Chapter 21.9

Snippet 1.2

「Then, is it like this…?」

「Well, isn’t it fine? After all, Reena lives together with Elle and Uncle.」

「But then, even when you’re eating with us, you don’t really have to force yourself to eat with chopsticks, you know.」

Having two unidentified sticks passed to her, Rayna take a deep breath after seeing Farlane’s specialty ring beans that are served in front of her. She’s about to do something that other people might make fun of, since she thinks that she won’t be able to do this kind of trivial work.

Makoto and Tatsuya are the ones that told Rayna not to force herself. Hiroshi’s violent response is also a matter of concern, but since he’s not here for the time being, they decided to put it on hold. And since Mio isn’t the type to talk a lot, she just keeps on staying silent.

They already heard about the incident that happened two days ago, but the injured person isn’t interested in bringing it up again, and it looks like they’re not going to discuss it anymore. To begin with, they’re not at the place when it happened, so they didn’t know how violent Hiroshi is actually, and they don’t understand the complexity of the problem.

Furthermore, Hiroshi is currently out discussing yesterday’s problem with Mellisa, so he’s absent at this time.

「For the time being, I’m going to show the way to hold it, so first of all, try to practise from that, okay?」

Having said so, Haruna shows the way to hold chopsticks slowly and repeatedly. Those three tried to mimic the way she holds the chopsticks. After slightly moving each of their ways of holding the chopsticks, she starts to explain how to move the chopstick.

「I feel like it’s easy, but I also feel like it’s difficult…」

「It’s similar to how we hold and move a pen, isn’t it?」

「You probably can say that they’re pretty close, though」

Even as they had such a conversation, all the four people only open and close their chopsticks without holding anything. After seeing that they’ve become accustomed with the chopstick, Haruna picks the pile of beans on a plate in front of them and casually moves them into another plate.

「The basic practise is by doing this. Just try to pick the beans and move them away.」

The three people make a face that says “It looks easy when Haruna did it, so is that enough?”. But then…

「Ugh! It fell away!」

「Just a bit more, just a bit more… Ah!?」

「Uhh, this is actually hard when I tried it…」

The food keeps on escaping from their chopsticks, and everytime they lift the chopsticks, it slipped off. It’s very hard to transfer even the first one.

「Yes, just like that… Ahh!」

「It’s not like you’re attacked when doing that, so just do it calmly.」

「Uncle, you’re putting too much strength there.」

The other Japanese people are doing as they please while giving their support. Haruna who’s watching over this gives them a wry smile, and sometimes also gives those three advise. The situation continues for about one or two minutes, and then…

「Ah-!」

「Ohh-!」

At last, Aearis finally successfully moves the first bean. But then, she actually doesn’t hold the chopsticks properly and uses the tips of the chopsticks to move them clumsily.

「I did it!」

「Amazing, amazing!」

Aearis said those things joyfully from the bottom of her heart, and everyone is happy for her without feeling any resignation. Feeling happy with everyone’s encouragement, she successfully picks up yet another bean. After completing them at the second time, her chopsticks’ moving speed becomes faster; moreover, her grip on the chopsticks becomes neater too.

「Children sure learn something quickly…」

Tatsuya raises his voice in admiration of Aearis’ increasing speed. Makoto and Mio can’t help but make a wry smile and calls him an old man.

「If you can use it until that point, I think you have no problem with the basics anymore.」

「I think it will be okay.」

Mio approves Haruna’s words. The first step to learn how to use chopsticks is to pick up beans. It’s not just for exaggeration; nor it’s merely used for something like picking up beans.

「Then, since it’s just the right time, I’ll explain how to use them with the fish for lunch, alright?」

「What kind of fish?」

「You don’t have to worry, it’s a normal fish. Higashi has stocked up mackerel-like fish this morning, and he told me to grill and eat them with radish and ponzu. 」

「…I suddenly want to eat rice, do you have it?」

「Unfortunately, there is only bread.」

Tatsuya was reflexively taken aback by Haruna’s words. He didn’t really feel rice deficiency on the previous days, but when it comes to eating grilled fish and ponzu, he can’t help but want to eat rice and miso soup.

「By the way, we have miso soup, you know?」

「That just makes me miss rice even more though…」

Makoto instinctively made a weak voice towards Haruna’s direct words. It’s been three months since she flew into here, and she’s really sad because there is no rice in Japanese foods which she really misses. And it’s even sadder to know that she will eat the ultimate sidekick of rice and beer, grilled fish and ponzu without any rice.

「How about boiled barley oats?」

「…I’ll think about it.」

It is hard to decide on barley rice that they had never eaten. In the end, they eat their lunch with a quite inexpressive menu, such as onion consommé soup and coppe bread with grilled fish and stir-fried radish leaves as the main dish.

3．Diva and Basic Skin-care Products

「Haruna-chan’s skin is extremely pretty, actually how do you take care of it?」

After bathing, Myuzzel admires Haruna’s skin and speaks with enthusiasm. Skin age is one of the eternal challenges for women. It also applies for Myuzzel, who is going to get married at this year’s harvest festival. The women that don’t care about those kind of things usually are busy with parenting or travelling around the world, where they are too tired to care about their female nature, and for Myuzzel it’s still a long way to go.

Since the bath in the workshop is currently being renovated, Haruna’s team went to a nearby public bath. Makoto is still doing adventurer job, and Mio is also working in the studio, so they will be coming separately later. Myuzzel was early today, so they meet when the sky isn’t dark yet.

