Much to my relief, Chai’s new friends soon recovered from their feeble condition. I hadn’t been entirely certain they’d all pull through when I’d first seen them. Now, however, I was watching them chase one another around Fluffy’s lake.
Fluffy’s lake was doing well too. My mental image of lakes was that they tended to stagnate and smell, so I made sure to visit once a day to apply a cleaning spell and check up on the condition. The area around the lake was changing on a daily basis as well. Every time I visited, there’d be new benches or picnic tables, and even freshly planted trees.
The One Eyes and the Farm Brigade, I’m guessing.
There were fish in the lake now too for some reason, as well as some strange creatures that resembled shrimp. I pretended not to notice them.
Now that they were recovered, it was time to give the new dogs names. There were three male dogs and four females, mostly with the same brown and black pattern as Chai. One of the males had white tufts rather than black, and one of the females had reddish tufts instead, as well as red eyes.
First, the males: I named them Chaya (“brown existence”) Chata (“brown multitudes”) and, to the one with white tufts, I gave the name Charu (“brown rapids”). The females became Sau (“brown feather”) Sasa (“brown sand”), Sami (“brown beauty”) and the red-eyed one became Kisa (“brown princess”). One syllable from each name came from one of two ways to pronounce the kanji for “brown”—the same kanji I’d used when naming Chai. I was quite proud of myself.
And I think they like their names too... Probably.
Speaking of Chai—he and Koa had seemed somewhat distant with each other when I’d first met them, but these days, I hardly ever saw the two of them apart. Whenever one went hunting, the other would always follow. I was a little worried that Koa might feel lonely now that Chai had more dog friends, but nothing had changed; the two were still constantly together.
They must be really close. It’s nice.
Whenever I went anywhere, on the other hand, I was now accompanied by at least two wolves and a dog.
My own personal bodyguards... Probably not a bad thing. Thanks, guys.
Rounding out the guard were always two antlets, and two each of the itsy-bitsy spiders and ants. They were probably different each time, but I couldn’t tell them apart in the slightest, which I felt kind of guilty about.
Everyone must think I’m pretty weak, though, to need this many bodyguards. I gotta get stronger for them!
A thought struck me one day—or rather, a memory.
It was from a reality show—one of those ones where they drop average people on a deserted island. On the show, someone had demonstrated how to press camellia seeds to get oil.
I wonder if there are any similar seeds here. If I can make oil, then I can make... I can make deep-fried food!
I’d recently come across a fruit that, to me, resembled eggplant. Well, I wasn’t really sure whether it was a fruit or a vegetable, but it had been growing on a tree. Either way, I wanted to fry it. Deep-fried eggplant with a dash of fish sauce... My mouth watered at the thought.
But first, I needed oil—and there were a lot of seeds to go through.
On the first day, I gathered and crushed dozens of different types of seeds. No luck.
The next day, dozens more—zilch.
I woke up on the third day to find hundreds of seeds piled on the kitchen counter, all different colors and sizes. A few massive fruits protruded out of the pile too. The baby spiders and antlets beamed (well, a similar expression anyway) up at me.
Did you go and find all of these? You’re the best!
I spent the whole day cracking open seed after seed. It wasn’t physically tiring thanks to my handy magic, but mentally, it was exhausting. I cracked open another hard shell, only for it to slip out of my fingers. I examined my hands curiously. A shiny liquid coated my fingertips.
The seed had come from inside one of the large fruits, around the same size as my head. Sweet-smelling pulp had given way to reveal the seeds clustered at the center.
Come to think of it, what kind of seeds produce oil in the first place? Obviously it’s not all of them... Not like I’d freaking know.
I tried a mouthful of the pulp and immediately regretted it. It was incredibly bitter. I spit it out, gagging. Sasa was looking at me in shock.
She probably knew it was bitter. My fault for not checking... Oh well. Time to test out some oil! Oh, but I’ll need more of these fruits first.