It was still so early it could barely be called dawn.
As usual, I stepped into the shop to start the morning prep—only to find myself standing in the middle of a dense forest.
A forest.
This was supposed to be the chain soba restaurant right in front of Shinbashi Station.
I was the young store manager they'd put in charge. Even though it was a chain, we served proper hand-made soba. There was always a mountain of work from the crack of dawn, and I always arrived earlier than anyone else, determined to make this shop just a little bit better.
And yet… a forest.
I spun around. A gentle-looking woman stood there with a soft smile.
"Um—"
The moment I spoke, her voice echoed directly inside my head.
『Can you hear me?』
"Wah!"
『I'm terribly sorry for the suddenness. I am the Summoner. This world is plagued by powerful magical beasts. I need your help to exterminate them.』
"W-wait a second! Magical beasts? Summoning?"
I was panicking, but she continued without pause.
『Judging from your physique, you appear to be a warrior type. Just in case, let me teach you how to use magic.』
"Hey, hold on! Your explanation is way too short! Warrior? Magic???"
That was the last I ever saw of her.
She unilaterally dumped her "mission" on me, explained how to use this thing called "magic," and then vanished.
『If you defeat 100 magical beasts, you will automatically be sent back to your original world.』
That was the deal, apparently.
At least I wasn't dead. That was a relief.
But if this was a dream, it was an awfully long one.
Because five years had already passed since that day.
Defeat 100 magical beasts? That woman had to be insane.
The very first one I encountered had the head of a lion mixed with a snake and spat flames. There was no way a guy like me could beat something like that.
I was just a soba shop manager from a chain restaurant. Sure, I had some muscle from years of hard work, but that didn't mean anything here.
If you can't win, you can't win.
It didn't even leave me with the willpower to try again.
I later learned that creature had actually been one of the weaker ones.
So yeah… impossible.
I decided to focus on the immediate problem: surviving.
I had no money, no possessions, and I couldn't speak the language of this world, so negotiation was out of the question.
I nearly starved to death right away.
What saved me was magic.
I couldn't use any proper attack spells, but I could produce a tiny flame.
And more importantly… soba flour poured out of my hands.
You understand what that means, right?
Soba flour. Straight from my palms.
I was starving. If I had soba flour, I could make soba.
The moment that thought crossed my mind, it started flowing out.
This magic didn't create just anything, but it could endlessly produce soba flour, wheat flour, sugar, salt, and similar staples.
And then there was the language issue.
Before working at the soba shop, I'd studied abroad in college and often helped my parents with their international business, so I was used to communicating with gestures and body language.
Even if I could create unlimited food, wandering alone through a world full of magical beasts was a death sentence.
I had no idea what would happen if I died. Maybe I'd go back to my original world. But what if I didn't? What if death was the end?
I couldn't overcome that fear.
So I headed down the mountain in search of civilization and eventually reached a fairly large city.
Once there, the first thing I did was gather information.
I couldn't speak the language, but using body language and the ingredients I could create, I showed merchants one after another:
『Is this valuable?』
As expected, salt was welcomed—but salt was strictly controlled by the kingdom and couldn't be traded privately. I was disappointed.
Then I showed them another material, and the merchant screamed.
"&%$##'!!!! +$&"&!!!"
I had no idea what he was saying, but it was obvious the stuff was insanely valuable.
I kept smiling and negotiated as best I could. I don't know how much we actually understood each other, but in the end we were hugging and laughing like old friends.
The material was tea—green tea leaves.
It was an ultra-luxury item favored by nobles. When I brewed it myself, it tasted close to sencha.
I offered the merchant an exclusive contract to supply the tea leaves.
In return, he gave me a house and dispatched a teacher.
The teacher was an old man who taught me about this world. Thanks to him, I mastered the language in a surprisingly short time and learned how things worked here.
That mountain where I'd first been summoned was apparently an incredibly dangerous place. One wrong move and I would have died.
What the hell was that woman thinking, dropping me there?
With the money I earned from the merchant, I decided to open a shop.
A soba shop, of course.
Chain restaurant or not, I was a soba man through and through. I took pride in it.
