Chapter 15
Reasons for Coming
to Harapeko
Translator : PolterGlast
Harapeko Restaurant.
A week has passed
since I started working at this restaurant.
"Seriously, it's
such a pain! Or rather, I messed up,"
The beautiful woman
with reddish-brown, slightly curled hair, who was sitting on a chair and
running her fingers through her hair, was the only daughter of this restaurant.
Just her presence alone brightened up the surroundings. She was a radiant
beauty. As expected of Eldorado, the so-called most terrifying witch in the game,
or rather, the current El, even though I was dirty in the forest, my shining
blonde hair, white skin, and potentially promising looks were something, but
she was quite something too, I thought.
Yet, she puffed out
her small cheeks and vigorously thrust both hands towards the ceiling.
"My legs,
moveeee!!!"
"Don't be an
idiot, help out,"
"Ugh!"
The landlady's iron
fist of punishment flew. "O-oof..." Even the completely unrelated me
and the slimes involuntarily covered our heads. It looked incredibly painful.
***
"Harapeko"
was the name of the restaurant. It reminded me of a certain student cafeteria
with the catchphrase "cheap, fast, and delicious," but customers
always came non-stop. From adventurers to townspeople, and even soldiers like
Lotus who worked for the knighthood, the customers were varied. However, the
fact that male customers stood out wasn't just because of the menu.
There was Sutra-san,
who was currently chopping the day's vegetables on the table like a demon while
clicking her tongue. Even when she was just sullen, she was cute, but when she
faced customers, she displayed a genius level of customer service with a smile
that was like an angel's, yet her one leg was wrapped in a painful-looking
bandage.
What she had said
about messing up was that Sutra-san had apparently accidentally injured herself
before I came to Harapeko with Lotus. Usually, Sutra-san took orders and the
landlady worked in the kitchen, working hard as a two-person team, but it was
her leg that had been injured. It was difficult for her to do the same work as
usual, so they had tried reversing roles, but they quickly reached their limit.
They desperately needed someone, even just a cat's paw! And that's when I
arrived.
The literacy rate in
this country wasn't very high. They had asked a customer to write a flyer, but
there weren't many people who could read it, and they didn't have the time to
actively recruit. So, what came was truly a cat's paw (me). Lotus, who came
almost every day, was a regular. He probably knew the situation.
"Aah... if only I
hadn't been so greedy back then..."
Hearing Sutra-san's
muttered words, I desperately reached out to wipe the table and asked,
"Greedy?" I couldn't help but be curious. The slimes were also
wondering what was going on.
By the way, I decided
to give these three slimes names since I had the chance. Naming them, Ichi
(One), Nii (Two), San (Three). When I declared that I would give them names and
told them the words I had thought of, the three of them quietly shook their heads.
They seemed to be saying that they didn't like it, but when I proposed
"Then how about A, B, C?" along with the set of Pine, Bamboo, and
Plum, they quietly accepted the first option as better. I, who had thrown away
the name Eldorado and called myself El, hoped they wouldn't expect any sense of
naming from me.
Ichi was the leader,
taking the lead, Nii was the laid-back type. San was the Latin-type slime who I
would notice dancing without realizing it. Even though they were slimes, they
had distinct personalities when you looked closely, so they were easy to tell
apart. The window display also properly showed their names, like 【Cleaning Slime: Ichi】.
"Yeah, greed. You
know, there was that mysterious incident a while ago where slimes disappeared
from the forest, right?"
"Eh, ah,
yes..."
While following the
movements of the slimes that only I could see, Sutra-san sighed and explained
as if I had asked just the right thing. "It's being called an
incident?" A little pain pricked my chest, and I looked up at her, her
eyes downcast with melancholy. She's beautiful.
It had been a week
since I started working at the restaurant in Sutra-san's place. Customers who
still didn't know she had retreated to the kitchen would say with a sorrowful
scream, "She has been replaced by Chinkusha1!?!?" when I
greeted them with "Welcome!" Sorry. There's hope for the future
though. I've probably got a great figure.
1 Chinkusa : a crumpled
face with the eyes, nose, and mouth all gathered in the center like a Chin. One
theory is that it also means a face that looks like a Chin sneezing.
"The slime water
disappeared from all over town, so I was hoping to get some somehow."
"E-eh... the
water's gone, and you're in t-trouble?"
