6 - Princess Knight and breakfast
Morning by the lake, inside the camper.
In the six-mat Japanese-style room, Sophia was sitting in
front of the kotatsu, and Naoto was working in front of the kitchen.
Induction cooktop, microwave oven, rice cooker. He was
making full use of Patricia's interior to make breakfast.
“Naoto, what kind of magic is that?”
“Uh? What’s magic?”
He looked down at the pan in his hand and asked Sophia back
over his shoulder.
“Naoto is cooking something right now, but from what I can
see, you're not using a fire, and it doesn't look like you started one. How are
you cooking it?”
“Yeah, it's called an induction heater. Let's see…”
He was about to say something when Naoto suddenly tilted his
head.
“Oh, by the way, what kind of principle does an induction
heater use to get hot?”
He pauses to think, looking up at the ceiling.
The IH cooking heater is also a type of cooking appliance,
but unlike gas stoves and electric stoves, you can't tell what's going on at
all.
If you ask him, he uses it as a matter of course, but he has
been living without knowing it at all.
“Well, whatever.”
“Hmm?”
“No, it's nothing. Well, just think of it as a tool that
converts stored electricity into heat.”
“Electricity?”
“Yes, this car is all electric, and it's built to run on
something like lightning power.”
“Well, it's true that lightning can generate heat.”
Sophia nodded, satisfied.
“This is the car that keeps that lightning alive, stores it,
and allows you to take it out and use it whenever you want. Yeah, it's got the
sun's help, too.”
“Well, the sun is definitely hot, too.”
Sophia was easily convinced.
“…yeah.”
Naoto mumbles to himself.
After a while, the baking was done and the dish was ready.
Naoto took the dishes he had made, one by one, to the
kotatsu and laid them out.
"Please wait"
“These are all dishes I've never… seen before.”
“Oh, really?”
“Yeah…”
As Sophia nodded, Naoto explained to her what he had
prepared one by one.
White rice cooked to a lustrous shine, miso soup with steamy
daikon radish, salmon fillets baked to a crisp, and pickles with the refreshing
scent of yuzu in the air.
[TN: Yuzu (Citrus junos, from Japanese 柚子 or ユズ)
is a citrus fruit and plant in the family Rutaceae of East Asian origin]
And—
“Is this… beans?”
“Oh, it's called nattō.”
[TN: Nattō is a traditional Japanese food made from soybeans
that have been fermented with Bacillus subtilis var. natto. It is often served
as a breakfast food. It is served with karashi mustard, soy or tare sauce, and
sometimes Japanese bunching onion.]
“Nattō?”
“Yes, Nattō.”
A bowl of white rice and three vegetables in a soup, enough
for two people, were lined up on the kotatsu.
For Naoto, who had never been abroad before, it was a homey
and comforting sight to see.
Naoto sat down across from Sophia and clasped his hands
together, saying, "Itadakimasu.”
[TN: Itadakimasu - expression of gratitude before meals.]
On the other hand, the princess knight in her armor, who was
deathly ill at ease with a set of dishes in a Japanese-style room, was groaning
in front of Naoto's cooking.
“Mmm…”
“What's wrong with you? Come on, eat.”
“Mmm… this, no but…”
Sophia, who was having some difficulty, alternately looked
at her own and Naoto's dishes.
“It's the same one…”
“Yeah, I made exactly the same one for two people.”
“I mean, Naoto eats this too…”
“Of course?”
Naoto wondered what the hell she was doing.
Curious, he looked at her closely and found that her gaze
was not on the entire breakfast, but on a single point.
For Naoto, a Japanese, it is no exaggeration to say that nattō
is the national dish.
But Sophia is a princess knight of another world.
“Oh, you don't know how to eat nattō?”
“Yeah, uh-oh…”
“Give me that.”
Naoto then took the bowl of natto for Sophia and stirred it
with his chopsticks.
“You mix it?”
“Yeah, you have to mix it well.”
“You're pulling strings…”
“This stickiness is life.”
Gently but unobtrusively, he mixed the fermented soybeans to
prevent them from cracking.
Shakashaka, shakashaka.
Within a minute, the surface of the nattō became covered
with white threads.
The unique smell that emanated from it triggered the memory
of the delicious taste that was imprinted in his genes. Naoto's mouth began to
overflow with saliva.
Naoto held it out in front of Sofia, having mixed it
completely.
“Here you go.”
“Ugh…”
She took it, but furrowed her brow.
“It smells… threads, I’m pulling threads…”
“Oh, and be careful when you eat it. It's hard to get the
sticky stuff off your face.”
