Fairy Tale Chronicles

Chapter 13.4

Now, we should go enjoy the hot springs while we’re here.」

After some post-meal down time, Haruna saw that food seemed to settle in everyone’s stomach, and asked the girls to a dip in the spring. Hiroshi and Tatsuya, by the way, had went out again to search for more rice, accompanying Douga, this time.

「Sure. We haven’t used the hot springs once.」

「In hot springs… It’s rude not to prune.」

Makoto and Mio seemed to have no objections. So, the group left behind had decided to head on out to the grand bath.

「I didn’t expect these classy hotels to have a communal bath.」

「Most people in Farlane use communal baths.」

「Communal baths, hot springs… Farlane is weirdly similar to Japan in some ways.」

「You think so too, Mio-chan?」

Sure, Farlane was blessed with abundant water, but their bathing culture was still uncannily similar to that of Japan’s. The notable difference was that in Farlane, most household didn’t quite have their own bathtub, yet.

「…?」

「What’s up, Haruna?」

「Did you see that weird looking thing walk past?」

Haruna said, as she chased after the “thing” around the corner, to see…

「That’s weird looking…」

「That is weird looking…」

In front of them was a creature, with limbs directly attached to a turnip-like body, on top of which was a very chiseled face (reminiscent of the statues from Easter island) with a spinach-looking leaf sprouting from it. It was trotting over to the bathhouse, with a towel on its shoulder (-ish appendage). Mio and Makoto couldn’t contain their reaction.

「I-I’m terribly sorry!」

As they stared at the strangely suspicious… thing, a female worker of the hotel came rushing to capture it. This woman had been in and out of the kitchen, earlier. The thing writhed, being dangled by its leaf in the woman’s hand. It looked rather eerie.

「U-Um…」

「I am terribly sorry we allowed it to enter the premises!」

「That’s okay… What is that thing, anyway?」

「It’s a vegetable called Pomey.」

「Vegetable!?」

Haruna screamed, taken aback. Its name was deceptively cute, but a vegetable!?

「It’s a specialty of this area, but unlike its taste, it has a rather tricky habitat…」

「What do you mean?」

「It multiplies by dipping in the hot spring.」

「Excuse me?」

The group’s collective jaw dropped to the floor.

「Um… Really?」
「Yes. It is breeding, if you can call it that, season. If you would like to see for yourselves?」

「Ooh, I think I do.」

「I want to look.」

Haruna and Makoto answered, and the princesses agreed. Encountering strange things like these is part of the fun of travelling, after all.

「Then, please follow me.」

Ignoring the thing (now wailing) the worker headed to the breeding ground (?) which was one of the hot spring baths. Apparently, this was an annual occurrence.

「Ooh…」

「That’s a lot of them.」

They were countless Pomeys in the hot spring, their gruff faces relaxed, floating around. Disregarding the group (observing this scene with slight terror) the work tossed the Pomey into the water. The Pomey struggled mid-air along the way, until it plopped into the water and released all tension from its face. It was quite bizarre.

「Oh…」

Suddenly, a Pomey the size of an almond plopped to the surface. Multiplying must be the correct term here, but just from looking at it, the best one could do to describe this would have been to call it “breeding” in the hot springs.

「…So, how do you eat them?」

「Allow me…」

The worker answered Mio’s half-curious, half-dubious question with action. She started by scooping up a few grown Pomeys with a net. She also scooped up a good number of newly sprouted (with no limbs but prominent faces and spinach hair) and put them aside.

The mountain of young Pomey were screeching, but the worker still paid them no mind. This was definitely not her first time doing this. She also ignored the cries of the adult Pomeys that she had hung up after scooping them out.

「Frist, we cut off the leaf…」

Positioning the right over its eyes, she sliced off the leaf as if to cut off a stem. The Pomey particularly put up a fight here, but the worker’s hands were steady. As soon as the stem was off, the Pomey fell motionless.

「Then its limbs…」

Smoothly, she continued to slice off the limbs of the motionless Pomey, to where only the face was left.

「After that, you can chop it up into bite-size, and cook them however. Sometimes, we will grind it to add some flavor to a soup.」

「Why do you cut off the leaf first?」

Haruna asked, after watching the Pomey put up such a fight.

「Otherwise, they would explode.」

「…Are you sure that thing’s a vegetable?」

Haruna, who normally say things that warrant a quizzical look like this, couldn’t help but ask. Makoto was watching this with utter amazement, speechless.

