Chapter 05 : Real Men Eat Spicy Food

*ding ding*

Shortly after the lady and her escort left, the bell at the entrance to the store tinkled.

"Hello, Mr. Lloyd !" A tanned and athletic young man in a white tank top greeted Lloyd cheerfully.

Lloyd looked up and was momentarily stunned to see this fellow here.

"Little Adam ?! Your dad told me you left the capital to enroll in a Knight Order, I didn't expect to see you anytime soon !"

"Ah... Yes, well... I have failed the admission test..." The young man lowered his head with a seemingly embarrassed look.

Lloyd didn't notice at first, but this young customer of his has lost a few kg since the last time he saw him. He also had black circles under his eyes.

Lloyd sympathized with the young man. After all, he had also gone through the anxiety and lack of sleep associated with an entrance exam in his previous life.

Of course, Lloyd knew that enrolling in a university or finding a job on modern Earth was nothing like joining a Knight Order on Lunaris. However, although different, the preparation was probably just as difficult.

To this day, Lloyd still had nightmares about the long weeks he spent studying non-stop, without resting for a single day.

"Don't worry, failing the first time isn't the end of the world. You can always try again later." Lloyd comforted his young customer, a tinge of nostalgia in his eyes.

Somehow, Adam felt like the store owner understood very well the pain a trainee goes through during the admission tests.

'It's as if he already experienced something similar a long time ago... He seems a bit too young to be a retired knight, though...'

As Adam sat on one of the barstools in front of the counter, Blackie approached and welcomed him.

"Woof! Woof!" The Thaumiel-class Cerberus rubbed its heads on the young customer's legs ; he was happy to see him.

"I'd always be surprised to see Blackie acting so friendly when he's around you. He really likes you a lot."

Lloyd smiled softly as he observed his chubby dog showing a rarely seen tenderness to the young man.

Blackie was usually very wary and sometimes even aggressive toward his clients, but for some reason, Adam was an exception. Blackie has always been kind toward him.

"Hellooo Blackie !! Haha, that's a goood boy !!" Adam seemed genuinely pleased to see Blackie. He scratched the dogs' heads with a joyous face.

"By the way, Mr. Lloyd, I just walked past a stunning lady and her escort leaving your shop. Is she a customer, or perhaps..."

The young man winked at the store owner with a smug -well-played bro!- expression printed on his face, but Lloyd cut short his delusion.

"It's not what you think, you little grunt...! She's neither a customer nor someone I have been private with. To be honest with you, it's the first time I've seen this lady stroll in the neighborhood."

Lloyd noticed a slight twitch in the young man's eyebrow, but he just thought that it was normal for a boy his age to think about this kind of thing.

However, contrary to what Lloyd assumed, the young man wasn't thinking at all about improper things.

'It seems that Mr. Lloyd is telling the truth, and I doubt he would be related to those bastards anyway. The problem is... now that they know about his store, they will most likely become a nuisance for him and the other customers...'

Noticing that something was weighing on Adam's mind, Lloyd clapped his hands and changed the subject.

"Actually, it's a good thing that you came today. I promised your dad that the next time I visit him, I would bring him a specialty from my hometown."

Adam's father was running a butcher shop that specialized in organic meat a few blocks away from the pet store. It was one of the few stores Lloyd regularly visited the rare times he went outside to go shopping.

As Lloyd rummaged behind his counter to find what he was looking for, Adam was looking at him curiously.

'I always wondered, what the hell is hidden behind this counter...? Is it enchanted with space magic, or is there a storage artifact maybe...?'

He often witnessed the store owner pull out unknown items from behind his counter, which always aroused his curiosity.

"Ah, finally !" After searching for a minute, Lloyd took out a little box made of plastic.

Adam was used to seeing the store owner taking out strange items from behind his counter, but once again, Lloyd surprised him with something he's never seen before.

"What is this, Mr. Lloyd...?"

"This little box is priceless... This, my friend, is life !!" Lloyd exclaimed in an overly dramatic manner.

"Life ?!" The young man glared at the store owner with folded eyes, not convinced by his poor acting skill.

"cough... You have to try it first to understand. Wait me here for a second."

Lloyd swiftly got up from his seat and went upstairs, before returning with a porcelain plate filled with cold pieces of fried chicken.

"Usually, people from where I come from mix Gochujang with other ingredients and use it in a sauce or a soup, but my father used to eat it raw with cold meat. I guess I took the same habit, haha."

Lloyd placed the plate with the leftovers from yesterday's dinner on the counter and opened the box.

Adam's senses were a hundredfold more developed than a regular human's. Therefore, as soon as Lloyd lifted the lid, his nose itched and his eyes got watery.

