Bang!
The door of the private room was kicked open, cutting off what Nakiri Senzaemon had been about to say.
Nakiri Senzaemon flew into a rage. Which ignorant fool dared cause trouble here?
He abruptly stood up, furious, and looked toward the entrance of the private room.
A bald man wearing a kimono walked in from outside with several bodyguards.
When Nakiri Senzaemon saw this man, his previous anger instantly vanished, and his brows furrowed involuntarily.
Why was it him?
"It smells wonderful."
After the bald man entered, he took a deep breath. His gaze was drawn to the dishes on the private room's table. The fragrance those dishes gave off was simply irresistible.
"Old Master Nakiri, this is your fault."
The bald man seized the initiative.
"I came here to dine, yet you hid the truly good things from me and forced me to come looking for them myself. Are you looking down on me?"
He believed he had eaten plenty of good things. His family was rich. What delicacies from land and sea had he not tried?
Foods ordinary people had never tasted were just everyday fare in his eyes.
Restaurants ordinary people could never book—he could invite their chefs to his home to cook for him.
Yet even though he had eaten countless delicacies, compared with the dishes before him, they were inferior by who knew how many levels.
They could not even be compared.
That domineering aroma hooked out the greed in one's stomach. It was truly unbearable.
Nakiri Senzaemon suppressed the displeasure in his heart. His expression was serious as he slowly said, "Young Master Kou says too much. If Totsuki had such things, we would certainly announce them widely. How could we hide them?"
"In truth, the ingredients for these dishes were all brought by the guests themselves."
"Even we were surprised that there is meat in the world that surpasses A5 wagyu."
"I see."
The bald man known as Young Master Kou suddenly understood. His gaze fell on Rowan.
"These ingredients were brought by you? Who are you, and where did you get them?"
Rowan was still eating heartily, as if he had not heard the other man's words.
Young Master Kou's face darkened. As a member of the Shinomiya family, he had never seen someone so arrogant before.
This man actually dared ignore him.
This made Shinomiya Kou very angry, and his gaze gradually turned cold. However, before figuring out who these people were and what background they had, he would not easily lose his temper.
His gaze turned to Nakiri Senzaemon.
Nakiri Senzaemon calmly said, "Why is Young Master Kou looking at me?"
Shinomiya Kou smiled without warmth.
"Who are these people? Does Old Master Nakiri not intend to introduce them to me?"
Nakiri Senzaemon said, "I am not clear about their origins either. I only know that they are honored guests of the Nakiri family. That is all."
Shinomiya Kou sneered a few times.
"Is that so? So that's how it is. So they are honored guests of the Nakiri family."
This old bastard actually dared fool me. Absolutely outrageous.
He lowered his head and looked at Rowan.
"Hey, kid, I'll buy your food. Name a price. How about ten million?"
Rowan finally raised his head and stared straight at Shinomiya Kou.
For some reason, when Shinomiya Kou saw Rowan's eyes, his whole body went cold.
It felt as if he was not looking at a person, but a dragon. A god. His gaze was cold, looking down from above, as if he were looking at a dead man.
A bone-chilling cold rose from within Shinomiya Kou's body. His entire body felt as if it had fallen into an ice cave, nearly suffocating.
Nakiri Senzaemon immediately noticed that something was wrong with Shinomiya Kou. His breathing was rapid, his face was pale, and his entire body was drenched in sweat, as if he had suffered a tremendous fright and might faint at any moment.
After that, Shinomiya Kou's bodyguards also discovered something was wrong with him.
However, they could not step forward.
Because Rowan's gaze did not only suppress Shinomiya Kou, it also suppressed them.
Everyone seemed bound in place by an invisible force, unable to move.
"Lord Rowan, please calm your anger."
Nakiri Senzaemon hurriedly spoke, afraid that if he spoke even a little slower, Shinomiya Kou would be killed by Rowan.
Although he did not like this eldest young master of the Shinomiya family, he absolutely could not let Shinomiya Kou die here.
Otherwise, Totsuki Resort would be finished.
Even the Nakiri family would be implicated, perhaps even bankrupted.
Because of this, he had no choice but to brace himself and speak to Rowan, begging him to spare Shinomiya Kou this once.
Rowan withdrew the invisible pressure. Shinomiya Kou looked as if he had just been fished out of water, drenched from head to toe.
"Get lost!"
At that command, the bodyguards beside Shinomiya Kou hurriedly supported him and left the private room without looking back.
Like stray dogs that had lost their home.
"Thank you, Lord Rowan."
Seeing this, Nakiri Senzaemon let out a long sigh of relief and bowed to Rowan again in thanks.
"You're overthinking it. I didn't intend to kill him."
Rowan said lightly, "Killing someone while eating—whether you find it disgusting or not, I do. Besides, I'm not someone who likes fighting and killing."
Uh…
Nakiri Senzaemon found it a little hard to hold himself together. If you don't like killing, then how did Tanaka Asahi disappear?
