This is bonus chapter for amassing another 50 power stones! Thank you everyone!
Big chunks of wyvern meat sat in front of Ludwig, its surface gleaming, reflecting the light from the runic lamp above. With a push, the knife on his hand slid into the meat, separating a sizable chunk from the big lump.
Setting the chunk aside into the tray where a few other chunks of the same size slept, Ludwig walked away towards the cupboard filled with seasoning. His eyes moved, scanning on the small plastic bottle of many different colours and tags which couldn't be seen in Ortus.
The meat he used for the wyvern steak was their chest meat. It was a cut that was somewhere between a wild game bird and a beef, lean but packed with flavour. Moreover, since it was a meat where wyvern's mana often passed through because they needed to power their wing, it carried a slight 'sparking' aftertaste. Slightly numbing, just like Szechuan peppercorns.
Ludwig moved his hands towards one of the bottles on the cupboard. It's good to have the inherent taste of a seasoning in a meat, however, everything too much was bad. In order to balance the high note of the sparking aftertaste, he chose additional seasoning aside from the usual salt and pepper. It was coriander seed.
The rub fell to the whitish meat, turning it into something akin to snow dirtied by mud. Rather than stopping after every whitish meat had a dirty patch on them, Ludwig moved his legs towards the Stasis Storage. Once there, he opened the door and fished a yellow round fruit from the depth of the storage.
On his way back to where the meat slept, he summoned a grater from the stack of tools he had in the kitchen to his hand. The fruit clashed against the grater, sharp and refreshing aroma hitted his nose as some of its peel landed on the mixture of rub.
Ludwig moved again, now to the stove. He put several skillets on top of the runic marking, turning it into a hot lump of metal. Then olive oil entered, turning hot in a few seconds.
When he lowered the meat into the skillet, the sound was instant. A sear so fierce that it made him remember the wyvern's roar echoed throughout the kitchen. Smoke curled upwards, carrying a hint of metallic tangs.
With a wave of his hand he used his mana to press down the meat, making sure it formed enough crust.
In the meantime, Ludwig dropped butter into a smaller pan. It melted in no time, foaming as soy sauce and lemon juice joined in. The glaze hissed, sharp citrus cutting through the deep umami scent of soy. He whisked until it thickened slightly, glossy and fragrant, the aroma both bright and savory.
Ludwig flipped the steak, the surface now dark and caramelized, juices sizzling along the edges. A minute more and he lifted it, letting it rest while he finished the glaze. He spooned it across the cut, watching the sheen spread, soaking into the scored surface.
When he finally sliced through, the blade met little resistance. The meat bled faint steam, pink at the center, with the glaze dripping down its edges. He tasted a strip—gamey richness first, then the citrus-umami sauce cutting clean through. The usual 'spark,' that faint numbing tingle of wyvern flesh, was there but muted, smoothed into balance by lemon and soy.
He nodded once, satisfied. Mana-fed muscle, tamed into a steak.
"The steak is ready." Ludwig shouted, tone unwavering nor filled with fire, just an announcement.
Quick footsteps echoed through the kitchen, the faun helper of the kitchen brought two plates to the bar, passing it into any server ready to hauled it to the table.
Watching the first batch of wyvern meat moving into the customer's table, Ludwig nodded. But rather than returning to his usual seat, he once again walked towards the Stasis Storage, he still had more dishes to make.
For some time, Ludwig was occupied in the kitchen—fighting his own battle. Metal bowls clinking, pan hissing, knife thudding into the cutting board, and oil sizzling. Two dishes were created through the process.
One was a dish that rather than padding the 'sparking' taste, he elevated it further. A spicy stir-fried wyvern breast meat with long beans. The other one was a simple one but refined to perfection. A wyvern meat tempura.
However, rather than using the same cut as the previous two dishes, it used the thighs meat of the wyvern—a darker juicy and meaty cut reminiscent of duck and venison.
Once he was finally done, he walked towards his usual seat, his hand massaging his shoulder which had become harder than the wyvern meat. However, rather plopping into his seat and taking a breather, a tide was sweeping through him.
"Boss, 3 mugs of Amberdrafts, please." Zhark, who just arrived in the bar, looked at him and said so.
Looking around, he realized why he was talking to him. Bilo was currently moving the food to the bar.
"Coming right away." Ludwig answered quickly. However, his body was already moving, hands clenching three mugs and placing it beneath the Amberdraft tap. With a pull on the lever, reddish liquid fell down, and with careful movements it became a perfect mug of ale.
After passing it through the separator towards Zhark, Ludwig finally found himself in a state of lull. Nothing was coming at him, everything was working like a well-oiled cog.
His eyes wandered to the dining area. Most of the tables had customers sitting on them, food in front of them while utensils and mugs were at their hand. However, unlike the first few days after he opened the restaurant, most tables were filled with people from different worlds. Even Claire, the regular seater of the bar, was sitting together with Akane and her friends, another chair pulled from a nearby table.
But, one pairing that took the crown of the most unexpected pairing was not them. It was the red-haired guy who Raon kept calling 'Weak Human', Kashi the Daeben, and the polite guy who was only dangerous to Rimuru.
