Chapter 365: Side Story: The sky above and the ground below

Kusunoki Miri did not know where she was above the clouds.

If she could at least see the sun or the stars, she could calculate her bearings but the only window in the room was now boarded up with a wooden board.

The wooden board in the otherwise stylish room indicated that it was a rushed job.

“How was it? It doesn’t look like you ate much today. The chef made that just for you. And today was even a mother-style bento.”

Daijiro referred to Miri’s recent loss of appetite.

It wasn’t as though she was completely not eating anything but she was leaving more than half her food uneaten.

“There isn’t a chef on this ship. It’s probably something bought from a restaurant and kept in an item bag.”

“It’s convenient so what’s wrong about that. At least eat the rice. See I even sprinkled on egg and seaweed furikake.”

Daijiro said and picked up the fried chicken that Miri did not eat from the bento and brought it to her mouth.

After seeing her swallow the fried chicken, Miri slowly spoke.

“That piece fell on the floor just now.”

“Eh? You’re kidding.”

“I was kidding.”

A short silence followed.

“ … Famiris has turned into a meanie.”

“Anybody would turn mean if locked in such a place.”

Daijiro sighed.

Then, she ate an octopus-shaped wiener.

“So, Famiris. What was the meaning of that letter? To buy Milky’s book. After seeing that lemonade marble message and checking Milky’s book, I didn’t notice any particular content. It was just a regular BL manga. That was why I allowed it to be sold at the book sale.” (TL: BL = Boys Love genre)

Daijiro licked her fingers and wiped it with a wet tissue before taking out Milky’s book from her item bag.

Daijiro didn’t seem to hate the R18 development between young men and was looking a little fixedly at the book.

“Of course. There was no meaning to that book. That was just a means to make Onii stay in Mallegory until tomorrow.”

“Means? For what?”

“12,000 Tsuaobal soldiers will start invading Mallegory tomorrow.”

“The royal army will attack the capital of its own country!? Is that child the key to stop the invasion?”

“No way. Onii will not be able to stop the invasion no matter what he does. Onii has a different role.”

Miri said as she opened the seal on the furikake inside the bento box.

“Onii has the role of bringing salvation to this world. The role of avoiding destruction. The role to avoid the end of the world.”

She said as she watched the furikake spilled down like sand in an hourglass.

“Wait, Famiris. Your ability to look into the future should only extend to a couple of seconds into the future. But the things you are speaking of now makes it seem as though …”

Daijiro seemed to have noticed something and asked.

“Famiris, how far did you see?”

Miri did not answer her.

Miri looked in the direction out the window.

Although all she could see was the wooden cover.

※※※

Jofre and Elize were currently investigating the mysterious ruins they entered from the basement of Suzuki’s home warehouse. They called it investigating but they were not investigating anything in particular and were just walking around aimlessly.

The ruins which used to be a dungeon still glowed with a faint light even without any monsters remaining so they were able to enter deeper without having any torches.

“Look, Jofre! This looks like an edible mushroom!”

“There are some here too!”

Jofre and Elize picked up red and blue mushrooms.

Naturally, both kinds were poisonous mushrooms.

Jofre and Elize placed the mushrooms they harvested in front of Centaur who was waiting in front of a large door.

Centaur came to help Jofre and Elize a few days ago but for some reason sat in front of that door and did not move since then.

Because of that, Jofre and Elize brought food to it.

Centaur ate the poisonous mushrooms that they brought to it but it still showed no signs of moving.

At first, Jofre and Elize tried to push and pull Centaur to move it but they had already given up and went to have their meal.

Of dried meat.

Anything apart from meat had already been sucked into Centaur’s stomach so all they had left was dried meat.

“It’s delicious Jofre.”

“Yeah, Elize. But we are about to run out of water.”

“We have to secure some then. Right, let’s tell Jo about this place once we return. I’m sure Jo would be excited.”

“That’s a great idea! We’ll call everyone and have a picnic!”

“Picnic!? I’m looking forward to that! We can make sandwiches and rice balls.”

“Did you know? Elize. They wrap the rice balls with a black paper in this country.”

“Eh? Really? Why must they wrap it with a black paper? Can’t they wrap with red paper?”

“Red paper is out of the question. To the townspeople, red paper signifies that there will be a war soon.”

“Really!? Then we won’t be able to have a picnic.”

“Right? So we should use black paper.”

“Ah, Jofre! If black is better than red, can’t we wrap it with dried meat? Although the meat is originally red, it turned black once it was dried. If we wrap with this, won’t it signify the end of fighting and for everyone to have a delicious picnic?”

“That’s a great idea! But dried meat is hard and not suited for wrapping around rice … right! Then we can just wrap it with grilled meat?”

“Yes, that sounds great, Jofre! It sounds delicious!”

That moment was the birth of the concept of meat-rolled rice balls in this world.

At that moment.

Elize accidentally dropped the dried meat in her hand in her excitement.

“Ah, my dried meat … eh?”

There was a small button near the location where Elize dropped her dried meat.

Elize pushed the button without any sense of wariness.

The large door groaned and started opening outward.

“… Amazing … I wonder if there is treasure ahead?”

“It must be, Jofre! And I hear water!”

“Drinkable water!? Let’s go, Elize! Treasure and water are waiting for me!”

“Okay, Jofre!”

The two of them happily went in.

【Thank you very much.】

There was the voice of a woman.

Elize turned to look back but there was only Centaur there slowly getting up.

“Elize! We found a spring!”

“Really!? I’m coming!”

Elize assumed that she was hearing things and ran toward Jofre’s voice.