Chapter 91: Katsu Sandwich

Chapter 91:
Katsu Sandwich

 

Somewhere on the fringes of the capital city of the dead, Gustaff did his best to withstand the splitting pain running through his broken leg. He regretted ever going there.

Dammit. I was in way over my head.

Gustaff had fled his family when he was seventeen years old, with dreams of scoring big as an adventurer. Five years had passed since then.

He was no rookie, having polished his skills and made it through a number of hellish situations. He’d challenged the capital city of the dead in hopes of finally freeing himself from his poverty.

The capital city of the dead was a chaotic place full of hope, desire, fear, and despair. Adventurers like Gustaff looked upon it fondly as a chance to hit it big. Countless treasures awaited within the city, as did tens of thousands of undead.

According to legend, the city had once been the capital of the Ancient Kingdom, the very first human nation. The Ancient Kingdom had freely used all sorts of magical elven tools to dominate the land, and the entire continent had fallen under its rule.

It was more prosperous than any nation to come after it. Its people were blessed with bountiful lives, or so it was said.

But due to his fear of death, the nation’s final king had laid his hand upon a forbidden magic one day, and the Ancient Kingdom was no more.

To surpass death itself, the king had transformed into an evil lich, killing the capital’s citizens and turning them into undead. Then he’d cursed the land so that any who perished there eventually returned as undead. That was how the king had come to rule forever over a nation of undead.

The Lord of Light’s priests had infiltrated the city with holy knights in hopes of using the light to purify the king, returning him to his true form. However, they too fell to the curse, becoming undead priests.

One country had wished to access the countless treasures locked away within the nation that had vanished centuries ago. They had their greatest commander lead a strike force of knights into the city of the dead. Those courageous warriors were transformed into a pack of dullahans—guardians who destroyed anyone who attempted to set foot in the city.

Then there were the countless adventurers who’d tried and failed to find riches, and the skeletons of monsters who’d gotten themselves hopelessly lost with no way out. They’d become creatures that lived simply for the purpose of dying.

Gustaff sighed, on the verge of tears over his own foolishness and the fact that Lady Luck had left his side. He’d prepared holy water, had a weapon effective against the undead, and thought that his plan to stick near the city’s entrance was a good one. That was a relatively safe area where any adventurer with some skill and experience could live to tell the tale the next day. Gustaff was just going to explore around there.

What he hadn’t foreseen was that, since his destination was a ruined capital over a hundred years old, all its buildings had aged. Gustaff had carefully tried to explore some ruins, but the second he’d stepped inside, the floor had given way. He fell several stories, injuring his leg.

Given how painful his leg was, Gustaff surmised that it was indeed broken. Climbing out of the hole would be impossible. He could barely walk, never mind run. The closest town containing fellow adventurers seeking the capital city of the dead was about half a day away. He’d die before ever reaching his destination.

So, this is how it ends?

Gustaff gave up and closed his eyes. Since he couldn’t move, the most he could hope to do was recover his stamina. Even if all that did was delay his inevitable death by starvation or thirst, he had to believe that fellow adventurers might find him if he survived just a few extra minutes.

 

***

 

For who-knew-how-many hours, Gustaff huddled within the barrier he’d made.

“Heeey! Sir Adventurer!”

As soon as he heard a voice, Gustaff’s body trembled. Crap! Crap!

The voice in question echoed strangely, almost as though it rode the wind itself. It wasn’t the voice of the living. Like the monstrous cries audible in the city of the dead around noon, the voice Gustaff heard was that of the undead.

He didn’t want to look, but he had to. Gustaff slowly opened his eyes. The underground area was dark to begin with; the sun had now set, so it was pitch black.

Before Gustaff was an undead. The white man was oddly visible in the darkness, and he stared right back at Gustaff. Where the man’s eyes were supposed to be were two dark holes with red lights in the center.

A wraith. A foul creature capable of cursing and murdering even the most seasoned adventurer. Gustaff had no chance of slaying the dangerous undead before his eyes.

“Eeek!” he let out a cry of fear.

“Now, now. No need to panic. I don’t plan on killing you. At least, not right now,” the wraith said to Gustaff, its tone somewhat leisurely. “First and foremost, I’m hoping to save your life. Can you walk?”

Gustaff nodded frantically. He didn’t know what fate this creature had in store for him if he turned down the offer. The wraith didn’t appear hostile at the moment, but there was no way to know what an undead was thinking. It was entirely possible that it could attack him at any time.

“Perfect. Follow me.”

“A-all right.”

The wraith began to move as wraiths did. Gustaff limped after it, holding his equipment and lantern. Fortunately, the wraith’s destination really wasn’t very far away.

