When I suddenly woke up, there was something warm and soft against me.
Not the futon. Something more... alive. I turned around, puzzled.
"..."
Right next to me was Shiro's sleeping face.
"..."
Oh, right.
We'd ended up sleeping in the same bed last night.
There had been quite a fuss about it, but in the end, we slept together.
"..."
I couldn't help but keep staring at Shiro's sleeping face.
Why does a beautiful girl's sleeping face make your heart pound like this?
"..."
—Album... Biel Issephid... Buyadou... Shada... Keo Keo... Valkoinen... Biel'i... Vellasse fade
"...Huh?"
What's that, sleep-talking? Not an incantation, at least?
And her lips kept gliding smoothly while her face stayed perfectly peaceful like that... Kind of scary.
She went quiet for now, but I was afraid she'd start up again.
"Morning...?"
Since we were inside the dungeon, it was hard to tell what time it was.
And also, I'm still kinda sleepy.
"...Guess I'll sleep some more."
I closed my eyes and drifted back off.
"...Wof. Wof."
I was touched and shaken.
"...Mmm...huh?"
"Get up. It's morning."
"Mmmnn..."
Slowly I opened my eyes, and there was Shiro's face.
And then I noticed Shiro's outfit— wait, what?
It wasn't the thin white negligee. It was a babydoll.
"You're up. Good morning."
"G-Good...morning."
It was white and thin and fluttery from top to bottom, and her skin was visible through it.
Once I was awake, Shiro climbed out of bed.
When she stood up, it was practically see-through, so I could make out the shape of her chest and the line of her hips and all sorts of other things.
Come to think of it, Shiro was one of those people who looked slimmer in clothes than you'd expect. Nice figure.
"Looks like you slept well."
"Y-Yes."
I got out of bed too.
Shiro placed the pod on the tea table set up in the room.
She poured a pure white liquid into a pure white cup.
Hot milk.
I sat in the seat across from her and had some hot milk too.
"Once you finish that, could you go wake up Dokha?"
"Got it."
"I know a good spot for breakfast. Let's all eat there."
"O-Okay."
The hot milk gradually cleared my head.
Ah, this milk. It had ginger in it.
"Today we're heading straight to floor 36 to gather Pneumadake, then using the transfer circle to reach floor 56."
"Floor 56?"
"There's a ruin city there too."
"Even all the way out there."
"Also, I've never been myself, but there's one on floor 96 too."
"How many floors does the Earth Dungeon have?"
"The deepest part is unknown. But it's definitely over 100 floors."
That deep, huh.
I finished my milk and headed to the next room to wake up Dokha.
The first thing that caught my attention was that the door was slightly ajar. Meaning it wasn't locked.
Dokha?
As I called out and stepped inside, Dokha was lying on the floor.
A bottle of ale and those conspicuous sunglasses were rolled up nearby. This was a mess.
I cleared away the bottle and spoke to Dokha.
"Dokha. Please wake up. It's morning."
"...Beautifu..."
"What's beautiful? No, Dokha. Please wake up. It's morning!"
"...Wha...?"
"It's morning."
"O-oh... goo... morning."
"Good morning."
"Mornin..."
Looks like he's awake.
He blinked — actually, it was my first time seeing Dokha's eyes, but they were just... normal.
Now that I looked at him like this, he really was just a regular afro guy.
Dokha slowly got up and put on his star-and-moon sunglasses.
"Shiro asked if you'd like to join her for breakfast."
"O-oh... sure, if it's light... shake it baby..."
"Got it."
"Phew. Yesterday I got a little too feverish, y'know... ha..."
Well, just keep it reasonable.
"Boy. Tell the white girl to fix up her afro before she heads out, y'know."
"Got it."
I left the room.
Afro. Sure enough, it was all dented out of shape.
When I got back to Shiro's room, she'd finished changing.
Today she was in a white Gothic Lolita outfit. The frills were toned down though, so it came across as rather modest.
After a little while, Doha showed up.
We checked out of the inn and headed to the restaurant Shiro recommended.
I checked the time on my pocket watch. 9:55. Almost 10 already.
Shiro's recommended restaurant was a stylish spot that suited the ruined city.
Until 11 they had a breakfast menu, and you could pick from A, B, or C.
