Extra: Tingling Spicy Snacks For Alcohol.

“Yo! Johannes.” I greeted a younger solo adventurer that I ended up getting acquainted with in the guild.

Johannes was a rare type of adventurer who specialized in collecting and harvesting, and was E-ranked. He was still 21 years old and quite a young adventurer, but his knowledge on plants was extensive. It seemed like he wasn’t a good fighter, and we ended up getting acquainted when we ran across Johannes getting chased by 3 orcs in the forest and saved him. He was pretty thin for an adventurer, but he was quite easy to talk to, and we got along well.

“Mukohda, huh......?”

“Hm? What’s up, with that gloomy look?”

“No, nothing......”

“It’s not nothing, with that face. If you’re worried about something, won’t it feel better to get it off your chest?”

“Hmmm, that might be right... It’s not like I’ve been able to figure out a way to solve it. To tell you the truth......”

It turned out that Johannes was worried not about himself, but his parents. Johannes’ parents were running a bar, but business wasn’t exactly booming for them.

“Apparently people were saying that their place didn’t have anything decent to eat. Just, people that complain are everywhere, and if it was only that, I don’t think my parents would have given it any mind. However, it seems that they’re getting a lot less customers than before...... My parents are both pretty depressed about it.”

“I see. But, snacks are pretty important when it comes to drinking alcohol...”

“Is that right? But it’s not like we serve anything weird at our place. The other bars and stuff all serve similar things.”

“And that’s what’s bad. If it’s all the same, then it doesn’t matter where you go. Wasn’t your place a little far away?”

“Yes. It’s along one of the streets feeding into the main street. It used to face the main street, but we ended up having to move three years ago, since the owner’s son was starting a store, or something.”

“Thought so. So? Aren’t the main customers for bars adventurers?”

“Yes.”

“How many adventurers base themselves in your hometown, Johannes?”

“Not a lot of them, I think. There’s a lot of adventurers that travel around, given their jobs, after all.”

“I did just say, but if all the food is the same, then wouldn’t you just go to the closest one? Since they haven’t been there their whole lives or anything and probably aren’t too familiar with the streets, I’d think that they’d just end up going to all the easy-to-find places.”

“Ah......”

“That’s how it is. You can’t just be like everyone else. You need to be better. Back to the earlier subject of snacks — if they had something good that no one else had, then I think they’d get more customers.”

“I see...... But that would mean coming up with a new snack to go with alcohol, wouldn’t it? How would...... I know! Isn’t Mukohda really good at cooking? Please help us! Of course, I won’t ask you to do it for free. I’ll pay 3 gold! So please, please help!”

“Hey hey, 3 gold?”

“I know it’s too little. But... it’s all I can give you......” Johannes let his head droop as he bit his lip.

“No, that’s not it. Isn’t that money that you’ve worked hard to save up? Weren’t you saving up for a new plant encyclopedia?”

Johannes had said that he wanted a new plant encyclopedia in order to further his knowledge of plant life. Since all books were handwritten in this world, they were both rare and very expensive. Not only that, but since the book that Johannes wanted also had hand drawn pictures, it was even more expensive than usual, and would cost 5 gold, according to him.

“It’s fine. It’s for my family. I can just start saving up money for my encyclopedia again...... I... I’m really grateful to my parents. I’ve always admired adventurers...... But in the end, I’m only a solo harvesting specialist. Everyone makes fun of me. But only my parents always encouraged me. They said, ‘If that’s your path as an adventurer, isn’t that just fine?’ They even told me to follow it all the way through and just said, ‘If it’s about harvesting, just leave it to me!’”

Khhh~, what great parents! Now I can’t even refuse the money...

“Fine. I’ll help. But you need to help, too.”

“Yes!”

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

“Then, let’s go.”

“Okay.”

I had met up with Johannes, and we were going to head to his parents’ bar. My three familiars were staying behind at the inn. Johanne’s parents would just be scared if I brought Fel and the others along, after all. Also, according to Johannes, with all the tables and chairs in their bar there wouldn’t be any space for Fel anyway.

I got Fel and the others to reluctantly agree to stay behind by telling them I’d cook something good for dinner. Of course, I left a mountain of snack buns for them as a lunch and a snack.

“Would what I thought of yesterday be all right?” Yesterday, I spent the whole day accompanying Johannes, thinking of different snacks that would pair well with alcohol, mainly ale, and trying them.

“Of course! It’s easy to make, and most of all it was that delicious. It even goes super well with ale. But, using jalapena in cooking, huh? I thought that’d only be good for making potions to prevent sleepiness.”

‘Jalapena’ was a plant similar to chili pepper. “From my perspective, it’s stranger that it hasn’t been tried in cooking yet.”

“I mean, it’s super spicy...”

“Isn’t that what’s great about it? As long as you manage the amount you use.”

While we were talking about that, we reached the bar that Johannes’ parents were managing.

“It’s here, Mukohda. Hey pa, ma, I brought that friend I told you about before!”

