Thank you very much for using this station today. We will be checking tickets ten minutes before the first train departs. Customers boarding this train, please wait in the waiting room beside the ticket gates.
ーFurthermore, free breakfast is being served in the coffee shop established in the waiting room. Please don't hesitate to come by.
Takumi's mornings at the different world station started early. He woke up before 6 a.m, before the sun had fully risen.
In the beginning, when he first came to "this world", he had been worried that he would oversleep every morning without an alarm clock, but the sunlight flooding in through the curtains was so effective at waking him up that it had developed into a habit, and he was never worried about oversleeping again.
Besides him, Nyaachi was still a resident of the dreamworld, as usual.
Takumi got out of the bed while trying not to rouse the sleeping Nyaachi, fixed his appearance quickly, and changed into his work attire before quietly leaving the room.
Takumi's morning began with preparing for business in the kitchen.
When he had started the coffee shop in the corner of the station's waiting room, it had only opened in the mornings, but customers had requested for it to open twice: for breakfast and for lunch.
During breakfast, before the 9 o'clock train, there were many regular customers who visited the shop while waiting to get their tickets checked, which took place from 7:30 to 8:50 in the morning.
Immediately after Takumi entered the kitchen, he started preparing the coffee.
In "this world", coffee seasoned with cinnamon was a popular drink, so in order to match the customer's tastes, the coffee shop "Swallow" also served cinnamon coffee.
He folded a cinnamon stick into a pot filled with plenty of water and placed it on the rocket stove, over high heat.
While waiting for the water to boil, Takumi took out a slightly large manual coffee grinder and put the coffee beans into the hopper.
The roasted coffee beans used in this shop were purchased from a company that had been introduced by the station master. Takumi made a habit of grinding the beans, which would be used throughout the day, in the morning.
As he turned the aged handle of the mill, pleasant crunching sounds filled the kitchen. Eventually, the beans in the hopper disappeared and the powder was withdrawn, and a mellow aroma drifted up from the slightly coarse ground coffee beans.
When he finished grinding the coffee beans, the water in the pot started to bubble.
When he threw the freshly ground coffee beans into the sufficiently boiled water, the beans, which contained moisture, swelled up in an instant.
He let the beans swirl about in the pot until a suitable amount of time had passed, and and then took the pot off of the stove and moved it to a wooden pot stand. Soon, the beans that had been swirling around slowly settled.
When the beans had stop moving, he transferred them into heat insulating pot using a strainer with a fine mesh, so that the powder wouldn't follow. This was preparation for the cinnamon coffee for breakfast. The pot was placed on the low temperature edge of the hotplate on the oven stove, in order to let it rest for a bit at a warm temperature until opening time.
When the hands of the clock struck 6:30, the kitchen door opened with a clank, and a burly, muscular man wearing a navy blue apron entered the kitchen.
It was Gardo, a food merchant who traded in large quantities of goods like milk, eggs, meat, and vegetables.
He spoke to Takumi, who had just finished preparing the coffee. As usual, he had brought a lot of ingredients with him.
「Yo, I brought today’s portion. Is it okay if I put it here?」
「T-thank you. I really appreciate you doing this everyday.」
「It's fine, just a part of my job.」
Gardo, who had used a large tin can as a container, carried boxes containing many eggs and various other ingredients, such as vegetables and meat, into the kitchen, one after another.
Takumi checked the ingredients carried by Gardo, one at a time, and prepared the payment.
「The reason we can open for business like this is also thanks to Gardo delivering the ingredients properly every morning.」
「No no, in the first place, the farm is open early in the morning. Furthermore, it was the station master who introduced you.」
「Nevertheless, I am grateful for being able to serve delicious meals to our customers with the various ingredients you have given us.」
Takumi bowed as he spoke, and Gardo slapped Takumi’s back in response.
「Well, since Takumi will use our ingredients to make delicious food, we are grateful too, you know. See you tomorrow.」
Gardo left the store after the blunt reply, but it was clear that he had been slightly embarrassed by Takumi's appreciation.
After seeing Gardo off, Takumi, who felt a warm pain on his back, set the ingredients to be used for the morning aside on the kitchen table and carried the rest into the food pantry.
From the ingredients he had set aside on the table, he pulled out a basket of eggs by the handle. They were for the boiled eggs that would accompany the breakfast set.
When speaking of breakfast sets in the coffee shop in Takumi's world, it had to be 「bread, salad, and a boiled egg.」Thus, even when Takumi opened his coffee shop in "this world", it was impossible for him to keep those three things apart.
Takumi poured water into a new pot, gently placed the eggs from Gardo into the pot, and lit the stove.
Then, as soon as the water started to boil, he flipped the biggest hourglass that was installed on the kitchen table.
