Ch.167Chapter 167

After thoroughly enjoying the hot spring, I returned to the room and flopped down on the bed, closing my eyes.

I didn’t feel particularly sleepy, but there was definitely a sense of languidness. I twitched the corners of my mouth, then completely relaxed and rolled around on the bed.

“I feel all fluffy and refreshed.”

Until just a while ago, I had been soaking in hot water that made my chest feel tight. Now, after drying off, putting on soft clothes, and rolling around on the bed, the feeling was indescribably thrilling and wonderful.

As I was grinning and enjoying the moment, Ouro had somehow lain down beside me, taking up a bit of space on the bed.

Since she wasn’t particularly large, she didn’t take up much room, but because she was slightly pressed against my side, my space had diminished.

I could tell her to move away and have more space, which would be more comfortable, but since I don’t take up much space either, I just left her be.

I thought having enough room for just me to lie down was sufficient.

“Are you going to sleep?”

“No, everyone else is still awake.”

When I casually asked, Ouro answered without moving.

Since she naturally doesn’t have the concept of drowsiness, even when feeling languid, she doesn’t actually get sleepy. It just feels good to close her eyes, nothing more.

Because of this, Ouro seemed to be planning to sleep only when everyone else did.

After our brief exchange, Sera suddenly sat up and stared at us.

“Going to sleep already? We should go eat now. There’s a buffet here at the lodging.”

“Oh right. We went into the bath without eating first.”

At Sera’s words, Aria, who had been lying flat, slowly got up. Then she checked the time and nodded.

“We still have about an hour and a half left. Let’s go. Everyone must be hungry after all that moving around.”

“Food!”

Ouro, who had been lying next to me, sat up with sparkling eyes. A small vibration traveled through the bed.

Karen, who was on another bed, also got up and rubbed her stomach.

“…I’m hungry too. I couldn’t eat anything because I was motion sick the whole time…”

“Earlier there weren’t many people in the hot spring because they were eating. I wonder if the restaurant will be empty now. That would be nice.”

Iris recalled the hot spring from earlier.

We had gone to the hot spring when people were eating, and thanks to that, we were able to enjoy the outdoor bath with few people around.

She seemed to be hoping that the restaurant would be empty now since everyone had already eaten.

I also hoped things would turn out as Iris said.

Though there would be plenty of delicious food outside the inn, I didn’t want to miss the buffet provided by the inn, which was said to be delicious as well.

Plus, fewer people meant less chance of food running out when it was served.

“Sounds delicious. I wonder what they’ll have?”

“I like pizza.”

Ouro was looking for pizza even here.

She had said chicken was delicious before, but Ouro tended to prefer pizza. It wasn’t just about the taste; she seemed to enjoy watching the cheese stretch, which made it more fun.

It seemed that both eating and enjoying were important to her.

“Pizza? I’m sure they’ll have pizza. But I wonder if it’ll be similar to what Ouro usually eats?”

“Huh? Are there different kinds of pizza?”

I was the one who questioned Sera’s remark.

Pizza is pizza, so I tilted my head wondering what she meant by different kinds. Sera said it would be better to see it directly rather than explaining it verbally, and showed me her phone screen after fiddling with it.

“Ouro seems to like pizza with lots of cheese, but since this is a buffet, they make the pizzas thin so people eat less.”

“…Oh.”

Ouro, who had leaned in and pressed her head against mine, let out a sigh.

She couldn’t hide her disappointment at the sight of the thin pizza with little cheese.

“But we can still eat lots of other delicious things… huh?”

“I can eat well even if it’s thick…”

“Ah, right. That’s true, of course.”

Ouro mumbled her complaints, but Sera could only make a troubled expression as she had no way to address those complaints.

Honestly, I would have been troubled too.

For a buffet, they would only make what they already planned to make. We couldn’t suddenly ask them to make something with more cheese just because Ouro was here.

“Ouro, let’s eat that later. Today, let’s just eat what’s available here. There must be things we can only eat here, right?”

“…Okay, fine.”

When I put my hand on Ouro’s shoulder to persuade her, she reluctantly nodded.

We went to the floor where the restaurant was located. Normally we would have to wait in line, but there weren’t many people, so we could go straight to the tables.

The six of us sat around a large table.

“Everyone needs to get food. Karen and Iris can go first, then I’ll go with Aria and take Ourr and Ouro.”

“Ah, yes. I’ll go first then!”

“I’ll get drinks first. Is there anything specific you want to drink?”

At Karen’s question, Ouro slightly raised her hand.

“Cola, mmph.”

