IWAL Ch 46 – Silence After the Feast Part 1

“Krish-saaaan, let’s have lunch!”

Couge and Genette helped me carry the plates of food, while Krish-san, who had just finished putting up the last net, jumped down from the tree.

“As one would expect from a knight, the way you carry yourself is different from us ordinary people. When I was young I was pretty agile, but now that the years have caught up to me my body is heavy and hard to move,” Genette said admiringly.

I nodded. Krish-san was cool, just like a ninja. His quiet nature was exactly like a ninja.

“Shinobu, could you please roll out the cloth?” Norn asked.

“Oh, yeah, wait a minute.”

No, no, no. This was no time to be admiring Krish-san. Norn and I worked very hard on this lunch, so we had to eat it as soon as possible.

As I spread out the cloth and laid out the food, the food looked even more delicious in the sun.

To finish everything off, I squeezed a lemon on top of the fried chicken. Once everyone was present, we said, “Itadakimasu” and everyone started grabbing food.

Couge seemed interested in the chakin sushi he had seen for the first time. He took one and immediately threw it into his mouth. “Whoa, it’s good. But what’s in this? I’ve never experienced this texture before.”

“That’s rice. Didn’t you say you wanted to try it before?” I replied.

“So this is it! I didn’t notice it because it looks totally different from what I imagined it would look like after hearing about it from Norn. What part of it looks like insect eggs? Isn’t it pretty?”

That’s because it’s wrapped in a thin baked egg. I wondered if Couge would be surprised if he saw what’s inside?

While Norn was trying hard to choose his words as he explained to Couge about the hidden rice, Genette took a huge bite of the fried chicken to the point where his cheeks were bulging.

“The chicken is kind of refreshing,” Genette commented.

“It’s got lemon squeezed on it. Isn’t it tasty?” I replied.

We had washed our hands in the pond water earlier, but Krish-san was still working. So I prepared a warm towel for him so he could wash his hands, and I put some rice on a small plate for him to eat. “Okay, Krish-san. Eat a lot of food, okay?”

“Thanks.”

I wondered what Krish-san would eat first, and as I expected, he reached for the chakin sushi.

“Delicious.”

I couldn’t stop myself from smiling when I saw the corners of Krish-san’s mouth rise, even though it wasn’t as big of a smile as when he ate the kukri fruit.

“Couge, please eat this too. I made it myself,” Norn said.

“Wow, that looks good. I’ll try it.”

Norn and Couge, who had just gotten engaged, were flirting with each other happily. The way that Couge’s eyes squinted in happiness was amazing.

“… I wish I’d brought my wife along,” Genette-san mumbled.

I saw Genette-san looking at his near-empty plate sadly, so I quickly grabbed food for him and served him seconds.

As we were eating our meal, my family, who had been relaxing around the field, were lured in by the delicious smell and came over one after another.

“I don’t see Pyonkichi… Oh, it’s because of his bad leg. I’ll be right back. I’m just going to carry him over here,” I said.

It was very difficult for Pyonkichi to travel long distances. But it’s lonely to be alone in the shade, wasn’t it?

“I’ll go with you,” Krish-san told me.

Krish-san and I walked through the field together and we saw Pyonkichi laboriously crawling on the ground. He’s trying really hard, but he’s not making much progress.

“Pyonkichi, you came all this way by yourself? You did a great job.”

Pyonkichi’s ears perked up when he heard my voice. I squatted down and patted him on the back, and he looked up at me with his paws on my lap as if to say, “Take me with you.” He was begging me with puppy dog eyes.

Pochi, who was following behind me, licked Pyonkichi. Maybe he’s saying, “I’m sorry for leaving you here.” These two animals were good friends.

“I’m here to pick you up. Let’s go see the others together.”

I put my hands under Pyonkichi’s armpits and lifted him up with a grunt. It’s heavy… When I held him up like this, he stretched from my shoulders to my knees. I wasn’t skilled at holding him and Pyonkichi seemed to be in a bit of pain.

“Let me carry him,” Krish-san offered.

From behind me, Krish-san lifted Pyonkichi. After passing over my head and into Krish-san’s arms, Pyonkichi placed his paws on Krish’s shoulders, his nose twitching.

Read this at perpetualdaydreams.com

“Good for you, Pyonkichi. I’m glad that Krish-san is holding you. Krish-san’s hugs make you feel safe and comfortable, don’t they?” I pet his back as Pyonkichi was having fun looking all over the place at this new height. I understood how nice it felt to be carried by Krish-san because he had also carried me around when I was injured.

