Chapter 89: Ah, customer… could you happen to be an otherworld refugee?

Kazui took a one-thousand-Dale bill from his pocket.

He had prepared the payment for the roast beef sandwich he ordered.

Then, at just the right timing, a voice rang out from the window through to the kitchen.

"Roast beef sandwich!"

The lower part of the window frame was a ledge where food and the like could be placed.

On the ledge was a white plate with a roast beef sandwich the cook had just finished, but Kazui could not see it from where he was.

The bartender picked up the plate and set it on the counter in front of Kazui.

"Sorry to keep you waiting. That’s the roast beef sandwich. One thousand two hundred Dale."

Seeing the roast beef sandwich set in front of him, Kazui’s eyes went wide.

"Is this a rugby ball?"

Surprised by the size, he said that.

Just as he put it, the roast beef sandwich was like a rugby ball in both size and shape.

In this world there was a bread called Krakura, similar to French bread, with a crisp crust.

The sandwich was that Krakura split cleanly top and bottom with roast beef and lettuce between.

"Ah, customer... could you happen to be an otherworld refugee?"

The bartender asked Kazui.

"I am, but why?"

"We’ve had an otherworld refugee customer before who looked at our roast beef sandwich and compared it to a rugby ball too."

"Ah, I see."

"It’s big. Are you really all right?"

"...I’m hungry, so I’m fine."

While honestly thinking it might be a little much, he answered and set the payment he had prepared on the counter.

"Thank you. If it looks like you can’t finish it, we have bags for takeout, so don’t hesitate to say so."

After picking up the payment and speaking to Kazui, he took an order from another customer and moved that way.

(Then I should eat.)

With a determined look, Kazui picked up the roast beef sandwich.

He felt its solid weight with both hands.

(There’s a lot of roast beef. At one thousand two hundred Dale, this is almost too cheap.)

Beef and processed goods were major products, so beef dishes in Aquila were cheap overall.

Even so, compared to the size and amount, the roast beef sandwich in his hands seemed too cheap to him.

He bit into the roast beef sandwich.

For Krakura the crust was soft and easy to eat, and the simply seasoned roast beef was tender too.

(It’s good.)

Being hungry as well, he kept eating the roast beef sandwich steadily.

Even while eating, he casually looked around the shop and searched for female customers.

About twenty female customers came into his view.

About half were with men, and the rest were eating and drinking alone.

But he could not find a single woman with an Orb embedded in the back of her left hand.

(If there are no adventurers, there’s not much I can do.)

Kazui was a little disappointed.

Aquila’s population was fifty thousand, and the number of adventurers was about five hundred, around one percent of the population.

There were also people who were not active adventurers but had Orbs embedded, such as Guild staff and former adventurers.

Even so, people with Orbs embedded were a minority of about two percent in Aquila.

(Come to think of it, women who have Orbs themselves are few, and among them women with unarmed combat skills are even fewer.)

While eating the roast beef sandwich, he asked himself.

(On top of that, a woman who’s sexually frustrated and drinking at a tavern... aren’t there almost none?)

Kazui’s own answer to that question was "that’s right."

(I might have gotten the method wrong. Maybe a place like the unarmed combat gym, where there are a lot of female martial artists, would make it easier to find a partner than a tavern.)

It was not that he had not thought of using Sexual Appraisal at the unarmed combat gym to look for frustrated women.

But looking for a woman as a sex partner in a place for serious training had felt improper, so he had not done it.

(This isn’t the time to think it’s improper.)

While biting into the roast beef sandwich, he resolved to look for a partner at the unarmed combat gym as well.

(Still, this really is huge...)

When he had somehow eaten close to half the roast beef sandwich, he paused.

(My throat’s getting dry. I should order a drink.)

The saltiness was modest, but there was still a lot of it, so as he kept eating he started feeling thirsty.

He looked at the menu blackboard and confirmed that cider was seven hundred Dale.

He felt like drinking right away and did not feel like picking from the menu, so he decided to order cider, which he already knew existed.

"Excuse me, one cider!"

While placing the order with the bartender, he put his hand in his pocket and took out coins.

He kept seven hundred Dale in coins on hand and put the rest back in his pocket.

The bartender worked the drink dispenser and poured a slightly yellowish clear liquid into a glass.

Coming in front of Kazui, he set the glass on the counter.

"Cider... seven hundred Dale."

Kazui set the coins he had prepared on the counter.

"Thank you."

Saying thanks, the bartender picked up the coins.

"Two stouts!"

Right after that, another customer sitting at a different counter seat placed an order with the bartender.

The bartender immediately moved in front of the shelf where glasses were lined up.

(The customers... have increased.)

Before he knew it, the counter seats where Kazui was sitting were almost full.

Except for the seat on his left, they were nearly all filled.

(Women customers with Orbs... none, huh.)

Casually checking the other customers at the counter, he felt disappointed.

The increased customers were about half men and half women, but he could not confirm an Orb on the back of anyone’s left hand.

(Well, for now... I should drink it while it’s cold.)

The sweating glass was filled with a yellowish clear liquid with small carbonation bubbles rising one after another.

(Unlike Japan’s, the color is a little yellow.)

The color was not the only difference. The smell was different too.

(The smell is different too... it smells like apples.)

He picked up a sweet apple smell.

Because the apple smell was strong, he did not notice that there was another smell as well.

To wet his throat right away, he reached for the glass.

Holding the pleasantly cold glass in his right hand, he brought it to his mouth and started drinking.

He tasted and swallowed the well-chilled, refreshing, sweet cider.

The carbonation was strong and the mouthfeel was stimulating.

(The taste is different from Japanese cider... but this is good in its own way.)

He liked the taste and emptied about half the glass in one go.

Fooled by his thirst and the strong carbonation, he did not notice the fundamental difference between the familiar Japanese cider and the cider served at this shop.

Having wet his throat for now, he started eating the roast beef sandwich again.

Then, around the time he had reduced the roast beef sandwich to about forty percent of its original size, he suddenly heard his own name.

"Eh? Kazu?"

The owner of the voice was a woman who had sat in the seat on his left, which had been empty until a little while ago.

When she looked diagonally forward to the right to see the menu blackboard, she spotted Kazui’s familiar face and spoke without thinking.

Kazui took his mouth off the roast beef sandwich, turned left, and confirmed the owner of the voice.

The woman was someone he knew.

The combination of black leather pants and a leather jacket was similar, in Japanese terms, to biker fashion.

Motorcycles did not exist in this world, but a similar fashion called Oban Braytions did.

Before the current combat clothes became mainstream, there had been a period when sturdy leather combat clothes were popular among adventurers.

Better materials were developed for adventurer combat clothes and took their place.