Volume 1, Extra 2
Translator: Einbedo
Editor: Weasalopes
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「Other hard day of work, done…」
「It’s cold when we’re not moving around…」
Just a few days before the new year. The Azuma workshop interns, who had finished helping with the construction of the soil improvement project in the slums, ran back into the workshop, huddling their chilled bodies for comfort. Mio, who has more of an apprentice than an interns (well more of an assistant, really) had been working on renovating a particular room in the workshop as part of her Carpentry training, ever since the improvement project had taken off.
「Welcome back. Bath’s ready.」
「Thank you…!」
Thanking Tatsuya for his quick work, the group grabbed their changes of clothes before heading to the bathroom. After watching everyone move to the bath, Tatsuya looked to the big boss man who came home a little later than his interns.
「You done for the day, too?」
「Sun’s comin’ down, and we’re almost done with groundwork, anyhow. Ain’t nothin’ the foreman’s gotta do for a while.」
The soil improvement project itself was nearing completion. Luckily, the soil was contaminated only to a depth of 5 centimeters. By gathering everyone who lived in the slums and/or worked on construction, they had removed the contaminated soil by the time the decrepitated buildings had been demolished.
The contaminated soil had been treated in a matter of a few days, too, thanks to the help of any mages from the castle with free time, any civilian who had the skills to contribute, and most of all to the cooperation of many of the priests from the Alfemina Temple. Now, they had returned the purified soil to where it came from, and had started preparing them for farming.
This was a huge project that would have easily taken over three months, but the plentiful manpower and tools, as well as someone like Hiroshi, who had Advanced Construction, handling the foreman, a month was all they needed. Maxing out the Construction Extra Skill, God’s Way, would have allowed for the construction to finish in a week. In the game, a player called Koji Michio had mastered the Construction Extra Skill. He would finish most any construction job in a week. He was just a freak you might see on the internet who liked to dig and pave roads 24/7.
「Anyway, Hiro.」
「Yeah?」
「I get Mio and the interns, but does Haruna really have to do construction, too?」
「She’s the one sayin’ she wants to master sewin’. Just thought she’d be better off with at least Making Mastery.」
「Making Master?」
In response to Tatsuya’s quizzical look, Hiroshi explained the lesser known facts surrounding Crafting.
「I see. I get it.」
「Makes sense, huh?」
「Yeah. I was always wondering why you had Mio doing Construction quests in-game. Mystery solved.」
「I mean, even if you don’t got it, it ain’t nothin’ a little perseverance can’t account for.」
Of course, things like success rates, cool-down times, and overall time consumption was something that perseverance could make up for. When all of those things were a factor, though, it was doubtful that anyone would want to simply persevere in lieu of efficiency.
「And that’d be cruel to ask Haruna of.」
「Ya think so too, brother?」
「Yeah. To be honest, even when I could gather most of the ingredients myself, I gave up on Compounding a third way through Intermediate.」
「Sewin’s worse than Compoundin’ and Metalworkin’ ‘cus other skills come into play.」
Tatsuya could only agree wholeheartedly.
「Speaking of sewing…」
「Ya talkin’ bout Spirit Silk? Can’t do anythin’ with it with the loom we got now. So they’d been stackin’ up in storage.」
「Ah-hah. I was wondering about that, too.」
「If I’m gonna make Spirit Cloth, I gotta make a loom from at least one of the tree-form monsters higher than halfway up Spirit Spire, or from a metal like Orichalcum. Otherwise the thin’ will break before I finish makin’ a single sheet.」
「I’m surprised the spools are fine.」
「Spools, they just got the silk around ‘em. Big difference from a loom that’s gotta craft it into cloth. I mean, even the spool’s would have broke if I didn’t enhance ‘em a bunch.」
What was this thing, steel wires? Tatsuya couldn’t get over the intimidating crafting requirements for a silk that was incredibly soft to the touch.
「Expensive materials all take a lot of hassles, don’t they?」
「That’s why they’re good quality.」
「Hm…」
Tatsuya wholeheartedly understood that rationale.
「Well, let’s leave alone stuff we can’t craft. We just got the call that Elle’s coming over. She’s staying the night, so Layla-san’s prepping the bedroom.」
Hiroshi had a difficult expression to this sudden news. The sun was down, and it was already getting dark outside. Aearis’ birthday was coming up in the new year, but she would only be eleven, then. It seemed a little too late for a child her age to go out.
