Chapter 78

Chapter 78

Commotion

East End. An area corresponding to 'outside the four gates' if comparing to Korea.

The past Roman era city Londinium fortress and the residences around it combined and developed into the City of London, that is the current London center, and due to industrialization dozens of years ago London rapidly expanded and raising buildings even on farmland outside the fortress and using was the beginning of the East End.

So people actually divided and called London largely with 3 names.

City of London, West End, East End.

Centered on the City of London, the east dense with ports and dirty factories is the East End, conversely the west developed into a clean and splendid commercial district and became the West End.

Up to Lombard Street where my restaurant is belonged to the City of London, but if going further out to the outskirts the East End appears that form.

Rich people or middle class usually tried to place residences in the West End, the reason was simple.

Because London wind usually blew from west to east there was a firm stereotype that if living in the west of London one can avoid factory exhaust. Lombard Street I lived also belonged to the West End district so I knew well.

Even so on days when wind doesn't blow or humid days smog lays thick and choking was the same... Certainly it was relatively better than the East End.

There were many lower class living in the West End or City of London, but public order or overall atmosphere was much better than the East End.

The problem was as expected the East End.

Lower class, among them the ones with the most impoverished life had to live in the East End inhaling a lot of factory exhaust.

Mile End the factory dense area, Spitalfields full of immigrants, Poplar with docks and warehouses, Bethnal Green the shantytown.

Even if each had different place names, people just lumped them all as East End. Thanks to that when saying East End there were also many times one gets confused exactly which neighborhood it refers to.

Whether disparagement, derogatory term, self-deprecating expression, anyway the word East End wasn't a good meaning.

Among them what I directly visited was only outside the Luca Family's Spitalfields, but rumors that all aren't places people can live were rampant.

Of course among them there would have been many exaggerated aspects more than fact as this era usually is.

Spitalfields is also said to have high notoriety, but if actually walking around the streets people only look rough and fierce, in the end here is also a place people live and within London population coming and going looking for work is daily, there was no reason only the East End's quality of life would particularly drop.

There are numerous people living in the East End too, those people can't all be criminals. There is work the same and factories too.

Most had to work at lowest grade factories like textiles or weaving that are only hard and treatment is shit receiving money less than minimum wage...

And because cleaning isn't done trash rolls around, people openly grill Durand Barbecue outside, rats and cats play hide and seek, everyone chatters rudely in loud voices, vagrants collapse and sleep in alleys...

Certainly it was a lawless land! It was right there was a problem!

Well this is in fact nothing special. Right away even on Lombard Street there were similar scenes.

If asking me what the most terrible thing in the East End is, I'll pick the maze-like alleys intricately entangled.

The alleys are so complex it's hard to find the way, and the Metropolitan Police also finds it hard to manage and says they'll give up hands to that point. Since I even got lost the severity goes without saying!

Except for wide roads carriages can run, exaggerating a bit people who aren't surrounding residents almost unconditionally become missing persons to that point. So newspapers also occasionally put out warning articles not to step into the East End.

Fortunately or unfortunately, the place Mr. Luca decided to hold the festival wasn't the center of the East End.

Because the entire East End was narrow and unclean, there was no separate place one could gather large scale personnel and hold a festival.

So Mr. Luca said he rented a spacious empty warehouse located on the Thames riverside right below Spitalfields.

It had to be a place far from residential areas so even if chattering in loud voices and causing commotion no problem arises, in a way it was also a wise judgment.

Like that riding the carriage Joe drives and arriving along the road around the Thames River, it was certainly a site full of heat with festival atmosphere no matter who sees.

I don't know where but from all sides guitar or percussion instrument sounds continuously heard, and laughing and chattering voices were vibrating from all sides.

Someone even popped a cracker with a bang!

"Boss! This is really a festival...? Isn't it much more full-scale than thought?"

"Then is the festival real is there even fake festivals?"

"Weren't all festivals held in Britain fake...?"

"Don't say such words anywhere. You'll get grabbed by the collar."

Lately as free travel spread to each country, I've heard up to the talk that there are many who go to other countries and receive culture shock, and feel Britain is somehow culturally isolated.

