Quotes
Many layers of wide-range sorcery force field stretched around the village, but the most powerful barrier among them was composed of anti-detection sorcery that could only be infiltrated with a certain level of spirit arts training.
The anti-detection effect was considerably weaker against intruders approaching from the air, but the villagers were informed from the moment they entered the barrier’s range. Even Rio, who was flying closer through the sky, would probably be detected soon.
At last, Rio thought sentimentally as he looked upon the giant tree of Dryas, towering near the village.
Roughly two weeks had passed since Rio had departed from the Yagumo region; even though he could fly with spirit arts, it had been a long journey.
As Rio immersed himself deep in thought, a tingling sensation ran through his entire body. He had entered the barrier, meaning the village would undoubtedly be able to sense his presence as an outsider. With the village right before his eyes, it was only a matter of time before someone came flying out at him.
Rio halted in his flight and remained airborne.
The anti-detection effect was considerably weaker against intruders approaching from the air, but the villagers were informed from the moment they entered the barrier’s range. Even Rio, who was flying closer through the sky, would probably be detected soon.
At last, Rio thought sentimentally as he looked upon the giant tree of Dryas, towering near the village.
Roughly two weeks had passed since Rio had departed from the Yagumo region; even though he could fly with spirit arts, it had been a long journey.
As Rio immersed himself deep in thought, a tingling sensation ran through his entire body. He had entered the barrier, meaning the village would undoubtedly be able to sense his presence as an outsider. With the village right before his eyes, it was only a matter of time before someone came flying out at him.
Rio halted in his flight and remained airborne.
That’s the spirit! Normally, I’d charge eight small coppers... but since you just came from the countryside, I’ll give you a discount. That’ll be four small coppers, just for you, boy.”
With the stall owner’s discount, Rio handed him four small copper coins with thanks.
“Pleasure doing business. I’ma cook it up right now, so just sit tight. While you’re waiting, you can hear all about the wonderful Lady Liselotte from my bro.”
“Then, if you’re willing to oblige?” Interest piqued by the talk of this pasta-inventing Liselotte girl, Rio decided to go along with the man’s suggestion. He turned to face the skewer stall owner.
“Righto, leave it to me. Lady Liselotte is the governess of the city of Amande. She’s the daughter of Duke Cretia, and she graduated from the Royal Academy of Galarc when she was ten years old. Duke Cretia left her in charge of governing this town shortly after her graduation,” the skewer stall owner explained evenly.
The trading city of Amande was a small city created by logging the trees in the forest. It was located on the westernmost outreaches of Duke Cretia’s territory in the west of Galarc. It was only half a year ago that Liselotte assumed the post of Governess of Amande; ever since she came into power, the town that had been nothing more than a pit stop for travelers had rapidly progressed in development. Now, Amande was on track to become a vital trading site that connected the west side of Beltrum and the east side of Galarc. The population was around 1,000, but the hustle and bustle of the city far surpassed that number.
Liselotte herself was still eleven years old, yet she had a number of different achievements under her belt. The skewer stall owner spoke of them all with pride.
First, she had caused an agricultural revolution in the farmlands of Duke Cretia’s territory. Second, she continuously invented new foods and recipes. Third, she also put consideration into the ability of the cityfolk to have leisure and recreation-time. Fourth, she was also the leader of the largest trade organization in the city, the Ricca Guild. And there were more achievements in addition to those, still.
“And above all else—”
“—she’s absolutely adorable!”
Just as an infatuated expression appeared on the skewer stall owner’s face, the pasta stall owner interrupted from his side. The two brothers’ words overlapped neatly.
“H-Huh...” Rio drew back a little at their creepy synchronization, but the skewer stall owner paid no mind to Rio’s reaction as he continued.
“She doesn’t act arrogant when dealing with commoners like us, either. Every now and then she’ll come to inspect the market outside the city walls, and last time, she even smiled at me!” he said with a grin, but the pasta stall owner looked exasperated by his words.
“That was just you mistaking her line of sight. She was definitely smiling at me back then.”
