Chapter 86 - Ice Cans
About a week had passed since we brought out the unmeltable ice.
One day, just as I was wondering what the female knights were up to, they began gathering huge quantities of luncheon meat cans—and then, all at once, started eating them.
Their cooking methods were simple: grilling them, tossing them into stir-fries, or mixing bitter melon with eggs and luncheon meat, stir-frying it all together and seasoning it with mentsuyu.
“At some point, it basically turned into goya champuru.”
Well, considering we had unlimited chicken and eggs, bitter melons growing everywhere, mentsuyu on hand, and luncheon meat to spare, it was only natural that they’d end up there.
Though... without tofu, it felt a bit lonely. When you think of goya champuru, tofu was essential.
The Kingdom of Sepans has a bean-based food culture, right? Didn’t they have tofu? Tofu, at least?
“Bitter melon, huh... it’s just a little too bitter for me.”
Peta-chan had been raised on my sense of taste, so I couldn’t imagine her outright hating goya champuru.
Still, it seemed her childish palate hadn’t completely faded yet—she still winced a little at ultra-spicy curries or food as bitter as bitter melon.
I hadn’t started genuinely enjoying scorching curry or bitter melon until my early twenties, so maybe Peta-chan’s current taste buds were about where mine had been back in my middle- or high-school days.
“But still, why are they going around eating nothing but those meat cans?”
“Who knows?”
It really was unnaturally excessive—the way they kept devouring those meat cans.
Or rather, maybe they’d eaten all they could, because eventually they started throwing away the meat inside.
Hey, hey, don’t waste food.
Sure, it was food made from miasma, so even if it was discarded it would just get absorbed and turn back to miasma again, but seeing food treated carelessly still rubbed me the wrong way.
“So... they’re collecting the empty cans?”
The reason became clear almost immediately.
Another unit came up from the lower floors carrying the unmeltable ice, then began carving it down and packing it into the cans so it fit perfectly.
Once the ice was packed inside, they put the lids back on and used some kind of tool to bend and crush the rim, forcibly sealing the cans shut.
In other words, they were creating cans that stayed cold—like ice itself.
That unmeltable ice was dangerous: if it stuck to bare skin, it wouldn’t melt at normal temperatures, and trying to peel it off could end very badly.
But when it was wrapped inside a can, the surface of the can merely became ice-cold metal. It didn’t freeze onto skin, and it could be safely handled without the risk of it sticking.
In short, you could enjoy only the cold—safely.
Since it was impossible on the surface to manufacture a metal container thinner and more airtight than those cans, repurposing luncheon meat cans had been the optimal solution.
They’d tried making similar things with honey jars and Japanese sake paper cartons as well.
But considering strength, weight, and heat conduction efficiency, wrapping the ice in luncheon meat cans was probably the most efficient option.
“And if they build a room surrounded by those cans, that means they can make a refrigerator for the dungeon’s mobile settlement.”
Having someone build a refrigerator was extremely welcome for us.
After all, that ice slowly melts once you went above the fifth floor of the dungeon, making it unusable on the surface.
Unless you went a certain distance underground, you simply couldn’t enjoy cold drinks, alcohol, or fruit—and that was exactly what made it so appealing.
In the future, there was a good chance that gourmet tours—where nobles dined on chilled fruit and salads on the fifth dungeon floor—would be organized on a regular basis.
After all, most of the female knights of the Second Unit, who were living in the No-Hunger Dungeon without any worry about food, were already completely intoxicated by the deliciousness of chilled liquor and fruit.
As Japanese history showed—when summer ice was once offered as tribute to the shogun in the Edo period—back in an era without refrigerators, when cooling food with river water or groundwater was the limit, meals chilled far beyond that were the height of luxury.
“Humans sure go to a lot of trouble just to eat food that’s cold. Here you go, Master—ruibe don.”
As I watched the knights working themselves to the bone to make safe, cold cans, Peta-chan took out a large salmon frozen solid, shaved it with a plane, and handed me a freshly made ruibe don, saying that casually.
Honestly... being able to just produce something like this so effortlessly was completely broken.
Yeah. It was delicious.
As I continued watching, they packed the ice cans they’d made into barrels, added even more unmeltable ice, then filled the remaining space inside the barrels with sawdust.
After that, they carried the ice cans at full speed all the way to the fifth floor of the Hot Spring dungeon.
