“Another draft beer, please! Actually, no, it’s a pain. Bring me two at once!”
While cheerfully ordering lager, Godhart rubbed his hands together in front of his appetizers.
Today’s order was all about eel.
There was grilled eel with kabayaki sauce, grilled eel with shirayaki sauce, eel rolled in egg (umaki), and even eel liver soup (kimosui).
Recently, the popularity of eel at Izakaya Nobu had calmed down a bit, but instead, a menu item called “eel grilled with fish sauce” was becoming popular at food stalls and street vendors.
Godhart had his subordinates buy some for him, but he thought it was still a long way off.
Even so, various shops were competing and devising ways to improve, and recently some were starting to taste pretty good.
The best part was that no matter who sold eel in the old capital, Godhart was ultimately set up to profit.
Godhart now held the water rights in the old capital.
“Don’t worry about the money, just eat as much as you want.”
“Y-yes…”
Sitting across from him, pretending to be humble, but still surprisingly boldly drinking hot sake with shirayaki, was Reinhold.
Like Godhart, he was a guild master of a water transport guild, but lately, he hadn’t had any significant profits, and the guild itself was weakening.
Godhart was thriving thanks to the water rights he had acquired in a way that seemed to take advantage of Reinhold’s guild, so he felt a little guilty.
He hadn’t cheated him out of it, but the value of the water rights had changed drastically before and after he acquired them.
Now, no one in the old capital treated eel as a small fry.
Without Izakaya Nobu, eel would have been just a small fish eaten with jelly, so times had really changed.
Impatient for the beer that Shinobu was bringing, he used a fork to bring the umaki to his mouth.
The soft egg and eel sauce blended perfectly in his mouth, creating a superb harmony.
This was it. This was eel.
“Here are your two drafts.”
He ate the kabayaki with the lager that Shinobu had brought at just the right time.
This was good, too.
The eel at Izakaya Nobu was fluffy, yet had a strong, delicious flavor.
It could be said that it had become even more to Godhart’s liking than when he had eaten it before summer, perhaps because it had become fatty in the fall.
“Reinhold, eel is really delicious. I think I could eat this every day.”
“Godhart, your voice is too loud. There are other customers here. Besides, I think you’ll get tired of it if you eat it every day.”
When he was told there were other customers, he looked around and saw that, indeed, Izakaya Nobu was crowded today as well. Familiar faces included the guardsmen duo, the deacon, and the tax collector with the monocle. Gernot was eating Napolitan again today. There were also a few unfamiliar faces. It was a full house, a thriving business.
The girl in charge of washing dishes, Eva, and the young wife of the guards’ company commander were also working hard.
“It’s really impressive. It hasn’t even been a year since they opened, has it, Reinhold?”
“That just shows how much the customers appreciate it. That’s very important for a restaurant.”
“For the water transport guild, too.”
The reason why he had become so comfortable talking to Reinhold was not because the difference in scale had become too large due to the water rights issue.
It was because Reinhold, realizing that he could not manage on his own, had recently started to do some subcontracting work for Godhart.
Even within the water transport guild, each had its own area of expertise.
As the oldest water transport business in the old capital, the guild members under Reinhold had high technical skills.
With Reinhold’s cooperation, they would be able to take on jobs that they couldn’t have taken on before.
Since they started working together, the main clients, shipowners and trading companies, had given them good reviews. That’s why Godhart was in a good mood lately.
“Reinhold, we’ve had our differences in the past, but we’re getting along well now. I’d appreciate it if you could let bygones be bygones.”
“I’m the one who should be thanking you, Godhart, for giving me work. I’m able to take a breather now. Thank you again.”
They toasted with their mugs and small cups, and both drank them down in one gulp.
Delicious food and delicious drinks.
There was no greater happiness for a body tired from work.
“So, Reinhold, I hear you have something important to talk about today.”
“Ah, yes. Well then, it’s about time we talked about that.”
He didn’t know the details, but he knew it was a business discussion.
He had known for a while that Reinhold had been steadily meeting with the northern fishing village.
Godhart was willing to accept most things.
But he also felt that if it was a ridiculous gamble, he had to stop him.
Reinhold was young, but he thought he was doing a good job managing the water transport guild he had inherited from his father, but he still lacked experience.
He was going to listen to the young man’s idea before he got too drunk and his head stopped working.
“As you know, Godhart, our guild is barely able to maintain its size with just the water transport in the old capital.”
“That’s true. There’s also Eleonora’s place.”
The reason why the three guilds had been able to coexist until now was that each had a small number of laborers.
However, recently, second and third sons from the surrounding farming villages were coming to the old capital one after another, so there was a slight surplus of laborers. Naturally, there were some conflicts of interest among the water transport guilds that managed them.
“That’s why I’m thinking of starting a new business.”
“A new business? That’s bold.”
“Our guild is the smallest, so we’re light on our feet.”
Even so, Reinhold’s guild was the oldest and had a long history. Saying that they were light on their feet because they were small must have been a source of frustration.
But Godhart wasn’t so insensitive as to point that out. It was something Reinhold had decided after much deliberation. He wanted to support him.
“The Eisenschmidt Trading Company, which deals in grain, seems to have recently opened a market in the north.”
“Ah, they started handling Yorsten barley, didn’t they? I heard they made a good profit since Backeshoff is gone.”
The Backeshoff Trading Company, which had tried to take over Izakaya Nobu, was dismantled on suspicion of smuggling lager. The aftermath still lingered here and there.
“The idea is to get a piece of that market.”
“A piece of the action, huh? It’s easy to say, but it’ll be difficult.”
“Yes, we’re going to have the trading company buy a special product that hasn’t been traded in the old capital before.”
“And you want me to lend you the money for that?”
That made sense.
The business itself was the domain of the trading company, but Reinhold would ride along by investing in it.
It was a bit of a gamble to borrow some of that money from Godhart’s guild, but he owed him that much.
“I’m very sorry to ask, but could you lend it to me?”
“I can’t say yes here because it depends on the amount and the period. But I think it’s an interesting idea.”
That was the most Godhart could say at the moment. However, there was one thing, no, two things that bothered him.
“So, Reinhold. There are two things I want to ask you.”
“What are they?”
Reinhold replied with a serious expression.
“The first is, what do you intend to have Eisenschmidt trade? And the second is…that strange pot you have under the counter, the one that moves sometimes, what is it?”
Reinhold had arrived earlier, so it was hard to ask, but there was a strange pot at his feet, and it had been moving slightly all along.
“I can answer both of those at the same time.”
Reinhold lifted the pot from the floor and slowly removed the lid.
The scent of the sea drifted in the air.
“This is the special product that will carry the future of our guild…octopus.”