The Tale of A Man Who Believed That His Reincarnation Had Granted Him A Japanese Sword And The Greatest Battle Sense, Only To Have The God Finally Inform Him "Huh, I Didn't Give You Any Combat Sense… That's Scary…" - Episode 22

Having received a wonderful allowance from Lyra-san, I was walking through the night streets of Redinbara in such a good mood that it felt like I could burst into sound effects. Thinking back, whenever I went out into the city, there was always someone like Lyra-san or Utsuho-san accompanying me, so this might be the first time I was walking through the city alone.

Edinburgh, with its series of grandly constructed buildings reminiscent of Gothic architecture, features buildings that are taller compared to those in Lancaster. Along the wide, spacious streets, four-story buildings line both sides.

Perhaps due to the influence of the swordsmanship tournament, even at night, people do not disappear from the streets, and various people walk through the streets, chatting and having fun. The streets are illuminated not only by street lamps but also by softly glowing stones embedded in the cobblestone paths and the grand buildings made of marble-like stones. These softly glowing stones emit a fantastical light, reminiscent of indirect lighting.

At night, Lainchester felt energetic and full of human desires, with a vibe of “Money! People! So many! Let’s make the most of it! Let’s make the most of it!” But this town has a more relaxed atmosphere. If I were to compare it to a city from my past life, I would say Redinbara feels a bit like Kyoto. Of course, there are many differences if you look closely, but it has that dignified, calming, welcoming atmosphere that I felt when I went

Blending in with the people walking down the street, I walk through the city without any particular destination, following the flow.

A pair of men with their arms around each other, completely drunk; a woman in a restaurant receiving a ring with a delighted expression; a girl on the street waving her arms to attract customers; adventurers clinking their mugs together in laughter and cheers—walking and observing the activities of this world.

One of the few hobbies I had before coming to this world was watching videos of people walking through streets in foreign countries on video-sharing sites. Watching these videos of people living somewhere else, not here, made me feel a sense of wonder, thinking, “Ah, so people in foreign countries live their lives in the same way too.”

It seems I really like watching the humble daily lives of people in places where I’m not involved. By the way, I also enjoyed videos of bartenders serving customers overseas and videos of people quietly building shelters in the forest.

“Eek! I dropped it! I dropped it! Oh no!”

As I was walking through the town, I suddenly heard a high-pitched girl’s voice. When I looked over, I saw a petite girl, barely 130 centimeters tall, holding a large paper bag that was about her height and looking flustered. Various bottles were scattered at her feet, and it seemed that a passerby had bumped into her without noticing and caused the contents of her bag to spill out.

“Are you okay? I’ll help you.”

Since I didn’t have any plans anyway, I decided to help pick them up. I quickly collected the bottles before they rolled too far, and for the ones that were about to be stepped on, I swiftly moved them with a quick motion, like a sword thrust, and managed to collect them before they broke.

“Thank you! Thank you! Stranger!”

As I returned the collected bottles to the bag the girl was holding, I got a close look at her. She was wearing a shirt with blue vertical stripes, a black vest, and a long black skirt. Her light blue hair was styled in twin tails, and somehow, her stature was that of a girl, but her outfit gave off a mature vibe.

“Yeah, it’s totally fine. I was just wandering around aimlessly.”

“Oh, really? Then, please come to our shop! Let me treat you to a drink as a thank you!”

“Is this a store?”

“Yes, that’s right! This way, this way! Please follow me!”

Carrying a paper bag as tall as herself, the girl hopped along from the main street to the back alley. Driven by a slight sense of unease and a greater curiosity, I followed her, and a shop with a solitary light appeared in the back alley.

Above the entrance door made of oak, there is a sign that reads “Jottem’s Great Hammer.” This is probably the name of the shop, but just the name doesn’t give any clue about what kind of shop it is. Who is Jottem?

“Darling, I’m home~! Listen, I dropped a bottle on my way back from the liquor store~”

The girl rang the doorbell with a tinkling sound and entered. Following her, I hesitantly stepped inside the store.

