"Welcome. ...Eh? Rei-san!?"
The Nikuman Stall Owner blinked in surprise at the sight of Rei appearing alongside Set.
There was something like admiration in the look he directed at Rei.
...Granted, the stall owner was a man in his twenties, and being on the receiving end of such an admiring gaze from that sort of person left Rei unsure of how to react.
"Ah... So you're selling nikuman?"
"Yes. You're the one who came up with this dish, aren't you, Rei-san? Um, if you wouldn't mind, would you taste one? Oh, of course, there's no charge."
For the stall owner, Rei—the person who had conceived the nikuman he was selling—was truly someone to be respected.
That was why he was nervous about just how good his nikuman tasted, about whether he could satisfy Rei, the very person who had thought up nikuman in the first place. Even so, apparently confident in his own skill, he opened the steamer and took out two.
Naturally, one was for Rei to eat, and one was for Set.
"Is that so? Then, for now—"
If it was delicious, he'd pay and buy more.
With that thought, Rei accepted the nikuman and, holding it by the part wrapped in paper so his hands wouldn't get dirty or burned, took a bite.
The first thing to spread across his palate was the dough, with its faint sweetness like a steamed bun.
Then the filling—a mixture of meat and vegetables—pleased his mouth.
(Bamboo shoots... no, menma? Having menma in it is a welcome touch texturally.)
Around Gilm, bamboo shoots could naturally be harvested when spring arrived.
They were eaten as a seasonal ingredient, and while they differed from the menma Rei knew, they were also preserved through salting or smoking.
Naturally, gathering bamboo shoots required heading out early in the morning, and six o'clock—when the gates opened for entry and exit—was too late. Among the most determined, there were even those bold enough to leave Gilm the day before and camp out overnight.
Incidentally, the bamboo shoots found around Gilm included not only what could be called moso bamboo but also nemagari bamboo varieties.
The bamboo growing in the mountains around Rei's childhood home in Japan had been only nemagari bamboo, so that was what he was more familiar with.
Granted, the bamboo shoots sold in supermarkets, including menma, were mostly moso bamboo, so it wasn't as though he was unfamiliar with those either.
In any case, while not as popular as Gamelion, bamboo shoots were reasonably well-regarded as a seasonal ingredient.
Because of that, Rei's expectation was that adding minced bamboo shoots to this nikuman would elevate the flavor a notch.
(Wait, the stuff in nikuman—menma is fine, right?)
Rei had assumed it was menma, but maybe he was wrong? He tilted his head slightly.
Of course, even if what was really in the nikuman was minced menma, Rei didn't know how to make menma, so he wouldn't have been able to offer advice on that.
"H-how is it? I'm fairly confident in it, but..."
Seeing Rei swallow the nikuman in his mouth, the stall owner asked, his eyes full of expectation.
"Yeah, it's not bad. It's not bad, but..."
If asked whether it was delicious enough to earn the praise of the skewer stall owner who had told him about this place, Rei wouldn't have been able to nod in agreement.
"Average... yeah. You're hitting an average score, so I don't think anyone would eat this and call it bad. But that's strictly average, so if you asked whether I'd want to eat it again, it's not at the level where I'd absolutely have to."
"I see... I figured it would come to that."
Hearing Rei's critique, the stall owner's shoulders slumped in disappointment.
But he soon raised his head and bowed to Rei, eyes full of hope.
"Please. If possible, could you lend me a hand to make my cooking tastier? The truth is, sales haven't been growing these past few days, and I just can't secure a good location."
"...Hm? Sales determine where your stall is placed?"
Rei told him that was news to him, and the stall owner nodded.
"Yes. Though it's not always like that. It's a special rule only during this season—from autumn into winter—when merchants come flooding in."
"So that's how it works."
Rei used stalls fairly often, but he had absolutely no idea such a system existed.
"It's not strange that you wouldn't know. This isn't something that's widely advertised, after all. You could call it a tradition among the people who run stalls on the main street."
Put that way, Rei had no choice but to accept it.
The stall owner talking with Rei showed no particular anger about being made to run his stall in this spot—which was likely one of the reasons Rei was convinced.
"I see. ...So? You had me eat this nikuman—what do you want me to do?"
"Um, if you could tell me what exactly is wrong with it... that would help."
Seeing the stall owner bow his head and say that, Rei showed a slightly troubled expression.
He liked eating delicious food, and he was the one who had taught what kind of dish nikuman was.
That much was certain, but it wasn't as if Rei was a gourmet—he couldn't do what food judges on TV shows did, critiquing dishes like that.
Adjust the ratio of this ingredient, tweak that seasoning.
That kind of advice, he simply couldn't give.
(Ah.)
But even so, Rei could tell from eating this nikuman that the texture was lacking.
"How about adding more variety to the filling? Differences in texture and so on."
"Texture? Um, like what?"
"I don't think asking me that is entirely fair, but... well, let's see. Off the top of my head—bamboo shoots, mushrooms. And crushing some nuts and adding them in might work too."
What Rei recalled was the steamed bread he used to buy at a convenience store on the way home from school in Japan.
It was bread with walnuts kneaded into the dough and steamed, and to Rei, the taste had been quite to his liking.
Since this was also steamed bread, he offered the idea... and for the stall owner, Rei's suggestion was apparently close to a revelation.
