Chapter 270: Stuck with Liquor Lovers the Whole Night Looonnnggg
Translated by Zzonkedd
Edited by Gumihou and Onionpi
Please read this at kitchennovel dot com
Eguchi Ren: There are all kinds of liquor here and we ended up with a very long chapter…
“Excellent, now that those goddesses are gone, let us get started.”
“That’s right, that’s right, let’s start.”
“Yes, yes,” I clicked on the option for Tanaka’s Liquor Store and… wow, as expected of a proper liquor store, from the tabs alone, I could see the products separated into Beer, Wine, Sparkling Wine, Whiskey, Brandy, Spirits [9], Liqueur [10], Shochu, Sake and Others. [5] [8] “Can you see the menu here?” I asked.
[8] “Woah, that’s just different categories of alcohol?!” there was awe in Hephaestus-sama’s voice. [5]There are actually more, but let’s not mention this for now. “Please calm down and look at the menu slowly. There should be more than a hundred brands of alcohol under each category.” [6] I might as well let them get used to this idea first. [5] Although, I must say that this shop seems to specialise in western type alcohol, considering that 7 out of 9 categories are typically considered ‘western style’ alcohol. [5]
“…m-more than a hundred? You’re saying there are more than 100 types of whiskeys?”
“Yes,” [7] I said in my most normal and business-like tone.
“Uwoooohhhhh!!!!!”
[6] I had to shake my head to get rid of the shout ringing in my head. Yes, yes, I get that you’re very happy, but please calm down.“We did it, God of War!”
“We hit the mother lode, God of Blacksmith!”
“Liquor and alcohol! We can taste hundreds of different types of other world alcohol!!”
“Yes! Yes! Up till now nearly everything had been delicious. However, there might even be more delicious alcohol out there!”
[5] “Excuse me, I’m sure everyone is very excited. However, please be reminded that your budget is 1 gold coin per week per person,” I said with my best professional smile. [6] I feel like a sweetshop cashier with teenage boys clutching 1,000 yen to their chest. [5]“Ah,”
“Oh yes, there’s that.” [5] [6] “Thank you,” I said firmly.
[8] “If that’s the case… hmm, we already had beer, wine, whiskey and brandy-” [8] “-and sake,” [8] “And sake, so I guess we should try types of liquor we haven’t had yet.”“I see, hold on, let me explain a little,” I’m a typical beer drinker who isn’t familiar with other kinds of alcohol at all. Luckily, the explanation for each type of alcohol was included in the tabs. So…
“Sparkling wine is an effervescent wine with a crisp taste. Spirits is distilled liquors with high alcohol content. Vodka, for example, is a type of spirit, so are Gin, Tequila and Rum. Liqueur is spirits flavoured with herbs, fruits and often very sweet. Shochu is a type of distilled liquor made from rice, but it could also be made from wheat or potatoes.”
“Hmm, what about that last one? The ‘Others’?”
My, my, Vahagn-sama has really sharp eyes.
I can’t really tell, so I clicked the ‘Others’ open and have a look.
“Hmm, under ‘Others’ we have Shaoxing Wine from a country called China and Makgeolli [11] from Korea. These are pretty famous traditional wines from their respective country,” I said thoughtfully.
“Is that so? Are there over 100 types of each as well?”
“Well,” I scrolled down the list and found myself getting a bit dizzy at the number of choices. That’s a lot!
[8] I quickly switched over to open the tab for ‘Whiskey’. “Ahem, why don’t we look at whiskeys first?” to my surprise, the single tab cascaded into five different options: Scotch, Irish, American, Canadian and Domestic. [1] “Since it’s been divided into places of origin, why don’t we take it from the top?” without waiting for the gods to answer, I confidently clicked ‘Scotch’ and this time, the tab cascaded into: Highland, Speyside, Roland, Islay, Campbeltown and Island. [6] … whaaaatttt… [8] I vaguely remember that Highland? Or was that Speyside? Has a distillery. Nevertheless, I continued to speak in my serene, polite sir-let-me-show-you-our-products voice, “The country further subdivided into region. Scotch Whiskey could taste different depending on which region it came from. Now, let us see what ‘Highland’ has to offer.”This time, a list of whiskeys spread across the screen, showing their clear amber liquid suspended inside elegant slim bottles.
“Uwooohhh…”
Their exclamation was rather hushed, almost reverent.
“Ahem, these are some of the selections that could be found here.”
.………
…….