Layla, by the way, was Fum’s mother. A widow of age twenty five. She was a young single mother, trying her best to raise her seven year old daughter Fum and her five year old daughter Lime. It should go without saying that it wasn’t rare for a woman in this world to bear a child in her late teens.
「At this time, at this time of year? I’m shocked they let her.」
「Apparently, she’s getting a bit bummed out because she getting real busy as the Priestess Princess after her sudden change in environment. It’s settled down enough for her to take off for three days or so, so they’re the ones sending her over for a little R and R.」
「I see. It looks like the palace’s crazy busy. I don’t blame her for wantin’ a break.」
Remember the situation Aearis was in, it was starting to make more sense. Especially now, the position of Priestess Princess had no back-up behind Aearis. Elena, who had the potential for the job, had been too weak from the aftereffect of the poison to withstand rituals. To boot, as the new Priestess Princess, Aearis had to do as many ceremonies and preaching as she could to garner experience. Who could blame Aearis for feeling a little worn out, when she always had such a strong sense of responsibility?
「Speakin’ of, is Makoto-san back yet?」
「She called in a minute ago, too. She’s having drinks with this girl, another adventurer she met on the job.」
「Alrighty. Ain’t my problem if the food ain’t good wherever she’s goin’.」
There was nothing he could object to to what a woman in her twenties was doing in her free time. With Makoto’s strength, there was no need to worry that she would be in any danger from some punks or drunks, even after a few drinks. Besides, regardless of whether she was going to bring home this girl or not, she was obviously going to come back to the workshop for a dessert before she went to bed. They were sure that she would be home at least while someone in the workshop was still awake.
「Don’t you ever wanna go out for drinks, brother?」
「Not today. I’m planning to go out one of these days while I’m gathering rumors anyway.」
「Alrighty. Makoto-san’s bound to ask for somethin’ before bed, anyhow. I’ll come up with somethin’ for dinner that Elle’ll enjoy.」
Then, Layla and Lime came down the stairs.
「The room is ready.」
「Thanks a bunch.」
「I helped!」 fr(e)ewebnov(e)l.com
「No way! You’re so good.」
Tatsuya petted Lime’s head, as she declared this with enthusiasm. Although Hiroshi was still on guard with Layla, he acted normal around Lime. He had no idea that the women in the workshop were gossiping as to the explanation. Was it because Lime was so young? Or was it because she was more of a hamster to him?
Of course, since he was slightly on guard toward Fum, who was almost as young as Lime, the hamster thing seemed to be the right answer. Aearis, though, might have qualified for the same hamster role, was a little too physically developed, which put some pressure on Hiroshi, much to Aearis’ dismay.
「When’s that princess comin’, anyway?」
Hiroshi said, looking out the window. Seeing that it was completely dark outside, he was concerned about Aearis, whom he had been seeing pretty frequently even after leaving the palace. That being said, she had not visited the workshop since the incident, and she hadn’t met the interns before.
「Good evening.」
Speaking of the devil, Aearis finally arrived. She had changed herself into Elle’s appearance using the item from back when she was in hiding at the workshop. With it being so late in the day, she seemed to have used her own transportation spell rather than walking.
「Hey ya. You’re over pretty late.」
「I didn’t finish my duties until a few moments ago…」
「Then ya haven’t taken a bath, have ya? The girls takin’ one right now, why don’t ya join ‘em?」
Seeing that Aearis was shaking a little, Hiroshi made the suggestion. After finishing rituals and cleansing outdoors, she must have flown over here before even taking heat. In contrast to her cheerful expression, there wasn’t much color in her face.
「Thank you.」
With an easy agreement, she took out her bathing set from her luggage, and handed the rest over to Layla, who had extended her hand timidly, seeing that the visitor was obviously someone with high status. Aearis hurried over to the bath. After watching her with a chuckle, Hiroshi turned to Layla and Lime.
