CH 36

It’s just, I really wanted to make a kyara-ben!

Back in Japan, I’ve never gotten a chance to make a kyara-ben… No, I didn’t even get to make bentos for those two children I took care of. Never for field trips, sports day, or hanami, simply because they were not my children… I was never involved in making bentos for any sort of event.

……I wonder how the children are doing.

Alright.

I didn’t have much ingredients, and there weren’t any of those useful shape cutters either. Not to mention, there were no mascot characters in this world like Pikamouse and Hello Kitten (*1).

But I still planned on making them.

Since I had no bento boxes, I decided to use deep plates, like the ones that you use for soup.

After setting the onigiri in the middle, I began boiling the potatoes, carrots, and pumpkins.

While I waited, I tried boiling the soy sauce to remove the liquid from it.

I vaguely remember that back in elementary school, somebody did an experiment for their summer vacation homework where they tried to extract salt from soy sauce. Typically, when you cook soy sauce, the organic matter would turn into charcoal, and you’d be left with salt, or something like that. For elementary school students though, a simple version would be to pour a small amount of soy sauce into a paper cup, leave it out for a week, and once all the liquid evaporates, you’d be left with salt.

I wanted salt, but I had none.

If this works, the soy sauce should evaporate, leaving salt-like particles. Rather than that, it would be edible soy sauce… Is it possible to make solid soy sauce? Anyways, I should be careful not to burn the soy sauce.

I somehow managed to make the soy sauce quite thick. It seemed like it was almost completely evaporated, but it also looked like it’d burn.

Hm?

With how thick the soy sauce is now, couldn’t I draw a face on the food for the kyara-ben? Alright then. I didn’t make any salt, but this is okay too.

The vegetables were completely boiled now.

I crushed the potatoes, carved out the pumpkins, and cut the carrots into stars and hearts. That was quite the effort.

Would the children be able to tell that the shapes were of stars and hearts though? I know, I could try cutting the carrots to resemble a potion bottle. Let’s see…

After a hard struggle, I somehow managed to make four kyara-bens.

Since I didn’t have lids, I covered the deep plates with a flat plate. Then, I went to the empty rooms and took off the pillow covers from the pillow. I shoved the plates into one cover each, and tied the open end up so that the plates inside wouldn’t move.

I wished we had a wrapping cloth.

Also, since we didn’t have anything that’s like a picnic basket, how are we going to carry them to the lake?

Is there anything I could use here?

I remembered that one of the shelves inside the food storage had a lot of tools on it, so I went to take a look. Ah, there is something. There was a backpack-like bag, used for carrying things. This should work.

Then, I grabbed a large bottle to use as a water bottle. After washing it, I filled it up with water.

I need to grab some cups too. Also, chopsticks… I mean, forks.

Is this everything I need to bring?

Maybe I should have made dessert too.

「Yuuri-oneechan, we’re done with the birds! Come, come!」

The door slammed open, and Kirika-chan came into the kitchen.

「Um, pick the meat you want to use for food. We’ll dry everything else.」

Kirika-chan took me outside and went around the hut, where the children had butchered the boar.

There were useful materials like feathers set aside, and the meat, bones, and inedible parts had been separated. The birds no longer looked like a bird.

I was prepared to see dismantled birds, but seeing it butchered into a familiar state made me feel relieved. I won’t throw up.

「What should I use…」

If we had a fridge, we could’ve saved all of the meat. If we cook the meat, it should last for roughly two days. I should pick something to use for tomorrow too.

Let’s see, for tonight’s dinner, including Rofas-san I would need enough for five people. As for tomorrow… since Rofas-san and Bryce-kun will be gone in the morning, I only need enough for three.

…Right away, I felt a bit sad.

「Okay, Kurtz, once you dig a hole, let’s bury all that. Kirika, sort out the nice feathers from the bad ones. We can sell the good ones since they can be used for accessories.」

Kurtz-kun and Kirika-chan promptly started doing what Bryce-kun told them to do.

「Ah, wait, wait! The bones! Bones, bones!」

Since these weren’t chickens, I wasn’t sure if I could make what I was thinking of. Either way, it was a waste to throw away the bones.

I wonder how many years it’s been. I only made it once after I got married: chicken soup.

That one time I made it, I didn’t use soup base either, but with actual bones.

I wanted my husband to compliment me, so I told him, 「I didn’t use a soup base to make this. I boiled chicken bones.」I had hoped that he would at least say something like, 「ehh, that’s impressive.」Instead…

「Hmph. You sure have a lot of free time.」

No, you’re wrong. I set a kitchen timer so I could go do laundry, iron the clothes, and clean the house. Every time the timer went off, I went back to check on the soup. I spent more time and effort than usual to make it.

Ahh, now I remembered something I didn’t want to remember.