Vol 1 Chapter 9 (2/2)
Ooh! Incredible!
Is that what they call kaiseki? They served a variety of food little by little from a multi-tiered, black lacquered box. Of course it wasn’t like I had never seen anything like this before, but for some reason it felt different from a dish after dish kind of course.
They made me eat cup ramen in my room yesterday, saying it was ‘out of consideration’, but now… now I’m finally able to get my hands on some s.h.i.+ny celebrity food…!
*bonk*——
A cup ramen (Mini – Soy Sauce) was put in front of me.
“Please forgive me for keeping you waiting.”
Kujou-san said looking down on me with her cold gaze.
“Wait, why cup noodles?!”
“Out of consideration for the commoner.”
“Commoners don’t eat cup noodles all day every day, you know!”
“…………”
“Why are you looking annoyed now?! …Anyway! Give me the usual too!”
…Tsk.
“Did you just click your tongue?! You totally did, didn’t you?!”
“Well then, shall I remove this?”
When I tried to say ‘yeah’——
“”””””…………””””””
I realized the ojou-samas were staring at the cup noodles intensely.
“Kimito-sama… what is that?”
While Arisugawa-san was eagerly observing the area around the lid, she made her nostrils twitch.
The surroundings were also ogling the cup noodles with a vigor that they seemed close to bending their upper bodies forward. Not just that——
The whole dining hall had gone silent.
“…It has a curious scent. Is it… food?”
“You don’t… know cup noodles?”
“Kapp Nudles?”
“Do you know ramen?”
“Um… from hearsay…”
Hearsay?
“It’s instant—— It’s a sort of trivialized cooking. You can eat it just by adding hot water.”
“””””Just by adding hot water.”””””
The surroundings repeated in unison.
“With that you’re done cooking?”, “Impossible!”, “Why are so many characters written on that vessel?”
They exchanged whispers here and there.
“We eat that quite often.”
I said, and when I tore off the lid——
“””””OH MY!”””””
“It really is food! It has ingredients—!”
“This is shrimp… What are those yellow and brownish things?!”
“What kind of device might be able to prepare such a result just by adding hot water?!”
They asked while their eyes glittered in wonder.
“…Wanna try eating it?”
*RATTLE*–!
Everyone in the dining hall stood up.
“EEEEEH—?!”
Immediately following, the young ladies came back to their senses and exchanged glances.
“S-Souko-sama, please, after you.”
“…! No, Yumika-sama, if you would…”
“Everyone!”
Arisugawa-san took the cup noodles gently into her hands as if they were some kind of treasure,
“Let’s share them together! Those who want to try to eat them, please step up!”
“As expected of Reiko-sama! Such wonderful chopstick technique…!”
They were lining up, tightly packed, for a cup of noodles worth 500 yen which was placed on top of the table.
Arisugawa-san put her long chopsticks into the cup noodles and—— scooped one noodle with unmatched accuracy.
After she checked the yellow, meandering noodle with a quick look, she submerged it in the container with a refined movement that seemed like a part of a dance.
The surrounding more than 100 ojou-samas watched attentively being all excited.
The additional young ladies who had just entered the dining hall also gasped and kept adding to the crowd.
Ah, even Aika came.
Arisugawa-san suddenly stopped the chopsticks. She had a complex expression.
Toujou-san, who was a.s.sisting her, said anxiously:
“Reiko-sama, the amount we’d need to share them with everyone…”
“We’ll be fine. ——Split the noodles in half.”
“I see! If we do that, we can spread them to everyone!”
“I’ll prepare a chopping board and kitchen knife!”
The chopping board was put on the table, then returned the already served noodles and lined them up one by one in a straight manner.
The noodles that still remained in the cup were also lined up after the soup was properly dried off of them.
“To be able to line them up so systematically and such beautifully…”
“As expected of Reiko-sama.”
Arisugawa-san checked on the people count and grabbed the kitchen knife.
“We’re going to half… no, we’re going to cut them into three pieces.”
She put her fingers next to the noodles, barely touching them at all, and after some kind of tension had built up in the air for a brief moment—— the kitchen knife forced its way through.
She bundled the noodles and cut them in approximately three centimeter pieces.
“How’s she so skilled…?!”
While being showered with admiration, Arisugawa-san served the cut noodles in bowls.
“I’ll help too!” “Me too!”
“Thank you so much, everyone.”
The ojou-samas divided the labor and put the now small noodles one each into bowls and distributed them.
And hence spread them to everyone.
“Please, everyone, enjoy them as you would in a buffet.”
Taking the bowls and chopsticks into their hands, the ojou-samas got all the more excited.
“So this is what commoners call ‘cup noodles’, is it…?”
“Aah, how might it taste?” “I’m looking forward to it!”
Aika was also staring at her bowl in excitement.
And then the ojou-samas carried the noodles almost simultaneously to their mouths.
When they closed their eyes to savor them—— it got silent.
Slowly… their expressions clouded.
They then opened their eyes and exchanged gazes with their neighbors, seemingly troubled.
In this faltering atmosphere,
“They’re cold, soggy, and smell weird!”
Aika’s straight-forward impressions echoed.
“Wait, they don’t even look like before, do they?!”
It’s as Aika says… I thought.
Translator notes and references
None.
<script>