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We Probably Wouldn’t Make It [Part 1]
“It’s finally… finished…”
Emma trembled with joy.
In her hand was a can opener.
“To think they have cans but no can opener…“
William took a can of canned peaches while thinking about how weird it was in his head silently.
They found out about it when they were discussing about wanting to eat Fukushima’s canned peaches for dessert after they ate the steamed armor boar with relish.
♠♠♠
“Well then, I’ll be opening the can, so can you move back a little?“
Facing the Stuart family, who was excited about the canned peaches, Fukushima picked up the can with a solemn face.
“…Huh? But you’re just going to open the can, though?“
While William was confused, the samurais around them abruptly became excited.
“To think the day I can witness Fukushima-sama himself opening a can has come…“
“This will be a spectacle!“
Everyone gathered as if he was going to perform a magic trick even though he was just going to open a can.
“Hup, ooooo UOOOHHHH—”
Fukushima put the can on a wooden crate to use as a table and concentrated his mind.
“…Eh? He’s really gonna… open a can… right?“
George tilted his head. His mind was full of question marks with ‘What the heck is he tryin’ to pull here?’
“GAAAHHHH!!!“
“!“
“?“
“?!“
Fukushima gave a strange yell with his eyes closed and opened his eyes when he heard a *clack* sound.
He drew the katana that hung on his waist at blinding speed, and the canned peaches were cut neatly in half.
“?!“
“?“
“!!“
The three siblings were so shocked that they couldn’t let out any sound.
“As expected, Fukushima-sama’s iai slash[1] is really on another level!
[T/N 1: See an example of 居合い iai from this short Kimetsu no Yaiba (Demon Slayer) anime clip]
“I can’t believe he has cut the can in half this perfectly…“
“I have to etch Fukushima-sama’s magnificent display of master-level swordsmanship into this very brain of mine!“
A beat later, the samurais erupted into cheers.
“Eh?“
“Here, Emma-dono. Peaches!“
With a seemingly proud face, Fukushima took the peaches out from the split can and offered them to Emma.
“The peaches sometimes go bad inside. Fortunately, these seem okay.“
“Eh? Fukushima-sama?“
“It can even explode when we’re unlucky…“
“Fukushima-sama?“
“I will give the biggest slice of peach to Emma-dono…“
“Fukushima-sama!“
“Huh? Is there anything… wrong?“
Emma raised her voice at Fukushima, who was still very pleased with how clean the slice on the can was.
“Why did you split it in half?! That was such a valuable can! Even the syrup for preserving the peaches has all flowed out. What a waste!“
“Huh?“
“You can even use the empty can to scoop water, cook soup, or use it as a pen holder!“
“Eh? No, um.“
“Excuse me, Fukushima-sama… do you not have a can opener?“
William, too, gazed at the canned peaches that had been tragically cut in two with an exasperated face.
“C-Can opener? What’s that? Cans are usually opened by a skillful person with an iai slash, though…?“
“Eh? W-Why do you have cans but not can openers?! If so, how do people without katanas open a can?“
It doesn’t make any sense. George also stared at Fukushima.
“Well, by using an ax or something similar?” replied Fukushima. To which the samurais also nodded in agreement.
Everyone looked like they couldn’t understand what the Stuart family felt indignant about.
Even though they had the sought-after cans, they only used them to store fruits and didn’t even have a can opener. Each and every point was so disappointing.
“Fukushima-sama, let’s make a can opener after we defeat Over! It’s a shame, but this is a huge bottleneck!“
“…No wait, Emma-dono… again, what’s a can opener?“
“A can opener is… It kinda looks like this…” George explained to Fukushima and the samurais while drawing on the ground with a twig he picked up.
“…Nii-sama…? That’s… a bottle opener.“
♠♠♠
Thus, after Over was defeated, the whole family started working on the production of the can opener.
“We made bottle openers in the end too, huh…“
Because of George’s slip-up, bottle openers were also developed in Imperial Japan, but before that, everyone already knew they could just open the bottles with their teeth.
“It just felt like a pity. It’s like… having a Famicom console without controllers…“
Because of this and that, the Stuart family extended their stay in Imperial Japan instead of returning to the Kingdom after defeating Over.
From the production of can openers and canned cat food to inspection and solutions for some occasional defective products…
Emma was interested in Imperial Japan’s magic stone-supported, high-tech civilization, and the moment she started researching on and improving the details and the overlooked parts deeper, no one could stop her anymore.
Under Joshua’s order, the cannery, which had been shut down due to the monster disaster, was bought over by the Rothschild Company and reopened at a frightening speed. Now, various canned food such as canned cat food, Melsa’s braised armor boar in a can, canned mackerel, canned tuna, and a variety of canned monster meat were being produced. The canned food would first be circulated within Imperial Japan for some time, then exported to the Kingdom when there was no more food shortage.
‘Though all the canned cat food was bought by House Stuart…