SIAW Vol. 2 Chapter 2
Chapter 2 – Relax Time in the Room
“As a celebration for the birth of ALA, I’ll make dinner tonight!”
We left ALA and I activated the Room spell.
I held hands with Misha, patted Sil’s head and went inside.
I had to physically touch whoever I wanted to take inside the Room, after all.
We went into the living room and I turned to Misha.
“I’ll go prepare dinner, so you can take it easy for a bit.”
Misha was probably pretty tired, since she nodded immediately.
I went to the kitchen and started thinking about what to cook.
It would be the first time I cooked something in this world, and I wanted to make something Misha had never seen before.
I then remembered that I had never seen cooking oil in town, and that oil itself was an expensive commodity.
Which means, it was very likely that she never had fried food before.
Might as well make her some fried guinea fowl!
Once the menu was decided, I started cooking right away.
I cut the guinea fowl and dipped the slices in salt and soy sauce. In the meantime I wanted to make fried potatoes too, so I prepared the potatoes and the vegetables I was going to put in a soup. I was going to use the chicken broth I had made before, to make the soup Chinese cuisine-style. I could use the bread I had stored in the Item Box too.
I had always given Sil the same raw prey to eat, so this time I would make him oven-baked Horn Rabbit.
The oven was equipped with a quick baking function, so it only took about five minutes to finish. I could cook up to three rabbits at once, so I made some extra to stock them for another time.
I then covered the fowl meat I had left in the sauce with a crust and fried it. After that, I fried the potatoes and served them together on a large plate. Once it was ready, I stored it in the Item Box.
I was sprinkling a bit of sesame oil in the soup for added aroma when Misha came in.
“I’m so hungry!! It smells so good here, I can’t wait anymore!! Please!!”
“Perfect timing. I’ll bring in the food now, so wait in the other room.”
Misha happily left the kitchen.
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I went to the dining room, where Misha was waiting, sitting at the table. Sil was there too, his tail wagging furiously.
I served the dishes and proudly proclaimed:
“Here you go, eat to your hearts’ content!!”
Sil immediately pounced the oven-baked rabbit. He appeared to love the taste from the first bite, as he continued munching with vigor.
Misha stabbed a piece of fried chicken with the fork, carefully observed it from all angles, then nibbled it.
The next instant, her eyes went wide open, and she gobbled up the rest.
Her tail stood up straight, her ears resting down, as her eyes sparkled with joy.
“This is — delicious!!”
She shoved more fried chicken in her mouth.
“This is the best food ever!!”
After a few more pieces of fried chicken, she took a sip of the soup — and went wide-eyed again.
“The best drink ever!!!”
She was moved again when she tried the fried potatoes and the bread.
Seeing her so happy made it well worth the effort.
Sil had finished eating already and was looking at me, eager for more.
“Just one more for today, okay?”
With a sigh, I baked another rabbit for him.
Gazing at the joy of my dinner company, I tried a piece of fried chicken too.
Not too much time had passed since I last had some, but it still felt like the distant past. Moved by the nostalgia, I continued eating in silence.
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After the meal, I went to the living room to relax.
I wanted to serve some dessert too, but I hadn’t yet found the right ingredients in this world, so I couldn’t make any.
I was basking in the dinner afterglow, so I told the bright-faced Misha that she could take a bath first.
“Misha, dinner’s over, so why don’t you go take a bath?”
“…? I can use Clear, so I don’t need to though?”
“I see…”
Apparently, the people of this world weren’t familiar with the activity of soaking into a bathtub. I guess I might just go ahead, then.
I took Sil with me and went to the bathroom.
It was going to be my first bath in this world! I just couldn’t wait!!
I took off my clothes, used Clear to clean myself up, then took a hot shower.
I had made a shower-like magic tool while I was training on the island: it looked just like what I had in my past life. Pouring magic power in it would make it release water, and it was possible to regulate the temperature too.
Sil seemed scared of the water at first: he stayed in a corner, where the warm water didn’t reach.
“Come here, Sil.”
I stopped the water and motioned at him to get closer.
Begrudgingly, he obeyed.
At first I poured just a bit of hot water on his front paws, to get him used to it, then gradually advanced to his whole body.
He became accustomed to it over time, as his expression grew more and more relaxed.
Now that he was my familiar, he had to learn to appreciate a good bath too!
I thus decided to head towards the largest bathtub.
“Aaaah….”
I dipped in the water, up to my shoulders, and couldn’t help but voice my elation.
