Translator Corner
Minasan Oidemasu! This is Yukkuri demasu!
Sorry for being late…
Once again, my plan get heavily delayed due to a vicious RL component
called: work schedule.
I had secured an April leave for myself, so I will concentrate on it. Until
then, prepare for infrequent chapter release…
*sigh*
Also thanks for the donation, KH-san, your donation will be used to secure 30 cups of coffee enough for 3 nights (I am a coffee addict), for the weekend translation marathon.
Also thanks for the donation, KH-san, your donation will be used to secure 30 cups of coffee enough for 3 nights (I am a coffee addict), for the weekend translation marathon.
This time its Eira’s attack!
Prepare yourself Kazura!
DISCLAIMER: There is no guarantee that my translation is 100%
correct. Please correct me if I was wrong.
Author:
すずの木くろ (Susunokikuro)
Translator:
Yukkuri Oniisan
Editor, Proofreader:
TheDefend
QA:
Chase
Chapter 76: Late Night Tea Party
Later that same day at midnight.
In a spacious room that had just been granted to her 3
days ago, Eira lied down on the bed.
Eira’s room can be called as a 16 tatamis[1]
wide room in the Japanese standard, for a room assigned to a servant, its wide was
above the standard.
The first-class carpet that had been spread out on the
floor, the bed, the tables and every other prepared furniture was obviously of excellent
elegant quality.
Inside the pitch dark room, Eira was closing her eyes
and lied down motionlessly for a moment, but suddenly she get up in an abrupt
manner.
「(I can’t sleep……)」
Eira made a deep sigh as she recalled the situation
she was appointed into and was worried to her wits end.
Three days ago, Zirconia had personally ordered her, 「Make Lieze and Kazura end up together」, it was an order that she
reluctantly undertook, and even after 3 days had passed, Eira still couldn’t make
any move.
During these three days, Eira was accompanying Lieze
and Kazura, as they visited the grain fields each day.
The times Eira ever meets with Kazura was when they
depart to and return from the grain fields, and then at every breakfast, lunch
and dinner time.
When Eira met with Kazura, Lieze was always together
with him, so it was vanishingly improbable for Eira to be alone with Kazura.
Until now, Eira never joined their conversations, even
once. She stood by in waiting behind both of them like a servant, silently, in perpetuity.
So basically, even to deepen her interaction with
Kazura, the opportunity for this was nonexistent.
In the current situation, where only business like
words were exchanged between them, naturally there wasn’t anything that she
could do to somehow hitch Lieze and Kazura together.
In the plan that Eira first formulated, though it
might take times, one way or another she would get friendly with Kazura by any
means. Then, when it reached a state where she could chat naturally with him, she
would interweave stories in the conversation to promote Lieze.
However, the current situation was hopeless.
Eira couldn’t speak with Kazura when she was together
with Lieze, and when she wasn’t with Lieze, Eira needed to handle her own share
of work. Kazura also moved around busily every day, so there was simply no time
to have a nice slow chat.
How could she capture a target whom she didn’t even have
a moment of contact? Eira was hurting her head thinking about this every day.
「(At least, it will be alright if I can switch position with Marie-chan……
But this is impossible from the start, right? ……)」
The other servant that had been tasked to be Kazura’s
servant together with her, Marie, had markedly more chances to make contact
with Kazura compared to Eira.
Perhaps if she could exchange position with Marie,
then there might be a small chance to have a chat with Kazura when waking him
in the morning, or escorting him before and after bathing, and then when confirming
the content of every meal.
Perhaps because Marie had previous experience as a
maid in Leveson House, she is really skillful in completing her daily works.
It was only at the first day when her work began that
she didn’t comprehend the workplace environment, so she looked a bit confused,
but after she had been explained about the sequence of jobs that need to be performed at the kitchen, the washroom
and the other places, while she was seeking Eira and the other maid’s instruction,
she performed her work almost perfectly.
If there was something that she didn’t understand or couldn;t
manage, then without trying to do it by herself, she would immediately seek
instruction and consult with Eira. In doing so, she avoided worsening the
problem.
