Volume Two, Prologue: Big Sister and the Forbidden Midnight Snack
—Hoo, hoo.
Some kind of bird was calling.
I snapped my head up with a start, and outside the window it was pitch dark—it seemed midnight had already come and gone.
Looks like I’d dozed off at my desk without realizing it. An eerie stillness had settled over the entire house. The mild days of spring had come to an end, and full summer was just around the corner. But the nights in this other world were relatively dry and, if anything, rather chilly. A cool night breeze drifted in through the screen door, and the sheer coldness of it made me rub my arms without thinking.
—Rrr, rumble!
Just then, my stomach suddenly asserted its presence.
…Good grief, it was the dead of night, and yet I was starving. I looked around, but it seemed the person I’d been waiting for hadn’t come. My shoulders slumped in disappointment, and my stomach growled again. An unbearable wave of hunger washed over me. But if I ate now, I’d definitely gain weight. Whatever I ate would clearly turn straight into fat, armor guarding my stomach.
But then… Ah, the thought of that appeared in my mind. A critical hit! It was no use. If I didn’t eat that, I was sure to die. Emotionally, at least.
—Instant cup noodles. The soul food of the Japanese people, cup noodles. Convenient, and possessing an addictive quality that made you crave them out of nowhere sometimes. The forbidden food that, in maiden circles, you were absolutely never supposed to eat late at night…
—Ruuumble!
My stomach kept growling as if urging me on, in peak condition even in the middle of the night.
Resolve hardened, I burst out of my room and dashed into the kitchen. Rummaging around inside the hanging cupboard, I found what I was after—and, even I had to admit, broke into a wide, rather creepy grin.
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Seven months had already passed since we were summoned to this other world. Just yesterday, my sister—summoned to this world as the Saint to purify the miasma—had finally returned from her first purification journey, a trip that had stretched on for two whole weeks. Knowing how tired she must have been, I, together with my guard knight Jade, cooked up a mountain of her favorite dishes to comfort her.
Omurice, fried chicken, potato salad, Napolitan spaghetti, and pudding.
I’d made a whole pile of dishes, almost like a kid’s lunch plate, and lined them up in front of my sister.
Watching her’s happy face as we ate dinner together had been a rare, heart-settling moment, and it felt like it blew away the gloomy mood that had been hanging over me lately.
As she ate, my sister eagerly told me about her travels and all the amazing things she had done.
Stories about the scenery she’d seen on her travels. A tale about fighting some absurdly enormous whale-like monster. A story about how shocked she’d been at the utterly ravaged remains of a town swallowed by miasma. A story about how surprised she’d been that the tainted lands turned into a beautiful field of flowers after purification. A story about how she’d cried after everyone thanked her, once the purification was done.
“…Big sister, you know. On this trip, seeing firsthand how much everyone was suffering from the miasma… it made me decide I want to keep working hard, from now on too.”
My sister smiled a little bashfully.
“I’m so simple, aren’t I? Everyone was so grateful, saying thank you, thank you… It made me happy. I guess I really got swept up in it. I really am a pushover… but still.”
My sister energetically popped a piece of fried chicken into her mouth, chewed, and swallowed with a gulp.
“If a pushover like me can end up saving the world… that’d be pretty much the coolest thing ever, right?”
She said that with a wide, toothy grin.
I couldn’t say for certain, having stayed behind, but it seemed all sorts of things had happened on the purification journey. The trip, having gone smoothly, seemed to have given her both confidence and a sense of purpose.
Watching my sister grow like that filled me with a certain happiness—but also, just a little, with a touch of loneliness.
And then, after Jade went home and my sister fell asleep, I had a promise to keep with a certain someone.
‘Tonight, I desire the fruit steeped in liquor, and the white snacks of fish and milk. Do not forget. If you forget, I shall curse you.’
That someone was the fairy queen who’d granted my wish and, it seemed, had watched over my sister during her journey.
On the day my sister returned from her purification, she’d vanished after leaving me with those words, and so, wanting to express my gratitude and thanks, I’d prepared some drinks and waited for her… but—
“…Well, she did say herself, over and over, that she’s terribly capricious. Guess she’s not coming tonight.”
Someone who’d lived through an eternity of time might simply have a different sense of it than we humans did.