…
[8] “Hello? Is something wrong?”“Ah, ahem, no, nothing. It’s just… so mesmerizing…”
[8] “All those whiskeys…”Well, I guess if you’re that into liquors, it’s probably an incredible sight.
“Well, what will it be?”
“All of them! Ah, but our budget…”
“Yes, the budget is 1 gold coin per week. Unfortunately, that is the limit,” personally, I’m glad for the limit. Otherwise… [5]
“Hmm, it’s not like we can ask you to increase it, those four stupid goddesses will probably make trouble for us,” Vahagn-sama’s voice sulked into my head.
“… …” I did not hear that.
“God of War, a council!”
“Yes, we must have council!”
The two began whispering to each other. [5] I sat back and closed my eyes. I don’t care about whatever decision they make as long as they make it quick. Meanwhile, I’m going to take a short snooze…
Still, their whisperings buzzed in my ears like annoying mosquitoes.
“…that one…”
“… what? But we must….”
“…surely…”
“…yes…”
“…kun…”
“…er-KUN!”
My head jerked and I snorted.
“Wha-”
“Oi! What’s this? How dare you fall asleep!”
“Oi! Get up, you!”
[5] [6] I blinked my eyes against the glare of the [Net Super] while two voices continued to yell at me.I sat up, still more than half asleep, “I’m awake, I’m awake,”
“Humph, maa, whatever. After our council, we have decided. We want something above the Best Whiskey in the World.” [5] [5] [8] “Sure,” I couldn’t care less what they wanted. I’m just happy they have made up their minds. Right, let’s look up the World’s Best Single Malt Whiskeys first. That’s always a good place to start.
Let’s see:
World’s Best Single Malt 5 Silver
World’s Best Single Malt (12 Years) 1 Gold 2 Silver
World’s Best Single Malt (18 Years) 4 Gold 2 Silver
[5]I scrolled further down out of morbid curiosity and saw this:
World’s Best Single Malt (25 Years) 32 Gold
[8] “… Hephaestus-sama, Vahagn-sama, are you seeing this?” [8] “Wh-what are those prices?” [6] The voice was so high pitched I couldn’t tell which god was speaking.
“Well, it is said that whiskey gets better the longer it is aged. That’s why the prices go up accordingly.”
“…crazy,”
“That kind of price…”
“…for liquor?”
“Surely… since it’s up there for sale, someone has to be buying it?”
“I wonder…”
“…what it tasted like…”
Gulp.
I had better stop that dangerous train of thought.
“Ahem, with your current budget, if you pool your money together, you can get the 12-year-old Single Malt Whiskey. Well, what will it be?”
“Gunununu, God of War, a council!”
“A council!”
[6] Meanwhile, I entertained myself by reading the descriptions describing the deliciousness of these crazily expensive whiskeys. [5] 10 minutes later…“Oi, it is unfortunate, but I’m afraid we shall have to pass up the expensive whiskey this time.”
“Such a shame, but since you just got this liquor tenant, we should enjoy many other types of whiskeys…”
Both sounded very bitter, but I applauded them for their practicality. The prices of these old Japanese Single Malt Whiskeys are just too incredible.
This single bottle is $16,999.99 or 1,850,000 Yen at dekanta.com. In fact, [Net Super]’s price of 32 gold = 320,000 yen is a super bargain!
https://dekanta.com/store/yamazaki-25-years-old/
“We’ll choose a few from the whiskey list,”
[8] [5] Ah, good. However, I’m not very familiar with whiskeys… wait, I just noticed something that had appeared among the tabs showing Beer, Wine, Sparkling Wine [5] etc was a tab called ‘Manager’s Rec’. [6] When I tapped on ‘Manager’s Rec’ it bloomed into ‘Manager’s Recommended Gifts’.Below this page were the Beer, Wine, Sparkling Wine [5] etc tabs. This ‘Manager’s Rec’ also has option for ‘gifts’. If you specify the item as a ‘gift’ it will be gift wrapped for free.
It certainly sounded convenient. Especially if you’re a noob buying liquors for people who knows their Shochu from their Sake.
There’s even a ranking system!
Nice.
I tapped on that and immediately it cascaded to show the ‘Best-sellers’ of the day, week and month for different categories of drinks.
Very, very nice.
[8] “Hephaestus-sama, Vahagn-sama, I believe it’s best to choose from this list. These are the drinks recommended by the manager and shows the best type of drinks according to their category.”“Oh? A recommendation?”
