Leave a comment

Ah, it’s the fourth day of the harvest festival.

But then, I didn’t have any plans to go outside. I was thinking of preparing the consommé soup¹ and finishing Ryuu’s sword. Anyhow, making consommé would definitely take the whole day, so I prepared myself. I wanted to have a portion too, so I made a large amount of it in the stockpot in one go. I’ll do my best…

I got permission to use the courtyard, so I made it there. I kept skimming the scum from the broth until noon. Yeah, how could I say this… it’s tiring. I made a lot of other things at the same time, but the consommé was too troublesome. I guess it couldn’t be helped since I could use it in various dishes…

After lunch, I continued making the consommé. I looked for a spare time to assemble Ryuu’s sword, then focused on the consommé again while waiting for Ryuu. I’m sick of it… Ugh, could I just use my magic? But I already reached this far. My obstinacy wanted me to do it until the end… Ughhh.

I started at 6 o’clock in the morning, and it had been roughly ten hours since then. Ryuu would come at 5 o’clock, so I stored all of my pots into my [Storage], cleaned my cookware, and finished everything for now.

Even after spending so much time, what I made wasn’t consommé yet, but bouillon. I still had to continue making it tomorrow… I feel like crying. I should use magic to cool it down…

“It smells good. Are you making something again?”
“Ah, yes… But it’s not done yet.”
“Really? When did you start?”
“From this morning. I started right after I woke up.”
“…And you still haven’t finished it after such a long time. Cooking sure is something, huh.”
“Making something delicious takes effort and time.”

I decided to shorten it using magic in the end, though.

Enough of that. It’s time to make some fine adjustments to Ryuu’s sword. I told him to try swinging it several times, then I adjusted the leather strap that winded in the grip. I also adjusted the smaller short sword which would be his sub-weapon. Hmm, I guess this should be okay?

“Hey. Why there are two swords?”
“Having you use a sword that doesn’t suit your body won’t be good for you, so this is a service from me to make sure you won’t hurt yourself.”
“Can I really receive it?”
“Please accept my kindness obediently. It’s unusual for me to do this, okay?”
“Umm… Thank you?”
“You’re welcome.”

Ryuu tilted his head and said, “Is it unusual?” but I decided I couldn’t hear it. Ryuu tied the long sword on his back and hung the short sword on his waist.

For the sword on his back, the sword might break if the rope that tied the mouth of the sword sheath got unfastened, so I made sure to tell him not to make a strange movement when drawing the sword. And for when he returned the sword to the scabbard… he had to do his best for that, okay?

“I feel like I have turned into a great ‘swordsman’…”
“If we’re talking about your appearance, then you’re certainly a swordsman.”
“Yeah, but it’s still just the appearance! The rest will depend on me! I will give it my all!”

Ohh, go for it. Since it’s already late, Ryuu ran back home after receiving his swords.

From what I heard the other day, Cain looked like he really wanted to cry when he saw the swords Ryuu brought home. He also looked like he wanted to say something when he saw Ryuu wearing the leather armor the other day, but he didn’t say anything.

If he had common sense, of course, he wouldn’t say anything. At least he could discern that he shouldn’t be that shameless

After Ryuu went home, everyone asked me what I was making in the courtyard during the dinner, so I answered them, “A soup that takes so much of my time like an idiot.” I also told them I hadn’t finished it, and I felt relieved that no one told me that they wanted to eat it. I was already troubled enough when they started talking about it.

After eating my dinner and taking a bath, I slept earlier than usual. That’s how the fourth day of the harvest festival ended for me.

The fifth day of the harvest festival.

I didn’t have any plans to go outside today. It’s troublesome. It’s not like I wasn’t curious about the martial arts competition today, but I wasn’t that interested too. Rather, it’s more important to make consommé right now.

I thought I would be able to finish the consommé soup by using my whole morning so I could have a taste as fast as possible. But for some reason, all of the girls came to pick me up.

