Life in Another World as a Maid Mage
Volume 1 - Daily Life of A Maid Mage
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07 – Accepting to-go food orders (3)
This chapter is narrated from Alex's perspective
That same day, I went to the adventurer's guild with the intention to look for a suitable job. I often crossed paths with others on some requests, but if I was lucky, I might be able to see that woman's face. With such faint hopes, I put my hand on the door of the adventurer's guild.
"… Hmm?"
When I opened the door, there was a strange atmosphere. There were only a few people in the room, but I could feel in the atmosphere that something had happened. When I looked around, those who were looking for a request, those who were sitting at tables chatting, and those who were talking with staff at the counter—each were holding similar paper bags.
"What’s going on?" I asked.
I wondered if there had been a bargain sale at a nearby store.
"Hey, it's Alex. It's good to see you. I heard about the good work you did the other day."
I stopped and turned around, lured by the svelte tenor of the light voice coming from the side.
There was a bewitching beauty dressed in a very skimpy and revealing outfit that barely hid her magnificent breasts, which were almost spilling out, and also exquisitely framed her shapely hips. Her lustrous, strawberry-blonde hair was tied up high and the eyelashes that framed her golden-brown eyes were painted with glittering mascara. Her skin was as smooth as white porcelain and her gleaming lips were tinted an inviting shade of red.
I couldn't help but look at her.
"Nadia… you…."
"What is it?" The woman named Nadia shrugged and rolled her eyes.
"… Don't you look a lot younger? What in the world did you use to do that? You’re finally a full-fledged witch
Immediately Nadia withdrew her smile and her beautiful eyebrows raised.
"You're still a rude man."
This bewitching mage, I remember, had poor hair and complexion before. She had looked much older, too. Now, she looked seven or eight years younger than before.
"It's all thanks to Shiori. She told me to change my diet that was mostly meat and to stop smoking tobacco. It took me a lot of work to stop taking the tobacco so suddenly, but I did exactly what she told me to do with my vegetables and this is what happened."
She stroked up her smooth skin with satisfaction. I noticed now that her pipe, which used to dance in her hand as if it were a part of her body, was now gone.
"Hmm…." It was interesting to hear that just by changing your diet and no longer smoking, you could rejuvenate yourself, but more importantly when I heard the name of the woman I was in the middle of pursuing, my thoughts turned to that direction at once.
"She was here just now. If you had come earlier, you might have been able to buy Shiori's travel food."
"Travel food? Does she do that, too?"
"It always brings a good crowd. You can eat that child's homemade meals on the road, even if she doesn't accompany you on your missions."
Nadia told me that the travel food was sold once a week. It was a shame that I had missed it but if that was the case, I wouldn’t lose sleep over it.
"Why don't you go after her if you want? You’ve met her once already, so you know her face. She just left earlier, so she's probably stopping by Marius's for some supplies."
"… I got it. I'll be going."
Nadia raised her eyebrows in amusement at me, who was going out of my way just to greet Shiori.
I walked down the street and immediately found Shiori. She was standing in front of the store with a large amount of bags and packages in her hands. It looked like Rurie was flattened underneath some bags, and that surprised me.
"You've bought a lot of stuff again. Do you need help?"
"Mr. Alex."
When she called out to me, I didn't even wait for a response, but took the package in her arms. Rurie trembled as if to ask me to hold its share, too.
(If one person could carry all this, it wouldn’t be so complicated.) I thought this, but decided to help anyway. I lifted Rurie's load as well. Instantly, Rurie returned to that beautiful bun shape and bounced up and down. Surprisingly, it seemed Rurie was quite reliable.
"Do you want me to carry it to your room? Is your apartment down the road?"
I found a good excuse to see Shiori's room and chuckled inwardly. I didn’t know if she was suspicious of my intentions or if she wasn’t even aware of them, but regardless Shiori meekly bowed her head and said, "Please."
The way they walked side by side holding each other's shopping bags, they seemed like a married couple, and the edges of their mouths couldn't help but pull into twin smiles. Not a bad result at all for Alex’s efforts.