“Oh, are those the ones recommended by the manager?”
There were five recommended whiskeys.
[Manager’s Rec 1]
Speyside Single Malt Whiskey
Bestselling whiskey from Scotland
Great beginner drink with its fruity aroma and aromatic flavours. A great gift for lovers of whiskies.
Price: 3 Silver
*This whiskey is completely fictional (probably)
[Manager’s Rec 2]
Single Malt Whiskey
Also known as ‘Queen of Islay’
Features a smoky flavour with the subtle notes of lemons and honey. Sweet, rich and balanced. Best introductory drink amongst the other products of Islay.
Price: 3 Silver 8 Bronze
[Manager’s Rec 3]
Blended Whiskey
Prince of Scotch
Characterizes by its nutty vanilla flavours and carries notes of ripe apples and honey. Mellow and gentle. Comes in 1 litre bottle, great for the friend who loves alcohol.
Price: 3 Silver 2 Bronze
[Manager’s Rec 4]
American Premium
Most famous Tennessee Whiskey in the world
Mellow with a well-balanced notes of vanilla and caramel. Very reasonably priced.
Price: 2 Silver
[Manager’s Rec 5]
Irish Whiskey
From the world’s oldest distillery in Northern Ireland
Irish Whiskies are characterised by their smooth texture achieved from multiple distillation processes. This one carries notes of malt and sherry from the original cask.
Price: 2 Silver
Hmm, Manager’s Rec seemed to contain a lot of ‘introductory drinks’ [12]. Well, if they are meant to be gifts, I supposed it’s best to get something that would please a bigger crowd and not those ‘special items’. The prices were very reasonable too.
I’ve heard that there are some whiskies that smelled a lot like Seirogan [13]. Only people who liked this particular type of whiskey would be happy if you gift this kind of thing to them. Oh, and it looks like the Manager’s Rec is updated every month. Nice. [5]
“Uhmm,”
“Hmmm,”
“Umu, we’re getting all five. What do you think, God of War?”
“Hmm, since the shop manager itself recommends it…” [5]
“Then, would that be all five bottles each?” I prompted.
“Yes!”
“Excellent choice,” I praised. There’s still some budget left after taking all five whiskies, so I checked out something called ‘Daily Rec’ at the bottom of the page. I tapped it.
[Manager’s Recommendation of the Day]
Manager-san loves whiskey and enjoys sharing his drink of choice for the day.
Today’s drink is:
“Today, is a lovely day and it only gets better with a smooth and gentle whiskey with a hint of floral notes. Enjoy this wonderful whiskey slowly as you admire nature at its best.”
I stared, a little mesmerized by the sight of the beautiful 24 side cut bottle design. The glass was crystal clear with a gorgeous stopper.
Truly, great example of Japanese craftsmanship.
It cost 5 silver coins.
“It’s a bit expensive, but it sure looks good,” someone sighed.
“A whiskey that’s meant to be enjoyed slowly…”
I decided to use my trump card.
“By the way,” I said casually. “This whiskey is made by the same company that made that ‘World’s Best Whiskey’ you like so much.”
“Whaaatttt!!!”
“God of Smith! We must get this one! This one!”
“Umu, true. A company that makes the World’s Best Whiskey cannot make a bad whiskey!”
“This one!!”
Nice, in you go. As for the budget, “You have 1 silver coin each, what would you like to do with it?” [5]
There was some hurried whispering, but then Vahagn-sama said, “We’ll get a vodka, 2 silver coins worth.”
Vodka, eh?
I went to the ‘Spirits’ section and was a little loss until I found the option to sort the items by prices and scrolled until I reached the 1 silver coin section.
Nice.
I stopped at one promising item:
Poland’s pride [14].
A friend of mine told me that this vodka is made from herbs, dried fruits and other stuff that gave it a delicious scent similar to sakura mochi. It also has a mellow taste and cost only 1 silver coin so I got two of them.
Finally, I checked out the items and sent them off to the gods.
“Please accept my offering, Hephaestus-sama and Vahagn-sama,”
A cheer went off in my head.
Haaahh, it’s finally over. I turned off [Net Super] and was about to go and sleep when voices shouted. “Hold it!”
… what now…?
Please let me sleep.
“For the sake of future purchases, we would like to know what else is on the recommendation list.”
“Yes, yes, and the price ranking, that’s very important.”
You-!!
I was on the verge of shouting, but I was just too tired.