"That's because he deserved to die."
Rowan seemed to see through Nakiri Senzaemon's thoughts and calmly said, "I looked through that man's memories. The things he did were too numerous to record. He killed quite a few people too. According to the law, someone like him could be executed ten times over and still deserve it."
"Yet because he had power and influence, not only did he not die, he lived more comfortably than anyone."
"Compared to him, that Shinomiya Kou just now doesn't even count as a fart."
"Such a person living is only wasting air, so I could only send him to his death."
Nakiri Senzaemon narrowed his eyes and lightly tapped his knee with his fingers. It seemed he had still underestimated the sins Tanaka Asahi had committed.
Some people truly did not deserve to live in this world.
Not long after, Nakiri Senzaemon really did find a news report about Tanaka Asahi on his phone.
As the president of Asahi Heavy Industries, Tanaka Asahi was at least somewhat famous and worth a major report from the media.
However, the news said that Tanaka Asahi had died from falling off a building.
Wasn't that somewhat misleading?
Nakiri Senzaemon looked at Rowan in confusion.
Rowan bit into a piece of soft, flavorful beef and potato stew, eating with relish. His eyes even narrowed.
"Why are you looking at me? The news isn't wrong. Tanaka Asahi did die from falling off a building."
"I just made him jump."
Nakiri Senzaemon suddenly understood and asked the question he had been wanting to ask.
"Was Tanaka Asahi really a member of the Time Vessel Association?"
"That's right. Not only was he a member of the Time Vessel Association, he was a senior member."
Rowan nodded.
"Didn't that guy say over the phone earlier that he had been dragged into the Time Vessel Association by some big shot?"
Nakiri Senzaemon nodded.
"In reality, it was exactly the opposite. That guy had been a member of the Time Vessel Association since he was young. His parents were, and so was he."
Rowan spat out a bone and continued, "The one who was truly dragged into the water wasn't Tanaka Asahi, but that big shot entangled with him."
Nakiri Senzaemon hesitated for a moment, then asked, "Lord Rowan, who exactly is this big shot?"
Rowan said, "Do you want to know?"
Nakiri Senzaemon fell silent. Of course he knew that the more one knew about some things, the worse it could be.
But people all had curiosity.
In the end, however, he restrained that curiosity.
The main reason was that the Nakiri family was a family of chefs and proper businesspeople. They had nothing to do with politics and did not support any faction. No matter who this big shot was, they would have no dealings with the Nakiri family.
There was no need to invite trouble.
So Nakiri Senzaemon decisively changed the topic.
"May I ask what Lord Rowan plans to do next?"
Rowan thought for a moment and said, "Eat. I plan to taste the cooking of the graduates of Totsuki's Elite Ten."
"Whether it's Hinako Inui's Kirinoya, Sonoka Kikuchi's Shunka-tei, or Taki Tsunozaki's Spanish restaurant, Taki Amarillo, I plan to try them all."
"Of course, I also don't intend to miss Fuyumi Mizuhara's Italian restaurant, Ristorante F, or Kojiro Shinomiya's French restaurant, SHINO'S. I'll taste all of them."
Since he had come to this world, some delicious foods naturally could not be missed.
Rowan had not forgotten his original purpose in crossing worlds.
It was not to fight and kill, but to travel to places he had never been, taste foods he had never eaten, and live the kind of life other people dreamed of.
Nakiri Senzaemon froze for a moment. This answer was completely beyond his expectations.
"Then the matter of the Time Vessel Association…"
"What does that have to do with me?"
Rowan interrupted before he could finish.
"You seem to have misunderstood something. I'm not the kind of person overflowing with a sense of justice. On the contrary, I'm actually rather selfish. I only consider myself and the people around me."
"Some things, if I see them, I'll deal with them."
"If I don't see them, I won't."
"It's like Nakiri Erina's matter. Since I saw it and had the ability, I helped out casually."
"If I hadn't seen it, then that would have been that."
"The Time Vessel Association is the same. If I see it, I'll handle it along the way. But as long as the Time Vessel Association doesn't provoke me, I won't deliberately go looking for trouble with them."
Nakiri Senzaemon frowned and said, "But Tanaka Asahi was a member of the Time Vessel Association, and you took something belonging to the Time Vessel Association. I fear they won't let this go easily."
"Doesn't matter."
Rowan calmly waved his hand.
"At most, when soldiers come, I block them; when water comes, I cover it with earth. If the Time Vessel Association truly seeks death, I can uproot it completely and destroy it."
Nakiri Senzaemon understood.
This person did not put the infamous Time Vessel Association in his eyes at all.
That made Nakiri Senzaemon very curious. Just what kind of confidence did Rowan have to look down on the Time Vessel Association like this?
"Lord Rowan."
At that moment, Cosette, who had remained silent all this time, put down her tableware, wiped the grease from the corner of her mouth, and looked at Rowan seriously.
"There is something I would like to ask of you."