“What?! ’Fraid I can’t let a comment like that slide so easily, brother!”
Liselotte was basically the idol of this city. Truth be told, being the daughter of nobility already put her far out of the reach of commoners. Having a cute appearance — and a kind personality on top of that — made it easy for misunderstandings to occur. Even so, this Liselotte was only eleven years old, and the brothers before Rio were easily in their thirties. He couldn’t help but smile bitterly at that.
“I see you both have a lot of love for Lady Liselotte,” Rio said in an attempt to placate them.
“F-Fool! We’re not good enough to love her!”
“T-That’s right! We may be happy to lay down our lives for Lady Liselotte, but that’s beside the point!” Their love for Liselotte ran so deep, Rio’s face twitched in his attempt to keep smiling.
“Aaand... it’s done! This is the renowned pasta soup of my stall. It’s hot... Be careful so you don’t burn yourself,” the pasta stand owner said, holding out a wooden bowl, fork, and spoon.
“It looks delicious. So this is pasta soup... I see...” Rio accepted the bowl and peered carefully at its contents.
Inside was a type of pasta that Amakawa Haruto was undoubtedly familiar with — Italian noodles that were called spaghetti. The soup was clear, and most likely seasoned with nothing but salt. There were bacon and vegetables in the soup, too, adding a delicious fragrance to the steam wafting from it.
“Hehe, thanks. Oh, you’re meant to eat men foods with a fork and spoon. Do you know how to use those, boy?” A fair proportion of commoners didn’t have access to cutlery like forks and spoons, so the pasta stall owner asked, just in case.
“Yes, I do.”
“That’s great. Must’ve been raised well, huh? Most adventurers find them too bothersome and just slurp up the food by grabbing at it with their hands. They get burned a lot.”
“Haha, I’ll have to pass on slurping like that,” Rio gave a strained laugh as he lowered himself into a seat next to the stall. He set the bowl down on the makeshift table before him and picked up the fork and spoon.
As he enjoyed the smell of the soup, he moved the fork and spoon with practiced hands and considered the texture first. From the tender, springy texture, the pasta used was probably fresh, not dried or preserved. The flavor was simple and salty; he could appreciate the taste of the vegetables and bacon, too. Still, Rio would have preferred a spicier taste with garlic, chilli peppers, and olive oil instead. But those things were probably hard to offer here, due to their costs.
If there are dried noodles out there, I could take them as preserved food on my journey, Rio thought to himself as the nostalgic taste of pasta relaxed his expression. If there was fresh pasta being made, then dried noodles should be more than accessible, too.
“Sir, can you tell me where I can buy this pasta?” Rio hastily asked the owner about his stock.
“Oh? Have you fallen for pasta, too, boy? If you go to the Ricca Guild shop inside the city walls, they’ll sell you some. They sell other products exclusive to the Guild, so it’d be well worth a visit. It’s kinda pricey, but they also sell meat ‘manju’ at their shop.”
“Meat manju, you say?”
“Yeah. They’re round, and they kinda look like bread, but their texture is fluffy and surprisingly soft. And the best part is, they’re filled with juicy minced meat. It’s expensive, but worth trying once.”
The pasta stall owner’s explanation made something click in Rio’s head. The food he had described just now sounded very similar to ‘nikumanju’ — which were meat buns that Amakawa Haruto had eaten before.
“Huh, that sounds nice. I’ll try it out later.” Rio pasted a smile on his face as he expressed his interest, then he resumed his meal, silently, as he processed his thoughts about this mysterious Liselotte.
Meat buns... right.
Pasta, noodles, and meat buns — all of these foods existed on Earth, with the exact same names and ingredients. What were the chances that this world and Earth would, coincidentally, have words that sounded the same and have the same meaning?
He couldn’t go as far as to say it was absolutely impossible, but...
While one word might have been believable, having a second and third word in the same instance made the possibility much lower, especially because they were all foods invented by a single person. As a result, Rio’s suspicions seemed more and more conclusive.
