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　A few days later. Today, I was once again with the children gathering herbs near the river. But I was actually looking for things that could be eaten in the surroundings.

　Over the past few days, the first edible thing I found was chili peppers. Along with the vegetable oil, I could now make chili oil.
　And I also found raw peppers. Spices were quite expensive……I also found several other kinds of spices. I was hoping to make curry someday. But I still haven’t found any turmeric yet.

　I also managed to find leeks. Which was good for stir-fry vegetables and miso soup.
　Incidentally, there was common camellia within the area, so I was able to obtain more vegetable oil.
　But what’s with the vegetation in this world? It was somehow strange in various ways. It might be interesting to look into it a little more.

　Anyways, since I’ve mostly explored this area, I would like to move a little more upstream for today. As such, I was gathering a bit deeper in the forest than usual.

　After walking for a while, I found a tree that had some fruit. This scent…….the Japanese plum? Or some kind of plum? Well, never mind the specifics.
　A scan from Appraisal showed that the plums were edible. The plums also looked ripe and ready for consumption. So I decided to have some right away. I brought one to my mouth. Yep, sweet and sour. Delicious.

　I noticed that the children were watching me from a little further away, so I beckoned for them to come closer. They ran forth with their faces shining.
　Everyone began eating with delighted expressions on their faces. In this world, sweets weren’t something that could be easily obtained. For commoners, and even more so for orphans.

　I also stored some for myself. As I looked around for other things, the children asked me if they could take some home.
　Well, isn’t it fine to just do what you want? Ah, but if they pick too much the plums might go bad, so pick in moderation, I guess?

　While the children were taking their share, I explored the surroundings a bit more. Well… Oh, that’s yam? Tororo rice! Okay, let’s dig.
　And so I dug them up. Or rather, I did it in one go using earth magic. Magic sure was convenient.

　Shin noticed I was doing something again and approached me.

“Can you eat this too?”
“Hmm, there are various ways to eat them, such as mashing them, steaming them, or baking them, and such.”
“……Can we also take some?”
“Do what you want. Ah, but if you don’t dig them up carefully, it will break halfway, so be careful. And it also takes a while, so be patient. ”
“Thank you very much, I will do my best.”

　Well, it really is pretty difficult.

　Now then, let’s start gathering a bit more seriously. Thus, I started gathering herbs. But I quickly lost interest and ended up catching fish instead. Teehee~

　Later in the afternoon, I gathered for a bit longer before heading back. I decided to head back earlier than usual. I informed the children that we were heading back, Shin and several others who were digging up the yams looked really tired. But everyone was smiling. Today’s gathering resulted in a feast with plums and yams. Oh? There’s sweat coming from my eyes.

　I received my payment from the guild. Apparently, the guild also bought yams too, so Shin was agonizing over whether to eat or sell them. Me? I’m fine since I gathered them for the sole purpose of eating to begin with. The children agonized over it for a while, but before everyone left they gave a slight bow to me.

　I returned back to the inn and shared the plums with Lily. Apparently, she hadn’t eaten something sweet in a long time, so she was quite happy. Afterwards, I ate dinner, took a bath, and went to bed like usual. I refrained from cooking for myself this time. Because the cook was glaring at me with quite a dreadful face, to be honest, it was rather annoying.

　The next day, I went to the forest located towards the upstream of the river. The restriction to the southern forest area hasn’t been lifted yet. But since I could catch fish, maybe I should continue over here?
　I was gathering while talking to Yui for today. Yes, I ended up becoming swayed by them.

　I heard various things about them. Shin and Yui were originally the children of merchants, but their parents failed in their business along with various other things. In the end, both of their parents ended up passing away. As such, the two of them ended up on the streets. It was hard to listen at this point.

　After that, they managed to rent a runned-down house with the small amount of money they had left, and were able to live a meager lifestyle by registering as adventurers. But over time, it became harder to pay the rent, so they ended up sharing the house with friends and paying the rent together.
　My heart was in pain for some reason. But I was glad that I listened to their story.

“……And, yesterday was the first time in a while since we’ve been able to eat our fill! We were also able to give the fruits to the children who weren’t able to come with us, so I’m really grateful to big sis!”

　That’s……good. And wet stuff was coming out from my eyes.

“But, even if we bring back more fruits with us back home, it’ll still run out soon…….that’s why we have to do our best and gather herbs, so that we can buy flour!”

　Flour was fairly expensive. Even if it was diluted flour. You could gathering edible plants and vegetables while gathering herbs. But in order to have a full stomach, grains would also be necessary.

“What about potatoes?”
“Eh?”
“Aren’t potatoes cheaper? It’ll also fill your stomach too.”
“……Aren’t potatoes poisonous? It’ll be difficult to consume them.”

　Ah……so in this world, the recognition was still at that level. No wonder people were giving me weird looks when I was buying them.

“The poison is just in the eyes, everything else is fine.”
“Eh? Really?”

　Hmm, it might be better to just show her. It was also noon already.

　I took out a pan, poured hot water and lit the fire. Since the hot water was already at a very high temperature, it started boiling immediately. Then I took out some potatoes. There were some with buds growing out of them from when I bought them all, so I decided to teach through showing.

“The poison is located in the eyes. And in the parts where the color changes and becomes green. After cutting those away, it’ll be alright. Scrape the eyes off like this, and cut deeply into these sections.”

　Yui was watching me silently.

“The easiest way to cook them is to boil them. You can also boil them with salt. I’m going to add salt for this one. You can check if they’re finishing cooking by poking it with a stick like this. See?”

　I gave it to her to do. I always try to teach things as soon as possible.
　People don’t do things unless you perform it, tell them how to do it, get them to do it, and praise them. This was once said by Isoroku. And it was exactly so.

“This one is still a bit hard. But this one I was able to pierce through it.”
“In that case, let it boil for a bit longer.”

　After a while, the potatoes finished cooking, so I dumped the hot water and waited for them to cool down. Obviously, I would be burned if I were to pick them up immediately.
　I had boiled a total of 18 potatoes. There were 9 people, including me and the children, so there was a total of two per person.

“Each person gets two.”
“Eh? Um, is it okay for us to eat them?”
“Can you eat all this by yourself then?”
“Um, thank you very much.”

　Eating the potatoes after getting rid of the eyes. This would probably be the best way to prove that the potatoes were safe.

“Ah, that’s-”

　Nom-nom-nom. Yep, delicious. After watching me finish eating something that was supposed to be poisonous, everyone began eating cautiously.

“Delicious……”

　For some reason, everyone was in tears. After we finished eating, we continued gathering herbs.

“With potatoes being safe to eat, everyone can now eat enough to satisfy their stomach……thank you very much.”

　Shin and Yui expressed their gratitude to me on our way back.