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Over the Infinite – Prologue (6)

 

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Translator: mii

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「Uwahhhhh!!!」

We were fascinated with the colors that filled the tray in front of us and raised a strange voice.

Mackerel cooked in miso, miso soup, pickled eggplants, cold tofu, raw eggs, and freshly cooked white rice. Each of them was brilliant work that wouldn’t be strange if they appeared in modern Japan.

But in this world, they were obviously something that was too advanced  that should appear after several hundreds period had passed.

In other words, even the individual ingredients were something that I hadn’t seen at the outside world. Well, even on modern Earth, I thought only Japanese would eat raw eggs.

「I-I will live here permanently.」

「Me too, I don’t have any hometown to return to anyway.」

I was pretty serious.

In other words, in my case, my hometown might vanish after a few years.

「People who came from outside sure exaggerate a lot, eh~ Do you need spoon or fork? Eating with chopsticks is hard, isn’t it?」

Exaggerating… huh.

The cat-eared waitress who were wearing cute clothes seemed to be talking in her sleep.

I even thought that I was willing to die if I could eat these meals again.

Yuki said that he was never starved, but what we ate in this world could never be compared to what we could eat in Japan. I didn’t know if he was aware of it, but he was drooling.

We ignored the cat-eared waitress’ words and started to eat, chewing the foods thoroughly. I remembered this after Yuki said it, but it had been years since I last said, “Thank you for the food.”

Even though my body had changed, it seemed like I hadn’t forgotten how to use chopsticks, as if it had been ingrained into my mind.

We ate the food earnestly.

I ate so much that I didn’t know how many times had I asked for another serving, and continued to eat only with the rice and miso soup even when the side dishes were all gone. That alone was a feast.

When we finished stuffing our stomachs to the point that we couldn’t even move again and sip the after meal green tea, we realized that both of us were crying.

「Outside world meals are garbage.」

「Yeah, they are foods for animals.」

What I had eaten so far in my life were just the food I need to have so I could live. This was the so-called actual meal. I had forgotten about it because I had been living in this world for so long.

This was the ultimate deeply moving taste only that people like us who were born and raised in this world and used to be living in Japan could understand.

「Err, the lunch time will be over soon, so can I ask you to pay now?」

「Ah, sorry.」

My ultimate deep emotion was completely spoiled.

We payed for the bill, and then hanged our head on the bench in the square.

「Oi, how is it?」

「How is what?」

「…We spent one silver coin each person just to eat that.」

「Yeah.」

It was not cheap for having a single meal. If we were in the outside world, it was enough to pay for several days meal.

Spending that much for a meal was a luxury that I couldn’t have had until yesterday.

Even so, it was still the share for a few days. I could eat that by enduring for a few days. Unbelieveable.

「This is not the level of regional disparity anymore.」

「Maybe, this place is actually a different world. After all, it’s completely different from the world where we used to live.」

That’s right, that wall was the wall that seperated the world.

Even this square was well-maintained, incomparable to those dirty alleys in the capital city. There was no trash at all here.

What kind of guy with cheat ability could make this much difference, seriously?

「If I can earn money in the labyrinth, can I eat that every day?」

「Isn’t that natural? You might have forgotten this, but that’s a daily set meal.」

It was a common meal. I’m sure that the construction worker uncles ate those meals too.

「Mom, I want to eat cake!」

「My, my, it can’t be helped then. What kind of cake do you want?」

「Uhm, uhm! That… The strawberry shortcake!」

I heard the parent and child that passed by us saying something like that.

When I looked up, there was a cake shop with fairytale decoration facing the square. The cakes that were on display at the store were the cakes that were sold in my previous life in Japan.

I didn’t know how much the price was, but it should be something that common people could afford. The price would be earth shatteringly incomparable if I wanted to buy it in capital city, but in the first place, there was no one who would sell it there.

Yuki, who was lying sideways was not moving, but I knew that he was listening to that parent and child’s conversation.

「Oi, you’re not thinking of eating those cakes, right?」

Our bellies were on the verge of bursting out.

He wouldn’t say that he had separate belly for sweets or something like that, right? Yuki, you were a boy now, okay?

「C-can’t I?」

Of course you couldn’t, oi. Why did his eyes turn bloodshot?

He should’ve known what would happen as well, right. If we had a taste at something even if it was just a bite, we would be socially ruined. We would build dirty bridges over this beautiful square.

Even those heavy drinker uncles in Shinbashi wouldn’t vomit during the daytime.

「Let’s have it later.」

「But, it’s a shortcake! There are strawberries! 」

I knew that. But you looked like you would even vomit now, okay.

「You boys may not know this, but there is separate belly for sweets!」

「You are also a boy, okay?」

「Ugh…」

He looked really devastated. It had been over ten years anyway, just give up already.

Besides, looking at those parent and child, we would have opportunities to eat as many cakes as we like in the future.

「By the way, what will we do after this? Should we decide where to stay, or register as an adventurer?」

「Let’s register first. There are various discounts and leaflets on the walls for the adventurer that is registered in the Labyrinth Guild on the walls of the restaurant.」

He sure looked closely, eh. I didn’t see them since my eyes were only concentrated on the foods.

「I see. As expected from the Labyrinth City.」

「It seems like there is no registration fee, so let’s go to the Labyrinth Guild for now.」

Guilds were unions of distinct occupations in the Middle Ages. It was close to mutual aid society, and existed inside the monarchy.

These guilds originally required proof of identity to register, and it also costed a lot of money. In some cases, they might even turn people who wanted to register away at the front door if those people didn’t have any specialized skills.

However, if one started an occupation without any backing, they would turn all of the guild members into their enemies.

It was a territory union that was organized to protect the interests of merchants and craftsmen. At least, it wasn’t like those Hello Work[1. From Wikipedia: Hello Work (ハローワーク harōwāku) is the Japanese English name for the Japanese government’s Employment Service Center, and they maintain an extensive database of recent job offers made accessible to job seekers via an in-house intranet system and over the internet.] organization that just introduced you when you registered there.

Guilds were essentially something similar to that, but they were handled a little differently in games that were based on fantasy-related reincarnation that were popular in fantasy novels or fantasy-themed games in my previous life.

Adventurer’s Guild was a super organization that didn’t incur registration fee, secured the identity of a shady person, arranged works, and even ignored the power of the state.

Probably since the guild was treated as a gimmick to make the game run smoothly, it had become such a super organization.

According to the information that I had gathered, the guild in Labyrinth City was the latter. It seemed close the template guild. I still had some surplus in my pocket, but it was very helpful that I didn’t even have to pay the registration fee.

I also said that I wished to be an adventurer when they inspected me before, and of course, I would like to register at the guild.

「I’m okay with going there, but can you move?」

「…Let’s go after having enough break.」

It would be nice if we could finally move with a short break.

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