Chapter 86: Croquettes, Once More

Chapter 86:
Croquettes, Once More

 

Alphonse, a former Duchy admiral, had a daily training regime. It took place in the garden of a small mansion on the capital’s outskirts. After hearing of a certain special guest in the city, however, Alphonse trained more intensely than usual.

He dodged a seemingly endless number of staff attacks while awaiting his opportunity to strike. Despite his age, Alphonse was still said to be one of the toughest warriors in all the Duchy. Even now, he was strong enough to trade blows with the Duchy’s most powerful knight—the captain of the Royal Knights himself.

Alphonse watched the youthful older man in front of him, who was ready and waiting with staff in hand.

The captain lacked any particular skill with the spear-shaped staff designed for attacking limbs. However, he did have youthful power, and he’d built up a fierce strike through raw training. If this were a real fight, not practice, Alphonse would likely have given up one of his arms to create a chance to attack the captain—a fifty-fifty shot at winning.

A warrior who doesn’t know what growing old feels like can be trouble.

The spear-user in front of Alphonse looked exactly as Alphonse had while he was a knight-in-training. Seeing the captain’s fierce attacks, Alphonse remembered the words that had circulated among mercenaries and adventurers. Beware long-eared warriors. Don’t judge a book by its cover.

Elves and half-elves lived significantly longer than humans and often kept their young appearance despite their age. Occasionally, elf and half-elf mercenaries and adventurers with tremendous sword and bow skills appeared. They used their long lives to sharpen their skills.

Humans would have aged, and lost their speed and strength, by the time they sharpened those skills. However, elves and half-elves didn’t have to fear that. Their training and combat across countless battlefields resulted in near-perfect warriors, with skills born of long years of experience and the strength of youth.

The half-elf former admiral in front of Alphonse, who was likely in his hundreds, was one such warrior.

Like hell I’m just going to take a knee, though!

The fact that Alphonse felt his own body tiring, and that the man in front of him had showed no sign of slowing down since their match began, lit a fire in Alphonse’s soul. He’d survived twenty years on that island. He’d fought twenty hard years to make it home. He had no intention of simply putting down his weapon.

On the other hand, his half-elf opponent saw that Alphonse refused to quit and understood the meaning of that. He changed from a stance meant to counterattack Alphonse’s flurry to one meant to land a decisive hit on his opponent.

And then…

“A tie it is.”

“Indeed, it appears to be a draw.”

The pair smiled at one another, each one’s weapon pointed directly at the other man’s neck.

After washing the sweat off themselves, the pair chatted.

“That was a magnificent training session, as expected of the Empire’s proud Shield,” Alphonse said with a smile to the half-elf man sitting across from him.

The half-elf—Elmer was his name—wore sturdy, if not extravagant, clothing. He had once been an admiral who could stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the Empire’s fierce Sword, the Demon King Altina. Elmer had originally been tasked with guarding Adelheid’s palace, but thanks to his past deeds, the young Emperor Wilhelm had promoted him. Although Elmer wasn’t a flashy warrior, his strong sense of tactics and the time he’d spent practicing spear skills meant that he’d soon become a symbol of the Empire’s might.

“You flatter me, my friend. After stepping down, I’ve had nothing to do but train.”

“Still, color me surprised. If you chose to, you could still serve as an admiral, even now,” Alphonse responded to Elmer’s somewhat bitter smile.

Alphonse was curious. As far as he could tell, Elmer had barely aged a day. The half-elf’s wits and skills were still about him, making him more than capable of serving as an admiral.

“Imperial law. It was set in place when I decided to serve in the army. All admirals and ministers must retire after serving for fifty years,” Elmer replied, a scornful smile still on his face.

That law didn’t mean much to humans. After fifty years, any average human would age naturally and retire. But there were exceptions to the law’s suitability. Elmer, the half-elf sitting in front of Alphonse, was one of those very exceptions. His best days would last over a hundred years, which meant that he could’ve held his position without ever retiring—or, at least, for as long as he had the strength to serve.

