Chapter 42: The Factory Sightseeing Tour – Liquor Chapter

We went through a fifteen-minute walk heading for our next destination while following after a light-footed Elma and finally arrived at the last stop for today’s tour.

“So it’s a factory of Kouryuu Beverages! Kouryuu Beverages is one of the most reputable breweries in the entire empire y’know! They produce most types of alcoholic drinks, but they’re particularly famous for their sharp-tasting and full-bodied beer!”

A bright-eyed Elma stopped before the factory gates and started explaining away in high spirits. The three of us are here for a factory tour, but one of us started acting like a tour guide before we even entered the facility. What the heck? It might just be my imagination, but Elma was currently surrounded by bright, sparkly effects as she talked animatedly…… What’s with that?

“Hey Mimi, is it just me, or is Elma actually sparkling right now?”

“I think she is…… Is that some kind of elven magic?”

“Eh, this is the first time I’ve heard of that. Is that actually a thing?”

“I’m not that familiar with the particulars, but it seems elven magic does exist.”

Seriously? One of the reasons why I call her a disappointing elf is because she looked like she couldn’t use magic, but elven magic actually exists, you say? She certainly didn’t look like a mage character type though.

“So let’s go in now guys! C’mon! Let’s hurry up and enter! Now, now!”

Elma’s current tension was MAX level. I haven’t seen her this excited before. I looked back toward Mimi. We exchanged wry smiles and followed after Elma, who charged straight inside the factory.

Just like with the other factories we visited, we were welcomed by a waiting receptionist and instructed to undergo a sterilization procedure first. We then proceeded inside the factory proper. Likely due to the fact that they were a reputed and popular brewery, we found other people taking the tour alongside us. The aisle dedicated to tourists was well-cleaned and had a nice atmosphere.

There were a lot of humans among the visitors taking the tour like us. The citizens of the Graccan empire were comprised mostly of humans, so I guess this was just normal. I haven’t even encountered another elf in the tourist group apart from Elma. So I guess they were kinda a rare species or something.

As far as non-humanoid races go… there were lizardmen, creatures that looked like a cross between amphibians and fish, creatures that looked like sea anemones walking upright with their tentacles, and beastmen with animal ears and tails. Can those upside-down sea anemones really communicate with other creatures……?

“What the heck are you spacing out for over there, Hiro!? Let’s hurry up and head for the drink sampling corner!”

“Whoa there lady. Let me get a proper look at the place first. You can just drink some booze in the ship later, can’t you?”

“D-Drinking freshly made liquor is an entirely different experience altogether……”

“Fine, fine. Don’t be so impatient. We don’t have any more places to visit after this, so there’s no need to hurry so much.”

“Uu……”

Elma’s long ears drooped in disappointment as she cutely puffed up her cheeks. What are you, a sulky little kid?

“So they make ale at this place huh.”

“They make beer.”

“……Okay, beer then.”

I still think it’s ale if it doesn’t go down smoothly though. Well, it’s not like I’m knowledgeable about the particulars, so I guess I’m in no position to talk huh. In this dimension, it’s treated as beer even though it isn’t carbonated. Let’s just leave it at that. But it really is a mystery why there are practically no carbonated beverages around in this dimension… Was the method really lost after the people here advanced into the interstellar age? Was it because it wasn’t suited for a zero-G environment? I guess it’s possible.

“The manufacturing process for beer doesn’t have anything particularly surprising huh. Well, I guess the machines processing the products work really fast and efficiently, so people into that sort of stuff wouldn’t get bored no matter how much they look.”

“There are people like that?”

“Um, I rather like watching them. It somehow feels relaxing.”

“I still don’t get it.”

Elma shrugged as she watched the factory machines milling about. But I guess I kinda like watching them as well; seeing the factory machines work in a systematic and precise manner, I mean. I even kinda feel like I wouldn’t get tired of watching a factory such as this producing a large number of products like clockwork.

