{Author’s Notes}

  That was a close call…… I got home at 10:30 pm…… and wrote the chapter in a hurry from there, so I made it just in time.

  **********

  On a street lined with restaurants in the Friendship City, Hikari, the shopkeeper Mizuhara Kaori was preparing to open her restaurant, the Set-Meal Restaurant Suiren.

  Her restaurant is open from 11:00 am to 9:00 pm, and being a Set-Meal Restaurant, it’s most crowded during the daytime. Even then, as one would expect, she isn’t so busy that she can’t keep up with the workload.

  For example, during the Festival of Heroes, she becomes so busy that she would need to hire temporary wait staff to keep the place running, but during normal times, it wasn’t very busy. Her main customers were tourists who are attracted by the rarity of the other world cuisine, and although there aren’t that many, she also had the regulars who lived in the Friendship City.

  The Friendship City is the most famous tourist destination in the world, and there were a large number of restaurants that wanted to take advantage of its popularity, so regular customers are very rare and precious.

  After preparing the ingredients in a familiar manner and finishing the preparations well in advance for the opening time, Kaori glanced at the calendar hanging on the wall.

  Today’s date is circled in red, and after confirming it, Kaori placed a tag on one of the counter seats that read “Reserved”.

  [Alright! Let’s do our best again today!]

  Filled with determination, she unlocked the door and brought out the noren and the signboard with today’s recommendations in the front of her restaurant. Thereupon, a customer who looked like a tourist came in right away, and Kaori served them with a smile.

  (Note: Noren are those fabric dividers hung on the doorways of a restaurant, kinda like a curtain.)

  While her restaurant was moderately busy, Kaori looked at her watch as she prepared for food. The current time was 11:45 am……


  [……15 minutes to go. I think today will be Mackerel Simmered in Miso Set-Meal, so I have to get it ready……]

  The reason for her soliloquy was the presence of one of her regulars. The regular customer, who came to the table with the “Reserved” tag, was extremely punctual and always arrived at the restaurant at exactly 12:00 nn.

  And since she’s ordering “the next in line from the top of the menu” every time she comes to the restaurant, unless there’s a limited-time menu, it’s easy for Kaori to predict what she would order each day.

  Since there’s no limited-time menu today, the next one she would be ordering would be the Mackerel Simmered in Miso Set-Meal, so Kaori started to prepare the dish in advance so as not to make her wait.

  Just as the Set-Meal was prepared to some extent, 12:00 nn finally arrived, and at that moment, a silver-haired woman opened the door of the restaurant and entered.

  The woman’s name is Olivia…… The representative of the Friendship City, Hikari and the Founder of the Central Cathedral. Due to the influence of the singularity, Miyama Kaito, she had become a regular customer of the restaurant.

  Although Olivia is known to everyone living in the Friendship City, it doesn’t seem like she’s noticed often, probably because she wears plain clothes instead of the priest uniform she usually wears in public, and the fact that her hair is tied in a half-up hairstyle.

  [Welcome, please have your usual seat.]

  [Excuse me then.]

  Having been to the restaurant many times, both Kaori and Olivia had grown accustomed to the situation, and following Kaori’s urging, Olivia took her usual seat.

  [I’ll have the Mackerel Simmered in Miso Set-Meal.]

  [Yeeees, please wait a moment.]

  Thereupon, as Kaori had expected, an order for a Mackerel Simmered in Miso Set-Meal was placed, so she finished the set meal that she had prepared to some extent and put it in front of Olivia.

  Thereupon, putting her hands together in a pre-meal prayer for a few dozen seconds, Olivia picked up her chopsticks and began eating her meal.

  [……It’s a little different again from the miso used in the usual miso soup.]

  [I used a slightly sweeter miso for this one. It goes better with mackerel.]

  [I see, a dish made with some ingenuity.]

  [At any rate, Fou…… Olivia-san, you’ve gotten really good at using chopsticks.]

  It may just be for her temporary peace of mind, but Kaori calls Olivia by her first name because it’s less likely for them to attract attention than calling her “Founder-sama”.

  Well, that may be so, but there are still some people who recognize Kaori’s restaurant as “the Founder’s favorite restaurant”, which hurt Kaori’s stomach a bit.

  [As expected, having eaten this many times…… Fumu, I see you’ve changed the leek you use in your miso soup. Indeed, this one might suit it better than the one you used before.]

  [To see through that from a single mouthful…… It seems that your palate has been growing at a terrifying pace.]

  After exchanging those few words, as she watched Olivia’s very graceful movements…… “Arehh? Since when did my restaurant become a high class one?”, Kaori couldn’t help but wonder. Not minding Kaori’s thoughts though, Olivia elegantly continued to eat her meal silently.

  After finishing every grain of rice, she put her hands in a prayer again before standing up and placing a coin and a piece of paper on the table.

  [Thank you for the meal. Here’s my schedule for next month’s visit.]

  [Ah, yeeeeees. Alright.]

  [Well then, I’ll see you again.]

  After leaving those words with a light nod, Olivia left, and after seeing her off with a smile…… Kaori noticed that the other customers in the store…… had realized that Olivia was the Founder. Feeling that several of them wanted to ask Kaori questions, she could only let out a sigh.