'Urgh!... W-What the hell is that !?' Adam was astounded.

Whatever was within the box radiated a very unpleasant aura, especially for his bestial senses. It felt like a kind of concentrated fire-type energy, but Adam couldn't detect any trace of mana.

Never before in his life had he seen an object devoid of mana emit such a potent energy.

"Haha, it sure has a strong smell. It's been a while since I last opened it, after all."

Adam watched the shop owner place a spoonful of the strange crimson-red paste within the box on a piece of fried chicken, before putting it in his mouth.

"Hmm..."

Lloyd savored this bite as if it was the most delicious delicacy he has ever eaten.

Adam would have thought this was a delicious seasoning after watching the store owner make such a delighted expression... if not for the hairs on his body instinctively rising as soon as he inhaled the air infused with the strong scent of red pepper.

'T-This... It's dangerous !' Adam felt uneasy.

His entire body was on high alert, and just looking at the store owner eating this strange paste made him sweat buckets of water.

While Adam was struggling to suppress the effects of this energy on his body, he noticed the store owner casually taking another bite.

He was stunned.

'Does even this level of energy not affect him at all...?'

Adam knew that despite looking like a plain and ordinary man, the store owner of this mysterious store was more than meets the eye. And yet, he was still surprised to see him not being affected in the slightest by the intense heat radiated from the red paste.

He knew that the carefree and nonchalant attitude of the store owner was just a facade, but he had no idea about the real capabilities of Lloyd.

Heck, he wasn't even sure if he was human.

Adam would not even be shocked if he learned that the store owner was a monster with a human-like appearance.

"I would never get tired of this taste..."

Meanwhile, Lloyd was chewing slowly, his eyes closed.

*Achooo!...Achaaa!...*

It only took a minute for the fragrance of red chili pepper to permeate the entire lobby, making both of Blackie's heads sneeze at the same time.

No matter how much Blackie rubbed them with its paws, he couldn't stop the spicy scent from entering its nostrils.

"Oh, my bad ! I forgot dogs have a sensible snout... Blackie, just leave the lobby if the smell bothers you."

As if the chubby dog understood what his master said, he lowly growled and went up the stairs.

"Mr. Lloyd, m-may I know what is this strange paste ?"

"It's called Gochujang. It's a local specialty from where I come from. I'll give you another box to bring to your father later, I'm sure he'll love it."

Lloyd genuinely thought that a box of Gochujang would be an ideal gift for the owner of a butcher shop, but Adam misunderstood his intentions.

'D-Does he have a grudge against us ?! I'm sure dad would pass out the second a drop of this red thing touch his tongue...'

Lloyd put a bit of paste on another piece of meat and fixed his young customer with his deep black eyes.

"Little Adam... Don't you want to try ?" He said, with a mischievous grin.

'Seeing his surprised reaction when I opened the box, I'm sure he has never tasted something so spicy. This could be entertaining, let's see how he reacts. Hehehe...'

Lloyd wanted to tease his young customer, but he had no idea that what was just common Korean food for him looked like a forbidden dish coming straight from hell to Adam's eyes.

"Huh ?! I would rather not, to be honest..."

Adam pushed his stool back a few inches from the counter and raised his hands with a pale face, as if Lloyd was aiming a gun at him.

'T-There is no fucking way I'll eat this !!' Adam thought, a drop of sweat running down his temple.

Loyd was surprised to see his young customer react so vividly.

"You want to join a Knight Order, but you're afraid of spicy food ?! Hahaha !" Lloyd burst out laughing, making fun of his young customer without an ounce of shame.

This time, Lloyd didn't have to be careful with his words since the young man in front of him wasn't a noble.

"..."

Adam's face was red from embarrassment.

'I never planned to join the Order of those retarded brutes anyway, but it's not like I can tell Mr. Lloyd the truth...'

Adam couldn't even argue with Lloyd without blowing off his cover.

"Little Adam... You won't die because you ate a piece of fried chicken, you know ? Pffft-" Lloyd laughed even harder.

He couldn't stop himself from teasing his young customer.

At that moment, Adam just wanted to hide inside a hole.

"Haha... Ha... Fine, I understand. Everyone has their own taste in food after all."

Lloyd wiped the tear -of laughter- from his eye, and put another box of Gochujang inside a plastic bag.

"At least bring this one to your father. Also, before I forget..."

Lloyd left his counter and rummaged in one of the two large shelves standing tall next to the front door.

He searched for a few second, before taking out a heavy silver-plated leash.

"I remember your dad complaining that you guys had trouble keeping your 'dogs' tied up. I don't know how big they are, but this kind of leash should do the job."

He handed over the chain, but Adam stood up from his stool and moved back.

