Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash Volume 14++

Ordering both was an option, too, but Monzo had a general policy of one dish
each time he came to a restaurant. It was only the polite thing to do, to focus all
of his being on thoroughly savoring a single bowl of ramen.

When he handed over the meal ticket, the staff member asked if he had any
preferences. This was another vexing question. If he had to say one way or the
other, he did have preferences. However, Monzo was the type who could enjoy
any food, so long as it was delicious. He was also of the belief that the taste a
restaurant provided to customers who made no specific requests would
undoubtedly be their best.

“I’ll have it normal.”

After that, it was just a matter of subtly watching the staff prepare his order
as he waited. Even though it was a Saturday, because of the time of day, Monzo
was the only one here. Incredibly, this place ran 24-7, and thanks to that, he
was able to enjoy this kind of luxury. Marvelous.

Ohhh...! Here it comes! Here it comes! Here it comes!

The flow of time here was mysterious. It felt like an eternity had passed
before his ramen was complete, or perhaps it was only a moment. It felt sweet,
and yet unbearable. When Monzo received his order from the staff and placed
it on the table, he took his chopsticks in hand, and brought his hands together.

“Thank you for the meal.”

He wanted to shout out loud, but he couldn’t do something so disrespectful.
He scooped up some broth with his porcelain soup spoon, and sipped it.

...Niboshi! It’s niboshi! A perfect niboshi revolution...!

Next, he tried the noodles.

...Yes! This chewy texture! It’s incredible! The flavor of the niboshi is wrapped
around it, and they’ve become one. I don’t know what to say...

Tears formed in his eyes. Sweat was already forming on the tip of his nose
and his brow. Monzo wiped his tears with a tissue.

This ramen has more than one type of noodles, huh...?

There were ittanmen, a sort of wide, sheet-like noodles in it. They had a

unique texture, too.
Okay, let’s take the first ittan slow...
He slurped it into his mouth.
“Ohh...!”
He groaned in delight despite himself.
That’s good! This is... delicious! No, not just delicious, this is destiny!
The chashu pork in this place was delectable, too. It wasn’t the type where

the surrounding flavors had seeped into it, but was so fatty as to be a sensual
experience, and was delicious as meat on its own.

Okay, now the chashu...
He stuffed it into his mouth.
Paradise...
He wanted a whole hunk of this meat. If he had that, he felt like not only
could he survive the end of the world itself, but he could become king of the
post-apocalyptic wasteland.
It’s all delicious. This is a sin. It’s deeply sinful...
As he intently slurped noodles, ate the ittanmen and chashu, and drank the
soup, Monzo began to become uneasy. Would there ever be a greater
happiness in his life than what he felt now? It was so intensely delicious that his
mind went beyond pure bliss to imagining the tragic fate that might await him.

Scene #22: At the North Station

Monzo had only been to that ramen place once. It was on a trip. Monzo’s
parents loved ramen, too, so visiting that place had been one of the objectives
of their trip.

Never again.
That ramen place, called Station, had closed down.
He hardly remembered how it had looked from the outside, or what the

interior was like, but this much was certain: he had ordered miso ramen.

This ramen is amazing...

The moment he saw the miso ramen he had ordered, young Monzo was
shocked. The soup looked like jelly since there was a layer of fat formed on the
surface.

Hot...!

He took a sip, and it was unbelievably hot. Stars shot out of his eyes. He
remembered whining, “I can’t eat this,” to his parents. His father told him,
“Wait until it cools,” but it was coated with a layer of fat, so the temperature
wasn’t going down in a hurry. This place was in the far north, in a chilly region
of the country. Maybe that was why they developed a ramen that wouldn’t get
cold.

Whatever the case, it took a long time before he could start eating. His
parents suggested putting some in a separate dish, but Monzo firmly refused.
Even at a young age, he wanted to eat his ramen directly from the bowl. To
Monzo, that’s just the kind of dish ramen was.

When he was finally able to eat, Monzo polished off that miso ramen in no
time flat.

I’ve never eaten something like this before..!

It was intense. It tasted of all five flavors: sweet, salty, sour, spicy, and umami.
If there were a sixth flavor, richness, Station’s miso ramen had it in spades.
What went into it? How was it made? These questions were beyond the young
Monzo. However, the rich, deep, broad flavor just kept coming at him.

Miso! Miso! This is miso! What is miso soup? That’s not miso! This! This is
miso! This is the real miso...!

Monzo loved the miso soup that his mother made, filled with many other
ingredients. But now that he had tasted this miso ramen, miso soup was just
too weak for him. How could it be so weak? Miso soup was no way to use miso.
If it wasn’t miso ramen, it didn’t even deserve to be called miso. Here was the
miso truth. The world is made of miso. In the beginning, there was miso, and
miso made the world. God was dead. Miso was the all-knowing, all-powerful

god of this world.

This is what the word delicious was created to describe!

He clearly remembered thinking that.

Monzo had loved ramen for as long as he could remember, but after eating
the miso ramen at Station, his love for ramen truly awakened. He realized there
were so many ramen places in the world, and every time he saw one, he
wondered. What flavor of ramen do they serve? What type? No, no, it might
not even be a type you could categorize. He came to think about these things
24-7. The miso ramen at Station was Monzo’s awakening.

Again and again, Monzo begged his parents to take him to Station for ramen
again.

But it wasn’t the sort of place they could drive to on the weekend. It was in a
town they would have to take a plane across the sea to reach. Monzo’s family
was not especially poor, but they weren’t especially wealthy, either, and there
was also his parents' work to consider, so they could only manage one small
family trip each summer.

Before they could make it back up there, Station closed.

He could never taste that miso ramen again, but there were a number of
ramen places in the same tradition as Station.

Next time, Monzo intended to visit one of them.

Hopefully, he would be able to encounter that miso ramen once more.

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Copyright

Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash: Volume 14++
by Ao Jyumonji
Translated by Sean McCann Edited by Adam Fogle

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the
product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to
actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

Copyright © 2019 Ao Jyumonji Illustrations by Eiri Shirai All rights reserved.
Original Japanese edition published in 2019 by OVERLAP
This English edition is published by arrangement with OVERLAP, Inc., Tokyo
English translation © 2020 J-Novel Club LLC

All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the
scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the
permission of the publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s
intellectual property.

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Ebook edition 1.0: May 2020