Furthermore at the evening assembly performed every
evening, she would properly report to Eira about the summary of the work details
performed that day.
Even though she was still a young 13 year old, Eira felt
that Marie was quite an excellent maid.
However, whether or not someone could immediately work
as Lieze’s servant just because they are excellent would be another matter
altogether.
Since Eira had always been beside Lieze since she was
small, Eira was amongst a very small number of people whom Lieze permitted to see
her true nature.
Even amongst them, Eira is the only one who could attend
to Lieze, in which Lieze could completely let her guard down without any
hesitation. And it was Eira alone whom Lieze strongly depended on. Eira was
aware of this fact too.
If perhaps Marie replaced her as Lieze’s personal
servant, or even if it was a proposal to relieve Eira from attending personally
to anyone, perhaps Lieze would obstinately refuse it.
Furthermore, if Eira made that proposal herself, it
was easy to imagine that Lieze would ended up terribly sad.
Ultimately, it was futile.
If Marie was a common citizen, then she would have 2
days of break for every 10 days. During that time, Eira might be able to make contact
with Kazura.
However, unfortunately, Marie is a slave.
Slave don’t receive any holiday, so there wouldn’t be
a single day where Marie was released from her duty as Kazura’s servant.
All doors were completely closed for her.[2]
Lieze seems to have taken a liking to Kazura and
Kazura didn’t seem to be that unhappy either. Even if she left both of them
alone, she believed that both of them would end up together.
However, every afternoon when Eira was reporting
Lieze’s schedule for the next day to Zirconia, she always asked, 「What about those two?」. So, Eira couldn’t do nothing
either.
It would be alright if Eira’s heart was strong enough
to say 「Don’t ask for unreasonable things」 to Zirconia, but
unfortunately, she was a timid person.
If she didn’t show any result one way or another,
before long she might be reprimanded by Zirconia, which filled her with
trepidation.
「…… Let’s drink some tea.」
Muttered Eira while sighed. She crawled out from the
bed and put on the trouser placed at the bedside, and since she was only
wearing a knee-length tunic, she also put on a stole.
✧✦✧✦
「Hmm, what to make today? Since recently I have been staying up late,
perhaps I’ll drink some Echinacea[3].」
Under the illumination of the candle in his hand, inside
the kitchen where no one else present, Kazura was boiling a water in a small
pot on the stone stove.
On top of the table beside him was a wooden basket
that contained paper bags with herbs that had been minced and divided into
small portions and a glass pot.
Kazura took out the paper bags containing Echinacea
and Licorice[4], and broke
the cellotape seal.
Echinacea has an immune boosting effect, so it is an
herb that is useful when the body is tired.
The Licorice, which he also took out from the basket,
was used for its sweetness this time.
「Ah!」
「Hm?」
Suddenly there was a voice from his back so Kazura
turned around and saw the sight of Eira in sleep-wear, standing on the kitchen
entrance holding a candlestick.
Eira was not expecting anyone to be in the kitchen at
this hour; furthermore, for that person to be none other than Kazura. She want
to cry from the bottom of her heart for her carelessness to go outside the room
with sleep-wear and her stupidity to spontaneously let her voice out to be
heard.
Even though it was outside her working hours, to
appear in front of her master in sleep-wear, it was an act that was unacceptably
impolite.
「Good evening, Eira-san. Perhaps, you came for hot water?」
Without completely unnoticing what happened inside Eira’s
mind, Kazura smiled at her and began to address her.
「Ah, yes, I thought I want to drink some tea…… A-ano, I am terribly
sorry to be in this appearance. I never thought there would be another person,
that……」
「Ah no need, since it’s already outside working hours I don’t mind it at-…… E-eh,
Eira-san?」
Kazura was instantly confused when he noticed that
Eira had replied disorderly with an expression close to crying.
However, he quickly noticed that he was the cause of
this and after thinking for a few second about what to do, he smiled once more
towards Eira.