After a short walk, we reached an apartment with dark ivory walls and a brick-colored roof. The well-kept entrance, with its polished handrails, was kept dust-free and clean. The counter by the door was decorated with seasonal flowers. An elderly man in the back, dressed in a white, starched shirt and dark gray slacks, offered a light bow. He seemed to be the building’s custodian.
"Miss Shiori. The egg soup you gave me the other day was delicious. My wife was very pleased."
"I'm glad you liked it,” Shiori replied.
In the midst of the casual exchange, the custodian’s eyes turned to me for a moment. However, he didn't misunderstand my intentions with Shiori and instead thanked me with a soft smile. I was relieved to sense his good nature. Shiori seemed to have chosen a good place to live. I was led up the stairs to a corner room on the second floor. A faint, fresh, and sweet scent tickled my nostrils as she opened the powder-blue door.
Oh, that's Shiori’s scent.
I’d played with women a number of times before because of my position, but I’d never had a definitive relationship… or rather, I’d never felt like committing to anyone because I’d always felt a sense of displeasure and unease around women because of my complicated childhood. I’d sort of barged in on my own here, but coming into Shiori’s room felt like I was entering a woman’s place for the first time despite my age and experiences and I was embarrassed about how I felt such novelty from this.
"Thank you for bringing everything in. I'll serve you some tea now,” she said.
"… Yeah, sorry to intrude."
While the tea and refreshments were being prepared, I looked around the organized room. There weren’t many miscellaneous objects around here, instead the room was filled with books, from the bookshelf in the corner next to the bunk bed to the small nightstand nearby. Sticky notes peeked from the edges of the books and I could tell she was a studious sort.
In the kitchen, where Shiori was taking out baked goods in small plates while the water boiled, airtight glass containers were lined up in a narrow space. There may have been some food for herself there, but the majority of them were probably for her companions on their travels.
After looking around the place with interest, I absentmindedly picked up the order forms that were lying on the tabletop. As I was looking at them one by one, I suddenly found a familiar name and stopped.
"… Clemens Saeden. Grilled chicken-flavored ham, boiled pork slices, anchovy potatoes, fried eggplant, and bacon with garlic…."
It sounded like a tasty combination, but I was going to say what I thought anyway.
"… No matter how you look at it, it's just hors d'oeuvres."
It's an assortment that that would be right at home in an izakaya.
"Do you also think so? It's been bothering me a little bit for a while now,” Shiori said while arranging a cup of tea and a small plate of baked goods.
They both laughed as they looked at each other, feeling as if they had seen an unexpected side of the dual-wielding swordsman who acted like a gentleman. They laughed for a moment and then sipped their tea. It seemed they were using good tea leaves. Nadia had taught her how to brew it, Shiori explained. Meanwhile, Rurie played in a basin filled with water. It looked like a moon jellyfish floating in the waves.
"But it's an odd menu for travel food. Most of it doesn't look suitable for preservation," I said. If they were different meat or fish dishes, it would have been all right. But you can't just preserve a risotto or a soup in oil or salt.
"Oh, that's… "
Putting the cup down, Shiori headed to the kitchen and returned with a glass container, a kettle, and a bowl on a tray. From the glass container, she placed something square-shaped and wrapped in wax paper into the bowl.
"What is this? Dry food…?" I asked. It was a reddish-brown, dry cube.
"You'll see."
Hot water was poured into the bowl containing the cubes and stirred with a spoon. Then, while I was looking at it, it turned into a tomato-colored soup and the nice aroma of citrus and soup stock filled the room.
”This….” My eyes widened as the dry, solid cubes turned into a fragrant soup in the blink of an eye. I scooped it up with a spoon and brought it to my mouth as encouraged. The sour notes of tomatoes and the aroma of smoked bacon spread in my mouth. The texture of the vegetables chopped into small cubes also rolled smoothly over my tongue. The taste and mouthfeel were too good to have come from dried food.
"Minestrone? But what on earth is this…?"
"The method is called freeze-drying. It's a process through which cooked food is quickly frozen using ice magic and then dried using wind magic. It's convenient for preserving food because it maintains their taste and texture,” Shiori explained.
"Freeze-drying?"
