Cooking with Wild Game (LN) - Volume 17 - Chapter 4.1

Chapter 4: A Minor Plot

1

“Apparently, they’re wanted bandits. They must have chosen us as their prey after seeing us eating that grand dinner. Of course, I’m sure they wanted to get back at us for what happened in the dining hall too,” Zasshuma said.

It was now the following morning. We were walking down a road in the post town, which wasn’t seeing much foot traffic just yet.

Last night had ended with us calling for the guards and handing the criminals over to them, but Zasshuma was the only one present for that, so he was explaining everything to us now, early in the morning.

“Burglary is a serious crime, and since they were already wanted, even if they avoid death sentences, they’ll be punished in a way that’ll make sure they can never get up to any wrongdoing again. And they certainly won’t have the strength left in them to head to Genos for revenge, so I don’t think there’s anything to worry about on that front.”

“I see. Then that’s good enough for us!” Dan Rutim replied for the group. Currently, we were heading on foot to meet the folks from the firm at the town hall, having left our totos in the care of The Ramam Droplet.

Though I wasn’t all that familiar with the concept, apparently in towns like this, firms existed to manage various business dealings. There was one for butchers’ shops, and another for inns, and representatives from those businesses around town acted as their respective firms’ members. For example, even in the Genos post town, Milano Mas, Naudis, and Nail were all members of a firm, which handled all sorts of business mediation to prevent too much friction from forming.

We had asked for a meeting in order to form ties with the folks from the firm that managed Dabagg’s karon ranches.

“To refresh you on what I explained yesterday, the head of the firm is a guy named Digola who runs a big ranch to the south. These guys spend more time in town obsessing over money calculations than running their ranches, so take care not to end up in any bad business deals, all right?”

“Yeah, understood.”

As our group of thirteen walked along through the post town, eventually a large stone building came into view. That was the residence of the lord of Dabagg. There really wasn’t all that much territory in Dabagg aside from the ranches, so rather than constructing a castle town, it seemed they simply had a stone wall around the one manor and a barracks meant to house several hundred soldiers. Those soldiers patrolled Dabagg day and night, the ranches included, and protected the town and its karon from bandits.

“Genos and Banarm are ruled by dukes, but for Dabagg it’s a count, correct?”

“Yeah, that’s right. It’s rare for the title of duke to be granted to anyone so far out in the frontier. And it would normally be unthinkable for lords of territories as small as the Daleim and Turan lands to be made counts.”

Now that I thought about it, I was pretty sure Polarth had said something similar in the past.

“Still, whether they’re dukes or counts, they’re all still nobles. Even if I’ve gotten used to dealing with them through my work as a bodyguard, you don’t exactly run into many who are worthy of respect. They’re all either overly formal or way too haughty.”

“So which category does the lord of Dabagg fall into?”

“No clue. I’ve got no interest in going anywhere near the guy who rules over my hometown. Even at the town hall we’re going to, the most you’ll come across is petty officials who run about doing errands.”

We headed north toward the lord’s manor, and then Zasshuma turned down a street to the right. The streets were built radially outward from the lord’s residence at the center, and the town hall where the firm met was a bit to the east.

The town certainly wasn’t very big. After all, it only took a walk of about ten minutes from The Ramam Droplet before Zasshuma stopped and said, “We’re here.” There was a row of buildings, all bigger and finer than what could be found in the rest of the post town, lined up there. Though the town hall was a one-story building, it was around the size of the community centers I knew from back home.

When Zasshuma knocked on the door, a young man with a sword dangling from his hip appeared. “You are the visitors from Genos, correct? They have been awaiting your arrival.” With the young man guiding us, we proceeded down a hallway. Once he reached a specific door, the man stopped, and then he loudly declared, “Pardon the interruption! I have brought the guests!!”

Inside was what appeared to be an incredibly spacious conference room. There were numerous seats lined up in rows before a wide table, behind which were two men in the center seats.

“Welcome to Dabagg. Go ahead and take whichever seats you please.”

Both of the middle-aged men had appearances that were pretty typical of westerners. One had a stout build, while the other was rather thin in comparison. It was the plump man who had called out to us. He was wearing the cloth attire of a merchant, while the thin fellow wore what looked to be high-quality silk.

“I’m the head of the firm that manages business for the karon ranches, Digola, and this is Sir Meilos, who handles external affairs for Dabagg. Since you came all the way from Genos, I made sure to invite him to this meeting.”

“Thank you for getting up so early for us. I am Asuta of the Fa clan, and I am a person of the forest’s edge who runs a business in the Genos post town,” I said with a bow, acting as the representative for our group.

The plump Digola wore a friendly smile, while Meilos looked us over rather nervously. Just like their physical appearances, their personalities also seemed to be complete opposites.

“Word has made its way out here about how giba cooking has become quite popular in the Genos post town, so we’ve been very much looking forward to meeting you ever since hearing the owner of those stalls was coming here to Dabagg on business.”