"Mr. Lloyd, both me and my father are... allergic to silver."

Lloyd was dumbfounded.

'I always thought that silver was one of the most anti-allergenic material, is it different here...?'

Lloyd looked at the chain and smiled.

"Don't worry, this may look like silver, but it's not. The links of the chain are made of stainless steel."

"Stainless steel ?"

It was the first time Adam heard of this kind of metal.

"Oh, my bad. I forgot there is no stainless steel here..."

Lloyd thought for a moment, before muttering.

"Hm... I guess its equivalent would be Cold Steel then. I don't know if it shares the same properties though-"

"Wait, wait... By Cold Steel, do you mean the unique alloy that is only produced in a small dukedom far in the north ?!"

Adam was so shocked he suddenly stood up from his stool and cut off the store owner.

"Uh...? Yeah, I guess so..."

"It is said that when the first batches of Cold Steel came out on the market, blacksmiths from all over the continent went insane to buy the trade secret of this alloy. Even some of the best dwarven master blacksmiths showed interest..."

Adam couldn't believe the store owner had access to a similar metal.

Lloyd, however, didn't know that Cold Steel was so rare. He just thought it was the Lunaris equivalent of stainless steel from Earth.

"A customer of mine gifted me a longsword made of Cold Steel a while ago, but I didn't know it was so special. I guess I will have to thank him again the next time he visits the store, haha."

Lloyd casually pointed at the sheathed sword hanging on the wall behind him.

"A longsword entirely made of Cold Steel is quite expensive here, Mr. Lloyd. Since this alloy is only produced in a remote country far north in the outer continent and only the locals know how to forge it, it is quite rare to see pieces of equipment and weapons made of Cold Steel in Valora."

Adam looked at the sword hanging on the wall with envy.

While Cold Steel wasn't as expensive as rare alloys like andrium, orichalcum, or adamantite, it possessed a special feature that no other metal could imitate ; it couldn't be affected -nor infused- by any kind of Aura.

Therefore, a kid with a sharp knife made of Cold Steel could potentially assassinate a 4-stars blademaster during his sleep.

The invention of such a revolutionary alloy has sparked the same attention throughout the continent as when the first anti-magic artifacts, which could render a mage defenseless for a certain period of time, have been discovered.

Cold Steel weapons quickly established themselves as the standard for all swordsmen with 3-stars or fewer. It could save their life if they met a blademaster on the battlefield.

Of course, a single blade wouldn't be able to compensate for the huge gap between them and a 4-star blademaster who knew how to conjure Aura, but it would at least improve their chance of survival and allow them to fight back against a stronger opponent.

The last time Adam looked to buy a weapon made of Cold Steel, he couldn't find any even in the best auction houses of the capital city, Valora.

Later on, his dad informed him that the exports have been stopped for a while since the nations surrounding the Reinhardt Empire allied themselves and tried to invade the Dukedom of Vermillion, which was the only territory in the entire continent where Cold Steel was produced.

As Adam was contemplating the chain, Lloyd switched to the salesman mode and started selling his product.

"Anyway, this leash isn't made of silver so you shouldn't have any issue handling it, right ? Try touching it, and tell me if there is a problem. I can also replace it with a leash made of another material if needed, but it won't be as sturdy as this one...."

Adam looked at the heavy chain on the counter with a pensive look.

'If this has the same effect as Cold Steel... Then forget about a leash, we could just use it as a weapon instead...'

After thinking for a while with a serious expression, he finally decided to touch the leash with the tip of his finger.

"..."

"So ?"

Adam stood motionless for a whole minute, before removing his finger.

"Well, I didn't feel anything so far, so it should be alright."

"I use the same one for tying up Blackie during the night. He's often trying to get free from the chain, but so far he never managed to break it. Not even once."

Lloyd, still in salesman mode, smiled with a confident expression.

He waited patiently for Adam's next words...

"...How much is it ?"

...and as he predicted, the young boy fell for it and decided to buy the leash.

___

author nt. :

Gochujang is a very common ingredient in Korean cooking. It's a spicy red paste, made from red chile pepper flakes. I personally love it, it's very sweet and you can use it in many different ways : in a soy-based sauce, in the batter for fried chicken, or even diluted in a soup for noodles for example.

I could have used kimchi or kimbap instead as they are more famous (and cliché tbh) South Korean food for foreigners, but I thought gochujang would be better so those who never heard of it would google it, and maybe buy a lil box of it to try at home. :) If you like sweet but spicy food, you won't regret it.

Also, for those who have noticed, yes it's the same Cold Steel that comes from the Cold Iron ores mined in the Dukedom of Vermillion, from my other novel. ;) This little twist opens the door for a future crossover between Lloyd and Angelus, who knows...