We went through a fifteen-minute walk heading for our next destination while following after a light-footed Elma and finally arrived at the last stop for today’s tour.
“So it’s a factory of Kouryuu Beverages! Kouryuu Beverages is one of the most reputable breweries in the entire empire y’know! They produce most types of alcoholic drinks, but they’re particularly famous for their sharp-tasting and full-bodied beer!”
A bright-eyed Elma stopped before the factory gates and started explaining away in high spirits. The three of us are here for a factory tour, but one of us started acting like a tour guide before we even entered the facility. What the heck? It might just be my imagination, but Elma was currently surrounded by bright, sparkly effects as she talked animatedly…… What’s with that?
“Hey Mimi, is it just me, or is Elma actually sparkling right now?”
“I think she is…… Is that some kind of elven magic?”
“Eh, this is the first time I’ve heard of that. Is that actually a thing?”
“I’m not that familiar with the particulars, but it seems elven magic does exist.”
Seriously? One of the reasons why I call her a disappointing elf is because she looked like she couldn’t use magic, but elven magic actually exists, you say? She certainly didn’t look like a mage character type though.
“So let’s go in now guys! C’mon! Let’s hurry up and enter! Now, now!”
Elma’s current tension was MAX level. I haven’t seen her this excited before. I looked back toward Mimi. We exchanged wry smiles and followed after Elma, who charged straight inside the factory.
Just like with the other factories we visited, we were welcomed by a waiting receptionist and instructed to undergo a sterilization procedure first. We then proceeded inside the factory proper. Likely due to the fact that they were a reputed and popular brewery, we found other people taking the tour alongside us. The aisle dedicated to tourists was well-cleaned and had a nice atmosphere.
There were a lot of humans among the visitors taking the tour like us. The citizens of the Graccan empire were comprised mostly of humans, so I guess this was just normal. I haven’t even encountered another elf in the tourist group apart from Elma. So I guess they were kinda a rare species or something.
As far as non-humanoid races go… there were lizardmen, creatures that looked like a cross between amphibians and fish, creatures that looked like sea anemones walking upright with their tentacles, and beastmen with animal ears and tails. Can those upside-down sea anemones really communicate with other creatures……?
“What the heck are you spacing out for over there, Hiro!? Let’s hurry up and head for the drink sampling corner!”
“Whoa there lady. Let me get a proper look at the place first. You can just drink some booze in the ship later, can’t you?”
“D-Drinking freshly made liquor is an entirely different experience altogether……”
“Fine, fine. Don’t be so impatient. We don’t have any more places to visit after this, so there’s no need to hurry so much.”
“Uu……”
Elma’s long ears drooped in disappointment as she cutely puffed up her cheeks. What are you, a sulky little kid?
“So they make ale at this place huh.”
“They make beer.”
“……Okay, beer then.”
I still think it’s ale if it doesn’t go down smoothly though. Well, it’s not like I’m knowledgeable about the particulars, so I guess I’m in no position to talk huh. In this dimension, it’s treated as beer even though it isn’t carbonated. Let’s just leave it at that. But it really is a mystery why there are practically no carbonated beverages around in this dimension… Was the method really lost after the people here advanced into the interstellar age? Was it because it wasn’t suited for a zero-G environment? I guess it’s possible.
“The manufacturing process for beer doesn’t have anything particularly surprising huh. Well, I guess the machines processing the products work really fast and efficiently, so people into that sort of stuff wouldn’t get bored no matter how much they look.”
“There are people like that?”
“Um, I rather like watching them. It somehow feels relaxing.”
“I still don’t get it.”
Elma shrugged as she watched the factory machines milling about. But I guess I kinda like watching them as well; seeing the factory machines work in a systematic and precise manner, I mean. I even kinda feel like I wouldn’t get tired of watching a factory such as this producing a large number of products like clockwork.
After we had our fill watching the factory machines doing their thing, we headed for the next area. So next up is the fruit wine production section huh. Will we get to see something like the extraction and fermentation process over there? That was what I thought at first, but what we got to see was quite different from my earlier expectations.
“An orchard?”
Yep. The next area resembled an orchard. Splendid-looking vineyards were spread over a vast, open space, where a large number of drones and robot arms were moving about and doing all the farm work. It resembled the vegetable plantation we saw back at the food cartridge factory.
“Let’s see. It’s a farm for cultivating fruits used to make liquor. This seems to be a wine fruit field.”
“Wine fruit field……?”
What’s Elma talking about……? I followed her gaze and found what seemed to be a 『Wine Fruit』tasting corner. You can pay Enels at a terminal in order to sample freshly picked 『Wine Fruits』there, it seems.
“Let’s try eating some. The wines made by Kouryuu Beverages are also delicious.”
“I haven’t tried drinking any wine before myself. I’m kind of looking forward to it.”
As I looked on while still feeling somewhat perplexed, Elma paid some money by placing her terminal over what seems to be a high-tech vending machine. After a few moments, something resembling a paper cup with pieces of dark-purple fruit that were the same size as Kyoho grapes popped out of it.
She threw the fruit into her mouth without any hesitation.
“Mm〜, liquor tastes good, but this wine fruit is delicious as well. Here, Mimi. Try it out.”
“Is it okay? Here I go then……”
After Elma, Mimi also got herself one of the fruits and popped it into her mouth.
“Nn…… It isn’t as sour as I first thought, isn’t it? It also isn’t astringent.”
“Well, it seems they squeeze the skin and seeds along with the pulp during the manufacturing process. We don’t normally crush the seeds and skin in our mouths when we eat the fruits fresh, right? That’s why it isn’t astringent.”
“I see. But you can still taste a hint of liquor when you eat them right……? They taste delicious, but it seems you’ll get drunk when you eat lots of them.”
I approached the two who were having a strange-sounding conversation.
“Do you want one as well, Hiro? Even if you’re weak to alcohol, you should be okay if you eat just one piece, right?”
“Probably……?”
“Okay then. Say a〜h.”
“A〜h.”
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