"Welcome back, Taishi-san!"
As soon as I returned to Clover's lord's mansion, Marl hugged me. I also hug Marle back and bury my face in the brown head. Oh calm down.
"Hehe..."
Marle lets out a lazy laugh as he rubs his face against my chest. I feel like her cuteness is ruined in various ways, but it's Marle and it's like this.
I squat down while hugging Marle, kiss her forehead and lips, and then gently hug her while rubbing my cheeks against her slightly swollen belly. Ah, here are me and Marle's child. how lovely
"Fufu, Taishi-san is like a child too."
Marl gently strokes my head. Oh my god, I'm so happy I'm about to cry. I'm glad she's back.
"Hey Marle. I don't think you should keep it all to yourself."
"I agree!"
Marle's hand that was stroking my head left, and instead Melkina held my head and stroked it. Her arm that was hugging her Marle was also taken off and hugged by Melkina.
"Hey Taishi, your baby is here too, you know?"
"Ah..."
Like Marle, he rubs his head while leaning against Melkina's slightly swollen belly. Damn, your IQ will drop significantly. The bubble is amazing. precious.
"If you do that, you're just a boy, aren't you?"
"Yeah, I'm feeling a little silly."
"Cunning. I want to stroke Taishi too."
"After all, I have to do this…"
"do my best"
I feel like Karen and Sherry are making a terrible decision. Don't rush too much, take it slow, okay? This kind of thing is a gift, huh? Oh no. No, Mr. Maru. If Melkina and I sandwiched it between us and stroked it, it would melt. Don't.
"Deredere..."
"Fufu, the two of you can't meet at night, so it can't be helped."
"That's right. It's better to give it to the girls while the sun is shining."
I am very happy to be surrounded by understanding wives. But this is it. Rather than a harem, it feels like I'm being well shared. No, that's fine. Peace is best.
After kissing Melkina and Marle, I stood up and hugged and kissed the wives who were there.
It was interesting that Marl and Melkina stroked me and melted me, so everyone stroked me. I thought my brain was going to melt and come out of my ear!
"Stroking offense is dangerous... my dignity melts away."
"Are you dignified?"
"do not have"
"Yes?"
Karen cut me down because I didn't have dignity. Stupid, I should have been the master of the brave demon federation with dignity...?
"It's not that there isn't. It's true that there's a big difference between when you're dignified and when you're not."
"Well... but I prefer someone like Taishi-kun over someone who always wrinkles his brows and shows off his dignity, you know?"
When I was shocked, Kusuha and Elmina-san followed me. Then no! I'm a guy who can turn on and off. Yeah.
"By the way, what about Tina, Deborah and Flam?"
"The three of us are prisoner of war camps.
"Shetan is also helping over there. Sherry and I have been expanding the field today as well."
"I came back with my magic running out."
"Even Seatan? Are you sure you're preparing dinner... Hmm? Are there no Deborahs, Seatans, or Flamms? Who's going to make dinner tonight?"
In response to my words, Elmina-san raises her hand.
"Hahaha, just kidding."
"I'll make it?"
"""No good"""
The voices of me, Rifana, and Melkina harmonized beautifully. It's a natural reaction if you've eaten Elmina-san's home cooking even once.
"Are you going to make it for me?
"Isn't the kitchen a bit small?"
"gununu"
Kusuha's offer was derailed by Marle's tsukkomi. Rifana's skill in making tea is not good enough, and Marle has been impressed by my rough outdoor cooking, so I can't expect it. Melkina... I don't know Melkina's cooking skills. Karen and Sherry seem to be helping out from time to time, and they're likely to be a force to be reckoned with, but it's probably impossible to entrust them to them. She turns her gaze to Nera and Stella, but...
"You, those who stand above must not take away the jobs of the lower ranks, you know?"
"I'm sorry. I'm also a maid of honor, but I'm not in charge of you..."
"Isn't it?"
I don't know the details either, but I do know that a maid like Stella seems to be in a higher position than a maid. Didn't she say that she wasn't a domestic servant, but rather a lady's attendant, doing hair, applying makeup, and dressing? In short, she is a young lady who takes care of a lady of a higher status.
In short, the princess and the maid who takes care of her personal belongings are the same princess from the point of view of the general public. Moreover, Stella seems to be a child like a body double who also acts as a scapegoat for Nera in case of emergency.