"It's light and easy to carry around and can be rehydrated quickly with boiling water, making it perfect for travel meals. Um…." While saying this, Shiori headed to the cupboard and pulled out two box-shaped objects. They were just large enough for Shiori to hold and I could feel the flow of magic from them.
"… A magitech device?"
"Yes. I had it custom made, but with my financial resources I could only make it this big."
”I could actually make a lot more if it were bigger,” she said, and opened the lid to show me. It was a well-sealed metal box. Apparently it was filled with ice and wind magic stones. "Even though I say rapid, freezing and drying would take several hours, so it's difficult with my magic power. Once, I tried to force myself to do it in a short time and my magic power dried up in an instant and I had a hard time. So I ended up relying on these magitech devices."
It seemed that freeze-dried foods were made by putting the prepared dishes into a mold and then into a box, one meal at a time, and from there following the procedure of freezing and drying. Since the amount of food that could be made at once was limited, she could only handle making one order a week, and that was with limits already applied on the number of items that one person could order.
"That's an interesting piece of technology, by any chance, did you invent it?"
"No... it's technology from my hometown.” Shiori's hometown, which was still considered unknown. Her tone became heavier and mixed with a faint hint of nostalgia. It was probably a topic she didn’t want to touch too much. There was a beat of awkward silence.
"That's right… I'd like to order something too, but is it still okay?" I spoke up to clear the air.
The hint of nostalgia somewhat disappeared from Shiori's face as she nodded. Relieved, I looked at the list of takeout meals and wrote the necessary information on the order form.
Evening.
I returned to my room at the inn where I was staying for the night and placed two glass containers on the table. A travel meal had been given to me as gratitude for carrying the bags, and she had also added some sides of liver and pickled potatoes in oil. Of course, they were made by Shiori.
We had eaten lunch after I’d placed my order, and we had spent a lot of time talking. She seemed calm and modest, but once she grew accustomed to my presence, she had talked and laughed a lot more than I had anticipated. It might be easier to build rapport than expected.
Yes, as long as I didn’t make any mistakes while decreasing the distance between us, it wouldn’t be as hard as I thought.
Because of my job, I knew how to get along with others. I had played the role of a carefree person in the presence of a cheerful man, and in front of a graceful, refined woman, I had also played the role of a gentleman that such women would like.
But I was this old now. In a few more months I would be well past the acceptable age range for a regular bachelor and would teeter dangerously into a new sort of seniority that was simply unsuitable for marriage. A turbulent quarter of a century had passed since I was ten years old. I had already sacrificed myself enough. I wanted to live a calm life in a place where I could be myself, preferably with a soothing woman next to me who could care for me.
"I'm the one who wants… a place to belong."
The thought suddenly occurred to me and I chuckled. Maybe it was nothing, maybe I was just attracted to a woman who wanted the same things and felt the same sort of longing and hope. In that case, we should be able to stay with each other. Hopefully, we could become the sort of people who deeply depended on each other, giving and taking in harmonious measure.
I removed my gear, changed into my comfortable loungewear, and sat down in a simple, undecorated chair. I fetched the bottle of ale I had taken from the dining room downstairs and opened one of the containers I had received from Shiori. The faint smell of herbs drifted from the takeout box. I stabbed the liver with my fork and brought it to my mouth. It didn’t have any of the usual odors or gritty taste. I savored the flavor of pleasantly salted meat on my tongue for a while, then swallowed.
The food made by Shiori tasted like home, something I had been seeking for a long time.
[1] TL Note: This is a pun… Nadia is a Mage (魔導士) which is read as Madoushi, which is made by the word magic (魔) and instructor (導士). Alex referred to her as witch (魔女) read as Majo, made by the word magic (魔) and woman (女) as a pun in reference to her now-blooming looks. So in theory it could be read as Magic Woman or… A mage.
[2] Izakaya (居酒屋): is a type of informal Japanese bar that serves alcoholic drinks and snacks. Izakayas are casual places for after-work drinking, similar to Irish pubs, Spanish tapas bars, and American saloons and taverns.
1 Comments
thaanks, i've been waiting anyone translate this
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