42-Digging with my dog again

"It's cold! But it feels good!!" I yelled.

The knights weren't here, and Krish-san was also working, so it felt great to be able to work without being watched over by them.

I quickly took off my clothes and poured the water over my head. I'd been wiping myself down since I got injured, so it felt really good to bathe in water for the first time in a while. My head was feeling oily and the bath pleasantly removed that feeling. Being able to move my body freely was the best!

When I looked at the sun tanned parts of my body, I saw that the boundary between being tanned and untanned had almost completely faded. During my medical treatment, my tan faded. It seemed that I had lost muscle too, and that my poor body had gotten even thinner. I tried to flex my arm and make a bicep, but it didn't look like much. Maybe this was because I was used to seeing Krish-san's biceps. My muscles were really flabby.

"Oh no my bicep is gone. Just when I thought I was getting a bit macho," I said regretfully.

Was there any way to build muscle quickly? When I was in my original world, there was protein. What was it made from again?

I'd heard bodybuilders eat chicken breast. I wondered if I should get some too.

"Chicken huh? Man, I really want to eat chicken wings."

I also missed the fast food chicken that I used to get after school. I thought I'd make a chicken dish tomorrow. I was very happy with my menu for the next two nights. It's a lot of work to come up with a menu, isn't it? My Grandma used to worry about what to make for lunch as soon as she finished eating breakfast, and then would worry about dinner while making lunch. If you're alone, you could eat whatever you wanted, but if you had other people to eat with, you couldn't have the same menu every day.

"Hmm chicken nanban would be a good meal."

I thought the combination of sweet vinegar and tartar sauce was exquisite. I was sure it would be delicious with more shredded cabbage. My mind was occupied with the food. Krish-san, would you please tell me how delicious it was? I couldn't wait for them to reopen the fields and eat the delicious vegetables we grew together.

Because of my injury I'd been putting off trying to make rice bowls. I was thinking about using the soy-sauce-like seasoning that Couge made at his restaurant to make recipes like katsudon, vegetable tempura rice bowls, or oyakodon . I wondered if Krish-san would like to eat those kinds of dishes.

Yes, rice. We had a lot of rice. Actually, when I was having fake constipation, Krish-san asked me if there was anything I wanted to eat, and without really thinking about it, I said I wanted to eat rice.

After I said it, I remembered Norn's reaction when he saw the rice, and I thought he would be disgusted by it, but surprisingly, Krish-san was very interested.

I told Krish-san, "Norn thought the rice looked like an insect's eggs, so he was really afraid to eat it."

"Sure, it does look like it, but I've had the chance to eat a lot of different things during my travels. One time I was stranded in the mountains for a long time during a storm, and I ate grass roots because I couldn't replenish my food supply. There were also many other things that would make Shinobu scream if you heard them. Compared to that, eating dog food is cute. So, how do you cook this?"

I taught him how to polish rice, and in his spare time, Krish-san worked hard to polish rice and make risotto for me. I thought he was very enthusiastic about milling rice, but apparently he enjoyed seeing the white rice come out of the husk. When we ate the risotto made with the finished rice together, he liked the slightly sweet taste of the rice and ended up milling a lot of rice for us. Krish-san was also impressed that the dried rice was light and easy to store, so it seemed like he was seriously thinking about using it for food for his next expedition.

I was very happy that Krish-san liked what I think was delicious. There's something nice about eating together and being able to say to each other, "Isn't this delicious?" It made cooking fun.

All right, let's grow lots of delicious vegetables and have Krish-san eat lots of delicious meals!

"Pochi, Pochi-kun. It's time to work. Come plow the field with me!"

Pochi, who had been sniffing the hole in the ground where the giant weed had grown, looked up with his ears perked up.

"I'm counting on you, Pochi. Good luck."

"Woof woof!

I rubbed his face and he looked at me as if to reply, "Leave it to me!"

When I woke up in the morning to fetch water, I saw that all the giant weeds were gone, and that they had decayed and disappeared. Everything that used to grow around my house was gone, the soil was bare, and the only evidence of their growth were lumpy holes in the ground.

When I first came here to start a garden, there were weeds all over the place and I had to start by cutting them down, but this time I didn't have to do that. Thankfully I think I could start planting vegetables sooner than I thought.

Since it's a good opportunity, I think I'd plant fruit trees on the land leftover from making my vegetable field. Wouldn't it be great to have an orchard that surrounds the house? We could have all the fruit we want!

"Oh, an earthworm."

The soil that Pochi was digging up occasionally had pink wriggling earthworms. I felt sorry for them, so I put them back in the ground.

I walked behind Pochi, sprinkling water on the soil and covering earthworms with soil whenever I found one that was wiggling around.

"Pochi, you're doing great. Thank you for all your hard work."

After covering an area of soil as large as the original field, Pochi was out of breath; he was probably exhausted because he was digging up stones. My hands and feet were also sore from fetching water back and forth so many times.