They actually look very similar. It doesn't feel unnatural to call her a sister.
"In other words, it's my turn today."
"oh"
"It's been a long time since Taishi-san's home cooking!"
Karen and Marl rejoice. Sherry seems happy to flick her tail too.
"Are you okay?"
"That's unexpectedly delicious, isn't it? Rifana."
"When I was traveling around the Great Forest, Taishi made it all the time."
Nera, who has never eaten my home-cooked food, tilts her head, and Elmina-san and Rifana, who have been eating my home-cooked food well until recently, give a stamp of approval that they don't have to worry about it. Yeah, you guys ate well.
"I don't care if you expect too much. Sloppy is sloppy."
"It's true that you don't have much elegance. But you like me, don't you?"
"I like Taishi's cooking too, don't you?"
It's kind of motivating when you say that straight. When I turn my eyes outside, it's about time for the sun to set. I don't have a lot of time, but it's not like I have to make it urgently.
"Well, let's make it properly. Can Karen and Sherry help us?"
"Yeah"
"yes!"
"Thank you.
I head to the kitchen with Karen and Sherry. It's been a long time since I've been in the kitchen, so I have to check the seasonings and ingredients that I have now.
"Can the two of you cook the staple food?
"I can do both"
"I can do it. Do you want to make both?"
"Yes.
If you put it in storage, you can keep it freshly cooked and baked, and you can eat it anytime. It doesn't matter if you leave it on. When I looked in the refrigerator in the kitchen, there was a lump of Mad Boar loin. Hmm, should I make the main dish with this? There are also vegetables that can be used for salads and vegetables that can be used as condiments. We have miso, soy sauce, mirin, various spices and oils. Oh, how wonderful it is to have a fully stocked kitchen with ingredients and seasonings.
While looking at Karen and Sherry who were starting to grind the rice and knead the flour, I decided to make the sauce first. Well, it's a sauce or ponzu sauce and sesame sauce.
Ponzu is made by mixing soy sauce, vinegar, and mirin in a ratio of 5:4:3, and adding an appropriate amount of sour citrus juice. Of course, if you're particular about it, it's better to pickle kelp or bonito flakes to add more flavor, but this is enough for today's immediate use. Well, it would be nice to have a little umami until it's time to eat, so I throw in the bonito flakes and chopped kelp and put them in the refrigerator.
For sesame sauce, grind a large amount of sesame seeds in a mortar. With my random stats, I can knead sesame seeds at a speed that puts food processors to shame, so I mix sesame seeds, soy sauce, vinegar, miso, and sugar to make sesame sauce. Karen and Sherry looked at me with their noses sniffing to see if it smelled good, so I put the finished sesame sauce on my fingertips and let them taste it.
"Delicious. I like this."
"Sweet-salty and fragrant"
They both seem to like it. Let me lick the ponzu one.
"It's sour. But it's refreshing."
"I like this too"
This one seems to be popular too. I'm not very good at ponzu sauce, but I thought it would be good for pregnant women to eat it lightly. The daikon radish can also be used as grated ponzu sauce, or the shiso leaves can be chopped and used as perilla ponzu sauce.
"And this is it."
Now that the sauce is ready, it's time to prepare the main dish. What I took out was a huge Mud Boar loin.
After all, if you come with sesame sauce and ponzu sauce, it will be shabu-shabu. However, there are no convenient goods like gas stoves and hot plates in this world. I can make it if I want to, but unfortunately I haven't made it because I'm not driven by the need. Let's make someday However, I don't have time to prepare such things now, so today I'm going to use shabu-shabu or cold shabu-shabu.
Cold shabu-shabu, which can be boiled, quickly washed in cold water, and put on top of a salad, is probably more suitable for today's dining table. That's why I cut the big loin meat into moderately sized pieces and sliced thinly.
However, there was something that stood in my way here.
"Kuh, are you saying it's difficult to slice meat with my cooking skills…!?"
Yes, it's sliced meat. With my cooking skills, I couldn't cut room temperature meat thinly enough for shabu-shabu. This is a serious question. There are points, but how about using them for cooking skills?
Think, think Taishi! There must be a better way!
"Slice it... cut it... cut it...!?"
It flashed!
With a picone and a light bulb floating above my head, I slowly grab the meat and go out through the back door of the kitchen. Then he took out the aurora sword and carefully applied purification to the blade. Then he threw the loin meat high and readied the aurora sword.
