Jujutsushi Wa Yuusha Ni Narenai

「I think it's time to make liquor.」

「Liquor huh… I think that's a nice idea.」

Mei-chan readily agreed with a smile on her face when I tried to make that suggestion during one of our idle chatter inside the clandestine room.

Since how my deciphering the ancient language hardly made any progress, I felt the need for a change of pace.

「I've already considered that option.」

We were fooling around like idiots in the resort area of the deserted island without caring a sh*t about dungeon capture, but we still couldn't brew liquor. Starting with honey, lemon, we only went as far as making juice with available fruits.

「Now that we have more people, there might be a demand for it.」

「Yeah, some high school students have already tasted sake before adulthood after all.」

The adults would be enraged if they heard our remark, alas, they would have also drunk liquor once or twice during their high school era. They might have used excuses such as, "It's just barley juice".

Somehow, I had been uselessly serious in that regard. It was more because I had no interest in such things though. In my case, I rather use my money to buy a light novel than waste it on buying liquor.

Well, even if I tried to buy it, the cashier would stop me due to my appearance. And I don't think excuses such as, "I'm running an errand" would work either, right?

「I see, that's great, Kotaro-kun.」

It wasn't a big deal though. The hurdle of garnering praise from Mei-chan was too low, it was like I was being spoiled by her.

「What about you, Mei-chan?」

「I have tasted it… A little bit.」

「A~h, you can't handle it, huh!」

「Yo-You're mistaken. I just heard that there's delicious sake and also a lot of food…but we don't know if it'll be delicious without sake!」

Is she referring to the snack that goes well with sake? Is she referring to those marriage thingies? There are too many difficult words related to wine*.

[*TN: Marriage here is a wine-related term]

「Meaning that you understand the taste of liquor.」

Whether it was delicious or not, the judgment was not up to me who had never had any liquor. In the first place, my childish tongue might not even be able to tell the taste of delicious liquor.

「The world of liquor is deep, I'm just a beginner.」

Meaning, you're pretty much addicted to that profound world while still a high school student. As expected of Mei-chan, always surpassing my expectation.

「Alas, you have far more experience and knowledge in that field than me, I'll leave the sake brewing to you, Mei-chan.」

「Okay, but I've no experience in making liquor, so don't expect too much okay.」

And then, exactly two hours after Mei-chan said that…

「――I've made it. This is liquor.」

She brought back a reddish-purple liquid in a cup.

It had the sweetness of the fruit which blended perfectly with the bitter aftertaste. But, it wasn't just bitter, there was a kind of unique aftertaste mixed between a sour and astringent taste.

Honestly, it wasn't that tasty.

That was my first impression of wine.

「How can you make wine so easily?」

Since there was no rice or wheat in this dungeon, the only available material for liquor was fruit. And even with those fruits, we should be limited to making cider. Alas, the representative of the fruit liquor wasn't cassis orange… It was wine.

To begin with, we could harvest grape-like fruit in the resort area. Since the one we found over there was dubbed by Mei-chan as yamabudou (crimson glory vein [grape]), I decided to call it yamabudou too.

「The 『Witch's Kettle』 is really convenient.」

Even I, the owner of the skill, could only marvel at Mei-chan's remark since I could only use it, not utilizing it as skillfully as Mei-chan.

「I'm really glad that I learnt how to control fermentation during the experiment in making fish sauce.」

「 I had no idea it could be used like that though…」

Fermentation is a phenomenon that won't happen without yeast and yet… It was possible to accelerate fermentation by making the yeast more active. Honestly, I had no idea if I could replicate such a feat.

I guess this was the huge difference between Mei-chan who understood the fermentation process word-by-word and me who only knew how to make simple stew or grilled dish. I couldn't replicate her feat without proper understanding. In short, it was similar to magic.

「This is it, the fermentation might be enough!」

「This is awesome, Mei-chan, you can use the kettle way better than me.」

Mei-chan was in a good mood since her liquor brewing turned out pretty well. Okay then, it's not like I'm going to get drunk from wine tasting anyway.

