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Just like Gokou Ruri said, the maid café wasn't as interesting as Asakura had initially expected.
Of course, it might also be the problem of the store. Although it's called a 'café', it actually looks more like a Wagnaria-like family restaurant. The so-called maids are just waitresses wearing maid costumes, and there's no actual maid service.
Asakura even heard guests at other tables complaining about things like 'If I had known, I would have gone to another one, maybe I could have run into Minalinsky' or something.
But thinking about it, it's also very normal. After all, according to Gokou Ruri, the members of the community she participates in are mainly otaku girls. A store with maid elements that are too prominent for otaku male customers might not be a plus for them. On the contrary, this kind of family restaurant-style store is more in line with their gathering standards.
"What would you like to order?"
Probably seeing that Asakura hadn't ordered for a long time, a waiter came to his side diligently with a hint of urging.
Although the attitude was still not bad, the other party looked like he was in a hurry to get off work. Asakura looked around and found that most of the other waiters were also in the same state.
Sure enough, you can't have too high expectations.
Asakura sighed in his heart, then picked up the menu, only to find that there were surprisingly many dishes on it, but the names all looked subtly inexplicable.
"What is this 'Poor Man's Rose'?"
Asakura asked, pointing to a name on the menu.
"Vegetable salad, the one with bitter chrysanthemum."
The waiter replied.
I feel like after eating it, I might even be able to defeat the Ant King.
"Then what is this Curry Stick?"
"Baguette dipped in curry sauce. If you need it, you can change the baguette to rice, because baguette and curry sauce don't match very well."
Then don't put the baguette in the first place!
"Then what is this 'Ahhh, My King's Power!'?"
"German roasted pork knuckle, but this dish requires a reservation."
The waiter said: "Because the store generally doesn't prepare pork knuckles."
Asakura was silent for a moment, then asked about several other dishes on the menu, and then almost came to a conclusion.
In short, large dishes similar to 'Ahhh, My King's Power!' almost all require advance reservations. The remaining parts, except for things like bitter chrysanthemum vegetable salad that can be made on the spot, are mostly pre-made dishes, or frozen foods. Most of them are reasonably priced, but some are particularly expensive.
"So, this 'Human-Human Fruit Commoner Form' and 'Human-Human Fruit Nika Form' are both omelet rice? But why is the latter three times more expensive than the former?"
Asakura asked, pointing to the prices listed on the menu.
"Because we can write words on the latter's omelet according to your request, and let the maid cast a 'make it delicious Magic' on the dish～"
The waitress had clearly been asked similar questions more than once, answering with practiced ease and proficiency.
Asakura pondered for a moment before deciding to order one to try.
After placing his order, he emphasized, "I'm not interested in maid service; I'm only interested in the magic that makes food delicious!"
"Then I'll have them cancel the other maid services and just perform the final step."
The waitress showed a hint of surprise, but quickly nodded.
"Ahem, actually, there's no need. Since I'm already here, experiencing something unknown might not be so bad..."
Asakura stammered, a bit embarrassed, his gaze wandering.
The waitress revealed a knowing smile, bowed slightly, and then gracefully departed.
Asakura sipped his Lemon water, surveying the interior of the cafe.
Perhaps because there had been a prior reservation, in a corner of the cafe, several tables had clearly been pushed together to form the kind of long table commonly seen in cafeterias.
At this time, some people had already arrived. Among them, Gokou Ruri, who was the most eye-catching due to her attire, simply sat there. She neither participated in others' discussions nor did anyone speak to her, and the young girl herself showed no intention of saying anything. At first glance, it looked as if she was being isolated.
This made Asakura feel a little anxious.
After a while, a tall girl appeared. Asakura even felt that she was no shorter than him. One should know that he, at sixteen years old, was already 178 cm tall, and reaching over 180 cm in two more years was almost a given.
She was dressed rather unfashionably, not only wearing a plaid shirt and thick 'beer bottle bottom' glasses, but also a headband and a roll of posters on her back. Her entire person seemed like the epitome of the stereotypical 'otaku' from the Heisei era.
However, her personality seemed quite good, as she proactively engaged Gokou Ruri, who had been left out, in conversation.
It's unclear what the two talked about, but Gokou Ruri spoke loudly for the first time since attending the offline meeting: "What? You're Saori?!"
Although the young girl didn't appear that surprised on the surface, Asakura could observe her eyelids twitching continuously, clearly indicating she was greatly shocked, so much so that she momentarily forgot to be surprised.
"That's right, I am Saori Bajeena! You must be Kuroneko-shi! I never expected Kuroneko-shi, who speaks so strongly in the community, to be so small. How surprising~"
The super-sized otaku girl said happily, with no hint of surprise in her tone.
"You're an otaku, so why did you pretend to be a young lady in the community?!"
Gokou Ruri looked at the tall girl who called herself Saori Bajeena, her face showing an expression of shattered illusion.
It seemed that the other party was one of the few people she had a relatively good relationship with in the community, but the stark difference between her online persona and her offline appearance subtly broke Gokou Ruri's composure.
"That's how the internet is. Before meeting, you never know what kind of person is on the other side. That's also a kind of mysterious charm~"
Saori, however, was unfazed by Gokou Ruri's reaction. She looked to the other side: "And this must be Kirino-shi, right? As expected, she's a beautiful girl, just as I imagined."
The person she pointed out was, like Gokou Ruri, an offline meeting member who hadn't been able to integrate much with the others since the beginning.
However, while Gokou Ruri was due to her overly strange and eye-catching attire, coupled with her overly cold expression that made her seem unapproachable, the latter appeared to be a very fashionable girl, clearly not in the same circle as the more unfashionably dressed otaku girls in the community, and thus was also isolated.
The other party was probably fuming from the earlier isolation. When she was called out, she said some harsh, unfiltered words, but Saori didn't take them to heart.
She seemed to be the community administrator. While counting the number of people, she cheerfully said, "With this, we're still missing two people... Everyone, please start eating and drinking! We still have some of the funds raised earlier in the community~"
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