Chillin' on an Uninhabited Island in Another World

We got wild boar meat.

We decided we were going to eat it together, but—

“By the way, how do you even eat wild boar meat?”

“Boar hot pot?”

Chiyu said, tilting her head.

“Ah—right.”

I answered like I understood, but I’d never actually eaten boar hot pot either.

If I just pictured a normal hot pot, would that be fine?

“Before that, Sousuke-kun. Can you tell me what food we have right now?”

Shion said with a serious face.

She’d used a hair tie she’d brought with her during the transfer and bundled her hair up into a little bun, too.

She’s cute with it down, but having it gathered up like that also really suits her.

“R-right. Got it.”

For cooking, I made a bigger wooden table appear and set the ingredients on top.

Shion started checking them over.

“Ah...! There’s kelp. We can ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ take broth from this.”

Seeing what Shion picked up, I added,

“That’s what Chiyu gathered on the sandy beach.”

While I’d been chopping down trees, Chiyu had also been walking the wide sandy beach with a basket on her back, picking up Items for us.

The huge stockpile of shells we had right now was also something Chiyu had gathered.

“It washed ashore.”

“In the Inventory it also says Edible, so it’s fine.”

“Yeah. And since Sousuke-kun stored it, it should be cleaned up too, so we can use it without worrying.”

“I see. Still... broth, huh. If fish get added, we might be able to make dried bonito flakes too.”

“That sounds great! Sousuke-kun’s ability is really incredible—so versatile.”

Shion was getting excited.

She probably likes cooking. I could tell.

“‘As expected, So-kun.’”

I accepted Chiyu’s praise too—something that was starting to feel like the standard.

“As a Japanese person, I start wanting soy sauce and miso too, but...”

Even if we could make them, how long would it take before the ingredients started showing up on this island?

We can get salt from the ocean, so for now, if we could get soybeans, that would open a path... maybe?

And the complicated manufacturing process would be handled by Crafting anyway.

“Yeah. But I think we can eat it as a simple-tasting hot pot. Out of what we have, we can add mushrooms too. For now we’ll go with this, but if we can get vegetables while we explore later, it might look a bit nicer.”

“Oooh.”

I’d eaten a light breakfast, but listening to her made me hungry.

“Also, grilled meat with salt might be good too.”

“Grilled meat!”

“Since we don’t have a grill, I guess we’d cook it on top of a stone?”

“Leave it to me. I’ll generate something that works.”

“Hehe. I’m counting on you. If this is an early lunch, then should we do grilled meat for dinner?”

“Yeah.”

“No objections.”

Chiyu slurped drool.

“And Sousuke-kun, can you make a stove?”

“Ah—yeah, having one would definitely be convenient.”

When Shion said it, I looked for it in Recipes, and it seemed like I could make one.

I hadn’t seen it yesterday, so whether you realize you can make it is probably one of the conditions for unlocking Recipes.

There are Recipes that get added even without me picturing them, so there’s no doubt that discovering materials themselves is also an important factor.

So, I made a stove.

Basically, it’s something to concentrate heat, so as long as it can surround the fire, it works.

Of course, it also needs a hole to feed in fuel.

I still had plenty of Stone Material in stock, so generating it was easy.

Still, stone is convenient... If we find rocks and stuff later, I should aggressively Itemize them.

Once generation was complete, I placed it.

“Wah—thank you!”

Like a star flashing on, Shion’s face burst into a smile.

“Thanks. I’m not really knowledgeable about cooking, so you help a lot.”

I tried lighting it right away.

Since we were making boar hot pot, I also placed an earthenware pot and a barrel filled with water.

“I’m happy... it feels like I can finally be useful, at least a little.”

Shion murmured happily.

I wanted to tell her not to worry about it, but maybe she feels out of place.

Compared to the others having pretty obvious cheat abilities, Shion’s ability is on the plain side.

If we end up getting involved with another group, though, it feels like she’d contribute a lot.

“So-kun, I can cook a little too.”

“Haha, I know.”

She’s cooked with my mom before, and she’s made me lunch boxes a few times too.

It’s just that normal cooking and cooking with ingredients you get in this environment are different.

“Guh... If we had eggs, I’d make the tamagoyaki that So-kun loves...”

Without changing her expression, Chiyu clenched her fist in frustration.

“Eggs would be nice. Like sukiyaki—dipping the meat from the pot into it.”

Shion looked like she was having fun just talking about ingredients.

“Ugh, that sounds so good.”

“Chickens might be on the island too, as ‘meat’?”

At Chiyu’s comment, I groaned thoughtfully.

“No idea if they’d put domesticated animals here.”

Though, the power to suddenly place beasts on an island is already ridiculous, so even if livestock popped into the middle of nature, I wouldn’t be shocked.

“If they’re here, we catch them and raise them.”

“That works.”

“Ah...!”

While we were using the stone knife and all slicing the boar meat thin, Shion suddenly raised her voice.

“W-what is it?”

“Um, yesterday, you had Shouko summon sheep, right?”

“Yeah.”

Thanks to that, we got a ton of wool and slept warm.

“And the wool we sheared didn’t disappear, right? So—what about milk?”

“I see... milk...!”

I’d been stuck on the idea that milk meant cow’s milk, so it hadn’t occurred to me.

“What does sheep milk taste like?”

“Umm, I drank it once before... rich? Thick? I can’t drink a lot, but it seems like it has nutrition too, so I’d be happy if we could get it.”

“I want it, but it’s a tricky one. The meat of summoned creatures was Not repurposable for food, right? The question is whether milk counts as a harvested product like wool.”

“Based on what we’ve experienced so far, it comes down to what Shouko recognizes, right?”

“Yeah. When Shouko gets back, we’ll ask her.”

“Yeah, let’s do that.”

And then, at just the right timing, Shouko came over.

“Fuu. Minorin says she can handle the rest herself. Sousuke, store Minorin’s clothes for her.”

Shouko set a changing basket down near me.

“Ooh, nice work. By the way, Shouko.”

I stored it while calling out to her.

“What, what?”

I asked her, barely able to hold back my excitement.

“Can we get milk?”

Shouko froze for a moment, then her face went red.

“Hah!? What!? Sexual harassment!?”

And she crossed her arms like she was shielding her full chest.

“Ahaha, Sousuke-kun...”

“You didn’t give enough context.”

Shion gave a strained smile, and Chiyu pointed it out calmly.

“No, that’s not it! Sorry! We were talking about whether we can get sheep milk—!”

I ended up scrambling to explain myself.

It was a good thing Shijo was at the bath area.

If she’d been here, she definitely would’ve yelled at me—“Indecent!”—and gotten mad.