kscans

Chapter 246 - Upland Rice Spree (Part 1)

Having successfully purchased the desired pasture grass, Old Man Audel decided to spend the rest of the time guiding the bright-eyed Yuri. Although various crops were cultivated in Yuri’s village, considering that merchants didn’t stop by, or more accurately, couldn’t stop by, it would be better to increase the variety of crops. For that, this great market might be the perfect opportunity. Well, they were already cultivating rare crops like Soya beans and giant Suzuna, and it was certain they were producing wood honey. Furthermore, they had undoubtedly mastered even a tricky thing like Papas potatoes. It was possible they were cultivating a more diverse range of crops than End Village. But, even if that were the case, there would be no harm in increasing the variety of crops.

"...Come to think of it, Yuri-kun, how are the Papas potatoes doing? You said you were going to cultivate them?"

"Ahaha, that’s getting way ahead of things. I haven’t even finished planting the seed potatoes yet."

"Oh, is that so."

As Yuri was cheerfully chatting and looking around the stalls, he froze in front of a certain shop. The reason was, what was lined up there was...

《Orys Fruit (Terrestrial Type). A grain from the East. Equivalent to what is called ‘Rikutou’ or ‘Okabo’ among the crops called rice in the otherworld Japan. It has a low ‘amylose’ content and a high ‘amylopectin’ content in its ‘starch.’ This gives it a unique stickiness and elasticity. It does not have the smell found in aquatic long-grain varieties.》

Parts of the appraisal result, words like Rikutou, Okabo, starch, amylose, and amylopectin, were displayed in gray. When he checked the help, it seemed these were places where the Japanese words were being used as is because the concepts did not yet exist in this world. Incidentally, Japan, Africa, and Asia were proper nouns, and since rice referred to almost the same thing as Orys fruit, they were not displayed in gray, even though they were in katakana.

"Yuri-sama, what are you looking at?"

Eto, finding Yuri frozen in joy at the sight of upland rice, rice!, peeked over curiously, but...

"Ah... more pasture grass? The livestock don’t mind it, but I hear it’s weak to drought, so it takes a lot of effort to water."

"Huh? It’s pasture grass?"

"It’s not?"

Both of them had expressions of surprise... but in fact, here in Rivairein, upland rice was recognized not as a crop, but as pasture grass. This was because for the people of this country, who mainly ate wheat, the crop known as rice was far too unfamiliar. It had arrived with the sales pitch of being the staple food of the East, but unlike wheat, it did not contain gluten, so bread could not be baked from it. So was it treated like rye? Well, being originally a tropical crop, it did not have the cold resistance of rye, or more accurately, the crop in this world that corresponded to rye. When they cooked it according to the instructions, the strangely sticky texture was not well-received by the residents of Rivairein. When they ground it into flour and mixed it with wheat flour to bake bread, it produced a chewy texture. Opinions were divided on this texture, but many gave negative feedback, perhaps because they were not used to it. When they actually tried cultivating it, it required water, though not as much as paddy rice, and was quite a fertilizer-eater, so combined with its low cold resistance, its demand as a crop became low. Its value as pasture grass was recognized because the livestock ate it readily, but since it took a lot of effort to cultivate, it was in the rather luxurious category for pasture grass... that was the evaluation of upland rice in this country.

Yuri was simply astonished and bewildered to hear this story from Eto and Old Man Audel, but...

(...It’s true, if you just bring rice alone into a wheat-eating world, it’s not going to be accepted so easily... The climate, cultivation methods, cooking methods... if you don’t bring it in as a complete system, it won’t adapt well...)

He thought for a moment and was convinced. But, who cares about the circumstances of this country! Above all else, it’s rice!

"...Are you buying this too?"

"Yep. There’s something I want to try.♪"

Seeing Yuri joyfully buying up the upland rice, Eto had a complicated expression. His employer, Adon, bought a lot of things, but to Eto...

(...Last year, he was obsessively buying up inedible things like poisonous tubers and chard for livestock... he’s a strange person. ...He gave me a top and stuff, so there’s no doubt he’s a good person, but...)

He couldn't help but have a complicated evaluation.

But, ignoring Eto, Yuri was almost in a dreamlike state. After all, it was rice, rice. It might be a little different from the paddy rice he had eaten in his past life, but what did such a trivial thing matter? All those things he had given up on as an unattainable dream were now within his grasp. The shop was probably selling it as seed rice, but if he cooked it, it was perfectly good rice. Even excluding the portion he would use as seed rice, he could use the rest for taste testing. There was no choice but to go on a shopping spree with the resolve to spend his entire fortune.

(...A salt-musubi with freshly cooked rice. ...A grilled musubi would be nice too. ...No, maybe I should be extravagant and have tamago kake gohan... ah, the dreams are expanding...)