The Abandoned White Magician’s Tea Life - Chapter 20 : Tea for Three

Translator: Sunnyshies

Editor: Ryuubii

Chapter 20 : Tea for Three

In the end, Leonardo had to stay in Polk with the status of “Amalia’s childhood friend”.

In the process, she also suggested to him that he address her by her name instead of “Amalia-sama,” but he turned pale and firmly refused, saying it was outrageous. In the end, she compromised and let him call her “Amalia-san”, instead.

Apparently, Bruno and the others knew him as a mercenary who would wander up to the Dragon Mountain every year around this time. When Amalia and Leonardo went to greet him, he looked relieved and said, “So that’s what happened!”

“Oh, didn’t you say that you have someone you want to meet”? We were all gossiping about who that might be, but who knew that it was Amalia!… huh? You’re Yugo’s father, aren’t you?”

‘…oh, yeah. We need to have a discussion about this too.’

Bruno asked curiously, and Amalia laughed. Since Amalia and Leonardo had said that they were “childhood friends who met again after several years,” it would be difficult to make him Yugo’s father. If she was not careful, Leonardo could be called “an unworthy man who got his childhood friend pregnant and then disappeared, only to show up now.”

Amalia tried to escape with an amiable smile for now, but Leonardo standing next to her chuckled.

“Unfortunately not. But he’s Amalia-san’s son, so he’s important to me as well. That is why, even though I’m not his father, I will protect him as well as Amalia-san.”

“…hmm?”

“Hey. Amalia-san?”

Amalia was startled when he looked into her face, but she hastily nodded, remembering that Bruno was right in front of her.

‘Yes, that’s right. Leonardo is twenty-three years old now, and he’s not a child anymore…’

Subconsciously, she felt that she had to lead Leonardo, as she had done in the past. However, with the passage of ten years, even though Amalia used to be eight years older than Leonardo, Leonardo is now two years older than her.

The young man next to her now was not a thin, petite boy, but a grown man who had lived longer than Amalia had… Now that she realized this, Amalia dropped her gaze in awkwardness and embarrassment.

When they returned to the house after their short visit, Yugo was just coming down from upstairs.

“Welcome home. I’ve cleaned up properly.”

“Thank you… I’ll manage the rest.”

Amalia nodded as she picked up Yugo and entered the living room.

While they were out, she asked Yugo, who loves to help, to clean up the living room.

From now on, Leonardo will be living with Amalia and her son as their protective childhood friend. He had wanted to rent another house, unfortunately there were no vacancies, and the inn was for guests only, so he had no choice but to live with them.

So, in this small house, they have to prepare a place for Leonardo to sleep. The house has two floors, but there is only one bedroom upstairs. Originally, that was Amalia and Yugo’s bedroom, so even though she felt bad, she could only ask Leonardo to sleep in a corner of the living room with a warm blanket. Amalia apologized many times, but Leonardo smiled, “It’s more than enough for me to be near you and not be exposed to the wind and rain.”

In order to make room for Leonardo, Yugo had brought the toys and other things from the living room up to the bedroom. The blanket was already folded and placed in the corner of the living room, so when she kissed Yugo’s forehead and said, “Well done,” he hugged her happily.

“Mom, I want to drink mom’s tea. Leonard, my mom’s tea is delicious.”

“Oh, come to think of it, Amalia-san has always been good at making tea.”

“Yeah. I’m planning to order tea sets for the tea next time, so until then we’ll just be using these tea leaves.”

She also invited Leonardo into the kitchen to show him around.

Having already brewed tea many times, Yugo cleverly put in firewood on behalf of Amalia. Leonardo seemed scared when he lit the fire with “Yeah!”, but he remembered that Yugo was a dragon, and he smiled and scratched his head.

“I see, a light dragon… I thought as much because of the golden hair and eyes, but he’s quite a rare species!”

“That’s right. And it seems that he still has the power of a dragon even in his child form, and he often goes hunting by himself to kill his prey.”

“…I’ll do my best to keep up with Yugo.”

Leonardo blurted out.

Yesterday, Amalia bought some honey at Bruno’s general store. She immediately put a spoonful in yesterday’s afternoon tea, and Yugo, who seemed to have a sweet tooth, shouted with delight, “Delicious!” He asked for more, but when she explained that honey is too precious to put in a lot of it, he nodded his head with a little pout on his lips.

…but this morning when she looked at the jar of honey, the amount was obviously reduced, and when she kissed him good morning on the cheek, it tasted slightly sweet, so she gave him a hearty good morning kiss.

It used to be for two people, but now that Leonardo has joined us, the amount of water and tea leaves are for three people.