As expected, there weren’t any convenient kitchen timers or the like, but by making good use of the various sized hourglasses, he could confidently make dishes that gave different results based on the time.
While the eggs were boiling, he began chopping the vegetables that were to be served.
There were three kinds of vegetables he was preparing today: the repollo (cabbage), which was from Gardo, along with cebolla (onion) and zanahorias (carrot), which had been in storage.
Takumi peeled the repollo leaves individually and washed them thoroughly with the drawn water. After that, he stacked the leaves up and shredded them as finely as possible with a knife before putting them into a draining basket for a while.
He then peeled off the cebolla's brown skin and rinsed it once. After that, he cut off the upper and lower part, which were inedible, before cutting it in half. After it was sliced as thinly as he could manage, he dropped the slices into water. As for the zanahoria, he peeled off the skin, rinsed it with water, thinly sliced it, and then sliced those pieces even further.
After Takumi finished chopping the vegetables, he started preparing the dressing. He added wine vinegar, salt, pepper, honey and colza oil. He also squeezed juice from a yellow, rugby ball-shaped citrus fruit called limon (lemon) into a bowl and mixed them well.
On top of that, he cut out a wedge of naranja (orange) and sliced it, with the skin intact, into fine slices and added those the mixture. Using a whisk, he swirled it slowly so that the taste and the aroma of the naranja would be fully incorporated into the dressing. When he tasted it, a moderately sour and sweet taste spread through his mouth.
Takumi nodded with satisfaction and transferred the vegetables into a big bowl, drizzled them with dressing through a sieve, and tossed them gently to mix them.
Since the repollo leaves were slightly hard to cut and also a bit difficult to eat, he tossed them into the dressing in advance, in order to give them time to soften.
When he completed the day's morning salad and looked at the kitchen table, the sand in the hourglass had just finished falling.
Takumi took the eggs, which were dancing in the pot, out one by one with a ladle and put them into a pot with drawn water.
Once he put all of them in, he drained the water and poured fresh water into it again. By changing the water several times like this, the eggs cooled and became ready.
The bread, which was the third item of the three part breakfast set, was cornbread made of corn flour.
When Takumi started the coffee shop in "this world", he had tried to make cornbread himself, thinking of saving cost, but he had been unsuccessful.
In the first place, he had no experience in baking wheat bread, so of course an amateur like him had failed.
The bread being served in the shop was from a wholesale store that had been introduced to him by the station master after he was unable to just watch Takumi's hardships.
Yesterday afternoon, he had stocked up on the cornbread, in anticipation of today's lunch. This was also an arrangement made by the other party, who also owned their store.
However, even though the bread had been kept overnight, it wouldn't spoil if it was stored properly, and the flavour wouldn't be reduced very much. Besides, the fragrant flavour of the corn bread would be restored if it was lightly toasted, and he could serve it to the customers with confidence.
Takumi carefully sliced the bread, which was taken from the pantry, into a suitable size and arranged them in a basket.
After preparing those, Takumi checked the clock. The hands on the clock were already approaching 7 o'clock in the morning, and there was about 30 minutes remaining until opening time.
Takumi hurriedly starting his "final preparation." He washed his hands with cold water, rushed upstairs to the second floor in a hurry, and put his hands on Nyaachi's cheeks, who was still a dreaming in their room.
「Nyaaaaaaa!!!! I don't like to be woken like this!!! Ah, but this coldness feels good-nya… Zzzz.」
Although she woke up for a moment, Nyaachi fell asleep again immediately. Takumi gripped the cat by her scruff firmly and lifted her up.
「Hey! Don't go back to sleep! It’s almost opening time, so hurry up and get dressed, then come down.」
「I understand-nya. Since it can't be helped, I'll go get ready.」
「If you go back to sleep again, there will be consequences.」
Takumi warned as he went downstairs. Nyaachi squirmed around for bit before creeping out of the futon and casually taking off her pajamas.
Takumi returned to the kitchen and began to work on the finishing touches.
He arranged the cornbread, salad, and boiled eggs, served in respective baskets and bowls, on the countertop of the coffee shop.
The cinnamon coffee pot was also brought to the counter and placed on the hot plate, which was installed with a small oven stove. Of course, he didn't forget to put coal into the furnace to retain the heat.
Thick white coffee cups, porcelain plates, forks, spoons, sugar, and the like were set up.
Takumi, who confirmed that the preparations for opening the store were in order, prepared two more sets of plates and coffee cups separately.
Next, he placed two pieces of cornbread into the oven at the counter and served salad and boiled egg on the two plates.
After that, he poured the coffee into two cups and took out the bread from the oven to serve them on the plates. This breakfast that he prepared for themselves also served as a taste test.
By the time he had roughly set up their breakfast, Nyaachi had finally come down.
