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Chapter 14: Hotcakes

In the depths of a thick forest rarely touched by people, there was a shly one hundred people ore rass-dyed clothes and lived a modest life off of the nuts and fruits from the nearby trees

The residents of this village were called lilliputs, people sh to ride on the palm of a hus to fly around in a large range and who often associated with hue where they built their village and rarely associated with anyone other than lilliputs This village’s lilliputs were like other lilliputs in that they rarely associated with hu in an isolated house in the forest, who traded copper and silver plates that could be worked into things like pans and kitchen knives with soredients for medicine, and one other person Generally, they were born in the village, grew up in the village, and died in the village These were the little people who lived out their days just like a human would

Well then, these people had a day that they looked forward to once every seven days Thetheir spirits into their work, the wo hard on the housework, and the children ould be frolicking and playing about would all depart to the same place

Their destination was the Other World Dining Hall To them, it was a day that they could call a festival

On the day they would depart to the Other World Dining Hall, they would assemble in a small, open space in the middle of a forest that was a little bit away froe

“Alllright! It’s tied down!”

A youngtrees in the village, fixed a rope olden protrusion so that it would face doards and then called out to the fivetask to climb the ‘black wall’ which had almost no handholds Nevertheless, countless people have cliolden protrusion,’ but when it came to times like these, he was the one ould usually climb it

“Alllright! Everyone, pull! One, two!”

“””””Heave-ho, heave-ho!”””””

“You can do it, daddy!”

“Just a little !”

Matching the rhythe pulled the rope siement from the women and children

Kiiiiiiiii…

A faint sound came from the black wall… which looked like a door with a picture of cat drawn on it from far away as it opened It was extremely troublesome to open this door for powerless lilliputs when coiant races It was necessary for the e to tie a rope made of vines around the doorknob and pull like they just did

“Alright, it’s open… Now’s our chance to go through!”

When there was a big enough gap for thee chief who judged that noas the tiap First were the elderly and the wo their babies Then there were the children who could walk by themselves to a certain extent And the last, before the door closed, were the h, the door closed And like that, the door silently disappeared, and the opening in the forest once again took back its serenity

There was a roohts that were a different color froht in the forest Then a voice froers ere in a little nook of the room

—Welcome

The voice that called out to the that they had to look up to thehtly and small people would restlessly enter, it meant that they had come to the restaurant

The owner headed to the back for aout food with a wet towel on it He then brought it gently very close to the floor and said this

—Let uide you to your seats, please come

The people of the village were used to this, so one-by-one they hopped up to the top of the tray

—Well then, let’s go…

When about half of the villagers et on the tray, the owner lifted up the fully loaded tray and led them to an open seat

“Waaaaah! This is so cooool!”

“Wah! It’s dangerous! Gonna fall!”

“Hey now, make sure to wipe your hands and feet If they’re not clean, you can’t get off”

Having been suddenly raised to a high place and shown various races eating food, the children started to become excited, and their mothers rebuked them They then wiped their hands and the bottoantic wet cloth on top of the tray And in tiers with properly wiped hands and shoes got off on top of the table

—Well then, I’ll go bring the rest over

The owner said that one thing to the villagers who all got off on top of the high table and ere restlessly looking around, and then he once again went to the entrance of the restaurant carrying the tray He then let the reht them over to the table

—Would you like the usual order?

Looking over the top of the table and the restaurant’s entrance toeveryone over, the owner asked the lilliputs this just in case At that confirers all si beautiful clothes, the e chief’s only daughter, gently held up a large silver plate with a face casted in it It was a large silver platefruits to the witch in the forest, and nore’s craftsman would cut it apart and use it to make silver tableware or ornaments Twice every ive him one of those plates

—Thank you Please wait just a moment

The owner took it with his thuer and headed to the back of the kitchen And to cook and bring out the thing that those little people couldn’t stop loving

“Wah! So hiiigh!”

“So wiiide!”

“Wait! Don’t go over there! What if you fall over!?”

“Heh~, so the village was more desolate in the past?”

“Aah, it became like this when the door appeared Before that, there was about as half as much people”

“Now that I think about, are the people whowell?”

“They’re probably fine I got a gli otherworldly clothes but there’s no doubt it was them”

Before what they ordered ca what they pleased Because if they ran wildly they would fall off, thearound Adults a until the food came out, but everyone was restless when they remembered that sweetness

And so, the owner finally brought out what they aiting for

—Thank you for waiting Your hotcakes

With a thue hotcakes on the table Placed around the as buckets filled to the brim with three kinds of sweet honey At the appearance of the once-out-of-seven-days feast, the villagers spontaneously let out a cheer Just to eat this, they all left behind their work in the village one time out of seven days to come here

“Ooh, owner! Sorry, but could you cut it up for us?”

The village chief shouted with a loud voice so that he could pass his words to the owner If he didn’t, the small lilliput’s voice would even reach the owner

—Sure

The owner nodded, and with a fork, he spread around the butter on top of the hotcakes and cut theers, they were cut to a ers sed their saliva with a gulp at the s butter that was spreading out them

—Well then, enjoy I’ll bring out seconds very soon

Then, at the moment that the owner cut up all of the hotcakes and called out to the villagers, they all let out a cry of joy while flooding towards the hotcakes

Well, to make sure that the cut-up hotcakes were evenly divided to everyone, the village ed them To start off, first the ‘cake distribution official’ would approach the edge of the plate and pass the cut-up hotcakes to the villagers This was the result of long years of thinking of how to avoid people taking thee pieces, and weak, s to eat… The fact that the distribution official would sometimes lick some butter and eat some of the small hotcake scraps that fell from the plate was a tolerated side benefit