In the penultimate episode, Shareef finally establishes formal relations with the Great Empire, led by Adelheid’s family. He first sends a teapot with the magical ability to cool down coffee as a gift to the emperor and Adelheid’s father, Wolfgang (Jouji Nakata). Impressed and flattered by the gift, Wolfgang travels the Land of Sand to talk to Shareef about an alliance. This catches the attention of the neighboring kingdom (I want to say the demon kingdom where Aletta lives); they worry that a war with the other nations is imminent. Edmon (Susumu Chiba), the kingdom’s chief of intelligence and not to be confused with Fardania’s father Edmond, is tasked with getting further information on the situation.
Edmon heads over to Nekoya to gather information. Apparently, he’s regular there, his go-to dish being Carbonara (which is kind of funny considering that Victoria showcased it earlier this season). I never thought about it but Nekoya would be a superb place for gathering intelligence, what with its patrons being various places and walks of life. It’s especially beneficial for Edmon in this particular scenario as Shareef and Adelheid are both regulars at the restaurant.
At Nekoya, the place is swarmed with various patrons so Edmon shares a table with Heinrich (Tomokazu Sugita), Ranija, and Lastina. Having Edmon sit next to Lastina is kind of funny as the Demon Lord is the most likely tablemate to know what’s going on in the Empire. Frankly, I’m a little confused how Lastina is the Demon Lord when she’s not the one Edmon reports to but she does live in the Empire so I guess she’s more of a liaison than an actual sovereign.
The four patrons have to wait longer than usual as the Master has a long queue of orders to get through. I’m shocked that this doesn’t happen more often as Nekoya seems packed most of the time but whatever. To tide them over, the Master offers the four some quiche to enjoy. Kind of like with the teriyaki burger last episode, the nice thing about this dish is that it has ingredients that each of the patrons are fond of, such as shrimp and cheese. Lastina’s interest in the potatoes used in the quiche is maybe the one outlier, if only because the last episode associated her with coffee instead. Obviously, the patrons’ favorite ingredient is what gets each of them interested in the quiche but in a neat little twist, they end up praising the dish for something else. I’ll always love the patrons’ crippling addiction to one particular dish but this bit of unison is very refreshing to see. Funnily enough, Edmon is enjoying the food so much that he almost forgets the very serious and political reason he’s at Nekoya. I guess it goes to show how wholesome and how contagious the vibes are there.
Eventually, the people of interest show up and there’s no better way for Edmon to know that a war won’t happen than Shareef proposing to Adelheid. That’s right, it finally happened! I honestly didn’t think it would, even when I’m two seasons into this show, but it makes sense given the recent talk surrounding these two and the setup of this episode. I buy Adelheid agreeing to get married. Her interactions with Shareef may be brief and spread out but it was still clear from those scenes that Adelheid greatly enjoyed Shareef’s company, wanted to know more about him, and she felt lonely when him and Renner aren’t around. She might not have considered a relationship with Shareef up until this point but once the prince proposes, she realizes that she really does reciprocate his feelings towards her.
You of course get Edmon’s reaction to the big moment, being that he is more or less the viewpoint character of this entire episode. The man is just impressed at Shareef’s 3D chess move (and really, so am I). Kind of a bummer that he doesn’t stick around to celebrate with everyone but perhaps it’s for the best that he gets his nation to call off a potential war ASAP. That would be one hell of a way to ruin the mood. I am curious why Heinrich leaves around the same time as Edmon. Maybe he realizes he should ask Sarah out at some point; there’s definitely something going on between those two. Everyone else has great reactions. I’m particularly amused that out of the Nekoya staff, Kuro is actually the one who sees the engagement coming. For a recluse who lives on the freaking moon, she sure has a great read on the room.
Honestly, this is a wonderful development to have in Restaurant to Another World‘s final stretch. The whole show is about how all these different people can get together at this one restaurant and a have good time and it doesn’t get more wholesome than having two of those patrons get engaged. If that doesn’t speak volumes to the positive effect Nekoya has on people, I don’t know what will. There’s one more episode left in this show and I’m very curious to see what it has in store as this episode is a pretty tough act to beat.
Watch Restaurant to Another World 2 on Crunchyroll
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