Extra: Salty Dog

I was given a request that designated me by name from the Adventurer’s guild, and was currently on the way home to Karelina after finishing it. I’d already reported that the request was done, so there was no particular reason to hurry back and we decided to make a little detour.

We stopped by a place I’d been curious about for a while now, the town of salt, Mercadante.

Their specialty was rock salt. The stuff they produced was of high quality: soft and inoffensive with a mellow taste. It was considered a luxury product in this world.

So we came to this town with that rock salt as a goal.

First, we visited the Adventurer’s guild to explain why we were there.

Even though it was mostly thanks to Fel, I was still an S-ranked adventurer at least in name, after all.

Not to mention I had a standing request from the guildmaster from Karelina, who I was indebted to, to take on requests that had been sitting for long periods in adventurer’s guilds for towns I visited.

So, I decided to visit the Adventurer’s guild here in Mercadante first thing and found out that I’d just missed seeing an A-ranked party that was here before us. Apparently that A-ranked party took on a high-level request, so there was nothing for me to do at the moment.

I was told that they were recently rumored to be near S-rank thanks to all the feats they were credited with. It seemed that they themselves were aware of these rumors, so they were aggressively taking high ranking requests. Mercadante’s guildmaster was saying all this with a very satisfied expression.

Personally I thought it was a lucky thing and I wanted to do a little jig, but my familiars seemed unhappy about it.

You know that expression doesn’t help anyone. They don’t have what they don’t have.

The next place we visited was the Merchant’s guild. Our purpose was to rent a home to use as a base while we were in this town. We were introduced to a 7LDK and a 9LDK property. Both were 60 gold a week in rent, though they were slightly smaller than the properties I usually rented. Still, either would be large enough for the largest of us, Fel, to relax comfortably in, so there was no problem.

After seeing both properties, it was easy to choose between them. I ended up picking the 7LDK property. The fact that it was close to the market clinched it. I paid up front and got the key to the house. And that took care of my preliminary business here.

Like that, I secured a place to sleep in Mercadante, so we quickly visited the market.

◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇

As if being dragged along by their sense of smell, the gluttonous trio went straight for the corner where the food stalls were concentrated. Even though we came for their specialty salt, they could not be made to wait. Though I mostly blame the smell of cooking meat. That hit went straight to their stomachs. As always, the gluttonous trio begged with furious tenacity, and in the end, I caved and had to buy food for them.

The stall that caught their eye was one that sold well-grilled cockatrice that looked truly appetizing. Even while feeling a little exasperated at how hard the gluttonous trio were staring at the food, I went to buy a large amount of it since they never ever settled for a normal amount. I was feeling a little peckish, so I bought one for myself too.

I bit into the slightly burned meat.

“Delish...” It was a simple dish where they salted cockatrice meat and grilled it, but it was very delicious. The skin was crispy, and the meat was moist and juicy. It was perfectly cooked, and every chew filled my mouth with more meat juice. And since such perfectly cooked cockatrice was seasoned with this town’s specialty salt, it gained a corresponding amount of taste.

《Hm. Not bad.》

《Yeah. I love how it’s just a little burnt.》

《It’s good, isn’t it~?》 The gluttonous trio were happily munching away at the meat.

“This meat is cooked perfectly, right~? It’s hard to believe they only use salt,” I said as I ate the cockatrice meat, impressed.

“Aww, you’re making me blush young fella!” The man at the stall must have heard my mutterings since he called out to me with a full-faced smile.

“Oh mannn~, this really was delicious. The skin is crispy while the meat is juicy, it was so perfectly cooked.”

“Well I have been doing this for 30 years~!”

“Of course, you’re using this town’s salt, right?”

“Of course! This rock salt is the source of our town’s pride, after all! Not only that, but I’m using really choice picks that I selected myself!” Seeing the stall guy look so proud, I decided to do some research and asked him which store he recommended I buy rock salt from.

“Well...” The guy gave me the names of two stores.

The first sold okay quality rock salt at a good price, and the other sold high-quality rock salt at a slightly expensive price.

