CH 13

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「There’s no doubt about it! This is soy sauce, soy sauce!」

I understood now. Since soy sauce was a type of seasoning and not a drink, drinking it would hurt your throat due to the salt.

No wonder they were puking it out…

That reminded me, I heard from somewhere that drinking 1.8 liters of soy sauce could cause death. Drinking something high in salt content like sea water when you were thirsty would cause your throat to get even dryer. No wonder everybody thought it was just a bad potion.

However, I knew how to utilize it. I also knew it wasn’t a drink!

Still, to think that this black losing potion was actually soy sauce! Well, it’s possible that it was some sort of liquid that tasted like soy sauce, but still, it might as well be soy sauce!

「Ahh, there’s barely two centimeters left of it, what a waste…」

No wonder I thought I smelled something pleasant yesterday. One of the bad potions had a pale yellow liquid in it, and it had a faint aroma.

We already poured it out, but now I have discovered the possibility of using these so-called bad potions for cooking!

Uwah, we did something so wasteful!

But wait, these potions appeared more often than a real one, so I just needed to work hard! Work hard and smash those cockroaches!

I would do it for the sake of a delicious meal…!

「Yuuri-san, there’s some sound coming from the pot, like there’s something crackling.」

Bryce-kun, who I had asked to watch the heat, called for me.

I extinguished the flame and let the rice steam.

In the meantime, I checked out the oven-like thing next to the stove.

What I wanted to make would be easier to do on a charcoal grill, but maybe this would work too?

I took off the lid on the pot.

The smell of freshly cooked rice drifted out of the pot.

Ahh, this looked great by itself. I made rice! Well, I wasn’t sure on the breed of rice, but it looked like proper cooked rice made from a kamado stove. There’s no way it tasted bad, right?

I scooped some onto a plate and let it cool. Then, I wet my hands and grabbed a handful of rice.

「Fwah, that’s so cool. It’s a triangle now. Onee-chan, you’re amazing.」

Kirika-chan’s eyes were glittering.

「We can’t eat it yet? I don’t really care about the shape of it.」

Kurtz-kun held his stomach.

「This is an interesting dish. I’ve never seen anyone boil the bad wheat like that before.」

It wasn’t a dish per say, and I didn’t boil the rice, I cooked it.

Once I finished making the onigiri, they were off to the oven!

「Is it still not ready? I’m starving.」

「Sorry, Kurtz-kun. Can you wait a little longer? I’ll be using this for the finishing touch!」

I showed off the soy sauce.

「That’s just a black potion. It’s a miss.」

「Fufufu. Wrong~ This is no pity prize, it’s actually the grand prize. In my hometown, this is called soy sauce, and is a type of seasoning!」

「Seasoning? That has to be a joke. It tastes awful, you know?」

Bryce-kun tilted his head in confusion.

「Just like how you can’t consume a large amount of potatoes in one sitting, you can’t drink soy sauce like it’s like water. Of course it’ll taste bad that way. However, if you use a proper amount of it, it can be used to make something delicious!」

I took out the onigiri, which now had a crispy surface, and coated them with soy sauce. Then, I put them into the oven again.

Uwah. There was the good smell of the burning soy sauce.

「Okay! The yaki-onigiri are ready! They’re piping hot, so eat them carefully!」

I placed the yaki-onigiri onto a plate and put some forks on the side.

I wanted the onigiri to cool down so we could eat with our hands, but it was too hot to hold. Since everybody was hungry, I gave them forks so they could eat.

Ah, that’s right. I could make extra and pack a lunch box.  By the time we had lunch, it would be cool enough to eat by hand.

There was still rice leftover, so let’s turn all of it into yaki-onigiri.

「I-it’s so good! What is this?! Yuuri-neechan, did you really make this with a bad potion?」

After Kurtz-kun exclaimed, Bryce-kun also chimed in with his opinion.

「We shouldn’t have called it a losing potion. Just as Yuuri-san had said, it was actually a winning prize. It’s called soy sauce, right?」

「That’s right. In my hometown, it was usually made from soybeans, but… Um, the production method is really difficult, so only the professionals made it. I have never made it myself…」

In the olden days, every household would make their own miso and soy sauce. Modern Japanese people like myself couldn’t do that. We could only buy them at the supermarket.

「I’m just really happy that I got some.」

Kirika-chan couldn’t eat the yaki-onigiri because it was too hot, so she blew some air at it. Then, she took a bite from the top.

「You’re right, it’s really yummy! It’s crunchy and soft at the same time! I love bad wheat and bad black potions!」

「Kirika-chan, they’re actually called rice and soy sauce. When you form the rice into a triangle like this, it’s called an onigiri. Then, once you grill the surface, it becomes yaki-onigiri.」

Kirika-chan nodded. Well, onigiri didn’t have to be triangular-shaped. Some people called them omusubi too.

「【Contract: 1 yaki-onigiri. Trade with potion.】I want another one!」

Kurtz-kun finished his portion and pushed his plate towards me.

Of course, I shook my head.

「Ehh, why not?! Will you trade it to me for two potions then?」