“Ah—I get it.” Alphonse nodded. “The law’s in place to prevent a second coming of the Ancient Empire, eh?”

Alphonse hadn’t known that the Empire had such laws, but it didn’t take him long to figure out why they’d been passed. After all, the Duchy had been founded as a result of a half-elf king taking over and destroying the Ancient Kingdom. It wasn’t difficult to see what the Empire had been afraid of when they’d developed the laws.

When Alphonse had returned from his twenty years of solitude on the island, the first thing he’d done was report his return to the king. Next to the king was Elmer, who hadn’t aged a day. He looked exactly the same as he had when Alphonse had first visited the king another twenty years prior to that.

“Exactly. So, now I’m no longer an imperial admiral. I’m just a vagabond. Even my sons pretty much consider me dead,” Elmer said almost proudly, as if he were finally free.

His expression was that of a man enjoying the here and now, free from his old position’s responsibilities.

“Is that so? In that case, allow me to celebrate your retirement tomorrow, Sir Elmer.”

Seeing the expression on Elmer’s face sincerely made Alphonse want to celebrate. And, as luck had it, the Day of Satur was just around the corner.

 

***

 

The sound of bells ringing echoed through the room, and Alphonse brought Elmer into the restaurant.

The latter curiously looked at his surroundings. “What a mysterious place.”

As an imperial admiral, Elmer had seen all sorts of sights, but he’d never heard of Nekoya.

After finishing breakfast earlier in the morning, Elmer had set out on horseback with Alphonse. Around lunchtime, they arrived at the ruins of a village in the middle of nowhere. A beautiful door with a cat plaque stood within that relic of the past.

Once the two had passed through the door, they’d found themselves in a strange room. According to Alphonse, this was the Restaurant to Another World.

“Welcome! Let me take you to your seats.”

As Elmer looked around, a demon girl—likely a waitress—guided them to a table.

“Glad to be here. I’ll be having the usual. One plate, for now. Oh—and could we get a menu?” Alphonse, clearly used to eating here, asked the relatively new waitress as he and Elmer sat down.

“I get the same thing every time I come here,” he told Elmer. “Feel free to take your time and pick something out.”

With those words, Alphonse went quiet to allow his companion to select a dish. Curry rice was unique; he didn’t want to force it on Elmer, since it was the half-elf’s first time at Nekoya.

Elmer slowly flipped through the oddly smooth book of dish names and descriptions.

Now then, what should I order? Oh—they have all manner of imperial dishes here.

Elmer’s eyes found various familiar imperial recipes. He remembered how—from when he was just a child who knew little of the world, all the way until the day he’d said goodbye to his beloved Emperor Wilhelm—the empire’s former ruler had brought home countless cobbler’s tuber dishes.

Seeing that one of those concoctions was today’s special made ordering easy. “All right. I know what I’m ordering.”

“Excellent. Young lady, we’d like to order.”

“Of course! One moment, please.” The waitress from earlier made her way over.

“I’ll have a large curry rice. How about you, Sir Elmer?”

“Oh…um…I’ll have the daily special,” Elmer said. “The croquette set.”

“Okay,” said the waitress. “So, that’s one large order of curry rice and one croquette set. Um, would you like bread and soup with your croquette set, sir?”

“Yes, that’ll be fine.”

After confirming the pair’s orders, the waitress smiled. “I’ll be back with your food shortly!” she said, returning to the kitchen to deliver the orders.

The two men watched her vanish before speaking again.

“The croquette set, eh?” Alphonse remarked with a gentle expression in his eyes, almost as if nostalgically staring into the distance.

“Yes. Before I left the Empire, I ate croquettes frequently. I never expected to find the same dish here, of all places,” replied Elmer, unable to read Alphonse’s gaze.

To Elmer, cobbler’s tubers were a deeply important food that reminded him of his late master. “When the emperor left on his long journey, and returned with his lucky find, I never thought things would turn out as they did.”

