Saturdays at the Other World Dining Hall started the same as the other weekdays, with prep work for the food.
The time was six in the morning. The owner got ready by getting out of bed and getting dressed. Then in the same building where his home was also located in, he took the elevator, which was mainly used to bring down ingredients, from the third floor to one floor below ground where the ‘cathouse’ was to begin his work.
On Saturday mornings, the first thing that needed prep work was the beef stew. Doing prep work for beef stew using the largest business-sized stockpot in the restaurant was the routine.
After using his long-time favorite wok to nimbly stir-fry vegetables and cuts of beef shank, he then moved them over to the stockpot to let them cook together. Around the time that all of the scum had been removed, he took the large amounts homemade demi-glace sauce that he made during his free time and added it to the pot. Calmly and carefully, he simmered it anxiously.
Beef stew was the most expensive thing on the menu in the cathouse if you excluded the things on the party menu that was meant to feed several people. Although, even though he said that, it only costed 1000 yen per serving because of the restaurant’s principles. Because it wouldn’t have the restaurant’s taste unless he cooked a large portion of it, continuing from the previous owner’s time, it was the current owner’s style to do prep work for about hundred heavy servings worth of stew.
Well now, at the cathouse or Other World Dining Hall, there were very few customers who ordered beef stew. From the start, Saturdays weren’t as busy as the battlefields that the weekdays were, and the amount of customers that came could be handled by the owner alone. There also weren’t many customers that ordered the very plainly described ‘cow’s meat stewed soup’ which was the most expensive item out of the varied and large amount of dishes with a price of one silver coin.
If they tried it once, they would probably be surprised by its flavor and softness, but with the price of one silver coin (about the cathouse’s and the Other World’s money, it was decided that one copper coin was worth 100 yen, one silver coin was 1,000 yen, and one gold coin was 100,000 yen) there wasn’t much of a chance of it being ordered.
But, in the Other World Dining Hall, over the past twenty years, there hasn’t been a single instance where there was left over beef stew. The reason for that was…
Moving her nose as she sniffed, the Red Queen sensed that the time had come.
—-So it has come.
She picked up the scent of small amounts of magic using her sense of smell. The scent spilled from below the Red Queen’s stomach… If a human saw it, their eyes would spin from looking at that mountain of gold. The Red Queen had taken it from here and there using force, and inside that mountain that took her roughly one thousand years to make, the smell of magic continued to leak out.
The Red Queen, as though she were showing off her delight, spread out her wings and let out a single cry, a roar of great joy. The queen’s voice made the castle of a mountain move and shake, causing all living inside of it to shiver in fear. After that, with one blow that was enough to crush a rock or cut down a giant tree, she pushed her way with a giant claw through the precious treasures that she collected all over the world.
—Found it.
And finally, the landmark that the Red Queen was looking for showed itself inside of the golden mountain. A black door tinged with magic and with the picture of a cat drawn on it. From the other side of it, otherworldly smells leaked out and intoxicated her.
“DID YOU CALL FOR ME, MY QUEEN?”
In the meantime, from the previous roar… hearing the sound of his mistress’s voice, a balrog butler, a demon of flames that served as the Red Queen’s right arm and follower, showed himself and respectfully lowered his head. Going by looks, he appeared unrefined but from his state of utter respect towards the queen, the Red Queen nodded in satisfaction.
—Depart this evening. Therefore.
The Red Queen shook her body… and casted a spell with an extensively large amount of magic that few could top in the world.
This spell used was a variant. The Red Queen, with a body about the size of a small mountain, was completely covered by flame and then swallowed up. Inside of that bright-red burning fire, the queen’s giant body became smaller like a piece of ice inside of boiling water.
As if following suit, the pure red flame that covered the queen became smaller as well… before leaving behind a single figure, it disappeared. The leftover figure was a woman with the beauty of a goddess.
Her hair shined a bright red as if it were a blazing flame, and her skin was the color of polished copper. Her age seemed to be at the peak of womanhood. Finally, she had golden pupils vertically dividing the middle of her fiery red eyes, and growing from the area above her ears, she had two splendid horns which revealed the woman’s true nature.
The woman… taking on the appearance of a human with a spell of transformation, the Red Queen, as if showing off her naked body like a fine piece of art, exposed herself with a dignified manner and commanded.
“Prepare my dress. The usual one. Do you understand?”
“YES, BY YOUR COMMAND.”
While seeing off the balrog who respectfully lowered his head and went to go get the thing his mistress asked of him, the Red Queen lied spread out on top of a pile of gold coins.
