After a full day's work of culling monsters and picking herbs, we returned to the Adventurer's Guild in Nevda Town. We submitted the herbs and received our rewards without any problems. Great, now I just wanted to have a light dinner and then sleep. I was far too tired to go shopping or explore more of the town. Masa felt the same, so we headed straight to the inn. The tavern area of the inn was a large hall to the left of the front desk, and was already crowded by this time with people I assumed to be either adventurers or townsfolk.

Come to think of it, this could be the first time we were seeing so many locals. I tensed up as I felt their eyes on us as we stepped in, but most of them soon went back to carousing. A couple of the older men still stared openly at us, but I tried to ignore them and followed Masa to an unoccupied table. A pretty red-haired waitress soon came over to take our orders. He ordered a thick soup and bread while I ordered a simple salad and a sandwich. Our first actual Isekai meal! This was exciting in its own way.

As we waited for our meals to arrive, Masa turned to me with a serious look. "I heard from the Australians that they are currently trapped in Shyi'eld without a way to go home," he said. "We might end up in a similar situation ourselves in the near future."

Uh oh...that didn't sound good. "But we have our teleports and the portal through the old mansion seems to be a permanent one," I protested. "As does your portal through the tunnel."

"For now," he said with a sigh. "We don't know enough about things here to know how permanent the portals are. What if they suddenly disappear and leave us stranded here for good?"

"But is there any way we can find out more?" I wondered aloud. "I don't think portal makers and portals are all that common, or our worlds would have started some sort of trade long ago."

"That was one of the reasons why I ran after the portal maker earlier, but I'm sorry for dragging you into this as well," apologised Masa with a short bow. "It's my fault you're stuck here too."

I quickly demurred. "No, no, I chose to follow of my own accord. Besides, I was curious too. You know what they say about curiosity and cats, right? Anyway, I'm surprised that the Australian siblings didn't pester you about where your portal is."

Masa shrugged and said, "They were more interested in learning about how we met and what our relationship was."

"Oh? What did you say?" I asked, perking up.

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"Uh..." For some reason, Masa refused to meet my gaze. "I just said we were friends, that's all."

"I see..." That was more or less what I expected him to say, but it still felt somewhat disappointing. Not that I wasn't glad to have him as a friend, of course. But anyway, we were discussing the Australians. Judging by Daryl's reaction when I mentioned going home, I assumed he very much wanted to go back. Had his priorities changed after meeting Masa? I felt a bit sorry for them since they seemed like nice folk stuck in a weird situation. Maybe there was some way to contact the admins and find them a way home? If they had a permanent portal made, we might be able to travel to Australia too! Hmm, maybe we should try to get to know the siblings better.

The opportunity arrived sooner than I expected. The two of them walked into the tavern just as our food came. I waved at Crystie, who smiled and approached us. "Hey, how did your hunting trip go?" asked Daryl with a grin. "Did you complete any quests?"

"Yup, we managed to clear all three, but I'm all tired out," I told them with a wry smile. "Are you guys here for dinner too?"

"Yeah, the food's not bad," said Crystie, sitting down beside Masa. "Well, it's better than camping out, at least. Never again!"

"C'mon, it wasn't that bad," said Daryl, chuckling as he sat down across from his sister, beside me. "We just couldn't get any salt or seasonings. At least the meat was cooked."

I went pale at his words, putting my fork down. "...I guess you guys had to hunt to survive, huh."

Suddenly the food didn't look so appetising any more, even though I was only eating a salad. I couldn't imagine killing an animal with my own hands to eat it. Well, we did catch fish before, but a mammal or bird would be different. I glanced at Masa, who was calmly dipping his bread into his soup. The guy loved birds so much that I doubted he would wish to hurt them. We didn't even know how to skin or butcher an animal since all the meat we saw at supermarkets already came nicely packaged. Things were different in my parents' time. They told me anecdotes about having to slaughter and pluck their own chickens. Yeah, I wouldn't last a day in Shyi'eld without all the food I had stored up in my Void.

"Hey, are you okay? You've suddenly gone quiet," came Daryl's voice.

I looked up to see a concerned expression on his face beside me. I quickly shook my head and picked up my fork again. "Ah, no, it's fine. It's just that I've never hunted before..."

The Australians exchanged glances and then stared at me. Daryl had his eyes wide while Crystie looked exasperated. "What, so you made Masa do all the work?" she asked.

"You misunderstand," Masa cut in. "If anything, she's been the one sharing her food with me."

"Oh, right, you mentioned you're a Conjurer? Can you just create food out of nowhere?" asked Daryl. "Or do you have an Item Box or something like that?"

"It's something like that," I agreed. I proceeded to tell them about my Void and some of the food I had stored up. They looked more and more interested and Daryl finally proposed the four of us doing a combined party quest. It was obvious that they were after my food, but I agreed since it sounded interesting, and of course, they were going to offer monetary compensation as well.