IWAL Ch 8 – So It Didn’t Mean Casualwear?

 

“Ohh! The carrots look delicious today too!”

Today, I was once again farming. This week, it was all about onions, carrots, corn and potatoes.

Everyday, I harvested a certain amount and handed them over to the old man whom I’d asked to transport the vegetables to Couge’s restaurant.

“I hope a lot of customers get to eat all these delicious vegetables.”

 

The problem of who was going to make the butter for Couge was solved easily.

Do you remember the old man who’d asked for some water for his horse? His name was Genett-san. It turned out he was a dairy farmer, and he was actually an acquaintance of Couge’s father.

Back when Couge’s father was still healthy, he used to supply the restaurant with beef and milk. But when Couge took over and lost all of the restaurant’s customers, he became unable to pay Genett-san so the business transaction between them was driven to a halt.

When Couge came over to learn how to make butter, he met Genett-san once more. And Genett-san said he wanted to help.

He said he’d known Couge since he was a kid, so he’d always been worried about him.

Couge, who looked like a handsome model to me, was just a kid to Genett-san. He kept rubbing Couge’s head, embarrassing him. It was kinda cute.

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The hardest part in making butter, the churning, was also solved by an idea of Couge. He suggested putting the milk in a cask and fastening it to Brian so it would roll around the ground as he ran. With that, we were able to succeed in making a lot of butter in one go.

Whatever butter wasn’t used in Couge’s restaurant would be sold in the market. Then, butter would slowly become known to the people.

Soon, the use of butter in home cooking would become mainstream.

 

“Heeey, Shinobuuu.”

“Oh, Genett-san!!”

Genett-san came over everyday at the agreed upon time. He was already a well-known face to the animals, so now the once growling Pochi welcomed him with a wagging tail.

“Here’s the vegetables for the day. Oh, and can I ask you to buy some bread for me on your way back?”

“I got it. The usual?”

“Yeah!”

In exchange for having Genett-san bring the vegetables over to Couge’s, he’d have a part of the payment for the goods as commission.

And I’d also ask him to buy some bread, salt and other necessary items on the way back.

Now I didn’t have to spend an hour to go to town and buy things myself.

 

Genett-san commented, “It looks like Couge’s restaurant is doing well. I’d had doubts at first. But you really came up with something good. I’ve never heard of a restaurant with only one item on the menu before.”

I grinned. “Hehe, it was a brilliant idea, right?”

There was only ‘Chef’s Special’ on the menu. It was limited to sixty servings, after which the restaurant would close.

 

Couge was going through a rough patch with his restaurant, so the three of us, Couge, Norn and I, had put our heads together to think up of ways to handle the problem.

“If you’re going to run the restaurant by yourself, you can’t have too many things on the menu. Otherwise, the preparation would take up a lot of time,” I said.

Norn suggested, “Then, wouldn’t it be alright if we took down some of the dishes on the menu?”

“That would make it easier, but wouldn’t the diners get tired of eating the same thing every day?” Couge said.

“You’re right,” I agreed.

Besides, the price of the ingredients would change depending on their availability in the market. We might have days where the revenue wouldn’t offset the cost of the dishes on the menu.

After all, I’d sometimes hear news of crops having a bad harvest causing prices to jump, and the media advising everyone to be ready to tighten their belts back in my previous world.

If there were a lot of dishes on the menu, it’d be possible for the rest of the items on the menu to offset the one dish that wasn’t very profitable for that day, but what if all of the dishes weren’t profitable? That was certainly a possibility.

 

At the time, we couldn’t think of any ideas, so we set it aside for the moment and decided to eat lunch first.

My tomato soup had become a mainstay. Usually I’d put in some cabbage, but unfortunately I’d just finished harvesting all of my cabbages, and I’d just planted the next batch of seeds.

So I used onions as an alternative.

“Oh, you’re not putting cabbages today?” Norn asked.

“Yeah, I ran out,” I said. “But don’t worry, even if I change one ingredient, it’ll still be delicious.”

Couge opined, “Onions are delicious too.”

“Oh, that reminds me. Back in my world, there was this cafe that had ‘Chef’s Special Salad’ on the menu. Depending on what ingredients were available, the salad would change. Sometimes there’d be cabbage in it, sometimes lettuce. Sometimes there’d be corn. Oh, there was also a daily special. It would change everyday, and you wouldn’t have any idea what the dish was unless you went on the day itself.”

Something like ‘Today’s Dessert’. It was pretty exciting to ask, ‘What’s on the menu today?’

Couge suddenly said, “That’s a good one.”

I blinked. “Huh?”

“Daily specials. If we did that, then the customers won’t get tired of it,” Couge mumbled as he crunched on pickled cucumbers.

