Chapter 372
Staying Over
We found what we were looking for and could have returned to town, but the kids wanted to stay out. So we met up with Vector and others first.
(Niichan! I picked a lot of mushrooms!)
Vector was in a good mood after collecting plenty of Snowbelows, but Bolt and Mile looked a little tired.
“Bolt, Mile, are you okay?”
(Yes, I’m fine. I’m just tired a little.)
(It’s because of Vector’s absurd stamina!)
They seemed to have been swept up in a lot of things.
“I’m sorry I had to leave you two in charge.”
(Don’t apologize! I’m happy to be of service!)
(Yes, that’s right! I don’t want your apologies, I want your praise!)
“That’s true. Thanks for all your hard work on Bolt, Mile.”
Oh, that’s not a “praise”, it’s a “thank you.”
I’ll just pet them a lot for now.
(What, what~? Don’t just pat Bolt and Mile, I want pats, too~)
While I was petting Bolt and Mile, Vector joined in the petting like a happy camaraderie.
All of my children have a rather large amount of physical strength, but Vector’s seem to be inexhaustible.
“It’s still a bit early, but let’s find a place to put the house down and hang out indoors today.”
That being the case, I decided to find a nice place to put down the house in my Infinite Storage and hang out indoors.
Then, after dark, we started preparing dinner.
“What do we cook for dinner~?”
(Niichan, Niichan, since we are here, let’s eat Snowbelows!)
“That’s not a bad idea. Is everyone else fine with that?”
“”((((Yes!))))””
Vector’s suggestion to cook Snowbelows for dinner has been approved by others, but—
“Mushrooms dishes, mushroom dishes…”
I couldn’t think of any mushroom dishes right away.
Let’s see, I’m pretty sure I made… a hot pot before. So I would like to make something different this time.
Ah! How about tempura with cooked rice? Rice with a mixture of several kinds of mushrooms, and tempura would be… Snowbelows, shrimp, some kind of white fish since we don’t have any sillago, sweet potato, ishiuri (pumpkin)… Oh, I found eggplants, so that would be good, too. I would love to have some chikuwa (fish cakes), but I have none, so I’ll give that up for now.
Squid would also be nice. Let’s splurge today and go with Kraken. Is this enough for variety? But it would be troubling if this wasn’t enough food, so I better make some chicken and pork ribs too, and eat them if there is not enough. If we have enough, I can make a Donburi the next day.
And then, we can have Miso soup with vegetables.
“Alright!”
“”Decided~?””
“Yup, I have decided~”
“”What will it be~?””
“Mushroom rice and tempura.”
“”Love both!””
“I see, that’s good to hear. But, today’s tempura is going to be much more extravagant than before~”
“”Looking forward to it!””
I have made various kinds of seasoned rice with different ingredients before, but the tempura was only vegetables at that time because I made it at Oswald-san’s place, who is a vegetarian Elf. Today I will fry up plenty of seafood.
“Put the mushrooms in here.”
“”Can we put in lots~?””
“That’s fine, but… with moderation, please.”
I don’t know how much they mean by “lots,” but I was afraid that if I said yes, they would put a tremendous amount of mushrooms in the rice cooker, so I was hesitant to answer. But, well, they would never put so much it would fall out of the rice cooker.
“”Wash rice next~?””
“Yes, please.”
The children put in the mushrooms in and operated the magic tool as if they were familiar with it.
Oh, the amount of mushrooms was within the acceptable range!
“”Next is~?””
“Think about the ingredients for miso soup~”
“”Umm…””
While the kids were worrying about that, I will make a simple spinach—Ena grass dish, with bonito flakes and shoyu.
“”Oniichan, we want potatoes~””
“Roger that. I will be making sweet potato tempura, so let’s use Maro instead.”
“”Yeah!””
While preparing the ingredients for tempura, I also made miso soup.
“I’m going to fry them now, so you two stay further away from me~”
“”Okay~””
The batter of tempura is quite adequate, so as expected, it remained crispy and dry even after a while after frying…. However, storing the freshly fried tempura in the Infinity Storage will always keep it hot and crispy!
“”Is done~?””
“It’s done~ let’s eat.”
“”Yea!””
I served the rice and other food on the plates, and we started eating.
“”It’s crispy!””
(Truly. It’s delightful!)
(The seafood is juicy.)
(The ishiuri and sweet potatoes are soft and crispy.)
(Snowbelows! They are as yummy as I thought!)
(All the hard work paid off!)
Everyone seemed to like it.
However, I don’t think there are many dishes my kids don’t like… Oh, maybe the tasteless salad served at the inn?
It’s good that they don’t have likes and dislikes, but it’s rare to have kids who only dislike so few foods~
“Are there any foods that you two don’t like?”
“”Uniyu?… Alcohol?””
“Alcohol!? Don’t worry, I won’t let you drink that, even if you say you like it. Anything else?”
“That! Bitter tea!”
“And not sweet Kahee!”
“Ahh… well, of course you don’t like that.”
It’s no wonder that children don’t like green tea or black coffee, not to mention alcohol. Rather, they are all drinks!
“Then, are you saying you don’t like bitter foods?”
“”Don’t like bitter~””
Come to think of it, have we ever come across a bitter vegetable? Like bell peppers, the typical vegetable that kids don’t like, I haven’t seen bitter melon either. I wonder how they would react if I tried to feed them things like bitter melon? Well, I have to find it first before I let them eat it… I’m getting a bit tempted to go on a serious search. Where would I go about finding it, I wonder, would it be in another country or perhaps a dungeon?
(Oh my, Niisama is scheming something)
“”Is that so?””
“I, I’m not.”
I was thinking of something mischievous, and got found out by Feat.
“I was just trying to figure out which dungeon we should go to this time.”
“”Dungeon, let’s go!””
(I also want to go!)
(Me too, me too! Let’s go quickly!)
So I hurriedly said something that sounded like an excuse, and the children were very happy.
“We will see after I’m done with my business in the Capital.”
For now, I plan to stay in Capital until the auction, so I can research which dungeon to go to until then.