Well, she’d show up eventually—I decided to leave it at that.
I set the kettle on the gas stove and lit the burner.
I chose a perfectly standard cup of noodles, one that focused on the quality of its soup and noodles. When eating cup noodles on a night like this, simple was best. And ideally, a classic sort that had been beloved for years.
Shun shun shun shun…
In the quiet kitchen, only the sound of the kettle heating rang out.
I peeled the lid off the cup noodles with a crisp sound and scattered the dried toppings over the noodles. Since it was such a simple cup noodle, all that came with it was dried green onion and bamboo shoot strips, plus a separate packet of seaweed to add later. That alone somehow felt a little lacking.
With no other choice, I rummaged through the refrigerator. By this point, the word "weight gain" had completely vanished from my mind. Once I’d decided to eat, making no compromises was the way of the true midnight-snack devotee. How to make this cup noodle as delicious as possible—my entire mind was focused on nothing else.
After agonizing over it for ages, I finally peeked into the chilled compartment. There, I found something promising. I pulled it out and dropped it into the cup noodle container. There. Perfect…!
—Tap, tap, tap.
Just then, I heard someone knocking on the window. Looking up, I saw Dazil, the captain of the knights, and Jade, my personal guard knight, standing outside. I hurried to open the window and call out to them.
“Good evening. Mr. Dazil, Mr. Jade. Are you heading home now? It’s quite late.”
“Nah, we were drinking with the knight order tonight. Was about to head back, but got caught by Luvan and it dragged on. What about you, missy? Wasn’t a drinking night for you tonight, was it? Saw your light on, thought I’d stop by… Everything all right?”
“Oh, I woke up in the middle of the night and suddenly found myself terribly hungry… So I thought I’d have a little midnight snack. Would you two like to join me?”
When I said that, the two men exchanged glances and smiled wryly.
“Nah, we’re full. I’ll pass. Ahh… but could you get me a cup of cold tea? Drank a bit too much.”
“Oh, in that case, I’d like some too.”
“Sure thing. Taking your shoes off would be a hassle, right? Go ahead and sit on the veranda and wait.”
The two of them thanked me and vanished into the darkness—probably headed for the veranda.
Piiii—!
Then, as if perfectly timed, the kettle let out a shrill whistle. I poured the hot water into the cup noodles, set it on a tray along with the barley tea, and headed for the veranda.
◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇
The three of us sat lined up on the veranda, lit pale blue by the moon.
“Ahhh. A cold drink after a night of drinking really hits the spot.”
“I suppose we did drink a little too much tonight…”
“Oh my, that’s unusual, coming from you, Mr. Jade.”
“The guys who came along on the purification journey were just so rowdy about it…”
“Ah… that sounds rough.”
The eastern country my sister had just purified had suffered the worst damage from the miasma this time around. I’d heard the journey there had been brutal. They’d probably let loose a bit, relieved to finally be back home.
While the two men chatted about various things over their hangover tea, I peeled the lid off my now-ready cup noodles.
At once, soft white steam rose up. After scattering the separate packet of seaweed on top, I brought my nose close and breathed in deeply. The savory scent of soy sauce and chicken broth drifting past my nostrils was almost too much for an empty stomach to bear. To soothe my stomach, which had started grumbling again in protest, I took a sip of the broth.
—Gulp.
“…Ahh, phew…”
Ahh, the warm broth soaked right into me. On a chilly night like this, that warmth was just wonderful.
The packaging had claimed that special care had gone into the soup, and it certainly lived up to that promise. The broth was light and refreshing, yet full of rich chicken flavor. The soy sauce wasn’t too strong either, and didn’t overpower the dashi—it struck just the right balance. Well, that said, it was cup noodles at the end of the day. Compared to a famous ramen shop, there was something inherently cheap about it. But that was exactly what made it good. That was what made it addictive. That was the whole appeal of cup noodles.
I picked up my chopsticks and scooped up some noodles. The gently wavy noodles were on the thin side. The noodles were coated generously in broth, and apparently, they were non-fried—a manufacturing method the company had taken particular care over.
—Slurp, slurrrrrrp!
I sucked up the scooped noodles all at once, slurping the last bit in with a final shlurp, then chewed.
