Cup noodles.
They were the taste of youth in my memories from my past life. They'd been a huge help back when I was broke.
I especially liked salt ramen — I'd toss in bean sprouts and green onions.
Chashu was expensive, so I'd buy discount ham, slice it thick, and grill it to put in.
And eggs. You could crack one right in with the noodles in the pot. Or drop it in and stir it around.
Ah, the memories. Putting it in a bowl was too much trouble, so I just ate straight from the pot.
Oh wait — this was instant noodles, not fresh.
This world had dried noodles too. Spaghetti, for instance.
And there were tantanmen, mazesoba, abura soba, and tsukemen.
But no ramen.
There were similar noodle dishes, but that classic neighborhood-Chinese-restaurant ramen didn't exist here.
Because putting noodles in soup wasn't really the norm.
I'd tried to recreate it once.
But I gave up halfway through.
It just felt wrong to serve ramen at a Western restaurant called Cider-tei.
"Um, Lord Wof. What is that?"
Juicy poked her head out from behind my shoulder, her wolf ears perking up.
"This is cup noodles."
"Um, um, are they noodles?"
"Yeah, it's delicious."
I'm buying some.
Well, it's not me doing the buying, of course.
It's definitely the salt flavor. Besides, I don't even recognize this brand.
Riv also picks up a cup noodle. Oh, curry flavor. Hmm. Curry, huh.
I don't hate it, and it's definitely tasty.
But I have mixed feelings about curry flavor in noodles.
The thing is, curry is delicious. So if you toss it with noodles, naturally it's going to taste good.
But that's because curry itself is delicious from the start. It's not because the noodles are good.
In short, curry is a cheat.
Curry goes with anything and turns anything into curry.
That's why I'm never quite convinced by curry-flavored ramen.
It's tasty, and I don't dislike it, though.
Now then, Juicy picks up the soy sauce flavor.
Oho. A classic choice.
There are also retort pouches, snacks, alcohol, soda, and all sorts of other things.
We ate and drank quite a lot before finally deciding to buy our selections.
"A-a-are you okay?"
"Nn... plenty of room... burp."
We place the basket full of items onto the altar that serves as a checkout counter.
It was practically a mountain of stuff. Did they have no concept of restraint?
Then Riv placed her hand on the pedestal. A little beep sounded.
Payment complete.
"How much is in there?"
"Hm... quite a lot... haven't used much..."
Riv gave a soft laugh and headed over to Lupinus.
Agaro was tucking canned beers into his own pouch.
Fitting that much into a pouch was — well, I was used to it by now, but still impressive.
Having purchased practically everything in sight like a tornado tearing through a store, we left the shop.
I felt kind of bad about it.
We passed through those pristine, spotless, sterile corridors.
Along the way, we fought the black spherical puppets and the white spherical puppets more times than I could count.
After the black spherical puppets fell apart, they split into pieces.
After the white spherical puppets fell apart, they reattached or fused back together.
Both were a pain to deal with.
Bidd launched three consecutive bolts with his crossbow, each tipped with a black orb.
The bolts landed in a triangular formation, enclosing several of the black and white spherical puppets inside.
Then he hurled his blue-silver trident.
It had a peculiar shape — the left side of the tip was the longest, with the right side shorter.
Three holes were drilled through the spaces between the tines. That was where the black orbs had been set.
The instant the trident struck the black spherical doll, an electric current surged from the black orb.
The entire triangle formation crackled with blue-silver electricity.
The black and white spherical dolls within range were hit by powerful electric shocks and couldn't move.
It was Bid's restriction Relic, Palestia's Diorama.
"Pakira, now!"
"Hell's Fire Rain!!"
Black-purple embers rained down on the black and white spherical dolls. A literal rain of fire.
The black and white spherical dolls, paralyzed by electric shock, continued to be engulfed in black-purple flames.
"It worked!"
"Mm."
Pakira and Bid high-fived.
"That's insane..."
Agaro broke out in a cold sweat, muttering in disbelief.
"Young ladies, most impressive."
Lupinus's shield spoke. He really had become a full-on butler.
"Well done."
"Mm... nice..."
"Um, um, um, that was amazing!"
Juicy's eyes sparkled as she wagged her tail.
"Peep peep... peep... peep peep"
The pink sphere was also flying around aimlessly.
"You don't need to imitate Yuneton."
The black and white sphere puppets burned out.
Beyond that was――a barrier blocking the way.
A thick, hard wall.
"Oh, oh. A dead end, huh?"
"How troublesome."
"Breaking through this isn't happening, is it."
"Hmm. Looks like we have no choice but to turn back."
"So we're fighting those black and white sphere puppets again?"
"Um, Haiyan isn't fighting, though?"
"Juicy, miss!?"
"Peep peep... peep..."
"...Indestructible..."
"What should we do, Riv?"
"Hmm... momentai..."
Riv placed her hand on the barrier.
In an instant, a pale blue light shot from her hand across the barrier.
Then with a heavy grinding sound, the barrier split open diagonally from the center.
Once the wall had fully opened, a staircase leading upward was there.
Light filtered in.
As I climbed the stairs with slow, deliberate steps, my field of vision suddenly opened up.
Without thinking, all of us held our breath.
It was a city of glass within the dungeon.