Chapter 19

Dried Fruits
In the pantry, we searched for fruits.

"So, can you make dried fruits with any kind of fruit?"

"Yes, I think so. But since it’s my first time... (Hmm, the fruit names here seem different from back home. Search. Ah, just as I thought.) Let’s go with these: brapes, milange, pluberry, nababa, and aprico. (That’s grapes, oranges, blueberries, bananas, and apricots, I suppose, but the names feel slightly off…)"

"Alright, I’ll carry them."

"Thank you, Master."

Once again, I jogged to keep up.

Tap, tap, tap... My legs are too short to keep up with his stride.

"We’re back!"

"Welcome back. So, did you find any fruits that will work?"

"Yes, we’re going to use these five for now."

I displayed the fruits.

"So, how do you make these dried fruits?"

"Umm, for the brapes, you remove them from the stems. Milange is sliced into rounds with the skin on. Pluberries are left whole. Nababa is peeled and sliced into rounds. As for apricos, they need to be soaked in syrup overnight, so we’ll just prepare them for now."

"Alright, everyone, let’s get to it! If we don’t hurry, we won’t make it in time for afternoon tea."

With that, everyone joined in the prep work.

"But, Young lady, if we need to dry these, there’s no way they’ll be ready for afternoon tea, right?"

"Normally, yes. But there’s something I’d like to try."

"What’s that?"

"Well, let me show you using the brapes."

I picked up a plate of grapes and...

"Dry."

“”””"!!!!!!!!!!!””””"

"How’s this? It’s done~"

"Wh-what the heck was that~~~~!?"

"Oh, it’s my skill, Dry. The skill description mentioned drying things, so I thought it might work."

"”””Skill~~~~!?”””"

"Young lady, no one uses skills for cooking, you know."

Abe placed a hand on his forehead, exasperated.

"Really? But it’s so convenient!"

"Well, yeah, but still…"

Wait, even Ben looks exasperated?

"Anyway, I’ll taste it first. Hmm? Mmm~!!"

"See? I knew it would taste ter—"

"Delicious! Oh, excuse me! It turned out very tasty. Please, everyone, try it."

Cautiously, everyone took a piece and tasted it.

"What is this? The flavor is so concentrated! Young lady, it’s amazing!"

"So good! It’s better than eating them fresh!"

"How is it so good, just from drying?"

"Oh, it’s delicious~"

"Young lady, I feel like I won’t be able to stop eating these."

It was a hit with everyone. I’m so glad!

Skills are really useful, aren’t they?

Afterward, I dried the milange and nababa in the same way.

The brapes, milange, and pluberries were left slightly moist, while the nababa was dried thoroughly until crispy.

As for the apricos, they’ll be left in syrup overnight and dried tomorrow.

I also found some rum and decided to soak some dried grapes in it. That should make a sort of mock rum raisin.

Now, all that’s left is to see how Father and the others feel about it.

I hope they’ll like it.