Chapter 75: Potato Chips

Chapter 75:
Potato Chips

“Croquette”—a regular at the Restaurant to Another World—met the boy on that fateful day when the master had to run errands away from Nekoya.

“Mmm… I think that’s it for today.”

Croquette cleaned the remaining sauce off his plate with his white bread. He swallowed it down, signaling the meal’s end.

When he was younger, Croquette had been one hell of an eater. But he could still pack food away, even now. This was his third plate of the day.

His stomach was nice and warm, and he was full of the unique satisfaction that came with a delicious meal.

“Now then! I suppose I’m alone. Eh… I’ll take a break before heading back.”

There wasn’t a soul in the restaurant. Granted, the place wasn’t particularly popular to begin with.

Still, when Croquette swung by, he usually found the elderly man called Minced Meat Cutlet or the old adventurer Pork Loin Cutlet sitting down to a meal. Today, however, they’d left early to attend to business.

The master had departed to do some quick shopping, leaving the restaurant unguarded.

Croquette had already paid, so all that was left was to head home. However, getting back from Nekoya would be a bit of a pain.

When Croquette was younger, he often went on long rides on his horse. Even his closest private residence required him to travel on horseback.

“When I retire, I really must build a palace near here.”

Croquette decided to relax for a while. Then it happened.

“Heeeeey! Gramps! You in?”

From the back of the restaurant—the kitchen, in fact—a young boy appeared.

“Weiiird. Grandma said Gramps was in the restaurant. Wait… Huh? Are you a customer?”

Looking around the dining room, the boy was startled by the sight of Croquette.

“Wait, ain’t Nekoya closed on Saturdays? Huh… Whatever. Welcome!”

Despite his momentary surprise, the boy remembered the words of his grandmother, whom he lived with. Always be sure to greet customers. He bowed his head to the strangely dressed old man.

Meanwhile, Croquette had figured out the boy’s identity already.

Hrm. The master’s grandson, I presume?

The child was covered in dirt, and his clothes were quite strange. Some sort of odd script was embroidered on his short-sleeved shirt, and his short pants revealed his thin, hairless legs up to his thighs. He wore socks and dirty white shoes made of, not leather, but some other strange material.

The boy dressed differently from both the commoners and nobles of Croquette’s world. In other words, he was from this world, which meant he was connected to the master.

The boy’s identity seemed clear, so Croquette was comfortable explaining the situation to him.

“Mmm… Unfortunately, the master’s out doing some shopping.”

“Oh, seriously? Dang,” the boy replied, his shoulders sinking. He gazed into the bag in his right hand. “And I came all this way to give him these.”

“Hrm. And what might those be?”

The boy peered into the translucent leather bag at what looked like large and small objects covered in dirt. Croquette had certainly never seen anything like them before.

“Huh? These are potatoes I grew in class.” Knowing that he should answer customers politely and concisely, the boy explained that they came from his school’s fields. “It took the whole class to dig them out. Teach said they’re real-deal Hokkaido potatoes!”

The students had spent all of the Saturday morning class harvesting the potatoes. The boy—who’d lived with his grandparents ever since his parents had passed away—brought them to his grandfather, hoping to have him make delicious potato chips. Unfortunately, it was not to be.

“Potatoes, you say? Some sort of crop, then.”

Once again, Croquette figured out the situation based on the boy’s explanation.

Since the boy had brought them to a chef, this “potato” crop was clearly some sort of edible ingredient.

“Wait. You don’t know what potatoes are? That’s weird.”

“Mmm. Well, you see, I’m not particularly knowledgeable on this side, unfortunately.” Croquette nodded at the somewhat puzzled boy. “So, what do you make with potatoes?”

His question was honest. Potatoes didn’t exist in his world, so there was no way for him to know what dishes they were used in.

The boy thought for a moment and then named some dishes was familiar with.

“Er, well, all sorts of foods. I brought these today ’cause I was hoping Gramps would make potato chips. But they’re also used in curry, stew, and even pork soup. You also got potato salad and fries. Those are delicious. Oh, and meat and potatoes, croquettes…”

“What?! Croquettes?! You can make croquettes with these potato things?!” The old man’s eyes opened wide.

As the gentleman’s nickname implied, croquettes were exactly what he’d been eating earlier. As far as he was concerned, they were the single most delicious item on Nekoya’s menu, bar none. So of course he was surprised to hear croquettes come up in the conversation.

“Yeah, you can. You really don’t know much, do you? Gramps is always sayin’ that you can’t make good croquettes without potatoes.”

