"Could we borrow the kitchen for a bit? Just for dinner time!"
Tatsumi smiled brightly at the innkeeper, radiating sunshine.
"This isn't really about borrowing or not..."
The short-haired innkeeper looked hesitant.
Seeing the expression on his face, Tatsumi immediately understood.
After adding one more gold coin, the innkeeper's mood shifted entirely—his face bloomed like a spring chrysanthemum.
"Sure, go ahead and use it. You're leaving tomorrow anyway! Enjoy your meal! Haha!"
And just like that, Tatsumi secured temporary use of the inn's kitchen.
To be honest, one always had to stay cautious while traveling, especially in a country this unreliable.
After preparing the utensils, Tatsumi began working on the ingredients—his level 4 cooking skill was finally going to shine again.
With swift knife work and precise motions, leaves and slices flew through the air—clearly not something an amateur could pull off.
Our Tatsumi was only two words short of being called a "master chef."
Just as he was getting into it, someone knocked on the door.
Knock knock!
"Hm? Come in..."
Surprised by the sound, Tatsumi looked up and saw the innkeeper again.
"What's wrong, boss?"
"Oh... the salt and other seasonings were running out. A merchant was having a discount sale, so I restocked a bit..."
He wiped the sweat from his forehead as he set down a wooden crate.
"Man... these days, merchants offering discounts—it's like the sun rising from the west."
"That is strange..."
Tatsumi frowned slightly. In this country, honest merchants weren't impossible to find—but they were rare.
After sorting the spices into their jars and storing the extras, the innkeeper waved.
"Alright, I'll leave you to it. Call me when you're done so I can cook for the other guests."
"Got it, boss. Don't worry."
Once the man left, Tatsumi pulled out a jar of his own salt.
"Yeah... my own salt feels more trustworthy."
After seasoning the food, he put the jars back into his bag.
He'd brought everything from home—pots, pans, even knives. After all, a kitchen knife could kill pigs or people; a knife was still a knife.
While waiting for the stew to finish, Tatsumi glanced at the seasonings the innkeeper had brought.
Opening each jar one by one, he quickly noticed something wrong.
"These spices aren't right..."
Normally, salt came in different forms—refined, coarse—but there shouldn't be anything strange mixed in.
Yet in this salt, faint pinkish-white granules were mixed among the white crystals.
And not just in the salt—the other seasonings had them too. Something was definitely off.
"Drugs... poison maybe, or something else?"
After thinking it over, Tatsumi decided to find a test subject.
After telling the other two dinner was ready, he left the kitchen and walked out of the inn.
He carried a small jar containing the finished stew—seasoned with the questionable spices.
Walking along the street, he scanned around until he found a dark alley.
"There should be plenty of rats in shady spots like this... Let's try it on them."
---
My name is Shuke.
I'm a mouse—yes, the kind everyone wants to kill. But don't underestimate me. We fight hard to survive.
Even though we live in the big city, that just makes finding food even harder.
Especially in merchants' granaries—those are forbidden zones.
Just as I was lamenting another hungry night, an indescribable aroma drifted into my nose.
Just the smell alone made my brain tingle—it was heavenly. I almost lost control.
Even Beta, who slept like a dead pig, was lured awake by the scent.
That lazy fat mouse, usually useless, suddenly looked like he'd seen the mouse goddess herself.
"Brother! Food! I smell food! (Squeak squeak!)"
"No shit! I can smell it too! (Squeak squeak squeak squeak!)"
And so, the two of us ventured out of our hole.
What met our eyes was a large jar toppled on its side.
The closer we got, the stronger the smell became.
Leaping up, we climbed to the rim and stuck our heads in, devouring everything in sight.
Like two pigs starved for ten days, we feasted without restraint.
"Brother! This is amazing... food only a god could make! (Squeak squeak squeak!)"
Shuke praised between bites.
Beta nodded frantically.
"Yes, brother! I can see great-grandmother waving at us! (Squeak squeak!)"
"Great-grandmother? (Squeak?)"
Before he could finish wondering, both of them rolled over, eyes wide, and fainted.
Watching them collapse, Tatsumi wasn't surprised.
Walking into the alley, he knelt beside the two mice and examined them.
"They're still breathing... looks like they just fell asleep. So, a sleeping drug, huh..."
Thinking back, the innkeeper hadn't seemed malicious—his eyes were clear. Greedy, sure, but not evil.
That meant the problem lay with the merchant who sold those goods.
Adjusting his sword, Tatsumi headed toward the nearby market street.
Judging by that pale, jittery merchant's appearance, he probably wouldn't get far—and that made finding him easier.
The next day, when the two mice woke up, they found many of their friends passed out around them—one wearing suspenders, another a chef's hat, all lying belly-up.
The divine meal on the ground had already been completely devoured.
Furious, Shuke and Beta dragged out their toy helicopter and tank to teach their relatives a lesson.
From that day on, they scoured the city in search of that unforgettable flavor—but never found it again.
Eventually, they even wrote a story called The Peach Blossom Spring.
Of course, the above is entirely fictional. If any real mouse ever writes The Peach Blossom Spring, I'll gladly accept it.