Volume 1: Commoner's Children
Chapter 3: Meals in Another World
Finally finished cleaning... As I looked at the clean entrance, feeling satisfied, I heard the sound of a big bell. That must be the lunchtime bell... Just then, the door to the house opened wide from the outside, and Marie came out.
"Brother, are you finished? The lunch bell has rung, so it's time to open the store!"
"Yeah, I'm done. It looks clean, doesn't it?"
"It sure does. Well, don't just stand there, come and help inside!"
"Alright, alright. I was just about to go."
Marie has grown strong... I thought that as I tried to enter the house, but she scolded me again.
"Brother! Fix the door first!"
"Oh right, sorry, I forgot."
Before entering the dining room, I opened the front door widely and secured it with a stopper. It seems that in this country, it's common to leave the door open when the store is open. Some stores don't do this, but it seems to be a custom for the sake of the store's brightness and because not everyone can read.
As soon as we opened the door to the store, a customer arrived.
"Is the store already open?"
"Yes! Welcome!"
Marie answered the customer with a smile and the customer grinned sloppily at her. Marie seemed to be fulfilling her role as the main waitress. I have to work hard too! With that thought, I went into the shop.
And then more and more customers came in. It seems like our diner is quite popular. I guided the customers to their seats one after another.
Our diner's lunch menu consists of only two sets: a steak set or a pork and vegetable stir-fry set. The set includes tough bread, soup, and water, and you can choose between steak or pork and vegetable stir-fry as the main dish.
Since it's quite a hearty menu, there are a lot of male customers and the proportion of steak orders is high.
Another new customer has arrived. A pretty muscular middle-aged man came.
"Welcome, would you like steak or pork and vegetable stir-fry?"
"I'll have the steak."
"Yes, one steak coming up!"
In this world, polite customer service like in Japan is not necessary. If you work with a smile, you'll become a highly rated shop.
"Leon, take care of the steak."
"Okay!"
My job is to take orders and then serve meals in the order they were placed, as well as to clean up the tables. Marie is in charge of the set's bread, soup, and water, so all I have to do is serve the steak or pork and vegetable stir-fry.
The plates and cutlery are wooden, so I don't have to worry about breaking them, but it's quite difficult because there are many customers.
"Leon, the vegetable stir-fry and three steaks are ready."
"Yes, I'll bring them over!"
As we worked busily, the number of customers gradually decreased, and when the last customer left, the restaurant closed.
The restaurant didn't have a set closing time; it closed when there were no more customers. Therefore, the closing time varied depending on the day, but it seemed that everyone came to the cafeteria when the lunch bell rang, so there wasn't much difference in closing time.
"Everyone, good job. I'm hungry."
"Shall we have lunch too?"
"Lunch! Yay! I was really hungry."
Leon's family apparently had lunch after the restaurant's lunch service ended. I was also hungry, so I wanted to eat quickly.
"Leon, you're going to eat too, right?"
"Yeah! I'm starving!"
"Shall we all have lunch together then? There are two steaks left today, so we can each have half."
"Yay~! I've been getting tired of just eating vegetable stir-fry lately, so I'm happy!"
Usually, they ate the remaining lunch service dishes for lunch, but that inevitably meant that there was a lot of vegetable stir-fry. Marie had been saying that she was getting tired of it recently.
Now she was waiting for the steaks with a smile on her face. Dad looked at her and said with a wry smile.
"Marie, I'll start cooking now, so please wait a little longer. I'll make yours a bit bigger."
"Bigger?! Yay!"
"Oh my, Marie likes steak, doesn't she?" even Mom was laughing. I couldn't help but laugh as well. They were such a wonderful family. It made me sad to think of my own family back in Japan, but I was grateful to be a part of this one.
"Dad, I want mine to be bigger too!"
"Leon too? Alright, I'll make it bigger."
"Jeez, you two are just like kids," Mom and Dad exchanged a smile.
"Okay, you two wait in the living room."
"Got it!" Marie and I both replied in unison and headed to the living room.
There was a table and four chairs in the living room, with Marie and I sitting next to each other. Mom sat in front of Marie, and Dad in front of me, as if those were our assigned seats.
We took our usual seats.
"Big brother, I'm looking forward to the steak!"
"Me too. It's so delicious, isn't it?"
"Yeah! I love steak! I haven't had any for four days, I've been counting!" Marie said, placing her hand on her waist and proudly puffing out her chest. She had a proud look on her face too.
My little sister is so cute...! I'm turning into a complete doting brother.
"Marie, you're amazing. You counted them all," I said while patting her head, and Marie smiled happily. She's so adorable!
As I was getting all lovey-dovey over Marie's cuteness, Mom and Dad entered through the living room door.
"Dinner's ready!"
"Here's steak for Marie and Leon."
"Yay! Awesome!"
"Looks delicious!"
There it was, a freshly cooked, mouth-watering steak. It was my first meal since coming to this world. I hope it tastes good... But the aroma is amazing. I can feel my mouth watering.
"We also have bread, soup, and water. Enjoy."
"Would you two like some vegetable stir-fry too?"
"I'm good with just steak!"
"I might have a little bit of vegetable stir-fry."
"Okay, here's Leon's vegetable stir-fry."
All the other dishes look delicious too! I can't wait to dig in.
"Shall we start? Bon appétit."
I was really surprised by those words. Does this world have a phrase that means the same thing as "itadakimasu" in Japan? Is it translated or something?
I don't really understand, but... well, it's convenient, so it's okay. I don't even know what to think about it. Anyway, let's eat for now!
"Itadakimasu!"
First, I stabbed the steak with a fork. It seems that in this world, people don't use knives individually, and the steak has already been cut into an easy-to-eat size.
I took a bite of the steak.
"It's delicious!"
"Big brother, it's delicious!"
It's really delicious. It tastes just like the beef steak I had in Japan. Maybe the food in this world is not so different from Japan.
But according to Leon's memory, the variety of meals seems to be limited. That means that although the ingredients may be the same, the cooking methods may not have evolved. This steak is really delicious, but it's only salty.
Let's try the bread and soup too. I took a bite... it's hard!? It feels like a really dry French bread. Well, if you chew it well, you can eat it and the taste is good, but it's a bit difficult to eat.
The soup... gulp, yeah. It's not bad, but it only tastes salty, so I feel a little unsatisfied. Maybe it's because there's no broth.
How about the stir-fried vegetables? This... is just delicious. It tastes familiar, like something I often eat in Japan. Maybe stir-fried vegetables in Japan are also just salty.
Sure, it's just a normal delicious meal if I don't set my expectations too high. This is really good. It doesn't seem like I'll have a hard time getting used to the food.
I'll think about how to make it even more delicious from now on. While thinking about that, I realized that I had finished eating without even noticing.
"That was delicious. Thank you for the meal."
"I finished eating too. It was delicious!"
I looked to the side and saw that Marie had also finished eating and had a satisfied smile on her face. My father and mother were also watching with smiles on their faces.
I'm happy. I'll cherish this family in this other world.