Translator: Dj2203
Editor: Dj2203
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This is the first time that “bread” has appeared!
What do you think of the bread (44 yen excluding tax) I bought at a supermarket during a half-price sale?
The sound of the rain hitting the roof has gradually become less thunderous, but it still makes quite a noise.
“But still… is it good?”
“Yeah, what’s the matter?”
“You let me in, a complete stranger… I think you might be consider me a bad guy.”
Maon laughs heartily.
“There’s nothing wrong with someone offering a helping hand to an old woman they’ve never met. You’re a kind person, Genta.”
“Maon-san…”
“And as you can see, my house was on fire, and it looks like you have money, right? There’s nothing to gain for you to from doing something bad. But even though it would have been no benefit to you, Genta still reached out to me…”
Maon-san, who had been laughing until just now, now had a serious expression.
“You are a kind boy… a kind boy… Genta. You are a kind boy who felt the sadness and pain of others as if it were your own. You were angry about the house burning down, weren’t you? I can tell by looking at your face… it’s so obvious…”
She muttered with tears in her eyes. Her cheeks seemed to carry a mixture of kindness and sadness. It was all the more heartbreaking to see the misfortune that had befallen her.
“I’ve lived a long time. I’ve seen a lot of people. I think I have some insight… but if I still can’t see through it… then I’ll just have to blame myself. Just like the person who started the fire.”
Finally, Maon added that she was joking, with a hint of sadness and resignation on her face.
….
“That’s right! Maon-san, would you like to have something light to eat?”
Rummaging through my backpack, I called out to Maon, who looked sad, hoping to cheer her up even just a little.
It’s not guaranteed, but if she’s hungry, she’ll feel a little better. I know this is a shortsighted way of thinking, but it’s true that I want Maon to feel better.
I opened the zipper of my backpack and took out a jam bun. I was about to take out the bean paste bun that was on top, but I started to worry whether bean paste existed in this world, so I went for a jam bun that would be found in medieval Europe.
He ripped open the plastic wrapping and handed over the bread, saying, “Here you go.” Maon accepted it with a thank you but looked at the jam bun curiously.
There was a small gap in the barn for light to enter. It was dim, but not so that you can’t see inside. It was also a little brighter than when I entered the barn a moment ago. I haven’t seen it directly, but the rain clouds must be thinning out. As if to confirm this, the sound of the rain hitting the barn has also become much weaker.
“Genta, the rain has let up a lot, so could you please open the door? Oh, you don’t have to open it all the way, just so it’s a little brighter inside the barn.”
I stood up from the wooden box that was serving as a chair and opened the barn door. The light gradually filtered in, and when I looked outside, the clouds that had been close by had turned a light gray. The storm-like wind was now a little stronger.
“Yeah… that’s about it…”
The sunlight filtering through the clouds onto the barn illuminated the inside, and Maon smiled brightly.
“Sorry… I can’t see very well in the dim light, old lady like me… But even so…”
Maon looked closely at the jam bun I gave her.
“What is this…?”
….
Maon asked this question after seeing the jam bun.
“It’s almost lunchtime, and I thought you might be feeling a bit hungry, so I’d like some bread…”
“This is bread!”
When Maon gently pressed the bread she was holding with her fingertips, her fingertips sank in. Then, when she released the pressure of her fingers, the bread slowly returned back to its original form. After trying this two or three times, she said:
“It’s so soft. Surprisingly… soft.”
“Is it really that soft?”
It is said that the quality and safety of Japanese food is certainly high.
The quality and safety of the product do not halve just because it has a “half price” sticker on it, just like the price.
This jam bread was not expensive in Japan and was a common item that anyone could easily get their hands on. But Maon was surprised at how incredibly soft it was.
“Oh, it’s so soft! I’ve never seen anything like it before! I heard that at the Great Temple in the royal capital, you can eat good bread because it’s the ‘Fruit of Life’ given by the Goddess…”
“So bread is hard to come by around here?”
“No, no, everyone bakes bread at home. But wheat is expensive, so commoners bake bread by mixing cheap wheat and even cheaper flour. And the firewood used to bake it costs money, so I bake the amount I’ll eat at the time to make it softer with lots of moisture…and then I bake enough for two or three days all at once. I make sure to remove the moisture and make it firm so it doesn’t go bad.”
