Chapter 54: Sausage & Potatoes

Chapter 54:
Sausage & Potatoes

Glenn let out a sigh of relief. He could feel the morning light cross his face over the magic helmet he wore that allowed him to see in the dark.

“It’s over.”

“Yeah, time to switch.”

Glenn nodded to his partner Ignis, who was sitting beside him, clad in the same kind of armor. He took off his helmet. The cold winter wind blew through, caressing their cheeks.

Being on watch from evening to morning was nothing if not boring. The two men were sleepy. That said, Glenn relished the feeling of freedom at the end of a long shift.

Especially when he had something to look forward to afterward.

“Now then… I hope our replacements hurry up,” Ignis muttered. Glenn’s partner, and friend, was a demon. His two large boar-like tusks were jutting out from his lower jaw, his cold white breath swirling around them as he exhaled.

When they had an all-night shift like this, they typically got the next day off. All they had to do now was wait for their replacements, and they’d be free as birds.

It didn’t take long.

“Yo, sorry ’bout the wait!”

“Good work, gents. Leave the rest to us.”

A dwarf soldier about half as tall as Glenn approached. He wore imperial-style armor with a large axe slung over his back. Walking beside him was a half-elf soldier with pointed ears, carrying a spear.

“Great. Good luck!”

Glenn and Ignis greeted the new arrivals and headed for their lodgings.

In the Empire, it wasn’t particularly rare to see soldiers of all different races. As the saying went, “As long as you have the brains to understand law and order, and an able body, you can be a soldier.”

It wasn’t as lucrative as being an adventurer or a mercenary, but it was much less dangerous. They were only ever deployed to deal with big monster attacks or encounters with enemy nations. But there was always some battle going on somewhere; as long as you served in the army, you would always have food.

And so being a soldier of the Empire was a fairly popular job. Men who lacked trade skills or education, or perhaps wouldn’t be inheriting their family’s wealth or business, often found themselves enlisting.

***

A little while later, the day still young, Glenn and Ignis were walking through the streets. They were unarmored but wore their swords at their waists.

“This place is as empty as ever,” Glenn said.

“Ayup,” Ignis nodded.

“Though I guess we’re pretty lucky it even exists.”

“Ya got that right.”

They looked over the ramshackle town beneath the fortress, a small settlement built up when the old place had been partially torn down during the demon wars. The Empire had since spruced it up and now sent soldiers to it to hold as a defensive line.

In terms of entertainment, your best bets were to head to the brothel (full of unrefined country bumpkin girls), grab some food and drink at the local bar (better than the fortress at least), or blow your pay on overpriced goods imported from the capital. But it wasn’t like soldiers had many ways to use their money, anyway.

However, the pair wasn’t headed for any of those locations on this early morning.

They continued to walk through the quiet streets. Most of the townsfolk were still asleep.

“All right!” Glenn exclaimed when they came to a certain alleyway. “I knew it’d still be here this early in the morn.”

“Ayup.”

Sandwiched in the alleyway was an oak-wood door.

Apparently, there were other folks in town who made use of the door. The mornings after Glenn and Ignis had overnight guard duty all night were the only times they could use it consistently. This was their secret spot.

The friends nodded to each other as Glenn wrapped his fingers around the handle and opened the door.

***

The sound of ringing bells echoed throughout the sleeping town as the pair passed through the door to another world.

“Ah! Welcome! I see you two are as early as always.”

Since it was so early, there were barely any other customers at the Restaurant to Another World. Aletta had just finished her own breakfast and begun to clean when she noticed the two soldiers come through the door.

Glenn and Ignis had only recently started dropping by the restaurant, typically on early mornings. Aletta recognized their faces.

“Hiyo, Aletta my dear. You’re as adorable as always!”

“Ayoh, it’s been a while.”

The young waitress was wearing a uniform that exposed her legs—scandalous, yet somehow still innocent-looking. But the outfit was spotlessly clean, and Aletta wore it like a pro. Glenn greeted her cheerfully, while Ignis’s face turned bright red.

“Hee hee, thank you very much!” Aletta giggled. “What would you like to order?”

Aletta handled the two friends like a champ as she prepared to take their orders.

“Let’s see… We’ll have some sausages and a large order of potatoes. Make the sausages half boiled and half grilled. Oh, and I’ll have two mugs of beer, thanks.”

“And I’ll have two mugs of cider, thanks.”

Aletta skillfully repeated their orders back to them.

“All right! That’ll be right out.”

The pair watched the young lady head to the kitchen and found themselves a table.

“Phew…”

“Phew…”

Glenn and Ignis parked their butts on the comfortable padded chairs, letting out sighs of relaxation. While they waited for their food, they might as well chill for a minute.

Keeping watch through the night was a fairly tiresome job. Perhaps that’s why it felt like it took a thousand years for their food to come out.

“Sorry for the wait! Here are your drinks and food!”

Aletta brought over the four mugs and food on a giant tray.

“Heck yeah!”

“That’s what I’m talking about!” the pair exclaimed in excitement before the large plate of food she set down on the table.

It was packed with pork sausages and fried cobbler’s tubers, cut into pieces with the skins still on.

The freshly cooked food gave off a tremendous aroma on the winds of its hot steam. It was a full-blown attack on their stomachs, which were entirely empty after an all-night shift.

And then there were the drinks—two large mugs for each of them.

