A mouthwatering aroma drifted from the oven in the courtyard of Marina's home.
The smell of baking pizza — the toppings on the dough roasting, the cheese on top melting — had become a fragrance that stimulated the appetite at a glance.
Using the enormous spatula he had gotten Pamidor to make, Rei retrieved the pizzas from inside the oven.
One, two, three, four... and when he tried to take his own pizza at the very back, he couldn't slip the spatula underneath it properly and ended up pushing it further in.
"Ah!"
A voice slipped unthinkingly from Rei's mouth.
Marina and the others, who had been watching the state of his finished pizza, turned their gazes toward him at the sound as if it had caught them off guard.
But fortunately, Rei quickly thrust the spatula out and succeeded in pulling the pizza free.
It came out looking slightly overcooked, but not so badly burnt that it was inedible.
Having retrieved the pizza, Rei set it on the table with a sigh of relief.
"So, how do we eat this? Just like this? That'd be a bit hard to manage, though."
Before a pizza roughly thirty centimeters in diameter — small as far as pizzas go, but still large enough for an ordinary person to eat on their own — Vihera asked.
That said, while it might be enough for an ordinary person, for adventurers whose livelihood depended on physical exertion, a pizza of this size was merely a snack.
It was, quite literally, what you'd call a breakfast-level portion. ...Though it was already afternoon.
"You cut it into equal portions with a knife and eat it like that. There's supposedly something called a pizza cutter, but..."
A utensil — circular in shape, designed to roll across the top of the pizza to slice it — crossed Rei's mind, but of course there was nothing like that here.
Naturally, if he asked Pamidor or someone similar, they'd probably make one for him, but as long as he could cut it with an ordinary knife, there was no pressing need for one.
"For now, I've got a knife, so let's use this."
He took a knife from his Misty Ring and, as a test, brought the blade down on his own pizza, but... while he managed to cut it, the pizza stuck to the knife's blade.
Well, it wouldn't have been a problem if only a little cheese had stuck, but even the toppings were pulled along by the cheese and clung to the blade.
"...This is..."
All Rei could do while staring at the knife was murmur in displeasure.
"Hehe, didn't quite work out, did it? At this level... here, let me borrow it for a bit."
Seeing Rei's vexed expression, Marina smiled, took the knife, and cut her own pizza.
It was clear even to Rei that she hadn't done anything special.
But unlike when Rei had cut his, the cheese didn't stick to the knife, and the toppings weren't dragged along by it either.
The pizza was simply and cleanly divided.
"Eh? Why?"
Rei couldn't understand what was different from his own cutting method, but his bewilderment must have been amusing to Marina. She wore a smile as she cut everyone's pizzas.
"It's things like how you use the knife, how much force you apply — there's a lot to it. Anyway, everyone's portions are cut, so let's eat."
Even Rei, who wasn't entirely satisfied with that explanation, had no choice but to turn his attention to the pizza when Marina said as much.
Vihera was looking at the pizza as if it were something novel, and as for Byune, though expressionless, she hadn't taken her eyes off it for even a moment.
Set was also staring with keen interest at the pizza sitting on a plate placed on the snow.
"Right, let's eat for now. We're hungry, too."
It was already past noon, but on account of this party — a pizza party — they had skipped lunch.
The big eaters — Rei and Byune, along with Set, two people and one creature — had already made their stomachs rumble audibly several times.
The aroma drifting through the air since the pizzas came out of the oven was especially stimulating to the appetite.
Once Rei finished distributing the fruit water he had taken from his Misty Ring to everyone, Vihera spoke up.
"Alright, Rei. We're counting on you for the toast."
"...Me?"
"Yes. You're the party leader, aren't you?"
"I haven't actually agreed to that yet, you know."
Who would serve as the party leader had not yet been decided.
Well, Vihera, Marina, and Byune — all three of them — were saying Rei would be the right choice, so it was more accurate to say that Rei himself hadn't yet accepted it.
