Chapter 53: Hamburg Steak

Chapter 53:
Hamburg Steak

On the eastern edge of the Western Continent was the Ocean Nation.

It was composed of a main coastal city, along with multiple small islands offshore that were home to humans, beastmen, and demons alike.

Each island of the Ocean Nation had its own animals and crops worth harvesting. But that didn’t mean there was a lot to go around.

And so since time immemorial, the islands had traded their harvests amongst themselves, while strengthening their shipbuilding skills until they were able to raise vessels that could cross the wide ocean.

This legacy of trade and seafaring was still present in the Ocean Nation. After the war with the demon race ended and the Eastern Continent was at peace, the Ocean Nation became a prosperous trading nation through its dealings with the continent far across the sea.

Of course, while many of the islands had all manner of intelligent life living on them, there were also many that remained uninhabited.

Roukei was but a young fisherman who had set off on his own on a small boat he’d received from his father. He made a living catching fish, drying them, and selling them. But today he found himself on such a lifeless island. Arte had guided him there.

“Um…”

Bathed in the early morning light, Arte turned to the puzzled Roukei. Her body was slender; her skin bronze in the manner of the Sand Nation. Her eyes were deep blue, like the ocean, and the lower half of her body was a fishtail. Indeed, Arte was a mermaid from the southern seas. She looked at Roukei, her expression unmoving and serious.

“What is it?” Arte asked.

“It’s just, er, is this really the place?”

Roukei’s cheeks turned bright red as the mermaid’s enchantingly blue eyes fixed on him.

“Yes, it is. When I first found it, I didn’t have any currency on me, so I couldn’t buy anything. I’m so grateful to you, Roukei.”

Arte bowed her head. Her expression was filled with confidence; she was so beautiful. Roukei had come from a town of fishermen, and the only women he’d ever known were the tough, battle-hardened types. Meeting someone this beautiful had been somewhat of a shock to his system.

***

Roukei had first met Arte three days earlier in the middle of a vicious storm, when the powerful waves knocked the young fishermen from his boat. It was Arte who had saved him from the verge of death, swimming effortlessly through the ocean waves to pull the drowning Roukei up and back to his boat. Then she’d offered a prayer to the Lord of Water—who she called the Lord of Blue—to calm the waves.

After the storm cleared, Arte all but carried the boat on her beautiful back, guiding it all the way to the island and saving Roukei from the darkness of death.

The young fisherman of course expressed his gratitude. But he was also falling for the mermaid’s kindness and beauty. He was willing to do whatever it took to repay her, and he told her as much.

…Even if what she requested was money. Ten silver coins to be exact. While this was a bit of a letdown, Arte had saved his life, and she was becoming someone increasingly important to the young man.

And so after he gave her the promised ten silver coins—a cheap enough price to pay for his life—Roukei posed a question to the mermaid girl.

“What are you going to spend them on?”

***

Roukei didn’t consider himself terribly knowledgable of the world and how it operated. But he did know that mermaids typically had no need for money; they didn’t shop for things the way humans did.

And this wasn’t limited to mermaids. Most monsters didn’t seem to think of human coin as something “valuable.”

Coins weren’t edible, and they couldn’t be used as weapons. When it came to decorative accessories, stones, flowers, scales, or fangs were much more beautiful.

The monster races couldn’t wrap their heads around why humans, elves, and dwarves so desired the strange metals. Goblins had a habit of collecting them—they liked pretty and shiny things—but most monsters who attacked humans would take their weapons, clothes, and lives, and leave the money behind.

But this mermaid girl was different. Apparently, in her hometown, she and her people interacted with humanity fairly regularly. There, they were “fellow believers of the Lord of Blue.” So Arte understood the value of coin.

Yet in this northern sea where she’d found herself on a training journey, the mermaids didn’t worship the same deity. Nor did they interact with humans. And that meant there wasn’t anything for her to spend her money on. Well, except for one very specific thing.

It was for this reason that Arte guided Roukei to the empty island.

“It’s in the forest up ahead,” she said.

“But…”

Arte tilted her head at Roukei’s confused expression. He glanced at her tail; it was sitting below the surface of the water, gently swaying back and forth with the rocking of the waves.

It was perfectly adapted for swimming but not so great for walking on land.

“Oh, this? It’s no problem.”

The mermaid girl caught on to Roukei’s concern. She offered a prayer to the Lord of Blue, a special skill practiced only by priests and priestesses who worshiped the great Lords of Six Colors. With her incantation, Arte’s tail suddenly began to transform.

Before Roukei’s very eyes, the tail morphed into what, at first, appeared to be human legs. However, from her shins down, her skin morphed into blue, lizard-like scales. Her feet became claws that looked like they could rip metal apart.

“Huh?!”

“Oh, I can pray to the Lord of Blue to transform my tail into dragon legs,” Arte proclaimed to the stunned Roukei, somewhat proudly. “I can’t get wings yet, though.”

She was a talented priestess of the Lord of Blue, one who had spent many hours training in the underwater shrine in order to summon dragon legs. It was a skill she learned to better interact with the land-dwellers.

“Let’s go. It can get crowded if you don’t get there early.”

Arte took the surprised Roukei by the hand and guided him forward. After pushing through the island’s forest for a bit, they finally arrived at their destination.

“We’re here!” Arte exclaimed, standing before a large door. It was the same door she’d once found in her hometown, cat illustration and all.

“Come on.”

Arte placed her hand on the knob and turned, opening the door…

***

The young man and the mermaid walked through the entrance and were greeted by the sound of ringing bells.

“Welcome… Oh? Long time no see, Arte!”

