After repeating the same explanation he had given to Penguin Logistics and using it to explain things to Blaze, she did not ask any more questions.
Still, her gaze would occasionally drift toward him, looking rather curious.
After all, for it to become that large, it definitely had to have many functions.
But that also involved Shirou's personal privacy, and perhaps even some secrets that could not be talked about, so Blaze only remained a little curious about it.
This meal could be said to have kept Shirou extremely busy. He himself barely ate much, spending most of the time serving food to the other six people.
In the end though, he still managed to eat and drink his fill, and that was enough. Besides, the whole process had actually been rather fun. Once in a while, it was still acceptable.
Of course, that was only if Rosmontis was present. Otherwise, the others probably would not have been able to lower their guard that much... probably?
Thinking back to how they had acted earlier, Shirou reasonably suspected that he might have opened the door to a path of no return.
It seemed that in the future he would need to avoid this kind of situation during meals, or sooner or later he would become an emotionless food-serving tool.
"Phew... that was satisfying. Custom meals really do taste great, they are just a bit expensive."
After eating and drinking her fill, Blaze slumped back into her chair like a salted fish.
This meal had been specially ordered from the cafeteria at extra cost. If Shirou had not been the one paying for it, there was absolutely no way she would have ordered something like this herself. Would it not be better to spend that money on alcohol instead?
Of course, that was assuming neither the little cat nor the little rabbit caught her. Otherwise, her alcohol would be taken away.
"Good thing we ordered ahead of time. Otherwise only nutritional meals would have been left at this hour."
Looking at the battlefield-like remains covering the table, Shirou felt somewhat fortunate.
The reason he had booked this table in advance was because he had worried there might be delays on the way here, causing them to arrive late. In the end, the trip itself had gone smoothly, but a small problem occurred after arriving at Rhodes Island instead.
Then, seeing what little food remained in the cafeteria, Shirou became even more grateful for his foresight.
It was not that nutritional meals were bad exactly, it was just... they were healthy for the body while devastating for the spirit.
The few times he had managed to eat them before had all been together with other foods. Making him eat only nutritional meals was still a bit difficult.
"If only nutritional meals were left... I would grab the little cat and run away, then cheer you on from the sidelines, Shirou."
After hearing Shirou's words, Blaze straightened herself and glanced around.
Sure enough, some operators who had arrived too late were already forced to eat nutritional meals.
Compared to them, their table was much more fortunate.
"Then I would rather not..."
Shirou originally intended to refuse Blaze's enthusiastic support, but halfway through his sentence, a nutritional meal was suddenly placed in front of him.
Looking at the nutritional meal that had appeared out of nowhere, Shirou fell into brief silence. Everyone else at the table also went silent.
When he looked up, he saw Hibiscus smiling at him.
"Um, I am already full..."
Shirou tried to politely refuse the nutritional meal.
"This is dessert after the meal."
Unfortunately, before he could finish speaking, he was directly interrupted. Hearing those four words filled Shirou's head with question marks.
This? Dessert after a meal?
How did a nutritional meal have anything to do with dessert?
"No, I really have already..."
Thinking that, Shirou tried to refuse for the second time.
"You can also treat it as a late-night snack. Just eat it before going to sleep."
Hibiscus interrupted him again.
"..."
Wonderful. A nutritional meal as a midnight snack. Truly nutritious.
Facing Hibiscus's behavior at this moment, Shirou maintained a smile on his face, but inside he had ten thousand complaints he wanted to make, except he did not dare voice any of them.
He was afraid she might double the portion on him.
At this point, Shirou reasonably suspected that she had overheard their earlier conversation. Otherwise, there was no explanation for why she had suddenly appeared and handed him a nutritional meal.
"There was only this one left. I happened to see you here, Shirou, so I specially brought it over for you. No need to be polite!"
Compared to Shirou, Hibiscus herself did not have that many thoughts about it. There just happened to be one portion left, and she just happened to see Shirou, so she brought it over.
After all, he had previously eaten nutritional meals with a completely calm expression. In Hibiscus's mind, Shirou was one of her fellow nutritional meal enthusiasts.
Because of that, she was willing to save one portion for him.
Of course, if he truly did not want it, she would not force it on him.