If asked whether he was suited to be party leader, Rei certainly couldn't nod honestly.
Knowing himself to be short-tempered and quick to fight, he worried that some major problem might arise.
Furthermore, Byune was tentatively set to participate in this party, but since she was slated to leave in the future, she was out of the question for party leader.
That left Vihera and Marina.
Rei had pushed Marina for the role, but as a former Guild Master — and an exceptionally capable one who had served for a long period in the frontier town of Gilm — her influence was too great, so she declined.
The last one remaining was Vihera, but she too came with the issue of being a former princess of the Bestia Empire, which brought its own set of problems.
For those reasons, it had been decided that Rei would take the role, but... the man himself had not yet accepted it.
"See, at the very least, you're the one who prepared the oven and the pizza."
Rei accepted that argument for the time being, let out a sigh, and spoke.
"To deepen the bonds of the new party we're forming... cheers."
"Cheers."
"Mm."
"Gurr."
Marina, Vihera, and Byune each raised their cups filled with fruit water, and Set purred happily, and the party began.
After drinking the fruit water, the next thing to reach for was naturally the pizza.
The texture to the touch was somewhat thick.
It was not the so-called crispy type, but an ordinary pizza dough.
(Well, I knew that much when I received the dough from Rodrigo.)
Rei picked up one of the slices from the pizza he had failed to cut, which Marina had ultimately divided into eight equal pieces.
Naturally, the melted cheese drooped from it, stimulating the appetite visually.
And since he had lifted the pizza, the aroma naturally stimulated his appetite through his sense of smell as well.
Just as he tried to bring the tip of the slice to his mouth... that was when Rei noticed something.
(Hm? The very edge of the pizza is properly formed, too. Like the crust on a slice of bread — was it called the "ear"?)
The edge of the pizza, which hadn't been present when they made the prototype — that raised portion — Rei tilted his head while pinching it.
As Rodrigo continued his test runs of the pizza, one of the things he ultimately arrived at — though it wasn't yet finished — was this ear.
Pizza was a dish where toppings were placed on round dough and baked, but during that process the toppings sometimes fell off, and sometimes you wanted to pile on even more.
That was when the raised portion of the pizza's edge came in handy.
...Of course, if someone did what Byune had done at the very beginning and loaded it with a mountain of toppings, it was completely meaningless, but still.
(It's pretty convenient when holding the pizza, too.)
With that thought, he brought the piping hot pizza to his mouth.
What Rei had made was a standard pizza using vegetables, mushrooms, and sausage.
But precisely because it was standard, it was also a safe bet.
In his mouth, the crispy texture of the dough's outer layer gave way to the soft interior — precisely because it wasn't the crispy type — and then the flavors of the sausage, vegetables, and mushrooms were wrapped in tomato sauce and cheese, spreading a harmoniously unified taste across his palate.
"...It's good."
He murmured a single phrase.
And when he looked around, the others were also smiling at how delicious the pizza was.
Of course, this pizza wasn't a perfect score of one hundred.
It was still a work in progress, and there were aspects of the dough's texture and flavor that could still be refined.
Even Rei, whose palate was by no means exceptionally sharp, could tell that much, so Rodrigo, who had made this dough, would likely continue improving it from here on out.
But unlike Rei, who knew pizza from before, the others were eating a dish called pizza for the very first time.
If they were told that this was what pizza was, they would simply accept it.
It was clearly more than delicious enough compared to ordinary bread, so thinking that way was only natural.
"Gurrurrurr!"
Set in particular was happily eating the pizza with his beak.
That he had cheese stuck to his beak was very much like Set.
"Oh my, it's delicious. So this is what they call pizza?"
"Mm."
To Marina's words, Byune gave a short reply.
...And yet, Byune's hand kept reaching for slice after slice of the cut pizza, so one could easily tell just how much she had taken to it.
"Really, come on, you've got some on your mouth."
