ăHey, welcome. Glad to see you chose to stop by.ă
ăNn.ă
ăWoof!ă
ăHahaha, welcome to you too Urushi.ă
We were currently inside the Luciel Conglomerateâs HQ. The building was about the same size as the Adventurerâs Guild, only several times more extravagant. Putting it next to Fran made her look really out of place, but she boldly walked right in regardless. Man, sheâs got guts.
The coin we got from the captain was seriously one hell of an item. Flashing it caused the people at the reception desk to show us over to a fancy-looking waiting room without so much as a question.
Rengil showed up in said room not long after we were taken to it. Weâd only just parted that morning, but he happily greeted Fran with a smile and handshake regardless. He seemed genuinely excited to see us.
ăSo did you have any sort of business here, or were you just visiting?ă
ăNn. Participating in this.ă
ăOh, youâre participating in the King of Cooking? Did you already pass the first round?ă
He figured out what she was talking about with nothing more than a single glance at the flyer she handed him. The contest was pretty famous, so it only made sense that the captain knew about it.
ăMaster passed.ă
ăYou had a Master? I donât think there was anyone like that aboard the ship, right?ă
ăNn. Master is elusive. Like a phantom.ă
ăI see, so did the two of you meet up here then?ă
Weâd come up with a bit of an odd scenario. Franâs story would be that I, her master, was the type of man that wandered the continent and appeared where and whenever he so pleased. It probably doesnât really give them the best impression of me, but whatever, canât be helped.
ăWant to get ingredients for Master. For cooking contest.ă
ăAh, gotcha, so thatâs why youâre here. What kind of dish is he planning to make? The competitionâs been pretty fierce every year, so itâs gotta be something really good.ă
ăCurry.ă
ăCurry? Never heard of anything called curry before.ă
ăMasterâs own recipe. Here.ă
Fran took a plate of curry out from her dimensional storage and placed it atop a table in front of Rengil.
The captain looked at the dish with a bit of a hesitant gaze. Well, I guess that was fair. It was brown, and didnât really look all that appetizing if you didnât know what it was. He probably couldnât really even guess at how it tasted. But that all soon changed, his eyes opened wide the moment he caught a whiff of the dishâs scent. He seemed to come to the realization that it was flavoured with all sorts of spices, which further lead him to swallow a gulp of what mustâve been drool.
ăAlright, down the hatch it goes.ă
The first bite he took was still a rather cautious and careful one, but the dishâs contents almost vanished instantly immediately afterwards he finished it. His spoon continued to move until the plate we handed him was wiped clean. Seeing him enjoy its flavour like that left me feeling quite content.
ăItâs delicious, fragrant, and even something completely original. I guarantee you that itâll definitely fly right off the shelves. Thatâs one valuable recipe youâve got right there!ă
Rengil was so excited that he ended up raising his voice in a shout. Sweet, it looks like weâve even got an experienced merchantâs approval.
ăIs this what he was planning to sell at his stall?ă
ăNn.ă
ăI seeâŠă
ăSomething wrong?ă
ăBark?ă
ăWell, the dish itself is really quite delicious, but it might not do all that well at a stall.ă
ăWhy? Curry is tasty.ă
ăItâs not exactly what Iâd call customer accessible.ă
Most thatâd qualified for the finals in the past had sold skewers or soup, stuff that was relatively easy for customers to grab immediately after making their orders. The goal was to profit, so you had to make sure you sold as much as possible in the given time frame.
Curry was unlike the examples listed in the sense that it wasnât something that customers could just pick up and walk away with. We would have to serve each plate by placing a bunch of rice on it, pouring curry all over said rice, and then finally handing it over to the customer. To make matters worse, the whole plate format made it so that customers couldnât actually buy our products en masse. At most, the average consumer could hold only a single plate in each hand.
What if we ignored the whole rice thing and made it kind of like curry soup? Hmm⊠nah, I doubt itâd be able to trump the Dragon Bone Soup.
Coming to the realisation that we needed a change of plans caused Fran to groan.
ăNeed easy way to sell curry in bulkâŠ?ă
ăYeah. You canât rely on taste alone if you want to get through the second round.ă
Okay yeah, this isnât going to work if we stick to the whole curry with rice ideaâŠ
ăOh! Got good idea. Can just turn inside out.ă
ăInside out?ă
ăNn. Put curry inside rice. Like onigiri.ă[1]
ăWoof!ă
Onigiri was one of Franâs favourite dishes. She pretty much loved to eat the rice balls regardless of what they were filled with, so she mustâve figured that itâd work pretty well with curry. Urushi seemed all gung ho about the idea as well; he immediately started to drool at Franâs mention of the combined dish.
Curry flavoured onigiri, is it? I mean, it does sound like a good idea, but the curry would probably eventually start to leak out the bottom of its ricey container, so it wouldnât really be convenient as far as customers were concerned. I could just pack the rice super tight to prevent any leakage, but thatâd probably make it taste a lot worse.
ïŒCanât fry it like tempura?ïŒ
ăHmm, curry onigiri tempura?ă
You know, that might actually end up working. Its name is totally not something youâd put on any sort of A-list, but the tastes might mesh together pretty decently. That said, Iâd a better idea. Franâs words had reminded me of a dish Iâd coincidentally forgotten until just now.