The master was somewhat surprised. Arte used to drop by in the early mornings, but she hadn’t been to the restaurant in some time. But he didn’t recognize the boy who was with her today.

“It’s been a while. Can I order?”

After their greetings, Arte immediately jumped to order-making mode.

“Of course!” the master said. “Will you be getting the usual? Oh, what should I do for the young man there?”

Arte almost always ordered the same dish, so the master turned his attention to the new customer. Instead of her usual companion, a woman who was a few years older than Arte, here was a tanned young man with black hair. Definitely a first-timer.

“Two demi-glace hamburg steaks with rice.”

Arte made her usual order, as expected. Not the fish she was so accustomed to eating in her world but rather the cooked meat of animals that were raised on the surface. After she’d learned the prayer to acquire dragon legs, one of the senior priests brought her to the Restaurant to Another World as a “reward” for her good work. Ever since then, she’d become one of its many loyal customers.

“You got it! Hold on to your butts,” the master said as he left for the kitchen.

“Let’s sit.”

Arte made her way to one of the many open tables.

Roukei followed his new mermaid friend. After she caught him up about what was happening, he asked the question that had been on his mind ever since they walked in here.

“Um, what is this place?”

It was surprising enough that Arte could suddenly grow legs, but then they were wandering through a forest, walking up to a weird door, and were now sitting in some strange room.

To be quite frank, Roukei had no clue what was going on.

“This is the Restaurant to Another World,” Arte said calmly, simply stating the name of their present location and explaining its purpose.

“It’s a place where you can eat demi-glace hamburg steak.”

…Well, its purpose as far she was concerned.

***

After watching Arte skillfully make her order and following her to the table, Roukei took a moment to look around his new surroundings. The room was filled with all kinds of stuff he’d never seen before. Perhaps more surprising, customers of all shapes and sizes were sitting around him, many of them inhuman. For a fisherman like Roukei who lived inside a fairly small bubble, this place would have been fascinating even without the food.

“Huh, so this is another world? Wow… Hm? Is something the matter, Arte?”

He noticed that Arte had a puzzled expression on her face.

“No. It should be fine…”

Arte was tilting her head, glancing over at the black-clad being carrying food to customers. But in that moment, their orders arrived.

“Sorry for the wait! Here are your demi-glace hamburg steaks!”

A young waitress girl placed their orders down on the table. She was wearing a pretty uniform that left her legs exposed.

On each plate was a large, round piece of meat topped with an egg and dark red sauce. Off to the side were cobbler’s tubers, a common food from the Eastern Continent, along with bright orange karoots.

As far as Roukei could tell, it was a ball of minced beast meat, something that he rarely had the opportunity to eat.

The meat sizzled atop the metal plate. Next to it was a bowl filled with what looked to be high-quality white rice.

“Whoa…”

Roukei gulped loudly before the sizzling meat and its appetizing aroma.

“Um, this is…”

The young fisherman had all kinds of questions. But as soon as he saw that Arte was already digging into her “demi-glace hamburg steak,” he gave up on asking them.

“Dewishous. Yull uberstad omce you twry it,” Arte attempted to explain, chewing into her portion of meat.

“…Okay.”

Roukei, now getting used to Arte’s unique way of communicating, took the unfamiliar knife and fork in hand.

He followed Arte’s example and started cutting into the ball of meat. Since the knife was made of such sturdy metal, he assumed that the meat would be tough to cut into, yet it was more tender than he could’ve imagined. The knife went right through with little resistance.

“Wow, this is pretty easy to cut through.”

In fact, Roukei surmised that the meat was so tender that he could’ve probably used chopsticks to eat it.

“Here goes nothing…”

Roukei stabbed his fork into a piece of the meat, brought it to his mouth, and started to chew…

“What the heck?!”

The young man was stunned by the flavor of the meat.

After all, this was beast meat, something that up until now, he thought he could never get used to eating.

But in this form, it lacked any of its normal gaminess. This was undoubtedly high-quality meat.

With each bite, the delicious juices of the meat came pouring out into his mouth. And those juices mixed with the sweet and sour sauce on top…

I-I need rice! I have to try this with rice!

Roukei reached for the bowl next to him, driving his fork into it.

Ah! This is incredible!

Combined with the meat juice and the sweet and sour flavor of the sauce, the faintly sweet and sticky rice became something else entirely. Something magnificent.

The hamburg steak was delicious on its own, but when combined with the rice, it ascended to a new level of deliciousness.

After making sure that he was looking her way, Arte taught Roukei the special way of eating hamburg steak that the senior priest had shown her.

“Try it with the yellow of the egg.”

Thoroughly enchanted by the flavorfest in front of him, Roukei took his companion’s advice.

“You’re right. The egg makes it even more tasty!”

Indeed, by combining the gentle-flavored egg yolk with the complex flavors of the sauce and meat, the entire dish awakened its true potential.

Roukei looked up at Arte and smiled. The mermaid girl couldn’t help but feel strangely satisfied.

***

And so eventually, once they’d finished their meal, the pair left the restaurant and returned to their world.

On the way back through the forest, Roukei finally understood the reason for Arte’s original request.

“So that’s why you wanted those silver coins, huh?”

“Exactly.” The mermaid nodded in return.

Roukei could feel his cheeks turning bright red as he worked up every last bit of courage to ask Arte the question on the tip of his tongue.

“Um, so…every now and then, would you like to go back with me? I’d gladly treat you.”

“Are you sure?”

Arte tilted her head ever so slightly at this proposal.

Roukei replied with a big smile. “Of course I am!”