Vihera tended to Byune while eating her own pizza.
It wasn't that it was more delicious than any dish she had ever eaten — that wasn't the case. Vihera, who possessed a sharp palate from her experience eating various dishes as a princess, could have pointed out several flaws in the pizza if she'd set out to do so.
Even so, when it came to the simple question of whether the pizza was delicious or not, the correct answer was that it was.
And so when everyone had finished eating their pizza... naturally, voices calling for more emerged.
Rei had only eaten one slice himself and wasn't satisfied, so he once again took out pizza dough from his Misty Ring and began making more.
Since it baked in about a minute after being placed in the oven, the cooking time was practically nonexistent.
The most time-consuming part of making pizza — preparing the dough — was also taken care of, since Rei had received the dough rounds directly from Rodrigo as-is. All it took was spreading tomato sauce, arranging the toppings, and putting it in the oven for about a minute before it was done.
As for the oven, a normal one would take some time to reach the right temperature for baking pizza, and maintaining that temperature also required effort, but since this was a Magic Item, there was no need to worry about that.
"Mm! Mm! Mm!"
While eating the pizzas that came out one after another, Byune conveyed her happiness.
Set too ate pizza after pizza, purring with delight.
Rei as well was savoring the pizza to his heart's content.
Marina and Vihera, after eating a few slices each, reached a reasonable level of satisfaction and switched from eating to making.
They produced pizza after pizza for Rei, Byune, and Set — two people and one creature — and their technique gradually improved.
How much tomato sauce to spread, which toppings went well together, the arrangement of the toppings, how much cheese to sprinkle on top... and so forth.
"Oh right, around midnight we're going to eat udon, so don't eat until you're completely full... well, it's probably too late for that anyway."
While eating a vegetable-focused pizza that Marina had made for him, Rei delivered that reminder.
The number of pizzas consumed so far was approaching twenty in total.
Normally, one would think it was already too late to be saying that — but the stomachs of Rei, Byune, and Set were, literally speaking, only about eighty percent full at this level.
Well, in Set's case, it was more like twenty or thirty percent.
Unlike those three, Vihera and Marina had reached a moderate sense of fullness.
...Even so, they had eaten enough that an ordinary woman would be shocked and ask, "How are you still fine after eating all that!?"
But Vihera routinely moved her body as combat training, and Marina was originally of a constitution that didn't gain weight easily, and on top of that, she had been training daily so as not to hold Rei back when they formed their party in the spring — all of which surely factored in heavily.
"Right. It's gotten quite dark outside, too. Let's stop eating pizza and take a little break. ...Hold on just a moment."
It being winter, naturally it grew dark early as well.
Looking at her surroundings, Marina used Spirit Magic.
Then the area around them became as bright as daytime — well, that was a slight overstatement, but even so, several masses of light flew about, illuminating the courtyard.
"Wow... that's amazing."
At a sight that could aptly be called fantastical, Vihera let out a murmured breath as if it had escaped unbidden.
In fact, there was no denying that the spectacle was a highly impressive sight.
(Though, something like this feels more like Christmas, doesn't it. ...This world doesn't have Christmas, though.)
Perhaps pleased by Vihera's words, Marina once more used Spirit Magic, and instead of ordinary light, she created multiple light spheres — blue, red, green, and so on — and sent them flying around the courtyard.
The light spheres that Marina had created seemed to possess a certain degree of will, for they flew about the courtyard as if delighting in the voices of admiration that rose up.
For a while, everyone enjoyed in silence that spectacle, which one might call a dance of light... and before they knew it, everything outside of Marina's courtyard had been completely enveloped in darkness.
"Whoa, that ate up a lot of time. ...Well, if you think of it as a kind of hidden talent performance at the party, it's not that strange, I guess."
Rei murmured while looking at the surroundings, which had become fully dark, and the others seemed to finally notice it as well.
Coming back to themselves, it was time to continue the party — not eating pizza, but a time for talking about various things.