The hoarse voice of a vendor hawking their wares echoed in the distance.
The ancient capital was growing increasingly hot, but as the shadows of passersby lengthened in the evening, the coolness became just right. Many people strolled along the street lined with taverns to unwind after a day’s work.
Izakaya Nobu also benefited from this, bustling with regulars and first-time customers from right after opening. During the winter, warm dishes like stews were popular, but now, colorful spring offerings seemed to be preferred.
Perhaps due to its novelty, Shinobu had received orders for ten servings of spring wild vegetable tempura today alone.
Nobu’s tempura is delicious with our special grated daikon dipping sauce, but it pairs even better with ale when eaten with salt.
The slightly bitter taste of the wild vegetables, deep-fried to a crisp by Taisho’s prized technique, is the perfect accompaniment to ale.
“Cheers!”
“Cheers!”
Sitting at the counter and using tempura as an appetizer to enjoy their ale were Hans and Nikolaus of the city guard.
Usually, they didn’t come until after sunset when it was completely dark, but for the past few days, they had been relaxing in their usual seats from this early evening hour.
“Is it alright for you two to be drinking so early?”
“Don’t be so stiff, Shinobu-chan. We’ve finished our training and regular duties before coming here, you know.”
“Hans is right. We haven’t done anything wrong.”
The reason the two of them could drink ale so carefree was that their company commander, Berthold, was away in a northern port town.
According to a letter that arrived the day before yesterday, his matchmaking meeting was a success. He would be holding the wedding there before returning here.
Without the “demon” company commander, training ended at this time.
“But won’t Berthold-san be angry when he gets back? Like you guys have gotten lax or dull.”
“Shinobu-chan, don’t say such scary things. We’re drinking here to avoid thinking about that.”
“Are you trying to scare us into drinking more, perhaps?”
Shinobu responded to their words with just a smile, her attention focused on the restaurant.
Were there any empty glasses or finished plates? Were there any customers who looked like they wanted to order? She instantly read those signs and provided the best possible service. Offering relaxation and refreshment without causing dissatisfaction.
It was so ingrained in Shinobu that it could even be called a habit.
Shinobu’s movements as she served, weaving between the laughing and drinking customers, seemed almost like a dance.
While handing a regular customer a refill of their beer mug, Shinobu noticed something strange.
It was a female customer, which was rare for Nobu, but the menu she was ordering was what bothered Shinobu.
“What’s wrong, Shinobu-chan? You’ve got a look on your face like you’ve been bewitched by an Alf,”
T/N: “Alf” is likely a reference to elves or other fae folk.
“Oh, it’s nothing much, Hans-san.”
“What is it, what is it, Shinobu-chan? Don’t be so secretive, tell this Nikolaus-oniisan.”
“No, it’s really nothing important.”
Although she tried to gently decline, she still felt that something was strange about that female customer. The blonde woman, dressed in the clothes of a merchant’s wife, looked to be around twenty years old. She was quite beautiful, and if that was all, there wouldn’t seem to be anything suspicious.
However, since starting Izakaya Nobu with Nobuyuki, Shinobu had never seen a customer order in that way.
“Hmm, is something wrong with that customer?”
Noticing Shinobu’s gaze, Hans asked in a low voice.
He still had a butterbur sprout tempura between his chopsticks. He must have liked it quite a bit, because Hans had already ordered another plate of assorted wild vegetable tempura.
Shinobu couldn’t exactly say “yes” about another customer to him, so she gave a vague nod.
What the blonde woman was ordering was all dry snacks.
Dried squid, nuts, cheese, and other things that could be served almost without any preparation.
If she was drinking alcohol with it, it could be explained as just her taste in appetizers, but since entering the restaurant, she hadn’t ordered a single drop of alcohol.
“Suspicious.”
Nikolaus muttered while stealing a fern sprout tempura from Hans’s plate.
“Suspicious? What is?”
“That woman Shinobu-chan’s been watching, the blonde one. She’s been secretly looking around the restaurant.”
“She doesn’t seem to be in the mood for a relaxing meal,”
Hans agreed, while taking a kokoro skewer from Nikolaus’s assorted skewers. Indeed, the more she looked at it, the stranger it felt.
T/N: Kokoro is chicken or pork heart (chicken in this case), a popular yakitori (grilled skewer) item.
The way she looked around the restaurant wasn’t just like she was curious about something she was seeing for the first time.
“Is she plotting something?”
“Stop it, Nikolaus, ‘plotting’ isn’t very nice.”
“That’s right. What could you possibly be plotting at an izakaya?”
“It’s not necessarily about plotting something at the izakaya. It could be about investigating something.”
“Investigating? Investigating what?”
Nikolaus deliberately looked around and then whispered.
“…Supplies that can be procured in the ancient capital.”
“Supplies?”
“Shinobu-chan might not know, but things have been getting a little tense around here lately.”
Hans nodded while shoving a kogomi tempura into his mouth.
“There are many ways for merchants to make money, and one of them is as a sutler (shubo shonin).”
Nikolaus continued while skillfully eating a juicy grilled skewer with one hand.
A sutler is a merchant who contracts with the military or mercenary groups hired by the royalty or city councils, and gets paid to supply them with goods.
It often involves taking dangerous risks, but if you do it well, the profits can be extraordinary.
“When a war seems likely to break out, shrewd sutlers send scouts to towns along the expected routes of advance to find out what can be bought cheaply and what is difficult to obtain. That makes it easier to do business when the army passes through.”
“You know some strange things, Nikolaus.”
“Shut up. My ex-ex-ex-girlfriend was a sutler’s daughter. I’ll continue.”
Recently, there have been rumors that several northern provinces of the Empire are considering seceding from Imperial rule.
The idea itself has been around for quite some time, and it involves several provinces uniting. It is said that they want to return to the shape of the kingdom that existed before the founding of the Empire.
Only a minority truly believe that such a thing is possible, but the story changes if there are outside collaborators. Nikolaus suspects that the neighboring Eastern Kingdom, which is trying to weaken the Empire, is pulling the strings behind the scenes.
“In any case, things are a bit tense around here. Captain Berthold was quite concerned about it too, but…”
“If sutlers are really showing up, then it means this is more than just a rumor, Nikolaus?”
Nikolaus drained his mug of ale with a nod, his face changing from that of a drunken man to that of a well-trained city guard.
Looking inside the counter, he could see Nobuyuki and Eva looking at the three of them talking in secret with puzzled expressions.
In order to continue running the restaurant peacefully with these two, they had to find out the identity of that woman. Shinobu was firmly determined to do so.
But how should she investigate?
Just as she was starting to think, the blonde woman raised her hand.
“Excuse me, can I place an order?”
