I Got Transferred in the Middle of a Mountain. In Retaliation, I Chose Amenity over Strength. - Chapter 135

I entered the house, leaving Butler and the other guy behind, then closed the door. Getting attacked at breakfast — Butler sure does have it rough.

Was about to 【Teleport】 when somebody knocked on my door.

「Jean-sama. 」

「Eh, is it fine now? 」

「Yes, it’s finished. Pardon me for the ruckus earlier — but, I believe you could’ve used some other way other than pass through that alley. 」

「I believe fighting in alleys is bad. 」

Ack, a sermon, it’s a sermon.

The guy who had been fighting against Butler with all he got earlier is now lying on the ground… Is it really alright to leave him exposed like that?

Butler’s spirit, the one who looked like an upside down turnip, extended the hem of its leaf-shaped clothes then wrapped it around the fallen man on the alley ground. Well, it looked like clothes, but it was actually part of the spirit’s main body.

I couldn’t find it in myself to sympathize with that guy, given that he came to kill one of my friends, nor do I pity him. Maybe the fact that his head wasn’t facing this way also contributed to this feeling.

The hem rustled and retracted back to its original size — and there was no trace of the man anywhere on the stone pavement, much less blood.

Hoh, so Butler’s spirit is for concealing stuff, huh.

「Normal people would either avoid us once they noticed, or perhaps hide. 」

Butler trying to act like a man with common sense — but sorry to burst your bubble, normal folks don’t fight in alleyways, either, Butler sir.

「Nah, Butler seemed to be taking it easy, so yeah. 」

Plus I just wanted to hurry up and go home so I could make the daifuku.

「… 」

Butler pressed his head and heaved a sigh.

「Oh, yeah, by the way, do you know someone who can negotiate with the merchants and craftsmen on my behalf? Someone tight-lipped, ‘coz you know, I’m just like the way I am. I appreciate it if you know someone in the same line of work who might be able to help me out.」

Preferably someone who can tend to the livestock and do some cleaning and stuff.

I want someone who can work like a steward or something like that. You can even say it’s ‘someone I can throw all the troublesome stuff to’ — although I’m not really that aware about what butlers and stewards normally do in this world.

「Someone who is good at communicating with people, a trustworthy person you can entrust your secrets to, and who could conceal himself at critical moments, is that correct? 」

Noth told me he would be on it, and we parted ways. I successfully 【Teleport】 this time around. Riche rushed at me, and we went to the watermill together to make some shiratamako.

I do a quick check just in case there is rubble or trash that might damage the water wheel, then we open the sluice gate and let the water flow to the wheel. The water in my house is actually clean because of several factors even if it’s flowing from the mountain so I think it’s alright, but it doesn’t hurt to be careful.

Normal water wheels have short planks floating in the short channels from the reservoirs. Large debris tends to get caught in those planks, and there are times when they also had to clean the mud that had hardened after getting swept there, apparently.

What about the Japanese style watermills, I wonder? I don’t remember any reservoirs there, more like fresh water vigorously flowing through the channel. Maybe flow is strong because of the abundant water and the difference in elevation? Or maybe it’s just the excellent structure of the watermill.

There was a program about adjusting the size and angle of the vanes according to the circumstances that I remember watching before. Let’s study that for a bit.

I drain the glutinous rice that I prepared yesterday, then add more water again before pouring the mixture into a stone mortar a little bit at a time. After that, I strain the rice through the cloth, squeeze out the remaining water, and spread it out on a plank to let it dry in the sun.

Riche is frolicking among the flowering grass. Spring is quite a cheerful time, probably because of the blooms; many plants sprout buds during this season.

Since I’m already at the watermill, I decided to mill other types of flour and stock them in 【Storage】. Old school grinding using mortar and pestle is actually enough if all I’m making is for one person, but since it can be stored in 【Storage】 then might as well make a lot.

There’s a certain feeling one can enjoy when making seasonal food from scratch during the time they are in season, but I can’t deny that it can be quite troublesome. I still have tons of things I want to do on my bucket list, so I can just do that when the mood strikes.

I prepare a small saucepan and heat some soy milk. The yuba forms on top, and I eat it right on the spot. This melt-in-mouth goodness is soft and sweet. The yuba I ate in Japan left a paper-like residue in my mouth back then, but this one turned out well.

My condiments of choice for today are sesame, Japanese ginger, nori, and spring onion sprouts. When I take a bite of tofu, the soybean’s gentle aroma spreads inside my mouth, and it tastes heavenly. The blanched edamame wrapped in yuba gave me the crunchy contrast to all that fluffy, soft goodness, and it’s fun eating it.

Freshly made is still the best ~ with that thought, I start boiling the adzuki beans for the daifuku. I stir the beans, careful not to burn them, before turning it into paste. The shiratamako has been dried nicely, and I grind them in the mortar to make them finer.

Adzuki beans come from different places, and although they are all considered as adzuki beans, they differ in color based on where they come from. In general, the higher the quality of adzuki beans produced in Hokkaido, the more purple their color will be when made into bean paste. The larger variety you get from Tamba, Japan are red, while those from China are darker in color.

I made a lot — mass produced, if you will — of bite-sized daifuku, and I added some ichigo (strawberry) daifuku with strawberries peeking out for Ash. These also have bean paste added in them, so maybe it’s better to add strawberries that are slightly sour?

***

「Daifuku… I mean Whyle — why is Whyle here? 」

When I went to distribute the daifuku, Daifuku was sitting on Ash’s lap.

She has that scary face on, but it wasn’t because she’s scared. Rather, it seems she looked like that because she’s kinda afraid of dropping him, so she’s carefully adjusting the angle of her knees. Well, that’s how I see it anyway. Still, I’m quite jealous. I wanna knead that cat.

Daifuku on her lap, Az on her head. The cat and bird seemed harmonious together, but it looked quite hard for Ash.

「He was on the third floor of my house last night, then he went to Retze’s place this morning. You don’t feel sleepy? 」

「Yeah, I’m fine. 」

So what’s different with Sara’s case?

「As for Sara-sama’s situation, I don’t think she was possessed, more like being controlled. 」

「So it’s not because she named him and made a contract with him? 」

「Whyle is just a provisional name, I believe. If there had been a contract, then with the circumstances… I cannot assert definitively that there had been none, given that spirits might gain power for some reason after the making the contract, or else they go berserk after the conditions of the contract weakened. 」

「Heh. 」

The phenomena occurring to a person is at the mercy of the whims of the spirit if it’s just a possession, but for contracts, the phenomena that the human wants are the ones that occur, generally.

「This is quite the rare occurrence, but perhaps, it might be a case of the spirit approaching the person because it wishes to form a contract. 」

「Then, his pick is either Retze or Ash? 」

「Indeed. 」

And so, Daifuku earned a subtle glance from the ‘Seeing’ group.