The boy laughed as he explained. How very strange it was that this old man, who looked around his grandfather’s age, was so uneducated on such basic recipes.

“I see. So croquettes are made with these potato things.” Croquette made his decision. He presented the boy with a proposal.

“Young one, would you be willing to part with those potatoes of yours? I wouldn’t ask for them for free, of course.”

Croquette reached into his pouch, pulled something out, and showed it to the boy.

The master normally never sold customers his ingredients or seasonings, aside from the finished meals he cooked. Croquette thought this might be his only chance to get his hands on one of Nekoya’s primary ingredients.

In exchange for the potatoes, the old man took out a glittering coin.

“What the heck’s that? Foreign money or something? It’s kinda soft,” the master’s grandson replied suspiciously as he inspected it.

Although the coin was round, it was bent compared to the hundred-yen and ten-yen coins the boy was used to handling. The profile of a man’s face on its surface looked a lot like the old man in front of him.

In response to the boy’s question, the man nodded.

“Mm-hmm. This is indeed my nation’s imperial currency. It’s not quite as valuable as the currency of the Kingdom or of the ancient elves. Still, it’s worth at least a thousand of these.”

The man produced another coin, this one likely familiar to the boy. Its copper surface depicted some kind of number written in this world’s script and a picture of a weed. On the opposite side was a picture of a spiritual-looking shrine. Only an incredibly skilled craftsman could have carved images so detailed into something so small.

This was the other world’s copper currency.

The old man had received the coin as “change” for his meal during a previous visit to Nekoya. He felt that the design was far too detailed for a copper coin. Since he had no way of using the other world’s money outside the restaurant, however, he kept it on his person. Copper was copper, which was perfect. Even the boy in front of him was familiar with copper coins and knew their value.

“Hmm. A thousand times ten yen… Huh?! Isn’t that ten thousand yen?!”

The boy indeed understood the worth of the round, sparkling coin. Like the master, he was surprised once he’d deduced its value.

“Mmm. Indeed. This is worth ten thousand of your ‘yens.’ I’d like to give you this in exchange for your potatoes. I would consider it a good deal.”

“Well, yeah. These were meant to be a gift, anyway, so I still got more at home. Okay, mister! I’ll do you a favor and take you up on your offer!”

The master’s grandson agreed with all the arrogance one would expect of a boy his age. Putting the gold coin into his pocket, he handed the old man the bag of potatoes.

“That’s settled.”

“Yup!”

The pair smiled at each other. They’d both come away from the trade with more than they’d come into it with.

“Now, I shall be on my way. Give the master my regards.”

Croquette knew all too well that, if the master returned and found out about the trade, things could get dicey. He stood and departed.

He came out the other side of the door into empty wilderness. His beautiful, beloved black horse was tied to a tree nearby, patiently waiting for its master to return.

The old man looked into the bag of dirt-covered potatoes, smiling.

“Potatoes, eh? Who could’ve imagined that I’d get my hands on croquettes’ core ingredient, just like that?! Excellent! I must grow them first.”

He placed the bag of potatoes on his horse and rode back to his abode, excitedly making plans for the future.

The Lord of Earth’s priest managed the palace garden, and a former court mage had discovered that you could actually cultivate all manner of herbs once said to be ungrowable.

With assistance from these two, Croquette firmly believed that he would be able to reproduce the otherworldly crop.

“It shouldn’t be a problem. We’ll only need to grow enough for me to make croquettes!’”

Croquette had little knowledge of the unfamiliar crops required to make Nekoya’s meals. But if a child as small as the master’s grandson could cultivate them, they couldn’t be that difficult to grow.

If Croquette had his professionals handle the work in the palace’s vast fields, it wouldn’t raise much fuss. After all, he only required enough potatoes for him to eat. And if he failed, he failed.

***

As a man who’d spent much of his life fighting to expand his nation, Croquette felt that he deserved to be a bit greedy in his final days.

“The boy said that he dug up these potatoes, so they must grow in the ground. We won’t have to worry about birds getting to them.”

If things worked out, and Croquette was able to grow a large number of potatoes, he wasn’t against the idea of sharing them.

Croquette—known as Wilhelm, the Empire’s very first emperor—pondered the potatoes as he rode his horse home. However, he had no way of knowing yet that his hobby would affect the entire nation. He also had no way of knowing that, of the many things he would accomplish in his life, this would be one of his greatest achievements.

