Chapter 38: Mushroom Spaghetti

Chapter 38:
Mushroom Spaghetti

There was a small, nameless village in the middle of a forest. On its outskirts lived a healer named Alisa. She had been quietly waiting for the morning of the seventh day with excitement, and, as usual, smiled with relief when she spotted the black door.

“Thank goodness.”

In the garden of her house in the woods, Alisa had a crowded little medicinal garden in which she planted difficult to handle herbs and the like. Three years ago, the black door first appeared there. Since then, she’d looked forward to visiting the Restaurant to Another World on the other side.

“I’d better hurry and get ready!”

And so, Alisa began prepping herself to go out for the day. She put on the homemade makeup she created from flowers and herbs she found in the forest and fields, then put on her best dress. Alisa was an orphan but had the good fortune of being picked up and raised by a kind healer who would go on to become her master. This same healer sewed her that very dress years ago. Lastly, Alisa took just a handful of coins from the money she earned selling medicine.

“All right, perfect. I can’t wait!”

Despite her thoughts being set firmly on the joyous occasion that only came once every seven days, Alisa still found it in herself to make medicine until it was actually time to head out. In her excitement, she ended up botching a handful of things, but she was able to let it go because of the happy mood she was in.

It was around the time that the sun had settled directly overhead. Alisa made her way through the black door, right on schedule.

Her ears were met with the sound of bells as the door closed behind her, only to almost immediately reopen.

“Hey ho! Hiya, Alisa! Doing well?”

“Hiya, Meimei! I’m doing awesome.”

The person who entered behind Alisa was a young lady with a big smile, brown skin, and large, white goat horns poking out from under her deep black hair.

“Awesome! That’s what I like to hear! Now let’s get to sitting!”

“Yup…”

She must be busy, since it’s around lunch time.

Alisa’s attention drifted toward the waitress collecting and bringing out orders to the customers. After a moment, she turned back to her friend and nodded her head enthusiastically. The pair sat down at one of the empty tables.

“Welcome.” At about the same time, the master of the restaurant appeared with water in hand, having just brought out another customer’s meal. “Will you be having the usual?”

Since first arriving at Nekoya a few years ago, the pair almost always ordered the same thing.

“Yes. I’ll be having the Japanese-style mushroom spaghetti, please.”

“And I’ll be getting the cream mushroom spaghetti! Oh, and can you bring some choppy chopsticks, too?”

“You got it,” replied the master with a nod, returning to the kitchen from whence he came.

“So? How’ve things been going for you over there?”

“Oh, same as usual. Just tending to the goats and all. What about you?”

“Same old, same old. I check on the herbs and flowers, collect mashruums in the forest, make herbal medicines… Oh, but recently a customer came by and…”

The pair of friends continued chatting with one another. Their conversation wasn’t particularly deep or unique; just two friends enjoying their time together. For someone like Alisa who had been living alone ever since her master passed away due to illness, this shared time together was incredibly important.

“Hey, what’s up? You’ve been looking over at the waitress girl for a while now!”

“N-no, it’s nothing,” replied Alisa, a smile on her face.

The healer thought this restaurant was rather comfy. If nothing else, her hometown would never allow a demon to work as a waitress. It would just never happen. Alisa’s master was an incredibly talented healer, someone who was kind enough to look after an orphaned girl who had no blood relation to her. Yet even someone as good and decent as her had to hide her eyes and scales by wearing bandages and a hood to mask her face. Nobody cared about the demons.

“Yo! Booze! Three more bottles of that shochu stuff!”

“Roast chicken and fried rice balls if you please!”

“Then I’ll be gettin’ an order of scotch eggs!”

“Seconds on the carpaccio, please!”

“Lemme get that with smoked salmon next!”

“Mm. Another order. Omelet rice.”

…At this point, little surprised Alisa about this restaurant where ogres, lamia, lizardmen, and all sorts of monster folk could politely enjoy a hot meal together.

“Sorry for the wait. Here’s your Japanese-style mushroom spaghetti and cream mushroom spaghetti.”

Alisa had her thoughts interrupted by the arrival of the master with their food.

“Now this is what I’m talking about! Geez, it looks as delish as ever, Master!”

“It certainly does. Shall we dig in?”

The pair began eating their respective meals as the master left them to their devices. Alisa took her fork in hand and began burying it into the brown, Japanese-style spaghetti. Across from her, Meimei had chopsticks in hand as she waged a full-frontal attack on the white cream spaghetti.

It’s amazing how she can eat with those sticks.