The interior is somewhat dimly lit and not very spacious, but it feels deep. In front of the dark brown wooden tables, there are several wooden stools lined up—wait, this place looks just like a bar! The dim lighting intentionally creating a moody atmosphere, this is definitely a bar! Is this how bars are in this world too…?

“Hey, welcome back. Luise, I should have gone to the liquor store after all.”

“Don’t worry about it, it’s fine, it’s fine. Oh, and you know, there was this kind kid who collected the rolling bottles for me, so I brought them along.”

When I looked towards the bar counter, a man in a white shirt and black vest, with a muscular build and a mustache, was working while snapping the suspenders of his slacks. A girl named Luise, appearing quite skilled, entered the bar counter, brought a step stool, and began sorting the bottles that were in a paper bag.

“Hey, hey, don’t let too many young people in here. Well, there’s already one person here, so it doesn’t really matter, does it?”

“Hehehehe! So much fun~! Poshake~! Poshake, bring me more~!”

By the way, at the back of the bar counter, there’s someone who perfectly fits the description of “sloppy” and is already dead drunk, sporting a typical drunken grin and laughing, “Uhyahyahyahya!” When I glance at the drunkard, they are dressed entirely in black, and if they were to stay in the corner of the bar counter, they would almost blend into the shadows.

“Hey, young one. Thank you for helping my wife. My name is Dantsu, nice to meet you.”

“Are you Mr. Dantsu? Nice to meet you. My name is Enri.”

“Enri? … Oh, Enri, huh? I see.”

The muscular macho man, Mr. Dantsu, snapped his suspenders again with a pop and had a somewhat satisfied expression on his face. “So, that Luise person is already of marriageable age… At first glance, she still looks like she could be carrying a school backpack.”

“Alright, Enri! The first round is on the house. From the second round on, you better pay up! And make sure to eat something too!”

I moved one seat away from the drunken man in all black and sat on a stool. Then, after finishing sorting the bottles, Luise, with practiced ease, took out two or three bottles filled with liquid from under the counter, put them into the shaker, and shook them with a satisfying sound.

After pouring the contents from the shaker into a fist-sized glass, she added the cut orange and mint-like leaves into the glass and quietly placed it in front of me.

“Here you go, Enri-chan! I wasn’t sure if you could handle alcohol, so I made you a drink with fruit juice for now.”

“Thank you very much. Luise-san, itadakimasu.”

Before picking up the glass to drink, I take a close look at the non-alcoholic cocktail that Luise made for me. The refreshing blue color reminiscent of Blue Hawaii, the creamy white color like milk, and the rich orange liquid are all mingling yet maintaining their distance from each other, creating a beautiful spread of three colors in the glass.

When I took a sip of the cocktail, the first thing I felt was a yogurt-like sourness and sweetness. It passed quickly, and then the flavor of orange and a refreshing sweetness like ramune spread throughout my mouth. Delicious. It’s not an exaggeration to say it’s the best drink I’ve tasted in this world so far.

“Hehe, Enri-chan, it’s so delicious it’ll make your eyes go white and black like a slime hit by fire magic!”

On the other side of the bar counter, Luise-san puffs up her chest proudly as she stands on the counter. No, seriously, it’s surprisingly delicious, just as the words say.

“Luisecchaaaaaan! Poshakeee! The strongest poshake, more chouraaaaaaai!!”

“Okay, okay, Lito-chan, I’m going to get the drinks now, so just wait a bit.”

The drunkard sitting next to me demands his next drink at a volume akin to a whale’s spout. Both Luise and Dantsu, accustomed to this, pour the drink into a glass and serve it to the drunkard.

“Hmmmmm~? Ohhh! It’s a cat I’ve never seen before, huh? Hehe, you’re making a cute face!”

From the shadows of the bar counter, a drunken figure clad in black emerged. With long hair that reached down to his back and slanted eyes, he had a mole under his right eye. He would probably be the cool and handsome type when sober, but right now, he was the smelly and disgraceful type.

Due to the effects of alcohol, his narrow eyes drooped lazily, and his expression was that of a regular drunkard at a rundown snack bar.

“Hey, hey, Lito. Don’t get too friendly with someone so young while drinking.”

“Ahhh~n, Dantsu-chan! Did you just call me an old lady!? I’m still only eighteen, you knowooooo!!!!”

