| Author: SS Samurai | Original Source: Syosetu |
| Translator: rm31439 | English Source: Re:Library |
“Rir, I cooked you a steak.”
“Huh~!? Really?”
I brought the small table, our room was furnished with, close to her and placed the steak on it.
“Yep, I fried it. Cooking ain’t exactly my strong suit, but… it somehow turned out well.”
“No, you don’t need to worry about that. More importantly… wasn’t the meat expensive?”
Her askin’ that is a bit of a bother, y’know. It’s true that it was expensive… but if I tell her that, she’ll probably blame herself and go back to kneelin’ on the floor.
“Uhm… well, it’s fine. It’s alright. Definitely.”
“Is that so…? But is it really fine for you to cook for me? I am your slave, no?”
“Nah, it’s fine. Go and eat it.”
Rir gazed intently at the Child Dragon steak sitting on the table.
“I wonder, even though until now I never felt any appetite for what they gave me to eat… I feel like I want to eat this.”
“You can start eatin’, y’know? I mean, it’ll get cold if you don’t. Oh, but don’t go wolfin’ it down too quickly.”
“Really, why?”
“If you start devourin’ food too greedily, you might develop a habit of binge eatin’. Eat slowly, bite by bite, alright?”
“Mh…”
Still sitting on the bed, she cut the steak into small pieces. Then, with a trembling hand, she speared a piece with her fork and was about to bring it to her mouth, but ended up stopping for some reason.
“Hey, why did you stop? Is the smell bad?”
“No… that’s not it. I was thinking, if I should really eat it. There will be nothing for you, Master. Moreover, I’m afraid.”
“Afraid of what?”
“I was thinking, I… the sorry excuse that I am, will end up vomiting up this steak that you cooked just for me, Master, won’t I?”
This is a serious illness, after all. If it’s like this, I might have no choice but to have her eat it by force, don’t I? Either way, she has to eat it.
“It’s not your fault that you throw up food, y’know. You’re sick. Besides, if you’re worried that I don’t eat anythin’… here.”
I picked up a piece of the Child Dragon steak and put it into my mouth.
Whoa, that’s tasty!? Dragon meat is super delicious! I gotta buy some for me once I earned some money.
“There, I ate some.”
“Y-Yes, you did.”
“So, don’t hold back now.”
“B-But…”
She’s super stubborn.
Still, I’m a bit hurt that she’d refuse me to that extent… I see, if that’s how her personality is, I gotta use that against her.
“You know what? It’s kinda rude of you to refuse somethin’ I made for you in good faith.”
“A-Ah…! I-I’m sorry.”
Will this be enough?
Rir picked up the fork again, brought a piece of the steak to her mouth, and this time she put it in there.
“Uh… ugh…”
“Hey, you alright?”
Was it no use after all? Well, that’s not somethin’ that heals in an instant, right?
I took out the bucket and brought it close to her mouth while rubbing her back. But Rir was trying hard not to vomit.
“Hey… you don’t have to force yourself, even if you end up vomitin’…”
She silently shook her head. Finally, she chewed and swallowed it after a short while. It didn’t look as if she would vomit. Though you could see she was trembling a bit…
“W-What’s wrong?”
“…sty…”
“Hm?”
“Ta… st…”
“Ta…?”
“Tasty… it’s incredibly tasty!!” she declared in a loud voice of apparent joy.
Might be just my imagination, but her face looks livelier than before.
“I see… You don’t feel like throwin’ up?”
“Yes, it looks like I’m fine. That I’d get to eat something this… marvelously delicious!”
“That’s great.”
“Oh right, Master! Can I… can I eat another piece?”
“Well… all of it is for you, Rir, y’know?”
From her reaction… Guess it’s been a long time since she ate somethin’ really good, right? Come to think of it, earlier she mentioned animal feces, didn’t she? If that’s what she ate normally…
On that note, he mentioned that. He said that it was fine to use ingredients they didn’t know much about to cook food for the kids, even if it would taste bad1. And that happened again and again.
