Customer traffic abruptly stopped once noon passed us by. The only ones who remained inside my store were Meryl and Mira, who were devoting themselves to that ten-rim game. They had made over twenty attempts by now, but that universal elixir continued to elude them.
I brought the chair that accompanied my street stall out to the front and opened up the lunch box Minerva had made for me.
“Whoa...” Grilled chicken, a mysterious terrine, pickled vegetables, homemade bread, and a small banana cake were all tightly stuffed inside. Meryl looked at me, a little dumbfounded.
“What? You’ve got something to say?” I asked her.
“Just thinking it looks like a lunch box a loving wife would pack.”
“A loving wife? Look, I know Minerva sounds like a girl’s name, but he’s a guy. And we’re just friends.”
“Really? It doesn’t look that way to me...” Today, Meryl seemed like she was biting something back.
“What does it look like to you then?”
“There’s no way you’re just friends.”
“I agree,” Mira said, stepping into the conversation.
“Wait, even you, Mira?”
“Yeah, I think you’re best friends!”
“Not even close!” Meryl shouted, her shoulders raised in agitation. “Look, that’s not what I meant. I’m saying that Minerva is definitely in love with you!”
“Yeaaah, I wonder about that.”
“I’m telling you, he is!” she insisted. “I’m sure you’ve realized it too, right?”
It was true that the possibility had crossed my mind. I just didn’t have anything concrete to go by.
“If he wasn’t, he wouldn’t have made such an amazing lunch for you.”
The lunch box suddenly felt like it weighed ten tons. Love is heavy...
“You think?” I asked.
“Obviously!” Meryl said, frustrated. “He gets all pouty if he sees Mira and me getting even just a little bit chummy with you.”
Yeah, he does keep calling them cheeky brats...
“So what are you going to do?”
“About what?”
“About Mister Minerva! Who else?”
I personally thought it was fine for guys to like other guys. But if you asked me whether I could have a man as my own lover, that was a different story. I just couldn’t get turned on if my partner wasn’t a woman. I’d asked my gay friend about this before, and he’d told me that if you could get off while thinking of a man, then you could be gay. I’ve never tried it for myself, but I don’t think my body would react...
“But it’s not like he’s confessed,” I protested. “You don’t actually know what he’s thinking, do you? You shouldn’t jump to conclusions.”
“I dunno. It just sounds like you’re trying to put off dealing with the problem to me.”
Meryl’s ten-rim coin fell into a hole. It was game over.
“All right then, we should be going now,” Meryl said. “We need to earn a little more money.”
“Yes, it’s about time we go.”
As Meryl and Mira headed back to work, I let vague thoughts of Minerva drift through my mind.
I thought he was a good guy. No matter what others said, he was at least nice to me. Oh right, he did give off the vibe that he doesn’t like women... He hadn’t reacted at all to the witch Michelle’s big boobs when he saw her wanted poster.
Meryl had said all that, but in the end, I felt it was best to cross that bridge when we got there. It’d be a waste of time to worry about it when the man in question wasn’t even here. Minerva had headed into the deepest part of the dungeon, and he’d said he wouldn’t be back for three days.
I’ll leave this to future me to deal with.
A rowdy band of adventurers was returning. It was one of my regulars, Garmr, and his buddies.
“Give me four Morocco Yogurts, Mister Yusuke,” Garmr said.
“Here you go. That’ll be eighty rims,” I said, handing him the Morocco Yogurts. “Did you get hurt?”
“Yeah, it’s nothing major.” Garmr poked one boy’s face. “This guy here just made a mistake.”
“What was I supposed to do? I had to sneeze.”
“We were after some Stray Methane. They spook easily, so we’re not supposed to make any noise.”
Stray Methanes were gaseous monsters, and they dropped a good amount of money despite how easy they were to defeat.
“But, you know, it’s really tough that we can’t give any orders since we have to stay silent.”
“Yeah, and it’s hard to use any hand signs since we’re holding weapons.”
“Then buy this,” I said, recommending one of my products.
Product name: Cocoa Cigar
Description: Candy shaped like cigarettes. If you think to yourself while holding one in your mouth, you can communicate with people within a ten-meter radius. However, both of you must be holding a cigar in your mouth.
Price: Thirty rims (Six pieces included)
When I was a kid, we would stick these things in our mouths and pretend we were smoking. It probably used to be fun to imitate adults.
It appeared that these Cocoa Cigars could function as soundless transceivers in this world. There were plenty of flavors besides cocoa too, such as orange, blueberry, and cola.
“Let’s test some out.” Garmr and his buddies put the Cocoa Cigars that they had bought in their mouths to see if they really could communicate with each other.
“Whoa, amazing! I can actually hear voices in my head!”
“Hey, who the heck said penis!”
“Ha ha ha! No, don’t make me laugh!”
“Don’t say poop either!”
“Ga ha ha ha, are you stupid or something?”
It seemed like it didn’t matter whether they were in Japan or another world—a lot of boys were idiots.
But if you used these things properly, wouldn’t they become an indispensable item for dungeon attacks? Thirty rims was cheap enough for any team of rookie adventurers to easily obtain them.
I should start featuring them more...