A was white bread-bean and crystal fish stew, a galette, and the chef's choice salad.
B was black bread-bean and mushroom bean soup, a galette, and the chef's choice salad.
C was rice with stir-fried meat and vegetables, a galette, and the chef's choice salad.
"They all come with a galette, huh."
This world had buckwheat flour too, so galettes were a thing.
There was also buckwheat porridge, plus actual soba noodles.
But since there was no culture of dipping them in sauce, they were more like a novelty kind of pasta.
After going back and forth, I ordered C, and Doha went with B.
Shiro-san picked A without hesitation. We ended up nicely split.
"Crystal fish?"
"They're fish you catch in the underground lakes and rivers of earth dungeons. They're transparent, so they're called crystal fish."
"Huh..."
"Having soup is a real blessing, yoo...haa."
Doha-san had been looking low on energy for a while now. Probably a hangover.
"You drank too much,"
Shiro-san scolded him. Doha-san looked dejected.
While we were discussing the day's plans, the food arrived.
Rice. And on a flat plate, a stir-fry of meat and vegetables.
Meat and root and leaf vegetables had been carefully stir-fried together. This was pork, by the looks of it.
There were a lot of root vegetables — maybe they're easy to harvest underground.
The galette had bacon, spinach, and a raw egg on top of a thinly baked crust.
Classic. Both of their galettes were the same.
The chef's-choice salad was mainly root vegetables with a homemade dressing.
I glanced to the side and caught a glimpse of a translucent fish, simmered to perfection.
So that was the crystal fish stew. Looked delicious.
Doha-san's soup was loaded with small beans and mushrooms.
That looked good too. Both of them came with three bread-beans, but they were on the bigger side.
Alright, time to eat.
The meat and vegetables had a slightly sweet-and-savory taste, not too overpowering, easy to eat.
It went well with rice. But it wasn't Chinese-style. Not Japanese-style either — proper Western.
As for the galette... I mixed the raw egg well and first brought it to my mouth together with the spinach.
Oh, oh, this is good. This is really good. A gentle flavor.
The dough was crunchy on the outside but soft inside.
Next I had it with bacon and egg.
Rich, melted fat and meat flavor. Yep. This is some seriously good bacon.
And I love how it's fried right to the edge of crispy and burnt.
There were still meat and vegetables left, but with galettes like this, I felt like I could eat several.
Huh? You can choose the filling for the galette? Oh wow, that's awesome!
And so we enjoyed our breakfast to the fullest. Phew, did we eat.
We rested a bit, then set out.
I want to eat at this restaurant again on the way back.
Earth dungeon. Floor 56. Ruined city.
Clan "Golden Horn" hideout.
"Nebura, hey. Heard the news. You guys got wiped out?"
A large man with golden horns, laughing smugly.
Nebura growled with a sour expression.
"Shut up. So what'd you call me here for? Birijō."
"Just hear me out. You've got nothing to do anyway. I'm offering to let you in on a big business venture. That's how close we are, you and me."
"I'm warning you, Birijō. You were cut off by Alveld too, weren't you? He'll be coming here before long."
"I don't care about that. I'm going to cash in on this big business and get out of here."
"What big business is that?"
"You know the Pneumadake mushroom?"
"Those mushrooms, right? I think there's a colony of them growing on some floor or other."
"Floor 36. I'm currently monopolizing that whole level."
"Hey. If the guild finds out, they'll crush you."
"I'll be gone before they do."
"So what's the big deal about these mushrooms?"
"They're an ingredient for magic potions."
Nebura's face wrinkled slightly.
He clicked his tongue before asking.
"...Are you manufacturing them?"
"That's a different clan. I'm just selling the Pneumadake that's the raw material."
"So what's my cut in all this?"
"I'm forcibly blockading the 36th floor, so I'm getting all sorts of trouble from people. There's a teleportation circle to the 46th floor up there, you see."
"You want me to clear the way for you."
"That's about it."
"Fine. My subordinates have nothing to do anyway. It'll be something to pass the time, but I'm not planning to stay here forever."
"Same here. I'll sell as much Pneumadake as I can, and once it's gone, I'll run."
"So, where should we start?"
Nebr's murky gray eyes, ringed with dark circles, glinted eerily.
And they still don't know it.