「Umm, I also thought that I want to brew some tea right now. If you’d like
to, can I offer you one cup?」
「E…….eh!? M-me!?」
「Yes, since you are always helpful to me, let me thank you for once. Now
then, please have a seat there.」
Without minding Eira who was frozen from the
unexpected proposal, Kazura held the small pot with hot water and then walked towards
the big dining room next to the kitchen.
Eira hurriedly pursued him with a half-run. Then, in
front of the table, 「Have a seat」, Kazura pulled out a chair while smiling to her.
Kazura called out to Eira, who was standing in the
dining room entrance with a bewildered expression.
Eira nervously approached Kazura and then sat at the
chair while being prompted by him.
「This is tea from the herbs harvested in my country, it’s called herbal
tea[8].
I hope it will suit your taste.」
While he was saying so, he pinched the herbs and put
it into the glass pot, before pouring hot water from the small pot into the pot.
The herbs inside the glass pot gently dispersed as hot
water was poured on them. The peculiar color of each herb slowly seeped out and
began to dissolve in the hot water.
Kazura turned his face at Eira while thinking what to
do if he was inquired by her, but Eira still had a nervous expression as she stared
fixedly at the glass pot in silence.
Since it seem that she wasn’t going to ask anything, Kazura
let out a sigh of relief inside his mind.
Previously, he had been told that the people in the
Estate had been ordered by Nelson, 「Do not inquire too much about
Kazura」, so he thought that it had been thoroughly enforced without exception.
On the other hand, Eira being Eira, even though she
was still confused at the situation where she was right now, she was captivated
by the herbs that were floating inside the glass pot placed in front of her.
Because she had heard about Kazura to some extent from
Zirconia a few days ago, she ended up not being flustered even when looking at
the transparent glass pot placed before her.
However, the fact that the glass pot is an unknown
tool was unchanged, and so she was engrossed at the beauty of the curious
looking drifting herbs.
「Eira-san, what kind of tea do you usually drink? Is it something like what the
maids brew for me at mealtime?」
Kazura addressed Eira who was engrossed at the pot, so
Eira removed her eyes from the pot and straightened herself before looking at
Kazura.
「Yes, it is mostly tea made from herbs that were bought from the city…… Ano,
to pay consideration to someone like me, I am truly grateful. And yet, I am in
such appearance…… Please pardon my impoliteness……」
「No, not at all, please no need to be that formal. If you are that tense, I
will also feel tired. Let’s be more at ease.」
「E-even if you say that to me……」
Kazura made a wry smile at Eira who was still bewildered
with a nervous expression, while he picked up the glass pot.
「Then, it will soon be the proper time.」
He took out a teacup from the basket and placed it in
front of Eira before he poured the tea that had been just decocted into it.
The mixture of the tender scent peculiar to German
Chamomile and the fruity scent of the Rose Hip was a truly indescribable scent
which faintly spreading out.
「Have a taste. If the taste doesn’t suit you, please say so. Since I brought
various types of herbs, I can brew a different type.」
Kazura said this as he took his seat, took out another
teacup from the basket and poured the herb tea into it.
Then, ignoring the bewildered Eira in front of the
teacup, he brought the teacup to his mouth.
Seeing this, Eira too picked the teacup up and after giving
a word of thanks to Kazura, she tasted the tea.
「…… Delicious.」
After she taste the herb tea, Eira finally smiled from
its taste and fragrance, and so Kazura smiled in relief.
「I’m glad to hear it. Also this is a snack called cookie, please have a
taste of this too. It’s delicious.」
Then Kazura took out a paper bag with cookies from the
basket. He unwrapped it onto a nearby plate and offered it to Eira.
Eira gave her thanks to Kazura, picked up a cookie and
took a bite.
「(Cookies are something that is sold in the city, even I sometime make i-……
ah, delicious!)」
Cookie were a food that exist in this world too. It is
generally made by kneading bread wheat flour with salt or fruit mixed in and then
baked.
