Labyrinth Restaurant

gossip/regular [Elf the Artist]

"Oh, that's an unfamiliar face, huh?

I moved from the entrance of the labyrinth to the lowest level, as usual, and today I opened the restaurant door, worrying my head about what to eat, but it wasn't the usual blonde Demon girl who came out there, but the unfamiliar woman with silver hair and silver eyes. I know you must be an employee of this store because you're wearing service clothes, but this is the first face I've ever seen. Seems like this store's gotten a little famous lately, and did you hire new people?

Whoa, I'm late, but my name is Time. The race produces wandering painters in elves, not humans. I came to this store from a long time ago and have enjoyed dining here on my occasional journey since then.

"Welcome, I'll show you to your seat"

"Yeah, thanks"

As usual, he is guided to his seat and opens the menu. Everything in this store is delicious, but especially sweet. Its varieties range from sweets with main beans eaten when I first visited this store, to sweets with intense flavors (called creams) with white and fuzzy products (which they call creams) that cow's milk is an ingredient, to other seemingly similar items that are as cold as winter snow or clear and pulled into slime.

"Well, what shall we eat today?

But no matter how delicious the sweet stuff is, it's amateur stuff like ordering so many. No matter how delicious it is, if I eat two or three kinds of sweet things, my tongue gets used to the sweetness and I get tired of it.

So I order salty items with sweetness and eat sweet and soy items alternately. This can eliminate the sweet aftertaste left in the mouth. On top of that, sweetness and saltiness add to each other's flavors and make them taste better than they would normally eat.

Even when it comes to dishes with strong salt, what matters here is the balance between volume and eatability. Thick steaks shaken with salt, for example, are indeed delicious, let's admit it. But if I eat such a chunky dish, that's all I get, and I can barely eat any other dish. I like good food, but I don't eat so much.

From this point of view, it is believed that the dishes to be ordered are suitable, such as fried potatoes in bars or thinly sliced pieces, or fried tri meat. After getting lost, I decided to ask for a thinly sliced fried potato (potato chips) this time. Each piece is thin, so eating a number is hard to bloat, and the crisp texture is fun. Eating alternately with sweet foods seems like an endless amount of food.

"I'm sorry, I need an order. Serve of potato chips, make it stronger with salt. And white egg dust, apple pie, seasonal fruit tart and vanilla ice cream, drink cocoa, please."

"Yes, I did. Are you sure you want to place an order?

"Oh, that's it for now (...)"

If you ask too much at once, the hot dishes will be cold, and the cold dishes will be warm. Ordering little by little is one trick to eating delicious food.

"Leader, your order is in. Please cook."

"Got it. Now that I've started cooking, Smiley needs to serve drinks first."

Copy that, sir.

Oh? I've seen him a few times before, but the cook here should have been a brunette young man. Yet it was the silver-haired woman who now saw a glimpse from the kitchen.

What's wrong with changing not only the girl you work for, but even the cook? No way Kata in debt took the store...... but I'm worried if the flavor isn't fading.

"Thank you, sir, for waiting. I brought you a drink first."

"Oh, thank you. And one more thing I'd like to ask you, I don't see a blonde girl and a brunette young man in this store all the time today, but what's wrong?

I can only ask what bothered me right away. Fortunately, the service in the name of Smiley immediately gave me the answer.

"Yes, I will answer your question. Master and Alice are preparing for a meeting tomorrow in the earthly capitol."

"Conference......, I'm not sure, but can I just say I don't have a hippo doing restaurant work because I have something else to do?

"Yes, you're right. Therefore, this shop, which is a side business, is vacant."

Speaking of which, on my way to this store, I think I saw a couple of strangely large buildings near the labyrinth or something with an obviously great Mr. atmosphere. I haven't looked closely because I'm not particularly interested. More than that......

"That young man, was this store on the side... What is his main business, by the way?

It didn't make any deep sense, but I was somewhat concerned and asked that question.

"Yes, the Master's main business is the Demon King"

… received a very unexpected response.

"A demon king, that demon king?

"Yes, that demon king. It mainly governs, operates, etc., the demonic world"

It was a meaningless conversation while I was at it, but I'm not kidding. It sounds serious.

"... okay"

There is no law that the Demon King should not cook in the side business, and most importantly, the dishes he makes are very delicious. That's the only thing that matters to me, a demon king or a demon, but I don't care about the other elements.

"Thank you, sir, for waiting. Smiley, please carry the rest of the food in the kitchen."

Copy that, Leader.

When I had that conversation with Miss Smiley, she was transported out of the kitchen sometime after she was ready to cook. I took a quick bite, but fortunately the flavor was not fading, and the usual taste of the shopkeeper (Mayu) and the taste was not suffocating. Eating sweet treats and salty potato chips alternately makes me feel like I'm going to be eaten infinitely without ever getting tired of it.

I casually came up with that and tried it out, but discovered that eating warm apple pie and cold ice cream together would taste better than eating each one alone. From now on, be sure to order it as a set. There are other ways to combine multiple confectionery, so I'm going to try different combinations in the future.

◆ ◆ ◆

"Welcome, it was delicious."

"Looking forward to seeing you again"

Then I kept eating as if trying the limits of my stomach, and by the time I left the store, the sun had already fallen, so I decided not to leave today to stay in an inn on the other floor of the labyrinth. I am also used to wild accommodation because I have a long journey life, but I find it hard to resist the temptation of a soft bed.

Besides, whatever it is, it is wonderful that there is a large hot spring here in the Inn. Let's just say if I take a break in my room, I'll go in as soon as possible.

... Shortly afterwards, I was inspired when I was looking at other female guests while bathing, so I tried to get them to be models for naked woman paintings, but they got me confused about being a pervert or something. I just asked him if he could pose a little naked, but he was about to be banned from coming in and out quickly. Art is really hard......