Chapter 10.1
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Translator: Reflet
Editor: Weasalopes
「You about ready?」
Tatsuya asked, noticing that Hiroshi’s disassembling procedure and the oktogarls messing with Archem had finally reached a lull. By this time, the day had begun to progress to night, and even if it was going to be a full moon, there was no way anyone would be getting anything productive done.
「Kay. Guess we’d better git goin’ to the temple. Ah, but now that I think ‘bout it, this’d be a good time to git back ‘n eat somethin’ fer dinner.」
「That moon is awfully high up.」
Mio was pointing to the full moon, sparkling an unpleasant blueish purple hue. That gigantic moon, already high in the heavens, revealed just how long they had been forced to spend in that dungeon.
「What do y’all wanna do? I feel like we can’t make progress till we take care o’that grass, but if we put our all into it then we should reach the temple in an hour.」
Making a repulsed face at the grotesquely-colored, ill-fated object in the sky, Hiroshi asked everyone what they wanted to do afterward. The moon seemed as if it were signalling misfortune for them, but neither Archem or the oktogarls said anything, so he figured everything was fine.
「I think I’ll pass on trying to cut grass in the dark……」
「Yeah……」
「Then I guess we go back.」
Hiroshi put the wooden material away in his bag, grunting like an old man as he hoisted the bag up. But once again, someone else spoke up.
「But if we go back at a time like this, we might as well just camp here. We’re talking about some dungeon ruins here- not like there’ll be much grass around anyway.」
「That’s true, yeah.」
「Not much difference from going back and setting up camp.」
They didn’t want to stick around any longer. The girl’s wish ended up being engulfed by the majority vote. That being said, it wasn’t like the men had much of a solid reason to oppose her.
「Who’s gonna watch?」
Hiroshi immediately got to work on something else, inquiring about the necessary camp security. They usually rotated, but everyone was tired today. Honestly, this was physically draining.
「We’ll do it～」
「Monitor these parts, monitor these parts～」
「Cover private parts, cover private parts～」
「I’m a little nervous after hearing that last part. Is it really ok to leave it to you?」
The oktogarls nodded up and down in affirmation, making a solid formation before scattering off.
「Just like these～」
「We put up a barrier～」
「This good enough～？」
The oktogarls at the campsite confirmed.
「Good allocation of your members, but we’re gonna eat soon. You didn’t have to begin right now.」
「Eat？」
「Food, food～」
「Meat? Fish?」
「Can I eat? Can I?」
Upon hearing about dinner, the oktogarls swarmed over.
「Sure, if yer cool with squirrels.」
「Sure～」
「Eat it～」
They exclaimed, taking out knives and forks and plates. A bitter smile on his face, Hiroshi washed his hands before bringing out two iron plates and dipping squirrel meat into a sauce. At the same time, Haruna began preparations for the wakame soup while Mio put together something resembling nan and cooked it over the iron plates. The oktogarls watched them do this with intense concentration. Incidentally, the reason why there were two magic iron plate tools was because they had thought it to be beneficial to bring an extra one along for escort missions. They had made it immediately upon returning to the workshop.
「Food, food～」
「Is dinner ready yet～？」
「We are～、famished～」
The oktogarls all reacted to the scent of the meat with sauce on it as it cooked on the iron plates. They clanged their knives and forks together, holding their plates with two of their eight legs. Clearly they would have to let them eat first, or there would be no peace at the dinner table, Hiroshi concluded, cutting out pieces of mest that would fit their body types (were they female?) and piling it on their plates. Following after Hiroshi, Mio distributed the makeshift nan and vegetables while Haruna began pouring a suitable amount into small cups. It was quite difficult to repeat that same process with how numerous these oktogarls were.
Since the oktogarls not only had eight legs but could also float in the air, they could eat without taking up too much space. Otherwise, the space wouldn’t have been enough for eating. Not sure whether to be thankful or not for that fact, they continued to pile on food until it had finally all reached the oktogarls. By the time they had delivered it to all of them, the meat and soup they had brought in was all depleted.
