Chapter 679

TENKEN 679 The Woman's Identity

「Good job for today」

「Iyaah~, that's really been a busy day」

「I'm so tired...」

After the cooking contest was over, we were now in a standing dinner party hosted by the cooking guild.

The party was more like a gathering hosted by the cooks and merchants though. There were a few noblemen in the crowd, and it seems that they could enjoy themselves and chat with the cook. They probably wouldn't attend such a rude gathering if they weren't such people after all.

Fran and the others are still going to eat a huge amount of food even though they just ate their payment. Fran, Colbert, Lydia, Maia, and Judith all had several large plates of food in front of them.

It was said that famous chefs have prepared the dishes for the event and they all seemed to be delicious.

Fran asked me to do the same, so I'm serving a dish that I made too. It looks like it's already been completely taken care of, but what I cooked was a grilled fish sprinkled with curry powder. I tried to create a fish curry like appearance.

Few cooks were even having a heated discussion in front of my dishes.

Well, it seems that the next time we come here they will have more curry dishes with seafood.

「Fran-san, it's been a while」

「Fermus」

「Your cooking this time was also wonderful」

「Yours too, it was delicious」

The man who came to greet us was Fermus of the Dragon Restaurant. He looks as young as ever.

He may be many times older than Fran, but to her, he is like a skilled, strong, and kind grandpa who can make delicious food. The conversation between Fran and Fermus goes suitably lively.

It's amazing that Fermus is able to have a good conversation, even if it's with the quiet Fran.

「Fermus-san, congratulations on your victory」

「It was all thanks to this new dish called curry」

Colbert then joined us and we started talking about today's stalls.

「Were you recruited by a nobleman to become their cook?」

「Hahaha! I don't have any plans for that at the moment. I like to serve a lot of people, and I know I'll be doing something other than cooking there」

「I see, Fermus-san surely will be more active in the battlefield if you work there」

Many of the cooks participating in this contest are said to dream of winning and becoming a nobleman's servant, but Fermus apparently turned them all down.

After all, the nobleman would rather have Fermus do something other than cooking rather than keeping him around in their kitchen. This is the reason why he is so insistent on being a city cook.

In the first place, honor and wealth are probably not worth much to Fermus now.

「By the way, there was a woman who looked pretty strong, how was that one?」

「The woman with red hair」

「Yeah, that one. It was the first time in a long time that I didn't want to fight someone who gave off the vibe of a strong person. It might have been since the time I met Fran」

「She was strong」

「Yeah, without a doubt」

Fran and Fermus seemed to be agreeing on this.

「I didn't get to see her as I was away for a break though」

「She is a tall woman with red hair tied in zanbara. Her clothes were kinda unusual. She also stared at me with her reddish-brown eyes」

(TLN: Zanbara, dishevelled hair that is too short to be tied up in a top knot)

You remember that much? As expected of Fermus, all I could remember was her strength and red hair.

「It might be easier to describe her as a yakuza rather than a wild person. The kind of person who is able to tame their inner savagery with instinct and intelligence」

That may be true. That woman's attitude was definitely on purpose.

It wasn't that she got excited at the sight of a strong opponent and became hostile, but that she had been giving off a disturbing vibe from the start to see how we would react. I don't know why, but she might have been judging Fran.

There was a whiff of a battle junkie in the air too, but maybe she just wanted to know what Fran was capable of. Even so, she backed off surprisingly easily in the end, which is different from a mere battle junkie.

「The man I met with was quite something too」

「...There's someone like that?」

Well, Fran was focused on the woman at that moment. And the other one was certainly less conspicuous than the red-haired woman.

「Yeah. A brawny man with blond hair tied back in a bun, about a head taller than the woman. He had good muscle mass. He doesn't wear much but that was definitely the body of a warrior」

「Hee~」

「I wonder if I could call it a grin, but he was smiling out of the corner of his mouth the whole time. He seemed to be the type of guy that would be popular with ladies」

「He's strong?」

「To a certain extent. Not as much as the woman though. However, his expression didn't change at all even after being exposed to the presence of that woman, he seems to be a rather daring one. I guess he will be a troublesome opponent if it turns into a fight」

「Hohou~」

Fran was also interested in the man after hearing Fermus' evaluation. She crossed her arms and started to grumble, trying to remember the man somehow.

However, it seems that nothing came up in her mind.

She's the type that could even forget someone whom she had talked with a few times before after all, I don't think there is any way she can remember this one guy.

(Master, you remember?)

『Yeah, I remember what he looked like too. I'll tell you the next time we saw him』

(Nn, please)

Still, it seems that neither Fermus nor Colbert know the identity of that woman.

「Colbert, you don't know this man?」

「Yeah. I didn't pay much attention to him, but he's got a pretty distinguished look, doesn't he? I don't remember any adventurers that looked like him from around here」

If Colbert doesn't know, then he's probably not an adventurer who is active in Barbra.

「She's probably not an adventurer from this town either. After all, how could such a skilled woman not become the talk of the town yet, right?」

「I see」

「Well, it's that time of year, so maybe they're adventurers from abroad. After all, the route from Barbra to Ulmut was the most popular route for people from abroad」

Tourists who come to Barbra may also want to see the famous Ulmut martial arts tournament. On the other hand, the participants of the tournament often stop by Barbra while they were in Kranzel.

「It's not uncommon for foreign adventurers to want to associate with renowned adventurers too」

「Is that so?」

「Now that you mention it...」

Well, it's an adventurer we're talking about, they're known to have a lot of trouble makers.

「Besides, it's only natural that they would come to see Fran and me, the previous year's finalists, right?」

「Nn. Certainly」

Does this mean that woman is going to take in this year's martial arts tournament? It looks like a strong opponent has appeared.