When I was with Couge, I was too scared to loosen my grip, but when Krish-san held me in his arms, I felt safe to leave my body in his hands. When Krish-san held me, it was nice to be able to look at things from a different perspective, as if my vision had expanded.

“Oh, so Shinobu felt good when I held you.”

“Huh?” I looked back at what I had said and had an “aha” moment.

It’s true that it felt good to be held, but doesn’t that make me sound like a pervert?!

What should I do? Would Krish-san think I was creepy and say, “This guy was thinking about that?”

“Well, um, when I say it felt good, I don’t mean it in a weird way. I mean, the view was nice and fun and all that…!!”

“Hahaha.”

Oh no, this was bad. This was really bad. I just made up some stupid excuse while I was flustered and now Krish-san was laughing at me. It was the first time I saw him laugh in any other way than lifting the edge of his lips, and my mouth fell open.

Could it be that Krish-san just teased me?

“You laughed at me. You’re terrible, Krish-san!”

“Haha, I’m sorry. Shinobu was so flustered, I just had to.”

Krish-san brushed back my bangs with a quick motion, and with Pyonkichi still in his arms, he started walking lightly with a firm stride.

Somehow, I felt the sweetness of Krish-san’s current gesture, and I stood there shocked still, grasping my bangs as they were pushed back.

Every time I saw Krish’s various faces, I fell more and more in love with him. Since I had bocame aware that I was in love, the momentum accelerated day by day, and the pounding of my heart increased by 50%.

I’d heard that there was a fixed number of heartbeats in a person’s lifetime, so I was probably going to die early.

“What should I do, Pochi? What if I die before my time?”

“Woof?” Pochi looked at me with his head tilted and then looked after Pyonkichi who was far ahead of us. Pochi grabbed my pants with his teeth and pulled me to chase after Pyonkichi.

Now that the entire family was together, we resumed eating. I had made a huge amount of food, but everyone managed to cram it into their stomachs.

The people of this world could really eat well. I made so much food that I thought I might have some leftovers, but most of the plates were empty.

“Hey, Shinobu eat some more. You need to eat a lot or you’ll never grow,” Norn told me.

“Thank you. But I’m already full.”

Norn held out a french fry for me, but unfortunately I hadn’t grown, not even one millimeter, since I’d come to this world. Even if I ate until I was full to bursting I wouldn’t grow taller. Well, maybe I would grow… but horizontally instead.

The amount of food I could eat was shockingly small when compared to that of the people in this world. When Krish-san had helped me eat while I was injured, he was really worried about how little I ate.

Krish-san would say things like, “Don’t hold yourself back” and “If you want to get better you need to eat a little more” while holding out a spoon for me to eat. Krish-san took great pains to make the food, so even though it was impossible for me to consume everything, I forced myself to take it in until I felt sick.

After that, Krish-san was able to understand how much I could take and he never asked me to eat more than I could handle.

I was drinking orange juice, and Pochi was restlessly walking all over the blanket, his mouth salivating. I wanted to give him something to eat, but I didn’t want to give him something that had too strong of a taste.

“Pochi, you can’t have the food I cooked, but you can eat the fruit. What would be good? As expected, you want to try the kukri fruit?” I placed a small amount of each fruit in front of Pochi for him to try. He sniffed them and took a bite of the apple. Pochi also ate the pear and peach, but he didn’t seem to like orange or the kukri fruit; when he sniffed them, he made a snorting noise. It seemed like Pochi also had his own tastes.

“Do you think the other children will like it?” I asked. After trying out the various fruits with the animals, I found that the most popular fruit was the apple. Maybe the scent of the orange and the kukri was too strong. Since they were animals, their noses were great, so they probably weren’t good with strong smells.

I gave Pyonkichi an apple cut into the shape of a rabbit. He made a cute crunching noise and quickly ate the whole thing.

Norn, who liked Ravi in a different way from me, watched him eat with great joy as he said, “A Ravi is eating an apple in the shape of a Ravi. It’s so cute.”

We listened to Genette-san’s tales of heroism from his youth, listened to Norn and Couge’s funny stories, sang, and chatted again.

We were having a good time, but everyone was full and all the food we had cooked was gone, so we had to end our outdoor dinner party.

Since the amount of fruit we picked today was too much for Krish-san and me to eat, we decided to have everyone who helped us take some home as souvenirs.

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Translator: FrankenWife

Part two coming soon.

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