Extra: Tea Season Has Arrived!

For the first time in ages, I found myself lounging about in my living room, enjoying an afternoon with nothing to do. Fel, Dora-chan, and Sui had all pigged out like the gluttons they were at lunchtime, and were too busy napping to bother me.

I decided to take advantage of that rare and pleasant silence by sipping on a cup of my favorite brand of coffee and doing absolutely nothing productive whatsoever. I pulled the carton of coffee out from my Item Box—it was one of the types where each cup’s worth came in its own little individual drip-bag, and it had a mild, pleasant flavor that I was quite taken with.

“Oh, huh,” I muttered as I pulled a bag out of the package, “guess this is the last one.” I set up the drip-bag over my favorite mug, poured boiling water over it, and took a moment to appreciate its aroma.

“Man, that smells great...” I waited for all the water to finish filtering through the grounds, then took a sip. “Yup, just as good as ever!” As I enjoyed my coffee, I opened up my Online Supermarket’s menu for some casual browsing.

“Hmm? Another event?”

My menu’s front page had “Tea Season Has Arrived! Green Tea Fair Now in Progress!” written at the top in big, eye-catching letters.

“Oooh, so the first tea harvests are coming in? Green tea actually sounds pretty nice, now that I think about it.” I’d been drinking nothing but coffee and black tea, as of late. I certainly didn’t dislike green tea, so why not give it a try every once in a while? The advertisements on my skill’s screen were certainly putting me in the mood for it, so I decided to dig a bit deeper and see what all was on offer.

“Gotta give the stuff from Shizuoka a look first,” I said as I selected a section from the menu. Shizuoka is a region of Japan that’s very well-known for producing high-quality tea leaves, by the way.

“Oh, huh, I was sort of expecting it to be all about actual tea-tea, but I guess they have a lot of matcha-flavored sweets and stuff too!” I observed. If anything, actually, the powdered tea leaf products seemed more like the focus of the event than the tea. The menu was packed full of all sorts of matcha sweets. Matcha-flavored desserts are all the rage these days, I guess. Can’t say I mind them, myself. “Maybe I’ll pick a few up to snack on.”

They had matcha cookies dipped in matcha chocolate, matcha sponge and roll cakes, matcha pudding, matcha cheese cakes, matcha baumkuchen, a different type of matcha layer cake, matcha cream puffs, matcha mochi—the list seemed never-ending. I never even knew you could make that many sweets out of matcha, and started feeling grateful to all the cooks who’d come up with the recipes.

“Pretty hard to pick anything when you have this many options, though,” I said as I scanned through the menu.

“I want this one.” A fluffy white paw intruded into my line of sight to prod a matcha roll cake that was displayed on the screen. I glanced over to find Fel sitting beside me, peeking at my Online Supermarket’s menu. I thought he was napping! How long has he been there?

“This one looks delicious too. Oh, and this one,” he said, pointing out a matcha chiffon cake and a matcha baumkuchen.

I sighed. “You really don’t let anything slip by you when it comes to food, huh?”

“But of course,” he replied with a smirk that felt really unwarranted to me.

《Think I gotta go with this stuff, personally! The color’s sorta weird, but this is pudding, right? Yeah, gotta be!》 said Dora-chan as he fluttered up to the menu and pointed out a vividly green matcha pudding. What, you’re awake too? Guess I should’ve figured once I realized Fel was up.

“Yup, you called it, that’s pudding. Matcha pudding, specifically.”

《Knew it! I’m all about pudding, so I have to try that for sure!》 Is it, like, a rule that all my familiars have to be obsessed with something and never, ever let it go under any circumstances? 《Oh, and I want this too! And one of these!》 he added, pointing out a matcha cream puff and a strawberry matcha daifuku. Since when was it established that I’d be buying you whatever you wanted? C’mon, guys!

《Sui wants, umm...all of them! Sui wants to try all of them!》 Sui said, bouncing excitedly in place. It had been staring at the bright-green menu for a while, deep in thought about which ones it wanted to pick, and had apparently decided not to bother picking at all in the end. That’s my slime! Ha, ha, ugh... It sounds like a joke, but knowing Sui, it probably could eat through the whole menu if I gave it the chance. That’s a big “if,” though.

“Sorry, Sui, but all of them’s way too much. Don’t be greedy! How about picking out three?”

