After a while; dinner.
Eri’s the leading part in today’s meal.
「 As expected, Japanese people are best paired with chopsticks! 」
Mana slurps the soba.
「 Chopsticks! Rice Bowl! Soba! Oh wow, Eri must be a genius! 」
Arisa’s also stuffing her cheeks with soba in good mood.
「 This is lacquerware, isn’t it? How did you make it? 」
Karin’s curious about the manufacturing method.
Eri showed a happy smile when asked about it.
「 I just painted it with a tree lacquer, but that’s the hard part.
First, you have to shave the lacquer tree horizontally and gather the sap, but, you can’t use the raw unrefined sap of the lacquer tree so I had to filter and clean it.
Then it’s now called refined lacquer sap, but you have to add the secret ingredient and mix it thoroughly 」
「 That’s quite elaborate. So, what’s this secret ingredient? 」
Eri grinned.
「 It’s egoma extract 」
「 Huh?! Egoma? You mixed oil in this?! 」
Karin’s surprised.
The other girls don’t get what’s going on.
Mana’s tilting her head, asking “Lacquer sap?”
「 Yes, I mixed egoma oil in this. That way, you can turn it into refined clear lacquer.
What’s left is to use the makeup brush on the wood, then dry it outside, and it’s done 」
「 Wow! 」
Karin’s impressed.
「 You’re quite the craftsman 」
Arisa speaks somewhat excitedly, and Eri nodded with a triumphant face, saying “Yes I am!”
「 Hokage-kun taught me how to harvest nut oil today. So, I intend to try out various dishes from here on. We already have tableware, and I think it would be fun if I could try it out 」
Everyone cheered.
Ever since coming to this world, food and drinks are the biggest dissatisfactions we had.
Even I who love survival stuff miss Japan because of that.
It must be heavier to the girls.
Therefore, they’re happy that their eating habits will improve.
「 From now on, Eri will join the Arisa team as the head chef! 」
「 Team Arisa, what? I agree with being the head chef but why name it like that? 」
Arisa retorts.
「 I mean, it’s our team, right? So the team name has to be Team Arisa, right? 」
「 Right?! No!! If you want it named like that then it would be team Hokage, right? 」
「 Both are boring names so rejected 」
Mana ended our exchange.
「 So, Futagawa-san, what kind of meals do you plan on tackling? 」
Meiko moves the conversation forward.
Hinako next to her nods and nods.
「 Considering what we have now, maybe peperoncino? 」
Arisa shouts “That’s Pasta!”
「 That said, the noodle would be soba, and instead of olive oil, we would use nut oil. Besides, we have no chili, so we need to replace everything with something else other than garlic. Don’t hope too much on the flavor 」
Everything other than garlic.
Eri knows where to harvest garlic.
Maybe she found some when looking for ingredients.
I also know it so I didn’t ask for the details.
But in exchange, I showed a helping hand on how to make the pasta taste better.
「 If that’s the case, should I tell you the place where you can harvest chili and make olive oil? 」
「 Are you sure?! 」
Eri’s eyes are sparkling.
Eri’s in such a good mood right now.
That looking at her makes me smile too.
「 Wheat flour takes time so we have to make a compromise, but we have no need to do that later. Do you know where to harvest olives? 」
「 That’s okay. It’s close to the Shinomiya cave, right? 」
She got it.
I nodded.
「 I passed through chili peppers today 」
「 Huh? No way? 」
「 It’s true 」
「 Where did you see it? I’d definitely know if I see chili peppers! 」
「 I think that it has a different image than what’s in your mind. You imagine something red, long, and narrow, right? 」
「 Is it something different than that? 」
Eri tilts her head.
Karin also tilts her head and asks the same thing.
「 The chili pepper I’m talking about is called Capsicum, they look like green cherries. You’ve passed through it several times, remember? 」
「 I feel like I’ve seen it before 」
Eri said.
Karin seems to have remembered it in her mind.
「 That thing’s really painful, right? 」
Surprisingly, Mana knows about it
「 It’s surprising that you know about it 」
「 I didn’t know about it but I use those to play with Rita. Like, making his monkey friends eat it when they pull pranks. Forcibly. Those who eat it had a face like they’re about to blow fire, it seems painful 」
「 Mana’s right, Capsicum is quite painful. The pain decreases when you dry it but eating it raw would be really painful. You crush them when used in cooking but since it’s much hotter than ordinary chili, you just need a small amount of it 」
Eri nods, saying “Got it”
「 I want to make olive oil as soon as possible, so can you help me out tomorrow? 」
「 Sure 」
Actually, I wanted to say “do I get a reward for tomorrow too?” later.
But, I held back since it’ll turn into a big problem if I say that.
「 Peperoncino is nice but I’m looking forward to the other dishes, Eri! 」
Arisa puts down her tableware and coils her arm around Eri’s shoulder.
「 To keep up with the demand, Arisa, do your best in fishing 」
「 Oh shut it! The fishes in the sea are different from the river and they’re tough!! 」
Arisa challenged sea fishing today.
However, she persisted until evening despite having no results.
On the other hand, I took a dive in the sea and found fishes in just a few minutes.
「 It’s a bit awkward to say it at this moment, but… 」
Meiko breaks the ice.
「 I completed everyone’s lower garments 」
「 「 「 Ooooooooooohhhh!!!! 」 」 」
We all cheered.
My pants and skirts for the girls.
This is quite a complete product.
「 I think I can prepare spare clothing by tomorrow and the day after 」
Meiko faced me and said.
I replied “got it,” and put on the freshly made pants.
Hemp has good breathability, and the texture’s not bad either.
I never thought that I’d wear quality clothes in this world.
If I made these, it will be horrible.
The Asakura sisters are outstanding in their work.
Their quality and speed are both astounding.
As expected from the head of the handicrafts club and her sister.
「 Then, let’s plan tomorrow’s work. For now, I’m going to search the vicinity, but I’ll go with Eri before that. I’ll teach her how to make olive oil and the location of the chili peppers by morning and then hunt for lunch later 」
After deciding our work contents, we went to bed.