***

The Lord of Earth bestowed the cobbler’s tuber, a legendary food of the gods, upon the faithful emperor as he mourned for his citizens. With few fields in which to grow wheat, the Empire’s people were suffering. The mages, who lacked faith in the deity, seemed certain that elves had created the crop using their magical prowess. However, nobody had ever heard of elves growing cobbler’s tubers before the Lord of Earth gave the food to the emperor.

Even in lands ravaged by a lack of wheat, cobbler’s tubers could be grown and harvested in large quantities. Most important, however, was the fact that they were delicious. With the help of the emperor himself, the crop spread throughout the nation.

If asked what their main food was, most of the Empire’s residents would answer “boiled cobbler’s tubers,” rather than black wheat bread. Thanks to the cobbler’s tuber, the Lord of Earth had expanded their power within the Empire.

The Empire considered the Lord of Earth the most powerful of the Six Ancients.

On the Eastern Continent, the Lord of Light possessed the most followers and had no issues felling the undead. The Lord of Fire’s followers were all smiths or warriors. The Goddess of Darkness—the Lord of Light’s beloved, who controlled death and darkness—was worshiped by those who granted death to the living.

Compared to them, the Lord of Earth wasn’t particularly good at combat.

On the other hand, the Lord of Earth could revive the world’s natural treasures, making plants bud, flowers bloom, and trees grow…even heal the planet itself. Thus, those who dedicated their lives to agriculture deeply trusted the deity.

Every year, the Empire created ten additional farm towns for the express purpose of growing cobbler’s tubers, so it made sense that the Lord of Earth was so revered.

***

The Lord of Earth’s priests and priestesses understood the importance of cobbler’s tubers.

At the god’s shrine, they treated cobbler’s tubers—the origin of their faith—as a holy food. At the same time, they conducted in-depth research on the crop and its powers.

A new page would soon be written in the Empire’s history of the cobbler’s tuber.

Another imperial town had been built in a region that had seen multiple farming villages sprout up in recent years. Sophie, a priestess of the Lord of Earth, had been transferred to the town’s single shrine.

Sophie had just finished her work for the day. With light steps, she secretly made her way toward the forest on the town’s outskirts without anyone noticing.

Aaah! I’m so hungry. I can’t wait.

She passed several small, new cabins that had recently been constructed and then faced an area where about half the trees had been reduced to stumps.

If any more trees were cut down, there was a real risk of the forest dying, so people were banned from woodcutting in the area. That was why foot traffic was so low.

Sophie was from the imperial capital—a giant stone city that had clear-cut the neighboring trees. Therefore, when she was first assigned to this town, she had wandered the forest with great interest. That was when she found the oakwood door with the cat illustration.

Sophie stepped through the door, chest full of expectation.

The sound of bells marked her arrival as she glanced around the restaurant and spotted her “friend.”

“Ah, you’re here, Adelia.” Sophie waved. “Good afternoon!”

Adelia, a priestess of the Lord of Earth, hailed from a foreign land. A beast person with doglike ears and a tail, she was incredibly kind and could withstand fierce training as a priestess.

Since Sophie was a citizen of the Empire, she had all kinds of inhuman associates and acquaintances, so Adelia’s appearance didn’t faze her. She had no problem calling Adelia a friend.

“Yah! Lawng time mo fee.”

Adelia, the Lord of Earth’s beast priestess, packed her cheeks with her favorite food—fried eggs stuffed with cobbler’s tubers—as she greeted her friend. With her eyes, she directed Sophie to the chair in front of her.

Watching Sophie sit down, Adelia swallowed and explained the situation.

“See, my little bro brought some cash over, so I finally got to visit the restaurant. He says he’s gonna drop in again once the moon changes. I’ll introduce you to him then.”

Although Sophie was human, she didn’t follow the Lord of White. Rather, she was a priestess of the Lord of Earth, a rarity.

Perhaps because she and Adelia had been taught in different ways, Sophie couldn’t transform into a dragon. On the other hand, she was adept at controlling nature’s blessings. Adelia felt that her friend was in no way her inferior, as far as talent and ability were concerned.

They were nearly the same age and priestesses of the same deity. It made sense that they’d get along.

“Welcome! Have you decided on your order?”

As the pair described recent happenings in their lives to each other, Aletta—the restaurant’s demon waitress—swung by the table and took Sophie’s order.

“Yeah! I’ll have the usual—a beer and a large order of potato chips. As far as flavors go, salt, seaweed-salt, and cheese, please!” Sophie answered excitedly.

“Those’ll be out right away!”

Aletta returned to the kitchen.

