“Hey,” I called out to Arthur and he, as if sensing that I want to speak about serious stuff, tensed up somewhat and gave me his full attention “just to make sure that I am not going crazy and that we are on the same page…yesterday’s events-- or should I say, the events before we went to sleep since I don’t know how much time passed-- they were real right? It’s not my mind playing tricks on me right?” I asked just to confirm that I am not going crazy.
“If you are talking about--”
*Knock-Knock*
Arthur’s speech was interrupted by someone softly knocking on our door. My eyes automatically drifted towards the simplistic wooden door. For some reason that knocking sound made my body freeze. It seems like a gross over-exaggeration to have over something as small as someone knocking on your door but because I am in an unknown place, in an unknown room with only one escape route that is already blocked by someone from the other side… I guess there is a reason why the unknown is considered to be one of the scariest things out there. There is for sure something primal about that, I can guarantee you that much.
*Knock-Knock*
The methodical but soft sound repeated itself and this brought me out of my stupor. My eyes that were glued to the door now went to Arthur that was already looking at me. He nodded at me and I nodded back. Arthur rose up from his bed and went towards the door. I followed in his steps after putting on the sandals that were near my bed. For a brief moment, the desire to grab something that can be used as a weapon visited me but it was dismissed just as fast-- more because of the lack of any viable weaponizable objects in my field of view rather than because I thought the idea was unnecessary.
Reaching the door, Arthur put his hand on the door’s handle and opened it in one swift motion.
Seeing who was on the other side of the door I became disappointed in some ways and pleased in many more. It’s not that I expected a big scary monster to be waiting for us, but seeing a charming young woman in her mid 20’s wearing a classic, honest to goodness, maid outfit-- I didn’t expect this one either.
The woman in question smiled at us and said in a soft voice. “Dear Heroes, I come to inform you that dinner is ready and waiting for you downstairs. Do you want me to escort you?” Despite the voice beeing soft, it definitely had an edge to it.
Arthur exchanged glances with me and responded with a simple “Sure”.
-----
The woman led us into a spacious room filled with lots of tables that looked like some kind of massive dining area (canteen?). Here, with practiced expertise, the stuff (Servants? Maids? They were definitely wearing maid outfits) were filing up one particular large table with food. There were a variety of dishes, from pastries to fruits, to whole roasted birds and even one whole pig. The only thing that looked out of places was that only one table was filled with food in this dining room clearly build in mind to easily serve even 100 people at a time.
“Please take a seat. Other Heroes will join you shortly” the maid escorted us directly towards the table stuffed with food.
“Ah, yes, thank you but can you please tell us-” I didn’t even manage to finish my question before the maid interrupted me with a strict:
“Unfortunately I am not authorized to answer your questions. Please take a seat and enjoy your meal. The answers that you seek will be given to you after dinner.” the maid said this in a cold and monotone voice. From the way she said these lines, it was easy to pick up that she was rather used to repeating them. In the end, she even primed her glasses while giving us a stern glare. Did I mention that she wears glasses? No? Well, she does. And it looks very hot on her.
Looks like we will not get an answer from her. Oh well, it was worth trying. Besides, I already have a good idea of what is happening right now. If my theory is right then it looks like Mr. Truck-san lived up to his reputation. Thinking about this and my current situation, I wasn't able to hold the smile from creeping on my face.
Without any further pruning from the maid, I sat down and impaled with my fork a nicely cooked slice of meat. I am not sure if this is the hunger speaking in me but damn this is for sure the best slice of meat I've ever tasted. It has such a soft texture that it doesn’t even feel like meat. It almost melts in my mouth leaving a little bit of a salty aftertaste. Yep, that's for sure the best meat that I had in my life… well, lives. I never tasted something like Kobe beef before but from the descriptions that I’ve read, it should be something similar.
Damn, some Ketchup will be ideal for right about now.
While I was already shoving the 5’th slice of meat, Arthur just sat down and started carefully picking on the dishes in front of him. He was acting way more reserved than me but after tasting the food, his speed steadily increased, and very soon he was just wolfing down food as if there is no tomorrow, just like me.
“Hey, try this pastry before I eat all of them. It’s really good” Arthur shoved a plate with 3 pastries on it to me.
“Yes, thank you” I replied while taking 1 pastry from the plate. The pastry was triangular and with a very fluffy, croissant-like texture. One bite into the pastry revealed that it had a sweet, milky like cream.
Holy cow...
Man, why in the heck is this so good. I mean, on the outside, this just looks like a simple pastry with some sweet cream as filling, but damn, the taste is anything but ordinary.