I covered Ouro’s mouth.

Karen only had two hands, so we needed to get our own drinks. Otherwise, Karen would have to make several trips, which would be troublesome.

Ouro looked at me with wide eyes.

When I flinched and slightly lowered my hand, Ouro covered my mouth in return, for no apparent reason.

This was all for a reason. But Ouro probably wouldn’t understand that. To counter such unconditional retaliation, I needed a strategy.

I licked the hand covering my mouth. Startled, Ouro removed her hand and glared at me.

“My hand is not for eating.”

“I had no choice because you covered my mouth.”

“Ourr covered my mouth first.”

“You should get your own drink.”

As I raised one finger and lectured her, Karen smiled brightly.

“Then will Ourr help me?”

“Then Ouro should come too. With six hands, we can bring six glasses.”

“…Okay.”

It wasn’t difficult to grant Karen’s request. But since four hands would still be awkward, I brought Ouro along.

Ouro nodded as if she understood and got up from her seat.

Quite a few people were coming and going, carrying food. As we headed toward the drinks section, Ouro suddenly stopped walking.

“Ah!”

Following behind Ouro, I bumped into her and stopped.

“What is it?”

“…Huh? What’s that?”

“Is that… chocolate…?”

“Yeah, it’s chocolate.”

I nodded at Ouro’s question.

If it had been ordinary chocolate, she wouldn’t have been surprised, but a three-tiered chocolate fountain was bound to be amazing.

Moreover, a person standing there took a banana skewer and dipped it into the fountain. The chocolate, which had looked like a sculpture, showed that it was actually flowing as it covered the skewer.

Seeing the white banana turn chocolate-covered, Ouro’s eyes began to sparkle.

“What are you two doing?”

Karen, who had been leading the way, must have found it strange that we weren’t following, so she came back to where Ouro and I were.

Then she followed Ouro’s gaze to see what she was looking at.

“Fondue?”

“Fondue?”

“That’s called fondue. That’s what you’re looking at, right?”

“I’m not sure. Is that chocolate fondue?”

“I haven’t tried it myself, but I’ve heard that dipping fruit or prepared bread in chocolate is called fondue. There are chocolate ones and cheese ones too, I heard.”

Karen tilted her head as she explained.

She seemed to be having a hard time explaining since she had no experience with it herself, only what she had seen and heard.

But that was explanation enough.

“Made with cheese… is there none here?”

“Doesn’t look like it.”

“Ugh. But this is good too.”

Ouro’s eyes were already burning with excitement.

After much deliberation, Ouro finally returned with a plate containing a single chocolate-covered banana.

“Here, I brought drinks.”

“Wow, thank you.”

Karen handed drinks to Sera and Aria, and I gave drinks to Karen and Iris, but there were none for Ouro and me.

Sera blinked in confusion at this fact.

“Where’s Ourr’s?”

“…Ouro brought fondue.”

Grinning as she followed behind, Ouro had a plate with just one chocolate-dipped banana instead of a drink.

She placed it on the table, climbed onto the chair, and stared at it with an amused expression, as if oblivious to her surroundings, before taking a bite.

“It hardened so quickly…! It was like liquid before.”

“That’s because they have a separate heating element. It can’t solidify there.”

“So you can’t drink it?”

“Generally not, I guess? You might be able to drink it if you poured it into a cup, but that would be difficult…”

I didn’t know from experience, but it did seem like eating too much chocolate at once would be overwhelming.

Ouro made a nasal sound and nodded, then stuffed the banana into her mouth all at once.

With her cheeks puffed out like a squirrel, Ouro stared blankly for a moment before looking toward Karen.

“Next time, let’s go eat cheese fondy!”

“Fondy?”

“Fondy.”

For a moment, I doubted my ears.

Raising an eyebrow, I corrected Ouro.

“Ouro, it’s not fondy, it’s fondue.”

“…I said fondue. Ourr just didn’t hear properly.”

“Huh?”

For a moment, I wondered if that was really the case, so I looked around.

Looking at the faces of Sera, Aria, Iris, and Karen one by one, they all seemed to be holding back laughter, so I was probably right.

“You said fondy!”

“I don’t know, I’m going to eat fondue.”

Ouro quickly ran off to where the fondue was, saying she had already finished her bite.

“Sera…”

“Just let it go, Ourr. Ouro is still learning a lot.”

“Mmm.”

Ouro had already grabbed another banana skewer and plunged it into the chocolate fountain. I could see her fascination as she watched the flowing chocolate split around the banana.

Watching her, I couldn’t help but smile.