Chapter 45: BBQ

Chapter 45:
BBQ

Stab. Stab. Stab. The master threaded the bamboo skewer over and over again, each stab meeting its target precisely.

His right hand clad in a thin vinyl glove, he was totally focused in the rhythm of filling the bamboo skewers with large chopped up pieces of meat and vegetables.

The master had woken early that morning—so early that many people would describe it as the middle of the night. He’d finishing his preparations and had been single-mindedly stabbing the pieces of food onto the skewers ever since.

There was a mountain of skewers to go, along with meat and vegetables, so he kept at it until opening hours rolled around.

Stab. Stab. Stab.

“Um, Master? What are you doing?”

Aletta’s voice broke the master’s skewer-trance.

The workday had begun, and he’d barely realized it. He turned to his employee.

“Hm? Ah, just preparing some stuff for tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow? Isn’t that an off day?”

“Oh, no, no. When I say tomorrow, I don’t mean for Nekoya. These are for the fall festival.” The master waved his hand back and forth before a puzzled Aletta.

Indeed, Sunday was the day of the fall festival at the neighborhood shrine. The master and the rest of the business owners in the shopping arcade were going to be putting out stalls and helping out.

There were a great many restaurants in the shopping arcade that Western Cuisine Nekoya occupied. In fact, about half of its neighbors were other restaurants. And another half of the remaining shops supplied those restaurants with ingredients.

Most of the companies in the business district of the neighborhood lacked cafeterias, so every workday around lunchtime, about a thousand office workers would wander their way into the shopping arcade in search of a tasty bite. It made sense that the majority of shops over here would eventually turn into restaurants.

But that didn’t mean they had it easy.

More than half of the customers that came to the shopping arcade had a specific place they preferred over all others; they were guaranteed repeaters.

This meant that if a restaurant didn’t have at least one unique speciality—one “thing” that brought people back—they wouldn’t last a year.

Because of those high standards, the restaurants left standing were highly regarded. Nekoya, of course, was one of them. The shopping arcade boasted Western cuisine, Japanese cuisine, Chinese cuisine, soba, sushi, ramen… While each restaurant had its own unique menu, their chefs all had the skills and clout to call their food the most delicious.

During normal business hours, the restaurants had an agreement that they wouldn’t step on each other’s toes when it came to menu items. What benefit was there to cannibalizing each other, after all? But there was an exception to this rule, and it came around every fall for the local shrine’s festival.

On that one day of the year, restaurant stalls went head to head, competing with each other to sell their fare.

Most customers tended to peruse each stall before deciding on something to eat. It wasn’t as if there was anything to lose or gain if a particular customer didn’t select you. But there was something deeply frustrating when that person turned you down to eat someone else’s food.

Which was why every year, each restaurant in the shopping arcade would attempt to sell more than their rival did. And after lowering their prices as far as they could while still breaking even, it all come down to making the food that would draw the most customers.

It was because of this very “competition” that what started as a tiny shrine’s little festival quickly became a popular hot spot for tourists and regular customers alike. It even got a special feature in every year’s Town Magazine.

Of course, as one of the oldest restaurants in the shopping arcade, Nekoya wasn’t excluded from this cutthroat competition.

Every year, all the way back to the days of the previous master, Nekoya put together a booth that pushed the standard of quality forward.

***

And so, the master had settled on his dish for this year’s festival.

“These are some skewer-grilled foods I’m planning on selling at the stall. BBQ is probably a better way to describe ’em,” the master explained, showing Aletta one of the meat-and-vegetable-stacked skewers.

“BBQ… That’s what you call skewer-grilled food in this world?”

“Yup! I had one of my other part-timers give it a try yesterday, and they said it was damn good. And with homemade sauce to boot.”

Last year, the master lost handily to a Chinese restaurant, The Laughing Dragon, and the special steamed pork buns they always brought to the festival. Back when he was in high school, he’d worked part-time there under its owner, who was someone he considered to be his own master of sorts. But this year he had confidence that he could win.

If The Laughing Dragon’s master was going to come at Nekoya with the mouthwatering aroma of hot, steamed foods, then Nekoya would respond with the savory scent of barbequed meat, vegetables, and seafood.

The master was ready to rock and roll.

“Oh, and I’ll be giving you and Kuro some, so you’ve got that to look forward to!” the master told Aletta. Kuro had just arrived for the day as well. “I figure BBQ is a little too heavy for the morning, so that’ll be tonight.”

This would be a good chance to get his employees’ impressions, too.

“Yay! I’m really excited!” Aletta cheered.

Understood. I’ll have it with my curry, Kuro spoke into their minds.

Aletta nodded her head firmly. If the master was so confident, there was no way it wouldn’t be delicious. She was certain of it.

