By the Grace of the Gods (LN) - Volume 5 - Chapter 30

Chapter 3 Episode 30: The Semroid Troupe

Two weeks later, my store was busier than usual due to the preparations for the festival. Throughout the past two weeks, we tried to recreate regional cuisines, decided who was going to cook what, made arrangements with our representative from the Morgan Company regarding security and customer service, and more. The preparations were hectic for everyone, but it didn’t lower our morale, which I was secretly relieved about.

My company on Earth had yearly recreational events to strengthen the unity of its employees, but they only seemed intended to satisfy the higher-ups. Aside from the event planner, hardly anyone was ever excited for these events, but we were forced to attend. It just meant that we lost our days off.

I understand what their intentions were. It’s better when everyone feels united, obviously. That was the culture there, so there wasn’t much to be done about it, but I didn’t want my employees to feel like we did at that company. But everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves for now, and as our stall gradually came together, their motivation only appeared to increase. Besides just my employees, we also had some unexpected help.

“Boss! Sieg the butcher’s here!” Someone called out to me.

“I’ll be right there!” I said. I was working on getting the empty lot set up, but stopped and headed to the reception room. “I’m sorry I kept you.”

“Wasn’t waiting that long,” Sieg said. “So, this is today’s share. The goods have already been taken to the kitchen.”

“This is a little cheaper than I was expecting.”

“You buy a ton from us, so you get a little discount.”

Sieg was one of our helpers. He not only provided us with meat to use when test-cooking different dishes, but on the day of the festival, he and his employees also planned to help us run the stall. When I bought a bunch of materials for cooking the other day, he asked why I was buying so much. After I explained the reason, he ultimately agreed to help out.

From what he said, it sounded like he and his employees wanted to spend time at the festival with their families. But their wives would get mad if they wasted too much money, so they all intended to help at our stall for one of the two festival days in exchange for some extra cash. They got more money to spend at the festival, while we didn’t have to work as much, which meant we had more opportunities to meet people.

It was a win-win for us, and when Pauline, Kiara, and Mary heard about the deal, they wanted to help with cooking and running the stall under the same conditions. They were working with Chelma in the kitchen as I spoke with Sieg. By getting those housewives involved, by the way, they used their housewife information network to spread news of the Semroid Troupe’s performance. A lot of Pauline’s friends expressed interest, apparently. I worried that we could end up with a huge crowd like when we first opened, so we had to prepare for that possibility.

“See you tonight, Ryoma,” Sieg said and left the store. After I saw him off, I decided to get back to work on the empty lot. That night, we were holding a party to finalize the menu for our stall. I had to at least get everything in order for that.

■ ■ ■

After work that night, I was checking documents in my office as I waited for guests to arrive. That was when Carme came to see me.

“Boss, Mr. Morgan and the Semroid Troupe’s representative have arrived,” he said.

“Thank you,” I replied and rushed to the reception room. “Excuse me, I hope you weren’t waiting too long.”

“Good evening, Master Ryoma,” Serge said. “This is the leader of the Semroid Troupe.”

“My name is Prenance Semroid,” the leader said. “I’m still young, but I lead a troupe of traveling entertainers. A pleasure to make your acquaintance, young sage.”

Serge was sitting on the couch next to Prenance, an oddly eye-grabbing, attractive man with hair like silver thread. Prenance stood up for a handshake, so I gave him one, but the dramatic way he spoke and acted was somewhat off-putting.

“It’s nice to meet you too. You can just call me Ryoma. I hardly deserve to be called a sage.”

“Oh, quite the humble one you are. Those music boxes play some fine music. They’re magnificent. That music offers a very different flavor from our own performances, so to speak. This allows my music to reach more people, and that’s simply delightful. You came up with the idea, so if you don’t deserve to be called a sage, then who does?” Maybe for someone involved in music, it was actually that incredible. Or maybe he was just flattering me. Not to be rude, but my first impression of Prenance was that he seemed hard to work with.

“Thanks, I guess?”

“I’m the one who should be thanking you. Not only did you grace us with your music boxes, but you’ve provided us a place to perform as well.”

“Yes, but it’ll just be in a lot that we use occasionally.”

“I took a little look at it on the way here, and it’s more than big enough. My troupe is pleased.”

“Are they here already?”

