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Chapter 344

「Um, will Rei-san be leaving the city tomorrow?」

The daughter of the Blue Sea Coral Inn’s innkeeper asked Rei sadly.

However, Rei nodded without hesitation at her question.

「Yes, I’ve been here a bit too long. At this rate, I’ll just end up staying here.」

「That’s fine though. I don’t mind at all. You know, I didn’t really talk much with Rei-san.」

When she responded, her cheeks flushed red and it was clear what she was thinking.

However, only Rei himself didn’t realise as he shook his head.

「I’m sorry, but I’m not planning to move my home city away from Gilm. It’s very convinient there because it’s on the frontier. Well, it is a pity though that I could hardly find any sea monsters around Emoshion.」

「In that case, instead of making this your base, why don’t you just stay a little longer?」

「No, it’s because I’ve already stayed here for a month. After this, there’s still something else I have to do.」

Of course, his business was to head to the Labyrinth City with Elena, that was his highest priority. However, the innkeeper’s daughter didn’t know of that as she puffed up her cheeks in disatisfaction.

「Why, even though such a cute girl is asking you to stay. ……Hmph, I don’t care anymore. You can do whatever you want. Go back to Gilm or wherever.」

Saying that, she left Rei.

Rei couldn’t understand why she was in such a bad mood and was wondering if she could just leave the counter like that as he tilted his head. However, he soon noticed the proprietress coming towards him and gave a sigh of relief.

「Rei-san, you’re leaving tomorrow?」

「Yes. I’ve been in your care for a while. I’ve already cleaned up the Lemrace, so it’s about time I head back to Gilm.」

「Is that so……it is a bit sad to say goodbye to Set-chan, but it can’t be helped. I can’t thank you enough for subjugating the Lemrace. Thank you very much. However, in the end, your room is still that small room in the corner……would you like to stay in a normal room for at least today? Of course, the price will stay the same as before. With the Lemrace gone, the number of customers has decreased greatly.」

Rei thought about the proprietress’ words for a few seconds, but eventually shook his head.

「No, I don’t mind staying in my current room. There’s no reason to move to a different room now.」

「Are you sure? In that case, we’ll make sure at least tonight’s dinner is a good one. You will eat dinner at the inn, right?」

「Yes, that’s what I plan to do.」

Rei replied to the proprietress with a wry smile as she asked about dinner even though it wasn’t even lunch time yet.

Considering Rei’s appetite, it was quite common for him to get hungry and get food at various other places. Even then though, he would still usually eat the meals served at the inn.

「Anyhow, I’ll be leaving the city tomorrow. You’ve been a great help during my stay.」

「No, no. We’re the ones who are indebted to Rei-san in many ways. ……Um, please don’t mind my daughter too much. I think she had a bit of longing for someone who was close to her age and was also and adventurer who could kill the Lemrace.」

「……Ah, I understand.」

Rei finally understood what was going on after the proprietress explained it like that.

After giving a small nod, Rei spoke out again.

「I’m sorry, but I don’t have any plans on settling here.」

「Yes, I know. I’ll go after her, so please don’t worry about it.」

「I’ll leave it to you.」

Saying that, Rei left the inn.

There were some people he wanted to say goodbye to before he left the city tomorrow. He also wanted to buy up as much seafood as he could.

「Oh, Rei? What’s wrong? Did anything happen to the harpoon?」

The first place Rei went to was the smithy of the Dwarven blacksmith who had made his harpoon. When he saw Rei, the Dwarf called out in a good mood after being handed a small barrel of ale that Rei had bought along the way.

