16-8 A New Resident

“Yamamoto, it is me. I am coming in.”

“Ah, Lowry-san. I am making a new confectionery right now. Would you like to taste the prototype?”

“Let me see. Oh. This has quite an unusual texture.

And it has a very refined flavor too.”

Whoa, dried Japanese sweets.

And the colors were wonderful too.

“Yamamoto-san, may I have one as well? Ah, my name is Ryusuke Inoue. It is nice to meet you. I am from Aichi Prefecture. Are you from Tokushima or Kagawa, one of the fine-grained Japanese sugar production areas? Or perhaps from Kyoto, the home of Japanese confectionery?”

I rattled all of that off in Japanese.

He froze in surprise and looked at me with round eyes.

Then, after not much of a pause, he smiled and said this.

“Ah, um. I am from Udon Prefecture.”

We both broke into smiles.

Yamamoto-san was a plain, simple sort of person, and he had the kind of air about him that somehow made people feel at ease.

“Ah, my name is Shoji Yamamoto. I was born as the second son of a noodle shop owner. It was the countryside, and partly because of our family business, our household had more of a Japanese-sweets atmosphere than a Western-sweets one. I hear that many successors to Japanese sweet shops nowadays start Western-style bakeries instead of taking over the Japanese sweet shop, but I became completely fascinated by Japanese sweets. There was a Japanese sweet shop near my house that used fine-grained sugar from Sanuki, and I had been visiting it since I was a child, but before I knew it, that had become my profession.”

All right!

The Beast-Ear Garden had obtained a genuine Japanese confectionery craftsman.

With this, our sweets now had both Japanese and Western pillars secured!

Yamamoto-san was not what one would call a handsome man.

His hair was cut short, and he had the air of a craftsman through and through.

But he did not feel stern or intimidating at all, and he wore an approachable smile.

It was the same gentle sort of smile one often saw in craftsman-introduction photos on Japanese sweet shop websites.

He seemed like the kind of person children would like.

On top of that, his whole body already smelled sweet.

This guy was a devastating attack against our children.

With this, it should be fine to have him come to our place.

“Ah, but what about ingredients? You were making a lot of sweets, but…”

“Pigyah!”

My line was cut off by that familiar scream.

“Ah, hey, Fal. Do not eat them without permission!”

She had already stuffed her cheeks full of sweets and had become an adorable hamster!

“Hahaha. It is fine. Little miss, is it good?”

Fal happily bobbed her head up and down.

Her mouth was stuffed full, so she could not answer.

If he knew that this was Sacred Elion, the divine messenger before whom everyone on this continent prostrated themselves… Ah, Yamamoto-san probably did not know about Elion.

“As for the necessary ingredients, I can produce as much as I like. As long as it is something I have used in Japan before.”

What? So he could obtain whatever he needed in whatever quantity he needed, without even an MP conversion formula?

What a strange ability.

Maybe, because something weird had happened, his skill had been constructed as something like, “Since this is my profession, give me the ability to make as many Japanese sweets as I want!”

It was probably something that had been naturally constructed in the form of a unique skill as a professional Japanese confectionery craftsman.

Because this person did not look like the type who could do something like that by his own power.

Unlike me.

Was it professional spirit, or something like my Seventh Sense?

Well, I was in no position to talk about others either.

To tell the truth, this person seemed like the type who had the talent to possess the Seventh Sense.

Though the vague term “Seventh Sense possessor” itself was extremely confusing.

To put it simply, there was that suspicion about this type of person, the sort whom the spirits in this world would voluntarily approach on their own.

And to make matters worse, there were outrageous people in this world who had that thing but were completely unaware of it.

In this person’s case, if he did have the Seventh Sense, he would definitely be that troublesome type.

On top of that, he was also a confectionery craftsman, someone who could practically be called a natural spirit magnet.

Since he seemed able to produce confectionery ingredients without limit, his magic power also appeared to be incredibly abundant.

Of course, with a personality like this, there was also a very real possibility that he was simply a natural airhead.

“I am sorry. Yamamoto-san, you will be coming with me from now on. I have already reached an agreement with Count Brown.”

