Chapter 89: Green Tea Shaved Ice

Chapter 89:
Green Tea Shaved Ice

 

Far above the clouds in the sky was a small floating island.

There, Ilzegant yawned. “Haaah…I’m bored.”

In front of him stretched an endless blue sky, and below him, endless white clouds. He also saw the perfectly kept paradise that the golems maintained. He was tired of looking at that as well.

Ilzegant had everything he needed here. On this island where he lived, he had all the fruit he could eat, and the golems provided anything he might require in his day-to-day life. It was neither hot nor cold, and not a single creature could threaten his life on this floating island.

The island itself, and the extensive knowledge passed down by his parents, had been Ilzegant’s entire world for the past two hundred and fifty years.

In many ways, the island was the inheritance his parents had left him. Living alone there, Ilzegant had but one problem—there was nothing to do, and he was dreadfully bored.

“I’m really tired of all this research stuff, too.”

As his parents lay on their deathbed, they’d requested that he continue the research they’d spent thousands of years working on. After their passing, Ilzegant had followed his own curiosity and continued their work but eventually realized that he couldn’t find a purpose or reason to do so. Now, he just did nothing.

According to Ilzegant’s parents, who’d passed away some two hundred years ago, he was an elf. That particular race was said to have once ruled over the world itself with their natural magical powers.

However, only a hundred years after Ilzegant’s parents were born, a great plague had begun. Thus, the elves eventually withdrew into the shadows. The plague had lasted long enough to nearly wipe out the world’s great, wise rulers. In just twenty years, over half the elves had died.

That had been the end of the elves. Many mages who’d performed incredible magic no other race could hope to mimic had died from the awful plague, which had led to the loss of all kinds of magic passed down orally.

Numerous dark beings in the world had looked upon the elves’ prosperity with ill intent: those who worshiped dragons as gods, monsters who worshiped it, and even demi-humans with weak magic and short lives. They’d all begun to hunt the elves down, one by one.

Faced with the plague and the dark beings seeking to take their lives, some elves had taken drastic measures. There were those who sought to use magic to change themselves into wraiths, maintaining their intelligence and consciousness. Some even prayed to the God of Chaos, Ruler Over All Life—the very being so detested by those who prayed to the dragon gods. According to history, those people eventually fell to the darkness, becoming creatures that could no longer be called elves.

According to Ilzegant’s parents, the only elves who’d survived those dark days were the ones who threw away culture and fled into the woods, living out their lives like a bunch of backwater heathens. The elves with any kind of dignity or social standing were all dead.

“Well, I guess I have my folks to thank for fleeing into the sky. I am alive and all, I suppose.”

Ilzegant’s parents had always told him that he was a cultured elf. He was the son of two elves who’d used their great wisdom and education to escape the evil on the surface, building their own research facility and raising it into the sky. They’d survived by cutting themselves off from the outside world.

On this island of paradise, they’d continued their research. But one day, they’d realized something. Over a thousand years had passed since their births, and death loomed in the shadows.

Although they feared the end, they also knew that if they used magic to overcome their deaths, they’d keep living only as horrific creatures with no elven knowledge to speak of.

With no escape left to them, and no time to research a solution, they picked the most primitive way to pass their legacy on. In other words, they gave birth to Ilzegant and entrusted their knowledge to him.

“What should I do today?”

Ilzegant knew more than enough. He simply didn’t have his parents’ passion for research, so he spent his days not doing much at all. In some ways, he was scared that he would pass the next seven hundred years of his life like that. But for now, he’d focus on how to spend the day.

“Huh? Something about the magical energies’ flow is…off,” Ilzegant whispered to himself.

His ears twitched. He knew everything there was to know about this island he’d been born on. In the last two hundred years, he’d adjusted nearly every single golem his parents had left behind for him with his own hands. He understood how everything worked—or at least, he thought he did.

Right now, however, he felt a magical energy that was not his own on the island. The magic’s flow was unstable, and Ilzegant theorized that it would likely disappear by the next day.

“Well, whatever. It’ll make a good pastime.”

Deciding to make his way toward it, he connected his consciousness directly to a golem working nearby. “Golem, carry me to my destination,” he ordered.

Just like that, the large machine gently lifted the elf and took him to his chosen spot. The new magical energy was underground, in the place where the island’s magical power was strongest, just above the device that kept the island afloat. That was also where Ilzegant’s parents were buried.

Something was up.