Dream or delusion, it didn't matter—I was going to make a living with soba.
Naturally, soba didn't exist in this world. If I suddenly served it, no one would accept it.
So I racked my brain for ideas.
Alcohol.
I could create any kind of alcohol I wanted.
And while this world did have alcohol, the quality was terrible.
Storage technology here was primitive. Even if it tasted good when freshly made, by the time it reached the city it was awful.
If I could serve freshly made, high-quality alcohol, it would definitely catch on. I was sure of it.
Water storage was also underdeveloped. In this particular city, good wells were rare, and almost every adult drank alcohol because clean drinking water was so scarce. You practically couldn't survive without it.
Cheap, good alcohol would be welcomed with open arms.
And alcohol needs snacks.
That's where the soba would come in.
Fortunately, I could create any liquor I liked. I started with sake-style drinks—they paired perfectly with soba. I'd been drinking the stuff every day for years; I knew what I was talking about.
I opened the shop.
It wasn't an instant success, but far more customers came than I expected. Keeping the prices a little low probably helped. After all, I could produce unlimited alcohol at almost no cost.
The place quickly gained a huge reputation.
Soba itself wasn't immediately accepted. People complained it was "hard to eat." Nobles might be different, but commoners usually ate with their hands.
Teaching them how to use chopsticks was too much trouble, so I made simple fork-like utensils and provided those.
Commoners also weren't used to eating piping-hot food. That caused problems too, but I adapted—serving the noodles slightly cooled with a bit of water, making small improvements day by day.
Five years passed.
Soba had finally taken root in this world.
"Heeey! Welcome!"
Because my language teacher had been a sweet old man, my speech still sounded old-fashioned, and customers loved to tease me about it.
But for a soba shop owner, that was something to be proud of. I had no intention of changing.
"Yo! You're as energetic as ever!"
"Start with booze, right!?"
"Hell yeah! Gotta have a drink first!"
In this world, people drank before work, during work, and after work. Everyone was basically soaked in alcohol.
There was a reason, of course. Fresh, safe drinking water was precious. Alcohol lasted much longer, so it was cheaper and easier to get.
Ours was both cheap and delicious.
So the customers poured in.
"What'll it be for food?"
"Oh right. Before the soba, I want that—fried kika nuts!"
"Comin' right up! One order of fried kika!"
Kika nuts tasted a lot like ginkgo in my world. Since I could also produce oil, turning them into tempura was a huge hit.
I tried all kinds of tempura, but the locals had a strong aversion to animal meat, so anything meat-based flopped. Plant-based fried goods became the standard.
And then—
"Hellooo~♪"
A group of women entered.
"Oh! The beauties are here! Always a pleasure!"
The other customers cheered.
They were half-elves—mixed blood living in the city.
Regulars, of course.
The reason was obvious.
"Here's your fruit wine."
"Ehehe~ I can't get through the day without this♪"
Fruit wine.
I could create any alcohol, so when I added fruit wines to the menu, women started flooding in.
They said things like, "I can't believe I get to drink something as luxurious as fruit wine!"
Women did drink alcohol, but most kinds didn't agree with them. Fruit wine, however, was perfect.
The problem was that fruit could only be gathered deep in the forest—the elves' territory. Humans, and even half-elves, weren't allowed in.
Yet here was fruit wine.
At first, forest elves suspected smuggling and even launched attacks, but once they understood it was magically produced, relations became friendly.
"Master~♪ If you make the fruit wine all-you-can-drink, I'll marry you, okay~?♪"
A half-elf customer, already sloshed after just three cups, spouted nonsense.
"I'd go through the entire stock in one night, so I'll have to pass."
Listening to drunk nonsense is exhausting.
She was ridiculously beautiful and my heart did skip a beat, but I wasn't stupid enough to take a drunk joke seriously.
Still… it was fun.
Yes. Running this soba shop was genuinely enjoyable.
"Here comes the soba!"
I served bowls to everyone.
No matter where I ended up, I was a soba shop owner.
Even in another world, that fact hadn't changed.
I would keep making soba.
And I would keep on living.