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Umm… It’s morning? Hm? The ceiling was close? What an unfamiliar ceiling… Where is this? Oh, someone was hugging me… Kuro? …Ah, right. I stayed at Triela’s house last night. The ceiling was close because I was sleeping on the bunk bed…

Haa. As usual, I’m not good with mornings. I woke up early because of my habit, but… I became absent-minded because my blood pressure was low. That’s why I was dazed for a while.

Hmmm… My head has become much clearer. Let’s check my current situation. Kuro was sleeping while hugging me, burying her face in my . The time was… I always woke up at five to six o’clock in the workshop, so it should be around that time.

I didn’t have to wake up this early, so what should I do… Let’s just peel Kuro off me and change my clothes first.

I carefully peeled Kuro off me, making sure I wouldn’t wake her up. Then I changed my clothes using [Storage], used [Wash] to cleanse and brush my teeth, took out a mirror, and combed my hair. Then, as usual, I braided my hair loosely and wore my glasses. I didn’t wear my cloak.

By the way, I didn’t wear my cloak when I was here yesterday. Thanks to that, someone’s gaze towards a part of my body was painful. Disgusting.

Now that I’d finished changing my clothes… hmm, should I prepare breakfast? Then let’s wake Arle up… She wouldn’t wake up. Speaking of which, Arle had always been very hard to wake up in the morning… Even more than me.

Haa… It can’t be helped. I’ll do it by myself.

Once I left the room, I could see the inside of the boys’ room. They were wrapped in blankets, curled up on the floor sleeping. They could at least spread out a cloth or blanket on the floor other than the mattress or sheets… Well, I don’t really care.

I went down to the first floor, lit a fire in the furnace, and left it for a while until the fire became large. Then, I heat the pot of soup I made last night. After that, I took out a kettle from my [Storage], added herbs, and heated it.

The rice balls and meatballs were cold, so… steam it? The rice balls would be delicious even when they were cold. Maybe I should keep it that way to teach them how it tasted. I put the meatballs in the frying pan. I covered it with a lid and put the fire on low heat. It would burn if I leave it alone, so I timely tilted the frying pan and rolled the meatballs until it’s done.

When I was preparing the meals like that, I heard a footstep of someone coming down from the second floor. Who? Oh, Ryuu? …How surprising.

“Huh? Ren?”
“Good morning, Ryuu.”
“Ah, yeah… Err, good morning? What are you doing?”
“Preparing breakfast.”
“Umm, what about Arle?”
“She’s still sleeping. She’s not a morning person.”
“Ah, you’re right…”

My hands didn’t stop even when I was having an idle talk with Ryuu. There weren’t many things to do, though.

“Umm…”
“Don’t just stand there. How about washing your face first?”
“Eh? Face?”
“You can use the hot water in the bathroom, you know?”
“Ah, yeah…”

The latitude of this country seemed to be ways toward the north. Recently, the weather had gotten colder even in the morning. It’s good that I could use hot water anytime.

Another person came down while Ryuu went to wash his face in the bathroom.

“Ahh, you’re really here as I thought… Sorry, Ren. I can’t wake up in the morning…”
“Don’t worry, Arle. Please wash your face first.”
“Huh? Arle, you already woke up?”
“Ryuu? Aren’t you waking up a bit too early?”
“I always wake up at this time.”
“Is that so? Then I’ll wash my face too.”
“Yeah, do that. It’s so convenient that we can use hot water from the morning!”
“Eh? Is it that good?”
“Yeah, think about it. Washing our face in the winter using cold water is too much, right? It’ll wake anyone up, though.”
“…Oh! I see, you’re right!”

I get it, it’s like your heart stopped for a moment, right? I guess installing the hot-water heater was the correct choice. After Arle went to wash her face with a spring in her footsteps, Ryuu stared at me preparing the breakfast. What? I couldn’t calm down if you stared at me that much, though? …He’s bothering me, I’ll chase him out.

“Ryuu, why don’t you practice swinging this if you’re free?”

I took out the wooden sword that I made when I practiced how to fight before and handed it to Ryuu. I felt restless if he kept watching me cooking. I’m not good at socializing. That’s why he should practice swinging that in the balcony.

By the way, I might have used this wooden sword once to develop the [Storage]. Well, it ended as a crushing failure.