「Layla-san. Could you take her stuff up to the room, if ya don’t mind. Ya should take a bath too, Lime.」
「Okay!」
「Yes, sir.」
With an energetic response, Lime charged for the bath without even taking a change of clothes. Like most people in Farlane, Lime loved bathes. In the slums, she had only taken a bath in her fantasy, but at the workshop, she could take a warm bath and eat strange and delicious meals everyday. For Layla and Fum, too, the workshop was a paradise. So much so that they were nervous if they really deserved to stay here.
「Since Elle’s lookin’ pretty chilly, I think some hot food’s in order.」
「Yep. Something to get the little one’s out of their comfort zones would be great.」
「Then the main course’s gonna be stew, I think. Should we just do terrona?」
「Bulfch wouldn’t be too bad, either.」
While Hiroshi brought up the national meal of Farlane, Tatsuya countered with another traditional dish. Bulfch was a dish where various toppings are stuff inside a dough made out of a sweet-potato-like starch that was harvested around this time of the year in the region. The dish was typical of Farlane, as it relied on the flavors of the ingredients and its length on the grill to deliver on flavor. It wasn’t too high in calories, but was nutritious and filling. Ideal, in a way.
Depending on the type of potatoes used the bulfch could maintain its high initial temperature for prolonged periods of time, securing it a comfortable spot as one of the absolute best winter warmer foods.
「Bulfch’s faine but it ain’t gonna be feedin’ all these hungry mouths all by itself.」
「How does terrona udon sound?」
「Ya might just be onto somethin’. Lemme give it a shot.」
Terrona made with soy sauce enriched fish fumet sounded like it should do the trick. Haruna, being a hardline food traditionalist, would have likely disapproved of dumping udon in just any old stew that’s not miso, but Hiroshi believed that having their guests gradually get to know all the foreign tastes, instead of bombarding them with all at once, was more important than adhering to tradition for the sake of it.
It’s not like he intended on commiting a sacrilegious act or anything of the sort either, udon, at the end of the day, was just folded flour, so it should, by all means, go well with consommé, which is what’s used in most variations of terrona.
「Time to get crackin’ on that udon.」
「Is there anything I can help out with?」
「Ya could prepare the shulp’s, we got plenty from our outin’ two days ago, they strangled the little buggers right in front of our eyes they did.」
「Understood.」
Layla, in accordance to Hiroshi’s request, began delicately taking apart the shulps. Within its intestines laid dormant a particularly nasty kind of parasite, one that was highly heat resistant, so any notions of using them as offals were out of the question, they had to be removed. They could potentially be used for potions, amplification consumables and the like but the process was immensely tedious and as materials they were much too high rank to handle for anyone besides Mio, who was too high a rank to gain any meaningful experience from it.
That being said, disposing of perfectly good materials would have been a complete waste, so they decided on turning it into fertilizer, after having done away with the parasites first, of course. Considering their circumstances there was no such thing as too much fertilizer.
「Are we having terrona?」
「Terrona udon and Bulfch ta be exact.」
「I see you’re experimenting with your food, that’s what I like to see!」
Haruna, who had finished taking a bath and putting on an apron, was in high spirits. Due to her contributions to the terrona udon cause, the dish managed to become something much greater, something much more than just udon dumped in terrona – it developed a unique identity of its own, although all Haruna did was really just that, but we don’t talk about that here.
「What’s that over there?」
Inquired Aearis upon getting dragged to the so called ‘jolly get-together’ room where, after abiding by the no shoe rule, she spotted a peculiar table like thing.
「That’s a kotatsu – one of the ways we keep warm back home.」
「What’s a kotatsu?」
「Come on over and see for yourself.」
Aearis, in accordance to Haruna’s beckoning, sat down beside her, gently lifted up the blanket and threw her legs underneath the table. Tatsuya followed right after, sitting down on the other side of the table.
「…It’s warm down here.」
「Told you.」
「Wouldn’t this close proximity be highly uncomfortable for Hiroshi?」
「He’s got a separate one all for himself, all’s good.」
She said as she pointed towards the laughably small kotatsu unassumingly sitting in the corner of the room.
「That sounds… really sad.」
「There’s not much we can do about that, it’s for his own good.」
Aearis, unable to muster up a proper response with the unfortunate set of circumstances that led up to this still ingrained deep in her mind, made a strained grin. She had already learned by that point not to take every one of Hiroshi’s incidents to heart, both for her and for his sake.
