The small village spanned about two square kilometers, filled with gray brick houses and red-tiled roofs.
Ordinary people dressed in coarse linen clothes were either farming or setting up stalls. Due to its proximity to the Demon King's Castle, the streets were also bustling with adventurers clad in magnificent armor and robes.
The civilization level of this world clearly resembled medieval Europe.
Eiji pulled up his hood, concealing his face—which had unintentionally caused a traffic jam—and followed the enthusiastic villagers' directions to a lively restaurant.
"Your order will be ready soon! Please enjoy these vegetable sticks in the meantime!"
The blue-haired waitress couldn't help but steal another glance at the beautiful youth's profile beneath his hood, lingering as if unwilling to leave.
They hadn't even ordered vegetable sticks.
"Please be careful not to get hurt by the vegetable sticks!"
She kindly reminded Eiji before finally walking away with her tray after a long pause.
"How can vegetable sticks possibly hurt anyone?"
Eiji tilted his head in disbelief, letting out a deep sigh.
"It seems my overwhelming charm has finally reached the point where even strangers lose their minds at first sight!"
Then, he saw Airi sitting across from him raise her knife and fork, adopting a combat-ready stance as she fiercely stabbed at the vegetable sticks on the table!
But the vegetable sticks refused to go down without a fight—they leaped from the plate, flipping midair to dodge her attack.
At the critical moment, the other vegetable sticks also sprang into action, uniting as one to headbutt Airi's hand in unison!
"Swish!"
Yet Airi swiftly swung the knife in her other hand, instantly slicing the unprepared vegetable sticks into pieces.
After being cleaved in half, the vegetable sticks seemed to lose their souls, wobbling briefly before collapsing lifelessly onto the plate.
Only then did Airi relax her battle stance, picking up a vegetable stick and crunching it between her teeth.
Eiji: "..."
The real clown was me all along!
So vegetable sticks in this world can actually hurt people?!
"What's going on here?"
Though embarrassed, Eiji couldn't help but look at Airi like a country bumpkin, hoping for an explanation.
"Hmph!"
But the witch was clearly still fuming. She scoffed coldly before turning her back on him again.
"Your back of the head is kinda big."
Having seen it twice now, Eiji stated with certainty.
"Who are you calling big-headed?!"
The witch immediately flared up in anger.
"Here's your tea, guests!"
The blue-haired waitress eagerly brought over two glasses of water.
Eiji had already given up asking why she hadn't brought them with the vegetable sticks earlier.
"Did the guest not know why the vegetable sticks move?"
She seemed to have overheard their conversation and enthusiastically explained.
"Everything in this world has its own soul! It's perfectly normal for vegetables and fruits to attack people!"
No.
I don't think I understand this world's definition of "normal."
Hesitantly, Eiji reached out toward the vegetable sticks on the table.
One of them suddenly stood up on its own and leaped toward his palm.
"Hmm... It almost feels like it's trying to jump into my hand?"
That movement wasn't so much an attack as an attempt to cling onto him.
"Smack!"
But suddenly, a vegetable stick appeared like a roadblock, smacking it down before eagerly leaping toward Eiji.
"Crackle pop!"
Several vegetable sticks suddenly started hitting each other.
"Eat me!"
"No, eat me! I guarantee I'm delicious!"
"Since we're already on the dining table, better be eaten by this person than someone else!"
Of course, the vegetable sticks couldn't actually speak.
But if they could, this would undoubtedly be what they'd say.
The vegetable sticks swarmed over in a frenzy, each vying to squeeze into Eiji's hand, seemingly desperate to be chosen by him, even resorting to fighting amongst themselves.
"Incredible! Making vegetable sticks willingly offer themselves and even fight each other! In all my years, I've never seen anything like this!"
The waitress couldn't help but exclaim in amazement, while other customers in the restaurant also looked on with newfound interest.
Hmm.
Being favored by vegetable sticks is a first for me too.
Eiji's expression turned rather peculiar.
What should I do?
Suddenly, he didn't feel much like eating anymore.
In the end, the civil war among the vegetable sticks on the table concluded with mutual annihilation.
"What a shame. If the customer had personally 'defeated' them, he might have gained some experience points. Though for an advanced adventurer like him, such minimal EXP would be practically negligible."
The waitress sighed regretfully before reluctantly heading to the kitchen to fetch more dishes at the owner's call.
Eiji picked up one of the fallen vegetable sticks and, after some thought, ate it with a somewhat sorrowful expression.
Can't let their dying wishes go to waste.
He strangely empathized with the sadness of having a deceased pet stewed and eaten by family members under the pretense of "nutritional value."
"Pretty fresh though..."
With this thought, Eiji finished all the vegetable sticks.
The subsequent dishes were all normal, probably because they were cooked.
Most were local specialties of this world, including a particularly delicious sparkling wine called Crimson Neloide. It had a refreshing "fizzing" sensation and, despite being called wine, was actually more of a beverage. The unique fizzing texture was so novel that he couldn't help drinking several glasses.
"Huh? Where'd the witch go?"
After finishing the meal, Eiji suddenly realized Airi had disappeared.
"I don't know either!"
The waitress shook her head blankly.
She'd been staring intently at Eiji, silently praying his hood would slip back further, and hadn't noticed when the witch left.
Eiji left the restaurant, searched the entire village, and even spotted Kyouya Mitsurugi and his companions, but still found no trace of the witch.
"Could she have gone back first because she's still angry?"
Eiji muttered to himself.
After politely declining the villagers' enthusiastic attempts to make him stay, he dashed into the sunset.
In just over ten minutes, he returned to the Demon King's Castle.
"Open up!"
He called out for a while, but the gates remained shut, with no sign of the ultra-hard barrier opening either.
"Tch."
With a thought, Eiji activated Unreal Territory right against the barrier.
Passing through the barrier via Unreal Territory before deactivating it, he naturally bypassed the obstruction.
"Teleportation magic?"
On the castle walls, a white-robed mage lounging on an old chair suddenly opened his eyes.
"That doesn't seem right. If it were teleportation magic, they should have been sent directly back to the city. This feels more like passing through a barrier... This new Demon King is quite interesting!"
"Anyway, I'm just a city guard. The conflict between the old and new Demon Kings is none of my business."
Thinking this, he turned over again in his recliner, let out two snores, and drifted back to sleep.
Airi had ordered him to keep Eiji outside the city walls, and he'd done exactly that. Whatever happened next wasn't his concern.