But she had clearly heard the conversation between the two earlier, so this nutritional meal was already destined to be eaten by Shirou.
"...Fine."
Since she had already put it that way, Shirou could only reluctantly accept the gesture.
"That is great then! Make sure to enjoy it properly!"
Seeing that her objective had been accomplished, Hibiscus turned around and returned to her work.
Leaving behind only that lone nutritional meal.
Meanwhile, Shirou was being stared at with sympathetic looks from all six people, including Rosmontis.
Shirou: "?"
After sensing those gazes, a thought suddenly appeared in Shirou's mind.
"Everyone who sees it gets a share. Let us split it together! Seven people dividing it means each person only has to eat about one or two bites."
Channeling his mana, Shirou instantly opened the nutritional meal and distributed portions onto everyone's plates.
His movements were so fast that before anyone could react, there was already a pile of green stuff sitting on their plates.
"Hey! Shirou, your favoritism is way too obvious, Why do mine and Exusiai's portions look especially large!?"
The others did not particularly resist Shirou's actions. Thinking that helping shoulder part of the burden was better than nothing, they all sighed in unison and picked up their utensils to accept reality.
That was until two certain individuals noticed that the portions in front of them seemed slightly larger than everyone else's. Croissant immediately pointed at Shirou with a grief-stricken expression, trying to use that as an excuse to escape the nutritional meal.
"They are clearly the same amount. If anyone has the most, it should be me, right?"
Watching her wipe away nonexistent tears, Shirou pointed at the plate in front of himself and complained.
The amount on his plate was far larger than everyone else's. Compared to his, the portions on the others' plates were genuinely tiny.
Though compared to the portion in front of Rosmontis, they were still fairly large.
For Rosmontis's share, Shirou had only given her a symbolic amount. Enough that she would not feel singled out, but not enough to make her unwilling to eat it.
If Rosmontis knew what Shirou was thinking, she would probably return all the nutritional meal immediately.
"Indeed, our portions are the same. Sit down and eat."
Texas pressed one hand onto Exusiai's shoulder, then used Exusiai's own utensils to pick up part of the nutritional meal and shove it toward her mouth.
Meanwhile, Croissant was being stared down by Texas's deadly glare and could only obediently accept Sora feeding her.
When the two of them were still trying to avoid eating it, Sora and Texas had already embraced the mentality of short pain being better than long pain. They swallowed it all in one go and then drank large cups of beverages to wash away the bizarre taste.
Previously, they had only watched Shirou eat it. They had never expected the flavor to truly be made this... unique.
No wonder Rhodes Island operators always wore painful expressions whenever nutritional meals were mentioned.
As for Blaze, her situation was even simpler. In exchange for helping Rosmontis eat her share of the nutritional meal, she received the special privilege of being personally fed by Rosmontis.
Joy and suffering existed simultaneously, but compared to bitter medicine, this slightly strange taste was nothing to her.
As for Shirou himself, he did not care that much. After finishing it in two or three bites, he pushed the container aside, his expression barely changing at all.
Though he was a little too full now.
"Phew..."
After being forced to swallow those nutritional meals, the good moods everyone had from eating delicious food disappeared by more than half. They all leaned back in their chairs and began questioning why they had eaten such a strange thing in the first place.
"Ah... what was I about to say again?"
Tilting her head upward, Blaze stared at the lit ceiling lamp while trying to remember what she had originally wanted to say.
It seemed important, but she had suddenly forgotten...
"The operation at the end of the month?"
After hearing Blaze's words, Rosmontis checked through her terminal and indeed found related information on it.
"Oh right right right!"
After Rosmontis reminded her, Blaze finally remembered what she had wanted to say.
"What about the operation at the end of the month?"
After hearing their conversation, Shirou asked curiously.
It sounded rather important, and since it concerned an operation, learning some details ahead of time would be useful.
"It is not anything too serious! It is just that Little Cat and I have another mission that day, so we probably will not directly participate in your rescue operation."
Blaze sat upright and briefly explained the situation to Shirou.
"Hmm... so you will not be participating in the rescue operation itself that day? You have some other task instead?"
Listening to her explanation, Shirou roughly understood what Blaze meant.
The operation plan Shirou had imagined was probably Rhodes Island sending a group directly into Chernobog while the city was unstable to rescue the people inside.
