While thinking “Kahuku is probably some kind of deer. Wait, they use the word ‘soup’ here?”, Kazura nodded to the village chief.
“By the way, this ‘rice’ we’re going to make porridge with, just what kind of thing is it?”
“Umm, it’s a grain-type food that doesn’t really have flavor, but it’s full of nutrients. Normally you don’t make porridge out of it but boil it instead, but since there are a lot of sick people I thought it was better to make porridge.”
While Kazura gave his explanations to the village chief, the two of them made a base for the cauldron using stone stored inside the shed, put the cauldron on it, and put 30 kg of rice inside the cauldron.
He thought it was too much, but it’s better than it running out of afterwards.
Afterwards Kazura completed the preparations and asked the chief about things like the situation in the village. As he was doing so, villagers started coming one by one holding firewood and buckets of water.
Among the villagers there were also the people who Kazura gave Lipo-D to back before sunrise.
“Kazura-san, thanks for the medicine earlier. Thanks to you I can already go walking about like this.”
The villager who said that while grabbing Kazura’s hand had a really healthy complexion.
It seems that Lipo-D can show some considerable effects in this world.
That’s good then. I’m now making a cauldron full of porridge, so eat to your heart’s content for your health.”
With the help of the villagers who came along, he put the water in the cauldron and set up the firewood.
The villagers all bowed to Kazura in unison, while one of the mothers whose baby had been given powdered milk grabbed his hand with tears in her eyes.
While Kazura was being thanked by the villagers surrounding him like that, Valleta came back, and everyone continued preparing the porridge noisily.
“This is good! I’ve never had porridge this delicious!”
“It’s true, there’s a lot of salt put in it, and this dried plum thing is really good even though it’s sour!”
Because of the size of the cauldron it took 2 hours for the porridge to cook, and as it was done Kazura sent Valletta to eat as he served the porridge to the villagers.
As the porridge touched their mouths, all the villagers unanimously said “delicious!” in surprise and delight.
“(Now that I think about it, yesterday’s Arcadian bug soup had almost no flavor in it. These people seem to have no flavoring whatsoever.)”
In this world where mere salt is traded as a highly prized commodity, it was probably the taste of the only barely usable flavor ingredient.
He felt that he could understand the feelings of Valletta and the village chief who was eating the Arcadian bug while saying “delicious! delicious!”
“Hey hey nii-chan, why do you look so weird?”
“Eh?”
As he was distributing the porridge to the villagers who were happily asking for seconds again and again while thinking about such matters, one 5~6 year old boy came by and pulled on Kazura’s clothes.
Having been asked that, Kazura started comparing his own clothes with that of the villagers.
Kazura was wearing a thin-striped white short-sleeved shirt and jeans, and a pair of slightly raised sneakers for shoes.
On the other hande, the villagers were wearing rough-seamed plain clothes top and bottom, and something like sandals made out of woven grass for their feet.
It was obvious that Kazura’s clothes were out of place.
“Umm, this is…”
“Kolz!!!” «TN: Korutsu»
While Kazura was at a loss as to how he would answer, a woman who looked like the boy’s mother came and took him in her arms in hot haste while bowing deeply, saying “I’m truly sorry!”, and ran off before Kazura could reply.
As he thought “what the hell was that” while watching the back of the woman who ran away, Kazura noticed the eyes of the villagers were all focused on him.
The hustle and bustle of just a few moments ago had turned to silence, and the villagers were for some reason wearing anxious expressions.
“Ka, Kazura-san, umm….”
“Uhh, what’s the matter everyone? Is there something on my face?”, Kazura replied to the panicked Valletta, then he felt the tense silence surrounding him unravel.
“Ah, no! It was nothing! Um, I was wondering if I could get seconds!”
“Ah, yeah, alright”
Even while serving porridge to Valletta, he could hear the villagers saying “phew” or “he didn’t notice” from far away, but he was hesitant to ask “about what?” to the obviously relieved Valletta and the villagers so he just let it pass.
“Right right, we have 7 bags of rice left, so after everyone finished eating I’ll teach everyone how to make porridge and share the dried plums and salt with everyone. I’ll be getting more rice and salt from my country so you don’t have to worry about food anymore.”
“Probably one can of plums per house will be alright”, Kazura thought, and as he was doing so, Valletta whispered at him “…. thank you very much Greiciore-sama” in a low voice so that he didn’t hear. «TN: Gureishiooru»