「Where did everyone else go?」
「Teres and Nora are busy being taught by Hiro and Mio. Leyla’s on dish duty while Fum and Lime are catching some z’s right about now. A bit of studying would do those two good but can’t be asking too much from a bunch of kids.」
「Makoto’s out drinking, she should be back any time soon.」
Aearis slowly nodded as she heard out what the rest of the group was up to at the moment. She found it a tad bit unfortunate how Fum and Lime, who she befriended during dinner, weren’t around for the occasion but she herself would hit the hay at around the same time when she was their age, so she kept that tiny discontent to herself.
Other than that she found it puzzling how Haruna had been lazing around instead of taking the lecture alongside Teres and Nora, so she went ahead and asked. Apparently she had already mastered all there was to learn from that particular day’s lecture, so forcing her to attend either way would have been a waste of everyone’s time. Haruna was by no means amongst the most distinguished crafters, in fact by all means she was still very much a rookie, but by this country’s standards her capabilities were well above the median average.
「This ‘kotatsu’ thing is really comfy.」
「Try not to doze off by accident or you might catch a cold.」
「I’ll try my best…」
Aearis, being too enraptured by the kotatsu, replied in a generic manner under the assumption that she was being warned about something while feeling the floor underneath her cushion.
「Is this floor made of straw?」
「That’s right. This type of flooring is known as tatami back in our place.」
「We’d be nodding off on these in summertime.」
「That sounds wondrous.」
Aearis got all starry eyed over the hypothetical situation.
「Isn’t it crazy how he managed to replicate everything down to the fine details, even the tatami?」
「What’s more crazy is how he managed to get his hands on soft rush straw.」
「I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he just made one up on the spot with his alchemy.」
Aearis and Haruna grinned in agreement. Considering Hiroshi’s track record it wouldn’t have been the tiniest bit surprising if he was to pull something of the sort.
Reality, however, proved to be much more mundane than what they had imagined. Alchemy didn’t have to get involved since there were plenty of substitutes to go around due to the soil improvement process. Reality should be given a break every once in a while, if there were nothing but supernatural feats being pulled on a daily basis it would get repetitive, occasionally procuring materials the good old fashioned way is in order.
「I wouldn’t mind having a tiny space like this in my room…」
「Wouldn’t that be quite the tall task considering it’s Farlane castle we’re talking about?」
「I don’t think it’d even match aesthetics wise to begin with.」
The two dragged her right back to reality. Under normal circumstances this would have been devastating for a head in the clouds girl like her but she didn’t have her hopes up from the very beginning, so it wasn’t too much of a shocker.
「How does modelling a new royal villa after this design sound?」
「Isn’t your imperial treasury almost dried up?」
「It isn’t actually, we’ve managed to get a quick temporary influx of capital through hefty corruption fines and asset seizures large enough to fully support the castle’s renovations and soil improvements and then some.」
「…Shouldn’t you be using those funds for like, I don’t know, the people’s sake?」
Aearis pretended not to be listening by supposedly being too preoccupied with checking out what laid under the enigmatic kotatsu. As she’s doing this a question popped into her mind.
「Are you going to be able to keep afloat now that your labor costs skyrocketed after you freshly hired a whole three working age adults?」
「We’ve got a stable source of income, don’t you worry about us.」
「Our disciples have managed to master the art of the curry powder recently, that’s rolling in a fair amount of dough.」
「You’re positive?」
「I’m positive.」
Most of Farlane’s core cuisine was either prepared by cooking or boiling, so curry powder was a smash hit with the people, as was evident by how it sold out in a jiffy. They had the means to mass produce it to some extent as well, making it relatively affordable for even some of the upper middle class folk, which was one of the biggest factors that made it as popular as it was. They hadn’t developed the technology far enough to mass produce it cheaply enough to compete in the food stall market, however.
A vast majority of the takers were, unsurprisingly, chefs with, surprisingly enough, adventurers trailing in second. There was a reason behind this – just by sprinkling some of it on any old food they happened to gather around the campsite they could make it much more palpable. For the same exact reason it was also popular with people whose job requires frequent, long-distance travel between cities where staying out in the wild was unavoidable.
