“”””WOW!”””, we all awed in sheer amazement of the sight before us.
A table filled with all types of foods and delicacies stood in front of us, the table was covered by a white blanket, and the plates were made from porcelain, and the forks and knifes seemed to have been coated in silver.
The flat surface of the table measured in height approximately three meters and and a half, and the width one meter or two.
“I’m not paying for the bill.”, Gray instantly responded, eyeing the set before us. “Don’t worry, we said we’d pay for it anyway.”
The one who just spoke was Laila, she invited us over for dinner, we tried to refuse, but now I understood why she stubbornly tried to invite us.
“I’ll pay half, as a thanks.”, I said. “Eh? You really don’t have to, we invited you guys.”, Laila refused bashfully, Silvet released a small laugh.
“You invited us over here, so this is the least I could do.”
Laila’s cheeks reddened in embarrassment. “Okay…”, she responded in a small voice, the guilt of having to rely on someone else filled her mind.
According to what she told me, she had reserved a table in some bar, but she wasn’t expecting this much of a extravagant feast.
“Mind you telling me, why such a get up?”, Silvet asked, he was only told that a reservation somewhere was made, but what set before him was far beyond his insight.
“When I was searching for a restaurant, I caught a glimpse at this place. But I didn’t really know it’d be this classy.”, Laila explained with a troubled expression.
“The appearance from the outside, made it look like your regular bar or Inn, but it’s contents… is another story.”
Cutting it short, she wasn’t expecting this. I believe she reserved one table enough to fit all of us, but what she didn’t know is the contents of the location itself.
“I’m sorry, truly.”, Laila apologized, her ears dropping low, and her tail wagging slowly in displeasure.
“It’s no problem, I don’t mind paying half. Really.”
‘Especially since I’m quite loaded…’, I refrained myself from saying that, and sat down at the chair, along side with everyone.
“Alright! Let’s start eating!”, Gray, unsurprisingly began eating the food like there was no tomorrow, stuffing his mouth full in almost an instant.
Considering his financial state, he had to do this while he had the chance.
‘I’m going to enjoy this as well.’
I began treating myself with the delicacies set before me, like a king in his courtroom enjoying a delicious meal without a care in the world.
Everyone else began feasting as well, Azure immediately digested the food she took in her mouth.
She was a slime, the need to chew or take time in digesting was not needed. Sometimes, I feel like I forget she is a slime, since she keeps herself in a human form the whole time.
Alice sat extremely next to Athena, apparently the public gazes seemed to disturb her a little.
“…. Way too many people…”, Alice whispered trying to hide herself as much as possible, Athena pated her head in some way to calm her down. That scene almost made them look like sisters.
I wasn’t really affected by my surroundings, I was with other people after all. And believe me, eating alone in a place filled with people makes you one thousand times more anxious.
The twins sat next to Azure, they seemed to be ogling the extremely rare beast before them, munching down on about almost one quarter of the whole food, while indulging themselves as well.
Oh, I forgot to mention the order. I sat next to Athena, next to Athena was Alice, next to Alice was Azure along with the twins. On the other side of the table was Willow right next to me (I was sitting the end where I could see both sides), next to Willow was Gray and next to Gray was Mash shyly eating her food in peace. And next to her was Silvet, and from there you could guess who was last.
And that was our seating order.
‘Ah~, this is so peaceful.’, I enjoyed every moment of this temporary peace as long as I could.
A young woman wearing a apron approached the table, and began collecting the used and empty plates.
“Is there anything you’d like to order?”, the waitress asked politely, her dog tail wiggling happily as if to accommodate to the mood.
“Uh, there’s nothing really… Surprise me.”, I let it up to the waitress to choose, and she nodded.
Everyone else asked what caught their eyes inside the menu, however I was silently ignoring them.
The mood was too perfect, that’s what I felt. I let myself go, and relaxed as much as I could.
The Demi-Human waitress left with a small piece of paper with our orders.
“I swear! Things will get better! The moment I get the Excalibur, my life will finally have a turn!”
Gray, his cheeks were slightly red from the alcoholic drink he consumed, and began ranting about his life once again.
“What will getting a sword change about your life?”
I understand it being legendary and powerful n’ all, but will it really make his life make a 180 degree turn?
“I apologize for the wait.”, the waitress, surprisingly quickly returned with a couple of plates on her arms.
“Shiro, you don’t understand anything, do you?”, Gray arrogantly spoke in a manner that made me genuinely want to punch him, while the waitress handed over the dishes.
“As you know, the sword Excalibur, was left behind by one of the heroes in the center of the kingdom.”, Gray explained, while he took a mouthful of his food into his mouth.
“The hero struck the sword to the ground, and it has not moved an inch since he has left it there. Ever since, then people have began trying to put themselves up to the challenge to try and pull it out.”
“The one who pulls it out will be destined to be the next hero, or so the prophecy says.”, Gray explained
“Oh, I see. So you think that by pulling it out, you will be seen as a hero and promoted to class ‘S’?”, Laila teased.
“DAMN STRAIGHT!”, Gray hit his cup against the table, Mash shook in reaction to the sudden sound hitting her ears.
