Giving the exterior only a cursory glance, we followed the brick-paved path to the front door. A menu board was set up beside the entrance, displaying the recommended lunch courses and the daily specials.
“Heh... Lunch goes from Course A to Course E. There are five options.”
“The coupon from the pamphlet is for Course A or B,” Yuji noted.
“The difference between the two is whether the main dish is meat or fish,” Hiiragi-san added.
“But the ones that use dungeon ingredients are Courses D and E,” I pointed out.
While the three of us were scrutinizing the menu, Mika and Saori-chan called out to me, sounding hesitant. I turned to find them both looking incredibly tense.
What was wrong? Why were they wearing such stiff, strained expressions?
“H-Hey, Onii-chan. Is it really okay for you to treat us to lunch at a place like this?”
“Y-Yes. Are you r-really sure?”
“Yeah. Don’t hold back, you two. Pick whichever course you like.”
As Mika and Saori-chan cast worried glances at the menu board, I lightly patted the wallet in my pocket, signaling that I had things covered.
“B-But this place... even the cheapest lunch course is five thousand yen!”
“T-That’s right...”
Apparently, the prices had intimidated them. It made sense; if a high schooler offered to treat you to lunch and then took you to a place charging five thousand yen a head, anyone would be bewildered.
“It’s fine. I’m earning a decent amount, you know. Treating the two of you is nothing. Come on, take a look.”
I gently nudged them forward, moving them in front of the menu board.
Truthfully, we could have gone to a modest diner, but an upscale restaurant felt like a better choice here. Rather than a homely eatery that would remind them of their everyday lives, a high-end environment provided a disconnect from reality that made it easier to actually swallow food. I wanted them to be just nervous enough to forget what had happened inside the dungeon for a while.
“O-Okay...”
“Y-Yes...”
Pushed forward by me, the two finally seemed to find their resolve and began examining the options.
A few minutes later, orders decided, we opened the door and stepped inside.
“Heh, the interior is quite sophisticated.”
The first thing we saw was an entrance hall with a classic atmosphere, filled with warm lamps and antique trinkets. Behind a wooden reception counter stood a young male shop clerk in a suit.
“...Welcome. How many in your party?”
The clerk's eyes initially filled with suspicion at our age, but his expression shifted the moment he spotted the storage bags on our shoulders. He clearly realized we weren't just ordinary students, but explorers.
“Five.”
“Five people, understood. Then, I shall show you to your seats. Right this way...”
The clerk led us further into the restaurant. He guided us to a table partitioned off by wooden screens, creating a semi-private room.
“Please feel free to use the lockers and shelves over there for your belongings. I will bring the menus shortly. Excuse me.”
With that, the clerk departed. Before sitting down, we stashed our storage bags in the wooden lockers.
“The fact that they have these facilities means they get quite a few explorers who saw the pamphlet,” I remarked.
“Looks like it. They wouldn’t have installed these otherwise,” Yuji agreed.
Yuji and I were impressed by the restaurant’s hospitality. The lockers were large enough to hold several people's weapons and came with keys, allowing us to focus on our meal with peace of mind.
Once the gear was stowed, we sat down at the six-person table. We naturally split by gender—three on one side, two on the other. Yuji and I took the side near the entrance, facing Hiiragi-san, Mika, and Saori-chan.
As if he had been waiting for us to settle in, the clerk reappeared with menus and water almost the exact moment we sat.
“Thank you for waiting. Here are your menus.”
After distributing the menus and water, he began explaining the daily specials.
“The pasta for today’s Course A and Course B features five types of mushrooms. Additionally, for an extra five hundred yen, you may substitute it for a pizza.”
“What kind of pizza is it?” I asked.
“Today’s pizza is a Bismarck, topped with a soft-boiled egg.”
“I see...”
I glanced at the others while asking the clerk my questions. We had technically decided on our orders before coming in, but I wanted to make sure no one had changed their minds. There were no objections.
“Then, excuse me. We’ll have the Course D lunch for everyone.”
“Eh? The Course D lunch, sir?”
“Yes.”
The clerk looked genuinely surprised. It was understandable; while Course A was five thousand yen, Course D cost ten thousand. Realizing his lack of composure, the clerk cleared his throat and tried his best to feign professionalism as he confirmed the order.
“My apologies. Let me confirm: Course D lunch for five... is that correct?”
“Yes.”
“And for your drinks?”
“Oolong tea for everyone, please.”
“Certainly. Please, make yourselves comfortable.”
The clerk collected the menus, bowed, and left. Now that the ordering was out of the way, I decided to broach the subject of school with Mika and Saori-chan.
“By the way, Mika, Saori-chan. About the club establishment form we submitted to the Student Council last week...”
“? Does that mean the club was approved?”
“Yeah, unofficially. Someone from the Student Council came to the classroom yesterday to let me know the official approval will be issued next Monday—meaning tomorrow.”
Yesterday, during a break, the secretary girl—a second-year student from another class—had come by to share the news. Since it had already been cleared by the faculty meeting, it was essentially a done deal. It had been approved without any major hurdles.
