The moment we left the merchandise booths, a savory aroma that aggressively stimulated our appetites wafted toward us. It had been lingering in the air since we arrived, but the scent grew concentrated and overwhelming as we drew closer. We had finally breached the food stall area.
...I was getting seriously hungry.
"That smells incredible..."
"Is it yakisoba?"
"It smells like sauce, so maybe it's okonomiyaki?"
"Takoyaki..."
"Haa, I’m so hungry..."
Undone by the drifting scents, we quickened our pace toward the stalls with longing expressions. Seeing the rows of stands bustling with customers, we didn't even need to speak; we all collectively peered into the nearest one.
It was a stall selling frankfurters being grilled to a perfect, crispy brown over charcoal.
"Frankfurters, huh? A classic festival staple."
"Look at those grill marks... they look so good."
"I feel like I could eat a bowl of rice just from the smell of the juices hitting the coals."
"True, but..."
"Whoa, they’re a thousand yen each..."
The sight of them sizzling over the charcoal was mouthwatering, but the price was equally steep. They were several times more expensive than the frankfurters you’d find at a normal festival. Even for event food, I wondered if anyone would actually buy these on a whim.
As I stood there staring at the sausages, a middle-aged store clerk with a hand towel wrapped around his head noticed us and called out.
"Step right up! How about one?"
"Oh, uh..."
Mika, who was standing closest to the counter, was caught off guard. She looked flustered and shot me a look, silently pleading for help. Following her lead, Saori-chan and the others turned their gazes toward me as well. Before I knew it, I was the one expected to respond.
I closed my eyes for a moment to steady my resolve, then addressed the clerk, who was watching me with expectant eyes.
"Um, sorry if this is a rude question, but... why is one stick a thousand yen? At a regular festival, aren't frankfurters usually around two hundred?"
"Hmm? Oh, that’s because these are made with orc meat. Look, it’s right there on the sign: 'Uses Orc Meat.'"
When he pointed it out, I looked at the sign and realized he was right. I had been so shocked by the sight of the food and the price that I'd completely missed the text.
"Ah, you’re right. Sorry, I missed that."
"Don't worry about it. So, you want one?"
"Sure. I'll take one for now."
"Coming right up!"
"......"
Now that I understood the reason behind the high price, I decided to buy one just to try it. For some reason, when I ordered only a single stick, Mika and the girls gave me slightly resentful looks.
Hey, if you want one, order it yourselves.
"Here you go, thanks for waiting. Use the ketchup over there if you like."
"Thank you."
In exchange for a thousand-yen bill, I received a freshly grilled frankfurter on a paper plate. Holding it right in front of me, it looked so incredibly delicious I felt like I was going to drool.
Under the envious glares of the girls, I took a large bite... and my eyes widened.
"It’s delicious! The meat itself has such a deep, rich flavor, and the fat is sweet. Plus, since it’s a coarse grind, the texture is incredibly satisfying!"
"Right? You just can’t get this with regular meat. Since the dish is so simple, the quality of the ingredients shines through perfectly. Blessed be the dungeon food, eh?"
"I thought a thousand yen was a bit much, but this is definitely worth eating. You don’t get to have this kind of quality just anywhere."
"Exactly!"
While I was giving my review to the clerk, Mika and the others were whispering among themselves in the back, checking their wallets.
Eventually...
"Um, could we have two frankfurters, please?"
"Sure thing... You only want two?"
"Yes, we're going to share them."
"In that case, want me to cut them in half for you?"
"Oh, could you?"
"Yeah, no problem. Give me a second."
It seemed they had decided to split them. Well, for a taste test, sharing was probably better for their stomachs and their budgets than getting one each.
The man quickly made incisions in the grilled sausages, placed them on plates, and handed them over.
"Thanks for waiting. I’ll throw in some extra skewers for the sharing."
"Thank you!"
The girls happily divided the frankfurters, dabbed on a bit of ketchup, and took their first bites.
"It’s so good!"
Their faces relaxed into expressions of pure bliss. Before eating, they had looked skeptical about the price, but after tasting it, they looked entirely convinced and satisfied.
"I’ve had orc meat before, but making it into a frankfurter like this gives it a whole different profile."
"I love how it’s basically been smoked by the aroma of its own juices."
"I thought it was expensive at first, but I totally get it now."
"Ah, I’m finished already..."
With a hint of regret, they finished their last bites and disposed of the paper plates and skewers in the trash can by the stall.
And then...
"That was great! Onii-chan, let’s go to the next stall! The next one!"
"Fine... but don’t eat too much, okay? If you overdo it, both your stomach and your wallet are going to suffer."
"I know, I know! Let's go!"
"Yeah, yeah..."
Having taken the edge off our hunger, we began exploring the food stall area in earnest for more dungeon treats.
I just hoped they wouldn't be regretting this in a double sense when it was time to go home.
After circling the stall area and gathering our spoils, we sat down in the dining area, which was filled with rows of tables and chairs.
We really had bought quite a lot...
"...Don't you think we went a bit overboard?"
"That’s not true!...Is what I want to say, but yeah, we might have overdone it a bit."
"There were so many delicious-looking things, we kept getting distracted..."
