Pandora of Fantasy And Reality Chapter 23

Mariela and Alfie

It was 4 o’clock at the real world.

Ponsuke logged in one hour earlier than usual.

Because he had plan at the real world, he logged in one hour earlier  like this, but when he looked around he only saw a few players.

Besides the atmosphere of the players were also a bit different.

The time period where many players logged in was from 10 PM until 2 AM.

The number of player at 3 AM until 7 AM was small. He heard from his friend Riku that time period was suited for beginner.

「So the atmosphere can be different like this just because it’s a different time.」

There were also players who were looking curiously seeing an orc looking all around.

There were also players who he felt like he had seen before, but on  the whole he felt that the number of players was small and the  atmosphere was different.

Ponsuke stood up, but then he was surprised because someone hugged him from behind.

「Nuoh!」

He immediately looked back and saw Mariela there.

「You’re right in time. You didn’t oversleep.」

Mariela was worried that Ponsuke might overslept. She looked relieved seeing that wasn’t the case.

(Well, I usually didn’t wake up at this time. It’s true I almost overslept.)

He started walking with Mariela and chatted with her.

「And, what are we going to do today? With this atmosphere it’s hard to invite someone to party together.」

Mariela said that as she looked at the surrounding. But surely they  could find someone to fight together with them if they searched.

But, they also didn’t need to force themselves to go outside. Ponsuke scratched his head.

「Then, want to walk around the city? Even so, it feels there’s something lacking with just the two of us like this.」

Ponsuke felt that something was missing with the always lively Alfie being absent.

Mariela seemed to feel the same too. She joined her hands behind her head with a dissatisfied look.

「Certainly, it’s quiet without her. ……Ah! Then keep my company for a bit!」

Mariela became smiling and pulled Ponsuke’s arm toward the center of the city.

.

.

.

There was a plaza a slight distance away from the center.

Many stalls were lined up there. Some of them were stalls that were run by players for doing business.

There were players who were purely doing business deals, while there  were also players who were displaying their skill as craftsman.

But, the number of stall that opened was fewer than the time when they usually logged in.

Mariela purchased things like ingredient from such stalls. She stuffed them all into her item box.

The ingredients that she purchased were varied. She also bought spices in set.

「You’re buying a lot.」

When he looked around, there were other players who were purchasing  ingredients like Mariela. All of them were buying in large amount.

Mariela took two same fruits to explain to Ponsuke.

「I’m also looking properly at what I bought you know? By getting the  cook job, you also become able to judge with your eyes. I can somehow  discern which one is good and which one isn’t.」

She said that and bought the fruits on her hand. She then handed them to Ponsuke.

Ponsuke held the fruits. Mariela told her to eat them so he gave it a try and ate them one by one.

「……This taste normal?」

「Try eating the other one.」

When he tried the other one, it felt like this one felt slightly less sweet and drier than the previous one.

「……It’s different.」

Mariela looked pleased to hear that.

「Right!? The quality here is better than buying from normal shop. I  just noticed it recently. I’m usually here choosing ingredients  carefully when we split up.」

Mariela boasted, but she suddenly dropped her shoulders.

「And yet, my cooking skill don’t improve at all. It’s unreasonable. What? Is there inversed correction that only apply to me?」

Mariela started complaining that the game balance was simply strange. Ponsuke was consoling her when a player passed them by.

The player was tall and wearing white attire. His gray hair was styled to be swept back and his face was finely chiseled.

He looked like a foreigner, but the avatar didn’t seem to be made by copying someone famous.

That player called to them, so Ponsuke and Mariela turned toward him. The smiling player introduced himself.

He placed his right hand over his heart like a gentleman.

「I’m Yukiharu. I’m actually a cook. I called out to you two after  hearing you two talking. If you like can you spare a bit of time to talk  with me?」

Ponsuke and Mariela looked at each other. And then they nodded with a  bit of wariness. They often heard stories about swindler who looked  like someone harmless at first glance.

The player……Yukiharu smiled as though he understood what they were thinking.

「Don’t worry, I don’t plan to swindle you two. Actually I want to do advertising.」

Mariela tilted her head.

「Advertising?」

Yukiharu asked them to follow him and started walking in front of them.

「I’m not really interested with fighting outside the city. In fact, I don’t really have combat type job.」

Play style could be centered around combat, but it could also be  specialized as craftsman. It seemed that at first he was enjoying the  game normally, but before long he found that he enjoyed playing as  craftsman.

「I had advanced until the Capital of Discretion but, how should I say  it, the city’s atmosphere is better here. The further you progress, the  more the players there will look down on player like me.」

Even craftsman would be welcomed if their job was useful for combat,  but it seemed players who wanted to be at the frontline as clearer had  bad opinion toward job that was purely for enjoyment.