“My word, this cannot go on. To think, I, who lived for over 15,000 years, am getting impatient waiting for just one day.”
What was reflected in the eyes of the queen who was currently lying down was the black door which lead to the next world.
In the past, the queen and an inhabitant of the other side of that door were bound together by one oath. On the day the Other World Dining Hall opened, the queen would visit once all the other customers have left and become the final customer.
Long ago, when she went during the daytime to that other world, she would lightly glare at anything that would try to take her ‘prey’ away from her, and that made the owner who was a human say this to her. According to him ‘You’re bothering the other guest, so could you please stop that?’
The queen was a prideful existence that wouldn’t care about a promise with a human, but she wasn’t someone who couldn’t understand what he was trying to tell her. It was true that out of the meals that she, who was one of the great six*, was watching over, there were some that resided right in her own mountain. To the lizard-like things that had no knowledge and with physical strength that couldn’t even compare to the balrog which served the queen, it was easy to understand the reasoning that she was an existence that they didn’t like or even compete against.
Also the words that ‘that’ wouldn’t come out if she couldn’t uphold her promise helped the Queen do everything to protect it… and if she protected her promise, the fact that the queen could profit from it worked its way into her as well.
With that circumstance, the Red Queen, while sniffing the drifting fragrances coming from the other side of the door, waited for night to fall.
“IT IS TIME, MY QUEEN.”
“Umu.”
At the butler balrog’s voice, the queen got to her feet.
“YOUR CLOTHES.”
“Aah.”
With his huge body that seemed brutish, the balrog dressed the queen in a red dress with unbelievably practiced and delicate hand motions. Without any jewelry or makeup… the queen’s body was more beautiful than anything else in this world and did not require such things.
“Well then, I will be departing.”
“I WILL BE WAITING FOR YOUR RETURN.”
After finishing all of her preparations, the queen lifted what the balrog carried over with one hand. With the shape of a large cylinder, it was a silver pot that was diligently polished by her subordinates. For a human, they would have difficultly lifting it up with two hands never mind one hand, but with the queen’s physical strength, it was no different than lifting up a feather. Lightly lifting it up, the queen passed through the door.
“I have come, owner.”
The Queen, while listening to the pleasant sound of the door’s bell ringing out, said that to the owner.
“Welcome. What would today’s order be?”
The owner was used to this and asked her in the same way he always did.
“It’s obvious, isn’t it? There is only one thing that I always request.”
Putting down the pot she was shouldering… she told him her order.
“Beef stew. First, I will partake in one serving.”
It was something that was decided ever since that door showed up at the queen’s caste twenty-four years ago. The queen said the name of the magnificent dish that was worthy of her.
Thus, it had been around seven days since she last came to face with it. What wafted out to her was the complex smell of meat, vegetables, and the various seasonings coming from the beef stew. First, the queen enjoyed that smell. Just by roasting it and then boiling it together, the smell coming from the beef and vegetables intoxicated the queen.
“Aah, this smell. This will forever tempt me.”
The complex soup had a deep, thick substance to it from cooking together the meat and vegetables. It was something that no one had yet created in the world the queen lived in, the flavor of the other world. Compared to this, the whole roasted cow that the queen herself cooked and enjoyed before she knew of beef stew couldn’t even be called cooking.
“Well then, let us partake.”
Taking in one breath and swallowing her saliva, she scooped up some soup with her spoon… and had a taste. What filled her mouth was the rich flavor of meat and vegetables condensed into the soup. The deliciousness of the lightly grilled meat which was then boiled to its very limit, the sweetness that grew the longer the nameless vegetables were perfectly cooked, the countless herbs and spices, and the alcohol that was added while it was cooking made a delicious flavor that was no different than it was seven days ago.
“…Delicious!”
As it directly hit the queen’s stomach, those words leaked out of her mouth. Unable to endure it anymore, she took her silver spoon and brought it back between her mouth and the dish a few times, savoring it little by little. After enjoying enough of the soup, she scooped up an orange-colored vegetable, which was simmered for a long time, together with a light-yellow vegetable, which was added near the end so as to stop it from falling apart while cooking, along with plenty of soup and brought it to her mouth.
“Umu. As I thought, this soup’s vegetables are considerably good.”
The flavor of the orange vegetables that were soft as though they were melting and packed full of soup and the flavor of the soft but firm light-yellow vegetables that still retained their heat and flavor because they weren’t boiled together mixed together with the flavor of the soup. Usually, the queen did not like the ‘feed of the long-eared’ also known as vegetables, but vegetables in such a rich soup like this was one of her favorites.
