Eleventh Meal - Ebi Fry (4)

Rigur just sat there in a daze as he watched her leave.

When he saw her enter the kitchen and he couldn't see her anymore, he turned to look at the menu that had been placed in front of him.

Since there was nothing else for him to do, he opened it up and started looking through it.

After all, he was indeed hungry since it was supposed to be his lunch break and he had worked up quite an appetite after being angry and being shocked like that.

He could also smell the fragrant smells all around him and it really stirred up his appetite.

He didn't know how the dishes in this restaurant tasted, but he didn't feel that they would taste that bad if they smelled like this.

So he went through the menu, looking at the dishes one by one.

To his surprise, he found that he was able to read the writing on the menu even though this was clearly a different world.

If he had to guess, he guessed that there was some kind of translation magic that was cast on these menus that allowed him to understand what was written. And if this was his guess, he would be correct.

There was a translation spell that was cast on all the menus in this restaurant to make it easier for them. They would be able to use any menus for any guests as long as the translation spell worked on their language.

It was the same translation spell that automatically translated the words they spoke as well.

That was why for a split second, Rigur hadn't been able to understand the menu since it had still been loading the goblin language. But it was such a short second that Rigur hadn't noticed it in the end.

As he went through the menu, he couldn't help being surprised by the variety of dishes that were listed. There were even many dishes that he had never heard of before.

He could see that there was a description, but he just couldn't imagine what kind of dishes they were.

He continued through the menu until there was a certain dish that caught his eyes.

It was a dish called ebi fry.

The reason it caught his eyes was because of the main ingredient that was used for it.

"Iron tails? How could they get iron tails in a place like this?"

When he had looked out the window earlier, he saw that this restaurant was in the middle of a large city. There were no signs of an ocean nearby and he couldn't smell the scent of salt in the air.

So how were they able to serve up iron tails?

After all, iron tails were only native to the ocean and it was impossible to transport them inland since they spoiled incredibly quickly. So unless one lived by the ocean, it was impossible for them to serve iron tails.

So how did they do it in this restaurant?

It didn't make sense at all no matter how he thought about it.

But at the same time, he couldn't help drooling a bit at the thought of iron tails.

Iron tails were hard to store, but that didn't mean that they weren't delicious.

Iron tails were so delicious that they were considered a delicacy of the ocean and there were many people that traveled to the ports just to eat them. That included Rigur and his family who had once gone to the port city on family vacation for this very reason.

Even now, he couldn't help reminiscing over the taste of that baked iron tail dish.

However, this iron tail dish seemed to be fried instead of baked.

But he didn't doubt that it would be delicious based on the smell from all around him.

So in the end, this was the dish that he chose.

When Yami came back with his water, he lifted the menu up and pointed at the dish he wanted as he ordered. While there was no reason for him to do this, he still did it.

Yami didn't mind since this was something that she had seen many times when people who were new to store ordered for the first time.

So she didn't say anything and just took the menu after receiving his order before heading to the back.

Rigur couldn't help looking around the store again once he was alone.

He saw that there were many different species that he was familiar with all around him. There were the usual dwarves, orcs, elves, and humans, but what he didn't see were the beholders, the illithids, and the duergars that were also common in his world.

After looking around, he turned his attention to the water that Yami had brought.

There was a yellow fruit that was floating inside of this water, but what Rigur paid more attention to was the ice that was floating on the surface of the water.

He couldn't help being shocked since he had never seen such perfectly rectangular ice cubes before. Even if he made ice cubes with ice magic, it would never take this kind of perfect rectangular form since ice magic formed by gathering random water particles in the air into ice form using magic energy.

The random composition of water in the air would always make sure that the ice would take a random form when it was turned into ice with magic. There was no way to create such a perfect cube of ice.

That was unless there was someone that had cut it.

But as far as Rigur could see, the cut of the ice cube, it was not something that a normal person could do. This was a cut that only a master swordsman could accomplish, but he couldn't imagine a master swordsman putting themselves down enough to work in a restaurant like this, just using their sword to cut ice for a living.

This would let down the name of a master swordsman!

So Rigur couldn't help wondering if this was maybe some kind of illusion.

He poured himself a cup of the water and then took a sip before revealing a relaxed look.

Refreshing!

Very refreshing!

That was the best way to describe the water that he had just drank.

It wasn't just because it was chilled to perfection, there had also been a slightly sour flavour to it that had helped clear his taste buds.

It was like the rain that fell that washed away all dirt, but it was that way for his mouth.

He couldn't help looking at the pitcher and looking carefully, he guessed that it was the yellow fruit that was inside that gave this water that slightly sour taste.

While he didn't know what kind of fruit this was, he knew that this fruit had a very refreshing flavour.

After drinking a few more cups, he couldn't help revealing a relaxed look.

But then he immediately turned his attention back to the pitcher of water as he tried to figure out just how the ice had been made.

While he had been lost in his thought, Yami came back with his meal.

She was surprised to see him staring so intently at the empty pitcher, but she didn't bother asking him what he was doing and set his dish down in front of him. Then she picked up the pitcher and prepared to fill it up again.

When she picked it up, Rigur snapped out of his thoughts and grabbed her hand that had been moving towards the pitcher as he asked, "Where did you get this ice from?"

Yami was caught completely off guard by this question and she couldn't help being a bit surprised by how serious he looked, so she answered honestly, "We have an ice machine that creates ice cubes for us. That's where we got it from."

"Ice machine?" Rigur repeated these words with a confused look on his face.

While he could understand what the words separately meant, he couldn't picture what kind of machine would be used just to make ice since there was nothing like that that existed in his world.

As far as he knew, machines were those clunky things that could do nothing more than heavy lifting. There wasn't any machine in his world that could do something like using ice magic to create ice, let alone precise work as this that created such perfect ice cubes.

He didn't believe that something like this was possible.

Rigur wanted to keep questioning Yami about this "ice machine", but before he could, his eyes fell onto the plate in front of him.

As soon as he saw what was on the plate, his eyes almost couldn't help popping out because he saw something that was very familiar.

Those red tails at the ends of the yellow strips, they were the red tails of the iron tails!

While he didn't know why the meat of the iron tails was yellow like this, he could tell that these were indeed the cooked tails of the iron tails!

He pointed at the ebi fry and asked, "Where…where did you get these iron tails from?"

Yami looked at him with a brow raised and asked, "Iron tail?" She then looked down at where he was pointing and seeing that he was pointing at the ebi fry, she said with an understanding smile, "Oh, you mean the shrimps? We got a batch of them from our supplier this morning, so I can say that these are quite fresh."

Rigur couldn't help moving forward to take a sniff of the ebi fry and when he did, he gave a gulp.

That was because this was a smell that he could never forget.

This was a smell that had been deeply imprinted in his mind because he knew just how delicious the iron tails were.

This was the same smell of the cooked iron tails that he had eaten before.

He couldn't help picking up the knife and fork that came with the ebi fry and turned his full attention to it.

Seeing this, Yami shook her head with a strange look on her face, but she still headed off to do her job.

After all, this wasn't even the strangest customer that she had dealt with before.