Chapter 4—A Long-Awaited Meeting?

The next day, Touya headed out by himself right after we had all finished our individual training. The girls stayed inside their room to craft backpacks. As for me, I started to practice magic while reading the grimoire on Time Magic that I had obtained the other day. However, my mana reserves were almost empty after a few hours of practice, so I took a break and rolled around in my bed. I wanted to learn to craft magic bags as soon as I could, but at this rate, it would probably take quite a while before that was possible. I technically did have the Magic Aptitude: Time skill, but it appeared that things weren’t going to be easy even with that.

“Whew. Oh yeah, this is actually the first time in a while that I’ve had a decent amount of time to myself.”

I had stayed with Haruka and Touya in a room for three for quite a while, so we’d been together almost the entire time we were in this different world. Life with roommates—even with good friends like them—caused me a tiny bit of stress, so I would’ve been blasted by absurd amounts of stress for sure if I’d had to live with some of my other classmates as well. In fact, I was fairly sure I would’ve ended up with a perforated stomach ulcer from stress if that had been the case. On top of that, I’d had to work constantly to earn money with almost no breaks up until now. I’d had no choice but to do so due to how dire things were, so I’d never felt like slacking off, but this kind of lifestyle still tired me out quite a lot over time. If all the NEETs in the world were thrown into similar circumstances, then they would surely end up escaping the NEET life one way or another after a week. Whether or not they would still be alive after that week didn’t matter. Either way, it would still be an escape.

“Hmm, I haven’t had lunch yet.”

The safest option for food was the dining hall downstairs at this inn. However, it wouldn’t really be a refreshing experience due to the lack of a cute waitress. Other people would probably yell at me for being so demanding despite the fact that I was grouped up and in a party with Haruka, Yuki, and Natsuki, but that was different. All I wanted to do was to get to know more people in this town. I had no ulterior motives. The only acquaintances I had in this town aside from Diola-san were the owner of this inn and Gantz-san from the weapon shop. Things in this world were different from modern society back on Earth, so it would probably be a good idea to try to be more sociable as practice for life after we left The Slumbering Bear to move into a house.

“All right, then.”

There was no way I could get to know more people if I just stayed in my room. I changed into my outdoor clothes and took a gutting knife with me in case I needed it to defend myself, then headed out of the inn. I felt kind of uneasy with having nothing but a knife on me, but it wouldn’t feel right to ask someone to become friends with me while I was carrying around a spear. That would straight out be coercion if I did it to an ordinary citizen.

“Now then, where should I head first?”

The Slumbering Bear was located a bit away from the center of the town, so if I headed towards the central plaza, then I would find stalls there set up by merchants along with farmers who’d come from the countryside to sell their produce. That was the most bustling area of town, so I would probably have a decent time even just looking around. Hmm. I paused in thought for a while before I decided to head towards the maze of alleys in the opposite direction. I walked down the main road on a daily basis, but the only time I had explored the back alleys was when I’d been looking around for Yuki and Natsuki, and I hadn’t had the time to enjoy the scenery then since I’d been in a rush. Hmm, I guess it’ll be pretty fun to enjoy the exotic scenery of this different world while looking for another inn like The Slumbering Bear to eat at. Well, hopefully I’ll find someplace similar...

We had settled on staying at The Slumbering Bear up until now because it was the inn that had been recommended to us in the beginning. However, we had done some research later, and we’d found out that this was the best inn in the vicinity due to the cheaper lodging and the decent food. It wasn’t a famous inn by any means, and it wasn’t in a good location either, so business wasn’t exactly booming, but the dining hall would be packed full of local citizens due to the fact the food was delicious. In fact, the inn probably made most of its profit from serving meals, and locals probably treated it as more of a dining hall than an inn. We’d once asked the innkeeper why the guard at the gate had recommended this inn to us, and he’d replied that it was probably because the guard’s parents lived in a house nearby. I’m glad it’s his parent’s house that’s nearby. We would probably bump into him on a daily basis if he himself lived nearby, and that would be annoying.

“Well, this sure is some exotic scenery.”

Most of the houses lining the alley were one-story private homes. There were some two-story houses as well, but almost none with three stories. The houses looked like they were made of wood, bricks, and mortar. They weren’t as pleasant to look at as buildings located in tourist spots in foreign countries, since those buildings were purposefully built to look nice on the outside, but the houses here looked fairly clean and were decent for sightseeing purposes. The main difference between the area I was in and the kind of tourist spot I had in mind was the lack of potted plants in the windows of each house. I took in the scenery for a few hours as I walked around town, but I hadn’t encountered any places similar to The Slumbering Bear. Well, I technically had encountered some here and there, but they all gave off a strong feeling that first timers weren’t welcome. I wasn’t brave enough to enter those kinds of places alone, so all I did was glance inside for a bit before I resumed my walk through the town. I wouldn’t have had the courage even back on Earth, so it was way too daunting in this different world.

“Hmm, do I have no choice but to return to the main road? Oh, wait, what’s this?”

A building came into view just as I was considering whether I should return to the main road. This place looked quite fancy from the outside and the front was decorated with some potted plants. It gave off a warm atmosphere and didn’t seem like a place that wouldn’t be welcoming of first timers. Yeah, I think I can enter this kind of place. It looks like a nice café—wait, café? I stopped myself before my hand touched the door when I came to the realization that this place was probably a café. Based on the cafés I had seen back in Japan, it looked like a fancy one too, but I also had to consider the fact that I was in a different world. This place might actually be expensive and high class, right?

I didn’t have much money on me, which was a fairly normal situation for me to be in. Haruka was in charge of finances for our whole group, and we would do things together most of the time, so there was no real need for me to carry my own money. All I had on me was some money from the allowance that Haruka gave me regularly, which was only about five hundred Rea at the moment. She had started this allowance system because she thought Touya and I would feel uneasy about having absolutely no money on us, but the first time I had actually used my allowance money was on that accessory that I’d bought as a gift for Haruka the other day. That was why I didn’t have much money left on me at the moment, but I didn’t really need more for anything.

The Slumbering Bear would provide us with a breakfast and dinner that tasted fairly decent, and the idea of going out to buy a snack from a stall was way too spooky after that experience we had gone through on our first day with that disgusting stall food. Anyway, if we needed some snacks, we actually had a lot of dried fruits that Haruka bought. Those dried fruits were quite filling by themselves, so there was no real reason for me to challenge myself by trying out food from stalls. It seemed like I would probably need more money for this café, though. Its appearance definitely set it apart from the other places I had encountered so far, so that probably meant the prices were also different—in a bad way.

I slowly drew my hands back from the door and was about to turn around and leave when I suddenly got interrupted by a girl who jumped out of the café. She was significantly shorter than me and looked like a child at first glance, but her ears stood out above her ponytail since they looked a bit sharper than normal human ears.

“W-Welcome! A-Are you here as a customer?!”

“Y-Yeah.”

Oops, I said yes without thinking! I mean, well, there’s no way I could actually say no to a beautiful elf girl. She’s a loli elf with actual tears in her eyes, and she sounded very desperate when she asked me if I was a customer, so as a guy, I have no choice but to say yes! Sure, I’m an elf myself, and so is Haruka, but that doesn’t matter! There’s no limit to the number of beautiful girls who can exist! Okay, I’m glad I got that off my chest. I kind of lost control of myself for a bit since most of the new people I’ve met recently have been middle-aged men.

“Feel free to come on in!”

The elf’s tears swiftly disappeared and were replaced with a beaming smile after I said I was a customer, and I took her offer and entered the café. The interior had a calm atmosphere to it, as I’d thought it would based on how the building looked from the outside, and there were a few tables spread across the room along with a few counter seats as well. There was plenty of space between each table and between each counter seat, so this café looked like a place that was well suited for someone to sit down and enjoy their time in peace. There were also all sorts of decorative plants scattered across the interior, which was very different from any of the dining halls I had encountered in this world so far. Yep, this looks like a fancy and expensive café! Five hundred Rea would be enough to pay for a light meal and snacks at a somewhat expensive and fancy café back on Earth, since that amount was the equivalent of five thousand yen, but it probably wouldn’t be enough at this café. It should be enough for a drink at least, right?!

“P-Please take a seat here!”

The elf appeared to be quite nervous even though she had a smile on her face as she recommended a seat to me, which was one of the counter seats. As soon as I took a seat there, she went behind the counter and stood in front of me to take my order.

“W-What would you like to order?”

“Let’s see...”

I was kind of nervous myself due to how fancy and expensive this café seemed as I looked around. Most places that served food and drinks in this world tended to have their menus somewhere on the walls, but I couldn’t find a menu no matter where I looked. There were also some places where you could just say you wanted some meat and alcohol, but that was definitely the wrong answer for this café.

“Um, can I have a menu?”

“O-Oh, I’m very sorry! H-Here you go!”

The elf hastily bent down below the counter to reach for something, and she handed me a wooden board that appeared to be the menu.

