CH 9

…Bryce-kun asked Kirika-chan, 「What will you do?」I guess he was asking her whether or not she was going to make a contract with me.

Kirika-chan chose to skip her meal.

Hmm, but still…

It was a bit difficult to eat when the little girl beside was having nothing.

Oba-chan here still has a lot of learn! Even if they said this was part of their training…

I returned to my room, grabbed the other four bottles of potion and exchanged them all for bread.

Then, I gave a loaf each to everyone.

「Um, you see, in my hometown, there’s a custom we call “hikkoshi-soba,” where we give a plate of soba to each of our neighbors as a greeting! I don’t have any soba, so I’ll give you bread instead. I look forward to working with everyone! If you feel the same way, please accept my gift. If you don’t want me to be here, you don’t have to take it!」

I did a quick bow.

I was going put in more effort to follow the rules of the dungeon, but not today. That can wait until tomorrow.

Sorry, but I will be using the modified version of a Japanese custom in this world!

「Um, what’s soba?」

「I don’t really get it, but we should accept this to follow the customs of your hometown, right?」

「We also look forward to working with you.」

The three of them accepted the bread.

Hoh.

Thank god. But still, I couldn’t do this everyday.

There wasn’t a method for us to gather enough potions for everybody to eat until they’re full either.

Those black devils…

In Japan, I could spray them down rather than smacking them to death. Sadly, there were no cockroach sprays in this world.

There was another extermination method by getting one of the cockroaches to bring poison back to their nest, but I didn’t know if a nest even existed to begin with. Also, if the poison was brought back to an area we couldn’t enter, we wouldn’t be able to pick up any potion that drops.

Hmm…

Ah!

I know! Might as well give this a try. Let’s try asking about it later.

Just as Bryce-kun described, the bed was quite soft, and I fell asleep quickly.

The following morning.

「Ah! My alarm didn’t go off, what time is it?!」

I jumped out of bed, but quickly remembered I was in another world.

Um, even though I was in a different world, I should do the same thing I did every morning: make breakfast.

Yesterday, all I did was eat the bread that came out of the vending machine.

I went to the kitchen and saw Bryce-kun.

I didn’t check out the kitchen yesterday, but I saw that there was a cooking range. It looked like one you would find in a fairy tale. There weren’t many pots and cutlery, but at least there was something.

However, I didn’t see any ingredients or seasoning.

「Bryce-kun, is there a fridge… I mean, a food storage you keep ingredients in?」

「Nobody cooks, so no.」

Eh?

「We only get bread and potatoes too.」

Bryce-kun said, pointing at the vending machine (I didn’t know the actual name of it so I dubbed it the “vending machine”).

「Don’t tell me all of you only eat bread and potatoes everyday?! What about meat or fish? Any vegetables?」

My future went bleak.

Growing children living off of bread and potatoes every single day! Sometimes they even have to skip a meal!

Yes, eating all that would probably give your stomach a bulge, but this was an unbelievable situation for me as a Japanese person.

I took a closer look at Bryce-kun’s face, since I didn’t do so yesterday.

His face looked fine.

His skin was pale, almost white. His complexion wasn’t bad. His beautiful, translucent blonde hair wasn’t dry either.

I grabbed his hand to look at the color of his nails. They were a light shade of pink, like the color of cherry blossom flowers. They weren’t yellowing nor blackening either.

「Wha, Yuuri-san, w-what’s the matter?」

I grabbed his shirt and lifted it up.

His rib cage didn’t pop out. His stomach didn’t really bulge out a lot, and he didn’t have any rashes either.

「Wha-, nee-chan, what are you doing! Dungeon rules say, no romantic relationships between party members!」

Kurtz-kun stopped me from lifting up Bryce-kun’s shirt.

「Eh? Is this romantic?」

Kirika-chan lifted up her own shirt and showed off her stomach. Kirika-chan looked like she was doing fine as well.

「Huh? Romantic? What are you talking about?」

I asked, tilting my head to the side in doubt.

「That’s what Rofas-san said. Men and women are banned from taking off their clothes in the dungeon!」

I felt my face burn up from embarrassment.

No, that was slightly different from a romantic gesture. Oh, I see. I understood what Rofas-san was trying to say.

Then again, I did lift up Bryce-kun’s shirt just now…

「I-I’m sorry, I’m treating you like a child.」

I thought about the children of the woman my husband cheated on me with. I raised one of them from ages one to six. No, I only “took care of her child.” I ended up treating Bryce-kun the same way.

I let go of Bryce-kun’s shirt, and straighten out Kirika-chan’s shirt.