“Sigh, this drunkard woman… Ah, sorry about that, Enri. Well, just drink without worrying.”

So this drunk person was a woman. I couldn’t tell at all because she was completely out of it. The drunkard, getting all worked up over a misheard word, downed the mug she got from Luise-san in one go, collapsed face-first onto the bar counter, and then started snoring right there. Hmm, drunks are terrifying even in this world.

After that, I had several of Luise’s special non-alcoholic cocktails. I drank cocktails with unique names like “Golden Honey Dedicated to the Late Queen,” “The Fourth Siege,” “Rubbit Hat,” and “Fairy’s Blush,” and they were all so delicious that I could say they were exquisite.

By the way, my favorite was a carbonated cocktail called “Rubbit Hat.” It’s a drink similar to cola in my past life, with a cola-flavored base enhanced by hints of lemon and yogurt. If it had been sold in my past life, I would have probably loved it.

“Luise, you’re really good at making cocktails, especially this non-alcoholic cocktail called ‘Rubbit Hat.’ I really love it.”

“Hehehe~, isn’t it nice, isn’t it nice! That’s a souvenir from when Grandpa was digging through the underground corridors.”

“An underground corridor…?”

As I was pondering over the unfamiliar word, Dantsu, who had been in the kitchen behind the bar counter, came back with a plate.

“What’s that, you don’t know about the underground corridor? …Ah, well, I guess it’s not surprising that the younger folks these days don’t know about it.”

“The underground corridors are these really ancient ruins located in the hometown of Luise and the other dwarves. The dwarves love to dig around there and find all sorts of rare things.”

Ah, I see, so Luise-san is a dwarf. Come to think of it, dwarves are those short but strong kind of people, right? There were dwarves in the mobile game I played in my previous life too.

Mr. Dantsu slammed a plate in front of me while I was enjoying my cocktail. On it was a dish that screamed “man food”: meat! rice! sauce! fish! Vegetables? No way!

“Today, that drunkard over there drank up most of the store’s stock, so it’s about time to close up shop. Seriously, to drink even the extra stock, does he have a wyvern living in his stomach or something?”

“That’s my treat. It’s a thank you for enjoying what my wife made. Go ahead and eat.”

“Is it okay? Thank you very much! I’ll be in Edinburgh for a while, so I’ll come again!”

While expressing my gratitude to Dantsu-san and Luise-san, I dig into Dantsu-san’s hearty meal with gusto… munch munch munch!!

If I were to compare it to a similar dish, it would be Turkish rice, but well, more than that, it wouldn’t be wrong to say it’s a bowl of meat and fish grilled with a delicious sauce, made just to fill the stomach of a single man living alone. When I take a bite, just like the cocktail, this one is also quite tasty.

From the reddish-brown sauce, you can tell that tomatoes and broccoli have been simmered down to the point of blending in, and the flavor has a depth with a hint of saltiness. This couple is just too good at cooking…!

“It’s about time to settle the bill. Enri-chan, do you have enough money?”

After being told that by Luise-san, I stuffed myself with Dantsu-san’s cooking until I was about 90% full, rubbed my swollen belly, and took out the pocket money I received from Lyra-san.

“Eh, a check!?”

Luise-san and Dantsu-san’s surprised words echoed in unison. Luise-san, looking flustered, hurried over to me and took the check with trembling hands.

“W-what should I do?! It’s a check, a check! Only the five major merchant families and wealthy adventurers use checks, darling! What should I do, should I inflate the price a bit?!”

“Y-you idiot! Louise, that’s not right! You have to write the usual fee properly! …But even if you add an extra zero… n-no, no!”

“Poshakee!! I can’t keep doing this without my drink! Ahahaha! …Suddenly, I feel sad, Poshakee!!”

In the end, the two of them looked like they had just sucked on a lemon as they wrote the regular price on the check. Leaving behind the drunkard who kept whining for more alcohol, I left my favorite bar that I had discovered on my own for the first time.

“Just because you can’t finish it unless you drink it all! Gya ha ha ha ha ha!”

Ignoring the drunken puns coming from behind.