“This is my old body,” the wraith said. “As for how I died, well, let’s just say I was in the same sort of situation you found yourself in. I drank holy water and stayed within the barrier I’d set up, which probably allowed me to hold on to myself and talk to you the way I am now.”

Gustaff looked at the corpse. It wore adventurer’s armor, and one leg was indeed twisted the wrong way. The skeleton’s white bones had already yellowed.

Something resembling an undead barrier was scattered underneath the body; next to the corpse was an empty bottle that had likely once contained holy water. Gustaff guessed that the adventurer could no longer survive their thirst.

“Nobody came to help me, so I died,” the wraith explained nonchalantly. “Man, how many years has it been? I’ve been stuck in this dark underground the whole time, so I have no clue how much time’s passed.”

It pointed deeper into the cave. “After I died, this weird door started appearing over there once every seven days.”

Gustaff followed the wraith’s pointing finger to a well-kept oak door that looked terribly out of place.

“‘Nekoya, Restaurant to Another World’?” Reading the sign on the door aloud, Gustaff couldn’t believe what he was seeing. “Wait—is this some kind of eatery?”

The wraith nodded at the adventurer’s conclusion.

“Yeah. That sign’s actually new. Basically, though, there are people beyond that door. Sadly for me, I can’t open it, since I don’t have a physical body anymore. But, hell, I’m so curious about what’s on the other side. Think you can go take a look for me?”

“All right.”

If Gustaff did nothing, he would die. It was his duty as an adventurer to struggle against what seemed to be inevitable death. He made up his mind and opened the door.

The sound of bells filled the air, reminding Gustaff that he’d failed to check for traps. Regardless, he stepped into the unnaturally bright room.

 

***

 

When Aletta and the others had seen the final customer depart, the atmosphere in the restaurant had lightened a bit. Just afterward, the next customer arrived.

A young man covered in grime entered the room. Once he passed through the entrance, he immediately collapsed to the floor, crying from the pain that seemed to come from his leg.

“Oh my gosh!” Aletta cried.

“Everyone, calm down!” exclaimed the master.

Things were clearly bad, but nonetheless, he approached the young man on the floor coolheadedly.

 

***

 

Every now and then, the door to the other world opened, and a visitor who’d fallen upon some tragedy stumbled through. The master used to think that was just a coincidence, but lately, he’d realized that wasn’t the case at all.

Until recently, the Restaurant to Another World’s door only had Japanese signage, so nobody from the other world could read what it said. To folks in the other world who didn’t know about the restaurant, the entrance was nothing but a sketchy doorway that appeared at random.

Those who turned its knob were either intensely curious or people who felt that—even if it were a trap—whatever was on the door’s other side couldn’t possibly be worse than their current situation.

 

***

 

The master knelt and checked the man’s leg. After taking a look at the incredibly swollen limb, he turned to Aletta.

“This is definitely broken. Aletta, go to the back and grab the ointment from the first aid box.”

“O-of course!” Aletta was a bit frazzled but managed to nod, and then ran to fetch the ointment.

 

***

 

The ointment in Nekoya’s first aid box was one of its mysteries. It was in a small perfume bottle, the type you could find anywhere. But the stuff inside was what was special. One spray of it on any burn, bruise, sprain, or cut was enough to relieve pain in record time.

As for what the spray was actually made from—well, it combined otherworldly ingredients that the previous master had gotten his hands on with an ointment he’d purchased from a merchant who frequented the restaurant.

That ointment was a well-known product in the magical world and typically cost one gold coin. It was an amazing medicine that fixed not just broken bones but even partial paralysis.

“Master! I have the spray!”

“Aye. Thanks.” The master crouched again, pulling up Gustaff’s pant leg. “Sir, this’ll sting a little bit, so hold tight.”

He twisted the cap off the bottle and applied the liquid directly to the adventurer’s swollen, discolored leg.

“G-gaaaaah!” Gustaff screamed aloud as the ointment touched his leg—but then quickly lifted his head. “The pain…it’s gone!”

The master flashed a smile at him. “Thank goodness. You should be fine now. By the way, we happen to be a restaurant, so it’s all right if you’d like to order something. What we can offer you right now is a bit limited, but…”

The moment Gustaff heard the master’s words, his stomach growled loudly. Due to the excruciating pain in his leg, he hadn’t eaten anything.

As he sat back in his soft, comfortable chair, Gustaff got lost in thought. How did this even happen? Wasn’t it the middle of the night? It was neither hot nor cold in the oddly well-lit room.

The expensive ice in Gustaff’s water noisily bumped against the cup’s sides. His leg pain was gone, and he heard the master preparing food in the kitchen, making his stomach rumble.

Only moments earlier, Gustaff had been anticipating his own death. With that thought, he sipped his water.

Ah…this is really good.

The water was as cold as that fetched from a winter well. It even smelled faintly of some fruit Gustaff was unfamiliar with. The cold liquid quenched his thirst and filled his body, revitalizing him.

