Chapter 57
I forgot about my inconsistent internet since I was using ethernet in the holidays… Also, do you guys prefer tou-san and kaa-san, or just father and mother? Thanks for reading~
Author's Note: The publication has been decided, and will be released on the first of July by Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko. Kearuga-sama is grinning at this!
※This is one of the ill.u.s.trations. Kearuga-sama when he is slipping out of the underground prison.
I was in front of a grave.
It's father and mother's grave.
There was a person held up an umbrella for that me. (TL Note: Refers to himself as boku here.)
"Kearu-kun, about your mother and father… it's unfortunate. My parents said that if you're fine with it, you can live together with us. I would also be happy if you became my younger brother. Hey, can we live together?" (Anna)
Anna-san is the person I yearn for who lives next to me. It seems she's worrying for me as I have no relatives.
… I'm glad it's raining today.
If it wasn't raining today, the fact that I was crying would have been exposed to Anna-san.
Father and mother who went to sell the apples after harvesting them didn't come back.
From what I heard, it seems monsters a.s.saulted the carriage.
Not only my parents, but many other people didn't come back either. I had finally accepted reality, and was able to visit their graves.
"Anna-san, I won’t go." (Kearu)
"But you’re alone." (Anna)
"Don’t worry, I was properly taught the ways to live by father and mother. I can live alone. I’ll be able to do it by growing apples and hunting." (Kearu)
I know that it’s easier to be in Anna-san’s house.
But I don’t want that.
Just by imagining me living in happiness while forgetting about father and mother makes me nauseous.
"But Kearu-kun, you’re still young." (Anna)
"That has nothing to do with it. The reason I came here today was to tell father and mother that I’m okay. I’m going to have them hear my vow. If, maybe, just maybe, I was able to get a strong occupation (cla.s.s)… at that time, I will" (Kearu)
Clenching my hands tightly, I swear to father and mother who are in heaven.
"Become a hero. I’ll defeat all the evil demons and never let such a sad thing happen again." (Kearu)
I decided that.
To become strong, I can’t depend on others. From now on, I will live alone and fight alone.
Anna-san sadly laughs while looking at me and opens her mouth.
"If you don’t get a strong occupation (cla.s.s), and it’s an occupation (cla.s.s) that’s completely not suited for fighting, what would you do?" (Anna)
"If that happens…" (Kearu)
I turn around and the answer…
"Kearuga-sama, Kearuga-sama, wake up!" (Setsuna)
My body is being shaken by something soft.
I open my eyes.
There, I see a beautiful girl with white wolf ears and blue eyes.
"Setsuna huh, what happened?" (Kearuga)
I look at the surroundings, and see that it’s still dim, early in the morning.
Right now, we are heading to the G.o.d bird’s trial.
Since the sun was setting, we should have made camp. Besides Setsuna, Freya is also here, and is comfortably sleeping naked.
If I remember correctly, yesterday was Freya’s turn.
"Kearuga-sama, you were having a terrible nightmare. Setsuna was worried and woke you up." (Setsuna)
I see, so she became worried and woke me up huh.
I stroke Setsuna’s head.
"Thanks. I was having a slightly unpleasant dream." (Kearuga)
"Scary dream?" (Setsuna)
"No, it wasn’t scary. The former, foolish me was thrusted before me, and I felt like vomiting." (Kearuga)
At that time, I had been under the impression that the monsters and tragedies would disappear if all the demons were killed.
… They were just illusions.
Even without demons, monsters keep gus.h.i.+ng forth one after the other.
Rather, having demons controlling the monsters would cause less damage.
I was an idiot as a child.
Since I was that idiotic, I was in high spirits after being chosen as the hero, so princess Flare and the king deceived and tricked me. If I had even a little wariness, I’m sure it would have ended up differently.
Now that I think about it, on that day, what did I say I was going to do to Anna-san if I didn’t get a strong occupation (cla.s.s)? I can’t remember.
Well, it’s fine. It was probably just some childish nonsense anyways.
"Kearuga-sama’s old dream? Come to think of it, you have never talked about your past. Setsuna is curious about what kind of child you were in your childhood." (Setsuna)
Setsuna’s eyes are s.h.i.+ning with curiosity.
She leans her body forward and swings her tail, which is cute.
I don’t like stories about my past that much, but I guess it’s fine to talk about it if Setsuna wants it.
"I was just an apple farmer’s child. I grew apples, and in seasons where I couldn’t deal with the apples, father and I would hunt together a lot. Apart from that, I was engrossed with earning extra money, since the reward from helping out with the apples and hunting was insufficient." (Kearuga)
In those days, I was relatively greedy for money.
Therefore, I was doing various businesses even before I became ten.
