#045
The interior of the car had changed to a completely different appearance from daytime. The driver’s seat remained the same, but as commonly seen in car camping videos, the other seats had their backrests lowered to create a flat, wide space where they had apparently been relaxing.
On the floor covered with blankets, there were a couple of large cushions, and manga books, game consoles, potato chip containers, beer bottles and such were scattered about messily. A sleeping bag was crumpled and pushed to one side, and heating seemed to be running, making it quite comfortable. It felt cozy as if I’d come to visit a friend’s studio apartment, rather than being in the middle of a desert swarming with monsters.
“Want some?”
Taro held out a container of potato chips. I could feel my eyes widening. The moment I entered the car, my sense of smell had already sensitively caught the salty, savory aroma. As if understanding the meaning of my reaction, Taro chuckled.
“Right, they’re real potato chips. Try them.”
Forgetting that I’d loudly declared I wouldn’t owe Carlisle even a speck of debt, I took the container from Taro’s hand as if momentarily enchanted. Real crispy baked potato chips were actually inside the container.
Unlike the mass-produced products I’d eaten in reality, their shape and color weren’t uniform, and the taste was slightly different too. But they were just a bit less salty, the flavor was deeper, and the savory taste was incomparable. They were clearly homemade potato chips. But…
‘This taste is somehow familiar.’
I’d definitely eaten this before. Where had I eaten this? Who made it for me?
As if answering my question, Taro spoke.
“Kipling ahjussi made them. You remember Kipling ahjussi, right?”
Right, Kipling. It was Kipling. I nodded while chewing the chips. He was Carlisle’s exclusive chef. Sometimes when I went to meet Carlisle, he would make handmade potato chips by slicing potatoes thin and baking them in the oven as snacks…
‘Wait a minute. But why do I think I know this taste? I only ate it in the game, I never actually ate it.’
Are my memories somehow mixed up with reality? I was lost in thought in a daze when I suddenly flinched.
‘Oh no!’
Without thinking, or rather, as if I’d lost my mind, I had been inhaling the potato chips. When I realized my behavior and stopped, the container was already more than half empty. How full had the container been originally?
Even in reality I’d get scolded for being this gluttonous, and here I was in a world where real food was precious enough to be called rare. If I carelessly acted like this elsewhere, knives might come flying from somewhere.
“Ah, sorry. I didn’t realize…”
When I held out the potato chip container with an embarrassed expression and apologized, Taro pushed the container back toward me with an unconcerned expression.
“What, you have to eat something anyway. You fell asleep like you’d fainted yesterday so you couldn’t eat anything, so you must be hungry. Look here.”
Taro opened a small box that had been in the corner. Whether it was an inventory item, it contained quite a lot of things relative to its size.
Looking inside, I momentarily thought I’d left the game world and returned to reality. The beer bottle rolling on the floor must have been real beer. Inside the box were beer and water, along with the coffee I’d been desperately longing for, various fruit juices, and even frozen fruit. There were two more containers of potato chips, and there were biscuits, bread, chocolate, and even candy.
As I stared with my mouth hanging open, unable to say anything, Taro nodded as if understanding my feelings and patted my shoulder.
“This is our night watch snack box. Amazing, right? You could say all this is welfare we can get thanks to working under the captain. These days you can hardly even see real food like this anywhere else. The captain’s annex behind the mansion and the kitchen are practically like research labs. Actually, obtaining ingredients is the problem – the facilities are almost all equipped.”
Taro spoke proudly as if showing off. Actually, I would probably boast too.
“It’s not like before when we had everything in abundance and could make anything, but still, in today’s world this is more than enough. This is communal, so feel free to eat when you’re on night watch too. Ah, of course it would be troublesome if you ate it all at once. We’ll be in the desert for at least a week, so you have to eat considering that.”
Taro was saying it was ‘communal’ so I should eat freely, but of course I couldn’t take those words at face value. I returned the potato chip container to Taro.
“This isn’t something I should say after eating a whole handful, but I think I’d better not touch the expedition supplies.”
Taro looked puzzled.
