I Woke Up Piloting the Strongest Starship, so I Became a Space Mercenary

Translator: SFBaka

It would just be a hassle to go somewhere outside, and since we were gonna stay in the hotel for a week, we decided to dine in the hotel's dining hall, or rather, restaurant.

"Oh, they have actual chefs working in this restaurant huh."

"Ara, there's a dwarf."

The kitchen in the back of the restaurant can be seen from the diner's seats, where a male dwarf and what seemed to be a human were working as chefs. They were busy cooking dishes.

"In the Graccan Empire, when you say 'chef', you'd think of dwarves right away, don't you?"

"It's the same all throughout space, I think. People who have continued to live on planets for a long time still have a diverse cooking culture, but most citizens of the empire just make use of auto-cookers instead. How about the Holy Vuelzarus Empire? What's the situation regarding food culture over there?"

"I was raised in a facility under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Divinities, so to be honest, my common sense regarding general societal norms is lacking. However, as far as I know, there should be many of our citizens who at least know how to cook simple dishes. Although meager, I also know a bit of cooking."

After saying so, Kugi proudly puffed out her chest. The animal ears on top of her head also perked up. I don't know just how skilled she was at cooking, but it does look like she was pretty confident despite her humble act.

"I see. Then you'll be the fourth person who knows cooking among our group apart from Big Sis, Mei-san, and Big Brother."

"Oh, how wonderful. It's amazing that more than half of our group knows how to cook."

"There are probably only one in a few hundred people who know how to cook in this empire. People like us who don't have any cooking skills to speak of are the majority."

While saying so, Elma operated the holo-display on the table to bring up the menu. It looked a little messy since they sort of combined the style of an elegant-looking high-end restaurant menu with that of an izakaya's. What the heck?

"It's a combination of an empire-style menu and a dwarven-style menu."

"Oh, so that's it. It's because they have a dwarven chef huh."

The empire-style menu had quite an extensive selection, and the items resembled stuff from Western cuisine. Well, since it was a galactic empire that occupied many star systems and had quite a long history, it seemed that empire-style cooking ended up absorbing and incorporating various culinary cultures into its own. From what I could tell, the dishes were a mixture of stuff resembling French and Italian cuisine.

On the other hand, dwarven dishes had a strong image of food that would be perfect as snacks to accompany flour-based dishes and alcohol. There were also some hearty-looking grilled and stir-fried dishes. It felt like a lot of the dishes were spicy too. It's like a mixture of Chinese and ethnic cuisine. Elven cuisine mostly resembled Japanese stuff, but it didn't seem to be considered part of imperial-style cuisine.

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"What will you have, Kugi?"

"They are all items I'm not familiar with so……"

She was making a troubled face. Since she was from the Holy Vuelzarus Empire, which was pretty far away, it's no wonder that she'd find this restaurant's menu, which mainly served imperial and dwarven dishes, unfamiliar.

"Alright then, why don't we just order some of the less-adventurous dishes? Let's try and order several helpings, shall we?"

"It's a bit ill-mannered, but I suppose that's fine."

"Okay. Then I'll ask for individual plates as well."

After saying so, Mimi operated the tabletop holo-display to select items from the menu. She seemed to be ordering pretty substantial helpings, but I'll just pretend I didn't see.

"In this empire, it's common to eat food prepared by automatic cookers through processing food cartridges, but what about the Holy Vuelzarus Empire?"

"Whenever possible, I cook food prepared from fresh ingredients myself, and if that wasn't possible, I'd partake in preserved food. However, with the continuous development of preservation technology, you are able to eat delicious dishes without going through the trouble of cooking them yourself, so the number of people who are able to cook using fresh ingredients is decreasing. Eating food prepared using auto-cookers and food cartridges is not very popular among our citizens."

"I see. What kinda stuff d'ya eat?"

"There are many kinds of processed beans. We also often eat Chilas shellfish."

"Chilas shellfish?"

"It's a cephalopod with a shell. It might seem somewhat creepy to people from other places, but it's a food item that is both flavorful and filling. There's also a processed fish dish called Chico, and a root vegetable called Caro which is easily cultivated and is very nutritious. Caro leaves can also be eaten, so no part of the plant is wasted."

"I see."

Cephalopods with shells? Like an ammonite or a nautilus? And they also had processed bean products…… You can actually use beans to make a lot of stuff. For example, soybeans can be used to make soymilk, fresh or fried tofu, natto, or just eat them plain boiled. The soybean is already like that, so there were a tremendous number of cooking variations when it comes to beans. Moreover, they also ate fish and root vegetables huh.

"Don't you guys eat meat?"

"We do, but it's quite expensive."

"So the situation's the same for the Graccan and Holy Vuelzarus Empire huh."

Before long, the food we ordered was served to our table. We mainly ordered large baked flatbreads with various ingredients piled on top just like pizza, mashed potato-like stuff, roasted meat-like dishes, and so on. By the way, there was no soup dish. The closest ones had thick paste-like consistency like ankake rather than your usual soup.

"This…… Isn't this meat?"

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Kugi's eyes were shining in delight as she looked at the skewered grilled whitish meat on a serving plate.

"……So, which type is this thing, exactly?"

"It's cultured meat."

Mimi sheepishly answered my question.

"Ah-…… Well, I suppose we're already used to it."

"Yeah."

We went to a factory manufacturing cultured meat a while back and became a bit traumatized by the experience. But now, we ate cultured meat without making a fuss. Even if it was originally sourced from… those things, processed meat was still processed meat at the end of the day. Anyway, it certainly tasted great, so it would be our loss if we kept being bothered by that stuff.

Or rather, it seemed we eventually got used to it thanks to Mimi often ordering rather questionable imported specialty foods and gathering us for tasting parties. So what if the meat was from a creepy eldritch tentacle creature? There was stuff in the world that were a lot grosser than that. Yeah, there certainly were. I have firsthand experience y'know.

"It's cultured, but it's no doubt genuine meat. If you want more, feel free to ask for seconds."

"Is it truly fine……? Isn't this quite extravagant?"

"Ya better get used to stuff like this, Kugi. With Boss here, stuff like this can only be treated as appetizers."

"I'm still floored by Big Brother's outrageous sense for money sometimes……"

"I'm getting used to it, but I haven't reached the realm of Hiro-sama and Elma-san yet."

Can you drop that topic already, guys? You make it sound like I and Elma were weirdos or something. We're quite normal, thank you very much. As mercenaries, that is. As regular folks? I wouldn't know about that even if you asked!

"Then, let's eat before the food gets cold guys."

"Yes. Oh, I'll portion it for you guys."

"Ah, let me help as well."

"You're today's guest of honor, Kugi. So just sit tight. Hiro says you're still a provisional member, but this is still your welcome party after all."

After saying so, Elma held Kugi down and started helping Mimi serve portions of each dish on everyone's plates. And before I knew it, Mei was also helping out. The way she mixes in naturally without making a sound was really uncanny.

"Right. Then, a toast to Kugi's welcome party."

"Cheers!"

Tina happily toasted her glass and immediately chugged down her drink. Of course, it was alcohol. Whisker also discreetly ordered alcohol as well…… Elma too huh. I did say we're gonna relax today, but you guys ain't holding back at all huh.