Chapter 68: Kid’s Lunch

Chapter 68:
Kid’s Lunch

In a well-decorated corner of the huge, old castle, the twins quietly assessed the situation.

“How does it look, Alf? Are we good?”

“I think so, Mar. I don’t see any lookouts.”

After confirming that there were no guards—there usually were, in so-called “dangerous places”—the twins continued their “adventure.”

They held hands and traveled through the giant castle, making their way to the top of a tower on the building’s western side. They went one floor at a time, carefully and quietly. The twins couldn’t have been more excited. They were on the path to the “witch’s den.”

“You must never, ever go to the tower on the castle’s western side. A great witch lives there.” The mother of the Duchy’s first prince and first princess, Alfred and Margarette, had told them this since they were wee tots.

So, the twins decided to spend their free time “adventuring,” instead of playing. They were going to the dangerous place their mother warned them not to visit.

They’d decided to sneak into the room of the evil witch herself.

After what felt like years climbing the tower’s spiral stairs, the twins reached the top and found what they were looking for.

“Ah! There it is!”

“This is it…?”

Before them stood a large, weathered door. They pushed against it, and it responded by slowly swinging open.

“Huh…? This is just a regular old room.”

“You’re right.”

Peeking in, the twins saw an ordinary space, far different from the witch’s home they’d expected.

Inside was a large canopy bed that could probably have fit ten children their size, a mirror decorated with gold, silver, and all sorts of beautiful stones, silver-lined furniture, and a jewelry box resting atop a bedside table.

This was all tremendously normal to the twins, who were Duchy royalty. As such, it looked like nothing but a boring, ordinary bedchamber to them. The twins had expected the room of a vile witch, like they’d heard about in fairy tales. This was a tremendous disappointment.

“Aw. Boooring.”

The twins sat on the bed. It was so soft that they felt as though they were sinking into it.

What a dull turn of events this was. They’d gone through all the trouble of sneaking past the minister and general, and for what? Nothing. In an attempt to recover from the disappointment, Margarette opened the jewelry box on the bedside table.

“Aaaaaah!”

Cold air blasted out of the box. The young girl screamed and pulled her hands back.

“What is it?! What happened?!”

Seeing Margarette flustered led Alfred to believe that she might have found something interesting. He looked over at the open jewelry box.

It appeared to be an ordinary jewelry box at first glance, but there were no jewels within. Instead, there was a silver spoon and a single glass bottle filled with some kind of strange yellow substance.

The twins’ eyes glistened with expectation.

“It’s full of medicine.”

“The witch’s medicine.”

“What should we do?”

“Mm… I don’t know.”

The pair looked at each other, trying to puzzle their way out of the unexpected situation. They’d worked up the courage to invade the witch’s territory, but they had no plan for after they arrived.

After a moment of silence, Alfred piped up. “Let’s try drinking it.”

Since the young prince would eventually inherit his father’s throne, he had to show his courage. That was precisely why he grabbed the silver spoon and the bottle full of the bright, mysterious yellow substance.

“Are you sure about this?” asked Margarette, concerned.

“Yeah! Probably.”

Replying in the most flippant way possible, Alfred broke the bottle’s seal and plunged the spoon inside.

A chunk of hardened “witch’s medicine” jiggled atop the spoon as he raised it. Alfred gulped, a nervous expression on his face, and then put the medicine into his mouth.

“What the…?! It’s sweet! Super sweet!”

Against all odds, the witch’s medicine was overwhelmingly sugary. As far as Alfred could tell, it was made of milk and eggs.

The medicine’s flavor spread across the prince’s mouth and melted away into his stomach.

The sensation caused him to plunge the spoon back into the bottle and immediately grab another mouthful of the substance. Before he could do so, however, he felt a tug at his sleeve.

“Brother, let me try it!”

Margarette could probably tell that she’d just watched him eat something delicious.

“Oh… Yeah. Sure.”

After doing battle with himself for a moment, Alfred passed his sister the spoonful of witch’s medicine.

Like her older brother, Margarette opened her eyes wide in delighted shock, a massive smile on her face.