“Sticky… smelly…”
“Haha, that's what the food is called.”
As Sofia was having difficulty, the puppy woke up, probably
attracted by the smell, and came purring over.
It seems that she wakes up from sleep and spoils Naoto with
its characteristic dog face.
“Kuun”
“Wake up, doggies, let's eat.”
“Woof!”
“Wait a minute.”
After rubbing the back of the puppy's head, he got up and
opened the refrigerator next to the kitchen.
The puppy that followed him was flapping its tail at Naoto's
feet.
“Dogs can eat fish too, right?”
“Woof!”
He removed a piece of the salmon fillet that is still left
and cooked it slowly in a pan.
After baking, remove the bones and serve it to the puppy on
a plate.
“Yeah, eat up.”
After watching the puppy gobble up the food, he returns to
the front of the kotatsu.
That's when he noticed that Sophia was still holding the
nattō and groaning.
“Huh? What's
the matter, Sophia, aren't you going to eat?”
“Ah, yeah…”
“Don't you know how to eat nattō yet? Pour it on top of the
rice right there.”
“Y-You pour it over the white stuff and eat it?”
“Oh, would it be faster if I actually did it and showed you?”
Naoto thought about it and stirred his own nattō in the same
way as before, and put it on top of the rice.
He took a mouthful of it.
The unique bitterness of the nattō and the sweetness of the
white rice were intertwined by the thread and spread in the mouth as one.
“Kuuuuu”
Naoto couldn't help but be impressed.
"After all, I have to have this kind of breakfast in
the morning! I haven't eaten anything decent in the last few years."
He was so happy that he could not help but cry, even though
it tasted so ordinary.
He grabbed a bite of salmon fillet this time. A greasy,
moderate sweetness and saltiness rolls on his tongue.
Sipping the miso soup with a slurping sound. The flavor of
the miso, which is rich in dashi, soaked into the sliced daikon radish and
soaked into the body.
[TN: Dashi is a family of stocks used in Japanese cuisine.
Dashi forms the base for miso soup, clear broth soup, noodle broth soup, and
many simmering liquids to accentuate the savory flavor known as umami. Dashi is
also mixed into the flour base of some grilled foods like okonomiyaki and
takoyaki.]
Impressed by the decent breakfast for the first time in a
few years, and enjoying it, a puppy came and shook his tail and looked up at
Naoto.
“Woof! Woof!”
“What's the matter doggie, you've already eaten?”
“Woof!”
"Do you still want it? It can't be helped, just a
little."
Naoto cut a piece of salmon from his portion with his
chopsticks and served it to the puppy on the palm of his hand.
The puppy was so happy that it ate directly from Naoto's
hand.
Naoto was a little relieved to see the puppy gobbling up the
fish.
“Woof!”
"No more, the rest is for me."
“Kuuuu”
“I'll make it for lunch.”
“Woof!”
He rubbed the back of his head and looked back at him.
"Huh? I'm doing it again."
“This stuff… this smelly stuff…”
“Oh, you don't like natto?”
After watching for a while, Sofia raised her head and held
out the natto to Naoto with a determined look on her face.
“I'm sorry, Naoto, but this is--”
“No, I'm sorry. I should not have served you natto without
thinking. Even in my hometown, it's a food that people don't like.”
“Oh, really?”
“Yeah, so sorry.”
When Naoto accepted the natto, Sofia was relieved to see
him.
He smiled back at her and offered the natto he had received
to the puppy.
“Do you want some of this, doggie? Its natto, it's rich in minerals.”
“Woof!”
He gave natto to the puppy, who wagged its tail.
The puppy is so happy that it bites into the fermented
soybeans, even though its mouth is sticky.
“Eh?”
Sophia is surprised to see this.
“It ate it…”
“Dogs like natto a lot, although you shouldn't give them the
ones with soy sauce or green onions because they're poisonous. Also, the smell
is too strong for humans, but dogs like it.”
“Why didn't you say that earlier!?”
“Eh?”
“If you had told me, I gave it to you.”
“Oh, well, I should have done that.”
“Enough! Even if natto doesn't make it, I'll take this
vegetable--”
"Oh, Shinka is not good for dogs because it has a
strong salt content."
"What? Then this juice--"
"Miso soup is also salty."
"This fish--"
“I'm sorry, it's for human consumption and I've sprinkled
salt on it. I've already given you a slice of my own.”
“Then this white one--”
“Grains aren't very easy to digest, because they're
carnivores.”
“So why do we have to feed them!”
“Did you say feeding…?”
Naoto couldn't find the words to say to Sophia, who had
tears in her eyes and was glaring at him bitterly.
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