Norn replied, “Then, what about if we just go ahead and have only the daily special on the menu? If we do that, there would be no food loss. Plus, we could just buy whichever ingredients are the cheapest and create a meal out of those.”

As expected of Norn. He was really smart.

I never would have thought of something like food loss.

“If we change the dish daily, we’d probably run out of dishes to make soon. How about changing it weekly?” Couge said.

Norn responded, “As a test, we should limit the amount of servings we’ll serve per day. If all goes well we can just steadily increase the amount. What do you think?”

 

From there, Couge and Norn kept throwing out various ideas. Meanwhile, I sat there grinning as I listened to the two of them earnestly discussing.

I had a feeling that when Norn eventually quits his job to help out at the restaurant, these two would keep getting together like this and talk about their plans harmoniously. The thought made me really happy.

“Then, it’s settled! We’ll go with the ‘Chef’s Special’ meal!” I declared.

 

The initial sixty serving-limit became very popular. After all, people were weak to goods with the word ‘limited’ attached to it. It seemed the same was true for the people of this world. Once they heard that they wouldn’t be able to eat it after the week was over, people came in droves. There was even a line.

The restaurant opened just before noon and operated for two to three hours until the ingredients were all used up. The rest of the time Couge researched various dishes, or spent time with Norn. Couge now spent his days like this.

 

This week, they were serving hamburger steak!!

Couge had asked me to teach him more of my world’s food, so the first thing I taught him was the hamburger steak. Considering this world didn’t know how to handle meat other than to cut it up and roast it, such a never before seen dish became super popular.

The side dishes were glazed carrots, and fried potatoes. And the soup was corn soup.

Just thinking about it was making me hungry.

 

I waved my hand goodbye as I watched Genett-san leave with the meat, butter and vegetables that were to be supplied to Couge’s restaurant. Then, I felt a tug on my outstretched arm. I looked down and saw Pochi at my feet with a ‘Where’s my food?’ look on his face.

“Pochi, shall we have breakfast? Let’s eat some steamed potatoes with butter. You like butter too, right Pochi?”

“Woof!!”

Pochi really barked with good timing. I couldn’t help but smile.

It’s been three months since I moved to this world. I’ll be doing my best farming today too!!

 

“I think I’ve grown, too.”

Compared to when I just arrived, my skin has tanned, and when I flexed my arms, you could see the muscles bunch more than before.

Even the daily drawing of water and carrying of the vegetables felt easier now. Maybe because I’d put on some muscles?

“With all this progress, maybe I’ll grow a bit taller, too.”

I had yet to give up hope. Maybe eating the giant vegetables here and drinking Hanako and Hanayo’s milk will help me grow taller? I’d been drinking milk three times a day with that thought in mind, but there were still no results.

 

I’d been marking my height on the post by the entryway of the house everyday. But there were no changes, other than the mark getting carved deeper into the wood.

Pochi probably thought it was some kind of game and started scratching on the post with his claws too. He was so eager about it that wood chips flew all over the place, making me anxious that the post would somehow fall down.

“I want just a little bit more height, okay? ‘Cause being mistaken as a 10-year old kid is a bit…”

I’m begging all the cells in my body!! Please, won’t you evolve or something and make me grow like a bamboo shoot?

 

“I wonder what’s happening over there?”

After making another height mark on the post, I went out of the house. Down the single, straight road, heading away from town, I could see a long line of procession coming closer.

There were countless moocs in line, congesting the road.

Was there a festival going on?

The procession of the giant moocs reminded me of the Aomori Nebuta Festival that I once saw on a travel show, so I waited excitedly for it to come closer.

 

At the head of the long processions were people with their whole bodies covered in armor. I think I’d seen something like that in a movie. Was it called the medieval plate armor?

With their bodies covered in metal from head to toe, they looked like those knights riding on top of slimes of a certain game.

Today’s weather was hot, the sun shining brightly overhead. The sun’s rays burned harshly on the skin as if to say, ‘Go get burned!!’

Having to be fully wrapped in metal, these people were probably dying from the heat.

They could probably sing ‘Oyoge! Taiyaki-kun’ with feeling.

 

As I watched, the festival-like procession came close to my house. When they were three steps away from where I was standing, the procession came to an abrupt halt.

“………”

“………”

What? Why did they stop?

The armored knights stood there, staring straight ahead and not speaking.

“……………”

“……………”

Maybe they were waiting for me to throw some money offering?

During festivals, there were usually some kids with offertory boxes going around and asking people for donations.

“……………………”

“……………………”

The knights remained mute, still facing forward.

I didn’t know what was going on either, so I also stood there without doing anything.

 

“Why do you not prostrate yourself?”

“Aren’t you hot in that?”

