The Flying Board competition afterparty was about to begin. As the top winners, we were told to be in the same place as the Scarlet Blue and Black Muscat at first, but it seemed that we weren't required to give a speech or make a toast just because we were the winners, which was a big help.
The representative of the management... this place's town representative is the one who made a speech and give a toast, and at most, we were lightly introduced in their speech.
It's just, well, it seems like even in a different world, the speeches given by higher-ups will end up being long, as the town representative gave speeches about their impression of the Flying Board competition and regional revitalization in frontier areas for quite a long time. Around the middle part of his speech though, I feel like the atmosphere around me wants them to end his speech already. Of course, that didn't happen and the town representative read the speech that he had prepared in advance, down to the last word...
Once the long speeches were over and the toasts were made, we were free to do as we please for the rest of the event. We can enjoy talking with the other contestants we contended with in the competitor, or enjoy the food and drinks prepared for everyone.
We were relatively hungry though, so we decided to enjoy the food first.
[...Ohh, they have rice dishes here, how unusual.]
[Indeed, this is rare in this world. It looks like paella...]
[That's a big frying pan they used. I love seeing food being served with such big cooking utensils!]
The dishes are served in an all-you-can-eat style... similar to a standing buffet party, but unlike a noble's party, it has a strong banquet-like feel, as it's like we're eating food prepared in large pots and platters on a small plate.
The first dish that caught our attention was a paella-like dish made with plenty of seafood.
In the first place, bread is the mainstream food in this world, and rice dishes are quite minor, so it's rare to see them served in such a place.
However, thinking back, I remember hearing that rice in this world was originally produced in small quantities in the remote regions of Hydra Kingdom, and if this is the case, this may be the specialty of this region.
However, where is it that they heard about this... Ahh, that's right! They didn't hear about it, they read about it... Neun's diary, I mean. I remember seeing something like that being written there.
[Do you think they get the seafood around this area?]
[I wonder? As expected, wouldn't it be from another area? This area feels like it would have a lot of agriculture, and such areas being near the ocean have the risk of salt-air damage...]
[Ahh, I see... Then, I wonder if they procured it somewhere else?]
[Can't it be that they fished it from that big lake?]
While taking some paella onto our small plates, I talked to Aoi-chan about where the shrimp and shellfish came from, to which Hina-chan muttered with a puzzled expression on her face.
Thereupon, Aoi-chan answered with a wry smile.
[Hina-chan, shrimp and shellfish aren't ingredients found from lakes...]
[Eh? But that was just the case in our world, right? That's not necessarily the same in this world.]
[ [ ...Ahh. ] ]
Now that she mentioned it, that was indeed the case. In our world, things like shrimp and mussels can be found in the ocean. However, there's no guarantee that it would be the same case here in this world.
Even though they look similar, it's quite possible that crustaceans and shellfish can be found here in lakes.
[...I feel like we've been inflexible in our thinking.]
[Hina-chan, there are extremely rare times like this when you zero in on something really good.]
[...Aoi-senpai? Did you really have to add that extremely rare over there?]
Hina-chan, who stared at Aoi-chan as she said that, how should I say this... it looks pleasant. It's not like she's really angry, it's more like the two of them are on such good terms that they can freely speak out their complaints to each other?
As I had such thoughts in mind, I involuntarily moved my gaze and saw a familiar macho trio... the Yellow Pipe's members.
[...You two, there's Yellow Pipe over there.]
[Ahh, you're right. I wonder if they're doing something like live cooking?]
[...Their cook suits... It looks like they're about to burst...]
As Aoi-chan said, it looked like Yellow Pipe was going to do live cooking, as they had prepared ingredients and utensils. However, probably because they were wearing tight cook suits on top of their muscular bodies, something really looked out of place.
Just like Hina-chan said, because of their pectoral muscles and biceps, their outfit looked too tight.
[Now, everyone! Bare witness to our cooking!]
[To cook well, what one needs are muscles!]
[Watch as our well-trained bodies make a delicious dish!]
The characters of these three sure are as strong as ever. And there's their usual muscle logic... It's just, well, I feel like they have more opportunities to make the most of their muscles now than when they were on the Flying Board.
In fact, considering that they're doing live cooking, the way the three of them cooked with great gusto is very flashy and quite eye-catching. The trio's appearance had quite an impact in them, so in a sense, they seem to be making perfect use of their strengths.
However, they would sometimes do muscle poses here and there while they're cooking, perhaps as fanservice... Seeing them in cook suits doing muscle poses was quite surreal and amusing.