Chapter 23: Cheesecake

Chapter 23:
Cheesecake

Hilda, the “Night Strider,” kept guard in the woods. She was a mercenary who operated out of the imperial capital.

“…Geez, they were a real pain in the ass.”

She watched the last fleeing goblin of a group of thirty-four jerk its head back and fall to the floor through her crystal goggles, and finally let herself relax.

In her hands was her trusty crossbow, powerful enough to pierce even steel armor. Hilda bought this weapon for herself when she became a first-rate mercenary back in the day. The nice thing about it was that, despite its power, it was still light enough for a woman like Hilda to hold with little issue. On her head she wore a hat with a hood made from tough beast hide attached to it. Her eyes, which made the difference between life or death as far as she was concerned, were protected by translucent crystal goggles. She wore sturdy leather pants, a leather, sleeveless jacket so she could feel the wind on her skin, and mythril gauntlets that ran from her elbows to her fingertips.

Hilda was a mercenary who primarily operated on her own. She was born with eyes that could see well in the dark, as well as ears that could hear even the tiniest of noises. It was honestly less that she worked alone and more that there were few mercenaries who were able to keep up with her in the pitch-black night of the woods.

“I’ll come back and loot them later. For now, I should probably head back.” Having taken care of the goblins in question, Hilda began talking to herself. It was a bad habit she had picked up due to operating alone for so long.

Hilda’s experience as a mercenary told her that goblins and treasure went hand in hand. Defeating such a large band of them would mean a hefty payday. Of course, goblins didn’t really understand the worth of any of the things they collected, so about half of their belongings ended up being trash. But, on occasion, they would collect copper, silver, sometimes even precious jewels and stones they took off their poor victims. You never knew what you might stumble upon. Hilda would be paid for slaying the goblins, but that was an altogether different payoff from looting their dead bodies. Being able to cash in on those goods was necessary for mercenaries like Hilda, who operated alone.

Over twenty years ago, the cobbler’s tuber was discovered by the great emperor. This strange food could be grown even in cold regions where wheat couldn’t be harvested. Even better, tubers grew beneath the ground, meaning that birds couldn’t damage them like they did other crops. This nutritious staple could be eaten boiled or roasted, leading it to eventually be referred to as the “crop of the gods.” All across the country, frontier villages were built to grow cobbler’s tubers and sell them to other towns.

It was from one of those villages that Hilda had received a job offer. They wanted her to eliminate a group of goblins that had moved into a nearby forest. It took three days for her to eliminate the thirty-four creatures calling the woods their home.

“Goblins are easy pickings nowadays,” Hilda whispered to herself as she shouldered her crossbow and quickly made her way back to her camp. It was a simple enough location; she had already gathered some firewood together so she could get a campfire going. She’d be heading back to the village come morning, but for now, she wanted to enjoy some dried fruits and rest as a reward for a job well done.

Or at least, that’s what she planned on doing before she discovered it.

“…Hm?”

Hilda stopped in her tracks.

“Is there something there…?”

Her eyes began darting across her surroundings. Despite how dark it was outside, she was able to see as clearly as if it were the middle of the day. Her eyes unconsciously narrowed.

“Is that a door?”

Directly in front of her eyes was a large, black door with a golden handle. Its construction was magnificent, with an illustration of a cat on its front. It made zero sense that this would be in the middle of some random forest.

“This wasn’t here yesterday. I’m sure of it.”

Hilda had passed this way the previous day, so she knew full well that this object was out of place.

“I don’t know what’s going on,” she muttered. “But I smell treasure.”

Her instincts were yelling at her to press forward. She placed her hand on its cold, black surface.

Rarely were the mercenary’s instincts wrong. While she barely had any of her equipment on, and all she currently carried was her old crossbow, she believed in them. She had long since left her small hometown in the middle of nowhere, refusing to spend her life as a fisherman, and found her way to the imperial capital. It was there that she began calling herself a mercenary, and it was her instincts that got her through all kinds of life-threatening situations, as well as earned her her nickname and her relative fame around the nation. She trusted her eyes, ears, and instincts more than anything else in the world; they were her partners.

