Chapter 94 - Dinner Gathering
"豁ヲ蜈キ？"
While I was watching the black cat Core rolling around contentedly in the catnip, Peta-chan suddenly uttered a mysterious phrase.
"Hm? Bugu-kun is coming over here?"
"Yeah."
...Isn't that awfully convenient timing?
Could it be that, thanks to the soul connection from the name Sen that I gave him, he can somehow tell what's going on over here to some extent?
"If Silk-san is okay with it, we can call him over."
"Hm? What is it? Did you call me?"
Silk-san replied while continuing to embroider illustrations of the outfits worn by the nobles who had been coming to the Hot Spring Dungeon.
"Ah, yeah. The Weapon Dungeon Core wants to come over here. Is it okay if I call him?"
"By Weapon, ya mean that armed-kid-looking Core?"
"Yeah. What he's after is food and something to pass the time, so I think he came over to have a chat while getting something to eat."
"Hmm, sure. I don't mind.
When I met that Core before, I went on and on about how important the cloth equipment worn beneath armor was, as well as how to stitch equipment together.
He looked pretty annoyed and left, and that was the last I saw of him."
"Then I'll call him over. Mumble, mumble~"
Peta-chan concentrated, and the space warped as Bugu-kun appeared.
Tanya-san and the Gemstone Dungeon Master appeared with him as well.
"Huh? Tanya-san, you were with them too?"
"What's it to ya?"
"No, it's not a problem. I just didn't know."
"Ah, I was paying these guys points to let me eat the food they made.
But ya know, the food this guy makes isn't tasty at all."
...Neither Tanya-san, the Gemstone Dungeon Master, nor Bugu-kun seemed surprised to see the Thread Dungeon Core and Silk-san here.
So they must have known from the beginning that the Thread Dungeon Core was here and had come here specifically because of that.
"You seem to have known the Core and Master from the Thread Dungeon were here from the start. How did you know?"
"You told the Thread Dungeon's Master your name was Sen, didn't ya? Then of course I'd know. It's obvious."
I had absolutely no idea what he meant by "obvious."
Anyway, apparently, when I introduced myself as Sen—the name Bugu-kun had given me—that fact was somehow conveyed to Bugu-kun...
I wonder if I should think of it as something like inviting someone to a group chat...
"But that's not important. Sen, why don't you let these guys try the food you make, too?"
"Oh? So this is the stuff? The stuff the Thread Core is drooling over and nibbling on. Hey, you old hag Thread Core, lemme have some."
With that, Tanya-san plucked some fresh catnip and started eating it right away.
I had no idea what fresh catnip tasted like, but I knew one thing for sure: it had to be awful.
Tanya-san made a horribly disgusted face, then glared at Bugu-kun and me accusingly, as if we had tricked her.
It wasn't my fault!
"...Only cats can actually find that plant tasty.
If you want something to eat, try these fried pieces instead—the ones the Thread Dungeon Master was eating with me."
Tanya-san looked extremely suspicious as she carefully examined the karaage I offered her, then sniffed it.
The moment she cautiously took a bite, her expression suddenly changed as if she had attained enlightenment.
She quickly devoured all the karaage on the plate before her.
Then, without saying a word, she started eating the karaage piled on the plate near Silk-san as well.
"Tanya-san, that's not very ladylike!"
The Gemstone Dungeon Master tried to stop her, looking embarrassed, but she seemed so overwhelmed by how delicious it was that his words weren't reaching her.
With no other choice, I created another large plate piled high with karaage.
She then staggered over to me again and began mindlessly stuffing herself with it.
"The Master's tea... and the wine were delicious too, but... this is insane... This stuff is freaking incredible."
"Heh heh! See?! The food Sen makes is delicious, isn't it?!"
Bugu-kun puffed out his chest as if the whole thing were somehow his accomplishment.
Bugu-kun had probably been eating British food from the Industrial Revolution era, complaining about it nonstop until he ended up arguing with someone over there.
Anyway, that wasn't what was on my mind.
Tanya-san had said something strange earlier.
When she picked up the catnip, she called the Thread Core an "old hag."
Could this black cat Core actually be pretty old?
Even looking at the black cat Core as she rolled around on the floor, I couldn't tell her age at all.
"Since we've got quite a crowd here, why don't we have a proper dinner together?
Peta-chan, could you make a lot of food for everyone?"
"Of course, Master!"
Peta-chan happily began preparing the meal.
She quickly prepared a large variety of dishes, and as everyone ate them with obvious enjoyment, she watched them while continuing to cook.
It seemed that preparing food and watching people eat it had become one of Peta-chan's favorite forms of entertainment.
"This beer is really delicious. It goes so well with the sausage."
"That tea is quite good as well... As for the meat, well... yes, it certainly has a distinctive, wild flavor..."
The sausages the Gemstone Master had brought out were, to be honest, so bizarrely salty and bloody that I couldn't think of anything else to say about them.
Even the meat from the Showa era was supposedly tough, sinewy, and unpleasant to eat, according to my grandfather.