Actually, Myuzzel lives in a pretty expensive 1LDK with an included bathroom, but today’s purchase assessment is a very dirty job, and she doesn’t want to enter her room until after she gets rid of the sweat and dirt, since it is disgusting. Not only she, but the Adventurers’ Association’s staff often do dirty works, so the locker of their personal storage box always contains some change of clothes and a bath set.

「Reena-chan and Elle-chan also thought so, right?」

「…That’s something that has nothing to do with me for a lifetime.」

「Reena-chan, if you give up now, then it will really be over!」

With an overwhelmed expression that shows that nothing can be done, Rayna spits out words as if the world’s going to end. A lot of things had happened that make her unable to lift her head up, but no matter how jealous she is, she hesitated to say abusive words herself. For that reason, she has no choice but have limited comments. Myuzzel starts to seriously encourage that kind of Rayna.

「…Will I be able to be like that when I become an adult?」

Aearis who watches Haruna as she dried her hair with life magic and mutters in a voice mixed with yearning and worry. Myuzzel looks at her, and she reflexively bows in assent and can’t help but want to tell her that she is going to be okay. Frankly speaking, Aearis will definitely grow into a beautiful girl if there are no troubles around her. Well, it’s hard to say if she can be like Haruna though, since both of their characters are very different…

「So, Haruna-chan, what kind of skin care do you use?」

「Even if you ask me, I just use normal face lotion and milk lotion, you know?」

「You must be lying!? Only by using that, how can you…」

Myuzzel who is shocked upon hearing Haruna’s answer murmurs with blank eyes, and wonders if this is the power of youthfulness. Even so, it doesn’t mean that Myuzzel herself loses in terms of youth. It’s true that she has reached the marriage age in Wulls, but it’s the age when one hasn’t even graduated from the university in Japan.

「Umm, Haruna-sama…」

「What is it?」

「What kind of face lotion and milk lotion that Haruna-sama is using?」

「Nn? Ahh. You can say that it is something custom-made.」

With Haruna’s words, Myuzzel can’t help but lift her face closer to her. After taking a hold of Myuzzel, Rayna speaks timidly towards Haruna.

「When you say custom order, do you mean…」

「Nn. It’s Hiroshi-kun’s.」

Rayna makes an expression as if asking Haruna if it’s okay for her to say that. Haruna only smiles, and nods once in reply.

「Anyway, Myuzzel already knows that Hiroshi-kun can make medicines.」

Rayna doesn’t say anything towards Haruna’s answer. Whatever the circumstances might be, she can’t help but think that they are too careless since this important information might leak out.

「The Adventurers’ Association won’t leak such information.」

Myuzzel quickly turns into business mode after seeing the suspicions in Rayna’s eyes. Actually, Hiroshi is only known as an adventurer who could make a little medicine and tools to the public. The information about how Hiroshi can make sixth grade and above potions that the Adventurers’ Association and Rayna knows hasn’t leaked anywhere so far.

「Then, will he makes me some too if I ask him!?」

「You can ask for it as a request job, but…」

「But?」

「It will take quite a while to finish.」

「…Is that so?」

「Yeah. It took about ten days for mine to be completed.」

They feel surprised that it takes a surprisingly long time, and Haruna explains the reason.

「Since we would like to thoroughly check the composition, first of all, he’d start by examining which ingredient would be good for skin, and which would cause damage to skin. It took about two hours to roughly grasp the amount of each component to know which one is the most suitable for a certain skin. 」

「If it’s only that, then it won’t take ten days, right?」

「You still have to try using it and check the result for three days, then if there are any problems then he will adjust the ingredients again. In my case, I re-did it three times, so there is also the possibility that it will take around a month to get it right.」

「That is very long…」

「Since this is about long-term effects, we will never know the result unless we try using them ourselves」

Myuzzel finally looks convinced by Haruna’s explanation, and her expression becomes crestfallen.

「If it takes so much work to do, I can’t just make a commotion to ask for it now, yeah?」

「I think that’s a little bit too much. Since we’re living together, so he is helping me, you can say that it is that kind of thing?」

Myuzzel asks Haruna to live together with them too until it is finished, really lacking common sense. For the time being, Myuzzel decides that she will wait until Hiroshi’s team had settled down. But, there are two people in this place that think that it is mostly unlikely to happen, though.

「…Haruna-sama…」

「I think if I ask him, he will make Elle-chan and everyone’s share too.」

Aearis makes an expression that’s asking whether it’s really okay for Haruna to promise them something without thinking.

「For now, I will quickly go home and try to ask him」

「How nice, living together is sure nice~」

「Myuzzel-san, please just give up.」

「Tch…」

Myuzzel goes away after being turned down from her frivolous talk.

「Don’t worry, I’ll make sure that Rayna-san’s share is ready too.」

「No, I’m not really at the position where I’m allowed to…」

「It’s okay, seriously!」

Rayna feels that the medicine will work so well since it’s Hiroshi who will make it, so she tries to reject Haruna’s offer. Even though she knows that it will be rude if she is being too modest, but she can’t help but to try refraining herself that way.

「Let’s quickly go back, and check for the dry skin.」

After saying so, Rayna is forced to withdraw her modesty by Haruna that looks like she is in a good mood on the way home. Actually, Rayna still feels like she is unfitting to have these kinds of products, but everyone around her has a different opinion regarding that.

「Is it really alright…」

Rayna can’t help but feel guilty for this. For now, she decides that she will do her best to clean the toilet and garbage tomorrow morning.