Although it seemed that from how Kazura talked about
it, it was as if he thought that Eira didn’t know what a cookie is. Eira then remembered
the talk about how Kazura is Greysior.
If Kazura is really Greysior, then it was
understandable that he didn’t really know in detail about the food in this
world.
Eira remembered how the food that Kazura usually ate was
something custom made by Marie, so perhaps the food of this world didn’t suit
his taste.
「It’s really delicious! This is the first time I ever ate sa delicious cookie
this sweet!」
「That’s good to hear…… Eh? So it seems that cookies are not a particularly unusual
food…… Forgive my rudeness.」
Eira answered with a wide smile on her face. Kazura
made a wry smile and scratched his head from his slip of tongue.
「……Ah.」
Eira noticed that her previous statement had made
Kazura lose face[10] and
immediately her face became pale white, but Kazura didn’t seem to be bothered
at all, he just went, 「Oh well」 and swept away the issue.
Furthermore, if the initiative to chat in this
friendly manner came from Kazura’s side, now was the best opportunity to be
friendly with him.
Eira had quite a resistance to suddenly converse in an
easygoing manner with a superior that she practically never talk to beforehand,
but she might as well stifle this resistance and converse with him in a normal
manner.
「U-umm, I sometime make cookies too. It’s mostly by baking dough mixed with
minced fruits, but even though this cookie doesn’t contain any fruits, it is
deliciously sweet. What is mixed in it for it to have a taste like this?」
「Hmm, this is something that I had bought, so I don’t really know it in
detail, but certainly it is sugar, butter and salt…… I’m certain that the
ingredients are something like that……」
Kazura was thinking while holding his teacup. Eira
tilted her head and ask him back.
「Yes, its appearance looks like salt and has a sweet taste. It’s different
from the sweetness from a fruit. It’s like a seasoning that simply only has sweet
taste.」
「So it’s a sweet salt? So there was something like that…… Also, I have never
heard about butter before.」
Eira began to ask questions with a fascinating interest
as if something inside her had burst out. Kazura also answered her question
while feeling relieved that her nervousness had finally been loosened.
「Butter is certainly something that is eventually be made by repeatedly shaking
animal milk inside a container…… Since I only have a faint memory of it, I will
investigate it in details when I return to the country later. If it’s possible
to make it, then do you want to make it together next time?」
He tried to explain while relying at the faint memory
of butter making trial class when he went to play in the ranch with his parents
in his childhood, but that memory was too vague so he wasn’t confident enough
whether or not this method could make butter.
On the next return to Japan, he intend to investigate
the right process to make it either from searching on the internet or going to the
Gunmā Ranch.[12]
「Eh, but……」
Eira flinched at the unexpected proposal.
She thought that she should gently react and refuse in
polite way of speaking, but if his proposal was serious then this would be an
unparalleled chance to deepen her friendship with Kazura.
She had noticed this from observing Kazura for the
last few days, that since Kazura behaved really kind and polite even to the
servant, he would forgive a little impoliteness.
I should push through this chance, Eira cheered
herself.
「T-then, please do so, by all means. Since we can extract some milk from the
Myagis that are kept inside the mansion grounds, I think I can procure some for
use.」
「(Whoa, she jump on board.)」
Although he thought that perhaps she would refuse, since
there was nothing to lose, he tried to ask her. Unexpectedly, Eira accepted
Kazura’s invitation.
However, Kazura thought that it would be convenient if
he met with Eira every day, since he wanted to get along and deepen the
friendship if it was possible.
Kazura thought that because in the future he would be living
at Nelson’s Estate for a long period of time, he wanted to have steady
communication with the people he often met with.
「I understand. Two days from now, I will temporarily return to my country
and I think I will come back to Isteria again in 7 or 8 days. Therefore, let’s
try to make the butter at a day where Eira-san is free.」
「Thank you very much. Perhaps if we can make the butter, I could make more delicious
cookies than what I had made until now. I will also prepare the fruits too.」
Perhaps because she was still a bit nervous, there was
still some stiffness remaining in Eira’s smile.