“What is this stuff?! It’s so tasty!”

Her reaction made Alfred happy.

He was just about to finish off the medicine when a voice behind them froze the twins in place.

“Excuse me. What are you two doing?”

This was a witch’s home, so of course an actual witch would be present. Realizing this, the twins turned fearfully to look at the person who had caught them red-handed. That was when they made a discovery.

“Auntie?!”

“Why are you here, Auntie?!”

Standing before them was no scary witch but the silver-haired auntie who the twins’ father frequently said was special to him. The twins’ responses were appropriately high-pitched and childish.

The Duchy’s former first princess, Victoria, sighed loudly.

“This is my room. Why wouldn’t I be here?” she answered, putting the situation together in her head.

Victoria’s younger brother, the twins’ father, loved her as a precious member of the family. However, his wife’s feelings were another matter.

The twins’ mother, who belonged to a noble family connected to the royal bloodline, loathed Victoria.

As far as the former first princess could tell, her brother’s wife saw her as a nuisance. Victoria never meddled in political affairs, but she was nonetheless beloved by her brother. It certainly didn’t help that Victoria was a half-elf, a race the Duchy’s citizens had despised throughout its existence.

***

The royal family had ruled the Duchy for years, starting with the Crooked King, who was the legitimate son of the last king of the Ancient Kingdom.

When the Crooked King was still young, and referred to by his real name, he entrusted the Duchy to his son, the crown prince. At the time, the land was an important source of grain for the Ancient Kingdom and a point of trade with the Western Continent.

Although the crown prince would eventually inherit the Ancient Kingdom, his rank fell temporarily. There was nothing strange about this. It was a practice passed down within the Ancient Kingdom for years. The prince would learn politics and leadership while governing an extremely important part of the country, preparing himself for the day when he would rule the Ancient Kingdom itself.

The only problem was that nothing about this arrangement ended up being temporary.

The Crooked King was a half-elf changeling. Due to his life span and inability to age, he was quite different from the humans surrounding him. His reign lasted several hundred years. During this time, the Ancient Kingdom experienced great prosperity.

However, the Crooked King’s son, the crown prince, was just a human. There was no way he could live for centuries.

So, when the Crooked King’s life was finally ending, the crown prince—who had come to be known as the “first generation prince”—had long since passed on. The fifth generation of his family now governed his land, so the man in line to become the Ancient Kingdom’s ruler was, in fact, a complete stranger to the Crooked King.

It would have been one thing if that man was the king’s grandson or great-grandson. But he was just an ordinary human who had little in common with the Crooked King. How could the king possibly hand over the Ancient Kingdom, which he’d spent hundreds of years bringing to greatness, to a stranger?

With those thoughts running through his head, and his time in this world coming to an end, the Crooked King lost his mind.

He at last used the forbidden magic the elves of old had locked away. Alongside the palace mages, who could access the ruins the old elves left behind—as well as his trusted half-elf minister and general, who had helped him govern the land for over a hundred years—the Crooked King dirtied his hands with magic that allowed one to abandon their mortal form and live eternally as a spirit.

He made this choice so that the Ancient Kingdom’s prosperity could last forever. However, he and the others never stopped to consider why the elves had forbidden such magic.

Thus, the Ancient Kingdom’s capital—once said to have a thousand years of greatness ahead—was overrun with liches, turning the land into a nation of the dead. The Ancient Kingdom split into numerous smaller kingdoms, causing an era of war and strife.

***

Hundreds of years had passed since then. Half-elves were now unwanted and were strictly forbidden from having any say in the government.

This was true even in the case of the Duchy’s princess. Perhaps it was especially true of her, since the Duchy had already been betrayed once by half-elf royalty. Thus, Victoria was not permitted to stand in her country’s spotlight, nor did she have any desire to.

She lived in the castle but distanced herself from the royal family, holing up in her room on the building’s edge.

“But why are you here, Auntie?”

“Are you the witch?”

The children feared little as they questioned Victoria.

“That’s right.” Victoria nodded, smiling. “I’m a mage…
a witch.”

