Thief of Time

The inn was bubbling with chatter and sizzling sounds as Claud and Lily occupied a table at the corner. The chef was cooking in the open, and judging by how there weren’t any surprised people asking about it, this seemed like the norm.

“Open cooking?” Lily asked. “Anyone can steal secrets and secret recipes that way, though.”

“Well—”

“Chef, what’s in this shaker?” someone asked.

“Saffron,” the chef replied, without looking up. “Take a sniff if you like.”

Claud rubbed his eyes as the customer literally did just that, and then shook his head a few more times. “That can’t be hygienic, can it? And everyone’s like nonchalant about this. What’s going on?”

The two of them continued to observe for a few more seconds, before one of the nearby waiters, who was wearing a tight, reflective set of clothes, walked over.

“Sir, ma’am. What will you have?”

Claud looked at the menu and glanced at the customer who was sniffing, but before he could say anything, the waiter asked, “Are you two from the other continents?”

Claud pondered for three seconds, before deciding that there wasn’t much risk in divulging their origins. “How did you know?”

“It’s obvious. People from the other continents look at the chef in a weird manner,” the waiter replied. “Either they’re worried that someone might steal the chef’s recipes, or that they’re wondering why someone just took a whiff of the saffron or the chili powder.”

“That’s what we were thinking about, yes,” Lily added. “What’s with that?”

“All these ensure that the food cooked is not poisonous,” the waiter replied. “Or rather, if anything happens to the customers in these venues, the chef is not at fault. It is the onus of the customer to doubt and verify things of their own accord. That’s how it works in Nihal.”

Claud thought for a moment, before producing a silver piece. The waiter glanced at it once, and then said, “Grandis currency is…accepted in the outer cities, but you should exchange it for Nihal dollars as soon as possible. The exchange rate done in-house is not good.”

He promptly got the message, and then pulled out a few more silvers, before adding on some gold coins. “Well, if you can tell me more, I’ll buy more food here. We just got to Nihal after a very long and tiring journey” —Lily twitched— “and we are famished.”

“Oh, of course, of course. That is natural, really.” The waiter rubbed his hands. “Allow me to order for you.”

“Sure.” Claud exchanged glances with Lily. “Do bring out your best dishes for us two, thank you.”

The waiter grinned. “On it.”

“Maybe you can spare some time to introduce some…customs of Nihal too? You must be tired,” Claud added. “With so many customers around, why not take a rest and tell us about Nihal?”

“The boss doesn’t mind if you are buying a lot.”

“Oh, we are buying a lot.” Claud grinned at him. “Go ahead. Order for yourself too. We’re paying.”

The waiter rubbed his hands again, and then ran off. Before long, the chef began cooking with a redoubled effort, and the other patrons of the inn applauded as he began to show off the various ways in which one could toss up food and play with fire at the same time. Claud believed that one shouldn’t play with food, courtesy of his mother, but this was a whole different game entirely.

“Seems like money just opens a lot of doors, doesn’t it?” Lily asked, her eyes also following the food as they flew around in mid-air, tossed by energetic movements.

“Mhm. Well, that was easy. It seems that being a frontier city has its own perks,” Claud observed. “Do you have your anti-poison artefacts on you?”

Lily nodded. “They’re always on me.”

“Good.” Claud checked his own equipment, before looking out of the door. “It’s amazing how cultures diverge so wildly. For such a development of this level…there must have been multiple high-profile cases of poisonings or something.”

“And a gathering of chefs must have protested against rulings that targeted chefs,” Lily muttered.

“Oh?” Claud blinked a few times. “How did you come to that conclusion?”

“This habit is clearly protecting the chefs,” Lily replied. “After all, as you mentioned, there are definitely hygiene issues, right? But more crucially, the open way in which meals are prepared can mean that ether the chefs of Nihal are very blasé about their cooking secrets, or that there is a regulatory body with considerable influence that prevents recipes from being stolen.”