「Sorry for the wa~it. Good meow-ning!」
「If it's possible, I would be grateful if you woke up a bit earlier to help out…」
「Okay~ I'll sleep on it-nya.」
Takumi unintentionally leaked a sigh at Nyaachi's carefree smile, as she answered with a very-easy-to-understand declaration of ignoring it.
'Well, it can't be helped. If the shop gets a bit busier, I'll have you help out properly…' Takumi muttered in his mind.
「Well then, today as well, itadakimasu.」
「Itadakimyasu!」
Takumi made progress with his breakfast, checking the taste one bite at a time.
The bread was delicious, and the salad was seasoned perfectly. The egg was easy to peel and well-done.
Takumi could serve food with these flavours with confidence, but… Takumi looked up and watched Nyaachi's reaction..
Now then, as the owner of a sharper sense of taste than himself, she would confirm whether today's food was a pass or fail.
「How are today's dishes?」
「Un, it's purr-fectly delicious today too! I hope there will be plenty of customers today!」
At Nyaachi's words, Takumi breathed a sigh of relief.
「You're right. Well, let's do our best to work hard today too. Now then, please continue to treat me well.」
Takumi quickly cleaned up the dishes when they finished eating. After looking over the inside of the store again and making a final inspection, he unlocked the entrance and put up the「Open」sign.
「Thank you for waiting! Here's your cin-nyamon coffee, and this is the complementary breakfast-nya.~」
「Oh, thanks. You're as cheerful as always this morning.」
Coffee shop “Swallow” opened as usual today. Nyaachi’s cheerful voice could be heard from within the coffee shop.
The first customer today was a regular customer, the old gentleman Sebas.
Sebas, who had a white moustache, was a trader who took the first train every week for a business discussion with a large company located three stops away. He arrived at the station early, since he looked forward to spending his time in the shop.
Sebas started off by putting plenty of sugar, which looked like big, tanned granules that had been served on the side, into his cinnamon coffee.
As he mixed it thoroughly with a spoon, a sweet caramel-like aroma tickled his nostrils, together with the steam from the coffee, which was still moderately warm.
Sebas brought the coffee to his mouth and sipped it slowly, taking care to not burn himself.
The sharp, spicy cinnamon flavour, along with the sweet bitterness of the coffee, jolted him awake as the wonderful flavour spread in his mouth.
Next, he reached out for the breakfast set.
The first thing he started on was the toast. For today's set, two slices of small-sized cornbread had been served.
A fragrant corn aroma rose from the bread, which had been lightly toasted just before being served, and when he tasted it, there was a pleasant crisp texture.
Sebas finished eating the first slice in no time, and he then began to peel off the shells of the boiled eggs, eating them with a bit of salt.
The master of the shop, who was also the "station master representative", had taught him this way of eating eggs. When compared to eating it alone, the salt elevated the egg's flavours, making them more prominent.
Next, the salad, which he reached for with his fork, released a refreshingly delicious tune with its fresh, crisp repollo, the sharp taste of cebolla, and the sweet zanahoria, all bound together by the sweet and sour sauce.
Sebas finished eating half of the salad and placed the remainder in between the slice of cornbread. Recently, this had been Sebas' favourite way of eating the breakfast set.
By placing the salad between the bread, the moisture from the salad was slightly transferred to the toast, giving it a new flavour.
Sebas thought that it was a slightly bad mannered way of eating, but after he experienced this deliciousness once, it became his standard way to eat it.
Breakfast set
Sebas, who had finished the breakfast set, completed his morning's breakfast with the coffee he had left aside and paid the bill.
It had only cost four copper coins. One cup of coffee during lunch hour was the same price. In other words, the breakfast set was counted as a 「fully complementary service.」
「But master, isn't it difficult to prepare this much food in the morning? I think it would be fine to properly charge more for this kind of meal…」
As someone who did business, Sebas stated obvious facts. However, Takumi just answered while smiling.
「No, this is common in my hometown. Rather, I would be ridiculed if I were to charge for the breakfast set separately. Besides, not just in the mornings, but the number of regular customers for lunch is also increasing little by little recently, so I feel relieved. Sebas-san too, please come for lunch when you have time.」
「Oh no, I guess I have no choice but to come for lunch too, now. Well, when I am able to make time in the near future, I'll come. I definitely want to try something other than the breakfast menu at least once.」
「Certainly. We look forward to your patronage. Now then, please wait just a little longer, until we begin checking the tickets. I'll excuse myself for now.」
Sebas watched Takumi return to the counter in a hurry after bowing.
'Should I buy some interesting ingredients as a trial if there are any in today's business discussion? If it's this young man, I'm sure he can turn any ingredient into a fine dish.'
While harbouring such thoughts in his mind, Sebas rested in the waiting room,waiting for the ticket check to begin.