Sophie and Adelia enjoyed casual conversation as Adelia shared her fried eggs. Later, Sophie would share her chips in return.

It didn’t take long for Aletta to come back to the table with Sophie’s food and beer in hand.

“Sorry about the wait! Here are your potato chips and beer.”

Aletta put down a large plate full of fried cobbler’s tubers. Next to it, she placed a mug of golden alcohol, its surface covered in foam.

“Please enjoy!”

“Will do! I’ll call you if I need anything else.”

The delicious aroma of the cobbler’s tubers made its way to Sophie’s nose. Gulping loudly, she put her hands over the Silver Sigil around her neck and prayed.

“All right… Oh great lord who watches over the earth, we thank you for this blessing of food.”

Offering the Lord of Earth a simple prayer before her meal, Sophie reached for her plate without even grabbing a fork.

Mmm. Geez. Fresh fried potato chips are on a whole ’nother level.

First up were the plain salted chips. They were the simplest of the bunch and the easiest taste to start with.

The chip in Sophie’s hand was hot, like fresh fries. She popped it into her mouth. The moment she bit in, it fell apart with the enjoyable mouthfeel she’d expected. Alongside the sensation of the potato chip crunching, she tasted the flavors of the high-quality cobbler’s tuber and oil. Those tastes, and the simple salt seasoning, filled her with joy.

Mmm… It’s all about fry “skins”!

A sip of foamy beer confirmed that thought. As far as Sophie was concerned, the best part of the fry—an imperial delicacy—was its skin.

Sophie’s parents ran a fry stall in the imperial capital. Among the Empire’s citizens, it was highly contested whether the best part of fries was the moist inside or the crunchy skin.

Sophie was a “skin” kind of girl, so for her, potato chips were truly a delicacy among delicacies. After all, they were basically fried tuber skins.

Aaaah! And the seasoning’s just perfect!

The best thing about Nekoya was that you could order large servings of potato chips for the same exact price. They even came with three different flavors.

The first flavor Sophie had picked was salt. The next was seaweed, a unique, otherworldly herb that paired well with salt. The last flavor she’d requested mixed the chips with shredded cheese that tasted of rich milk.

All of the chips were still piping hot. Nonetheless, Sophie continued to munch on them, sipping her beer all the while.

“Mmm, theefs finly fwied cofflers are dewifous foo!”

Adelia and Sophie continued to converse, the latter ordering another beer. The fact that she got to enjoy the chips with a fellow believer she got along with, beast person or not, made them all the more delicious.

She and Adelia discussed many different topics—their business, their taste in partners, and serious matters pertaining to their beliefs.

As the pair enjoyed their time together, the potato chips eventually grew cold. That wasn’t a problem, however. Even cold, potato chips were still delicious.

***

“Fries” were cobbler’s tubers that had been thinly sliced and fried in oil. They were extremely popular among the Empire’s commoners, but once they got cold, their deliciousness decreased significantly.

The skin, in particular, grew moist and lost its crunchy mouthfeel. That was a heavy blow to a fry’s taste.

Potato chips were different, though. They eventually grew moist if left out in the open for days, but they didn’t lose flavor after cooling. Eating cold potato chips was nice. There was no danger of burning your fingers or tongue, which made them easier to eat fast.

Sophie hung out with her friend until the sun set, eating potato chips, drinking beer, and having a great time.

As the night’s darkness set in, she returned to the forest with a spring in her step, making her way back to the shrine.

The food was good, and Mom and Dad said that business is going great in their last letter. Everything’s awesome!

Sophie had been concerned when she was first assigned to this shrine. She would be leaving her home and spending years building up a brand-new town. But now…

You never really know where life will take you.

***

After first experiencing potato chips, Sophie had written home to her parents about the mysterious food.

She described the strange snack made by cutting cobbler’s tubers so thin they were almost see-through and then frying them in oil. The simple dish didn’t yet exist in the Empire.

Potato chips had much in common with her world’s fries, but were nonetheless their own animal. The dish quickly became popular and led Sophie’s parents to great prosperity.

It was initially concerning when other stalls copied them and made their own potato chips. But her parents were still the “original” creators, so business continued to boom for them.

Sophie laughed at the concept of “original,” but nevertheless, she was happy about her parents’ good fortune. The otherworldly restaurant’s potato chips were brand new to their world, and they utilized the cobbler’s tuber—the same holy crop that brought success to her beloved parents.

Cobbler’s tubers really are magnificent.

This fact only deepened Sophie’s faith in the Lord of Earth.