The Archmage’s Restaurant

# 187

Chapter.40 Cooking Competition

***

Was it like this?

I used the teleport nearby, but perhaps it’s been a while since I’ve been here and I have no sense of direction. I can’t help it because it happens because the place Rurin imagines is different from the place I think of.

“I’m Rurin~! Lurin~! It’s~!”

In the meantime, Lurin moves around me, humming and then singing.

“What are you doing?”

“This is a song about the emergence of this body. “I’m in a new place, so I’m making myself known.”

I asked him to stop, but the answer I got was even more absurd.

“I’ve been here before? So you can teleport to a new place?”

“I am Rurin~ This ring is also Rurin~!”

Then he chewed it and started spinning again with his hands outstretched towards the sunlight. I don’t know when my love for that ring will end.

It moves around and around me so much that it makes me dizzy.

I just ignored it and looked around to find my way again.

The reason I’m wandering here now is because of Nirip’s words. If I didn’t know, I had no choice but to stop by because the boy who helped me needed help.

“Lurin.”

“What.”

“Shall we fly?”

“Fly?”

I have no magic. The only creatures whose bodies float in the air are those created in that way. So to fly, you have to be a dragon.

“It’s been a while since I transformed myself!”

“What are you talking about?”

Lurin’s face turned bright red and she was so scared that she jumped up and took a step back.

“You hate it that much? “The response is amazing.”

“you. “Am I angry?”

Are you already angry?

Of course, if you actually become a dragon here, there will be an uproar. So of course it’s a joke. He shrugged his shoulders and patted Lulin on the back.

“All right. I’m kidding. joke.”

But Lulin has already turned his head away.

“You go too far sometimes! “We demand improvement!”

He shouted and even puffed out his cheeks. The expression on his face is as if he doesn’t know why he doesn’t want to become a dragon.

“I know, so calm down. My cheeks are going to burst. Besides, if you become a dragon in a place like this, the village will be terrified, so it’s nonsense in the first place.”

“I do not know!”

The king was upset.

However, if you leave it alone, it will resolve itself naturally. If you’re really upset, instead of puffing out your cheeks, you make a blank expression.

So, I left Rurin behind and focused on the direction again. If you don’t know, it’s better to go down the mountain and find it. That’s the best solution if you get lost in the mountains.

I made that decision and walked blindly, holding Lurin’s hand and dragging her along.

As I do so, a somewhat familiar landscape catches my eye.

I think there was a battle near here before?

It definitely looks familiar.

So are we on the right track?

“Lurin, I think I came to the right place… uh? “What are you doing?”

Lurin was doing something strange again. So when I ask, he answers in a voice filled with various emotions.

“Something strange fell on my hand and my ring!”

He took the ring out of his hand to see if something was on it, and started wiping it with the hem of his clothes.

“Are we done now?”

After a while, he picks up the ring and holds it up to the sunlight with a tearful expression on his face.

hmm?

If something fell from the sky on a clear day like this, it would be bird poop… . I’m sure it was, but I didn’t mention it.

It would have been nice if Rurin’s misfortune had ended there.

He said he was going to attack me for making things worse, but this time, a bird suddenly flew up and took off with the ring in its mouth.

“Kwaaaaaak!”

Of course, Lulin was angry.

“No matter how much this body hasn’t been letting out its peers at all recently, how dare you dare say such a thing!”

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!

Lulin blew out breath from his mouth. But the bird had already flown away.

“Stand there!”

“at there!”

“Ugh eight bloom!”

Thanks to the peer, other birds around them start to run away in fear, and soon the mountain becomes complete chaos.

“Ho hoe?”

Rurin blinked in bewilderment, but then started running and chasing the bird, probably because he thought it would be better to catch it with magic rather than flying.

However, he is very passive in using magic, perhaps because he calculated that if he mismatched the ring and dropped it from his mouth, it would be more difficult to find.

It’s an embarrassing situation.

I followed Lulin. I finally came to a place I thought I knew, but I had to go the other way.

I can’t live.

“Lurin!”

How far has this guy gone?

As I chased after him for a while, I could barely see Lurin in front of me. Lurin was holding the bird on her knees. And then he was strangling the bird. It must have seen me come, so it jumped up, picked up the bird, and ran towards me.

“Youeeeeee!”

That bird is similar to the pheasant, which boasts a huge population in this area.

The bird Lurin was carrying was pierced by an arrow. From the looks of it, it didn’t seem like he caught it with his breath. Since it was pierced by an arrow, it means that Rurin did not catch it.

“This guy! “This guy ate my ring!”

Lurin complained with a face that looked like she was about to cry. Of course it doesn’t have to be that way. It would be a relief if a bird ate it.

“If you’ve eaten it, just take it out. calm down. “It’s actually easier to find since it didn’t fall in the forest.”

“That’s true!”

Lurin held the bird very dearly. This is a very rare scene where Rurin holds something dearly. Of all living things other than jewels, am I the only one who has ever been held in Lulin’s arms?

Am I jealous of a dead bird?

“Uh, that… I hunted it… .”

Meanwhile, a man holding an arrow trudged over and spoke carefully to us. I looked up at the man. Looks very familiar.

“uh?”

“Ho, by any chance, General?”