Alisa watched as Meimei skillfully scooped up the cream mushroom spaghetti doused in white knight sauce and ate. Her own stomach could be patient no longer, so she looked down to her own plate of food and began digging in. Mixed into her spaghetti were all manner of meats, dark green vegetables (Meimei explained that these were apparently “spinach”), oranie that had been fried to sweetness, and mashruums. The pasta itself had two different types of mashruums in it, both of which had completely different flavors and textures to them. The plentiful mashruums were what drew Alisa to the dish.

Gotta start with the mashruums.

Alisa used her fork to grab some mashruums along with spaghetti. Both mashruums were visually distinct from one another despite being dyed brown by the Japanese sauce covering the dish. One of them had been thinly sliced, while the other still had its full, black head intact. She brought them to her mouth alongside the noodles with their distinct buttery and salty flavor.

Mm. The stars of this plate are definitely the mashruums.

It went without saying that both mashruums were perfect in their deliciousness. Not only did they maintain the tastiness inherent in them, but they had also absorbed the flavors and juices of all the other ingredients. They were truly glorious.

There was the stir fried oranie’s distinct sweetness, the savory flavor of the fatty meat, the buttery aroma of the noodles, and perhaps more important than all else, the Japanese sauce used to bring flavor to the entire dish.

With each bite into the mashruums, her mouth was filled with its savory juices. According to the master, the mashruums he used in the dish were the “shimeji” mashruum and the “mushroom.” Alisa believed herself to be fairly knowledgeable in all manner of herbs and the like, but she’d never heard of these otherworldly mashruums before. Nonetheless, they were both tremendously delicious. The spinach included in the meal had an appetizing savoriness all its own, but it didn’t stand a chance against the mashruums. Alisa’s smile widened as she continued eating.

“Whew.”

After making some progress in her meal, Alisa put her fork down for a moment. Meimei followed in kind.

“Then as usual…”

“Let’s trade.”

The pair washed out their mouths by sipping down some ice water before trading plates of the remaining spaghetti with one another. As young women living alone, they didn’t exactly have deep pockets. So, when Meimei came up with an idea for them to be able to experience two flavors for the price of one, Alisa was all over it.

Yeah, this is super good, too.

The cream mushroom spaghetti she got from her friend was undeniably tasty. It wasn’t particularly different from the pasta dish she ate before in the sense that they both included the same basic set of ingredients. The main difference came in the form of the way they were seasoned, so to speak.

The “cream” part of the dish’s name referred to knight sauce. It was a rich sauce made using milk, butter, and wheat flour. Compared to the Japanese sauce of the other dish, it had a sweeter smell to it, on top of being significantly more buttery. Their combined sweetness melded well with the other ingredients. In fact, it was much more delicious than the standard knight sauce made for use during festivals and the like.

In Alisa’s hometown, knight sauce was served during special days like festivals, but where Meimei was from, it was apparently still relatively unknown.

The first time the healer discovered it at the restaurant, she ended up shedding tears over how incredible it was. Meimei got a good laugh out of that.

It really is fascinating. Even though we live in the same world, what we eat couldn’t be more different.

Alisa thought back on all the stories she had been told and giggled to herself.

According to Meimei, her hometown had a sauce that was similar in flavor to Japanese sauce. It was made by letting salted fish ferment, and it was something that made the rounds in her homeland, the Ocean Nation.

Being a resident of the Eastern Continent, Alisa knew what knight sauce was but hadn’t the slightest clue about Japanese sauce.

This all served as a reminder that their cultures were altogether very different.

It really is fascinating.

There was no way Alisa, a healer who lived in the woods just outside her hometown, would ever come to meet someone like Meimei. She took a moment to express her gratitude to God as she continued eating the creamy pasta in front of her.

***

The pair finished eating at just about the same time and paid the master before heading to the exit together.

“Then I’ll see you in seven days!”

“Yup! That’s a promise.”

Alisa stepped through the door somewhat sadly after exchanging promises with her friend. She once again stood in her familiar herb garden, but there was nobody next to her. Meimei must’ve come out the other side of the door from where she entered it, most likely the farm where she was taking care of goats.

“It’s really too bad…”

Alisa sighed as she watched the black door behind her vanish into thin air after having fulfilled its primary objective. Meimei was a dear friend, but she could only spend time with her once every seven days, and only at the Restaurant to Another World.

It didn’t matter if she was human and her friend a demon. It was nonetheless tremendously sad that she could only see her friend once in a blue moon. With those thoughts running through her mind, Alisa returned to her medicinal herb duties, quietly longing for the next time she’d be able to enjoy a delicious meal alongside her best friend.