Maydare Volume 3 Chapter 8 - Late-Night Snacks, Exhibitions, and the First Snow (Part 1)

 A food chapter! Although I like how this series connects food with identity and friendship.

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The deadline for entry submission for the Everyday Magic Tool Contest was approaching.

We Garnet Team 9, were working late into the night every day in our glass bottle atelier, making the magic heater.

We were making two types of magic heaters: a thin panel-type that could be attached under a desk and a three-dimensional cube-type that could send warm air over a wide area. The thin panel-type was my idea, and I thought that if it could be attached under a table, people could spend a comfortable time at the table eating, studying, or working every day.

That was exactly the idea that I worked out from the “kotatsu” I used in my previous life, and which didn’t exist here in the Kingdom of Ruschia. Ah, kotatsus and mandarins, I missed them…

Bang bang. Clang clang.

The sound of building things echoed in the glass bottle atelier.

The work to build the exterior using the junk found at the magical dumping ground was almost complete, and Nero was now making the final adjustments. The magic heater, which mainly used 【Fire】and 【Wind】magic, required 1265 magic formulas to be written on a special thin magical metal plate, which must be then built into the heater.

We were repeating the endless process of finding mistakes and fixing them, finding mistakes and fixing them.

“Makia, put this around your neck.”

“Eh, what’s this?”

In the midst of all this, Nero tried to put a mysterious collar on me.

“I need your power as a 【Fire】Blessed Child. …Lift up your hair.”

“Oh, okay.”

Apparently, 【Fire】attribute magic had to be replenished with a magic battery, but it seemed that the speed of amassing 【Fire】magical energy was faster if it was attached directly to me rather than using a dedicated magic port. Was I a charger or something?

“Gaa, I can’t take it anymore! I’m starving! Give me something to eat~~”

Over there, Frey was shouting.

“Please be quiet and write down the magic formulas seriously, Mr. Frey.”

“No, no! I tend to make mistakes when I lose concentration. I need to take a break here~”

“There is nothing more unseemingly than a big man acting like a spoiled brat…”

Lapis was irritated because Frey was acting selfish right in front of her.

But it was true that everyone was exhausted because we had been working since the morning without any breaks. Just writing a magic formula consumed a lot of magic power, so it might be time to eat something to recover magic power.

“Then how about I make us a late-night snack while we replenish our magic power? I think onigiri will do…”

“Pasta, pasta, pasta!”

“Boiled eggs. I think we got some floating in salt water.”

“I would love some hot sangria. With salt apples.”

“...”

Unfortunately, I seemed to be the only one in the onigiri group.

So, in order to fulfill everyone’s requests as best as I could, I went downstairs to the kitchen in the basement.

Since we had been staying in the atelier a lot lately, Nero made some magical improvements to the fridge here to make it more user-friendly. It was well-stocked with foodstuffs.

Everyone was starting to talk nonsense and act strange due to hunger and fatigue, so I should make late-night snacks that would boost their stamina and get through this critical time.

Frey’s request for pasta must mean peperoncino with lots of garlic?

Or was it carbonara, Miladriede’s staple pasta?

“That’s right…how about Napolitan! We should have some bacon and ketchup!”

I suddenly recalled the pasta in this world.

I had never eaten Napolitan since I reincarnated here. Maybe it was a pasta dish that didn’t exist here, or maybe I just hadn’t encountered it yet. 

No wait, wasn’t Napolitan a uniquely Japanese pasta dish in the first place…?

Oh well. We had vegetables, so I’ll make Napolitan.

And there was also Nero’s requested boiled eggs and Lapis’s requested hot sangria…

“Hey, Makia,” Nero came down to the basement kitchen.

“What’s wrong? If you can’t wait for dinner, there’s some cheese bread right there.”

“No, that’s not what I’m here for.”

Nero was holding something.

It had a rounded, boxy form. What was this?

“You said before that you wanted a magic tool to cook rice, right? Based on your conceptual drawing, I made one from the junk collected at the magical dumping ground.”

“Huh!? You made this!?”

Nero handed me the box-shaped rice cooker like it was just a trivial favor.

The shape and specifications were different from those of the other world, but when I opened the lid, there was an iron pot inside, and it was indeed a magic tool that was like a rice cooker.

Eh? Eh?? What is the meaning of this?

Was he Neroemon, whose work was on par with that robotic cat from the future?

“N-Neroemon~~~!”

“?”

I was so happy that I cried and gave him a big hug.

Nero looked pained, but he endured it.

“If you can use it, give it a try. I think there’s still room for improvement.”

“Yes, yes, I’ll definitely use it!”

I immediately learned how to use it from Nero. I washed the rice, added water, and pushed down the switch on the rice cooker. Now all I had to do was wait…

The rice cooker was just as I had envisioned. But I wonder if Nero had actually been sleeping at night, making this in between class assignments. 

