The Other World Dining Hall Chapter 14

In the depths of a thick forest rarely touched by people, there was a small village without a name. Its residents numbered roughly one hundred people who wore matching gra.s.s-dyed clothes and lived a modest life off of the nuts and fruits from the nearby trees.

The residents of this village were called lilliputs, people small enough to ride on the palm of a human hand. Unlike faeries who were small like them but had wings to fly around in a large range and who often a.s.sociated with humans, lilliputs normally lived in the small range where they built their village and rarely a.s.sociated with anyone other than lilliputs. This village’s lilliputs were like other lilliputs in that they rarely a.s.sociated with humans save for an old woman magician living in an isolated house in the forest, who traded copper and silver plates that could be worked into things like pans and kitchen knives with some blacksmithing in exchange for fruits that were ingredients for medicine, and one other person. Generally, they were born in the village, grew up in the village, and died in the village. These were the little people who lived out their days just like a human would.

Well then, these people had a day that they looked forward to once every seven days. The men who would normally be putting their spirits into their work, the women who would be working hard on the housework, and the children who would be frolicking and playing about would all depart to the same place.

Their destination was the Other World Dining Hall. To them, it was a day that they could call a festival.

On the day they would depart to the Other World Dining Hall, they would a.s.semble in a small, open s.p.a.ce in the middle of a forest that was a little bit away from their village.

“Alllright! It’s tied down!”

A young man, who was said to be the number one master of climbing trees in the village, fixed a rope made of vines around the golden protrusion so that it would face downwards and then called out to the five men who were waiting on standby. It was quite the painstaking task to climb the ‘black wall’ which had almost no handholds. Nevertheless, countless people have climbed up to the ‘golden protrusion,’ but when it came to times like these, he was the one who would usually climb it.

“Alllright! Everyone, pull! One, two!”

“””””Heave-ho, heave-ho!”””””

“You can do it, daddy!”

“Just a little more! Keep going!”

Matching the rhythm of the village chief’s voice, the men of the village pulled the rope simultaneous as they received encouragement from the women and children.

Kiiiiiiiii….

A faint sound came from the black wall… which looked like a door with a picture of cat drawn on it from far away as it opened. It was extremely troublesome to open this door for powerless lilliputs when compared to other far-off giant races. It was necessary for the men of the village to tie a rope made of vines around the doork.n.o.b and pull like they just did.

“Alright, it’s open… Now’s our chance to go through!”

When there was a big enough gap for them, the villagers followed the instructions of the village chief who judged that now was the time and slipped past the door’s gap. First were the elderly and the women breastfeeding their babies. Then there were the children who could walk by themselves to a certain extent. And the last, before the door closed, were the men. Once they all pa.s.sed through, the door closed. And like that, the door silently disappeared, and the opening in the forest once again took back its serenity.

There was a room filled with bright lights that were a different color from the light in the forest. Then a voice from the heavens came shaking down on the villagers who were in a little nook of the room.

—Welcome.

The voice that called out to them belonged to this restaurant’s owner who was so big that they had to look up to them. The owner knew. After the door would open slightly and small people would restlessly enter, it meant that they had come to the restaurant.

The owner headed to the back for a moment and brought out a tray that was meant for bringing out food with a wet towel on it. He then brought it gently very close to the floor and said this.

—Let me guide you to your seats, please come.

The people of the village were used to this, so one-by-one they hopped up to the top of the tray.

—Well then, let’s go…

When about half of the villagers managed to get on the tray, the owner lifted up the fully loaded tray and led them to an open seat.

“Waaaaah! This is so cooool!”

“Wah! It’s dangerous! Gonna fall!”

“Hey now, make sure to wipe your hands and feet. If they’re not clean, you can’t get off.”

Having been suddenly raised to a high place and shown various races eating food, the children started to become excited, and their mothers rebuked them. They then wiped their hands and the bottom of their shoes using the gigantic wet cloth on top of the tray. And in time, the tray was placed gently on top of the table, and villagers with properly wiped hands and shoes got off on top of the table.

—Well then, I’ll go bring the rest over.

The owner said that one thing to the villagers who all got off on top of the high table and who were restlessly looking around, and then he once again went to the entrance of the restaurant carrying the tray. He then let the remaining waiting villagers ride on top of the tray and brought them over to the table.

—Would you like the usual order?

Looking over the top of the table and the restaurant’s entrance to make sure that he had finished carrying everyone over, the owner asked the lilliputs this just in case. At that confirmation, the villagers all simultaneously nodded their heads, and wearing beautiful clothes, the most beautiful girl in the village, the village chief’s only daughter, gently held up a large silver plate with a face casted in it. It was a large silver plate made by humans that the lilliputs had earned by selling fruits to the witch in the forest, and normally, the village’s craftsman would cut it apart and use it to make silver tableware or ornaments. Twice every month, they had a promise with the owner to give him one of those plates.

