Fourth Meal - Sashimi (4)

Yami just said with another nod, "That's right, we dry age our fish here before serving it."

Finn couldn't help asking in a very confused voice, "What is this dry age that you speak of?"

Yami looked at Finn and thought about it before saying, "Dry age means letting the fish sit for a bit so that it loses a bit of its water."

Finn couldn't help being surprised as he asked, "But doesn't that make the fish rot? Also, that would make the fish very hard, wouldn't it?"

Yami shook her head and explained, "Dry aging allows the fish flavour to mature because the fish flavour comes from the oils of the fishes. By letting some of the water of the fish evaporate, it helps concentrate the taste of the fish since there's less water to dilute the taste." Then after a pause, she added, "Of course, there's the risk of it rotting if it's not stored properly, but we store it at a low temperature that prevents bacteria from forming, so there's no problem with it rotting."

Finn revealed a look that was completely confused by the words that Yami said.

He couldn't understand many of the things that Yami had said because it used terminology that he had never heard before.

What was this bacteria that she mentioned and how was it related to food rotting?

Yami could see that confused look that he had, but she didn't bother explaining since she knew that it would take just too long for her to explain everything to him.

She just simplified it all by saying, "In short, we pat down the fish with towels to remove some of the water and then we store it in a place that is cooled so that it doesn't spoil. We do that for several days before eating it. Sometimes we also use things like sugar and salt to help us drain the water."

Finn still didn't fully understand what she meant, but he could get the gist of it from this simplified explanation.

After thinking for a bit, he turned to Amphi and asked, "Could we reproduce a similar effect with our magic?"

Amphi was surprised to hear this from Finn, but she still thought about it before giving a nod and saying, "We can use magic to isolate the fish from the water and dry out the fish meat. We can also use a bit of ice magic to cool it so that it is frozen like she said."

Finn nodded before saying, "What about the sugar and salt that she mentioned, do we have anything like that?"

Amphi thought about it before saying, "Sugar and salt, those should be those things that we received from the humans. However, they dissolve right away under the water, so we have to be careful with how we use them and any supply that we have is rare since they need a special storage method. I don't think that we'll be able to get them in the hands of the citizens with this."

Finn gave a sigh before saying, "I would say it's the same with the wasabi and the soy sauce as well. They seem to dissolve in water, so we won't be able to use them either…" Then after a pause, he suddenly looked up at Yami and asked, "Where does the wasabi and soy sauce even come from?"

Yami had the other waitress come back and look up the wasabi root and soy beans for her before explaining, "Wasabi is this root here. We grind it up until it becomes a paste and that's what's used for our sushi. As for soy sauce…" She paused before giving a simple explanation, "We steam these beans after washing them and then ferment them with some bacteria. After leaving it for some time, we crush it into paste and the liquid that's squeezed out of that paste is soy sauce."

This was a very simplified explanation of what soy sauce was, but Yami really didn't know what else to say.

At the same time, she couldn't help cursing a certain someone in the kitchen.

If it wasn't for this person, then she wouldn't have had to put herself in this awkward situation of having to explain how soy sauce was made.

Finn nodded before saying, "It seems like soy sauce is out of the question, but this wasabi root…" He looked carefully at this root for some time before suddenly turning to Amphi to ask, "Wasn't this the root that was presented as goodwill from the humans last time? The one that everyone said was disgusting?"

Amphi was surprised to hear this, but after taking a close look at the picture, she gave a nod of agreement as she said, "That's right! This was the one that my dad said had a very stinging taste to it."

Finn revealed a wide smile as he said, "If we have this, then we can solve our food problem!"

Amphi was very much confused about everything that Finn had done and said, so she couldn't help asking, "Finn, what do you mean? How can this solve our food problems?"

Finn grabbed Amphi by the shoulder which made her face blush a bit before saying, "Amphi, think carefully. Haven't you seen those fish before?"

Amphi knitted her brows to think and after a while, she said with a nod, "That's right! We've seen those fish swimming around the capital before, haven't we? But if they're so delicious why haven't we eaten them before?"

Finn revealed a bitter smile as he said, "We have actually eaten them before?"

Amphi said with a surprised voice, "We have? When have we eaten them?"

Finn explained, "Not 'we', but me and the guards. We caught them before and tried them to see if they would taste good raw, but they didn't taste good at all. That's also the reason why no one eats them since everyone thinks that these fish are disgusting and have no nutritious value."

Amphi revealed a shocked look, "But they really were delicious weren't they?"