I think that the “Holy cow” was literally milked to create these fillings because I have no other idea of why they are so delicious.
“This is for sure the best thing that I’ve tasted in quite a while." I say while looking at the plate with pastries that were near Arthur.
“Same.” Arthur simply says. Seeing me looking at the remaining 2 pastries on the plate he smirked and give me an understanding look. He took one pastry for himself and offered the last one to me.
I gave Arthur a short “Thanks”. Before I managed to take a bite, the big double door to the dining area opened up and both mine and Arthur's head snapped towards that direction. The one who opened the door was a maid. Just like the one that led us here, she had the same classical, french like maid outfit with black hair tied in a ponytail. More importantly thou, behind her I saw a girl of 19-20 years of age with blonde and rather unkempt hair that reached her shoulders.
Shortly after the maid and girl entered the dining area, the doors opened once again to reveal another duo, this time a maid and a guy. The guy didn't have any discernible features about him except maybe his rather long black hair and bangs that covered half of his forehead. Judging from his neglected facial hair thou, I had a suspicion that both were allowed to grow because the guy found it a hassle to take care of it rahter than anything else-- a sentiment that I found myself often sharing.
Both newcomers, just like me and Arthur, were wearing a white shirt and a pair of white trousers with sandals on their legs.
The two maids lead the newcomers to our table and said their most likely already prepared lanes of: “Please take a seat and enjoy your dinner, your questions will be answered shortly afterward”. After that, the 2 maids retreated to a stuff room? Kitchen? It should be a kitchen. Can’t say for sure but it will make sense if it will be a kitchen since if this place is built to accommodate a big number of people it will only make sense to build a kitchen nearby.
“Hi, don’t feel shy you two, take a seat.” Arthur indicated at the place on the bench near him. “We also came not long ago and just started to dig into the food.”
“Ah, yes, thank you.” the girl said and took her seat some distance away from Arthur. The guy on the other hand just sat down near me without a word.
“I am Arthur by the way.” With his hand extended towards the girl and a smile on his face Arthur introduced himself.
“Alice” She simply supplied.
“This is Edward” Arthur indicated with his hand at me.
“Just Ed is fine.” since shaking her hand over the table will be rather awkward I simply settled for a nod which she reciprocated.
“And you…” Arthur trailed off while looking at the new guy.
“Mm? Ugh, you can call me Knight, Knightofnight”
What? The guy was speaking rather softly and the last part was rather mumbled somewhat so I didn’t understand what he said. A peek at Arthur’s face that had an awkward smile plastered on, told me that he shared my confusion.
“You mean Nait? As in Naitan?” I tried to clarify.
The guy cleared his throat and repeated: “I said that my name is KnighOfNight. You can just call me Knight for short. Or maybe Night if you want”. The guy clarified with a neutral expression on his face.
KnightOfNight? Seriously? Is this his go-to username in MMORPGs? It definitely sounds like one. Does his explanation of what is happening around us is that we are in some kind of advanced VRMMO right now so that's why he just used his ingame nickname instead of his real name? Well, I can’t really blame him since my version is that we are in a fantasy world with an ‘Isekai’ like scenario but still… Or maybe he is just a weirdo?
“Right, well, nice to meet you… Nait” Arthur said awkwardly and gave him a small nod acknowledgment. The expression on his face told me that he had no idea what to make out of... Nait's strange introduction.
A simple “Mn-Hmm” and a weak nod of the head was all that Nait gave in response.
There was silence in the air for a while before I broke it with a fake cough.
“I propose we eat first before the dishes go cold. It will be a big waste otherwise, you can have my word on that.” with that said, I started digging into the dishes that caught my fancy, not before securing a couple more pastries from another untouched plate filled with them.
Arthur just shrugged his shoulders and, just like me, secured a batch of pastries for himself before they were gone.
The girl, Alice, despite clearly wanting to say something, simply looked with an analyzing gaze at my and Arthur’s machinations. Most likely from curiosity rather than anything else she took one pastry for herself. One bite into it and the blissful expression on her face made clear that her priorities shifted right at that moment. She wolfed down the remaining part of the pastry and then proceed to take the remaining pastries for herself, leaving only one on the plate for Nait-- not before hesitating for a good few seconds if she really needs to be considerate or not towards him.
Cute. That’s what came to my mind while looking at her actions.
As for Nait… he seemed, ironically enough, to be the most relaxed out of all of us. He simply focused on putting food on his plate with an expressionless face. Does he know something that I don’t? Maybe he is just good at hiding his true feelings? Or was I right in assuming that he is simply treating it as some kind of VRMMO?
Well, no matter, the night is young, I will have time to ask my questions later.