《Awww, but Sui wants all of theeem!》

“You saw Uncle Fel and Dora-chan pick out three each, though, right? Wouldn’t it be unfair for them to get three and you to get everything?”

Sui’s incessant hopping came to an abrupt stop. It looked over at Fel and Dora-chan, then spent a moment jiggling in deep thought.

《Mhh... Okay! Sui’ll pick three!》

“Good choice,” I said, giving the slime an affectionate pat. It was learning to think things through and be considerate of others, and I was happy to see how it was growing up a little. “So, which do you want?”

《Hmm...》 Sui stared intently at the menu, hemming and hawing as it pondered its options. Sui’s love of sweets couldn’t be understated, so it must’ve considered this a really important decision. Finally, its careful deliberation came to an end. 《Masteeer!》

“Yeah? Figured out what you want?”

《Yeah! Sui decided!》

《Sheesh, it took you long enough! You gotta go with your first impression for this sorta stuff—just pick whatever jumps out at you!》

“Indeed, Dora’s advice is sound. So long as you trust in your instincts, they will never steer you wrong. That is the secret to tracking down the most delicious foods.”

“C’mon, guys, don’t be like that,” I scolded. Sui’s the sort to think really carefully about the things it loves—nothing wrong with that. “So, what’ll it be?”

《Umm, Sui wants this, this, and this!》 After all that careful thought, it had chosen a matcha roll cake, a matcha mille crepe, and a strawberry-matcha daifuku.

“Okay, sounds good! How about we have all these for a snack now?”

《Yay!》

◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇

We all taste-tested the matcha sweets we’d chosen.

“Yes, this is rather delectable indeed!” Fel declared enthusiastically as he munched on his roll cake. He scarfed the entire thing down in a matter of seconds, and I definitely judged him a little for it.

There was more than one type of matcha roll cake available, incidentally, and the variety that Fel chose wasn’t sold in single slices. I was forced to buy him a whole roll, and this made the speed with which he inhaled it even more horrifying. The cake he’d picked had matcha powder incorporated into the sponge cake, while the filling was a particularly fruity strawberry cream. Its presentation was top notch, and it looked delicious—it was easy to guess why Fel had picked it out.

“And this is rather pleasing as well,” he said as he moved on to the matcha chiffon cake he’d chosen. There weren’t individual slices of that one available, so I was forced to buy a...whole...

Wait a second. Didn’t the baumkuchen he picked turn out to only be available full-sized too?

“Hmm, another fine choice,” he declared as he devoured said baumkuchen. It was made from rice flour, which apparently gave it a pleasantly chewy texture. It was only at that point that I realized he’d deliberately gone out of his way to ask for sweets that didn’t come individually packaged.

“Trust in your instincts and they won’t steer you wrong” my ass! You’re the most calculating out of all of us! I shook my head with exasperation, only to notice that Dora-chan had a kinda conflicted look on his tiny little dragon face.

“What’s wrong, Dora-chan?” I asked.

《Nothing’s wrong, exactly, but this pudding... It’s not that it’s bad, but it’s pretty bitter, and it sorta tastes like grass.》

I stifled a laugh. L-Like grass... I mean, it’s technically made from leaves so I guess he’s not that far off?

I cleared my throat. “It’s bitter because it has matcha in it—that’s the stuff that makes it so green. Matcha’s made from leaves.”

《So that’s why... I like my usual pudding better.》

Guess Dora-chan doesn’t have a taste for matcha, then. I guess there are plenty of other people out there who aren’t big fans of its bitterness. He didn’t seem super excited about the matcha cream puff and strawberry-matcha daifuku he’d asked for either, grimacing as he bit into both of them. W-Well, I mean, everyone has foods they’re just not that into. It happens.

I looked over at Sui, who’d been unusually quiet considering it was eating the sweets it loved so much. It was usually the most outspoken of all of us on the subject, actually, but this time it was slowly engulfing the roll cake it’d picked out in dead silence. Ah, whoops. Guess Sui’s not a big matcha fan either...

The cake it’d chosen didn’t even seem like the sort of thing that would have that strong of a matcha flavor to begin with. The sponge cake itself didn’t have any in it at all—the filling inside was the only matcha part about it, and given its pale coloration it couldn’t have contained all that much. Apparently, though, Sui had reacted just as poorly to its natural bitterness as Dora-chan did. I could practically feel its skepticism as it looked over at the matcha mille crepe and strawberry-matcha daifuku it had ordered.