“That’s what I like to hear.” The master smiled. “Ah, looks like we’ve already got guests.”

The bell at the front door rang, signaling the start of business hours. The master watched as Aletta hurried over to greet the customers and went back to threading the skewers with vegetables and meat.

***

While the Restaurant to Another World was busy around lunchtime, things got fairly quiet when the sun set.

Many of the doors Nekoya was connected to were in out of the way spots. Some of them were near settlements or in towns and cities, but the majority of doors were in the middle of nowhere.

If someone tried to visit Nekoya in the evening hours, by the time they reached the door, the moon was usually high up in the sky.

Not to mention, the night brought with it all manner of dangerous beings. Monsters, beasts, and the undead were all active in the nighttime. So it simply made more sense to drop by during the daytime, rather than risk death.

But these beings, too, might be customers of the Restaurant to Another World. All manner of monsters called the areas around doors their homes. Halflings weren’t the only race to camp out nearby.

And so the evening came. Compared to lunchtime, things were generally much less busy. One group had pushed two tables together to fit their whole party.

“Oh hoh! Whiskey really is the best damn liquor ever!”

“Oooh, yeah! And with this fried seafood? Unbeatable, you hear me?!”

Gard and Guilhem, a pair of dwarf artisans, downed strong whiskey as if it were water.

“Heh, you just don’t get it, do you? Shochu is the best booze in this whole joint.”

“Right that. They both might be strong, but shochu is way more delicious.”

Drinking next to the two short dwarves was a couple of ogres at least three times the dwares’ height, Tatsuji and Otora.

“I wonder about that. I’m personally all about the wine here.”

“Agreed, my love. The red and white wines of this world are positively delightful.”

A pair of pale vampires, Romero and Julietta, offered this opinion to the group, savoring their wine.

“Really? If we’re talking grapes, I’d rather go with brandy… Wait a second! Hey, dwarf! I heard rumors that you folks can make whiskey. C’mon, make some brandy instead! Lady Celestine needs some for those sweets she makes and all! If you can make the real deal, the Shrine of Light would gladly buy it all off of you!”

Carlotta, a ravishing redhead and silver sigiled priestess of the Lord of Light, had enjoyed a round of pound cake with her boss and fellow associates. After seeing them off, she’d stayed behind with this group to enjoy a glass of brandy.

Indeed, each of the people at this table was able to leave Nekoya that night without any concern. They were the boozehounds of the Restaurant to Another World, the tipsy regulars. Had their meeting happened out in the real world, there was little doubt that it would have been a nightmarish bloodbath. But at Nekoya, that kind of behavior was strictly forbidden.

Long ago, a customer who dined and dashed had been forbidden from ever returning to the restaurant. That was when this rule was first established.

After enjoying their favorite meals, the members of this group had moved from their respective tables and joined up to enjoy some drinks and light snacks together.

Meanwhile, Aletta found an open table and sat down with a plate for herself—a single skewer. Tatsuji and Otora caught sight of the dish in the girl’s hands.

“Oh? Ain’t that the waitress? Must be dinner time.”

“Wow… Is that some kind of skewer-grilled food? Looks real good.”

They knew that the master, a resident of the other world, offered his employees foods that he normally didn’t serve to customers. Off-menu dishes.

On occasion, people would see the demon waitress eating something that looked delicious and attempt to order it for themselves. But they almost always got the same response: “Sorry, pal. But that’s not the sort of dish I offer to customers.”

“Man, today’s staff meal looks even more delicious than the usual.”

“I bet it’d go great with booze…”

The dwarves, catching sight of Aletta’s plate as well, could tell that her dinner would pair well with alcohol. They gulped their drinks, eyes set on the girl and her meal.

Their round noses quivered, taking in the aroma of the cooked fish. The delicious scent in the air only made it worse that they couldn’t sample the skewer themselves.

“Hmph… Seafood and vegetables, eh?”

“I bet it’d go lovely with white wine, my love.”

The vampire couple waxed nostalgic about the pairing of wine and fish. As nobility in their realm, they’d sampled it many times.

Carlotta was less impressed.

“Hmm. I prefer meat, to be honest. I’ve never really had much fish. I can’t even imagine what that dish would taste like.”

She’d been born in a landlocked place; “seafood” meant little to her.

***

Aletta paid no mind to the eyes on her as she gulped her meal down loudly.

I better eat before it gets cold!

Under normal circumstances, the skewered seafood and vegetables would have been handed to her from a booth and eaten on the spot.

From top to bottom, the skewer was threaded with scallops, a yellow vegetable called corn, krakeen, a kind of mushroom called king oyster, and finally a curled-up shripe. The vegetables in particular were said to be most delicious during this time of the year. They’d been barbecued with just a dash of soy sauce.

