Chapitre 2: Chapter 2: A Recipe For Disaster

Morning comes by as the sun rises. Its warm, white rays shine on my face as I'm waking up. It wasn't a completely peaceful night, but I slept like a log anyway. Despite this, I'm not usually enthusiastic about waking up. I groan quietly, "Oyyyy…. What a night. That was one heck of a dream. I was dreaming that I was literally in the world of Food Fantasy, and –" I stop when I realize that I'm still talking in the same dragon speak as before. I look around and see that I spent the night in the couch from the restaurant's living room. I groan again, this time in exasperation, "Fuuuck…! So, all of that actually happened? Come to think of it, the last thing I can only remember was when I was in that bedroom upstairs and then decided to explore a bit before sleeping here. But, what happened before that?" I ponder about this for a few more seconds…. Damn, nothing happens.

I seem to vaguely remember the school ending and me being so eager to get out of that hell, only to dread the days of being in a senior high school near my house. But what happened after that was a blur, as though the memory lapse between then and now was nothing more than a dream. Except, it's the kind that it's instantly forgotten the moment I wake up. No matter how hard I pry into my own memories, the only thing I've managed to draw up there is a blank as great as a void. Albeit I don't remember anything after the vacation began, the rest of my memories are as fine as usual, thus confirming that this is nothing more than short-term memory loss. Of course, I can't help but notice the subtle feeling that there's something off about this amnesia, but I'm not able to put my finger on it.

As I'm thinking, I see a small figure with a whole lot of white hair quietly walk down the stairs. It is Rice, and while being half-caught up in my internal monologue, I distractedly thought that she was going to open the restaurant when I realize that it's still too early for it to happen. She is carrying her giant rice paddle, but also has an envelope in one of her hands. How on Earth – er, Tierra, does she walk on those weird-ass shoes she wears? I randomly think. Am I the only one in the fandom that has thought of this? I hop off the couch and sneak up on her to see what's going on. Despite my stealth, she stops and looks at me, knowing that I am following her. She asks, her voice faltering like yesterday, "You're … curious, aren't, you…?" I nod as a reply. She answers, "I'm going, out, to look for some ingredients." I replies, "And I'd guard the place, but it seems very unlikely that any threat would show up soon." Not knowing what I said, Rice walks out the front door of the restaurant and sticks the letter that she held at the crack of the door when she closes it.

Shortly after Rice leaves, I decide to explore the place. I left the door completely open last night, so it's a total breeze to get to the place. On my left is a door to the men's bathroom and on my right is the women's bathroom. I continue moving forward. The restaurant has about fifteen tables, so it may be a small restaurant even though it's large for my size. Supposedly in the start of the game, the restaurant allows one person per table. However, I'm seeing about two chairs per table, which seem to be the Green Peace tables in the game. Except, the chairs are stacked upside-down on top of them. I notice some photorealistic paintings hanging on the walls, each showing different parts of a countryside, probably from Gloriville. I'd say they look like JPEG images, but the way they're painted is as though it's "photorealistic" in the sense that it's realistic in terms of the "realism" of this world. I'm probably not making sense, but the paintings are done in a way that is detailed but doesn't seem unnatural, nor something out of my world.

On the right from where I entered the restaurant, there is that table that is covered in a white tablecloth. I'm not sure what's on that table, but it seems to have some utensils, empty glasses, and probably some other stuff for the restaurant. There's a sign by the doors, which contains information about the menu in chalk and another one beside the table with the supplies. I take a peek under the table with the white cloth. There is nothing under there except for an iota of dust that had just started gathering on the wooden floor.

I turn around and head to the back of the house. Like the floors of the dining area and the place next door, the floor of the kitchen is also made of wood. In an event where you collect wormwood with a chance of getting enough shards to summon Qingtuan (her name was incorrectly changed to Matcha Rice upon release, but they changed it back to Qingtuan), there was a small part in a cutscene where Rice briefly mentioned that the restaurant is prone to mold – now I know why. The majority of the building is built on wood and some metal.

The door to the kitchen opens and Samson enters the room. He gets a few ingredients out of the cupboards from the kitchen and starts cooking. I sit by the door watching him. Minutes pass and the small meal he was making is finished. He calls out, "Rice? Hey! Rice? Hmm, where could she possibly be?" I'm about to approach him, but the door opens. I immediately scuttle clumsily to the back of the counter before I could be seen. Olivia steps into the kitchen and asks Samson, "Samson, are you looking for something?" He replies, "Ah, Olivia, I wanted to make Rice something to eat, but I don't know where she ran off to."