Because of pride they only don't acknowledge but rumors all spread.

Among them what people envied most was exactly the festival culture of the Mediterranean or Northern Europe.

Literally they said such festivals of playing guitar and singing and dancing. The Mediterranean held thanksgiving festivals gathering all village people and thanking God if a good harvest from Roman times, but Britain originally a country of barbarian tribes so there was no such thing.

Just plundering and tearing alcohol and meat in excitement was all of the party, and because cold farming also doesn't go well there was no way there was thanksgiving either.

Britain's traditional festival events were very poor.

Festivals at most, at best gathering at church and holding worship once was all they say?!

At least when there's a big national event like coronation everyone gathers at pubs and drinks beer merrily, or if the team they were cheering loses in the FA Cup final they cause a riot about the level one could call festival.

"The atmosphere is amazing! The new festival is really expected, Boss! Italian people seem to know how to play fun! To the point I want to learn how to play!"

"Right? Beyond the wooden fence something like many stalls seem to be seen?"

They prepared this in just two days? Even lies have to be told to a degree!

No matter how one sees it was clear they prepared at least a week, and it was correct they barely finished everything at the end and called me.

If they really didn't come to me what were they going to do? If not confirmed with the Metropolitan Police it seems it would have been 100 percent a problem?!

The officers dispatched to monitor whether there's some problem also seemed to have the same feeling.

A few mounted officers with fed up expressions riding horses and passing were seen they say?

"I'll drive the carriage a bit slowly. There are quite many people in front there. If careless I'll hit."

"Hmm."

When Mr. Salvatore first said ‘about 500 people’, I just thought family internal personnel plus their relatives, children, elderly parents would be added. Because nuclear familyization hasn't happened yet there were also many cases of over ten people living in one house.

But when actually coming much more people than expected were flocked around the vacant lot! Even outside alone it seemed at least several hundred.

Including people who already entered inside how many on earth? Really over 7, 800?!

"Is this place handling... Isn't it overdoing too much?"

"Boss, wouldn't outsiders who heard rumors also flocked?"

"Rumors? Hey, it's not even that they scattered flyers somewhere what rumors in the meantime?"

People peeking whether there's something to eat at a famous banquet house would be possible, but still the personnel is too many?

The Luca Family isn't fools so there's no way they openly boasted saying they'll hold a festival, in the end the invited personnel would only be people with connections.

I carefully looked outside from inside the carriage.

Certainly everyone wasn't outsiders. For that they were following control appropriately, and no one was causing trouble.

Because at the entrance side of the vacant lot a few sturdy men who seemed Luca Family were confirming identities and slowly letting people in, the entrance was tightly blocked like arteriosclerosis.

"Those people certainly don't seem East End origin, Boss!"

"It does look so. I heard middle class of Italian origin also gather and live in Clerkenwell did they come from there too?"

Although the Luca Family is a criminal group doing business in the East End, I heard they strictly take one axis in the Two Sicilies immigrant community.

Sicilian people can't all be poor laborers. There would be people who succeeded because work went well, and people who maintain middle class or above life even after immigration thanks to original upper class experience would also be quite possible.

So besides laborers wearing shabby work clothes, people wearing tall bowler hats like British gentlemen or women wearing luxurious dresses were also lining up together.

There were also many children chattering following parents.

A festival where lower class, middle class, rich people harmonize with one heart?

Wow, the atmosphere would be a jackpot?

"Boss! It seems difficult to approach more with the carriage. You have to get off here. I'll entrust the carriage to a nearby storage and come."

"Hmm."

Getting off the carriage the heat of the festival inside was felt even hotter.

Seeing people lining up a lot in front I was briefly pondering whether I should also line up together, when just in time Mr. Salvatore who was waiting stomping feet over there entered my eyes.

He also seemed to have seen the day getting off the carriage, and ran in a hurry with momentum as if flying.

"Jean! You came! Fortunate! There was a person I had to show today without fail!"

"Fortunate? By the way it's good. By any chance is there a place to entrust this carriage around?"

"Of course! Pietro! It's a precious guest's carriage so treat carefully!"