Because of how late Cale–the name of the red haired human–and the Daeben came, and how full the restaurant currently was, the two sat in the only open table, a table which was taken by the slime tamer ever since he returned to the restaurant.
The moment they sat all together, Ludwig couldn't help but extend his ears towards the table. Just as he expected, Cale was also a reincarnator. One day he suddenly woke up in the body of the first son of a Count. However, rather than a capable and dependable first son, his body was that of the troublemaker of the family.
As if feeling it's not bad enough of a starting line, fate slammed another misfortune on top of his head. His body was also originally destined to be a pebble in the path of a hero in his world, which according to him, was a character which had 'Reincarnator' as his setting.
All in all, he was a reincarnator from South Korea who entered a world inside a webnovel that had a reincarnator as the protagonist.
In the case of the polite slime tamer, he was also a reincarnator. But rather than being sent to his current world through an express truck, he died in his sleep. Hitting his head to the floor several times before the last one put the last nail in his coffin he said.
But what separated him from other Reincarnator in the restaurant like Rimuru or Cale was that he was pulled to the God Realm the moment his soul left his body. He was also given the reason why they sent him to the other world, transfer of mana–something Ludwig hadn't heard or read anywhere before.
When he thought about the reason why Ryouma was being sent to the other world rather than entering the cycle of reincarnation, it quite made sense. Even though he never experienced the mana density in Ortus plummeting, history books told him the mana density of the current era and the mana density in the old era of Ortus was clearly different.
The reason he could take that book with the face value was because it's not just any history book, it was one of many books from the dawn of mankind which was banned by the Church in Ortus.
In those books, those who could utilise mana used it differently from him and other people in current Ortus. They forced the mana to obey them rather than manipulating it. Summoning forests, creating tsunami in land, making fire tornadoes, even manipulating night and day.
What Ludwig could do and be hailed upon through his journey with the hero party was nothing but a parlour trick compared to them.
It was not only a speculative comparison either. Grimoires of those spells were still stored in the Arcanoth Empire, guarded and studied by the descendants of the first Empress of Arcanoth Empire, Serenya Arcanoth.
Ludwig's mage's mind was interrupted at that point. The bell on top of the door chimed as the door opened slowly with a soft creak.
"Welcome to Checkpoint!" Vilera's unwavering voice echoed, followed by the voices of the other waitress.
Ludwig also followed suit, however, the body of the newcomer still hadn't entered his eyes. If it's not for his space ability, he wouldn't know that there's really a new customer at the door.
Vilera gave him a look through the corner of her eyes at that moment. Wondering what happened with his ever-so-calm waitress, Ludwig leaned his body to the separator to look.
His eyes landed on a short little girl. But unlike most customers who walked into the restaurant for the first time, her silver hair was clumping together, both dirt and grease could be seen tarnishing its luster.
Her clothes—if he could call them that—were dirty and ragged. It also had some big tears all over it, doing the opposite thing from its original purpose. However, what took Ludwig's attention the most was not her appearance. It was the horn on both sides of her head.
From what he knew, demons had all kinds of different horns. When it was a single horn, it's placement was usually on their forehead, just like Zhark. In the case of horns on the side of their head, they almost always came in pairs. One on the left and one on the right.
But the girl only had one horn, the one on the right.
The horn on her left was… destroyed. Yes, that should be the case. The movement of her mana was too erratic for it to be a natural. If they were born with such deformities, their mana movement should be normal, as the mana wouldn't input those deformities as anomalies.
A reason for demon kin to destroy the horns of their kin? Outcast, criminal, or blood traitor.
Ludwig couldn't even start to think about the reason why such a young child was subjected to such treatment.
"Vilera, what are you doing? Bring our customer here." Ludwig moved his eyes from the fidgeting little demon towards the older demon whose default setting was icy face.
"M-my apologies." She pushed those words out of her mouth. However, he could feel it. Her face was trembling. She then squatted down, meeting the little demon eye-level before opening her mouth again. "You are safe here, follow me, okay?"
The young demon looked around, hands still fiddling with her own finger. But then, she looked straight at Vilera. Her gaze lingered for a few moments at her, then she gave a small nod.
Vilera let out a smile, probably to assure the little demon. Then, she took one of her hands and stood up. The moment she walked towards the open seat on the bar, Ludwig could feel so many heads were turning. Their eyes fell on the newcomer, some had their eyes wide opened, while some knitted their brows together.
Nobody moved more than that, the usual ever so curious patron like Rimuru and Claire just looked from afar. But from how their body was angling towards the bar, he knew they would join him in the bar if he ever gave them the cue.
Ludwig just shook their head at him. It's not their time to join yet. The little girl looked so overwhelmed and confused, better to ease her in first before letting anyone else hovering around her.
Once Vilera and the little demon arrived behind an empty seat, Ludwig moved his hands, using his mana to push the chair back. The little demon's eyes landed on him, sparkling with curiosity.
Ludwig smiled, but inside, he let out a sigh. Thank the Gods. She's not broken.
In the meantime, Vilera put her hands beneath her arms, lifting the small demons and put her on the seat. Before pushing it closer to the table.
Ludwig looked past the two at that moment. Then, he waved his hands. "Valerie, come here.."
"Okay, boss!" The ever cheery demon girl answered, tone true to her personality.
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