Kays Translations

Volume 9: A Mysterious Illness

Chapter 83 – Canola Flowers, under the daytime lantern

Even simple food tastes delicious when you eat it outside.

Jude, who had been devouring scones at an incredible pace, suddenly rotated his shoulder as if just realizing something.

“It’s light…”

Hmm? Had he injured it somehow?

He turned a slightly suspicious gaze toward me, so I looked away.

Well, I mean, the plum jam was just that good.

I figured a little wouldn’t be a problem…

Kirara’s been eating a ridiculous amount of that plum jam too, yeah.

After fully enjoying the canola fields to our heart’s content, we asked again for growth acceleration so we could harvest the rapeseed.

This is where Kirara’s amazingness really shines.

“Should I put it in here, then?”

She asked, confirming.

“Please,”

I replied—and she harvested the seeds at an astonishing speed for me.

Normally, you leave the plants in the field until the seeds have matured somewhat, then cut the plants down once the pods turn slightly yellow, dry them somewhere out of the rain.

Then, you beat or thresh them to remove the seeds, and sieve them—it’s basically, a whole process. The timing is tricky too, since mature seeds tend to fall out on their own.

Honestly, seed harvesting is really hard work. But if you leave the plants until the seeds are fully mature, the bushy stalks get in the way of farm work. That’s why we often plant rapeseed specifically for harvesting its seeds at the edge of the field.

Canola plants take quite a while to fully mature. Same with soybeans, come to think of it. Edamame is fine because you harvest the young beans, but if you want soybeans, they need to stay in the field for a long time.

“Saki, what do we do with these?”

Luna asked, looking at the pile of black and brown rapeseeds we’d gathered.

“If we press them, we should get oil…”

I replied, but now that I think about it—how do you actually extract oil?

With olives, I think you just crush them and press them, right? I remember hearing that oil slowly dripping out from its own weight is supposed to be amazing.

But for canola… I think there’s some kind of prep involved.

There’s also camellia oil—I’ve heard of that too, but its seeds are hard, and the manufacturing process is really complicated.

Ah, sunflowers! You can get oil from them too, and I think you’re supposed to roast the seeds first. Sesame seeds are also roasted before pressing, so rapeseed probably follows a similar method. So now… what do we do?

It’s okay. I have someone I can rely on.

“Oil, huh. We can press it here too, but if you want better yield and quality, you’ll need to go to the Alchemy Guild.”

That’s what Regal-san at the Agriculture Guild said when I consulted him.

“What do you mean?”

“Our oil press is a hand-me-down from the Alchemy Guild—so it’s an older model. Well, there is no problem with distributing it to the public. Just …….”

Apparently, the Alchemy Guild has experts who specialize in oil extraction. In the Agriculture Guild, the oil cake left after pressing is used as fertilizer for the fields. But there’s even someone so skilled they can squeeze even more oil out of that oil cake.

Are they… squeezing out every last drop using some kind of alchemy method?

I get the desire to push things to the limit and see how far you can go.

They even rank the oils—first press, second press, and so on, all the way to “limit-press.”

They’re particular about their filters too, so impurities are removed. The first-press oil is especially well-regarded.

“Thank you, Regal-san.”

The information was really helpful. It’s nice that even though the Agriculture Guild can do it, they’re willing to refer you elsewhere. Really dependable.

“Come again anytime,”

He said, raising his hand and eyebrows with a smile. I waved back in return.

And so, since it sounded interesting, I decided to ask the Alchemy Guild to help.

The staff member at the reception desk was someone I hadn’t seen before

“It will take a little time, but I believe you’ll be satisfied.”

He assured me with a confident smile.

It took about a week, then I went to pick up the finished product

and… it was amazing.

The flavor of the first-press oil was incredible. It’s a beautiful, sparkling yellow oil. It’s not really yellow, it’s more like a slightly greenish-golden tint. Just gorgeous. It’s so rich and flavorful that it makes me wonder what kind of oil I had been eating until now.

Salad oil is known for its mild flavor, but freshly pressed, unrefined oil is full of deep, nourishing flavor.

Honestly, it felt more like a seasoning than just an oil.