In other words, she never had food she liked until now, had she? I can’t help but feel that way.
“Is this really all for me?”
“Yep. Still, no wolfin’ it down, y’know? That’ll only make you sick in another way and might startle your stomach.”
“Y-Yes. I will take care.”
After that, Rir ate the delicious looking steak while crying tears of apparent happiness. It made me think that she would’ve eaten it way too fast if I hadn’t stopped her. And, even though I made sure she was careful, she polished her plate.
“That was so tasty… It must’ve been years since I ate properly like this.”
“That’s great.”
That moment, there was knock on our door. When I opened it, there stood what should be called a young boy. He was wearing a uniform and carried a tray.
However, I can see somethin’ like fish gills growing on his ears… Well, that doesn’t matter now.
“Dinner has been prepared… Would you like to eat it in your room or the dining hall?”
“Oh, in my room, then.”
“Understood.”
I see, I was plannin’ to ask about the food.
The boy bowed his head quickly and left.
At this point, I realized something. I didn’t order food for Rir.
“Rir… I messed up. About your part of today’s dinner…”
“Huh, wasn’t this my dinner?”
“No, that was to get you used to eatin’.”
“I see… But I have already eaten, so it’s fine, you see.”
“…My bad.”
I gotta add her food to my order later. Is that possible?
After some time, the boy brought the food on a rack.
“This is today’s dinner.”
The menu was salad, bread, soup, fish meunière, dessert, and another dish I didn’t recognize.
“Once you have finished eating, please leave the tableware in front of your room,” the boy said and left.
…Should I have Rir eat half of it? It won’t be any good if she can’t eat anythin’ but steak.
“Hey, Rir.”
“What is it?”
“You eat half of that, alright?”
“Huh… No, that won’t do.”
“It’s fine, you gotta be able to eat stuff other than steak, don’t you? Besides, I’ve eaten too much for lunch, so my stomach’s still full.”
“R-Really?”
“Yep, really.”
To be honest, I haven’t eaten lunch.
The soup, bread, and salad… if she manages to eat those I won’t have to worry from now on.
“W-What should I do…?”
“Whether or not you can eat other food than steak, it’d be best to try, right?”
“Y-Yeah.”
Maybe because she had agreed with what I said, she took the spoon and brought some soup to her mouth.
Huh… is there only one spoon? Whatever, I’ll eat without one then.
“How is it, can you eat it?”
“It’s fine… I can manage!”
“I see, in that case, try eatin’ the other stuff, too.”
“Yeah!”
Rir ate bread, salad, and fish, but she didn’t throw up.
Is she forcin’ herself because she’s in front of me? I suddenly worried, but that didn’t seem to be the case.
Is that sickness somethin’ that can get healed this quickly?
…Either way, her gettin’ better is a joyful occasion, ain’t it?
“I was able to eat… everything.”
“That’s great, right?”
In the end, she ate half of the dinner.
I can’t believe she went from not being able to eat any food at all to this.
Once I finished eating dinner, I tidied up the tableware I used for the steak and then the one from the dinner while I was at it, and took them with me. The boy told me to leave it there, but I had something to take care of in the kitchen, so it couldn’t be helped.
On the way, I met the man from the counter and the boy, and asked if I could add breakfast and dinner for a second person, which apparently cost another 50 bells per day. I directly paid him the 200 bells for four days from tomorrow on.
Incidentally, the boy was apparently a slave. I noticed the mark. I saw him and the man who was likely the owner of the inn talk in a friendly manner, so it looked like he was treated properly.
I returned to my room.
Now, I guess I should take a bath.
TL notes:
I honestly don’t know much about eating disorders, so I have no idea how long it’d normally take to cure them. What I do know is that meat is not a good way to start eating again after a long period of fasting, and neither is eating normal amounts from the get-go. Granted, this is a fantasy world and Rir is not entirely human, so you could chalk it up to differences in physiology, but it still seemed way too easy.