Perhaps this Liselotte girl was in the same position as him, Rio suspected. In other words... perhaps someone who was living on Earth had died, only to be reborn as Liselotte Cretia in this world. That person was most likely Japanese.
Of course, it was also possible that Liselotte was simply a facade. A third-party of Japanese origin may be acting as her brain instead — but there was no proof of that, either.
At any rate, Liselotte definitely had access to Earth knowledge — knowledge she was most likely using to revolutionize Amande, Rio deduced. But that was as far as his thoughts went before they came to a screeching halt. He had no intention of aggressively pursuing his curiosity any further than that. Even if Liselotte really was experiencing the same circumstance as him, he didn’t have the slightest desire to meet her and discuss it.
Because the human named Amakawa Haruto had died full of regrets.
Meeting her wouldn’t change anything, only remind him of his bitter memories and unwanted lingering attachments — that thought alone prevented Rio from acting.
Amakawa Haruto was dead.
Right now, Rio was Rio, not Amakawa Haruto. That was the undeniable truth.
Sure, Amakawa Haruto’s memories and personality might have been residing within Rio’s body, but they were blended in.
No... he wasn’t even sure if they were real or not.
On top of that, even if he were to return to Earth like this, he wouldn’t be able to live as Amakawa Haruto anymore. It would be impossible, because Amakawa Haruto had his burdens, while Rio had his...
At any rate, this Liselotte situation opened the possibility of others being placed in similar circumstances to himself. Rio considered himself fortunate enough to learn that much. And while he was postponing the matter for now, if he was lucky, it might not even end up being an issue at all.
In any case, there was no way they’d let someone of unknown origins meet a daughter of high-class nobility anyway. For now, just being able to smack his lips at the nostalgic taste of this cooking was enough.
“Thank you. The pasta soup was delicious. I’m going to go check out the Ricca Guild now... I’ll stock up on pasta and try out the meat manju,” Rio said after polishing the last spoonful of soup from his bowl, then left the stalls behind.
“Later, boy,” both owners said warmly to see him off.
Rio headed straight for the city gates, where he entered the city itself and made his way towards the Ricca Guild to buy pasta.
◇◇◇
The main road of Amande, lined with shops and inns, stretched from the east to the west of the city. At its center, in a square that could only be described as the city’s prime location, was the main branch of the Ricca Guild.
So this is the Ricca Guild headquarters...
Rio looked up at the stylish building made of wood and brick. Towering over the surrounding buildings at five stories tall, its high class aura was almost awe-inspiring. At the front of the Ricca Guild was a small counter, where the rumored meat buns were being sold. They were moderately pricey at two large coppers each, but a line had formed regardless.
Rio joined the line, deciding to purchase them before he went inside. He handed over the coins and took the meat bun from the shop attendant; it was fairly large, and its steaming hot texture was soft and tender. It looked quite similar in appearance to a Chinese steamed bun. Rio moved himself to a corner of the square and eagerly prepared himself to taste the meat bun. He chomped down into it and felt the scalding hot soup squirt onto his tongue, nearly burning his mouth. As for the taste...
It’s good, but...
He was taken aback. The taste was nothing like what Rio expected from something that looked like a Chinese steamed bun. If he had to guess, he’d say that the meat inside was flavored with salt, pepper, and a lot of onion. Rio guessed that the ginger, oyster sauce and sesame oil needed to make that signature meat bun flavor probably wasn’t available here.
For the record, while it was impossible to find foods with the exact pronunciation as Earth words like the Japanese men and manju, the produce and livestock eaten on Earth existed in this world, too. For example, wheat and other condiments like salt were available here.
However, there were some ingredients that couldn’t be obtained in Strahl for climate reasons, so recreating the same recipes and flavors from Earth was difficult. Once Rio made it through the Wilderness and arrived at the Yagumo region, he’d probably be able to get his hands on some new ingredients that were unavailable in Strahl. If he did, he might be able to use Amakawa Haruto’s knowledge to recreate some Earth dishes.
