On the table inside the private room was an array of various dishes.
They were the many dishes Rei had ordered.
Fortunately, the lunch rush had already passed, so the kitchen was able to handle Rei's massive order.
...Though for a few items, there weren't enough ingredients to provide the full amount he had wanted.
This was likely the downside of visiting after the peak—in other words, after many customers had already ordered large quantities of food.
For Rei, that was slightly disappointing, but seeing so many dishes lined up before him, he could manage well enough.
"Alright, you can come out now."
After confirming that the clerk who had brought the food had left the room, Rei spoke and let Nielson out from within his Dragon Robe.
Standing on the table, Nielson let out a cry of delight at the spread of dishes before her eyes.
"Kyaaaah! This is amazing. Humans really do have an incredible talent when it comes to cooking."
As if to show that Nielson's words were no mere flattery, her eyes sparkled brightly.
There were roughly ten plates of food on the table.
Beyond that, there was slightly warm bread, and soup had also been set out.
Each dish on the plates was generously portioned enough for several people, and ordinarily, there was no way Rei alone could finish it all.
But that was only if one thought about it normally. For Rei, this amount was something he could eat without issue if he set his mind to it.
Also, even if he couldn't finish it, Rei had his Misty Ring, so there would be no leaving anything behind.
"Hey, Rei. Which one are we starting with?"
"Well, let's start with the vegetables for now. Here."
Saying that, he scooped some salad onto one of the plates the clerk had prepared for him.
It was a salad, but it wasn't just vegetables.
Crisply grilled bacon, steamed river fish, rare summer mushrooms, fresh vegetables... and beyond those, several spices that would normally be impossible to obtain in Gilm were used, making it a salad, yes, but a proper dish in its own right.
(Spices... could it be that the ones the Green People produced are already in circulation?)
Rei had also heard that Daskar's reason for taking in the Green People was to consider the cultivation of spices.
Given that the Green People possessed the power to accelerate plant growth, and that a fair amount of time had passed since Daskar took them in, it wouldn't be strange for spice harvesting to have already begun.
Of course, spices required processes like drying and crushing after harvest, so just because they were harvested didn't mean they could be used immediately.
"Delicious... these vegetables taste a little different from when we eat them in the forest, too."
"Well, wild ones and cultivated ones are definitely going to be different."
So said Rei, but recalling his time in Japan, he understood that saying cultivated ones were necessarily tastier was not always true.
For example, the tomatoes cultivated at Rei's home.
Rather than giving them plenty of water and fertilizer, giving them less water and fertilizer made the tomatoes store nutrients—sweetness—in their fruit in order to survive, and as a result, these semi-wild tomatoes were tastier.
With mushrooms, too, there was a big difference between the nameko mushrooms Rei's family cultivated for home use and the ones sold at the supermarket. Most of the nameko sold at the supermarket were about fingertip-sized, but wild ones—technically log-cultivated, so not truly wild—could grow to the size of one's palm.
Of course, generally speaking, properly cultivated ones were tastier than wild ones.
For instance, fruits.
Wild fruits were not that sweet.
But the fruits cultivated by farmers were the result of repeated selective breeding, making them sweeter than wild ones, or even seedless.
In that sense, it seemed those factors varied greatly depending on the food.
"Hey, Rei, I want that dish next."
"Alright. Careful, it's hot."
The next dish Nielson said she wanted to eat was steamed meat with a red sauce.
Rei had eaten similar dishes several times before, and it was a fairly common dish.
But even with the same dish, if the cook was different, the flavor would also change.
"This is good. The sauce uses a sweet-and-sour fruit, so on its own the sourness is a bit too strong, but when eaten together with the meat, it cuts through the greasiness."
"It's delicious... hey, Rei. Give me a little more of this dish."
This dish was apparently tasty for Nielson as well, and she demanded to eat more.
For Rei, since it meant less for him to eat, he didn't really want to let Nielson have too much of this dish.
"Nielson, this dish is good too. It's fish baked with cheese. And it's not river fish, it's sea fish... and it seems pretty fresh."
Gilm did not border the sea.
There were rivers, but obtaining sea fish not as salted preserves but raw and fresh required the use of a Magic Item, and naturally, the price went up accordingly.
(Ah, well, that's the case for us, but for a fairy, maybe that sort of thing doesn't matter? ...For starters, the very image of a fairy eating meat or fish is a little off.)
The image of fairies that Rei held did not include them eating anything resembling proper food.
If they had mana, that was sufficient, and if they did eat something, it would be things like fruits and nuts.
Or perhaps drinking morning dew.
That was merely an image he held, and whether it was actually the case was a separate matter entirely.
"What's wrong? If you're not going to eat it, I will."
At the very least, the fairies Rei had imagined were not the kind that would joyfully eat all sorts of dishes like this.
"I must say, you fairies really do betray my expectations."
"What? All of a sudden?"
Perhaps because Rei's words were unexpected, Nielson cast a questioning glance at him even while savoring the food.
In response, Rei shook his head as if it was nothing, and reached for the food himself.
It was a simple stir-fry of meat and vegetables, but the vegetables retained their texture almost mysteriously well.
(Normally, when you stir-fry vegetables, they get wilted and soft.)
Recalling the stir-fried vegetables his mother used to make when he was in Japan, there had been liquid pooling in the plate.