"Huh!"
When I wielded the aurora sword with a spirit of fissure, countless slashes attacked the loin meat. Yes, Hyakusen, the final secret of the hero of the sword that cuts even gods. A precisely controlled, invisible slash sliced the loin into thin slices in the air. After all, it is just a lump of meat, there is no way to resist it.
"Perfect"
Make sure that the meat you caught loses its shape in your hand and is cut into countless thin slices. I got the hang of it and sliced all the loin into thin slices. I can't help but feel that the secret technique, Hyakusen, and the anti-god weapon, the aurora sword, are leaking sobs for some reason, but it's probably just my imagination.
After that, they are quickly blanched one by one and thrown into the storage, washed together in cold water and stored again in the storage. Put the salad on a platter, serve the meat and store it again. Storage allows food to be preserved in its freshly cooked state. Very convenient. As expected, that useless god wouldn't have expected to be used like this. Fuhahahaha.
Cold shabu-shabu alone is a lonely dining table, so I also make warm vegetable salad, thick-sliced pork loin steak, and vegetable miso soup with kombu dashi. It's really nice to have plenty of ingredients. It's heaven compared to cooking in the Great Forest, where there was only salt.
"Do you have time to make hamburgers..."
Usually it's almost time to eat. The number of items will be enough. I quickly stored the bread and cooked rice in the storage, so I don't feel like I made anything.
"Okay, let's eat after cleaning up."
"Yeah"
"yes"
Karen, Sherry, and I clean up the kitchen and head to the dining room.
"Oh, everyone's here. Good job."
Flamm, Tina, Deborah, and Seatan, who were working outside, had returned to the dining room.
"I heard that Taishi cooked dinner for you today. I'm looking forward to it."
"I'm sorry. Even though it's my job..."
"It's okay.
If you look closely, Fulham looks a little tired. Well, interrogation is a mentally exhausting job, isn't it...of course Flam probably didn't do it alone.
"I'm fine"
"You don't look like you're all right. Get some rest today."
I take out dishes one after another from the storage while caring for Flam. Cold shabu-shabu, thick-sliced steak, and hot vegetable salad. Marl and Melkina may have a strong smell of burnt meat, so place the thick-sliced steak a little away from them. Then, place a pot of vegetable miso soup on the trivet, a basket of freshly baked bread, and a bowl of cooked rice.
"Oh no, you haven't prepared the dishes."
"Get it"
"I'm going too."
While watching the three beastkin girls rushing to the kitchen, Deborah turned her gaze to the cold shabu-shabu and let out a whining noise.
"Sliced meat boiled on top of salad…?
Two by two, a total of four small bowls of sesame sauce and ponzu sauce, and a small plate of chopped perilla and grated radish are served.
"Dip the boiled thinly sliced meat in an appropriate amount of this sesame sauce or ponzu sauce and eat it. The sesame sauce has a rich taste, while the ponzu sauce has a refreshing taste. You can eat it with ponzu sauce and grated daikon radish."
Deborah and other wives put sesame sauce and grated ponzu sauce on their fingertips and tasted them.
"Ah, this is delicious."
"Oh, I like this sour."
"I like this one too"
"When you have a child in your stomach, you crave something sour."
"I like this one too... it's refreshing."
Marl and Melkina seemed to like the ponzu after all.
"Fumu, I like this sesame sauce."
"I also think this rich and fragrant sauce is delicious."
"That's right. It's a sauce with a flavor that I've never tasted before."
"This is sesame, isn't it? Yes, it's delicious."
The sesame sauce is also popular. Fufufu, that's right. I think it's as good as the commercially available sauce sold in the original world.
While doing so, the dishes were brought, so we set the table and had dinner. Cold shabu or sesame sauce and ponzu sauce were very popular. The ponzu sauce was especially popular with the two pregnant women.
"This is really good! Actually, I've been losing my appetite recently, but I can eat this!"
"I like grated ponzu. It goes well with vegetables as well as meat."
By the way, the sesame sauce was also popular, so I taught Deborah and Shitan the recipe for ponzu sauce, and in less than a month, they had a better ponzu sauce and sesame sauce than the one I made.
The sesame sauce and ponzu sauce made with this recipe would later be sold as a special product of Clover, but that's another story.
