“Do you not like it?” I asked in concern.
After all, I’d seasoned it to my tastes.
She shook her head, though, and her expression smoothed out almost as if she was embarrassed at her reaction.
“I was just surprised... It’s tasty.”
“That’s fine then.”
“Are you a chef?” she asked eventually.
“Hardly. It’s just a hobby.”
I reached over and put the browned bread in her bowl.
“Ah,” she muttered.
“It’s even tastier if you put it on this. Well, it might be.”
She hesitated.
“Bread wasn’t part of the deal.”
“It was always supposed to be served with bread.”
“That just sounds like you’re trying to justify your charity...”
“It’s your fault for not confirming the details before you agreed. Eat the bread too,” I told her, returning to toasting my own bread.
I carried on, unconcerned, even as she pouted at me. After a while, I heard the crunch of the toast, followed by a surprised murmur, and had to hold in my smile.
There were two types of meals: meals you ate alone, and meals you shared. We didn’t have a pleasant conversation or anything, but I could still hear someone other than me blowing on the food to cool it down, someone other than me crunching their toast, and the gentle clatter of someone else’s cutlery. There was someone other than me in this lonely world.
I soaked up the rest of the sauce in the pan with a piece of bread and put that piece in my mouth. It was much softer now and fell apart on my tongue. The bread itself was nearly flavorless, but when you ate it like this it had a pleasant salty-sweet aftertaste.
Nito had already finished, and the tableware looked almost like it hadn’t even been used. The look of longing on her face was probably just my own conceit though.
“Was there not enough?”
“There was,” she answered reluctantly. “It was tasty. Thank you.”
I took back the bowl and spoon she offered and put them on top of the pot.
Droplets of water began to fall from above. I couldn’t hear the plops, but they looked like they were making that noise as they landed on the pool’s surface. They started to fall faster; round ripples spread constantly through the water, distorting the reflection of the moon.
“We should head in before it gets too strong.”
We were in front of the staircase, and while it had a roof, we’d get wet if the rain fell at an angle. I shouldered my backpack and picked up the box, heading inside. The moonlight didn’t reach that far, and the darkness stretched out in front of me, making me unsure where to step.
Then, suddenly, light filled the room. Nito had come in holding the lantern.
“Thanks, that’s great.”
“It’s nothing.”
We stood side by side, looking at the sky as the rain grew stronger. The moon was still visible, so I figured it might stop soon, but it also might carry on until the morning. Either way, Nito couldn’t leave until the rain stopped.
“You have a car?” I asked her.
“No, an auto-trike.”
“An auto-trike?”
Her expression showed blatant disbelief that I didn’t know what it was. At first, she said nothing, but then finally she explained.
“It’s a small, three-wheeled vehicle with space for luggage. It’s not as hard to drive as a steam car. I don’t have the qualifications for either though.”
“Ah, so you do need to be qualified?”
Her expression became baffled as she looked from me to the Kettle, a clear question in her eyes: Do you drive that or not?
“I learned how to drive it, but I’m not qualified. I’m not from this world.”
“Oh, you’re an otherworlder?” Nito asked with wide eyes, pausing in surprise. “So they really do exist. I thought they were just in books.”
“We do indeed. Nice to meet you.”
Nito’s gaze wandered.
“It must be tough in these circumstances. If you’d been here earlier, the country would’ve paid you.”
“That’s the first time I’ve heard that.”
“Civilization here progressed due to what we found in the labyrinths, and the otherworlders who were summoned there. Every country desperately wanted to gain favor with them.”
“I guess it was the wrong time to come here,” I said after a moment. “Not that I wanted to come at all.”
I put a hand to my head. I didn’t have any knowledge that would help, but I’d much rather kick back as a state guest than have my current homeless life.
“Well, whatever, nothing I can do about it. Do you know how I can get back?”
She paused, considering.
“It used to be that an otherworlder would be returned when the labyrinth that had summoned them underwent a mana fluctuation, but the world is saturated with mana now, so that doesn’t happen anymore. I also heard that the labyrinths’ resources all ran out and they’ve been sealed. What I want to know is, how did you get here?”
All I had was a vague recollection of a stone ruin. I’d been heading out to camp for a couple of days, then it felt like I fell through a manhole, and when I came around I was in that ruin.
“I have no idea. I know of someone that seems to know what’s going on, but I don’t know where they went.”
“I...see...” she said, her gaze gaining a soft sympathy.
I decided she was a nice girl.
“Are you traveling too?” I asked her.
“Yes,” she answered hesitantly. “It’s my first journey.”
And didn’t that phrasing have implications! I mused over whether I should dig deeper. There was still a large gulf between us. People took time to get to know each other, and suddenly trying to get closer was just in bad taste.
“Right, guess we’ve both got it tough,” I said instead.
“We do.”
The rain came down steadily, covering the surface of the water in endless ripples. Thick clouds blew in and slowly blocked out the light of the moon.
“Actually,” she said, “my auto-trike has broken down. It won’t move anymore.”
“What a coincidence, my car’s broken too. It’d been struggling for a while.”
“Huh?” she cried, whirling to look at me.
I looked right back at her.
An uncomfortable silence fell as we continued looking at each other.
“I see then,” she said.
“This is a problem. What should we do?”
“You’d normally rely on Reboil Traction, but considering...” She trailed off, seeming to notice my confusion at the unfamiliar term, then made a small noise of understanding and started to explain. “Ah, they’re a mobile repair service for steam-powered vehicles. They drive along the roads and will repair broken-down cars they find, or tow you to a workshop.”
“Sounds convenient.”
We could really do with the help.
With the moon covered, I couldn’t see a single sign of life on the mountain or the plains. I wondered if you could see headlights across the plains or hear birds and insects back when the people that had used the station were still around. It was the same kind of feeling as you’d get standing in the ruins of a castle. It was difficult to imagine what the past had been like in a world you weren’t familiar with. More pressing than my emotions was the concern of what to do tomorrow.
“I should get going,” Nito said, bowing slightly. “Thank you for the food.”
“It’s still raining. Why not wait for a bit longer?”
“It’s not far, and it’s late.”
Like a princess whose curfew was approaching, she picked up her boots and walked down the stairs in the rain. I watched her go until she vanished into the darkness, and eventually the splashing of her footsteps faded out into the rain.
I stood there for a while, the night looking a little darker now that I was alone.
“Ah!” I exclaimed, realization hitting me like a lightning bolt.
Maybe she’d been asking for help? I wasn’t the only one stuck with no transportation.
“‘What a coincidence,’ indeed, Keisuke.”
I was in the same situation, so I couldn’t help her, but I could have found a better way of putting it. I looked in the direction Nito had gone, but I couldn’t chase after her now.
I let out a deep sigh and went back inside. Time to turn in for the night.