Chapter 71

A Vacation in Another World Part IV: The Eatery

"Wow…" The hero spoke in a half exasperated, half impressed tone as she watched Lefi and I shove copious amounts of food down our throats . Her gaze darted back and forth between the dragon girl and I as she tried her best to keep her jaw from dropping . "You two sure do eat a lot…"

She'd brought Lefi and I to a restaurant open to the general public, and a rather large one, at that . The three of us were situated around a single round table located therein . Overlooking the store and its operations was a slightly older woman with a few extra inches around her waist . Business was booming . It seemed there were too many customers for the lady to handle herself, as she was being assisted by a younger woman, who I presumed to be her daughter . The girl was quite the looker and seemed to carry a sort of sophisticated but cheery aura . Wew . Half the men here are staring at her with their faces red as tomatoes . No wonder this place is so damn packed .

"You know, now that you mention it, it kinda does feel like I've been eating a good bit more than usual . That's kinda weird . "

"Wait! Why are you of all people confused!?" The hero couldn't help but retort in a fit of indignance .

"Well, I never used to eat this much back when I was hanging around the dungeon . 'Course I'll find this sudden, ravenous hunger of mine kinda strange . "

As far as I could tell, my appetite had never been anywhere near as abnormal as it was now . Yeah, Iunno . I've always just eaten as much as the next grown ass man back while we were at the dungeon, but now it feels kinda like I could easily devour twice that .

"That is due to this region's lack of magical particles . The density is far lower than what you have accustomed yourself to," said Lefi . "There is not enough of it in the air for your body to sustain its energy reserves in its regular manner . Thus, it is encouraging you to acquire it through other means . "

The silver haired maiden's words had been spoken between mouthfuls of the spaghetti dish she had sitting in front of her . She was slurping up both the noodles and the extra meaty sauce in a manner so impressive that it managed to get her a smile and compliment from the owner, who just happened to spot her while passing by . "Wow! You're slurping those down like a champ! You go girl!"

I lightly nodded in the older lady's direction before redirecting my gaze towards Lefi once more . "Wait, the magic particle density makes that much of a difference?"

"Of course . "

"Wow . Honestly, I can't really tell . "

"That is a result of none other than your own incompetence . "

"…" There was no way for me to refute Lefi's point . She'd hit the bullseye, and no amount of complaining would change the accuracy of her claim . Feelsbadman… Wait a second . Doesn't that mean that my body's not actually anywhere nearly as energy efficient as I thought it was? I've already eaten way more than a single person ever should in one sitting, but I'm still not feeling anywhere remotely close to full .

"Oh yeah, speaking of magic and stuff, that reminds me . " I turned towards the hero . "Why was that old governor dude all worked up about that magic blade anyway?"

Naturally, I kept my hands moving as I spoke to her . I wrapped a piece of meat that resembled teriyaki chicken inside a piece of some sort of vegetable that resembled lettuce, topped it off with tomato-like fruit and a cheese-like substance before cutting out a piece of what looked like a burger and extracting it from the bread-like thing it had wrapped around it . I then stabbed both the lettuce wrap I'd made and the meat I'd cut with a fork and crammed it all into my mouth . I had no idea what any of the ingredients used actually were, but I found myself enjoying them nonetheless . Oh man, burgers sure are great . Anyone that's had actual burgers overseas should know exactly what I mean . 'Course, I'm talking about the stuff you find at restaurants, not fast food joints . Why do the burgers served as fast food taste so much worse anyway? God damn enigma if you ask me .

"Well…" The hero paused for a moment to think . "It's not anything super confidential, so I guess there won't be any harm in telling you . The truth is, stuff like that has been happening a lot lately . "

"Oh?" I stopped shoveling food down my throat and looked towards the hero with interest . "So what you're telling me is that there are more cursed magic weapons just like the axe I picked up?"

"No, that's not what I meant," replied the hero . "The only person with a cursed magic blade was the one you defeated yesterday . The part that's similar is that the axe you picked up can make people go crazy . This city's been experiencing a bunch of weird cases involving insanity lately . There've been two main types of cases . The first involves people known to be straight-laced, hard workers suddenly picking up weapons and killing people . The second is where people go on rampages and throw incoherent fits . Governor Raylow was thinking that it might have something to do with drugs or other similar substances, but he hasn't gotten any tangible evidence . "

"You sure it's not just happenstance?" I asked .

"Apparently not . " The hero shook her head from side to side . "The governor said it couldn't be . The incidents started with the month and there's been far too many of them for it to just be a coincidence . "

"I see . "

"Yeah? What about him?"

"Well, magically enhanced weapons with curses that powerful almost never appear on the market . They're really, really hard to get, so the guards questioned him about it when they first saw him hoisting it around . Apparently, he said that someone had given it to him . "

"I see . I think I'm starting to get what's going on," I said with a nod . It looks like someone's sneaking around behind the scenes and handing out items like that enchanted axe, items that make people lose their minds .

"So that's why there are so many guards up and about?" I glanced outside and just so happened to see one of the governor's patrols pass by . The group I spotted had three men in it, each in a suit of armour . Huh . And here I was thinking that this was normal . "So you guys think there's someone out to destroy the city or something?"

"Just you guys . "

"Oh come on…" I rolled my eyes . "We're totally innocent here . I've already told you guys that I'm not here to kill anyone or mess the damned place up . And more than once, at that . "

"Yeah, I know," replied the hero . "Your methods would probably be a whole lot more straightforward . "

I couldn't deny her claim . Yeah, if I wanted to blow this place up, I'd probably just summon a bunch of monsters and have them flatten it overnight or something . Cheap dungeon monsters probably ain't gonna do much to the monsters living in the Wicked Forest, but they're still a fair bit stronger than humans .

"So yeah, be careful! I know Yuki will probably be okay, but you'll definitely want to stay on your toes, Lefi . The city can be a real dangerous place for a girl like you . "

"Uhhh… Yeah…" I agreed with the hero in an awkward, forced tone . Right… We never did tell her that Lefi's the Supreme Dragon . "You hear that Lefi? She’s telling you to be careful . "

“Be careful?" The world's most powerful dragon furrowed her brows in confusion . "What exactly must I remain cautious of? Eating more than my stomach can handle, perhaps?"

"Uhhhhh… yeah, sure . Let’s go with that . " I gave a half hearted reply to the girl that had clearly been more focused on the food than the conversation it came with .

"That's really not what I meant…"

The hero slumped her shoulders and heaved an exasperated sigh . Yeah, I getcha, but don't worry Nell . Lefi's probably at least a couple hundred times stronger than you think she is .

***

Editor's note: Hey, guys! Joker here . Looks like the hero is learning the hard way that feeding Lefi and Yuki is going to cost her quite a bit in the short and long run . Hope being the hero means she gets a fat paycheck . Probably not, though . So that's a shame . That sword she wanted just got further away . Also, before I forget, hope everyone had a Merry Christmas . I sure did . Got quite a bit of moola myself, plus got my car inspected and registered for another year . So there's 100 bucks I saved . Woohoo . More money for light novels . Shame neither TSKD or Jingai have gotten licensed yet . Hopefully one day soon . Those would be instant buys for me . Unless I ran out of money that check and would have to wait . Which would suck . Save your money, kids . That's another one of Joker's Life Lessons . See y'all in the next chapter!