025: Let's go on a Picnic

September 27, 2020 - 5 minutes read - 1026 words

After the usual sword practice today, I’m washing my face with water from the well. The cold water feels good as it washes away the sweat, at least in the summer, in the winter it becomes a hellish practice. After I washed off my face, I realized I forgot to grab a cloth to dry off. I shake my head from side to side, but that doesn’t help that much.

“Here, it’s a cloth to dry off.” Sarah

The maid Sarah gave me a small towel, she’s been helping take care of me since I was a baby. When I was born, she was sixteen years old, which makes her twenty-two years old now. She’s grown into a beautiful woman with long eye-catching black hair. Black hair was the Japanese standard color, but it’s uncommon in this world. Sometimes I’ll check out her hair for nostalgic reasons, which led to mother asking if I was interested in Sarah. Let’s be honest, Sarah is beautiful, but a romance couldn’t work, I’m too young.

“It’s just that I adore black hair.” Al

Some may find it may be odd that a six-year-old likes black hair, but I’m not going to worry about that. I won’t comment on Eleanora messing with her bangs behind Elna. After all, it’s black hair. Many men claim they want a woman with a clean image, maybe the hair color plays into that. I especially like long black hair, the glossiness of it plays into my male fantasy.

While I may prefer black hair, brown hair isn’t a color I detest. It’s easy to give a friendly impression and is easy to match with clothes. One of my female friends from my previous life said that black hair was difficult to fit with some outfits. I wouldn’t want Japan to dye their hair for that reason. The reason why schools have rules against dyed hair is to punish people who want to just rebel against rules.

“Thank you Sarah” Al

I let Bartolo know I don’t want to eat lunch in the mansion today before heading up to my room. Thanks to the nice weather, I’m thinking I’ll have a picnic today.

Recently, I had Logan make a special kettle so I can cook the rice that Triela brought this year. I even made a special area in the kitchen with Earth Magic to cook it. I had to learn how to control a wood fire, it took a while to get up to speed, I’m missing my nice gas stove. After some trial and error, I was able to get it working. I start with low heat, then high heat, then drop the heat a bit, this high heat again, then remove from heat and let it cool without removing the lid. This gives me good rice, though I have to put up with the smell coming out during the process.

“Yeah, rice is great” Al

I’ll make a number of onigiri then wrap them in leaves. Then I can store them with my Spatial Magic to keep them hot.

“I’m one step closer to my goal of a peaceful life.” Al

I’ll drop off an onigiri or two at Logan’s house as a favor for humoring me with the rice cooker. Logan was able to immediately understand the reason for the tamagoyaki frying pan, so he should get this. I should look into making miso soup, wonder if there’s something similar in this world?

I’m heading to the village so I can drop by Logan’s house. As I pass by the field used for militia training, Eleanora was energetically practicing with the militia captain. The crowd watching was encouraging the two fighters with loud cheering.

“Mr. Logan, I’ve got rice for you to try.” Al

I bang on Logan’s door. Nobody lives around, so Logan won’t bother anyone with his blacksmithing.

“Why are you banging so loud? What if you annoy someone?” Logan

“Eh? No one is around to hear?” Al

“This village isn’t that big, someone may come by and misunderstand.” Logan

“No, I’m not a teenage girl who would worry about that?” Al

“Huh?” Logan

“Ah, you see, I’ve brought a rice dish for you.” Al

“Oh, you came all the way out for that?” Logan

“No, I’m going to a scenic spot for lunch.” Al

“Well, I’ll save this to eat later.” Logan

What? It’s a hot rice ball! It’s never taste as good as when it’s this temperature. That’s a bad call. Logan needs to eat a lot to do his job, so there’s no reason he couldn’t try it now…

“So you want to go with me on my picnic?” Al

“I’m not going, where did that come from? I have jobs to do.” Logan

“Well, that’s boring.” Al

“Well, thanks for the snack, I’ll let you know my impressions.” Logan

Logan waves and closes the door. I listen through to see if I can hear what he’s going to do. He’s a bit shy about things, so he’ll probably want to try one quickly.

“I could use a snack, so I’ll try one now…” Logan

I’m familiar with that idea, I plan to make a little extra when cooking so I can sample along the way. I’ll head out now, Logan’s behavior was the kind of entertainment I wanted.

“Wait a minute” Logan

Logan opened his door and came out.

“Hmm? What?” Al

“Will this be available in Celia’s restaurant?” Logan

“Eh? Have you already tried the onigiri? Al

Logan doesn’t want to admit anything, he’s looking to the side.

“I’m just asking in case I want more.” Logan

Hmm, so it was tasty, can’t you just come out and admit it? Well, that’d be out of character for him, I’d have to admit.

“It’s a new ingredient that is in scarce supply, we only have a bit at the mansion right now.” Al

“Well, it’d probably go well with tamagoyaki, it’d be nice for it to be more common.” Logan

Logan knows what he’s talking about. Logan gets back to his work and closes the door.

I wonder if there’s demand for a tsundere blacksmith?