Year 7446, Month 9, Day 1
Around the time we returned to the surface it was just before the date was about to change. Both of us were exhausted(Though in degrees of exhaustion I was beyond Miduchi) from trying to learn {Water Breathing}, and from the overwhelming fatigue I just wanted to fall over into bed a moment sooner.
However, I also felt a strong hunger at the same time so for the time being we decided to eat something and then sleep. Though I say that there's almost no restaurants open at this time. It's not as if there's none at all but they're all taverns and if we just casually showed our faces and by chance we encounter someone from the {Slaughterers} I'm sure they would let us go for a while.
It couldn't be helped so we returned to the inn we left the carriage as Miduchi and I ended up eating the emergency use preserved foods which aren't tasty at all. Of course, I could have told the guy standing at the front reception to take out the smoked Neisun that's a gift for Zenom from the refrigerator but as expected I would feel bad doing that.
We put the dried meat into hot water soaking it and then at the same time put the biscuit or cookie-like hard baked crackers into the hot water to soak before slowly biting into them along with the water. Thinking it was better than nothing I had everyone hold on to some but it's really just barely better than nothing and you can't even compliment it as being okay or easy to eat. Since it's a waste I'm having it consumed once every two months before they go back but because I don't want to eat it I've always forced it on to the combat slaves to eat. But, obviously it's reputation isn't very good.
Since it couldn't be helped, it's still better than throwing it away so I started selling it to a restaurant in the back slum areas for a price that's close to free. That restaurant sells dried meat and biscuits boiled in water along with the husks of oats {oatmeal}, as {Premium.Porridge} for a cheap price to those with a low income.
"So Cal*rie.Mate really was good tasting.."
"Wait, it's still too soon to eat right.."
"I'm in the hard noddle eating faction, you know that right?"
"It's not ramen."
"I mean, because I'm hungry~"
"Ah, really, I'll eat it too!"
".."
".."
"Hard..."
"Ha~ I feel like my teeth are going to break."
"Yeah, it's no good if we don't soak it for longer."
"It was too soon."
"Right."
".."
".."
"..Ah, the meat is already almost.."
"Oh, it works!"
"Yeah, it's good. It's properly become soup."
"Yeah, if it's just this much then you can bite through it."
"Though it's a bit hard I'm sure this is about right."
"After all it's meat right, meat. Meat and fish. Proteins from animals are important."
"You actually feel like you're eating right."
".."
".."
"I ate~ I ate~"
"We ate quite a bit right.."
In the end in just this one meal we ate over one full day of preserved food. Well, preserved food is limited to just being non-daily use and one meals worth of amount of preserved food is really only the bare minimum amount of calories so putting that aside(Even that isn't anything great. It's not like it's highly nutritious food. It's just that it fills your stomach well in comparisons to it's volume and since it's hard and you have to slowly eat it you feel like you've eaten a reasonable amount), the amount itself for 4 meals worth is only about 1.5 normal meals I'm sure.
Ah~ eating something like this I remember the past.
What you say? Hard biscuits, candy, orange spread, and sausage cans. When doing practice exercises for the JGSDF* it's one of the menus we eat combat provision type I. The fundamentals that are the hard biscuits and candy haven't changed since the Meiji era and are historically correct with the menu number I. Compared to these biscuits that aren't good at all and feel like your teeth are going to crack it was almost as delicious as a full course French meal. Particularly the orange spread and canned sausage that were added since it became the SDF are superb and even the hard biscuits and candy weren't bad to eat while outside.
Among the veteran members there were even some who liked the hard biscuits more than canned meals because you can eat them while moving or during short breaks and they're not just easy to eat but taste good, there was even some who ate them out of interest and said they never get tired of them. The main ingredient for the hard biscuits was wheat flour and then after that is salt, sugar, and sesame seeds and the rest is the same as bread, the candy could be replaced with rock candy as well.