Port Town and Seafood

The next morning.

Yesterday had been quite a day. After lunch, everyone interested in my knowledge bombarded me with questions, and they asked me about magic too. Before I knew it, it was nighttime.

I was exhausted. Normally, I would have wanted to take the whole day off, but today I was feeling excited.

Because today was the day we were going to the port town!!

I was looking forward to the seafood. I might even get to see the ocean and ships again for the first time in ages. I wondered if they made salt there, too.

I finished getting ready that morning, practically buzzing with excitement.

The people going to the port town were Lucien, Frederick-sama, Richard-sama, Catherine-sama, and me. Apparently, everyone else would rather relax at home. How could they pass up eating seafood? As a Japanese person, I couldn't understand it.

Roger looked expressionless at first glance, as usual, but his expression was more relaxed than normal, and it was obvious he was looking forward to going to the sea too.

"Roger, we can finally go to the sea."

"Yes. I'm so glad I serve you, Leon-sama!"

Roger's eyes were shining so brightly that I wanted to ask what had happened to his usual expressionless face.

Even if he was glad to serve Leon-sama because it meant he could go to the sea, wouldn't that have been true no matter whom he served? I had lost out to the sea. Somehow, it was depressing...

As I sank into dejection, Roger seemed to realize why and looked a little flustered. It was rare to see Roger flustered.

"Ah, um, serving you, Leon-sama, is very enjoyable. You always think about the servants, and you express your gratitude to us, so serving you is very rewarding. And now I get to go to the sea as well. I'm so glad I serve you, Leon-sama."

So that's how Roger felt about serving me. I was incredibly happy. Well, the last reason was the sea... but I decided not to dwell on that.

"I'm happy to hear you feel that way, Roger. I look forward to continuing to work with you."

"Yes. I will continue to serve you with all my heart."

"Well, it's about time to go, shall we?"

"It seems so. Then let's go."

Roger and I headed to the reception room beside the entrance hall of the residence. I was the first to arrive, but all five soon gathered. Richard-sama was the last to arrive.

"Everyone's here. Shall we go, then?"

We boarded the carriage and headed for the port town. Apparently, it would take about three hours by carriage. Since a day trip would be exhausting, we were going to spend the night in the port town.

"Is the port town a large one?"

"Well... It's not particularly large, but it is lively. Most of the people there make salt or work as fishermen, so there are a lot of rough-looking men. Since everyone does physical labor and eats a lot, there are plenty of restaurants."

Richard-sama answered my question. So that's what it was like. It sounded like a town of craftsmen, I suppose.

"Do the people in the town eat seafood?"

"Yes, apparently they eat it every day. But people who live inland don't know how delicious it is, so they have no desire to buy it or come here to eat it. As a result, it is hardly ever sold in other towns. Dried fish can be sold far away, but there is no demand, so it doesn't sell."

Dried fish could be sold far away, after all. It was such a shame that something so delicious wasn't more widely available. If everyone tried it, they'd realize how good it was. Or did the appearance put people off when they saw it for the first time?

It was the same on Earth, too—people in regions that didn't eat seafood said it looked disgusting. I thought they'd realize how delicious it was once they tried it.

"If seafood could be sold in other towns, the town would develop considerably, wouldn't it?"

"When I was duke, I tried to do that once, but even when I took dried fish to the Royal Capital, it never really caught on."

So that was how it was? But why...? I thought some people would get hooked if they tried it.

"After they tried it, weren't there any people who got hooked on dried fish?"

"There were a few, but it wasn't accepted by that many people. They said it was difficult to eat, that there weren't many places to eat it, and that it smelled."

Well, it did have bones, but there were probably fish with fewer bones, as well as fish with plenty of meat. Couldn't those be dried?

My mental image of dried fish was horse mackerel, after all. It certainly had a lot of bones and was difficult to eat.

Did "smelled" mean that it had a fishy odor? I thought that would disappear when it was grilled... though I suppose it might depend on how the dried fish was prepared.

I didn't know how to make dried fish, after all. I really had so little useful knowledge. If only I had my smartphone! I was starting to realize just how dependent I had been on it.

Not that realizing it here would do me any good...

In any case, for most people, it wasn't a flavor they liked enough to force themselves to eat. If they weren't used to it, I could see how they might not appreciate the deliciousness of dried fish.

"Do you like seafood, Richard-sama?"

"Yes, I do. But I prefer dishes made with seafood in the port town to dried fish."

"I like it too. It has a different flavor from meat, which is nice."

"I love it as well. Though I don't eat much dried fish."

Apparently Richard-sama, Frederick-sama, and Catherine-sama all liked seafood. Had Lucien never eaten it before?

"Have you ever eaten seafood, Lucien-sama?"

"Father and Mother don't particularly like it, so I haven't. I'm looking forward to today."