The female knights burst into cheers when they realized that nearly ninety percent of the ice inside the cans had survived the journey without melting and made it safely to the Hot Spring Dungeon.
I cheered too.
“All right! This is perfect. Now we’re guaranteed cold water and booze even at the Hot Spring Dungeon—one nice chilled drink after a bath!”
Lately, between the training baths and the development of the transport unit, the female escorts’ overall capability had been skyrocketing.
The transport unit, in particular, had been coming down to the ninth floor almost daily, on a regular schedule, to haul mirrors, soap, and hot spring water from the deeper levels.
Even the noblewomen who were supposed to be under protection had been steadily refining their bodies as they trained toward reaching the baths on the eleventh floor.
Now, more and more nobles were casually dropping by the Moisture Bath on the sixth floor without a second thought.
Just like the perpetually packed second floor, the number of visitors had begun increasing to the point where small lines were now forming even on the sixth floor.
The day when people would naturally enjoy well-chilled, delicious meals around the sixth-floor baths was probably not far off.
“Maybe I should expand the bath and surrounding area on the sixth floor a bit more...”
Incidentally, the bath on the second floor—where ordinary folk also flocked—had actually been steadily expanded to match the number of visitors.
Expanded, yes—but never in a way that would completely eliminate the lines.
Just because something was wildly popular didn’t mean it was good to expand it to the point where queues vanished entirely.
The sense of specialness that came from lining up early in the morning to reach the front, or from enduring a long wait to get in, only amplified the feeling that you’d experienced a truly great hot spring.
That not all dissatisfaction should simply be erased was something I’d learned well back when I worked at a consulting firm.
“Now that ice cans that stay cold have made it to the Hot Spring Dungeon, Captain Touji and the others will surely savor cold water and fruit.”
“This is great! I can cool my bruises directly as much as I want!”
Captain Touji looked utterly delighted as she pressed one of the ice-cold cans against a bruise she’d earned during mock combat.
Others used them by tying them to their armor during transport to cool their overheated bodies.
Or they tucked them against their necks, armpits, or between their legs during breaks to lower their body temperature.
The First Unit seemed to be using them like highly portable, personal ice packs.
Well, as long as they were happy, that was fine.
Still, if they were going to use them like ice packs, maybe it was about time I added towels to the hot spring amenities.
Ordinary cloth cost an absurd amount to produce—but towels were hot spring supplies. If I convinced myself of that, I could produce them at a reasonably low cost.
All right, then. The next floor would allow towels to be taken home.
That said, if people hauled them away endlessly like soap, the cost would still sink me into the red, so I’d restock them only once every few days—just like the mirrors.
Now then... what should I do about the effects of the hot spring?
The deepest level of the current Hot Spring Dungeon was practically Captain Touji’s personal domain, so maybe I didn’t need to worry too much about Her Majesty Yuzha.
Even the dental treatment bath on the deepest floor hadn’t drawn her down, since she didn’t have any chipped teeth or cavities.
Simply gargling with water taken back from that bath had been more than enough for her—there’d been no need to come all the way to the bottom...
A while back, while soaking in the sixth-floor bath, she’d been gargling with water from the dental treatment spring.
“Ohhh, my teeth are lined up properly now! Hahaha! So I can go home already...? I can go back and get right back to work...?
Hey... since I’m already here, how about the eleventh-floor bath too...?”
“You mustn’t, Your Majesty. Representatives of no fewer than four nations are scheduled to arrive tomorrow...”
“Shut up! What do you mean ‘representatives’!? We’ve got those every single day, day in and day out, don’t we!?
I’m sick of it! Royalty isn’t anything special! They’re nothing rare—there are tons of them everywhere, just ordinary people!
Ah, enough already—bring me that thing! That thing! The honey chocolate candy that calms the mind!”
For someone who had to maintain royal dignity herself, what on earth was she even saying?
Most likely, as the dungeon had grown and the nation alongside it, her workload had exploded beyond capacity, leaving her completely overwhelmed.
Given Her Majesty Yuzha’s current state, if I were to introduce baths in the deeper levels that delighted noble ladies too much...
Princesses from all over the world would come rushing in, and Her Majesty would only end up even busier.
For now, I’d keep the baths tailored to Captain Touji’s tastes.
If they trained harder and improved their hot spring transport capacity, that would be better for the No-Hunger Dungeon anyway.
...Now then. What kind of effects should the next bath have?
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