CH 10

「You see, I wanted to check on your health.」

「Eh? Yuuri-san, are you a doctor?」

Bryce-kun’s small eyes widened.

「No, I’m not. I just wanted to see if you’re healthy, or you felt sick in any way. You don’t really have to be a doctor to check, you know? You can check the color of your nails or your complexion, or even your expression and movements. In my hometown, if you only eat bread and potatoes everyday, you’ll harm your health. That’s why I wanted to see if you were okay.」

Bryce-kun listened to what I said, then gave an explanation as to why he looked fine.

「We drink a potion once every three days, so we’ll be fine even if we only eat bread and potatoes.」

They drank the potions themselves?

Did the potion provide them with nourishment? That’s amazing! Potions are great!

Wait, that’s great and all, but doesn’t that mean I really have to live off of bread and potatoes every single day?

Wasn’t that similar to the “dystopian meals” (*1) that trended on Japanese social media for some time?

「Even if none of you cook, you should have some fruits or some food products that can be kept for a couple of days. Is there really nothing else?」

「Well, there is, if that disgusting thing counts…」

Disgusting thing?

Hmm, I wondered if he was talking about sour things, like lemons. But if that was the case, we could probably still eat it as long as we changed the way we prepared it. That was still better than a life of only bread and potatoes.

「Where are they?」

「This way.」

Kurtz-kun took me outside.

We went around the left side of the cliff where the cave was, and saw that the cliff had many jagged rocks. Kurtz-kun began climbing up the cliff using those rocks.

Eh, do we have to climb up from here?

No can do. If it meant we could have a secure source of food…

Heave-ho, heave-ho.

Uwah, this was more tiring than I thought. If I end up with some bad food after all this hard work, then I guess I would have to give up and succumb to a life of bread and potatoes.

I reached the top of the cliff, panting and out of breath, legs shaking from the fatigue. The top was a nice plateau warmed by the direct sunlight.

There weren’t many trees, but there were a lot of plants growing.

「This used to be a field. Over here.」

Kurtz-kun pointed at something in front.

「That spot over there doesn’t drain water very well, so vegetables and wheat won’t grow. If you flood the field, only bad wheat with non-rotting roots will grow.」

Bad wheat?

「Before Rofas-san built that hut, the people who worked at the potion field would grow their own food at this field here. Nowadays, nobody is using it though.」

I took another look at what was once a field. I saw the familiar leaves of vegetables mixed with overgrown weed.

Weren’t those carrot leaves?

I grabbed the leaves and pulled. Out came a small orange carrot.

「Those taste bad.」

Kurtz-kun frowned.

Yes, yes. I was aware that most children did not like carrots.

Close to the carrot was an onion, which I dug out.

「Those things sting your tongue when you eat them.」

Yes, yes. If you eat an onion raw, the juices would sting your tongue. I knew that too.

When I took another look around the field, I noticed that there were some shiso leaves and garlic chives hidden among the weed.

This was great.

This was a bountiful field of all-you-can-eat vegetables!

Afterwards, I looked at the supposedly bad wheat. There were wheat and barley. I wondered what was bad about them.

「Anyways, Kurtz-kun!」

I grabbed Kurtz-kun’s hands and shook them up and down rapidly.

「I’m so happy I don’t know what to say. Kurtz-kun, you said this wheat is bad and tastes disgusting. But what part of it is bad?!」

The root was taking in water.

There were many plants out there that couldn’t grow with a rotten root, but here, there were plenty of plants that grew better when their roots were submerged with water.

In other words, rice!

「Well, if you use this to make bread, the bread comes out stinky and gross.」

Kurtz-kun cringed at the thought.

Eh? I’ve heard of bread made from rice flour before, but did it taste that bad?

Actually, did rice smell bad to begin with? Were these a different breed than the ones I knew of?

I brought the ear of the rice plant close to my face, but I couldn’t see any difference.

「We gather those once a year and store them inside the hut, in case we run out of bread and potatoes, but… no one will eat them.」

「Is that true? Let’s go home, Kurtz-kun! Let’s head back to the hut right now!」

I urged, but…

「Yuuri-neechan, are you going to be okay?」

To go home, we had to go down the steep cliff with jagged rocks.

If I clung onto the rocks and climbed down slowly, we wouldn’t be able to get back faster.

Anyways, since there was a field, couldn’t we make use of it?