"I see. I'm looking forward to it too. Let's eat lots of it."

"Yeah!"

After that, we spent three hours being rocked by the carriage and arrived at the port town. When I opened the carriage window, a sea breeze blew in.

Amazing...! It smelled like the ocean!

...That smell was strangely nostalgic.

After the carriage traveled through town for a while, we arrived at a house that was a little more splendid than the others. It seemed to be the magistrate's residence.

Since it wasn't a large town, the magistrate's residence was more modest than those in the towns where we'd stayed before. Still, it seemed to have barely enough rooms for all of us. Apparently, the lack of rooms was another reason the others hadn't come. Besides, even though there were rooms, they weren't particularly luxurious.

In front of the magistrate's residence stood a healthy-looking, sun-tanned middle-aged man. He had a very solid build.

"It's been a long time, everyone. This must be your first visit, young masters. My name is Tony."

"I'm Lucien."

"I'm Leon. It's a pleasure to meet you."

Tony-san was apparently a commoner serving as the magistrate. It seemed they didn't go so far as to employ nobles as magistrates even in small towns. Instead, they educated capable and respected commoners at the ducal residence and trained them to become magistrates.

"I imagine this house feels rather cramped to all of you, but I will do my utmost to make you comfortable."

"Thank you, Tony. We only have one night here, but we'll make ourselves comfortable."

"Then please allow me to show you to your rooms."

The room we were shown to was clean, though not luxurious. Apparently, magistrates' residences without nobles didn't have sewage connections, so there were several pit toilets in the house, and no bath. Well, it couldn't be helped in a small rural town.

For now, with my current amount of mana, I could probably completely clean one of the toilets while using only about half my mana. I might as well clean one.

Even so, my mana had increased quite a lot by now, so using half of it just to clean a single toilet meant Purification was far too inefficient. Was there some better image I could use...?

Incidentally, everyone was delighted when I cleaned the toilet. Pit toilets were extremely filthy and smelly, and I hated them too. In fact, I couldn't stand using one for long.

We were to rest in our rooms until lunchtime, so I took it easy for a while to recover from the fatigue of the carriage ride.

Then it was lunchtime, and everyone gathered in the dining room. The food was just about to be brought out.

"I heard that all of you were hoping to eat seafood, so I had the cook prepare a lunch featuring plenty of it. I hope you enjoy it."

Yes! At last, I was going to eat fish!

Would they really serve it raw? If it was fresh enough, perhaps they had a culture of eating it raw. Otherwise, maybe grilled fish?

I would have been happy even with plain grilled fish!

As I waited excitedly, the food was brought out. It seemed that meals here weren't served as a course; instead, an entire serving for one person was set out all at once.

At a glance, nothing seemed to be raw, so they must not have that culture. Well, eating raw food could be dangerous unless it was extremely fresh and handled carefully, so cooking it was safer and more reassuring.

I first took a sip of the soup.

Delicious...! This has to be shrimp!

It was shrimp-stock soup. This was incredible—it was unbelievably delicious. It felt like I was tasting stock for the first time in ages... The cuisine in the Royal Capital had advanced in other ways, but it had no stock.

I quickly finished the soup.

"You eat with such relish, Leon-sama. Shrimp are at their most delicious around this time, when the weather is beginning to cool."

Tony-san said that to me.

H-how embarrassing... But it was incredibly delicious, so what could I do?

"It's delicious! What kind of white-fleshed fish is this?"

I asked that to change the subject because I was embarrassed.

"That's Spanish mackerel. They're best caught during the hot season, but they're still being caught now. They go well with any kind of dish."

"I see. Then I'll try this next."

So it was Spanish mackerel. It looked delicious.

I took a bite-sized piece with my fork and popped it into my mouth.

Mmm, delicious! It was fried in butter. What an extravagant dish.

I eagerly finished the butter-fried Spanish mackerel as well.

There were two dishes left. One was an octopus tentacle grilled whole with salt. The other appeared to be grilled scallops.

I started with the octopus. Chew, chew... This octopus was incredibly springy. But the more I chewed, the more savory flavor came out, and the more delicious it became! I bet it would be amazing as karaage.

Did they not have fried food? Maybe it hadn't really caught on yet. But I'd eaten something deep-fried once before, so it did exist as a cooking method. In that case, it shouldn't be too strange for me to make karaage.

If they let me use the kitchen later, I wanted to make fried octopus! Since I was going to be frying something, maybe I could make fried fish too. I'd ask about it this evening.

Last came the scallops. I took a bite. Delicious!

This one had butter too. They must have melted butter over the scallops after grilling them. It was incredibly delicious. Even the juices left behind were delicious.

Phew... I was completely satisfied. I really was Japanese, after all. I liked meat too, but I always ended up craving seafood.

I finished lunch, completely satisfied.