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Volume 3 Chapter 10-1: Eve Before Deployment

 

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「Alright, it turned out well. The sake came out right.」

I was inside the Chief Residence that I had yet to sleep in. I had modified one of the rooms into a brewery.

Today was the day to sample the sake brewed using maple syrup.

「You did it!」
「It really worked!」
「sake, sake~」

Upon hearing my words the Fire Foxes cheered. I was just sad that my three little sisters couldn’t be here. I couldn’t allow young girls to participate in brewing or drinking sake.

「Can sake really be made this easily?」

Kuu said with surprise as she looked at the sake I had made through different means than usual.

「It might be easy for you Fire Foxes, but for others it is difficult to keep things at just the right temperature. If it were just elves making this, then it would be very labor intensive.」

The sake this time had been created using primitive methods.

You pour yeast solution made from dried cranberries and melted snow to dilute the maple syrup into a jug and leave it to ferment for five days.

The yeast would cause the sugars in maple syrup to break down into alcohol. Then when the alcohol reaches 12% concentration, the yeast dies causing the purification to stop.

It took four days for it to ferment and one day for the yeast to finish dying, so the production time was around 5 days.

The work itself was extremely simple, but yeast doesn’t ferment well when the water is too cold, and will die if the water is too hot. We needed to maintain the water temperature for 5 days so the Fire Foxes’ cooperation was essential to making things run smoothly.

「Umm Cyril-kun…could I ask something? Can we try some?」

Kuu was clearly asking what they all wanted to know. Fire Foxes love alcohol just like Elves do. This was further amplified by the fact that the ingredients and creation of the sake were all provided by their own hands, it was obvious how interested they were.

「I’ll taste a bit and think about it, I have to do a little more before you do.」

I smiled as I took a bottle and filled it halfway with maple syrup before shaking it and tasting. Mm, very nice.

As the sugar broke down into alcohol, the finished sake lost most of the flavor. That’s why I had to add a bit of syrup at the end to flavor it properly. Since the yeast was dead, there was no issue even if I added more sugar and the sweetness would not disappear.

「I thought about it, and no you cannot taste it early. We’ll be unveiling the alcohol this afternoon so hold on until then.」
「But you tasted it Cyril-kun! Not fair…」
「Well I had to do it in order to adjust the taste. I’m not trying to bully you. Don’t you want to share your first experience tasting this with everyone? So hurry up and start bottling it so we can head out.」
「…….un, I guess you’re right. I do want to try it with everyone. I can’t wait for this afternoon. But still these bottles look elaborate…」

I felt happy that Kuu had recognized the craftsmanship that I’d put into these bottles.

The surface of the bottle was engraved with a crossbow entwined with a cranberry vine and a fox tail.

「I want this sake to become symbolic of Erucy after all. I had to make a symbol for us. First I took the symbol of us Elves as the crossbow, the cranberries that supported our livelihoods in the past, and finally the fox tail of our newly gained partners. I think it turned out well.」

Plus, when we finally won our battle with the Empire I planned to turn it into our national flag.

「Yep, it’s really cool and cute. By the way, what will we call the sake we made?」
「I haven’t thought of a name…if we went straight with it then we’d call it maple wine. But that doesn’t sound as good….hmmm」

The sake was made from the snow melt around our village, the cranberries from our mountains, and the maple syrup from our trees…it could be said that it was the taste of Erucy. So if were to be named something it would be….

「Erucy Wine. Alcohol that can’t be made or found anywhere but here.」

As I said that Kuu snickered a bit with a small smile.

「Is it weird Kuu?」
「No, it’s a good name. I was just thinking of something Lucy said to me. Even though you always think and act so rationally, at your heart your really quite the kind romanticist.」

Saying that straight to my face was a bit embarrassing.

「Romanticist huh….that might be true. Does it not suit me?」
「No, we love that part of you Cyril-kun. It wouldn’t be fun to be around someone who was righteous but cold. It’s because you act this way that we want to be with you and believe you’ll make us happy.」

I couldn’t help but let out a bit of a wry laugh after hearing what she said.

Certainly, I did emphasize rationality, but it seems that I really took emotions into consideration. Rationality excluding emotions would instead lower efficiency. In order to build a proper country, the emotions of the people had to be taken into account.

Moreover, this kind of path was far more enjoyable and happy. If we couldn’t be happy then why even make the effort?

Even so, hearing this kind of thing face-to-face made me feel a bit shy. Now I had to make Kuu feel just as shy…

「I’m also happy to be with such a cute, attentive, and strong girl like you Kuu.」

As I said that, Kuu’s face blushed a deep red as her ears shot up. The other Fire Foxes were gossiping behind her. It seems like they really liked talk like this.

It was partially because they liked the both of us, and partially because they were hungry for love stories. At the moment they were unable to find partners which could only be solved with time.

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