Translator: Reo
Editor: PalenMisha
Read at Watashi wa Sugoi Desu!
Chapter 45 – Staple Food – Assam
We cut our conversation short when Laham and Tsugura came in with some snacks.
“Now then Toki-sama, there is still quite some time until dinner, how about satisfying your hunger with this?”
“A lot, to try.”
Fruit and grains were lined up in front of Toki. In front of me was bret, akana nectar, as well as alcohol derived from sasa.
“Toki-sama?”
I glanced at Toki when Laham called out to him. For some reason, his eyes were glued to the bret.
Bret was a round, orange grain. It was usually ground into flour, mixed with water, and baked. It had a slightly bitter taste but had just the right amount of sweetness when dipped in nectar.
“Do you want to try it?”
“Un.”
It was the first time Toki had shown interest in food without prompting. Hoping it would suit his taste, I tore off a bite-sized piece and brought the plain bret up to Toki’s mouth.
“!! Assam. Similar! This! Food, staple food!”
Toki said those words in excitement, but rather than the fact that it was similar to something from his world, I was more shocked to learn it was a staple food. Which meant everything he’d eaten until now didn’t count as a staple food. In this world, the staple was meat.
I tried to recall the food I’d seen in Toki’s world. Speaking of which, there was something similar to bret there. It was brown on the outside and white on the inside. Most of the time though, I remembered Toki eating something that came in white lumps.
“Toki, if I remember correctly, you’d often eat something that looked like white lumps, right?”
“Un.『White rice』number one staple food! Bouncy, a little sweet.”
From the way he was happily telling me this, I knew that that was what he had actually wanted to eat all this time.
“Toki, like you just did, please tell me about the things you want to eat and the things you need. Though I might know the color and shape of food from your world, I don’t know the taste or texture of them. I want to know more about where you came from. Even if you beg for something or request something, I won’t come to hate you. I promise you that. So please rely on me more.”
“That’s right, Toki-sama. When we’re looking for something to suit your taste, it would be helpful to have information. So please teach us a lot from now on.”
“Un. Thank you…”
Toki smiled, holding back his tears. That, and the lovely clothes he was wearing, stirred my protective instincts even more.
“Toki-sama, you’re too cute.”
I quickly snatched Toki away from Laham when he said that and tried to hug him.
“Your Highness…”
“Assam?”
“That— He was so cute, my body moved on its own.”
Was this the desire to monopolize? It was rather hard to control.
“Ehehe,” Toki laughed happily, noticing my possessiveness. Well, it should be fine if it made Toki smile.
I tried not to pay attention to the way Laham was looking at me with cold eyes.
“Now then, let’s quickly try the other stuff too.”
For the following gen1, Toki tasted the various snacks.
“It seems that bitter and sweet really are reversed.”
Toki could eat all but three of the snacks Laham prepared. Among them, crook seemed to be similar to something called『chicken egg 』, and Toki was surprised when I told him it was the fruit of a plant. He said something like 『Tanindon』2.
He also seemed to like the nectar of trowberries, which he said tasted similar to『strawberries』. Naturally, it just tasted bitter to the rest of us.
Toki put the trowberry nectar on the bret – it seemed that it resembled the taste from the other world and was delicious.
After Toki had finished his round of tasting, I instructed Laham with my eyes to look for 『wayto raisu』3. He nodded his understanding, and after watching him leave the room, I held Toki and relaxed on the pedestal.
New additions to the glossary:
Bret – A round, orange grain often made into bread. Subtly sweet. Tastes like white rice
Crook – A fruit that looks like an egg with the white and yellow reversed. Tastes like chicken eggs
Trowberries – A berry with nectar that has the consistency of jam. The nectar that Assam and the others eat has added sweetener in it but Toki eats it as is. Tastes like strawberries
