The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick up Trash - Volume 5 - Chapter 266

Chapter 266:

Romance in the Air?

“A little mistake? All. Lies. You’ve been making mistakes  left and right all day, you dummy!” Alloui yelled.

Toluca frowned defiantly. But after what I’d seen that morning, I couldn’t exactly come to his defense.

“C’mon, Alloui, the customers yell at you for cutting up the wrong meat, too! It was only a little mistake.”

“A little mistake you made over ten times!”

Wow, that’s a lot. Wait a minute, should we do something here? I got the feeling that if we did nothing, they would never even notice we were there. I glanced at Druid beside me and saw that his shoulders were shaking with suppressed laughter.

“This coming from the guy who makes the customers calculate their own bills?!”

“Hey, they asked me to let them do it.”

“Yeah, because they couldn’t stand to watch you mess it up!”

Wow, what in the world could have made the customers want to calculate their own bills?

“Urrrg.” Toluca, realizing this was a fight he couldn’t win, resorted to glaring at his sister with contempt.

“Will you kids just cut it out already? I don’t mind it, but you’ve got other customers.” One of the people in line (who was probably a regular) lightly tapped the siblings’ heads and sighed loudly. Then the siblings finally noticed we were there and smiled awkwardly.

“Um, hi,” I said.

“Oh, my sister in ryce!”

Could you maybe stop calling me that? Your customers are all staring at me and Druid!

“Ha ha ha! Um, so, have you eaten already?”

“Sorry! Things got so hectic today. I was gonna finally take a little break and eat now.”

“Oh, I see.”

“Brother of mine, I’m on break, okay?”

Huh? She was calling him by name a little while ago. Maybe she only does that when they’re fighting?

“So, um…could you guys hang out with me during my break?”

We were planning to just browse around the shop until Alloui was finished with her meal, but she put a stop to that.

“Won’t we get in your way?”

“’Course not! This is my first time meeting someone else who eats ryce, and I’m super stoked about it!”

So I’m the first. The word first made my heart race a little.

“Well, thanks. We’ll stay, then.”

“Hey, Ivy? I’m going to browse around the store. If there’s anything you want, I can look for it.”

“In that case, could you try to find some sho…I mean, ponzu, please.”

“Ponzu? Oh, right. I got it.”

Yikes, that was a close call. I almost said shoyu. I just have to hurry up and get used to calling soy sauce “ponzu” like they do in this world.

“Have some tea,” Alloui said, setting a cup of hot tea in front of me.

I took the onigiri out of my basket.

“That smells good. It’s cute, too.”

Cute? In what way? Because I squeezed them into rounded triangles?

“Time to eat you, my pretty.”

I carefully watched Alloui as she chewed. This part always made my heart race, since I couldn’t predict whether or not the uninitiated would like it.

“Whoa! This is heckin’ good! I eat ryce now and then, but this is, like, totally different!”

Oh, good. She likes it.

“I love the way you seasoned it. Oooh, but maybe I would’ve made it a little sweeter?” She finished her first onigiri and promptly went for seconds.

“Are they really that good?” asked the customer who’d told the siblings about us earlier, eyeing the contents of my basket.

“No ryce for you!”

“Come on, please. I’ve been working for free for you all day.”

“That’s Toluca’s fault, not mine!”

“Well, true, but I really want to know what it tastes like.”

The customer’s expression was so serious that I was a little put off. All this fuss over onigiri, of all things?

“Okay, fine. Hey, kid, can ya teach me how to make these?”

“Sure, ma’am.”

Alloui took the last onigiri out of the basket and handed it to the customer. “Well? D’ya like it?”

“I haven’t even tasted it yet!” The customer took a bite of onigiri. “Whoa! Dang, this is great. Wait, was ryce always this good? All of Alloui’s ryce dishes are kind of blah.”

The customer’s voice was unusually loud with excitement, which brought us a lot of attention from the other customers in the shop. Even though they weren’t necessarily looking at me, I was still very self-conscious.

“Um, sorry, I didn’t catch your name yet. What is it?” Alloui asked as she poured more tea.

“I’m Ivy.”

“And I’m Alloui. Well, since my brother yells my name all the time, you probably already knew that.”

“I did, ma’am.”

“Figures. Oh, and you don’t have to call me ‘ma’am,’ either. I don’t really deserve that much respect.”

“That’s for sure.” The customer polished off the onigiri and poured some tea. Come to think of it, this guy seemed very much at home. Did he actually work here?

“Cultur, you meanie!”

Cultur laughed. Then I suddenly heard laughter behind me. Toluca was laughing with Cultur, and another customer next to the two of them looked very tired. This shop was often filled with laughter, and the shop owners seemed to be loved by their customers.

“So, could you teach me how to make onigiri? I’d love to make some, like, tomorrow if possible.” Alloui was holding up a paper and pen. She sure was a woman of action.

“Okay.” I explained how to select, steam, and season the rice in the simplest language possible. Then I used a tiny towel to show Alloui how to form the onigiri. After my little lecture was over, she asked me a flurry of questions. She really did seem dead-set on making her own onigiri.

“Thanks. Shaping them into triangles sure sounds hard.” Alloui read over her notes and tried to squeeze the tiny towel into a triangle. It was easy enough with a towel…but would she be okay with the real thing?

“When you shape your onigiri, be gentle. Don’t apply too much pressure, okay?”

From the way Alloui was gripping the towel, the rice would get smashed to paste. Now Cultur was reading over Alloui’s notes, too.

“Do you work here, Mr. Cultur?”

“Who, me? Nah, I’m just a customer.”

He seemed a little too comfortable to be just a customer. He was going into the back to bring out some fruit to cut at that moment.

“Want some fruit? It’s really good.”

“Uhh…” Was it really okay for me to eat free fruit offered by someone who didn’t work there?

“Go ahead, eat it. The crop was really good this year! It’s super sweet.” Alloui popped a piece of fruit into her mouth and grinned ear to ear.

“Thanks, I’ll have some.” I took a bite of fruit…and my mouth was filled with sweetness. It really was good. I turned to thank Cultur, but he was gone. Did he lea…oh, wait, he just went to get more fruit. My goodness, what a free spirit.

“Oh! I want the one next to that one, Cultur.”

“Yes, my lady.”

Hmm…something about the chemistry between them…

“Are you two dating? Or married?”

Alloui glanced awkwardly at Cultur in silence.

“We’re dating now…but we want to get married next year.”

Oooh, Alloui’s face is bright red! And Cultur looks pleased by that reaction.

“See? You aren’t just a customer after all.”

“Well…no, I guess not. You’ve got a keen eye, kid.” Cultur shyly scratched his cheek.

“Well, you two seem just like a married couple.”

At that, Alloui’s face turned an even darker shade of red. Then she got up out of her chair and retreated into the back room.

“Um…I’m sorry?” Did I say something weird?

“It’s all good. She may act embarrassed, but she’s really thrilled you said that.”

You know…Alloui is actually really adorable.

“Ivy, they had ponzu, so I bought so…hm? Who’s this?” Druid asked, walking up to me with his purchase.

“This is Cultur, Alloui’s boyfriend. And her husband, next year.”

“Ha ha ha. Nice to meet you. Um…you’re Ivy’s father?” Cultur reached out his hand with a smile…and Druid shook it with one of the biggest grins I’d ever seen. Did he just buy some really good food or something?