It has been more than a month since then, and I have been continuing my daily and nightly routine during that period of time. Making out with Czarina and Inari thrice a week as well as satisfying my two mothers every single night. .𝒄𝒐𝒎
Aside from that, there were other things that I had my hands full with. The daily life of the dungeon changed a lot when the foxes and humans, who had just migrated from the southern lands, started living there.
Having a population means the need to establish settlement, so the migrants had to build their dwellings within the ten kilometer radius zone of the dungeon’s Surface Floor.
Of course, the settlements for each race were separate. The humans took the northwest region, while the foxes settled in the northeastern portion of the vast plain. They agreed to live separately to avoid any cases of turf wars.
When I checked the village yesterday for the first time after the week of my last inspection, I was truly surprised to find the remarkable development of the construction process.
Last week, the villagers had finished paving the road and laying sewer and septic systems, and the surface was filled with the foundations of the houses.
A community well had been excavated, and a public bathhouse (separated by gender, of course) had been built for those who could not use water magic.
In addition to this, the workers had built a large temporary building, a sort of gymnasium, where the villagers could sleep during construction. It was rather slapdash since we had no intention of making it permanent, but it would do the job.
But when I checked it yesterday, multiple structures had been erected and most of the houses were almost in a state of completion. From there, I could conclude that their claims about their capabilities were somewhat true.
Currently, structures constructed with stones, bricks, and wood have been erected in the plain. They are beautifully aligned in accordance with my preferred urban planning.
Of course, I cannot let them work their bodies hard given that their bodies were adapting and adjusting to the temperature of the plain. Even though the winter is coming, the temperature here was much warmer than the Taiga where they settled before.
There was a possibility of them getting sick and collapsing from exhaustion. So as a lord who was concerned about the well being of his constituents, I implemented a resting day once a week. At least they do not have to push themselves every day.
For the agriculture sector, the villagers had been sowing their crops at the outer northwestern portion of the circle, approximately seven kilometers from the dungeon gate and two kilometers from the village.
Fortunately, all of the crops that they had brought from the Southern Continent with them were suitable to plant on the soil here. And there were a variety of plants that were currently being cultivated in those fields.
Since I had promised the villagers to cheat nature and manipulate the crops’ growth rate, the fields were filled with ripe crops that were ready to be reaped any day.
I only cast my Botanist unique skill on the crops once, since magically forcing a plant to grow might suck the nourishment from the soil to dry out, and we had to find ways to at least improve the soil quality.
That was why we scooped some fertile soil from the forest and dumped it on the fields for additional nutritional factors. I also taught and advised the villagers to practice crop rotation to at least prevent erosion and increase the fertility of the soil.
On a separate plot near the fields, there were a series of plots that were strangely wet and flooded for some reason. Well, that was intentional since those were the paddy fields where rice is grown.
Finally, I will be able to eat the staple foods of my previous life. I had been craving it ever since my reincarnation and longing to savor its moisture and warmth.
As we agreed, the village would give a certain percentage of their harvest. The harvest festival had taken place a few days ago, so the newly built warehouse on the 30th Floor had been filled with foodstuffs.
I could just store them in our subspace, but I chose to put them in the warehouse instead since not everyone had access to our Inventory.
The warehouse had been enchanted with some storage-related spells, such as delaying time, expanding space, and adjusting temperature, so the items there would be safe and secure.
Overall, the settlement was more like that of a town than a village, if I had asked. Still, I could not believe that it was a place made from scratch.
The foxes, on the other hand, do not need to build shelters for themselves. They were quite resilient and could practically live in any condition. For their sustainability, the foxes could hunt down and consume the monsters in the forest.
Czarina had given the foxes permission to poach food from her domain in exchange for being served delicious cuisine at every meal. Even though I am her master, I am the one who cooks meals for her; it was kind of outrageous, not gonna lie.