"Are you joking? Food Souls don't need to eat. But, of course, you couldn't have known that." Though that's true, I've read about Food Souls like Cheese who, ironically, love to eat food.

"Hey, that isn't important! The point is, she's missing now?"

"Stop searching and look at this."

Peeking from behind the counter, I could see that Olivia has the letter that Rice stuck to the crack of the door and gives it to Samson. He opens it and reads it aloud: "Master Attendant, I'm following the route we took yesterday for more ingredients. Don't worry, I'll be back soon. Sincerely, Rice." Oh, yeah, I remember that; that was when she left to prove Samson that she can fend for herself and wanted to dedicate her life to protecting Samson despite his protests earlier in the story…. Ooohhhhhhh … sshhhiiitt…! I hope my presence didn't change anything; I'd probably be screwed if anything happens to Rice because of me.

Samson asks with an obvious hint of worry in his voice, "I'm not surprised. Since yesterday she wouldn't shake that bitter look off her face. But does she really have to risk her life?!" Olivia answers, "Rice would go to this extent for your sake − doesn't that make you happy?"

"I'll be happy if she's safe and sound! I have to look for her!"

"Don't worry. She's a Food Soul. If she runs into trouble, her body will automatically return to the contractor. That is, to your side." That's not the part that worries me the most.

"No. I summoned her. I need to suspend operations for today and look for her!" Samson grabs an empty bag that was on the island rushes to the dorm area. Olivia walks to the dining area and then the house. I secretly follow along, keeping a distance between me and her, so wouldn't detect my presence. I move as quiet as I can, being careful not to let my talons make any noise. So far, so good. Olivia and I stop when we get to the living room. I hear some loud footsteps rushing above and Samson knocking on the doors there saying something like, "Guys, wake up! We need to find Rice as soon as possible!"

As Olivia starts looking around the around, I walk back to the front of the house and decide to hide under one of the tables before I could get spotted. I hear the characters go downstairs and Sandwich's voice asks, "Master Attendant! What's going on?" Samson answers, "Rice is gone. I'm going out with the same team from yesterday to look for her. Please keep an eye on the place while we're gone." "No problem, Master Attendant," Sandwich says.

Shortly after the group leaves, I hear Olivia tell Sandwich and Hawthorne Ball that she's going to check on the other Master Attendants in Hilena to make sure they're making good progress. I assume she's referring to the Master Attendants who are part of the Chef's Guild, but I'm just theorizing here. I get out of my hiding place and approach the two Food Souls. Hawthorne sits down to see me and asks, "Oh, hey there. Did you sleep well last night?" "It's not the worst night I had," I answered with a hand gesture used as a "yes and no" response. Sandwich asked, "So, you can understand what we're saying?" I nod.

"That's really cool~" Hawthorne chirps.

"I don't think we've introduced ourselves, by the way," Sandwich states. "My name is Sandwich, and this is Hawthorne Ball."

"My name is Danny RPG," I replies. "It's a thrill to meet you guys." Hawthorne asked, "Since Master Attendant is gone, what are we going to do?" Despite the language barrier, I might have an idea on what we could do. I gestured her to follow me. Sandwich stays in the living room to play with his cards. I lead her to the door to the kitchen. Hawthorne asked, "Oh? Are you hungry?" I shake my head, and then point to the door to the entrance of the restaurant, and then the kitchen door behind me. Since, it's going to be difficult communicating with them, I also did a bit of charades and briefly pretended that I'm cooking something, and then I point to the tables behind Hawthorne. I hope she gets that message clear.

Hawthorne asks, "So, you're trying to say that you want to operate the restaurant?" I point at Hawthorne, then Sandwich, and then myself and give her a small nod.

"You're saying you want all three of us to do it?"

I nod again.

"But, wouldn't it be a good idea to wait until Master Attendant is back?"

She has a point, but I'd like to see how this goes because I have nothing better to do except playing cards. I run to Sandwich and Hawthorne follows along. I perform the same charades in front of him, but with minor changes since I'm not in the front of the house anymore. Sandwich sits there, baffled by actions again. "Are you doing charades…?" Hawthorne replies, "It's saying it wants the three of us to run the restaurant until Master Attendant comes back."

"But, does the dragon even know how to do that?" Touché. The two Food Souls look at me. I shrug as a response. "Seems worth a shot. Though, now that you brought it up…." Maybe we can improvise a bit?

