have been putting something on. But the point is, I wasn’t talking about that.

“Hm? Huh? Something smells real tasty.”

“Yes, that.”

Indeed, an indescribably fragrant smell was wafting our way.

“What’re they grilling...”

“Let’s go have a look.”

Keeping it cool, Paul and I set off in pursuit of the smell.

We arrived at a street stall. It was a special sort of stall, one I’d never seen before. That wasn’t to say the vendor was playing a flute while sending out clouds of the delicious aroma of soy sauce. Rather, the first thing that caught your eye was the big tablet. Wait, maybe tablet wasn’t the right word, but in any case, it was a massive stone plate. It was being heated by the scorching sun, and the vendor was grilling something on it, sweat pouring off him. I’d never seen anything like what he was grilling either. They looked like brown lumps. They were made from a paste, like ground-up wheat, or beans, or something. The vendor brushed them with oil, sprinkled on some spices, then grilled them. They didn’t look that appetizing. But then there was that fragrant smell and the mouth-watering sizzle…

“Hey, Rudy. What do you say we try a bit?” There was a sign next to the plate that said 2 CINSHAS FOR 1. That wasn’t that expensive. But…

“But Lilia and the others are going to have food ready for us when we get back.”

Seeing as you’re all going into a labyrinth tomorrow, she’d say, I’ll cook up a storm. She was sure to make a lot, too. And by the looks of things, this stall’s portions were pretty substantial: one of these things looked enough for two people. This shop did things super-sized. I knew just one would be enough to fill me up. If we ate here, we wouldn’t be able to finish the food that Lilia and the others were so thoughtfully preparing.

“Come off it… If you don’t try one now, you might never get the chance.”

“That’s true.”

Even though I’d journeyed from the Demon Continent to the Central Continent, I’d never seen food like this before. It had to only be sold in these parts, or else it was this guy’s original recipe.

“What if we went halves?”

I considered this for a long moment. “No, it won’t work.”

“It’ll be fine. Look, so long as we finish our dinner, no one will be the wiser. You’re a man, you can stuff a little extra in, can’t you?”

Yeah, in my past life, I was the type to shovel down enough for two or three people. But now I was trying to maintain my figure, you know? I exercised and everything…

“Well, you don’t have to have any…” Paul said. “Ahh, what a shame. I’m betting they’re delicious.”

It seemed Paul was going to eat one. I wanted to! The aroma and the sound were both calling out I’m delicious! to me. And yet…and yet…

“Gahh…”

In the end, I was no match for my appetite and my curiosity. Paul and I wound up facing hell at dinner that night, but that was a story for another time.