My shallow actions
might have caused a big problem, and my heart ached. As I pressed my chest,
wondering what to do, Sutra-san blinked.
"Huh? No, it
wasn't really a problem. We have well water, you know. It's heavy and far,
though. But slime water is delicious, right? So I thought it would be great if
only our restaurant served it when no one else did, my blood as a merchant's
daughter was tingling, you know?"
"That's a
relief," I sighed in relief. But "slime water"... so that's what
they called the water that slimes held. I was somehow shaken by this city knowledge
that I didn't know. Eldorado's village was small, so the water from the village
well was enough. Besides, they didn't have the leeway to go all the way to the
forest to hunt slimes.
Just like Eldorado's
village, towns were built around water sources. In this country where it didn't
rain, water was considered very important, and when building villages or towns,
the first important thing was whether they could regularly secure water in that
place. Water sources were formed from the water that the gods scooped up with
both hands to give to the World Tree and spilled, so they strangely never ran
out. For now.
So, if you worked hard
to carry heavy buckets and made several trips to the well, there would be no
worry about water shortage. "Back then, I was only thinking about slime
water, and I think my eyes turned gold with how much profit I could make,"
Sutra-san said, covering her eyes with both hands. "Well, they're brown,
though." In the meantime, Ichi and the others, trembling more than usual,
disappeared to the edges of the restaurant. They were afraid of Sutra-san.
"I shook off the
gatekeeper and headed to the forest. But really, not a single slime was
there."
"E-eh, by
yourself...?"
"That forest is
like my backyard if it's nearby, you know. So I got carried away and went
deeper and deeper. And then I encountered a monster."
Looking at her sadly
rubbing her leg, I shuddered.
Even though the
trigger was herself, my actions had led to her injury. I couldn't even
apologize properly, and I bit my lip.
"And I was fast.
I ran as fast as I could. It was the best."
Something about the
story was different from what I had imagined.
"When I reached
the city, it felt so refreshing. I even did a little jump, thinking, 'As
expected of me!' and that's when I slipped and fell, and got this injury."
Looking at the
movement of her gently pointing finger, I bit my lip again, with a different
feeling than before. I couldn't swallow my emotions. It did seem like it was my
fault, but then again, something felt a little off. "Thanks to that, I
can't work at the restaurant, it's been terrible!" And that's how I ended
up being hired until Sutra-san's leg healed. The period would probably be about
two months.
While sitting on the
chair, she started thrashing her legs wildly, so it was easy to imagine her
hitting her injured leg on the floor and shouting, "Ouch!" and then
getting another iron fist from the landlady.
"Be serious!
Don't drag El into this!"
The landlady, when you
looked closely, actually resembled Sutra-san. Of course, they were mother and
daughter, but she also had big, round, cute eyes. "Ah, no, I was just
listening to her story." But she was strong. Before I could say
"Please wait," she strode off. All that was left was Sutra-san, who
had a large bump on her head and was slumped over the table. But she didn't
give up. She raised her face and smiled broadly.
"Ufufu. But I'm
glad El came... Because of me, the restaurant was in a terrible state, and I
really didn't know what to do. At first, I thought she was small, and I
wondered if it'd be okay, but it seems my worries were unfounded."
The way she gently
softened her lips and said "Thank you" had such a stark contrast with
her usual demeanor that it made my heart skip a beat. I just felt so happy.
"Well, you know,
I'm just a cat's paw."
"I'm not good at
cleaning, but everywhere El goes, it becomes sparkling clean... It's like it's
shining."
Ichi and the others
were hopping around at the edge of my vision. Professional work.
"Haha," I laughed, and Sutra-san said with a puzzled voice, "I
feel like there are fewer quarrels too." Hahaha. For now, I just smiled
vaguely.
***
It took a week to get
used to the restaurant. I can't say that I've got the locations of things and
the menu all figured out, but it was much better than at the beginning. The
customers at the restaurant had also started to remember my name. I heard the doorbell ring. The tension had eased
a little. That's why when I heard the sound, I smiled and responded with
"Welcome!" without thinking anything of it. It was Lotus.
Lotus, with his messy
hair, was looking around the restaurant with a sharp gaze. There were wrinkles
on the bridge of his nose, but it wasn't so much that he was displeased, but
rather that he had that kind of face to begin with.
However, my own face,
whether I liked it or not, twitched. Once a day, this time would come.
I had to face someone
I didn't want to see.
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