CH 34

「Trade? Um, then Kirika will go pick flowers for you, Yuuri-oneechan!」

「Wait, wait! Don’t worry, I’m preparing lunch for everybody too!」

I stopped Kirika-chan and Kurtz-kun from bolting out the door.

「But Kirika wants a bento, not lunch!」

「Me too! It’s not fair if only Rofas-san gets one!」

Um, um…

But we were going to have meat-wrapped onigiri too…

Did the word “bento” sound that fascinating to them?

When I thought about it, I remember how I enjoyed having a bento while on a field trip.

Maybe the word “bento” didn’t exist in this world, so it sounded like something special in their mind. No wait, maybe it existed, but was also incredibly rare?

「Do you really want a bento?」

Everyone nodded.

Even you, Bryce-kun? The only time Bryce-kun behaved like a child was when it involved food.

「Okay, I’ll make bentos for everyone then. We’ll go eat it by the lake!」

「By the lake?」

Bryce-kun’s cheeks turned a bit red.

Ah, sorry, Bryce-kun. I just made him remember something bad. I didn’t mean to. I just thought it’d be nice if we went on a picnic.

「You see, a bento is a meal that you bring along with you on a trip. You eat it outside. It’s a little different than mobile food, but, um…」

「It’s a meal you eat outside but it’s not mobile food? Wow! That sounds like something nobles do!」

What nobles do?

Like how nobles sit outside in their garden and have tea and biscuits?

No, maybe it was something else.

Was it something like nobles taking several horse carriages with them on a trip, and one was used to bring their personal chef along?

…Both of those were completely different compared to eating a bento outside.

Uu, it felt difficult explaining a foreign culture to them when something similar didn’t exist in theirs.

「Anyways, let’s go do our gathering for the day. Once we hit our quota, I’ll make a bento for everyone. During that time, can I leave the preparations of the mountain birds to the three of you?」

I was planning to use chicken meat for dinner tonight.

What should I make with them?

I had soy sauce, sake, mirin, ginger ale, and vinegar.

If I had salt, I could make salted yakitori, but unfortunately, I didn’t have any. I didn’t have skewers or charcoal either, so it wouldn’t work.

Actually, what did the mountain birds taste like? Of all the bird meat I’d eaten in my lifetime, one of them was definitely the well-known chicken.

Back when my husband and I were dating, we went out for Peking duck once, so I also had duck. During Christmas one year, I think I had a real turkey…

…… After we got married though, I couldn’t recall my husband ever taking me out for dinner even once. At first I thought; was my cooking that good? But then I realized that maybe he thought it was a waste of money. I suddenly thought of the phrase, “you never feed a fish you’ve caught.”

Other than those… that’s right. Once, when I went with some friends to the Inari Shrine (*1), there was a food cart on the side of the road selling roasted sparrows. Sadly, I didn’t have to the courage to try them. Oh, but I had kamo nanban (*2) there.

When it comes to bird meat, I was definitely most familiar with chicken. It should be fine if I made a chicken dish out of the mountain birds.

Oh, but I should think about the menu later.

First, I had to prepare the onions for battle.

「Let’s confirm our equipment and status.」

Not forgetting the dungeon rule, we all checked our equipment.

There were no holes in our clothes, and no damage to our weapons.

Well, our weapons in the morning time only consisted of onions and a plank.

「Status open.」

Let’s see. There were many stats I didn’t understand in my status menu, so I only checked my level, HP, and MP.

The other stats were things like Attack, Defense, Agility, but there were so many details that I didn’t have the willpower to read through them one by one.

Y-yeah, just like reading through an instruction manual. If it’s too thick, nobody would want to read it, right? Especially if it’s a manual for something you’re not familiar with or particularly interested in. There’s no way anybody would read it then.

…Right?

Electrical appliances usually came with a thin booklet full of simple instructions. I’d be okay reading through those.

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Author’s Notes:

Thank you for reading.

There are times when I can reply to your comments instantly and times when I can’t. It’s not on purpose. Although I can’t always reply to everybody’s comments immediately, I do spend some time once a day to read through them. I really enjoy them. I guess it’s a similar feeling to the excitement you get when waiting for a new chapter?

(*1) Inari Shrine: Yuuri is talking about the Inari-Fushimi Shrine in Kyoto.

(*2) Kamo Nanban: A noodle dish where soba or udon noodles are served in a hot dashi soup with duck meat