Chapter 4: Exquisite Stew Made from Freshly Harvested Vegetables

My little sister Sena was completely incapable of cooking. In fact, cooking was almost entirely my responsibility.

Well, actually… housework in general was all on me.

That lazy little girl—she could only eat, sleep, and cling to people for attention.

But I digress.

So yeah, even though I’m a guy, I can handle cooking… at least a little.

After polishing off five tomatoes, I decided to take advantage of the fresh produce I’d harvested from our home garden and cook something with it.

By the way, after the harvest, the familiar prompt popped up again: “Would you like to start cultivating again?” But I ignored it for now. There was no way I could use up that many ingredients.

“Potatoes, carrots, onions… that calls for stew, doesn’t it?”

I decided to make a milk-based stew first, and since we had some Chinese cabbage as well, I tossed that in too.

Usually, I skimped on ingredients to save money, but today I could afford to be generous. Of course, the meat portion remained small as always.

Once the stew was ready, I ladled it from the pot into a bowl. Still buzzing from the delicious tomatoes earlier, I eagerly scooped up a potato with my spoon and popped it into my mouth.

“———!”

Incredible! The flavor of the potato was astonishingly rich, and sweet to boot.

And it wasn’t just the potato. The carrot, the onion, the Chinese cabbage—all of it was on a completely different level from any vegetables I’d eaten before.

“Could this… home garden thing actually be amazing?” I thought.

With this, we could save on food expenses and enjoy delicious meals every day.

…Still, I couldn’t help but wish for a gift that would actually help me on adventures.

But no use whining about it. Today was Sena’s first mission as an adventurer. I had to make a delicious meal to celebrate her success.

“Onii-chan, I’m home!”

“Sena, welcome back. How did it go?”

“I fought monsters!”

“Huh? Just like that? W-were you okay?”

“Totally fine! I was with the older girls anyway!”

I hadn’t expected her to fight monsters on her very first day, and naturally, I was worried—but Sena laughed it off casually, completely unfazed.

“Onii-chan, you worry too much. Besides, the monsters were still weak. Like goblins,” she said cheerfully.

“But… you’d never even held a sword before, right?”

“Yeah. But once I held it, it just… felt right. And when I swung it around a little, the older girls were all surprised. They even asked if I’d trained with someone before.”

She’d started as a complete novice and yet could use a sword like a seasoned fighter from the very beginning. That had to be the effect of the Sword God’s Favor, her special gift.

“Wow…”

I couldn’t hide a twinge of envy. Why her and not me? If I had that gift, I could’ve supported her endlessly.

“Onii-chan?”

“Nothing. Anyway, dinner’s ready. Today it’s stew.”

“Yay! I love stew!”

Sena’s eyes sparkled as she bounced into her chair, urging me on impatiently: “Hurry, hurry!” Normally, I’d have told her to serve herself, but considering it was her first adventure and she must be exhausted, I decided to go along.

“Here you go. Dig in.”

“Wow, it looks so good! I’tsadkk… whaaat!?”

Before she could even finish saying itadakimasu, Sena had already taken a bite, her eyes widening in astonishment.

“What is this!? It’s delicious! Hey, what is this!? It’s insanely good!”

Watching my little sister’s astonishment, I couldn’t help but let out a self-satisfied chuckle.

“This is nothing like your usual Onii-chan’s average stew!”

“Hey now—”

Wait, didn’t she just say she loved my stew? Had she been lying all this time, pretending to enjoy my average cooking?

“Because stew is always at least passably tasty no matter who makes it!”

Should I cry?

“Seriously, what is this stew? Did you really make it? And the ingredients—oh my god, the ingredients! The potatoes, onions, carrots! Where did you even get them?”

“Heh heh heh, want me to tell you the secret? Well, you see—”

“Munch munch munch munch munch!”

“Listen to me!”

“Eating now, tell me later!”

Sena went back for four more servings.

“Gehp—”

Patting her stomach like a pregnant woman and letting out a burp without a care, I stood her up and led her outside to the garden.

“Huh? Did a garden just appear out here?”

“That’s right. I harvested the veggies here. Thanks to my gift, Home Gardening.”

“Wow! So from now on, we can eat stuff this delicious every day!”

Sena’s eyes sparkled with excitement. Then, something fell from her pocket, rolling across the garden.

“What’s that? A rock?”

“Nope! It’s a magic stone!”

“A magic stone… that’s, like, condensed magical energy, right?”

“Yeah! You find a lot of them in dungeons! Big ones sell for a lot, but small ones like this barely have any value.”

Apparently, this was one of the small ones, only about three centimeters in diameter.

<Use the magic stone?>

Huh? That voice again.

<Use the magic stone?>

Use the magic stone? What does that mean? I’d never heard that before.

But surely it had something to do with the stone rolling onto the garden.

“Hey, Sena. Can I keep this magic stone?”

“Sure! But what are you gonna use it for?”

“Just a little experiment.”

After getting her permission, I responded to the voice.

“Whoa! The stone disappeared!?”

―――――――――――
Geo’s Home Garden
Level 1 — 1/5
Garden Area: 50/50
Skill: None
―――――――――――

The number below the level had changed from 0/5 to 1/5.

So that’s it—using a magic stone increases the garden’s level?