According to the master, the skewered meat was a bit rich in flavor, so seafood was the lighter of the two options.

“Thank you, oh god of demons, for this, my daily bread. I offer you my gratitude.”

Aletta offered her prayers to her god before promptly lifting up the skewer. The tantalizing scent wafted upward.

Aletta’s other boss, Sarah, had once explained to her that there was a saltwater lake called the ocean. The demon girl had unfortunately never seen it for herself.

What she did know was that all the creatures of the ocean that Nekoya served were delicious.

Aletta took a moment to just enjoy the unique aroma of cooked seafood and soy sauce.

It was enough to make her mouth water.

She swallowed loudly and took a bite.

Mm! It’s delicious!

Aletta opened her mouth to let out some of the hot steam from the freshly cooked food, taking time to savor the first bite.

The first thing that jumped out at Aletta was the flavor of the shellfish seasoned with soy sauce. She was used to eating these sorts of foods with some kind of crust or breading, but this had just been cooked over fire with some soy sauce. Yet it tasted amazing! Was this magic?

With each bite the shellfish fell apart in her mouth, releasing its savory juices. This would have been a magnificent meal in itself.

But there was so much more to the skewer.

The sweet corn, the tender mouthfeel of the krakeen, the mushrooms drenched in soy sauce, and the delicious finale: shripe.

Because the skewer alternated from seafood to vegetable, Aletta could enjoy each component on its own.

It didn’t take long for her to polish off the whole thing.

That was delicious, but I want more!

The skewer had been a shock to her taste buds, and Aletta was ready for another round.

That was when it happened.

I brought seconds. Try the meat one.

Kuro, the other waitress, telepathically communicated her intent to Aletta, placing a new skewer atop her empty plate.

“Are you sure?!” Aletta looked up, spotting both Kuro and the master.

“Of course!” the master said. “Plus, I figured just one wouldn’t be enough. I was planning on having you try both of them to begin with. Kuro said it was delicious, by the way.”

“Wow, thank you so much!”

Aletta reached for the meat skewer while the master watched over her.

Ah, the sauce on this is amazing!

The moment she bit into it, Aletta was overwhelmed by the deliciousness of the meat skewer’s sauce.

It was sweet, spicy, and sour at the same time. All three flavors mingled in her mouth, fusing into one super flavor.

The beef on the skewer had soaked up the sauce. Thanks to the master’s careful prep work, the meat was nice and tender, filled with delicious juices that gave the sauce a run for its money.

Even better, between the pieces of meat were pieces of oranie and cobbler’s tubers. The oranie had only been lightly cooked, so it maintained its delicious snap and hot flavor just fine. Each bite came with a satisfying crunch, the vegetable melding wonderfully with the taste of the sauce. Meanwhile, the cobbler’s tubers had been boiled and cut into the perfect size, and crumbled apart in her mouth with every bite.

Each vegetable was a palate cleanser, allowing Aletta to fully enjoy the rich flavor of the meat without issue. She was thoroughly satisfied.

“Well? How was it? Do I get a thumbs up?” the master inquired.

“Two, even! They were both delicious!” Aletta smiled, nodding her head. This was her honest impression. In fact, it was so delicious that she’d be willing to part ways with some of her precious pay just to buy more.

“I see, I see,” the master said. “All right! Tomorrow’s lookin’ damn bright!”

He let out a sigh of relief. But little did he or Aletta know that nearby, a certain group had been eavesdropping.

***

“Yo, Master! Are those for sale?”

The master jumped in surprise as the large ogre man called out to him. And it wasn’t long before he saw: not only were the ogre’s eyes enthusiastically glimmering at the prospect of BBQ, but so were the eyes of all his companions at the table.

“Huh?! Uh, well, er, yeah…” the master stuttered.

As soon as he’d said it, the thought crossed his mind: Did I just make a terrible, awful, no good mistake?

“Well, in that case, get me one of those skewers! I’ll take five of them seafood ones to start with!”

“Five meat skewers over here, Master! Make haste!”

“We’ll be having ten each to start with! Oh, and another bottle of shochu!”

“Just keep ’em coming! I know for sure they’re gonna go well with the booze!”

“Then I suppose we’ll have one of each, then. Ah, if possible, could you bring them out without the skewers?”

“Spare the garlik, thank you!”

“Ah, then I’ll have one of the meat ones. I bet it’d go better with beer instead of brandy, so could I get some of that, too?”

Everyone called out an order.

“Huh? Um, well, all right.”

The master reluctantly nodded his head. He hadn’t planned on selling the skewers to customers, but it’d be rude to say they couldn’t have them because they were from the other world.

***

…By the end of the night, over one hundred BBQ skewers would be devoured, forcing the master to work well into the night to prepare for the fall festival. But that’s a story for another time.