“Thank you.”

I was able to remain calm due to the fact that the elf was extremely nervous. It kind of felt like watching a kid do their best to help out with their parents’ business or store, which was very heartwarming and soothing. There was a good chance she was older than me, though, since she was an elf. Part of me wanted to continue watching this heartwarming scene in front of me, but it would probably be a good idea to look at the items on the menu first. I needed to find something to order that I could afford. Let’s see, what’s the cheapest thing available?

“Huh?”

I felt a bit confused when I looked down at the menu, because it seemed like everything on here was quite cheap. Well, the prices were still more expensive than food at a stall, and the same went for the drinks, but they were in the same range as the prices at dining halls. In fact, the prices were cheap enough that even I could afford to pay for an order with the measly amount of money that I had on me at the moment. I looked away from the menu and slowly took another look around the café. Yep, there’s nobody else here aside from myself.

“Um, is there something in particular that you’re looking for?”

“O-Oh, it’s nothing! Well, I’ll have the daily special, please.”

“Okay, one order of the daily special coming right up! Please wait for a bit until your order is ready.”

The elf smiled at me once she heard my order and then headed towards the kitchen, which appeared to be located in the back. Hmm, this really is strange. Is it normal for a café like this to be empty during lunchtime even with these affordable prices? The cost for the daily special that I had ordered was five hundred Rea, which was more or less the same as the average cost of a meal at a dining hall. The dining halls that provided food around here all served daily specials at similar prices. Even if there wasn’t an item labeled “daily special” on the menu, you would get something similar if you ordered a meal or just anything to eat. A lot of people would order food in that way since the meals provided would be decently filling at a fairly cheap price, but the actual food served would often taste kind of bad.

I had actually eaten meals at another dining hall before along with Haruka and Touya. The food we had been provided had been a single plate with some carrots and asparagus covered in salt along with a pile of meat scraps that had included some internal organ parts, plus one huge block of rye bread. All of that food had tasted absolutely horrible. The carrots and asparagus had both tasted weird and were hard to chew, and the meat had possessed a strong, nasty smell. As for the rye bread, it had been extremely sour, along with being very hard to chew as well. It had still been a better meal than the food we had gotten at that stall on our first day in this different world, but that didn’t change the fact that it had been a painful struggle to swallow everything down.

After that incident, we’d all decided together that if we were going to eat lunch at a dining hall, then it would be at The Slumbering Bear. It was possible that we might have eventually found a place that served delicious food at cheaper prices if we’d kept searching, but it wasn’t worth having to eat disgusting food every time we failed, and we couldn’t really afford to waste money eating at expensive places that served delicious food.

Well, today, I had been willing to take a gamble at a new place since I had some free time. This café had seemed like a good choice based on how it looked from the outside, but there was nobody here at all. Even the stall that had terrorized me on my first day in this world had other customers who had ordered food from there. In a way, I was actually kind of curious if the food here was disgusting enough to explain the café being empty at this time of the day. Well, I wasn’t sure if the food was going to be disgusting or not, but I was about to find out.

“Sorry for the wait! Here is your daily special!”

“Oh, hmm...”

I had only waited for a short amount of time when the elf came back with a plate that had what appeared to be the daily special on it. The dish looked quite different from the other ones I had seen so far. There was a cube steak on the plate that appeared to be the main course, and it had a nice color to it that made it look delicious. Next to the steak were four different types of vegetables that were all cleanly cut into the same bite-size pieces. The side dish appeared to be some mashed potatoes mixed with minced meat and vegetables. I was quite impressed by how good the presentation of this dish was. In fact, it looked just as good as the kind of dishes that restaurants back on Earth would provide. The food at other dining halls in this world paled in comparison to this daily special in front of me, since they would all just randomly slap food together on a plate and didn’t care about the presentation.

“This looks quite good. All right, I’m digging in.”

It was time to find out what it actually tasted like. Yep, this tastes delicious. The food had a light taste to it due to the lack of various spices and seasonings, but it still tasted quite good. In fact, it was good enough that I would be willing to return to this café for this dish from time to time. It was hard for me to decide a clear winner between this daily special and the food that the innkeeper back at The Slumbering Bear served. A simpler way to put it was that the food at The Slumbering Bear was simple and rustic, while the food here had more of a refined taste that women would most likely prefer. On the other hand, men who performed physical labor for a living would probably find that this food wasn’t hearty enough for them, but this refined taste definitely matched the atmosphere of the café, so it was the right choice to go with.

“How is the food...?” The elf sounded a bit worried as she watched me from behind the counter.

“It’s quite delicious, which really makes me wonder why there aren’t other customers here.”

When she heard my frank opinion, she grimaced and tears appeared in her eyes. She leaned over the counter to cling to me. “A-as a fellow elf, w-would you be willing to listen to my story?!”

“S-Sure, but I probably can’t do anything aside from listen.”

“That’s more than enough...”

The fact anyone who would listen to her would do well enough probably meant she was in dire straits, since she looked quite relieved when she heard my response. After that, she sighed in relief and poured some tea for two before she sat down next to me and began to tell me her story. She told me that her name was Aera, and she had spent a long time in a large city far away from here working as a cook to train and work towards her future dream of eventually being able to start her own café. However, the only results her training had produced was an improvement in her cooking abilities. Her salary had remained the same the entire time, so she hadn’t been able to save up much money. On top of that, the price of land in large cities was extremely expensive, so it was impossible for her to buy a café there with her savings. As a result, she resolved to move here to Laffan with her entire savings. Laffan was in the countryside, so she could afford to purchase a café here.

Well, it wasn’t actually a café at first, apparently. The original layout of this building wasn’t anywhere near a typical café or restaurant, which meant that she couldn’t start business right away. She had set up a meeting with a carpenter to discuss how she wanted the building renovated, and that was when she met a self-proclaimed consultant, who was the cause of her current plight. The consultant had suddenly interrupted her conversation with the carpenter and had started to criticize her plans. He’d gone on and on as he told her all sorts of things that she needed to do in order to succeed, which had ended up being the revised plan that had led to the current state of this café. A plan like that would normally have sounded suspicious to her, but Aera-san told me that it had sounded great to her at the time for some reason, so she’d gone along with everything that the consultant had said and had told the carpenter that this was the revised plan that she wanted, despite the fact that the final plan had far exceeded her initial budget.

The self-proclaimed consultant had requested a consulting fee for his “advice,” which had been a hefty amount in itself. After that, he’d completely vanished and had never appeared before her again. Aera-san had finally snapped to her senses a while after this happened and had been stressed out by the fact that she had spent more money than she had initially planned on, but the reform order had already been processed, so there was nothing she could have done at that point. She’d had no choice but to start business three days ago after the renovations were complete, but she had ended up with zero customers throughout those three days. I was apparently the first customer here who’d come here to order something, which had saved her from the verge of despair.

“It’s true that I used up more money than I had planned on, but I thought my cooking abilities would make things work out somehow. However, since I started business, I’ve ended up with no customers so far aside from you. What did I do wrong...?”

It looked like the pain of her plight had overwhelmed her once again; after she finished her story, she looked down and a small puddle of tears appeared on the ground in front of her. Her ears were drooping and trembling a bit from sadness. After I saw that, I was convinced that only the lowest of scum would be able to tell her that they were going to leave since they had finished listening to her story. I wasn’t that kind of scum, of course, so I did my best to squeeze some advice for her out of my small brain.

If I had to point out her mistakes, the first one was that she’d gone along with the self-proclaimed consultant’s sales talk. It was way too suspicious, no matter how you looked at it. The interior of this café was vastly different from other places in this world, but it looked normal to me in a way. According to her story, the self-proclaimed consultant’s plan sounded good to her “for some reason.” Wait, this sounds like one of my classmates was involved. He probably had a skill like Persuasion or Negotiation and managed to convince her with that.

This café definitely looked like the result of someone coming up with a plan for a café despite having no actual knowledge of the dining industry and no knowledge of common sense in this world. The food here was delicious and cheap, and both the interior and exterior of the café looked fancy and attractive. It was located in a good spot too, since apparently, a lot of people would pass by this place on their way to work. Some of Laffan’s municipal government buildings were nearby as well, so if things went well, this café definitely seemed like it had the potential to meet the demand for lunch from people in this vicinity. All these conditions would lead to a booming business back on Earth.

However, this was a different world, so there was no way that common sense about how things worked back on Earth would also work here without any adjustments. Our party of five couldn’t really afford to help out someone else since we had to look out for ourselves first, but I felt extremely bad at the sight of her tears, since it was most likely one of my classmates who had caused her plight. I wasn’t personally responsible for any of this, but my classmates were technically still fellow Japanese people. I felt the same way I would whenever I saw news on the TV about how Japanese people had done something stupid overseas and caused trouble for the locals. I guess I do have some time, so I might as well try to help out.

