Volume 4 Chapter 4.5

Volume 4 Chapter 4.5

Editor: Weasalopes

「Now then, let’s meet up with Haruna/Mio and figure out how to deal with it」

「All we can do. Plus I’m hungry」

「Yep. Let’s discuss it over food」

It was already getting late for lunch, but the only people who’d get to discussing food at a time like this were the members of the Azuma Workshop aka Tatsuya and Makoto. They had already shifted the mood of the conversation, livening it up with talk of what food Haruna had made as they returned to the safe (though still poisonous) zone.

「We heard a loud sound. Was it a cave-in like we thought？」

「Yeah. Anyhow, we’re hungry and we also want to ask your opinions on dealing with something after eating.」

Haruna asked for the excavation crew, and Tatsuya responded with a grimace. Even Class Five adventurers couldn’t act as leisurely as this, but this group in question was not going to realize that.

「Well, we also are hungry, so let’s eat lunch first」

「Heck yeah. What’s for lunch？」

「I’ve been cooking German style food lately, so I put a little twist on it and went at it from an Italian angle.」

Haruna said as she took out a table alongside an odd variety of pizza whose dough was covered in cheese/salami combo and tomato sauce, fried in oil and a salad/appetizer with a slight stateless vibe to it.

「Now, I figured that cooled meat or pastas weren’t the best for this environment, so I didn’t bring them, but how’s this so far？」

「Yeah, I say it’s fine. It’s not like I feel the need to eat noodles in a dusty environment like this anyway.」

「Agreed.」

「Looks good. Let’s eat right away」

Everyone voiced their thoughts on the food Haruna had made, saying their thanks for the food in a rushed manner so they could get right to reaching for the food. Ripping the crisp pizza apart with your teeth would unveil the fragrance and taste of hot cheese and tomato, an unbelievably delectable sensation. Normally you’d think it to be extremely rich, but you could hardly feel that strong of a taste, and everyone felt they could eat both dishes.

「This crepe thingy is good」

「Yeah, the greasy flavor in your mouth feels refreshing」

A crepe-like appetizer you could grip with your hands, with vegetables and whatnot wrapped around it. Chronologically, this should come first, but with the environment being as hostile as it was, Haruna seemed to have made several adjustments to make it easier to consume. This aim of hers seemed to have hit the lottery, and the splintered air around the group mellowed out quite a bit with this ingenious and delicious meal made out of consideration.

「……Now that we’ve eaten our fill, we gotta think of a way to get out.」

「Tatsu, we’ll decide that after looking at the area.」

「Got it」

Taking in Mio’s opinion, Tatsuya lead them to the collapsed area in question. Mio brought out her general conclusion as she looked around the area to see what situation they were in or the state of the rubble.

「Sensei would just dig it all up and then move on, but we probably can’t.」

「Probably not. But can we make a path at least？」

「No problem. We’ll detonate it with poms.」

「Wha！？」

Tatsuya and Makoto blurted out at Mio’s overly violent conclusion. They were already concerned about making excessive moves, so this was out of the question.

「With the explosive power of poms, there won’t be that big of a shock wave to make other areas crumble.」

「Wait, so you’re saying we can actually do something about this rubble？」

「I would never suggest the impossible.」

Answering Tatsuya’s question in a placid tone, Mio took four, standard-sized poms out from her bag and strew them together with leaf threads before tying their feet together to prevent escape. Any sort of impact would detonate them, so there was a need to get work done quickly and carefully. Tatsuya and Makoto were probably out of the question, but even Haruna’s work would be getting dangerously close to the warning line with reliability.

「What do you plan to accomplish by tying them up？」

「First we set them over here.」

「Ah, I see. Too dangerous to keep them too close, right」

「Mm」

Understanding the meaning of Mio’s actions, Haruna measured out a probably good amount of distance before retreating. Following her example, Tatsuya and Makoto made sure to escape a good distance. Seeing that the members were all plenty far away, Mio also took her distance from the mountain of rubble as she took out the poms. And then

「Hyah」

Along with an extremely flavorless shout in comparison to Hiroshi’s throwing came the loud “woo woo” shrieks from the nearby poms as Mio threw them at the rubble, the pom bundle hitting it dead-on. Small explosions occurred immediately in succession until a few tempos later, the mountain of rubble fell.

「Like this」

「Wow, you can do it after all……」

「Hey, I said I could.」

Mio countered Makoto’s oddly impressed comment with (albeit expressionless) a somewhat angry tone oozing from her emotions. Anyone could make decisions like this as long as they had around initial intermediate level in excavation or engineering. Haruna might be fine with engineering, but her excavation skills were lacking, so of course she couldn’t make such precise judgements.

「Anyhow, let’s stop fighting and get out quickly.」

「Yep. In an isolated dimension, you never know what traps are hidden」

Hearing Haruna’s scolding, the group went back to the area near the entrance, which was comparatively safer.

「So what now？」

「Still plenty of poms in storage」

「Aqua breath’s going to end pretty soon」

Mio and Makoto told Tatsuya the current state of things in response to his question as the basis for their decision-making. Pondering this information, Haruna made the optimal decision after checking the current time.

「I don’t think Hiroshi-kun’s returned yet, so how about we check one of the remaining two places before going back？」

「I don’t really mind.」

「Same here」

「Agreed with Haru’s proposal」

They had to investigate anyway, as per the request, so they may as well check another location before going back. After deciding that, they quickly headed to the poison trap which hadn’t been discovered by Hiroshi. As expected, the same kind of trap activated and they resolved the situation the same kind of way. By this time it was past 8 pm.

「Yeah, at a time like this, there probably aren’t many people in here……」

「I guess we let our greed go out of control？」

「Probably, yeah.」

Smiling awkwardly at Haruna’s dejected observation, the group walked into the apartment they were temporarily using.

「Welcome back. Y’all be super late tho.」

「Glad to be back. Yeah, we kinda took too much time in our search.」

Hiroshi, already back by this time, met them at the door, and Haruna, immediately a bit lively now, responded with a somewhat cheerful tone as she greeted him. Getting as close to Hiroshi as she could, Haruna began the report on today’s findings. She was quite a bit more calm than she was in Darl, but this apparently did not mean that her love interest had subsided. Her outward demeanor was one thing, but her eyes and tone seemed to be telling their own story.

「You seem a lot calmer than in Darl. Or is it my imagination？」

「Well yeah, I sure am. Actually, it’s more like I learned how to distance myself from my feelings, and nothing has essentially changed. In fact, I think things might have gotten even worse.」

「……Well, that’s just the way love is, yup.」

「Yeah……」

While a bit uneasy at this calm yet unstoppable formation of love toward Hiroshi by Haruna and Mio (who was doing the same thing Haruna was), who were both distanced but clearly attached to him, Tatsuya and Makoto were rubbernecks by nature and decided to enjoy this display with grins on their faces.