“Nero, are you sleeping properly? Why don’t you take a nap? I’ll make you a nice place to sleep on the atelier sofa.”

“I’m fine. I’m the type who doesn’t need much sleep.”

He nonchalantly went back up, but still…

The only thing I could do was to at least make him an energizing late-night snack and have him eat it. And after, I would try to make him get some sleep, even if I had to force him to. That’s what I’ll do.

While waiting for the rice to cook, I started preparing the other late-night snacks.

We had prepared boiled eggs this morning. They were boiled this morning and soaked in dense salt water with their shells still on.

This snack was currently popular among Team 9, and once the shell was peeled off, the whole boiled egg had just the right amount of saltiness to it, and it was delicious.

Particularly when the salt was from the Salt Forest, sent from my home. When pickled with that salt, the boiled eggs became deliciously mild and creamy.

“...I’ll just try one. Not because I’m hungry. It’s just a taste test.”

While talking to myself to distract me from my guilty conscience, I cracked the shell of one of the boiled eggs and opened my mouth wide as I looked around uselessly.

Mmm! The amount of salt was perfect. The yolk inside was also thick and delicious, because I adjusted the boiling temperature so that the yolk remained half-boiled and salted.

Eggs were considered the perfect food in the magical world. They were rich in nutrition, well-balanced, and had a lot of magical mass, so it was said that magicians were divided into the potato faction and the egg faction. My teammates liked them too.

“Next up is hot sangria. We should have some grape juice that hasn’t been opened.”

The delicious grape juice made after the fall harvest.

Wine was a major industry in the Kingdom of Ruschia, but grape juice was no slouch either. Since we were students, we opted for non-alcoholic juice.

I used a variety of fruit. Dried figs, dried cranberries, raisins, and fresh salt apples. I cut them up roughly. 

I poured the grape juice into a pot, then put in the fruits from before, honey, and a cinnamon stick to simmer them together to make tasty hot sangria.

I used the ladle to take a sip.

Mmmm. Sweet and refreshing. The cinnamon scent warmed my body.

It had salt apples in it as well, and I could feel my magical power being put in order and my head and body being cleared.

One more sip…

“Makia, do you need help with anything?”

“!?”

I was so surprised by Lapis, who had quietly approached me, that I almost spat out the hot sangria.

No, no, this is just a taste test. I’m definitely not stealing a sip!

“Is something the matter, Makia? Mr. Frey was whining for you to hurry up,”

“I-I see. He becomes more of a selfish prince when he’s hungry, huh.”

And so, I asked Lapis to pour the hot sangria into glass mugs for the team members. I had her bring it up to the atelier along with the boiled eggs.

Until the other dishes were ready, everyone, this should tide you over your hunger…

At that moment, a beep sounded to indicate that the rice was finished cooking.

“Ooh…that’s amazing. It was cooked in just ten minutes.”

I opened the lid and was met with plump, glossy rice.

Lapis, holding a bowl of boiled eggs, also came to take a quick peek.

“My, so this is the rice cooker that Mr. Nero built?”

“Oh? You knew about it, Lapis?”

“Yes, he asked me for some advice.”

What a surprise! Not only Nero, but Lapis also helped to make this rice cooker!

This was a rice cooker made by incorporating magic formulas of【Fire】and 【Water】, which cooked rice much faster than cooking it in a pot.

As expected from a magic tool, it would cook rice faster than the rice cookers of the other world…

“Anyways, how will we eat this rice?”

Yes. In terms of seasoning.

I once served umeboshi onigiri to the team, but they were completely unpopular. The taste was unfamiliar, and they were pretty sour anyways.

To make onigiri more palatable to them, the ingredients must be familiar.

“Mm. The answer is…tuna mayo!”

I once heard on TV that the most popular convenience store onigiri among foreigners was tuna mayo. I didn’t know if that was true or not, but canned tuna was eaten often in the Kingdom of
Ruschia, and everyone loved mayonnaise seasoning.

While the rice was steaming, I opened the canned tuna, drained the oil and water, and dressed it with mayonnaise and a little bit of salt and pepper. Tuna mayo paste.

I would have liked to have seaweed, but no matter where I looked, I couldn’t find any. I asked peddlers from the East about it, and they told me that seaweed almost never sold well in Miladriede, so they rarely brought it because it wasn’t good for business.

I could see why. For instance, there was sushi that was created in foreign countries, like the California roll, which was characterized by having the seaweed wrapped inside the sushi rice. I heard they hid the nori because people in other countries weren’t familiar with it. I guessed the people of the Kingdom of Ruschia didn’t like seaweed either.

While answering my own questions, I made tuna mayo onigiri.

I had no seaweed, so they just looked like white onigiri. I was sure they would look strange to Frey and the others. …Well, just you watch. Take a bite and be amazed.

