CH 338

After going around and visiting the dubious artifact shops, we headed to the dining area of the Dauntless next.

“So, this is the large dining hall huh…… I’m getting really excited.”

The dining hall of the Dauntless was very large. The impression it gave was that of a large food court. Auto-cookers that served all kinds of food were lined up by the wall, and it seems that people ordered food from them and dined at the prepared tables in the middle of the hall.

This large dining hall had a higher ceiling compared to the other areas, making it have an open and comfortable atmosphere. There were also lots of ornamental plants and terrariums placed in various spots inside the hall, and you can clearly feel the intent of reducing stress as much as possible.

“I don’t really think we should expect much from military meals though.”

“I wonder. That’s true for combat ships, but I think you can expect some decent meals on a supply mothership that’s deployed on a long-term mission.”

Elma wanted to temper Mimi’s expectations a bit but I responded otherwise. There should be a difference in the quality of meals provided by a battleship that’s only expected to be out on the field for a few days to a few weeks at the longest and a supply mothership that’s going to be active for a few months to possibly even a few years.

Also, the meals provided for the officers assigned to the Restalias were great in both taste and quality, but the ones served in the regular dining hall were a bit more questionable. They did say only the tea was strangely delicious.

“It doesn’t look like they have alcohol.”

“It’s still the middle of the day inside the ship timewise after all. And I don’t think they’d serve them in a military dining hall in the first place.”

“The mess halls of civilian ships have bars though.”

“So, you can find alcohol over there huh.”

“Tina-san really loves alcohol, doesn’t she?”

“I ain’t the only one. Whee also loves em.”

“Even I wouldn’t drink at this hour. You should pay attention to TPO more, Big Sis.”

We continued to have friendly conversations led by Tina and Whisker. Kugi seems to have already gotten quite familiar with the rest of the girls. I kinda want her to drop the deferential tone when speaking to me…… but it looks like it’s gonna be hard to persuade her.

“Okay then. Go ahead and order your meals then gather together after. There are still a lot of available seats so I don’t think it’s necessary to secure a table in advance.”

Because we just arrived at the Dauntless earlier in the day and checked out those artifact shops first, we missed lunchtime, so there were plenty of vacant tables in the hall. Or rather, there sure were a lot of tables and seats in here. Plenty of them were completely vacant.

“Right. Let’s go!”

Mimi took my arm and started walking toward the auto-cooker area. I glanced back at Elma and saw her shrug her shoulders and wave us away. She seemed to be telling me it was fine and to just go ahead. Whisker and Kugi tried to follow after us with expectant expressions, but they were stopped by Tina and Mei respectively. It looks like today was Mimi’s turn.

“There sure are a lot of different auto-cookers!”

“I wonder if there are some from the company that made Tetsujin too? I don’t think they have a Tetsujin model here though.”

“I’m not sure if they have the latest V model, but maybe they have the previous IV model instead.”

“Well, we’re always eating meals prepared by Tetsujin anyway, so how about trying out meals from something else for a change?”

“That’s true.”

They were all auto-cookers, but they each had their own specialties. The Tetsujin series was positioned as high-end machines aiming for above-average specs and overall quality, but other manufacturers make machines that specialize in preparing meat dishes, sweets, nutritionally rich meals, meals with a high degree of novelty, and so on.

“Oh, that one looks promising. It looks like a machine specialized in fast food.”

“It does seem like it. Let’s order different dishes.”

We found an auto-cooker specializing in hot dogs, hamburgers, tacos, and pizzas, so we decided to order from it. Tetsujin wouldn’t normally prepare these kinds of fast food, or rather, junk food unless you specifically order them from it. But in my case, it does prepare a few junk foods for me as side dishes.

Curiously, if you leave the menu decisions to it, Tetsujin’s menu choices actually differ from person to person. It supposedly has the ability to provide the most suitable meals by analyzing stuff like the amount of exercise one did in the training room and one’s brain waves. It was a wastefully high-tech auto-cooker.