Since the public works were coming to an end they decided to collectively participate in that for the moment, but for the most part rookies participated in the slum soil improvement efforts in three day rotations. One or two of them would be assigned to public works while the remainder gathered and worked with materials. They were already at the point where everyone could perfectly handle curry powder and unclassified potions at about a fifty percent success rate, but they were getting there slowly but surely.
「From what I hear Lime’s the most active one in curry powder making.」
「Her measuring abilities are off the charts, not to the extent of Hiroshi or Mio by any means but enough to where she can get insane amounts of work done with incredible efficiency.」
「While Teres and Nora are responsible for evenly mixing the components.」
Lime, overjoyed that she could be of some assistance to the group, distinguished herself with her sharp and quick memory. She had yet to mismeasure anything despite being given the amounts verbally. Under normal circumstances they’d just use memos to provide the amounts but Lime’s reading and writing abilities were not yet developed enough to do it the easy way.
「Everything seems to be in order, doesn’t it?」
「Almost worryingly so.」
「By the time we set off they should be able to handle unclassified potion and various other, non-curry powder, spices just fine.」
「I see.」
Aearis felt an odd mixture of both joy and emptiness going through her upon seeing just how fulfilled everyone was with their work at Azuma’s workshop.
「Don’t think about it too much, there are still a whole two months before we leave the town.」
「A mere two months.」
「Time flies like an arrow, eh?」
Aearis found herself unable to fully contain the stifling emotions that only grew stronger as the day of parting ways grew closer and closer.
「Eru, fancy seein’ ya up this late.」
Hiroshi, who had just finished up with his lecture and was carrying a mandarin box in hand, let out a strained laugh upon catching whiff of Aearis’ presence. Mio, who came in about thirty seconds after, sat down in front of Haruna without uttering a single word.
「There’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you.」
「We’ve still got tomorrow, and the day after, what’s the big hubbub?」
「It’s not like we have all the time in the world here.」
「Fair ‘enuff.」
Hiroshi nodded in agreement as he took out a mandarin and flung it in the basket.
「No kotatsu chill be complete without one a these.」
「Preach it.」
Haruna enthusiastically agreed with Hiroshi’s sentiment while accurately sniping a mandarin within arm’s reach. Farlane was full to the brim with all kinds of citrus fruit varieties, including the sweet, hand sized, easily peelable and perfectly edible skin variety found all throughout the year in Japan.
「I couldn’t agree more…」
Grumbled Mio as she worked her way through the peel of a mikan, which had seemingly magically appeared in her hand out of nowhere. The last time she went through this particular blend of experiences was a few years back. Ever since they got here they’ve been able to relive much of other, similarly distant, memories, which was an equal mix of joyous and mixed feelings all at the same time.
「Why don’t you come in here, with all of us?」
Tatsuya teased Hiroshi who waddled over to the ‘boyz only’ teeny-tiny kotatsu sitting depressingly in the corner of the room with an equally as smallish basket housing a nominal amount of mandarins. All of these elements merged together masterfully to depict as dreary a sight as humanly imaginable.
「Ya know perfectly well that ain’t happenin’.」
「Caught red-handed.」
Said Tatsuya as he picked up two mandarins and moved over to Hiroshi’s kotatsu.
「So, where are they?」
「They be doin’ cleanup work, should be back any second now I wager.」
In a real ‘speak of the devil’ moment the three’s voices could be heard from around the entrance, all of which sounded confused at the sight of this irregularity of a room.
「This here be a shoe free zone, take ’em off and then come in.」
「O-okay.」
「Understood.」
Teres and Nora cautiously made their way into the room. Layla, on the other hand, was completely calm and collected through and through.
「Come on over to our kotatsu, it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity.」
「Kotatsu? You mean this table over here?」
「Yup.」
Briskly replied Haruna while pointing at some open spots. The three lifted up the blanket and threw their legs under the table, just as how Haruna had been seated. They felt a tad bit queasy about sitting at the same table as Aearis but she wasn’t bringing up social status nor was she criticizing their speech quirks, so they just went ahead and did it.
「T-this thing is no good, I can feel it…」
Nora was the first to take notice of the kotatsu’s perilous nature.
「There’s no escape once one enters this… thing, I know it.」
「It’s really warm down there, isn’t it?」
Nora and Teres laid down their thoughts as their arms unconsciously reached for the mandarins.