However, Kazura nodded in his heart that if he could repeat
this kind of interaction in the future, then sooner or later he could see her
honest smile.
「Also, I always come to the kitchen to boil water around this hour. If you
feel like it, then you will be always welcomed to join me. I will treat you to
herb tea again. Of course, with cookies.」
「Fufu, then, I will also make some snacks to bring when I
come next time. I am quite versed in making snacks.」
「Oh, then I will be looking forward to it. I also need to think about a more
delicious herb blend.」
Thus, the late night tea party (indeterminate) just
for both of them and the opening of butter making class (schedule pending) has
been decided.
☾☽☾☽☾☽☾☽☾☽☾☽☾☽☾☽☾☽☾☽
It looks like Kazura counterattack, the herb tea
and the cookie are too effective! Eira getto da ze! Satou will be proud at him.
[3] Echinacea:
mostly refer to Echinacea purpurea, also known as eastern purple
coneflower, hedgehog coneflower, or purple coneflower. It belonged to Sunflower
family. It is purposed use is for increasing body immunity. But honestly as a
doctor I will ask Kazura to get a proper sleep. Echinacea tea taste rather nice
actually.
[4] Licorice
is the root of Glycyrrhiza glabra. Also known as sweet root. Licorice
had been used in many traditional Chinese medicine, perhaps because of its
sweet taste and corticosteroid mimicking pharmacology.
[5] Elderflower
is the flower of elderberry or Sambucus nigra. Elderflower cordial (flower
and sugar water) has been popular in North Western Europe where it has a strong
Victorian heritage. However, versions of an elderflower cordial recipe can be
traced back to Roman times. Nowadays it can be found in almost all of the
former Roman Empire territory, predominantly in Central Europe, especially in
England, Germany, Austria, Romania, Hungary and Slovakia, where people have
acquired a special taste for it and still make it in the traditional way.
[6] The rose hip, also known as rose haw or rose hep, is the
fruit of the rose plant, that is typically red-to-orange, but ranges from dark
purple to black in some species.
[8] Herb tea
is in gairaigo (foreign loan word written with katakana). Kazura also say herb
in gairaigo. In general, no Arcadian people say gairaigo words other than what
Kazura introduced to them.
[9] Or drat,
or turd, or crap, or darn, or shit, or damn, or顶 or 该死, or 糟糕. Why blimey? Since I think Kazura is kinda more British like with all
his tea drinking… (no offence real British people)
[10] Or
embarrassed, I put lose face since its sound more ‘Eastern’, LoL. The original
word is 恥をかかして, which is to cause
disgrace/humiliate someone.
[11] Kazura
said 砂糖 (satou) in Kanji which means sugar, while Eira said it as just the
hiragana さとう (satou). This is how the author displayed
Eira’s unfamiliarity with “sugar”. By the way, the other very famous Satou is
written as 佐藤 in Kanji.
*message in a bottle*
ReplyDeleteDear our translator,
Thank you Yukkuri Oniisan.
You're a bit late, but I understand that real life work stuff. Don't sweat it. We love the translation no less.
Cheers!
Yours truly,
(The cross-dimentional Truck who is still submerged on the sea floor)
Truck-kun.
Don't get the reference to you being submerged truck-kun mind sharing?
DeleteWell... It's embarassing.
DeleteLong story short, I got rejected by Nepu (the one bathing in onsen below). Heartbroken, I threw away everything; my job, my truck, my life and all, and went and throw myself into the sea. While at the sea bottom, in that silent and dark place, I was alone and miserable. Then, I found the truth about the isekai multiverse and about life itself. I got over my heartbreak. Saved by a group of my new squid friends, I'm back on land now. Truck-kun is here, back again, ready to hit and run over those threat the isekai (with their spoilers).
I'm good now, Jalil. Never better.
If anyone here dare hurt you all with their unwanted story spoiler, just call me and I'll run over them.
Thanks for the hard work truck-kun
DeleteDafuq....so youre here... I found you then pls let me cross to another world... Teehee
DeleteThanks!
