I spent the morning darting around to buy a massive amount of ingredients, then dedicated the rest of the day to prep work.
Tomorrow’s menu would consist of salad, meat sauce spaghetti, and steak, with apple pie for dessert.
I had been torn on what to serve, but since both pasta and steak existed in this world, I figured those were safe choices that wouldn't confuse anyone. They might not have seemed much like traditional party food, though.
When I thought of food suitable for a gathering, pizza was the first thing that came to mind, but I had yet to see it in this world, so I decided against it.
As for drinks, I prepared water, alcohol, and two varieties of fruit juice.
Since it was a celebration, I splurged a bit on the booze. I told the shop clerk my budget was three Small Gold Coins for thirty people and simply bought whatever they recommended. The fruit juice, however, was strictly homemade.
Alchemy proved to be unexpectedly useful for the cooking process. For instance, after kneading the dough for the spaghetti, I used Alchemy to separate the moisture, resulting in instant dried noodles. Now, all I’d have to do tomorrow was boil them. For the juice, I simply crushed the fruit and used Alchemy to separate the liquid from the pulp, resulting in pure, 100% fruit juice.
I couldn't help but wonder if using Alchemy for such mundane tasks was actually okay.
Aside from that... I used to use store-bought bouillon back in my previous life to make meat sauce, but that didn't exist here. I decided to spend the day making a chicken and vegetable stock from scratch. Tomorrow, I would grind the meat I'd bought at the butcher into mince, sauté it with tomatoes, add the stock, and season it. That should make for a decent sauce.
Once the prep was finished, I stored everything in a "Cold Box." This was a wooden crate entirely coated with Sticky Slime Hardening Fluid. I had applied a Cold-protection Barrier to it, but I’d reversed the effect; instead of keeping the cold out, it prevented the internal cold from escaping.
By the way, this Cold Box was quite impressive. When I used Appraisal on it, the item description would include details about the contents and their freshness, such as "the contents inside are beginning to spoil." It was probably more accurate to call it a clever application of Appraisal Magic rather than an effect of the box itself.
By the time the cooking was done, it was that awkward time of day just before evening.
It was a bit late to head to the guild, but perhaps a bit early to go home.
As I wandered aimlessly through the city, a church caught my eye.
That’s right—I hadn't prayed lately, so I decided to go pay my respects.
On a whim, I turned toward the church and was greeted by a girl who appeared to be in her teens.
"Welcome. How may I help you today?"
"I found myself with some free time, so I thought I would offer a prayer to the gods."
"I see. Then please, come this way."
She led me to a large hall with rows of chairs lined up in front of an altar. It seemed I was free to pray as I pleased. The girl left the room after telling me to take my time.
Even if she told me to take my time... I thought as I sat in a nearby chair, closed my eyes, and clasped my hands together.
A few seconds passed.
I felt a sensation like something was being pulled from my body, but it wasn't unpleasant.
When I opened my eyes, I was in that pure white room I had visited twice before.
"Am I back again...?"
"Yep, you’re back."
At that voice from behind me, I turned around to find Kufo.
"Kufo, we meet again."
"It’s been a while—well, not really. It hasn't even been a month since the last time."
"Are Gain and Lulutia not here today?"
"Yeah. They’re out for a bit."
"Eh? Gods actually go out?"
"It doesn't happen often."
"Huh. Where did they go?"
When I asked that, Kufo made a face as if he’d slipped up.
"Ah... well, actually, they went to the world you were originally from."
"To Earth!? Why? Are they summoning someone else?"
"No, no! It’s nothing like that. This time, it’s..."
Kufo hesitated.
"It’s what? If it’s hard to talk about, I won’t force it."
"Hmm... I guess it’s fine to tell you, Ryoma-kun. They're sightseeing."
"Huh?"
Sightseeing?
"Lulutia is doing a tour of the sweets in your world, and it seems Gain has gotten hooked on the music of Japanese idol groups."
"What kind of reasons are those!? Well, I don't mind, but... can you really move between worlds that casually?"
"Basically, gods don't interfere with each other's worlds. But we and Earth have been interacting for a long time by having people and mana sent over here. Besides, this world is a bit lacking in entertainment. Look, even with Lulutia's sweets tour, there isn't much variety in this world, and what we do have tastes terrible compared to what you have back home."
"Well, that might be true."
"I also went on a tour of Earth's unexplored regions recently. As the God of Life, I wanted to see creatures surviving in harsh environments. I went to the Amazon, the Sahara Desert, Atlantis, and even the deep sea."
"There’s one very strange place mixed in there!"
"This is a secret from other humans, okay? It would ruin the dignity of the gods."
"No, don't just gloss over that. Anyway, even if I told someone, nobody would believe me..."
"That’s true too."
Kufo laughed heartily, looking every bit his youthful age.
If the scale of the conversation wasn't so grand, I would almost forget he was a god.
"Still, Gain's hobbies aside, shouldn't Lulutia's sweets be a bit more widespread? There are many Otherworlders in this world, right?"
"That’s the thing, but cooking recipes are hard to spread. This world doesn't have convenient things like the internet, and sugar and spices are hard to come by. You already know that dishes using plenty of spices are luxury items, right?"
"Yeah, definitely."
"Several have been passed down as luxuries for royalty and nobles, but the ingredients are out of reach for commoners. So even if an Otherworlder tries to make food from their home, the number of people who can actually recreate it is limited. It either doesn't get passed down, or it gradually gets lost over time. For example... you met a man named Pioro Saionji recently, right?"
