518 - - Episode 516 Evaluation of the Spirit Kings

Paradise was expanded at the same time as the performance of the spirit kings. The middle class spirits, who had been hesitant to come to the paradise until now, have finally arrived. Now, I will entertain them with a grand banquet to welcome them.

"Tonight, Yuta held a grand banquet for the expansion of the paradise and the hospitality of the intermediate spirits. All of you, thank Yuta and enjoy yourselves to the fullest today!　Cheers!"

On the stage of a huge column prepared by Nomos, between a huge bonfire that I asked Ifu to light and a huge cup of water that Dine had prepared with great zeal, Light-sama gave a toast.

However, Light-sama, a round and round rabbit-shaped spirit, was shining his own body to stand out, which looked like a light bulb to me, and I had to raise a glass to toast while trying to hold back my laughter with my spirit.

Originally, I, the owner of the paradise, was supposed to give the greeting, but I couldn't laugh since I had forced Mr. Light, who seemed to like such things, to do so.

After the toast, the middle class spirits who are the main participants of today's banquet, as well as the lower class spirits and floating spirits who have come to play with us, gather around the dishes laid out on the huge table.

The food is buffet style due to the large number of people, but there are dishes prepared by Ruby, dishes carefully prepared by Mr. Toruku, and Belle's favorite dishes from the food stalls, so please enjoy them as much as you like.

In the darkness of the night, lit by a huge bonfire, a huge water cup with a faint blue light, and light balls set up everywhere like lanterns, spirits of various shapes and sizes were flying around.

It is a wonderfully fantastic scene.

I went to greet the spirit kings as the host of the banquet while admiring the flowers in full bloom to keep up with such a fantastic sight.

"Ah, Yuta! This is nice curry, it's delicious.

When I went to the table where the kings of spirits were gathered, Master Wind told me what he thought of the curry as he tasted it.

"...... Um, Wind-sama, you have curry on your cheeks, don't you?"

He's as small as a lowly spirit, and the sight of the little dragon waddling around with curry on his cheeks is smiling, but he's the wind spirit king, right?

Really?　and the way he touches his cheek with his little hand makes me want to stroke it like Belle and her friends do.

"Hey, Yuta, you're in for a treat. Is this fish ...... soup?　It's very tasty and rich in flavor."

After Mr. Wind, Mr. Water called out to me.

But mackerel in miso soup is not a soup,...... right?　Huh?　If it's stewed, doesn't that make it a soup?

Since I don't think I can solve this problem, let's say it is not a soup.

The dish is called "mackerel in miso soup". It has a strong taste because it is a dish that tastes good when eaten with rice.

Well, technically speaking, it's a fish stewed in miso that tastes like mackerel.

"I see. I'll go get some rice then."

Master Water is the King of Spirits, but he casually went to get food for me. Also, Master Water is getting better at using chopsticks. Has he been practicing?

"Then I'll take this one. I don't know what it is, but it's a delicious mix of flavors!"

Master Fire seems to have taken a liking to the pork miso soup.

I thought miso soup is the best way to understand the goodness of miso, but since it is a dish to be served at a banquet, I decided to make pork miso soup, which is more luxurious.

I wondered what to do without konjak, but it was a good decision to make Pork miso soup.

Well, I actually use oak meat, not pork, but I have decided to call it pork miso soup.

Oak soup doesn't sound very tasty, does it?

"Ummm, it's not the soup that I don't understand, but this. It's beautiful like a jewel, but it's an egg yolk, isn't it?　How did they do this?　It tastes simple, but it's nettlesome, rich, and very delicious."　

Master Dirk is very s*xy and talkative. He seemed to like the egg yolk in soy sauce very much.

To be honest, I thought the egg yolk soaked in soy sauce was a little less impressive than the soy sauce, but I asked him to make it for me simply because I wanted to eat it.

But if Master Dirk likes it, I guess I made the right choice in choosing the egg yolk soaked in soy sauce.

"What Master Dirk is eating is soaked egg yolk in soy sauce, isn't it? It goes very well with white rice.

When Ruby made it for me, I ate three bowls of rice.

"Oh, well, I'll have to get some rice."

Ah, Master Dirk has gone. I wonder why?　I feel a sense of loss several times greater than when Master Water left.

...... Well, I wanted to look away in jest, but I guess I can't keep looking away.

The question is, which one of us should call out to him first?

Earth-sama, who has been silently eating the new menu, or Light-sama, who is so cute and engrossed in his sweet treats that he does not notice us at all, even though he values his dignity.

I don't think they will be offended if I call out to them, but the atmosphere is very difficult to talk to them.

