20-4 The Unveiling

It was already close to noon.

It was time for the customary bazaar.

Naturally, the highlight this time had to be Japanese sweets.

And crab.

Today could practically be called Yamamoto-san Day.

This old man got so distracted by the crab that I accidentally forgot the closing greeting.

Even though this was the first event of its kind in this world.

Seeing that the children were getting hungry and restless, Aoi-chan also seemed to smoothly let that minor matter slide.

The audience had also been looking forward to the bazaar, so no one seemed to mind.

The Knight Order guys smiled wryly a little, but well, today was not a royal event or anything.

Yes.

Today, crab-miso tofu will finally make its debut.

I prepared the best Japanese sake so far, and this old man excitedly lined up at the bazaar stall.

Then I ordered the connoisseur’s set of snow crab with ponzu, a small bowl of crab miso, and crab-miso tofu.

This was a menu that had been developed exclusively for me.

The irresistible smell of grilled crab began drifting through the area.

The number of people drooling all at once suddenly increased.

Of course, I was first among them.

It was the season when the weather was starting to turn chilly.

I brought out hot sake and began enjoying it warmly.

Since it was in a container enchanted with heat-retention magic, it stayed piping hot until I finished drinking it.

Mari brought Remi and joined me.

Since this old man had ended up lining up for crab-miso tofu, I had asked Mari to handle Remi’s meal.

And also the grilled crab while she was at it.

When it came to the first king, it was crab, or so they said.

Apparently, there were many anecdotes related to crab involving the first king.

Yeah, I understood.

He was Japanese, after all.

Even Mari, who normally did not eat human meals, apparently ate crab together with him.

Takeshi had probably wanted to eat it as “siblings.”

It seemed she had done so out of consideration for that.

Despite that, crab was not distributed domestically.

Was it because it was caught in the northern sea on the frontier, and that sea was also full of monsters?

While biting into piping-hot grilled crab, I sipped my hot sake.

Because I looked so happy, everyone was laughing too.

Fal was beside me, lining up Japanese sweets.

Remi also glanced sideways at them, but cupcakes were absolutely indispensable, so first she focused on that.

The crab-miso tofu was delicious.

When I was young, I often went to eat full-course crab meals by the Sea of Japan.

Crab-miso tofu had been the most delicious item on the menu there.

In recent years, after my health had worsened, I had not gone to places like that, but this seemed in no way inferior to that taste.

To think I could get crab-miso tofu this delicious in another world.

The crab chirashi sushi was very popular with the children.

His Highness Prince Emilio also seemed absorbed in the crab; was this genetic too?

When I suddenly noticed it, both the children of the Beast-Ear Garden and the royal family members were using chopsticks freely.

W-when did that happen?

Suddenly, I sensed a presence behind me.

This presence was!

When I turned around, there stood Hannibal the Great, the dwarf king overflowing with muscles.

Why would someone like him be at a school performance?

Well, I had invited him, just in case.

I had thought I would teach that muscle-bound figure from the inland country of Eldoa how delicious crab was.

However, there had been no reply at all, so I had completely assumed he would not come.

“You’re late. Since you came anyway, you should have watched the school performance too.”

“Does this school performance thing serve alcohol?”

Guh, I was an idiot for asking.

“It gets busy around year-end and New Year. This season is still all right, so I ran here while looking around here and there for the first time in a while.”

…Why did he run all the way here?

There was no way to explain it except that he was a stamina idiot of a dwarf.

Even so, for a king of a country, even if only in name, to come all the way to another country alone without bringing a knight order…

And on foot, at that.

Come to think of it, I had never seen that country’s Knight Order.

Surely their Knight Order did not exist.

Was it universal military service, with the king himself included?

Naturally, the one leading from the front had to be this Great Muscle King.

I was sure no one in that country cared about small details.

Well, whatever.

For one thing, I could not imagine there being an idiot who would try to do something to this muscle-bound figure.

What would happen if they tried such a thing?

The result was something even a kindergartener could understand.

To begin with, he was not an opponent one could easily do anything to.

Even a dragon probably could not manage it.

If they saw this muscle-bound figure, the overwhelming majority would surely run away.

And I somehow understood the reason he had said year-end and New Year were busy too.

It was that.

You know, the same reason as Japan.

Especially because of things related to alcohol.

In that case, instead of the month of running teachers, it was the month of running kings.

I wondered what reading I should give that written phrase.

For a good sound, maybe Great-Was? Or should I read the character for king as it was and make it King-Was?

When I looked at the Kingdom’s Knight Order, all of them were smiling wryly in the same way.

Since I had invited this guy, who was technically an official king, twice the usual number of knights had come this time just in case.

In any case, I decided to make him drink alcohol.

That was the only way to deal with a dwarf.

And so, I lined up all sorts of alcohol in front of him.

Because Yamamoto-san had trained the staff, they warmed various kinds of Japanese sake to match the food.

Even the way they warmed it had that connoisseur feeling, like making it lukewarm depending on the side dish.

If this were Japan, I wondered how much a shop that went this far would charge.

Just seeing the dwarf king, the children evacuated from the nearby tables.

They must have understood that a feast of alcohol-smelling old men was about to begin.

Fal also properly sucked up some magical power, then went off together with Remi.

I was lonely.

Well, I had originally planned to drink today, so it was fine.

After all, I had invited the dwarf king, who was synonymous with being a heavy drinker in this world.

The Knight Order only watched us from a distance.

The knight commander also seemed to vaguely think that there were few VIPs for whom an attack would be less worth the trouble than these two.

The main guards were for the prince and princesses.

And at last, King Hannibal and I started a hot pot.

But there was no hot-pot magistrate anywhere.

We were doing it with the feeling of just throwing in ingredients and eating!

He seemed to like the curry hot pot quite a bit.

Maybe because dwarves worked in hot forges, they liked being able to work up a good sweat?

In that sense, kimchi hot pot would not be bad either, but I was bad with that, so I had not brought it and could not make it.

I did not dislike kimchi itself, but I had never made it.

Making fermented foods was difficult.

Natto bacteria were everywhere, so that was the only thing I could make quickly.

Spicy Thai soup and the like were not bad either.

That was a matter where tastes differed depending on the person, and there were some I was bad with too.

I basically liked Thai food, but I was a little bad with things using distinctive vegetables and some of the seasonings.

Someday, I wanted to try a mystery hot pot together with the dwarves.

I guaranteed it would get incredibly lively.

Apparently, the great king also liked ponzu.

For hot pot, this really was the one.

He wanted that too, so I gave him a large amount of the actual thing and the recipe.

This king surprisingly had the item box skill, so he stuffed the souvenirs inside it.

“Come to think of it, about that matter.”

“Mm, ah. That matter… Understood, I’ll take care of it.”

Unusually, this dwarf muscle-bound figure actually remembered it properly.

It was probably because smithing was somewhat involved too.

Well, fine.

Let’s make meaningful use of the short time before Christmas.