After we had our fill watching the factory machines doing their thing, we headed for the next area. So next up is the fruit wine production section huh. Will we get to see something like the extraction and fermentation process over there? That was what I thought at first, but what we got to see was quite different from my earlier expectations.

“An orchard?”

Yep. The next area resembled an orchard. Splendid-looking vineyards were spread over a vast, open space, where a large number of drones and robot arms were moving about and doing all the farm work. It resembled the vegetable plantation we saw back at the food cartridge factory.

“Let’s see. It’s a farm for cultivating fruits used to make liquor. This seems to be a wine fruit field.”

“Wine fruit field……?”

What’s Elma talking about……? I followed her gaze and found what seemed to be a 『Wine Fruit』tasting corner. You can pay Enels at a terminal in order to sample freshly picked 『Wine Fruits』there, it seems.

“Let’s try eating some. The wines made by Kouryuu Beverages are also delicious.”

“I haven’t tried drinking any wine before myself. I’m kind of looking forward to it.”

As I looked on while still feeling somewhat perplexed, Elma paid some money by placing her terminal over what seems to be a high-tech vending machine. After a few moments, something resembling a paper cup with pieces of dark-purple fruit that were the same size as Kyoho grapes popped out of it.

She threw the fruit into her mouth without any hesitation.

“Mm〜, liquor tastes good, but this wine fruit is delicious as well. Here, Mimi. Try it out.”

“Is it okay? Here I go then……”

After Elma, Mimi also got herself one of the fruits and popped it into her mouth.

“Nn…… It isn’t as sour as I first thought, isn’t it? It also isn’t astringent.”

“Well, it seems they squeeze the skin and seeds along with the pulp during the manufacturing process. We don’t normally crush the seeds and skin in our mouths when we eat the fruits fresh, right? That’s why it isn’t astringent.”

“I see. But you can still taste a hint of liquor when you eat them right……? They taste delicious, but it seems you’ll get drunk when you eat lots of them.”

I approached the two who were having a strange-sounding conversation.

“Do you want one as well, Hiro? Even if you’re weak to alcohol, you should be okay if you eat just one piece, right?”

“Probably……?”

“Okay then. Say a〜h.”

“A〜h.”

I obediently followed Elma’s words and opened my mouth, and she picked up another piece of the wine fruit and fed it to me. Un, it really is like grape. I started chewing the fruit in question.

“!?”

Within moments, the distinct aroma of alcohol exploded within my mouth. The juices that seeped out of the pulp each time I chewed tasted like actual wine. Just like Mimi said, it wasn’t as astringent as actual wine and had a milder flavor, but it tasted like completely processed wine nonetheless.

“Is the alcohol infused in the fruit itself……? Is this for real?”

“It seems like it’s different from what you’re familiar with huh, Hiro.”

“The wines I knew were made by crushing and fermenting grapes similar to these wine fruits, and then aging them in wooden barrels.”

“That sounds like a traditional, or rather, a primitive method of producing wine. I heard that wine was still made like that until two thousand years ago. At present, the commonly used method is making them from wine fruits, y’know?”

“Did they use selective breeding… no, genetic engineering in order to breed these fruits…? That’s kinda outrageous.”

I nodded after swallowing the rest of the fruit juice along with the skin, pulp, and seeds. I felt my body getting hot. It seems my face got red just after sampling one fruit. Ugh. It looks like I’m as weak to alcohol as ever.

“Your face is turning red, Hiro-sama.”

“Pupu〜 You’re really kinda cute when you’re like that, y’know.”

“Shut it, you. I’m the type to get red after just one sip of alcohol…… I’ll get utterly drunk from downing one can of beer y’know.”

Mimi was smiling as she looked at my reddened face while Elma giggled as she continuously popped the wine fruits into her mouth. I got conscious of my reddened cheeks and hid them with one hand. They smiled even more gleefully when I did so. Damn.