They invited me to watch the main match of the martial competition with them. Hmm.

“You didn’t go anywhere yesterday and the day before that, right? It’s the harvest festival, yet you secluded yourself until the last day!”
“I know what you are saying, but…”
“It’s okay! The doggy will come with you, right? We’re also with you, so we will protect you no matter what happens!”

Who are they calling doggy… Ah, it’s clear that Bell was sad.

In the end, I lost to their strong pushing and went to watch the martial arts competition. How troublesome…

We went to the venue in a big hurry and managed to secure the front row with our fighting spirit and will-power. By the way, the boys went to another line to watch the match from another spot. Maybe they were taking me into consideration? Well, I was really grateful for that, I hadn’t eaten lunch too.

I brought my bag, so it wouldn’t be a problem to take out foods from my [Storage]. But taking out rice bowl here would be too much… Hmm, anyway, let’s eat something that wouldn’t take up any space like a rice ball.

The people around me were watching the match, full of excitement. Meanwhile, I ate in silence. Soy sauce grilled rice ball, potato rice cake, roasted pork fillet skewers, and half-boiled egg. Delicious.

When I poured the consommé soup I just finished this morning into a mug and sipped it slowly, I noticed that my surroundings became quiet. What?

Looking around, I found out that the spectators were staring at me.

“Ren… It smells really good…”

Even if you said that… I’m hungry. It can’t be helped, right?

But the gazes around me were really painful, so I reluctantly drank all of the consommé soup in one gulp and focused to watch the match. What a shame… I wanted to savor it slowly.

“Ah, isn’t that the guy who defeated Cain on the first day of the swordsmanship competition?” Triela said, munching the pretzel I gave to her since she told me she wanted to have something in her mouth. I raised my head and looked at the match area. Neil was there. He participated in the first day and the fifth day, what a healthy guy. I didn’t care about him, though.

His opponent was… oh? He was Neil’s friend, umm… Beck, right? A hard-working guy with common sense. He had to fight his comrade in a tournament… What an unlucky bunch.

When the match started, it was clear that the fight was a one-sided one. Beck was too strong. What’s with that? He’s not a laughing joke.

But after looking closely, their swordsmanship and the way they fight were pretty similar. Maybe Neil’s swordsmanship teacher was Beck?

They were in the same party, plus there’s no way Neil, with the background of a farmer, would have a connection with someone who could teach him proper swordsmanship. There were possibilities that they were both students of the same teacher, but Beck’s ability was already on another level from Neil’s.

Hmm, since Cain and Neil seemed to have a mutual understanding, maybe Beck could teach Ryuu as well… it might be a bit too difficult.

“The winner is Vector!”

As I pondered about many things, the match had been settled. As I thought, the difference in their ability was too much… Wait, Vector? Not Beck? What does that mean?

Somewhat curious, I secretly peeked on his status using [Appraisal]… Yeah, his name was Beck. But, hmm… I felt weird. Why? Hmm, how about using [Analyze], not [Appraisal]? Here we go!

Oh, his name was really Vector. Eh… Huh? Ah, eh? No, wait… you’re lying… Eh, seriously? Uwahh, no way!? What a disastrous news!

Why did someone like him come to this place… Rather, why did he become an adventurer!? No, that’s not it! I didn’t see anything! I didn’t look at anything and I didn’t know anything! I didn’t see anything, okay?

After that, I continued watching the match, completely stressed out. The overall victor was Beck… no, Sir Vector. Yeah, he even won one-sidedly in the finals of the tournament. He was too crazily strong.

There were no other events that interest me after the martial arts tournament ended, so I decided to immediately return to the workshop and take a rest. After knowing that information, there’s no way I could have a culinary tour calmly!

And just like that, my harvest festival ended up in a mess.

So he’s a member of the royal family, how unexpected…²

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consomm%C3%A9
2. Silva: oh my…