A very straightforward plan, but obviously something like that could never happen in reality unless they wanted to be wiped out.
The task assigned to Blaze and Rosmontis was to clear the way and lead the other squads safely to the target location. Most of the problems encountered along the route would need to be handled by them, allowing the other squads to focus on adjusting their own conditions.
They were not on the main squad because their combat styles were not suited for fighting freely inside a city. Blaze was manageable, but Rosmontis could easily cause large-scale destruction if she was not careful.
Though Blaze was probably accompanying Rosmontis more than anything else. After all, the operators Rosmontis was most familiar with were all participating in the rescue operation, while the others were out on missions elsewhere.
Thinking about it that way made the situation rather easy to understand, though it was not really a problem for Shirou.
Thinking of that, Shirou asked in confusion:
"But I am also part of the support team, am I not?"
He was not originally supposed to enter the city for the rescue either. Strictly speaking, his role was basically the same as Blaze and Rosmontis's. The difference was that they were responsible for the route going in, while he was responsible for the return route.
"Now that you mention it, I guess that is true? I always remembered you as someone who would enter with the little rabbit for the rescue operation. Hahaha!"
After Shirou pointed it out, Blaze finally remembered that his role was indeed similar, so she laughed awkwardly a few times.
Still, there were some differences between their duties and Shirou's.
Blaze and Rosmontis absolutely could not enter the city under any circumstances. After escorting the others to their destination, they would remain outside on standby until the Rhodes Island operators successfully escaped before taking further action.
Shirou's role, meanwhile, was more like a guerrilla fighter.
If nothing went wrong, then his duties would not differ much from theirs.
But if some situation arose that the people inside could not handle, then Shirou would become a firefighter, directly entering the battlefield to carry out a rescue.
To put it another way, her and Rosmontis's role was like a vehicle. They were responsible for transporting people there and bringing them back. They did not need to think about how many people they were carrying, they just needed to focus on completing their own tasks.
Shirou, on the other hand, was more like an emergency defibrillator. When nothing happened, he could simply be placed there to reassure everyone. But if something did go wrong, he could also be used in emergencies.
Since Blaze had a rough understanding of Shirou's combat strength, she felt that this operation was definitely secure!
"Preparations beforehand must be thorough."
Looking at Blaze's appearance, Rosmontis suddenly patted Shirou on the shoulder and spoke.
"Hm?"
Not understanding what Rosmontis meant, Shirou made a confused sound.
"Nameless once said that every operation should be planned with the worst-case scenario in mind. The kind of thinking that victory is guaranteed is one of the main reasons for defeat and even death."
The reason Rosmontis suddenly said this was mainly because the conversation between Shirou and Blaze had sounded a little too relaxed just now. Combined with how unreliable Blaze looked, Rosmontis felt the need to remind them.
There was another sentence after that:
"Treat every battle as if it is your final battle. Never rely on luck, because a single mistake is enough to send you into the abyss."
However, the current atmosphere did not seem suitable for saying that part, so she did not mention it.
"That really does sound like his style..."
After hearing Rosmontis's words, Shirou laughed softly, his laughter filled with helplessness.
That way of always thinking toward the worst possible outcome was exactly the same as Archer.
Should he really say that it was only natural since they were the same person?
Still, it was not hard to understand. Rosmontis's words had reminded Shirou that during this operation, aside from the people inside Chernobog, they would very likely encounter the Black Snake, Ursus's military forces, the Emperor Blades and even a Catastrophe assault.
He had almost been led astray by this overly harmonious atmosphere.
"Seriously, Little Cat, do not say such serious things! Being more optimistic about life is better!"
Blaze clearly did not agree. She immediately pulled Rosmontis into her arms and sat her down on her lap while speaking.
Perhaps because of the cold weather, combined with the effects of Blaze's Originium Arts, Rosmontis unexpectedly showed no signs of resisting this time. The expression on her face even looked quite relaxed.
"..."
Shirou opened his mouth, originally intending to say something.
But looking at the scene in front of him, he ultimately swallowed his words back down.
Just as Blaze had said, it was better to be a little more optimistic about life.
Even if it was only false optimism, as long as it did not negatively affect the people around him, then it was enough.
After all, just like those two, he was also Emiya Shirou.