As Rio’s imagination ran wild in his head, he finished eating the meat bun. “Thank you for the meal,” he murmured in Japanese, the taste of the pasta and the meat bun making him feel a bit nostalgic.
Now that he was finished with his meal, he directed his gaze at a corner of the square, where the Ricca Guild building impressively stood. The entrance to the building was wide open, welcoming anyone inside, like a peddler who had just walked in. Rio decided to head inside too.
Immediately after stepping through the doors, he was met with several female store attendants waiting to serve the customers. There was also a security guard on standby, positioned where most customers wouldn’t notice his presence.
“Welcome to the Ricca Guild.”
Upon noticing Rio’s arrival, the store attendants all gave a polite bow as they greeted him. Their clearly practiced movements caught Rio by surprise. Then, a young girl with beautiful, wavy hair stepped towards Rio
With the stall owner’s discount, Rio handed him four small copper coins with thanks.
“Pleasure doing business. I’ma cook it up right now, so just sit tight. While you’re waiting, you can hear all about the wonderful Lady Liselotte from my bro.”
“Then, if you’re willing to oblige?” Interest piqued by the talk of this pasta-inventing Liselotte girl, Rio decided to go along with the man’s suggestion. He turned to face the skewer stall owner.
“Righto, leave it to me. Lady Liselotte is the governess of the city of Amande. She’s the daughter of Duke Cretia, and she graduated from the Royal Academy of Galarc when she was ten years old. Duke Cretia left her in charge of governing this town shortly after her graduation,” the skewer stall owner explained evenly.
The trading city of Amande was a small city created by logging the trees in the forest. It was located on the westernmost outreaches of Duke Cretia’s territory in the west of Galarc. It was only half a year ago that Liselotte assumed the post of Governess of Amande; ever since she came into power, the town that had been nothing more than a pit stop for travelers had rapidly progressed in development. Now, Amande was on track to become a vital trading site that connected the west side of Beltrum and the east side of Galarc. The population was around 1,000, but the hustle and bustle of the city far surpassed that number.
Liselotte herself was still eleven years old, yet she had a number of different achievements under her belt. The skewer stall owner spoke of them all with pride.
First, she had caused an agricultural revolution in the farmlands of Duke Cretia’s territory. Second, she continuously invented new foods and recipes. Third, she also put consideration into the ability of the cityfolk to have leisure and recreation-time. Fourth, she was also the leader of the largest trade organization in the city, the Ricca Guild. And there were more achievements in addition to those, still.
“And above all else—”
“—she’s absolutely adorable!”
Just as an infatuated expression appeared on the skewer stall owner’s face, the pasta stall owner interrupted from his side. The two brothers’ words overlapped neatly.
“H-Huh...” Rio drew back a little at their creepy synchronization, but the skewer stall owner paid no mind to Rio’s reaction as he continued.
“She doesn’t act arrogant when dealing with commoners like us, either. Every now and then she’ll come to inspect the market outside the city walls, and last time, she even smiled at me!” he said with a grin, but the pasta stall owner looked exasperated by his words.
“That was just you mistaking her line of sight. She was definitely smiling at me back then.”
“What?! ’Fraid I can’t let a comment like that slide so easily, brother!”
Liselotte was basically the idol of this city. Truth be told, being the daughter of nobility already put her far out of the reach of commoners. Having a cute appearance — and a kind personality on top of that — made it easy for misunderstandings to occur. Even so, this Liselotte was only eleven years old, and the brothers before Rio were easily in their thirties. He couldn’t help but smile bitterly at that.
“I see you both have a lot of love for Lady Liselotte,” Rio said in an attempt to placate them.
“F-Fool! We’re not good enough to love her!”
“T-That’s right! We may be happy to lay down our lives for Lady Liselotte, but that’s beside the point!” Their love for Liselotte ran so deep, Rio’s face twitched in his attempt to keep smiling.
“Aaand... it’s done! This is the renowned pasta soup of my stall. It’s hot... Be careful so you don’t burn yourself,” the pasta stand owner said, holding out a wooden bowl, fork, and spoon.
