“Well? Delicious, right?” She could hear the annoying human man speaking to her.
Fardania honestly hadn’t anticipated this. She never thought that humans, with their short lifespans and limited magical power, could ever create a meal that could satisfy her stomach. The noble race of elves once ruled over the world itself. With their powerful magic and rich culture, it was said that even dragons stood no chance against them.
Elves usually did not eat food made from animals. As guardians of the woods that could communicate with beasts, elves looked upon their animal neighbors as friends. Even the smell of cooking animal meat was too strong for them. To elves, animal meat was wholly unappetizing. That was why they didn’t hunt them. Their magic and archery skills were reserved for defending the woods against trespassers.
Perhaps as a sacrifice in exchange for their long lifespans, elves reproduced at an extremely low rate. Since their numbers were so few, the forests that elves tended to live in were typically lush with trees and flowers of all kinds. Capable of using their magic to preserve their food through the colder seasons, the elves could make do. Unlike the barbaric humans whose lives lasted but a moment in time, or those of mixed blood (half-elves) who could eat meat or fish, “true” elves like Fardania did not eat animals.
That was why Fardania had made her order in the most sneering of ways. Yet the man still managed to answer her request: a delicious meal that used no meat, fish, milk, or eggs.
Fardania wouldn’t have been surprised if he had brought out a salad of fresh vegetables or some kind of mushroom soup. She often ate dishes like that. If that had been the case, she could have just said “Not bad for a human” and left it at that. Unfortunately, this was something else entirely. What the human man brought to her was a delicious meal that she had neither seen nor heard of before.
Curses!
She was well aware that after eating everything on her plate, she couldn’t very well tell him it wasn’t delicious. She’d look like a fool. Biting her lip all the while, she thought back on how things had come to this.
My first mistake was coming here at all.
She recalled the moment she stepped into this Restaurant to Another World only minutes ago.
It began when Fardania, on her way to search for some mushrooms, had felt the strange flow of energies in the forest.
“What was that? Some kind of teleportation magic?”
Her ears twitched in response to the sudden shift in the flow of magical energy. There was a specific corner of the forest that made it easy for magical energies to gather, and it was there that a great deal of it had collected, as though some sort of spell had been activated. This had to be the work of a magical teleportation circle.
Fardania’s vast knowledge of magic led her to this conclusion. There was no way she was wrong, as her father had taught her everything she knew. When he was younger, he traveled the human world with another elf from their forest capital, learning the ways of the magical arts. Elves were a race incredibly proficient in the magic arts. Even humans who were said to be masters of magic were only really equal to that of a young, perhaps fifty-year-old elf child. Compared to elves, who would go on to spend the nearly one thousand years of their lives researching magic, humans and dwarves simply stood no chance.
Which is why elves were particularly sensitive to magical energy and could often pick up on strong spells before they were activated.
“This isn’t magic from anyone in the village. I have to go check this out.”
If somebody was using strange magic in the elf forest of Shiena, there was no way Fardania could ignore it. She held up her trusty bow and approached the area where she sensed the disturbance.
There it is…
Upon arriving at the area, Fardania found a strange black door attached to one of the trees. On it was a bizarre picture of a cat and words in a language that Fardania did not recognize. It went without saying that there were no elves mad enough to put a door here. Going by that simple truth and the quality of magic she could sense from the door, Fardania came to the logical conclusion.
Looks like it’s a magical relic left behind by the ancient elves.
This was a type of magical tool built over a thousand years ago, well before Fardania was born into this world. These tools were the origins of the complex, modern day magic of this age. This item was clearly the source of the magical energy she felt earlier.
With magic this strong, there’s no doubt that it’s a door to another world.
Despite her youth, Fardania was one of the most talented magic users in the forest. Her wealth of knowledge led her to accurately identify the door’s true identity. It was the sort of magic that activated in the interval of a few days, when its energies were at their peak. Given the strength of this magical energy, she theorized that multiple doors appeared simultaneously around the world.
“Well, I guess I’ll take a look.”
Fardania placed a teleportation symbol on a nearby tree. With this, she’d be able to teleport back here by force from another world, as long as the door was still connected. Her preparations made, she stepped through.
Ring, ring.
The source of magical energy let out a ringing sound. And then…
“One order of fried seafood, please! And some whiskey, too! Lots of it!”
“The usual.”
“Omelet rice. Large. To go. Three orders.”
“Master, can I get two orders of fried shrimp over here?”
“Um, can I get a chocolate parfait?”
The sight of a small restaurant filled with tables and chairs stretched out before Fardania’s eyes. Seated in many of those chairs were customers ordering a host of different dishes.
“Aye, welcome! Take a seat anywhere that’s open!”
Fardania was somewhat dumbstruck at the sight in front of her. The man, likely the master of this place, was carrying plates of food as he noticed and called out to her. Watching all of this with a look of disdain in her eyes, Fardania decided to take a seat out of sheer curiosity.
“Damn it all! My stuff still doesn’t even come close!” The dwarf man tore into his fish and booze while letting out a heavy sigh, then immediately placed another order. He looked like he reeked of ironware, his large axe propped up next to him.
“Indeed, this is the dish to have on the Day of Satur!” An old, thin man nodded to himself and dug into his fried pork, occasionally taking sips of the golden alcohol next to him.
“Mm. Seconds.” The source of this magically translated voice was that of a Lizardman warrior covered in scars. Fardania had heard that these monsters lived in the wetlands. The one in front of her ordered a yellow egg dish with some sort of red stuff on top of it.
“Tartar sauce is great, but pork cutlet sauce goes well with it, too! Shripe truly is magnificent!”
The next voice came from a human man, likely a warrior, as he gushed over the sea creature he was eating.
Elsewhere, there was a noble-looking human woman in a beautiful dress, eating some kind of food made from dairy with black stuff on it.
This seems to be a restaurant where they serve human food.
Fardania found herself troubled. Nothing here looked particularly appetizing. The menu she was given upon arrival featured a host of foods she’d never heard of or seen before, but one look at what the other customers were eating told her everything she needed to know. Nothing here would please an elf.
Why must all human food be so barbaric?
Fardania recognized that all the meals served here had some manner of beast, fish, milk, or eggs in it. As a true elf who lived in the woods, none of that was considered edible.
The bread and soup are off limits, too.
Elves had sharp senses. If even a little bit of beast, fish, milk, or egg were used to cook something, they’d be able to detect it and would immediately lose their appetite.
What should I do? I can’t very well not order anything after coming in.
As one of the younger elves in the forest, Fardania was often still treated like a child. Even so, her knowledge of human customs told her that it would be rude to enter a restaurant and then not eat anything.
“Are you ready to order, miss?”
The master walked up to her, having noticed her struggling with the menu. After letting out a brief sigh, Fardania decided to mess with him a bit.
“Let’s see… I’d like something with no meat, fish, milk, or eggs in it. That is, if you’re even capable of making a dish like that. If not, I won’t be needing anything. I’ll just be on my way. Sorry.”