*Sakuri*
Arnoux bit into the tempura with a satisfying crunch.
It was maitake mushroom tempura. This particular item was highly popular among the dishes offered at Izakaya Nobu.
Arnoux, who had moved to the counter, was being watched intently by Eva and Hermina as he ate.
“This is… incredible.”
“I’m glad you like it. Please, eat as much as you want.”
Nobuyuki plated the tempura directly onto Arnoux’s plate after deep-frying and draining the oil.
There were plenty of ingredients waiting: starting with mushrooms like shiitake, shimeji, and eringi, followed by okra, lotus root, shishito peppers, and then sardines, squid, and octopus.
Arnoux devoured them one after another. He ate with the gusto of a growing child. He was in such a hurry that he almost choked and had to wash it down with beer.
“I never imagined tempura could be this good. I’ve had various fried foods before… but this was the right choice. I wish I could let Issac try this.”
“Issac?” Shinobu asked. Arnoux, without stopping his hand from eating the tempura, smiled a little shyly.
“He’s a friend of mine. You could say he’s my best friend.”
“Then please, bring him next time.”
“Yes, Issac has a weakness for delicious food.”
Arnoux devoured the tempura, more like he was gobbling it down than eating it.
He stabbed it with a fork, brought it to his mouth, chewed, swallowed, stabbed it with a fork, brought it to his mouth, chewed, swallowed…
Holger and Edwin, who were watching from either side, swallowed audibly. They both raised their hands to order at the same time.
“Shinobu-chan, we’ll have some tempura over here too.”
“I’ll have tempura as well, as, uh, quickly as possible.”
“Yes, the tempura of autumn’s bounty. Thank you very much.”
Nobuyuki’s skills were excellent, having served as the wankata, the third-highest ranking chef in the kitchen, at the restaurant Yukitsuna.
Translator’s Note
Wankata (椀方) is a chef who is mainly in charge of preparing clear soups (suimono) and simmered dishes (nimono) in a traditional Japanese restaurant. The hierarchy and names of kitchen roles can vary.
But even with his speed, the three of them were eating quite fast, emptying the plates quickly.
“You don’t have to rush so much, the tempura won’t run away.”
“Well, Shinobu-chan. It won’t run away, but it will get cold.”
“Eating the freshly fried, most delicious part is the greatest sincerity you can show to the food and the one who made it, isn’t it?”
Ignoring the two who were stuffing their faces while saying such things, Arnoux alone was slowly savoring the food and muttering something to himself.
“This wonderfully crisp texture is like a young girl walking barefoot on a beach in early summer… No, that’s not it. It’s like the stars that fill the autumn night sky.”
“Arnoux-san, is that some kind of poem?”
“Yes, actually, I’m aiming to become a wandering minstrel.”
“A wandering minstrel… is that so?”
Shinobu almost blurted out, “That’s not very…”, but she quickly stopped herself.
She didn’t know what poetry was like in this world, but judging from the reactions of the two engrossed in tempura, Hermina, and Eva, Arnoux’s poem didn’t seem very good.
He had a confident way with women and knew how to make an impression, but his poetry seemed to lack grace. He was probably that type of person.
“Ah, Arnoux-san, what kind of poems do you sing?”
“That’s been my biggest worry until now. Should I sing about war and heroes like Bedegar, or the beauty of nature like Diesterweg, or perhaps choose fleeting and bittersweet love songs like Einem and Gamlich?”
“I, I see.”
Arnoux listed names as if in a fever, but of course, Shinobu didn’t know any of them. She just thought that the genres of poetry weren’t much different from her original world.
Arnoux, who had stood up at some point, added gestures to his speech.
“But I think it was fate that I encountered Izakaya Nobu today. The direction I should aim for has just been decided. Krowinkel. Like Krowinkel, I will sing songs about food and fine drinks. Don’t you think it’s a good idea!”
Watching him declare it like a shout, Shinobu realized.
This customer was drunk. And quite heavily, at that.
