Kays Translations

Chapter 14: The Evangelist of Food

The establishment next door to the Adventurers’ Guild was a restaurant and tavern operated by the guild.

It normally served as a gathering place for adventurers and those connected to them.

The restaurant began offering a limited amount of white bread each day. When sandwiches filled with meat and vegetables were added to the menu, they became a local specialty in less than a week. Customers who weren’t adventurers began visiting as well, and word soon spread that no trip to Saisi was complete without trying one.

The idea had, of course, come from Tauro. In exchange for a share of the profits, he allowed the Adventurers’ Guild’s Saisi branch to make the sandwiches its exclusive specialty.

Branch Manager Leo couldn’t have been happier with the arrangement, while Tauro avoided drawing unwanted attention to himself.

Leo understood Tauro’s concerns.

They both gained delicious food and a source of income. It was a perfect arrangement.

Tauro loved bread, but he loved rice just as much.

Yet people in this world didn’t eat rice.

Rice plants were mainly cultivated as livestock feed.

“Please tell me that isn’t true…”

Tauro could have wept.

Cooking in this world consisted mainly of grilling, boiling, and stewing. Methods such as cooking rice, steaming, stir-frying, and deep-frying were almost unknown.

As a result, rice was considered little more than a weed for livestock.

“As a former Japanese person, it’s my duty to introduce everyone to rice!”

He had no such duty, of course. He simply wanted to eat rice himself, so he began developing rice dishes.

“Rice? Never heard of it.”

Leo wasn’t particularly enthusiastic when Tauro explained that it was normally fed to livestock.

Tauro therefore milled the rice into flour and used it to bake bread, which Leo already loved.

“It’s different from white wheat bread, but this chewy texture is delicious!”

Leo was won over instantly.

While experimenting with rice-flour bread, Tauro also worked on the dish he truly wanted to introduce: a simple rice bowl.

Because there was no culture of eating with chopsticks, he diced monster meat into spoon-sized pieces and placed them over cooked rice, then finished the dish with a sauce made from the meat juices.

It was simple to prepare, easy to eat, filling, and—most importantly—inexpensive.

Adventurers short on money were the first to try it, and its popularity quickly spread by word of mouth.

Another popular dish had joined the menu of the guild’s restaurant.

One day, Tauro poured soup over a bowl of the new “meat bowl” and ate it in the style of ochazuke. As he did, the voice of the world sounded in his mind.

“One activation condition for special skill [Garbled Text]—<The Evangelist of Food>—confirmed. [Knowledge of Plants] acquired.”

“This ability might be a little underwhelming…”

The guild had a reading room containing books about plants. Tauro assumed that anything he could simply read and memorize would make the new ability pointless.

“Hmm? I gained another ability, but nothing in my head seems to have changed…”

Regaining the memories of his previous life had caused an excruciating headache. This time, he felt nothing.

“For now, I’ll look at some plants and see what happens.”

He examined the weeds in the courtyard.

Nothing happened. No information entered his mind.

“This really might be useless…”

Then Tauro had an idea and activated [True Eye], which allowed him to appraise objects.

Information appeared over one of the weeds:

Zaso Grass

A common grass. A weed that grows everywhere.

“It’s called Zaso Grass because it’s a weed? That’s a little too obvious…”

Even as he complained, Tauro realized that [Plant Appraisal] had been added to [True Eye].

“I take back what I said. This is useful.”

Tauro could already see its potential.

*

As usual, Tauro completed an errand quest and returned to the guild to receive his payment.

“Congratulations, Tauro. You’ve been promoted to F- rank,” Nei told him.

“From now on, you can accept F-rank quests. Here is your new F-rank tag.”

Nei handed him an iron tag certifying his new rank.

At last, Tauro had reached a rank at which he could undertake monster-subjugation quests.

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