「Oh right, there’s something we need to go over.」
Proclaimed Haruna while peeling her mandarin. All eyes were on her.
「How do you all feel about some New Year’s Eve soba?」
「Now that ya mention it, it’s around that time of year ain’t it.」
Hiroshi responded. He wasn’t much for adhering to traditions just for the sake of it but in this case it would have added greatly to the hyper-Japanese mood they had going on at the moment.
「New Year’s soba, is it?」
「Back at our place there’s this custom of treating oneself to soba at the very end of the year.」
「Soba eaten on such occasion is called New Year’s Eve soba. From what I understand there’s some deeper meaning behind it but I never bothered to look into it.」
「Judging from how most of these things are based on cheesy wordplay, wouldn’t it be something along the lines of ‘May you start off the year successfully separating the wheat from the chaff with this nice bowl of buckWHEAT noodles’?」
The friendly Japanese folk answered the Farlaner representative’s – Aearis question in as concise a manner as they could. A good deal of lucky charms from other cultures likely have something to do with wordplay, but in the case of Japan there are a lot of them and the whole practice of punning meaning into existence bled through to cultural practices as well. That’s probably simply because they’re just a nation that’s savvy on wordplay.
「If we gonna be goin’ through with this we might as well go all out with a full menu of new year goodies.」
「Right, let’s not forget those.」
「If Eru, Lay and Mark-o are gon’ be comin’ o’er why don’t we just go ahead and do it?」
All the remaining Japanese members nodded in unison. Sechi was mostly made up of easy to make knick knacks that were perfect for the season. There were a considerable number of them so making each individually would prove to be a lengthy process but that was taken out of consideration this time around.
「Oh and for ya’ll non-Japanese folk sechi’s a traditional assembly of dishes eaten for the first three days after New Year’s.」
The Farlaner folk all quietly processed the information they were just about to ask for before Hiroshi beat them to the punch.
「We have something just like that – mosliem.」
「What’s a mosliem?」
「It’s made up of meat cubes and vegetables wrapped in a thin layer of dough served on a skewer.」
「Doesn’t sound all that unique so is it the meat and vegetables used that make it what it is?」
Aearis and Layla nod.
「The meat used is yielded from ballooners – a rare species of animal that only leaves behind a single offspring once a year. Once three or, in rare cases, four offspring are delivered its life runs its natural course but what sets it apart is how, much like how a candle burns brightest just before it goes out, that’s when its meat is at its most tender. 」
「‘Tis a miracle they ‘aven’t gotten extinct yet.」
「That’s exactly why we only eat it on new year’s when it’s on the brink of passing away.」
Layla’s explanation was enough to leave everyone convinced. Apparently the animal looked like the bastard child of a cow and a bird but not in a chimera-ish multiple heads kind of way. Leave it to a fantasy setting to give birth to something that’d make taxonomists around the world collectively shake their heads in disbelief.
「What about the veggies?」
「Not much to note on that end asides from the fact that fresh seasonal produce is used.」
Haruna listened intently to Layla’s explanation. Teres and Nora also did the same, believing that maybe one day they’ll be able to actually put it to good use.
Mosliem was a curious case in that it was the state’s obligation to provide it to the people on New Year’s. In small, far away villages or towns with no governing lord the people breed them collectively. The expenses were covered by taxpayer money but, it being a long standing tradition, there was nobody to oppose the practice.
「It’s only on New Year’s that slum dwellers like us get to enter the castle without anyone batting an eye.」
「Interestin’」
It being only about half a year since they ended up in Farlane, naturally there were a heap of customs they weren’t aware of and, more importantly, dishes they had yet to try out.
Hiroshi’s and Haruna’s thought pattern came into sync as both of their minds unconsciously steered towards the direction of food, more specifically how they might end up regretting not having the full Farlaner food experience later down the line.
「Is there any deeper meaning behind eating it on New Year’s specifically since we’re on the topic.」
「Partaking in meat that only gets more succulent with the passage of time is symbolic for coming to terms with every single experience in one’s life and growing wiser as an individual as a result of it.」
「Fascinatin’」
Different people, different customs as they say and Farlane, boasting a robust history, was no exception to the rule.
