Chapter 5.3

Chapter 5.3

「…Yeah, this one was a little too premature.」

「Well, there’s a first time for everything. It can’t be helped.」

「Guess you’re right. It ain’t all too bad, and the next one’s promisin’.」

「That’s the spirit.」

As the little girl eavesdropped through the door, she could hear this conversation between a young couple. Quite ominous, she thought. She imagined what any girl on the brink of her teenage years might, which lead to all colors being flushed from her face. Her body didn’t feel any different, but since she was growing up, it wasn’t unthinkable.

「In any case, I’m feelin’ confident to move on to my next conquest.」

「Conquest?」

「We got nori and bonito flakes, and they sell octopus everywhere… That only makes one recipe in my book.」

「…That’s your first thought right now?」

「Why not? We ain’t got rice, anyhow, so anything we make’s gonna be flour-based.」

「No, I meant… With everything else that’s going on, that is your first thought…?」

Now, the little girl didn’t know what to make of their conversation. Considering the mention of octopus, they seemed to be talking about food… But she was puzzled by “premature”… It could be code for something, but they seemed rather lackadaisical for that kind of conversation. The man had an interesting accent. Truth be told, she couldn’t imagine these people doing to her what she had feared they had, but even good people can be tempted into crime.

As she let her thoughts wander, she could smell another appetizing scent (that of a fried dish, she presumed) accompanied by a festive, bubbling sound. She carefully cracked open the poorly built door and peeked through. She could see a blond woman working in the kitchen, and a sheepish looking man clearing up this and that from the giant table, who, despite his perfectly ordinary outfit, looked shabby, somehow.

「Tada!」

The woman joyfully laid bowls onto the table. That seemed to be the source of the mysterious scent from earlier. In the center of the table, she could spot a plate with some kind of fried dish loaded onto it. Taking the bowl, the man gleefully shoved a pair of thin sticks into it. As she watched with anticipation, some dark-colored noodles emerged from the bowl. They pulled that up to their mouths without hesitation, and loudly slurped it down.

「This is what I’m talking about!」

「Sure, it’s a little early, but boy, does it hit the spot!」

「You said it!」

Continuing their conversation as such, they bit down on the fried goods that seemed to be in the bowl from the start. As the little girl watched them intently slurp down the noodles, her hunger and appetite were approaching their limits. Despite the obnoxious violation of table etiquette, the way this couple devoured this dish was clear evidence of the quality of the food. One could only watch for so long. Finally, when the couple had held the bowl up to their mouths directly, the little girl’s empty stomach made an adorable growl in protest.

「Hm?」

「Huh?」

While it wasn’t particularly loud, it echoed more than expected in the room, where the loud slurping of noodles had just stopped.

「Hey, she’s awake.」

When her eyes met the sheepish-looking man’s, she finally gave up and entered the dining room. At the end of the day, as small as these rooms were, she had no hope of escaping without them stopping her, unless they were completely asleep.

「…What are you going to do with us?」

「We don’t know what we’re into, so we ain’t sure yet.」

「Oh, we have food… But first…」

The woman put something in a cup, and put it down in front of the girl. Perhaps to show that there was no ill intent, the little girl thought, the woman took a spoonful from it in full view of the girl before putting it in her mouth. After waiting long enough to show that there was no fast-acting poison, she continued:

「I don’t know if you can go right back on to solids, and I don’t want to risk you being allergic to buckwheat, so try a sip of this, won’t you?」

While the little girl had never heard of the word “allergic” before, she knew that some people’s bodies reject certain foods. She presumed that the food on the table were one of these foods that can cause a particularly visceral reaction. Nodding, the girl took a small sip of the dark brown liquid in her mouth, as if she was being lured in by the savory scent. Controlling herself from swallowing it in a gulp, she first silently counted to fifty. Making sure that there were no physical reactions, she gradually drank the rest of the soup from the cup.

「…It’s delicious.」

「Good to hear. How’s ya stomach?」

「Are you in pain at all?」

「…No.」

「Okay. I’ll go boil the noodles, hold on.」

「Oh, I’ll do that.」

The man didn’t seem to want to be in close proximity to a girl he doesn’t know well. He reheated the water and boiled the noodles, and plopped them into a bowl with the reheated soup, before sprinkling some tiny toppings into it before placing it on the table with a fork and spoon.