「If you cut off any of its limbs or try to cut it down the middle before cutting off the stem, it explodes. If you don’t cut the stem off entirely, it will also explode.」

「Th-That sounds dangerous…」

「Every year, we’ll have an injury or two from the explosion.」

A self-destructive vegetable that would injure the chef. This thing would bring into question the most basic definition of “vegetable.”

「I want to taste it.」

「Me too. But I’m not too hungry, so I don’t know if I can eat too much of it…」

「It will be used for tonight’s dinner, don’t worry.」

「Are you sure we have nothing to worry about?」

Makoto finally interjected, which caused a stir of chuckles. The problem was, the worker was not kidding. By the way, the leaf tasted like spinach, and its face like daikon radish, both without the bitterness, which made Pomey rather tasty and palatable.

「Oh, and another thing worth noting…」

The work said, after explaining which dishes the Pomey could be used for, and dunked the leaf back into the hot spring. Then, the Pomey started growing from the leaf in front of their eyes, and thirty seconds later, a Pomey (identical to the one before) floated to the surface.

「Place the leaf in the hot spring, and it will regenerate right away.」

「Eesh…」

The group reacted with utter disgust to the planarian-like regeneration.

「Are you really, really, sure that we can eat these?」

「Once saliva touches the leaf, it doesn’t regenerate anymore.」

「Oh, I see…」

「By the way, there was this one idiot who tried to bite one whole, assuming it wouldn’t explode, only to…」

「I don’t want to hear it! I don’t want to hear it!」

Haruna clasped her ears to protect herself from the gruesome tale with all of her might.

「Anywho, what are the small ones you have set aside over there.」

「They are vegetables, after all. We have to weed out some of them to maintain growth and taste.」

The worker answered Elena, with a more grounded reason than expected. It was weird to see its more vegetable-y characteristics.

「So, you’re going to get rid of those?」

「Yes. We will throw some spells at them to make them explode. The little ones won’t cause much damage when they pop, either.」

A pretty aggressive method of weeding out the crop.

「Hmm…」

「Something on your mind, Haruna?」

「It seems like a waste, doesn’t it…?」

「The little ones?」

Haruna nodded in response to Elena’s confirmation. Despite her disgust a moment ago, Haruna had already saw these things as valuable ingredients. The mindset of a professional cook.

「A waste…? They are pretty dangerous.」

「But they don’t explode that badly, right?」

Haruna said, staring at them.

「May I touch them?」

「Go ahead.」

With the permission of the worker, Haruna picked up a young Pomey. After observing it closely, a light bulb appeared over her head.

「May I use the kitchen again?」

「Yes, of course.」

She seemed to have a use in mind for the little ones, she produced a basket from her bag, and loaded some of the young Pomeys on it.

「I’m going to do some experiments.」

「Have fun.」

「Do what you will, but I would prefer it if we weren’t roped into it.」

「You’re not off the hook, Reena-san. You’re going to be the guinea pi… taster.」

「…I have never longed to go back in time more…」

With some banter like that, the party left Haruna to her lab, and returned to the suite. They had planned to play some games, with the losers lined up to taste whatever Haruna was going to cook up.

And so, an hour passed, when Haruna returned with…

「That’s really creepy…」

「The color’s scary…」

Pickled small Pomeys in a bottle, with their stem cleanly removed, their expression of agony stained magenta.

「How did you get this color, anyway?」

「Red grapes.」

「See, that part sounds nice. Looking at this thing, though…」

Elena said, drawing a chuckle from Haruna.

「So, who lost?」

「I did!」

「Me too, I suppose…」

Aearis jumped up in response, in contrast to Rayna’s gloom expression. Aearis was ready to enjoy her penalty.

「Then take a bite together in one, two…」

They picked one out of the bottle, and plopped them in their mouths on Haruna’s mark. With a crunch…

「!?」

「Oops, I knew there’d be a few stems left on them…」

「But it’s so fresh, tart, and delicious.」

Aearis (who was fortunate enough to have one of the non-exploding variety of Pomey) declared with a brimming smile as she reached for another.

「I did taste them, so don’t worry about them tasting bad.」

「This may be a good idea as a little game of courage during parties. Leaving in some of them with the stems still on, of course.」

Makoto and Mio look at Elena aghast in response to her trigger-happy proposition. Rayna, who had become the butt of the joke for the evening, was groaning on her knees from the damage she suffered in her mouth.