The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick up Trash - Volume 5 - Chapter 240

Chapter 240:

Reunited with Rice!

After the laughter died down, we set a date and time to make onigiri with Rose and her son. Tableau was ­engaged, so he was going to bring his fiancée along. I was a little worried she’d be turned off by the idea of cooking rice on a date, so I asked him about his relationship just in case. Tableau made an awkward face and didn’t say anything, but Rose came to his rescue and said his fiancée was the queen of curiosities, so there wouldn’t be a problem. This explanation made Tableau sigh…which made me wonder if his fiancee’s strange whims and fancies ever drove him crazy.

“Well, good luck,” I said to the young man.

Rose roared with laughter and gave my back a hearty slap. I still didn’t understand her sense of humor.

We gave Captain Tableau our inn’s address and left the shop. Rose, in a good mood now, was being unusually friendly with the other customers, though I’d occasionally hear the screams of one who got pranked by a magic bag’s special functions…

Before we returned to our inn, we did some shopping: ­groceries for dinner, rice, meat, and other things.

“You’re buying ryce, too? Don’t we already have a lot?”

“Since they’re grown in different regions, they might cook differently, so I want to test out the local crop.”

Before we left the town of Oll, one of the farmers had given us a huge supply of rice. They said it was a little token to thank us for teaching everyone how to use it, but the amount we got was easily enough to last both of us through winter. Thanks to his gift, we had no need to buy any rice, but I did want to test this village’s rice to see what it was like.

“I see, that makes sense. Well, let’s drop into the shops as we pass them, then.”

“Okay.”

On Main Street, the first shop we passed was the vegetable stand. It was a big store, seeing as it was facing Main Street. It had the usual assortment of vegetables as well as some of the town’s specialties. I checked with the greengrocer about which ­vegetables were best cooked and which should stay raw, and then I made my purchases.

Next, at the butcher, we were able to buy cuts of meat from two different types of moo: the hols and the tein. Finally, we went to a dry goods store to check out the local rice. As we thought, rice was cheap since it was considered livestock feed. The shopkeeper looked confused by our request—we had to reassure him three times that yes, we really did want rice—but we finally got what we came for. I supposed it was unusual for travelers to buy livestock feed.

Back at the inn, the tantalizing aroma of bread filled the air. It smelled so good that it made me hungry, even though I’d just eaten. We returned to our room and took the slimes out of their bag. Druid flipped the switch on the magic item that made their voices inaudible outside the room.

“It’s okay for you kids to talk now.”

The three bounced with glee at Druid’s announcement. Well, Flame didn’t bounce so much as roll around.

“Pu! Pu, puuu.”

“Te! Ryu-ryuuu.”

Mrrrow.

I guess spending half the day in a bag is no fun.

“Think we should go to the dump tomorrow?”

“Yeah. Sora, Flame, Ciel, we’ll be going to the forest tomorrow, so you’ll all get to have plenty of fun.”

All three jiggled happily in reply. Since they each had their own signature jiggle, it was cute to watch.

“By the way, Mr. Druid, are you sure you’re okay with plain onigiri? You like the grilled ones better, right?”

I remembered that Druid preferred the grilled onigiri since he liked strong flavors, so he’d been a little surprised when I described uncooked onigiri to Rose and her son.

“Oh, remember the onigiri you made during our trip? The ones with the sweet and spicy meat mixed in?”

Onigiri with sweet and spicy meat? Was he talking about the ones I’d made by mixing in meat with the rice since the onigiri wouldn’t make a proper meal by themselves? I remember those. They were really flavorful and tasty. I think Druid asked for seconds, too.

“When you talked about ryce, I remembered those onigiri and wanted to eat them again.”

Oh, really? Well, hearing him say he really wants to eat my cooking is kind of flattering.

“Okay, we’ll make that kind of onigiri with Rose and her son, then.” Just one kind probably wouldn’t be enough, though. What other flavor of onigiri should we make?

“Hearing you talk about ryce made me just want to eat plain ryce again. It’s been so long! Can we have that?”

“Yeah, that sounds really good to me right now, too.”

Oooh, rice. What should I cook? Druid seems to like rice bowls with meat on top. Oh, and we just bought some moo meat! The names of the moo meat, as well as what it looked like, was jogging something in Past Me’s memory.

