Chapter 3:

Welcoming Feast

Apparently The Cuisine in Another World Isn’t that Varied, Guess I’ll Develop It Myself


The summoning was a service provided by the adventurer's guild, who also provided lodgings. Thus, Mitsuran followed Stella and her companions to their room.

“Hm, good thing we rented a room for four. Now that you joined us, we can get the full value of this room, haha,” the blond man attempted to lighten the mood, but no one reacted to him. “Right, we haven’t introduced ourselves. I’m Julien, the archer of the party.”

“I am Rhewen, a mage. Nice to meet you,” the girl with long ears followed with a smile. Julien and Rhewen then both looked at Stella, who had kept quiet. She hadn’t said anything since she berated Mitsuran in the summoning room. Her face looked upset as she avoided Mitsuran’s eyes.

“Th- this is Stella, our party’s leader. You probably already heard it from the summoning staff.” Not wanting the atmosphere to stay awkward, Julien decided to keep the conversation going. “Anyway, how about you? I believe we haven't got your name.”

“My name is Keshou Mitsuran. You can call me Mitsuran,” Mitsuran extended his hand, which Julien and Rhewen shook in turn. Then Mitsuran hesitantly held his hand in front of Stella. Although the atmosphere between them was still tense, Mitsuran thought that not even offering a handshake would be going too far. As if thinking the same, she took his hand and looked at him with a sideways glance.

“Stella, though I’m sure you already know that,” she said curtly.

As everyone had introduced themselves, Julien started a new topic.

“So, how proficient are you in alchemy?”

“Ah, about that. Honestly I have not a single clue about alchemy or anything like that. In the first place, there’s no such thing as alchemy or magic in my world.”

“Even though you were summoned during the alchemy theme?” Stella asked with a raised brow. Her improving mood started to worsen again.

“You tell me. What is a summoning’s theme anyway?”

“The summoning will sometimes have a theme, which will appear on its rune,” Rhewen started explaining, still with a smile, “the staff mages decipher the rune to determine the theme, but they were not involved in its formation. It just appears randomly from time to time. When the summoning has a theme, the summons are usually related to it.”

“I don’t think I’m familiar with alchemy, though,” Mitsuran asked with a raised brow.

“Maybe you have the potential for alchemy mastery. Even if you are useless as an alchemist right now, you can just learn it.” Rhewen said without changing her expression. In fact, she had the same face the entire time ever since Mitsuran first saw her.

“If you can’t do alchemy then it wouldn’t make any difference whether you join our party or not,” Stella brought back the supposed main topic of their discussion. “If you don’t want to join our party then no one is forcing you,” she said as she looked away and crossed her arms.

Now that he had calmed down, Mitsuran could think more clearly. He almost died and was summoned to another world. There seemed to be no way for him to return to his world. He had two options. The first one was to join Stella and the others as an adventurer. If he decided not to join them, he would still be stuck in this world, only with nothing to do. Thinking about it, having nothing to do was certainly worse.

“You said you are adventurers, right? Will you travel between cities and such?”

“Basically yeah,” Julien answered, “we might stop in certain cities for a while, but we do go to different cities and nations.”

If he was going to join them traveling around the world, then Mitsuran would get to try the cuisines of this world. After all, it was a different world, meaning there would be new foods for him to try. Who knew, maybe he could find tastier dishes in this world.

“I think I might join you. That is if you let me,” Mitsuran said as he looked at Stella, who let out a sigh.

“Like I said, do as you like.”

“For real? Yeah, welcome to the team.” Julien excitedly patted Mitsuran on the back.

“Welcome Mitsuran. I am not an expert in alchemy, but you can ask me about it or magic if you want to learn them.” Rhewen welcomed him, still with the same expression.

While still waiting for the feast, Mitsuran and his new companions continued their chat. It was mainly Mitsuran asking questions and the rest explaining common knowledge in this world. As he was going to be a member of their adventurer party, they had to make sure Mitsuran was familiar with this world. Mitsuran also asked the others about themselves, but he didn’t manage to learn much. The only things he learned about the girls was that both of them weren’t from Lyondepain. Julien, on the other hand, was more open about himself, but he tended to go off on a tangent.