「I don’t think you can handle eatin’ it with chopsticks, so this is all we got. Oh, and obviously, it’s hot. Watch out. And we don’t know how well your stomach’s doin’, we’re savin’ the tempura shrimp for next time.」

「Thank you for your generosity.」

「Ah, we just wancha to know a taste of our homeland. Don’t sweat it. Some of the ingredients were a little premature, so I hope ya like it, still.」

The man said, keeping some distance from the girl and the woman. The girl was more confident of her first impression that, these two didn’t lay a finger on her. In fact, this man was actively avoiding women. However, she put aside her observation to focus on the product of a vastly different culture in front of her. She surmised that the soup was the origin of the savory liquid she just drank, and was relieved that, at the very least, this wouldn’t taste so bad to the point of being unstomachable. Concealing her anticipation, the girl carefully stuck the fork into the bowl, and twirled some noodles on it.

With her heart pounding, she blew on it to cool it down, and timidly put the pasta in her mouth with anticipation and nervousness. A sensation spread in her mouth, which the girl didn’t have the vocabulary necessary to describe, combined with the bonus of her hunger, the noodles oozed of supreme taste. She couldn’t hold back anymore. The only thing she was able to do was keep a semblance of etiquette as she desperately held back from chowing down the bowl in a breath.

Watching the girl intently eat the soba without a word, albeit with excellent etiquette, Hiroshi and Haruna sipped on their soba tea. While they were in Japan, neither of them would have drank the broth, worrying about their sodium intake, but life on this side could get a little rough to the point where they were depleted of sodium from time to time, so they had stopped depriving themselves of that.

「Ya good?」

「…Yes.」

The girl nodded, after sipping every last drop of the soup with her soup, and now looking at the completely empty bowl. She seemed like she wanted to have more, but she also seemed to understand that she shouldn’t eat too much after coming out of such a long sleep. After praying to the Goddess in thanks for the meal, the girl sighed and bowed to Hiroshi and Haruna.

「I guess she liked it.」

「That’s dandy. I’ll gather up somethin’ a little unique tomorrow, too.」

The girl’s eyes gleamed with obvious excitement. She seemed to have really taken to their cooking. Watching her joyful expression, they ponder their recipe for the next day.

「Lessee. She likes the broth, how ‘bout some oden?」

「Ooh. That’s good. Once it gets colder, we can put it out on the food stand, too.」

「Food stand?」

「Uh-huh. In between our adventuring gigs, we sell some food out of our stand.」

「I’ll show ya what we got tomorrow. You’d wanna eat it if I showed ya now, won’t ya?」

The girl nodded up and down in agreement. She was hitting her growth spurts , after all, and it seems that the controlled portion given to her was a little more than a little too small.

「Wow… You’re adventurers but you have a food stand, too…?」

「I wanna place big enough suited for a workshop. Truth is, it ain’t very efficient if we were to try and do that with just adventurin’. So we do a bunch of odd jobs ‘round the city, and gather some side income from the food stand.」

「We could use the facilities at the Association, but long story short, they have their eye on us… So we want an environment where we’re as isolated as possible.」

The girl’s expression froze. Noticing this, Haruna explained:

「It’s not like we made something illegal or anything like that…」

「Then why do they…?」

「I’m hoping you have a good eye for things when I ask you this… Don’t you find this room strange?」

「The room…?」

With that, she looked around the room. She had nearly forgotten while she was busy satiating her hunger, but now she could recognize the same odd sensation as the one she had felt in the bedroom. Everything from the table she ate on to the chair she sat in, the magic-powered lamp illuminating the room, to the equipment and the kitchen and everything else she could see in the room were, albeit simple, created with an incredibly rare caliber of craftsmanship. Save for the materials, they were on par with the best she had ever seen. If they could have a set of furniture like these, it seemed to the little girl that they should be able to easily afford a workshop.

「Wow, you two have wonderful furniture.」

「Weird that they’re in a flat like this, huh?」

The little girl didn’t know how to answer Haruna’s question, asked with a chuckle. Seeing this reaction, Haruna skipped to the answer:

「They’re all homemade. I didn’t make them, though. Azuma-kun did. This guy right here.」

「…」

The girl was speechless. She couldn’t believe it. On the other hand, the girl understood why they “had eyes on them” now. It was only natural if he could craft magical tools of this caliber. Come to think of it, at least one of them had the power to dispel the girl’s magic. What was weird was that they were completely unknown to her until this point.