After my familiars all finished their cockatrice, I immediately made my way over to the two stores he recommended.

I first visited the store that sold middling quality rock salt, Cedarholm trading company. I had my familiars wait outside and went into the store proper by myself.

The salt in the store was just as the stall guy said, of passable quality. While it had some strange color to it, it was well within acceptable parameters. There wasn’t any sand mixed inside, so there was basically no problem with it.

I’d taken some time to research whether there was any usable salt in this world, since I was pretty picky about what I used personally. There were places that would sell salt that clearly had sand mixed in, or reddish-brown salt that probably had dirt in it, with a completely straight face. On top of that, they’d set the prices for that bad salt stupidly high.

Since I kept running into cases like that, I’d kept to my Online Supermarket salt this entire time.

But this town had salt as their specialty. Probably thanks to that, they didn’t try to commit any such scam.

Even so, compared to the stores along the street that I checked, the places that the stall guy recommended were much better priced for their quality.

At the first store, I ended up buying a small bag that contained a chunk of rock salt that had been shattered and crushed into smaller pieces, as well as two large chunks of rock salt.

While I was feeling rather satisfied with my purchases, I made my way to the next stop: the shop with high-quality salt at slightly expensive prices, Edgeworth trading company. Here, I also had my familiars wait outside while I went in alone.

Hmm, seems like a store aimed at the wealthy... The interior has some class.

Just as the stall guy said, the prices were kind of high, but the rock salt was also of excellent quality. I saw nothing that had sand mixed inside, or any discoloration at all. It was comparable to the salt sold by my Skill. With that thought in mind, I tried some of the salt at the behest of the employee.

I touched just a bit on my tongue, and...

“Mm!” The salt was mild with a slight umami taste.

“Delicious...” It was all the more surprising because all the salt I’d seen in this world up until now was so disappointing.

Seeing my surprised expression, the employee looked triumphant. There was no doubt that he was very proud of the salt’s quality.

But still, this might actually be better than the rock salt that’s sold by my Online Supermarket.

Of course, I bought it.

I bought the same amount as I did from the last store, a small bag of crushed salt along with two larger chunks of rock salt a little bigger than my fist. Given that it was salt, I spent quite a bit, but I had no regrets.

Thanks to Fel and the others, I had way more money than I knew what to do with, and none of them would complain about me buying anything that would make their meals better. Rather, since they had such refined palates they’d probably tell me to buy more.

Oh man~, I really got some nice stuff here. That guy at the stall made some great recommendations. It really is best to ask a local for stuff like this, isn’t it? They’re the most in touch with their area, after all.

With a satisfied expression I left the Edgeworth trading company and met up with Fel and the others.

《Seeing you grin like that is freakish.》 Fel said something incredibly mean after taking one look at me.

“Don’t say freakish, that’s rude. I’m just happy because I bought something nice, okay? I got some good salt, so it’ll affect your meals too, you know?”

《What?!》 As soon as I brought up that point, not only Fel but all three of my familiars jumped forward.

“Hmm, I wonder just how delicious a steak would be with this salt and some pepper~?” Since I got salt this good, something simple would be best to let you taste the ingredient more clearly, wouldn’t it? Which means it has to be steak, for this gluttonous trio that just loves loves LOVES meat.

《Okay. We are going home now.》

《Yeah. Then you can cook us steak.》

《Steak!》

“W-W-Wait! Stop pushing me!” Fel, who wanted to go back as soon as possible to get steak, was using his head to push me forward.

Following that, Dora-chan and Sui also started pushing me.

“Wai-! Come on, stop pushing me, all of you!” While I was close to falling over forwards trying to resist Fel and the others, I felt a sudden chill.

I sensed that someone was watching us.

Wondering what that feeling was, I looked around, and...

“Eep...!” Composed of bearded and well-built tiny old men, a group of dwarves was staring at me with glinting eyes.

Surprised, I took Fel and the others and pretty much ran all the way home.

After getting back, I wondered to myself, “What the hell was that?” But the gluttonous trio wouldn’t stop pestering me so I ended up having to cook them steaks, erasing all thoughts of the group of dwarves from my head.

