44-Chakin shushi and red apples

"Eh, Krish-san, you have a day off today?"

"Oh, I suddenly decided yesterday and forgot to tell you."

I thought that this morning Krish-san was taking it very easy. After drawing water and milking the cows, we had breakfast together and drank tea, but then I noticed that Krish-san didn't put on his armor at his usual time. Was this a good thing?

I thought to myself, 'oh crap!' Wasn't today when Couge promised to help me put up the nets?

If Mr. Krish wasn't working today, then I didn't think I could work on it in secret. I was hoping to surprise him and get a glimpse of his precious smile.

Oh well, I guess it couldn't be helped. Okay, change of plans!

"Umm, Krish-san, I want to show you something. I'm going to take you there, but you have to keep your eyes closed. Don't open your eyes until I say so, okay?"

I wondered what Krish-san's face would look like when he saw all the fruit he couldn't eat? I was really looking forward to it.

I was watering the field, pouting. Krish-san had noticed that I had planted the fruit long ago.

If I thought about it, you could smell the sweet fragrance of the fruit trees from far away, so of course he knew about it.

Right now I was tending to the fields before Couge came over to help. When Couge arrived, Krish-san said he would also help me put up the netting.

"The vegetables from Shinobu's field look delicious. I expect that the fruit will be just as good."

I raised my head when I heard Krish-san's praise and looked at him, who had picked a glossy tomato. "Hehe, you think so?"

Really, I was a simple man. Even if Krish-san praised me a little bit, my mood skyrocketed.

I looked around at the scene in a buoyant mood and saw Krish-san and his partner Blanche in the same peaceful unchanging scene as yesterday.

My family was eating grass wherever they liked, and Blanche was relaxing a little ways away from Brian.

By the way, maybe I should take this time to take a proper look at Blanche.

When I compared the two horses, there was a big difference in their physiques. As one would expect, Blanche's body was strong and muscular since she worked with a knight. She really resembled her owner.

Brian, on the other hand, was not as big, but he had a very nice coat. Brian's owner was me, but he didn't take after me. He was much stronger than his owner, and he's smart enough to take me home when I dozed off, which was always a big help.

Suddenly, Blanche lifted up her head and slowly approached Brian. Since Brian was the only horse in my household, I looked at them with warmth in my heart, thinking that he must be happy to have a friend. As Blanche grew closer, Brian neighed and kicked his hind legs at Blanche.

Fortunately, Blanche avoided the kick, but I turned pale at Brian's sudden outburst.

"What? A fight! Brian, don't be mean!"

"Blanche's been dumped again."

"Hmm?"

While I was in a panic, Krish-san was calmly observing his horse, which was about to be kicked, and I felt something stuck out of place in his words that made me think, "huh?"

"She's a beautiful mare. I can understand Blanche's attraction to her, but she's very high-strung. This is the third time she's almost kicked him like this."

Mare. Mare? What was that word? I'd heard of it. I thought it's a female horse, right?

"Brian, was it a girl? I gave you a boy's name."

"You didn't know?"

"No, I thought it was a boy."

Because from my point of view, Brian was so big and the cart was pulling so hard, so I completely misunderstood.

"I'm sorry, Brian. If I had known, I would have given you a prettier name."

When Brian heard me call his name, he looked at me as if to say, "What?" But then, maybe because he was wary of Blanche behind him, he kicked the ground with his hind leg.

Brian was very masculine, maybe because I gave him a boy's name.

"Shinobu, I'm here to help!!"

My shock that Brian was a girl subsided, and Norn appeared with a big smile on his face, riding in the wagon driven by Couge.

"Oh, Norn came too?"

"When I heard that we were going to harvest the kukri fruit, I couldn't stay still and took the day off. This my first time seeing a kukuri fruit up close. I also bought this as a souvenir. Let's eat it together for lunch."

Norn bought me a loaf of freshly baked bread. The bread, carefully protected in a basket, was still slightly warm and smelled delicious.

"Wow, thanks. I'll make you a sandwich later."

Gennette joined us, and now it was time for us to put up the net. It was reassuring to know that Krish-san would be helping us in addition to Couge.

We started to move to the orchard area behind the house, making a lot of noise.

"Loosen the net a little more. If it's too tight, it'll crush the falling fruit!"

"Is this okay?"

"Yeah, that's about right."

With Gennett-san as the foreman, the work went surprisingly well. Both Krish and Couge, despite their big bodies, were able to climb up the trees quickly and tie the ropes to the branches.

I was impressed with how amazing they were, and Norn said, "That's Couge for you, really cool."

Norn and I were not allowed to participate, so we're watching from a distance where we wouldn't disturb them, but I wished I could have climbed a tree.

I was so excited to climb the tree that as I rolled my arms to warm up, Krish told me not to do it because it was dangerous.

"Alright, that's about it. Krish-sama, shake the branch and see!" Gennett shouted.

"Okay."

When Krish-san grabbed a branch nearby and shook it, a small fruit about the size of the tip of his little finger fell from the tree.

"Wow! Awesome, so many fell down!!"

Couge, who had been netting the apple tree, also came down and we all gathered around the kukri tree.