"Kearuga-sama, what kind of things were you doing?" (Setsuna)
"When you’re an apple farmer, there are a few apples that can’t be sold as they were either bitten by insects, sunburnt, scarred, or has a bad shape. I brought those to my parents, and sold them as juice after crus.h.i.+ng them or turned them into sweets. Luckily, I got along with a sweets maker who had come to stock up on apples and was taught various things. Since then, thanks to me always selling juice and sweets, I became very good at pastry making." (Kearuga)
Come to think of it, I wonder if he’s in good health. Even after father and mother died, he continued being my customer and bought the apples. He’s about the only guy I can call my true friend that wasn’t about profit and loss.
I want to meet him after a long time.
"Kearuga-sama, good at making sweets?" (Setsuna)
"Yeah, I’m quite good." (Kearuga)
After all, I have spent a considerable amount of years on it. For the sake of raising my proceeds, I tried to be original and devoted myself to it.
Before I knew it, my fans increased quite a bit, and it became a famous product in the village. It advertised my parent’s apples as well, so my father praised me for increasing the proceeds, which made me more motivated.
"That’s surprising, since Kearuga-sama hasn’t made any sweets before." (Setsuna)
"That’s true. I guess I’ll make some for our breakfast today." (Kearuga)
"Looking forward to it!" (Setsuna)
With the ingredients I have on hand, I should be able to do it.
If Setsuna would be delighted, working hard for a bit would be fine.
Setsuna
"Before sweets, it’ll be the morning service." (Kearuga)
"Nn. Setsuna will do her best. Kearuga-sama will be given plenty of service." (Setsuna)
She started her morning service immediately.
She’s a lot more energetic than usual.
Once Setsuna finishes her service, she will take Freya, Eve and Ellen who have no stamina to give them intense training.
During that time, I’ll bake a pie or something. Sweets should pervade a tired body.
After seeing them depart, I started my sweets making.
Add water, egg and oil into wheat flower, and knead it thoroughly.
You have to let the batter rest for around an hour, but by activating the batter with【Recovery Heal】, I shorten the time.
Once the batter is done, next is the inside.
As expected, we don’t have high-cla.s.s things like sugar, so I concentrate the alcohol that was made from the potatoes on hand. The alcohol thereupon flies, and the sugar concentrates, turning into a sweet syrup.
The light brown, sticky syrup looks appetizing just by itself.
Here, I put in cowberries, mock strawberries, smashed walnuts, etc that I had collected to replenish our vitamins, and fry it while mixing it together with syrup.
The heat pa.s.ses through, and after I confirm that the sweetness of the cowberries and mock strawberries had become strong, I s.h.i.+ft the contents into a different container and wash the fry pan.
Well, I’ll start baking the pie now.
"It would be better with an oven, but even without one, there’s a way of doing it." (Kearuga)
I spread plenty of oil onto the fry pan. And then, I equally stick the thin pie batter onto the fry pan and turn on the heat. Once the pie batter heats enough, I pour in plenty of the syrup I had transferred to a different container inside it.
"I need to make a lid." (Kearuga)
Next to that, I grid-pattern pie batter, stick it onto a stone and bake it altogether.
This will become the pie’s lid.
After deciding that the pie batter on the fry pan has been heated enough, I use syrup and the remaining pie batter to stick the pie on the fry pan and the pie lid.
With this, the simple mock strawberry and cowberry pie is finished.
It has a sweet scent.
Since we rarely eat sweets on a journey, they will surely be delighted.
"Well then, I’ll transfer it to a plate." (Kearuga)
I transfer it onto a plate once the fry pan cools down.
Because of the fry pan’s shape, it’s properly finished in a circular shape. The appearance of the grid-patterned pie lid compares favourably to a pie baked in an oven.
I’m looking forward to eating it.
If it’s a fry pan-sized pie, everyone should be able to eat to their heart’s content with just one… no, we have our Setsuna and Eve. I have time anyways, so I’ll bake one more. Those children really eat a lot after all.
"Kearuga-sama, we’re back." (Setsuna)
"… Setsuna-chan, as I thought, you are an oni." (Freya)
"I think I’ve gotten quite used to it." (Eve)
With Setsuna at the front, Freya and Eve have returned.
Even further behind them, Ellen is following with unsteady steps. She joined late, but it seems she has the willpower to finish the training until the end.
"Eh, Kearuga-sama, something is making a nice, sweet smell. There is no way this kind of smell would be here in the middle of the forest though…" (Freya)
Freya sniffs the air.
"It’s true… ah, some time ago, Kearuga said he would bake an apple pie. Did you really make it!?" (Eve)
It seems Eve remembered our idle talk when we were on the raptor.
"Unfortunately, since I couldn’t obtain any apples, what I made today is a mock strawberry, cowberry and walnut pie. It’s sweet and has plenty of nutrients." (Kearuga)
Mock strawberries and cowberries are abundant in vitamins.
Plenty of nutrients is packed in the walnut’s fat as well. If they eat the pie I made, they will become energetic again.
"Uwaa, I’m looking forward to it. My stomach is empty as well. Once Ellen-chan returns, let’s have breakfast." (Freya)
After Freya says that, her stomach lets out a sound.
