True to his word, Kiori took me to a location near the edge of town, where the brick-laid street connected to a long dirt road stretching far out. The walk there seemed annoyingly long, and the location felt a bit out of the way compared to other restaurants I've spotted. I wanted to complain, but decided to keep them until after I've tried the food.
"Just wait until you've tried the food, then you can complain about the walk."
"I didn't say anything." I even made sure not to make any verbal thoughts.
"You didn't have to. Your face told everything." He then made an expression so ugly, I thought he was an ogre.
"I didn't make that face."
"You did."
"I didn't."
He turned away before entering the building. I swore I saw him smile.
"Welcome! Oh, you've brought someone?" The waiter near the door greeted us.
"Yes, I did. Table for 2." Kiori spoke
"Right away, Mr. Hemada."
"How often did you come here?" I asked. I didn't recall them asking for a name.
"Enough to become their most valued customer." He sounded a little proud admitting that.
"We call him the Megalia Spiderdillo, because of how often he comes, hiding from other students." A voice from the back of the restaurant bellowed.
The name sounded like a combination of a spider and an armadillo. Now, why did that naming sense sound familiar?
I turned to Kiori, only to see him make an expression that was either constipation or stubbing your pinkie toe against a table. Either way, it seemed like he didn't want to confirm this, but I had a feeling it was true.
"Right this way," The waiter came back and took us to a booth.
We sat across from each other, with the wall to my left and his right.
After asking for 2 waters, the waiter left. I waited until they were out of hearing range.
"So, you don't mind them talking about you like that, not even a little?" I whispered.
"Oh, they weren't always like this. It used to start as an obligatory greeting, but every so often, I'd hear them talking a bit about their personal lives when I came here. This is just my relationship with them now from all the times I've been here."
The waiter brought us our glasses of water. "Here's your water. Have you decided what to eat yet?"
"Not yet." Kiori grabbed a menu and motioned for me to do the same, tapping the other one. "Give a moment."
"Alright, I'll be back in a few minutes."
I opened the menu, only to see an entire array of indecipherable characters.
"What would you recommend?" I asked him, closing the menu after seeing that I'm unable to read any of the pages.
"Hmm…" He made a scrutinizing expression at the menu. "Oh! You should try the Maroon Plum glazed steak fritters!"
"Then I'll go with that."
He gave me a questioning look. "You sure you don't want anything else?"
I leaned in close, whispering. "Kiori, I can't read, but I'm not gonna let that get in the way of enjoying good food."
"Oh. Oh!" His expression shifted from blank to realization, before shifting to a mischievous smile.
"I'm not sure what you're thinking, but if you planned on sabotaging my first meal out of school, I'm going to smack you with a plastic bat."
"I assure you, dear Nolval. I thought nothing of the sort."
The way he said it so playfully had me wondering if he was being sarcastic or was overdoing sincerity. It was suspicious.
I'll need to figure out my reading issue if I want to try this place by myself.
"Maroon plum. I think we have those where I'm from, but I never saw one."
That, or I probably did, but never made the connection between name and appearance.
"So… last night, when you were talking about carriages. You never told me what transportation's like where you're from."
"I'm back! Have you decided what to order?"
"Maroon Plum glazed steak fritters."
"Calvarkian Shark bake."
Huh?
"I'll let Chef Heverts know," the waiter said, then walked away from our table to relay our order.
"Shark?"
"Do you not have sharks where you're from?"
"We do, but they're predators of the sea, not something you hear and immediately think of eating. They're vicious, dangerous, and could kill you."
"Well, if you think you shouldn't eat it, that's fine. I think you're missing out on something delicious by holding onto the bias from your… well, you know where."
We exchanged questions and answers about what the world of my past life is like, and I answered to the best of my ability, covering specifics so that it wouldn't lead to too many follow-up questions, but also made sure to keep my answers succinct so that I wouldn't repeat myself. So far, I've told him about cars and engines, boats and propellers, elevators and pulleys, revolving doors, and escalators. Of course, they weren't perfect explanations, being on-the-fly, but I did my best to explain my understanding of how they functioned. I was tempted to create a visualization, similar to how computer-generated animations inform a viewer of a mechanism's inner workings, but I didn't want to surprise the waiter with a floating machine at our table.
Eventually, our food came.
"Here you go. One Maroon Plum glazed steak fritters, and one Calvarkian shark bake. Let me know if you need anything else."
"Heverts didn't drop the beef this time, right?"
Say what now?
"No. He was extra careful since you've brought a friend along." The waiter's smirk turned into a wide smile. I sensed she was suppressing the urge to laugh. "I'll be back if you need dessert. Just shout for me if you need anything." She then turned and left.
"'Drop the beef,' what happened?"
"Just an incident I happened to witness from one of my prior visits. If Heverts gets to call me a Spider-dillo, then I'm allowed to call him a beep dropper."
An equal exchange of embarrassing banter. I wondered if that's part of the reason for his continued revisitations.
"You want to try dessert after this?"
"I'll consider it if I don't feel full after finishing this. Also, are you sure you don't mind spending some Qiliq?"
"You mean this?" He raised the bag next to his head. It rattled like a bag of rocks. "It's part of the monthly allowance my father gives me. Sometimes I don't spend as much, so this is left over from the previous allowance."
"How much do you get?" I whispered, despite the lack of customers in the building. I've heard stories of people getting robbed because they possessed a large sum of money. The belief of never telling others how much you have extends to the widely accepted belief of never making your identity public when winning the lottery.
"I'll tell you later. Let's just say we can go on a shopping spree after this."
"Well, I'm hungry, and all of this talk has worked up my appetite. Oh, I don't really talk while eating. The longer we wait, the more this spoils, and the less tasty it'll be." I opened the towel, holding the utensils, and dug in.
It tasted like country-fried steak with its crispy exterior, but the Maroon Plum sauce had a sour yet refreshing taste that enhanced the flavor. Best part, the residual heat made the sauce somehow feel more refreshing.
"What's with that look on your face?" Kiori noticed me pausing my enjoyment of the meal.
"Before me, have you ever introduced this place to others?"
"I told you. This is one of the places I'd like to be at whenever I like to be alone."
"A tragedy, really. This place deserves more customers."
"I'm glad my cooking received such high praise from a newcomer!" A voice boomed from behind, startling me.
Somehow, I ended up inadvertently tossing the fork at the chef, smacking him in the face.
"I'm so sorry! You surprised me, that's all," I apologized quickly.
He rubbed his hand against where it landed before speaking. Maroon plum sauce stained a part of his face.
"It's no problem. I just didn't expect you to be like an Iguana-ferret. Always so jumpy at the first sign of danger."
He then mimicked said creature, curling his hands in front of his face, as if mimicking a cat.
"Congratulations, Nolval. You've gotten your animal nickname from Heverts on your first visit. I got mine after my 5th."
I didn't know whether to feel proud or embarrassed, either for him or myself.
Kiori then paid for the meal in green and yellow Qiliq coins, and we promptly left the building. I couldn't bring myself to continue eating after accidentally throwing a fork at the chef. However, I made sure to finish the meal after getting a new fork, though in silent shame.