After coming out of the bathroom and wiping HK416's face with a cold, wet towel, she finally slowly recovered.
The photos on MDR's phone were also deleted after Lux's strong protests.
"Ahem. Just now, in the bathroom, I was talking to a system. I heard her voice when I tried to electrocute myself. Your appearance seems to be related to her as well. There was no intruder."
Lux explained. HK416 listened with her head lowered.
"I'm really sorry you saw something you shouldn't have."
Lux said awkwardly.
"N-no, not at all. I believe it was a very valuable experience. I have already engraved it into my neural cloud and made a backup!"
HK416 said with a red face.
"Hey! Don't back it up!"
"Commander-sama, you misunderstand. This was merely image data backed up as a baseline for evaluating your physical health."
"I-is that so? But why are you suddenly using honorifics?"
Lux looked at HK416, confused by her sudden change in attitude.
"I don't know!"
HK416 refused to answer.
"Let's eat something first, then proceed with the evacuation."
"There's not much, but instant noodles with pickled vegetables and sausage should be fine, right?"
Lux asked as he walked toward the kitchen.
"Please do not waste food. We have our own tactical rations, which already contain the energy required for our operations."
"The three-day food reserve does not even take the two of us into account, and is still extremely tight."
As she spoke, HK416 opened a can that looked like cat food. Inside was a brown, solid, grease-like substance that looked somewhat disgusting.
"T-this stuff is edible?"
Lux asked, staring suspiciously at the canned food.
HK416 directly handed the can to Lux.
"You may taste it yourself. This is the standard military ration we are equipped with. I have not tried other foods, so I cannot provide an evaluation."
Seeing the spoon inside the can, Lux swallowed. HK416 seemed completely unaware that this was essentially an indirect kiss—or perhaps she simply didn't care.
Lux took the spoon and tried to scoop out a small chunk of the brown food, only to find that the grease-like block was extremely hard.
"Sigh, Miss MDR also wants to eat some cute snacks she saw on the forum. I don't even know how they taste, but at least they look better than this boring military ration."
MDR sighed while eating her ration.
Lux forced a chunk into his mouth. Instantly, an indescribable taste—like leather mixed with tar—spread across his tongue. Combined with the greasy texture of the food itself, Lux's vision went white and he nearly collapsed.
This ration's taste and texture fully qualified as dark cuisine.
"Commander, your face looks pale. If you can't eat it, you may spit it out."
HK416 said with concern.
"No, it's… it's fine. Really."
Lux forced himself to swallow it, his face deathly pale.
"If you like it, I can give you half of mine."
HK416 showed a faint smile.
"I—I have a suggestion. How about we cook this together with instant noodles? I usually add canned food or pickles and sausage to my noodles anyway."
"Then the three of us can share it."
"Oh, that sounds great. Human food should be better than what we Tactical Dolls eat."
MDR stuffed her can into Lux's hands without hesitation, speaking excitedly.
"I do not agree with MDR's view. Precisely because of this, I believe there is no need to mix our rations with the Commander's food. Inferior products will lower the quality of superior ones. The Commander should eat his own food."
HK416 said, reaching to take her can back.
"Nope, nope. Since we agreed to live together and die together, then we eat together too."
Without giving HK416 time to object, Lux quickly walked into the kitchen.
Though he didn't like this canned food, adding instant noodle seasoning and pickles should make it better than eating it cold… probably.
"What a willful Commander."
HK416 murmured while checking her equipment.
"Well, it's still better than running into a Commander who treats us like expendable tools, right?"
MDR said cheerfully while tapping away at her phone.
"Perhaps. Still, since we are meant to give our lives to protect him, if the moment comes where we must stay behind, I hope he will not hesitate because of emotional attachment to us… and instead escape alone. That way, we will have fulfilled our final duty."
HK416 sighed.
"Since we're all going to die anyway, isn't it better to at least have someone by your side?" MDR retorted.
HK416 said nothing more, only shifting her gaze back to her weapon.
---
Ten minutes later.
Lux came back into the room carrying a tray with three bowls of instant noodles.
"Hahaha, the taste is a bit strange, but let's give it a try."
Lux handed the bowl with slightly more noodles to HK416.
"Why? The physical endurance and durability of Tactical Dolls surpass humans. This bowl should be yours, Commander."
"Come on, don't worry about that. I already took a bite of your canned ration earlier. Fair's fair."
Lux shoved the chopsticks into HK416's hand, then passed another bowl to MDR.
"Hiss—ha—! It smells really good! I want to record this on my phone and upload it once there's a signal. Is that okay?"
MDR held the bowl, sniffed it, and asked excitedly.
"Do whatever you want, just don't add some misleading title like 'Commander made a dark cuisine' or something."
Lux shrugged and started slurping his noodles.
Compared to his usual instant noodles, the extra ingredients had made the flavor slightly worse, but after eating alone for two straight days, having two beautiful girls eating with him lifted Lux's mood quite a bit.
"Ooooooh! I've decided! After becoming an level-18 forum boss, my next dream is to eat food this delicious every single day!"
Lux stared in disbelief as MDR demolished a bowl of piping-hot noodles in barely a minute.
"Hey, that's still pretty hot. Slow down a bit or you'll burn yourself…"
Lux reminded her helplessly.
"Hah! Hah! Hah! We Tactical Dolls will not yield to such trivial pain!"
MDR laughed stubbornly, clutching her throat.