“Yes, they’re at the party site,” Prenance said. That was exactly as intended. I didn’t want too many people to know extensive details about the music boxes or the fact that I came up with them. I only wanted the representative here so that could be part of the discussion.

“Then I would hate to make them wait too long. Shall we begin this meeting properly?” I asked. Once they approved, we moved on to the next topic.

■ ■ ■

“Then when it comes to the stage in general, we’ll leave that matter to the Semroid Troupe,” I said.

“You can count on us,” Prenance replied. “It will be a great stage the likes of which has never been seen before.” The Semroid Troupe was still making a name for itself, and usually performed in cramped spaces like bars or town squares, so they seldom got opportunities to put on a show for large crowds.

“Thank you. If you need anything, feel free to tell me. Serge or Carme can provide any supplies or extra workers that you need, but if you just need assistance transporting goods or setting up the stage, I think I can help.”

“Thank you for everything.”

“Now then, next up—Oh, that was actually the last thing.”

“So it seems,” Serge said. “If anything else comes up, let’s get in touch.”

“Shall we go now, then?”

With everything confirmed, we went to the party site. “It’s pretty lively,” I noted. For the party, I set up six makeshift stands using earth magic. They were each about the size of a food stall, but they had all the tools needed for cooking. They were surrounded by my employees and neighbors, as well as strangers of all ages.

“Oh! Ryoma! Get over here!” Rick shouted to me. I saw Renny and Thor too. Rick and Renny’s family was helping us out, and they were a valuable metric by which to see how kids liked the food. “I’m hungry here! Mom says we’re eating here tonight—Ow!”

“Don’t beg, behave yourself,” Renny said. I laughed uncomfortably.

“Hello there, Boss. It’s about time,” Carme said.

“Right, let’s begin.”

“Then go greet everyone, please.”

I questioned whether it should be me who did the greeting, but I stood before the crowd as the host, a drink in one hand. “Thank you for taking time out of your day to come to our party. I’m Ryoma Takebayashi, the representative of the Bamboo Forest laundromat. Greetings,” I said. Rick stared at me impatiently. “It looks like some of you can’t wait for the food, so I’ll keep it short. As you all know, there will be a number of stalls at the founding festival, but I’d like for everyone who’s sharing the same space to be able to cooperate where possible. As a first step toward that, I wanted to hold a get-together here today. I think many of you haven’t met, so please take this chance to get acquainted with each other. Cheers!”

“Cheers!” the crowd replied in unison and raised their glasses. There were close to forty people in total, so it was pretty loud. The ones who had cooking to do left the crowd and got to work at their respective stands. The food was mostly prepared already, and they only had to take a bit of time to go through the finishing steps, so it wasn’t long before appetizing aromas wafted from the stands.

I went around checking on everyone, saying hello, and handing out ballots to vote on what we should sell. The ballots were ten pages each, where the first five pages were for voting before the meal on which dishes they wanted to try, and the other five pages were for voting after the meal on which dishes were best. The results of the vote would determine what we sold at our stall.

“Looks like this event is a success,” Prenance said as he approached with a plate in one hand, followed by a man in his fifties.

“Hello, how do you like the food?”

“It has surpassed my expectations. My troupe is over there, by the way,” he said and pointed to a corner of the site.

The party was set up so you could eat while standing like at a festival, but there were tables and chairs around if people wanted to relax. Among the crowd was a group in traveling garb who ate as they spoke to the rest of the guests. One of them in particular, a woman who chowed down on tons of food, caught my eye.

“Interested in her?” Prenance asked.

“It’s crazy how much she can eat. I was just surprised.”

“Right?” Prenance agreed with a chuckle. “That’s Maiya, the troupe’s biggest eater.”

“She became a traveling performer just so she can get good grub. That woman’s appetite knows no bounds,” the man behind Prenance grumbled.

“This is Sordio. He and Maiya are our sword dancers.”

“Nice to meet you,” I said. I had never heard of a sword dancer before. “Does that mean you put on a show using swords?”

“A number of people dance and cut things in unison. It’s not all I have to offer, but it’s not wrong to call me a sword dancer,” Sordio replied.

“He’s Maiya’s uncle, the vice leader of the troupe, and our bodyguard,” Prenance said. “Not only does he perform, but he’s a competent swordsman. Fights always break out at festivals, so if anything happens, by all means, tell us.”

