376-A funny man who liked eels




 
 After enjoying the scenery from the shrine, I transitioned under the bridge on the riverbank where I met Kojirou.

 It's not far from Kagura's shopping district here, and it's almost impossible to see the transition.

 I make sure there are no people around and no one is watching me before I start walking.

 A large river is flowing in front of me, making a pleasant sound of waves.

 There were rounded stones lying at my feet, and every time I stepped on them I could hear them scraping against each other.

 Yeah, it's nice to feel this how-is-this-whatever-it-is-this-within-a-warm riverbed atmosphere.

 It has a different quality from the big river in Eric's territory.

 As I recall, we met Kojirou in this area.

 When I remembered that I met Kojirou, I immediately dismissed the picture plane of one of the Hundoshi as it came to life.

 He had smiled and said he was able to quit his job, but I didn't realize he was Kaede's brother.

 Moreover, I didn't know that he was the bodyguard of his eldest son Shuichi, who is considered to be the next Shogun.

 However, no matter how great Kojirou is or how great a swordsman he is, I have no regrets about pushing him to quit.

 It doesn't matter how great the work you're doing, you shouldn't be crushing people with hard labor.

 Kojiro really wanted to quit because it was too hard, so it was the right thing to do.

 It's too late if it's too late, like I did in my previous life.

 I wonder if Kojiro is still training to make unagi (eel) bowls. Or is he already opening an unagi shop?

 As I walked along the riverbank, I saw an old man in a blue workman's uniform on a large Japanese boat, fishing with a net.

 If I looked into the distance, I saw several people pulling and setting the nets in the same way.

 As expected of Kagura, which has abundant water resources. We could see fishing just by walking along the riverbank.

 It is a rare sight in Koliat village.

It is good. Hooray!

 An old man pulled the net forcefully while calling out a light call.

 When I looked at the net, I saw a long and slender creature in the net that was pulled up.

 A fish that shines in the sunlight, reflecting the surface of its body in the distance. Or rather, is it slimy?

 I feel like I've seen some kind of fish before.

 I gathered the magic power into my eyes and increased the magnification and saw that the inside of the net was, to my surprise, an eel.

 Huh? Why are they catching eels? It should have been shunned in Kagura as being too bad to eat.

 While I was looking at it curiously, the old man noticed my gaze and looked at me while tilting his head.

''Oi.''

 When I waved my hand to try and talk to him to hear what he had to say, the old man in the blue samurai costume turned his face away with a puissant look.

 When I was slightly shocked that he ignored me, the old man put away his net and took his paddle.

 I wondered if he was going to go away, but the old man deftly maneuvered the paddle and pointed the boat towards us.

 Apparently, he's going out of his way to move the boat so that he can listen to me.

 When I smiled as if reassured, the old man smiled mischievously, as if the prank had succeeded.

 He has a rugged face but seems to be quite friendly.

''What's up?''

I wondered why they were catching eels. Eels don't taste good when cooked, do they?

 I know it's very tasty when cooked correctly, but I purposely don't know why they're here.

'Yeah, well, there's a strange guy who's taken a liking to eels lately. He asked me to buy them regularly, so this is how I catch them.

 I was somewhat convinced after hearing Pops' words.

 It was Kojiro. It must be Kojiro.

 He must be buying eels regularly to practice eel bowl.

Wow, there are some strange people. It doesn't taste so good, though.

I said the same thing, but the guy was all about how good eels are. I wonder if he knows how to make it taste good? No, but it's a fishy, bony eel.

 Haha, it's easy to imagine Kojiro taking on an old man like this and yakking and daring him to say he can make it delicious.

 As for the restaurant, it seems they haven't opened it yet, as the keyword "unadon" hasn't been mentioned yet.

 He must be taking a long time to process the unagi and make the sauce.

 I've also taught him how to make other dishes such as Shiroyaki and Unomaki, in addition to Unadon, right?

 With the development of the menu, skills, securing the supply chain, and opening a new restaurant, it would be tough to open a new restaurant in just four months or so.

 Besides, Kojiro wouldn't be satisfied with just a little success.

 The first time I saw Kojiro's unadorned bowl of eel and rice, he didn't seem to be satisfied at all.

 From that feeling, he may not open the restaurant until he's satisfied with it.

 If I was going to open a restaurant anyway, I wanted me and Roomba to be the first customers, so I was a bit relieved.

 It would have been too shocking if he had opened the restaurant without saying a word, even though I had taught him how to make unadorned rice bowls.

'Hey, as an old man, would you be happy if you could learn to eat unagi well?

You can't imagine how happy I am. There are plenty of them in this river, after all!

 The old man said and showed me the net in the Japanese boat.

 In the net, there were a lot of shiny eels wriggling in the net.

 It's a staggering number of eels to be able to catch so many at one time. The people and the old man who fishes them must be very happy when they are all delicious.

By the way, where do you come from? You're not kagura people, are you?

It's called the Kingdom of Misfirito.

Well, I don't know anything about that.

 We made small talk like that, and I left the old man.

 The back of the old man, who changes direction smoothly at the paddle, is very Han-like.

 After seeing him off, I start walking leisurely toward the shopping district.

 Well, I'm glad to see Kojiro is working hard to open an eel bowl restaurant.

 I was tempted to meet Kojiro and have a quick chat with him, but I didn't know where he was, and meeting Kojiro would likely mean meeting Haru and Shuichi.

 If that happens, it's going to be complicated by people telling you to stay or when you came over.

 It's not that I'm afraid of meeting Kaede, you know.

 For some reason, there was a section of me that thought it was my fault that Kojiro quit, or that I intrigued him, but as expected, he should be calm and understand the situation.

 You think you're an adult and you're probably right, but there's also a part of me that tells you that you're not, and that it's dangerous to get close to them.

 Still, if we talk about it calmly, I'm sure they'll understand.


"-- My sister said the eel bowl was not good and challenged me to a duel, saying, 'I'd rather continue as a swordsman than make this stuff.

 Just as I thought that, I remembered Kojiro's words to me at the end of our meeting.

 Yes, I'll stop seeing Kojiro after all. It might not be good for me if I go to see him suddenly. Kojiro would be busy making eel rice bowls and so on.

 I'd like to meet him as a guest next time anyway.

 I thought, and I stepped toward the Kagura shopping district.