Chapter 81 (2/2)

…… Ah, while it’s normal for j.a.panese people, foreigners may feel uncomfortable doing it. In particular, when it comes to royalty, it may be that he has only eaten things separately. Maybe, the act of putting chopsticks by itself can be considered vulgar…. I never thought that I would recognize myself as a j.a.panese in such a situation.

「Eating like this is the official way to eat a pot. It is said that those that eat together have their bonds strengthened. 」

I’m not saying a lie. In fact, I have heard that sumo wrestlers eat in the same pot to reinforce their camaraderie, and also eat from the same kettle of rice to show their friends.h.i.+p..

「Maa, it’s a custom in my country, so if it’s difficult for a prince to put his hands on it, I won’t share it with you.」

I don’t want to impose it. The reason is that it won’t be delicious if it’s eaten forcibly. It is a hot pot, and I want it to be delicious, and I want you to eat it.

The prince had a difficult and face opened the mouth when I extended my hand to take his bowl.

「No, if that’s how you eat this dish, it would be good manners to follow it. Let’s get this dumpling.…… – Hot! 」

「Are you all right? I told you to be careful! Yes, it’s water. 」

Is he a clichéd man? He carried the tsukune to his mouth without even cooling it, and at that moment it entered his mouth he was so surprised by the heat that the tsukune fell into the bowl.

The prince gulped the water in one go, and then let out the breath he had held.

「Fuu, I’m sorry… It’s okay. It’s tingling a bit, but I didn’t think it would burn like this. I’ll be careful.」

「If you pick some and put them together first, they’ll be cooler when you eat them.」

After I gave him the advice, he said “yes” and put some vegetables in his bowl.

「Haa fuu, mugu…. …… Muu, how to say it…. It surely is delicious, is it a taste of the ingredients? The way it was prepared was superb for sure, and this ponzu is exquisite. It seems to warm your body as well…. Well, I can understand that it’s food we should eat on a cold day.」

「I’m happy you liked it. How about grated radish? Do you want to try it? 」

「Well, let’s get to it. …… Mu？ It is quite crispy… but the spiciness has been accentuated as well. This is delicious.」

The reaction of the prince seems to be good. After all, the pot is not the one to be eaten alone. I’d feel lonely if I had it by myself

As the prince began to stretch his hand to the pot, I also put the ingredients I wanted to my bowl.

Oh, don’t forget Eru’s rice.

Sure, cats don’t eat mushrooms, do they? I hear that it is better to avoid the one with a strong smell, as well as the chrysanthemum.

I’ll pick out some things that Eru is going to eat and put them on the table so as to cool them down.

It is inconvenient that cats cannot eat if it’s this hot.

I placed the plate in front of Eru once it got a little cold.

「Nya~」

His voice cries before he greedily starts chewing on the dish.

…… Thinking on it, it’s been a few months since I picked Eru up, but his size doesn’t change at all. I thought that cats at this age grew up on a daily basis… I wonder what is it like to still be kitten sized? Or is it something of his race…?13

「What is this round thing? It seems like meat…… but…. The juice is overflowing in the mouth and it is delicious. 」

While I was scratching Eru’s neck, I heard the prince’s voice, so I looked at him. The prince stabbed the tsukune with his fork and looked at it.

「It’s a small chiken’s dumpling…… It is made round. It’s called tsukune. By the way, the white one here is the rice that was cooked and hardened. It’s good for the stomach… I mean, there are hardly any tsukune left!? Don’t eat that much, and more of the rest!」

There is only one tsukune left in the pot! There should have been a good number of them… but I also like the meatb.a.l.l.s!?

「No more tsukune for prince! I’ll eat the rest of the meatb.a.l.l.s! 」

When I said that, the prince hanged his face in a pitiful manner.

Making such a face is no good!? The grudge I hold over the food is too big!

「I’ll eat other things, so can I eat a little? I couldn’t stop because it’s too delicious. It’s torture to not be able to eat something so delicious in front of you…」

…… I’m happy to hear that it’s delicious…. Also, I’m happy that you enjoy my favorite meatb.a.l.l.s. But this and that are different! I’ll protect my tsukune!

「No. The prince ate a lot, so please bear with it. 」

As I said that, the prince hanged down with an even more miserable face.

It seems like I’m doing something bad….

「…… If it’s only a little, you can eat it. Just a little!? You can’t eat more if you don’t the other things properly!?」

Sigh…. Even if I said that, I’m too weak to this kind of face…. When I was in j.a.pan, and got angry at the mischief of my elder brother, I always forgave him when he made this kind of face…

When I gave the permission, the prince raised his face and reached out to the Chinese cabbage saying, 「I understand. 」 with a very serious face.

I sighed and put the remaining tsukune on the pot.

Ponzu is a j.a.panese sauce made primarily of soy sauce and citrus juice.

Yes, they did say both mushrooms (マッシュルーム) and s.h.i.+take mushrooms (椎茸) in the raw.

Kiritanpo is a mashed rice pressed on a cryptomeria skewer and toasted (used as dumplings in soups)​.

I’m not sure on this part (さすがにお鍋にパンは).

Udon are thick j.a.panese wheat noodles.

This entire part was really weird, so the translation might be way off (ねぇ？かといってそのままご飯と言うには今回のお鍋だと不向きです。 お鍋の締めの代名詞のおうどんもありません。). @elephantNo5 gave a better translation of it, I can’t really make it enter the context though, so I’ll be adding it as a note instead: Hmm? I guess I can’t really call this nabe. It doesn’t have the main ingredient of nabe, Udon.

I couldn’t find what she was using to measure it, so I just used “unit” (わたしが食べるときはお米５の麦５で炊いています。).

It should be noted that his name is written as “ガラム”, generally speaking the sound of “n” is always romanized with the letter “n”, but since his name ends with “mu”, I decided to keep the romanization as “Graham” to point out the original j.a.panese letter.

Konbu is any edible kelp from the Laminariaceae family.

She meant that she does not have room to worry about it being a bit messy, but the raws explicitly used a word related to uttering, so I kept it to maintain a bit more accuracy (そんなことは言っていられません).

I have absolutely no Idea what she meant with this one (　秘儀、棚上げ！). @elephant No5 also helped with this one, it seems like she is calling out a move, just like Naruto would… The exact meaning of it also eluded him however.

Tsukune is a chicken meatball.

This paragraph was a bit hard to handle, I’m not that sure on the accuracy of it, specially the last sentence (そういう種類なのでしょうか…？).

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