“Alright, the onigiri are ready. Now it’s finally time for the Napolitan.”

Lastly, I was going to try making Napolitan quickly. 

While boiling the pasta, I cut up onions, mushrooms, and bacon, fried them in butter, added grated garlic and a little sugar and ketchup, and let them all come together. I then added the cooked pasta and tossed to coat. I chose thick, chunky noodles. This would make them have a nice ketchup color.

“Aaah~~it smells so good.”

Now, all I had to do was to serve it up on a platter, and it was ready to go.

The Napolitan smelled great and looked great as well. It was showy, red, and appetizing. Since there were no green vegetables, I sprinkled on some dried parsley, and now it was all finished. If you like, it would also be tasty if you sprinkled some cheese powder on it.

And so, we carried the tuna mayo onigiri and Napolitan up to the atelier where the team members were.

The members had eaten all of the flavored boiled eggs, but it seemed that they weren’t satisfied yet. They were looking forward to the rest of the dishes, however…

“What kinda pasta is this!!!”

“What do you mean, it’s Napolitan?”

“I’ve never seen it or heard of it.”

Frey, who loved pasta, looked at the pasta stir-fried with ketchup with an evil eye.

As I thought, there was no pasta similar to Napolitan over here.

“Well, don’t just say that. Try it.”

Thinking he was being tricked, come now…

I diligently divided the pasta from the platter.

Not only Frey, but also Lapis and Nero had never seen or eaten a dish like Napolitan before.

“Is frying pasta with ketchup even allowed in the fir…hm? Huh…this is surprisingly good.”

“See?”

And Frey had complained so much.

From the first bite, he made a strange face and gradually became captivated by the taste of Napolitan, and his eating speed gained momentum. He was devouring it.

It certainly wasn’t Miladriede-style pasta, and it was probably heretical, but good food was good food. Or rather, I was glad that it turned out delicious.

“Is this a traditional dish from Deliafield? Or is it one of the Scarlet Witch’s recipes?”

Lapis was also curious as she ate her Napolitan.

“Huh? No, this is…um…”

I was flustered, since I had made it myself. If I called it an original creation, I would feel guilty towards the person who invented Napolitan in Japan on Earth.

“Is this rice dish over here the one you called onigiri before?”

Nero, on the other hand, was looking at the onigiri with great interest. It was probably because they were made with the rice cooker he made, though.

“The onigiri is onigiri, but these have different fillings than the ones from before. And Nero, that rice cooker was great for shortening the time. Thank you so much.”

“...Uh huh.”

And on that, we all stuffed our cheeks with tuna mayo onigiri.

They were afraid to take a bite because of their experience with the sourness of the apricot umeboshi onigiri. However, as soon as they bit into their tuna mayo onigiri, their faces lit up.

“How is it? It’s good, isn’t it?”

“It’s delicious!”

Everyone nodded. I pumped my fist unabashedly.

My onigiri revenge had been successfully accomplished. The honor of onigiri was restored!

“These tuna mayo onigiri have a rich and sinful taste. Whoever first thought of it must be a genius. To tell the truth, my favorite onigiri filling is actually tuna mayo~~” 

“...I’ve wondered this for some time, but where did you learn the taste of rice, Makia?”

“Eh?”

“She’s got a point. You’re awfully attached to rice, aren’t you?”

Lapis and Nero were now wondering what triggered my obsession with rice.

Indeed, for someone born and raised in Ruschia, I sought rice much more than pasta or bread.

My craving for rice must have been strange for everyone.

“Um…well, you see, Deliafield is located near the eastern border, so it’s easy to get Eastern food there! Peddlers from the east would come and treat us to their dishes. That’s why!”

“Oh, I see.”

No, that was a lie. I had never eaten rice in Deliafield, even though Deliafield was definitely near the eastern border.

Since I couldn’t tell them that it was a food I ate often in my past life, I had to think up an excuse on the spot.

“Well, I think Makia’s cooking is similar to a quest for magic.”

“It’s like Nero’s tinkering with machines.”

We were tired, but after a night of eating late-night snacks together, talking, and drinking another cup of reheated hot sangria, our magic power was restored and we were motivated again, 

“Just a little more, we’re almost there. Let’s work hard until the end.”

We went back to work.

I had to work hard too. I was solely in charge of the reports for submission.

I was responsible for putting our blueprints and intent for this project into words and putting them on paper. Nero said that the report would probably be more important than the project itself, so it was a very big responsibility.

The project was only a sample model and the workmanship wasn’t subject to evaluation.

However, the level of completion of the project was its persuasiveness. In order to maximize the persuasiveness of the report, the sample model should be as complete as possible.

There were times when we failed and times when we came to a standstill, but each one of us did what we could to the best of our ability.

Thus, we worked out the details of both the report and the project until the very last moment, and turned them in without incident.

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