“Huh? What do you mean? Are you worried about what the captain will say? Even though our captain looks cold like that, he’s not such a petty person. No matter what times we’re in, or rather, especially because of times like these, he wouldn’t act stingy over food.”
I know that. His setting itself is a young master from a local influential family who received noblesse oblige education from childhood and maintains his position as the richest person even now when the world has turned upside down.
That wasn’t the problem. I felt uncomfortable about secretly eating things like this behind his back after loudly declaring to Carlisle that I wouldn’t owe him even a little debt.
But I couldn’t explain all that in detail to Taro, so I just shrugged.
“That may be so, but wouldn’t it be a bit different for me?”
“Why? Did the captain say something? That can’t be right. When he told me to prepare this, the captain said to pack more generously than usual… ah.”
Taro stopped mid-sentence and smiled meaningfully as if realizing something.
“I guess since there’s that kind of history between you two, the captain is being a bit spiteful toward you. It’s okay, it’s okay.”
Taro laughed and patted my shoulder.
“He’s probably just saying that, so you can ignore that kind of spite. Anyway, night watch is for all our rest, and the snack box is, so to speak, for boosting team morale. If you can’t eat and are in poor spirits, you won’t be any help at all. You have to fight during the day too, so thinking about efficiency, hunters need to eat well.”
Taro brought his finger to his lips like a conspirator and winked.
“If you’re really worried, just eat when you’re alone or only when I’m with you. I’ll keep it secret.”
Rather than his talk about secrets, I felt more at ease when he mentioned combat and efficiency. The most important thing right now would indeed be combat. Besides, if Carlisle really said to prepare more than usual, that would mean he was considering what I would eat. I decided to just think of it that way.
Honestly, I was relieved that the food problem was somewhat solved. All I had left were the wild berries and mushrooms I’d saved, the carrots Eira had prepared, and one sandwich Elmer had stuck me with.
I thought I’d packed plenty of Eira’s stamina potions, but that was a huge miscalculation. Just today’s daytime battle had instantly consumed a third of my reserves. So when Taro was willing to share food now, I had to pretend not to know and accept it.
Speaking of potions reminded me of an important fact.
“Ah, Taro. Did you happen to see a potion bottle rolling around while cleaning up here?”
I needed to find the Tranquility Potion I’d taken out to drink at the start of the battle but dropped.
But Taro looked puzzled.
“Potion? No, I didn’t see one. What potion?”
“Ah…”
I was troubled. Of the reserves I’d barely earned through quests – two bottles – I’d dropped one and drunk the other, so I didn’t have a single Tranquility Potion left. I could only get the next potion after finishing Seiz’s quest and returning to town. So I absolutely had to find the one I’d lost.
“What is it? Is it important?”
“Uh… somewhat…”
“Hmm. Then look carefully. I didn’t know what you’d lost, so I didn’t really look properly.”
Following Taro’s suggestion, I carefully examined the front and back seats and looked thoroughly at the floor. Taro also helped search the interior. But no matter how thoroughly I looked in every corner, the potion bottle I was looking for was nowhere to be seen.
“Ask the captain in the morning. The captain might have picked it up.”
In the end, I had no choice but to nod at Taro’s words. Since I drank one today, I should be fine for at least three or four days… I should be able to find it. There were no traces of the bottle breaking… Since the car shook so much, maybe it flew outside during the battle. That would be really terrible. I had to hope Carlisle picked it up and had it. That absolutely had to be the case.
Using the power of medicine to think positively, I recalled the reason I’d entered this car – my original duty.
“Too much time has been wasted. Sorry. Taro, you go to the tent now and get some sleep. I’ll stay awake.”
When I spoke with the intention of properly changing shifts, Taro made a strange expression.
“Go to the tent? You mean the captain’s tent?”
“Yeah.”
After answering, it did seem a bit strange. Well, there was only one field cot in the tent. The narrow cot with me squeezed in sleeping was a strange picture even thinking about it again. But that must have been an unavoidable choice since I had no equipment, and Taro would have spare equipment since days like this wouldn’t be uncommon for him. Even if not a field cot, he could take the sleeping bag here.
But Taro shook his head decisively.
“The captain hates sleeping in the same space with anyone. You know that well, right?”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