Though the three of us aren't too convinced that this is a good idea, we decides to do it anyway because not even Sandwich can keep himself entertained with his cards for that long until Samson gets back. We get the chairs off the tables and into their upright positions. Sandwich grabs the menus from the large table with the tablecloths, and although I didn't get a good look at it, but I think it said something like The Glorywest Grill or something, which I'm assuming is the name of the restaurant. Hawthorne opens the door to the kitchen and tells me, "Come on, Maolong. Let's start cooking~" Yeah, apparently, they don't know if I have name or not, and since they can't understand me, they've given me the name "Maolong," whatever that means. She notices the plate that Samson made and puts it in a box. She comments as she puts the box away, "I bet it belongs to Master Attendant. I wouldn't want it to go to waste. Still, why wouldn't Master Attendant eat it? What do you think, Maolong?" The door to the main entrance is heard opening and Sandwich's voice said, "Hi, welcome to Glorywest Grill. How may I help you?" Oh, so is it just 'Glorywest Grill'? I ask myself. Okay.

The customer requests water, a plate of crisped pork, and a side of fries, which Sandwich gives the order to Hawthorne and I jump up to the sink and prepare myself to wash the dishes. After giving the food to the customer, more start showing up in the small restaurant. About four hours later, the job starts to get tiring and I notice that I haven't eaten anything all day except very small amounts of raw pork that Hawthorne gave me as she was making a Gloryville dish about half an hour ago. There is a sound of Sandwich exclaiming, "Whoa! S-sorry, sorry about that!" along with a sound of loud, awkward footsteps. "Are you alright, sir?" asks Sandwich. "Ah, that's good to hear…. I'm fine, and plus, the food is saved. Enjoy your meal, sir~"

Sandwich enters the kitchen and asks Hawthorne, "Hey, can we switch places? I thought I might try cooking; serving dishes can get pretty tiring after a few hours." Hawthorne replies, "Sure." I continue washing the dishes and look at them with uncertainty. The next hour goes by better than I expected. Though, because Sandwich isn't as skilled at cooking as Hawthorne is, he accidentally overcooks about two or three meals, and unintentionally burned the fries and chicken once or twice. I also hear from Hawthorne that two Fallen Angels in disguise planned to pull a Dine-and-Dash, but decided to leave without ordering anything (and left a few pitiful Tips for Hawthorne to pick up). A few customers left as well, giving worried glances about our stunt and seem suspicious that our Master Attendant doesn't know about this.

An otaku and a girl who appear to be a college students enter the kitchen. The otaku tells us "Um, hey, your friend told me that we can volunteer to help you guys run the restaurant." I stay quiet and continue washing the dishes awkwardly like the two people aren't here. The girl asked, "Is that a dragon?" I nod. Hawthorne answers, "We'll explain later. For now, we gotta cook this food and give it to the customers."

The otaku helps me take care of the dishes. After a while, I go to help Sandwich cook the meals he's making. The girl helps Hawthorne serve the dishes to the patrons and provide the bills for the food. Thanks to their help, the day went by smoother than we started. We reach closing hours which is at 7:30 in the evening, and all of us start cleaning. The girl and I finish washing the dishes and putting them away, the otaku and Hawthorne sweep the floor, and Sandwich singlehandedly takes out the trash. After we're done, we gather in the kitchen and Food Souls start explaining. Or were about to when the back door opens. Samson and his Food Souls enter the kitchen with a bunch of ingredients in large bags and baskets. Among the team is Rice, who is completely unharmed. I exclaim gleefully, "Rice! You're back! I was so worried about you." Sandwich commented, "It looks like Maolong is happy to see you, Rice." "'Maolong…?'" Rice asked. Samson replies, "It's a name Hawthorne came up for the dragon. Who are you two?" The girl responds, "Your Food Souls and especially the dragon wanted to impress you by operating the restaurant while you were away." – I let out a massive shit-eating grin sheepishly – "Since they're inexperienced, it clearly wasn't a good idea, so my friend and I volunteered to help them until they reach closing hours." The otaku adds, "Still, they handled the first half of the day better than I expected." Hawthorne interjects, "We wanted to earn that extra money so they could give it to you, so you could pay for taxes and be able to afford those ingredients from the market." A few seconds later, Samson said with a dumbfounded look, "I … don't know what to say about that…. But, you two can leave. I'll talk to these three." "Okay," The otaku nods. "Oh, and words of advice. Summon more Food Souls so this can be prevented. And please train them to become more experienced and mature. Otherwise what you learn will be meaningless. Good day, sir." He and the girl leave. After a stern conversation (though, the money we earned softened the blow a bit), we head to our rooms and I get onto the couch from the living room. I reflect on what I've done, taking all of the responsibility so Sandwich and Hawthorne wouldn't feel as bad, and drift into sleep.