“All right. I’d be willing to help you out a bit if you don’t mind, Aera-san.”

Aera-san looked up at me with her face full of surprise, but she awkwardly looked away as she replied to me. “Huh?! But, um, I barely have any money left on me, and I don’t have anything else I can offer as thanks in return for help...”

“Don’t worry. I don’t think you’ll need money for things to work out.”

“Really?!”

In her excitement, she suddenly brought her face close to mine, so I nodded and tried to calm her down. “Y-Yeah. Also, you don’t have to worry about giving me anything in return. I’d feel bad about abandoning a fellow elf who needs help, after all.”

I mean, I’m fairly sure that any other guy would react the same way as I did if a cute elf girl got up in their face. My heart raced for a second since I’m not used to cute elf girls at all. As for Haruka, that’s different, I guess. It’s just Haruka.

“First, though, I’d like to ask my friends for their opinions as well. Can I bring them with me and come back tomorrow, Aera-san?”

“O-Of course! I’ll be waiting! I really need any help I can get, please!”

As she frantically bowed her head to me, I promised I would definitely come back tomorrow, and then I left the café to head back to The Slumbering Bear.

“So yeah, that’s what happened earlier at the café that I went to.”

We had all gathered back at the inn later in the day for dinner and I was telling everyone what I’d experienced. The girls all nodded as they listened.

After I had finished telling my story, Haruka put in, “So, you’re saying that you were captivated by how cute that elf girl looked, right, Nao?”

“No, how did you get that idea?! My story’s just a heartwarming one about helping out someone who desperately needs help!” I can’t believe that she would draw that kind of conclusion. How rude!

“So you’re saying that you had no ulterior motives at all?”

After a slight pause, I said, “Of course I didn’t.”

“Guilty!” the girls all exclaimed in unison.

“Oh, come on! I mean, yeah, I’ll admit that the elf girl was definitely cute, and I wanted to become friends with her if possible rather than never seeing her again. She’s the first elf I’ve met who’s a native of this different world, after all. But that doesn’t mean I had ulterior motives or anything. Not at all, you know?”

As I was hastily explaining myself to the girls, Touya put his hands on my shoulders. “Enough, Nao! Don’t make any more excuses!” he exclaimed. “You’re just digging your own grave at this point.”

Dude, I’m not digging my own grave! I really just wanted to become friends with that elf girl, that’s all!

“And?”

Huh? Why do you have such a cold tone in your voice, Haruka? You’re misunderstanding things! However, she just jerked her chin at me as if to tell me to hurry up and explain, so I gave up on my excuses—I mean, I gave up on a detailed explanation and tried my best to be concise.

“Well, I just didn’t want Aera-san to rely on my opinions and ideas alone, so I kind of wanted one of you girls to come with me to contribute ideas.”

“Hmm, all right, that makes sense,” said Haruka. “I have other things to attend to, so can you girls go with him?”

Oh, she doesn’t sound upset anymore. I don’t know what cheered her up, but oh well. Natsuki and Yuki were almost done with their backpack-crafting work. All that was left for them to do was to finish the sewing pattern for Diola-san to bring to the guild artisans, and that was apparently something that Haruka could handle on her own.

“Sure, I don’t mind,” said Yuki. “I’m kind of interested in seeing what the café and loli elf look like myself.”

“I’m willing to go as well,” said Natsuki. “If it was one of our classmates who caused trouble for her, then I would like to do my best to help her out.”

“Thank you both!” I exclaimed. “I wanted a girl’s opinion on how to fix that café’s issues, so this will help a lot.”

I had a few ideas in mind to fix and improve the café, but it was reassuring to have the help and brainpower of two people who were probably more knowledgeable than me in this area.

“I should be done with teaching the guild artisans how to craft these backpacks within two or three days, so that’s the amount of free time you have to resolve that café’s problems,” said Haruka.

“I’ll do my best to finish helping out within that time frame...”

It would be hard to immediately implement improvements, but even getting a start would be more than enough. That café wasn’t a rented property, so business would work out in the long term as long as Aera-san could keep afloat and make a profit.

“Oh yeah, what did you do today, Touya?” I asked.

“Me? I was kind of curious about how Tomi was doing, so I went to help him out a bit.”

“By Tomi, you mean Wakabayashi-kun, right?” Natsuki asked. “The boy who became a dwarf?”

“Yeah. I felt like helping him out if he was doing honest work and working hard.”

I’m surprised that you’re willing to look out for him, Touya. I mean, Tomi isn’t a bad person by any means, so I’m not against the idea of helping him out in our own free time, but...

“What can you actually help him out with, though?” I asked.

“Remember how Tomi has a high Blacksmithing skill level along with the aptitude skill? I think he can succeed here in this world if he can find a blacksmith who’s willing to take him on as an apprentice. That would normally be difficult, but you remember Gantz-san, right?”

“Oh yeah, the owner of that weapon shop where we’ve bought a lot of our equipment,” I said.

We had bought all of our equipment from that weapon shop ever since we first bought a wooden sword for Touya there. Gantz-san seemed unsociable at first glance, but he was actually quite a chatty and chill dude once you got to know him.

“I was thinking about introducing Tomi to Gantz-san if Tomi was actually working hard here in this world.”

“Was he?” I asked.

“Yeah, he was working hard at manual labor jobs. It looked like he had fit in quite easily since he’s able to do a lot of work with the muscle strength he has, but it was only his third day at work, so I’m going to observe him for a bit longer.”

“Hmm. He came off as indecisive to me, but it sounds like he’s actually made up his mind to survive in this world,” said Haruka.

I had thought crafting professions in this world would be similar to how things worked in MMOs, but the reality was quite different. Before you could find work as a blacksmith yourself, you would need to find a professional blacksmith who would be willing to take you in as his apprentice, and it definitely wasn’t easy for some random guy with no credentials and a suspicious background to become an apprentice.

“It’s true that we’ve gotten to be on decent terms with Gantz-san, but do you think that’s enough that he’d be willing to take on an apprentice based on a recommendation from you, Touya?” I asked.

“I’m not completely sure, but I kind of have an idea ready that’s something like a scoring combination of hanafuda cards. It won’t lead to a guaranteed win, or in this case success, but it’ll do.”

“Scoring combination? I guess I kind of understand what you mean,” said Haruka. “So, what is it?”

“Well, uh, I’ll let you know if it works out, Haruka. It’ll be kind of embarrassing if it doesn’t.”

“I don’t really mind, but try not to cause any trouble for Tomi, okay? Based on what you described, he’s working hard to make his own livelihood, so keep that in mind.”

“Of course. I get it.”

Hmm, I’m kind of curious about what exactly that metaphor about a scoring combination of hanafuda cards refers to.

“Okay, let’s go over our individual schedules for tomorrow,” said Haruka. “I’ll be at the guild teaching how to craft backpacks, Touya will be looking out for Tomi, and the rest of you three will be in charge of that loli elf, right?”

“I’d like to raise an objection about the choice of words ‘be in charge of a loli elf,’ but yes,” I said.

“Objection overruled. All right, let’s all do our best tomorrow as usual. Let’s resume eating our dinner.”

“Okay,” we all agreed.

My objection had gotten overruled as usual, and we all finished our dinner afterwards.

★★★★★★★★★

“Is this the café you were talking about, Nao?” Natsuki asked. “It definitely looks like the kind of café that you’d see back on Earth.”

“Mm, it looks like a fancy place with a good atmosphere that you could find anywhere in a residential area back in Japan,” said Yuki.

“Right? Let’s head in first,” I said.

I opened the door and led the way in. It looked like the café was empty as usual.

“Welco—oh, Nao-san!”

Aera-san was standing at the counter and looking a bit depressed, but a beaming smile of happiness appeared on her face as soon as she saw me. She hopped over to where I was and grabbed my hands.

“You actually came back like you said you would! Thank you. I’m so happy to see you again!” She looked up at me with tears in her eyes as she said that. I thought I heard some voices behind me mutter the word “Guilty,” but that was probably just my imagination.

“Of course I came back. I would never dream of breaking the promise that I made to you that day. You can rest at ease now.”

“R-Right, I’m sorry.”

“Allow me to introduce my friends. This is Natsuki, and this is Yuki.”

“Nice to meet you,” said Natsuki.

“Hello,” said Yuki. “Oh yeah, what’s up with the way you’re talking, Nao? It sounds a bit weird and gentle for you, similar to how a guy hitting on a girl might talk.”

“Huh?! What on earth do you mean?! I take exception to that!” Sure, I guess I kind of talked like how I would to calm down a child, but still. Should I change the way I talk to her?

“Um, I don’t mind if you talk the way you usually do.”

I thought to myself for a bit and then nodded at Aera-san. “Hmm, I wasn’t consciously trying to talk differently, but okay. Sorry in advance if I come off as a bit rude talking like I normally do.”

“Don’t worry about it. We’re about the same age, after all.”