「How ’bout this, what if we were to have soba on New Year’s Eve and then mosliem the day right after?」
「That sounds lovely.」
「Puttin’ together some soba in honor of your visit is the least we could do.」
Aearis enthusiastically nodded in agreement, her heart gushing with glee. As a result of this exchange soba would end up becoming the priestess princess new ritual new year’s eve dish and eventually, propelled by increased accessibility to soy sauce and japanese stock, a smash hit amongst the populace, but that’s a story for another time.
「What happened to your grandiose instant noodle manufacturing plans?」
Asked everyone’s favorite drunkardess, showing no visible signs of a hangover whatsoever.
「They likely never gonna be seein’ the light of day thanks to time constraints.」
「What’s a simple instant noodle line to someone like you?」
「Yer not wrong, I could get an instant noodle line runnin’ in a jiffy if I wanted to. The demand would be insane but supply would, proportionally, be much lower, so the price on those things is gonna be off the charts.」
「You’d be lucky if at least some of them fell into hands other than the royal family’s with just one line.」
「Yeah, there’s that as well.」
Makoto agreed to Mio’s assessment while recalling the reception they got after a few knights got to try some out that one time. Farlane’s, and in extension the rest of this world’s, development of fast, on the spot foods was sluggish in relation to earth. As such the knight’s eating it like there was no tomorrow was hardly surprising.
Anti-spoiling made it so that food could remain indefinitely fresh, expand capacity lead to the space-per-unit of food being abnormal, both of which contributed to convenient, on the go kind of food being pushed to the wayside and largely overlooked. In fact it was so primitive that the closest thing resembling it was smoked meat.
That same smoked meat wasn’t born out of necessity for preserved foods but as a means to combat parasites. Back in the days when it was difficult to properly cook the meat through to the center without burning the surface in the process, many people chose to simply eat it raw and many suffered the consequences. To get rid of those little buggers out people started smoking their meat and the rest is history.
「A line by itself is fine but without another expert in the manufacturin’ process we won’t have anyone ta bring any innovation to the market.」
「Innovation, huh.」
Hiroshi brought up a practical issue. As far as the others were aware there were two different types of both cup and block noodles out in circulation. That should have been a good enough lineup to ride off of the wave of unfamiliarity and convenience for a little while but without any real innovation people might have very well started getting sick of it after a while. They’d still consistently sell to a certain subset of individuals but the numbers would be significantly lower than that of earth.
「Have you yourself been doing any innovation?」
「Aye, cup soba with udon and cup yakisoba respectively.」
「Bog standard if I’ve ever seen it.」
Aearis happened to overhear the two’s conversation while enjoying soup from her cup. She was sold at the mention of ‘yakisoba’. That was enough for her to get all inquisitive.
「Did I hear cup yakisoba?」
「Oh boy.」
Tatsuya released a sigh at the ever so predictable Aearis whose soba obsession had evolved to encompass all its peripherals, such as yakisoba, as well.
「Yakisoba’s that dish where meat, veggies and soba are stir-fried into one cohesive unit and are typically flavored with okonomiyaki sauce?」
「Exacta mundo.」
「How do you make that instant noodle friendly?」
Teres also looked on in anticipation for an answer.
「It’d be faster if I showed ya but it’d be a bit too heavy for breakfast.」
「A shame…」
「What is? We can just ‘ave it for lunch.」
「Really!?」
「It ain’t no biggie, so long as ye fine with instant noodles for lunch that is.」
Aearis bursted into smile upon hearing those fated words. She had begun showing snippets of her adult side as of late but deep down she was still a child at heart.
「I’m glad you’re having a jolly good time but how about we go over our New Year’s Eve plans?」
「We’re planning on opening one large scale food stall. The stall’s good to go and we’ve already sent in the papers.」
Haruna answered Makoto’s question. Up until now Haruna’s been a one man show, so the amount of food she could reasonably prepare at a stall was limited, but with Nora’s and Fum’s combined assistance she and Hiroshi though that there was room to get a bit more ambitious this time around.
「What’re you going to be offering?」
「Curry buns and fried food, goes without saying, then there’s also oden and takoyaki, possibly considering incorporating okonomiyaki in there as well.」
「How ambitious of you…」
「I’ll also have Makoto and Mio helping me out, no need to worry.」
The two knit their brows together at the abrupt news.
