Chapter 1-11 : Selling The Materials Ⅰ (part 2)

 

South Strugg is a big town on the edge of the region.

And my destination is a fancy cafe in a corner of the town.

Yes! A cafe!

Eh? ‘Didn’t you come here to sell materials’, you ask?
Yeah, but the alchemy store can wait.

First, I want to eat something delicious!

「Looks like the food will be expensive, but it’s okay once in a while, right~?」

While muttering alone, I entered the cafe excitedly.

Because it was lunchtime, the store was a little crowded.

A waitress immediately approached me and saidー

「Welcome. It’s crowded now, so would you please wait for a while?」

「No problem.」

After that, she guided me to an empty table.

Because it was a relatively large store, there were still several seats available even though it was crowded.

While waiting, I took a look at the menu.

「I wonder what kind of tea they have……. Wow, there are so many kinds! Let’s see, umm~……」

You might be wondering, “Eh? Why didn’t the poor Sarasa-chan say, ‘Geh! So expensive!’?”
I know, right?
Normally, I would have said that, but since I knew it would be expensive, I wasn’t surprised.

「I want to eat sweets, but it’s lunchtime, so…. I think I’ll order this『Lightly baked bread with cheese and vegetables』.」

I don’t know what it looks like but it sounds delicious.

「The price is 150 reas, huh? …….Mumumu… Since I’ve entered this place, I mustn’t hesitate to use my money! Let’s order a fruitcake too!」

In the end, I spent five times more money than usual for buying lunch.

But I have no regrets!

Well, I still have money, but I think I should hold back from buying expensive things for a while.

 

After waiting for several minutes, the waitress finally came to take my order.

I looked around the store again while waiting for my food.

The inside of the store was very clean.
There were potted plants and paintings decorating the interior, and beautiful curtains on the windows.
It looked like the owner really thought about the importance of the atmosphere inside the store.

It was really different from an ordinary dining hall.
Well, it’s a cafe after all.

Since the interior was costly and hard to clean, it seems that this store wouldn’t allow people with dirty shoes to enter.

On the other hand, Diral-san’s dining hall was full of Collectors who came with mud and dirt on their shoes.
Of course she always does her best to clean up the place, but when there was a Collector with terrible dirt all over their body, she would say, “Go wash your body first!” and kicked them out of her dining hall.

「This store’s atmosphere is nice. I want to imitate it, but… I think it’ll be difficult. Hmm… Maybe I can start with decorating my store with potted plants first?」

Since my customers were mainly Collectors, it might be difficult to create this kind of atmosphere.
And if I put paintings on the wall, customers might ask, “What kind of artifact are these?”

The only decoration I have in my store is the beautiful curtains I made on the windows.

「And maybe, I will put something like a cute table in my store in the future.」

Recently, Lorea-chan came to my store more frequently.
If I have a table, we will be able to have a tea party and relax a little more while chatting about my life in the royal capital.

Yeah. Buying a table might be a good idea.
But, I wonder if Lorea-chan will stop coming if I have nothing else to tell her about the royal capital…
No, no. We’re friends! I’m sure she will still come like usual!

Maybe I should buy her a souvenir to increase our friendship level?

But… Daruna-san (Lorea’s dad) comes to this town frequently, right?
So there’s probably nothing that can make Lorea-chan happy in this town.

「Thank you for waiting.」

While I was thinking, the waitress onee-san brought me the food I ordered.

She arranged it on the table and smiled at me.

「Please, enjoy your meal~」

「Yes. Thank you.」

After that, she bowed once and left.

Hooー As expected from an expensive cafe.
The customer service is so polite.
It’s so different from Diral-san’s, “Here’s your meal”.

Ahh~ maybe I’ll also do this kind of service at my stoー
Nah… I don’t think it’s needed.
My customers are only villagers and Collectors after all.

Alright, let’s leave that aside for now.

It’s chow time!

「Heeー so this is ‘lightly-baked bread’, huh?」

I looked at it closely.

The bread itself wasn’t that special.
Even though I didn’t have an oven, I could make it easily with a frying pan.

ーーNo, wait. I forgot I still don’t have a stove…

「The toppings are vegetables, cheese, and… small pieces of meat? And this red sauce looks unusual. Hmm…」

The look was normal except for the sauce.

Curious about the taste, I cut it into a bite-sized piece with a knife and fork, and brought it into my mouth.

「*munch munch* …..Mmm~ This is good!」

It was more delicious than I imagined from its appearance.

There was nothing special about the vegetables and meat, but the rich taste from the cheese and the sour yet sweet taste from the sauce match very well with the ingredients.

I think even if you use a poorly-baked bread, you still can make it as delicious as you use well-baked bread if you use this sauce.

「No doubt that this is a tomato sauce, but it seems they also use some spices to make it… Hmm… It’s difficult to know what kind of spice they used.」

I wish I could eat this delicious bread even when I was in my village, but I’m not particularly good at cooking, so I can’t imitate the taste of this sauce.

However, an alchemist is good at analyzing, so I might be able to analyze the spices used to make this sauce.

「After selling materials, let’s buy all the spices I can get in this town before going home! Ah, maybe I should buy cheese too since it’s hard to get in the village. Alright, now it’s time to try the tea and the fruitcake.」

I took a sip of the tea, and took a bite of the fruitcake.

「The tea is… normal. Nothing special. The fruitcake is… I don’t know how to describe it…」

It’s not that they taste bad.
However, the tea and sweets I’ve eaten at Master’s store were much more delicious.

I remember that time, Maria-san always made sweets for us.

So that means Maria-san is more amazing than this store’s patissiere?
Or maybe this store’s patissiere’s skill is below decent?

「There are many people eating here, so I don’t think the patissiere is bad. Or maybe, these customers just came to enjoy this store’s nice atmosphere and don’t care about the taste?」

For me, the taste wasn’t bad at all, but I think the price is a little too expensive for the taste.

I’m not saying that I won’t come again, but the taste wasn’t good enough to make me want to visit one more time.
Of course, the ‘lightly-baked bread’ was an exception.

Well, if I happen to visit again in the future, maybe the tea and the cake will become better than now.
Who knows?

After I finished my meals and enjoyed my time in the cafe, I headed for the alchemy store.

 

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