“Huh…?”
I woke up, unable to roll over.
When I moved, there was a creaking sound from under my body, and I remembered that I was sleeping on a cot.
My stomach felt heavy and warm.
I lifted my head to check and found, for some reason, a little black panther girl and a tabby kitten sleeping on top of me.
“Yeah, that’s heavy…”
It felt wrong to wake up the children, who were sleeping soundly with cute faces.
I gently got up, wrapped Mei and Ketsue in a towel blanket, and laid them back down on the cot.
There was no one else in the treehouse where we stayed last night.
It seemed that the beastmen woke up quite early.
“Big cats are often thought to be nocturnal, but I guess that doesn’t apply here.”
There were no baths in the village, so I used purification magic to wash away the dirt from my body and stepped outside the treehouse.
I nimbly climbed down the branches and, upon reaching the ground, was greeted by some of the beastmen from the village.
“Good morning. Did you sleep well?”
“Yeah, thanks to you.”
“Hehe, humans tend to be afraid of houses in the trees, but I see you’re fine with it, being part elf.”
“Yeah, it was actually quite comfortable. The scent of the dense greenery was pleasant.”
Everyone was heading to the communal kitchen area.
A fire was already lit, and people were cheerfully preparing breakfast.
I saw June and August there as well. Upon noticing me, they waved and smiled.
“Good morning, Tohma.”
“You two are early risers. You could have woken me up.”
I grumbled while ruffling August’s hair, and June laughed merrily.
“Haha, Mei and the kitten were sleeping so peacefully on you. We didn’t want to disturb you. You must have been tired from the long journey.”
“Yeah, that was it! When I woke up, Mei was sleeping on my stomach, and I was surprised.”
“Mei tends to stick to people she likes. Maybe she sleepwalked over to you in the middle of the night.”
Mei, a small girl with black hair and golden eyes, looked slender and nimble, just like a feline. She appeared to be around five or six years old.
At that age, it wouldn’t be uncommon for a girl to be scared at night and sneak into her family’s bed.
(I remember when my little cousins were younger, Natsu in particular was quite the scaredy-cat and would often try to crawl into my bed. I guess it’s a similar thing?)
Even though I had only met her yesterday, I was happy she trusted me enough to sleep so peacefully on me.
“I made breakfast to thank you for last night’s meal. Please help yourselves.”
“Thanks. I’ll help too.”
It seemed like August and June had been busy gathering and hunting early in the morning, as August was holding a bird-like prey, quite large in size.
It looked like they had already bled it out and skinned it cleanly.
“We’re going to grill it. The meat on this bird is really delicious.”
“Then you should use this seasoning.”
I handed them a bottle of magic salt, a handy item I had picked up from a dollar store.
“Is this salt?”
“It’s a mix of rock salt with herbs and spices. Since it’s a blend, it’s really convenient because you can just sprinkle it on the meat and it will be tasty.”
“Wow… Elves really know their stuff.”
June nodded with admiration, and I quietly looked away. If they thought it was rare, maybe using my elven background as a cover was a good idea.
It might get me in trouble with real elves, though.
“I’ll make the soup. And what about that?”
“Oh, we found a nest while hunting and got some eggs. That was lucky.”
Apparently, they boiled the eggs instead of roasting them, as it kept them filling longer, which was a useful tip.
I used the herbs and mushrooms they had gathered from the forest to make the soup. After secretly adding a bouillon cube to season it, it was ready.
The grilled chicken, boiled eggs, and soup seemed a bit lonely, so I pulled out a French baguette from my [Item Box].
I chose the hardest bread from the convenience store to avoid surprising them with soft or sweet bread. I cut it into bite-sized pieces and placed them on a wooden plate.
They could eat it with the grilled meat or dip it in the soup, but I also placed a jar of apple jam for Mei, who had enjoyed it earlier.
“I’ll carry it to your house.”
“No, it’s fine. It’s a hassle to clean up. Let’s eat here.”
Around the communal kitchen area, there were random stumps placed like seats. It seemed like everyone would sit wherever they liked and enjoy their meals.
“I’ll go get Mei.”
“Yeah, it’s fine. I’ll have Ketsue bring her down.”
I called through telepathy, and Ketsue seemed to have woken up immediately. After telling Mei to come down, I heard a cheerful meow in response.
After a while, both Mei and Ketsue came down from the treehouse.
Mei used a rope ladder, while Ketsue, agile as a cat, gracefully used branches to descend.
“Wow, is that child your familiar?”
“Hmm, not exactly a familiar, more like family. She’s incredibly smart.”