“I’ll make gyuu-don.” Oops! I used the wrong word… I looked at Druid. He was laughing at me. Yeah, I know, I say strange words sometimes.

“Sounds good. Can’t wait.”

Druid’s smile was so pure that I just had to smile, too, and… Wait, stop! I don’t have time to waste being cozy.

“Mr. Druid?”

“What is it?”

“Do you think I should call you Dad?”

If calling him by his name made people suspicious of us, I thought I should probably change that.

“You should call me whatever you want to call me.”

“Huh?”

“I don’t care what people say. Just be boldly and unapologetically you.”

He’s right. It’s not like we’re doing anything wrong. But I’m not really happy having to explain our relationship to other people all the time. Then again, the idea of suddenly calling Druid “Dad” out of nowhere…it’s embarrassing. Well, actually, I have called him Dad once or twice before, but that was more a spur of the moment thing.

“Ha ha! It’s okay. Don’t beat yourself up over it.”

“I won’t. Thanks.”

“Now, want to make dinner?”

“Sure.”

As I steamed the rice, I cut up the moo meat. I also chopped the vegetables and braised them in a sweet and spicy sauce. Once the rice was done, I poured a beaten egg all over the braised meat and vegetables. (I say “egg,” but in this world, it’s called hexa fruit.) Then, once the egg was half-cooked, I turned off the fire and let the residual heat cook it the rest of the way through. Just as I was scooping the rice into bowls, Dola came up to the second floor.

“Whatcha got there?” He looked quite curious, either because of the way the food looked in the bowl or because of the rice itself.

“It’s a rice dish called gyuu-don. You put braised meat and vegetables on top of some rice and that’s it.”

“Ryce?” Dola had a strange look of surprise in his eyes.

“Yes, rice.”

Dola stared hard at my rice bowls. Er, I’d kind of like to finish cooking dinner, if you don’t mind. “Um…would you like to try some?”

I had made a little extra just in case Druid wanted seconds, so I had enough to give Dola a sample.

“Is there enough for Salifa, too?”

“I think so? Only if you both take just a little, though.”

I would no longer have a second helping for Druid, so I’d just have to give him an extra-big serving and apologize.

“Then we’d love to have some if you can spare a little.”

I got another bowl from my room and filled it with rice and toppings.

“Here you go.”

“Thanks.” Dola walked downstairs with a big smile on his face. I wonder why he came up here in the first place.

“What’s up? You came by our room to get another bowl, didn’t you?”

Druid, who was getting our things ready for our trip to the dump tomorrow, came into the kitchen.

“Dola showed up, and I wound up giving him your second helping of dinner.”

“Oh, that’s okay. Don’t worry about it.”

I was a little confused by his reaction, but I went ahead and served our bowls of gyuu-don.

As we sat down to eat, I scrutinized the texture of the rice. I think I cooked it a bit too dry. But if that’s the only difference, I think it’ll work just fine.

“Which type of ryce did you use today?”

“The stuff from Hatow.”

“Okay, yeah, it’s a bit different from the ryce you usually make. But it’s still delicious.”

It feels so good to feed someone and hear them tell you the food was delicious. Even though there wasn’t very much left for a second helping for Druid, it was still a lovely meal.

“My compliments to the chef.”

“My compliments to the eater.”

I had Druid take care of the dishes and clean up so I could start making our after-dinner tea in our room. But just as I was about to go back in there, a very flustered Dola came flying up to the second floor.

“Sorry to bother you!”

“Huh?!”

“I came up earlier to tell you Salifa made bread, but I completely forgot.”

Oh, so that’s why he was up on the second floor in the first place!

“It’s okay, we forgot about it, too. We’ll come down and get it right away.”

“You can come anytime. Oh, and that…ryce bowl? It was great.”

“I’m glad you liked it.”

“Could you teach me and Salifa how to cook ryce sometime?”

“Sure!”

“Thanks.”

Dola hurried back downstairs. Poor thing. This was their busiest time of day.

I went back to our room and told Druid about the bread. He went down to the first floor to fetch it while I got the tea ready. Sora and the others were doing their after-dinner stretches.

Wait…huh? I feel like I’m forgetting something…

“I’m back,” Druid said.

“Agh! The laundry!”

“Ah!”

We rushed away to get our laundry. Since it was so cold, everything we’d washed was freezing. We weren’t sure if they’d dried properly, but we took them back to our room anyway. And, well…thank goodness everything was dry.