People from the old capital were said to be very strong drinkers, and it didn’t show on their faces.
Even if they overdid it, they might just turn a little red or their eyes might become a little drowsy. That’s why sometimes even Shinobu couldn’t tell.
She thought that she had only served Arnoux about a mug of beer, but she soothed him and made him sit down.
What on earth should she do?
She couldn’t ask him to find his friend Issac, and the guards weren’t likely to show up at the store today because they were on guard duty for the Archbishop.
As she was thinking about this, the front of the store became unusually noisy.
“We want you to bring out that Arnoux guy!”
Sliding the glass door open slightly and peeking outside, she saw familiar faces gathering in front of Izakaya Nobu.
The one shouting in an ear-splitting, throaty voice was the leader of the thugs who had been handled so easily by Arnoux earlier. It seemed they had realized that five of them weren’t enough to defeat Arnoux alone, so they had more than doubled their numbers to at least ten.
“What should we do…?”
Arnoux gently tapped Shinobu’s shoulder as she turned pale.
“It’s okay. Leave it to me.”
No sooner had he said that than Arnoux bravely leaped out the glass door alone. There was no time to stop him.
He landed a satisfying blow on the nose of the man who was yelling the loudest, then smoothly slipped behind him and put him in a chokehold.
“Now, now, you lot. It’s best if you don’t move rashly. I’m just the right amount of drunk right now. I might accidentally misjudge my strength.”
The men, who had been shouting barbarically, relying on their numbers, fell silent awkwardly and stepped back.
Looking at them with drowsy, glazed eyes, Arnoux jerked his chin at a nearby man.
“You there, if you value this guy’s life, collect your friends’ wallets.”
“Huh? Wait, are you extorting us?”
“Extorting? Don’t be ridiculous. Your delightful friends caused a ruckus in this store earlier and left without paying. This is for that.”
“Even so, it’s too much…”
“It’s interest and a lesson. Hurry up and pay!”
“Y, yes…”
Seeing the pathetic sight of the thug almost crying as he collected his friends’ wallets, the leader, who was being choked, muttered painfully.
“That skill and method, you’re… are you <Drunken Eyes> Arnoux?”
“I told you, didn’t I? I’m Arnoux.”
Hearing that name, even the men who had still seemed to be considering attacking lost their nerve.
“H, hey, <Drunken Eyes> Arnoux is…”
“He’s the legendary man who single-handedly beat up all the thugs in the old capital a few years ago… I heard he disappeared after that.”
“Does he have any weaknesses?”
“There are two. But…”
“Hey, what are they?”
A murmur spread through the thugs like a ripple.
At the words “Arnoux’s weaknesses,” Shinobu and Nobuyuki exchanged glances. What weaknesses could he possibly have?
“<Drunken Eyes> Arnoux… as his name suggests, is weak to alcohol. He gets completely drunk on just one ale.”
“How is that useful in a fight! What’s the other one?”
“That is… he’s bad at poetry.”
Hearing those words, Arnoux shouted.
He lifted the body of the thug whose neck he had been holding and threw him towards the thug who had commented on his poetic skills.
He picked up a wooden stick that one of the thugs had accidentally dropped, and, in a rage, he danced into the group.
“Ah, ahh…”
Before the eyes of Shinobu, Nobuyuki, and the rest of the store’s staff, the one-on-ten fight had somehow turned into a battle between one berserker and ten humans.
The result was, needless to say.
“I apologize for the disturbance.”
When everything was over, Arnoux was the only one standing in front of Izakaya Nobu.
The remaining ten thugs were knocked down, emitting weak groans.
“Here, this is what they forgot to pay earlier.”
Shinobu hesitantly accepted the leather bag that Arnoux offered.
After that, Arnoux disappeared into the night of the old capital, waving his hand behind him without saying anything.
Eva muttered a single sentence, “From now on, we won’t talk about poetry in the store,” and everyone there nodded firmly in agreement.