—Thank you. Please wait just a moment.

The owner took it with his thumb and index finger and headed to the back of the kitchen. And to cook and bring out the thing that those little people couldn’t stop loving.

“Wah! So hiiigh!”

“So wiiide!”

“Wait! Don’t go over there! What if you fall over!?”

“Heh~, so the village was more desolate in the past?”

“Aah, it became like this when the door appeared. Before that, there was about as half as much people.”

“Now that I think about, are the people who migrated here doing well?”

“They’re probably fine. I got a glimpse of them before. They were wearing otherworldly clothes but there’s no doubt it was them.”

Before what they ordered came, they pa.s.sed the time doing what they pleased. Because if they ran wildly they would fall off, the mothers warned their simpleminded children who were running around. Adults amused themselves by exchanging rumors. It wasn’t that long until the food came out, but everyone was restless when they remembered that sweetness.

And so, the owner finally brought out what they were waiting for.

—Thank you for waiting. Your hotcakes.

With a thump, he placed the large, large hotcakes on the table. Placed around them were pots as big as buckets filled to the brim with three kinds of sweet honey. At the appearance of the once-out-of-seven-days feast, the villagers spontaneously let out a cheer. Just to eat this, they all left behind their work in the village one time out of seven days to come here.

“Ooh, owner! Sorry, but could you cut it up for us?”

The village chief shouted with a loud voice so that he could pa.s.s his words to the owner. If he didn’t, the small lilliput’s voice would even reach the owner.

—Sure.

The owner nodded, and with a fork, he spread around the b.u.t.ter on top of the hotcakes and cut them into bite-sized with a knife… for the villagers, they were cut to a more than enough large enough size. The villagers swallowed their saliva with a gulp at the smell of the sweet hotcakes that were entangled with melting b.u.t.ter that was spreading out them.

—Well then, enjoy. I’ll bring out seconds very soon.

Then, at the moment that the owner cut up all of the hotcakes and called out to the villagers, they all let out a cry of joy while flooding towards the hotcakes.

Well, to make sure that the cut-up hotcakes were evenly divided to everyone, the village managed them. To start off, first the ‘cake distribution official’ would approach the edge of the plate and pa.s.s the cut-up hotcakes to the villagers. This was the result of long years of thinking of how to avoid people taking them whenever they wanted, people fighting over large pieces, and weak, small children not getting anything to eat… The fact that the distribution official would sometimes lick some b.u.t.ter and eat some of the small hotcake sc.r.a.ps that fell from the plate was a tolerated side benefit.

And also, the people who took the hotcakes and ate them plain were a minority faction. Most of the people headed to the buckets filled to the brim with sweet honey.

“Put more on! Cheapskate!”

“No, no! We’ll run out and we need to keep some to take back!”

“Ah, hey! It’s no fair if you get both brown and black honey!”

“Ah! No fair! He’s eating the red fruit!”

“It’s fine. That much, that is.”

Each of them lined up in front of the woman guarding the buckets filled with the honey that they preferred. The woman was used to this and used the paint brush that she brought from the village exclusively for honey to coat the hotcakes down. There were three kinds of honey prepared. The three were the brown and endlessly sweet ‘maple,’ the black and a little bitter ‘chocolate,’ and thick, sweet and tart ‘jam’ which was made by cooking together red berries and sugar.

Normally, only one kind of honey was supposed to come with the hotcakes, but because the village was divide as to which of the three to choose, the lilliputs asked the owner who then brought out a little of each. And so, the time came for all of the lilliputs to eat their full of hotcakes.

“Alright! Everyone has their share!”

The lilliput wife who confirmed that then filled a jar that she brought with her full of maple. This was also one of the side benefits of the honey-coating official. They would be allowed to take the leftover honey and put it into jars or bottles to take back to the village. (Of course, if they were stingy with the amount that they coated with, it would be a big problem.)

“Huhu, for now I’ll be able to eat some tasty bread for a while!”

The Lilliput wife happily patted the now heavy jar filled with maple. The honey that this human made was something superb, and just smearing it on bread made it many times more delicious. It wasn’t something that stood out; it was only a secret treat of a small nameless village.

“Everyone got some right…?”

After confirming that all the villagers had got honey on their piping hot hotcakes or were eating them, the village chief said that.

“Well then… let us give our thanks for the blessings of the G.o.d of Earth and enjoy.”

Along with those words, the village chief bit into his hotcakes. A large amount of warm sweetness spread out in his mouth. What the village chief chose was the simple, sweet maple. It had a unique flavor to it, and the honey that was sweeter than the others seeped and soaked into the hotcakes that filled his mouth.

“Mumuu…”

The village chief let out a groan as he swallowed it down and hurried drank the tea that he brought with him from the village. While still leaving behind a little bit of warmth, the tea that had no sweetness to it whatsoever washed away the sweetness of the hotcakes.