Before, she used to be groggy after Setsuna’s training finishes and wasn’t even able to eat breakfast, but she’s considerably improved.
"Kearuga-niisama, finally… I have come back." (Ellen)
With a pale face, Ellen come back a bit late.
That worn-out state overlaps with Freya long ago. On the contrary, as long as she just tries hard, she should become as good as Freya right now.
"Good work, drink this and rest." (Kearuga)
"Yes, thank you… very much." (Ellen)
She takes a seat, and gulps down the potion I handed her.
This is a potion that has every principle component to gain stamina and has ingredients that recover fatigue.
It’s slightly unfair, but if I don’t give her this kind of thing, she will be down and unable to continue for the whole day today.
Ellen who finished drinking the potion became noticeably more energetic, and Freya was looking at that enviously.
I know how she feels, but since I can only rarely harvest the medicinal herbs to make this potion, I won’t give it to Freya who is relatively calm.
"Well then, lets have breakfast. Enjoy the specially made pie that has plenty of sweet fruits." (Kearuga)
It’s been a long time since I made sweets. Hopefully I made it well…
I distribute the pie into five equal parts
Girls like sweet food. Following that rule, everyone apart from me had their eyes rooted to the sweets they haven’t had for so long.
I was careful when I split it into five parts, because they might quarrel if the size is different.
With all my power, I made them into even sizes.
… However, even that consideration was useless.
In the end, they quarreled over which pie had the most fruits packed in it, so they decided to go in the order of the coin toss.
After this and that, our slightly delayed breakfast begins.
"Kearuga-sama, it tastes good. Setsuna wants to eat this pie everyday!" (Setsuna)
"It’s crunchy, sweet and lovely." (Freya)
"… So it wasn’t a joke when you said you make sweets. Sweets don’t suit you. It’s so frustratingly tasty though." (Eve)
"So Kearuga-niisama can even do this!" (Ellen)
Everyone is eating the pie in a daze.
From seeing the way they eat it, I can tell it’s not just flattery.
I should also eat.
The pie batter is crunchy, and affinity of the concentrated alcohol syrup with the sweet and sour mock strawberry and cowberry is perfect. The walnuts used as the accent also makes a good flavour.
They are just on hand ingredients, but the quality was better than my expectations.
It’s filling, and the sweetness is an incentive to eat it. I’m also happy that everyone is more delighted than I am. I’ll make it again if there’s a chance
I’ll leave thinking about the future for later… there’s something I have to do right now.
Setsuna and Eve, the schoolchildren without lunch group, are looking at their empty plates with lonely faces. It seems they’ve already eaten it.
"There’s one more pie, so I’ll cut it up for the people who want a seconds. Raise your hand if you want it." (Kearuga)
When I say that, everyone raises their hands.
It’s surprising Freya and Eve are still going to have seconds.
I smile wryly, and split the second pie into four equal pieces. I’m satisfied with one piece.
Setsuna and co are deliciously eating the pie that’s cut even bigger than their first piece.
… While looking at these girls, I remember the continuation of my dream.
That time, I said this.
『If I can’t get a strong occupation (cla.s.s), I think I’ll protect this apple orchard until I die. I’ll make a lot of tasty apples and sweets, and let everyone who’s living in this harsh world be happy! Even if I don’t become strong and defeat demons or monsters, I’ll support everyone by the things I make. I’ll choose that way of fighting.』
Maybe, if I wasn’t chosen as a hero, right now I might have been living a lifestyle of growing apples, making apple pies and feeling happiness while watching the people that say it’s delicious.
Around this time, I might have married as well.
"What is that." (Kearuga)
I mock the illusion that was sweeter than the pie I made.
That path has already vanished long ago. I chose a different path.
I became the hero of 【Healing】, degenerated into a brute, and even while being self-aware that I’m a brute, I’m doing whatever I want to my heart’s content and will grab everything.
And also, I don’t regret a single part of it.
I have money, I obtained the best women, and both my body and spirit is free. I obtained overwhelming power. As if there is any happiness better than this!
I eat the last piece of the pie that remained on my pie.
This is the last time I’ll soak myself in sweet sentimentality.
Tomorrow, the G.o.d bird’s trial will start.
Like I am now, I’ll behave however I want to.
"Were you the one that showed me that dream?" (Kearuga)
Since the dedicated backpack for the egg shook, I tried calling out to it.
The reason I had this dream might be because of this fellow, who grows as the owner’s mirror.
If so, it would be troubling.
I don’t want it to resemble my naive self that I have abandoned long ago.
Well, it’s useless to just worry over it, since right now, I can only advance forward.
Once we finish breakfast, we will advance forward. Our plan is to arrive at the G.o.d bird’s valley by tomorrow.
TL Note: By the way, like this chapter, there’s another ill.u.s.tration on the next chapter and the next chapter after that, so you can go on the raws () to check it out~