‘I think I’ll add some of that stuff Bruno gave me for an additional flavor today.’

She used two kinds of tea leaves. She had this combination a few days ago, but the taste changes when you change the consistency.

“Mom, how much can we put into it today?”

“Let’s take a spoonful of this tea and triple the amount of that one.”

“…won’t it turn sour?

As expected, Yugo has been looking at the cans of tea leaves every day, and he seems to have learned the taste of each one. Amalia instructed him to triple the amount of tea leaves for sour black tea, which dissatisfied the sweet-loving Yugo a little.

Amalia smiled and patted Yugo on the head.

“Don’t worry. I’m going to put a twist on this today, so it will be easier for Yugo to drink.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. So just trust your mom and make sure to put in the right amount, okay?”

“…okay.”

Although he still had a suspicious look in his eyes, Yugo neatly weighed the tea leaves with a spoon and put them in the pot.

While looking at him from the corner of her eyes, Amalia pulled out a round, yellow fruit from the basket. It was a fruit called purine, which Bruno had given to her at a discount because it was a little damaged.

The skin of the purine is tough, but the flesh inside is soft to the point of melting. If you peel the skin, remove the large seeds from the center, and squeeze it, you can make sweet juice without sugar or honey. Purine was a popular snack for the children, as it was often planted around the orphanage.

“Oh, that’s purine.”

Amalia nodded as Leonardo reacted while she was washing the purine fruit.

“Yes. We used to eat them at the orphanage, didn’t we?”

“Yeah. I remember that we all gathered around the table and fought over the purine… are you going to put that in the tea?”

“I didn’t put it in tea because it was a waste at the orphanage, but adding this makes the taste mellow.”

The skin of purine is hard, so she has to be careful not to accidentally slip the blade and cut her fingers when peeling it with a knife. Leonardo offered, “If it’s the knife then―”, but since he was a guest, Amalia politely declined and asked him to watch over Yugo to make sure he didn’t steal any of the honey in the cupboard.

The purine she bought this time was a little small, so it was just the right size to accent the tea. As soon as she peeled them, she put the fruit into a bowl and stuck her fingers into it to remove the seeds.

Yugo, who seemed to be idle, looked at her with sparkling eyes, so when she gave him a seed with sweet juice on it, he licked it with a blissful expression. After licking only the juice, he spit out the seeds, but decided not to worry about how it made a grinding sound afterwards.

After grinding the fruit flesh with a rolling pin, and wrapping it in cloth, she could now squeeze out the juice from it. It’s okay to add the fruit flesh, but the fruit was a bit damaged, so she left the juice alone this time.

The water had just boiled, so she poured the water into the pot. While she was counting the time with Yugo as she steeped the tea leaves as usual. Leonardo, who was standing by the wall, narrowed his eyes and watched over Amalia and Yugo with a smile.

After pouring the tea into a cup, she added the purine juice. The juice was so thick that when she mixed it with a spoon, the tea started to thicken as well.

“Well, there you go then.”

“Thank you very much. I’ll enjoy having this.”

They brought the set into the living room and each picked up a cup. Leonardo’s chair hadn’t been bought yet, so he sat on an empty wooden box and brought the tea to his lips. At the orphanage, he had been trained in manners and etiquette, so even though it must have been several years since he became a mercenary, his gesture in drinking the tea was still elegant.

“Oh, this is so sweet and mellow!”

“Yes, it’s the sweetness of purine fruit. This way you don’t need to add honey, right?”

“Yeah!… Hey, Leonardo. Is the tea that Mom made good?”

As usual, Yugo drank it down in one gulp, and Leonardo, who had closed his eyelids, opened his eyes. He then looked at the cup in his hand, looked at Amalia, and smiled at her softly and tenderly.

“…yes. It was kind of… very nostalgic!”

“I wonder, after becoming a mercenary, is it difficult to have a leisurely cup of tea?”

“That’s one thing, but the tea I drank after Amalia-san’s disappearance was completely different― I can’t really put it into words, but this makes me feel happy somehow!”

After some thought and consideration, Leonardo laughed foolishly.

“At the orphanage, I used to look forward to the tea that Amalia-san made every day. Even when my studies were not going well, or when I had a fight with my friends, drinking the tea that Amalia-san made made me feel better, and I was able to keep looking forward and do my best and even made up with them.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes… I’m so lucky to be able to drink Amalia’s tea again like this!”

With that, Leonardo narrowed his eyes and looked down at his tea.

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Author’s note : 

Botanical Dictionary (2)

Purine (プリネ- /purine/) – peach-like fruit. The skin is hard, but the fruit is sweet and thick. It produces pretty white flowers.

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