“Do you not like the matcha sweets, Sui?” I asked, just to be sure.

《They’re bitter! Sui doesn’t like them at all.》

“O-Oh, okay.” Guess Sui’s a little too young to appreciate food like this. I bought a bottle of soda to wash the matcha taste out of Sui and Dora-chan’s mouths.

《Now that’s the good stuff!》

《This is sooo yummy!》

They happily gulped down their drinks, and by “they” I mean all three of my familiars, in spite of the fact that Fel hadn’t been bothered by the matcha in the first place.

“Another!”

Really? I mean, really? Dora-chan and Sui asked for refills too, so I begrudgingly gave in and filled their glasses again. As a side note, I’d gone with the vanilla option (as it were) and chosen a matcha sponge cake for myself, along with some freshly stocked and harvested green tea that was straight from Shizuoka.

I took a long sip of the tea I’d brewed. I feel like a taste for green tea is ingrained in the Japanese cultural identity, somehow. Something about the flavor always calms me down in an instant. I took a bite of the dark-green matcha sponge cake, and it was just as delicious as the tea. It had a slight, subtle sweetness that was just present enough to perfectly enhance and complement the bitterness of the matcha.

I enjoy a regular sponge cake as much as the next person, but I’m usually satisfied after a single slice of the stuff. The matcha cake I’d bought was different—I could gorge myself on it and not get sick of the taste. Maybe that was the bitter accent of the tea at work? I pondered the matter as I enjoyed it along with my cup of freshly-brewed green tea.

＜Ahem!＞ Suddenly, a pointed cough resounded in my mind, like someone was clearing their throat. ＜Just so you know, I’m rather fond of matcha sweets myself! I mean...if you were curious.＞

And hello to you too, Ninrir. I know how much of a sweet tooth you have, but I just sent you an offering the other day, you know?

＜Ugh... Th-That’s irrelevant! How am I supposed to restrain myself when you’re devouring delicious sweets right in front of me?!＞

You could at least try. Actually, for my sake, please try. And by the way, I’m pretty sure that goddesses aren’t supposed to casually contact mortals anywhere near this often.

＜Grrr!＞

“So yeah, stop talking to me like this, thanks. Bye!”

＜W-W-Wait! Umm, I, err, r-right, of course! Maybe you could just happen to order too many matcha sweets, and just happen to be stricken by the urge to offer some of them to me of your own free will! Why, can you just imagine how happy I’d be about such generous and voluntary tribute?!＞

I couldn’t actually see her, but I had a funny feeling that Ninrir was carefully observing my reactions as she tried to prod me into sharing. Just how much does she want to eat this stuff?

“Look, I’m sorry, but I can’t. I just sent you an offering the other day.” Like, really, it hadn’t even been a week yet. She’d had me send a massive box filled with nothing but desserts, as usual.

＜Gaaah! Like I said, that’s irrelevant! Those sweets and matcha sweets taste entirely different! The ever so slight bitterness of matcha is what makes it so incredible!＞

Getting all emphatic about it isn’t helping your case, you know?

＜Ugh, I wanna eat matcha sweets! I wanna, I wanna, I wanna!＞

The—and I cannot emphasize this next word enough—goddess started throwing a full-on temper tantrum in my mind. I could only imagine how much stress she must put Demiurge through. I sighed, and finally caved. “Okay, fine, but I’m not sending much!”

＜Woohoo! Yes! In that case...＞

Then she made me scroll through the Green Tea Fair’s menu over and over, nagging me to send her more and more stuff. I got pressured into buying five items for her in total. It took her an eternity to decide, and in the end she went with the same tactic as Fel, picking out a matcha roll cake, chiffon cake, and baumkuchen, none of which were available in individual servings. She also chose her old standby, dorayaki (filled with matcha cream), plus a matcha cream puff.

I ordered her stuff and sent it off immediately, and Ninrir went on her way just as quickly, barely remembering to pause and say, “thank you.” I really have to worry about the future of this world, considering it has deities like her running the show.

“And now I’m exhausted...” I grumbled. I’d bought a few other desserts for myself, but I wasn’t really feeling it anymore. Too tired for sweets. My tea had gone totally cold too, so I brewed myself a new cup in the hopes it’d drive away a bit of my fatigue.

A few days later, I learned that Demiurge had caught wind of the incident and had given Ninrir a tongue-lashing she’d never forget. Not my problem, though.