The springy, non-fried noodles were pretty delicious. This chewy texture, if anything, was something you couldn’t get at a restaurant. I swallowed with a gulp, then went for the broth again.
Maybe because it was my second sip, the soy sauce flavor seemed to come through stronger somehow. The little bamboo shoot strips I took in along with the broth were crunchy. It was a shame they barely had any flavor of their own—more there for texture, really.
“Phew.”
There were plenty of little complaints I could raise, but right now my heart was brimming with satisfaction. The sense of guilty pleasure from eating at this hour only made it taste strangely more delicious—that was the magic of midnight cup noodles.
—I couldn’t eat a midnight snack every day, but every once in a while, this was nice.
As I sat there reflecting on that, I suddenly felt an intense stare coming from beside me. Wondering what was going on, I glanced over and nearly let out a shriek. Because, at some point without my noticing, the two men had stopped talking and were both staring at me with severely grim expressions.
“Wh-Wh-what is it? Both of you?”
“Missy… what in the world is that?”
Dazil asked me, his eyes fixed unmoving on the cup noodles.
“What do you mean? It’s cup noodles. Also called instant noodles. A preserved food from my country that you make just by adding hot water… I guess?”
I couldn’t quite explain it well. Setting aside the fact that, from eating them so often, the "preserved food" feeling had kind of worn off for me, more than anything, the two of their stares and expressions were downright frightening. Even Jade, who always had such a gentle look about him, was staring at me with a tense expression. Wondering if I’d done something wrong, I ran back through my own actions.
Then—one thing came to mind. I hurriedly bowed my head to the two of them.
“I’m so sorry! Slurping noodles loudly like this must be a breach of manners here, isn’t it!?”
“Ah, ah…”
“I knew it! I’m so sorry for making you uncomfortable…! In my country, slurping loudly isn’t considered a particular breach of manners, so… To defend myself a little, slurping it loudly lets the broth come into your mouth at the same time, so it tastes the best that way. It’s actually a perfectly rational way to eat!”
“…The best…”
“Yes! It tastes the best that way!”
The illustration’s description: Akane with her noodles, as well as Jade and Dazil, staring at her in amazement.
I clenched my fist and argued passionately, and Dazil froze in place, his expression still grim. Jade put a hand to his mouth, seemingly lost in some kind of contemplation.
Puzzled, I tried calling out to the two of them, but got no response. With no other choice, I decided to finish off my cup noodles before they got soggy. I ate the noodles as quietly as I could manage and used my chopsticks to fish out a piece of seaweed floating in the broth. It had soaked up more than enough broth and had gone soft and limp. I popped it into my mouth, and a gentle aroma of the sea wafted up. Mixed with the soy sauce flavor of the broth, it was delicious in its own way.
—Oh, right. I’d added that, too.
Suddenly remembering, I probed the bottom of the cup with my chopsticks and hit something solid. Careful not to drop it, I gripped it firmly with the chopsticks and lifted it up. The moment I did, Dazil’s expression grew even grimmer.
“…Does this ‘cup noodle’ thing usually have sausage in it?”
“No, it doesn’t, usually.”
“Then what’s that? Something else that just happens to look like a sausage?”
“It’s sausage. Exactly what it looks like.”
As I mentioned earlier, this cup noodle was a simple type that focused mainly on the broth and noodles. It contained essentially no meat at all. But today I’d been in the mood for meat, so I’d added a sausage I’d found at the market the other day—recommended by the butcher—before pouring in the hot water.
This sausage was made from the meat of some kind of domesticated boar-like monster, and best of all, its casing had a wonderful crisp snap to it. Plump, herb-packed fresh sausages were delicious too, but from the perspective of an ordinary Japanese person, a crisp, snappy sausage was what I was most used to eating. Even in another world, it couldn’t be helped that I’d end up craving that.
Lifted out of the sea of broth, the sausage dripped with liquid and looked utterly delicious. I took a bite, and it made a satisfying snap. The moment my teeth broke through the casing, rich, savory juices burst out from inside; the firm, slightly chewy meat had a good bite to it, and the seasoning was well-balanced—altogether extremely delicious.
“—Whoa. That’s totally cheating.”