That's enough for today. Tomorrow we'd plant the seeds. I'd already decided what I was going to plant first, hadn't I? I hoped they'd grow up tasty.

As I changed out of my muddy clothes, I took another bath in the water and carefully removed the dirt from my fingernails. I was going to be cooking now, so I needed to make sure I was clean.

The day seemed to go by so fast today. When I was lying in bed, I thought it was just past noon, but now it's evening. If I didn't hurry up, Krish-san would be back.

"Hurry up, hurry up!"

I didn't even have time to wipe my hair after taking a bath, so I hurried back home, and shook my head to remove the dripping water.

Krish-san came home just as the sun had completely set and the stars were twinkling. I wished my house was closer to the town. It's an hour by cart from the city. It must be a burden for Krish-san to commute from here.

"Welcome back Krish-san!! Dinner is ready!"

"I'm back. Did you overdo it today?"

"No, I'm okay. What about you? Aren't you tired?" I asked. "My house is a long way from the town, so it's hard, right?"

"It's not a big deal at this distance because my Blanche is a fast runner."

Blanche was Krish-san's favorite horse. She's a beautiful horse, a bit bigger than Brian, with crisp black eyes. Blanche let me ride her during the luminescent moss festival.

If it's Blanche, I thought she might be able to carry him from town to home in no time.

"It smells good," Krish-san said.

"Hehe, I made you some stew. I'll get it ready, but in the meantime, why don't you go change?"

"Yeah, I'll go do that then. Huh?" Krish-san stopped to look at the laundry that had been folded and placed on the couch. "You did the laundry? Sorry about that."

"I did it on the side. I also had my own laundry to do," I replied.

"Thank you, you saved me," Krish-san said.

Krish-san went to the spare room and unfastened the clasp of his armor. I had an unused room in my house, and that's where I decided I was going to put Krish-san's luggage. "Hehe, I got a thank you from you."

I was so happy that I couldn't help myself and grinned broadly. I slapped myself lightly to fix my expression, as I put the soup in a bowl.

I wasn't really aware of it when I was injured, but when I was cleaning today and saw Krish-san's luggage, I was so happy and a little embarrassed when I thought, "We're really living together."

This cohabitation was only temporary, but I was still happy to be around him.

As I was setting the food on the table, Krish-san, who had taken off his armor, came out with a towel. "I'm going to take a bath first."

"The water in the pond is cold. Should I boil some water?"

The cool water in the pond felt good in the daytime because the sun iwas sizzling, but it's probably too cold for a nighttime dip.

"No, I'm used to it. I'll be right back."

True to his word, Krish-san came back with a refreshed face just as I was finishing laying out the entire meal. "This is delicious," he said.

"Really? I'm glad."

Krish-san, who ate the meat with a big mouthful, praised me and I was so happy. I had simmered the stew for a long time, so the meat was tender and soaked in flavor.

I thought it would be lonely with just bread, so I changed the menu to something like pizza with mayonnaise, which he also seemed to like.

It felt strange. I made this food the day of the luminescent moss festival, but at that time I hadn't even seen Krish-san's face. At that time, I was hoping that one day we would get to know each other well enough to have dinner together. The Krish-san I imagined at that time was still wearing his armor, but now he was sitting in front of me with his bare face.

Krish-san's mouth broke into a smile as he took a bite of the pizza, and I could tell that he thought the meal I made was delicious.

"Shinobu, let me see your hand."

"My hand? Here you go." I wiped the oil from my fingertips with a cloth and held it out.

Krish-san looked at my hands intently. "They're so small."

"?"

Krish looked at me strangely, turning my hand over and touching my fingers. "It's amazing how such a delicious dish can come from these tiny hands. If I were to make the same dish with the same ingredients, it wouldn't taste as good. I wonder what's the difference?"

"The risotto Krish-san made for me was also very tasty. You even peeled the potatoes so smoothly."

I guessed I'd been trained during my trips to my grandparent's house, and I was good at what I do. If you thought my food was particularly delicious, it's probably because I made it with the intention of making you happy Krish-san. My grandma said that it's important to put your heart and soul into your cooking.

While I was washing the dishes with Krish-san's help, I couldn't stop myself from yawning loudly. I hadn't worked in the fields in a long time, and I had cleaned the house so hard that I was really sleepy. The fifth time I yawned, my eyes started to tear from my tiredness, and Krish-san carried me upstairs to my bedroom wrapped up in his arms like I were a child.

"Krish-san, I'm still cleaning up," I protested.

"I'll take care of the rest, Shinobu. You must be tired."

I thought, "But, Krish-san, you must be tired after working all day."

"But... I..."

"It's fine. Good night, Shinobu."

I knew I had to finish cleaning up, but when Krish-san put me down on the bed, I was just so sleepy.

As soon as he pulled the covers over me, I fell asleep.

Translator: FrankenWife