In response to Johannes’ voice, from the back came a thin and stubborn looking man aged past 40, who looked exactly how Johannes would look if he was older, and an old plump lady who looked the exact image of a plucky mother.

“Mukohda, this is my mom and dad. Pa, ma, Mukohda’s a high-ranking adventurer, so try not to be rude.”

“I know already, you don’t have to tell me, sonny! *Ahem* I’m Johannes’ father. Sorry for mixing you up in our problems.”

“Really, sorry about this.”

“I’m Mukohda. Pleased to meet you. It was Johannes who asked me, so I’m happy to help. Johannes has been kind to me ever since I got here, and he’s very knowledgeable about plants, so he’s helped me a lot too.”

When I said that, Johannes’ mother seemed a little impressed, saying, “For a high-ranking adventurer to say that, you’ve been doing good work, haven’t you?”

“More importantly, we need to talk about the new dish. Mukohda thought of something that we can put out immediately, starting today.”

“Today, already? That’s great!”

“Okay then, I’ll be teaching you now.”

We moved to the kitchen. “I’d heard from Johannes that you serve grilled sausages here, do you have any sausages?”

“Yeah, we have some.”

“I’ll need that and some garlic and olive oil.”

Johannes’ father provided what I asked for.

“Johannes, that.”

Johannes pulled out some dried jalapena from his shoulder bag and handed it to me.

“What is that?”

“Dried jalapena.”

It seemed that Johannes’ parents still didn’t understand. Just like Johannes had said, the use for this plant was basically just for anti-drowsiness potions, and knowledge of it wasn’t very common.

“It’s that thing, ma, pa. The thing used in anti-drowsiness potions.”

“Anti-drowsiness potions?”

“............Ah, that thing? Dear, it’s that spicy thing!”

“Ah! That?! Wait, what are you going to do with that thing that’s spicy and nothing else?” Johannes’ parents looked at me, mystified.

“I’m going to cook with it.” When I said that, the two looked both startled and surprised.

“I get your feelings, but just watch. I ate it too, so I can guarantee the taste. It’s really good and goes great with ale.”

“Then I’ll be making it. The process is really simple. First......”

~◇~◇~◇~

Slice the garlic thinly, remove the seeds from the dried jalapena and cut it into round slices, and cut the sausages into pieces around 3 cm long.

Then, before heating the frying pan, coat it with olive oil and start heating after putting the garlic inside the pan. Once the garlic has turned brown and you can smell it, remove the garlic.

At this point, add in the dried jalapena and sausage pieces, and after sautéing for a bit, throw in some salt and let all the flavors mix.

After that, just keep cooking until the sausages change colors, signifying that they’re cooked.

~◇~◇~◇~

“It’s spicy garlic sautéed sausage. Try it.” I served the dish to Johannes’ parents. The two of them timidly put the food in their mouths.

“Mh!”

“This is......”

“Johannes, the ale!”

“Me too!”

Johannes handed the two steins filled with ale. The two of them chugged down some ale after wolfing down some of the sausage.

“Ohhh yeah! It’s good!”

“Ohhh yeah! What is this?! It’s so good with the ale!”

Looking at those two, Johannes laughed, saying, “Didn’t I tell you? It’s good!”

“I also think it’d be a good idea to add some thinly sliced potatoes, too. Also, this garlic flavor with a spicy kick goes well with most anything.”

“Ohh! Now that you say it, it does, doesn’t it? I’ll have to try a bunch of stuff with this.”

“Yes.”

The two of them were talking while wolfing down the dish and gulping their ale.

Hey, hey... don’t you have to work after this?

“Thank you so much, Mukohda. This is your reward.” Johannes approached me and tried to hand over the gold without being noticed by his excited parents.

“I don’t need it. You keep it. This is an investment. You might find something that can be used in cooking, like the jalapena, next time. You go study as much as you can about plants.”

“Mukohda......”

“In exchange, give me some of that dried jalapena too, okay?”

“Sure!”

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

Several days later———.

“Oh, Johannes, did you just come back from a request?”

“Ah, Mukohda. That’s right. Thanks to you, Mukohda, the store is doing great. They don’t have enough jalapena, so dad told me to go get some.”

“Hahah, isn’t it great that they’re flourishing? Don’t forget my share, too.”

“I know. Okay then, I have to go back to my dad.”

“Sure, next time.”

Johannes’ footsteps were light as he walked off towards his parents’ store.

“Hey, what is jalapena?” Fel asked, having listened in to my conversation with Johannes.

“It’s got a spicy kick.”

“A spicy kick, huh? Hmm... that sounds nice. I ask that you use that flavoring for today’s meal.”

《A spicy kick, huh? It does sound nice. I agree with Fel—.》

“Fel and Dora-chan might want it, but won’t Sui hate it?”

《It’s fine sometimes~.》

“Good, then the spicy kick flavor is decided.”

“Fine, fine. I’ll do that.”

Food with a spicy kick, huh? Now then, what should I make...?