She closed her eyes for a moment. “Or rather, controls the dissemination of recipes. Maybe one must buy the right to produce a dish, or else they cannot sell them?”

“There’s such a thing?”

“It’s not impossible, at least.” Her eyes opened. “But all that is just interesting, right? We have more important things to do.”

“More important, true, but we can also see instances where the small things are the ones that truly mattered,” Claud replied.

“I know.” Lily’s nose twitched. “Oh, the waiter’s back…wow, that’s a lot.”

People stared at the waiter, and then at the two of them, as a cart laden with dishes stopped next to Claud. His stomach rumbled with a majesty that could probably rival that of the Moons preparing some lightning bolts, and Lily poked his stomach.

“Thunder of the five grand skies, eh?”

“Close enough.” Claud looked at the waiter, who had prepared a meal for himself too. “Did we buy enough to make your boss pleased?”

“Of course!” The waiter took a very deep breath. “Aaah. Don’t worry. I also observed the cooking process personally. Chef Felix handled your dishes with a level of care that I rarely see. It seems that the huge order got him fired up…of course, I hope you don’t mind me telling him that you two are from another continent.”

“No issue there, if it gets us your chef’s full ability.” Claud looked at the dishes. “Mind introducing these dishes? I’ve never seen such…noodles before.”

“Noodles? My dear man, these are pasta dishes. Noodles are made from common wheat; I assure you our pastas are made from the best durum flour. Savour the various pastas slowly, and you will feel a sublime harmony of rigidity and softness. Go ahead.”

Claud and Lily exchanged glances after their first spoonful of pasta, which had broken on first contact, only to reveal a firm core.

“Ufufu.” The waiter chuckled at their faces, and then began to introduce the other dishes. Some of them were self-explanatory, like the various grilled meats, while others required a bit more elaboration, like the quaint desserts that seemed to replace wine and alcohol in general.

Dinner, as it turned out, stretched to an hour. Claud was feeling a bit full by the time he finished off the last dish, while Lily was already in a small stupor, induced by the food. It was a condition that she could solve easily, but there was also some charm in just revelling in the delight of having a full stomach.

It was a delight that didn’t care whether he was in a hollowed-out state or not.

“So,” Claud eventually asked, “what’s with the weird open-air cooking and random sampling of ingredients?”

Lily shivered once, and the sublime bliss of a full stomach she was experiencing vanished. Like him, she was more than capable of adjusting her mental state at any given moment…which was probably more significant than these words gave her credit for, because Lily knew about her impending destiny.

The ability to adjust her mental state and to control her emotions was on a level that Claud found himself envying. If he had such an ability too…

The waiter, who was completely clueless about the whole thing, cleared his throat and said, “To answer this question, we’ll need to first return to the roots of the Nihal Senate. Do you two know what a democracy is? It’s, simply put, a system where people choose their own representatives to represent them in a government. However, there are…some issues, of course. For instance, everyone needs to decide on the people who can become representatives. The requirements are high, so in the end, in the internal elections, there are only a few people that can qualify as future Senators.”

Claud nodded. “And this is related?”

“Well, to win, one can either win over the hearts of everyone through various means…or get rid of the opposition altogether,” the waiter continued. “No prizes for guessing which was easier. The First Lady, however, was sick of potential candidates just dying, so she announced an ordinance that would investigate any death of senator candidates, natural or otherwise.”

“Okay, but…how is this related?” Lily asked, leaning her head against Claud’s shoulder.

“Well, the second-best way to defeat your opponent turned out to be poisoning the banquets that he or she would hold to rally support,” the waiter replied. “The chefs, some of which were innocent bystanders and the others actual poisoners, protested against the assumption of guilt placed against them.”

He paused for a moment. “One thing led to another, and before we knew it, the chefs decided to move their cooking outside.”

“Wait, wait, wait. You just skipped a whole bunch of things there, right?”

“Well…”