A few days later.
The story I had seen in the newspaper about the Hildenburg family had completely vanished from my mind.
Aside from the fact that the duke’s daughter in the portrait had been unrealistically beautiful,
it had nothing whatsoever to do with me.
Besides, I didn’t particularly like nobles.
Nobles looked down on commoners with the status they were born with and the wealth they inherited.
Even during my adventurer days, I had seen plenty of nobles acting obnoxiously when, apart from their status, they had nothing on me.
So I had no choice but to view the lot of them through tinted glasses.
“No customers again today… It’s been a while since I missed Irit this much.”
I muttered, resting my chin on the counter.
It really was another quiet day.
I watered the herb pots on the rooftop,
and tilled the ground in front of the restaurant to make a new vegetable patch.
They say good cooking begins with good ingredients,
so when there were ingredients I could gradually grow and provide for myself, I cultivated them personally.
After finishing various chores in the morning, things became quiet again.
It was fun teasing Aris by making her do mischievous tasks,
but if I did that too much, it would stop being a prank and become genuine bullying, so I kept it moderate.
“Maybe I’ll get some air.”
“Ah! Me too~! Me too~!”
As soon as I got up, Aris immediately followed after me.
I really only wanted a brief breath of fresh air.
Behind the restaurant was a hill overlooking the forest,
and when I stood there, gazing into the distance and taking deep breaths, it felt as though my head cleared.
So I stepped out of the shop and was about to head toward the hill.
“…Hm?”
I saw something approaching from far away.
Looking closely, it was a carriage.
The first thought that came to mind was, They brought a carriage all the way out here?
The road to Gourmet Restaurant Slow was rough.
There was a road connected to the city,
but since few people passed through this region, it wasn’t well maintained.
Adventurers wouldn’t care in the slightest, but it wasn’t a road fit for bringing a carriage.
The wheels probably wouldn’t survive.
“Manager, I think someone’s coming~? It’s a carriage!”
“I’m looking at it right now too.”
“Could it be customers? Could it be customers?”
“Who knows…”
If they weren’t coming to the restaurant, there was no reason to take this road.
If you passed the restaurant and kept going down the even rougher path, you’d reach a forest swarming with monsters.
The other direction was blocked by a large mountain,
so even peddlers or merchants traveling across the continent didn’t come this way.
The carriage was clearly heading toward our restaurant.
And it wasn’t just one carriage coming.
Several more people on horseback were following along on both sides.
Even from a distance, the colors were vivid and there were plenty of decorations,
so it certainly didn’t look like a merchant’s carriage.
Nobles, huh…
“Huh? It stopped moving!”
That was when it happened.
The carriage traveling along the road toward us came to a sudden halt.
The people who had been following on horseback on both sides dismounted as well, and the atmosphere grew chaotic.
“…They’ve wrecked a carriage wheel.”
“Eh, then isn’t that really bad? They might be customers…”
“I’ll go take a look. Watch the shop.”
I began walking toward the carriage.
* * *
“What kind of road is this! Is there really a restaurant in a place like this?”
A young man who had gotten out of the ornate carriage grumbled.
The carriage wheel had caught on a rut in the ground and a stone,
and it was stuck, half broken.
“I-I’m terribly sorry, Your Highness! I’ll take care of it as quickly as possible!”
A man who appeared to be the coachman fumbled as he pulled tools from a leather bag and tried to repair the carriage wheel.
Oh… It seems someone quite distinguished has arrived.
“Who goes there! Stop! Do you know who this person is?”
As I tried to approach the carriage,
two armored soldiers leveled their spears at me and shouted.
“I came to see what happened and help.”
I spoke in a calm voice while my eyes swept over the surroundings.
Even among nobles, their ranks varied.
In the worst cases, some families had almost no territory left and were nobles in name only.
But the people before me seemed to belong to a fairly powerful noble house.
The carriage’s decorations were lavish, made with gold and jewels,
and the equipment of the private soldiers guarding it was all expensive.
Even the two horses that had been pulling the carriage were white horses with glossy coats,
so it seemed highly likely they were from a house governing some large territory.
“It would have been better to come on horseback rather than by carriage.”
“I asked who you were! If you try anything foolish…”
“I’m the owner of the restaurant you can see up there.”
The words, You’re the ones who came looking for me… rose in my throat,
but through my long life as an adventurer, I had learned that when dealing with nobles, one needed patience above all else.
“Oh… the restaurant owner? Of that place?”
After hearing my answer, the young man who seemed to have the highest status approached first and asked me.
What was this? My restaurant shouldn’t be that famous.
“That’s correct. I am the owner and chef of Gourmet Restaurant Slow, Klaus. Pardon me, but may I ask your name?”
I bowed my head slightly in courtesy and asked politely.
“I am Hairel, eldest son of the Duke of Hildenburg.”
The duke’s eldest son, huh.
He didn’t look that old.
Early twenties… or perhaps late teens.
He was handsome, and every one of his movements exuded that distinct noble air.