“C’mon, let’s go to the next area. Next!”

“Fine, fine. Let’s go then. Hiro-cha〜n.”

“Hiro-chan…… Fufu.”

I walked ahead in haste as my two companions followed after me with amused grins. Dammit! This place is like a cursed spot for someone like me.

Next is the brewery area huh. It was the brewery area, but……?

“A forest……?”

“So those are the so-called liquor trees huh.”

“Liquor trees?”

“Yes. The natural whiskey extracted from them is a rather high-class product. It tastes completely different from synthetic whiskey.”

“Synthetic whiskey…”

This is just so out there. What the heck is up with something like natural whiskey?

“Um, how is natural whiskey produced?”

“This section of the tour will show us the process, apparently. Look, there’s an explanation over there.”

Elma pointed towards a holo display playing a holographic info video. I pressed a button to replay the video from the start.

Basically, the sap from those so-called whiskey trees is what’s called natural whiskey. Like how one would extract maple syrup, placing a cut on the tree would allow one to collect the sap from within. Like, seriously, man. What’s up with these weird trees? I bet they’re really flammable!

By the way, the process for producing synthetic whiskey is also included in the video. It seems that Kouryuu Beverages sells the product at a relatively cheaper price. It looks like it wasn’t produced in this area though. It was apparently made by mixing artificial flavorings into artificially produced alcohol in order to make it taste like whiskey.

The natural whiskey is quite popular, but the cheap synthetic whiskeys are more widely distributed, it seems.

“Mm〜! As I thought, natural whiskey is absolutely to die for!”

“Really now?”

“*Cough, cough…… It’s a little too strong for me.”

Elma had a wide smile plastered on her pretty face as she drank whiskey from a shot glass. Mimi, on the other hand, narrowed her eyes as she tried to cope with the whiskey’s aftertaste. Elma bought a second shot as she rubbed Mimi’s back. She’s planning to drink until she’s utterly plastered, isn’t she……?

Disregarding my concerned expression, Elma really ended up piss-drunk when the factory tour ended. Even Mimi ended up groggy from the alcohol.

“Eehee……Hirooo……”

“I-I’m sorry, Hiro-sama……”

I managed to get back to Krishna while holding on to Elma, who clung to me like an octopus, and supporting Mimi, who walked with an unsteady gait all the way.

And after she turned sober enough, Elma ended up having her face turn blue after looking at her data terminal. It looks like she actually purchased a large number of different kinds of alcoholic drinks when she talked to the staff before the tour ended. And the total cost was a whopping 100,000 Enels.

“Hey…… You still haven’t managed to pay me back even a single Enel, and here you are spending one hundred thousand just to buy some alcohol. You sure you have your priorities straight?”

“A-Awa- Ahahahaha…… S-Sorry?”

Elma clapped her hands together in front of her and cutely tilted her head as she begged for forgiveness. Hahaha. Really now. This lady’s just……

“You’re banned from drinking for two weeks. If I ever find you secretly trying to sneak in a drink…… Fufu. I’ll let you have a good taste of the food paste Mimi and I ate last time. Even Dr. Shouko says you’ll get addicted once you get used to the taste y’know?”

“Hieee…… I-I’ll abstain from drinking……”

Elma nodded obediently while shedding tears. Well, she sure agreed easily enough. Not like I’d take no for an answer anyway.

Afterward, the three of us spent three days resting up. And in order to avoid getting involved in anything else troublesome, we decided to finally leave the system. However…… it was far too late.

It happened just when we finally finished resting up.

“It’s been quite some time, Silver ranked mercenary, Captain Hiro.”

There was an unexpected guest.

Fine facial features, lustrous blonde hair, ruby-red eyes, and sporting a red mantle over her pure white military uniform. A beautiful lady soldier with a fine-looking sword strapped to her waist. Yep. Lieutenant Serena Holz, who was supposed to be in the Termaine system, suddenly paid us a surprise visit.