CH 154

I peeked once on the third floor looking for Daifuku. He wasn’t there, so I decided to go to the Magical Woods.

「Hey there, Bro Bear. It was raining cats and dogs so better not to go there for now, if it’s not urgent. The road is in a really bad state right now. 」

…Planning to go there, but got stopped by the gate-keeper.

The weather here might be cloudy, but it rarely rains. The water that usually seeps into the ground right away formed a lot of puddles, apparently. Well, I guess we can’t have our own way with Mother Nature all the time.

I thanked him and returned. Out of the people shifting duty now and then, he’s the one who always speaks a word or two to all those who pass through this gate, and also the reason why I’m so careful whenever I’m using this gate to get in and out of town. It might be inconvenient for me, but I guess his method is good for security.

Alright, let’s send him something later.

「You’re quite early, huh. Am I late greeting you? 」

I was about to enter from the back door when Dinosso poked his head out of the window next door.

「You’re gonna test X-Stick, right? How about we go with everyone the day after tomorrow? It’ll be three days since all of the folks related to Roza moved out by then, so we’re talking about testing the spirit swords on that day. 」

「I’ll go. 」

According to Butler and Retze, Roza’s party usually go to areas like Magical Woods that are known places of monster overflow and are near human settlements instead of the Labyrinth, but they would go to the Labyrinth to earn money, apparently. The dungeons have a high percentage of monsters with magic stones, after all.

Not only that, they work near populated regions so that they can impress the people. They even went deep into the Labyrinth just to make a name for themselves, apparently. Hmm, so those who aim for the country’s renaissance or something have different concerns, huh.

「Jean! Have some tea~ 」

「Tea~ 」

「Snacks~ 」

The kids poked their heads out behind Dinosso and invited me. When he said snacks, I heard it as ‘Oyatsu’. Isn’t that the Japanese word oyatsu, based on the Edo period’s ‘Yatsu’ time, which is 2-4pm? So it’s also oyatsu here? What’s going on with 【Language】?

Well, I guess there’s no use thinking about it this late, so I accepted the kids’ invitation.

「Please excuse me for troubling you. 」

「Come in — Hmm, I guess it can’t be helped, let’s bake it then. 」

「Yippee! 」

The children threw their hands in the air with glee. They seemed to be preparing snacks based on how happy the kids are. Shiva came out from the back, and her arms were covered with flour. Is she preparing the batter for now and is supposed to bake later?

Dinosso chatted with me about trivial stuff while drinking tea. I also helped the kids as they studied their letters.

This world has five languages as far as I know, but they all originated from one language — the one used by Ruf in the olden days, and is known currently as the Language of the Spirits, from which the regional languages were derived from.

The priests, aristocrats and merchants all study this language; you can say it’s also the lingua franca in a way. A more ancient language of Ruf’s, known as the magic language, is used to formally invoke the help of the spirits.

The spirits can actually understand and communicate using most of the languages, but Ruf’s Archaic Language sounded the most pleasant for them, so they will often lend their help when it is used.

That’s what we’re studying now — oh, the kids look like they’re zoning out.

「You…. 」

Dinosso looked at me helplessly.

「What? 」

「Stop talking about everything using the Ancient Language. Speak using words they can understand. 」

…

Ack! I have to consciously think about what language to use or else I won’t know what I’m blabbing! 【Language】-san is too convenient!!

「Only a few fragmented words are left of the Archaic Language, you know? 」

I averted my eyes at Dinosso’s reminder.

「Alright, I’m done baking. Please brew the tea, okay? 」

Shiva plated the freshly baked pie on a round, wooden plate and she came out of the kitchen carrying it.

「Yippee! 」

「Let’s wipe your hands first, wipe, wipe. 」

Oh yeah, folks here don’t wash their hands before eating. It’s a pain in the neck getting water from the well, so I kinda understand their sentiment. Besides, even the water in the well is suspicious. And so, I recently started endorsing the wonders of warm wet towels.

While I brew the tea, Shiva slices the pie on the plate and distributes a slice each to the plates the kids were carrying.

「Thanks for the food. 」

The pie Shiva baked is made out of pumpkin, it seems.

「This pumpkin is kinda strange, isn’t it? 」

The pie has orange strings for its filling.

「It’s a string pumpkin. We harvested it after summer ended and I made it into jam. 」

Shiva explained.

Oh, right, I remember reading somewhere that we also have something called soumen kabocha, or spaghetti squash, in Japan. If I’m not mistaken, it’s used for refreshing recipes, and maybe the taste is quite similar to the pumpkins they have over here?

This world’s pumpkins are less sweet, more watery, sticky and fragrant, so I frequently use this variety whenever the dish I’m making calls for some pumpkin to be mixed with other ingredients.

Shiva’s jam is exquisite, and the pumpkin looks like pretty, glossy golden threads. The crunchy mouthfeel is quite interesting. Ah, but if I’m going to make sweets, I’d definitely use the pumpkins and squash from Japan, I guess.

It wasn’t in the plan, but I got to play with the kids and it was soothing. How great it is to be so pure ~ well, that’s what I thought while we played.

I didn’t get to test X-Stick for today, so I returned to my house and prepared a box with a lot of different things stuffed inside. I then pasted a sheet of paper on top in place of a lid.

I called Riche, so I was wondering what he was doing — turns out he was staring at me doing my work.

By the way, just a bit of info — ever since I created the attic room, the third floor of my Kanum house has been completely turned into a workshop. Anyway —

「X-Stick! 」

「Yes yo, Master! 」

X-Stick suddenly popped out of the wooden stick.

「Sorry, the conditions aren’t so good there today too, so we couldn’t go. Let’s just play a guessing game instead. 」

「Ou! 」

And so, today’s game with X-stick involved him breaking through the paper lid and poking the objects to guess what they are.

X-Stick became more interested in poking through the paper, so after pestering me for quite a while, I decided to make more boxes with papers for him to make a hole through.

.

In the end, even Riche joined in the fun, so we ended up tearing a lot of papers. Hmm, maybe I’ll try pasting paper on the lattice later. Ah, it suddenly reminded me of cats tearing holes on shoji doors.