Oh, really? Well, I guess that makes sense. Or rather, she’s probably older than me, since she’s gone through culinary training and saved enough money to start her own business.

“So yeah, Yuki and Natsuki are two of my friends in our party of five people. The other two are a beastman and an elf, but they couldn’t come here today since they had other business to attend to, although they might visit on another day if they have some free time.”

“Oh, there’s another elf in this town? I’d like to meet her if possible. I haven’t seen any elves in this town up until now...”

“Oh yeah, I haven’t seen any other elves either.”

According to what Aera-san told me, you would always see a few elves if you just walked along the main road in the town where she had learned to cook. On the other hand, that number was zero here in Laffan. Aera-san was the first other elf I had encountered up until now.

“Well, I’ll bring them with me when we all have some free time. For now, let’s focus on discussing how to get your café business back on track.”

“Right! Um, so, what should I do?” Aera-san tilted her head in thought.

I pointed at Yuki and Natsuki. “Can you serve them lunch to start things off? A serving for one should be enough.”

“Okay, understood! It’ll take me some time, though. Is that okay?”

“Oh yeah, it’s still early in the morning. Sure, no problem. Take your time.”

“All right. Please wait for a bit.”

Aera-san bowed to me and then headed towards the back. After she disappeared into the kitchen, Yuki gave me a look that had some kind of implication behind it.

“Well then, she sure is a cute girl, isn’t she?” said Yuki.

“Mm. She looks like she’s younger than us, and she seems like the type of girl who you’d want to protect or help out,” said Natsuki. “Do you like those types of girls, Nao-kun? Are you a lolicon?”

“I can’t believe you would accuse me of being a lolicon! Believe me, I really don’t have any ulterior motives!”

Sure, I won’t deny that I think Aera-san is cute, but that’s not what made me want to help her. Well, okay, I’ll admit that it’s one reason. I mean, come on, what kind of guy wouldn’t be interested? In fact, I’d say it would be weirder for a guy to have no interest in a girl like Aera-san, yeah. Besides, she’s probably older than me, so she’s most likely not a loli.

“L-Let’s focus on coming up with ideas to help Aera-san’s café get back on track! Does anything come to mind for either of you?”

“Oh, I see how it is,” said Yuki. “All right, then.” Yuki sounded like she still had more to say, but she went along with my suggestion and looked around the café. “Well, this café does have a nice atmosphere.”

“Mm,” said Natsuki. “It also looks like it’s been thoroughly cleaned, so it feels like a café that’s suited for people who want to come and relax while having some tea.”

“Oh yeah, I’ve been to one other café in this world.”

I had visited a café together with Haruka and Touya before we departed for Sarstedt to look for Yuki and Natsuki. The prices on the menu there had been a bit expensive, but it had seemed quite popular and busy. That would probably be the ideal example for Aera-san to follow, but the location of this café was somewhat of a problem. Aera-san’s café was a place that a decent number of people would probably visit if they wanted to enjoy some time at a café with a calm, pleasant atmosphere, but the problem was getting to be well-known and popular enough for that. There weren’t many methods of advertisement available in this world, so it would be a difficult task.

“Um, where’s the menu located?” Natsuki asked.

“It’s not anywhere on the walls. Aera-san just handed me a wooden board that seemed to be the menu.”

“Hmm, I see...”

It was fairly normal to be handed a menu at places like this back in Japan, but it was quite unusual compared to other places in this world. Natsuki looked like she wasn’t sure what to say after she heard my reply. Being handed a menu meant that you could take your time deciding on your order, which was a good thing in itself, but...

“Sorry for the wait! Please feel free to try out the food!”

“Oh, the presentation is quite good,” said Yuki. “I’ll take a bite first.”

Yuki took a bite from both of the dishes before she passed them over to Natsuki.

“Yeah, they’re both delicious,” said Yuki. “They’re better than average by quite a lot, I think.”

Natsuki took a bite from both dishes as well. “Mm. I’m not completely sure, but I bet this is some of the best-tasting food in this town,” she said. She passed the dishes along to me.

The girls had both had breakfast recently, so it made sense that they couldn’t finish all of this. I had no choice but to finish the rest by myself. The dishes were different from what I’d had here yesterday, but they were still delicious. On their own, the ingredients weren’t exactly strong-tasting, so perhaps the final product tasted good because of Aera-san’s skillful use of fragrant culinary herbs or something like that.

“Also, can we have a look at the menu?” Natsuki asked.

“O-Of course!” Aera-san dashed back behind the counter and brought a menu board back with her to hand over to Natsuki. “Here you go!”

“Hmm, I see. All right, for now, let’s sit down and have a discussion. Does that sound okay, Aera-san?”

“Of course! I’ll go prepare some drinks for everyone! What would you like?”

“Anything will do—actually, can we all have a pot of this moussek tea? Does that sound okay to both of you, Yuki, Nao?”

Huh? I’ve never heard of that kind of tea before. Natsuki probably had a good reason for choosing it, though. Yuki nodded in agreement, so I decided to nod as well.

“Okay, please wait for a bit.”

Aera-san dashed back to the kitchen once again, and we all sat down at a table to wait for her to finish preparing the tea. After a while, she returned with the tea, and once she had sat down, Natsuki initiated the discussion.

“All right, the first topic of discussion will be why there are no customers. The answer to that question is simple, though.”

“R-Really?!”

“Yeah. I think you would’ve noticed this yourself right away if this wasn’t your own café, Aera-san, but the exterior of this café looks too fancy and high class.”

“Yep.” Both Yuki and I agreed with what Natsuki had said.

Aera-san paused in thought for a moment and then exclaimed, “Oh, right!”

This was something that had crossed my mind earlier when I was taking a walk around here. The area around this café appeared to be a regular residential neighborhood, not one where rich people lived. It also wasn’t an area full of activity and traffic like the main road. What that meant was that the people who would normally pass by here would probably think based on the exterior that this place was a fancy and high-class café where the prices of items on the menu would fluctuate based on market prices. I would have avoided this café myself if I hadn’t felt like it was similar to cafés I had seen before back on Earth.

“Now that I think about it, that’s definitely true. I was happy that my café ended up looking like a clean and fancy place, but I would have hesitated to enter a place like this myself with the wages that I was getting paid while training as a cook.” Aera-san looked down and sounded a bit depressed after she said that, especially since this was something that you would normally notice right away. “Knowing this doesn’t change anything, though. I don’t have any money left to move to a different place, nor do I have any money left to order a complete renovation of the exterior...”

“You don’t actually need that much money to fix this problem, Aera-san,” said Natsuki. “You just need a way for customers to know the prices of items on the menu right away.”

“Yeah, exactly,” said Yuki. “You could probably just set up a menu display outside and that’ll do just fine.”

Back in Japan, eating establishments that were located on or above the second floor in multi-tenant buildings would often use this method, so it was something we were all quite familiar with. Those displays tended to have pictures of the dishes along with their names and prices, which helped you decide whether to eat there or not. Without those displays, the chances of first-time customers entering eating establishments located on higher floors would be much lower. Yuki made all sorts of gestures to help explain what kind of display board we were talking about as she told Aera-san about this. Aera-san nodded along and seemed to cheer up as she heard Yuki’s explanation.

“Oh, if that’s the case, then I could probably just ask the carpenter who performed the renovations to make that kind of display board!”

“If you’re willing to take some time out of your day, then you could ask for a blackboard to use as a display menu and change the items on it with chalk every day,” said Natsuki. “You could add on a picture and a description of the daily special to attract customers that way.”

“Oh, that’s a good idea!”

The daily specials that were served at dining halls in this town never came with a description, so in a way, it was a gamble every time you went to a new place. We had never won that gamble so far aside from at the dining hall of The Slumbering Bear. I was fairly sure that at least a few people would be willing to give this café a try if they thought the daily special sounded delicious based on a description on a display board outside.

“All right, that should probably get a steady flow of customers coming into your café, but...”

“Yeah! Thank you very much for the advice!” Aera-san had a beaming smile on her face as she bowed to Natsuki.

It didn’t seem like she had heard the last word Natsuki had said, however. Natsuki shook her head before she continued her sentence. “But I’m fairly sure this won’t work out in the end.”

“Huh?” Aera-san’s smile froze in place once she had heard the rest of Natsuki’s words. “W-Why’s that? Customers will come to my café if I put a blackboard outside, right?”

“Yeah, you’ll get customers. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll be able to turn a profit.”

“Huh? What?” Aera-san tilted her head in confusion.

Yep, very cute. I’m glad that Natsuki came along with me. I wouldn’t have been able to break the harsh truth to Aera-san by myself. Well, I’d probably still have said it in the end, but it would have been mentally painful to do so.

“The price for each serving of this daily special is five hundred Rea, correct?”

“Yeah! I’m quite proud of this dish! I’ve come up with different variations of color palette and ingredients for each special!”

“Mm, that sounds amazing. This is the first time I’ve seen such a great dish in this town.”

