When do you feel happy as a parent?
Every parent has his or her own answer but for me, it is when my son or daughter asks me for help.
-0-
Yesterday, I received a letter from Alfred who’s in the royal capital of the Demon King’s Kingdom.
He asked me to come to his school in the capital because he would like to open a ramen stall that would serve the same ramen in ramen street of Village Five.
How unusual.
Alfred rarely asks me for anything.
I would of course want to go but given my position as the village chief, I can’t leave the village just because I want to.
The spring harvest is coming and there are even expansion plans for Village Four.
Even if they say I can go right away because of the teleportation gates, I would have to bring a stall with me which is a lot of work.
As a village chief, I just can’t go.
…….
Then, I’ll go as a father.
If my son, who rarely relies on me, asks me to go, I will.
Michael-san asked me to encourage the auction caravan with a speech before.
But before I can go there, I would have to inform everyone in the village first.
It would be irresponsible to just go to Alfred without telling everyone.
-0-
When I reported what I wanted to do during dinner, I found out that I’m not the only one who received a letter from Alfred.
There are three more who received his letters: Donovan, Youko, and Miyo.
Donovan for drinks.
Youko for sweets from Kuro and Yuki and Korin’s Sweet Temple.
Miyo was apparently asked for Marla’s curry.
What’s this?
Are they actually having a school festival?
Why does it sound like he’s outsourcing food?
No, he shouldn’t be.
It’s a school.
I know that my previous world’s common sense isn’t that useful here but there is no way they would be serving alcohol at school, right?
They wouldn’t, right?
-0-
In any case, everyone agreed for me to go.
Who will accompany me is still in question, but Donovan already gained a slot.
Youko and Miyo will each send employees from those stores.
The problem now is how many we should send.
From the letter, I think it should be enough to send a few but it would be better to confirm.
We also need to finalize the schedule.
I asked him through a letter asking when we should go.
The letter of reply says, “Sorry. As many as possible and as soon as possible.”.
-0-
Five days later, early in the morning.
I arrived at the Gullgald Noble Academy, where Alfred and the others are attending.
I wanted to move a little faster but we need to prepare.
Besides, if we are going to serve a large number of people, additional preparation is a must.
For example, the ones who’ll be making ramen.
The number of people I can provide on ramen-making is very limited.
Because of that, we have to ask for additional manpower.
I could always bring the oni maids for that if Ann, the leader of the oni maids, and Ramurias, the number two, are not pregnant and can’t work.
And even if they’re not, I would be hesitant to bring the oni maids who wish to spend their daily lives as they are.
I don’t want to force them to do anything.
Thus, I decided to borrow employees from Noodle Shop Britoa, a ramen shop in Village Five.
The talk about borrowing employees ended quickly but I had to teach them my way of doing things.
We are not going to serve Noodle Shop Britoa’s ramen after all.
This is the kind of preparation I needed to do.
-0-
Now, my companions this time were several dwarves led by Donovan.
Some employees sent by Kuro and Yuki and Korin’s Sweet Temple. They joined us in Village Five.
Some of the employees of Noodle Shop Britoa, who will be helping me with my stall.
Some employees of Marla. They joined us in Shashaato City.
And about 30 angels. They will be working as waitresses for the whole group and Malbit and Ruincia even came.
I did not ask the angels to come with me. For some reason, they volunteered.
They said it was part of their reconciliation approach with the demons of the Demon King’s Kingdom.
After the parade the other day, they are thinking that it might not be a good idea to leave things as they are.
There is also the matter with the Garret Kingdom.
By the way, we also have Gulf, Daga, and about ten high elves as bodyguards.
I think we’ll be fine since Malbit and the others are with us but Loo said that guards are necessary so there must be full time guards.
I was honestly glad that she’s so concerned about me, so I agreed.
By the way, it’s not because you don’t trust Malbit and the others…..right?
Right?
Hahaha.
Can you at least look me in the eye when you reply?
-0-
Yuri and the Ramen Queen joined us in Village Five as unscheduled companions.
Both of them were apparently invited by Alfred.
I understand inviting Yuri since she’s the Demon King’s daughter but, why did he invite the Ramen Queen?
Well, that’s not my concern so I did not ask anything.
-0-
When we arrived at the school, I was greeted by Alfred and Tiselle, who showed me to the place where the food stalls would be set up.
The location was on school grounds but……away from the school buildings and any other buildings.
It’s in the place where students who attend the school build their houses which is a vacant lot.
It’s quite wide.
And there were some tents and exhibits there.
Once again, I thought this certainly looks like a school festival……
The people there are all adults.
There is also a place where Glatts is commanding and there are people who are obviously from the military.
What are they doing?
-0-
「Father, this place please.」
Tiselle, who was standing next to Alfred, showed us where to set up our stall.
This time, we brought three stalls serving ramen.
Two stalls serving alcohol.
One stall serving tea and cakes from Kuro and Yuki.
One stall serving manju and rice crackers from Korin’s Sweet Temple.
Two stalls serving curry from Marla.
We also brought a camping coach for logistic support.
It would be better to prepare our own toilets and other facilities for employee use.
We arranged them in consideration of the flow of customers and employees and started preparing for each.
Although I described the people we will be serving as customers, it was agreed that all the money for this event would be paid by the kingdom.
Alfred was the one who arranged it.
In short, no money exchange is involved.
And the people we’re going to serve are……
The guests are gradually gathering around us as we prepare for the party.
I guess most of them are adults.
We should serve them, right?
Tiselle, not Alfred, answered my question.
「Yes. Please take care of them.」
Understood.
By the way, there is something I really wanted to ask you about……
「What is it?」
What was that?
A little further away, a group of angels are dancing around an elderly man who is kneeling and holding his head with his hands.
It looks like maimu maimu* but……
No, I think the movement is more like kagome kagome*.
TN: Maimu maimu is a children’s folk dance while Kagome Kagome is a children’s game. Check the video links to check what it looks like.
「Ehto, that’s a dance of hospitality.」
「Yeah, that person in the middle is the representative……yeah, representative of those who want to hire us this time? Well, in any case, he’s some kind of representative and he seems to know the grannies. 」
I see, so that’s why they’re like that.
Alright.
However, is that really hospitality?
I can feel that old guy in the middle’s overflowing despair.
「He’s not crying yet so he’s fine. The grannies will also stop before he cries so don’t worry.」
……
Why would a hospitality dance make someone cry?
W-well, for some reason, the demon king and Beezel are standing in line at my stall and don’t even bother with them, so I guess it’s really okay.
Ah, the demon king’s wife is here too.
I guess I’ll have to say hello to her.
Leave a Reply