Of course, even in this world, bread with dried fruit or nuts kneaded into the dough and baked was fairly common, so the fact that the stall owner hadn't thought of it himself probably meant his perspective had been too narrow.
"Well, having an enjoyable texture making it taste good while eating is just my opinion. There might be people out there who dislike having various textures in their food."
"U-uh, that's... then what should I do?"
"Don't ask me that. Those kinds of details are exactly what you—the person running this stall—should be figuring out, not me."
Faced with Rei's sound argument, the stall owner fell silent, having been hit dead on...
"Give me ten nikuman."
Suddenly, a voice rang out nearby.
When Rei turned his gaze toward the source, there stood a bald man with sweat beading on his face.
He was clearly taller than Rei, but rather than heavily muscled, his body was lean and tightly built.
He looked like he had just finished exercising, and Rei wondered whether someone in that state would really crave nikuman, but the bald man didn't appear to be forcing himself.
In other words, he had no intention of contributing to the stall's sales; he simply wanted to eat nikuman, and so he was buying it here.
The stall owner seemed to be acquainted with the bald man, as he immediately began preparing the order without being told.
Watching this, Rei called out to the bald man.
"Hey, got a second?"
"What is it, Rei?"
The man knew Rei as a matter of course, and replied without hesitation.
Rei didn't seem particularly bothered by this, and put the question to the man, who was already bringing one of the nikuman he'd just bought to his mouth.
"What do you think of this stall's nikuman?"
"What do I think? The taste isn't that bad, I'd say."
"Not that bad, huh. So not delicious."
"I told you, didn't I? It's not bad. But I wouldn't say it's that delicious."
"For all that, you're buying ten at once?"
"I don't have much interest in meals. As long as my stomach's full, that's enough. Right now, I'm more concerned with how to get stronger."
Like you, for instance—or so the man's look seemed to say.
Flashing a fierce grin, he turned his gaze toward Rei.
(Ah, I see. That type, huh.)
Near the nikuman stall was the Specialised Training Ground.
It was only natural that someone who frequented such a place would want to hone their strength.
Of course, Rei had no need to humor that, and without showing any particular reaction, he merely nodded with an "I see."
The bald man, apparently deciding that pressing the matter further with Rei—who showed no sign of rising to the provocation—would be pointless, headed back toward the training ground while eating his nikuman.
"Um... people who train here do buy quite a bit on their way home, but..."
The stall owner, who had been watching Rei, said this and turned his gaze toward him.
"Any other customers?"
"Um, a few..."
From the way he hedged, it was easy to imagine just how many other customers came.
"I see. For now, what I can say is what I told you just now—make it so the texture is enjoyable. Oh, and instead of mincing all the meat in the filling, if you leave some larger pieces, it'll have more chew and feel more like you're actually eating meat."
Rei offered this on a sudden thought, and the stall owner nodded in understanding.
(If even an amateur like me can think of that, how can you—ostensibly a professional—not come up with something so basic?)
This stall run by the man before him would probably not last much longer.
Rei was half-convinced of that.
The man was likely not a professional cook, but had started running a stall on a whim for some reason only recently—or so Rei thought.
That was why he couldn't come up with things that even Rei could think of.
(The fact that he knew I was the one who created nikuman means he's enthusiastic about cooking... but it doesn't seem like he trained at any restaurant... it feels more like an extension of a hobby?)
Rei recalled a TV program he had watched back in Japan.
It was about someone whose love of cooking grew so strong that they quit their salaryman job to open a restaurant, only to struggle because of the gap between professional and amateur, leaving the shop foundering.
The nikuman stall before Rei now gave him an impression not entirely unlike that.
Of course, that was strictly Rei's own impression.
In reality, there might be all sorts of more complex reasons behind it... but that was beyond what Rei needed to know.
(Still.)
Right—it was beyond what he needed to know, but Rei couldn't help following that thought with "still."
A stall selling nikuman was rare.
At least as far as Rei knew, the one before him was the only one he could think of.
Because of that, if this stall failed, nikuman stalls would be perceived as having a high barrier to entry, and the likelihood of anyone following suit would be slim.
If so, as the one who had introduced nikuman to this world... and above all, not wanting to lose the option of casually buying nikuman anywhere, since a stall could move freely—Rei would prefer that this stall not go under.
But with the unspoken understanding that stall locations were determined by sales during this season, being placed in what was—if not the worst—one of the worst spots, turning things around would be difficult.
What to do.
As Rei wavered with such thoughts, he suddenly spotted several people who appeared to be adventurers emerging from the training ground.
If that were all, Rei wouldn't have needed to be particularly surprised.
Given that it was a training ground, once training was over there was naturally no further business there, and just as the bald man from earlier had come to buy nikuman after his session, there would have been nothing worth noting.
But... the people coming out of the training ground weren't walking. They were running. And rather than the calm air of people who had finished their training, they seemed almost bloodthirsty—so asking Rei not to pay attention would have been unreasonable.
"Guruu?"
Set, having finished his nikuman and waiting for Rei to call out to him, also turned his gaze in that direction.
When Rei and Set both looked that way, the stall owner was naturally drawn to follow suit... and upon seeing the unmistakably well-built men, his face contorted with tension.
But the men who had come out of the training ground didn't even glance at the stall owner. They looked only at Rei, standing in front of the stall, and as they approached, one of them spoke.
"Please, Rei. Even just a little—would you train us?"
Saying that, they bowed deeply.