☆★☆
After the unexpectedly popular dinner, everyone relaxes in the living room while taking a break from eating. Yeah, I wanted this kind of time, I
"Master, may I report the results of the interrogation?"
"Eh, no"
"Yeah..."
I'm confused by Fulham. After all, even though it's finally a relaxing time to spend with everyone, isn't reporting the results of the interrogation really exhausting? Both those who do and those who are. Let's chill out a little more. Look, Deborah's lap pillow is fluffy and plump and the best.
"Fufu... you're acting like a child."
Deborah smiles and strokes my head. Haha, Deborah is sweet to me for some reason. She seems to spoil me as much as I want. But I can't help but be spoiled. When the time is right, I wake up from Deborah's lap pillow.
"I'm sorry, Fram.
"Yes. Then..."
Fram reports the results of his interrogation of the prisoners. The prisoners of war were soldiers deployed relatively far from the hypocenter, and most of them were conscripted peasant soldiers. It means that only the equipment was reasonably fine.
I know the names of the nobles who recruited us, but I don't know what happened to them. The hypocenter of the blast was almost in the center of the unit, and around that area were deployed the main forces of the attacking nobles' knights and private soldiers, as well as the merchants' protégé adventurers. And. It is said that most of them probably did not survive.
However, the important nobles and merchants seem to have been deployed in the rear, and although they may not have been unharmed, it is very likely that they were able to escape. In fact, there was no such person among the prisoners of war, and no such figure among the recovered corpses.
Furthermore, it seems that the testimony was that since the rear cargo corps and the back-up force would be completely unharmed, the nobles and merchants who escaped would probably be with them.
"How long will it take them to leave the Sea of Trees?"
"Even though there is a road that has been cleared to some extent, it doesn't seem to be as well-maintained as the highway that Master laid. It will probably take three weeks, or two weeks at the earliest."
"I see... Hmm, I wonder if most of the masterminds survived."
What should I do. It wouldn't be dangerous if the main fighting force was destroyed, but I have a feeling that I want to hit him directly. But... I think it's a punishment game enough to break through the Sea of Trees with no protection against monsters and a reduced force. let it go a little longer?
"Master, do you want to pursue?"
"Hmm, don't worry about it. How about a recommendation to surrender?"
"Is it a recommendation to surrender?"
"Yeah. I don't know what's going on over there right now, but they've taken a lot of damage and are on the run, aren't they? I'll hit their noses with attack magic and advise them to surrender. If you surrender, I'll protect you as a prisoner of war. If you don't do that, I'll leave you alone for a few days and go back to recommend surrender."
"In that case, it would be better to set a time limit and make the conditions tougher the later you go.
"Mariel…you are quite radical, aren't you?"
"There is no mercy for those who invade in Taishi-san's absence. "
Terrible. It's almost certainly going to be a one-sided overrun.
"In the end, we'll crush them, so won't it be fine if Master doesn't bother to do anything about it?
"Tina also says something rather radical.
"Hurry up, huh...certainly, there is a risk of neglecting it, but isn't it something that Master will take the risk of doing?"
Marl is conditionally in favor, while Tina and Fulham are passively opposed.
"What do you think of Nella?"
"I think it's better to leave it to the quick-footed centaurs and beasts, even if you don't do anything directly. However, in the end, I think it's better to do as you please."
"Why do you think so?"
"You care too much about the people. You protect your country by yourself. If that kind of spirit weakens, the future of this country will be in danger. It is also true that he depends on you.It is not wrong for you to wield that power as you please in order to further strengthen your authority."
Nera says something difficult with the feeling of sharpness.
"Mar, Nera says difficult things and bullies me"
"Because it seems logical.
When I hugged Marle who was sitting next to me before I knew it, Marle started stroking my head with a smile. Ah, the contents of my head are melting.
"I'm just thinking about it seriously! You guys are living too intuitively! Or rather, you're being too spoiled by Mariel! That's unfair!"
Nera gets angry while hitting the table with Bang Bang. She hahaha, Nera is cute even when she's angry.
"Well, seriously, I want to get rid of the anxiety factor before boarding the Geppels Kingdom, and I was wondering if I could use it as an attack material."
"Hmm, what do you think?
"That's right, how are you going to justify it? Did you protest via one of the kingdoms?"