“It looks delicious. So this is pasta soup... I see...” Rio accepted the bowl and peered carefully at its contents.
Inside was a type of pasta that Amakawa Haruto was undoubtedly familiar with — Italian noodles that were called spaghetti. The soup was clear, and most likely seasoned with nothing but salt. There were bacon and vegetables in the soup, too, adding a delicious fragrance to the steam wafting from it.
“Hehe, thanks. Oh, you’re meant to eat men foods with a fork and spoon. Do you know how to use those, boy?” A fair proportion of commoners didn’t have access to cutlery like forks and spoons, so the pasta stall owner asked, just in case.
“Yes, I do.”
“That’s great. Must’ve been raised well, huh? Most adventurers find them too bothersome and just slurp up the food by grabbing at it with their hands. They get burned a lot.”
“Haha, I’ll have to pass on slurping like that,” Rio gave a strained laugh as he lowered himself into a seat next to the stall. He set the bowl down on the makeshift table before him and picked up the fork and spoon.
As he enjoyed the smell of the soup, he moved the fork and spoon with practiced hands and considered the texture first. From the tender, springy texture, the pasta used was probably fresh, not dried or preserved. The flavor was simple and salty; he could appreciate the taste of the vegetables and bacon, too. Still, Rio would have preferred a spicier taste with garlic, chilli peppers, and olive oil instead. But those things were probably hard to offer here, due to their costs.
If there are dried noodles out there, I could take them as preserved food on my journey, Rio thought to himself as the nostalgic taste of pasta relaxed his expression. If there was fresh pasta being made, then dried noodles should be more than accessible, too.
“Sir, can you tell me where I can buy this pasta?” Rio hastily asked the owner about his stock.
“Oh? Have you fallen for pasta, too, boy? If you go to the Ricca Guild shop inside the city walls, they’ll sell you some. They sell other products exclusive to the Guild, so it’d be well worth a visit. It’s kinda pricey, but they also sell meat ‘manju’ at their shop.”
“Meat manju, you say?”
“Yeah. They’re round, and they kinda look like bread, but their texture is fluffy and surprisingly soft. And the best part is, they’re filled with juicy minced meat. It’s expensive, but worth trying once.”
The pasta stall owner’s explanation made something click in Rio’s head. The food he had described just now sounded very similar to ‘nikumanju’ — which were meat buns that Amakawa Haruto had eaten before.
“Huh, that sounds nice. I’ll try it out later.” Rio pasted a smile on his face as he expressed his interest, then he resumed his meal, silently, as he processed his thoughts about this mysterious Liselotte.
Meat buns... right.
Pasta, noodles, and meat buns — all of these foods existed on Earth, with the exact same names and ingredients. What were the chances that this world and Earth would, coincidentally, have words that sounded the same and have the same meaning?
He couldn’t go as far as to say it was absolutely impossible, but...
While one word might have been believable, having a second and third word in the same instance made the possibility much lower, especially because they were all foods invented by a single person. As a result, Rio’s suspicions seemed more and more conclusive.
Perhaps this Liselotte girl was in the same position as him, Rio suspected. In other words... perhaps someone who was living on Earth had died, only to be reborn as Liselotte Cretia in this world. That person was most likely Japanese.
Of course, it was also possible that Liselotte was simply a facade. A third-party of Japanese origin may be acting as her brain instead — but there was no proof of that, either.
At any rate, Liselotte definitely had access to Earth knowledge — knowledge she was most likely using to revolutionize Amande, Rio deduced. But that was as far as his thoughts went before they came to a screeching halt. He had no intention of aggressively pursuing his curiosity any further than that. Even if Liselotte really was experiencing the same circumstance as him, he didn’t have the slightest desire to meet her and discuss it.
Because the human named Amakawa Haruto had died full of regrets.
Meeting her wouldn’t change anything, only remind him of his bitter memories and unwanted lingering attachments — that thought alone prevented Rio from acting.
Amakawa Haruto was dead.
Right now, Rio was Rio, not Amakawa Haruto. That was the undeniable truth.