「Haruna, may I?」
「Go ahead.」
「Do I and Teres get anything to do?」
「I guess you could be in charge of the okonomiyaki? Takoyaki’s already taken by Mio, frying’s a bit too advanced for both of you while okonomiyaki is pretty simple with a bit of practice.」
Haruna decided the roles on the spot. This time around they were planning on having the okonomiyaki cooked on a flat skewer so that it could be eaten without the use of chopsticks. Yakisoba wasn’t in consideration because the only ones who could use chopsticks were a small portion of the royal family and the workshop members.
「If we happen to have some breathing room I’d also like to add manju in there, could that be arranged?」
「Shouldn’t be a problem, all the measurements and mixin’ can just be done by Lime, she’s a monster that one.」
「Splendid. Now, Tatsuya and Makoto, could I ask you to take care of those?」
「Putting me in charge of steaming? You must have a death wish.」
「Ye will get by just fine with the tools at ye disposal, I’m sure of it.」
The dark cloud lingering above Aearis head grew progressively darker as the group’s hardy chit-chat session went on.
「Boss man, Eru’s looking kind of down.」
「Eru, is something the matter?」
「No it’s nothing, it’s just that it’s a shame that I won’t be able to stick around for long at all while you’ll all be having the time of your lives…」
They felt a slight grin pass over their faces as Aearis’ metaphysical dark cloud began releasing metaphysical drops of rain.
「Well your case is special.」
「I know, but still…」
Aearis was mature for her age but a child nonetheless, being out of the loop while everyone else is out there having a blast, doing whatever it is they’re doing, is a huge blow.
Everyone aside from Lime had slowly started to catch on to the fact that Aearis was either a really high ranking noble or part of the royal family. However they intended to keep this information to themselves until she felt comfortable enough to fess up herself and wouldn’t even dare to think about leaking her frequent visits to the workshop to the outside. This decision was made purely out of loyalty… and possibly a dash of self-interest.
「Won’t this all blow over soon enough?」
「Yes.」
「Then why don’t we just meet up then? Now that I think about it, it would be the perfect opportunity to do some sightseeing at Wulls.」
Teres and Nora let out a faint sigh over Haruna’s incredibly Japanese-like suggestion. The rest of the crew were similarly appalled.
「You’re missing the point, capitals weren’t built with tourists in mind」
「How could they be built with tourists in mind when there really aren’t any to begin with?」
「If there aren’t any tourists then how come I was roaming around the city to see the sights?」
「Doesn’t that defeat your point?」
「No it doesn’t.」
Nora Mora would not yield ’til her foes got crushed underneath her razor sharp wit.
「Actually Farlane’s quite a popular tourist spot…」
「Is it really?」
「Yes, yes it is. Farlane’s public transport system is developed enough to where Wulls’ middle class could reasonably afford to travel to Kalsus or Merije or any surrounding town without being too fiscally irresponsible.」
Everyone listened in silent admiration as Aearis regurgitated the knowledge she had been imparted in one of her kingcraft classes.
「If only your tight schedules would allow for such spontaneous trips…」
「Well we don’t have that much time left but it should be just enough to allow for that much, at least once that is.」
「Splendid!」
Haruna soothed Aearis. At least for the time being she managed to successfully take her mind off of the whole New Year’s Eve celebration business.
What they decided on having wasn’t one of those cheapo flat-topped, round containers with some obsolete company’s name slapped across for good measure but an elusive mega pack variety only found in Osaka’s convenience stores that were just as trashy. This naturally led to…
「ow! Eh?」
Aearis, like many other poor souls before her, watched on as the container’s contents splattered all over the place right in front of her eyes. A heart-rending moment to be sure.
On an unrelated note…
「I’m outta ingredients.」
「The curry bun’s and takoyaki have all gone.」
「No more okonomiyaki dough here.」
「The last oden egg and kombu just traded hands.」
「Only one fried item to go.」
「Manju sold out.」
The workshop’s food reserves never stood a chance against the New Year’s customer traffic, being completely emptied out before the end of the day. Since their work ended earlier than expected they went out to enjoy the festival and once they got back…
「You’re early.」
「Welcome back.」
They saw Aearis and Layotte in kimonos snuggled comfortably inside the kotatsu eating New Year’s soba, but that’s another story for another time.
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