When he stormed into the royal castle of the Goebbels Kingdom before, he made a promise, albeit a verbal promise, to block hostile actions by the prince and other nobles. However, the result is as you can see. It seems that the local aristocrats of the Kalendale Kingdom also participated in the invasion, but the main force was the aristocrats of the Goebbels Kingdom. There is no doubt that this is a complete breach of promise.
"The Kingdom of Goebbels issued a decree strictly forbidding the dispatch of troops. If they sent troops, they would be charged with treason and sent the royal army.In the end, the local nobles ignored such a decree and attacked but"
"What the hell is that... the invading army has an army sent to their territory, but they are ignoring it and attacking? Is that possible?"
"It seems that the strength of the royal army that is actually being sent is quite small.
In other words, the proclamation forbidding the dispatch of troops and the dispatch of troops by the Goebbels Kingdom army were just poses, and the Goebbels Kingdom was half acquiescing to the invading army――or rather, the actions of the local nobles? That's right, from what I've heard, it doesn't seem like he's serious at all.
"You're going mad. Seriously, I have no choice but to give you a bit of a pain, right?"
"is not it"
"That's right."
"That's right."
"I think so too"
A unanimous sanctions resolution was adopted. There is also something. they pissed us off.
"Then let's think about the content of the sanctions. My ideal is to damage only the royal family and nobles of the Goebbels Kingdom without affecting the lives of the people."
"it's difficult"
"Isn't it impossible?"
"It's difficult, isn't it?"
"It's good to let the royal family and nobility go missing."
"Yes, Karen came up with a rule-breaking direct attack idea.
I think it's a good idea to make the head of a noble family 'missing' one after another. After all, this had a remarkable effect on the cleanup of discipline in the Kingdom of Miscronia. There's no way I would sneak into a nobleman's mansion late at night and forcibly kidnap the head of the family. It's easy to clean up if you throw it away in the big tree sea.
"How about destroying a nobleman's mansion or robbing a nobleman's property?"
"I see, is that also an ant?"
Yeah, it's a piece of cake for me to receive the contents of a treasure chest or a safe. There's almost nothing that can stop me, who makes full use of concealment and space magic. If it's a gold coin or just a jewel, you can use it in various ways.
"Hmm, but if that's the case, won't the people end up wrinkled?"
Marl objected to Tina's proposal. Nera nodded in agreement.
"Mariel is right. If you're going in the direction of causing economic damage, you'll need to threaten to take your life next time if you force the people to bear the burden. In that case, I think it would be quicker to make his family and himself disappear."
This living room, where missing people fly around as an assassination slang, is pretty scary, isn't it? OK, my wives. do more
"Is it really necessary to care about the people so much? Why don't we cause them a lot of trouble? On top of that, we spread the rumor that this happened because the stupid royal family and aristocrats intervened with us." you should do it
"Oops, here's an even more radical opinion."
"Yes. But I think Kusuha-san's plan is the best, right?
"That's right. As long as you set up a country, it's impossible to say that it won't burden the people of that country. In the first place, the source of the power of the king and the nobility is the people. Damage there. It's a pipe dream to cause damage to the country without
"Nera's argument hurts my heart."
"Okay. That person is really scary."
"Now! You too! You agreed!?"
"Hahaha, Nera is cute."
"You're just going to make me feel sick, you know?"
""sorry""
Marle and I apologize to Nera, who has begun to show blue streaks on her forehead. When she makes fun of Nella, it's important to see her end. She cries when she does too much.
By the way, everyone is in this living room, but only the princess trio, Kusuha, Flam, and Karen are participating in the discussion. The other wives are listening to the discussion, but they don't seem to have any intention of participating in the discussion, so they're sitting on the sofa a little far away and discussing something here and there. I can't hear what you're talking about because I'm talking in a low voice.
We're discussing something seriously over there, so let's not get in the way.
"The topic has diverged significantly. The first agenda is pursuit, pursuit."
"That's right. Um, what are you going to do?"
"They were talking about recommending surrender.
"That's right. Those who surrender should be disarmed, transferred to Clover, and imprisoned after being detained."
"Then I will call a force to arrest him tomorrow morning."
"I'm begging you. Then let's work out the contents of the surrender recommendation."
After discussing surrender recommendations and sanctions against the Goebbels Kingdom for a while, the family meeting after the meal was opened after the contents were settled.
By the way, Nera was my opponent tonight. I did my best in moderation because I had things to do tomorrow.