I ordered a hot dog while Mimi ordered a taco roll. We selected the shared menu option, and the food came out in slices that you can easily share with your companions. It was pretty considerate.

“Oi, Boss! Over here!”

Mimi and I carried a tray each and looked for the rest. Before long, we heard Tina’s voice calling out to us. It seems they’ve already secured a table and were already around it. I couldn’t see Mei with them, but she was probably ordering drinks for everyone.

“See. I told you Big Brother and Mimi-san will choose the shared menu, Big Sis.”

“But this is pretty rare so I wanted to try it out.”

Whisker complained to Tina who was fanning her lips after eating a mouthful from a bowl of something resembling curry udon. That’s fine and all, but be really careful when eating that stuff, alright? It’s gonna be a disaster if some of it gets splashed onto your clothes. Oh, right. The washing machines of this world were really high-performance, so I suppose they can get rid of those kinds of troublesome stains as well.

“That’s gonna taste bad if you let it sit for too long and the udon grows, so you better eat it fast, Tina.”

“Grows?”

“The noodles will suck the soup up and swell, so the texture will become too soggy. Go ahead and eat it all up before that happens.”

“Hmm? Ya sure know a lot about this even though it’s unusual, Boss. Ah, does this also exist in your hometown?”

“I don’t think it’s exactly the same dish though. Oh, and be careful when eating. If you don’t pay attention, the soup might splash onto your clothes and mess them up.”

“Hahaha, somethin’ like that is easy-peasy.”

It looks like it’s no good. I’ll just pray for the happiness of Tina’s clothes in their next life.

“Please look, My Lord. I managed to find a dish from my home country.”

After saying so, Kugi showed me a dish that looked very much like inarizushi. A fox girl and inarizushi were definitely a standard combination, but this world also had something like this? Or rather, the Holy Vuelzarus Empire had inarizushi huh…… Don’t tell me even their cuisine was Japanese-style?

“It looks delicious. I and Mimi chose some safe dishes.”

“I ordered dwarf-yaki.”

Whisker showed the dwarf-yaki that really resembled okonomiyaki. In fact, even the taste highly resembled okonomiyaki. Kugi found a dish from her country, so maybe Whisker followed suit as well.

“I ordered this.”

“Something that goes well with alcohol?”

“It’s delicious so it’s fine, right?”

Elma ordered a large amount of something resembling karaage. I wasn’t sure about what type of meat was used (or if it was even real meat in the first place since it came from an auto-cooker), but its appearance resembled chicken karaage. Staple food? Are you really fine with just ordering a large batch of that, Elma-san? She sure is impulsive sometimes.

“I’m sorry to have kept you all waiting.”

Mei finally arrived holding a tray of drinks. Just where did she get that tray?

“Well, now that we’re all here, shall we dig in? There’s nothing, in particular, to toast about, but anyway, cheers guys.”

“Cheers!”

I picked up my drink bottle to lead the toast, and Tina, whose mouth had already turned yellow from slurping the curry-like soup, hurriedly raised hers. Tina really acts fast when it comes to stuff like this.

We taste-tested each dish and the consensus was that most of them were pretty delicious. However, except for me, no one else felt particularly taken with the inarizushi.

“It’s not like it isn’t delicious, but to consider it as a main dish is a bit……”

“I think it ain’t bad as a standalone snack.”

“But it kind of doesn’t go well with the rest of the dishes……”

“I don’t think it’ll go well with alcohol either.”

It was a complete loss. I didn’t have any problem with it, but Kugi got dejected.

“I think it is quite delicious though……”

“I do like it. But it might taste a bit strange to those who aren’t used to the combination of vinegar rice and deep-fried tofu.”

“How unfortunate.”

Kugi with her ears drooping down in dejection looked quite pitiful, but I think inarizushi was an acquired taste.

Well, aside from Kugi acting all depressed for a bit, the meal was generally enjoyable and high-quality.

Also, Tina’s clothes encountered a disaster just like I expected.