#474 Otherwordly Beverage Circumstance

It’s me again... (Kidan)

“Why don’t we hold a meeting?”

“For what?”

“Our wedding.”

“Wasn’t that weeks ago already?”

Yeah.

Looking back, quite some time has passed since we had such a wonderful wedding.

Our passing days and months are eternal travelers in time*... or something like that.

“Is there anything else we need to discuss regarding the wedding? It was already memorable in so many ways!”

Nothing would make me happier than to hear Platy say that.

After all, the event’s focus was her.

Even then...

“I want to make sure that not only you but also the other attendees are as satisfied as possible.”

“You’re so dreamy, Dear!”

Aw, stop it.

“But I’m sure they were pleased as well. They all looked content when they left, didn’t they?”

True.

The attendees were primarily divided into farm residents and outside guests, but both groups were equally happy and satisfied by the end of the wedding.

Some looked as if their souls had been gouged out of their bodies from shock, though.

“Wasn’t the bouquet toss the only event they were dissatisfied with? And that too was entirely my doing.”

“Please do reflect on that, Platy.”

By the way, the self-autonomous, mobile bouquet is flying around the farm today, teasing the maidens obsessed with the desire to get married.

...I digress.

That’s not what I want to reflect on.

“It’s the food we served at the reception...”

“What about it? It was perfect! Everything was so finger-licking good!”

Yeah, I remember her eating a lot of food in her bridal gown.

Platy’s smitten with the memory of that time.

“Well, it was a big event, so I went all out with the food—from quantity to quality.”

“Then why are you bringing that up?”

“Now that it’s over, I realized something was missing. Something that I didn’t take into consideration.”

“Huh. Okay...”

Today’s reflection is all about that.

“What was missing, huh... Are you going to make a new dish to make up for it?! A new recipe after so long... slurp.”

Please be careful not to get that drool on Junior.

“So? What are you going to cook, Dear? If you’ve decided on cooking something, make haste! Time is of the essence!”

“I didn’t even say I’m going to cook...!”

I feel like she looks more excited now than at the wedding.

Maybe let’s...not think too much about it.

“Back on topic, what I’m interested in is drinks.”

“Drinks?”

A drink always accompanies a meal.

If you keep eating without drinking, your mouth will feel dry, and you’ll feel uncomfortable swallowing.

“...There’s nothing wrong with that, is there? Bacchus prepared the best drink for us.”

“Yeah, we had beer.”

Bacchus, the founder of alcohol in this world, made beer using our farm’s ingredients.

It was the best of the best, no doubt about it.

If anyone were dissatisfied with it, they’d probably receive divine punishment. He is a demigod from the heavenly realm, after all.

Alcohol is a necessary part of any celebration, and it’s unacceptable not to have some, so it was a good choice.

But contrarily...

“We had no other drinks.”

“Huh?”

“It’s alcohol, remember? Not everyone can drink it.”

The average age on our farm decreased after we took the students in.

Naturally, they’re not old enough to drink. And yet, we only had beer as a beverage during the wedding.

“I thought it would be sad if you could only have water during such an occasion.”

“I see. It was hard for us to notice because we adults were busy drinking.”

Right?

Even I didn’t notice until I looked around.

“Junior is a growing boy and needs to eat a lot. But all he’ll get is water during such parties, right?”

“What about alcohol then?”

“Platy?”

I think we should start by discussing that underage drinking is a no-no.

“Hmm, so you want to make a drink that tastes good and doesn’t get you drunk like alcohol?”

“Yeah, exactly that!”

Imagine people at a get-together party, and someone says, ‘Sorry, I don’t drink!’ That’s when they’re offered a list of soft drinks on their menu.

Oolong tea, cola, orange juice, coffee, black tea, hiyashiame, etc.

That’s the kind of stuff that makes even the non-drinkers enjoy themselves!

And that’s what I should’ve also prepared!

That way, our underage guests could’ve enjoyed the reception even more!

“It’s not too late, so I’m going to make a non-alcoholic, refreshing drink!”

“Yay!!!”

Platy applauds with our son in her arms.

She’s probably fine with anything as long as it tastes good.

Now, let’s review the beverage situation on our farm.

We’ve been living here for quite a long time now, but were we just drinking water and drowning our bodies in booze?

Of course not.

I have had tea while chatting with visitors such as Arowana and the Demon King. I mean, if we served simple warm water to such guests...

You see where I’m getting at, right? 

Still, to say that we already have a tea culture on our farm is a little dicey.

We need tea leaves to make tea, and to get tea leaves, we need to cultivate a tea plantation and maintain it well.

Do we already have a tea plantation on our farm? The answer to that is no.

Tea production is still an untouched field for us.

Heck, we don’t even grow coffee beans.

Then, what’s the tea that I use to drink with the Demon King and Arowana? Oh, I’ll tell you that.

The true identity of this otherworldly tea... is made by boiling leaves that we find torn off here and there!

Okay, hear me out.

This was still in the early days of farm development. We had so many things to do, like expanding the fields, making miso and soy sauce, and building a house, that we didn’t have the resources to devote to making tea.

However, I felt it was a bit sad to drink just warm water, so I tore off four or five leaves from a random tree and boiled them in a pot.

I tried it, and it tasted pretty good.

Fortunately, this is a farm, and vegetation is everywhere, so I’ve kept using the same method.

Again, we were occupied with other work, okay?

It may be time to start making authentic tea.

But to do that, we need to start with a plantation, which will take a lot of time and effort.

The same goes for a coffee plantation.

Hence, I’m going to try another kind of beverage first: juice.

That way, even our Junior can eventually enjoy refreshing beverages.

Next stop: otherworldly juice.

* * *

...Wait.

We had barley tea at one point, didn’t we?

I was shocked when one of Bacchus’ Maidens made it for me before, but then I completely forgot about it.

I guess we’ll also make lots of barley tea this year.

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*its part of a haiku from Matsuo Basho's Oku no Hosomichi, a major text of JP literature from the Edo period.