episode_0338

Two four-seater carriages enter the Island of Knowledge from the direction of the dungeon city.

The two carriages, which looked as if they were riding noble people due to their splendid appearance, arrived at Luminor Academy on the evening of the sixth day of the week.

“… Finally, arrived… .”

When the carriage door opened, the first person to vomit out was a small wizard with red hair.

They were members of the warrior party who walked out of the carriage one by one, starting with Agnes who got off using a staff that was longer than her own height as a walking cane.

“I barely arrived… .”

“… I’m tired.”

“I stayed in the dungeon for four days and came back as soon as I cleared it. It’s no wonder I’m tired.”

“I’m still fresh, warrior! If I wanted to, I could go back into the dungeon right now… .”

“What are you talking about when you went into the dungeon so confidently yesterday and almost ended up in danger? You need to cheer up, Natalie.”

The members of the warrior party chat noisily, each saying only what they have to say.

Although it was a very messy scene on the outside, we had been at the party for almost two years, so we were all used to this type of group monologue-like conversation.

… And also, in this party of eight men and women, there are three women aiming to become the hero.

Since they were three people who already understood the feelings each of them had for the hero better than anyone else, the three people looked at each other’s feelings and did whatever they could to shorten the distance between them from time to time.

“… Seraphine, now… .”

“I know, Luke. Could you please get someone’s attention for a moment?”

“Please leave it to me.”

The princess and her bodyguard and exclusive maid shared their strategy in a low voice.

The first to move was Luke, who was busy trying to secure time for the hero and princess to be alone, and Seraphine, who naturally took advantage of the gap to ask the hero out on a dinner date.

“Warrior, if you have time this evening, let’s have a quick meal before returning to the dormitory… .”

“… Hero, I’m hungry. Let’s eat nearby.”

“… … .”

Silena naturally thwarts Seraphine’s plan to secretly summon only one hero.

It was a moment when numerous conversations were exchanged in a short period of time, with eyes sparkling like sparks between the two people.

‘You were alone together for a few days on your way back from the Witch’s Forest last time. But you don’t plan on giving me up for just a few hours in the evening?’

‘huh. I don’t give in. And you always call the hero every day with the excuse that you have something important to say. ‘Despicably.’

‘I’m calling you because I have something really important to say!’

‘lie. He always called me and Celista without mentioning them, and whenever we visited together, I made an excuse that I accidentally forgot to tell him. ‘I won’t be fooled anymore.’

An eye-to-eye conversation between two people in which an ordinary person cannot even tell what they are doing, let alone participate in the conversation.

Of the three, only one person could not participate in the eye-to-eye conversation, so the princess and the elf naturally formed an alliance.

‘all right. Then let’s form an alliance just this once. First of all, the most dangerous thing right now is that woman.’

‘… That, I agree.’

A week ago, in the puzzle of the Temple of the Sun, Celista and the hero were judged to be ‘in love with each other.’

These two people judged her to be the most dangerous person, so this time they changed their strategy to join forces and exclude the saint.

If you’re going to compete, you’ll need to at least set up a starting line in a similar location. If it was difficult for them to move forward together, they had to at least pull the girl who went out first towards them.

“Now that I think about it, Saint Serista. It’s already evening, shouldn’t you go back to church soon?”

“Ah, yes. Because I’m back at the academy… . I have to post a report that I’m back… .”

“Ah, then I will take you there… .”

“Ah, warrior! Actually, I’m planning to have a meeting regarding the distribution of rewards for clearing this dungeon. Would that be okay now? I plan to have it with a meal at a restaurant nearby.”

“Here? It doesn’t matter to me, but as for Celista’s send-off… .”

“I will risk my life to safely transport Saint Serista, warrior Gemmojoshegiggwat.”

“Wouldn’t it be okay since Luke is talking like that? And even if you don’t know about Saint Serista, the warrior needs to give an opinion on the distribution of dungeon rewards, right?”

“… That’s right, but there’s no need to rush it like this, right? And if it’s something important like this, it’s better to talk about it in the carriage… .”

“I forgot. The hero didn’t sleep well for four days. Beast.”

“… Don’t misunderstand, Silena. I just couldn’t sleep because of the dungeon raid. And the reason I couldn’t sleep well in the first place was just because Silena wasn’t used to sleeping… .”

Seraphine and Silena succeeded in eliminating Celista by naturally taking out the warrior’s soul.

“How long will we stand gathered here? Unless I’m going to talk about something important, I’ll go in first.”

“Ah, then Natalie and I will go back first.”

In addition, Agnes felt tired and wanted to escape during the prolonged conversation, and Thomas, who wanted to spend time alone with Natalie, announced his departure.

Seraphine smiled in her heart, saying things were going according to plan, but her impromptu plan was all too easily destroyed by the warrior’s simple whim.

“Let’s just eat together and have a meeting. There is no need for Celista to go in right now.”

