Chapter 62 - Designs from the Future
We had set up a large iron griddle and were in the middle of preparing okonomiyaki—me, Peta-chan, and Bugu-kun.
Right now, we were mixing together cabbage, tempura scraps, and okonomiyaki batter in a messy, gooey heap.
“—So? Care to explain why you’ve been completely ignoring my messages?”
Of course, I had expected Bugu-kun to complain the moment I summoned him, so I waited until everything for the okonomiyaki was ready before calling him.
I figured if I had him help cook, it’d distract him a bit and keep him from being too loud.
“It’s because that queen from your country showed up. I wanted to spend a few days focusing on observing her.”
“Yeah, I figured as much. But honestly? I don’t give a damn about the queen.
Why the hell did they have Captain Touji go back with her!?
She finally looked like she was gonna take on the deepest part of my dungeon!”
“Don’t blame me. That Queen Teta or whatever took her back on her own.”
“Tch... yeah, I know. Still, isn’t that because of the dungeon you made, Sen?
...Hey, isn’t this basically just a flattened takoyaki?”
“Don’t you dare lump okonomiyaki and takoyaki together! They’re totally different things!”
“Master, since we’re at it, I’ll cook some yakisoba on this side too.”
“Sure thing. Let’s grill some frankfurters, buttered potatoes, and squid while we’re at it.”
Well, truth be told, it was that queen’s decision to take Captain Touji back, and complaining to me wouldn’t change anything.
I’d just let Bugu-kun vent while we ate, and he’d probably head back after that.
What should I serve him to drink? Judging from his taste in food, he probably had the palate of a little kid. Maybe I’d give him melon soda or something.
“繧難シ”
“縺翫ｄ?”
“Hm? What’s up with you two?”
“Seems like Kenma’s Gem Core is trying to say something, Sen.”
“Tanya-san? What could it be? Is it okay to summon her now, Bugu-kun?”
“Go ahead. If it kills some time, I’m game.”
Peta-chan muttered a chant under her breath, and the space around us warped.
In a blink, a busty demon lady adorned with dusky gemstone accessories appeared, along with that British gentleman-looking guy.
Man, it’d been a while.
“Whoa, whoa! What the hell?! You already managed to line up your dungeon layers with mine?! Huh? Wait, what?
Why the hell is Marpon’s Weapon Core here?!”
“Oh, I’ve been dropping by now and then to learn about food cravings from this Master here. It’s surprisingly fun.”
Bugu-kun said that casually, chomping down on some okonomiyaki.
“Damn... So you’ve been raking in points from Weapon, huh? No wonder your dungeon’s growing like crazy.”
“So? Tanya—is that what your Master named you, Gem Core?”
“Shut up, Weapon Core. I’ve got no obligation to answer your damn questions right now.”
“Alright, alright. I’ll cover all the points for today’s chat, so let’s just relax and talk.
Food Core, can you re-link the space with me as the central node?”
“Yes yes, mumble mumble~~”
With another chant from Peta-chan, the air around us warped slightly again.
Honestly, I couldn’t tell what had changed, but it was probably that Bugu-kun was now footing the bill for the conversation points.
“O-Okay. Yeah, Tanya is the name my Master gave me, no doubt about that...
But you sure about this, Weapon Core? I mean, you’re fine with me just casually chatting with Sepans’ Master like this?”
“Go ahead. I’m honestly curious what you came all the way here to say, even spending points to do it. Might end up being a worthwhile trade.”
Bugu-kun chuckled with interest.
Yeah... now that I thought about it, what exactly had brought Tanya-san here?
She didn’t seem like the type to waste points just to complain like ‘You’d already reached the same level as me—dammit—’
In fact, the only Core I knew who could afford to toss points away like that was Bugu-kun.
“Alright then, I’ll ask you straight, Hot Spring Master—just how far into the future are you from, in that other world of yours?”
“Pffft!!”
I spat everything out in a spectacular spray.
What the hell? Was there something that clued her in—that I was from a much more advanced future than the British-looking Master?
I couldn’t remember exactly when glass mirrors were invented, but I was pretty sure it was well before the Industrial Revolution. So that wasn’t it.
Then what was it? The honey jars? The pepper shakers? The soap? The sake in paper cartons?
Damn it! Now that he mentioned it, any of those could’ve tipped him off! There were way too many giveaways—damn it all!
“Hot Spring Master-san, the items that adventurers brought back from your dungeon... Every single one of them is far too revolutionary.
I mean, look at this griddle and the tableware and even the food in front of us—what is this? You can’t just explain it away by saying they’re foreign products, can you?”
The Gem Master said that as he examined the griddle setup you’d find in a modern okonomiyaki restaurant, including the metal spatulas used for flipping.
Yeah, anyone could tell this stuff was from the future.
Even someone from Japan’s Showa era would probably find the design too slick and refined—it’d feel out of place.
“That’s why I told you from the beginning, didn’t I? I said I’m a Master from a bit further in the future than you.”
“A bit... hardly seems accurate. The Thread Master seemed to be from hundreds of years in the past, after all.”
Ah, so I was right.
If that weren’t the case, there’s no way someone could make the bold decision to manage a dungeon using thread, of all things.
“Well, whatever. So I’m from the future—what of it?”
“I don’t care what it is—I just want to see decorative items from your future world.