"I did. I suspected as much from the name, but is he a descendant of an Otherworlder?"
"Yeah. The original Otherworlder was the son of an okonomiyaki shop owner and had been a student at a culinary vocational school. He tried to make okonomiyaki in this world, but he couldn't make the sauce or find the seafood for the filling, so he traveled the world to gather the ingredients. He made a fortune through peddling and running stands along the way to cover his costs. In the end, he was satisfied because he could finally make okonomiyaki, but he couldn't popularize it. Instead, he used the connections and knowledge of ingredients he’d gained to establish a company dealing in foodstuffs. That’s how the current Saionji Company started. In his era, ingredients were so rare that you couldn't recreate okonomiyaki unless you traveled the world and started a whole corporation. Nowadays, food is a bit easier to get because of the Saionji Company and its imitators."
So that was the story behind it...
"Things like that happen in every field, not just food. Whether it's technology or knowledge. Not every Otherworlder has that kind of passion, and many who had the will lacked the skill or just had bad luck. Some technologies were even wiped out by wars or other Otherworlders."
"I suppose that makes sense. But what do you mean by technologies being lost because of other Otherworlders? Did they bring in something better and replace it?"
"...I can only say it was bad luck, but a long time ago, a medical student came here and spread knowledge of medicine and pathology. But now, almost none of that remains, right?"
"Yeah, now that you mention it, even the Guild Master didn't know much about epidemics."
"Actually, the girl who came two people before you... she said she wanted to be a Saint."
"A Saint? Like the holy figure types?"
"Exactly. A mystical figure who heals the people. She wanted to be pampered for doing those kinds of things. But she wasn't a bad person. She wanted the attention, but she truly did want to help people. So, Lulutia, Gain, and I gave her our blessings. While she couldn't resurrect the dead, she had the power to heal any injury or illness as long as the person was still breathing. We also gave her a absolute protection—she was immune to poisons, could never get sick, and could never be harmed or bound by anyone. She spent her entire life acting as a Saint, but..."
"But?"
"She could cure any disease, but everyone else only had normal Healing Magic, which couldn't cure sickness. Since there were diseases that the medicine of that time couldn't touch, people who fell ill would die unless they could reach her. Seeing that, she realized that once she died, more people would suffer... So, at the end of her life, she staked her entire being to invoke divine power. Her final wish was to erase all diseases from this world."
"Erase all diseases!? Is that even possible?"
"Normally, no. But she was an Otherworlder we had directly empowered. On top of that, she had the faith of millions, and those prayers acted as a booster to the power we’d given her. To put it simply, she used a 'cheat.' And she literally staked everything on it. Immediately after using that power, she died, and her soul vanished. Normally, souls are supposed to reincarnate, but because she burned her very essence to fuel that wish, she ceased to exist."
"That’s... she was an incredible person."
"She started out just wanting to be a Saint, but by the end, she had become one in both name and reality. She converted faith into energy—something that’s natural for us, but for a human to do it... well, the result was that for nearly 400 years, disease was almost non-existent worldwide. Since injuries still happened, Healing Magic remained, but the knowledge of how to treat illness was lost because it wasn't needed. Now, the effect of her power has finally faded, but once knowledge is lost, it doesn't just come back."
"I see..."
It was still hard to believe a single human could do such a thing, even with a "cheat" power.
"Ah, as long as you’re prepared to have your soul vanish, I think you could do something similar, Ryoma-kun. Maybe not to her scale, but something close."
"Seriously!?"
"When a human soul and divine power combine, it generates a massive amount of energy. That’s how we’re able to use souls like yours to bridge mana between worlds. Though, if you tried what she did, you could probably only erase diseases for a few years. She had the backing of faith and specialized in healing, which is why hers lasted four centuries. You don't have that faith yet, and you're an all-rounder, not a specialist. On the plus side, you have almost no limits on your growth, so if you take your time, you might eventually become stronger than a simple cheat. Besides, it makes it more interesting for us to watch."
"So it all comes back to that?"
"Well, the Divine Realm is pretty boring, after all~"
As Kufo spoke, the world began to glow. I recognized this.
"Is time up?"
"Eh, already? ...Oh! Since Gain and Lulutia aren't here, I'm the only one maintaining the connection, so it doesn't last as long! Ryoma-kun!"
"What? You’re acting so rushed..."
"I called you here because there was something I wanted to tell you! I wasted too much time talking, so I'll get straight to it! I forgot to mention this, but your mind is being influenced by your younger body—you're undergoing a slight 'infantilization'! It happens to all Otherworlders! You are Ryoma Takebayashi, the man who lived thirty years on Earth, but you are also the eleven-year-old Ryoma Takebayashi of this world! The reason you can't always maintain a poker face or control your reactions is partly because of that! Training is fine, but don't push yourself too hard!"
As Kufo finished his frantic warning, my vision was filled with white light, and I found myself back in the church.
What did he mean? My mind was being influenced by my body? I didn't quite grasp it, but it sounded important.
Now that I thought about it, the "infantilization" made sense. Back at the company, my poker face was so perfect people said they never knew what I was thinking. Now, everyone told me my thoughts were written all over my face. I’d been like that as a child, too... well, it wouldn't change what I had to do, but since Kufo had gone out of his way to warn me, I’d keep it in mind.
I offered a silent prayer of thanks to Kufo, left a small donation, and walked out of the church.
The sun was starting to set, so I decided to head back to the inn.
Tomorrow, everyone would be coming to the shop. I needed to get some rest so I could give it my all.