“I’m honored. We’re so grateful for how kind everyone has been.”

I figured it would be rather difficult for them to find any profit in bringing giba meat to a karon town like Dabagg, so this friendly reception was more than a little unexpected.

At any rate, we went ahead and took our seats. Just as we had arranged in advance, Ai Fa, Reina Ruu, Zasshuma and I took the front row. Meilos furrowed his brow even further at the sight of Ai Fa sitting there dressed like a hunter, but he ultimately didn’t comment.

“So, just what exactly is it that you wish to discuss? Will we perhaps have an opportunity to taste some of that famed giba meat?”

“Of course. We brought giba jerky and sausages with us today.”

“Ooh, giba sausages?” Digola parroted, leaning forward with a look of great interest.

I held my leather bag out toward him. “As was mentioned yesterday, I would like to borrow your kitchen if I can. It would naturally also be possible to sample them as is, but I believe you would be able to compare their tastes much better if they were fully prepared.”

“Yes, as you wish. Though as I said yesterday, we were only able to prepare a small kitchen meant for preparing light meals.”

“That will be plenty.”

“Then we will have someone lead you there.”

With a smile, Digola looked over toward Meilos, who wordlessly clapped his hands. In response, a soldier dressed similarly to the young man from before appeared.

Though I could only spy Digola and Meilos in the room, they seemed to have prepared a fair number of bodyguards. But, well, that much probably just made sense when dealing with a group like us, whose backgrounds they couldn’t confirm.

As we had planned, the group heading to the kitchen consisted of me, Ai Fa, Reina Ruu, and Myme from the row behind us. My clan head was there to guard us, Reina Ruu to act as my cooking assistant, and Myme simply accompanied us to spectate.

“This way.”

We were led through a door into another hallway, but not on some meandering journey. Instead, it turned out the door right across from where we exited was the entrance to the kitchen. Since we had asked to use one in advance, they must have chosen the nearest conference room.

When we stepped inside, I found that it was a modest kitchen around ten square meters in size, with a work station in the middle and two stone-built stoves along the right wall, while the opposite wall had a shelf filled with cooking implements.

I chose a pot that looked suitable and filled it with plenty of water from a jug. Then I added three links of sausages from the leather bag, and heated up an empty pan atop the other stove.

“Reina Ruu, could you prepare the wooden plates? Myme’s portion will be ready shortly.”

The second Ruu daughter already knew what was on the menu, so she laid out seven plates atop the work station. Of those, two were meant for Myme.

“These are really simple dishes, so don’t get your hopes up too high, okay?”

“Okay! Still, just the fact that it’s your giba cooking we’re talking about is enough to raise my expectations by itself...”

Myme was staring down at my hands, looking like a puppy wagging her tail. Thinking to myself that today’s recipes weren’t really anything that special, I placed the giba bacon atop a cutting board. While I would be having them try ordinary jerky too, I also wanted the people of Dabagg to taste this giba bacon, which took more effort to create.

With a meat knife, I started cutting off slices as thin as I could manage from the block of bacon. While I was doing that, I noticed Ai Fa glancing over at the soldier stationed by the door, and then whispering to me, “Hey. The smell of that giba meat is making me hungry. You can feed me whatever is left over.”

“Huh? Well, we should have some extra meat and ingredients...” I replied.

Reina Ruu shyly tugged on my sleeve. “Um, in that case, could I have a taste as well? It’s my first time going a full day without eating giba, so it seems as if my heart is craving it.”

“Hmm, guess I should go ahead and make more, then... Um, would you like some too?” I called out to the soldier keeping watch.

“I’m fine,” he briefly replied. Did he figure it would be inappropriate to eat while on duty or something? Well, at any rate, I figured fulfilling the desires of my companions from the forest’s edge mattered more than all that. Besides, I had planned to let Myme do a taste test from the very start. Leaving someone out would have been rude, regardless of how many people were participating. Hopefully, they would just think of it as testing for poison or something. Satisfied with my reasoning, I cut off five slices of bacon, then added two more sausages to the boiling pot.

We had brought along plenty of ingredients when we set out, in case there were a lot of people from the firm attending. While the pot was heating up, I also pulled out a tino from the leather bag and julienned the amount I needed.

After that was done, I cooked the giba bacon. Since I had used ribs for the cut, there was no need to add any fat to the pan. There was still time left till the sausages would be done boiling, so I added three strips of giba bacon to the large metal pot as well.

A pleasing crackling sound and a tantalizing aroma filled the air. That alone was enough to make my stomach feel like it was about to growl, even though I hadn’t been hungry at all before.

Suppressing my hunger, I flipped over the bacon strips with their crackling fat, then I broke a kimyuus egg over each of them. Though the eggs were a bit small, they were no different in composition or flavor to chicken eggs. Since you could even eat them raw, I went ahead and made them sunny side up, just how I liked them.