Their conversation was interrupted by a knock on the door. It was the guild staff informing them that the feast was ready. She led them downstairs to the dining area, where people were sitting around two long tables. When they approached the tables, a man greeted them.

“Ah, it’s the star of tonight's feast, welcome. I’m Felin, the guildmaster,” the man with fur-trimmed jacket shook Mitsuran’s hand, “man, It’s been years since we summoned a human in this city. In fact, I think I was still a kid back then, gahaha. Come on, take a seat. Enjoy our humble feast”

It was finally the time that Mitsuran had been waiting for. If there was one thing that he loved, it was eating delicious foods, and a feast would definitely have them. When he first knew there would be a feast, he was worried the atmosphere would be heavy between him and Stella. But now that they were in agreement, he could immerse himself in the food.

On the table, there were stacks of bread, roast chickens, and bowls of vegetable stew. It was a rather simple feast. The staff did say that it was a feast for when they summon people, so it was understandable that there wasn't much preparation behind it. The summoning was random after all.

After sitting down, Mitsuran realized there were no plates on the table. Instead, the other people took a piece of bread and used it as a plate for the chicken and the stew.

“Hey, are there no plates in this world?” Mitsuran asked Julien who sat beside him.

“What? Of course there are. We just use bread more often, especially for a feast. Guess they baked a lot today, too.”

Hearing that, Mitsuran shrugged his shoulders and did as others did. When in Lyonn, do as the Lyonnese do, as they said. Mitsuran reached for the carving fork and knife to take a portion of the roast chicken. As someone on the dark meat camp, he took a piece of thigh from the chicken closest to him. When the fork pierced the chicken, he got a bad feeling. After setting the chicken aside on his bread, he reached for the vegetable stew. He only noticed when he scooped a portion himself, but the stew’s consistency was grainy. Nevertheless, he poured it on his bread. It was a dish of another world, maybe it wouldn't be as bad as it looked. There was also a bowl of light brown sauce for the chicken, so he took some and topped the chicken with it.

Mitsuran took a bite of the chicken leg. As he feared, it was overcooked. Even the thigh meat was almost dry. As for the taste, it wasn’t bad, but definitely could be better. The sauce helped in both of those areas, but it still could use more flavor. It was also a bit coarse for a sauce, but it didn’t bother Mitsuran that much.

Next, he tried the stew. The vegetables used were cabbage, carrot, onion, leek, and peas. The texture of the stew was indeed weird, at least for Mitsuran. It seemed like it was thickened with breadcrumbs, thus the thickness is uneven, with some clumps here and there. And while it was subtle, as someone who boasts his experience in eating, Mitsuran could tell that the vegetables were cooked unevenly. It wasn’t that obvious, but the carrots were still a bit tough, while the leeks and peas had lost their vibrant green color.

It was a disappointing feast for Mitsuran, but then again, it wasn’t something prepared in advance. After finishing the chicken and stew, he was left with a whole piece of bread. The top part of it was softened by the stew and sauce, but the bottom was still hard. It was edible, it was just hard.

“What do I do with this?”

“You could eat it or just leave it,” Stella answered. “We usually just give it to Julien.”

“Julien likes bread. As long as it’s edible, Julien will take it.” Rhewen added as she passed her bread to Julien, who took it gratefully.

“That’s true. Though honestly, I can hardly finish three of these breads, four of them are definitely out of the question. Well if you leave them on the table, someone else will take it.”

There was nothing wrong with trying something new, so Mitsuran broke a smaller piece of his bread and ate it. It was a stale bread, softened on one side, as he imagined. The feast was different from what he imagined, and not in a good way. To think that his plan of taking a detour and trying a new restaurant turned into this fantastical journey to another world with a subpar feast. Mitsuran worried about his future as he munched his bread.

Gimblo
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