Not that I had particularly talked it over with him.

Aside from naming myself the duke-killer, anyway.

“I-is that so… I am happy that I can be together with another Japanese person, but Lowry-san has helped me so much, so it pains me greatly to leave so suddenly. When I went out shopping for the shop, I was swallowed by fog, and for some reason, I ended up in this world. I was wandering around without understanding anything when Lowry-san called out to me. Ever since then, I have been constantly indebted to him here.”

At that, even my eyes widened in surprise.

What incredible luck.

To think he had been picked up by someone as kind as Count Brown in an empire like this. That made him look even more suspicious.

The Seventh Sense had that kind of convenient aspect to it too.

If I had to put it strongly, that thing was like a lump of convenience itself.

The fact that it actually existed was truly troublesome.

The convenient developments caused by the Seventh Sense were far more bizarre than some poorly written fictional story.

Even if the person who possessed the Seventh Sense had no awareness of it, one stroke of timing could make things turn out that way.

Then the count, judging the right moment, spoke to Yamamoto-san.

“No, it is all right. Even if you stay here, your talent will only end up buried. Yamamoto, you really are a Rare Visitor who came from another world, aren’t you? I had a feeling that might be the case.”

“Lowry-san, thank you very much for everything. I will never forget this debt.”

I apologized to the count in a word.

“Sorry, Count Brown. I will definitely make this up to you. And also…”

I stole a glance at the marquis.

I am going to make a scene.

Do not regret this, Marquis Clift.

We gave a polite farewell and decided to leave the count’s mansion.

We gratefully accepted the confectionery tools that the count had likely prepared for us.

Count Brown, who came to see us off, was startled when he saw the miserable state of the door, but I restored it on the spot with the Regeneration skill.

I covered it up by giving Count Brown a wonderful smile.

Not that I covered it up at all, though.

I likewise restored the gate with the skill, then headed to the Albatross Kingdom Embassy with teleportation magic.

“My, you certainly did something flashy.”

Raccoon Number One, who promptly greeted us, said that with a smile.

With this, I had cleared the mission from His Highness Michael.

The original raccoon noble looked very happy, since he had been able to build up more achievements.

The coachman of the carriage that had sent us off had probably reported it through a communication magic tool.

“As expected of an ambassador, news reaches you quickly. This is a new Rare Visitor. I have decided to protect him at my place, so please take note. Well then.”

After giving a brief report, I turned to Mr. Yamamoto and asked,

“Please close your eyes for just a moment.”

Then I teleported to the Beast-Ear Garden.

The sharp-eyed kindergarteners immediately came to greet us.

“Welcome back!”

“What about souvenirs?”

“Yes, here is your souvenir.”

Saying that, I presented Yamamoto-san to the children.

“Ehh, he’s an old guy!”

“An old guy!”

“Food would be way better than some old guy!”

Mr. Yamamoto had been suddenly brought to a place like this, only to be barraged by the noisy kindergarteners calling him an old guy over and over.

He looked extremely shocked.

Mainly at being called an old guy.

He seemed to be an honest-to-a-fault sort of person, the type whose thoughts immediately showed on his face.

“There, there. I was once called uncle by a kindergartener when I was nineteen. Even though I had quite a baby face back then…”

I consoled him, at least for the time being.

For some reason, I ended up treating this person with respect.

He was a completely different kind of person from the humans I had met in this world so far.

He seemed plain and simple, but his way of speaking was polite, and most of all, talking to him put me at ease.

I felt like I had been living a far too violent life in another world until now.

“You lot! Show him at least a little more respect. This man is an amazing confectionery craftsman, someone who can rival Eri-chan.”

Rather than merely rivaling her, this man was the genuine Japanese confectionery craftsman who had come from Japan.

Upon hearing that, all the little beast-eared children present widened their eyes, perked up their ears, and focused on Yamamoto-san all at once.

And in the next instant, those little brats shamelessly flipped their attitude and said this.

“““Big brother, give us sweets!”””

They were utterly mercenary little creatures.

Yamamoto-san also gave a wry smile as he handed out ready-made sweets, which he apparently produced with his skill.