By the way, the wyvern steaks with this town’s salt and some freshly ground pepper had my familiars in ecstasy as they ate.

◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇

By the next day, the dwarf group had completely disappeared from my head, so I took my familiars along to buy more of the salt I got yesterday, since it was so delicious.

The salt everyone liked best was the slightly expensive stuff from the Edgeworth trading company. So, I bought three times the amount that I bought yesterday from them. It might have honestly been too much, but I figured I might want extra to give to everyone waiting at my home in Karelina on top of securing more for our food. Well, by ‘everyone waiting,’ I meant I’d probably just be handing it to Thereza and Aija, who handled all the cooking. After all, salt was a daily necessity, and if I gave them salt this good, they’d be able to live even richer lives.

I stocked up with that in mind. I considered spending some time just wandering around the market window shopping when I was assaulted by chills once again.

I fearfully looked around, and...

“Eep!” The same dwarf group as yesterday was once again watching me with glinting eyes.

Wait no, aren’t there more than yesterday? What the hell~?!

I hid behind Fel’s large body and used him as a shield as we passed by the dwarves. Once we were some distance away from the dwarf group, I finally breathed a sigh of relief.

《Hey, why are they all glaring at you?》

“I don’t know. I’d like to ask them myself.”

《What? Did you just do something without realizing it?》

“I didn’t! Probably......” Something I didn’t realize? I mean...... At the very least I definitely never did something that would lead to dwarves glaring at me like that. In the first place, I don’t know anyone here and I can count the number of people I’ve talked to on two hands. And there wasn’t a single dwarf among them. And I mean, how could I mess up so badly as to be treated like that just for a little conversation?

The more I thought about it, the less I understood.

Dwarves were basically all about crafting and alcohol. Outside of that, I didn’t feel like there was much you could do to earn their ire, which was why I was so confused. I never talked to or even met any dwarves in this town, so there was no way that I angered them in either of those ways............

“Ah!” Wait, could it be that? Seriously? That?! I thought of the liquor store that I ran as a hobby. Since it was just a hobby, it was up to me when I wanted to open it and where. At the moment, I just opened up whenever I had free time in a town I visited and I felt up to it.

All the liquor I sold was bought from the Liquor Shop Tanaka, a Tenant from my Online Supermarket. And since I thought it would be annoying to start any rumors and I didn’t want to stir up a fuss, I tried setting a lot of different rules, but as they say, you can’t put a stopper on people’s mouths.

Among the people who actually came to the store, there were some who knew who I was. After all, I was an S-rank adventurer, even if I didn’t deserve it.

Hmmm... Considering that, it was getting more and more likely this had something to do with the liquor store I ran as a hobby.

Since the thought crossed my mind, I hesitantly looked back to where the dwarf group was.

They’re still theeerreeee! And they’re still looking at me!

Gathering up my courage, I made a gesture at them like I was drinking liquor, and...

The dwarf group’s eyes all snapped wide open and they nodded furiously.

............Ahhh, it really was about booze.

Now that I knew the reason, it was honestly kind of a letdown.

Still, a dwarf’s tenacity for alcohol was frightening.

I never planned to open up the liquor store in this town, but if I didn’t, that group of dwarves would undoubtedly wail and lament in sorrow.

I couldn’t help but laugh bitterly, since I could see that happening so easily.

Oh fine, I guess I’ll open up the store for once.

But it would take some preparation, so I couldn’t just do it tonight. Maybe I’ll have it open tomorrow night?

After some shopping in the market, I decided to go back and prepare to open my liquor store.

◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇

《In that case, we will be sleeping in the back.》

“Okay.” Once again, I rented a warehouse and opened up shop.

Warehouses tended to be on the outskirts of town, so I had my familiars along with me as a guard.

I never planned to open up a liquor store, so Fel and the others (especially Fel) were rather annoyed. Their attitudes shifted 180 degrees as soon as I said I’d make dragon steak, though.

That just showed how delicious dragon steak was, but it was a complicated feeling knowing how easy a legendary Fenrir was to please.

