"Hmm, two of you. ...... Not bad.

　The woman who greeted us with the job application was a fat woman. She was probably over 50.
　...... No, I don't know.　It's hard to measure the age of a foreigner, especially one from another world. At least that's how I see her.

You've heard the terms, right?
Yes.

So you're working today?　You won't get paid, but you'll get dinner and a room.
I'll take it.

　Otherwise, you'll have to stay in the field.

After that, you can go to ...... and ask for a day off, but you'll have to pay for lodging and food. After work, you are free to sell, but don't forget to pay the deposit if you take a guest at my inn.
"I won't do it!

　I'm not going to do it! Why do the ladies of this world always try to get you into prostitution?

　...... No, it's not that I don't understand.

　I'm sure you'll be able to understand why.
　Besides, with a daily wage of 100 rares, you can't save any money at all, so it's no wonder you can't make ends meet without such a second job.

　But whether we would do it or not is another matter.
　I would rather go out and hunt demons than become a prostitute, even if it's a bit reckless, and if it's Natsuki, she might die from sticking her tongue out.
　--Or maybe not. Don't become a greater demon than me and kill all the demons, I promise. I'm good enough to do that.

　The only reason I didn't choose that is because I can still afford to risk my life. If I really couldn't afford it, I wouldn't have hesitated.
　But we want to take safe steps if we can, don't we?

　That's how our first day in the other world ended.

　　　　The first day of my life is over.

　You said, "Day 1 of my life in the other world is over"?

　That's a lie!

　It was harder from then until I went to bed. It was very hard.

　I had imagined my job as a waitress in a restaurant, but in this world, customers have bad manners.

　They would try to touch our buttocks without any hesitation, and many men would try to "buy" us.
　Of course, I immediately refused.
　"How about 3,000? Are you kidding me?
　It's not that I'd sell it for any price, but it's annoying when someone puts a low price on it.

　I'm really thankful that Natsuki taught me the body art.
　I couldn't dodge everything like Natsuki, but I was able to prevent most of them.

　But as time went by, I was afraid to see Natsuki's face, which had a business smile on it, become more and more expressionless.
　I wondered how long it would take for Natsuki's elbow to smash into the man's face.

　You've got a track record, haven't you? Actually.
　She looks innocent and gentle, and in fact she basically is, and she was weak in her original world, but when she crosses the line, she's pretty bad.
　I'm not going to go into details.

　I'm not going to go into details, but I'll just say that it was a tough job, but the real test came after that.
　I was given a room for two with Natsuki, which was no problem at all.

　The problem was the food that was served.
　I was dreading what kind of food I would be served because of the poor treatment, but what I was served was the leftover food from the restaurant.

　I was a little disappointed, but then I thought about it and realized that all the food they were serving was a big pot of food, so there was no need to go through the trouble of making another dish. I'm a little worried about what will happen when they are all sold out, though.

　If the price of this dish is 70 rares, and breakfast and lunch are 40 rares each, since the same level of ...... is not likely to be served, the cost of food alone is 150 rares per day.
　In the case of this inn, if two people stay in a room for one night, the cost per person is 400 Rea.

　If you include wages, the total cost would be 650 Reais. ....... A little cheaper if you consider that you'll be working as a waiter for a day.
　If you think of it as the equivalent of 6,500 yen, that's about 10 hours of work and 650 yen per hour. It's not outrageously cheap.
　No, of course it's cheap, but considering that you're hiring an unidentified person, yeah.
　Well, I guess I got a better job, huh?

　That is, until I took a bite of the food.

　Nanikore.

　Can we call this cooking?
　Isn't this some kind of blasphemy against cooking?

　You're not harassing us, are you? We were serving this at the restaurant, and the customers were eating it.

　When I looked next to her, Natsuki was frozen with a spoon in her mouth.
　Her face was slightly pale and her forehead was covered with sweat. From the movement of her throat, it seemed that she was trying hard not to spit it out.

　To be honest, if this were served at a restaurant in Japan, I would not only shout for my money back, but I would probably win a lawsuit for compensation.

　But this is a different world.
　I'll die if I don't eat this.
　I don't have any money.
　The water is ...... good. It's not great, but it's drinkable.

　I inhaled, pinched my nose and stuffed the food down my throat, chewed it hard and poured it down my throat with water.
　I don't want to taste anything.