Mariela looked fed up hearing that.

「Ee~, even though delicious food is important」

Yukiharu was smiling when he heard that.

「That’s right. That’s why I returned here and opened a shop. Fortunately it’s easy to open a shop here.」

The number of player they passed by became fewer as they walked. And then they arrived at a place with few passerby.

Yukiharu’s shop was there.

Ponsuke looked around.

「I had passed by here several times. Or rather, a lot of shops are closed here so I didn’t notice……」

Yukiharu spoke confidently.

「This is my shop. Well, it’s a particular shop because I logged in at 4 AM and 8 PM.」

He was splitting his two hours login time into two.

Certainly it was particular, he thought while entering the shop.

A western restaurant――that was the atmosphere of the restaurant. The  tables and chairs were made from wood and there was warmth filling the  restaurant. The space wasn’t that spacious but also not that cramped.

Yukiharu entered inside and turned on the light.

「Now then, young miss. The kitchen is over here. Do you also want to enter inside Mr. Orc?」

Ponsuke and Mariela remembered that they hadn’t introduced themselves and told him their name.

.

.

.

Yukiharu watched Mariela cooking.

Ponsuke was also watching from the corner so he wouldn’t get in the  way. Mariela’s movement was clearly bad. Not only her arrangement of the  food, but the way she was cooking while looking at book was also  provoking dread inside him.

Yukiharu was watching that with a smile.

「Err~, do this here……like this!」

Like that the soup was finished and poured from the pot to a plate.

The result was something that looked muddy. Ponsuke pressed his right hand on his forehead seeing that it was another failure.

Mariela tasted the flavor with a spoon. Her expression became bitter.

「Uu~, it’s no good.」

Yukiharu taught Mariela about sampling the food, because of that she  now ascertained the taste before serving it to other people. Her  shoulders dropped in dejection from how bad the taste was.

Inside his heart, Ponsuke wanted to give applause to Yukiharu just from this one point alone.

Yukiharu also scooped the soup with a spoon and tasted it.

「……Fumu, as I thought. Not only the arrangement, your gaming  experience is also lacking. And of course your cooking experience in  real life too.」

Mariela fell on her knees after being told that she lacked experience twice over.

「That’s right. I don’t have any chance to cook in RL……we already have oven.」

Ponsuke thought.

(Then why are you thinking to become a cook!)

Food could easily be prepared using microwave oven or hot water. Even  Ponsuke who couldn’t cook was greatly helped by instant food in real  life.

Yukiharu laughed.

「Don’t worry. I was also the same. The food that I served to my  friends was disliked. That irritated me that I kept trying and in the  end I improved until they told me that it tasted good.」

Yukiharu seemed nostalgic. He recalled the past while nodding.

But, he also looked somewhat lonely.

(Come to think of it, the atmosphere doesn’t fit……did he leave the party, or the party got disbanded?)

「Mariela-chan, first let’s start making from a simple food. Actually I  heard this from a fellow craftsman, that apparently the system divided  the foods into categories. Because of that rather than changing what you  cook every time, you will level up easier by continuing to make the  same thing.」

It seemed that all this time Mariela had been repeating her blunders  because she didn’t know about that information about the system.

If this food is no good then let’s try that one, and if that one is  no good then go to this one――system wise, doing such thing was  completely pointless.

「……I thought I’ll focus on one thing once I found the one that I can succeed in.」

Mariela looked like she was going to cry. Yukiharu consoled her while teaching her the way to make sandwich.

「When you start cooking, the system will start evaluating it from  various things like the arrangement or the ingredient measurement.  That’s why, first you need to do the preparation properly――」

With Yukiharu’s support, Mariela finished making a sandwich.

「It’s done! I did it!」

There were two sandwiches. Mariela was greatly delighted. She tried eating one of them and became moved into tears.

「……It’s edible!」

Ponsuke reflexively yelled.

「That’s your standard!? You should tell whether it’s tasty or not!」

Then Mariela pushed the sandwich to Ponsuke.

「Then eat it yourself!」

Ponsuke obeyed and tried eating fearfully――unexpectedly

「It’s edible!」

He didn’t say whether it was tasty or not, it was edible. It was a normal sandwich.

Yukiharu gave applause.

「Now then, use this chance to keep making sandwich successfully. After you leveled up some, you can try making other things.」

Both Ponsuke and Mariela thanked Yukiharu.

「Thank you very much!」

「Eh, why are you giving him such heartfelt thanks? T-Thank you very much!」

For Ponsuke who thought that he wouldn’t need to eat disgusting food anymore after this, he felt truly indebted to Yukiharu.