At any rate, the dragon steak seasoned with this town’s specialty salt and some black pepper was so good I lost the ability to speak for a moment.

But setting that aside, I needed to prepare to open up shop.

On top of a wooden table, I lined up the liquors I procured from Liquor Shop Tanaka: Whiskey, Brandy, Rum, Gin, Wine, Beer, Sake, and Umeshu.

These were for sampling. Since I was basically only selling stuff that didn’t exist in this world, I figured it would be hard to commit to buying things you didn’t know the taste of.

It seemed to me that the people of this town had been stretching the limits of their patience waiting, so I prepared the largest assortment ever for them.

But dwarves would always try everything first, so it was a complicated feeling seeing the pile of empty bottles after every customer.

Also, I had an idea in the spur of the moment and decided to try it out.

I was going to use this town’s specialty salt in a cocktail as a welcoming drink.

So, the plan was to get those ready right now.

I had the ingredients for it, so all I needed to do was assemble.

Even though I said it was a cocktail, I didn’t need any tools like a shaker or anything.

It was something that could easily be made even by a layman like me, and I’d actually tried it before when I got a random craving for it.

I prepared some clear lowball glasses bought from my skill.

I rubbed some lemon on the rims.

Then, I put some salt I bought from this town on a flat plate and dipped the rim of the glasses in it. The name of this technique was called something like ‘snow style.’

I put some ice I had Fel make inside these salted glasses. I had him make slightly large chunks that would fit the glass.

If I had them too small, they would melt faster and dilute the drink, so I made sure that didn’t happen.

After adding ice to the glass, I poured in grapefruit juice and vodka in a two-to-one ratio and stirred the drink lightly to finish.

“Yeah, it looks good. It’s a salty dog for sure.” I made a total of 12. One for me, and another 11 for the maximum number of people that could be in the store.

“Gotta make sure it tastes good.” Though I also just kind of wanted to drink some.

I hadn’t had a salty dog in a long while.

“Yeah, it’s perfect.”

Whoops. Gotta make sure not to drink too much.

Salty dogs were delicious and went down easy, so it was just as easy to overconsume. Especially since its alcohol content was pretty high. After all, its base was vodka.

I myself once had too many salty dogs and made a mistake. It didn’t turn out too badly since I was drinking at home, but I had too many salty dogs to the point that I got blackout drunk and when I woke up, I found myself draped over the toilet. My head hurt and I felt gross, especially since I had to wonder why I spent the night on the toilet. It was an awful feeling. Ever since then, I was careful of consuming salty dogs.

I had to be extra careful today since I’d be receiving customers.

“Now then, I’m ready. All I have to do is sit down and wait for customers.” As soon as I made to sit down, I heard banging on the door.

Apparently I didn’t even have time to wait.

“Password?” As always, I asked for the password.

“Atsugiri negi shiotan.” A low voice answered back with the password.

It was a set of words that meant nothing to the people of this world. Since coming up with a good one was a pain, I just decided to follow along with the yakiniku theme that I’d been using. This time’s was “Thick cut salted beef tongues with onion.”

When I opened the door, an avalanche of dwarves rushed in.

They’d kept exactly to the limit of one person who was introduced to the store and ten of their friends.

“Finally... Finally!”

“Ahhh~! I swore to myself I wouldn’t die until I managed to come here!”

“Booze! Booze!”

“I’m gonna empty my wallet!”

“This chance won’t come up often. I pulled together all the money I could from the house.” The dwarves were all in a party mood as they talked excitedly.

“Welcome. First, as a gesture of hospitality please try these cocktails made with your town’s specialty rock salt.” I showed the customers to seats at a long table, like those you would see at a cafeteria.

They all sat, and I served them the salty dogs from my Item Box.

“Ohh~! There’s salt on the rim!”

“It’s alcohol diluted with fruit juice? Seems like it’d be popular with women.”

“This glass is more amazing. Whoever made this did a great job.”

I had to warn these excited old dudes, so I said, “Unlike how it looks, it’s quite strong, so be careful,” but...

They didn’t listen and all downed their drinks in one go.

“Aahhhhh! It’s easy to drink and feels pretty refreshing!”