「I’m leaving the city tomorrow. I thought I’d go around and thank all the people who have helped me out.」

「……I see, your idea of throwing a harpoon and pulling it back with something like a chain or rope was interesting, so I had hoped you would stay for a bit longer. Well, I’ll forgive you since you brought me some ale.」

「I never thought that sea monsters wouldn’t show up though. In the end, it’s nice to have the harpoon, but I’ve never even used it.」

「Well, that’s not your fault. The monsters will come back eventually, whether we like it or not. As a resident of this city, I honestly hope they don’t come back. Thanks to you, the fishermen are now able to go back to fishing and make up their losses.」

「I’m not sure what is with the monsters, but the fish seem to still be around as usual.」

「Well, I guess it might have something to do with the Lemrace. ……Oh, right. Wait here a moment.」

Putting the barrel of ale in the back of the smithy……the Dwarf headed to the back of his forge. When he came out a few minutes later, he was carrying a different barrel in his arms.

「Take this with you. It’s something extra.」

The Dwarf placed the barrel on the floor. As the barrel was placed on the ground, the sound made Rei realise what was inside.

「Are you sure? You can’t have gotten enough scraps to fill this barrel in such a short time, could you?」

「Hah, don’t worry about it. It’s not just collected by me. I collected all this garbage from the various weapon shops and blacksmiths in the city. They were grateful that they wouldn’t have to deal with the disposal themselves.」

「……Sorry for the trouble, it’s a great help.」

Rei expressed his gratitude with a smile towards the Dwarf, who was surprisingly caring despite his serious looking expression.

Reaching out, Rei stored the barrel into the Misty Ring.

「If you feel like it, come back to this city again. If you need to clean up your harpoon, I can do that.」

「Thank you, sorry for the trouble. ……Well, I’ll get going.」

「Sure. I don’t think I need to worry about you, since you were strong enough to kill the Lemrace, but take care heading back.」

Rei left the smithy as the Dwarf told him that.

「Gururu~」

After leaving the Dwarven smithy, Rei made his way towards Arctos’ stall. Set, who was walking beside Rei was starting to feel hungry as he gave a cry.

Smiling, Rei scratched Set’s head as he spoke.

「I’ll get some okonomiyaki when we get to Arctos’ stall, so please just wait a bit longer.」

「Guru~……」

Set dropped his shoulders at Rei’s words and looked at the ground as they continued to walk.

Of course, there were many other stalls and eateries along the way. However, Rei decided that if they were going to eat a light meal, they would go to Arctos’ stall for that since he had taken care of them in various ways.

Walking for another 10 minutes, the burning smell of sauce started to waft from the surroundings.

Set, who was walking next to Rei, had his appetite aroused more than ever and finally regained his strength as he raised his head and gave a cry.

「Guru~……Gururururu~!」

Hurry, hurry, Set seemed to say as he kept looking back towards Rei. Rei himself was also hungry, so he headed towards Arctos’ stall with a smile.

Nearing the stall, he saw almost 20 people clustered around it.

Every one of them seemed to have an impatient expression, but didn’t seem like they wanted to cause any trouble. In other words, the people here were……

「Really, it looks like business is going very well.」

Yes, as Rei had said, they had all come for Arctos’ food. Originally, Arctos’ stall had already been famous for server delicious food. Arctos himself was also a well known person in the city. The combination of all these factors caused the seafood okonomiyaki taught by Rei to explode in popularity.

「Gururu~……」

What do we do? Set tilted his head as he seemed to ask. Since Rei had come here to say goodbye, he didn’t have the option to just leave.

「Line up.」

「Gururu~」

Set nodded and gave a cry at Rei’s words. However, different from his previous appearance, Set looked somewhat depressed.

His plan had been to fill his empty stomach with seafood okonomiyaki, but when he actually got here, there were people lined up and he couldn’t eat it right away.

「……Do you want to eat this while waiting?」

Feeling sorry for Set, Rei took out some dried meat from the Misty Ring for Set to eat, but Set refused as he shook his head.

For Set, since he had come here for seafood okonomiyaki, he wouldn’t eat anything else even if he was hungry! His response seemed to hold that feeling.

Rei was surprised at Set’s unexpected response, who was honest with his appetite, for better or worse. Still, he gave a small nod and decided to wait for their turn.

