Chapter 87 – Exploring the potential of the jellyfish

Chapter 87 – Exploring the potential of the jellyfish

That concludes the day where we get to torture Laura in various ways.

We set up a tent near the forest to get some shut eyes.

「It’s chilly……We’ve been sleeping in futons over the past few weeks, so there’s some getting used to.」

「I see.」

I spread a blanket, and Marine entered.

(Fluff fluff.)

Marine quietly gets on top of the blanket.

Cute.

「For me……I’ll use this……」

Femille takes out a sleeping bag.

「How about you, Lolona?」

「I’m going on guard duty.」

Lolona sat right outside the tent, tending to the fireplace.

「You sure you’re fine by yourself?」

「I’m used to it.」

What a serious girl.

Though it kinda feels lonely when she says it.

I sat next to her.

「Keima-dono?!」

「I thought you’ll be lonely on your own.」

「I- I- I’m grateful that you’re caring so much about me, but but but, for a guy and a girl to stay together so late at night means……」

Lolona is quite serious in strange ways.

「H-H-H-However if Keima-dono wishes for it, I have no need to refuse right?!

In fact, I want this to happen?!」

On the other hand, she’s being rather motivated.

But——

(Plop.)

Laura sits beside me.

「I-I-It’s not what you think okay! I just sat wherever I wanted!」

Even though I didn’t say anything, she started blurting out tsundere lines.

(Rustle rustle. Plop.)

Marine came out of the tent and sat on my lap.

「Were you feeling lonely?」

(Nods.)

So that’s what it was.

Adorable.

「Auu.……」

And the ever so serious Femille who wanted to sleep, was left in the tent by herself.

「Come’ere.」

「Y-Yes!」

Inviting her, she smiles excitedly.

And thus――

Even though we built the tent, everyone’s outside sleeping.

◆

Night passes.

We headed back into the forest.

Looking at the table that was left unattended yesterday, a bunch of bowls with lids on were left there.

「What kind of container are these?」

「I soaked some mushroom jellyfish overnight with some sugar water yesterday.」

「Sugary water……Which means it’ll make them sweet and delicious?!」

「Maybe.」

「Let it be delish~ Ehehehe~」

I opened the lid.

Splash!　Tentacles stretched out from within.

The sharp tentacles scratched the surface of me and Laura’s cheeks, and pierced right into the tree behind us.

「Fueeenn……」

Laura falls down on the spot.

「Did it come back to life after a night of being soaked in water?」

Analysing it calmly, I stabbed the head of the jellyfish with a knife.

The jellyfish stopped moving.

Removing it from the bowl, I placed it on the cutting board.

「It did unleash a fearful attack, that was kinda dangerous.」

「Kind of?! Did you just say kind of?!」

Laura points at the tree behind us. The tree has a hole that looks about 3cm deep.

「If that attack adjusted itself by about 10cms to the side, it would’ve skewered me you know?!」

「But it didn’t. So let’s cherish this reality.(Sparkle)」

「Don’t say it so nonchalantly!!」

Laura displays a magnificent (＞＜) face.

I extend my hand on the second bowl.

I should be careful when opening――

「It’s not attacking.」

The rest of the bowls did not have any sort of attack.

「Maybe I should deal the final blow before preparing it?」

Making a hypothesis, I started preparing the jellyfish.

I sliced the jellyfish thinly into sashimi slices.

Starting off with the transparent part, I put it near Laura’s mouth.

「Have a taste.」

「Aahhn……」

Laura opened her mouth wide and started eating.

「Aah, delish.」

「I see.」

「When I bite into it, the sweet taste splurts out and sweetens the taste bud.」

I tried one myself.

It’s as she described.

It felt like a harder gumball.

I let Lolona and co ate some as well.

「It’s not bad.」

「It’s sugary……And delicious……?」

(Nods………?)

The evaluation was equal.

However, Femille and the rest’s opinion does feel like『It’s fine if it’s sweet』when they ate it.

Let’s try it.

I presented a plate that is just plain sugar water to Lolona and co.

「It has a special sweetness that contains jellyfish extract.」

You gotta be kidding me.

It’s just sugar water.

The three of them used a spoon to scoop up the water.

「It tastes like normal water added with sugar……」

「It’s sweet…and delicious……I’m in bliss……?」

(Slurp………Slurp………Slurp………。)

Lolona calmly judges, but Femille and Marine started drinking some more.

Seems like Femille and Marine’s taste buds aren’t that developed.

Can’t help it.

For Femille’s case,『”I looked at the illustration in the picture book and imagined the taste, and used it as a side dish for bread.』or『I would imagine the taste of meat by arranging stones with a color similar to that and use that as a side dish for bread.』

『To live in a city, one must find edible weed anywhere!』was what she said.

Marine isn’t as bad as Femille, but she did grow up in a closed environment.

Meaning, the only important evaluation to hear from are Lolona and Laura.

Lolona would comment『it’s not bad』and Laura would say『delish』.

But for Laura, if she truly feels that it’s good, she’ll make an overexaggerated reaction.

Sometimes I feel that her normal reaction would’ve been better.

Anyways, back to what I was doing.

Using sugar water does help with making the jellyfish taste better.

But the taste still feels weak.

At that point, you might as well be licking sugar instead of eating the jellyfish.

「Let’s go back for now.」

「Do you come up with some ideas?」

「It’s not as good as you think.」

Taking the twenty plus captured jellyfish with us, we went back to the inn in town.

Putting the jellyfish inside the luggage, we head out to the market.

「Hey hey Keima! What are you buying??」

Laura frolics for no reason and flutters her hands.

Like a kid.

「I’m thinking of buying some milk and fruits.」

「Milk and fruits?!」

「I felt that the gum is a little too hard, so I thought of using the creaminess of the milk to soften the texture, and add more flavour with fruits.」

「Fuee……!」

It was out of my expectation.

She was drooling all over the place.

「Oi, can’t you act like a goddess for once?」

With the handkerchief that I have, I wipe the useless goddess’s drool.