9-14. Mia's Secret

 

Satou's here. During the times when food allergy was a minor problem, looking for things that can be eaten seemed to be hard. Even longer ago, there was also time where people that were very picky with their food were stopped being treated like humans.
I wonder if food allergy exist in the other world...


◇


"Sweet melons~?"
"Lots are growing nodesu!"
"Pochi, Tama. They're fruits the elves have raised, so you can't take them without permissions okay."

Those are on the trees around Mia's houses that create the spiral staircase we're currently climbing. Pochi and Tama are in high spirits when they see the sweet melons and crimson oranges grown along the way.

"Nn."

Mia plucks one of the fruit, cuts it into two with a knife, and gives them to Pochi and Tama.

"When you're hungry, you can pluck and eat them as you like you know?　You don't need to be reserved--"

I see, rather than being raised by someone, it might be more like ginkgo trees on the roadside.

Or so I've thought, not only on the trees along the roadside, but fruits and flowers are growing even inside the houses. I think the sunlight don't reach to the inside, how are they growing them.

We're guided to a big living room with very tall ceiling.
We leave Mia behind who's being jostled, and head toward the room with a table that looks like a tree stump guided by Mia's parents.
When Mia's father says, "Chairs", ivies rise from the ground to become chairs. This is quite fantasy-like.

When Mia's father snaps his fingers, some pixies bring several goblets and line them up on the table.
Mia's father snaps his fingers once again, and this time pitcher plant-like plants descend from above which then pour transparent liquid with sweet smell into the goblets.

Is it fine to drink this?
But, Pochi and Tama drink them without hesitation and raise voices of praises. Is that so, it's tasty huh.

We were captivated with the fantasy scenes that was unfolding in front of our eyes that we neglected to monitor one dangerous person.

We notice that after we've heard small voices of protests.

"'Let go of me.'"
"'Hey you, let go.'"
"'Halp, Laya, halp.'"

When I turn around, there are three pixies who have been caught by Nana begging for Mia's father help with faces that are about to cry. Nana is holding two of them on both her hands, while the last one is outrageously crammed on her breasts. Change with me.

Mia's father keeps staring at the pixie who's struggling on Nana's cleavage, not helping them. Since my eyes meet with Mia's father's somehow, we nod.

Ow.
Arisa beats my head from behind. The pixies seem to have been rescued by Lulu.

"Good grief, you oppai planet people."
"That's a misunderstanding."
"Nn, misunderstanding."

I avert my face from the condemning looks of Arisa and Lulu, and instead, drift my view to Mia who's being jostled. Elves are all slender after all huh. It seems there's no chubby elf. Either partially, or wholly.


◇


"'Geez, ya' gone and done it now.'"
"'That was bothersome.'"
"'Here, cozy.'"

For some reason, the pixies who have ran away from Nana are nesting on my head and shoulders. The one who's said peeved remark is pulling my hair while saying that. Since it's painful in itself, I put them on the table with my hands.

Pochi splits some baked sweets and feed it to the complaining pixies.

"'Ou! This is some good stuff.'"
"'It's true.'"
"'More, give me.'"

The crumbs from the baked sweets are spilling, but I guess I can just use life magic later.
The pixies from the town have gathered due to the praising voices of the pixies here.

"'Hey, give me?'"
"'Won't you, give me too?'"
"Au, au, wait nanodesu, there's, there's no more nodesu."

The pixies are talking in elf language so their words shouldn't connect, but somehow the conversations are established.
It's fun to look at panicking Pochi, but let's send her a lifeboat.

I take out a basket full of baked sweets through Item Box onto the table.

The pixies attack the baked sweets in high spirits.

...Uwah.
They're too vigorous that there are those who bury themselves on the basket showing only their legs, and there are also some who are falling from the table on the opposite side while carrying the sweets.

The elves who are coming with Mia seem to be interested with the baked sweets too, I've already lined up two basket of sweets on the table.

"Yum." "Umu." "Good." "Delicious."

They generally talk in short speech like Mia, but there are also some who talk long, although not as bad as Mia's mother.

"My, it's delicious. Really delicious. Hey, hey, are these made by Satou-san?　It's not, is it?"
"It's true, this is delicious."
"Hey, although it's different from honey, the sweetness is wonderful isn't it."

Most of the elves are friendly, but not all of them it seems.
One elf boy points at me while glaring in front of me.

"Mutual love?"

Who with whom?
Mia clings on my neck from behind, and show it to the boy. "Of course!", she said, but I think that's groundless.
I understand that he has problems from his expression, but please tell that to the person in question.

Apparently, that boy likes Mia. Although I've been referring him as a boy, he looks like Mia's father. He's also 250 years old, so he's quite older than Mia.

"What's good about him?"
"Beautiful."

Ha?　Beautiful?
The reply for the boy's question is incomprehensible. In fact, the elves around us are looking puzzled too.

"'Beautifull.'" "'Yup, it's beautiful.'" "'Isn't it.'"

Some pixies are agreeing with Mia.
The eyes color of Mia's mother who's tilting her neck in puzzlement change from blue to silver and then she looks at me.

"My, oh Mia! It's certainly beautiful, I've never seen this before. I wonder how many spirits are there, it's hard to see since there are too many of them, but it's a beautiful light."
"It's true."
"You're well liked by the spirits."

The people who call me beautiful have the [Spirit Seer] skill in common.
Apparently, spirits are gathering around me. Looks like I'm letting out an aura called Spirit Light that the spirits like, and it looks beautiful.
They tell me that it's rare for spirits to gather besides on place where the earth vein is gushing out.

The reason why Mia can find me wherever I am seems to be this mass of spirits that act as a landmark.


◇


There was another secret of Mia that had become clear.

It's about meat.

"My, oh Mia! You won't become an adult if you're picky with food you know?　Now, don't avoid it, eat the meat. You'll eat it right?"
"Mwuu, unnecessary."
"Eat."

Mia is sandwiched between her parents as they tell her to eat meat.
It was our misunderstanding that elves couldn't eat meat. In truth, other elves eat meat dishes just fine.
They're not like Liza who regards meat as supreme, but among them, there's no one who only eats vegetables.

I understand from seeing Mia that elves are relatively hearty eaters, so I go with Lulu to help elf madams to prepare the meal. I let the madams to taste the whale karage and kabayaki from yesterday, and after I get the OK, the mass production begins.

There are some cookwares with quite bad taste like stoves with a person face design, but it seems they're basically some kinds of magic tools. All the cookwares here are organic-like.

The difference with humans magic tools are how they don't need to consume mana of the person using them. The stove lights up when I just breath on it, and the oven heats up when I just knock it. Water comes out of the fish mouth-shaped faucet when I just hold my hands before it.

I'll ask the elves about the mechanisms later.

I serve the mass produced whale karage, fried rice and skewers on the platter. Elves who have come to help, and simple Pinocchio-like living dolls carry the plates to the banquet hall.

While I soothe myself as I look at the competition between Liza who's guarding the [Mountain of Karaage] like an impregnable fortress against Pochi, Tama and the pixies, I go out to the terrace and gaze at the town scape. I listen to the song that the elves are playing while putting the cherry-like fruit that the pixies have given me in my mouth.

"Satou."
"What's wrong Mia. Is it fine for the guest of honor to leave her seat?"
"Nn."

Mia leads me by hand as we walk the town of the elves.
Everyone seem to have gone to the banquet, there are only living dolls, and carriages without the auto-motion horses around.

And then, the place where Mia leads me to is--






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