“Really!?”
“Is that true!?”
When I told them, Mika and Saori-chan’s eyes lit up with joy.
“Shh. You’re being too loud. Even in a private room, there are other customers, so let’s keep it down, okay?”
““S-Sorry.””
They looked sheepish and glanced around, but since the staff didn't come to warn us, I figured it was fine. I could hardly blame them for getting excited.
“I’m supposed to go to the Student Council room after school tomorrow to pick up the official documents, so I expect we’ll start our activities as a club the day after tomorrow.”
“Sounds about right,” Yuji said. “Even if we do something tomorrow, it’ll just be checking out the room and having a quick meeting with Hashimoto-sensei about our plans.”
“True,” Hiiragi-san added. “We haven’t even decided what equipment we need yet, so that seems like a good pace.”
I took a sip of my water as we discussed the schedule. While we had already talked to Hashimoto-sensei in broad terms, we needed a proper meeting to finalize what tools the club would need to purchase.
“For now, I suppose I should prepare the Notification of Opening of a Sole Proprietorship and the Application for Approval of the Blue Tax Return for Income Tax.”
“Ah, you don't have to go pick those up anymore; you can download them from the website,” Yuji noted.
“And if we’re doing a blue tax return, won't we need a double-entry bookkeeping system?” Hiiragi-san asked.
“Good point. We’ll need a binder to keep all the receipts, too.”
As the three of us dove into the details, Mika and Saori-chan looked lost, their eyes darting back and forth with growing unease.
“Sorry, sorry. I didn’t explain enough. We’ll give you the full breakdown after school tomorrow.”
“...Yeah. Just listening to you guys, I had no idea what any of that meant. Right, Saori-chan?”
“Yes. I understand we have to submit things to the government, but as for which documents...”
They both looked a bit discouraged.
“Don’t worry. The whole point of the club we’re forming is to teach exactly those things to people who don't know them yet.”
“Right. That’s our mission... officially,” Yuji added with a smirk.
“So, teaching the two of you is our first real activity,” Hiiragi-san said encouragingly. “And it will serve as the club’s initial track record.”
“Exactly. If we can get two people through the process of starting their own businesses right after founding the club, that’s a solid result. If we showcase that at the sports festival, we’ll probably get more applicants.”
The sports festival was less than a month away. Given the limited time, it was unrealistic to expect Mika and Saori-chan to become elite combatants. I could use the Slime Dungeon in my room for intensive training, but after what Yuji, Hiiragi-san, and I had gone through, I had my reservations about forced growth.
On the other hand, registering as a sole proprietor was relatively simple. It was mostly paperwork. However, if they wanted to operate a proper explorer business, there was a lot to learn. If we started cramming now, they’d be in decent shape by the festival—at least enough to handle some basic questions.
“If we gain more sympathizers after the sports festival, it’ll help us keep the repeating students in check. So, Mika, Saori-chan, do your best to learn the ropes.”
“Yeah,” Yuji agreed. “If you two can handle Q&A from prospective members within a month of the club starting, it’ll be a huge selling point.”
“If people see you as reliable, it will naturally draw in those who are dissatisfied with how the repeating students are running things,” Hiiragi-san added.
The ulterior motive for the club was to act as a check on the repeating students who dominated the first-year class, or perhaps to dismantle their influence entirely. We needed this to work. To that end, I needed those two to master the administrative side of things by the time the festival rolled around.
As we chatted, the clerk returned with a cart to serve our appetizers.
“Thank you for waiting. For your appetizers, we have a gazpacho of local vegetables and a seasonal fish marinade.”
The plates were set before us. I expected the girls to be stiff with nerves, but I was the one surprised—Yuji was already casually asking the clerk about the specific type of fish used in the marinade.
Man, Yuji, you’re way too smooth at this...
“Please, enjoy your meal.”
The clerk bowed and wheeled the cart away.
“Alright, let’s pause the talk for a bit and eat.”
“Yeah, sounds good. Itadakimasu.”
““““Itadakimasu.””””
We picked up our cutlery and began the meal.
After finishing the lunch, we paid the bill and stepped back outside. At ten thousand yen per person, the fifty-thousand-yen total felt like a truly grand indulgence.
“Thanks for the meal, Onii-chan! Thank you for treating us!”
“Thank you for the meal, Onii-san. That was incredible.”
“You’re very welcome.”
I gave them a smile, telling them not to worry about it.
“How was it? Did you get enough to eat?”
“Yeah! There were so many courses, I’m stuffed.”
“Yes. It was so delicious, I couldn't help but finish every last bit.”
“I’m glad to hear it.”
The dungeon ingredients had been excellent. More importantly, my plan seemed to have worked; the two of them had been so swept up in the high-end atmosphere that they hadn't lost their appetites. With their stomachs full, they should be fine until tomorrow morning, even if they couldn't manage dinner tonight.
“Alright. Let’s head to the station, grab our gear, and go home.”
“Yeah!”
“Yes!”
We left the restaurant behind and began the walk back toward the station.