She squeezed the door handle in her hand and turned it.

“Ah! W-welcome!”

Hilda found herself loudly greeted by a young girl in a strange uniform. While the sounds of a bell ringing filled her ears, she was surprised by the presence of the girl in front of her. Through her crystal goggles, Hilda saw a young lady wearing a short skirt and a top with short sleeves. Not altogether uncomfortable-looking at all. That was all well and good.

The problem was what was on top of the girl’s head.

“You’re…a demon?” Hilda asked the girl in a low voice.

Indeed, the young lady in front of her had two black horns growing out from her head of blonde hair. If she were a human, they may have just been an accessory of some kind, but Hilda couldn’t be fooled.

“Huh? Oh, um…”

“Ah, no, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to—”

The young demon girl in front of her immediately shrank in response to Hilda’s words, as if she were used to that kind of treatment. Hilda panicked and quickly took off her goggles and hat, revealing her identity.

With no goggles blocking them, Hilda’s green eyes were visible for all to see. In reaction to the bright light of the interior she was in, her pupils narrowed…vertically. No longer hidden by her hat, Hilda’s dark brown hair covered her similarly colored, pointed ears. They twitched slightly.

“…I’m also a demon. My name is Hilda.”

She, too, was a demon who had received the blessings of the dark lord. Except in her case, they took the form of cat eyes and ears.

“…Oh, my. Thank goodness. I thought you might hate me or something!” The young demon girl smiled at Hilda as she let out a sigh of relief. “I’m a waitress here at Western Cuisine Nekoya! My name’s Aletta. It’s a pleasure to meet you!”

“I see. Aletta… By the way, what exactly is Western Cuisine Nekoya? It would appear to be some sort of bar or eatery, as far as I can tell.”

Taking a quick glance around the interior of the shop, Hilda figured it must’ve been one or the other. Open tables and chairs lined the inside of a room with no windows. Despite the latter, it was bright as day. There were also a host of customers already present, munching on a wide variety of dishes.

“That’s right! The master told me this is a restaurant that doesn’t exist in our world. To be honest, I’m not really sure what that means!”

With a hint of nostalgia, Aletta explained to Hilda the circumstances in which she found herself working at Nekoya about a month before. While Hilda didn’t quite grasp the concept of there being “another world,” she at least understood that this was a special place.

“I see,” she said. “Well, a restaurant serves food, right? So long as we agree on that much, I don’t see the problem.”

“Yup! And all the food here is super-duper delicious!” Aletta explained to Hilda with a huge smile on her face.

It was very clear to Hilda that the young girl wasn’t being forced to say this by her master. No, Aletta truly felt that way.

“Well, in that case, I’m looking forward to trying some,” she said.

Hilda sat herself down at one of the open tables and took a sip from the glass of slightly fruity ice water that Aletta brought her from the back, completely free of charge. She unlaced her mythril gauntlets and wiped her hands clean with the warm, moist cloth on the table.

This is quite the nice spot, she thought to herself.

The water went down smoothly, and the cloth was nice and soft. Hilda’s instincts told her this was a good restaurant.

Plus, everyone’s meals look great.

There was all manner of seated customers around her, eating their food. The one thing Hilda noticed was that every one of them had a smile on their faces. Just as Aletta said earlier, it seemed as though the customers were quite fond of the food here.

As Hilda’s narrowed eyes drifted around the restaurant, they suddenly widened and rapidly blinked in shock.

Is that the great samurai master Tatsugorou sitting there? And wait…could that be the great sage Altorius next to him?!

The former was a legendary mercenary from the Western Continent. The latter was the greatest sage not only in the Kingdom, but among all of humanity. As a fellow mercenary, Hilda had heard all manner of tales about both individuals, and here she was, looking at them in the flesh. If this meeting had happened in her world, it would be massive news.