Back in my old world, I had heard that many foreign countries considered eating raw eggs unsanitary, so apparently even when making fried eggs, they would thoroughly heat through both sides.

I could recall a scene with raw eggs in a mug from a certain boxing movie from the west, so maybe they used chicken eggs from Japan for it... As such vague musings passed through my mind, I watched the clear part of the eggs go white, and the orange yolks turn just the right shade of yellow.

Now that the eggs were properly heated, the giba bacon and eggs was finished. Since so much salt and pico went into making the bacon in the first place, there was no need to add any further flavoring. Such easy dishes really were a rarity.

With a wooden spatula, I scooped up the completed servings and deposited one on top of each of the plates. Atop each piece of shriveled bacon sat a brilliantly shining fried egg.

Since it wasn’t the sort of dish that I had needed to practice making, it had literally been years since I last made it. Even so, when I took in its smell and appearance, it sure did look delicious.

“Ah ha ha. It looks rather interesting, doesn’t it?” Myme said with an amused chuckle, her eyes shining with anticipation. She had already tasted bacon on its own, but this would be her first time having it in a completed dish, as far as I was aware.

“Go ahead and dig in. If you find it lacking in flavor, I think it’d be good with this added on top too.”

“What is it?”

“It’s ketchup. Something I planned to use with the sausages.” I had made some at home using the mamaria vinegar from Banarm that Welhide had given me, and brought it along. I took a wooden spoon and adorned each plate with a scoop of the stuff out of my small jar.

Cutting into their bacon with just their spoons and skewers, everyone went ahead and took a bite. The second it entered her mouth, Myme let out a sigh of admiration. “This tender smoked meat is way tastier when it’s fried! And it seems to go very well with kimyuus eggs too!”

“Right? Frying it was the idea from the very start. It needs to be heated through to really show its best.”

The meager snacks made with just a single slice of bacon and one egg each disappeared into their mouths in no time flat. Seeing their blissful expressions really filled my heart, if not my stomach.

“Still, the salt and herbs are so strong that it makes you want not just the egg, but fuwano bread or vegetables or something to go with it too, right?”

“Well, since I used tino and poitan for the sausage dish, I didn’t use them in this one.”

As we had that exchange, the sausages finished boiling. Though they had shriveled up a good bit in the smoking process, they had now regained a good bit of their original plumpness. Once I pulled them up out of the water and dried off the moisture, I sandwiched them in thick poitan bread along with the julienned tino, then topped it with ketchup and the mustard-like spice sarfaal, which I had dissolved in water.

Perhaps it went without saying, but this dish was something akin to a hot dog.

When Myme took a bite, the look on her face was happier than ever. “Delicious! You can make sausages even tastier by adding water back to them, right?! It has such a smooth texture that it’s hard to believe this is smoked meat!”

“Thanks. I’m just glad you enjoyed it,” I replied with a smile as I fried the bacon for those guys from the firm.

Reina Ruu looked ecstatic, and though Ai Fa remained expressionless, there was an incredibly satisfied look in her eyes. They really must have been dying to taste giba meat.

Meanwhile, the soldier that had been standing there in the doorway carrying out his job had started getting a look on his face that was difficult to describe. Perhaps the aroma of cooked bacon stimulated his hunger, or maybe he was drawn in by Myme and Reina Ruu’s joy... I figured it was probably both. That was just how much they seemed to enjoy my cooking.

“If you sold this in the post town, it would be incredibly popular, don’t you think? I’d say it’s just as tasty as the giba burgers and giba manju!”

“Yeah, but it might displease the elites of Genos if the bacon and sausages are sold at a lower price than jerky. In which case, it won’t be possible to keep the cost down enough to sell it in the post town.”

That was why I wanted to see if it would be possible to sell them in other towns.

There probably weren’t many folks in other towns who would want to pay our higher prices for giba jerky to use as portable rations either. But if we were talking about something that was every bit as tasty as fresh meat, it would be possible to treat it as a high-class ingredient. We’d have a lot of difficulty producing either the bacon or sausages in great quantities anyway, so it would be good enough for me if I could just attract the attention of some casual gormands.

At present, the leading choice for who to make our client was still Welhide and the people of Banarm, as they had already been shown to have a favorable opinion of giba meat, but I intended to also see what kind of reception the folks from Dabagg would give it, seeing as how they were such an influential town in terms of meat.

Besides, since we’re selling giba meat and meals, that makes Dabagg a business rival. I’d like to try to go through the proper channels so as not to cause any grudges to form. As that thought ran through my head, I finished cooking the giba bacon and eggs for Digola and Meilos.

Since Reina Ruu had her hands free, she swiftly put together the pseudo-hot dogs. After that, we laid out the plain jerky, bacon, and sausages on a separate plate, finishing our preparations.

“That took a while, but we’re all done.”

At that, the soldier nodded and opened the door.

We headed back to Digola and Meilos with our giba dishes in hand, prepared to tackle our final task here in Dabagg.