by Ennki Hakari
“Assuming only a small number of people have any interest in these red nails, then there’s not really much of a reason to keep your supplier a secret. Besides, I’m sure I can just ask around if I want to try to set up a meeting with the tiger clan.”
Something was off about the tiger clan not being around, but I figured if I played my cards right, I could turn this into an opportunity to purchase red nails directly from the source.
I looked around at other people milling about the market.
Finally, the bear man let out a heavy sigh and scratched the back of his head.
“Grr… Fine, have it your way. The tiger clan mostly comes here to sell monster hides, fangs, and the like. The majority of their kind make their home in an area known as the Kuwana Prairie, just beyond the Singareeka Plains. They’re most frequently found coming and going through the Fobnach town of Fernandes, near the Dodgas river to the west.”
The shopkeeper scowled as he gave up the name of the town where the tiger clan visited.
I knew practically nothing about the geography of the southern continent, so I turned to Ariane and inquired about where Fernandes was located. However, she simply shook her head, apparently just as clueless as myself.
The old man smiled and explained while Ariane silently returned his gaze.
“Fernandes is a ten-day journey from here on horseback, maybe twenty on foot. You really plan on going all the way there?”
It sounded like it wasn’t close at all.
The shopkeeper’s exuberant smile suggested that he believed we’d readily pay his price rather than make such a long journey. Besides, there were no assurances we’d even run into any members of the tiger clan out in Fernandes.
But he didn’t know that I could cut our travel time considerably by using Dimensional Step.
It’d depend on how good my line of sight was, of course, but I figured it would take only about three days or so to get to Fernandes.
Ariane locked eyes with me before turning her gaze to the bag on my back.
“You still have those rune stones, right?”
I’d almost forgotten about the rune stones we’d picked up some time ago as we made our way through the underground cavern.
The cavern had a pretty distinct look to it, so I could use Transport Gate to go back there any time and pick up more, assuming the distance from the southern continent didn’t cause any issues.
I nodded. “I have a few in my bag. I can give them to you if you need them.” I wasn’t quite sure what she was asking, so I just replied honestly.
Her lustrous lips curled into a smile. She was plotting something.
“Come with me, Arc. We’ve already come this far. It won’t hurt to go a little farther.”
Ariane turned and began heading away from the stall.
“H-hey!”
The shopkeeper called after her. I pulled a single gold coin out of my wallet and handed it to him, which quickly got him to quiet down.
“Excuse me, sir, but I really would like to buy that red nail of yours. Is this enough?”
Not only did I want to get a taste of it, but I figured I should compensate the man for his information.
The man looked back and forth between Ariane’s shrinking figure and the coin in my hand before deciding that there was no use negotiating any further. He took the coin and examined the odd symbols on its surface with a skeptical eye, as if trying to check its authenticity. I quickly told him that this was a human currency used up in the northern continent. With that assurance, we managed to close the deal.
What I got in return was a small bag, no bigger than what you’d buy in a supermarket, filled with the so-called red nails. Apparently, the source of the man’s hesitation was the thought of selling his entire supply at once.
Even considering that the man was likely charging me a fee for using foreign currency, a gold coin still seemed pretty expensive for what I was getting in return.
The experience reminded me of the old stories of spices being worth their weight in gold…literally.
I looked down at the small bag in my hand.
“This seems a little on the small side for a gold coin…”
Chiyome, Goemon, and I hurried after Ariane. Once we caught up, I called out to her.
“Where are we headed?”
She shot me a look, as if stunned at how dense I could be.
“Don’t you remember? Before we even came here, I told you that there are teleportation shrines similar to those in our elven villages. Though, there aren’t as many of course. Anyway, I don’t know if we’ll be able to teleport directly to this Fernandes place, but it’s better than going by road.”
Chiyome hit her hand into her fist.
I groaned. How could I have forgotten that? I’d even talked about it with her myself.
“Ahh, right. So, do you think the teleportation shrines are open to anyone?”
“I imagine we’ll need permission from the village elder.”
Thanks to Ariane’s position as the daughter of a village elder, the process to obtain said permission would likely be perfunctory at best.
We made our way down the packed thoroughfare while my mind continued wandering.
Large buildings, the smallest of which were still three stories tall, flanked both sides of the road as mountain people and strange animals made their way in between, either on their own, or transporting goods.
Of particular note to me were the horse-drawn carts…if you could call them that. The animals hitched almost certainly weren’t horses. In fact, their white fur and large, curved horns made them look more akin to mountain goats, with the exception that their faces were pitch black, as if their faces had been dipped in ink.
Unlike your typical mountain goat, these animals were as large as horses, and managed to pull the heavily laden carts they were hitched to with ease.
They were able to muster up quite a lot of horsepower…or was that goatpower?
Along the road, I noticed pairs of mountain people wearing matching outfits, allarmed with swords dangling from their waists. Each one sat atop a large, two-meter-tall bird with two long legs. Guards, perhaps?
Thanks to their height advantage, they stood out easily, even in the crowded streets.
