The Protagonist's Party is Too Diligent-Chapter 383

"But still, Charlotte."

On the way home after spending the day leaving behind a trail of confusion about this world, Alice teased Charlotte lightly.

"In the end, everything was delicious, wasn’t it? You did eat it all."

"...It was delicious. Well, the originals are delicious to begin with."

Charlotte replied primly.

When Claire and Alice arrived, I’d gotten a subtle taste of national pride, but Charlotte’s reaction felt very fresh.

She didn’t hate this country unconditionally.

She found most of the technology fascinating, but she was brutally honest about the things she found strange. It was very characteristic of her.

Especially when it came to food—her standards were extremely high.

Any dish that deviated from her idea of "Western food" was seen with deep suspicion.

Like when she saw potatoes on pizza.

Which wasn’t even a French dish in the first place.

"I’ll prepare something more ordinary for dinner."

"That’s a relief."

Charlotte sighed in genuine relief.

"Of course, by ordinary, I mean ordinary by this country’s standards."

"...Are you making fun of me?"

Well, I was trying to tease her a little.

But it’s not like I was planning to actually serve anything weird.

I never thought of Charlotte and Mia as my sisters, not in the way I did Claire and Alice.

But that didn’t mean they weren’t precious to me.

Honestly, I was really happy.

It had been a month since I last saw them.

And deep down, I had feared we might never meet again.

So even if I didn’t show it outwardly, it made me far happier than I let on.

Claire and Alice were the same. Alice kept striking up conversation with Charlotte, and Claire kept trying to sneak food into Mia’s hands.

"Would you not like to try some traditional food from this country?"

"..."

At my words, Charlotte couldn’t bring herself to respond.

Strictly speaking, Charlotte hadn’t come here of her own will.

Claire and Alice had crossed over to find me, but Charlotte and Mia had simply been unlucky.

Mia, at least, seemed more curious than cautious now—probably thanks to all the delicious food we’d fed her.

But Charlotte was still clearly wary. Part of that wariness came from the bizarre foods she had seen all day.

Still, I had already told her that this place was my home.

So when I said I wanted her to try the local food, she couldn’t easily refuse.

If it were something like the strange cuisine of the Azerna Empire, she might have flatly rejected it, but... it would be pretty awkward to outright deny it now. Even if Charlotte didn’t know the word, it would have been a total "Talrula" moment.

"It’s not anything weird. It’s a flavor that people generally like. It won’t be too spicy or salty either. I promise."

"...You don’t have to go that far."

Charlotte let out a small sigh.

She rubbed her forehead with her hand.

"I guess... maybe I was just too on edge today. The food that’s been adapted here must have been adjusted to fit local tastes. It’s only natural for food to change depending on the region, so really, I shouldn’t have been so sensitive about it."

Hmm... Even so, I understood where she was coming from. Honestly, the foods Charlotte had seen today weren’t exactly "regional variations" — they were more like "hey, this tastes good, let’s shove it in."

I had quickly looked up croffles earlier, and apparently, they actually originated overseas.

But that argument wouldn’t work on Charlotte.

To her, this whole world was "foreign."

"What kind of food is it?"

The one who bit the bait was Claire, her eyes sparkling with curiosity.

Even Mia next to her perked up the same way.

Seeing them side by side like that, they really did look a bit alike.

Come to think of it, I hadn’t introduced this to Claire and Alice yet either.

"There’s a place nearby. Since we're already out, let’s head there."

I said, taking the lead.

*

Near my place, there weren’t really any outstanding restaurants.

There were some college students living nearby, but as always, college students were broke.

Most of the businesses around here catered to cheap eats or were barbecue and drinking joints.

Living alone, I rarely went to the barbecue places, but the abundance of cheap restaurants was definitely a plus.

Honestly, after paying for living expenses and setting aside emergency savings, the money I had left was pretty tight.

I didn’t drink, but being an otaku, my hobbies weren’t exactly cheap either.

Among all those affordable places, there was exactly one that was oddly expensive.

Not that it looked fancy or anything — its interior was as ordinary as any other diner.