I’ve been designing jewelry inside my dungeon for so long that I’m no longer sure if I’m heading in the right direction.
I wish I could hear more outside opinions... I need fresh inspiration. A spark.”
So that’s what he wanted—future-world jewelry designs as reference?
This guy seriously only cared about being a jeweler, huh.
Well, if that’s all it was, it wasn’t going to hurt me, so I didn’t mind showing him something.
The problem was... I knew nothing about jewelry.
“So in return, you’ll share some knowledge of gemstones that I can use in our No-Hunger Dungeon?”
“Yes, I can’t think of anything else of value I could offer.”
Hmm. Right now, booze was way more popular than gemstones, so there wasn’t much demand for them at the moment.
Still, I figured it might come in handy down the line, so I agreed to take it.
Now then, how the hell was I supposed to conjure up jewelry?
I couldn’t picture detailed designs for individual gems. So instead, I tried to recall the entire look of a jewelry store I once passed by in a department store and used that as the image.
The result? A whole store space appeared, like a jewelry boutique tenant unit inside a department store—glass display cases lined up neatly with glittering jewels.
Was... was this good enough?
...Wait, I even recreated the price tags.
This one said 17,000 yen, another 37,500 yen, and the most expensive piece was maybe around 250,000 yen?
Well, yeah, I had imagined a typical mall jewelry shop—not a place that sells gems worth millions.
The biggest gem here was that amethyst slab they usually display at the entrance of power stone sections.
Can’t really blame me—I’ve never set foot in one of those ultra-luxury jewelry stores for the super-rich.
Still, even if the stones themselves were cheap, the design was the important part, so it should be fine.
“T-This... You’re saying these finely cut diamonds—each one uniformly shaped and arranged in such numbers?
No... I understand that in a dungeon, products made of mana require no effort to produce... You’re telling me they were sold in the country you lived in?
But how much work went into crafting these?”
Ahh... yeah, now that he mentioned it, the design where a row of tiny diamonds encircles a main gem was pretty common in the modern world.
Now that I thought about it... how did they cut each of those tiny diamonds? Did they have machines that automatically cut them into that standard shape? I had no idea...
Surely no one’s cutting them by hand, right? Not at those prices. Yeah... no way they could be handcrafted that cheaply.
While I was exchanging awkward words with the Gem Master, Bugu-kun was chatting with Tanya-san as he munched on okonomiyaki.
Peta-chan, for her part, didn’t seem particularly interested in our gemstone conversation and was happily playing around making various desserts.
Damn it, I wanted to join the okonomiyaki party too, not run a damn jewelry consultation booth!
Still, while fumbling through questions that I could barely understand half of, I managed to get permission from the Gem Master to create and distribute a few of their gemstones on my end.
“Thank you for waiting, Tanya-san. Let’s head back now.”
“Yeah? So, you think you've got enough now to make the new floor a hit?”
“It’s hard to gauge the tastes of this world’s nobility... but I do feel like I can produce some fresh, original designs.”
“Good. And hey—when we get back, you eat something too. I want you to teach me what hunger feels like.
Anyway, sorry to intrude, Hot Spring Master.”
With that, Tanya-san and the Gem Master vanished smoothly into thin air.
If she was starting to get curious about food, then maybe next time I could invite her to one of our meals too.
Honestly, with the way I was feeding Bugu-kun right now, it felt like I was some neighborhood uncle taking a kid out for lunch.
Would be nice to have a busty, tanned beauty join the meal for once.
“Well then, Sen, I’ll be heading off too.
Melon soda with ice cream is amazing—I think I’ll be enjoying that for a while.”
Saying so, Bugu-kun vanished with a soft fwoosh.
“Thanks for your hard work~ Want something to eat too, Master?”
“Hmm, I’ve been smelling the okonomiyaki and yakisoba this whole time, and it’s been driving me nuts... I think I want some Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki with everything layered together.”
“Okie dokie~!”
Peta-chan cheerfully set about making it for me.
Though really, it probably wasn’t for me specifically—she just genuinely enjoyed cooking.
After all, if she wanted, she could’ve summoned a finished dish in an instant. The act of cooking itself was just a way to pass the time.
So I didn’t ruin the fun by conjuring up a ready-made dish myself—I sat back and waited, watching her cook at a leisurely pace.
“Hm... So now everyone knows I’m from way in the future...”
“Yeah, but... is that actually a bad thing?”
“Who knows? I’ve kept the monitor and touchscreen dungeon management stuff under wraps because it’s too overpowered...
But just being a future person—dunno if that really causes any problems.”
If I’d reincarnated into this world as an above-ground adventurer, there was a decent chance someone would try to exploit my knowledge for their own gain.
But as a dungeon master, I couldn’t really think of any major downside to being outed.
Even Bugu-kun was learning about food from me, but for him, the whole act of eating was a completely new experience.
It didn’t really matter when I was from.
“Oh.”
“Hmm? What’s up, Master?”
“Well... Tanya-san wants to learn about eating too, right? But if she’s learning from that Master, then... she’ll end up learning Industrial Revolution–era British cuisine, won’t she...?”
“Oooh, that means we might get to try some British food you don’t even know about.”
Peta-chan smiled brightly, like that idea genuinely delighted her.
“Ah, y-yeah... that’s true.”
I responded gently, careful not to dim that dazzling smile.
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