Victoria looked at the pudding the twins had eaten and was struck with an idea.

“Come back here during the day tomorrow. I’ll show you some real witch magic.”

Tomorrow was the Day of Satur. Victoria decided that it wouldn’t be a problem if she doted on her niece and nephew a bit.

***

The next day, bells echoed through the corner of the Duchy’s castle.

“This is another world…”

“Amazing!”

The twins looked around. It was their first time visiting the restaurant. The room was bright, despite being a basement of sorts, and full of all manner of decorations and trinkets they’d never seen before.

Just as their aunt had described, people from all over the world were present. Monster folk, such as lizardmen and lamia, quietly ate the food they’d ordered.

The room they’d passed through to get to the restaurant—the “true” witch’s room—was filled with all kinds of strange magical tools and books, along with a plethora of witch-like medicines. It was mysterious, but this room was even more bizarre.

As Victoria sat the curious twins down at a table, Aletta appeared.

“Welcome! Can I take your order?”

Since Victoria was with the twins today, she would have a normal meal and pudding, rather than pudding to go. “I’d like carbonara and regular pudding, please.”

Victoria then ordered a meal she’d only heard named by Altorius, her master. “If I remember correctly, you have a special ‘kid’s lunch’ for children under twelve years old, don’t you?”’

“Huh? The kid’s lunch?” Aletta repeated the order back. This was her first time hearing it mentioned aloud. Now that she thought back, not many of the restaurant’s customers were children, especially not kids under twelve.

Victoria had expected Aletta’s reaction. She repeated her order calmly. “Exactly. I’d like two for the little ones here.”

“Understood.” Aletta nodded. “That’ll be right out.”

She returned to the kitchen to confirm the order.

A little while later, the demon waitress quietly placed the lunch sets in front of the twins.

“Sorry for the wait! Here’s your carbonara and kid’s lunches.”

Confronted with the steaming-hot kid’s lunches before them, the children made eye contact. The dishes were extremely mysterious compared to the meals they were familiar with.

“This is so weird.”

“Yeah, but it looks tasty.”

The lunch sets’ aroma made them gulp loudly despite their confusion. Various foods sat atop the strange plates, which had distinct, cornered sections.

The twins saw some kind of round, cooked meat with dark red sauce on top. There was also some kind of small white flag with a red circle in the center, sitting on a layer of lightly cooked yellow egg, which in turn sat on a bed of the orange rice that the Western Continent was known for.

The plates also contained some sort of weird, light-brown sticks slathered with whitish sauce. The twins could tell that these had shripe-like red tails, but they were still strange.

There was also some kind of round, white ball sitting on a bright green leaf. Little specks of color dotted the sphere’s surface. Thinly cut fried cobbler’s tubers sat next to a small container of red sauce.

Last but not least, glass bottles full of the yellow stuff their aunt had recently taught them about stood beside the plates.

“Ah! This is pudding! There’s pudding!”

“You’re right!”

The twins were full of glee. They went for the pudding first, but Victoria stopped them gently.

“Nope. You have to save the pudding for last.”

Her words were far from mean or loud, but their strength made them impossible to ignore. The twins simply obeyed. There was no reason for disappointment. Everything in the kid’s lunch was positively delicious.

Alfred tried the piece of meat nearest to the center of the dish first. He picked up the small silver fork and knife next to the plate and cut into the meat.

“Wow! It’s so soft.”

The meat was more tender than he expected. His fork easily cut through it.

As soon as Alfred brought the meat close to his mouth, he smelled its rich aroma and the scent of the sauce atop it.

The young prince’s stomach rumbled.

He gulped and put the piece of meat into his mouth. It spilled juices and fat as he chewed. The dark red sauce and the oranie mixed into the meat, producing a complex, savory flavor that Alfred found instantly delicious.

Although still young, the prince had experienced all manner of luxuries—the Duchy offered fine meals—yet the flavor of the kid’s lunch made Alfred believe that he hadn’t truly known what deliciousness was until that very moment. He focused on eating the food in front of him, losing complete awareness of his surroundings.