When I touched the blueberry-looking kukuri, I found that it was wrapped in elastic skin and felt like a filled water balloon.

"It doesn't smell like much, does it?" I said.

"It doesn't have a strong scent when it's wrapped in its skin. Try pressing it with your fingers to release the fruit," Gennett-san told me.

As I put pressure on my fingertips, I heard a popping sound and the juice overflowed, while the scent of rose wafted up.

"Wow, that smells so good!"

What a waste of overflowing juice! As I hurriedly brought it to my mouth, I was struck by the indescribably elegant aroma and taste.

I'd never tasted anything like it before, and it's hard to explain, but it had a really wonderful aroma.

"Really, I've never had this before, but it smells amazing."

"Oh, this taste... The one I had was less fragrant than this one, but freshly harvested kukris are different."

As each of us tasted the ripe kukris and shared our impressions, I focused on Krish-san. His masculine fingertips plucked the kukri and brought it to his mouth, then the skin popped off and the fruit disappeared into his mouth.

When I saw Krish-san's eyes narrow and the edge of his mouth lift up in a smile, I praised myself for not screaming.

I was making a face like when I ate something especially delicious, and I couldn't stop my heart from throbbing. I felt suffocated and my breath caught in my throat, so could only hold my chest to try to suppress this feeling.

"Shinobu, what's wrong?" Norn asked.

Flustered, I quickly said, "I'm fine! I was just impressed by how good it tasted!" and I ate some more fruit to hide my expression. As I was eating, I thought of Krish's face from earlier. When I thought about how he showed me such a happy face after eating the fruit that I grew, I felt like running out of the house, jumping, giggling, and screaming.

I was so excited right now that I couldn't even contain myself!

"Norn, we still have time for lunch, but let's get ready to eat! Let's make a lot of delicious food and eat it together outside. Don't you think it would be fun to cool the harvested fruits in the pond water and serve them on a plate, like a party?"

"Well, that sounds like fun. Since I can't help them with the trees, let's make them something delicious to eat to make up for the work that they are doing."

Okay, I was going to take all this excitement and put it into cooking! I'd recreate that special version of Krish-san's face with my cooking!

I was giggling and Norn hummed as we ran to get the ingredients. First, we had to gather the vegetables from the field!

Sandwiches and French toast with plenty of vegetables in between that are five centimeters thick. Fried chicken and potatoes. I added green beans and yellow pumpkin salad to the pickles I had left over, and the colors became brighter.

We didn't have the Ravi skewers that the Norn liked, but everything looked good enough, didn't it?

I left the sandwiches to Norn, and now I was mass-producing thinly-fried eggs. I spread a thin layer of egg on a hot pan and flipped it over so that the edges didn't break, and the yellow thin egg that cooked like a crepe looked very delicious.

While making sandwiches, Norn glanced at the rice that was about to be cooked. Maybe it's because it looked like that, but Norn didn't seem to like rice.

But Krish and I loved rice, and I wanted to make sure that Norn would love it too. So I was going to make chakin sushi, using the omelet rice that Grandma used to make as a recipe.

If you wrapped rice seasoned with homemade tomato sauce in a thinly-sliced egg, it looked beautiful and hid the form of the rice, so who would worry?

I added the rice to the sautéed onions and chicken and stir-fried it in the tomato sauce. After that, there was a delcious fragrance.

I smiled at Norn, who was curious about what I was doing, and I wrapped a spoonful of tomato rice on top of the thin egg.

If you had plastic wrap, it's easy to make chakin sushi, but if you didn't, there were plenty of other ways to make it.

Tie it up tightly with some pickled leafy greens, and you'd get yourself a bite-sized piece of chakin sushi with an omelet flavor!

"How lovely. It looks almost too good to eat," Norn said.

"Do you think that you could eat this?" I asked Norn.

"Yes! The color is beautiful, and I can't wait to see how it tastes. I'm getting hungry."

"I hope everyone will enjoy it."

I was ready for dessert. Ready to peel and cut up the peaches, and squeeze the oranges for fresh juice. I found out after the pears started to ripen that they were not round pears, but gourd-shaped pears like La France. The flesh was soft and tasty. As for the apple, you had to cut it in the shape of a rabbit.

"It's cute, it looks just like Ravi. Shinobu you are very good with your hands."

From these words, Norn, who was a big fan of Ravi, seemed to like the rabbit apple very much.

I made lemon slices with honey, but that was for Krish-san. I'd serve it after dinner this evening. The lemon flavor was very strong, and I thought it would be delicious.

A lot of time had passed while I was absorbed in cooking, and I was sure the working group was hungry.

"It's ready! Norn, let's carry it."

"Shinobu, I think we made too much. We can't carry it alone."

The food that I had cooked with so much enthusiasm was filling the living room table, and it was a huge amount. Just the portion of fruit was quite a lot, and that alone could probably fill everyone's stomach.

"I'll go get Couge."

"Yes, please."

I tried to lift a plate piled high with fruit, but to my surprise, I couldn't.

Fruits were pretty heavy, weren't they? It's not because I didn't have enough strength in my arms, I swear.

Translator: FrankenWife

Sorry for the lateness! One word: Covid. (Me: I can totally agree TwT)