　After repeating this several times, I ate as fast as I have ever eaten in my life, rinsed my mouth out with water, let out a big breath and let go of the hand that was holding my nose.

"Ugh!



　Oh, no!
　This is not good!

　I hurriedly pinched my nose again.
　Maybe it's because I've been holding my nose for so long, but the smell is so strong.
　I'll just breathe through my mouth for now.

Excellent. Yuki.

　No, you don't have to look at me like, "Well done, you've defeated your nemesis! No matter how you look at it.
　If you look at me objectively, I look like a complete idiot.

I guess I'll have to do that too. ......
You can eat it as it is if you can stand it, but just cutting the smell might help with the nausea.

　The aroma of the food is very important.

　For example, spiciness is not a sense of taste, but a sense of pain, and you can understand this by holding your nose and eating ginger.
　If you try to eat ginger with your nose pinched, you will understand it clearly, because it only hurts and has no value.

　If you take your hand away from holding your nose at that time, the smell softly stands out, and the mere pain turns into a completely different "taste".

　Incidentally, what I just experienced is the opposite.

　By taking my hand away from holding my nose, a very tasteless dish was transformed into something so blasphemous that it is absurd to even call it a dish.

　I wonder if this is the depths of cooking.

"Yes, of course. We have no choice but to eat. I don't have any money. I never thought I'd experience something like this in my life.

　That's right. Natsuki's family was relatively wealthy, so at least they didn't have to worry about food. If she had lived like that...
　In today's Japan, you can eat with very little money as long as you don't spend extravagantly.

　In the past, there was a politician who was criticized for saying "poor people should eat wheat", but now you can buy rice cheaper than wheat if you don't care about the brand.
　He apparently meant that wheat is good for you, so if you eat it, you will be less likely to get sick and spend less money on medical care. He himself was eating wheat because of his weakness.

　The media conveniently cut out the word "poor" from ....... Well, he didn't exactly say "poor," but it was conveniently "translated" and reported.

　I'm not sure if it's the same thing.
　It's more readily available than wheat, and relatively cheap.
　Unlike "high quality rice that has been milled to retain its nutritional value," it retains its entire nutritional value and is cheap.
　If the taste is acceptable, I think it is the best.

　Now, I'm confident that I can eat brown rice cooked just right with great pleasure. Yeah.
　Five grain rice used to be a substitute for white rice, but now it costs more than white rice. .......

　--Oops, the food was so bad that I escaped from reality.

　When I took my hand off my nose, I was afraid to pick it up. ...... Oh, I managed to be okay.
　It still bothers me a little, but it's hard to keep breathing through my mouth.
　Natsuki is still trying.

Natsuki, you should hold your nose for a while after you finish eating, okay?　If you're not careful, the moment you let go, you'll reverse.

　Natsuki nodded while swallowing with tears in her eyes.
　It seems to be quite difficult.

　I'm sure this dish is even harder on Natsuki, who prefers delicate flavors, than it is on me.

　She's trying her best to chew it, but she's trying to swallow it so fast that it's probably bad for her stomach. I hope I don't get an upset stomach.

　I'm sure the combo of [Robust Lv.4], [Disease Resistance], and [Poison Resistance] will do the job, right?
　I'm a little nervous because I'm only level 1 in [Robustness].

　...... No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

　I'm sure you'll be able to find something that works for you.
　It's not the kind of thing that [robustness] or [poison resistance] can work on.
　No, right ......?

Thank you for your time.
Yes. ...... Honestly, I didn't think the food would consume me this much.
I didn't expect that. I didn't expect that.

Do you think this is the standard taste in this world?
What, that's a scary thought .......

　But if this place tasted bad, I don't think they'd get that many customers.
　Even if there is something else to sell other than the food, if the food doesn't taste at least a little worse than the standard, the customers will leave.
　In spite of this, I ordered this dish and ate it as usual. .......

I'm losing confidence in my ability to survive in this world.
That's strange. That's strange. That kind of food: ...... food?　What looks like cooking?　Something that could be cooking .......

Natsuki, your cooking is having a gestalt collapse. We still only know this small town. There is hope. Besides, there might be good food in this town too.

"Yes, there is. It's too early to give up. We don't have a lot of money right now, but I'm sure we can find some good food.
Yeah. I'll work hard for it!

　With that, we clasped each other's hands and renewed our determination.
　But in the end, we would have to wait for Haruka and the others to join us before we could find any delicious food.