“But still, Charlotte.”
On the way home with Charlotte, who had left a bunch of questions about the world, Alice teased her.
“In the end, everything was delicious, right? You did eat it.”
“…It was indeed delicious. That’s because the original was tasty.”
Charlotte said this with a pout to Alice.
When Claire and Alice showed up, they secretly introduced her to the taste of Korean food, but Charlotte’s reaction was quite fresh.
She didn’t outright hate the country, but while she felt curious about most of the technology, she wasn’t afraid to say the things she found strange, which was very impressive. And very much like Charlotte.
Especially her high standards for food, as any dish that deviated from what she called ‘Western food’ was met with bewildered eyes.
Like when she saw potatoes on pizza.
Pizza wasn’t even a French dish to begin with.
“I’ll prepare something ordinary for dinner.”
“Thank you, that’s nice.”
Charlotte sighed in relief as she spoke.
“Of course, ‘ordinary’ means it’s ordinary based on this country’s standards.”
“…Are you teasing me right now?”
Well, she was trying to poke fun, but it wasn’t that she actually intended to serve anything strange.
She had never accepted Charlotte or Mia as her sisters. She viewed them very differently from how she looked at Claire and Alice.
But that didn’t mean these two were unimportant.
In fact, she was incredibly glad to see them. It had been a whole month since they had met. She had been thinking, ‘Will I never see them again?’ so it felt a lot happier than it appeared on the surface.
She was just trying hard not to show it.
Claire and Alice were the same; Alice had been chatting with Charlotte repeatedly while Claire was handing food to Mia.
“I want to show you my country’s food, would you rather not?”
“……”
When I said that, Charlotte couldn’t bring herself to answer.
To be precise, Charlotte hadn’t come here because she wanted to.
While Claire and Alice came over voluntarily in search of me, Charlotte and Mia had come over due to poor timing.
Mia seemed more curious than cautious about this world. It seemed the variety of delicious food had left quite an impression on her.
But Charlotte remained very wary. And that wariness was partly due to the strange dishes she had seen throughout the day.
However, I had already mentioned that this place was my hometown.
So when I said I wanted to feed her the food from my country, she found it hard to respond.
If it were dishes like those from the Empire of Aetherna, they would be incredibly hard to eat, but it would still be hard to deny… um, maybe ‘Talula’ would fit? Of course, Charlotte wouldn’t know that term.
“It’s not weird food. It’s a taste that most people would generally like. It won’t be too spicy or salty—I promise.”
“……There’s really no need to go that far.”
Charlotte exhaled softly and said this.
Then she rubbed her forehead with her hand.
“Today, I might have been a bit… overly tense. The altered foods here must have been rearranged to suit the local palate. Every food in the world tends to be adapted to local tastes, so I shouldn’t have been so sensitive.”
Well… I understand her. After all, the food Charlotte saw today was closer to ‘Does this taste good, so let’s throw it in?’ rather than ‘regional variations.’
As for Croffle, I found out a moment ago from a quick search on my smartphone that it seems to originate from abroad, but that wouldn’t fly. To Charlotte, this world was foreign as a whole.
“What kind of food is it?”
It seemed Claire was more interested in my explanation. Even Mia beside her was sparkling with curiosity. Looking at them, I could see they resembled each other a bit.
Now that I think about it, I don’t think I’ve introduced them to Claire and Alice yet.
“There’s a place nearby, but I actually haven’t introduced it to the two of you. Since we’ve come this far, let’s go there right away.”
I said this and stepped forward.
*
There weren’t many great eateries near my place.
There were university students living nearby, but like students often do, their wallets were light. So, the local area was mostly filled with cheap places to grab a quick bite or meat joints for group gatherings.
As a person living alone, I didn’t often go to meat joints, but I thought it was great that there were plenty of those affordable places. To be honest, after paying living expenses and saving for emergencies, the money I had to spend was a bit tight.
I didn’t drink, but being an otaku, I still had hobbies that cost money.
Yet, among those affordable places, there was one that stood out with surprisingly high prices.
It wasn’t particularly fancy in appearance. The interior looked just like any other restaurant.
However, the food was somewhat pricey.
The restaurant’s name was Seoul Myeonok.