He calls me with a surprised face, probably the same way.

So I pointed at him too.

“That time?”

“You’re right, right? Yes, directions then… “This is Duran!”

“That’s right, this guy! A long time?”

I was more fortunate to have run this way. Now that I have found the person I was looking for, my wandering is over.

“Really!”

“You’re quite tall?”

“yes. “Because it’s been a long time since I grew up.”

I am now at the age where I will soon become an adult. It’s natural to grow up. I nodded and smiled.

“Oh, don’t worry. I will return that bird right away. “Rather, would you please guide me home first?”

“Oh, of course!”

Duran also nodded vigorously.

***

The restaurant is simple.

Duran’s mother, Viscera, said that she lost her husband during the war and raised Duran alone.

This is not unusual considering the number of lives lost on the battlefield at that time. Especially this area, which was in the middle of a war.

And I am cutting open the stomach of this bird that looks like a pheasant and they call it Maa. He’s got a face that says he’s going to cry loudly if I don’t take off the ring first.

“Oh it was here.”

As we dismantled it, we quickly found the diamond. Fortunately, it doesn’t seem to have been confused with another bird. I heard your eyes are good.

No. Since it’s a dragon, it’s natural for it to have good eyes.

Since Lurin hasn’t been a dragon lately, there are definitely times when I think she’s just a human. This guy is definitely a dragon.

Well, it doesn’t really matter whether we are humans or dragons.

Anyway, once the ring was found, Rurin started going wild in a different way.

“Oooh! “Give it to me!”

In an instant, he snatches the ring from my hand at the speed of light, sits down, and starts squirting out water to wash the ring.

“After I wash it, I will never take it out of my hand again!”

While making a firm promise.

So I just left it and came out of the kitchen and said hello again to the mother and son who were looking at me with a confused expression.

“Anyway, how have you been?”

At that time, when his young son was about to do something dangerous, Visera was the person who nodded and told him to take revenge on them since they were the ones who took his father away.

“yes. I was thinking about what I could do with the gold coins I was given to spend, and since I was most confident in cooking, I opened a restaurant. “Thank you again for that time.”

“no. That was a reasonable price to pay, but please sit down. Duran, you too.”

“yes!”

As soon as the two of us sat down, I quietly revealed my purpose for coming here.

I have to get to the point, because I can’t just say hello forever.

“Actually, I think a dwarf visited here, but I was worried so I stopped by after a long time.”

“Is that so? “I’m sorry!”

Visera suddenly nodded with a surprised expression. He seemed sorry for bringing me here, so I changed my words a little.

Because I don’t want to burden you for no reason.

“no. I stopped by for the sake of coming here because I had work to do, so I don’t have to be sorry. “Please take a seat.”

“I see. But general… .”

They called me general. Since he was the general commander of the military when I met them, it was a natural title, but now it is very uncomfortable.

“Oh, now that I’m retired, can you call me El?”

“Wow, really? “Are you retired?”

“yes. Because peace has come. “After that, I actually started running a restaurant.”

What are you doing hiding it? To be honest, when I mentioned the restaurant, the mother and son jumped up with a surprised look on their faces.

“Yes?”

“Now General, do you want a restaurant?”

“I don’t run a great restaurant so I can tell other people what to do, but I stopped by because I thought we might come up with a good solution if we put our heads together.”

“That’s right. Thank you!”

Viscera bowed his head once again.

“L! That’s actually… . It is true that business has been going down at all recently. There was a time when business was pretty good… suddenly… .”

Duran then began to speak frankly about the current situation, even though Viscera shook his head.

“yes. I heard that too. Let’s think of a solution together. “Isn’t three better than two?”

There are three, not counting the one dragon that is only in the ring.

“How serious is the situation recently?”

I thought Duran would be more honest than Viscera, so I asked the boy and the answer came back right away.

“Not at all. General… “No, El!”

“at all?”

“yes. Actually, there was a restaurant open in front with the same menu as ours, but since it is run by a large commercial company, it seems like it is losing all its customers… .”

Duran wasn’t the only one to hear about this situation, so this time I looked at Visera and asked.

“is that so?”

Then finally, Visera began to speak honestly.

“yes. Actually, the taste is similar, but the price is much cheaper than ours… If we lower the price further, we will actually be at a loss… .”

The situation certainly looked very bad, just as Nirip had said.

“Excuse me, but what is the main course?”

If it were a normal restaurant, it wouldn’t be doing a reckless business like me, just selling dishes it doesn’t like.

“Oh, that’s noodles made with Maa eggs and wheat flour, a traditional village food, in Maa broth.”

“Then, is there a competing restaurant?”

“yes… “We are selling the same noodles.”

“Um, can you give me a taste? There is a saying that seeing is worth seeing.”

“Of course!” “Look at my mind.”

Visera said that and hurried into the kitchen.

As if crossing paths with Visera, Rurin comes out of the kitchen and sits next to me.

He looked satisfied as he put the ring on his hand again.

“By the way, do you always get the ingredients yourself?”

“yes. “Because that’s the best way.”

Maada is all over the mountain behind. So it would be best to catch it yourself. You asked a useless question.

Anyway, this means that the ingredients are very fresh.

Of course, the same goes for the other person as well.