“Yes, yes? Ha, but if the report is delayed, the bishop… .”

“Geology exploration class is anyway a class about dungeon raids, so even the distribution of rewards is part of the class. How could the bishop reprimand me for not returning because classes weren’t over yet?”

“Is that so… ?”

“If you feel like you’re going to get scolded, I’ll go with you, so let’s resolve it then. Seraphine thinks this is good too, right?”

“… … … … yes. It’s an extremely natural and reasonable opinion, warrior Getmoeljoshegiggwat.”

Now there was no reason to send Serista separately, and it was only natural that a positive expression came back from Seraphine’s mouth, who could not refuse the words of a hero in the first place.

In the end, it was a warrior party that decided to have a final meeting with dinner a little late in the evening.

“I’m tired… .”

Agnes, who was suddenly prevented from taking a break, just trudged along with the group with a dissatisfied expression on her face.

“But is there a restaurant where we can all gather and eat at this time? Most stores around here only have tables for 4 people. I didn’t even ask you to make a reservation… .”

“There is a store that I learned about personally a while ago. Would you like to go there? Maybe if I tell you the situation, they will be considerate enough.”

“This is a store that the warrior found out about personally… ?”

“Yes. The store owner there said business wasn’t going well, so I shared some ideas for creating a new menu.”

“… You really do all sorts of things.”

It was Gemjoshegiggwat and her group who were walking along while listening to Agnes’ grumbling mutterings.

⁎ ⁎ ⁎

“This is my first time knowing that there is a store like this on the Island of Knowledge. Did Lilith know?”

“… no. This is the first place I discovered, Master Ethan.”

A chicken restaurant we walked into with Ethan by his hand, drawn by the fragrant smell of chicken.

After coming to my senses later, I tried to act as calm as possible and tried my best to explain that I was not familiar with this store.

“What should the menu be? Looking here, this spice chicken looks delicious.”

“Seasoning… Spice chicken is delicious, but if you eat just one dish, it tends to be a bit overwhelming. So, I think it makes the most sense to choose the half-and-half menu that includes this crispy chicken.”

“… You can just be honest if you’ve ever been here, Lilith. I don’t really mean to say that you came here without me knowing.”

“Oh, no. I thought about the story just from the perspective of a store owner. They could have just sold the full one-dish menu, but the reason they put in the half-and-half menu is because the store owner knows that the half-and-half menu is more delicious.

If not, there would be no reason to write a half-and-half menu that requires two cooking steps in a conspicuous place on the menu.”

“… That’s right. Now that I think about it, I think Lilith is right. I was short-thinking.”

… I almost got caught trying to order according to my previous habits, but I think I somehow prevaricated it.

While chatting, Ethan and I each ordered a half-and-half chicken, a plate of French fries, and a glass of cold ale.

‘I never thought I’d be able to have chicken and beer again in this world.’

I know roughly how this store came about. It’s probably the result of that guy cracking the sub-quest ‘Secrets of Delicious Restaurants’.

A subquest in which you give one of your “recipes” to a restaurant in the shopping district of “Luminor Academy” to save the failing restaurant.

Although it is not a main quest, it is a quest that is beneficial to clear in order to secure funds because the reward is ‘royalty’.

When I cleared it in my past life, no matter what menu I chose, it was all there, so sometimes I did chicken, sometimes I did Jjajangmyeon, sometimes I did pork belly, and I had a rough idea, but that guy happened to have good sense and passed on the chicken recipe to the store owner. Looks like he did it.

Thanks to this, I felt my heart pounding strangely at the thought of tasting the cuisine of my hometown, which I had virtually forgotten.

‘It’s been a few years since I’ve tasted alternative chicken.’

It was almost 7 to 8 years ago that my memories of my past life came back, so if you round up, it would be almost 10 years.

Of course, since I had forgotten about it for a while, I didn’t experience any withdrawal symptoms due to not being able to eat it, but if I could still eat it, Korean chicken is something I would like to eat on a regular basis.

… Because I came here as if I was fascinated, it was impossible for me and Ethan to enjoy the atmosphere at the French restaurant, but there would be no point in regretting it now. For now, all I can do is enjoy what I can at this store as much as possible.

If Ethan really didn’t forget his promise to me, he would come up with a suggestion for compensation without me having to bring it up first.

“Half and half chicken, French fries, and cold ale!”

For now, let’s just focus on the taste of hometown right in front of us.

With that in mind, I was about to pick up a fork and put a piece of chicken into my mouth and savor it with Ethan sitting across from me.

“Now, here it is. We can talk more leisurely here.”

“… Is this the store?”

“There seems to be something strange smelling… . Is this a grilled chicken restaurant? ?”

“As an elf, my reasoning is that it’s probably not chicken. When I smelled it, it was definitely a place that mainly sells seafood… .”

… Familiar voices began to be heard from the entrance of the store, which suddenly became noisy.