“Thank you. It’s always reassuring to have more people protecting the store.”

“You can call me whenever, as long as my hands are free,” Sordio offered. “You can use Maiya too if you want.”

“Use me for what, Uncle?” Maiya herself said, holding an empty plate in both hands. She was behind Sordio where I couldn’t see her.

“We were talking about helping with security.”

“Oh, you’re that representative who spoke before,” she remarked, turning to me. “I heard you were young, but I didn’t think you’d be this young.”

“That’s rude, Maiya.”

“I don’t particularly mind,” I said. “It’s true; I’m young.” I didn’t feel like being called a kid was an insult or anything. “More importantly, are you having fun?”

“Of course,” Maiya exclaimed. “There’s all this rare food, and even the more common stuff tastes better than I expected. Like this hot dog, for example. The bread’s fluffy, and the sausage is juicy. I’ve been to a whole bunch of places, and there aren’t a lot of restaurants that offer flavor like this.”

Hot dogs were standard at festivals, even in this country. But the ones at our party used bread made from the natural yeast that I taught Chelma about before, and the meat was sausages from Sieg’s butcher shop that used special seasoning to match the bread. Pauline cooked them slowly and caringly, making for a hearty meal. Their professional talent combined to make the most of the taste of the ingredients, resulting in something surprisingly juicy and delicious. This was a cut above the average hot dog. Of all the candidates, this dish was expected to come out on top.

“Also, there’s this food from Gilmar,” Maiya continued. “The soup has a nice, calming flavor, and it warms you up.”

Fay and Lilyn’s pa miang turned out to be very similar to wonton soup. The ingredients were simple, but the simmered meat and vegetables were great. The flavor was subdued, so I liked to eat it with the meat and vegetable stir fry made with semesa oil.

“Some of these are quite uncommon too,” Prenance said, his plate covered in salted and roasted dante seeds. I just bought them when I wanted dandelion coffee, but they were eaten as a delicacy in some regions. Now I wasn’t sure whether these plants were more like dandelions or sunflowers, though. The roots could be made into coffee, and oil could also be extracted from the seeds when they were being prepared as food, so I used wood magic and my scavenger slimes’ fertilizer to grow massive amounts.

“I’m glad you like it,” I said. “There’s a lot more where that came from, so eat all you want. I’d recommend saving a little room in your stomach, though. We have dessert coming later.”

“Is that true?!”

It was true. Many of the sweets were made by myself, and included sesame tofu and sesame balls.

I made the sesame tofu by grinding the semesa until the texture was pleasant to the tongue, then mixed it with potato starch, heated it over a fire, stirred until it was smooth, and cooled it in a mold until it solidified. This was covered in molasses made with muscovado.

For the sesame balls, I started by preparing some sesame paste made from semesa and muscovado. I covered the paste in dough made from a mixture of rice flour, water, and oil extracted from dante seeds. Then I sprinkled raw semesa on top and fried the coating in dante oil.

I specifically chose not to use semesa oil for this. Its flavor was too overpowering, so it made everything taste like pure semesa. It would become impossible to make out the flavor of the other ingredients. By contrast, dante oil’s flavor wasn’t that noticeable, providing the ideal hint of savoriness. When I appraised it, I found that the unsaturated fat in the oil was mostly made up of oleic acid, making it a clear and nutritious oil.

However, little dante oil could be extracted from the seeds. It took fifteen grams of seeds to produce a milliliter of oil. If it took eight hundred milliliters of oil to fry something, then that required twelve whole kilograms of seeds. Dante seeds could be healthy in moderation, but making oil from them was a bit time-consuming. It was a good way to practice improving my magical energy, actually.

Thanks to all that work, I was deeply satisfied with the taste of both of these dishes, but the time it took to make them was a detriment, as was the cost of muscovado and rice flour. These could cost up to twenty sute each, a bit much for sweets from a food stall. As an alternative, I also prepared what I called ‘sesame pastries’ using wheat-based pastry dough to cut down on the cost. There was a good chance that those would replace the sesame balls, at least.

“I’d better eat what I can now, then,” Maiya said after I told her this, then went off to grab some more food. It already looked like she had eaten enough for two or three people, but she still hadn’t stopped eating.