<h4>Volume 2, Extra 1.2</h4>
Trantor: Reflet
Editor: Weasalopes
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「Haruna-san’s birthday?」
「Yup. We were thinkin’ of gettin’ one present for everyone from the workshop and then throwin’ a party separate from that.」
That night. Hiroshi had gathered everyone on the tatami in order to exin the purpose of the meeting. Haruna picked up on the cue, readying the bath and preparing dinner. Artiem’s eyes were emitting an unusual glow. This was either because she liked celebrating with people or because she just wanted to see what kind of feast was awaiting them.
「You know why it’s just one present now, right?」
「That’s cause Boss Man and everyone else are going on another long journey, right?」
「Exactly. So we don’t exactly want to carry around that much stuff.」
「And so I brought y’all here to see what yer opinions were.」
Understanding the n, everyone was ready to say what they wanted. Mio was the first to steal the spotlight.
「A set of underwear.」
「Denied.」
Mio’s proposal was of course smashed by Tatsuya in mere seconds.
「But why, Tatsu?」
「You seriously want to trouble him like that?」
「Eh～?」
Both denied and criticized, Mio drooped.
「That’s right. If Hiroshi-san makes it, I could see Haruna-san being troubled over it.」
「I did think of that too for a moment, but if Boss Man has to go out of his way to make something he doesn’t normally make, it would be difficult to feel happy about that.」
「Besides, Haruna never was the type to be happy about that sort of thing.」
「And overall, I sort of feel that men shouldn’t make underwear for women anyway.」
Now other people were adding to this criticism, and Mio’s opinion was entirely smothered by the storm.
「Still, we don’t have to entirely turn away from clothing, right?」
「Right, right. Now that we’re at it, do you happen to know if we can process spirit thread with a sewing machine made from evil ent wood?」
「I’m sure we could, but it can only be one article of clothin’ at a time, plus we gotta let it rest 24 hours to self-repair or else it breaks.」
「But it can sew, yeah?」
「It sure can. It’s just he inefficient.」
Upon hearing Hiroshi’s reply, the first candidate was now chosen.
「Okay, one more thing. If we started making the sewing machine today, would we make it in time for the big day?」
「Mm, yeah, should be fine. Just know…」
「Know what?」
「The spirit cloth is gonna eventually be customized fer all y’all, so I don’t know if it’ll be all that impressive startin’ out.」
All present quieted down as they heard Hiroshi point this out.
「All right. I might actually like something on the small side anyway.」
After slowly savoring what Hiroshi had said, Teres gave her opinion. After that, all eyes were on her.
「So what specifically?」
「I like the spirit cloth idea, but it’s not like it has to be clothing. It could be something as simple as a ribbon.」
「Ah, I see.」
「True, that way it won’t be bulky, good for an essory, good for tying up hair, and there are other things we can use it for.」
Everyone began to seriously consider what Teres had just said. Things were already essentially decided by that point.
「Alright, it’s ribbon time y’all.」
「Heck yeah. So is there anything we need?」
「Lemme see. While we’re over here, couldja go out a bit farther ‘n fetch me some catalytic material?」
「Like what?」
「If ya go up Spirit Spire Mountain from Adnae, there should be several varieties of mid-boss monsters lurkin’ around, so how ’bout ya go ‘n defeat one of each?」
Everyone in the workshop gaped at Hiroshi’s sudden suggestion. However, the people those words were directed to were fairly ok with it.
「Gotcha.」
「Oh yeah huh, there were a lot of different kinds there. You remember how strong they were?」
「Not as strong as wyverns, I think.」
「Well then, it’ll be a breeze as long as they don’te in a reallyrge group.」
They continued their nonchnt conversation.
「Alright, now that we’re done with presents…」
「Next up is you know what. The food.」
「Haru making it is out of the question.」
「Mio ‘n I are gonna do it anyway.」
Given the circumstances, Hiroshi and Mio were the only conceivable choices. Only Haruna and the two of them were able to cook monster meat.
「Well yes, that would automatically be the case, but…」
「Have you decided on the menu?」
「I know what Haruna-san would like, so I can make educated guesses.」
As one would expect from their long rtionship, Hiroshi knew a lot about Haruna. Maybe not everything, since he was a male, but he knew pretty much anything else.
「So we can just leave it to him, yeah?」
「No problem there, mate. But I am gonna have the rest of y’all search for non-monter rted foods.」
「Alright, we’d be d to.」
「Please.」
And that was how the cooking and venue were nned out without much resistance.
「Still, I’ve been thinking this for a while…」
「Hm?」
「Haruna was born and raised in the Kanto area, right?」
「That’s what she said, yup.」
Hiroshi had a confused look on his face. Where was Tatsuya going with this?
「Nah, I was just wondering why her cooking has an ent of Kansai to it.」
「Oh right, like her curry and beef curry.」
「And the dashi for udon and soba is a bit light in color.」
And they continued to gather up evidence for Haruna’s Kansai-style cooking. After they had finished, they turned to look at Hiroshi, who hadn’t exactly been participating in this.