When the Empire was still young, the emperor had once left the city on his own and come back with a mysterious crop in hand. That was the cobbler’s tuber. They were strange vegetables covered in dirt, and Wilhelm had carried them in an unusual transparent bag. After boiling and eating a tuber, the emperor had ordered his palace mages to grow them.

Elmer would never forget that happening. He’d still been an admiral at the time.

They’d gone on to plant the crop in all sorts of places, to ascertain where it could grow. Sunny areas, dark areas, locations with and without water, healthy soil, and arid soil. They’d found that cobbler’s tubers could grow in not one, but all of those areas. They were an incredibly sturdy crop, surprising even the emperor himself.

Under the emperor’s orders, the Empire began to grow the crop. Soon after, it became an extremely important food source that helped keep the emperor’s subjects well fed. The cobbler’s tubers covered the expansive, arid lands of the Empire in green.

Elmer had watched all of that happen in real time. The various meals made of cobbler’s tubers ended up being important memories to him—just as important as his many recollections of going into battle with the emperor, back when Wilhelm was still young and beautiful, resembling his mother in so many ways.

“Indeed,” said Alphonse. “Even in the Duchy, we’ve heard about how incredible cobbler’s tubers are.”

To Alphonse, meanwhile, cobbler’s tubers were a completely necessary element of his beloved curry rice. After returning from the island, he’d quickly learned that they were the Empire’s ace in the hole.

It didn’t take much for soil to grow sterile, since the things that grew in the land devoured lots of nutrients. In a place like the Empire, where plentiful arid wastelands were incapable of fostering wheat or other crops, being able to grow cobbler’s tubers anywhere seemed like a godsend.

Elmer and Alphonse continued to chat, their food eventually arriving.

“Sorry for the wait!” said Aletta. “Here’s your large curry rice and croquette lunch special. Today’s croquette lunch includes a triangular curry croquette, a square beef stew croquette, and a round plain potato croquette. Um, on the potato croquette, I recommend only using the black sauce in that blue bottle.”

A dish of white stuff topped with brown stuff sat in front of Alphonse. In front of Elmer, however, was the croquette plate he’d ordered.

Ho! This is quite extravagant. But are these really croquettes?

Elmer looked down at the still-hot otherworldly croquettes and tilted his head slightly. Off to the side was a bowl of yellow soup and some soft-looking bread. Bright green veggies and some small-but-colorful fruit sat on the main plate.

And then there were the three main pieces of food. Those had to be the croquettes, but they looked altogether different from the fried imperial croquettes covered in dry flour that Elmer was familiar with. Nonetheless, they looked delicious.

I suppose I’ll dig in.

Before he could do that, however, Elmer noticed the aroma of something fried in fresh oil making its way to his nose. The croquettes’ light sizzling was enough to get his mouth watering, so he picked up a fork and knife and began to eat.

First, he stabbed his knife into the beef stew croquette, feeling the blade pierce the crunchy crust with incredible ease. The inside of the croquette was brown, with orange karoot specks and bits of meat peppering the cobbler’s tuber. Elmer even spotted big mushroom pieces.

He cut a large slice off the croquette and placed it in his mouth. Oh, my. This is delightful.

The croquette he bit into had the same delightful texture he’d sensed when his knife first cut the dish. Beneath the crunchy crust was the familiar, crumbly cobbler’s tuber.

Much to Elmer’s surprise, however, the croquette had a unique flavor. He’d been alive for many years at that point, but he’d never tasted anything like this before. The flavor was salty but slightly sweet as well. The barely boiled oranie’s sweet taste mixed with the meat juices and thinly cut karoots, creating an unfamiliar sweetness that the black mushrooms absorbed.

Munching on the sweet croquette, Elmer reached for some vegetables. The leafy, bright green veggies fell apart in his mouth with each satisfying crunch, and their refreshing flavor served as the perfect way to reset his palate for the next bite of croquette.

The other croquettes must be delicious, too.

Elmer was deeply satisfied by the light crust’s mouthfeel and the first croquette’s soft-but-flavorful insides. After cleansing his palate with some vegetables, he reached for the triangular curry croquette.

As he did before, he cut into the croquette and took a bite. Oh, my. This is…somewhat spicy.

