"Man, it's been a while since I had a tuna and sake pairing." Rimuru leaned on the chair as his hands patted his stomach.
Ludwig rose to his feet as soon as he heard Rimuru's voice and asked him. "That tuna should be tastier than Earth's tuna, did you feel the difference?"
Rimuru paused for a little bit, her face telling Ludwig he was thinking about his question. "Mhmm. It's richer. There's also a hint of smokiness in it. Probably have something to do with mana?"
"That's what I thought after eating it the first time too." Ludwig nodded. "But the smokiness only gets stronger around summer. In any other season, it's weak."
"Well, summer is hot. So the fire mana should be stronger at that season compared to any other season, so it only makes sense." Rimuru voiced his two cents. "It seems like I have to experiment with monster meat in my world too."
"You really should." Ludwig gave him a push. "In Ortus, many ingredients change depending on the season. Even an everyday staple could have different tastes when they are in season."
Rimuru nodded repeatedly, probably storing the plan in his mind. However, the silence didn't come, another voice filled the place that Rimuru's voice left behind.
"Did you also serve those ingredients on the menu?"
Ludwig's head moved a little bit to the left before his eyes landed on the black haired woman who asked the question. "Yes. I don't think you visited the restaurant back then, Miss Akane. But a few days ago, the special menu was made of beef with a herbal undertone taste."
"That's really interesting." Akane, the newest addition to the growing roster of customers, said so with an intrigued tone. "Turning that meat into beef tartare should be delicious."
Ludwig smiled as he heard her opinion. "It is. Unfortunately, sourcing Korean Pears is expensive through the shop.
"Ah…" Akane chuckled.
At that moment, Ludwig raised his head away from Akane. He could see Finka was walking towards the bar after taking the order from a customer who just walked in.
"One serving of tuna sashimi, a cup of sake, and two portions of pork menu, sir."
"No special order for the wolf?" Ludwig asked.
"No, sir." Finka answered.
"Okay." Ludwig answered as he pivoted on his heel. The kitchen started to become busy, Vilera, the one who was in the kitchen duty today, put a washcloth on top of the countertop before placing the large wooden cutting board on it. Nodding at her quick reaction, Ludwig pulled a sashimi knife from its holder, and in the next moment a reddish fish meat was already waiting for him.
The knife slid easily through the meat, separating it into a bite-size chunk. Once enough meat for a portion was cut, he moved it into the plate, lining it up nicely to let his customer's eyes feast on it first before their tongue. Then, Vilera took over. Two small bowls of sauce with different colours were placed on the plate, making it more vibrant.
"Placed it on the timeless cabinet for now." Ludwig said towards Vilera.
"Understood."
Then, his mind wandered to what kind of pork menu he should make for the wolf. Like many other animals, wolves had far superior olfactory sense than humans. Looking at that angle, he felt he shouldn't serve any food that had an overpowering smell. A simple roast could do the magic. The pork belly he bought a few days ago was harvested from a breed of boar called Mudsnouts. They had a darker meat compared to other domesticated breeds in Ortus, resulting in richer and deeper taste. Simply cutting it and cooking it in Korean Barbecue style would already let the meat's characteristic shine.
However, food wasn't just about the taste. Presentation and the experience of eating food was also important. The simplest example was eating ramen in their home country Japan. No matter how many star restaurants they ate ramen outside Japan, or what kind of ingredients they used, once someone ate a rame in Japan, they would think it was the best. The same could be said for Korean Pork Belly Barbecue. To experience the dish fully, the best way of eating it was to grill the pork belly themselves.
The problem was, the one who ordered the pork menu was a wolf. Even if mana turned it to more than a simple wolf, it still had no hand to do a proper grilling itself. Therefore, Ludwig had to look the other way. After rummaging through his mind, a dish that had all the qualifications he had set popped.
Ludwig walked to another chopping board that Vilera put. With will, a slab of pork belly appeared on top of it, its layer of fat glistened under the runic lamps. Ludwig ran his knife through it, cutting the belly into heavy cubes. He set a pot of water to boil, dropped the cubes in, and watched foam rise, skimming away the bitter froth until only clean broth remained.
After putting another pot on the stove, he fished the blanched cubes out and set it aside. On the new pan, Ludwig scattered a healthy amount of oil before putting ginger slice and scallion slices, cooking them until they released their aroma. The pork belly followed right after. He moved it around from time to time, making sure its edge was crusty. Once that was done, in goes soy sauce, sake, and mirin, filling the kitchen with a sweet-salty aroma. Sugar sprinkled in last, melting into the dark liquid that drowned the cubes of pork.
Ludwig lowered the power of the flame rune at that moment, then he put a lid on the pot before willing his mana to surround the pot. With another will, the time inside the mana accelerated, the smell around the kitchen went thicker and thicker. After his internal timer chimed, he let the mana dispersed. With a spoon, he took the broth into his mouth. The taste was what he imagined it to be: Sweet, savoury, and deep.
