[25] Double Trouble The Mysterious Underwear Caper

I placed the handed-over package into the duplication box, created a copy in the alchemy workshop, and laid both the original package and the copied one—two plastic bags—before her.

"See? Pretty handy, right?"

Perhaps not completely convinced, Lily stared at me with her mouth agape.

While I can duplicate any item I've copied before without issue, I didn't mention that to Lily. I'm not completely uninterested in the kind of underwear she wears, but since I copied it blindly this time, I had no idea what was inside the bag.

Of course, if I wanted to, I could check the contents by creating a copy. But no way would I do that without her knowing. Probably. Most likely.

"Shall we head home then?"

Without saying anything, Lily took my hand.

Once back in the living room, I informed Lisa that we had returned.

"Master, is dinner ready in about ten minutes?"

"Yeah, that works. Lily, dinner will be ready in ten minutes. Come down after you put your things away."

"Okay."

Lily took her packages and headed up to her room on the second floor.

As the sun had set and the room was getting quite dark, I turned on the living room lights to brighten the space.

About five minutes later, Lily returned.

"Let's head to the dining room," I said.

"Do you not need help?" she asked.

"You can help if you'd like, but with the kids around, it might just get in the way. How about this: I could assign you to manage the appliances in this house. I'm a bit worried leaving that to Lisa and the children."

"Understood."

"I'll explain the generator tomorrow."

"Okay."

As we entered the dining room, the children were setting the dishes on the table.

"Lily, you'll sit across from me next to Sky. By the way, there's food ready, but since Lisa is already preparing dinner, we'll have breakfast tomorrow instead. How about rice with raw egg? We've got chopsticks too."

"Y-yes!"

The lights in the dining room were already on, making the space quite bright. Once the dishes were laid out, we began to eat.

"Let's eat," I said.

"Let's eat!" the children echoed.

Lily responded a moment later, saying, "Let's eat."

During the meal, I added, "I'm not taking a bath today since it's too much trouble. The kids can bathe once they finish cleaning up. I'll get things ready in the meantime. Is it okay if you and Lisa bathe together?"

"Yes," they replied.

"Alright, then you two can go after the kids. I'll prepare everything for you while they're in the bath."

"Hey Lily, you've been eating at the temple until now, right?"

"Yes."

"Not to alarm you, but there's a chance you might have picked up some parasites or a sickness while in Japan. You should take this."

With that, I handed Lily a bottle of healing potion.

She looked at me with a puzzled expression as she accepted the bottle.

"So, this is a healing potion. Apparently, it's a high-grade one. Most ailments can be dealt with using it."

"I didn't know something like this existed. It's my first time seeing it. My magic level is 4, so I should be able to use healing magic, but there's been no one around to mimic."

"I can't use magic yet, so I'm not familiar with that, but you can trust me when it comes to medicine."

"So this potion is from you, Rockwell?"

"That's right."

"That's amazing!"

"Master is incredible!" Eva chimed in with a big smile.

The other children, as usual, started chattering excitedly, so I said, "Right. Go ahead and drink it."

Lily opened the cap of the potion bottle and downed it in one go.

"How do you feel?"

"It feels warm around my stomach. I've had occasional stomach pains before, but it suddenly feels much clearer inside."

"I might have had a stomach ulcer or something."

"I felt stressed even back in Japan, but it continued when I got here, so that might have been the problem."

"Well, at least it's good news. Now you can relax."

"Yes. Thank you for everything."

"Gratitude is important, but don't be so formal about it."

"Y-yes."

Once dinner was over, I prepared the bath for the children.

"The bath is ready!"

"Okay!" the kids replied in unison.

The only light in the bath came from a lamp, but since I usually bathe during the day, it wasn't too dark. Lisa would join after finishing the dinner clean-up, and by then, it would be quite dim. I could eventually install waterproof lighting, but it's not a high priority right now.

After preparing the kids' bath, I returned to the living room to listen to some music. I flopped down on the sofa and popped a random music CD into the player.

As I closed my eyes, listening to the flowing melodies, Lily, sitting beside me, said,

"This is Bach's Little Fugue."

I was familiar with the tune but hadn't known its name. I remembered that Lily initially struck me as a class representative, and it seemed she was well-versed in culture indeed.

"Do you like classical music?"

"I bought some used records to play for the kids. I usually prefer something more flashy, but listening to this makes me appreciate it."

"That's true."

"Speaking of which, I know there's music in this world, but I've never heard it."

"Neither have I."

"If we get the chance, maybe we could all go listen together someday."

"Yes."

As we were talking, it seemed the kids had finished their bath.

"It looks like the kids are done with their bath, so I'll go prepare the next one."

"Rockwell, you mentioned buying the kids to help with work, but aren't you doing more than they are?"

"Strangely enough, taking care of the kids is enjoyable. It really is surprising."