“It’s baked hard to reduce the moisture for preservation… I see…”
“However, if the wife is not good at baking, the bread will be too hard and they’ll be called the ‘Rock Bread’ house. However, even in a house that is said to have a good baker, the bread won’t be soft. Normally, it would be called ‘Stone Bread’. If they bake good bread, it’s called ‘Bread made from planks’.”
Rocks, stones, and pieces of wood… I was surprised by the bread situation in this other world.
“Hmm, ‘Rock Bread’ is quite a strong description. It’s a bit sad. But maybe it’s a bit of an exaggeration…”
“But that’s not the case.”
“What do you mean?”
“When the bread at Rock Bread House is on its third or fourth day, all the moisture has evaporated from the inside of the loaf…or even the core, and it becomes incredibly hard. So at that point, we have to pound it with a mallet…try as hard as we can to crack a rock, and then we dip it in soup and it’s finally ready to eat. …Genta, the nickname “Rock” is not just for show.”
Maon-san said this with a grin. It was clear to see how hard it was to get bread.
“Well, I don’t want to talk too much, so let’s get started.”
*crunch* Maon-san took a small bite of the edge of the bread.
“It’s so soft you can eat it without water! It smells great too!”
Then, after swallowing, Maon cried out.
“And this whiteness, and it’s fluffy and fine-grained… What on earth is this made of? What!? It’s made from ground wheat… Is that true? I rarely eat it, but I’ve seen it a few times! But why is it so different? The bread we normally see is darker, or rather, a dark brown, even if it uses wheat. It’s like a mixture of white and black parts.”
After taking a bite and then looking at the cross section, Maon exclaimed in surprise. Perhaps she was afraid. There was a slight bite mark on the bread, like a little girl’s bite, and this bite had not yet reached the jam part.
If she realizes that it’s soft, she might take a bigger bite the next time.
“Still… it’s strange.”
“Wh-what’s wrong? Is something strange?”
I couldn’t help but feel uneasy. The expiration date should still be fine.
“This bread has such a light texture, but when I pick it up, it feels heavier than it looks.”
Huh? It’s heavy? What’s that…? Maybe it’s the jam part. If that’s the case, the specific gravity is definitely different.
“Oh, there’s jam inside.”
“Ja, jam?!”
Maon-san takes a second bite, bigger than the previous one. Then, as if struck by lightning, her body trembles. She then takes a third bite, this time slower than the second. It’s as if she’s taking her time to savor the flavor.
“It’s so sweet, so sweet… Is this bread blessed by God? It’s not just soft, the aroma of barley fills your nose, it doesn’t even need water!”
Maon-san expressed her thoughts on the bread with an ecstatic look on her face.
“And this is… real jam. Apparently you can only get it in the elf village…”
“Is it really that rare? And what exactly is ‘real jam’?”
“Oh… oh… this is some amazing, authentic jam… It seems that the jam is a secret recipe that can only be made in the elf village. It’s called ‘elf jam’ and is truly rare. And look at how beautiful this jam is! It’s the color of a baby’s flushed cheeks, isn’t it? Normally jam is a little duller in color! No, even a dull jam like this is so fine it’s worth gold coins flying around!”
She seemed to be excited as she started talking quickly and then took a deep breath, like she was breathing hard while swimming.
“The jams we sometimes get… well, they’re actually just imitation jams, full of mixed ingredients… because to make jam you need a lot of fruit, but fruit is really scarce. So you add all sorts of mixed ingredients to make it more… and those mixed ingredients are expensive, because you have to try to collect everything that has even the slightest bit of it.”
“What do you mean, collect…?”
“For example, you can boil the roots of the yam, in a pot to extract the sweetness. But it’s not just the sweetness that comes out; it also has a bitter and astringent taste. And no matter how carefully you skim off the scum, it’s not enough to remove even half of the bitterness and astringency… But even that bit of sweetness is quite expensive.”
Maon carefully held the bread in both hands as she brought it to her mouth.
“This jam isn’t even the slightest bit harsh or bitter. It’s not just sweet, it has a sour taste that tickles your palate… The flavor of the jam that lingers after you swallow it… it’s like you don’t want it to disappear forever…”
Maon was amazing. She mixed food-related anecdotes with comments that sounded like something you’d find in a gourmet manga.
Watching Maon eating the jam bun with such gusto, I hoped that it would cheer her up a little.
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