“I’m glad to hear that!”

Aera-san had a smile on her face and sounded very happy when she said that, but that smile was probably going to freeze in place again quite soon after Natsuki’s next words.

“Can you make a profit out of serving these daily specials, though?”

She averted her gaze from Natsuki as she replied. “If I manage to serve a lot, then maybe...?”

“How many servings are you talking about here?”

“Well, it’ll have to be at least one hundred servings before I can make a profit. It’s a high-volume and low-margin system, though! I’m focusing on one dish to offer delicious food at cheap prices. Even if the profit margin for each dish is tiny, it’ll add up eventually and turn into a decent profit if I manage to serve a lot!”

“Is that what you were told?” Natsuki asked.

“Yeah!”

“You were tricked.”

“Huh?! Did I get lied to?!”

“No, it’s not actually a lie. However, that system only works at a large enough scale. You mentioned that you’d start profiting after at least one hundred servings. However, how many seats are available here in this café?”

“Um, there’s a total of twenty-six seats.”

The tables were set up so that there was plenty of space between each one, so there were only four tables with five seats each. There were also six counter seats, which added up to twenty-six seats in total. The capacity of this café was quite low compared to the scale that Aera-san was going for.

“That means you’ll have to completely fill this café with different customers at least four times during lunch to make a profit,” said Natsuki. “That’ll take at least two hours if we go with the estimate that each customer will stay here for about thirty minutes. Two hours might sound okay on paper, but you’re the only one working at this café, right, Aera-san?”

“Yeah.”

“You won’t need to spend time preparing the daily specials if you prepare them ahead of time, but can you really handle cooking complicated dishes along with carrying them to each customer, managing the payment process, and cleaning up afterwards all by yourself?”

Aera-san responded with silence. Eating establishments that operated on a high-volume and low-margin system were places like beef bowl shops and burger chains, but that only worked because they were fast food places that were quick, as their name indicated. The food would be ready very quickly, and the customers would be able to finish their food quickly as well. Customers could also just take the food with them to eat at another time or place. All of that allowed fast food chains to maintain a high table turnover rate, but the atmosphere of this café was the complete opposite of that. This wasn’t a place where you could order takeout. It was more like a place for a customer to sit down and take their time while enjoying their lunch. If Aera-san really wanted to aim for a high-volume and low-margin business, then she would have to squeeze in more tables and change the layout to a place that was less attractive for staying for a long period of time and more suited for eating without needing to sit down.

“You could make a profit in other ways, such as by offering drinks, but the tea you served us took a few minutes to prepare, right? You might be able to prepare food and drinks at the same time to a certain extent, but I feel like it’ll be quite difficult to keep up.”

“Um, what if I just hire people to help me out?”

“If you’re going to hire people to work here, then you’ll need to turn an even bigger profit to make up for their wages. It wouldn’t necessarily matter if you couldn’t make a profit as long as you were the only person working here, but you absolutely need to make a profit if you’re going to hire people. Can you manage to prepare two hundred servings of your daily special for lunch every single day? That’d be a total of four hours based on the conditions that I stated earlier, but four hours is too long for lunch. Even if you do manage to sell two hundred meals, how much will you actually profit? It sounds like it won’t be much if you’re aiming for a high-volume and low margin-business.”

Aera-san responded with silence again, but she looked like she was on the verge of tears.

“N-Natsuki, that’s enough for now! Aera-san looks like she’s about to cry!” Yuki exclaimed.

“Yeah, what you said is all correct, but go easy on her, please!” I exclaimed.

Aera-san had received a brutal mental beating from Natsuki, and it looked like the tears welling in her eyes were about to burst out at any moment. Natsuki had been calm this entire time and had never raised her voice while she talked, but the fact that everything she’d said was rational and correct only served to make it even more painful to hear.

“Is that so? I think it’s pointless to go easy if she really wants to improve the financial situation of her business, though.”

Natsuki’s words were correct once again, and I wouldn’t mind going along with the conclusion that a café had to close down because the owner’s outlook was too optimistic—if it was someone I didn’t know and wasn’t involved with in any way, but that wasn’t the case here. I felt extremely bad since Aera-san had been tricked into this situation by one of our classmates, and her childlike appearance only served to make that guilty feeling even worse.

“I mean, yeah, but your point about how Aera-san’s current business model won’t work is perfectly clear,” I said. “You understand that as well, right, Aera-san?”

“Sniffle, y-yeah.”

“Also, if you’ve noticed that many problems, then you do have a plan for fixing them, right, Natsuki?” I would have felt like crying just like Aera-san if Natsuki had told me to give up because there weren’t any solutions.

“Well, yeah, I do have a few ideas, but they’re just based on the superficial knowledge I have as a regular high school student, you know? It’s easy to criticize, but—”

“Even if that’s the case, I’m sure we can come up with something good in the end if we discuss things together. I truly believe this!” Or rather, please let me believe this. I don’t want to believe that I brought someone else along just to deal the finishing blow to Aera-san’s dreams.

“Hmm, okay. In that case, the first thing to do would be to set up a display board outside of the café for sure. However, the price of the lunch menu items should be increased as well. If we take the atmosphere of this café and the taste of the food into consideration, then the current price for the daily specials is way too cheap. The price should be something that can result in a profit after at least twenty servings, with the ideal being profit after ten servings.”

“That’d mean the café wouldn’t need to be packed full to make a profit during lunch, right?” Yuki asked. “It’ll allow customers to enjoy the atmosphere of this café and take their time with their meals. I also think that’s a good goal to aim for.”

“How does this sound to you, Aera-san?” I asked.

Aera-san paused in thought and then named the price she had in mind. “It depends on how many servings I end up having to make, but I should be fine if I can earn a profit of at least one hundred Rea per serving.”

A hundred Rea per serving was cheaper than I’d thought the price would be. If she offered this kind of delicious food at that price, then the end goal of a relaxing café where customers could savor their time was definitely feasible once more people become aware of this place.

“That’s one thing you can adjust. You could set a limit yourself and write something like ‘Limited to forty servings during lunch’ on the display board, and adjust it depending on the table turnover rate and the number of customers each day.”

A business model of high volume and low margins would require mass production to turn a profit, and the profit ratio would be lowered by the fact that you would have to consider waste in that calculation. On the other hand, if you went with an exact number of sales as a goal and managed to reach that goal, then you wouldn’t end up with a loss even if the cost ratio increased a bit.

“If you lower the table turnover rate, then you could also profit from offering drinks and side dishes to customers,” said Natsuki. “The profit ratio for drinks is generally high, right?”

“Yeah. I use good-quality tea leaves for this moussek tea, but all I have to do to prepare it is pour some boiling water over the leaves, so the margins are good. I can preserve the tea leaves as well, so I don’t ever need to discard them.”

“Mm, this tea does taste quite good.”

It looked quite similar to black tea in color and had a good smell and a slightly sweet taste. It didn’t have any bitter or pungent undertones, so it was a light tea that would be easy for anyone to drink. On top of that, the price was only thirty-five Rea, which was cheaper than the tea at the café that I had gone to the other day, although it was still more expensive than the tea offered at regular dining halls. However, you wouldn’t be able to find such good-tasting tea at those places.

“I also think it would be a good idea to reconsider what kind of customer base you’re aiming for and adjust your menu based on that,” said Natsuki.

“Customer base...” Aera-san muttered those words before she went deep into thought. She probably hadn’t thought about this issue up until now since she had just gone along with that self-proclaimed consultant’s ideas.

“If I were the owner of this café, then I definitely wouldn’t serve alcohol during lunch,” I said. “I’d serve alcohol during the evening, but I’d go with a limited supply of expensive beverages. I’d also increase the price for food during the evening.”

“Um, I’m fairly sure there are almost no places in this town that don’t serve alcohol. What’s the reason behind your first suggestion?”

“It’s because people who drink during the day are all bad people!”

Aera-san responded with an awkward smile after she heard the way that I had confidently stated that. “Um, surely that’s just a biased opinion, right...?”

“Well, yeah, I’m sure there are also good people out there who drink during the day. However, you’ve seen and heard how loud people get when they drink during the day at dining halls, right? If people like that come to your café, then that’ll ruin the atmosphere that you’ve spent so much money to create, Aera-san.”

She had been tricked into this, but that didn’t change the fact that the end result looked good in itself. I mean, at this point, you might as well put the nice interior to use and just try to succeed as a café that offers a high-class atmosphere and experience for a comparatively cheap price.

“I-I see, that makes sense! That’s a great idea, Nao-san!”

“On top of that, even if you increase the amount of alcohol that you serve, some of it will go bad on days with fewer customers, right?”

“Oh, yeah. Ale in particular goes bad quite quickly.”

“Mm. Also, one last reason for my suggestion is that I’m kind of worried about you, Aera-san.”

“Huh?”

