Volume 4 Chapter 8.5
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Translator: Reflet
Editor: Weasalopes
「What’s up？」
「I forgot to inquire about the drink」
Tatsuya just had an exasperated look on his face. Yep, that was Haruna, always thinking about cooking. Seeing this as an opportunity, Mio, who had been silently eating her hors d’oeuvre, opened her mouth.
「Hey, Haru」
「Yes？」
「I want more to drink. Is that cool？」
Mio seemed to be concerned about the price of extra drinks, with this being a fancy restaurant and all. Tatsuya and Makoto were beyond exasperated; they had grimaces on their faces. Up till now they had dealt with supply and refills on their own, so Mio appeared to not realize how rich they were in the eyes of society and that using a little money would not be an issue.
So she was basically a very frugal person.
「Well I also wanted a refill, so yeah, let’s ask. Hiroshi-kun, what about you？」
「Yup yup. I’ll git another in my glass」
At this point, everyone had decided on adding more drinks, so they figured they may as well ask for wine/soft drink bottles. There weren’t a whole lot of people in Hiroshi’s core group, plus as long as Makoto was around there would never be any excess liquor. Of course, seeing as they were also using her birthday as a pretext for the celebrating, there was no way there would simply be “one” bottle of liquor Makoto took back.
Also, the soft drinks used in place of the aperitifs happened to be traditional high class beverages known as “dorutzen”, truly delicious and costing more than double a drink of cheap sake.
「I see. So you get the fruit “dorufett”, squeeze it, mix it in with “garen” herb juice so as to not let it ferment into alcohol, and then mature it until it foams up. Is it easy to get our hands on some？」
「Yes. However, you need the highest quality of dorufett, or else it will taste odd and the acidity of the garen will emerge and the resulting dorutzen won’t be very tasty.」
「Guess we need to ask around about how to know which dorufett is the best option」
「In that case, I am sure that the chefs at this establishment would be more than happy to help.」
「Okay, thank you」
Asking what she needed to when ordering, Haruna happily brought some new salad to her mouth. Although there was a tendency in Forre to eat mainly cabbage and regex for leafy green vegetables, this particular salad contained also lettuce as well as an unfamiliar leafy green, probably taken from a monster. Haruna wrote in the memopad of her mind to remember to check that information later before levelling out the polished soup and fish cuisine (worthy to be called one of Forre’s traditional meals) in front of her.
「……What a great fancy hotel. The thought didn’t cross my mind that we’d see new monster meat emerge in the food.」
「Yeah? I totally thought we ate all this at least once on the other side of the world, but maybe I’m trippin’……」
Haruna and Hiroshi spoke to one another in an impressed manner after finishing the meat courses and waiting for the dessert. The ingredients used in question were likely the minimum exquisite kind that regular cooks could use, such as troll birds or rock worms, but who knew what kinds were in this meal. Perhaps they were eating animals that didn’t previously exist in the game, such as poms.
「Yep, we need to ask the chef about this too.」
「Yup yup」
Hiroshi and Haruna, who never compromised on food, were once again ready to go at it. While a bit exasperated at their mannerisms, Tatsuya and the other two also found themselves hoping just a bit for new foods being added to their repertoire.
「The dessert is lovely too」
While mentioning her thoughts on the newly arrived dessert, Mio showed no mercy when eating. She had already eaten plenty of bread since that was a free refill, but her appetite had yet to fade away. Makoto was the same way with liquor, but with Mio you never knew where in that stomach of hers she was storing all that food. Thankfully, it was only her chest that had some thickness, and not her stomach. So where, if not her stature, chest, or stomach? The world may never know where those calories have gone.
「This was definitely the best food I had from any of the hotels.」
「Yeah, it was as good as the time I had it in the palaces of Farlane or Darl」
As they savored the regional tea, Tatsuya and Makoto remarked on how they would give the food here full marks as the best they had eaten (other than Hiroshi/Haruna’s cooking). The reason why their reviews were slightly dicey was because of all the special meat like wyvern, garbarensia, behemoth meat, etc.
「The place’s got that super fancy vibe, so I worried we’d stick out like a sore thumb, but thanks to Haruna-san we got through a-ok.」
「You think？」
Haruna asked, puzzled, in response to Hiroshi while everyone else nodded at the same time. Despite having no prior experience to this, everyone had imitated the way Haruna and the royals like Layotte ate their food, and had ended up looking the part when eating here. So even if they weren’t as high class in their table manners as the other guests here, Hiroshi’s group was certainly distinguished enough not to be labelled as “savage” or “crude”.
「Anyhow, you still want to ask the head chef a lot of things, right? How about we get on with the check and head over there？」
「Right on」
Following Makoto’s advice, Haruna, followed by Hiroshi and Mio, headed straight over to the kitchen. Hitting it off with the head chef and learning as much about the region’s food as they could, they then taught the head chef in return some recipes for condiments and cooking methods before ending the exchange, both parties beaming happily.
And then, three days later.
「You sure like to set up things in spacious areas.」
「There just so happened to be a cheap place open with a foundry attached to it, so I figured there wouldn’t be an issue if we put the teleportation circle in here for Stiren.」
「Ah～、there’s always the possibility after all……」
The group was now at the new workshop/residence base Haruna had found.
「And we left the temporary base at Crest Cave as it was, if I recall」
「Yeah, we got that as a reward, so we can use it as a warp point whenever.」
「Got it, got it」
The technical fee for Hiroshi teaching people how to make the new smelting forge variant and the cost of three prototypes. One portion of that, the group negotiated be transferred in for the provisional bade near Crest Cave. The reason was simple: because it was convenient. Other than that, the group was also able to arrange that they show the ID of their workshop to get free excavation in the dungeon, and then the remaining part of the reward was simply pocket money. They had after all received many things, and as the remaining portion was only 500,000 doma, they had instead paid with chrone currency for their lodging at the hotel to save their domas.
「Yup, this kinda environment calms me down the most.」
Mio, who had gotten right to setting up the behemoth leather sofa in the living room, muttered as she stretched languidly on the sofa. Her face only appeared expressionless, but it was clearly softer.
「But it’s all fine ‘n dandy to take on first rate hotels once in a while, y’know.」
「I thought it was super well taken care of, given the standards in this world. Did you find it uncomfortable？」
「Mm～、how should I put it、the rooms’re fine but all that excess space had this exquisite vibe like the palace back at Farlane, etc, just felt kinda off to me」
「Oh, I get you」
Haruna knew exactly what Hiroshi meant. As she had many the opportunity due to family matters to go to first rate hotels, restaurants, etc, she was accustomed to that sort of environment. But being accustomed to something is not the same as being comfortable with something, and Haruna still felt that the environment she liked the most was, just like it was for Hiroshi and the others, in the common sort of living arrangement.
Then again, if she were to come out and say that, even Haruna’s parents (supposed celebs) would agree that they loved the typical neighborhood lifestyle.
「Let’s go ahead and divide up the rooms and bring out the beds.」
「Yup yup. Imma be smithin’ ‘n whatnot, as y’all know, so I’m good with the first floor.」
「Yeah, then same for me.」
And with all that, having determined the partitioning in a split second, Hiroshi and friends set out the various furniture that engulfed even the finest of hotel furniture in comparison, creating an at-home but somewhat regal environment in the blink of an eye.
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