A Contrary Heart

Author: Iwashi-zukushi
Raw: https://ncode.syosetu.com/n3388fm/13/
Translator: Lilia v4
Editor: Yuriko AYA

“Well then, we’ll be off. Ah, I’ll let our people know.”

After a while of small talk, Nasti left.
For an instant, she glanced toward the workshop.
We waved her off, and once she was out of sight, I let a mutter slip.

“Nasti… was she perhaps keeping watch around this workshop?”
“Hm? Why did you think that?”

Gerda turned a puzzled face on my sudden murmur.
It was not as if I had grounds; it had only been a feeling.

“Just a feeling, but. The way she appeared, it was as if she had waited for the right moment after you and I arrived.”

And besides.
The profile she showed as she left, looking at the workshop, had been lonely, as if she were reluctant to part.

“I wondered if she was trying to protect it from people who might do it harm, or something.”
“That itself is not an impossible story.
Nasti and Granny Dia were quite close.” Continue reading →

Granny Dia’s Workshop

Author: Iwashi-zukushi
Raw: https://ncode.syosetu.com/n3388fm/12/
Translator: Lilia v4
Editor: Yuriko AYA

With the shopping done, we headed for the workshop in earnest this time.
Along the way, something occurred to me.

“Come to think of it… the streets in this town are awfully clean.
Could it be there’s sewerage?”
“Ah. Now that you mention it, that seems to be rare on the continent over there.
While we’re at it, there’s running water as well, you know?”
“I see. So those fountain-like things are the water supply.
That’s impressive… but in that case, it helps a great deal.”

I had thought this world had no such conveniences as plumbing.
At the very least, neither the village I had lived in nor even the royal capital had.

And yet this town had sewers and running water both.
Well, by the standards of modern Japan, one could not call it complete.
The water was not piped into each household; you drew it from public squares.

To be honest, drawing water from a well was fairly heavy labor.
You were hauling up a bucket reasonably full of water from several meters down.
If it sat at ground level, or a little above, you could scoop it easily, splash splash.
…Well, you still had to carry it to each house after that.

Continue reading →

And Then, the Spoils

Author: Iwashi-zukushi
Raw: https://ncode.syosetu.com/n3388fm/
Translator: Lilia v4
Editor: Yuriko AYA

“Right then, let’s have Doctor Asha accept this as a welcome!”

What Elma brought out as she said it was a hot sandwich.
Butter spread between the bread, bacon in the middle, apparently fried in a pan.
Something like a panini, perhaps.

“Y-you went out of your way to make this!? Thank you!
This butter and bacon are domestic too, right? So there are cows as well.”
“Ah, on the outskirts of town. Water buffalo too.”
“Heh… ah, then, is there cheese and such as well?”
“Ah, of course. When it comes to food, this town doesn’t want for much.”

I answered Elma’s proud smile with a smile of my own, and putting together everything I had seen and heard so far—
the climate and what they could get seemed close to Italy.
Not identical, surely, but for now it seemed safe to think of it as quite close.
I had heard mozzarella was made from water buffalo milk, too.

Thinking that, I took a sip of the lemon water—and my eyes went wide despite myself.

“Eh, that’s sweet—is there sugar in this!?
W-wow, I never thought you’d have even that.”
“Heh. You know the taste of sugar, then? As expected.
I never put it in my mouth till I came to this town, sugar.”
“That figures, it’s precious…” Continue reading →