By the end of the speech from both Rimuru and King Gazel, the ceremony took place. Even if it's called a ceremony, there was no grand procession starting from the entrance of the city to the main plaza or flowers flying in every corner to shower both of them.
Instead, it was a simple signing of a paper and a handshake. And judging from Claire's satisfied hum when they finished the ceremony, it seemed like both Tempest and Dwargon had made the best decision for this ceremony.
By the time the denizens of Temp—no, Rimuru City went rabid due to their nation having an official name now, Ludwig and Claire had left where they had stood before. They were now on their way through the sea of monsters to an emptier place where the space between them and the next person was not so close.
Their footsteps came to a complete stop after they walked for a few minutes. The concentration of people was lower here; there were only a few vendors on both sides of the road and a few buyers around.
But that's not the reason why they stopped. Well, not them but Ludwig. It was because of a greasy and delicious smell that had come to tickle his nose. His eyes quickly moved to where the smell came from. And the next thing he heard was a familiar and happy-inducing sizzling sound.
A pair of a goblin and an Orc was standing there. In front of them was a makeshift wooden cart, while the pan that made the sizzling sound was situated on the opposite side of the cart.
Without knowing, Ludwig was already standing in front of the shop, eyes still on the pan like he was hypnotized.
"...wig. Lud, hey LUD!"
Only when he felt someone shaking his body did he snap back to reality.
Claire's face was a mix of worry and exasperation, and from how hard she was helding his arms, it could be felt just how surprised she was.
Realizing he had made a mistake, he opened his mouth. "Sorry for that. I just suddenly got curious because of the food."
Claire kept her eyes on him for a few moments longer before a low and slow scoff came out of her mouth. "Of course it's food-related."
Ludwig gave her another heartfelt apology before moving his attention to the orc who manned the cart.
However, if he felt that he had made a mistake because he had mindlessly let himself get led by curiosity, what the orc and the goblin were experiencing right now was worse. They had completely become a stone. If it weren't for the slightest tremor they had all over their body as well as the slowly rising and deflating of their chest, he might have thought they were petrified by an ancient snake that lived in a hidden chamber of Hogwarts.
"You guys, alright?" Ludwig asked.
No answer came. Even after he spoke two more times, the orc and the goblin were still frozen. Realizing nothing would change if he just kept calling them, Ludwig leaned closer to the Orc before touching its broad and bulky shoulder. "Hey, you okay?"
The moment his hand touched the Orc's shoulder, the big guy jolted. Then, with his eyes still shaking like he was seeing a ghost, he took a step back.
Thankfully, because of the sudden movement of the big guy, the goblin also came to his senses. He also looked at Ludwig like he was seeing a ghost at first, but it quickly went away.
But, it seemed like the reason why the goblin stopped looking at him like that was not because it realized it was a bad manner for someone who was doing business, but rather it was because of the burnt smell that was coming from the sizzling pan behind him.
The goblin lived to the fame of their race. His deft hand quickly moved to the handle of a strainet beside the pan. Then, he used it to fish out whatever dish he was cooking there.
The first thing Ludwig saw was the color. The surface of the food was deep and uneven gold that darkened toward brown at the edges, an easy telltale that it was being left in the hot oil for a little bit too long than it should.
The smell that came off it was something else entirely. Fat had been rendered all the way through, while the outside was dry enough to hold its shape. Just by smelling it and looking at the colour, he could already guess at the texture before he tasted anything.
"How much is that?" When Ludwig finally spoke again, he went straight to the point. His curiosity about how the food could arrive in Tempest, or Rimuru City, as well as where they got the oil, could wait until later. For now, that food they just cooked was best eaten when hot.
Rather than answering right away, the orc just avoided his eyes and looked at the goblin who had just finished transporting the Deep Fried Pork Belly to a wooden cutting board. But rather than meeting the eyes of the orc, the goblin just kept doing what it needed to do; chopping the slab of friend meat into pieces.
Probably realizing he wouldn't get any support, the orc eyes went back to Ludwig. He then opened his mouth. "I-it's 2 silver a serving, Chef."
Ludwig's brows went up after hearing the answer. But not because of the price, but because of how the orc called him. "You know me?"
