Volume 5 Chapter 2.1 (1/2)

Volume 5 Chapter 2.1

Translator: Reflet

Editor: Weasalopes

「……I think this might need a little revision, maybe？」

Rufeus Academy’s cafeteria, one week after the workshop members had begun attending the academy. Haruna was muttering with an earnest face in front of several plates of food.

The reason for it taking a week was simple. The instant ramen factory construction was completed earlier than anticipated, so the members had joined Hiroshi, who had joined Mio in hurriedly trying to make the accommodations to set the factory in that location. With that being said, the most Haruna and Mio had made were promoted growth fermentation barrels for soy sauce and miso, while all the important accommodations were made by Hiroshi.

「This costing 30 tirols is absolutely expensive.」

Haruna spat in a moaning tone as she glared at the lunch set and the various kinds of individual dishes in front of her.

The lunch set consisted of hard, bad quality rye bread that you would almost never see in Farlane, not even at the lowest grade dining halls, a stew that you could barely eat with the absolute minimal amount of seasoning, and a rather bland soup. The food was all small in amount and unless you were a really light eater, you probably wouldn’t be full even with two servings of everything there.

Teres and the others complained about the bad taste and price of the cafeteria, so it made a lot of sense for them to prepare their own lunches. At first it seemed more like they had a discriminating palate because of Haruna and the others, but no, it made a lot of sense to complain about this food.

There weren’t many diners in the academy’s vicinity, and all the shops you could reach within lunch break were minimum 70 tirols per meal, which might explain the students who ate there on a fairly regular basis. However, from Haruna’s perspective, it was far more preferable to eat that amount at those stores than to have to eat two meals here.

「……Either way, we still gotta finish everything here……」

Haruna had heard the food was bad and the amount was scarce, so she had ordered four other dishes without much thought in addition to the lunch set. These were all around double the market price, or perhaps more than double (although the market price was just one tirol), yet lacked the proper amount. Haruna continued to prepare herself for the worst as she desperately shoveled the food in through her mouth, insisting to herself that even if none of the foods were good, this was the chef’s fault and not the food’s fault.

The vexing thing about all of this was probably that even if you ignored the serving size, the food was still supposed to be cheaper than it was. This establishment was most certainly taking advantage of the students.

（Or maybe the residents of Rufeus actually find this stuff tasty……）

Haruna’s heart was almost breaking from how bad the stuff was as she considered this factor. This type of food with barely any taste but no flavor brought out from its ingredients reminded Haruna of her mother’s other hometown and some of its food.

Then again, you could kind of tell from the expressions on most people’s faces that the food here was considered bad even by Rufeus’s standards. They just didn’t appear to be enjoying it. The majority either continued to eat silently and expressionlessly like some sort of ascetic monk or ate their food as they read articles, as if to say they had no interest in the food itself. It was clear that no one thought of this as a meal, more like simple nutrition to replenish the body.

「Ah～、I can’t do it anymore. Sorry, but I’m just gonna break the rules here–」