My body might have been just fourteen years old, but my mental age was four times that. I was pretty much an old man at heart, after all.,
Sil hesitated, but seeing how happy I looked, he joined in the bathtub too. He seemed worried to find out that his paws didn’t reach the bottom, but soon started paddling around.
I held him up, and he leaned against me, enjoying the warm water.
After letting him soak for a bit, I went back to the shower area.
There I reached for my “Tenma-style hair conditioner”.
It wasn’t like any other conditioner in my old world: I had crafted it using Alchemy, by mixing together various medicinal herbs and aromatic oils. It was a potion for hair, basically.
Using this “Tenma-style hair conditioner” made my black hair shine and glow, as if illuminated by an angel’s halo.
Not that I thought anyone would be interested in looking at a halo over a fourteen years old boy’s head…
Sil paddled and played around in the tub for a bit, but eventually hopped out and came up to me.
“Let me give you the Tenma treatment too, Sil!”
Sil didn’t resist at all this time, so I gently applied the conditioner all over his body.
Would a monster like him react well to my conditioner? I was a bit worried at first, but I could use recovery magic if anything happened, so I decided to go ahead and try,
I applied the conditioner all over his body, then rinsed my hair and Sil too.
I then headed to a different bathtub. I had attached a bubble-making magic tool to it, to replicate a jacuzzi.
I dipped inside, up to my waist, washing away the sweat for a while, then emerged. I took another shower together with Sil, went outside of the bath and used Clear one more time, on both myself and Sil.
Unfortunately, Clear didn’t dry up your body. It seemed to detect an excessive amount of water as something to expunge, however: I could feel that there were less water drops on me after using it.
I decided to eliminate the remaining drops with Blow. It was a Lifestyle Magic spell that created a gust of wind; at level 4, it could create both warm and cold air, so I used it as a hair dryer.
I dried up my body, put on my underwear, then used Blow on Sil.
And finally, it was time to use it…!!
What I took out of the Item Box was a brush.
There were no other human beings on the island where I did my training; at some point, I even thought I could tame some monsters, to feel less lonely.
I even made brushes, imagining how it would feel good to brush the monsters I tamed…
In the end, I didn’t succeed in taming monsters during training, but…now, I finally had the chance to use this brush!!
I gently swept it through Sil’s fur. Once, twice, three times…
After every stroke, Sil’s fur seemed to become more and more fluffy. His fur was white in color, but now it looked more like sparkling silver, well deserving his status as Silver Wolf cub!!
I peeked at Sil’s face: he seemed to be enjoying it very much, as he had a slack, dreamy expression.
Well, I was coddling him as I brushed his fur, so my expression too was probably very similar.
I was in fluff heaven…!!!
So I shouted in my heart, unbothered with how little sense I was making.
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After having a blissful time in the bath, I went back to the living room, where Misha was waiting.
She didn’t miss the difference in my hair’s luster: she actually started staring at my head. She then saw Sil’s glistening fur, stood up and approached us.
“Tenma, what’s going on here!?”
Misha asked, while stroking Sil’s fur.
“This is what happens when you take a bath, and use the hair conditioner of my concoction!”
I puffed my chest out and Misha grimaced.
“You could have told me!”
“Well you see, I wasn’t sure it worked on monsters or Beastmen, so to make sure nothing weird or bad happened, I tested it on Sil first.”
Misha did not seem to be much convinced by my explanation.
“I’ll go take a bath now! Tell me how to use that…condition thing!”
“I have to start making preparations for tomorrow now, so I really can’t…besides, to teach you how to use it I need to take my clothes off, right? I’ll find something to use as a swimsuit…clothes that are fine getting wet by tomorrow, so let’s do it then, all right?”
“You need to t-take your clothes off!?”
“Of course, I don’t want to get them soaked.”
I could teach her to use the hair conditioner with my clothes on, but I would probably have to tell her how to use the shower and jacuzzi too, so it was definitely better to have a swimsuit ready.
Misha continued stroking Sil, a pensive look on her face.
I decided to change the topic for the time being.
“By the way, you can go ahead and use the bedroom. Sil, you can sleep with Misha tonight.”
“Where are you going to sleep, Tenma?”
“I have stuff to prepare, so I’ll stay up a little longer. I might have to stay up all night, actually…well, if I get too sleepy I’ll just pass out on the sofa.”
Misha shook her head, apologetically.
“I’-I’ll sleep on the sofa!!”
“Hmm, but I want to start training you seriously from tomorrow, so I’d like you to take a good rest.”
Misha thought for a moment, then replied.
“Okay then, just today…”
“Good night then!”
I then headed to the crafting workshop.