But the stir-fry currently before Rei had no liquid in the plate.
The reason liquid pools in the plate is because the ingredients are stir-fried for a long time.
Also, one could do something like oil-blanching the vegetables before stir-frying, but an ordinary household wouldn't do such a thing. At the very least, his mother never did.
Rei didn't know about those techniques, but he could at least understand that the food served at this restaurant was delicious.
"Rei, give me some of that too."
Probably because Rei was eating it so appetizingly, Nielson also demanded that she wanted to eat the same dish.
Rei nodded at Nielson's words and portioned some onto a plate.
Incidentally, since there was naturally no tableware suited for Nielson to use, she was eating the food with her bare hands.
(I should get some small spoons and forks that a fairy could use... though if someone says that fairies normally eat with their hands, there's nothing I can do about that.)
The general image of a fairy was something delicate and dainty.
For such a supposedly dainty fairy to be eating food with her bare hands... if someone who knew nothing saw this, they would absolutely not be able to accept it.
(Well, thinking that eating with one's hands is savage might be a mistaken notion.)
In fact, when Rei was in Japan, he had seen on TV that there were cultures where people ate with their hands instead of using spoons, forks, or chopsticks.
And not just among so-called uncivilized tribes, but even in countries that otherwise possessed high culture.
"What is it?"
Nielson voiced that to Rei, who was looking at her with a puzzled expression.
For Nielson, she probably couldn't understand the meaning behind Rei's behavior.
"No, it's nothing. More importantly, it seems you've taken a liking to this restaurant's food."
"Yes, every dish is delicious... give me some of that bread over there."
Nodding at Nielson's words, he tore off a piece of bread.
A little earlier, if they had come to this restaurant right at noon, the bread would have been freshly baked and probably tastier.
But now that it was already past noon, the bread had cooled considerably, and its fragrant aroma, while not entirely gone, had certainly diminished significantly.
Even so, since it was bread served at a slightly upscale restaurant, Nielson was eating it with genuine relish.
"This is delicious. The outside is fragrant, and the inside is soft."
Nielson was only about the size of a palm, body and all. Naturally her face was small, and she was eating the bread by practically burying her whole face into the piece Rei had torn off.
Compared to her eating the portioned dishes with her bare hands, Nielson's appearance was still somewhat more fairy-like.
"I see. Then eat as much as you like. We still have funds left from yesterday."
The money Nielson had used when shopping yesterday had been entrusted to her by Daskar.
Nielson had purchased a considerable amount, but a substantial sum still remained.
Considering that amount, even ordering quite a lot at this restaurant would still leave them with plenty to spare.
Moreover, Nielson, being a fairy, could never eat a large amount due to her small size.
Honestly, the majority of this food would disappear into Rei's stomach.
After all, not everyone was a big eater like Rei.
"Hmm... this dish, I wondered about because the sweetness is so strong, but it's good."
What Rei said that about was also a stir-fry.
However, among its ingredients was a sweet fruit.
A fruit that was sweet even on its own and was often eaten as a dessert or a snack.
By stir-frying it together with pungent spices, a lean cut of Orc meat, and walnut-like nuts, that sweetness strangely transformed into a flavor that stimulated the appetite.
"It would probably be pretty good poured over udon or something. But I guess they wouldn't have udon... no, if I ask, maybe they do? Nielson, hide under the table for a bit. If this works out, you might be able to eat an even tastier dish. ...Of course, if we're found out, it'll cause a huge commotion. What do you say? If you're not confident, you can give up on the tasty dish."
For Rei, he understood that this restaurant had this kind of dish.
If so, he didn't have to eat it today; he could always come back to this restaurant and eat it another time.
Unlike Rei, Nielson, being a fairy, could not so easily come to this restaurant.
Well, if she pushed it, she could probably manage to come, but that would cause an uproar and she wouldn't be able to eat any food at all.
Whether Nielson understood that, or perhaps simply knew that if she hid and wasn't found, she might get to eat something delicious, she ducked under the table while still holding her bread.
"Alright."
At Nielson's simple response, Rei nonetheless smiled at the prospect of eating it here today, and rang the bell in the room.
Then, in less than a minute, the clerk appeared.
"Excuse me. Is there something you need?"
"Yeah, can I order some udon? But I want just the udon noodles, boiled slightly firm, rinsed to remove the sliminess, then briefly dipped back in hot water. No soup or anything like that."
"How many servings?"
"Let's see... looking at this food, about five servings should do."
Rei wanted to eat more if possible, but any larger amount would mean too many noodles and not enough toppings.
Of course, he could do the same thing with other dishes besides the one he had his eye on, but for those, he felt it would be tastier to eat them together with bread.
"Please wait a moment."
Bowing, the clerk departed.
After watching the clerk go, Nielson emerged from under the table.
"Phew. That was kind of fun... the bread was delicious too. Oh, give me that bread over there. It seems a little different from the others."
What Nielson wanted next was bread with ham kneaded into it.
That bread must have been popular, as there were fewer of them than the other kinds.
"Here."
Tearing off a piece of the bread and handing it to Nielson, Rei also brought a piece to his own mouth.
The sweetness of the bread and the saltiness of the ham combined into a flavor so satisfying that he felt he could keep eating it forever.
Savoring that taste, Rei waited for the udon to arrive.