An A-Ranked Adventurer's 'Slow-living'

Chapter 43: A Peaceful Breakfast

After I finished washing the bedsheets, I hung them up to dry outside before I sat back down on a chair inside the living room.

In the direction I’m facing, I could see Flora making breakfast in a seemingly good mood while she was humming a song.

Her kitchen knife was making a nice rhythm with its rapid chopping sounds.

She now had a slightly oversized blue apron on; perhaps she found my apron that was hanging on the wall while I was washing the bed sheets and decided to use it.

It’s quite a refreshing feeling to watch her cook in the kitchen of our home.

I was always the host in this house, so I decided to try offering her my help again.

“Do you really not need me to help?”

“It’s alright, Aldo-san. I just have to stir-fry this after. It won’t take much longer”

Flora politely declined my second offer to help.

The fact that she was cooking for me made me really happy, but I was also feeling a bit restless not doing anything since I’ve always cooked for myself in this house.

When she saw me acting somewhat uneasy, she said to me with a smile,

“I wanted to make you breakfast today”

“…Alright”

I can’t complain if she said that to me with such a happy smile on her face. There isn’t a man who wouldn’t be happy after hearing that from her.

I gave up completely on the idea of helping her cook and just calmly watched her.

She finely chopped the vegetables and mushrooms. Then, she sliced the radishes that we harvested this morning into round pieces and put them into a wooden bowl.

After that, with a drizzle of oil in the heated up frying pan, she tossed in the leftover herbs, vegetables, bacon, and the radishes together and stir-fried them.

She was moving around the kitchen with an excellent flow.

None of her movements were wasted since she knew where all the seasoning, ingredients, plates and utensils were.

It’s probably because she had cooked in my house many times already. She wasn’t used to seeing this as her own home yet, but she has strangely gotten used to this kitchen as if it were her own..

Sizzling sounds from the food that was cooking echoed, as an aromatic fragrance spread to the living room.

After a while, the vegetables were thoroughly cooked and Flora scooped the ingredients into a heated up pot beside her.

She carefully put in different spices and herbs and boiled the vegetable soup.

My stomach was stimulated by its delicious smell as it cried out to complain about hunger.

“Ehehe, the soup is almost ready, please wait a little longer”

It seems that the sound of my stomach rumbling was heard even by her in the kitchen. She giggled as she stirred the pot with a long wooden spoon.

“Aldo-san, it’s ready!”

After enduring the hunger for a while, breakfast was completed.

“Ahh, I’m starving. Let’s hurry and eat”

“Okay, okay”

Flora put the finished breakfast on a tray and started to bring our food out.

The menu presented right in front of me was first a colorful salad made of leafy vegetables and radishes. Then, there was some bread, a dish of stir-fry made of radish, mushrooms, carrots, bacon, and some other vegetables-

And lastly, a soup with radishes, potatoes and onions.

The soup contained the other parts of the radishes that we had just harvested this morning and I was very happy that neither the stems nor leaves were wasted.

“Is it because of the radishes’ red color? The dishes look very pretty”

“Yeah, they make it look so appetizing”

A colorful salad, a well-seasoned stir-fry with pepper and salt, and a steaming hot soup with the smell of herbs. They look soo good.

I wanted to start eating already, but it’d be rude to when Flora hasn’t even sat down yet.

I continued to wait eagerly as she brought out the last of her portion.

When she saw me acting all fidgety, she took off the apron with a bitter smile and sat down with her tray.

“–Ah!”

She had a bit of an unpleasant expression as she sat down.

“What’s wrong? Is everything okay?”

I noticed her strange expression and asked worriedly.

She shouldn’t be hurt that bad from the fight yesterday… Was she actually just acting tough to endure it this whole time? Or, are the symptoms coming up the next day or something?

“I-it’s nothing”

However, Flora said it was nothing.

Even if she says that, she was just attacked by the red bear yesterday. Only bad thoughts come to my mind as I started to worry.

“Don’t tell me…that you are injured somewhere?”

“No, um…. That’s not it…”

I tilted my head in confusion while she’s not making it clear.

“Um, it’s just that it was my first time yesterday, so I feel a bit uncomfortable down there…”

Flora said as she blushed and rubbed her thighs together.

So the cause was me. There was the bedsheets from a little while ago too… maybe I’m just insensitive to female things.

I haven’t really gotten into a relationship with a woman before, so it’s quite difficult for me to pick up on these kinds of things.

“…Umm, sorry. Does it hurt?”

“Y-yeah, a little bit. But, it’s probably alright”

My face felt hot when it made me think of what we did last night. It seems like the same thing happened for her as well as her ears turned red.

We’re inside the living room right now yet there’s a hard-to-describe mood in the air.

“N-now then, shall we eat?”

“Y-yes! Please, go ahead!”

She raised her head and replied in a loud voice as if she was trying to get rid of this embarrassing atmosphere.

I picked up my fork as fast as I could and stabbed a radish in my soup. The fully cooked radish was a bit soft and its texture was just right. Moreover, I could fully taste the flavors of the onions and potatoes that have been absorbed into the soup when I took a bite.

It was delicious. And then, the distinct, peculiar spiciness of radishes came afterwards.

“Yeah, this is really good”

“Yeah, it was good to put them in as they had a similar texture to a daikon and their texture’s great”

Certainly, the texture of the radish does resemble a daikon. It’s like they are great friends with each other.

I dipped the bread into the soup and ate it, then I tried the stir-fry and salad.

Since the stir-fry was the main dish made with the pieces of round cut radishes, I wanted to try it the most.

The salad was also very easy to eat along with a sweet and sour dressing. It was crunchy and I could fully taste the raw flavors of every ingredient.

“What’s wrong? Why aren’t you eating?”

I noticed that Flora was not moving her fork while I sampled one dish after another.

“No, it’s just fun to watch you eat. It’s like a dream of mine to cook for the person I love”

Flora replied to me with a broad smile on her face.

I’ll get embarrassed if you say it so straightforwardly like that.

“Speaking of which, you were watching me the whole time when I had pot-au-feu at your house for the first time, weren’t you?”

“Uuuu. So you’ve noticed it after all!”

“That’s ‘cause you were sitting right across from me”

I answered Flora, who seems to be embarrassed with a bitter smile.

“I-I couldn’t help it. Just when I thought that I couldn’t meet with the person I like anymore, he suddenly came to my house”

Her cheeks were dyed red as she kept scooping her radish around in an attempt to hide her embarrassment.

She was so cute that I wanted to laugh out loud, but I held it in because she would sulk if I did that.

A breakfast that I wasn’t eating alone. The person I love the most was sitting across from me.

We were eating together and having a fun conversation.

It was something that was different from usual. Who knew that even having breakfast together with the one you love would be so much fun…

“Are you laughing at me?”

Flora asked as she glanced at me. Did I unintentionally break out a smile again?

“No, that’s not it. I just thought that even having breakfast is so fun when I’m with you”

She looked stupefied for a second after hearing my honest thoughts from my heart. Then, she replied with a big smile on her face,

“I was thinking the same thing as well…”

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