Near their midriffs, the birds seemed to be short on feathers, and instead had small arm-like appendages where the feathers folded in on themselves. Except for their white heads and yellow beaks, the rest of their bodies were covered in brown feathers, making them look a little like bald eagles.
“Well, those are certainly new to me.”
“Kyii!”
“That bird must be pretty fast. It’s as big as a horse!”
A bird-like horse? I wondered if it was even appropriate to call it a bird. Or maybe “horse” would be better. Even if you wrote it out using the kanji for bird, maybe you’d still read it as “horse”?
While I was busy rambling about this to Ponta and Chiyome, Ariane was up ahead asking a pedestrian for directions.
“Hurry up! The sun’s going to set soon!” Apparently done getting directions, Ariane called out to us to hurry up.
After walking for another hour or so, we found ourselves in front of a large open square in the middle of town. At the very center of was a tall, solemn-looking building surrounded by a castle wall, with several intricately decorated spires rising out of it.
It looked not unlike a mosque from my world.
Up ahead, I spotted some guards standing at attention in front of the entrance. A long line of people carrying bags extended out from it.
Ariane made her way toward the guards; the rest of us followed.
“I guess this is what teleportation shrines look like here.”
The word shrine didn’t seem to do this building justice, considering its size. It looked more like a sanctuary.
As we got close to the newly dubbed teleportation sanctuary, one of the guards seemed to pay particular attention to Ariane before calling out t
o us.
“It’s rare to see a dark elf around here. Looking to use the teleportation pad?”
Ariane nodded. “That’s correct. We’d like to make our way to a town called Fernandes. Will this get us anywhere close?”
“Fernandes, off to the west? You can go straight there, but not today. We’re only offering two more teleports, and those are going to Galapagos.”
The man turned toward the long line of people having their bags checked and gestured with his chin.
As far as I could gather, the teleportation pads were used something like regularly scheduled airplane flights, with more frequent trips to more popular destinations and less frequent ones to more remote locations.
I was curious if the name Galapagos had anything to do with evolutionary theory…
“We’re already at capacity today, but our announcement for Fernandes will be made tomorrow, next opening on the following day. If you’re interested, you can sign up now. However, you’ll have to pay half up front.”
Ariane readily agreed, though I was pretty surprised when I heard the price. It certainly wasn’t cheap.
As if that weren’t bad enough, the price skyrocketed the more bags you planned on taking with you. This definitely wouldn’t work as a replacement for freight transit. I felt like I was back in the early twentieth century, about to embark on an international trip.
“I heard that you can pay in rune stones. Is that true?”
“Ahh, in that case, you’ll need to go to the counter over there to have the rune stones evaluated and settle your payment.”
The man gestured toward a counter built into the wall and went back to his work.
Apparently, they would first evaluate your rune stones for quality at the counter, then adjust your teleportation fees accordingly. Fortunately for us, the rune stones we had were enough to cover the fees.
However, since the rune stones were applied to the full price of the trip, and we were supposed to only be paying half, we ended up dumping out all of our rune stones and having them exchanged for money.
Once that was done, we were given wooden tags to present when it was our time to use the teleportation pads. I guessed these were our tickets.
After putting the money and the tickets into my leather pouch, I turned back toward Ariane, Chiyome, and Goemon.
“Well, we should be set for our travel expenses for a while.”
Ariane crossed her arms, looking at the town beyond the open square as she put together a plan of action.
“The announcement for Fernandes will be tomorrow, and the opening the day after that, so I guess we’re stuck in town until then. We should probably find an inn.”
Something about the way Chiyome was shifting her weight looked off.
“What’s wrong, Chiyome?”
Her face lit up as she spoke. “Oh, uh, it’s nothing. I was just thinking about how I might finally have a chance to meet the fabled tiger clan. According to the stories I’ve heard, they’re all renowned for their bravery!”
She looked like a little kid about to meet her idol.
I glanced at the mammoth of a man standing next to her and his ripped, muscular body. Goemon looked more like a tiger than any other sort of cat. I wondered what he was feeling about all this.
I chuckled lightly. “Well, I hope we can make that happen for you, Chiyome. From what the shopkeeper said, they haven’t been around much lately. Personally, I’d just like the chance to buy these red nails straight from the source!”
Ariane suddenly pointed a finger at my face. “Speaking of which, you bought red nails at that scam artist’s booth earlier, didn’t you? I don’t get it! You said you were going to meet the tiger clan to find a supplier.”
She crossed her arms and scowled.
I figured she wouldn’t notice the transaction, since she’d already started walking off, but apparently being perceptive to these things was an important part of being an effective soldier.
“I just wanted to grab a few to get a handle on the taste. Besides, we’ll be here for a bit, so this will be a good chance for me to pick up some other ingredients and cook something up with these red nails.”
Ariane and Chiyome gave me odd looks as I stood there with my fist clenched.
“Arc, you can cook?” Ariane wore an expression of utter disbelief.
Aside from the kraken, I hadn’t really done anything resembling cooking since I’d arrived here. However, after years of living on my own, I could whip up a few dishes at least. In fact, I rather enjoyed cooking.