Finn nodded before saying, "They are, but that's only after they've been 'dry aged'." As he said this, he couldn't help saying dry aged in a strange way. After a pause, he continued, "As long as we bring this method of preparing the fish back with us, we will be able to prepare these fish for everyone to eat."

Then as if he was realizing something, he turned to ask Yami, "Uh, do these fish have nutritional value?"

Yami gave a soft snort and said, "Everything we serve here has nutritional value."

Finn revealed an apologetic look before turning to Amphi and saying, "As long as we can bring back this new method of preparing fish, we'll be able to create a new source of food for our people! That will solve our food problem!"

Amphi wasn't as excited as Finn, but she could see the potential in his idea.

If everything that he said was true, then it was indeed possible to solve their food crisis like this. But the problem was that they needed to research and develop all the magic that was needed to process and store the fish, as well as finding people to catch these fishes.

All of it would take a lot of manpower and time before they could use it to solve their problems.

So after thinking about it, Amphi gave a nod and said, "We should hurry back then."

Finn nodded before taking her hand and heading to the door, but before he could take more than two steps, there was someone that grabbed him by the back of his collar.

Finn already knew the power of the ones in this restaurant, so he didn't dare speak in an angry voice. Instead, he said in an anxious pleading voice, "What are you doing? Please let me go, this concerns the fate of my entire kingdom!"

Yami, who held him by the collar, just calmly said, "This customer, I have to remind you that this is a restaurant."

Finn, who had been struggling at first, suddenly stopped struggling as his chin fell down and his face was covered in a blush.

That was right, this was a restaurant that he had just eaten in…

So what he was doing now was called dining and dashing!

He had completely forgotten about paying the bill in his excitement and he had tried to run off without paying it.

So Finn stopped struggling and looked back to ask, "Uh, how much is the bill?"

Yami was about to say something, but then realized something else that made her stop. She waved her hand to have Finn follow her to the register and then tapped a few buttons on the register that made a number and a strange symbol appear.

When Finn and Amphi saw this, they couldn't help saying at the same time, "It's this cheap?"

The currency that the mermaid kingdom used were coral coins, coins that were crafted from coral.

The conversion rate was 1:1 with silver.

"Only 10 coral coins? Isn't this too cheap?" Both Finn and Amphi couldn't help saying this when they saw the price on the register.

Yami just reached her hand out and waited for them to pay.

Finn waved his hand and a big piece of coral appeared. This was a large coral coin, it had a value of ten coral coins.

After putting the large coral coin in, Yami gave a nod and said, "Alright, you're all rung up. You're free to go now."

Finn and Amphi wasted no time to head out through the door, but only after it closed behind them did they remember that they were trapped in this cave because of the tsunamis.

They should have gotten some more food before leaving the restaurant just in case…

At least they had heard that the door would appear once a day, so they weren't too worried. However, Finn felt bad that he would cause Amphi to starve tonight because of his headstrong personality…

But to their surprise, they found that the tsunamis had stopped and they could leave the cave.

So without hesitation, Finn and Amphi swam back towards the capital city.

As they were swimming, Finn couldn't help muttering to himself, "If only if big brother was here…"

Amphi revealed a sad look and a look like she wanted to comfort him, but she couldn't say anything in the end.

Finn was the crown prince, but he was actually the second prince.

The first prince had suddenly disappeared one day…

…

Back at the restaurant, Croquette who was sitting beside the middle aged man couldn't help asking, "Your majesty, why did you help that young man? Did you know him?"

The majesty that he referred to was the middle aged man who in their world was the emperor of the largest human empire. He was the man who had united the various human kingdoms under his own kingdom to form the empire that could fight against the demon race.

He was known as the Golden Emperor, Heinrich the First.

In their world, even a second of his time was worth its weight in gold countless times. Yet he was willing to give this time to that young merman.

Before Heinrich could reply, there was a plate of menchi katsu that was put in front of him by a man from the kitchen. This man gave a nod to Heinrich and said, "Thanks, Menchi Katsu."

Heinrich nodded back with a smile before asking, "Do you miss your home?"

The man looked at the door the two had gone through, but he then turned without saying a thing.

Heinrich just took the plate of menchi katsu placed in front of him and started eating it, but he almost spat it out when he couldn't hold back his laughter at Yami's words.

Yami's words also made the man who gave it to him reveal a bitter smile.

"That's coming out of your pay cheque."

Croquette also couldn't help smiling when he heard this as he realized what happened. As a regular, he naturally knew the story of this man who worked in the kitchen, but he never thought that Finn would be related to him.

This man who worked in the kitchen looked very similar to Finn. He was almost a grown up version of this young prince.

As for his identity, he was the missing first prince of the mermaid kingdom, Prince Percy.