「Next is white wine, sweet and salty flavour… And cider made from apple-like fruit…」

Since Mei-chan had already turned into pro-liquor-maker-mode, I quickly made another new kettle for her. This was the only thing I could do for her. Futaba liquor maker was open for business.

The night quickly turned into a tasting assembly.

「Come in, three drunken musketeers!」

「Three drunken musketeers?」

「Self-proclaimed as one of the thugs in the school, since you smoke you surely drink too, Tendou Ryuuichi!」

「Oh shut up already, Momokawa.」

Tendou-kun was properly perched in his seat, albeit fed up.

「One of the girls has surely tasted liquor before, Randou Kyouko!」

「Eh, how did I end up in this place too? Momokawa, are you by chance drunk?」

「I'm not drunk. I've a skill called 『Vessel of Poison』that negates the effects of poison. Too ba~d, I'm not dead dru~nk!」

「Woow, this guy is drunk for sure.」

Ah, stop shaking my shoulders, Randou-san. My head is spinning.

Perhaps my 『Vessel of Poison』 stopped alcohol poisoning, but it didn't prevent me from getting drunk. Wine, surprisingly, has a high degree of alcohol.

Since Mei-chan and I had sampled all the prototypes that we were going to drink tonight, the total amount sampled was quite a lot.

「And since you two have a boyfriend in college, you naturally would have had a taste of liquor too right, JuryMary!」

「You're starting to spout nonsense now!」

「I've told you right!」

Eh, are they just making an appeal to Tendou-kun? Trying to impress him as innocent girls who have never associated with men before, huh?

「What's with that look?」

「Don't look down on us, Momokawa~」

I was just telling the truth, but perhaps because they guessed it would give a bad impression, JuryMary combi sandwiched me between them. Honestly, it felt like I was about to ascend to heaven.

「A~h, please stop, dear custome~r, please sto~p, a~h, dear cursome~r.」

「Shut up~.」

「This drunkard.」

「Let go of him slowly, who do you think will look after him if he vomits?」

Worry not, I shall not stoop to a disgrace such as vomiting during my first time drinking liquor. It was so close just now, but that was absolutely just my imagination.

「――Anyhow, call the three drunken musketeers.」

「The three is actually four though.」

「Why are they called three instead of four then?」

「D'Artagnan, the protagonist isn't a part of the three musketeers.」

I-I see… That was embarrassing since I only vaguely remember the content of the movie I saw in my childhood. It's something like the four heavenly kings is actually composed of five people— it was a rare event, but it did exist.

Anyway, the four I called this time were members of Tendou Yankee team.

It was only for a short time, but they did take good care of me during that time. That's why I wanted to keep a good relationship with them after this and chose them as the first ones to taste the finished product.

「Looking at the current Momokawa, he's definitely drunk right now. Well, since that's the case, toriaezu nama*!」

[*TN: catchphrase when drinking in Izakaya, means beer please!]

「Cassis Orange for me.」

「Fuzzy Navel for me.」

「Mei-chan, four orders for red wine~.」

I ignored the orders of our dear customers to finish the sampling quickly.

Since we had prepared everything, we treated our quartet of three musketeers with a lot of red wine made from yamabudou.

And by the way, we were not in the dining room but the clandestine room on the 5th floor of the school tower. We kept the fact that we were brewing liquor a secret for the time being. The public moral committee would definitely make a ruckus about this, not to mention that the vice-president of the said committee was a member of the quartet of three musketeers too.

「Don't expect too much from its taste, this is a trial product after all.」

After giving them a reminder, the four of them then tasted the wine in their cup.

Ah, Tendou-kun was the only one who sniffed before drinking it.

「――Yeah, it's not that delicious. Alas, being able to make it this far under this condition is amazing in its own way, right?」

I heaved a sigh of relief upon hearing Tendou-kun's praise.

It seems he did have the experience of wine tasting.

「Well, you would all have different opinions, right?」

===

THE NEW PROJECT:

Journey of The Childhood Friend Who Got Betrayed by Sword Saint

The Protagonist of Isekaied Story With Cheat And Harem Has No Idea That All Of The Heroines Has Already Been Stolen By Me~Urgh, My Stomach Is Killing Me~

(~’.’)~Advance Chapter Available in Fox18 too!~(‘.’~)

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