Save the Starving Frontier! The “Buyer” of the Reversed Chastity World - 5

Chapter 5: Food Court Taste Test

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“Hey, Kaito-nii-chan, can you bring out other dishes like this too?”

Etna asked with great interest. It seemed she really liked the gyoza.

“I can. As for what I can bring out… There’s too much, I can’t even begin to count.”

“For real?! More! I wanna eat more different things!”

“Me too…!”

Etna and Pirika latched on eagerly. Since they said that in the middle of the crowd, the eyes of the women who had come to receive gyoza suddenly changed as well. Everyone stared straight at me.

Alright, alright, I get it. Let’s eat all sorts of food.

Good food mattered. As long as people ate good food, they could live another day. Back during my corporate slave period, meals had been the only thing that kept me alive…

What was I, a prisoner? Even I thought so.

“For now, food court stuff should be easier to bring out, right? Something wheat-based…”

I searched through the mall stores. A safe bet would be a hamburger from Burger Kaiser. I tried ordering about five sets of the Charcoal-Grilled Triple Beef Burger with fries. Since it was takeout, everything came in paper bags.

And if gyoza was fine, then maybe ramen from Hadōken, the same chain, would be fine too. Vegetable tanmen would have been good too, but this time I ordered tonkotsu shoyu chashu ramen. Five bowls of that as well…

And from Jinjin-tei, five seafood special okonomiyaki. That much of food should be enough for tasting purposes. If they liked it, I could just sell some junk and buy more anyway.

“This is… All of them taste amazing!”

“The flavor’s so strong…Yet it’s so mellow…!”

“Salty… But sweet at the same time… What meat is this? It’s so springy…!”

It looked like the food was widely accepted. The food was delicious, but I worried everything might be too heavily seasoned for them. But they were fine with it. I had thought they might choke or spit it out because it was too strong.

The burgers, cola, ramen and so on were being passed around and tasted bit by bit. Maybe they didn’t worry about that kind of thing in this world. Or maybe because the food was unusual, those details didn’t matter.

“Nii-chan, every single one is crazy good!”

“God… What is this? Forget bread, I want you to serve this stuff instead!”

So many of them looked as if their souls had been blown away in amazement. Bread was cheaper per unit, but these dishes filled people up more, so serving them instead wasn’t a problem at all.

“I only handed out bread because I thought it would be easier to eat, so if you say so, I’ll hand out as much as you want.”

“Please! I’d pay money just to buy it!”

“Us too!”

The enthusiasm was intense. Everyone started saying they preferred savory, umami-rich dishes over bread, so I decided to hand out whatever they liked best.

Well, that’s fine.

Since I only had to place the order and it arrived, I simply asked them to raise their hands for whichever dish they wanted from the ones I had just brought out, and bought enough for each raised hand.

Should I hand out drinks too?

They had been impressed, saying it was their first time drinking cola, so I loaded some into the drink server. I was worried since it was carbonated, but apparently ale in this world was also mildly sparkling. Lots of them wanted it as a substitute for alcohol.

I just explained that it didn’t contain alcohol—ethanol—and also showed them a normal 500ml plastic bottle. If they wanted to take some home, plastic bottles were the only way. 

Apparently this world had screws, since they immediately understood how bottle caps worked. This frontier land was more developed than I expected.

“This black drink…Even without alcohol, it still makes me feel kind of tipsy.”

“That’s caffeine. It wakes you up. …Since you’re not used to it, you’re probably feeling its effect more strongly.”

Caffeine was a type of alkaloid, but there were plenty of plants that contained it, like tea leaves. When I explained that, the woman who drank it nodded in understanding.

“Ah, you’re right. It’s not alcohol. It feels similar like when I take medicine!”

Well, decoction teas were just steeped leaves too. If this world had decoction medicines, they’d be familiar with the sensation. That misunderstanding led to cola being treated as “a medicinal drink that’s good for the body.”

No, it really isn’t. If anything, with all that sugar, it is bad for you.

I warned them, but no one listened.

Fine, whatever.

Alkaloids could be toxic if consumed in excess anyway.

“Since it’s sweet, make sure to brush your teeth! You’ll get cavities otherwise.”

“Cavities? You mean chipped teeth, Kaito-nii-chan? If so, that’s easy, you can fix that with basic healing magic.”

Etna casually dropped a bombshell.

“There’s magic in this world?”

“Of course there is. Didn’t I say women are stronger because magic flows through them better? If you’ve got magic power, you can use simple everyday magic.”

I see. That made sense. I had wondered how medicine worked in this primitive world that looked like the Middle Ages or early modern era. It turned out, there was magic. That was why no one said anything when I pulled cardboard boxes out of thin air. They thought it was magic.

The “Purchase” system wanted both this world’s matter because it contained magic power after all. This really was starting to look like sci-fi level advanced technology. It wanted magic power, the source needed to use magic. The Internet Market function was like hometown tax return gifts.

“Ah… I think I’m getting it. So the more I use this feature, the more it benefits them too. A win-win.”

At least if my guess was right. But if I didn’t think of it that way, this ability would be way too suspicious with how convenient it was.

“If that’s the case, then there’s no need to hold back. Here, I’ll bring out however much you want to eat.”

“Yay! I’ll take three burgers!”

Are you still going to eat three burgers?!

I wondered what was going on with Etna’s stomach. Meanwhile Pirika was sitting on the ground munching fries like a squirrel, puffing out a satisfied little sigh occasionally. 

“H-hey! Will you hire me?! I’m an adventurer, you won’t regret hiring me as protection! I wanna let my mom taste this amazing food too!”

A rather muscular onee-san made me that offer.

Adventurer?

“Adventurers are people who hunt magic beasts, take escort jobs, or do work around town. It’s basically a jack-of-all-trades job, but you can’t be one unless you’re strong.”

“Ah, like hunters or manual laborers. Thanks, Etna.”

So that kind of job existed too. According to Etna, quite a few adventurers lived in this town. Since it was right next to a magic beast territory, adventurers who hunted them gathered here in this hunting-ground town.

“I’d be glad to, but… I can’t pay you. I don’t have a single coin of this world’s money.”

“What are you saying, look at the state of this town! Pay me in food! Please, I just want my family to eat too!”

Well, if the town was this ruined, food really was worth more than money. No reason to refuse then. Besides, Etna alone might not be enough to keep Pirika and me safe.

“Alright then, I’ll ask for your help. I’m Kaito. These are Etna and Pirika.”

“I know, that’s The Rambunctious Etna! I’m Aisha! I’m actually a high-ranked adventurer, so leave the guarding to me!”

And just like that, a reliable onee-san joined our group.

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