Accepting mom's invitation, I went down to the first floor.
In the kitchen, dad made a weird face while staring at the new dish in front of him.
Our inn was one of several inns in Fatia Town.
It was located near the edge of the town.
Our inn wasn't as prosperous as the magnificent inns around the center of the town.
But because it was close to the gate, many travelers and adventurers became our guests.
Therefore, even at this rate, our inn was profitable enough to continue the business.
Dad was the second generation who inherited the inn from grandfather.
Mom was a daughter of a local armor shop and was dad's childhood friend.
So, why did dad make a face as if he competed in a funny face championship…?
「Alright, Mark, Nicola, try it!」
Mom handed us the plates with a smiley face.
There was white soup on the plate.
The ingredients were potatoes, carrots, and... no meat?
By the way, in this world, there were quite many vegetables that were similar to the vegetables in the previous world.
It might be thanks to 'another world language translation' skill so I could understand the name of the similar vegetables.
What a convenient skill.
Therefore, the look of the soup wasn't bad.
But dad's weird face told everything.
Ahh, the taste must be really bad.
In our inn, basically dad cooked while mom and a helping aunt cleaned the lodging room and served customers in the dining hall, which occupied half of the first floor.
In other words, mom's job wasn't to cook, but still, she wanted to try cooking.
By the way, dad was a genuine second generation inn owner, so of course he has been good at cooking since he was a child.
But mom grew without learning about cooking until they got married.
Now mom supported our family as a cleaner and waiter, but she seemed to have a complex because she couldn't cook.
The first feelings when her children were born was to feed them her own cooking.
Dad seemed to be happy with that and taught her how to cook.
But… it didn't go really well.
As a result of her efforts, it seemed her home cooking wasn't that bad even though it was inferior to dad's home cooking of course.
But the problem was she really wanted to make creative dishes for some reason.
Dad was watching over her, so it shouldn't be that bad, BUT the moment he took his eyes off her, she put 'the secret ingredients' she came up with.
Mom said that if she did as dad said, she would never beat dad's cooking.
So she thought with putting "the secret ingredients" she devised, she would beat him.
Dad thought that would be impossible, but he wanted to watch her effort with a smile.
But her cooking this time…
After I saw dad's weird face, I could guess she must have put in "something" when dad took his eyes off her.
The question was how destructive the taste would be.
「Mom, did you taste it?」
「Yup I did. It tasted like never before. I think it's good enough」
Right…
Mom had taste disorder.
Dad was somewhat soft to mom and couldn't say anything harsh to her.
That meant, the tasting depended on Nicola and me.
If we carelessly gave a compliment, this dish would may be lined up in the dining room as one of the menu dishes.
Our inn was doing good right now, but it could be the first step toward bankruptcy if that happened.
Family life depended on us right now.
The pressure was too heavy for a five-year-old child like us.
By the way, until now, the helping auntie did the tasting, and she even gave mom good advice.
But since we have grown to some extent, recently, the tasting duty was shifting to us.
Besides, mom wanted her children to eat her cooking.
No, wait….. Could it be….. mom was probably just aiming for the timing when auntie wasn't around and forced us to taste her food.
Oh well…
No use if I thought too much about it.
For now… let's taste it…
...….The white soup seemed to be made mostly of milk.
Soup made of milk itself wasn't unusual in the first place.
The soup, made by slowly dissolving ingredients such as onions and stuff, had a very gentle taste.
In my previous life, this menu was a hidden menu at my favorite izakaya, and I used to have it as my closing menu after drinking sake.
.....BUTー!
This was another thing; this was really different from what I used to eat.
The taste that should be gentle was gradually getting bitter.
What the heck is this....
What did she put in so it ruined the taste!!??
『Onii-chan! Put an end to this suffering!』
Said Nicola using telepathy while slurping the soup with an emotionless face.
She was pretending to be a good girl, so she didn't want to make mom sad.
That's why, ending this suffering was my job.
When mom was cooking under dad's watch and it turned out to be delicious, Nicola always said "Mama, it's dewicious～" before me. Of course, with an angelic smile of hers.
Well, anyway, I had to be frank to mom about this soup…..
「Mom. This is bad. What did you put in it?」
How's that? I said it frankly!
Dad hid his face with one hand and looked up at the ceiling.
Nicola erased her presence; somehow she looked blurred.
Oi, that's amazing. Is that some kind of skill?
「Ehh? Does it taste bad? Hmm… weird. I mashed 'dogyunzer' fruit and put it in as the secret ingredients tho. Its bitterness should enhance the tenderness of milk and make it taste sweeter, but... it tasted sweeter, right?」
There it isー! An ingredient that couldn't be translated even with translation skill!
That meant it was a unique ingredient that only existed in this world.
I didn't know what it was, but looked like it was a bitter fruit.
No wonder the soup was bitter.
「I don't think adding bitterness would make it sweeter. Moreover, I taste nothing but bitterness, maybe because you put it in too much?」
「Is that so? Haahh… A failure again…. I thought I could please you this time…mom's fault」
Mom lowered her eyebrows and apologized.
She made it with good intentions and love, so I felt a little guilty saying it was a failure.
I could have said it was delicious and forced myself to eat it, but the future of our inn would be in danger.
I wished dad and Nicola would understand this feeling of guilty.
When I glanced at dad, he raised one hand vertically in front of his face.
That was a hand gesture to say "I'm sorry!"
So there was such a gesture too in this world, huh.
Well, it tasted bad, but it was edible, besides, it was a waste of food if we didn't eat it.
「But it's still edible, so I'll eat it. Next time, make something delicious, okay?」
Smile.
Damn, I'm such a cool son!
After a while, I successfully ate all of it.
.....Hoekk…
My mouth was full of bitter taste.
And I felt kinda sick knowing my stomach was filled with that bitter soup.
I thought I had to exercise a bit to digest it faster and get this soup out of my stomach.
For now, walking around the neighborhood might be a good idea.
「Thanks for the meal! I'm going to play at the vacant lot in the neighborhood!」
I headed to the vacant lot, leaving my sister who turned into a soup-sipping robot.