Kays Translations
Just another Isekai Lover~
Chapter 316: Searching for Fish
A true man among men… Rest Clover performed the deepest, most respectful dogeza of his life and was forgiven by Celestine for his misconduct.
That said, Celestine hadn’t actually been angry to begin with—she had worn her usual gentle smile throughout.
After rinsing off lightly in the open-air bath, he left the inn, trying to shake off the lingering awkwardness.
“Haa… I really screwed up.”
After parting ways with Celestine and finding himself alone, Rest let out a deep, heavy sigh.
He hadn’t expected to get that drunk.
For the first time, he experienced the true terror of alcohol—and it left him thoroughly shaken.
Distilled liquor, by its nature, has a high alcohol content. It’s typically diluted with water or soda. For someone inexperienced to drink it straight? That’s practically asking for acute alcohol poisoning. A reckless act, to say the least.
“I’ve got to be more careful from now on… But hey, at least we managed to get our hands on some alcohol. That’s a win.”
As for the party—they now had drinks covered.
It was strong stuff, no doubt. Rest couldn’t make much of the taste himself, but Celestine had assured him it was fine. If she said it could satisfy the refined palates of nobility, it was likely true.
“Next up: ingredients. Since we’re by the sea, might as well look for some fish, right?”
With that in mind, Rest headed for the beach.
Ideally, it would be great to catch another sea dragon like last time… but even finding a rare fish would be a stroke of luck.
When he arrived at the beach, a fishing boat was just pulling up onto the shore.
“Hello there. Hard at work, I see.”
“Oh, if it isn’t Rest-sama! What brings you out here?”
Rest greeted one of the fishermen, who replied with surprise—he was a tanned, middle-aged man.
“I was hoping you might’ve caught something rare. Got anything interesting?”
“Nah, nothing too out of the ordinary today.”
The fisherman scratched his head and looked toward the nets piled on the boat.
“Just the usual stuff we always catch. Still, if that’s good enough for you, I’d be happy to share some.”
“…Mind if I take a look?”
With the fisherman’s permission, Rest examined the catch.
All the fish were ones he recognized—nothing rare or particularly high-grade.
But then—
“Oh… wait a second, is that what I think it is…?”
Among the common fish, Rest spotted something unexpected.
A strange creature wriggling its tentacles—an unsettling shape that would probably cause instinctive disgust in some people.
“No way… is that an octopus?”
Yes, it was a devilfish—what Rest knew as an octopus.
It was the first time he had seen one in this world since reincarnating.
“So you know about that one, Rest-sama?”
“Yeah, I’ve eaten it before.”
“Now that’s surprising. Doesn’t seem like the kind of thing nobility would eat, if you ask me.”
The fisherman explained further, clearly surprised.
Even in this world, octopuses were considered off-putting by most.
People from coastal villages would sometimes boil and eat them, but merchants wouldn’t buy them. And if someone tried to sell them, they’d be scolded with things like, “Don’t bring that creepy thing around here.”
“Yeah… I figured as much. I kind of suspected it.”
Now that he thought about it—he’d never seen octopus dishes in the royal capital.
Even back in his previous life, octopus was mostly eaten only in countries like Japan. It seemed to be a similarly obscure food in this world.
(Come to think of it… Japanese people really will eat anything, huh? I never gave it much thought before, but like… who was the first person who looked at a sea urchin or sea cucumber and thought, ‘I should eat that’…?)
“Would you be willing to part with that octopus?”
“Of course! Want me to have the wife boil it for you?”
“Nah, I’ll handle the cooking. There’s something I want to try making.”
Rest accepted the still-living octopus with a grin.
“Since we’ve got the chance… I figured I’d try making takoyaki. You know—octopus balls. In a way, it’s a rare delicacy too, right?”