Interlude: The Magnificent Mochizuki Mochi Malleting
“This is from Tokugawa-sama, it is...”
A large whumph rang out as Yae dropped a massive sack of rice on the floor.
A usual sack’s around sixty kilos, isn’t it? Wait, no... Eashen is like Japan in the Sengoku Era, and they measured it differently back then... Or at least, that’s what my grandpa said. But why did they send rice?
Brunhild grew both wheat and rice in equal measure. We had plenty of Eashenese citizens, so it was true that we sometimes imported rice when we had a shortfall, but I didn’t remember making any such order. We had more than enough in the castle’s stores, after all.
“Oh, it’s finally here! This looks like more than enough!”
As I was pondering, Arcia poked her head in and ran toward the bag of rice. That was enough for me to realize what had happened. She must’ve put in an order for this bag through the gate mirror room.
“Why the sack, exactly?”
“This is glutinous rice, father.”
“Glutinous rice, is it? That is a rather out of season order, it is...”
Eashenese people would ring in the new year by eating rice cakes made out of this stuff, but it was well into the year at this point. Then again, it wasn’t like that was the only use for it. Dango was a popular year-round treat, after all. You could also make mochi with it, and that could have all kinds of tasty fillings. Still, did we really need this much sweet rice? I was certain we had some in the pantry already...
“I’ve always wanted to try making various mochi treats, but I never had the opportunity!” Arcia grinned boastfully, but Yae and I were more concerned by the figure standing behind her.
“So you took the liberty of ordering it through the gate mirror, did you? Do you think it’s proper to use government channels for your personal ends?”
“Ah?! M-M-M-Mother?!” Arcia let out a small yelp in response to her mother showing up.
Lu was smiling just as her daughter had been, but her eyes were devoid of light. She ended up lecturing our daughter for a while after that, and I ended up settling the fee out of my own pocket. I didn’t want to have our taxpayers cover it, since there’d be hell to pay if they ever found out... When all was said and done, it ended up being a bit pricey, though.
I’d said it when I founded the country, and I reiterated it again, the Mochizuki family was to live on their own dime, not propped up by the taxes of the populace.
If Arcia wanted sweet rice so much, she should’ve told me. I would’ve just gone to Eashen myself.
“So, you were planning to make something with this, you were?” Yae asked, butting in on the tail end of the lecture and rescuing Arcia from more of her mother’s wrath.
Clearly pleased to be saved, Arcia replied, “Uhm, well...yeah. I’d like to make all kinds of dishes. I want to make traditional mochi candy, rice cake gratin, and any other things we can think of...”
“Mochi treats, you say...? That reminds me of the zunda mochi I had not too long ago, it does.”
“Oh yeah, that was some good stuff...”
Right, I remember having some good mochi that time when the Date princess was on the run in Eashen. It was really good. I’ve wanted to do some old-fashioned mochi pounding for a while now, but I never found the time... Maybe this is the chance I’ve been waiting for?
“Let’s do some mochi pounding.”
“Hurray! I knew you’d agree, father!” Arcia exclaimed as she charged over to give me a big hug, only for Lu to drag her away by the scruff of her neck.
“What was that for, mother?! I was just bonding with him!”
“Clearly nothing I just said sank in at all. I’ll have to start again from the top.”
“Wh-What?!”
Without any further delay, Lu dragged Arcia away. I could see my daughter silently begging for help, but there was nothing I could do when faced with Lu’s glare.
“L-Let us prepare for the mochi pounding in the meantime, yes? Shall I prepare us a mortar and mallet, shall I?”
“I can make those. You need to soak the sweet rice for a day, right? Guess we can start that today and do the actual pounding part tomorrow. We’ll ask some off-duty knights and maids to chip in and help.”
My [Modeling] Null spell would make it easy enough to create everything we needed to pound the mochi.
I’ll have my kids help out too. It’ll be fun if we all eat the mochi we make together.
I smiled to myself as I pulled out some wood from [Storage] and set to work on the tools.
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