“All my problems, will be gone. All of ‘em.”, Gray said over and over.
I ignored him, knowing that I would no longer get any information out of him.
I faced my plate, and began feasting myself once more, however—
“Hey Master, say ah~”, Athena extended a spoon towards me, and showed me sort of a lewd expression I’d say.
In that moment, time seemed to freeze.
‘Oh no, this is one of those situations. Yes…. I’ve been in a situation like this before…’, everyone’s movement slowed, my mind using full use of the Skill ‘Fast Thought Processing”, I began calculating.
‘Back on earth, even as a teen, I refused to take in the spoon, the contents of the insides were unkind to me, though obviously it isn’t poison, but what if it doesn’t taste good? I have I actual reason to eat, but right now is one of the most perfect circumstances to indulge myself, in this table we have a total of eleven people, the food presented on the well set table that even nobles would envy would be enough to feed a family of five people for two days and a half, however I doubt everyone’s stomach is big enough to not led anything to waste, I could make Azure devour everything, but considering that I was present, I could not but envy Azure for being able to feast herself until she was overloaded. Now back to the initial problem, cut short, I want to eat good food, high quality one could say. Back on earth, junk food was god-tier food, to some it was second rate, but in this world and including for myself it was not a exaggerating to say it was Divine. However, the contents within the spoon my female acquaintance which is actually much closer to a friend, was unknown, from my perspective it appeared to be soup, or some liquid. Taking it in won’t be a bad idea, but if it tastes bad I’d probably throw a tantrum, so it was a fifty-fifty situation. But if I’d refuse, my dignity as a living—, no as a person would be shattered. Then what other choice do I have? Take the risk, and become food poisoned? I have the ‘Status Effect Resistance’ skill, which almost nullifies any feeling of nausea or possible poisoning or drugging. But it doesn’t nullify the taste, which in itself wouldn’t be a bad thing because I needed to be able to taste it so that I could enjoy it to its full content.’
‘And so, the conclusion to this dilemma is!’
Nom
It was no exaggeration to say, that I in the most literal of cases, devoured the spoon.
The action of opening my mouth was easy to execute, but I took it to another level due to the sheer pressure of the spoon being presented by the female specimen.
My mouth, though unexpectedly small, fit the whole round base containing liquid perfectly. But from the sight of others, the whole entire action was to be described as.
‘’’Cute!!!’’’, although I did not own the ability to easily tell what others were thinking, their expressions gave it away.
My cheeks slightly pink, I pulled my head back and released the spoon from my mouth, leaving behind a string of saliva behind.
My slowly let the taste spread within my mouth.
‘What is this?!’
The taste was totally against me, it went as far as destroying all my expectations and reasons, as well as making almost half a pages worth of a description as to why I refused to take in the liquid.
‘This is so good!’
Word were not enough to describe the taste, nor the texture. As someone who never truly valued the taste of Soup, and or any type of liquid organic matter that could be consumed by the human body and used as a dish, this opened my mind to one million, no, one trillion of possibilities!
‘Actually, that’s a bunch of bull.’
However, I was not exaggerating when I said it tasted extraordinarily good. The texture wasn’t like the soups made by my mother, it was extremely similar to a dish I had once digested down my throat. But what was it?
As I began licking the liquid to try to distinguish the possible ingredients. If I may say, I was quite the food connoisseur back on earth, that is also one of the reasons why my mother gave up making food for me knowing that it wouldn’t satisfy my needs.
I felt something hard, but soft to the tongue surrounding the liquid.
‘This is—‘
That is right.
What I discovered, was something hidden below the soup looking liquid, it was—
Ramen.
“Athena, what did you order?”, I asked her with a shaken voice. “I-I ordered something called ‘Ramen’.”
“I see.”, as I feared. It seemed like the knowledge of my world was quite well spread here, I’ve seen several examples, but this one I was not expecting.
“Was it not good?”, Athena asked with her expression slightly shaken.
“No, no, it was really good. It’s just I wasn’t expecting this sort of thing to be that good, that’s all.”
Athena smiled happily. “Then I’m glad.”
“Would you two stop being lovey-dovey, it’s beginning to make sick.”, Laila commented.
Athena blushed, and I shook it off, albeit I was feeling a bit restless.
“Oh yeah, I was meaning to ask you this.”, Gray suddenly sprang out from his drunken state, and seriously looked at me in the eyes.
“Would you like to go to the capital with us?”
Gray was meaning to get the so presumed to be ‘Holy Weapon’ which resides in the center of Zeltram, which is very blandly known as the capital.
If he was going to move soon, that meant that’d be the most precise location he would go to.
“Mhm, I’m not sure. What do you guys think?”, I asked my lil’ ol party about their opinions.
“I don’t mind.”, Athena answered.
Nod, was what Alice did, without saying or muttering a single word.
“That’s perfect actually, I was meaning to go there eventually.”, Willow said, agreeing.
“”We go wherever Big Brother goes.””, the twins answered.
“I go wherever master goes!”, Azure easily said.
“You hear them, if you won’t mind us accompanying you, we would gladly join you.”
“Okay, it’s settled then.”
“We’ll be moving in two days.”
TFTC!