“Huh.” In front of Ilzegant stood a door, as though it had always been there. Ilzegant immediately deduced what it was for. “Some sort of teleportation magic? And it connects to another world?”

His eyes sparkled excitedly. This would be a perfect time killer. “I suppose I’ll take a look!”

The door might’ve been dangerous, but that thought didn’t once cross the elf’s mind. Instead, all Ilzegant could think about was how something had appeared to shake up his boring life. He placed his hand on the cool brass doorknob and turned it, opening the door.

The sound of bells filled the air. Guided by his curiosity, Ilzegant stepped happily through the doorway.

“Oho! I’ve never seen a place like this before!”

It was still early morning, and there were no windows to let in natural light. Ilzegant brightened the dark room with his magic and looked around the space with great curiosity.

There were plenty of tables and chairs, and some sort of mysterious magical device on the ceiling. What was it? Ilzegant couldn’t sense any magic from it.

On each table were several bottles full of unknown substances. Ilzegant could just make out a light in the back of the room. Someone was here.

Still guided by his curiosity, Ilzegant proceeded deeper in.

The other person in the room seemed to have caught on to Ilzegant’s presence and came out to meet the elf.

“Huh? Who might you be? Your ears are short, and you don’t seem to have much magical power,” Ilzegant spoke his first impressions aloud to the man who’d appeared before him. “You are rather hairy, though.”

The man was bipedal but lacked wings or horns. Clearly, he was some sort of elf, but he looked quite different from Ilzegant’s parents.

“Er, I run this restaurant. Are you a customer?” the master asked the stranger. It was so early that even Aletta hadn’t arrived yet.

Judging by the unknown man’s long ears, the master surmised that he was an elf.

“This is a restaurant? Let me think,” said Ilzegant. “That’s one of those places where you trade coin for goods of equal value, yes?”

It immediately became clear to the master that this elf knew little of how the world operated. That’s right. Supposedly, there are elves out there who’ve never seen money.

In fact, the master already knew an elf just like that, and she worked at the restaurant to boot.

He shrugged in resignation. “Well, yeah. ’Cept we serve drinks and cook meals for coin here.”

“Oh—cook meals, you say?”

Ilzegant was intrigued. He had some knowledge of “cooking” meals. That was the process of taking food that one couldn’t eat as it was and boiling or roasting it. None of the fruit on his island required that process, but Ilzegant knew of its existence.

His mother and father had felt that any sort of food was fine, as long as they obtained the necessary nutrients to live, so they hadn’t made their own meals.

“In that case, make me a cooked meal! Something rare!”

“Rare, huh? I’m actually still kinda setting up shop. Mind if it’s something light? Like a dessert, maybe?”

“Do as you wish, but be quick about it,” Ilzegant replied.

He nodded, sitting himself down at an open table. Since he didn’t know what cooked food was like, what point was there in choosing something?

The master had dealt with otherworldly customers for over ten years, so Ilzegant’s rather snotty attitude was nothing new to him. “Hold on just a moment.”

He headed to the kitchen and began preparing something appropriate for summer. Some time passed.

“Hrm…that’s right. If I remember correctly, it takes a while to cook things.” As Ilzegant stared at the strange ceiling light—it didn’t use magic?—he heard bells ringing.

“Hmm?” He turned to see a young woman with golden-blonde hair and black horns.

She was about to deliver her usual greeting but panicked as soon as she saw that a customer was already present. “Good—er, uh, welcome!”

“Hoh! A descendent of those who worshiped the Chaos, Ruler Over All Life, eh? Another first!” Ilzegant paid no mind to the girl’s nervousness, instead voicing his observations directly.

“H-huh? Ruler over…er…Chaos? What?” The girl looked dumbfounded.

Apparently, as time passed on the surface, knowledge of the Chaos had all but vanished. It wasn’t as though Ilzegant knew everything about the Chaos, either, so he decided to play it off.

“Ah, don’t mind me. I’m just speaking nonsense.”

“Hey, good morning, Aletta! Wash up and get changed. Do you mind holding off on breakfast for a little while? We have a customer.”

“N-no, not at all!” the girl named Aletta told the master. She added to Ilzegant, “Um, please enjoy your time here!”

She quickly vanished into the kitchen.

“Sorry for the wait. Here’s your dessert,” said the master. He put down a glass cup of some kind.

“What might this be?” Ilzegant had never seen anything like it before.