“Well, well, well. I guess I’ll have to show you my mad kitchen skills!”
This would be the first time I’d cooked in quite a while. First, I figured I’d make arrabbiata with the red nail and some tomatoes.
I was sure that I’d seen garlic and onions—or at least foods that looked like them—back in the human towns, so I was pretty confident I could find them here too.
“Kyiiii! Kyi!”
Ponta let out an excited cry and began swishing its tail around wildly, almost as if it could read my mind.
I’d definitely need to make an extra dish without the red nail in it. The spice would be too much for the little fox.
I made my way back to the market and picked up the ingredients I needed before arranging with the innkeeper to let me use part of their kitchen for the night. Even if I planned to stay in my own little corner, a man cooking in gleaming armor would no doubt draw attention, so I decided to drink some of the spring water from the Lord Crown to transform into my elven form. I also bought some proper clothes to really round out the look.
Much to Ponta’s chagrin, it wasn’t allowed to be in the kitchen while I was cooking, so it went back to the room to wait with Chiyome. Poor little Ponta looked crushed, but Chiyome was more than happy with the arrangement.
Ariane, for some reason or other, decided to stay in the kitchen with me. Maybe she wanted a cooking lesson? Meanwhile, Goemon decided he wanted to take a look around town.
Well, it was time to get started.
First things first, I needed to get the staples of the meal ready before I could start on my sauce. I threw some flour into a wooden bowl, followed by two eggs, some vegetable oil, and a pinch of salt. I folded the ingredients together with a wooden spatula until it started to form into a dough. Once fully mixed, I sprinkled some flour on the counter, dropped the dough on it, and began to knead with my hands. Thanks to my powerful muscles, this usually tedious task was pretty easy.
Once the dough was nice and springy, I threw it back into the bowl, placed a damp towel over the top, and put it in a warm place to rest. I figured it’d be ready to go in about fifteen to thirty minutes.
While I waited on the dough, I went upstairs to go check on Ponta. However, when I arrived, I found the fox fast asleep on Chiyome’s lap. The young girl was also nodding off. It was actually pretty rare to see her in such a relaxed state.
Back in the kitchen, the dough was ready to go, so I took out a rolling pin and started spreading it out. Then I spread it out some more.
Once that was done, I rolled it into one long tube, which I proceeded to cut into centimeter-wide pieces. Leaving the cut end facing up, I took a pantry knife and held the blade tightly between my fingers as I finished off the final detail work. It took a bit of skill, but I was used to it.
The next step would require a bit of endurance. I began chopping the dough up into little rounds of pasta.
The noodle was called orecchiette, meaning “small ear,” though, in my head it always sounded oddly similar to a phrase in Japanese meaning, “I’ll just go and disappear.” Aww, no need for that.
With the pasta out of the way, it was time to start making the arrabbiata. But first, I needed to boil some water to cook the pasta. I looked over toward the pot and found that Ariane had already done that for me. I decided to just be appreciative and say no more.
All right, now I could focus on the sauce.
I poured some vegetable oil in
to a fry pan, dropped in a few garlic cloves and a red nail—with the seeds removed of course—and began cooking them up. Leaving the seeds in really ratcheted up the heat. Once the ingredients in the pan had gained a nice color, I threw in some diced onion to soften them up over low heat. The onion added a nice, sweet aroma to the mix.
Finally, it was time to add the tomato, with the poison removed of course. I mashed it up and put it into the pan as well. The juices from the tomato danced around the hot pan as they turned to steam. The sauce slowly began coming together, so I turned my attention to the boiling pasta whichwas soft and springy. Perfect.
I took the squishy, ear-shaped pasta and poured it into the fry pan, stirring the sauce quickly as I incorporated the pasta.
After a quick taste, I decided it needed a little salt. Mmm, this was shaping up nicely.
When cooking by hearth, the only way to adjust the heat was by constantly keeping the fry pan elevated, modifying the distance from the flame. I felt like someone would have called me a cheater if I were to adjust the flame with a lever, or use an elevated kettle stand like they did in the old world.
While I was busy thinking about all that, the arrabbiata had come together quite nicely.
I poured the contents into a dish, drizzled some vegetable oil over the top, and finished it off with a sprinkling of a finely chopped herb that resembled parsley. It didn’t smell exactly like parsley, but I’d bought it at a green grocer, so I figured it ought to be okay.
Finally, my dish was finished: “Arrabbiata in Another World.”
Ariane, who had been watching me the entire time, eyed the dish carefully. She’d been skeptical of using the red nail, but it seemed like watching it being prepared helped alleviate some of her concerns. Now she was staring at the food intently, looking as if she wanted to start eating any minute now.
“That’s just… Wow…”
She tore her gaze away to look back at me.
“Well, we better eat up before it gets cold. Can you call Chiyome down?”
With a nod, Ariane hurried off toward the rooms.
I thanked the inn’s chef for letting me use the kitchen. In response, the older man asked me to let him have a taste of the dish I’d made. I was more than happy to oblige. If he wound up liking it, then maybe demand for red nail would increase in Fobnach, making it easier for me to get my hands on it.