“Indeed. Since it’s diluted with fruit juice it’s nice on the palate!”

“This is perfect as a warm-up for trying the hard stuff.” I was so disappointed seeing the old dwarves downing the salty dogs in one go and excitedly sharing their impressions with each other.

Right... That’s right... This is just what dwarves are like...

I regrouped and started presenting, giving them explanations on everything that seemed necessary.

I told them that all the liquor they saw could be sampled.

I said that they were only allowed to try each one once. This was a rule I added on recently, since some people would come back to the same bottle over and over to ‘sample’ it, I had to make sure they only got to try each one once.

Also, the glasses I prepared to sample the liquors were lowball glasses that were about the same size as the ones I used for the customers’ salty dogs.

At first, I used shot glasses, but it ended up being really unpopular with the dwarves, so I changed to lowball glasses and decided to only half fill them.

I continued on to say that any bottles that they liked could be purchased at an amount of up to ten bottles per type per person.

And lastly, I reminded them, “I believe you all know the rules of this store, but I must insist that you take care and abide by all of them.”

Well, all the rules basically said was not to ask too many questions about the source of my liquor or really any other prying questions and just quietly enjoy the booze.

The old dwarves all nodded with solemn expressions, but I knew that once I handed them all their sampling glasses, their eyes would start glinting and they’d grow restless.

Wow. You all realize that the liquor won’t up and leave on you or anything?

“Then let us start the tasting.” I was fairly sure they weren’t listening, but I said it just in case.

“All the liquors I have prepared today are rather high in alcohol content, and the ones to your right are especially strong, so please be warned.” On the right I had whiskey, brandy, rum, vodka, and gin.

Whiskey was very popular among all the dwarves, so I just naturally ended up selling a lot of really strong liquors.

“Well then, please go ahead.” It seemed like the customers this time had planned things out beforehand, as instead of splitting up and doing different things, they all lined up together for the same ones.

That in itself was fine, but even though I’d just warned them, they all started from the right side where the strongest stuff was.

Geez. Every time.

On top of that, they were starting with whiskey, which had always been the favorite of dwarves. I couldn’t tell if that was a coincidence or not.

The specific bottle was a label that was a famous Scotch whisky maker, and it was said to be the pinnacle of all single malt whiskies.

Even while worrying about how drinking this first would affect them, I poured samples into all their glasses.

“This is a whisky which has been very well received by your fellow dwarves.” They downed the entire glass in one shot.

Come on, it wouldn’t kill you to savor the taste a bit more.

“Mm, the bouquet is great~!”

“Aahhhh~, delicious!”

“A strong taste. Hmm...”

“Too amazing......” The small old men all looked to be enraptured in their ecstasy.

When they finally came back down to earth, it was time for the next bottle.

After repeating that for a while...

.................. ............ ......

“Oh maannn~, I got some good stuff!”

“Aggghh, why didn’t I bring more money?!”

“I sold off the mithril sword that I’d been keeping in the store for this day! I’m so happy!”

“I wanted all of it... I won’t be able to rest until I get them, even if I die.”

“I liked the whisky. I ended up getting all of the whiskies, haha.”

Ahhh~, so tired. If you’re done shopping, why won’t you all just go home...?

There were the dwarves, who were still in the store happily chatting away, and me next to them, dead tired.

“Okay, then. Thanks, man!”

“Today was really fun!”

“Come back any time, you hear!” The dwarves all left the warehouse dragging along wooden boxes like family treasures while saying their goodbyes.

I saw them off outside the store, my expression stiff.

“They came in a carriage...?!” I saw them come in with the wooden boxes, but I never expected them to have brought a carriage.

You guys are way too well prepared.

The dwarves all left with satisfied expressions. After they’d completely gone, I collapsed into a chair.

“I’ll clean up after I rest a bit. Still, I never expected them to try everything...” The table was cluttered with empty bottles.

“This was the largest variety I’ve set up so far, so I really didn’t expect them to empty all of it. Damn, what the hell are dwarven livers made of?” I gained a newfound appreciation and fear for dwarven physiology.