Margarette tried the mysterious dish with a red tail first.

What is this?

Living in the Duchy’s capital, removed from the ocean, Margarette had never seen anything like the food in front of her. Tilting her head at the strange object, she cut off a small piece with her knife and then brought it closer with her fork.

Wow. It’s so pretty.

A layer of transparent white, mixed with a dash of pink, peeked out where she’d cut the strange food. Its tremendous beauty took Margarette’s breath away.

Her aunt had instructed her to eat the other foods on the plate before the pudding. Seeing the red-tailed dish up close, Margarette felt herself getting excited. Her cheeks lit up immediately when she tossed the odd food into her mouth.

The strange food was, in fact, an ocean creature. It had a slight seafood aroma but an altogether different mouthfeel from fish.

It wasn’t entirely rare to find fish or shellfish on the Duchy palace’s dinner table, thanks to preservation magic that prevented rotting. That said, shripe—which Margarette was currently indulging in—was especially quick to rot. Furthermore, it was said to be a food of the common folk. As such, it wasn’t served to royalty.

The savory shripe’s flavor was entirely new to Margarette, which explained why it gripped her heart so quickly.

Yup! This is super tasty!

The dish’s mixed flavors—the crunchy outer layer, the soft shripe meat, and the eggy, slightly sour white sauce—mixed in Margarette’s mouth, dancing across her tongue.

The reluctance the twins had felt vanished into thin air as they dug into their kid’s lunches.

The main attractions—the meat and seafood—were delicious, but the rest of the food on the kid’s lunch plate was nothing to scoff at, either. The white, ball-like side dish and the egg-topped orange rice were both delicious in their own ways.

In the Duchy, frying the Empire’s famous cobbler’s tubers in oil was uncommon. However, these particular cobbler’s tubers were a treat all their own. They were clearly fried in high-quality oil, and their crunchy surface and soft white insides fell apart gently in the mouth.

Salt was an adequate seasoning, but the sour red sauce made them even more delicious.

The flag-topped rice used that same red sauce. The dish, which included chicken meat fried with some kind of yellow vegetable, lacked sourness and was instead surrounded by a buttery aroma. The rice on its own would have been very appetizing, but the addition of the soft egg’s flavor turned the mixture into a perfect side dish.

Last but not least, pieces of orange karoot, green beans, and some sort of yellow vegetable were mixed into the white ball sitting atop the green vegetables. They created a stunning pattern on the ball’s surface.

As they ate, the twins discovered that the ball was actually made of cobbler’s tubers. They’d been pre-mashed, soured a bit, and mixed with the sauce that topped the shripe. The end result was a little acidic but had a smooth texture. The karoot and beans mixed in weren’t particularly tasty, but the rest of the dish was more than delicious enough to make up for that.

***

Although the twins’ eyes had initially been drawn to their pudding, they soon changed their tune, instead wanting to try everything on their plates. Their hands and mouths moved as fast as their bodies allowed. Rather than obeying the usual rules and manners of dining, they dug in with big, messy smiles.

Victoria grinned as she enjoyed her noodle dish, which tasted of milk and eggs. Her beloved little brother’s blood flowed through the veins of her niece and nephew.

If I had children, would it be like this?

Being humans, the twins would eventually grow up and most likely pass on to the next world before Victoria.

With that lonely thought running through her mind, she watched over the pair warmly, like a mother, as they enjoyed their pudding.

***

“Auntie, that was super tasty!”

“Thanks for taking us here!”

The twins finished their satisfying meal. Then, noticing that their faces were a mess, they panicked, cleaning themselves with the white cloths at the table.

“Of course.” Victoria replied, smiling. The twins were doing their best to stand properly. “Remember, you’re my precious family.”

“And, um, um…”

“Could you take us again someday?”

Victoria realized that today’s meal at the Restaurant to Another World had been even more delicious than usual because she’d eaten with her niece and nephew. For this reason, her answer was already set in stone.

“Absolutely. I’d be happy to have the company!”

The words left Victoria’s mouth effortlessly, putting huge smiles on the twins’ faces.