Chapter 204.1 - The Secret of Sugar
In the blink of an eye, one week had passed since living in the school tower.
So far, aside from the Takanashi pants incident, there was no other particular incident. The life necessities had already been gathered enough, the same went for raw materials.
Regarding our meals, ever since Yamada went out fishing, we decided to go out regularly to the beach area with a fixed hunting team. We would get tired of meat if we kept having it for our meals, and since we're Japanese, we naturally love fish.
Moreover, under Mei-chan's suggestion, we started pseudo-animal husbandry.
Catching birds like dodos or chickens in the resort area was for their eggs.
Moreover, by catching jaja in the historical ruin, we could get fresh milk with milker.
The fairy plaza of the resort area was surrounded by a man-made fortress. It was a perfect place for us to keep the jaja and sea chicken.
Chairman of animal husbandry: Futaba Meiko
Vice chairman of animal husbandry: Yamada Genki
The job of the newly formed animal husbandry committee was to look after the livestock.The reason Mei-chan was chosen as the chairman was that she was the only one who had knowledge of rearing animals.
As for Yamada, it was simply because he often went to the resort area to fish with his newly gained fishing pole during his free time.
And while I was wondering if it was okay to leave this matter to Yamada, he turned out to be quite enthusiastic about it.
Since we were only using one exploration team now, we could divide the manpower for the other jobs properly to further increase the quality of our life in the school tower while at the same time getting proper rest.
After various twists and turns, everyone finally started to get used to this life of cohabitation.
And speaking of our real problem at hand, it would be researching the safest way to subjugate Yamata no Orochi, and the fact that Takanashi's work was progressing at snail's pace.
Regarding Yamata no Orochi, I stationed my 『Twin Shadow』 to keep a watch on it 24/7, but surprisingly enough, it didn't move at all from its place.
It kept itself shut inside its nest 24/7 and never came out at all, not even for a stroll. It seemed it wouldn't come out of its nest unless a foreign enemy like us approached it.
Instead, the gargoyles were flaying all around the wasteland. We met them along the way to the rocky mountain.
On the other hand, these gargoyles didn't have any special meaning at all, they're just a wandering mob. Aside from them, there were no other living creatures in this wasteland. I did spot some bugs, but that didn't count okay.
Those gargoyles just wandered around on a whim with no particular reason; my shadow was discovered just the other day.
I realized when I woke up in the morning that my connection with my shadow had been severed. It seemed my shadow was killed when I was asleep.
For mining the light stone in the desert area, I might have to pull out Gargoyle Rem from guard duty. The gargoyle I left over there might get discovered sooner or later.
Well, it wasn't a big deal even if she got destroyed since I could just send another gargoyle.
But I guess I wouldn't find anything important even if I kept observing the mine.
I tried to see just to be sure, but there really was nothing interesting.
The result of my observation was zilch. On the other hand, there was no problem on Yamata no Orochi's side. Just like during the jungle tower, we would be in deep shit if flocks of gargoyles attacked the school tower.
Thus, because there was no particular problem, we had some leeway for now.
Everyone in the class was smiling happily as they enjoyed the after-meal dessert.
Three days after Mei-chan prepared her special dessert, in other words, today, our dining table had become very rich.
The menu was yogurt honey made from jaja milk topped with various kinds of edible fruit.
「U~hm, delicious! Sweets are the best!」
「I'm not too fond of sweets, but I'm really grateful for partaking such a valuable food.」
Unlike the Class Rep who ate elegantly, Natsukawa-san ate the sweets with a beaming smile on her face. Even so, the chef was really happy to see Natsukawa-san eating happily.
Yup, girls love sweets after all.
Even Souma Sakura was smiling happily as if her usual hysteria was a mere illusion, and Randou-san and Co were also enjoying the sweets.
Well, it's not like the girls were the only ones who enjoyed the sweets.
「A~h, sweets are the be~st.」
「Mere honey can actually produce such a sweet taste.」
「Well, this sweetness is normal.」
「So yummy.」
The Totem Pole Trio was chattering as they enjoyed the dessert. Yamada was completely focused on the dessert, it was such a warm sight.
Even Tendou-kun was sitting properly to eat along with us.
Man, the power of sweets united our hearts. The sweets tasted even sweeter than usual because of this harsh dungeon life.
I had been eating the sweets since Mei-chan made them for the first time back in the resort area, but only now did I realize that it was quite a luxury in this kind of place.
Fuu, I guess this dessert was the perfect way to end the day.
Amidst such euphoria…
「… Kotaro-kun, come here.」
Mei-chan whispered to me with an extremely serious look on her face.
「Okay, let's go out for now.」
Mei-chan's expression was like the one that she wore whenever a monster raided our camp, or when fighting against powerful foes. In short, this was no joking matter, an emergency beyond an emergency.
I braced myself, preparing for the worst situation as I followed Mei-chan to leave the dining room.
「What’s the matter, Mei-chan?」
「We are running out of honey.」
I had literally prepared for the worst when Mei-chan called me.
And yet, the situation turned out to be far more serious than I expected.
Unsweetened dessert wasn't dessert.
And the only thing that could satisfy our sweet tooth was the honey. We needed something sweet which was different from fruits.
「How much is left?」
「Not enough to make enough desserts for everyone.」
「The heck, not even one week…」
When everyone in the school tower gathered in the class meeting, Mei-chan displayed her full prowess as the lunch-in-charge and prepared honey dango during dinner the next day.
Today would be the third day, the day for serving honey yogurt, but maybe everyone had already guessed when they saw the sweet that came out.
But, even Shimokawa, part of the hunting team, had not found it.
He and his team had yet to find a beehive since the start of the hunt.
In short, the honey we used now was the one I had stocked up before. Rather, the one I found long before arriving in this area.
「Just in case, I can prepare just mine and Kotaro-kun's portion.」
「What a bad girl you are, Futaba.」
「Not as bad as you, Shaman-sama.」
Currently, Mei-chan had hidden the honey using the potion bottle and placed it inside the treasure box which had always been carried by Arachne Rem. In the worst situation, it would only last for half a month for both of us.
「Anyhow, everyone is enjoying the dessert, so let's start a full-blown exploration of beehive from tomorrow.」
And don't forget to gather the fruits whose sweetness is on par with honey.
When it came to the hunting team, I reckoned we should send two teams for foraging the fruit. Naturally, Takanashi had a mountain of alchemy-related jobs waiting for her. But the sweets couldn't wait until we stocked enough.
Thus, come the next day, every one of us, the members of Classes 2-7 gathered in the resort area.
「Now let's go! FOR TOMORROW SWEETS!」
The one who bravely led us was Natsukawa-san.
She had the sweetest tooth among us. Thus, she was even more fired up compared to normal dungeon capture.
「May it be a good harvest.」
「Yeah, it's more comfortable than the usual hunting.」
The fruit hunt was left to Shimokawa's hunting team.
Since today's team composition was disregarding all kinds of balance, everyone went with their usual team.
Totem Pole Trio, Yamada, Nakajima, and Himeno, were basically back to their old team.