“Will you be ordering something?”

“Yes. Um, what do you have?” Hilda asked Aletta.

“Um, let’s see… Hilda, can you read Eastern Continent characters?”

“I can. I learned how after becoming a mercenary.”

Aletta’s expression brightened upon hearing Hilda’s answer.

“Ah, then hold on just a second, and I’ll bring you a menu!” She vanished into the back before reappearing just as quickly.

“We can serve you everything written here. Once you’ve made your decision, just call for me!” Aletta handed Hilda a thin but large book of some sort and shuffled off to deal with another customer.

“…Wow, there’s so much here.” Hilda, now alone, calmly opened the menu. Inside, she found careful explanations of what each dish was. Most of them were things she’d never heard of before.

“They serve croquettes and french fries here? Wha…?!”

The demon mercenary was considering ordering one of the few items on the menu she recognized: the thinly cut cobbler’s tubers often served at bars and eateries alongside alcohol. When she turned to the next page, however, Hilda felt like she’d been hit in the head with the softest of pillows.

“They serve sweets, too?!”

Under the section labeled “desserts” was a host of different sweets. Parfaits, pudding, pound cake, pancakes… None of them were remotely familiar, but she did recognize one thing.

“…They’re all cheap.”

The sweets on the menu of this otherworldly restaurant were all fairly inexpensive. The lowest-costing sweets were only a handful of copper coins, while the most expensive on the menu were still only ten copper coins. Normally, even the smallest of confectionaries would cost multiple silver coins at the very least. That was just the way it worked in Hilda’s world. Sugar and honey were both expensive and hard to come by, so sweets in general were considered food only nobles could afford.

When she was just a child, Hilda had risked being stung by bees with her friends to get honey from their beehives and pour it over sour fruits. As an adult, she’d use copper coins to buy the season’s fruits. But she’d only ever actually eaten a handful of real sweets in her life.

“Hmm… At this price, I gotta go with sweets.”

All the other food on the menu was around the same price. Considering how expensive sweets were where she came from, the choice was clear. Hilda had spent so much time being poor that she was strict about spending.

“But which one should I order…? Ooh, soufflé cheesecake?”

Hilda had felt that learning how to read Eastern characters would be key to her success as a mercenary, so she’d asked a comrade to teach her. Outside of that, however, she had very little education to speak of. Nonetheless, she trusted in the instincts that had kept her alive this far.

Which is how she decided on her order. She skimmed the list and went with the one that “felt” right. There were three different types of cheesecakes on the menu: rare, soufflé, and baked. She chose the one that was described as soft, with a cheesy flavor not unlike a fried confectionary. Cheese was Hilda’s absolute favorite food.

“Hey, Aletta! I wanna place my order!”

“Of course! Right away!”

“Get me one of these soufflé cheesecake things, would you? I’ll also have some of this black tea stuff, too.”

In the corner of the dessert page was a little section that read, “When you order any dessert item, including pudding, all drinks are half off.” Hence, Hilda decided to get a drink with her cake.

“Coming right up! Thank you very much!” Aletta took Hilda’s order and disappeared into the kitchen.

“I wonder what it’s gonna be like…”

Hilda waited impatiently, excited to see just what sort of confectionary she’d be treated to. Fortunately, all the sweets at the restaurant were apparently premade, so Aletta returned with the order on a clean white plate and a handled cup with tea in no time at all.

“Sorry to keep you waiting!” Aletta said. “This is your soufflé cheesecake and black tea set. The blue container over there has sugar in it, so feel free to add as much as you’d like to your tea.”

“Oh? I’m allowed to use the sugar…? Thanks.”

Hilda was already shocked that the sugar was free to use, but nonetheless took it. In front of her was a beautiful, ceramic white cup filled with reddish tea and a cheese-colored, triangular confectionary topped with violet sauce. Both were things she’d never seen before.