“Please, I’ve just gotten out of a Dungeon Challenge, can’t you just let me sleep?”
“Umu, I guess…”
[8] “… tch, this guy doesn’t know how to appreciate things. Anyway, at least let us look at the page for the Best Seller product,” [8] “Oh, that’s a good idea,”Tiredly, I called up [Net Super] again and set it onto the page where the Best Seller for the day, week and month were set.
Then, I lie down as the sounds of bottles rattling echoed in my head interspersed with dialogue and the occasional ‘pop’. Whatever, I don’t care anymore.
“It’s so wonderful to look at different kinds of liquor while enjoying some, yes?”
“Hmm, the ultimate pleasure…”
“I say, this green bottle whiskey is delicious. As expected from the manager,”
“Umu, nice and mellow, fruity but also complex…
“Let’s drink all night, God of Smith!”
“Let’s!”
I wonder how long I can sleep before Fer and the others wake me up for breakfast…
[Gumihou: Gumi has actually cut out over 800 words, and maybe added 400 back… For some reason, Mukouda suddenly couldn’t ‘show’ the details on Net Super to the Gods and had to read everything out, making everything extra loooonnnggg…]
[1] Structural Change: Combine 2 paragraphs [2] Structural Change: Combine 3 paragraphs [3] Structural Change: Combine paragraph & dialogue [4] Structural Change: Change passive sentence to dialogue [5] Delete Repetitive or Pointless Information [6] Additional Information for Aesthetic Purpose [7] Add Dialogue Tag [8] Creative Licence Taken [9] Definition of ‘Spirits’: Also known as ‘liquor’ is a type of alcoholic drink, whether grains, fruits or vegetables, that have already gone through alcoholic fermentation. Considered a ‘hard drink.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquor
[10] Liqueur: Not to be mistaken with ‘liquor’: Is ‘spirits’ + flavourings, generally sugar, fruits, herbs spices and is typically heavily sweetened and unaged. [11] Makgeolli – a type of fermented rice wine. Milky and often a little fizzy with a complex profile. Could be sweet, sour, even slightly bitter taste.https://kimchimari.com/makgeolli-korean-rice-wine-what-how-to/
[12] Introductory Whiskeys: I do believe a lot came from this linkhttps://www.liquor.com/best-scotch-for-beginners-5115466
[13] Seirogan – Famous medicine for diarrhoea in Japan…
https://japan-lover.com/life-culture/daily-necessity/seirogan/
[14] Polish herbal vodkashttps://www.deliciouspoland.com/blog/5-must-try-polish-vodkas
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all those alcohol talk made me remember that one hard bound book i bought when i was in univ! where was it now?! it was all about the 7 spirits ya see. *sigh*
“Tch, this guy doesn’t know how to appreciate things”. Excuse you? Pot calling the kettle black! You idiot gods and goddesses don’t appreciate Mukoda (except for Ruka, the water goddess, she’s cute). So damn annoying…you gave him a skill without his knowledge/permission…I want to smack these damn gods.
So this chapter required a lot more editing than usual. Maybe it’s a JP thing, but I’m not knowledgeable enough. Anyway, then drunkards keeping the seller from sleeping, when the main job of the seller (Mukoda) is cooking. Poor Mukoda.
Thanks for the second chapter today! Awesome translation! May God bless you!
It needed a lot more editing. Eguchi-san committed a continuity error sin for word count (probably).
Also, the formatting for the liquor has been redone to mimic what you’ll see in shopping sites and not the read out loud version. Because Gumi do not want you guys to go all squinty eye looking for details.
Understandable. It may be that this far, 270 chapter in the story, even the author ran into a trouble due to his own writing.
Everything probably made sense in his head, but not so much when typed out.
There’s one thing I don’t understand. These gods are probably rich, right? They get offerings, they have churches… They’ve been around since forever… Not to mention one is a smith.
What’s stopping them from giving Mukouda money so he can buy these things for them?
Maybe there’s rules the gods have to follow?
Can only receive offerings, can give blessing but not money?
Has something been mentioned somewhere and I already forgot?
And one thing I forgot to mention…
I find kishar (is it kishar? The beauty addicted) attitude so rich. Correct me if I’m wrong, for I may not remember. But wasn’t the whiskeyholic duo that gave Mukouda the absolute defense and double exp? And hatched the plan to level him faster to get the new tenant store?
If so, who is she to demand a beauty/drug store? Oo
Get in line!