"O-of course, Chef." The orc answered in a stutter. "No one here doesn't know you."
"I see." Ludwig nodded calmly. He had heard that Checkpoint was quite famous among the denizens of Rimuru City, even making visiting the place a part of their bucket list. But hearing it like this still made him feel quite weird. "Give me one serving of that, please."
"Y-yes, Chef." The orc answered before quickly turning away. Though he didn't really need to do anything since the goblin was already finished with cutting the fried pork belly.
Before long, the orc gave him a bowl made of dried leaves that was full of the pieces of what used to be a whole slab of meat.
Ludwig took it before quickly pinching the sharp stick they gave in place of utensils and stabbing the meat with it. When he finally bit into it, the skin cracked loudly. However, it was still gave way to his teeth without hurting it, which was the first good sign. After all, fried food needed that crunch to be called a real fried food. Not the flaky and oily mess when it was left in the oil for too long at the start of the frying.
Underneath the skin, the flesh and fat were soft. It didn't become a dry mess, which always happened when a first-timer overestimated themselves. Whoever managed the heat on that pan knew what they were doing, even if everything else around the process had not quite caught up yet.
The taste was where it fell short. The pork itself was decent; the quality of the meat was not the problem, but there was very little taste besides the raw gamy taste of the pork. He could still smell it slightly even as he chewed, which meant whatever they had used to prep the meat had not gone deep enough, or had not been given enough time to do so.
He finished the piece and took another. But this time, he pushed it towards Claire.
"This is good." Ludwig said it offhandedly, like he was talking to himself while doing so. However, he made sure the orc and the goblin heard it. Only after he saw the duo finally let out the breath they had been holding and their eyes stopped trying to look elsewhere before drifting to him, did he continue.
"Though the seasoning needs more herbs and more time. They need to cut the gamey smell before it hits the oil. You also need to score the skin to make it easier for the marinade to enter the flesh. But the other is correct. Where did you guys learn the recipe?"
Rather than answering right away, the orc looked at the goblin first. A conversation seemed to be happening through eye contact. Then, the goblin nodded.
"W-we make it ourselves." The orc said as soon as he looked at Ludwig. "But we got the idea after visiting your restaurant, Chef."
"Oh?" Ludwig said so as he told them to tell him more using his hand.
"We saw what you did in the restaurant. You fried chicken, vegetables, and many other ingredients. So we thought, why not fry a boar? That's how we started."
Ludwig nodded slowly, turning another piece of the pork over with his stick before biting into it.
"We tried with other parts first." The goblin finally opened his mouth. "But most did not become what we wanted. They were either too tough, too fatty, or too rubbery. The belly, though. It was closest to what we thought."
Ludwig set the bowl down on the edge of the cart. Now, he was looking at them in a completely new light. To think they got an idea of frying a pork belly because of the fried chicken and tempura he made…
From their story, they had done more work on this than the final product suggested, which was not a bad thing. Most of what was missing could be fixed without changing the method at all.
And Ludwig was more than willing to help them complete their next step.
But just before Ludwig could open his mouth, two new presences entered his sphere of detection. One was a muted and cold presence, while the other one was also muted but had a pulse.
His eyes went sharp at once. After all, for Souei to look for someone in Tempest only meant two things. Either there was a dangerous thing that needed him to take care of it himself, or, there was something wrong with Cless.
He turned to the side and opened his mouth as the two presences landed beside him. "What's wrong, Souei?"
"Ludwig-sama." The blue-haired Kijin bowed to him. "Rimuru-sama requires your presence."
That answer melted Ludwig's worry in an instant. After all, the next big incident that would befall Tempest was the arrival of Milim. But that shouldn't have happened today. Not on the day of the ceremony, at least.
It also shouldn't be about Cless. If it was, that little girl should already be in front of them right now.
So, Rimuru was calling him for either Greito and Selene that were visiting Tempest, or because of King Gazel.
"Let's go to him, then." Ludwig nodded. "But first…"
He looked back at the duo of orc and goblin again.
"Give me the whole batch you just fried. And let me tell you how to get rid of those pesky gamey smell."
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