As the presses went on—second, third—the flavor became milder, and the final “limit-press” batch was close to regular salad oil.

I wanted to use it as fertilizer, so I also requested to take the oil cake. And wow—it was so thoroughly pressed, it looked like it couldn’t hold together anymore. Just pure husk. I imagine it would decompose very quickly if scattered in a field.

The total amount of oil squeezed out was also impressive. They really didn’t let anything go to waste.

Of course I’ll use it for cooking, but I also want to use it to light a lantern.

“First, I’ll make a lantern.”

I declared.

“I don’t really get it, but good luck,”

Kirara encouraged me.

Well, a lantern is basically just a wooden frame with paper stretched over it.

I remember making one by pasting up paper with pictures drawn on it during a Bon 

Odori festival back in the day.

Since we have the chance, I asked Mimi and Kirara to draw pictures for it too. Let’s make it together.

Ah… yeah. Kirara’s drawing was a bit rough. But her drawing has a nice charm to it—I really like it. It’s cute. I think the three people she drew are meant to be me, Mimi, and herself. It’s a good drawing.

Mimi, on the other hand, is incredibly skilled.

“I drew the canola flowers,”

She said. Mimi’s painting of the canola field was so realistic and beautiful.

As for me? Well, of course I’m an art genius. There was that time in school when I was in charge of drawing the Statue of Liberty on a sports day banner, and it ended up looking like a pregnant woman because of the belly bulge. Togas are hard to draw, okay?

Why they let me do it in the first place is still a mystery…

So I cheated this time—I folded and dyed the paper. When I unfolded it, it looked like a flower, which was fun.

Somehow, our collaborative lantern turned out really cute.

 “It’s well done! I especially like this drawing of mine.”

 “Yeah, totally.”

It really did stand out nicely on the lantern.

“Mimi’s drawing is beautiful too.”

“Yup. A sea of yellow.”

The yellow painting, with each petal of the canola flowers meticulously drawn, seems to have captured the moment of that day perfectly, and is filled with happiness.

I poured the limit-pressed oil into a small dish.

Ah—what should I do about the wick?

Technically, it should be made from the inner core of rush grass, which is the same material used to make tatami mats.

The center of the rush grass is white and spongy, and the core soaks up the oil and burns.

But I’ve never bought rush grass before…

So, what could work as a substitute? Maybe cotton string?

Thinking it over—there’s that emergency tip I remember reading where you light a lamp with a tuna can thinking about it, I remember reading about disaster prevention tips, such as lighting a lamp with a can of tuna.

You put a paper string made from tissue paper into a tuna can with holes poked in it and light it.

Right. Let’s try it with tissue.

“Let’s make a wick out of this.”

I pulled out a tissue from the box I had taken out long ago, separated the two plies, tore them into strips, and handed them to Mimi and Kirara.

I’m sure the brightness could be adjusted depending on the number of strands, so it’s probably better to make several thin ones.

“Mine got thick and short…”

“Is it okay if it’s super thin?”

Their personalities showed in how they made the twisted wicks.

　

Mimi is pushing the limits of thinness, but I think being too thin probably wouldn’t work.

But if even one works, that’s good enough.

In the end, the one Kirara made turned out the best.

It absorbed the oil just enough and burned nicely.

It was during the day, so we closed up the hut’s windows during the day to test it. The soft glow lit up the inside of the hut.

The way the drawings lit up—it was beautiful.

“Let’s light it again at night. I think it’ll look completely different.”

As I said that, we watched the faintly flickering flame.

The smell of burning oil was there, but it wasn’t unpleasant.

I remember hearing about a youkai that licks oil from lanterns. But since this isn’t fish oil, it should be fine.

No, I’m not imagining Jude licking the oil or anything…

Does he like oil?

He probably likes fried food, at least.

We got a lot of oil, so I’d like to use it to cook something.

“Let’s make something to eat next. What would you like?”

　When I asked them, they looked at each other and they replied—

“black sesame—”

“Something crunchy!”

They want the usual crackers.

Come to think of it, the original recipe did use rapeseed oil.

“Sounds good.”

I’m sure it’ll turn out delicious.

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