Indeed it was. Elmer could tell that the man in the kitchen had seasoned the croquette with all kinds of spices, creating a hot, complex flavor. In terms of ingredients, the curry croquette seemed to be made up of some sort of green bean, pieces of meat, and oranie. Or, at least, those were what Elmer saw upon looking at the croquette’s yellow insides, made of cobbler’s tuber covered in some kind of brown stuff.

I didn’t think valuable spices could be used like this.

The Empire only had one port to speak of, so the large nation’s spices were quite a bit more expensive than its neighbors’. There were few nobles in the Empire, as well, so the country itself valued simplicity and enjoying things in moderation. Something like a croquette made with all these spices was simply underheard of.

But this really is delicious.

The croquette wasn’t a case of someone absentmindedly using a bunch of spices with no plan. It was spicy enough to make Elmer crave water, yes, but not enough to choke him up. It was aromatic and made him want to eat even more.

Elmer reached for the soft brown bread off to the side. In his mouth, its gentle, sweet flavor mixed with the croquette’s lingering spiciness, forming a beautiful combination.

Now then, last but not least…

Having finished off two croquettes, Elmer grabbed the remaining one, which was oblong. This was supposedly the plain potato croquette, the one closest to what Elmer was familiar with in the Empire.

Mmm…yeah.

As soon as Elmer took a bite, a smile formed on his face. The two flavored ones had been delicious, but when it came to croquettes, simple really was best.

The mashed cobbler’s tubers, oranie, and meat inside, the light salt-and-pepper seasoning—this was the plainest of croquettes. Yet, despite that simplicity, nothing could beat a steaming-hot croquette fried in fresh oil.

Let’s see… I believe she said the blue bottle.

After taking a single bite, Elmer grabbed the bottle the waitress had mentioned earlier. In the Empire, it was customary to put a dash of vinegar on one’s croquette. Too much ruined the whole thing, but just a little was enough to bring out the flavor perfectly.

Whoa—it’s black!

Elmer splashed the black vinegar onto the croquette. He tilted his head, somewhat surprised at how different the sauce was from what he’d expected. Some got onto his fork, so he gave it a lick.

Wow! This is something else.

Elmer’s eyebrows lifted in surprise at the black liquid’s deep flavor. It wasn’t just vinegar; in addition to its sourness, numerous other ingredients created a complex overall taste. That paired well with the croquette’s simplicity, producing a different foodstuff altogether.

I see. Now I understand why Emperor Wilhelm fell in love with croquettes.

Elmer thought back on something Emperor Wilhelm had once said to him.

When Wolfgang had his first child, Princess Adelheid, Wilhelm had decided to step down. He’d built a palace outside the city so that he could spend the rest of his days there.

He’d supposedly built the palace in the middle of nowhere so that, when his son ruled the Empire, Wilhelm would be too far away to be called back to handle politics.

According to Wilhelm, however, that wasn’t all. “Over there is something that we, as a nation, will never get our hands on—regardless of our might. One day, when you’re no longer an admiral…when you’re just Elmer…I’ll take you there myself.”

Elmer had never really understood what Wilhelm meant, and the emperor had unfortunately passed away before he could fulfill that promise.

Now, however, Elmer finally got it. Here was this Restaurant to Another World, with dishes similar to the Empire’s. That was no coincidence. It didn’t take Elmer long to realize that his hunch was indeed fact.

Just then, the restaurant bells rang out, welcoming a beautiful young woman who looked much like Elmer’s first love and even had her name.

After leaving the restaurant, Elmer and Alphonse spoke of a great many things—things that had happened in the past and things that would happen in the future.

“Oh? You plan on crossing the continent?”

“Yes.” Elmer explained his decision. “As an admiral of the Empire, I’ve seen much of the Eastern Continent. Now, I’d quite like to explore the west.”

He wanted to watch over the young princess of a certain country. She would one day be married off to a prince from another land, so he would keep an eye on her in Wilhelm’s stead.

But Elmer didn’t dare say that out loud.