“Well, it’s the perfect dessert for summertime. Shaved ice. Green tea shaved ice to be specific,” replied the bearded master, smiling. “Take your time and enjoy.”

With that, the master retreated.

“Hoh—so, this food’s cooked, then?” Ilzegant had already lost interest in the restaurant’s master. He turned his attention to the dish in front of him.

A mound of white stuff filled the glass cup. Dark green liquid poured atop dripped its way down the mound.

At its base were some sort of black grains, as well as a soft white ball different from the see-through white stuff that made up the mound. The beautiful arrangement almost resembled a model mountain.

Ilzegant poked his finger into the white stuff and found it quite cold.

“Hoh. Is this snow?” he guessed at its true nature.

It never snowed on Ilzegant’s island, but he’d learned from his parents how to summon a cold blast of sleet capable of freezing attackers. The stuff in front of Ilzegant resembled the snow from the time he’d tried that magic.

“But what’s this green fluid? It almost resembles herbal syrup.”

The dark green liquid atop the “snow” reminded Ilzegant of the syrup made of medicinal herbs found in the island’s center. Ilzegant recalled how much he hated drinking that stuff, which was intensely bitter, when he was sick.

“Will this really be any good?”

The dessert’s color put him off, but Ilzegant nonetheless took the silver medicine spoon and stabbed it into the mountain. The white mound crunched, and he pulled some “snow” from the green, liquid-soaked center. Into his mouth it went.

It was bitter but also sweet. His mouth’s heat immediately melted the “snow,” spreading its flavor across his tongue. The green herbal syrup had a boiled bitterness but was also far more sugary than any fruit Ilzegant had ever eaten. A refreshing aroma spread through his mouth as well.

Sweet, sour, and aromatic—all three elements unified on his tongue, eventually flowing down his throat. After his first bite, Ilzegant widened his eyes, once again observing the dish before him.

“What is this…?”

Despite its intense bitterness, it was delicious. He took another spoonful—a bigger one this time—and quietly transported it to his mouth. Yet again, sweet and sour flavors danced upon Ilzegant’s tongue, and it felt delightful. He couldn’t stop shoveling snow into his mouth.

Ilzegant was much like his parents, in that he only thought of food as something that existed to keep him alive. He’d never felt this way about something edible before.

As he continued to eat, he was struck by a mysterious headache that made him grasp at his head. “Argh!”

It was as if something were directly piercing his brain. The pain went away after a few moments, luckily, but was nonetheless intense.

“Is that what happens when one eats too much?”

Thinking about that sort of thing had become one of Ilzegant’s habits. He shook off the pain and looked down at the black flecks at the snow mountain’s base.

“Hrm. Are these beans?”

He recalled seeing something like the black specks in the island’s herbal garden. One had to cook those to make them edible, so his parents had never tried eating them.

These particular beans had apparently been boiled, since they’d nearly dissolved. Ilzegant scooped up a few with his spoon and brought them to his mouth to examine them.

“They’re sweet.” The beans weren’t at all bitter. And unlike the snow’s texture, they were soft.

Next, Ilzegant took a bite of the round white object beside the beans. “And this…this barely has any flavor at all.”

The white ball was right next to the beans, so it tasted faintly of them, but it had no real sweetness to speak of. Although its texture was soft and uniquely elastic, that was it.

“What’s the point, then?”

Ilzegant thought for a moment before having an idea. He ate a bite of the beans, the round white object, and the melting snow all together.

“Oh, my…”

The taste confirmed that he’d taken the right approach. The fusion of the crunchy, slightly melted snow drenched in herbal syrup, the sweet beans, and the springy white sphere turned the dish into something else entirely.

The combination kept the recipe’s bitterness at bay, but expanded and refined its sweetness, resulting in a longer-lasting flavor. Meanwhile, the white ball provided a wonderful texture for Ilzegant’s teeth.

“So, this is what cooking is.”

Ilzegant couldn’t help being disappointed that his parents had shown no interest in such a fascinating thing. He continued his journey through the mountain of snow, regularly stopping to hold his head as it began to ache.

 

***

 

Ilzegant returned to his island before the sun was directly above it. Perhaps because the door had served its purpose, it immediately vanished once he got home.

“Whew…” He held his stomach as he thought of what would come next. “It appears as though this world and the other are quite different from what I was taught.”

In that case, he had to research both. Having found his new pastime, Ilzegant looked below him at the white clouds in the blue sky and thought excitedly about his next move.