“Fuu…”

After that, the sweetness left him wanting more! As he yearned for the sweetness that he supposedly just had, the village chief once again bit into his hotcakes! Piping hot, sweet hotcakes. It had a blessed flavor that made him feel like he wouldn’t get sick of it no matter how many years he ate it. Many lilliputs who were in the middle of their journeys became slaves to the flavor that they had at this restaurant and decided to settle down, and it was easy to understand why the village’s population increased in a blink of an eye.

“Father. Could you please share some of yours… I want to eat some maple.”

While trying not to dirty her beautiful clothes while she ate hotcakes smeared with jam, the village chief’s only daughter pouted feeling a little envious after seeing her father. Of course, her favorite was the sweet and tart jam which her mother also loved but… she couldn’t bear it when something that appetizing was right in front of her.

“Aah, I got it, I got it. I’ll take a little from yours too.”

On one hand while laughing bitterly, the village chief pulled out a dagger from his inside pocket and cut up his hotcake, and in return, he took a little hotcake for himself.

“…Umu, delicious.”

He nodded his head to that flavor that he was someone used to… It was a jam-flavored hotcake that his wife who he lost ten years ago to sickness loved. It was sweet and tart… and just a little bit salty. If you looked closely, all of the lilliputs were doing similar things. Among family, lovers, and friends. Each of them were cutting up hotcakes with different flavors and exchanging them.

A strong, rough-looking Lilliput blacksmith that was two head taller than the others turned bright red when his noticeably smaller wife wiped some chocolate from his mouth.

A family that was known to have many mischievous boys were trying to mix together each of their own honey to see what kind of flavor it would make when their mother hit them.

A young man and woman who were usually always arguing agreed on the one thing that they wanted to eat jam and chocolate together as they traded half of their hotcakes with each other.

The previous honey-coating official was chattering with the other women of the houses as they discussed their spoils of war.

Having come to the village three years ago, an old man who was the only magician in the village was scarfing down his hotcakes without a care while his beard was dyed brown, and an old woman who was a priestess of the G.o.d of earth and similarly the only one in the village who could use healing magic was happily smiling as she was surrounded by her grandchildren.

Such social activities were a sight that the lilliputs were used to.

—Thank you for waiting. I brought you your seconds.

Like that little by little, around the time the large hotcakes completely settled down in the stomach of the villagers, the owner brought out another plate, and the children with a growing appet.i.te, the youths who have yet to have their fill, and the adults that were filled with gluttony once again swarmed down with a cheer.

Even for the lilliputs who made sure everyone took their hotcakes with good manners the first time, it was a different story for the second time. To make sure the old people and the children who were already full from the first plate didn’t lay their hands on it, victory came to the fastest.

(I’m also someone taken by the years.)

The village chief patted his belly in satisfaction as he warmly watched over the young people who were arguing while each of them picked up pieces of hotcake and cover it with their favorite honey. The appearance of the lively villagers was the very appearance of the village that he desperately fought to protect. The eyes of the village chief when he looked at that appearance was similar to how his eyes looked when he looked at his daughter when she was still young.

“Well then, owner. Thanks for taking care of us!”

After making sure that everyone had finished eating the hotcakes and the plate didn’t have a single crumb, the village chief said that to the owner in a loud voice.

—You’re welcome. Anyway, get on once again please.

The owner was also used to this, and when he lowered the tray, the lilliputs got on. And so, he repeatedly carried the lilliputs who now had the weight of two plates of hotcakes in them than when they first came in and let them off in the area around the entrance.

—Well, I’ll be waiting for your return.

As he said that, the owner opened the door slightly for them.

“Alright! Everyone’s here right!”

“Yep!”

After making sure, the lilliputs all moved out at once to the opening outside of the door. The lilliputs who were gathered at the entrance of the door disappeared outside in the blink of an eye, and there was no signs of lilliputs left in the restaurant.

“Seriously though, there’s always a lot of them each time.”

After seeing them all disappear, the owner silently muttered that. Before… when they just started to come to the restaurant, he had the feeling that there was be about half… no, one third of amount of them than there was today. In the first place, when was it that he couldn’t carry them all in one trip? While thinking that, the owner returned to the kitchen.

“I bet in time, small people with wings will come here too.

Suddenly, he thought of that. He had seen residents of the Other World who had wings and large amounts small people like before started to come here as well. But still, he had yet to see small people with wings.

“…Well, I guess there aren’t any.”

In the first place, with the physical strength of small people, they couldn’t open the door unless there were quite the number of them. That being the case, there couldn’t be any small people who could do that besides that village. While fixing his train of thought, he returned to work.

…The owner still did not know. That in the future, the day would come where a flock of small people with wings called faeries would become regulars as well.