“Eh? Can I use this?”
“I’m giving that to Ryuu, so use it as you like.”
“…Got it, then I’m going for a while. …Um, thank you!”

I was only getting rid of him because he was bothering me, yet he thanked me with joy while going away… how can I say this? It’s embarrassing.

“Huh? Where did Ryuu go?”
“He went to the veranda. He was bothering me, so I chased him away by giving him a wooden sword and telling him to practice swinging.”

…Speaking of which, Norn and Bell were sleeping on the balcony, right… No, it should be okay. Maybe.

“Hmm… I don’t know if I should call you kind or stern.”
“I’m not kind.”
“Tsundere?”
“I’m not being affectionate.”

How unexpected. I’m not that easy, okay?

“Let’s not talk about that anymore. Is there anything I can do to help?”
“Nothing in particular, but… please come over here. I will explain what I’m doing.”
“Okay~”

I explained to Arle about this and that. For now, it wasn’t that complicated. Anyway, let’s start cooking rice for lunch.

“Umm. Then I can choose the way I cook the food in this frying pan as I like?”
“Yes. It’s delicious if you eat it like this or if you put it in the soup. The texture will be different, so I want you guys to enjoy those things.”
“So there are differences in texture… I never thought of that.”
“The aroma will also change a lot.”

Food wasn’t something you could enjoy with just the taste. Learning to think like that would be advantageous for Arle in the future.

Now that I finished my explanation, I poured the herb tea into a cup and gave it to Arle.

“This is delicious… What do you put inside?”
“It’s…”

Since this was a good opportunity, I decided to teach her some of the wild plants that could be used to make herbal tea. Tea was a luxury item, making it expensive to buy. But being able to make it on your own would be very convenient.

“It’s interesting to try various blends.”
“Hee, that sounds fun… It’s amazing that it has various effects.”

Blending herb tea would take forever to master, so don’t overdo it, okay?

Ryuu returned when we were talking. Looking at his condition, I don’t think Norn and Bell bit him.

“Huh? What are you drinking?”

What a glutton… Well, it’s fine, though? Rather than that…

“You reek of sweat. Please go take a bath.”
“Eh, wait…”

Yeah, he smelled of sweat. So I forced him into the bathroom.

That being said, it seems like Ryuu had been working hard. However, just how effective was his practice…?

I had been learning the art of quick draw for a while in my past life, so I actually knew the basics of swordplay. However, my knowledge was for katana, so I think the usability was slightly complicated. And I couldn’t decide whether to teach a technique of another world. I could watch over his practice, but I didn’t want to make time to do that… Yeah, I’ll do it when I feel like it.

As I think about such things, more people came down. It seems like they woke up because of the sound Ryuu made during practice.

Ryuu took a bath without locking the door, so the ones who wanted to wash their face ended up having to ogle his naked body. He was still stupid as usual…

We had breakfast when everyone had gathered. Apparently, today’s breakfast was a lot earlier than their usual one.

Oh well, time to eat!

Everyone got the four meatballs I made yesterday. Two of them were already in the soup, so they could decide how they wanted to eat the other two. Everyone decided to put one into the soup and ate the other one as it was.

Meanwhile, Cain and Boman were quiet. They were glancing at me, though.

After the meal, we had a relaxing time drinking herbal tea. Not really, Arle and Triela made grilled rice balls for lunch. Yeah, use the rice I cooked in the morning, okay? I already gave the wooden lunch boxes I made to them, so they should pack the rice balls in and bring it with them. I also gave them a carry cart, so they could just load it there!

Everyone was being lazy while drinking their tea with a smile, but Kuro was especially in a good mood. Noticing that, Maricle asked Kuro the reason…

“Kuro, you seem to be in a good mood. What happened?”
“Hmm? Because Ren’s b̲o̲o̲b̲s̲ felt good?”

…The atmosphere in that place froze in an instant. And their eyes focused on me. Stop that! Don’t look at me like that! Rather, stop staring at that specific body parts!

For some reason, Rico was muttering that it was unfair, but I pretended that I didn’t hear it.

Well, we had that kind of trouble. After that, I went back to the workshop. Everyone else went to the guild since they were going to hunt horned rabbits and collect herbs as usual.

I spent my day’s blacksmithing as usual until the harvest festival.

Today was finally the harvest festival! I’m going to have a date, you know?