ăHmm, thatâs a pretty good idea.ă
ïŒNn? Tempura onigiri?ïŒ
ăNo, no, not that.ă
I knew of a dish that fulfilled all our needs. It was fairly cheap, easy to carry, and it could even be sold in bulk. It was especially delicious fresh out of the oven, but pretty much just as good even after cooling down.
ăLetâs go with curry bread.ă [2]
ïŒCurry bread!ïŒ
ïŒWoof woof!ïŒ
Neither Fran nor Urushi had ever had it before, but its name contained the word curry, so both their eyes seemed to light up immediately in response.
If we went down the curry bread route, weâd be able to mass produce our products ahead of time. We could even make several different kinds, each with its own unique flavour.
Hearing me elaborate on the idea caused Franâs eyes to shine with even greater intensity.
ăWill work. Curry bread.ă
ăWoof!ă
ăCurry bread? Whatâs that?ă
ăPut curry in dough and fry.ă
ăI see, I see. That sounds like it could work. The dishâs fragrance would help you draw in customers, and they could pretty much order as many as they wanted.ă
ăCan have different flavours.ă
ăOh, thatâs a pretty strong pro too.ă
Alright! I finally know what to do! Curry bread ahoy!
That said, our plans were still riddled with problems.
ăNeed flour. Can get from here?ă
ăHmm⊠Are you okay with the type normally used for bread?ă
ïŒMaster?ïŒ
ăShouldnât be a problem.ă
ăNo problem.ă
ăAlright.ă
Apparently they had a tonne of flour in stock, so we could more or less get as much as we wanted.
ăIâll put in an urgent order for the flour so we can get it ready as soon as possible.ă
ăNn. Thanks.ă
Iâm still a bit worried about the rest of our stuff though
ăNeed lots of other ingredients too. Can also get from here?ă
ăThatâll depend on exactly what it is youâre looking for. I know for a fact that weâve got some pretty solid stocks on the vegetable side at least.ă
ăWant carrots, potatoes, onions for vegetables. Some apple too.ă
ăAlright, we werenât going to be able to get you any magic vegetables or the like, but that, we can do, especially since all the items you asked for can be stored away from quite some time. Do keep in mind that none of them will be just recently harvested though.ă
Oh well, I guess it canât be helped. Iâm actually pretty happy already seeing as how we managed to actually secure ourselves a reliable supplier. That said, the rest of our ingredients would probably need a bit extra oomph to make up for it.
ăAny magic beast meat in stock?ă
ăWe mightâve been able to get you some with a bit more time, butâŠă
Canât say I didnât see that coming. Not even the butchers could get their hands on any decent quantities of the stuff. Damn it, what now? We finally managed to solidify our concept and all that, but weâre lacking the most important part we need to actualize it.
ăThen water?ă
ăWater? What about it?ă
ăNn. Magic infused water. With effects like healing.ă
ăThatâs a bit too far of a stretch too. Waterâs really tough to transport, so I canât say weâve a lot of it in stock.ă
Arggghh, thatâs another option crossed right off⊠Wait, no, we could probably actually just make the water we needed ourselves. I have a whole swamp full of poisoned water sitting around in the dimensional storage. I could probably just use the Potion of Attribute Reversal on it and well, voila, water get.
In other words, we just need to focus on getting our hands on some high quality meat. Hmmm⊠Actually, I do have an idea that could potentially solve all our problems. You see, the thing is, we werenât just everyday run of the mill chefs. We were adventurers. If we couldnât buy something off the marketplace, then we could simply just go get it ourselves. There were still a few days till things got up and running, so we had more than enough time. All we needed was figure out where to find the prey we were after.
ăDonât worry about magically infused water then. Would rather move to next topic. Want to know where to find magic beasts.ă
ăAre you planning to go hunting for all the meat you need?ă
ăNn.ă
ăI think Iâve actually got the perfect place in mind for that.ă
Rengil told us a bit about a haunt to Barbraâs south. Its name was the Cage of Crystal, and its rank was B. [3]
That was where Barbra got most of its magic beast meat. The haunt was inhabited by a lot of D ranked magic beasts, so it was actually apparently thought of as a pretty dangerous place. It wasnât really that far, so the captain figured that we shouldnât have any issues at all.
ăIâd warn you to be extra careful, but I feel like you of all people will probably be just fine. Youâve got Urushi with you too, after all.ă
ăNn. Will be fine.ă
ăWoof!ă
ăMake sure you sell any extra meat to us though, alright?ă
Man, heâs shrewd. That said, we do owe him. He didnât charge us any fees for the information he gave us, and heâs even offering to pay as opposed as opposed to just asking for free stuff. Heâs a pretty good guy, and he really has done us a favour. Yeah, weâre probably going to be seeing each other a lot more going forward.
And that was that. It was a bit late, so we decided to head back for the time being so we could gather information and make the water we needed and whatnot. Apparently, itâd normally take about two days to reach the haunt on horseback, so itâd probably make for a bit more than just a day trip, even for us. We were going to have to leave pretty early tomorrow morning.
ăItâll probably be a bit tough to pull everything off within the time limit, but Iâll be counting on you guys. Letâs do this!ă
ăNn. Will work hard for curry breadâs sake.ă
ăWoof woof!ă
I swear theyâre driven by nothing but apetite⊠Oh well, whatever. Our next steps were to find out a bit more about the haunt, have dinner, and then think a bit more about exactly what weâre going to do about the whole curry bread situation.