"You're a good person, Rockwell."

"That's not necessarily true."

"Are you going to attack me in the middle of the night?"

"That won't happen, so don't worry. I'll be right back."

I prepared the bath for Lisa and Lily, then called out loudly as I always do, "The bath is ready!" After summoning them, I returned to the living room to turn off the player and headed back to my room.

Of course, that night, I successfully synthesized some money and fell into a deep sleep.

I'm not sure if my earlier threats had any effect, but I slept soundly without any interruptions until morning.

The next morning, I woke up feeling refreshed. I told Lisa to prepare hot water for breakfast since we were having tamago kake gohan (rice with egg). I could have handled the hot water myself, but I figured it's good for people to have something to do; it keeps them from feeling restless.

I took a bowl filled with steaming rice from my item box and set down a carton of ten eggs from the supermarket in the center of the dining table. This time, I made sure we had a ladle and a soy sauce container ready.

Once everyone gathered in the dining hall, I portioned out instant miso soup into bowls, while Lily poured in the hot water. Lisa served the rice, and the kids distributed the rice and miso soup to their tables. This time, we also had some toppings like furikake, pickled plums, and flavored seaweed.

"Oh no, I should have bought salted salmon too," I thought. But with all these toppings, it should be fine.

When everyone was seated with their rice, miso soup, and chopsticks, I declared, "Itadakimasu!"

"'Itadakimasu!'" everyone echoed.

Since the kids and Lisa had only eaten tamago kake gohan once before, there was a moment of hesitation. However, following my and Lily's lead, they all managed to make their own tamago kake gohan.

"I've tried tamago kake gohan and furikake before, but this soup is also delicious. It's called 'miso soup.' The ingredients are seaweed and deep-fried tofu, but I'll skip the explanations for those this time."

The children blew gently on their bowls of miso soup to cool it down before taking small sips. "It's a bit salty, but it has a strange taste. It must be delicious with rice," one remarked. They hit the nail on the head; while it might seem outdated, a steaming bowl of miso soup can easily turn plain rice into a satisfying meal.

"Master, what's this red one?" asked Eva, her black bobbed hair bouncing as she turned to me.

"That's called umeboshi," I replied. "It's a little sour, but it tastes great with rice. Just be careful of the large pit inside."

The umeboshi I set on the table was the traditional kind, not sweetened with honey, and it was surely quite tangy.

"Don't use your chopsticks to pick it up; that's inconsiderate. Go get a spoon from the kitchen, scoop it out, and put it in a small plate. You can also put it directly on your rice if you like," I instructed.

Eva returned from the kitchen with a spoon and enough small plates for everyone. She carefully scooped up one umeboshi and placed it on her plate, then picked it up with her chopsticks and brought it close to her nose. Though her chopstick skills weren't perfect, she had improved impressively.

"It smells sour," she said.

"Just take a small bite," I encouraged.

"Just a little...," she hesitated before gently biting into the umeboshi with her front teeth. As soon as she did, her face scrunched up in that unmistakable "ume face." It struck me as amusing how, even in a different world, the reaction remained the same.

"It becomes no big deal once you get used to it, but eating something sour makes your mouth water, right? When there are no side dishes, I eat rice with that," I explained. The kids, including Lisa, nodded in understanding.

As I ate my egg over rice and continued to explain things to the children, Lily remarked, "Mr. Rockwell, you really do love kids, don't you?" I had always thought kids were just noisy, but living with them like this made them seem quite endearing.

While we chatted, a sudden thought about alcohol crossed my mind. Before I was dragged into this world, I'd have at least a can of beer every day. But since my abduction, I hadn't touched a drop. The can of beer I bought recently was still sitting in the item box. I guess I hadn't had the luxury of drinking.

Things like that are just chemical reactions, so it seems simple enough to replicate. Once I taught Lily how to start and stop the generator, I'd jump to the supermarket to buy a few different types of alcohol besides beer. I had also transmuted a few gold dice, so I could cash those in. Speaking of which, I had asked a used car dealer to take care of the junk vehicle. Today was going to be busy.

After finishing breakfast, the kids loaded up the potions I had prepared onto a cart and took them away. Lisa was cleaning the dining area. I took Lily outside to the storage shed. The engine was still running since I had left it as it was yesterday.

He opened the storage room door and said, "This is the gasoline generator. We have two, so you can switch between them as needed. Right now, the engine in front is running, but since it's been on for a while, I think the gasoline is running low. I'll switch to the generator over there.

First, make sure all the electrical appliances in the house are off. I checked that earlier. Next, unplug this cord that connects to the generator—it's currently powering the house. After that, set the engine switch to the 'off' position and turn the fuel cap knob from 'ON' to 'OFF.'

Now, let's start the other generator. Do the opposite of what we just did, and finally, pull this wire firmly to get the engine going. It's as simple as that."