At his waist hung a silver-worked scabbard,
but given his status, it was naturally closer to an ornament than something meant for actual combat.
Lord Hairel abruptly held out a sheet of paper to me.
“This is…”
It was a flyer for our restaurant.
I had paid an advertising company to distribute them in various cities, and it seemed they had spread farther than expected.
Actually, maybe our shop’s advertising… was going far better than I had thought?
No, more importantly, wait—
---
The ultimate experience you can’t taste anywhere else, and there is no menu!
Whatever flavor the guest desires and dreams of, we will prepare any dish with perfect skill!
A fantastical taste realized through grand magic! Please understand that we do not accept ordinary customers.
※Visits by reservation only※
---
Somehow, I feel like the content of our shop’s flyer has changed a bit?
It felt like the advertising copy had become a little more provocative…
“Any dish with perfect skill, a fantastical taste realized through grand magic… That is true, isn’t it?”
Lord Hairel, who had handed me the flyer, asked.
“Yes, it is true.”
“Ab.so.lute.ly anything?”
“There are no restrictions on orders, but whether I accept one or not is up to me. And the cost will likewise be determined by me in proportion to the ingredients and labor required. What I can promise my guests is satisfaction.”
With a smile, I explained our restaurant’s concept.
Even if the other party was the son of an influential house, I wasn’t particularly afraid.
In this world, mages had aspects that were not bound by the status society assigned.
Of course, if I openly made an enemy of him, my own position would become dangerous,
but from a noble’s perspective, making an enemy of a mage was troublesome as well, so perhaps you could call it a relationship of mutual respect.
“Wouldn’t it be better to pay some attention to the road leading to your shop? At this rate, even customers who intended to come might turn back.”
Lord Hairel clicked his tongue as he looked at the broken carriage wheel.
“I run my restaurant in a place that is deliberately difficult to reach. If someone comes all the way to a restaurant in a place like this, it means they are that desperate. If all you want is expensive, high-quality food, there are plenty of fine restaurants in the royal capital.”
“Ho…”
At my words, Lord Hairel nodded as if intrigued.
“More importantly… I’ll fix the carriage wheel for you first.”
Feeling sorry for the coachman, who was struggling to somehow repair the already broken carriage wheel,
I stopped my conversation with Lord Hairel, stepped forward, and spoke.
“Restoration.”
I placed my hand on the completely cracked and broken carriage wheel and chanted the spell.
It was originally magic I had devised to restore overripe or spoiled ingredients, but…
Repairing a carriage wheel was easy enough to conceptualize.
“Oooooh…”
The coachman let out an exclamation of wonder as he watched the broken carriage wheel gradually regain its original form.
“There. If you attach this again, it should roll without issue. On your way back, I’ll cast protective magic on the carriage wheels, so use that to endure somehow until you return. When you visit next time, it would be better not to bring a carriage.”
“Th-thank you.”
I waved off the coachman, who was thanking me,
then turned my gaze back to Lord Hairel.
“Well then… for now, you’ve come as a customer, correct? Shall we discuss the details at the shop?”
“Mm, let’s do that.”
Lord Hairel nodded, then mounted the horse beside him.
It seemed they intended to leave the carriage parked here.
And so, together with the guests who had come from so far away, I headed back to the shop.
* * *
A strange tension hovered inside the restaurant.
Lord Hairel sat at a table, drinking tea.
And behind him, four heavily armed soldiers stood without the slightest movement, weapons in hand.
The limp-seaweed ghost Aris had no idea what to do and panicked,
then hid inside the kitchen and refused to come out.
You… are still an employee, at least in theory.
For now, I conversed with Lord Hairel, who had come as a customer.
“In any case, our shop operates strictly by reservation. First, I hear the order, provide an estimate, and then ask you to visit again around a certain time.”
“Could you make a house call? We’re in quite a difficult situation ourselves, you see.”
“A house call?”
“The truth is…”
Lord Hairel let out a deep sigh,
then began telling me something unexpected.
“My younger sister is to marry into another family this time. Her partner has been decided, and the date for the official ceremony is approaching, but a slight problem has arisen.”
“I see.”
I responded to the young lord’s words somewhat dryly.
The circumstances of another family’s political marriage were none of my business.
So was he placing an order or not?
“…Some time ago, my younger sister began saying that no food suited her palate, and she has all but stopped eating and drinking.”
Ah… So it’s an issue of a noble young lady having no appetite.
Reviving the appetite of a noble lord or lady with unnecessarily refined tastes was a piece of cake.
As I was thinking that, a corner of the newspaper article I had seen not long ago suddenly flashed through my mind.
Hildenburg… Hildenburg… Ah!
“Could that younger sister be… the one called the Doll Princess…?”
“You know of her. Yes, Rosaria Hildenburg. She is my sister.”
Even though I had seen it only a few days ago, I had completely forgotten.
My latest customer was…
the duke’s daughter whose breathtaking beauty had left an impression even through a portrait.
The Doll Princess, Rosaria Hildenburg.
* * *