I explained why I had all these fish. “The baby let out another supersonic blast just as it was leaving with Namitaro. It knocked a ton of fish out, and they just floated to the surface. I got a huge haul without even having to do anything. I stored most of them in a magic bag to keep them fresh, but I figured I’d try prepping them a bit differently too.”
Gramps clearly had no intention of helping. Instead, he just snagged a few fish I’d already cleaned and started making a snack with them to go along with his drink.
“Mm, it smells amazing.”
“It really does... Oh, Tenma’s back!”
The women, except for Kriss, had just returned from a trip out. The moment they entered the dining room, they were drawn in by the smell of Gramps’s grilled fish. Jeanne noticed me right away, but Amur only realized I was there after Jeanne said something. She’d just followed the scent straight to Gramps.
“Master Tenma, what are you making?” Aura asked.
“Need a hand with anything?” Leni offered.
The two of them came in a little later and offered to help. Unlike Leni, who was focused on what I was doing, Aura started letting her eyes drift towards the grilled fish. She was being so obvious...
Jeanne and Amur also asked if there was anything for them to do. Since the urgent stuff was already handled, I had them help out by grilling up some fish for dinner. While I explained what needed to be done, Aura and Leni washed up and put on aprons.
“Aura, can you clean and gut these small fish and then soak them in this salt water? Leni, I’ll have you fillet this trout into thirds.”
They both nodded and got to work. Aura muttered something about her task being the stinkier one.
“Wonder what Aina would say if she found out Leni got the tougher job...?” I said casually.
“All right, let’s do this!” she said.
That shut her up fast. Total deflection.
Jeanne didn’t want the filleting job because Leni was just better at it, plain and simple.
“Better whip up the brine for the smoked batch before Leni finishes up.”
This was my first time smoking fish, so I kept the brine simple. No herbs—just the basics.
“Water, sake, salt, sugar, and pepper... That should do the trick.”
Even if it didn’t turn out perfectly, it certainly wouldn’t be inedible.
“Tenma, I’m done with the trout. I’ll help with the small fish now.”
Leni smoothly moved to help Aura before the brine even cooled. She was incredibly efficient. More than half the pile of small fish was cleaned in no time.
“We’re all done.”
In the end, Leni had handled more than half the pile by herself. I stepped in after putting the slices of trout into the cooled brine using magic, but I barely managed a fifth myself.
“We’ll leave the dried ones in salt water for now. They’ll be done after drying out again. As for the smoked fish, they should be ready the day after tomorrow, if all goes well. Jeanne, Amur, bring over the grilled fish, would you?”
They brought them over, and I stored everything in the magic bag. Gramps had a few he didn’t want to give up because he had claimed them as his personal snacks. I told him that was fine, but I’d skip the dried and smoked fish for him in exchange. He handed everything back over instead.
“All right. That’s dinner settled,” I said. “I just need some rice, miso soup, and pickles now.”
The rest was easy enough to handle on my own, so I told everyone to go do whatever they wanted. However...
“Tenma, is it ready yet?” Amur asked.
“Come on, it’s too soon. Master Tenma, do you think it’ll be about another hour?” Aura asked.
“An hour? No way, the food’ll need more time than that,” Jeanne said.
Leni agreed. “Yeah, that makes sense. The dried fish was originally made to be stored, after all. Gotta let it air out a bit.”
No one had any intention of leaving the dining room—not since the tray of drying fish had caught everyone’s attention, anyway. Gramps was no exception. When Amur asked if the fish was ready, I could practically see his ears twitch as he listened in.
“I can’t promise it’ll taste amazing, but I guess I can use a bit of magic to speed-dry some for dinner.”
Amur, Aura, and Gramps were all staring at me, so I caved. I decided I’d use Wind and Fire magic to try making dried fish on the spot.
“It’s too risky to use Fire magic indoors, though. Let’s head out to the yard.”
I didn’t want to accidentally start a bonfire inside the house, so I led everyone outside. By the time we got there, our group had grown to more than just the original four and Gramps. Rocket, Shiromaru, and Solomon had tagged along too. Then, Tama showed up. And since she was there, of course Jubei and Hiro came by to keep an eye on things. Finally, Mary showed up with a half asleep Aries—he looked like he hadn’t wanted to come but had lost the argument.
“Nguh! Cough, cough...”
The first thing Mary did when she arrived was slam right into Aura’s stomach. That was her version of a greeting.
“Mary, Tama. Just a heads-up, but I’m about to start drying some fish, so try not to kick up too much dust, okay?”
