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This chapter has been replaced with a new translation on [2024-07-05]. Comments may refer to the old translation.

I followed Orgo to Jisef’s house. The food had already been placed on the table. There were several dishes with bread, meat, and something that looked like pot-au-feu.

“Oh~! Ain’t that lookin’ tasty?” Orgo commented, as he sat down.
“Heh-heh-heh, the village chief’s wife, Myuri, and I put in a lot of effort into these, so please sit down Alim. Now, let’s eat!”
“T-That looks really good!”

I did as Lilo told me to and sat down in the chair. It would’ve been rude, to be overly humble. Myuri and Lilo sat next to me. Orgo was across from me.

After we said our thanks, the village chief’s wife, Gerbera, told us with a smile to “Enjoy the meal”. For the time being, I took some of the dish in front of me onto my plate. No matter how you sliced it, it was salad, though said salad was made with an abundance of something that looked like yellow turnips.

I had been in this world for nearly two weeks, but I hadn’t eaten anything but meat and fruits. This was the first proper meal in a long time. I took a bite of the turnip. Even though it was a turnip, it had a sweet flavor like corn. I tasted rather unusual.

“It’s delicious…” I involuntarily murmured, because it had been so long since I had a decent meal.

Everyone smiled happily. Jisef, especially, had a radiant smile.

“That’s right, that’s right. That vegetable is a local specialty of this village, called ‘Caba¹‘. It’s pretty good, isn’t it? Ho-ho-ho-ho-ho!”

Did he call it “Caba”? So, this stuff is “Caba”…

Once I finished eating the Caba salad, I next took the dish that was made with something that looked like chicken meat. It reminded me of fried chicken with vinegar.

“That’s the meat of an E-Rank magic beast called Ododo Bird dressed with sauce. We discovered the bird while we subjugated the Black Soldier Dogs, so we hunted it for later.”

Oh, that’s the second most delicious meat², after dragon meat. So, this bird is called Ododo Bird, what a strange name.

“Does it taste good?” Lilo asked me.
“It’s super tasty!” I replied.

A radiant smile appeared on her adorable face.

“I see, I see~!” she said with apparent joy.

Afterwards, I had bread in addition to the dish that looked like pot-au-feu.

“That is the one I cooked, Alim!” Myuri told me happily, when I put it on my plate.

Well, munch, munch. Yep, it’s quite good. It really is just like pot-au-feu.

“This dish is also delicious!” I told her.
“Really, is that so? Eh-heh-heh…” she blushed in embarrassment.

That’s cute. Oh, I also need to thank her.

“Thank you so much, Miss Myuri… for healing me lots of times and for taking care of me.”
“No worries, that is the thing I am best at,” she replied.

She was a capable cook. In addition to that, the bread was also very tasty and left me rather satisfied. It was a wonderful meal.

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Even after eating lunch, I continued looking around the village for the rest of the day.

Oh, right, I should mention something. I learned a skill called “Logging”, you see.
There was a middle-aged man cutting down trees, so I asked him to teach me. He easily gave his okay.

This is being taught skills by other people, isn’t it? Thank you, Mister.

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Dinner on that day was hearty stew of Ododo Bird meat and Cabas. Naturally, it was delicious. When I was in the forest, I never thought there were people in this world who’d let me eat such good food.

Everyone from Seinforce went back to the inn, once they finished eating dinner, and Gerbera let me take a bath. Moreover, she even gave me pajamas. I was truly grateful to her. She told me, both the clothing I wore today, and the pajamas were old things from their daughter. Currently, said daughter was apparently in the royal capital. Maybe I’d meet her someday.

The first bath after such a long time… Naturally, I’m a bath lover. That’s why it was rather tough for me in the forest with neither seasonings nor baths, you know.

Ah~… I’m coming back to life~…

Since I’m in the bath, I can probably see my own face and appearance in the water. The bathroom doesn’t have a mirror

I tried looking at the bath, once the waves had subsided.
…Who is this beautiful girl?

That’s me. Still, the reflected face is so lovely, even I, currently a girl, might fall in love with it. I wonder, can you fall in love with yourself?

Should I try turning back into a boy once?
…No way, my face doesn’t change. Eh~~…

I have the body of a boy. But my face is that of a girl. I’m one of these so-called bishounen³. The mismatching face and body give me an uncomfortable feeling. My height also has changed by 10 centimeters. Even though it’s my own body, isn’t it?

…It can’t be helped, I guess I’ll stay a girl when I’m in front of others. The people around me mistakenly think that I’m a girl anyway, so it might be best to live like one in this world.

Oh, am I half desperate about this? It’s not like I’m a guy who acted like a girl⁴ previously… or I don’t think I did.

While entertaining such thoughts, I got out of the bath and went to sleep.
Good night. Today… well, it was a nice day, wasn’t it?

TL notes:
The conversation was horribly mangled in the previous translation. I hope it makes more sense now.

1. The original is カバ (kaba). The previous translation translated this as “Hippo”, which it technically can mean, but seriously, why the hell would they name some vegetable after a giant mammal living in tropical rivers? It’s also possible that it’s intended to be a variation of カブ (kabu), the Japanese word for “Turnip”, so something like “Tornip” might also have been a possibility.
2. Likely the dodo-like bird mentioned in chapter 12.
3. The expression is 美少年 (“beautiful boy”). It’s pretty widely known from manga and anime, so I used the original.
4. The expression used here is カマっけ, which is most likely カマっ気, which is an abbreviation for the slang expressionオカマの気 (lit. “gay mind”), which describes a man, who sometimes acts and talks like a woman.