「Oh dear……」
「Guess we gotta make s’more.」
「Sorry about this. Could you wait a bit?」
The rest of the group that was not doing the cooking let out a sigh. Apparently, the oktogarls were not the only ones unable to bear the delicious fragrance. There was hardly any of Mio’s cooked nan left either.
「We can wait, but will there be enough meat?」
「Meat, sauce, all that’s aplenty. No worries.」
「Lots of wakame in storage as well.」
Hearing their answers, Tatsuya and Makoto breathed sighs of relief. Archem looked down at the ground, as if apologizing for literally everything. She couldn’t exactly help them, since they were just too skilled at cooking and there weren’t enough cooking utensils for all of them. There was just no opportunity.
「Tatsu, Mako, Archem, go ahead and try this for now.」
Noticing how difficult it was for the group to be on an empty stomach, Mio split the remaining nan into three separate portions and handed it to them.
「You sure？」
「Do you really think you can bear watching?」
The three of them helplessly shook their heads as they looked at the oktogarls. After all, just look at them:
「Yum yum～！！」
「Meat juice～！」
「Yummers～！！」
「Wakame～、wakame～！」
「It’s～so～tas～ty～！！」
「Three star～！ Connoisseur～！！」
They clamored on and on about the greatness of the food. Some of them sounded like they were mimicking gourmands, discussing all the particulars of the flavor, and it was honestly no longer an option to just endure this food torture.
「Well, it’s not a very involved recipe. We’ll make it real fast.」
「But they eat quite a lot, y’know? If they eat that much every day then I don’t think we’ll have enough.」
The oktogarls plowed through the piles of meats and vegetables, clearly eating more than was good for their body types but appearing to be just fine all the while. With such a staggering amount of them and their appetite, fuel consumption looked to be tight.
「We don’t usually eat this much～」
「But we did a lot earlier, and now we’re out of energy～」
「Charge up with delicious foood」
「Tasty tasty meat～、Tasty tasty vegetables～」
As if they had heard Hiroshi’s comment, the oktogarls continued ravenously eating as they asserted themselves. In actuality, just as they asserted, they could live life normally for more than a month by just eating the appropriate volume for their physique. This time around, they had recovered Makoto and Mio, carried Haruna and the others, and even become footholds for everyone, which had greatly reduced their energy and made them hungry. Since they possessed a mysterious system in which energy reduction was split amongst the members evenly, all of them had ended up becoming hungry.
「Well, they helped us out tremendously this time, so I say feed them to their hearts’ content.」
「It must be nice to be someone like you who receives all the benefits……」
Makoto immediately glared at Tatsuya and his goody two-shoes comment. Unless you factor in Archem, who had seriously been through a lot, Makoto was probably the next in line for being damaged mentally from all of this.
「I mean sure, if they hadn’t been here we would have probably been screwed. But still……」
「W-Well now, let’s not get so worked up.」
「Maybe it would be different if this were an issue with a perverted-eyed, stubborn old man, but everything you’re saying right now irritates me. An animal could do better.」
Although Mio hadn’t been much different than Makoto in how she had been treated, her words were quite assertive. Makoto dropped her shoulders in dejection as she listened. No one could tell what animals were saying, but in the case of these people, they already had bad communication skills. There was also the fact that Makoto had mistaken what Haruna said to be sounding carefree. Makoto was truly taking a lot of damage right now.
「Umm, I think the biggest problem here is that you’re getting irritated at what I’m saying……」
「It was better than the gossip that the nobles make about each other all the time, so I didn’t even have as much of an issue with that.」
Makoto just made her position worse the more she grumbled. Eventually she just gave up entirely and shrunk. To be fair, it was reasonable for someone like Makoto to become irritated after being sexually harassed and verbally abused. Mio, who simply dismissed her, or Haruna, who didn’t even care in the first place, were definitely the weird ones in this situation.
「Alright, done with the meat.」
Hiroshi, who had been paying attention to the meat rather than the conversation, piled all the good parts on Makoto’s plate. Maybe food alone would not quell her emotions, but surely things would get at least a bit better once she was full of tasty food.
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