Bonus Short Stories
The Temptation of Salted Seaweed Chips
One day, as Felmenia happened to walk by the kitchen, she caught a glimpse of the unusual sight of Suimei working at the sink.
“Suimei-dono? What might you be doing in the kitchen?”
“There’s something in particular I had a hankering for. While I was at the market today, I spotted something similar to something we have in the world I come from. So, well... After seeing that, I wanted to try making some, and ended up buying all the ingredients for it.”
What Suimei had found was sea lettuce—in other words, a precursor to dried seaweed. After seeing it, he thought that he might be able to try making a certain something himself, and bought the ingredients to give it a go. And with a little experimenting in the kitchen, he managed to succeed in spades. He now had homemade dried seaweed.
“Oh? But if I remember correctly, you said you could only do simple cooking, Suimei-dono...”
“Yeah. Lucky me, this here is pretty simple. It’s basically just frying these.”
Suimei looked down at the other ingredients spread out before him—potatoes with their eyes already removed.
“Heh heh heh, my blade is invisibly made... It peels potatoes and reduces them to nice, thin slices!”
Letting out a creepy laugh and weaving together an idiotic chant, Suimei put his magicka to culinary use. In short order, the potatoes in the sink were all rendered into thin slivers. Watching on in horror, Felmenia called out to him.
“What are you doing, Suimei-dono?!”
“What? I’m just slicing the potatoes.”
“S-Slicing?! Why are you being so wasteful, reducing them to paper like that?!”
“Uh, to eat them?”
With that, Suimei tossed the sliced potatoes into the heated oil he’d prepared.
“Are you frying them like that?”
“Yup.”
“Would it not be tastier to fry them whole so that they come out soft and flaky?”
“That’s an option, sure. But this is also quite tasty.”
“I see...”
With the grimace on her face, Felmenia’s consternation was obvious. She’d likely never had potato chips before, so trying one for the first time would be a surprise. After shaking off the excess oil from the freshly fried chips out of the pan, Suimei sprinkled salt and dried seaweed over them.
“Now they’re done. These are salted seaweed chips. Go ahead and try one.”
Even after receiving the finishing touches, the fresh potato chips were still steaming ever so slightly. Felmenia timidly stretched out her hand, took one, and popped it into her mouth. There was an audible, appetizing crunch, and Felmenia’s expression quickly changed from skepticism to admiration.
“I-It’s delicious! This is a potato revolution!”
“Right?”
“Yes!”
With Felmenia’s enthusiastic approval, Suimei got to frying up the rest of the potatoes. All the while, he could hear the gratifying sound of one chip being crunched down on after another.
“The texture is so crisp, and the flavorful fragrance is... from this green powder?”
“Yup. That’s the dried seaweed. It’s made by dehydrating sea— Wait, where did half of the chips go?!”
The next he turned around, half of the mountain of salted seaweed chips he’d just fried up had already been demolished.
“Ah, s-sorry! They were so delicious that I just...”
“W-Well, there’re still more potatoes, so it’s fine. If you like them that much, you can take these to the living room.”
“Thank you for the treat!”
Felmenia happily absconded with the rest of the salted seaweed chips. Once she was gone, Suimei started his work anew. And once he was all done slicing the potatoes with magicka and frying them in the heated oil...
“Suimei-kun.”
“Whoa! You were there, Lefi?!”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
Suimei was startled by Lefille seeming to appear behind him from out of nowhere, but she sounded irritated. Just what was going on with her? From the look of it, Suimei thought she seemed restless.
“Suimei-kun.”
“Wh-What’s going on? You’re kinda scary, you know?”
“That’s just your imagination. You don’t need to be so on edge. So? Are they done?”
As she spoke, Lefille was eyeing the plate of freshly fried chips.
“Hmm? W-Well, yeah...”
“Alright!”
Lefille pumped her fist in the air in some sort of triumphant gesture.
“I mean, I still have to fry up the rest of them...” said Suimei.
“Then there’s no need to worry. I will help you out here and carry these to the living room.”
“Huh?”
“Don’t worry. You can just keep cooking away.”
After their rather one-sided conversation, Suimei more or less figured out what was going on. Lefille must have had some of the previous batch and, unable to stand it any longer, came to the kitchen to see when more would be ready.
“Then take that towel to wipe off your hands. It’s kinda gross to get them all sticky and oily from the plate, right?”
“Ah, yes, thank you. That’s certainly true... Huh?!”
“What?”
“I-It’s nothing... Mm, these seaweed chips or whatever sure are tasty. Mm...”
After staring for a bit, she walked off carrying the plate somewhat awkwardly. Moments later, Suimei could hear the cheers of joy from the living room.
Thinking to himself that he’d now have to use all the ingredients he had to get any chips for himself, Suimei once more returned to slicing and frying the potatoes. After a while, he suddenly realized that someone was standing behind him again.
“Suimei...”
“Huh, this time it’s you, Liliana? What’s up?”
“Have you finished... more of those ‘see-we’d ships’ yet?”
“They’re seaweed chips... But you know about these too, huh?”
“No, um... I just thought... I would help carry them.”
“You’ve got seaweed flecks on your face.”
“I-I... already wiped them off!”
Liliana took out a handkerchief and immediately began wiping her face with it. But when she looked down at it, there wasn’t a single fleck of seaweed to be seen.
“...?”
“I was lying.”
“Suimei... that’s mean. You’re the worst... I ought to bring slander charges... against you.”
Liliana directed a reproachful gaze at Suimei, and with that, Suimei handed her the fresh plate of potato chips.
“Then consider this an apology?”
“Thank you. I’ll take them... right away.”
Liliana didn’t even wait for Suimei to finish his sentence before taking the plate and a pitcher of grape juice back to the living room. She seemed to know exactly what she was doing. And moments later, cheerful voices could again be heard coming from the living room. It was nice that they were all delighted, but...
“I don’t care if you have some, but leave some for me, damn it...”
In the end, Suimei wouldn’t be that lucky.
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