So I suppose it was only natural that sausage meat from several hundred years ago would be like this.
As for the meat Silk-san had brought out... Is this mutton?
It was tough. Extremely tough.
It wasn't some fancy grilled mutton dish like Jingisukan.
The meat was so tough that I wondered if they'd skinned an old sheep that was no longer fit for anything else and then decided to roast and eat it as a final use for the animal.
It was seasoned with salt and some herb I'd never tasted in any of my memories—a remarkably strong and unusual flavor.
Still, I might come to like the herb once I got used to it, so I felt like it could be useful for something.
Putting the meat aside, Peta-chan was asking Silk-san all sorts of questions about the herb.
It looked like we might eventually get some new dishes I'd never known before, which was something I was grateful for.
The dinner continued merrily, transcending countries, eras, and even species.
Food really did seem to be a wonderful tool for keeping conversation flowing.
"Sen, do you think you'll reach the twentieth floor soon?"
"Yeah. At our current pace, I think we should reach it in less than six months.
Captain Touji and the others are obviously strong enough, and if we train the second unit—the reserves—they should still be able to hold their own. So the Dungeon should continue growing for a while yet."
"Aaaah! You're already gonna reach the twentieth floor?! That's so unfair! Why?! Why do people come to places with thread and warm puddles instead of jewels?! I don't get it!"
Tanya-san complained while devouring karaage and guzzling wine.
"If it's Sen-san's Dungeon, I reckon you'll reach the twentieth floor without much trouble.
But after that, who knows what kind of pace you'll be able to maintain? Around the twenty-fifth floor, even first-rate knights have to risk their lives, y'know?
It took the Thread Dungeon ten years just to go from the twenty-fourth to the twenty-fifth floor."
"The Gemstone Dungeon probably doesn't have that kind of appeal.
Besides, to preserve the rarity and value of jewels, I can't imagine large numbers of people coming to a floor where they'd have to risk their lives, either."
"Powerful weapons and armor, iron, and thread all translate directly into national power the more you can gather them... So I doubt the demand will ever run out."
"I don't get itーーー! I really don't get it! You old Thread Core! Do you even understand the value of thread and cloth?"
"Nyah don't get it either."
It was a very cat-like answer from the naked black cat, who had nothing on except a piece of jewelry wrapped around her neck.
"My Core really is nothing more than a decoration, huh? Honestly, I'd love to trade her for this adorable Core who can cook."
And so the dinner gathering continued in a warm and friendly atmosphere.
Whew. Even a Dungeon with as much demand as the Thread Dungeon took ten years to grow from around the twenty-fourth floor onward...
I guess this whole, "The floors keep increasing one after another! This is so much fun! I wonder what effect I should make next~" phase of mine is only going to last for now...
I wonder what I'll do if I end up stuck in a period of stagnation lasting a decade or more...
As I watched Peta-chan happily prepare food while everyone chatted and enjoyed their meal together...
...Well, I thought, I guess all that's left is for days like this to continue forever.
♨♨♨♨♨
Meanwhile, at the Duke Nausa's residence in the Kingdom of Sepans, the walls surrounding the estate had been badly damaged.
Rubble and equipment that had been smashed to pieces lay scattered all around.
The whole place looked as though it had been attacked.
However, the walls hadn't been destroyed by an enemy attack from outside.
They had been smashed from the inside.
And the person responsible for destroying them was jumping around with a huge grin on her face, looking as though she were shouting, "This is amazing!! I did itーーーー!!"
All the servants and family members around her, meanwhile, were left completely speechless by the disaster.
"It's amazing, amazing, amazing!! It actually moved even though it was this heavy!
And not only that, it broke through the stopper and kept going until it smashed straight through the wall and fell apart! Its power is even greater than I imagined!"
Auf had experimentally created a steam-powered mechanism to turn the wheels of an old mobile residence.
She had built the propulsion device hoping that the residence would simply roll along with a rumble, rumble, but its output had far exceeded her expectations.
It had climbed right over the sandbags that had been piled up as a stopper, gone completely out of control, and crashed into the wall, sustaining heavy damage in the process and creating the catastrophe now before them.
"Wh-What in the world are you doing, Auf?!"
Her father, Duke Nausa, came rushing over, his face drained of color.
Yet Auf looked as though she didn't regret what she'd done in the slightest.
Instead, she turned to her father and said:
"Look, Father! Look at what we've accomplished! Look at the power the Hot Spring Dungeon wanted to show us! The power of steam is truly magnificent!
"This is going to change... the Kingdom of Sepans... No, the entire world, Father!"
Pointing toward the rubble, Auf passionately proclaimed this with a frighteningly intense gleam in her eyes.
Seeing his daughter like this, the Duke wondered:
Has the demon of the Hot Spring Dungeon possessed my daughter?
Could that hot spring actually have been something dangerous?
Should I have her examined by an exorcist, just in case?
Those were the thoughts running through the mind of Duke Nausa.
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