In any case, I am just glad to see that all of the girls are enjoying the meal that I have prepared for them yet again. As such, the Tatsuta-age vanishes from our plates rather quickly.
But now that the first serving of it is gone, not only Miria, but also Roxanne and even Sherry are holding out their plates in front of me, clearly requesting more of my delicious food to be given to them, and while I would like to do nothing more than to oblige them ang give them what they want, I had to show them that there was only a little bit of it left, which caused Roxanne and Sherry to hold themselves back.
Miria, however, looked like she was still intending to go very much at it while not paying attention to how everyone else felt. However, she was not the only one who was gunning for it, because I also stretched out my hand forward, hoping to get that last slice for myself. Can I please have it.......
「..........」
Oh God damnit.
「Go on Miria, you can have it.」
Miria was looking at that fish so intently that I just couldn’t help it but to cave in and let her take it.
「Okay, desu!」
When I allowed her to have the last slice of the fish, Miria gleefully stuffs the last piece of tatsuta-age into her mouth. There’s just no winning with her when she’s looking so cute while eating her favorite food without a shred of a care in the world.
She moves her jaws slowly, savoring every last piece of the fish as if she was never to eat something delicious like that ever again, and once she was finally done eating it, her shoulders have dropped noticeably. Ahh, it’s okay Miria, I perfectly understand how you feel, because I am feeling exactly the same, since the Tatsuta-age that I made today was simply that delicious that I feel like there’s a hole in my heart now that I stopped eating it.
「Do not be sad, Miria. We’re going to make another celebratory feast like that when we’re going to break through the fifteenth floor of Haruba’s Labyrinth, I promise.」
「Eat more fish, desu!」
When I announce that we’re going to e eating more fish like that again, Miria’s eyes immediately brighten up. That way, I have ensure that she’s going to be showing that much more enthusiasm whenever we’re going to be heading to the Labyrinths, even if we’re not going to be facing fish-type monsters. In other words, that a perfectly balanced carrot and stick method.
「Hmm... in that case, I think that we would have to design one from scratch, which means that an additional cost is going to have to be charged accordingly. Rest assured, however: that additional cost is not going to be much more than the cost of the fabric itself. To give you the rough idea of the costs, aprons made out of ordinary fabric cost about thousand Nars per apron, while the one that are made of silk cost fifteen hundred Nars.」
「Hmm... I see. So that’s how it is with them, huh?」
For a single apron, that price is quite high. Maybe because I’m actually commissioning them to make an entirely custom order instead of ordering an already existing one? Not to mention that if I opt for having the one made out of silk, the price is going to be ramped up even higher.
「Which color would you like the aprons to have? Because if you like, then we can arrange for a color that matches the sheen of the silk perfectly.」
「White will be just fine.」
Man, he’s a persistent one, isn’t he?
「White would be a great choice of color indeed. It should go perfectly with the natural sheen of the silk without looking too artificial.」
「Y-Yeah, my thoughts exactly.」
Except that I don’t care about it all that much. All I care about is getting my hands on the aprons themselves. Their color and the fabric that they are going to be made of are secondary matters at best to me.
「But really now... is it really going to be that good?」
「Of course! Just try imagining it. Body wrapped from chest to knees in smooth silk. Silk that is so soft to touch and glossy in appearance that it’s going to be stealing the mind and soul of whoever lays their eyes upon it. We promise you on our professional pride that we are going to deliver you the best product possible!」
Dude, could you cut it out already? What do you think I am, some kind of moron who doesn’t know even the simplest things like that? He really must be taking me for someone like that, right? Otherwise, he wouldn’t be trying so hard to describe all of the good qualities of silken apron to me. Well, tough luck for him, because I already know both how an apron made out of silk looks like and how it feels like, so I’m not going to be falling for any of your marketing tricks no matter how hard you’re going to be trying to shove them down my throat.
*Ekhem!* In any case... even though a silken apron is going to be an expensive purchase, I still end up ordering it anyway.