But the food it served was pricier than average.

The name of the restaurant: Seoul Myeonok.

That’s right.

It was a naengmyeon restaurant.

Of course, recommending cold noodles to Charlotte would have been difficult.

For Westerners, who generally associated "noodle dishes" with hot food, dishes like naengmyeon or makguksu often came as ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) a shock.

However, real naengmyeon places didn’t just sell cold noodles.

To make a truly good broth, you needed high-quality beef.

And if you had good beef, it made sense to serve excellent beef dishes too.

This restaurant also specialized in galbitang and braised short ribs.

Tonight, the dish I wanted to introduce to them was galbitang.

The price per bowl was much higher than your average soup, so I didn’t come here often.

But sometimes, in the dead of winter, nothing else would do.

I was glad it was still here.

As five very obviously Caucasian-looking people walked into the restaurant, the lady at the counter blinked at us in surprise.

"Five galbitang, please."

I said naturally as I took a seat.

Since it was just before peak dinner time, there were still plenty of empty seats.

"Oh my, your Korean is so good!"

The lady quickly came over and commented.

She pushed two tables together to make room for us.

"Thank you. Ah, and we're not foreigners — we’re Korean."

Technically, we hadn't found ID for Mia and Charlotte yet, so it wasn’t fully accurate.

But whatever they said would sound like fluent Korean to the locals anyway.

"Korean? Ah, sorry, I misunderstood."

"It’s okay. Happens all the time."

The lady apologized immediately, and I smiled back, but she hurried off, still looking flustered.

Right.

If this were America, it would probably be blatant racism, but here, it was just a misunderstanding because of how we looked.

"Galbitang?"

Mia asked.

"It’s a soup made by simmering beef short ribs for a long time."

"Ooh."

Mia’s eyes sparkled.

"Any dish made with meat broth tends to exist everywhere, across all cultures."

I said, glancing at Charlotte sitting diagonally across from me.

"That does sound... very safe."

Charlotte placed a hand over her heart, relieved.

I’d heard somewhere that galbitang, pork bone soup, and gamjatang were foods that foreigners almost always liked.

Well, of course — it’s rich, meaty, and not overly spicy.

When I looked over at Claire and Alice, they were both grinning like they'd just pulled off something great.

*

"I guess... I really did hold onto some unnecessary prejudice."

Charlotte said as we left the restaurant.

Her cheeks were slightly flushed — not just from the hot soup.

"Exactly. You ate like crazy without worrying about anything."

Alice teased, making Charlotte’s face turn even redder.

"T-That couldn’t be helped! There weren’t any forks or knives to cut the meat off the bone!"

You could have used scissors, but to do that, you had to grab the bone first.

And since I had picked up a rib with my hand and started gnawing on it right away, Charlotte probably thought that was just how you were supposed to eat it and followed along.

"Alice, don’t tease her too much. Here, we’re not nobles, royals, or imperial princesses anymore."

"Yeah, true."

"...Aren’t you two being way too relaxed?"

Charlotte said, looking a bit dumbfounded—

"I think... I think it’s okay to be a little relaxed."

Mia said softly.

Charlotte blinked in surprise.

Mia had been pretty quiet all day.

Even when she didn’t have food in her mouth, she’d spent more time quietly observing the world around her than talking.

But she had been listening.

"I actually don’t mind it here. I don’t have to worry about family stuff here. And even if we spend some time here, when we go back, hardly any time will have passed over there."

"..."

Charlotte stared at Mia for a long moment, then closed her eyes and exhaled.

Then, she opened them again, with a slight, almost apologetic smile.

"...I’m sorry. I guess... I was pushing too hard."

"Yeah, you were. And it’s not like we’re just sitting around doing nothing here."

Claire said, smiling brightly at her.

"We’re even earning money through streaming. You know, gotta have money to live, right?"

And among the three of us, Claire was definitely the one who enjoyed streaming the most purely.

"...Streaming?"

Charlotte asked, totally blank.

...Ah, right. She doesn’t know about that.

Actually, explaining it might be kind of fun.