“If you serve cheap alcohol here, then that’ll result in people getting absolutely drunk, right? It might be fine later once you hire some people, but I just thought it’d be dangerous for you since you’re by yourself at the moment, Aera-san.”

“Nao-san...”

She looked at me with joy in her eyes, but our little moment got cut short when Yuki raised her hand and continued the conversation.

“Attention! I think it’d also be a good idea to set up a display board inside the café and write the menu on it,” said Yuki. “That’ll save you time since you wouldn’t have to bring the menu to customers each time, Aera-san.”

“O-Oh, right, that’s a good point.”

“In that case, it might be a good idea to look for a slightly elegant display board with decorations to match the atmosphere of this café,” said Natsuki.

“Oh, then—”

★★★★★★★★★

We continued to discuss our opinions and gradually came up with a rough business policy outline to follow. First off, the customer base that this café was going to target would be the people who lived around here and were either women or employees of the municipal government. The only drinks that Aera-san would offer here would be soft drinks, and there would be an increase in the amount of expensive sweets on the menu in order to make a profit. Dining during the evening would be limited to people who had reserved seats beforehand, and a special full-course meal would be provided for the customers during that time.

“Will this really work out, though? I’m somewhat confident in my abilities as a cook, but I’m not that confident when it comes to haute cuisine...”

“It’ll be fine,” said Natsuki. “The food you served for lunch was quite delicious, and the people who’ll reserve seats for dinner will be people who really enjoyed the lunch.”

“Yeah, Natsuki’s right,” I said. “You might not be able to compete with the cafés located along the main road yet, but you can definitely beat them once your café becomes more popular and better-known.”

The food served here was delicious and also cheap, so all that was left to do was to advertise it and spread the word. In fact, there was a good chance that Aera-san would end up being unable to handle things by herself due to an overwhelming number of customers.

“Hmm, I think it’d be a good idea to try to target customers in the morning as well,” said Yuki. “It feels like a waste not to since it sounds like a lot of commuters pass by here on their way to work.”

“By targeting commuters, do you mean offering something that they can purchase to eat as takeout?” I asked. “Does anything come to mind, Aera-san?”

“Takeout? Hmm. Give me a minute.”

Aera-san headed back to the kitchen. After a while, she came back with some round objects that were wrapped with thin slices of meat. I sliced one object open and ate it, and it seemed like the inside was packed with mashed potatoes. The closest thing that came to mind was a Japanese potato croquette, except that this one had an outer layer of meat instead of batter. It tasted quite good, so I was fairly sure that commuters would be willing to buy one or two on their way to work. Based on the happy looks they had on their faces, it appeared that Yuki and Natsuki had enjoyed these croquettes too.

“This is called poste. I served them on plates this time, but they’re usually wrapped in leaves and sold like that. They go for about ten Rea each.”

“Hmm, this is quite delicious. I’ve never seen this food before, though,” said Yuki. “Is it common?”

“I’m not completely sure. I saw plenty of places that sold this back in the town where I was training as a cook, but...”

“Well, I haven’t seen it before in this town,” I said.

“It wasn’t sold in the nearby town of Sarstedt either,” said Natsuki. “That being the case, this’ll probably sell quite well.”

“Yeah, it probably will. This might make your morning a bit busy, but how does selling poste in front of your café early in the morning sound to you, Aera-san? I feel like people would be quite willing to try it out since it’s only ten Rea apiece, and it might help attract more customers for lunch as well.”

“Hmm, okay, I’ll give it a try!”

Aera-san sounded and looked very excited. She clenched her fists, but Natsuki had more to say once again.

“Can you make variations on this? I think people will get sick of it eventually if it’s the same each day.”

“Variations? Uh, I could change the taste of the meat and the potatoes a bit, I guess...?”

“That’s not a bad idea, but something different would be ideal. You could create cutlet sandwiches if you had a thick, rich sauce to use, but...”

“A thick, rich sauce? I don’t know what you mean by cutlet sandwiches, but would inspiel sauce work?”

“Inspiel sauce? What’s that?” Yuki asked.

“Oh, right, you’ve probably never heard of it, Yuki-san. It’s a sauce commonly used by elves—right, Nao-san?”

Wait, you’re asking me, Aera-san? I mean, there’s only one way I can answer.

“Sorry, I’ve never heard of it either.”

Aera-san tilted her head; she seemed puzzled by my reply. “Huh? Really? I thought every elf household used this sauce. Would you all like to have a taste? I brought some with me from my parents’ home initially, but I used ingredients that were easy to obtain around here to create my own, so it’s a bit different from how the sauce tastes back home. Please wait for a bit.”

She went to the kitchen and brought a small plate back with her. On top of that plate was some liquid that looked a bit thick and blackish. That thick consistency made it resemble the kind of sauce that I liked. We all scooped some up with the tips of our fingers and had a taste.

“Delicious...” said Yuki.

“Mm. It’s got a deep and rich taste,” said Natsuki.

“Damn, this is really delicious!” I exclaimed.

“Really? I’m personally a bit unsatisfied with how this sauce turned out. There are a lot of ingredients that I can’t obtain here, so the one my mom makes back home tastes way better. Well, the sauce I make wouldn’t come close to the one my mom makes even if I did have the same ingredients, though.”

Aera-san definitely looked like she was a bit dissatisfied with the sauce, as she had stated, but as far as I was concerned, the taste was much better than some of the sauces that corporations back in Japan made after a lot of research. I wasn’t sure if everyone in this world would like this sauce, but it was a kind of taste that people would love from the bottom of their hearts if they liked it at all. It was a bit sweet, but it had a mellow, slightly tangy taste, and it also had a fragrant fruity smell that passed through your nose quite smoothly. It seemed as though there was some mix of spices giving it a rich flavor that was quite unique, but that uniqueness would probably be a bit off-putting for some people. Even so, this was one of the best condiments that I had tasted since I had been transported to this world.

“Do you have a lot of this sauce in stock, Aera-san?” Natsuki asked.

“No, because I only use it for my own meals. I wouldn’t be able to use it all even if I made a lot.”

I felt like it would be great if she used it in the food that she served to customers, and I asked her why she didn’t do that. She replied that it was because this sauce was a condiment that only elves used. It was similar to something like homemade pickles, so she didn’t think that it was something she could sell.

“I think this would definitely sell quite well, Aera-san,” said Natsuki.

“Yeah, you should try to sell this!” exclaimed Yuki.

“If this tastes good to you two even though neither of you are elves, then I guess that’s true...?”

Aera-san looked like she was still a bit doubtful, but she ended up nodding in response after she heard how confident Yuki and Natsuki sounded when they recommended the idea.

“Would you be willing to teach us how to create this sauce, Aera-san?” Natsuki asked. “I’d like to have some for my own personal use, unless the recipe is a secret.”

“Oh no, it’s not a secret at all. Every elf household—I mean, most elf households know how to create this sauce.”

Oh, she probably rephrased her choice of words to be considerate of my feelings. It doesn’t really bother me, though, since I’m technically a fake elf.

“The first thing you’ll need to create this sauce is to prepare some inspiel sauce base.”

“There goes that idea, I guess...”

Ugh! That sounds the same as the old question of which came first, the chicken or the egg!

“Oh, don’t worry—I’ll share some of my sauce so you can make your own.”

“Thanks, Aera-san!” Yuki exclaimed. “That makes our time here today totally worth it!”

“Oh, no, I should be the one thanking all of you for taking the time to help me out, so I don’t mind offering this in return. I was also very glad that you all enjoyed my inspiel sauce.”

Aera-san truly looked happy as she smiled at us. It was probably due to the kind of urge you’d feel to share your homemade pickles or miso with someone if they praised them.

“Once you’ve prepared some inspiel sauce, the next thing you need to do is to marinate fruits or vegetables of your choice. You don’t need to cut them up into small bits, but the final product will be done sooner if you do, so I would recommend it if you’re in a hurry.”

“When you say ‘of your choice,’ do you mean any fruit or vegetable will work?” Natsuki asked.

“Yeah, anything grown from a plant. Each household has their own preferences, and mine would just throw in vegetable scraps, so you don’t have to think too hard about your choice. There are some households out there who use nuts, but I wouldn’t recommend it. The final product will taste quite good if you succeed, but it’s much more difficult to succeed with nuts.”

I had thought this inspiel sauce must be complex, but it was actually way more random than I had expected. It was hard to believe that there were so many ways to get this delicious end result.

“I would recommend using the skins of fruits instead, since they’re usually parts that you’d throw away, and they’ll improve how the sauce smells. After that, you can add some spices of your choice. You don’t have to add too much, but it is important since it directly affects the flavor of the sauce.”

“Uhm, is the sweetness of this sauce from fruits?” Yuki asked.

“No, the sweetness is from potatoes. The sauce will become sweet if you add a lot of them. The sauce I made is on the sweet side, but there are households that make non-sweet inspiel sauce. There are a lot of different variations to the taste and flavor.”