Well, not that I mind about it since I am cooking for someone I love. Sometimes, it was Uriel or Azrael who did it when I was not around. I am not only cooking for Czarina but for everyone as well.
Since it had come to that, Uriel and I had been teaching Inari how to cook in case my clones and I were not available. I will be moving out to the empire next spring.
She was a quick learner, and as of now, Inari knew the basics of cooking and was able to prepare some dishes.
Inari’s daughter, Yuki, had been constantly watching her mother cook and had been influenced by her to learn how to cook as well. I did not stop Yuki and let her learn since the more people who cook in the house, the better.
Well, speaking of harvest and cooking…
“Here is the last one.” I said as I was putting a certain dish on the dining table, which had been full of other dishes.
“Wow, Master.” Said the impressed Czarina, who had settled herself on her own dining seat. “It seems that you have cooked quite a lot. Is this grain called rice really so good that you wanted to cook it so badly?”
“Of course, Czarina.”
It was already lunch time, and I had finished cooking some rice dishes that we had brought from the village a few days ago. I did not cook by myself and had Uriel and Inari help me.
Since it was their first harvest on this land, the tax revenue was not that much. Even though we were able to collect a few sacks of rice at the very least.
That quantity was too far from being called a staple yet, so we had to conserve it wisely and only consume those grains occasionally, such as today.
“So Master,” Czarina turned her eyes to us, “what would the names of these dishes be?”
“I am glad that you asked that, Czarina.” I grinned. “For today, I made some rice dishes.”
Then I positioned myself at the end of the rectangular dining table and started the introduction of each of the rice dishes on the table to anyone in this room.
“Ahem. Since I got excited after finally acquiring the rice, I got hyped and made this many. Starting from here,” then I forwarded and gestured it to the dishes, “we got suppli, arancino, onigiri, sushi rolls, a few variations of fried rice, curry rice, biryani, and lastly, plain rice.”
“””Oh!””” My four familiars were amused by just the names of the dishes.
Since it has been so long since I cooked rice (though I just cooked plain and garlic rice), I whimsically decided to make, or possibly recreate, some rice dishes from my previous world in the current one.
Thankfully, I was able to procure some of the ingredients, especially the spices since they were hard to acquire on this continent, by using some clairvoyant exploration in the southern hemisphere and the crops that the villagers had brought.
For the seafoods, I harvested them from the Median Sea, by the way. The seaweeds for the sushi were just normal plants, but the fish meat was from a D-ranked monster called Steel Tuna. Their scales and skin were quite tough, but their meat was as soft as normal tuna.
“What are we waiting for? Let’s eat.”
“Hang on, Czarina.” Inari suddenly stopped Czarina, who was about to scoop a spoonful of Chinese fried rice. “Let Master eat the first bite.”
“Hmph.” Czarina then leaned back against her chair. “If Master wants.”
“Thank you, Inari.”
Once I was done introducing the dishes to them, I removed my apron and took my seat, which was at the other end of the table and adjacent to the seats of Czarina and Inari.
“Please hand me that.”
Inari handed over the shrimp fried rice, and I poured a portion of it on my plate. Then I took a spoonful of it, drew it under my nose, and sniffed it.
“Ahhh. Its umami is overflowing.”
Chomp.
For the first time in fifteen years, I finally took a bite of my very first rice in this world.
“Hmm! So savory and delicious! Come on, everyone. Try it!”
At my words, everyone, including Uriel and Azrael, filled their plates with the rice dishes that hooked them up and chomped on a spoonful of it.
“Hmm! These dishes really are as delicious as Master said!”
“They are already delicious in the kitchen and are even better once I have tasted them. Human foods are really the best.”
“So good, Master!”
“Munch, munch.”
“Watch your manners, girl, and please slow down.”
Their reactions were warm, and their satisfied faces made me happy. I flashed a smile seeing them happily devouring my food.
“Eat as much as you like.”
After that, we cheerfully ate our grandiose lunch together until all the rice dishes disappeared from the table.