ReplyDelete....she didn’t understand or (couldn;t) manage,...., please fix (couldn;t)you got a typo there
ReplyDeleteThanks for the chapter!!
ReplyDeleteTypo:
ReplyDelete「It’s really delicious! This is the first time I ever ate "sa" delicious cookie this sweet!」
Should be:
"...I ever ate a...", or better syntax to "...I've ever eaten a..."
I would feel jealous about the nice mood, but sadly teas and infusions don't sit well with my stomach as is. Commercial sweetened cold tea (e.g. Nestea) has chances of being passable, but any hot infusion (tea or herbal tea) upsets my stomach, while the only time I prepared cold green tea, it tasted to watery grass (and while it didn't upset my stomach so much, I still couldn't stomach it). As a weird note, if I use tea or herbal tea as an ingredient for food, I have no problem (that grass-tasting cold tea, I used it to boil pasta with a pinch of salt, and it was delicious).
ReplyDeleteUh, Valetta? Your presence is fading fast, these city girls are going to devour your man at this rate...
ReplyDeleteI know right?! We seriously need some Valetta! Or rather, I had withdrawal symptoms for a while already!
DeleteWell, can't blame Valetta entirely for being absent. This guy here seems to have the talent for raising flags. He's even using tea and sweets as bribe.
Delete_
ReplyDelete⊂⊃ /~ \
⊂⊃ /´´`、丶 \
―┬―┬―┬-(⌒)-―
┬(⌒)┬┴(⌒)┴┬
(⌒)┬-∧,,∧ ―┬┴
-(⌒)- ( ˘ω˘ )フゥ ┴┬
━━━━OO━━━━━
Thanks! Nepu!!
━━━━━━━━━━━
Thanks!
ReplyDeleteis he raising another flag?
ReplyDeleteWasn't there something like "One shouldn't feed food from our world to people from Isteria because it will give them absurd strength (among others)"? And now he just set a regular "Tea and cookies from our world time"...
ReplyDeleteHe came to the conclusion that giving Earth's food once in a while won't make the isekai people change. The villagers had consumed his food everyday for a long period, that's why they changed.
DeleteThere is no sin in tea and cookies. Ask santa and he can vouch for that.
If she turns green and starts going 'MARIE SMASH!!!", it's all your fault. ;p
DeleteTh.. that's not the cookies fault!
DeleteI blame it on the rice.
Look what it did to Valetta's hand grip. That's the kind of hand you can hold lovingly during a date (without wearing gauntlets).
Thanks for the chapter.
ReplyDeleteI think, you should try to think what phrase "Without completely unnoticing what happened inside Eira’s mind" actually would mean. From the context it looks like this "Without completely unnoticing" is completely opposite of what really was said. Maybe you should pick either "without"(1) or "complitely"(2) and change "unnoiticing" to "noiticing"(1) or "not noiticing"(2).
*"completely"(2)
Delete*sigh* I shouldn't type so fast.
Awesome! Thanks a lot!
ReplyDeleteAfter a month of tea times, Eira should be able to take down Zil in a cage fight, a literal ninja maid. Those chocolate chip biscuits are powerful stuff.
ReplyDeleteNo.... don't blame it on the cookies.
DeleteThank you!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the chapter! Lol "Satou would be proud"
ReplyDeleteThanks for the translation... Love you work.. Keep it up, can't wait for the next chapter..
ReplyDeleteSo many deathmarch fans... Hahaha..
ReplyDeleteWelcome to harem route...
Yu...Yukkuri Oniisan.
ReplyDeleteWhen will the next chapter come out?
I feel like I've been camping here indefinitely.
We miss you.
*kitten eyes*
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteI'm having problem with my Truck account.
DeleteWell, this IS Truck-kun speaking, Oniisan.
*Kitten eyes*
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteYukkuri, do you drop this project? You should answer soon, when you see this. It's really annoying for me to wait for know nothing.
ReplyDeleteWhat... No... I just being late as usual...
Delete*sigh*