CH 41

The smell of the spices were a little stronger than the ones in commercially sold cola. The ginger ale here had a stronger ginger taste as well.

Hmm, with how strong the spices smell, would they go well Japanese-style dishes? What should I do…

I checked on the pot of soup. It was about to boil, so I turned the heat down to low to prevent it from doing so. I have so much control over the heat using the fire magic stone. They are really convenient.

I removed the scum from the soup, then rushed over to the dungeon and called for the children.

「Can I get one person to help me?」

Kurtz-kun offered himself.

「I want you to scoop out the scum like this and dispose of them. Please do this until I come back from the field.」

「I can go to the field for you, if you want?」

「Oh, thanks, but it’s okay. I want to think of tonight’s menu while seeing what vegetables we have at the field.」

Rather than looking through the fridge to decide on the menu, I could look through a field of vegetables instead. Isn’t that a rather luxurious lifestyle?

I used every part of my body to climb up the steep cliff.

Pant, pant. Maybe it would be luxurious if it wasn’t up on such a steep cliff like this… I wonder if I can get someone to make stairs… no, that’s probably impossible.

Since Kurtz-kun had been clearing out the large weeds for us, I could see the vegetables more clearly now.

He avoids the smaller weeds because he might accidentally clear out vegetable leaves with them, so he only does it when I’m together with him.

I already taught him how to tell apart the large weeds. Ah, but it was only to the best of my knowledge.

There were some stuff in this world that I have never really seen before in Japan, so I don’t really know anything about them. Especially if I only look at the leaves.

For example, I don’t know what the leaves of beets look like. Oh, sorry, that’s a bad example. I actually don’t really know what beets look like themselves.

They look like a colorful turnip, right?

I remember hearing about something called rainbow beets.

Hmm, since the children aren’t really familiar with vegetables either, I want to check out a grocers in town some time.

Ah, I also want to see ingredients other than vegetables.

Maybe it’s best if we save up some more money first, but as expected, I would be happy if I can just look.

If I think of one potion as 100 yen, then I am currently earning around 500 to 1000 yen a day.

Bryce-kun mentioned that spices and condiments are things that nobles consumed. However, as a modern Japanese person, I would at least like to have pepper.

I wonder if there’s a losing potion somewhere that is pepper juice…

Hmm, but are there even pepper drinks to begin with? I couldn’t think of any.

I walked around the field while gazing at it, and then reached a water-filled paddy field.

「That reminds me, I wonder if there’s anything around here?」

There were mentions of rice plants growing in the areas that water accumulated in, but I still haven’t looked beyond there.

I avoided the paddy field and walked further.

Oh dear.

This is basically a pond.

It looks like Monet’s Pond (*1). It’s so pretty.

Um, that plant is called water lily, right? If I remember correctly, the pond in Seki City of Gifu Prefecture resembled Monet’s「Water Lilies」, and it became quite the topic.

Huh?

I took a closer look at the flowers floating on the pond.

I thought water lilies were supposed to look like they’re floating on the surface of the water?

Rather than floating, they’re protruding out of the water. Maybe these aren’t water lilies?

「Lotus?」

These aren’t water lilies, but water lotus!

No, no wait, um, how can I check?

I looked around and picked up a long pole-like plant. I think it’s called a common reed or something. I stuck it into the pond.

The water level was shallower than I had expected. Eventually, the reed reached some mud at the bottom and sunk further down.

Uu. There’s about 30 centimeters of water, and if you include the mud, the pond was about 50 centimeters deep?

If I stepped into the pond, my foot would probably get stuck, wouldn’t it?

Okay, let’s try with my hands first.

I took off my shirt.

Since I didn’t bring any spare clothing with me, I didn’t want to get what I was wearing dirty.

Now that I think about it, that’s right. I have to buy some spare clothing when I go to town. That takes priority over the spices, I guess.

I have to save up a lot of money… I wonder how much clothes cost here.

Do Kurtz-kun and Kirika-chan have spare clothing?

Kirika-chan said that she had always wanted a doll. A young girl would want cute clothing too, right?

But, maybe she doesn’t want fancy clothing because they’ll get in the way of adventuring?

Maybe she would rather have clothing that increases the user’s defense?

Ahh, this is no good!

I just thought about sewing her clothes.

I wanted to make them for the children back in Japan. But, I held the urge to.

There was no way anybody would possibly let me, a babysitter, have the children wear the clothes I handmade for them, when their mother could just pick and buy clothes for them herself.

Making clothes for Kurtz-kun and Kirika-chan… I must hold back my urge to do so. It’s for the best.

They may be young, but they are adventurers. It’s rude of me to treat them like children.

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Author’s Notes:

Thank you for reading.

All the bookmarks, ratings, and comments really motivate me, so thank you.

By the way, you can only bookmark a series if you log into Shosetsu-ka ni Narou. When I first started, I was a bit perplexed and didn’t use the bookmark function. But, if you bookmark a certain chapter, then a little bookmark symbol will be attached on it. Since I didn’t bookmark chapters, I still don’t really understand how to use that function.

Also, I have started accepting comments only from those who log into the website. There are some circumstances regarding this decision, and I understand I can’t set everything to be log-in only, but please let me do the above. And, I’m sorry I can’t reply to all of your comments. I do enjoy reading them.

I am considering replying to the comments by putting them into an Activity Post like a certain famous author. (Replying to every individual comment through the Reply Comments page takes a lot of work.)

Well then! Many of you have already started imagining what the cola will be used for, so let your imagination go wild!

Ah, there’s no lucky lecher this chapter. Yes. Please be assured (?) as you read.

(*1) – Monet’s Pond: There is a pond called Namonaki Pond (lit. Nameless Pond)  in Seki City of Gifu Prefecture that earned the nickname of Monet’s Pond because it resembles Monet’s “Water Lilies”.