Life in Another World as a Maid Mage
Volume 1 - Daily Life of A Maid Mage
06 – Accepting to-go food orders (2)
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"Mr. Boris, six minestrones, two corn potages, and eight cheese risottos for three silver coins and two copper coins," I called out.
"Yes, thank you."
"Ms. Karina, four egg drop soups each with a slice of roast pork. That'll be one silver and six coppers."
"Thank you, Shiori."
"Mr. Ludger, two boiled eggplants, four sautéed spinaches, and six berries in syrup, for a total of two silver coins and four coppers coins."
"Oh, thank you. I'm a terrible cook so it really helps."
"Mr. Hyland, three pumpkin potages, one egg porridge, two mushroom risottos, one silver and two coppers coins."
"Oh… this will get us through the next request. Thank you, young lady."
"Please take care of yourself…."
The food packaged in wax paper was exchanged for coins according to the purchase order. After purchase, the food was transferred to an airtight container such as a bottle while it was still wrapped in wax paper to prevent deterioration, and the customer was encouraged to eat it all in one go.
If one filled out an order form, picking from a predetermined list of products, the orders could be picked up on the next delivery day. There were some items for direct purchase on the day of the sale, but not too many. This was the result of calculating what one person could handle.
This system was probably inconvenient for customers, but nonetheless everyone was probably dissatisfied with the food they had been eating while camping. This business that had started out as a way to share preserved food, partly because of concerns about the nutritional value of the typical adventurer's meals on a journey, was generally well-received. Anything that you could afford, you could cook on your journeys, but when it came to requests that required long durations of time away from proper civilization, there wasn't much room in the luggage to devote to bulky food. The travel meals, which normally consisted of vegetables and fruits that were usually difficult to chance upon while camping, had quickly become popular among adventurers who could not afford to binge on dried meat and bread and who, at best, had to resort to canned food and pickles. The meals were light and not bulky and the ease of only pouring water or boiling water to complete cooking in a few minutes was still a hot topic.
Recently, the adventurer's guild had approached me to let them carry it in their shop. They wanted to keep it on hand for those who were leaving on emergency requests.
"If you'll let me set it up, I'll take care of all the taxes and troublesome paperwork while I'm at it."
I was moved by Zack's offer. To be honest, the paperwork in this strange world was quite bewildering, so I would have asked for help even if I had to pay a small fee. Besides, I thought it was nice that this business started from my own knowledge could help someone else.
"It's quite a thriving business."
When I raised my face at the sound of the familiar baritone voice, my eyes met with a blue-eyed man with lightly tanned skin and curly, silver hair.
"Mr. Clemens, thank you for the other day," I said.
"Yeah, you're welcome. If I have another chance, I'll ask you to accompany me again."
"Yes, with pleasure. Let's see, grilled pork slices with grilled chicken flavored ham, dashi rolled egg, pickled oysters in oil, boiled eggplant, grilled vegetables with bagna càuda sauce, one of each, for a total of one silver coin and two coppers. I've added an extra… grilled chicken flavored ham."
When I whispered the last words, a cheerful smile broke across Clemens's face. He usually acted like a gentleman, but when he was happy, he laughed like a child. After paying, he wished me good luck and went his way.
As I was busy with the delivery work, a delighted squeal came from behind the waiting line. It seemed that Rurie was dealing with a customer. I didn't know where in the world she had learned to do this, but she was trying to fight against a familiar female customer, the slime using some strange and mocking poses.
"It's good! That child, Rurie, is attacking just like I taught it—totally worth it."
"Ms. Nadia…." I looked dumbfounded at the owner of the voice, who was also the customer Rurie was fighting, and before I knew it the bright, strawberry blonde beauty had seated herself at the table next to me and was smiling bewitchingly.
"It's fine, isn't it? You're so cute, so there's no reason not to take advantage of Rurie to defend you." As she said this, she picked up the paper bags in the basket with her beautifully slender fingertips and handed them to me, one after another. It seemed she wanted to help. She counted the money received and then put them in a tin box, setting it aside. This assembly line sort of process sped things along, taking less than 30 minutes.
I was left with an empty basket, a tin box full of coins, and a bunch of order forms for the next delivery.
"Thank you, Ms. Nadia. I'll give you your favorite travel meal for free next time."
"That makes me happy. Can you "freeze-dry"
Freeze drying results in a high quality product because of the low temperature used in processing. The original shape of the product is maintained and quality of the rehydrated product is excellent. Primary applications of freeze drying include biological (e.g., bacteria and yeasts), biomedical (e.g., surgical transplants), food processing (e.g., coffee) and preservation. something like that apple compote that you usually make?"
"Sure, I can do it. I'll give it to you next time."
"Thank you. I'll look forward to it."
I left the adventurer's guild with Ms. Nadia, whose full, seductive lips were curved in a light smile.
On the way back home, I stopped at the grocery store. I'm was currently shopping for ingredients for the next delivery. Vegetables and fruits were lined up everywhere, and chunks of meat and seafood were laid out in cases next to the counter, where the owner sat. Because the products were kept at a low temperature with a magic stone that emitted cold air, everything was safe and unspoiled.