That’s right. It was a cold noodle shop.
Of course, cold noodles were a rather challenging dish to recommend to Charlotte. Among Westerners, who have an ingrained concept of ‘noodle dish = hot dish’, quite a few people would be horrified by the concept of cold noodles or buckwheat noodles.
But usually, a ‘real cold noodle shop’ doesn’t only serve cold noodles.
To boil delicious broth, you need good meat, and a place that makes broth with good meat will certainly serve excellent dishes with that meat.
This restaurant serves both galbitang and galbijjim.
Today, the dish I wanted to introduce to these people was galbitang.
The price per bowl was relatively high compared to regular rice soup, so I didn’t come here often, but in the dead of winter, sometimes this was the only thing that could hit the spot.
I was relieved it was still there.
As soon as five visibly European Caucasians walked in, the owner looked at us with a surprised expression.
“Five galbitangs, please.”
I said it naturally and took a seat.
Since we came just before peak dinner time, there were still quite a few seats available.
“Oh my, how do you speak Korean so well?”
The owner quickly approached us and said.
Then she pushed two four-person tables together to make a place for us.
“Thank you. Oh, and we’re not foreigners. We’re Korean.”
In truth, I couldn’t guarantee Mia and Charlotte’s ID cards because I couldn’t find them. Well, to the folk around here, Charlotte and Mia’s speech would just sound like Korean anyway.
“Korean? Ah, I’m sorry. I mistook you for foreigners.”
“It’s fine. It happens often.”
The owner immediately apologized, and while I responded with a smile, it seemed the situation embarrassed her, and she quickly left.
Right. In fact, being Korean and having looks that can easily be mistaken, but if we were in America, it would have been outright racial discrimination.
“Galbitang?”
Mia asked curiously.
“It’s a soup made by boiling beef short ribs for a long time.”
“Oh.”
At my explanation, Mia’s eyes lit up.
“Dishes made with meat broth exist in every country throughout history.”
I said while glancing at Charlotte who was sitting diagonally across from me.
“Indeed, it sounds like an extremely safe dish.”
Charlotte said, sighing in relief.
The story I heard was that galbitang, beef bone soup, or gamjatang could be eaten by foreigners from any country in the world. After all, it’s a dish with plenty of meat, who wouldn’t like it? And it’s not excessively spicy either.
When I turned my gaze back to Claire and Alice, both of them were smiling wide, as if to say ‘Well done!’
*
“Indeed, I think I had too many unwarranted prejudices.”
As we left the restaurant, Charlotte said.
The slight redness in her face wasn’t just from the warm Korean soup she had eaten.
“Right? You ate like a champion, without any prejudice at all.”
When Alice teased her, Charlotte’s face turned even redder.
“W-well, there was nothing I could do! There were no forks or knives to cut the meat off the bone!”
She could have used scissors, but that meant she would need to hold one side of the bone first.
Moreover, I had started tearing into the ribs first, so Charlotte thought that was how it was supposed to be eaten and followed suit.
“Alice, don’t tease her too much. We’re not nobles, royalty, or emperors here.”
“Right, exactly.”
“……Aren’t both of you being a bit too casual?”
Charlotte spoke as if she found it a bit absurd—
“I thought it was fine to be a little casual.”
Mia spoke, slightly parting her lips.
Mia had been quite quiet all day. Rather than speaking when she didn’t have something in her mouth, she seemed more focused on taking in the world around her.
But it seemed she was still listening to the conversation.
“I… actually think it’s okay. Here, we don’t need to care about family matters. Above all, even if we spend a little time here and go back, hardly any time will have passed for us over there.”
“……”
Charlotte stared at Mia with her mouth agape for a bit, then closed her eyes and exhaled.
A slight smile appeared on her lips.
When Charlotte opened her eyes again and looked at us, she spoke with a hint of apology.
“……I’m sorry. I think I got a bit too impatient.”
“Yeah, that’s true. And we weren’t just lounging around here.”
Claire said to Charlotte while smiling.
“We’re even earning money through streaming. We need money to live, right?”
And among the three of us, Claire enjoyed those streaming times the purest.
“……Streaming?”
Charlotte didn’t know anything about streaming.
…Well, that’s true.
But I think it would be amusing to teach her.
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