......Master Earth is first. I'm sure that Master Earth will continue to eat at any moment, but there is a possibility that Light-sama will notice me while I'm talking to Master Earth and make himself presentable.

Let's talk a little louder.

"Earth-sama, is it good?"

Nodding his head, Earth-sama puts a piece of stewed oak cubes in his mouth and stirs the rice into it.

He seemed to like it so much that he couldn't stop eating.

Moreover, he has made sure to have some white rice, as expected of him.

"I'm glad to hear that!　We are confident of our other new menu items, so please give them a try!"

Mr. Earth nodded his head, as if it were only natural.

Well, I know you'll try it without telling me.

But since Mr. Light didn't notice me at all, I just wanted to make my presence known even louder.

When I glanced at Mr. Light, he seemed to have finally noticed me, and after some hesitation, he puffed out his chest in a big way. He seemed to be ready.

"Mr. Wright, would you like a sweet?"

Well, I know you liked it because I was looking at it sideways.

It was the hardest thing for me to choose a new sweet, so I'm honestly glad that you liked it.

So far I have made pudding, ice cream and crepes.

But it was hard to come up with the next one.

Various cakes, cookies, baked goods, Japanese sweets, all kinds of sweet foods come to my mind, but I don't know how to make them.

Of course, I have a rough idea of the ingredients, and if I ask Ruby to help me, I am sure she will eventually figure it out, but I gave up the idea, being too busy and not having enough time.

I could probably manage to make red bean paste by boiling azuki beans in sugar water, but as a Japanese, I wanted everyone to eat something that they would be satisfied with after proper research.

So, at a loss, I was greatly troubled, and then I thought of a simple and delicious dessert that I had made myself.

Yes, jelly.

I don't know how to make gelatin in detail, but I have made agar-agar jelly from natural herbs.

Thanks for the free study during the summer vacation.

Thank you, my father who brought back the licorice and forced it on me because he couldn't catch any fish. I'm sorry I was a jerk then, but I'm grateful now.

I asked Dine to help me, and it seems that tendrils grow everywhere in this world, and I soon obtained a large amount of bright reddish-purple colored tendrils.

I asked Deene to thoroughly wash the tendrils in water and expose them to the sun.

When it dries up, it is again exposed to water and then to the sun again. This process is repeated many times.

In addition to the general procedure, we tried various experimental methods, such as having Dine drain the water and having Sylphy dry them with the wind, and we also secured some of the tender plants that still had some pigment left for the tokoroten.

I repeated the same process many times in between the preparations for the banquet, and after five days, I found that the tokoroten had turned out just as I had imagined.　I don't think it was this white when I made it before?　The exposed tendrils have lost so much of their pigment that one wonders, "How did this happen?

I would have been satisfied with this as an elementary school student.

But now that I am a spiritualist, I move on to the next step.

I simmer the natural grass with vinegar, grind it, and harden it to make agar agar.

Deene freezes the agar in an instant, and Sylphy wraps it in a vacuumed wind cocoon.

Yes, this is the freeze-drying process in the spirit arts.

Repeating the freeze-drying process, the pure white stick agar was supposed to be completed ......, but it was overdone and the powdered agar was completed.

And once the powdered agar is ready, the rest is easy.

We asked Ruby to make various types of agar, such as fruit agar, milk agar, and coffee agar.

In the hands of Ruby, who is a keen researcher, you can make hard agar with agar-like texture, soft agar that is as close to jelly as possible by adjusting the amount of powdered agar, agar with juice only, agar with fruit, agar with milk and fruit, and many other variations of agar.

Then .......

"Mmm, mmm, not bad at all. It's a little childish for me, but I'm sure the young spirits who come to play in paradise will love it."

Despite his bravado, you can see the adorable Mr. Wright, who can't help but be curious about the kind of agar jelly he hasn't eaten yet.

"I see. I feel safer if it has Light-sama's approval."

"Mm. But we haven't tried them all yet. I am the responsible one, I must taste them all and make a proper evaluation. Do you understand?"

Yes, please.

"Mm!"

We have perfectly accomplished our mission to please Mr. Wright, and the curry, mackerel stewed in miso, pork miso soup, stewed pork cubes, and egg yolk in soy sauce are all highly praised.　

I was pleased with the response I got from Sylphy, Belle, and Gina at the tasting, but I felt a sense of accomplishment when they were actually pleased with the food.

Now the greeting to the spirit kings is over. I feel like we only talked about food, but let's just say that it is important that we had a conversation.

Now, I should go to check on the middle class spirits who are supposed to be the main characters of this event. Hope you enjoyed it. .......