Chapter 678

TENKEN 678 The Girl and a Woman

「Here you go! This is the original curry soup!」

「Meat-filled curry soup! 200 Goldes per bowl!」

「It's delicious!」

At the last day of the cooking contest. There was a tremendous line in front of the Black Tail stall.

There are probably more than 300 people lined up right now.

『I'm surprised it's selling at this price』

(It was delicious after all!)

200 Goldes for a bowl of soup is a very expensive price. It was the price of a night's stay at a cheap inn. Io-san's soup is usually sold at 10 Goldes, but we sold our's at 20 times her price.

It is still not very profitable even at this price though. After all, we had used all the spices and ingredients we needed through the cooking guild. We also spent a lot of money just making the prototypes.

Using magical vegetables and ingredients that are usually only known through books as knowledge, the result was a price of 200 Goldes per bowl.

I had a lot of magic beast's meat in my storage, so the meat part was practically free. If we had to purchase the magic beast's meat as well, we might have to set a price of 300 Goldes per bowl.

I hoped that it would still sell well, but it actually turned out to be a bigger success than I had imagined.

A sign that says "The Original Curry Stall", the massive advertising by the cooking guild, Io's reputation, and the merchant's and adventurer's network.

All of these factors combined to create a crowd that far exceeded our expectations. The line was so long that we had to immediately hire more sales staff and increase the number of cash registers.

And yet, the line was still this long.

「Uu~, the line won't end...」

「It's even worse than last time」

「Uu~, Black Lightning Princess tricked me」

Don't you talk bad about her, Lydia! If anything, you're the ones who jumped at the offer of free meals as payment, remember!?

I didn't lie or force her to be our salesperson. I just didn't tell her that the payment would be given after the work was done. But that was just common sense, right? Why should I pay for someone who hasn't even worked yet?

By the way, what we are serving at our stall this time is a curry soup with vegetables and chunky meat. It is served in a thick paper cup with a piece of bread on top as a lid.

This way, the curry won't spill and the bread can be sold along with it.

We offer three levels of spiciness: normal, spicy, and dragon spicy. All of them are highly recommended by Fran and Urushi, and are excellent soup curries.

The dragon spicy was popular among the adventurers. Just like last year, there is also a rumor going around the adventurer that they should be ashamed if they can't handle this level of spiciness.

I thought it was Colbert's doing again this year, but it seemed that he didn't spread such rumors this time. It seemed that the adventurers who had eaten the dragon spicy curry last year had come up with the idea on their own.

This kind of thing is not going to take root in Barbra like a tradition, is it?

To adventurers who don't like spicy food, I'm sorry.

According to Fran, who has been to almost all the stalls in the past few days, there are only a few curry dishes that could be our rival. The only one that is evenly matched is the curry dragon soup that Fermus serves.

Since Fran says they're evenly matched, I guess they really are. Not bad, Fermus! It seems you've already mastered the art of mixing spices.

Or rather, I'm practically losing, isn't it? I have no restrictions, and I'm the original. Fermus, on the other hand, is pursuing profits for his food stall, and in just one year, he has created a soup that is on par with mine.

Kuh! Well played, Fermus! It looks like I have to keep working hard for Fran's sake!

As I was thinking about this, I suddenly felt Fran's presence waver. It wasn't that she was flustered, but she was a little surprised, and perhaps a little wary.

Her center of gravity changed by just a few millimetres. It seemed that her body had unintentionally tried to shift into a battle-ready position.

But I suppose that was not surprising.

「Hee~. So, this is what they call curry? It sure smells good, what do you think, sis?」

「Yeah, it looks delicious」

The duo who were receiving the curry now. She reacted to the disturbing presence that the red-haired woman in particular was giving off.

If we were to pass each other on the street, we might have thought she was trying to pick a fight with us. That's what I felt from noticing the aggressive air from her.

The three adventurers who were manning the sales counter have given up on her completely.

The woman gazed at the three members of the Scarlet Maidens as if she was trying to put a value on them. She shifted her gaze to Lydia, Maia, and Judith, and quickly lost interest in them.

She then looked at Fran next.

「...」

「...」

Uwaah―, what's with this woman. She reminded me of the first time we met the Beast King for a moment. The intimidation in the woman's eyes was so fierce. I would even call it ferocious.

She must be considerably strong. If it had only been a resemblance in presence, she reminded me of Mea.

But the fact that I subconsciously remembered the Beast King meant that I sensed a great deal of danger from this woman.

Fran stares back at the woman in reply to her gaze.

It's not that they are slamming each other with intimidation. But the problem was that the atmosphere of check and balance created by the two, who were both trying to put a value on each other, was intimidating enough for the average person.

It was probably only for a moment that the two of them made eye contact. But a strange commotion immediately rises. Some of the customers rushed to the counter for no apparent reason, while others suddenly felt a chill and raised their voices. But I guess they can't help but unwittingly open their mouths and make some kind of noise.

I don't think most of them knew what had happened, but their instincts told them that this place was dangerous.

The adventurers, who are one of the few people who understand the situation, are the opposite. They can only remain silent in the face of Fran and the woman's strength.

It was only for those few seconds that something strange happened.

「...」

The woman then took the curry and walked away from the stall. Both Fran and the woman just casually checked each other out like Yankees checking each other with guns as they passed each other.

In the first place, if the two had really tried to intimidate each other, there would have been a panic here.

『...What's with that woman? Is she an adventurer?』

(She's strong)

『Well, yeah』

Maybe I should ask someone for information about her later. I'm pretty sure she's a famous adventurer.