The deities have churches and altars, but Mukouda hasn’t been traveling to them to collect funds. I assume the author just wants to avoid writing more interactions with Agni, Hephaestus, Kishar, Ninril, Ruka, and Vahagn were reined in on their escalating and threatening demands by the superior Creation god. It reduced to be much smaller than one gold, but the author had Mukouda relent and increase it to one gold. My guess is the author felt pressured to write creatively about adventuring or fighting, so he increased the amount to one gold so that more food and drink items could be ordered. With a lot of items, only a superficial chat about the items for each deity is enough to fill up a whole chapter.
As for getting in line, Kishar and the other goddesses were there first. Mukouda had the blessings distributed to his familiars, so in that sense he did receive divine help from Kishar.
But didn’t they give him the holy stamp? They can give items. And I’m not saying he would actually sell it (just no), but that thing alone is better than a so claimed invaluable artefact from the church (that seems more like a scam compared to theirs, so…)
Just giving him another slightly worse stamp is probably enough to get mukouda even more filthy/broken rich
And provide them his whole life of access to best whiskey ever
I think you’ve nailed it when you said the author doesn’t want to deal with it/for it to get longer. And is focusing on mukouda pt rather than the gods.
Plus it sorta opens a can of worms I guess?
I mean, you’d really have to research about world’s best drinks. Something probably not us or the author will ever have a chance to taste I guess?
Better fantasy meat that I’ll never taste cause it doesn’t exist, than say, a bottle of wine/whiskey I won’t ever either, but because a single bottle costs idk how many millions.
(Btw to who likes drinks etc, there’s a movie/documentary I recommend. I might be wrong but I think the name is sour grapes. It’s basically the Catch me if you can of gastronomy/sommeliers. It’s about a guy who made was it 70 millions? Anyway, millions selling counterfeit wine. And it’s an actual story)
About kishar I’ll still have to disagree. First was ninril and the help they provided was in exchange to the goodies. It’s like, equivalent exchange/done and over it. And even 1rst useless goddess wasn’t meddling on this.
Oth, the duo went out of their way to give him double exp AND the stamp. That’s like, another level/a new thing entirely. It’s a new transaction. And they did this to get the alcohol tenant store.
After all of this to go, screw you two, I-KISHAR-SAMA am going to get the drugstore when she didn’t do anything more, is kinda… You know 😕
At least imo.
As counterfeit alcohols go, China manufactures those and sells them even in the USA. They even counterfeit P&G products such as toothpaste and Bounty paper towels. Some people found the copycat Bounty Duratowels on Amazon which fell apart fast unlike the real ones. Why? Some people used duratowels as their much much much cheaper “Swiffer” refill. Some USA franchise shops have even discovered they have look-alike shops in China when none were authorized… This youtube shows some of the fake wine, copycat wine, and fake liquor being made in China. I, but not all people, consider there to be a difference between fake and copycat food products. Fake means they might do anything and have impure or adulterated content such as food products containing chemicals to fool product testing while copyright products at least try to make an inferior product and pass it off as the true product.
.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YK4CSa2r8Vc
It’s not about the money, Mukouda rakes in millions every time his familiars go hunting, he set the limit to stop them from bickering and annoying him all night like this, but since the goddesses were checked out first he shot himself in the foot this time.
I think it’s also because of the ‘creation god’ (was that it?) I think it said somewhere along the lines that if they got too involved with the humans or the higher god noticed something they would get punished or something? So the gods doesn’t want to gain the creation god’s attention, the holy stamp was pushing it if I remember correctly them saying ‘since we’re not giving him holy powers directly it should be fine, right?’
There was no consultation when the Double Exp was given to Mukouda. It’s not entirely clear but I think Absolute Defence came from the goddesses. Probably Ninril since Fer has that ability as well.
From the way she’s concerned about her looks, it may indicate that she’s probably a senior (in age).
I’ve always hated the earth goddess, she’s on par with the wind one in my book
Thanks for the treat.
Managers #5 is Jameson Irish whiskey
That’s my regular go to, but disappointed no Canadian on the list..
Forty Creek Confederation Oak Reserve Whisky is nice.
Woah! It’s fun when we manage to track down the real liquor
we hit the mother load —> we hit the mother lode
This phrase comes from the time that miners were very lucky to find the major vein of ore instead of an offshoot small branch deposit.
Oooh, it makes sense! Also, there’s a God of Blacksmith so got to make sure it’s correct. He’s not a miner, but eh.