Sure, Amakawa Haruto’s memories and personality might have been residing within Rio’s body, but they were blended in.
No... he wasn’t even sure if they were real or not.
On top of that, even if he were to return to Earth like this, he wouldn’t be able to live as Amakawa Haruto anymore. It would be impossible, because Amakawa Haruto had his burdens, while Rio had his...
At any rate, this Liselotte situation opened the possibility of others being placed in similar circumstances to himself. Rio considered himself fortunate enough to learn that much. And while he was postponing the matter for now, if he was lucky, it might not even end up being an issue at all.
In any case, there was no way they’d let someone of unknown origins meet a daughter of high-class nobility anyway. For now, just being able to smack his lips at the nostalgic taste of this cooking was enough.
“Thank you. The pasta soup was delicious. I’m going to go check out the Ricca Guild now... I’ll stock up on pasta and try out the meat manju,” Rio said after polishing the last spoonful of soup from his bowl, then left the stalls behind.
“Later, boy,” both owners said warmly to see him off.
Rio headed straight for the city gates, where he entered the city itself and made his way towards the Ricca Guild to buy pasta.
◇◇◇
The main road of Amande, lined with shops and inns, stretched from the east to the west of the city. At its center, in a square that could only be described as the city’s prime location, was the main branch of the Ricca Guild.
So this is the Ricca Guild headquarters...
Rio looked up at the stylish building made of wood and brick. Towering over the surrounding buildings at five stories tall, its high class aura was almost awe-inspiring. At the front of the Ricca Guild was a small counter, where the rumored meat buns were being sold. They were moderately pricey at two large coppers each, but a line had formed regardless.
Rio joined the line, deciding to purchase them before he went inside. He handed over the coins and took the meat bun from the shop attendant; it was fairly large, and its steaming hot texture was soft and tender. It looked quite similar in appearance to a Chinese steamed bun. Rio moved himself to a corner of the square and eagerly prepared himself to taste the meat bun. He chomped down into it and felt the scalding hot soup squirt onto his tongue, nearly burning his mouth. As for the taste...
It’s good, but...
He was taken aback. The taste was nothing like what Rio expected from something that looked like a Chinese steamed bun. If he had to guess, he’d say that the meat inside was flavored with salt, pepper, and a lot of onion. Rio guessed that the ginger, oyster sauce and sesame oil needed to make that signature meat bun flavor probably wasn’t available here.
For the record, while it was impossible to find foods with the exact pronunciation as Earth words like the Japanese men and manju, the produce and livestock eaten on Earth existed in this world, too. For example, wheat and other condiments like salt were available here.
However, there were some ingredients that couldn’t be obtained in Strahl for climate reasons, so recreating the same recipes and flavors from Earth was difficult. Once Rio made it through the Wilderness and arrived at the Yagumo region, he’d probably be able to get his hands on some new ingredients that were unavailable in Strahl. If he did, he might be able to use Amakawa Haruto’s knowledge to recreate some Earth dishes.
As Rio’s imagination ran wild in his head, he finished eating the meat bun. “Thank you for the meal,” he murmured in Japanese, the taste of the pasta and the meat bun making him feel a bit nostalgic.
Now that he was finished with his meal, he directed his gaze at a corner of the square, where the Ricca Guild building impressively stood. The entrance to the building was wide open, welcoming anyone inside, like a peddler who had just walked in. Rio decided to head inside too.
Immediately after stepping through the doors, he was met with several female store attendants waiting to serve the customers. There was also a security guard on standby, positioned where most customers wouldn’t notice his presence.
“Welcome to the Ricca Guild.”
Upon noticing Rio’s arrival, the store attendants all gave a polite bow as they greeted him. Their clearly practiced movements caught Rio by surprise. Then, a young girl with beautiful, wavy hair stepped towards Rio
That’s why if something had changed within Rio, it would be that the frozen clock within him had started moving once again. Perhaps not moving at the right speed, but it was slowly and certainly beginning to tick.
Impressions
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