Similar sauces that I knew about would include date palms for a sweet flavor, but it appeared that potatoes were the key to the sweetness of inspiel sauce.

“Potatoes? Oh, does that work by converting starch to sugar?” Yuki asked.

“If it’s easy to create more inspiel sauce, what do you think about the idea Nao-kun brought up earlier of selling cutlet sandwiches, Aera-san?” Natsuki asked.

“It’ll take me about a week, but creating more inspiel sauce is easy in itself. However, the problem with using this sauce for dishes to serve here is that the taste will vary each time.”

According to what Aera-san told us, she would just throw in whatever fruits and vegetables were available at the time of the year when she was making more of the sauce, so that would result in different flavors throughout the year. That was a good thing for personal consumption since it would be harder to get sick of the sauce that way, but it would be somewhat of a problem to have such large variations in dishes at an eating establishment. On top of that, there was also a problem with certain fruits that affected the smell of the sauce. The skins of such fruits would be fine for personal consumption, but they might not work for dishes to be served to customers.

“I would have to stock up a large amount of those fruits right now due to their higher cost when they’re not in season, but I don’t have much money left on me right now. If I was back in my hometown, I could just go into the woods to gather some myself...”

“Oh yeah, fruit is quite expensive,” I said. “Especially if you have to buy it at market price.”

Even fruits that were in season right now weren’t cheap at all. The cost of fruit back in Japan was considered relatively expensive compared to most places on Earth, but the fruits in this world seemed to be even more expensive than that. If Aera-san was going to use fruit to make a large volume of inspiel sauce, then it would definitely cost a decent amount of money.

“Would dindels work, Nao-kun?” Natsuki asked. “I remember you saying that dindel season was about to end, however.”

“Well, I think it’s still possible to gather them for a bit longer. What do you think, Aera-san?”

“Oh, dindels? I used to go out and gather them back in my hometown from time to time. They were quite delicious!”

She had a blissful look on her face, as if she had recalled how the dindels had tasted the last time she’d had some to eat. That wasn’t what I was asking about, however.

“No, I was asking if you could use dindels for inspiel sauce.”

“Oh, so that’s what you meant. Yeah, you can, and they make the sauce very delicious. However, the dindels sold in this town are quite expensive, right?”

Yeah, they’re expensive, and a great source of money. Thanks for the income, dindels!

“There are some dindel trees in the forest near this town, so you don’t have to buy them from the market. In fact, I gathered some myself just a few days ago, so I’m fairly sure there are still plenty of them left. What do you think about the idea of going to gather some ourselves, Aera-san?”

“Um, are you sure? I don’t think I’ll be that useful in combat...”

“Nao, do you mean to go with just the four of us here?” Yuki asked. “Are you sure we’ll be okay without Haruka and Touya?”

Aera-san sounded a bit uneasy at my idea, and Yuki voiced her doubts as well, but the only monsters in that area were just goblins. Goblins were no threat to us with my magic and Natsuki’s abilities with a spear. I guess we could get into deep trouble if we encountered something like a wipe bear without Touya around, but there’s no way we’ll encounter one, right? I hope I’m not jinxing myself...

“Y-Yeah, it should be fine, I think.”

“We should probably check with Haruka first,” said Natsuki.

Huh? Wait, do you not trust me? That’s kind of depressing to know. However, their concerns were perfectly valid, so we came to the conclusion that Aera-san would close her café for just one day tomorrow and go with us to gather some dindels—if Haruka actually approved of my idea. After we had settled that, Aera-san and Yuki went together to place an order for a display board with the carpenter who had done the café renovations. Yuki went along with Aera-san in order to explain in detail about the display board and to build connections with the carpenter. Before she left, Yuki said, “If the carpenter gets to know me as a acquaintance of Aera-san, who had paid him a huge sum of money recently, then he’ll probably be more willing to give us a discount when we ask him to help with renovations on our own house.” I was quite impressed by her resourcefulness.

We had all gathered at the inn once again in the evening and reported to each other about what we had each done during the day.

“Inspiel sauce, huh? Does it taste good?” Haruka asked.

“Yeah, it seems to be something that’s commonly used in elf households,” I said. “I think Otafuku Okonomi sauce would be the closest thing to it in terms of taste, but the inspiel sauce is a bit sweeter and has a fragrant smell from spices.”

“Whoa, really?! That means we might be able to have proper fried pork cutlets!” Touya exclaimed. “I didn’t want to eat pork cutlets that were just seasoned with salt, after all!”

“It sounds like the taste of the sauce can differ a lot depending on the mix of ingredients that you use, so we can rotate different flavors for different meals,” said Haruka. “It’s strange that the sweetness of the sauce comes from potatoes, though.”

The potatoes that Haruka was talking about were regular potatoes, not sweet potatoes. There were plenty of different kinds of potatoes available in the market, and Aera-san had told us that we could use any kind for the sauce.

“The sauce probably creates that flavor by converting starch to sugar, but if that occurs in a short period of time at room temperature, then maybe there are enzymes at work that we don’t know about,” said Haruka. “Or perhaps it’s yeast at work?”

“Didn’t Aera-san say that the process would continue just fine even if you randomly threw spices in, though? She said that fruits and vegetables get broken down after about a week,” said Natsuki. “I wonder if it’s different kinds of bacteria working together?”

“Spices? Oh, maybe the spices suppress the activity of the bacteria,” said Yuki.

Packing something in salt would suppress the activity of putrefactive bacteria and make long-term preservation possible.

“There are bacteria that are still active even under those conditions, though,” said Haruka. “In any case, the unknown bacteria that helps make the inspiel sauce definitely seems to be quite strong.”

“Mm. Even koji mold takes anywhere from two to three days to convert steamed rice into koji rice. On the other hand, all you need to do for inspiel sauce is prepare water and maintain room temperature to convert starch into sugar over half a day,” said Natsuki. “After that, you can just leave it alone and it’ll break down most plants, so it is quite amazing.”

“It’s possible that room temperature just happens to be the favorable environment for that bacteria, but if it actually existed out in nature, then I feel like it’d cause great damage to farm crops,” said Haruka.

“There are probably some conditions that need to be fulfilled first before that bacteria becomes active,” said Yuki. “Maybe it’s an anaerobic bacteria, or it needs to reach a certain population level before it starts being active.”

“If the end result is a sauce so smooth that you don’t need to strain it, then there’s a possibility that it’s cellulolytic fungi,” said Haruka. “Some of the harder parts of vegetables would normally remain even after the rest of them got broken down.”

“So that means there’s probably a mix of different bacteria that work well together, right?” Natsuki asked.

“Yep, most likely,” said Yuki. “If that’s true, it makes more sense that the inspiel sauce base is the first thing you prepare.”

The three intelligent members of our party had started a discussion that was quite hard for me to understand. The only thing I knew was that amylase would turn starch into sugar, so I was quite lost when it came to what the girls were talking about.

“Can’t we just handwave it and call it magic, since we’re in a fantasy world?” Touya asked. “All we need to know is that we can make a delicious-tasting sauce now, right?”

“Whew, I can’t believe you actually said that out loud, Touya!” I exclaimed.

I had kind of expected this from Touya, though. That pragmatic attitude would ruin the point of the discussion that the girls were having, and they all gave Touya slightly exasperated looks.

“Touya, it’s also important to think about how things actually work, even when it comes to magic,” said Haruka.

“Well, I can’t use magic, so that’s not relevant to me. I’m going for the all brawn and no brain life!”

“You’re giving up on intelligence, Touya?!” Yuki exclaimed.

I was quite taken aback by Touya’s decision, and Yuki sounded like she was surprised as well. However, it was actually an okay choice for our party composition. Touya’s role in our party was being our frontline tank, so it would be better for him to train his body over his mind.

“Oh well, I guess that’s fine,” said Haruka. “We should probably go gather dindels for making our own inspiel sauce. I’ll still be busy tomorrow, though. What about you, Touya?”

When Haruka looked at him, Touya paused in thought and then shook his head. “I’ll also be busy for a bit longer. I’ll probably be done by the middle of the day tomorrow, but yeah.”

“If I knew this was how things were going to end up, then I would have placed an order for Yuki and Natsuki’s chain mail right away when we got back here from Sarstedt...” Haruka sounded like she slightly regretted the decisions she’d made after we had returned to Laffan. The initial plan had been to deal with Yuki and Natsuki’s equipment at a later time, since we were basically taking a break for a while. “I guess I can lend my chain mail to Yuki, but Touya’s chain mail wouldn’t fit Natsuki, I don’t think.”

The tallest person in our party was Touya at a height of about 180 centimeters. I was a bit shorter than Touya, while Natsuki was about 165 centimeters tall. Haruka was even shorter than Natsuki, and Yuki was the shortest at about 155 centimeters tall. However, there was a significant difference in girth between me and Touya, and the same applied to the girls. That meant it wasn’t possible to share equipment based on height alone. The chain mail was also customized for each person, so Touya’s chain mail definitely wouldn’t fit Natsuki. There’s also a difference in terms of the breastplate area, but I probably shouldn’t mention that.