"Welco…me, is it young Miss Shiori?"
"…I'm pretty old to be a young miss."
It seemed that my face didn't look over thirty and I was often seen as younger than I actually was. However, as an adult, I wasn't happy about it.
"If you ask me, you look like a young lady plenty."
I looked at Marius, the shopkeeper, with disdain. I could see some wrinkles in the corners of his eyes, but perhaps… "Mr. Marius, how old are you?"
"Oh? I'll be thirty-three next month."
"The difference is only two years!!"
"…What? Huh? You're kidding, you're twenty or so at the most!"
"If I were twenty, I would say that I'm twenty! Why would I pretend that I was an extra ten years older?"
Unlike my hometown, in this neighborhood people aged fast after their twenties. I didn't understand the point of going out of my way to pretend I was in my twenties when I was in my thirties and would have looked like an adult had this been my original town.
"Hmm, I'm going to go to the big store on Main Street next time."
"No, no, no, my bad! I'm sorry for treating you like a little girl! I'll sell to you!"
In addition to the daily food, buying a large amount of food once a week was pretty pricey. I was sure it would have been painful to lose one of his top customers, who probably contributed considerably to his sales.
"What can I get for you today?" he conceded.
"For now, four blocks of pork shoulder loin and five chicken breasts, and then… could you slice me some beef belly, please?"
"Oh, thanks again for another big order. Please wait a moment."
While Marius prepared the meat, I decided to rummage through the aisle for the other ingredients. I decided to use the out-of-season carrots and spinach that I had already freeze-dried at home, so I only threw pumpkin, onion, eggplant, kidney beans, soybeans, corn flour, and hybridized
"Potatoes from the autumn batch will be harvested soon, so all we have for now are the old ones from the previous harvest. I'll give you a discount, so take them if you like," Marius offered as he worked.
"Thank you."
"The tomatoes are also overripe, so their quality is lower. What do you want to do, take these with you?"
"Uh-huh, I grow tomatoes at home, but I'll take them since I need a lot of them."
"Always! But homegrown? Strydia is nice. In Dolgast, there's a tax on everything you grow, whether it's for home consumption or not. I can't do it."
I knew Marius was a former imperial citizen. He was impoverished as a result of repeated heavy taxation by the Empire. Therefore, about ten years ago, he had fled with his family in a desperate attempt to escape.
The Dolgast Empire, I was aware, had a strong aristocracy and imposed taxes on everything and anything; consequently, while the royalty and nobility were enriched, the common people lived in poverty. In Strydia, naturally there was no tax on products grown for home consumption. In contrast, Dolgast taxed everything, whether it came from potted plants or sprouted from a bird's droppings, or even came from the seeds of inedible weeds—anything that could germinate was taxed. It was a structure of complete exploitation.
"You wouldn't believe the things I've seen in my old town. They even taxed what you dropped on the road, calling it a fee for luggage storage on the lord's road…."
"Wow…."
"In the worst case scenario, they even took a kid who fell on the road as payment for the storage fee he couldn't pay. That's a true story, man."
"…"
I, who had no good memories of the imperial aristocracy, had no words for it.
Marius appeared impatient as he stood silently, eyebrows furrowed. That incident a year and a few months ago… he, of course, knew.
"No, I'm sorry for talking about something so strange. Call it an apology, but, oh… well, look here, take all this!"
…I was given a lot of meat trimmings and unsold vegetables. Rurie and I were standing in front of the store with a package so large that we couldn't carry any more. Rurie's body, which was already holding half of it, seemed to be crushed. If you did your best, it wasn't impossible to hold it, but if you walked for a few minutes and climbed stairs, it would be tough. I was beginning to think about whether I should have asked the store owner to keep it for me and then divided it up to carry in several trips when a familiar voice called out to me from the side.
"You've bought a lot of stuff again. Do you need help?"
I turned around and there was a tall, handsome man. The deep mauve of his irises peeked out from under chestnut-hued bangs. His eyes squinted happily at me.
"Mr. Alex…."
Nadia Felice: 38 years old. A-Rank Adventurer. Archmage. Her favorite foods are all kinds of meat and fruits.
[1] Freeze drying, also known as lyophilisation or cryodesiccation, is a low temperature dehydration process that involves freezing the product, lowering pressure, then removing the ice by sublimation. This is in contrast to dehydration by most conventional methods that evaporate water using heat.
Freeze drying results in a high quality product because of the low temperature used in processing. The original shape of the product is maintained and quality of the rehydrated product is excellent. Primary applications of freeze drying include biological (e.g., bacteria and yeasts), biomedical (e.g., surgical transplants), food processing (e.g., coffee) and preservation.
[2] TL Note: Here they use a very Japanese expression, they use a herring fish, which is a fast growing fish, to use as an aging term. So original would be something like why pretend that you are like a hearing and aged more than 10 extra years.
[3] TL Note: The term they use here is Sosei (早生) grown apples… This is a wide and vague term, it literally means "early apples" as in they were apples that were grown in a faster than usual way. The method is not specified but think along the ways of GMO or hormone treatment on animals.