Spoon by spoon, the queen scooped up vegetables and chewed on them while drinking in the soup. Unexpectedly, she never put a hand on her number one favorite thing in the soup… the queen was the type who saved their favorite food for the end.
“…Now then.”
After savoring her vegetables and seeing that there was only half of the beef stew left, the queen finally moved on to her favorite part, the main ingredient of the beef stew. The ingredient that makes beef stew into beef stew. In other words, cow meat. Cut up finely into small pieces to fit the size of the human mouth, the stewed cow meat was scooped by her spoon. She swallowed her spit as she brought the well-stewed meat that seemed like it would just break apart by itself into her mouth.
Words couldn’t come out. The well-cooked cow’s meat crumbled and melted inside of her mouth. She was too busy savoring the flavor the meat and the soup covering it that she didn’t have the time to say anything.
—Hou.
Before long, after the meat inside of her mouth disappeared, and she let out a sigh. This instant, no matter how many hundreds of time, no matter how many thousands of times, she would never get tired of it. The queen quickly and repeatedly moved her spoon.
The flavor of the meat and vegetables melted together, the complex seasoning spread far and wide into the soup. Carrying that, the vegetables that soft and had a deep flavor. And finally, most importantly of all, the well-stewed soft meat. With every spoonful, the taste changed, and with every spoonful, she wanted to eat more. To the Red Queen, beef stew was in fact the taste of magic itself.
After that, the queen spent plenty of time finishing up the rest of the meat, and after enjoying and finishing up one serving of beef stew, she stood up.
“Owner. The same as usual. Do you understand?”
As she said that, the queen, keeping the oath she made with the previous owner that was an old man, passed along two gold coins that she picked up from the golden mountain. It was very little, but since it was something promised there was nothing she could do about it.
One time, the queen gave the previous owner a single pot full of gold as payment for the beef stew. But the owner plainly refused it. He said ‘It’s my policy not to rip-off or give discounts.’
After that, the owner then convinced her that it was fine to pay the price one gold coin for one large pot, and the queen’s payment was promised to be two gold coins. Even to the current owner, that still hasn’t changed.
“Yes, certainly. Well then, please carry it back.”
The owner took the extremely heavy, pure gold coins, which was etched with a face with long ears the resembled an elf from the other side, and put it into his pocket. He then gave a single nod.
“Umu. Well then, I will intrude upon you.”
Receiving the owner’s permission, the queen stepped forth into the kitchen. There was no firewood inside of it, and the insides of the kitchen were beautifully polished. There, the queen found it.
—Found it.
With a ‘Hou,’ she let out a sigh filled with excitement with a little bit of flame mixed into it. Shooting off a strong smell from the kitchen was, from a human’s perspective, a large stock pot filled to the brim with beef stew, which was small from her perspective.
“Well then, I will be taking it, owner.”
As she said that, the queen gently lifted the pot which was full on the inside and covered so that it wouldn’t spill. What passed through to the palm of her hand was the warmth from the heat of the pot. Thinking about it happily, she lightly moved her feet and headed to the exit in high spirits.
“Until then. I will come again, owner.”
“Of course, I will await your return anytime.”
As the owner opened the door for her, she left the restaurant. She lowered her feet on the top of the golden mountain that spread out from outside the door, and while taking care not to spill the contents of the pot, she stood up. As the door slammed shut, it also disappeared, and the queen’s mountain once again took back its usual atmosphere.
“WELCOME HOME, MY QUEEN.”
“Umu. Make it clean.”
Casually taking off her dress, she threw it to the balrog. After that, she dispelled her magic and placed the beef stew on a flat piece of land so that it wouldn’t spill. She them immediately moved over the gold back to its original spot and buried the location of where the door would appear.
—Now then, it’s time to enjoy.
After that, the queen, while being careful and paying attention, tightly wrapped the stockpot with her front legs. Trying not to burn it with the palm of her hands, which could melt iron by the heat emitting from them if she was serious, and being extremely careful as to heat it up so that it won’t be cold, she kept it at its best temperature.
And finally, bringing it closer to her mouth from which sharp fangs grew, she stuck her tongue inside of it and literally savored it by licking. The beef stew that she tasted as a human was good, but eating it in her original form was also special in its own way.
—Still, if only the owner made a lot more.
While she thought of that, she steadily savored it. It would be a whole day and night before it would be gone. The time for the queen’s bliss had come.
Once, having burned down troops of the long-eared equipped with magic tools and leading golems and chimeras with them to oblivion, she was currently worshiped and feared as a legendary existence… and at the same time, the Red Queen, who was known as the Other World’s Dining Hall’s ‘biggest eater’, had just begun her meal.