"Yes, they all smelled so wonderful..."
"Yeah, we definitely bought too much..."
With the table practically buried under steaming, fragrant food, we were momentarily gripped by the realization that we had bought things based purely on greed and curiosity. Could we even finish all this? And more importantly, how much had we actually spent?
Regardless, there was no point crying over it now.
"Anyway, let’s eat while it’s hot. It’d be a waste to let it get cold after going to the trouble of buying it all."
"You’re right. Shall we?"
"Yeah."
"Yes, let's eat while it's fresh."
"Okay!"
With that, we began opening the lids of the containers. The moment the seals were broken, the trapped aromas burst forth, and our previous worries vanished instantly. In the face of delicious food, trivial concerns have a way of disappearing.
Once all the lids were off and everyone had their chopsticks ready...
"Let’s eat."
"Let’s eat!"
After the greeting, everyone simultaneously reached for their chosen target. I started with a festival classic: yakisoba.
According to the stall’s sign, this yakisoba featured orc meat.
"Yeah, this is good."
"It really is! This is amazing!"
Hino-san, who had also started with the yakisoba, agreed with a radiant smile. The orc meat was excellent, of course, but the flavor had soaked into every single noodle, filling my mouth with a savory richness.
The liquid used during the steaming process was likely a broth extracted from orc bone. It tasted very similar to the tonkotsu—or rather, orc bone—soup I’d tried at Hiiragi-san’s place.
"This is good too!"
"The flavor is unlike anything I've ever had. The sign said they used minotaur bone soup for the broth, and you can really taste the depth it adds to the batter."
Mika and Saori were eating mino-tama—essentially okonomiyaki. It was topped with bits of minotaur meat and the batter was flavored with minotaur bone broth. I thought a pork—I mean, orc-tama—might have been just as good, but since they'd already had orc meat in the frankfurters, they had opted for this instead.
The mino-tama was slightly more expensive than an orc-tama, but it was a negligible difference. People tend to loosen their purse strings at festivals and events, though the credit card bill later is always a frightening thought.
"This is also delicious. It's fried perfectly crisp, but the meat is still so juicy."
Tatebayashi-san was eating karaage made from red boar meat. It was seasoned with garlic soy sauce and fried to a nice crunch. It was notably cheaper than the karaage made from orc or minotaur meat.
"The cooking methods themselves aren't that unusual, but that just makes the difference in the ingredients stand out more."
"Mm-hmm. Just using dungeon food for standard dishes makes them dramatically more delicious."
"But as good as the taste is, the price is right up there with high-end luxury brands, isn't it?"
As Saori said, current dungeon food was priced similarly to top-tier domestic brands. If the supply stabilized in a few years, it would become much cheaper and more accessible to the public... but for a while yet, it would remain a luxury. Delicious, but not something you could pick up every day—that was the reality of dungeon food.
However, that was exactly why events like this were necessary to broaden public interest. If demand increased, it would inevitably force an increase in supply.
"I suppose. But if the number of explorers increases, the supply will follow, and we'll be able to eat it at more affordable prices. This event itself is a way for companies to attract interest and bolster their ranks. If people feel there's a real future in this industry, more might be willing to become explorers."
Companies were scouting for promising talent to increase their profits, and ordinary people benefited from the resulting supply. Of course, companies that exploited their employees just for profit were a different story. Such companies were nothing but a detriment to the industry.
"You're right... I hope it reaches that point soon."
"Then we'll be able to eat even more dungeon food."
Mika and Saori, having finished their okonomiyaki, moved on to the yakisoba as they spoke. I reached for a skewer next, biting into some orc meat grilled with sauce. The sweet and savory glaze paired perfectly with the sweetness of the orc fat.
The meal proceeded in a lively atmosphere, and in about thirty minutes, we had cleared every dish from the table.
"Thanks for the food."
"Haa, that was so good."
"I'm stuffed."
"Everything was wonderful."
"It was delicious..."
Everyone had satisfied smiles as we packed up the empty containers. Once we were done tidying up, we looked over the pamphlets we'd received to decide our next move.
"What should we do now?"
"Let's see... it looks like there's an event on the main stage in about twenty minutes. Why don't we check that out? We can kill time by browsing the corporate booths until then."
"An event... What kind of event is it?"
"The explorers belonging to the companies here will take turns giving presentations to promote their firms. They’ll probably do an appeal demonstration like the one we did at the sports festival."
I doubted it would be just a martial arts display, but I was looking forward to seeing how each company showcased its unique strengths—especially that company that had filled its booth with luck-based games.
"Oh, that... That would definitely be easy for ordinary people to follow and would certainly stand out."
"The thing you and the others did at the sports festival was incredible, Senpai. It made me realize that explorers can actually move like something out of a manga..."
"That was... just because Onii-chan and the others are too far out of the norm."
"True. We couldn't possibly imitate that."
I couldn't tell if I was being praised or slighted, but in terms of making an impact, that demonstration had certainly been effective. At any rate, after a quick discussion, we decided to check out the remaining booths before heading to the main stage.
I was looking forward to seeing what kind of corporate appeals were in store.
If some fruit-based dungeon food would show up, it would really broaden the variety of snacks... if such a thing even exists.