Translator: Adam Seacord

Editor: Weasalopes

「Fold it. Mix it. Twirl it. Fold it. Mix it. Twirl it.」

It was time for today's snack. As Aearis waited with antic.i.p.ation for the sweet of the day, some weird looking powder and water was presented to her by a sketchy old lady in a witch's costume.

「Mix it and twirl it, it's Mixytwirly.」

Aearis watched speechless as the old woman dissolved the powder into water and knead it into a paste, singing an off-putting song. The mysterious interjection of strange sound effects only added to the utter sketchiness of it all.

「Mix it and twirl it, mmm, so good! It's Mixytwirly!」

With a strangely enthusiastic declaration, the woman put the gel into her mouth. Aearis was overwhelmed with questions, and she didn't know where to start. Who was this old woman, anyway? What was this little sketch for? Most importantly, Aearis wonder if she could survive ingesting that strangely colored gel-like substance.

While she had a mountain of questions and interjections to offer, Aearis was brought up with manners, and was over all a quiet child. Unfortunately, she couldn't really tell whether she could say anything or not.

「What in the world are you two doing…?」

Aearis was saved from her frozen-from-confusion state by Makoto, who had just returned to form an outing. Hearing that there was a sweet, Mikoto had decided to stop by and join them, just in time to witness Obaba mixing and twirling. Rayna (who had been with Makoto the whole time since the previous night) wasn't sure how to react to this scene.

「What do ya mean, what? It's Mixytwirly.」

Hiros.h.i.+ (who had been providing the strange sound effects) replied nonchalantly. Mixytwirly, for those who may be unaware, is the most popular of "educational treats" (a category of snacks that utilize chemical reactions) where Hiros.h.i.+ and Haruna came from. Its texture was similar to that of mousse, and it really wasn't as sketchy as it looked, but the gimmick of mixing a strange powder with water just caused a lot of people to be skeptical about it.

「Yeah, I know that. Why Mixytwirly, though? You even dressed Tetsuya up for this?」

「'Cus it's a traditional j.a.panese educational treat. Duh. This is a crucial experience to understandin' j.a.pan.」

「How is that…」

An acceptable answer!? Makoto wanted to shake Hiros.h.i.+ for an hour or so, but all she could do was just slump down, exhausted. Hiros.h.i.+ placed the strange powder in front of Makoto, too. Of course, Tatsuya had been performing the commercial for Mixytwirly, and dressing the part. The Mixytwirly Witch, as she is called, has a strange backstory that gives her a hobby of mixing powder into paste.

「…Why, oh why, am I eating Mixytwirly in Wulls…?」

「Mizoguchi-san, don't you miss j.a.panese cuisine, yet?」

「Just call me Makoto. In fact, if you call me just Mizoguchi or by my full name, or Tiger Cannon or something, I'll crush you into paste.」

A certain fighting game had been revived during her teenage years, which lead to Makoto's name being mocked continuously by those around here. As a result, Makoto hates her last name.

「Also, I don't miss Mixytwirly. Don't you feed this to Elle. It looks so unhealthy.」

「You got it twisted. There ain't anythin' in here that's bad for ya.」

Makoto and the old woman (Tatsuya) stare at Hiros.h.i.+, shocked. Chuckling, he explained:

「I used the coagulation process of milk. And I didn't put it in this time, but the color-changin' ones use the same trick as Litmus paper, essentially. Lotta natural pigments change color by reactin' to acidic or base substances.」

「Really?」

「Yep. Like the pigments of purple cabbage, for starters. You can read about that in textbooks, even. Hydrandrea, too. The petal, or the calyx, changes color based on the ground's acidity. And I don't remember which fruit it was, but you can drip lemon juice onto a jello of it and change its color. Not all ingredients are on a neutral pH to begin with, either.」

「Still, you went through so much trouble to recreate such a… mediocre thing.」

「Why not? You gotta have this much playfulness to make it through life, ya know?」

Makoto frowns at this. She could see Hiros.h.i.+ (or Hiros.h.i.+ and Haruna, rather), derail themselves and never look back from their "playfulness." Hiros.h.i.+ especially, had a specific talent for derailment that was quite different from the way a conversation between girls could derail, for example. Worse, this man was one of the top craftsman in the world, giving him a monopoly on resources. While Mio still had top notch craftsmans.h.i.+p (several notches below Hiros.h.i.+, of course), she was unfortunately this sheep's apprentice. Which made it unlikely that Mio would stop him when he runs straight off the rails.

「…Wow. Wow wow wow.」

As Makoto was contemplating how to retort, she could hear Aearis in a strange tone of amazement.

「…Elle. It's beautiful that you're pure. But do you have to be so trusting?」

Makoto commented on Aearis, who was twirling the powder with s.h.i.+mmering eyes. Makoto was losing grip on the situation, fast. In fact, she didn't expect Tatsuya to hop on their derailing train. When they had spoken the day before, he had been the one to bring Hiros.h.i.+ and Haruna back on course. The betrayal. What reinforced her headache was that Aearis, who usually kept the train in-line, had a tendency of being kidnapped into derailment when it came to food.

「Tatsuya. You just had to fuel fire to the flames, didn't you?」

「Well, when they ask you "What would Obaba do?"… You know.」

Makoto sighed once more, and she was running out of them. Come to think, this was a man who put real effort into roleplaying back in the game. She should have known he wouldn't be able to resist taking part in such an opportune gag.