“What if I hand over my chain mail to Natsuki and wear Touya’s chain mail instead, Haruka?” I asked. “I think that might work okay.”

“Hmm, I’m not sure about the idea of having everyone wear equipment that doesn’t fully fit them, but I guess we can give it a try.”

I tried out Touya’s chain mail, and it made me realize once again that there was a huge difference between us in terms of things like shoulder width and how muscular our chests were. The chain mail felt a bit too big for me, but it wasn’t to the point where it would slide off. Hmm, I should probably tie this chain mail up with some strings since I can’t do any swift movements like this.

“Nao’s chain mail actually fits me perfectly,” Natsuki said after she had tried it out. I was taller than she was, but my chain mail probably fit her due to the fact that, as an elf, I was slim; she didn’t need that much space in the chest area either. Let’s leave it at that.

“This chain mail feels a bit tight for me, especially around the chest area,” said Yuki.

“Is it too tight to bear?” Haruka asked.

“Nah, not really. I can probably bear with it for about a day.”

It looked like Haruka’s chain mail didn’t fit Yuki due to the fact that Haruka was much more slender than she was. Yuki’s chest definitely looked like the chain mail was exerting a lot of pressure on it. I’ll probably get in trouble if I point that out, though, so I guess I’ll leave the rest to Haruka.

“As for weapons, you managed to learn the Staff Fighting skill, right, Yuki?”

“Yeah, I learned it earlier this morning during training.”

“Touya’s sword is of higher quality, but it’ll probably be impossible for you to swing it around, right?”

“Nah, there’s no way she could wield my sword even if she had the skill for it, especially due to the height difference.”

“Yeah, there’s no way! Touya’s sword is way too heavy!”

There was a difference in height of twenty-five centimeters between Touya and Yuki. Touya’s sword was also made to be used with the physical strength of a beastman, so it was quite heavy. It would be quite an interesting and fantastical sight to see Yuki swing that sword around, but it was probably impossible due to its weight.

“In that case, I guess you’ll just have to use some stick-shaped weapon as a staff,” said Haruka. “Be careful out there, okay? I’m counting on you, Natsuki.”

“Gotcha—wait, why did you say that to Natsuki instead of me, Haruka?” I asked. “I’m more experienced, right?” Like, sure, Natsuki’s stronger than me just in terms of her skills, but she’s only participated in combat once so far.

“I’m counting on Natsuki to be the calm and rational one. You’re going to hunt some tusk boars as well, right? Play it safe and don’t be reckless.”

“All right, I’ll keep that in mind. Aera-san will be with us as well, so I can’t be reckless either way.”

Haruka brought up the words “Prioritize self-care!” that she had made me repeat after her on our first day in this different world, and I nodded solemnly in agreement.

★★★★★★★★★

“Whoa, I didn’t know there were such tall dindel trees near this town...”

We met up with Aera-san the next day in the morning and managed to arrive at where the dindel trees were located without any trouble. I was used to the sight of these dindel trees by now, but they were apparently much larger than Aera-san had expected them to be. Her mouth was wide open in amazement as she stared at the canopy high above.

“Are these dindel trees taller than the ones you’ve seen before?”

“Yeah. It’s probably because they’ve been left alone in their natural state.”

I asked Aera-san what she meant by that, and she explained that dindel trees would stop growing and end at a reasonable height if you pruned them. Elves were good at climbing trees, but it was still easier to gather fruits from a small tree compared to a tall one, so the trees that elves would gather fruits from would be pruned for that purpose.

“I can probably gather some dindels myself if the trees are this close to town—wait, is it okay for me to gather dindels, Nao-san?”

“Adventurers are allowed to gather these dindels, so it’s probably fine for you to gather some yourself too. However, wipe bears sometimes appear around this area, so I would recommend hiring a bodyguard if you’re going to come gather some by yourself.”

Aera-san paused in thought after she’d heard my words. “Hmm, that’s a bit dangerous. I can handle goblins by myself just fine, but...”

I was surprised to hear that she only considered wipe bears a bit dangerous. I had almost died during my first encounter with a wipe bear. I guess it kind of makes sense, considering how her gear looks like it’s been used for quite a long time, and she does seem like she can fend for herself just fine. She’d probably be able to make a living as an adventurer even if she failed as a cook.

“All right, let’s climb this dindel tree, Nao-san. Yuki-san, Natsuki-san, will the two of you be waiting at the bottom?”

“Mm, I definitely can’t climb this tree,” said Yuki. “Will you two really be okay?”

“Climbing this tree looks dangerous to me...” said Natsuki.

“It’s true that this dindel tree is a bit tall, but it’s not a problem. Right, Nao-san?”

“Yeah, we’ll be fine since we’re elves. Just wait down here for us at the lowest branch.”

★★★★★★★★★

Aera-san climbed with skill and grace. I had kind of expected that since she wasn’t a fake elf like me. She managed to reach the top of the dindel tree in no time and nodded with a satisfied expression as she looked around at the nearby branches.

“These dindels look like they’re on the verge of being out of season, but they’ll do just fine for the purpose of making inspiel sauce. Let’s gather as many as we can!”

“Yeah. However, be careful not to fall off, okay?”

“Don’t worry, I won’t! It would be shameful for an elf to fall from a tree!”

She clenched her hands together in a fist pump pose as she said that. Please don’t let go of the tree with both hands, Aera-san. The very sight of it scares me.

“Also, I must say, this backpack is quite convenient. The fact that you can have both of your hands free while carrying it will definitely help with gathering dindels.”

Aera-san had told us that she would be fine with a cheap bag to carry on her back, but Yuki had somewhat forcefully made her carry one of our backpacks instead for safety purposes.

“Yeah, this type of backpack has helped us a lot in our lives as adventurers. The Adventurers’ Guild will also start selling these backpacks in the near future.”

“You mentioned that the other elf in your party made these backpacks, right? I’m very impressed.”

We continued to chat with each other as we gathered dindels, and I stopped once there were no dindels left within my reach since it felt like we had gathered enough.

“Aera-san, this should be enough, right?”

“Really? I feel like we can gather a bit more, though...”

Whoa, don’t turn around like that on the tip of a branch to reply to me! It’s really scary! I got spooked in all sorts of ways when you did that!

“It won’t be efficient to continue gathering dindels here. There are other trees that we can go to gather dindels from, so let’s move over to one of them.”

“All right. In that case, let’s climb down.” As soon as she’d said that, she hopped down lightly without hesitation.

What?! I yelped in surprise when I saw that, but she continued to hop down from branch to branch with great ease. “Seriously? There’s no way I can do the same thing...”

If the place I was standing was only about twenty to thirty meters above the ground, then I would be able to perform the same feat. However, if I was asked to do so from way higher, then I would definitely reply with a no. I could feel my body shake in fear at the very idea.

“I’m going to take it safe as I climb down even if it takes me more time...”

Haruka’s words of “Prioritize self-care!” came to mind as I carefully climbed down the dindel tree. Because of that, it took me a while to get back to where Yuki and Natsuki were. Once I got there, I saw that Aera-san was moving the dindels from her backpack into Natsuki’s backpack. She probably planned on completely filling all three of our backpacks with dindels.

“Aera-san, we’re going to hunt some tusk boars as well, so we’re going to need some space for boar parts,” I said.

“Huh?! O-Oh, um, could you use my bag for that instead?”

“Nah, your bag isn’t large enough.”

Aera-san was a petite person, to the point that she almost looked like a child, and the size of her bag fit her stature.

What this meant was that her bag definitely wasn’t large enough to hold over one hundred kilograms of meat. However, surprisingly, Yuki and Natsuki were the ones who ended up refuting my opinion.

“Nao, we can also put meat in our leather bags, can’t we? Natsuki and I can help carry them with our hands,” said Yuki. “That way we won’t need to put meat into the backpacks, right?”

“Mm, it’ll probably work out if we just separate them like that,” said Natsuki.

Really? I can understand Yuki, but I didn’t expect a serious-minded person like Natsuki to agree to Aera-san’s idea as well. I guess that’s just how powerful the allure of sweet things is. Well, I would have agreed myself if we were doing this before I ate enough dindels that the appeal wore off.

“Hmm, are you all sure about this? The bags will end up quite heavy if we hunt down a big tusk boar.”

There was a big difference between carrying a bag that weighed twenty kilos on your back and carrying it in your hands. The latter would be way more difficult and painful, of course.

“We’ll do our best!” the girls exclaimed.

I grudgingly nodded in response after I heard that confident statement from all three of them. “Is that so? In that case, I’m fine with it, I guess.”

There was a good chance that we would end up having to throw away some of the meat, but not fighting back was probably the best choice when faced with three girls who were obsessed with sweets. I hope so, at least.