“T-Tenma... Wh-What about me...?”
I could hear Aura muttering something in the background, but I just tuned her out. At this point, this was a regular occurrence. Besides, it was more important to make sure that Tama and Mary didn’t ruin the fish.
“All right, this spot will do. Let’s set up a base and a barrier with some rocks. Actually, no, we want a drying rack, so let’s stretch a casting net over the base instead. That should work.”
Once we were done setting things up, I sprinkled water around the area to keep the dust down and started casting my Wind and Fire spells.
“I hope this works...”
Realistically, natural air-drying would be better, but I treated this as a training session. It was more about technique and testing than efficiency. I was going to use a method involving a gentle flow of warm air. You could call it a kind of warm Wind magic, I guess.
It wouldn’t be easy to get it right. Too much wind and it wouldn’t stay warm. And if there was too much force, the fish would just blow away. If I used too much fire, I’d end up with steam-roasted fish instead of dried. Any little imbalance and I wouldn’t be creating a warm breeze—I’d make a gust of wind, or even worse, a scorching blast. I could even cast a full-on flamethrower if I really messed things up.
“Maybe I should teach this technique to Amy and Tida.”
As long as you didn’t hit flamethrower territory, it was actually a solid way to do some magical training. Gramps agreed with that, so I decided I’d call them over sometime soon.
“You really are something, Tenma. Keeping a steady temperature like that while chatting is tough. I can do it, but most people’d lose focus,” Gramps observed about an hour into the spellcasting.
“It’s just muscle memory once you get the hang of it. Doesn’t drain much mana either. Honestly, it’s kind of like jogging and chatting at the same time,” I explained.
It’d be tough if I were on a complex trail, but lots of people could hold a conversation while jogging along a route they’d traveled plenty of times.
“It doesn’t sound so bad when you put it that way. It might even be harder for someone doing it in total silence.”
“Yeah, but let’s be real. Even if Aura was a magic prodigy, she’d definitely screw it up,” Amur said.
“She’d get distracted talking and stop casting, or she’d launch the fish into the sky...or just set the whole yard on fire,” Jeanne agreed.
Aura fumed at that. “Grr... I want to deny it, but I really can’t!”
Jeanne and Amur weren’t holding back. Aura pouted at their comments, but even she had to admit they weren’t wrong. Out of the three of them, she was definitely the least suited for this kind of multitasking magic.
“All right, I think we’re good...”
Once the laughter died down, I stopped the spell and checked the fish. Visually, they looked fine. I grilled one up with a quick burst of magic to test it. It tasted fine too.
“Yup, we’re all set.”
I shared a sample, and it was gone in an instant. Shiromaru and Solomon fought over the leftover bones. Shiromaru won the head, and Solomon got the rest.
“Rocket, have one of the smaller ones.”
He’d missed out earlier, so I gave him a dried fish. Shiromaru and Solomon lined up behind him like it was their turn again, but I made them wait. We wouldn’t have enough left for dinner otherwise.
“That’s not bad.”
“It’s a bit more bland than the dried fish I got from the SAR.”
“Maybe it’s the kind of fish we used?”
“I think it’s fine, considering the ingredients and the method. But yeah, it’s not on the same level as the stuff they sell in the SAR,” Leni said.
Amur and the others were being polite, but Leni gave her honest opinion without sugarcoating it. Still, everyone agreed this would be perfectly fine for dinner tonight.
“Hey, it looks like we’ve got company.”
Just as we were wrapping up and getting ready to head back inside, one of the golems at the gate started moving. Since acquaintances wouldn’t trigger the golems, that meant someone unfamiliar had arrived.
“I’ll go check,” Aura offered and jogged off to look. She came back a few minutes later, looking out of breath. “Master Tenma, it’s a letter from Duke Sanga. He’s asking for a reply as soon as possible, so his butler is here, waiting.”
“Okay.”
I took the letter and opened it right away. It was a formal request to arrange a visit, and he was asking what day would work. He usually wasn’t this formal about stuff, so I wondered if something had happened. I told the butler that tomorrow was too soon, but the day afterward in the afternoon would be fine.
“Hm, that’s odd... He’s never sent a message like this before. I wonder if something’s up. But why do you want to wait until the day after tomorrow?” Gramps asked. He seemed more intrigued than concerned by the letter. But when I told him the date I’d picked, he raised an eyebrow.
“Well, tomorrow’s just too short notice,” I said. “Besides, I’ve got fish to smoke tomorrow.”
At first he looked exasperated, but then he chuckled. “Fair enough. That’s important too.”