Let’s see, first… Wow, it’s so white. I’d heard sugar was typically brown.

The first thing Hilda did was open the lid on the blue container. Inside was pure white sugar and a small spoon with which to scoop it up. She had heard that sugar was brown, so when confronted with the salt-like, white grains, she grew suspicious. Hilda never thought to buy any for herself, so she wasn’t exactly knowledgeable on the subject. She scooped some of the sugar out of the container and placed it in her palm, then licked it.

…This is definitely sugar.

All it took was a single lick for the sweetness to spread across the top of her tongue, confirming it as sugar. Hilda dropped three scoops of the stuff into her tea before taking a sip.

“Mm, this is good.”

The tea itself was sweet with just a hint of sourness to it. Hilda wasn’t used to drinking this sort of thing, but she could nonetheless feel it making its way through her tired body. It was quite delicious.

“Let’s see. Next is…”

It was time to dive into the soufflé cheesecake. She took hold of her small fork and cut off a corner of the triangle that had no sauce on it.

“A cheese-flavored confectionery, eh? Wha…?!”

The moment Hilda took a bite of it, she raised her voice.

While the cheesecake undoubtedly had the aroma and sour flavor of cheese, it was also sweet. What really stunned her, however, was its texture.

No way. I know the menu said it was soft, but this is insane!

Indeed, the confectionary Hilda was currently indulging in was far too soft. It was both moist and light, quickly falling apart in her mouth. The only thing that remained was the sweet, cheesy aftertaste. She was sure she’d eaten a piece of the cheesecake, yet nothing remained of it in her mouth.

“This is incredible!”

Unable to forget that amazing texture, she quickly took another bite, this time a much bigger one. Just like before, it was soft and fluffy before fading away and leaving behind the flavor of sweet cheese. But that wasn’t all.

Hm?! This violet sauce is awesome, too?!

The next piece she cut from the cake had some of the violet sauce on it, and it, too, tasted brilliant.

Wait, is this sauce made from sugared, boiled berries?

The sweet and sour berry sauce paired perfectly with cheesecake. It had a thick sweetness to it that fresh fruits simply didn’t have. Both the cheese and the berries were sour in completely different ways, but the sauce brought them together in harmony.

The moist cheesecake even partnered well with Hilda’s tea.

“Excuse me, Aletta! Could I get another order of… No, two more orders of cheesecake? And a refill on my tea, too!”

It was inevitable that Hilda would order seconds.

“Of course! Hold on just a moment!” Aletta responded cheerfully.

***

“Phew… I can’t believe they even let me order takeout.”

Hilda walked through the forest at night, her breath still smelling of cheese. In her hand was a round cake (six slices worth) she had purchased from the Restaurant to Another World. She even received a little glass jar of sauce (apparently called jam) to use on it. The fact that this all cost a single silver coin was incredible.

Quite happy with her purchasing decisions, Hilda hurried back to camp.

“I can’t wait for tomorrow morning.”

The man who proclaimed to be the master of the restaurant warned her that if she didn’t eat the cake by the next morning, it might go bad. Hilda wasn’t in the least bit concerned. She’d be able to devour six slices of it in one sitting, no problem at all.

C’mon, Hilda. Patience. Wait till tomorrow!

Hilda shook her head at the thought of sneaking just one more slice for the evening. She knew she would regret digging into her new cake when she was still enjoying the aftertaste of the previous slice. She trusted her instincts.

And so, Hilda turned away from the cake and closed her eyes.

I guess, well… One of these days, I can tell them about that place. One of these days.

Hilda pictured the other female demon mercenaries who called the imperial capital their home. They were her rivals, but they were also easy to spend time around. While she wasn’t going to say anything yet, she figured it might be worth telling them about the Restaurant to Another World eventually and getting them to owe her one.

As she mulled over these thoughts, she slowly drifted off to sleep.