I kept Ketsue’s true nature as a cat fairy, a Ketsu-sei, a secret.
According to Rei, the golden dragon, fairy species were rare, so it seemed best to keep it a secret.
(If my child were kidnapped, it would be a big deal.)
I planned to claim that I had tamed a mountain cat monster. Such creatures wouldn’t attract much attention, and if it seemed too dangerous, I could just have Ketsue hide.
“Mom, I’m hungry.”
“Okay, okay. Let’s have breakfast. Come over here.”
I secured a spot on a stump where all four of us could sit. I provided the foldable table.
I placed the bread in the center of the table and arranged the soup and grilled chicken on individual plates.
Mei immediately found the jam and her face lit up with joy.
I wasn’t sure if elves said a prayer before eating, so I silently said “Itadakimasu” in my heart and took a spoonful of the soup.
It was delicious as expected—rich, savory, and with a great texture from the fresh herbs and mushrooms.
“This salt is amazing, Tohma! The meat tastes incredible. I just grilled it the usual way.”
“Oh, you like it? Mei, is it too spicy?”
“Nope! It’s super tasty!”
It seemed like the children really liked it, and I was glad.
I also tried it and agreed, the meat was perfectly cooked and full of flavor.
Although it was a little tough, it had a deep, rich taste. The skin was crispy and very delicious.
June seemed to really like the bread and was enjoying it with meat on top.
“Mmm… this bread is so toasty and flavorful. I’ve never had bread this good before.”
“Yeah! Mei likes it too! It’s super soft! And the jam is sweet and delicious!”
I was a bit surprised when they praised the French bread for being so soft. It wasn’t soft at all, was it? It was pretty tough, requiring some effort to tear into!
If they thought this bread was soft, I couldn’t imagine how soft bread from this world must be. As someone who finds fluffy bread the best, I didn’t have the guts to try it.
I stopped the three from eating the boiled eggs directly and served them with mayonnaise, which I had transferred into a glass container.
They seemed to love it and asked if I could sell it to them, but without a fridge, food poisoning was a concern. I told them it was my secret seasoning and that there was only a little left.
It seemed like the villagers around us overheard and were disappointed.
(I guess I should avoid selling food during today’s merchant trip.)
For the wives who were asking for bouillon cubes, I decided I could just give them the recipe.
After the meal, we relaxed and spent time teaching the recipes for yesterday’s meat dishes and soup. By late morning, I set up my goods in the square.
The main item I was selling today was a pair of scissors I bought at the dollar store.
I had heard that in this village, long hair was usually trimmed with knives or burned off with fire, so I quickly prepared the scissors. It seems that scissors of a similar shape to Japanese shears were used to shear wool since ancient times in the world I came from, so it seemed unlikely that a pair of scissors would have a significant cultural impact here.
Since scissors are difficult to use for haircuts, I decided to sell Western-style scissors instead.
For a demonstration, I asked August to help me, and after cutting his long hair from the back, it became a big hit. All 20 pairs of scissors I had prepared were sold out, and they were almost distributed to every household.
“These are really convenient! With these, the ends of my hair won’t get damaged.”
“They seem useful for gathering medicinal herbs too.”
“Oh, I also have scissors for gathering herbs.”
The gardening pruning shears I bought at the dollar store were also popular and sold out as well.
I wondered if the cat people would be interested in the nail files I had for trimming their claws, but the women really liked them. It seems they appreciated being able to shape their nails the way they wanted.
I didn’t bring out nail clippers, though, as they would seem out of place in a world without scissors.
The men asked for shaving tools, so I decided to sell the razors I bought at the dollar store. They were the foldable kind, which was convenient for storage.
I had sold a lot of blades, so I gave the village chief a sharpening stone as a gift.
“It was quite a good price, but everyone bought so many… Did I overcharge?”
Worried about the sales, I was holding my head in my hands when August chuckled.
“It’s a rare item. Actually, they were all happy you sold it for such a low price!”
“Really?”
“Yeah. That pair of scissors, if you tried to get something like it in the city, you’d probably have to ask a dwarf smith to make it. And that would cost several gold coins.”
“I see…”
I sold the cutting tools for one silver coin each. Since I bought them at the dollar store, it was a resale price of about 10,000 yen.
Today alone, I made over 500,000 yen, but the villagers were very grateful.
“Well, I’m glad to hear that.”
“Come back again. Everyone will be happy to see you!”
The main purpose of my traveling sales was to obtain currency from neighboring countries, but it feels nice to be so warmly received.
“Yeah, I’ll come again.”
