We eat dinner in front of the cave.
Our dinner for our first night is just roasted mushroom in skewers.
By the way, the skewer is made from bamboo, I had it in my bag.
「 Puhaa~ That was a lot! Hokage, you’re amazing 」
Arisa said after eating dinner.
She jumped at me happily and coils her arm around my shoulders.
Arisa no longer calls me Ninja finally.
「 It tastes dull but it’s better than having nothing to eat 」
「 It’s somewhat, no, I mean quite changed 」
Eri said.
Mana and the girls nodded.
「 Even so, curry powder? What’s with that? 」
Arisa seems excited. I laughed.
「 Curry powder is one of the essentials for survival 」
We ate roasted mushrooms with curry powder.
Light sprinkles of it and it improves the flavor a lot.
Curry powder is a sure winner when you eat food that doesn’t taste delicious.
It kills off other scents and slightly changes the taste to curry.
「 That said, we don’t have that much, and so let’s save up as much as we can at least for a week 」
I only have a small packaging of curry powder in my bag.
The size of chili canisters for Gyudon or Udon.
Everyone’s using it so the rate of consumption is fast.
「 It tastes so bad you can’t eat it when there’s no curry powder! 」
Arisa groans.
「 I won’t say that it’s bad, but it’s definitely lightly seasoned 」
Karin said. Mana and Eri nodded.
Then, Mana asked.
「 Do you not have any other flavoring other than curry powder? 」
「 I don’t have any at hand, but we can have as much all-purpose seasoning as we want next time 」
「 All-purpose? 」
「 I meant salt. We’re close by to seawater and so we don’t have to worry about running out 」
「 Wow! Hokage, you can do that? 」
「 It’s easy to extract salt actually. All you have to do is boil it down 」
I take out textbooks from my bag while we talk.
I have only two textbooks inside my bag and no writing tool.
I put them on my desk and so I don’t have them now.
「 Why are you taking out your books? 」
Eri stares at what I’m doing.
Her face is filled with curiosity about what I’m going to do.
「 I’m using this as a pillow 」
「 Pillow? That pillow? 」
「 I don’t know what kind of pillow you’re asking but I’m using this to sleep 」
I put down the textbooks in the cave.
Then, I lie down my head.
「 Like this. We don’t have pillows in this world after all 」
「 We don’t have beddings either, it will be hard to sleep 」
「 I’m the type that sleeps on two layers of pillows 」
Arisa replies as Mana gave her remark.
「 Then just stack up all those books 」
「 That would be extremely painful as it’s too stiff. I mean, it will definitely hurt! 」
「 「 「 Gyahahaha 」 」 」
They seem to be having fun.
Hearing the laughter of the girls brings the spirit.
「 The cave can pull through rain and wind, so is there no hope on beddings? 」
As expected, Karin makes a realistic question.
「 For today. It’s not the highest priority, but you can make beddings since the old days. You just have to knit straws and grass and spread it out. It’s what they call straw mat 」
「 That’s just a mat, right? What about the bed covers? 」
「 It would be hard to make the fluffy bed you use in Japan. I think that we can create two straw mats and the others can make bed covers. By the way, people from the old days sleep using their clothes as bed cover replacement 」
「 「 「 I see 」 」 」
I should have the knowledge to make a straw mat.
However, I only had one experience in making it for real and I never slept on it.
Even in the uninhabited island survival tour, they use sleeping bags when sleeping.
Therefore, I have no confidence in beddings.
「 For now, let’s use textbooks as pillows, and sleep while feeling the cold rocky surface 」
I say while lying down.
The girls followed. Or so I thought.
「 What’s wrong? 」
I get up as I got curious.
Mana speaks as everyone’s representative.
「 Well, we want to sleep with clean bodies at least 」
Arisa continued with “I’m so sticky from sweat”
「 That said, we don’t have any shower or bathrooms here, do we? 」
「 What I meant is the inner parts. I got a wiping sheet 」
We’ve already checked inside the cave.
The cave isn’t that deep, the furthest it goes from the entrance doesn’t reach 20 meters.
It has a crooked shape so we couldn’t see further back from the entrance.
「 In short, you want me to stand by? 」
「 Not that we mind if you try to peek though 」
Arisa said. Eri retorted, “No, you can’t!”
Eri and I have a secret between the two of us and so it feels complicated.
「 It’s okay, I won’t go take a peep so feel at ease. Putting that aside, leave the sheet you used to wipe yourselves 」
「 Huh, Hokage, are you the type that prefers to sniff the sheets later? That’s some perverted tastes you know? 」
Arisa laughs and says “Disgusting” so exaggerated that I can tell she’s joking.
Still, just in case, I denied it.
「 That sheet you’re going to use to wipe your sweat off is a fine quality cloth in this world. It would be a waste to toss it after using it once. Soak it in the water in the river and use it to wipe your body. When it became unusable from the dirt and shrinking, then use a new one 」
The convenience of the modern world is that you can use them on the basics.
For example, the bamboo skewer you used for your meal today isn’t what you’ll use for the second time.
When the skewer is empty, just use a new one and grill more mushrooms.
「 Using the same sheet so many times feels dirty 」
「 Can’t help it 」
I turned my back on the girls and closed my eyes.
「 Well then, good night 」
「 「 「 Good night 」 」 」
After we reached the conclusion in our conversation, we retired for the night.
The girls head deeper to the cave and my consciousness faded away.
That’s the end of the first night in our survival life.