There were a few people who were surprised to see Rei and Set, but most of them didn’t make any commotion in particular as they both of them had become quite famous in Emoshion in various ways. ……No, rather, the customers near Set, gently stroked him as they waited for their turn to pass the time.

It was possible to cook multiple servings of okonomiyaki at the same time, so the number of waiting customers gradually decreased from 20. Before long, it was Rei’s turn to make his order.

「Hm? Oh, Rei? Set as well.」

「Your stall seems to have become quite popular. There are other stalls selling okonomiyaki, but I’ve seen as people lining up as here.」

「Gururu~」

Set gave a cry to urge Rei on.

Seeing that, Rei ordered their okonomiyaki after a brief conversation.

「4 serves……is what I’d like to say.」

Looking behind him, he could see that new customers had appeared as they moved up the line. As a result, the length of the queue hadn’t actaully changed.

「But, it would be a bit impolite to eat that much ourselves. I’ll get 2 pieces for now.」

「Oh, sure. It’s freshly cooked and hot, so be careful.」

Along with those words, he handed over two plates of okonomiyaki with forks.

On a side note, a short distance away from the stall, several people hired as dishwashers could be seen frantically washing plates and forks.

「Now then, let’s dig in. Here’s your portion Set.」

「Gurururu~!」

Hury, hurry, Set seemed to say as they moved to side of the stall. Rei place a plate on the ground and, as if waiting for that, Set immediately poking his beak into it.

Seeing that, Rei also cut up the okonomiyaki on his plate into bite sized pieces with his fork and brought it to his mouth……before his eyes went wide.

「This is……」

It hadn’t been very long since Rei had taught Arctos how to cook okonomiyaki. However, the okonomiyaki that Rei just ate was already different from what it had been before.

Of course, the taste hadn’t gotten worse. Instead, it had gotten more delicious. The outside was crispy and the inside was filled with the umami taste of fish and seafood alongside a fluffy texture. At the same time, chewing it would spread the umami taste of the fish and shrimp through his mouth while the chewy and sweetness of the finely chopped kiberk remained.

(……Is the soup stock different?

When Rei had taught the recipe, he had used chicken broth to mix the flour, but the okonomiyaki he ate now seemed to have used a seafood broth instead. At the same time, he could see that the soup stock must have been quite thick as it soaked its way all through the mixture.

「Delicious.」

Rei looked at Arctos in surprise after taking his first bite.

Seeing Rei’s look of surprise, Arctos just smiled as he continued cooking okonomiyaki as well as fish, shellfish and shrimp on a nearby grill.

「Even if I look like this, I’m still a chef. The recipe you taught me was certainly complete, but there were many improvements that could be made. This okonomiyaki is the result of me going down my own path. ……Well, thanks to that, okonomiyaki has now become the main dish I sell.」

Although it sounded like he was complaining, he was still happy that his customers were satisfied with his food. The shrimp he was grilling on a net was carried over to Rei’s plate.

「Still, thanks to you, I’ve created a dish that might become a speciality of this city. Eat this.」

「A-Ah, thanks.」

He had seen Rei eat several times already and knew that shrimp was one of his favourite foods. After that, Arctos placed a large fish onto Set’s plate, who had already eaten all his okonomiyaki with his large beak.

「Since you’ve come to this city, you’ve been lucky in quite a few ways. There was the Lemrace and then this seafood okonomiyaki. Until a little while ago, this would have been unthinkable. Those who live here are grateful to you.」

Rei had a different expression of surprise compared to before as he heard what Arctos said, as if Arctos already knew he was going to leave the city tomorrow.

「Hmph, after working a street stall in this city for so many years, I have a pretty good idea of what you want to say with your expression. Especially because you’re easy to read. ……Anyway, if you have the chance, come here again for work or relaxation. I’ll make the okonomiyaki even more delicious by then.」

「……Sure.」

「Guru~」

Rei and Set both gave a small nod at Arctos’ clumsy way of showing his care.

Thus, their last day in Emoshion was busy but enjoyable as the two of them entertained themselves.