Munching on the sausage, I glanced over at Dazil, only to find him, for some reason, holding his head in his hands and muttering under his breath. Jade patted Dazil’s shoulder, seemingly trying to comfort him about something.
…Some kind of problem, maybe?
If he needed someone to talk to, I could listen later. With that thought, I gulped down the remaining broth and finished off the whole thing.
“—Phew. Thanks for the meal!”
I pressed my palms together with a clap, thoroughly satisfied. Having drunk down all that salty broth, I’d naturally worked up quite a thirst. Just as I stood up to go fetch some tea from the kitchen, my sister—who should have been long asleep—appeared, rubbing her eyes.
“Big sister… ah! You were eating cup noodles!? No fair!”
My drowsy, half-asleep sister seemed to snap fully awake the instant she registered the existence of cup noodles. She dashed noisily into the kitchen and started rummaging through the hanging cupboard for more cup noodles. Somehow, Dazil—having kicked off his shoes and let himself in without anyone noticing—joined in, and the two of them started bickering back and forth over this and that.
“Mr. Dazil, weren’t you full?”
At that, Dazil’s eyes flew wide, and he launched into a rapid-fire tirade:
“Missy, that’s just not fair, is it!? You’re telling me not to eat!? After filling the place with that mouthwatering smell and eating it that deliciously in front of me! Talk about leaving a man half-dead! You demon!”
“No way! Big sister, were you really flaunting it like that!? You heartless woman!”
“As compensation, I demand two sausages!”
“S-Sausages!? Big sister, how sinful of you…! I demand rice!”
“What!? Lady Saint, what are you gonna do with rice!?”
“Dump it right into the leftover broth, that’s what!”
“Wh-What did you say—!?”
I watched the two of them from a little distance as they carried on in some kind of theatrical, exaggerated performance.
“…What is wrong with these people?”
I muttered that quietly to myself, and Jade came to stand beside me.
He rested a hand on my shoulder and said, with deep feeling:
“…Akane. Stirring people up so thoroughly, all without even realizing it… You really are a sinful woman, aren’t you?”
“—Wait, you’re making me sound like some kind of femme fatale!?”
In short, it seemed Jade wanted to eat cup noodles too. After a bit, my sister lined up a whole assortment of different cup noodles on the veranda and began lecturing the two men on the differences in flavor. The oddly high energy in the air was probably a midnight-only phenomenon. Full and, frankly, starting to feel sleepy, I wanted nothing more than to brush my teeth and go to bed, but it didn’t look like the three of them were going to let me.
With no other choice, I left the three of them to their increasingly heated debate over soy sauce versus pork-bone broth flavors and headed into the kitchen to boil some water.
◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇
—Slurp, slurp, slurp, slurp.
—Gulp, gulp, gulp, gulp.
“““Phaaah!”””
Sitting on the veranda eating cup noodles, the three of them looked utterly blissful.
“Cup noodles after drinking… so good. Way too good! Right, Luvan!?”
“…Asking for agreement from someone who isn’t even eating… is beyond my comprehension.”
Luvan, the Prime Minister, had come to deliver something Dazil had forgotten, and wore an even more sour expression than usual.
“Ahh! That was delicious! Ahh, so satisfying, so satisfying!”
“I’m full too… I might’ve overeaten… yawn, I’m sleepy.”
“Eating at such a late hour really does sit heavy in the stomach, doesn’t it…?”
The three of them, who’d been devouring their cup noodles like starving animals, finished them off in no time and each headed back to their own room or home. And then, for some reason, Luvan and I were left behind—Luvan planted himself firmly down on the veranda and said to me, as if it were the most natural thing in the world:
“Akane. One for me as well.”
“Excuse me!?”
“Is there some reason you can serve it to Dazil and your guard knight, but not to me?”
“No, um. But—”
“The same thing you had will do.”
“No, that’s not it, I mean… I’m already sleepy, so…”
I mumbled, trying every way I could think of to get him to go home, but Luvan pushed up his silver-rimmed glasses with a finger and, unusually, gave me a bright smile.
“Cup noodles eaten after drinking are the best, aren’t they? I’m looking forward to it.”
“—Y-Yes, sir…”
Weak to being told things like that, I let my shoulders slump and, with heavy footsteps, headed back to the kitchen to boil water for the third time.