「Ya don't look too happy.」

「You guys were hustling hard because you wanted the workshop, right?」

「Yeah.」

「And the first thing you make in that workshop is a Mixytwirly…?」

「That's life for ya.」

Another blow of confident nonchalance from Hiros.h.i.+, perhaps aided by the plentiful distance between him and Makoto. It crossed her mind to approach him, but the entire thing seemed too trivial to make her want to exploit his detriment. Besides, Rayna had done that not too long ago. Makoto taking on Rayna as a roommate would have been all for naught if she went on and did the same.

Seeing that Hiros.h.i.+ knew all this in his jestering, Makoto had to reaknowledge that Hiros.h.i.+ was more durable, or less of a man. In either case, she saw him as someone difficult to handle.

「Fine… I'll take it for today…」

Makoto said, and began mixing the powder. She clumsily followed instructions to mix them together, and grunted at the paste showing a strange reaction. Haruna and Mio returned as she was twirling, and exclaimed:

「Oh, I remember these!」

「I've always wanted to do this!」

And began mixing with glee, which exhausted Makoto further. The taste of her first Mixytwirly in several years… was so-so, at best.

For arresting the slave traders, Hiros.h.i.+ and Haruna had earned a large, live-in workshop that belonged to Merizza. More accurately, they were renting it for free. By the way, most nations including Farlane had outlawed slave possession and trading, so they received some bounty from the government, as well.

Apparently, the building had gone three years without a lease, and they were considering taking it down entirely to build a different building on the lot, but in exchange for the occasional free labor and product, they decided to rent it out to Hiros.h.i.+ and Haruna. The free labor clause was proposed by Hiros.h.i.+ and Haruna, and there was a cap to the scale of each request and the frequency of requests (on paper, at least).

The very first request was for two hundred uncla.s.sified healing potions (with ingredients provided already), because they clearly knew that Haruna had been practicing Potion Making. Truth be told, for a workshop this size, they would have barely made enough for a month's worth of property tax from an order like this.

Still, it wasn't like Hiros.h.i.+ and Haruna had buyers for their potions. No skin off their back if they take the uncla.s.sified potions Haruna made for practice in lieu of tax. In any nation, the buying and selling of potions required a special license, and selling them on a food stand, for example, was out of the question. Any civilian (including adventurers) generally could only purchase potions from a licensed shop or the Adventurers a.s.sociation. There are some exceptions, when Hiros.h.i.+ gave Kurt the antidote or whenever they use the potions they crafted on their own, for example, where personal gifting and usage are accepted, albeit in an unspoken manner.

If Merizza had gifted them the property, they would have had to earn enough to pay taxes. But, if they were to sell the uncla.s.sified potions (which the a.s.sociation didn't buy out) they would have to sell them to Merizza anyway, and two hundred wouldn't cut it in that case. Also, they were renovating the building this time around, but the building was going to be maintained by Merizza to a certain degree, free of charge. Hiros.h.i.+ and Haruna were way in the black, all in all. Merizza didn't mind the lack of rental income, either, since she could take advantage of Hiros.h.i.+'s outrageous craftsmans.h.i.+p somewhat.

Needless to say, there was a push and pull behind the scenes, which should never have took place between a merchant and adventurers under any normal circ.u.mstances, where each side strove to increase the profits of the other party.

「I only got two hands, so, what should we start on?」

Hiros.h.i.+ started, after everyone had settle from moving and purchasing the bare necessities. On a side note, the table they were sitting at now was a large one left behind in the dining hall of the workshop.

「What do you mean?」

「Should we be prioritizin' equipment makin', like a furnace, loom, and workbench, or should we start with our day-to-day stuff, startin' with the kitchen?」

Haruna had to think about this. The other members couldn't make a snap decision, either.

「Mio-chan, how much crafting can you do?」

「She can make furniture just fine, but I don't think she's up to addin' or renovatin' a buildin' this size. Can't go too wild with machinery, either.」

「I started intermediate Carpentry. I can design and build a house that's a tiny bit better than a log cabin. As for Tool Building, I can't modify a furnace or anything like that.」

Haruna was nodding in response.

「I think you'll use the kitchen the most, Toudou-san. Don't ya want a smart kitchen sorta thing?」

「I don't need that much, but it does feel pretty inconvenient compared to what we had.」

「Then why don't we start there. And if we're gonna toy with waterworks, you want me to fix up the bath, too?」

Hearing Hiros.h.i.+'s proposition, the women in the room gave him back an intense look. In Farlane, where bathing had been relatively normalized, a bath was a rather important piece of a house.

「Look at y'all's faces, I better dig deep. Should I make it big enough so all the girls can take a bath at once?」

「It's always nice to have a big bath.」

「And I better set it up so the bath can be drawn mighty quick.」

With that, Hiros.h.i.+ whipped up a sketch. A rather large bathtub large enough for ten, and about ten sets of faucets and shower heads. While their current bath was by no means meager, it certainly wasn't large enough for something like this.

「How are you going to build this? Our bathroom isn't this big right now.」

「I'm gonna change the boiler to a magic-powered one, so I think I can manage with that s.p.a.ce combined. Of course, we gotta expand the changin' room, too, so the layout of the place is gonna s.h.i.+ft a bit.」

「That sounds like a big job. Can you handle all that?」

「I'll get it done in three days.」

「You can get it done in three days, huh?」