"I don't remember many things, but I still remember the language of my homeland."
The toad-like Boss Lady poured a special black sauce into the pot, added pea-like seeds resembling mushrooms and chunks of meat, and spoke without turning her head.
"I haven't seen any humans come to the Fifth Layer in many years. Especially a little girl like you—you're exceedingly rare."
Riko blushed and corrected her, "I'm not a little girl. I'm already fifteen. I'm a young woman."
"Fifteen?"
The Boss Lady had finished preparing the dish. She poured the sticky black meat broth from the pot into two large bowls over thirty centimeters in diameter, then lifted the lid off a nearby pot and fished out two portions of translucent noodles from the steaming vapor, placing them into the broth.
Sizzle!
The moment the noodles touched the broth, they actually began to squirm, swimming continuously through the black meat soup until the liquid became crystal clear. The noodles, meanwhile, turned black. Looking closely, there were even finer strands of meat within them.
For a moment, Riko wondered whether these were really noodles.
"You're an Abyss Person." The Boss Lady suddenly understood. "Only Abyss People still retain the appearance of children at fifteen or sixteen."
"Yes. Abyss People only experience a noticeable increase in height at twenty, though our average height is between one and a half and one point six meters. We're shorter than people outside Abyss Town."
As Riko spoke, she accepted the chopsticks the Boss Lady handed her, cautiously picked up some noodles, and slurped up one strand.
The noodles were delicate, refreshing, and wonderfully springy. She could clearly feel them bouncing around in her mouth!
When she bit through them, the broth inside burst over her tongue, bringing her taste buds the ultimate delight!
"Delicious!"