I woke up early to start preparing the bento boxes.
After accepting a payment of one million yen, I needed to make something luxurious. However, the ingredients I had were mostly vegetables grown right here.
I didn’t have any premium cuts of meat or gourmet ingredients—just some ordinary meat in the freezer.
In such a situation, I turned to my grandmother for help. With her years of experience in the kitchen, I trusted she could figure out a solution.
「To make it look fancy, maybe we could go with some seasonal vegetable tempura?」
Tempura certainly looked luxurious, but it didn’t quite feel like a main dish. While I was mulling it over, Sena woke up and came into the kitchen.
「Good morning.」
「Oh, did we wake you? Sorry if we were too loud—it’s been a while since I worked like this, so I got a bit excited.」
Grandma seemed delighted to be cooking again. It was surprising how her demeanor changed just because one of her dishes was bought by someone as prestigious as the noblewoman.
「No, it’s fine. But there’s been a bit of an issue…」
Sena pulled out her phone and showed me the screen. The words on it left me bewildered.
「‘Farm Diary Fan Club’? What’s this about?」
Apparently, someone had started an unofficial fan club for me.
While many streamers were affiliated with agencies, I wasn’t.
Some dungeon streamers were more like celebrities than Explorers—there were even rumors about a dungeon streamer idol group forming.
Maybe Dori could debut as an idol someday too.
「The fan club started after Dori-chan’s kidnapping incident.」
The community that had banded together to find Dori had somehow transformed into a fan club.
And now, it seemed like they were sharing information about us.
For now, my height, weight, and even shoe size had been made public. I had no idea how they had figured those out.
Even the clothes I wore, as well as Dori’s, had been identified by the members.
Incidentally, the funds to build the lodging reservation site also came from the fan club.
I was curious about how much people were paying in membership fees.
「Has this caused any issues?」
「Actually, it’s been discovered that I’m living here, and now other explorers are saying they want to stay here too.」
Sena had originally stayed at my house at the request of the Explorers’ Guild, but she decided to remain here of her own will.
This led to a misunderstanding among some people, who thought it was some sort of fan club perk.
Even though Sena explained the situation, it still seemed enviable to other explorers.
Since she was covering her living expenses and serving as a kind of security officer for the household, I didn’t think much of it. However, even a rundown house like ours was far more comfortable than sleeping in a tent.
「If that’s the case, why not offer a bento service as a kind of prelude to the lodging business? You could frame it as a fan club perk.」
「Wouldn’t that just overwork Grandma?」
The bento we were making for Lady was already a big effort. If other explorers got jealous and started making a fuss, it could turn into a hassle.
But Grandma had an idea.
Since we were charging Lady, we’d also need to charge the others. Suddenly working so much worried me—could Grandma really handle it? Even Sena seemed concerned and said she’d leave if it became an issue.
「I’m just happy to cook for people who enjoy it. Plus, this way, I won’t have to think too hard about what to make every day.」
Her suggestion was to prepare meals buffet-style, letting everyone assemble their own bento. This, she said, would also be good practice for when the lodging business started.
Lately, it felt like my grandparents were more energetic than I was.
Honestly, I just wanted to sleep all day and avoid doing anything. Maybe the exhaustion from working myself to the bone had caught up with me now that financial worries were gone.
If it weren’t for Dori, I might’ve sunk into depression. That’s how close to the edge I’d been back then.
「Alright, Sena-san, could you call on the fan club? Please limit it to explorers who have at least one member in their party.」
「Understood. How much should we charge?」
「Hmm… maybe 500 yen per bento—」
「That’s way too cheap! If they can eat vegetables grown here, it should be worth tens of thousands.」
No matter how you looked at it, that was exorbitant. Was magic-infused produce really that valuable?
For us, these vegetables were just something to clear out of storage quickly.
The next batch of vegetables was slated for shipment to the guild, with the rest to be stored.
Thinking ahead, we’d need to buy farming equipment, prepare greenhouses for the winter, and possibly invest in temperature-controlled storage if we could figure out how long the produce stayed fresh.
For instance, there was a tomato we’d stored three months ago as a test—it still hadn’t rotted. It was a bizarre but seemingly indestructible vegetable.
We planned to use those vegetables for the meals. My family ate them regularly and had never gotten sick, so they seemed perfectly safe.
Someday, these vegetables might even become a staple in emergency food supplies.
「Alright, then just tell them to pay what they feel is appropriate.」
「Understood.」
At this point, no one—including us—realized just how potent the dishes made from these vegetables would turn out to be for explorers.
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