「Hiro, would you happen to know anything about this?」
「I heard somethin’ once about how her great grandpa on her dad’s side was the cause.」
「Great grandpa?」
「Apparently he was the owner/head chef of some first-rate restaurant in Kyoto or somewhere near there. Haruna-san’s grandpa, on the other hand, couldn’t continue on the path of cuisine cuz he was the second or third oldest. Then her dad became an entertainer but originally really wanted to be the third generation chef in the main rstaurant. That’s how much he liked his grandpa.」
「Okay, so basically she cooks the way she does because of her father.」
「Apparently, yup.」
Tatsuya and the other members simply went along with it. But then Makoto, who always liked nitpicking, added her ownment.
「Wow, I’m surprised her mother just epted that. Isn’t she the famous “Yukina”?」
「Yup, she did say that. But of course I never met ‘er so I dunno what she’s like.」
「I sorta imagine her being the type of person obsessed with taste.」
「Ah～, yeah, I heard somethin’ ‘bout that. Apparently her pte’s fine. It’s more like she just has a wide strike zone when ites to vor. S’long as it ain’t super nasty, she neverins ‘bout the found. Plus what she considers tasty or nasty is the same as everyone else.」
The celebrity singer known all across the world named『Ｙｕｋｉｎａ』, full name Todo Yukina. She had two kids, yet still looked extremely young, plus she never got fat despite being a gourmand. Next to Haruna and her younger sister, Yukina would simply look like another sibling. And much like her daughter Haruna, she was on the tall dainty side but with plenty of protrusion- a true beauty. And on the opposite end of that graceful profile was a pleasant personality. Also, it was evident that Haruna’s aloof nature was passed down from her as well. Still, Haruna’s uncanny desire to work hard was influenced not just by her mother, but also from those around her.
Incidentally, Haruna’s mother had grown up in Emnd until around middle school, but Haruna’s great grandfather loved Kansai cuisine and had brought along a first rate Kyoto cook over for cultural exchange. As a result, Yukina herself had grown ustomed to Kansai style seasoning. So it wasn’t like her father had been the only reason.
Furthermore, perhaps due to having grown up in Ennd, Yukina herself almost never had any qualms with food. It was probably inrge because of her mother’s influence that Haruna boldly tried new foods, no matter how inedible they looked. Although from her mother’s viewpoint, it might really just have been that she was fine with almost anything as a result of being raised on bitter foods in her home country. The number of options she had were as meager as a concert in a desert.
「Well, in any case. Haruna-san’s preferences go right along with my seasonings, plus I know for a fact that anything she likes is great for a party. I’ll try a couple new dishes and the rest’ll be on the safe side.」
「Alright. So you wanna go hunting tomorrow?」
「Heck, ya wanna stretch our legs ‘n try for some garbarensia too?」
「Ooo, I like the sound of that.」
As Tatsuya and Makoto had a rather sinister discussion, every other worker simply made ufortable expressions. Artiem was the only one confused, as she knew nothing about this garbarensia creature.
After all, garbarensia were essentially like harbingers of despair to anyone living between Wulls and the border of Forrey. If you wanted to get a child to behave, you would threaten to throw them before these things. They were true big bosses in every sense of the word. With the knights of Wulls, as long as you lured the garbarensia out into a wide area and came at them with fifty men, you could win in exchange for some casualties. If it were just Julius, Douga, and Rayna going at it, they would have a bit of a tough time taking the thing out unscathed. The only good thing about going all the way from Wulls to Spirit Spire Mountain’s higher parts to fight these local monsters was that they tended not to go down to any viges.
Still, adding to Makoto’s experience with solo defeating field bosses was Tatsuya, who had always held back against the majority of field bosses for the sake of ingredients, so with the two of them it was unlikely to be an issue. To add to that, animal-type monsters were all part of the oxide circle, breathing in oxygen, and garbarensias were no exception. If someone of Tatsuya’s caliber (who was used to dealing with oxides) were in the area, the creatures were basically like sitting ducks. Of course, if you weren’t someone with max proficiency and extensive knowledge rting to skill dy and chanting time, it was impossible to take down the garbarensia ss.
Needless to say, this isn’t implying that Julius and the others were exceedingly inferior to Makoto or Tatsuya. The genre was just way different for Tatsuya, and Makoto excelled more at hunting strong monsters in small groups, but would fall one step behind Julius in arge scale battlefield. Now, Makoto would still be a bit higher than Rayna, but not necessarily when it came to Rayna’s genre of expertise. When it came to being an offensive tank, even one such as Hiroshi with staggering amounts of defense would not so much as reach Douga’s feet in terms of total power.
These three top Fane knights were actually stronger than even the most dedicated no-lifers. But they didn’t have their areas of expertise like in the game, nor would they have the opportunity to specialize anymore thanks to the actions of Hiroshi’s group, so in the end Douga was probably the only one who could truly master his art.