「I want to do something to thank you for this.」

Yukiharu looked slightly troubled.

「Do something? Even if you say that……I only wanted to introduce my restaurant to you and ask you to eat here.」

Mariela looked slightly apologetic.

「Umm. We usually logged in from five to seven. Today is the exception.」

Yukiharu smiled hearing that.

「That’s great. I’m happy that two people who I should have never met  can eat my cooking like this. However, if you want to thank me……」

Yukiharu fell into thought. He looked at the clock and got an idea.

「Then――」

.

.

.

The second day inside the game.

Alfie and Nanako logged into the game and met up with Ponsuke and Mariela. They talked to the two about the happening yesterday.

Alfie looked jealous.

「Ponsuke worked as waiter!? I also wanted to see it!」

Mariela bragged.

「I also studied about cooking and helped out at the same time, so my  level also increased. From today I won’t let anyone call my food  disgusting anymore!」

They showed their gratitude to Yukiharu by helping out in the restaurant during lunch time.

Ponsuke got handed a uniform and tasked to clean and do chores.

Mariela was helping out in the kitchen.

Nanako looked up to Ponsuke and then asked about yesterday.

「Ponsuke-san, did you have fun yesterday?」

Ponsuke patted Nanako’s head while answering.

「Yep. I’m glad I was able to ask a lot of things from Yukiharu-san. But……getting fed dozens of sandwiches is a bit……」

Ponsuke looked at Mariela who was bragging to Alfie while feeling weary from the mountain of sandwiches that were pushed on him.

.

.

.

The third day.

For Alfie the second day was for walking around with Nanako to her favorite places.

They were on a beautiful path along a river. Alfie got up on the  handrail and walked keeping her balance. Nanako was looking up to her.

「Alfie-san, you might fall like that.」

The two of them were holding ice cream. They were walking while eating.

It was bad manner. But this was inside a game.

「It’s alright. Even if I fall, I’ll get dry right away after crawling out of the water.」

Nanako’s face twitched.

「That’s not alright. Besides, you had fallen into river before?」

Alfie smiled wryly while licking her ice cream. The soft cream cooled  the inside of her mouth, and then it melted and sweetness spread out.

「Around two times? No, three times I think? Ponsuke scolded me those  times. Well……I can’t do this in RL. In part it’s because the people  around me are really strict, but I myself also have no intention of  changing my environment.」

For Alfie――Maya who was raised as a lady, there was a part of herself  who wanted to become Alfie. It was also a self that she kept locked  inside herself.

Someone who was boisterous, emotional, and a bother to the people around her.

She was a bothersome player inside the game. But, Ponsuke and Mariela still stayed together with Alfie who was like that.

「……Those two, are really wasted for the like of me.」

Alfie jumped down from the handrail to Nanako’s side and started walking.

Nanako followed Alfie’s back.

「You three are really close with each other. I’m jealous.」

Alfie got embarrassed and voraciously devoured her ice cream to cover it up. She even stuffed the cone part into her mouth.

She clapped her hands to brush off the cone crumbs there and then cleared her throat.

「Well, we’re like this now but, it was horrible when we first met. It  was common for Mariela and me to shot and slash at Ponsuke by mistake.  And Ponsuke was also cold to us.」

Nanako was a bit troubled of how to react.

「Umm……wasn’t that him being angry from getting attacked?」

That made Alfie realized.

「Aa, now that you mention it. Well, the two of us also weren’t used  to play game and gave him a lot of troubles, but now we’re very close.」

Nanako looked down.

「……I’m jealous. Right now I’m in the hospital, but my friends have stopped coming.」

Alfie jumped on the handrail again after hearing that. She landed  magnificently and spread out her arms. The other players around them  looked toward her, but Alfie paid them no mind.

「Alfie-san!?」

「It’s fine! Nanako and I are already friend! Ponsuke and Mariela are  also your friends! And if I give a shout my acquaintances……well, some of  them are strange fellows but they will come and you can count them as  your friends too! See, you have a lot of friends!」

Nanako looked up to Alfie who was illuminated by the evening sun, and then she blushed.

「Y-yes! We are friend!」

Alfie confirmed Nanako’s smile, and then her body tilted backward as she kept her arms spread open…….

「E-eh? Alfie-asn? ALFIE-SAAAAAAAAAAAN!!」

……She fell to the river.

And then Alfie crawled out of the water and yelled.

「As I thought falling into river is fun! But, it’s boring without  Ponsuke here! Haa, the number of people is too few for me to make a  ruckus……yosh, let’s call the pigs here. We’re going to party today,  Nanako-chan.」

Nanako looked at the absurd Alfie with a tired smile.

Prev Table of Content Next