{Author’s Notes}
That was a close call…… I got ho at 10:30 pm…… and wrote the chapter in a hurry from there, so I made it just in ti.
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On a street lined with restaurants in the Friendship City, Hikari, the shopkeeper Mizuhara Kaori was preparing to open her restaurant, the Set-al Restaurant Suiren.
Her restaurant is open from 11:00 am to 9:00 pm, and being a Set-al Restaurant, it’s most crowded during the dayti. Even then, as one would expect, she isn’t so busy that she can’t keep up with the workload.
For example, during the Festival of Heroes, she becos so busy that she would need to hire temporary wait staff to keep the place running, but during normal tis, it wasn’t very busy. Her main custors were tourists who are attracted by the rarity of the other world cuisine, and although there aren’t that many, she also had the regulars who lived in the Friendship City.
The Friendship City is the most famous tourist destination in the world, and there were a large number of restaurants that wanted to take advantage of its popularity, so regular custors are very rare and precious.
After preparing the ingredients in a familiar manner and finishing the preparations well in advance for the opening ti, Kaori glanced at the calendar hanging on the wall.
Today’s date is circled in red, and after confirming it, Kaori placed a tag on one of the counter seats that read “Reserved”.
[Alright! Let’s do our best again today!]
Filled with determination, she unlocked the door and brought out the noren and the signboard with today’s recomndations in the front of her restaurant. Thereupon, a custor who looked like a tourist ca in right away, and Kaori served them with a smile.
(Note: Noren are those fabric dividers hung on the doorways of a restaurant, kinda like a curtain.)
While her restaurant was moderately busy, Kaori looked at her watch as she prepared for food. The current ti was 11:45 am……
[……15 minutes to go. I think today will be Mackerel Simred in Miso Set-al, so I have to get it ready……]
The reason for her soliloquy was the presence of one of her regulars. The regular custor, who ca to the table with the “Reserved” tag, was extrely punctual and always arrived at the restaurant at exactly 12:00 nn.
And since she’s ordering “the next in line from the top of the nu” every ti she cos to the restaurant, unless there’s a limited-ti nu, it’s easy for Kaori to predict what she would order each day.
Since there’s no limited-ti nu today, the next one she would be ordering would be the Mackerel Simred in Miso Set-al, so Kaori started to prepare the dish in advance so as not to make her wait.
Just as the Set-al was prepared to so extent, 12:00 nn finally arrived, and at that mont, a silver-haired woman opened the door of the restaurant and entered.
The woman’s na is Olivia…… The representative of the Friendship City, Hikari and the Founder of the Central Cathedral. Due to the influence of the singularity, Miyama Kaito, she had beco a regular custor of the restaurant.
Although Olivia is known to everyone living in the Friendship City, it doesn’t seem like she’s noticed often, probably because she wears plain clothes instead of the priest uniform she usually wears in public, and the fact that her hair is tied in a half-up hairstyle.
[Welco, please have your usual seat.]
[Excuse then.]
Having been to the restaurant many tis, both Kaori and Olivia had grown accustod to the situation, and following Kaori’s urging, Olivia took her usual seat.
[I’ll have the Mackerel Simred in Miso Set-al.]
[Yeeees, please wait a mont.]
Thereupon, as Kaori had expected, an order for a Mackerel Simred in Miso Set-al was placed, so she finished the set al that she had prepared to so extent and put it in front of Olivia.
Thereupon, putting her hands together in a pre-al prayer for a few dozen seconds, Olivia picked up her chopsticks and began eating her al.
[……It’s a little different again from the miso used in the usual miso soup.]
[I used a slightly sweeter miso for this one. It goes better with mackerel.]
[I see, a dish made with so ingenuity.]
[At any rate, Fou…… Olivia-san, you’ve gotten really good at using chopsticks.]
It may just be for her temporary peace of mind, but Kaori calls Olivia by her first na because it’s less likely for them to attract attention than calling her “Founder-sama”.
Well, that may be so, but there are still so people who recognize Kaori’s restaurant as “the Founder’s favorite restaurant”, which hurt Kaori’s stomach a bit.
[As expected, having eaten this many tis…… Fumu, I see you’ve changed the leek you use in your miso soup. Indeed, this one might suit it better than the one you used before.]
[To see through that from a single mouthful…… It seems that your palate has been growing at a terrifying pace.]
After exchanging those few words, as she watched Olivia’s very graceful movents…… “Arehh? Since when did my restaurant beco a high class one?”, Kaori couldn’t help but wonder. Not minding Kaori’s thoughts though, Olivia elegantly continued to eat her al silently.
After finishing every grain of rice, she put her hands in a prayer again before standing up and placing a coin and a piece of paper on the table.
[Thank you for the al. Here’s my schedule for next month’s visit.]
[Ah, yeeeeees. Alright.]
[Well then, I’ll see you again.]
After leaving those words with a light nod, Olivia left, and after seeing her off with a smile…… Kaori noticed that the other custors in the store…… had realized that Olivia was the Founder. Feeling that several of them wanted to ask Kaori questions, she could only let out a sigh.
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