Just as Gustaff began to relax, a demon girl with golden-blonde hair appeared with a white dish in hand. “Sorry for the wait. Here’s your food.”

Sitting atop the dish was some sort of square food with brown and black ingredients sandwiched in the middle.

“Um…what exactly is this?”

The girl smiled. “A katsu sandwich! It’s super-duper delicious. Take your time and enjoy! Oh—let me get you some more water.”

The blonde demon waitress returned to the kitchen. After watching her depart, Gustaff turned his attention to the food in front of him. “A k-katsu sandwich…?”

Just what exactly is this thing?

He cleaned his dirty hands with the moist, tightly folded cloth on the table, looking at the plate of food. “Well, whatever it is, I’m hungry. Down the hatch!”

The dish hadn’t taken all that long to prepare, so Gustaff assumed that it was something the master had premade in the kitchen. It exuded an extremely appetizing aroma. In its center was some sort of lightly browned meat cut into pieces.

It’s probably not poisoned. If the master was going to kill Gustaff, he wouldn’t have used such an expensive ointment on him.

With that in mind, Gustaff picked up the katsu sandwich. “Is this…white bread?”

Now that the sandwich was in his hands, he realized that the meat in the middle was sandwiched between slices of white bread—high-quality white bread, at that.

The bread was toasted brown, but its center was white, like linen. Now that Gustaff held the sandwich in his hands, he felt that the bread’s surface was nice and crispy, but its surprisingly soft insides pushed back against his fingers.

Those two slices of bread sandwiched strips of thickly sliced meat with brownish breading; each had a thin marbling of white fat. That was positively mouthwatering, since Gustaff had only eaten rations since yesterday.

I’m starting to feel really good about this.

Gustaff had no clue what to expect from this random restaurant’s food. After careful inspection, though, he deduced that it looked delicious. He took a large bite of the square sandwich.

As soon as he did, he was overcome with intense joy at the flavor that surpassed even his wildest dreams. “Oooh!”

The toasted bread was crunchy outside and soft inside, with a sweet wheat flavor. Beyond the bread was the meat’s brown coating, which wasn’t completely dissimilar to how cooks in the Empire fried meat coated in flour.

The meat had clearly been flavored and seasoned in all sorts of ways. One mouthful brought forth an array of great tastes: sweet and sour, and a slight spiciness to the breading. Those flavors mixed with the juices and flavorful fat of the meat within, creating one great taste.

Gustaff determined the sandwich’s fate after taking a single bite. Like some starving dog that hadn’t eaten in days, he devoured the katsu sandwich. Around the time the waitress came back with more water, the adventurer’s plate was empty.

 

***

 

The master refused to accept payment for the medicine. In his words, Gustaff seemed to be in a bit of trouble, so that was the perfect time to use it. He also agreed to put the food bill on the adventurer’s tab this time.

Gustaff barely found the words to express his gratitude to the man as he passed back through the doorway, remembering that he was still in the city of the dead.

“Yo. Looks to me like whatever’s past that door is pretty incredible.”

Gustaff instinctively turned to face the wraith who’d granted him this opportunity. The door was long gone.

The wraith smiled at Gustaff. “To be honest, I didn’t know for sure whether you’d recover or not. But I had a favor I was gonna ask you if you came out in one piece. Do you mind?”

“Wh-what is it?”

Gustaff would at least hear the wraith out. If he turned down the creature now, it’d probably bare its fangs at him.

“No worries. It’s nothing super tough.” The wraith looked down at its corpse. “Could you take my short sword and journal to the capital for me? I wasn’t able to become a successful treasure hunter like my old man and my big brother, but I at least want them to know that I perished. I wanna spare them the pain of worrying about my safety. Thanks, pal.”

The wraith vanished. Even after it disappeared, Gustaff felt a pair of eyes watching him. His stomach, which he’d just filled with the katsu sandwich, began aching ever so slightly.

“I guess I’ve got no choice.”

The adventurer dug through the corpse’s things, eventually finding a worn journal and an old, rusty short sword. He put both items with his own.

It’d take Gustaff at least a month to get to the capital. From the condition of the adventurer’s bones, he’d probably died decades ago. It was likely that his father and brother were no longer of this world.

Still, perhaps their children were alive. Gustaff had to at least try searching them out, lest the wraith come back to kill him. Despite that, Gustaff remained grateful that he’d somehow made it out of his first visit to the city of the dead with his life. Next time, he’d be careful not to fall into any holes.

Polishing the short sword in hopes of finding clues about its owner, Gustaff spotted the name “Julius Gold” engraved on it.

By delivering the sword to the capital, he wound up receiving a reward equal to a great deal of treasure. But that’s a story for another time.