Just as I decided to say something, unbelievably, the knight at the head of the procession spoke up at the same time.

“What’s ‘prostrate’?”

“Of course I’m hot.”

Ah. We spoke at the same time again.

What did that word mean again? Was it the thing that was written on the invitation card for my cousin’s wedding? The one that said ‘Please come wearing casualwear’.

If someone had taken it seriously and actually worn everyday clothes to the wedding, they’d probably be shamed to death.

“Oh, so you are hot.”

“To ‘prostrate’ is to kneel and bow deeply with your hands to the ground.”

It seems like this person and I were on the same wavelength. We always spoke at the same time!!

It was so funny I couldn’t help but let out a ‘pfft’. Then I burst into laughter.

 

The armored man who’d been looking forward all this time finally turned towards me.

He was completely covered from the neck up, but there was a tiny horizontal gap in his helmet at the eye level. Could he really see through such a narrow opening?

“Firks-sama will be passing through in a moment. He is a noble personage, so please prostrate yourself and give thanks.”

I was busy laughing so I didn’t hear everything he said, but it seems this procession was for someone you should give thanks to.

 

When I heard he was ‘a person you should give thanks to’, all I could think of was the monk who used to come to my grandma’s house.

He wore a golden stole with gorgeous embroidery, and came to pray sutras during Obon and on death days.

Whenever the monk came, we’d take out our best and fluffiest seat cushion and place it in front of the altar. As a child, I was envious of the monk because I’d never gotten to use that seat cushion.

Grandma would always join her palms together and give thanks to the monk. Maybe this Firks-sama was a monk.

“Um, is he a monk?”

“What’s that.”

Ah, looks like I was wrong.

I couldn’t tell if we were on the same wavelength or not. On one hand, we kept speaking at the same time, but on the other hand, we kept misunderstanding each other. The armored man heaved a small sigh and walked closer to me.

This person was also tall. Maybe it was because he was wearing an armor, but he exuded an intimidating air. I unconsciously stepped back.

 

“Grrrrrr, ruff! Ruff!!”

The moment the knight was about to enter my land, Pochi, who was supposed to be playing inside the breeding hut I was using as a place to dry plants, came running like a whirlwind and stopped right in front of me.

It’d been a while since he showed his animal side. Teeth bared, he started threatening the knight. Thinking the knight would get mad, I paled and hurriedly jumped at Pochi.

“Pochi! Pochi! Stop, stop growling!! Hey, stop baring your teeth!!”

The knight had frozen mid step. Slowly, ever so slowly, he lowered the foot that was hanging in midair and resumed his previous position.

 

Pochi was clever, so as long as nobody entered his territory, he wouldn’t attack. But he was still on guard, ears and tail standing straight and diligently watching the knight.

“I’m so sorry! Pochi is my guard dog, so he’s just trying to protect me. He won’t growl anymore so please don’t get angry!”

I rubbed Pochi’s back trying to get him to calm down as I apologized profusely.

It was because…Though it took me a bit to notice, there was a sword hanging on the knight’s waist.

This procession wasn’t a festival costume parade. These knights were probably the bodyguards of a really important person. I was stupid so I just realized this now.

“No, it was my fault. As long as someone they don’t know enters the premises, a guard dog will never stop. I’m not angry.”

Ahh, what an understanding person! I’m so glad!!

I thought he’d act like a samurai from the Edo period and proclaim his right to cut someone down and draw his blade. I wouldn’t have known what to do.

 

I’d forgotten. The people around me had been so kind to me that I’d forgotten I was in another world and it was different from where I’d grown up.

I didn’t know all of things I should and shouldn’t do yet.

Just like how in my previous world, while it was completely normal in Japan to hail a taxi with your palm facing up, there was a country where doing so was considered an insult. That was why it was written in the guidebook for immigrants to this world to learn the customs well and take care not to accidentally do or say something rude.

This chapter was brought to you by perpetualdaydreams.com

I was so relieved, the strength left my legs and before I knew it, Pochi was left supporting my whole body.

Pochi was an important part of my family. I really needed to learn more about this world so he wouldn’t need to bare his teeth and growl without my say so.

As I laid my cheek on Pochi’s fur, the horse pulling the coach in the middle of the procession had overtaken the moocs and was coming closer. It stopped right behind the knight.

My own wagon couldn’t compare to this luxurious coach.

 

“What is it? Is something the matter?”

From inside the coach came a slightly high-pitched male voice. The knight stood at attention and saluted.

This person must be the noble personage the knight was referring to.

Was he angry that I was interrupting the procession?

My nerves came back in full force. I jumped up from my previous position of leaning on Pochi, stood up straight and looked up at the luxurious carriage box.

 

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