"Yes! Understood!"

In modern times if pulling the car key and locking the door there was no particular problem parking anywhere, but now is an era without locks or such so if anyone just grabs the reins and drives it's over.

To prevent carriage thieves usually the coachman guards the carriage, or giving money and briefly entrusting to a carriage storage that plays the role of parking lot was common sense.

So near big markets or busy streets, large warehouses or port areas there were invariably carriage storages or public stables.

Fortunately here also seemed such a place was prepared in advance.

Oh right, while seeing him there was also one thing to question.

I raised my finger... and pointed to the festival banner made of cloth I just discovered.

It was written with paint on white cloth, not printed letters so extremely crude, and even a few spellings wrong whoever wrote!

But there was no problem recognizing.

[ Cooking and Wine Festival created by Europe's best chef Jean-Paul Durand ]

"Mr. Salvatore, what on earth is that talk? I never permitted using my name?!"

"Ah, haha. That? Well, father strongly insisted it must be there to quietly make people so just..."

"What? Quietly? Why that?"

"That's, you said you're worried other organizations in the East End would interfere. Thinking carefully your words were right. So consulting with father, no matter how one sees that method is the best! Sorry, sorry!"

Mr. Salvatore while saying those words bowed his waist almost to the point of touching the ground and continuously apologized.

People around who saw that scene were startled and turned gazes glancing. So I hurriedly raised him.

"No, well... Let's count this as debt too. Already the third! Terrible, really!"

"Thank you, thank you!"

His words were like this.

Borrowing the fame of my name that was soaring to pierce the sky in London, no the East End, people are controlled better than expected that story!

Other organizations around nearby also briefly loitered, and seeing the banner with my name written fled in a hurry they say?

And people also came without expectation as if nothing special and hearing it's a festival giving dishes I made were very excited they say?

I couldn't guess from where his words are truth and from where lies!

Am I some tiger or smallpox? Seeing just my name and startled and flee? And although I'm riding a bit of fame now it's absolutely not to that point?!

In fact the reason I could just nod and end now was, the point that people don't know my face was the biggest.

Although photo technology is developing, the quality is also crude and resolution is miserable at early phone camera level so with photos carried in newspapers it's not easy to recognize people passing by.

Of course in my case because I acted as a newspaper seller in busy streets for a long time even before becoming famous my face was already sold a lot, and I myself also wandered around everywhere day after day so there were many who recognize, but that didn't mean all London people recognize me was impossible!

But thanks to the commotion Mr. Salvatore caused I couldn't even block the short sound someone who was carefully examining my face blurted as monologue.

"Jean, Jean-Paul Durand!"

Flinch.

"What? Jean-Paul Durand?! London's best chef! Durand Grilling! The person of Chicken and Chips really came here?"

"It's not a lie! Jean-Paul Durand really appeared!"

"According to rumors that delicious grilled eel was also made by Jean-Paul Durand?!"

"Is that real?! Sign! I have to get a sign!"

Ah, crazy! Should I have disguised roughly like the Duke?

Right. I forgot that if even one person recognizes information spreads in an instant!

Thanks to that I had to pay unexpected fame even before entering the festival site.

I was surrounded by people for nearly five minutes and signed one by one on their hats, fans, parasols etc. and even shook hands so I was out of my mind.

Why on earth are they carrying fountain pens outside?!

Fortunately here wasn't a busy street where personnel continues to be replenished, and external personnel was also limited level so the commotion quickly subsided when Luca Family members who jumped out from inside intervened.

Tired I glared at Mr. Salvatore.

"Haha... I'll count the debt as four. Please put it on credit."

"How on earth are you going to repay all?"

"That's what I say. I'll repay by working with my body anytime when needed so don't worry. By the way let's go in quickly! There's a person to introduce!"

"Introduce? Who?"

His expression was considerably flushed.

"Last night Maria came to our house! The fiancée I mentioned last time! So I thought I have to meet you first! Let's go in, welcome to our grape festival! I hope you enjoy fun and go! Who knows? Jean you might also meet a new love connection like me?!"

This person, somehow it was certain he was mistaking today's grape festival purpose as romance!