This guy. Well, Aoba might not have been sure how it was possible for Declan not to need to eat, but it wasn’t wasting food on him if he enjoyed it. Aoba didn’t want to make Declan upset or uncomfortable, though, so…four eggs, he decided. He’d make a four-egg omelet and split it in half. If there were free rations available to be eaten at any time, Aoba was in no danger of starving. Whatever Declan said, Aoba didn’t believe he was more deserving or entitled to real food than his over-generous host was.

He started cracking eggs into a bowl and whisking them up, keeping his attention on them as he answered. Honestly, he had…no idea what Declan had really just said there. Some other merchant? But Aoba wouldn’t learn anything—or at least, not as much—if he didn’t go out there and experience this future world.

“Sure, I’ll go.” Wait. Merchant? “…Oh, hey, that reminds me. The clothes I was wearing before, that I came through the portal in…I don’t want to keep them. The Deckers made me wear them, but there’s nothing wrong with them otherwise. I don’t suppose…would Tess or anybody else maybe buy them? I wouldn’t expect much, but, bad memories or not, it seems like a waste to just throw them away….”