Chương 135: They Sell Food Here Too

Inside the city gate was a yard wider than the road. Carts had pulled up close to the wall and were being unloaded. Dust spread each time a sack came down to the ground. A demonkin carrying a large crate on his shoulder bent low at a doorway. When the horns on his head caught the doorframe, he turned his head sideways and went in. Across from them, a woman with four arms was opening a shop's shutter doors while carrying two baskets at once. While her lower two hands held the door up, her upper two worked the latch.

Kichan slowed his steps.

"Is something wrong?" Riphiel asked.

"No. Nothing." Laundry hung on the roofs. He had expected only armor and weapons, but small clothes and large sheets flapped together between the windows. In front of a door on the lower floor, two children with short horns were rolling pieces of wood. One piece rolled out into the middle of the road. A goods cart came closer. Kichan flicked the piece of wood with his toe and sent it back toward the child. The child hugged it to his chest and looked up. One tusk stuck a little past his lip.

"Do not play in the middle of the road." The woman inside the shop shouted. The child backed two steps away from Kichan and ran inside the door. The cart wheel passed right behind him. Paul lifted the hem of his cassock. Riphiel kept a hand near his elbow and waited until the cart had passed completely.

"You can go now."

"I keep being in your debt."

"It is not a debt. It is an escort." Riphiel said that and stepped out onto the road first. The main road was rougher than it had looked from a distance. Two lines of ruts made by cart wheels ran down the center, with narrow channels on either side to carry water away. Planks and flat stones had been laid over the channels to make shop entrances. The buildings along the road had stone lower floors with wooden upper floors built on top. Bundles of dried plants, leather straps, and metal pots hung at every window.

Charcoal smoke rose from the narrow gaps between buildings. The Arena's outer wall stayed in view the whole way. From the gate it had looked almost directly in front of them, but after two alleys it had only grown slightly larger and was no closer. Argaon suddenly turned his head. Riphiel stopped at almost the same moment. Kichan took one more step between the two of them and looked back.

"What." Argaon did not answer and looked deeper into the alley. A savory smell drifted out. It was the smell of fat dripping onto a fire and burning. Under it was mixed the scent of roasted meat and something like unfamiliar leaves crushed together. Kichan breathed in through his nose too. He had not realized he was hungry, but the moment the smell reached him his stomach felt hollow. Argaon took two steps into the alley.

"The Arena is that way." Paul pointed to the end of the main road.

"I know."

"Then where are you going?"

"Where the smell is." Argaon was already rounding the corner. Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. Riphiel followed him. The ears inside her hood were tilted up a little. Kichan looked at Paul. Paul looked between the Arena and the alley.

"Are you not hungry, Father?"

"I ate far too well for two days." From inside the alley came the sound of meat being cut. It was the sound of a thick blade striking a wooden board. Paul put the rosary into his pocket.

"I suppose I could eat a little." None of the four said anything about eating, and they went into the alley together. When they rounded the corner, an eatery's door stood open. A long brazier sat in front of the door, with meat on black skewers turning slowly. Each time fat fell onto the charcoal below, a brief flame jumped up. Inside, the owner was cutting cooked meat on a wide wooden board and putting it into deep bowls. Argaon was standing right at the threshold.

The customer behind him could not get in and tapped his back.

"If you are going in, go in." Argaon stepped aside. Kichan pushed his back.

"Do not block the way." The eatery was deeper than it had looked from the road. Long benches without backs stood against the wall, and tables of differing heights filled the center. Large customers sat at low, wide tables, while smaller ones used high seats with footrests. The customers' weapons and tools were stuck into the floor at their feet or into slots in the wall. A market basket sat beside a large hammer, and a folded apron lay over a scabbard. The owner looked the four of them over.

"Four?"

"Yes."

"Sit wherever there is space." Kichan picked an empty table by the wall. He pulled out a chair so Paul could sit on the inside, then sat across from him. Riphiel and Argaon took the side with the best view of the meat. A short while later, four bowls came out. The roasted meat had been cut into pieces two knuckles long. The outside was charred black and the inside a deep brown. A little clear juice and fat had pooled at the bottom. Beside it came flat bread, finely chopped leaves, and a small bowl of dark sauce.

Argaon looked at the portion in front of him, then at the bowl of the customer beside him. At the next table the meat was piled up like a mountain.

"That one has more." The owner answered while cutting meat.

"That is his third."

"Then give me up to a third too."

"Eat the first one, then talk." Argaon picked up a fork. Riphiel examined the leaves scattered over the meat first. She picked one up with her fingers, smelled it, and touched it to the tip of her tongue.

"Do you know it?" Kichan asked.

"I do not."

"Then why eat it?"

"I can only know by eating it." Riphiel put the leaf into her mouth with the meat. She chewed twice and raised her eyebrows a little.

"The bitterness comes first, and a sweetness stays afterward." Kichan ate a piece of meat too. The outside was a little tough, but the inside was tender. The more he chewed, the more smoke and salty juice came out. When he put meat and leaves together on the flat bread and dipped it in the sauce, the taste changed. The sauce was sweet like fruit, and then at the end his tongue tingled. Kichan pushed the meat bowl toward Paul. Paul took it, tore the bread in half, and piled meat on it the way Kichan had.

"How is it?"

"Good."

"Better than Roman food?" Paul swallowed everything in his mouth before answering.

"Save that question for when we go back." Kichan laughed. The meat in Riphiel's bowl went down fast. At first she tested the leaves and the sauce alternately, but once she found a combination she liked she kept eating it the same way. Argaon received a second bowl. This time he compared his own against the other customer's third bowl.

"This one is smaller than his too."

"The bowls are the same size."

"The height of the meat is different." The owner looked at Argaon with the knife still in his hand.

"The speed of eating is different too." The customer beside him burst out laughing. Argaon glared at him and put one more piece of meat in his mouth. A roar came from outside the eatery. At first it was low, like distant thunder. A moment later a louder sound pushed in from the same direction. Metal cups hanging from the ceiling trembled slightly. Two customers lifted their bowls and drained the remaining broth at once.

"Sounds like it has started."

"They say the lower tier is worth watching this time." They gathered their weapons and went out. Kichan leaned his head out past the open door. The upper part of the Arena was visible from the end of the alley too. The flags above the outer wall were waving.

"Is that the Arena making that noise?"

"It is." The owner answered while slicing fresh meat. Kichan wiped the fat from the bottom of his bowl with the last piece of bread.

"Which way do we go?" The owner pointed with the tip of his knife toward the far end of the alley.

"Go out to the end and follow the crowd." Coins of different sizes and colors lay on the counter. The owner spread his fingers and named the price. Kichan understood the words, but he had no idea how that number connected to the sizes of the coins. He looked at each coin the owner pointed to, and none of them matched anything in his bag.

"We do not have local money." Argaon started to reach inside his clothes. Kichan opened his bag first. From among several small material pouches he took out one lump of gold. It was a lump with no clean shape. The owner took it, scratched it with a fingernail, and held it up to the light without bringing it near his teeth.

"Will this do?"

"More than enough." The owner put the gold in his palm and carried it behind the counter. A few coins changed hands, but Kichan could not tell which was worth how much. When the reckoning was done, the owner grinned.

"Next time, come with an empty stomach." Argaon turned at those words.

"There is still room left now." Kichan pushed his back and moved him out of the eatery.