“Take your time and enjoy, gentlemen!”

Aletta vanished, leaving the men ready to enjoy their food party.

“Shall we drink?”

“We shall!”

The men picked up their large glass mugs and gulped heartily. Glenn’s was filled with a golden foamy liquid: the ale of the other world. Meanwhile, Ignis’s mug was filled with a different kind of foamy drink, transparent and delightfully sweet.

They both downed their respective libations.

***

The alcohol and cider passed through their throats smoothly—one liquid bitter, the other sweet, both deliciously foamy—and headed straight for their stomachs.

Each man’s drink seemingly healed their exhaustion.

“Wooohah!”

“Wooohah!”

The men couldn’t help but let a little air out as the carbonated beverages shocked their systems.

“The booze here really is the best! This beer stuff in particular. It’d be a crime not to drink the alcohol here.”

“No, no. The cider is where it’s at! We can drink all we want on the other side, but sweet water this good is damn hard to come by.”

The pair began arguing over which was the superior drink, each of them steadfast in his belief that his preference should rule. They never managed to come to an agreement on this subject, but they still had to bring it up every single time.

“…Anyway, let’s eat.”

“Ayup.”

And so, placing their mugs down, Glenn and Ignis reached for food that happily paired well with both beer and cider: wiener sausages and oil-fried cobbler’s tubers, also known as French fries.

Despite the bounty of food, the prices here were very reasonable, perfect to tuck into with a good drink in hand. This was a pretty common dish throughout the Empire, but the stuff here was on a whole different level.

Glenn brought his fork over the French fries almost immediately.

The metal utensil smoothly stabbed through the thickly cut tuber, skin and all.

As soon as he took a bite, his mouth was met with gentle saltiness, the tuber’s mild flavor as it crumbled to pieces, and deliciousness greasiness.

God, I can’t get enough of this stuff!

Glenn took another big sip of his beer.

He thought back to the days when he was just a kid, running to the local french fry vendor with his bronze coin in hand under the cold, winter sky.

That had been his treat back then, fries and hot breaded croquettes sizzled crisp in darkened oil that had been used God knows how many times. The fries at the Restaurant to Another World were on a different level, but Glenn couldn’t help but feel nostalgic as he ate.

***

Meanwhile, Ignis reached for the sausage first.

It’s about them fried sausages, if you know what I mean!

He loved the feeling of biting into a boiled sausage and having its delicious juices come spilling out, but Ignis preferred the crunch of the fried skin.

The soldier thrust his silver fork into the crisped sausage and took a bite. He was well aware that the red sweet-and-sour sauce as well as the hot, yellow mustard went amazingly with the meat. But his first sausage had to be eaten as is.

The sausage has to be made with the good stuff.

The flavor took him back to his homeland.

While the Empire now recognized demons to a degree, only seventy short years ago, all that demon-kind had known was war. The farming villages founded by the formerly belligerent race were poor places that didn’t produce much in the way of good crop. How could they? They had no experience in the matter.

Because of the need for food, the men of the village would occasionally pick up their old swords and bows from the war and head into the mountains to hunt wild beasts. When the hunt went well, they’d treat everyone to feasts of meat.

Just stripping the meat of its blood, roasting it over fire, and salting it was more than delicious enough to satisfy their stomachs. But the sausages they made from wild boar and horse were fantastic.

“Ayup, cider was the way to go.”

Ignis took a sip from his mug. The sweet flavor stung his tongue, washing down the meat juice from the sausage.

He wasn’t particularly fond of the bitter flavor of alcohol, so he felt cider was the best pairing for the meal.

Ignis had sampled cola, and rather liked that as well, but he preferred cider and its deeper sweetness.

***

And so for a time, the pair quietly enjoyed their food and drink.

The ketchup-covered French fries and mustard-doused sausages slowly began to disappear from the plate…

“Hey, can we get seconds on this?”

“More beer and cider, too, please!”

Just as they emptied their first plate, the two men made their next order. This was how their little day-off feasts always went. Glenn and Ignis wasted no words, simply digging into their food.

They simply ate, and ate, and ate their fill.

***

A little while later, Glenn and Ignis noticed the restaurant starting to fill up. They stood from their seats.

“Ah, it’s about time to go.”

“Ayup. Sorry, but could we get the bill?” Ignis called to the master

“Aye, you got it.” The middle-aged man waved them over. “Here’s the bill. That’ll be a total of three silver coins and six bronze coins. So one silver coin and eight copper coins per person.”

The master calculated how much the meal cost with a businessman’s speed, and the pair handed him the corresponding coins.

“Take care!”

“We’ll definitely be back.”

It would be too sad to just up and leave after paying, so the two guards made sure the master knew they’d be returning.

“Aye! We’ll be looking forward to your next visit!” The master smiled warmly.

***

By the time Glenn and Ignis returned to town, the sun was far up in the sky, and people were bustling through the streets.

“Shall we head back?”

“Ayup. Time to get some shut-eye till the evening.”

The two men passed by a knight, clad in higher-quality armor than theirs. He was probably out on patrol.

Anyhow, they’d sleep until the evening, hit up the brothel after that, and then head to the bar with the usual suspects. The typical day-off routine.

For now, a wave of drowsiness had started to settle on them both.

And so Glenn and Ignis returned to the old fortress with full stomachs.