65. I Heard You'd Help Me

After wrapping things up at the Merchant Guild, we reconvened at Lowell’s house to compare notes.

"I see. That aligns with the information I obtained as well," Lowell said. "I never expected the materials to turn up as prizes for a Merchant Guild event... I wonder, is Tort’s luck at work again?"

"It feels like a coincidence, honestly..."

I figured my luck influenced things like treasure chests and monster drops, but surely it couldn't manipulate the actions of people I’d never even met... could it? Then again, knowing the whims of the Destiny God, I couldn't rule it out entirely. There was no use overthinking it, though; I might as well just be grateful for the stroke of good fortune.

"In any case, we’re going to give the Cooking Contest everything we’ve got!" I declared.

"Yeah! Everything we’ve got!" Halfa echoed, thrusting her fist into the air. Spira followed suit, mimicking her perfectly.

"I’ll have to leave the cooking to you and the others, but let me know if there’s anything I can do to help," Lowell said. "The real issue is the scale."

"We’ll just have to negotiate with the winner of the Arms Contest to get our hands on that."

Strictly speaking, we were in the same boat with the Red Dragon Meat, too.

However, since the prizes were so rare, there was always a chance someone might refuse to part with them, no matter how much money we offered. That was why we couldn't afford to slack off in the Cooking Contest. Even aside from that, Halfa was fired up, and I wanted to win for the sake of winning. I fully intended to give the competition my all.

As for the dragon scale, I estimated our chances of a successful trade were fairly high. After all, we had Mithril. They say Mithril is the holy grail for blacksmiths; anyone skilled enough to win the contest would likely be desperate to get their hands on some.

The Red Dragon Scale was certainly a precious material—known for its high fire resistance and used in things like armor or specialized bricks—but Mithril was in a league of its own. It was significantly more valuable, both in its rarity and its practical applications. It shouldn't be a hard sell.

Regardless, I decided to put the negotiations aside for the moment. First, I had to focus on winning the cooking portion.

I’d heard that during the contest, the entire Commercial District of the Royal Capital would be transformed into a massive Stall District. Rather than having specific judges, the winners would be decided by popular vote from the attendees. People could only vote for dishes they had actually purchased and eaten. Each person was allowed up to three votes, but they couldn't give more than one vote to the same shop.

A system like that made me worry about the location of our stall. Luranna had mentioned she’d try to make the placements as fair as possible, but I wasn't sure how that would work in practice. Our strategy for drawing in a crowd was going to be vital.

The fact that you could only vote for what you’d eaten was the most important point. It meant that even if a dish tasted amazing, people wouldn't even look at it if the price was too high. While people might be a bit more loose with their money during a festival, there was still a limit. Balancing taste and price was going to be the trickiest part.

On top of that, there was a rule that the price had to be set at least twice as high as the ingredient costs. That was to prevent people from using a strategy of offering luxury food at a deficit just to win. Not that I had planned on doing that anyway.

However, we had a unique problem: I had no idea how to calculate the cost of the soy sauce. If it went on sale before the contest, I could use the market price as a benchmark. I just hoped it wouldn't end up being too expensive.

So, that was the situation with the contest. Now, we just had to decide what we were actually going to cook. My original plan for the stall was to sell meat skewers with a sweet and spicy glaze, but for a formal contest, I felt like we needed something a bit more sophisticated.

Something elaborate that can be served at a stall using soy sauce...

Hmm. Nothing was coming to mind. I didn't exactly have a deep well of culinary knowledge to draw from.

"Halfa? What do you think we should enter? Are there any good dishes from the Wingfolk village that might work?"

"Hmm, a soy sauce dish? Let me think... There are a lot of them, but which ones work for a stall?"

Halfa hummed and groaned for a few moments, then her face suddenly lit up. It looked like she’d hit on an idea.

"There’s a food the Wingfolk eat called a 'hamburger.' One of the best kinds is the 'Teriyaki Burger,' where the meat is glazed in teriyaki! That definitely uses soy sauce!"

Wait, what?

Halfa had just dropped a major bombshell.

Hold on. The Wingfolk eat hamburgers?

First it was natto, soy sauce, and miso, and now even hamburgers? A Reincarnator had absolutely been involved with her people in the past. My image of the Wingfolk was undergoing a radical shift. Based on everything Halfa had told me, their general civilization didn't seem particularly advanced, but their food culture was clearly heavily influenced by Earth.

I was curious about the history, but I pushed it to the back of my mind for now.

The Teriyaki Burger Halfa suggested was a fantastic idea. It would be a novel concept for everyone in the city except the Wingfolk. At the same time, it would be a familiar taste for the Wingfolk visitors, making it a great way to appeal to them. Plus, the preparation was simple enough that even I understood it.

"A Teriyaki Burger, huh? That might actually be perfect."

"Oh? Tort, do you know what a hamburger is too? I thought only we used that name."

"Ah... yeah. Something like that."

Right, I should probably be careful. It was strange for someone who wasn't a Wingfolk to know what a hamburger was. I’d have to find the right time to tell Halfa about my memories of my previous life. If the Wingfolk had legends about Reincarnators, she might even take the news surprisingly well.

“Mmm, Teriyaki Burger... I don’t really get it, but it sounds delicious! I want some too!”

"Me too! I want to eat one!"

Both Shiroru and Spira began to pester me. Of course, I had no reason to say no... but there was one problem: the ground meat. There were no machines for mincing meat here, and doing it by hand sounded like an absolute nightmare. I wished I could solve it with magic, but I couldn't think of a spell that would work.

Well, if push came to shove, I’d just have Lowell handle the manual labor. Yeah, let's go with that.