About the outcome, the creation of the Aging Subspace at Norn-sama’s advice was relatively simple. I made the Subspace, a separate space from where Kaede, Titan, and Tsubaki stay, then I crammed the wine we produced there and accelerated time to advance three years per hour.
As Norn-sama had said, it’s magic that has considerably bad energy efficiency, one hour almost bottomed out my magic power.
In order to see how long wine needs to age, I prepared 4 types that progressed three year, six year, ten year, and fifteen year over several days.
Now then, I had asked Undine and the Great Spirits to evaluate it but……………….
「Kyahahaha!」
「So deli~cious!」
「Hey! Gnome! Keep it down!」
「「Kyahahaha!」」
It had become a banquet for the Great Spirits.
Taking four casks out was a mistake. Even Spirits get drunk.
Spirits have said that they are fundamentally alright without eating, that it’s a kind of entertainment.
Nevertheless, it seems the wine is delicious and are more or less to their liking, but the ones over six years were favorable. Apparently, the decade old ones are good, but it takes 3 days to accelerate it by that much. It wouldn’t take as many days if I drink mana potions, but I’m still of the opinion that I don’t want to make this my job.
Among our members, I had Sophia and Marnie sample them too. And I also had Melty-san, the elf I asked to manage the orchard, taste it.
The result was that the Sanctuary grape wine had received an assessment of tasting like heaven.
「Takumi-sama, it’s extremely appetizing. I have never drank wine this delicious.」
「I don’t understand the flavor of the wine but it is very tasty.」
「True, it’s really good.」
「No, Akane, you can’t drink right?」
Before I knew it, even Akane was trying it out.
「What are you saying? I’m already a respectable adult in this world.」
「Now that you mention it, you’re right.」
In this world, a 15 year old is already legally an adult. Akane said she’s already 19, so this is fine.
I was, one way or another, successful in making wine, but Doganbo-san and the Dwarves want to drink alcohol of much higher spirits than wine and were burning with passion to distill whiskey. In my eyes though, the Dwarves liked the wine and drank a staggering amount, so the fact that I was relieved is a secret.
Still, that perception made me realize that I was naive, and not even much time had passed.
I was definitely the one who told them of distilled spirits starting with whiskey, but in terms of aging, I had forgotten that whiskey is a liquor that needs to mature more than wine. Should I make do with an unaged aquavit?
Aquavit[1] is a distillation of potatoes that turn into sugars through fermentation. This is a distilled liquor that gets its flavor from a distillate of herbs. It’s supposed to be liquor that isn’t cask aged.
Afterwards, I had the the Cat Siths Mappo-san and Poporo-san and the other Cat Sith couples try the wine I made but they were so moved at being able to drink wine for the first time.
「Takumi-sama, this is my first time drinking nya!」
「So tasty nya!」
「That’s true nya!」
「Wine is delicious nya!」
The Cat Siths unanimously praising the wine highly made me happy.
「Takumi-shama~!」
「Takumi-nii~chan!」
Cat Sith Lala and Catkin Sara’s little catgirl combination had found and jumped at me.
I held the pair up in my arms. Then the little human girl, Shirona, clung to my thigh.
「Shirona too~!」
「Then Shirona will piggyback, okay?」
I turned around and Shirona jumped on and clung onto my back.
「Takumi-shama, does wine taste good nya?」
「It’s a grown up’s drink so it’s too early for you girls. Do you want to drink apple juice?」
「I wanna drink!」
「Sara also wants nya!」
「Shirona too~!」
「Alright, then I’ll prepare it.」
There were apple-like fruits in the orchard. It looks like an apple to me, but in the orchard here in the Sanctuary, it bears fruit regardless of the season. Also, because I don’t know its name in this world, I called it an apple.
Melty-san, who manages the orchard, is drinking wine, so I asked Marnie and Maria to pick some apples. I squeezed apple juice for everyone.
This apple juice is the best I’ve drank, even after including my previous life. Its refined sweetness thoroughly in balance with the sourness is exquisite, and while it’s a given for the children, Akane and Lulu-chan were also surprised when they drank it. Even Kaede, who normally doesn’t eat much vegetables and fruits, had taken a liking to the apple juice.
「「Taaaasty nya~!!」」
「So gooo~ood!」
Lala, Sara, and Shirona had faces full of smiles as they gulped down the apple juice.
We normally use sugar and honey in our daily lives, but both of those are very expensive luxury items. To Lala and the kids who had led impoverished lives, they rarely ate sweet fruits.
Afterwards, Wappa, Colette and the other kids were treated with apple juice, and we had promised to let them eat dessert made with these fruits next time.
「”Dezart” is food nya?」
「A monster’s name nya?」
Only, I couldn’t make Lala and Sara understand the word dessert.
***
Footnotes:
1. Aquavit information here.