Ludwig fished the cubes out again, but this time, he put them into the plate. Once the meat was lined up, the garnish came next. Blanched veggies, eggs, and potatoes. With the last wipe to make sure the plate was clean, he called Vilera. "Food is ready."
Vilera moved towards him quickly, the sashimi already been handed to the server. Taking the plate from the countertop, she walked towards the bar and passed it like a baton, the last pass until it found its owner.
Ludwig smiled at how smooth the passing process from the kitchen crew to the server was. It hadn't been a week since they started working here, yet whether it was in the dining area or in the kitchen, every single one of them already knew what they needed to do. Of course, some exceptions exist. Bilo and Valerie were the prime example.
Once he returned to his station, he found Rimuru looking at him pointedly. Raising his eyebrows, Ludwig asked. "What's wrong with you?"
"Those dishes are pork Kakuni, aren't they?"
"Yeah." Ludwig nodded.
"You don't tell me about it even though you have it on the menu?" Rimuru fumed, his chair wobbled as he quickly moved to the edge of his seat.
"I don't have it on the menu." Ludwig chuckled. "Heck, I didn't even cook it beforehand. I just decided to make that for the wolf."
While Rimuru was tongue-tied by his answer, Akane beside him opened her mouth. "You didn't cook it beforehand? But you just need a few minutes to cook it. How?"
Ludwig felt a lightbulb popping on top of his head at that moment. The woman and his guard were the newest addition to the restaurant. And today was only their third visit. Throughout her past visit, not once did Ludwig use his time manipulation to cook. Heck, he rarely did it. After all, most of the time he used it in the prepping time to cook soups—something that needed quite a long time to be made.
"I have a time manipulation and space manipulation ability." Ludwig started. "I rarely used it anymore in the operational hours, most of the time I used the time manipulation ability to shorten the time needed to cook something."
Akane and his chaperone, Jade, looked at him with a surprised face. Before he could even voice it, a cheery voice that was always present in the restaurant almost everyday chimed in. "Right? Broken, right? That's also what I thought."
Ludwig gave Rimuru a side glance. At the same time, he made a mental note to really tease him when he also got the time manipulation ability in the future. No, not only that. Once he became a demon lord, every time a guest came in, he would introduce him as such. A very evil demon king.
"With such power, can you go to the past or travel to the future?" Akane murmured, her face was still shocked, but it was already toned down a lot.
"Theoritacally, yes." Ludwig answered. "But practically, I can't."
"Why?" Akane asked again.
"Do you know what mana is?" Ludwig asked, which was met by her nodding. "To go to the past or the future, a ginormous amount of mana is needed. Me and my comrade have run a calculation, just to travel one year both to the past and the future, we will need millions of hearts of the peak level monster. For your information, that peak level monster includes dragons and krakens."
"That number is impossible." The knight opened his mouth, a deep yet refreshing voice echoed through the restaurant.
"You got it." Ludwig nodded. "In the continent where I lived, there's only a handful of peak level monsters. So I think, even after scouring through the world, the numbers wouldn't be met."
"But you can accelerate the time on everything you are cooking, isn't that the same as sending it to the future?" Akane asked again.
"It is. But they are not living beings are they? Moreover, I just accelerated the time of certain things inside the influence of my mana. To send myself or others to both the past and the future meant to affect everything. Death, life, fate, casualty. It's not something a mere human could do." Ludwig explained, tone excited.
To be honest, he also wanted to explain about the other factors that made it impossible. However, he reigned himself after looking at her face. Yes, she just asked about it because she's curious, not because she wanted to understand it.
As expected, "I see. Too bad though, traveling through time will be interesting."
"Why?" Rimuru asked. And from how curled his mouth was, Ludwig knew what he wanted to say. "Do you want to kill baby Hitler? If so, you also need to ki-"
"Stop right there." Ludwig butted in, hands waving to displaced Rimuru to the furthest seat on the bar.
"That's rude!" He protested before jumping from the chair.
"Philosophical debate is allowed here, but not in the bar." Ludwig said, voice firm.
"It's just a question. Not a philosophical debate!" Rimuru argued.
"Conversation that started with 'Do you want to kill baby Hitler?' is always philosophical. I won't tolerate it in my bar." Ludwig scoffed.
With a grunt, Rimuru sat back to his earlier seat. Hands crossed in front of his body and cheeks puffed. Really, if he didn't know he was the leader of the entire monster population of Jura Forest, he would think he's just a kid.
At that moment, the door to the restaurant creaked open, the sound of a bell traveled through every corner of the restaurant. Ludwig's head whipped towards the door, after all the restaurant hadn't told him that someone was coming.
When the gap between the door and the wall was big enough, an old man walked into the restaurant. Behind him, a scenery that he had seen from time to time flashed. The man was draped in white haori and white hat. The bottom part of his haori scraped through the floor as he walked closer and closer to the bar.
However, he was not the only one who was surprised by the appearance of the old man. The customer with light blue hair across from him was looking at the old man, mouth and eyes wide open.
"What the hell is he doing here?" Rimuru whispered a beat later.