219-Chapter 15-5 Dried and Smoked

So, can I have this?

Buhiii!

What the baby gave me, it was the 'dragon's eggshell'. According to Namitaro, baby dragons eat the eggshells they were born with, but sometimes, like this baby behemoth, they don't want to eat the shells.

'I don't know what they're good for, but I'll be grateful for them.

I can't think of what kind of use it would have, but when it comes to the eggshells of ancient dragons, it would definitely fetch an unbeatable price... I couldn't remember what I did with Solomon's eggshells, but since it was Solomon, I ate them without leaving them behind! Id.

'Then I'm going to borrow your dimension bag. Come on, say hi to Vonn. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!

Biiiiiiiiiiiiiii!

When Namitaro tried to place his pectoral fins on the baby's head to greet him, the baby didn't like being touched by Namitaro, whom he didn't like, and bit Namitaro's pectoral fins as hard as he could.

It's a good thing that you're not the only one who can do this. It will grow back soon.

With such carefree thoughts, Namitaro put the baby in his dimension bag and got into the carriage driven by Mr. Cliffe. The carriage would carry us to the river near the royal capital. I prepared the food for the trip, but since I didn't know how much the baby would eat, Namitaro was determined to get as much local food as possible.

'Hey, Sai Sai!　Here, Bonnie, too.

"Bi~~~!

Following Namitarou, the baby emitted an ultrasound called a greeting. Thanks to that, Jeanne and Amour and the others who were with her at the entrance to see her off, and Maria and the others who stayed behind because they were accompanying her, were all suffering from covering their ears. They were pretty gangly horses, but the baby's ultrasound had knocked them unconscious while they were standing. Fortunately, the horses weren't injured and didn't cause any damage to their surroundings as they passed out before they could get out of control. It's probably a good thing that the golem went to support him, as I immediately instructed him to do so. But it's also true that because of that, there were no horses left to pull the carriage. So.

It's not a choice. You want me to take you to Raiden?

That's what I had to do. I suppose I should have done that from the beginning, but there was a chance that the baby would squirm again if I took him there, so I asked Mr. Cliffe to take him.

'I'm sorry it had to come to this, even though I took it on once,'

Mr. Cliffe seemed to be wobbling because of the ultrasound, and he regretted not being able to drive the carriage.

When the baby found he could stay with her a little longer, he was generating more ultrasounds with joy, but he didn't do as much damage as he did at first as Namitaro shoved him into the back of the bag and closed his mouth.

'I'll go tell you what then. Slarin, Shiroumaru and Solomon, shall we go for a walk while we're at it?

With that, the three of them got into the carriage in turn. Following them, Amour and Jeanne tried to get in, but they gave up when the baby trapped in the bag forced its head out and looked ready to threaten them. Instead.

Tama, you want to go with me?　Mary and Allie?　Juve and Hiro too?

Unusually, the tamas wanted to go outside. I tried to take them with me to see if it would be a good idea to take them out once in a while, but the Juvees couldn't get into the carriage, so we had to go in the dimension bag.

We can swim to the ocean from here. You see, we'll come back!

"Bi~~!

As soon as Namitaro finished greeting the baby, he dove into the water and swam downstream.

'Every time Namitaro comes, it gets noisy. Now, first we have to retrieve the fish.

After Namitarou and his men left, the baby's last ultrasound brought the fish floating across the river.

'Solomon will guard the area from the air, Shiroumaru will use his nose and legs to escort Jube and the others, and Slarin will join me in retrieving the fish.

I gave instructions to each of them, and let the Juubae family and Mary Ally out. If Juubae were there, they wouldn't be able to lose to the demons and animals around the King's Capital, but honestly, the adventurers were more afraid of them than such things. From the side, there's a superb prey walking around. I'm sure you'll be able to find a way to make the most out of your time with this particular brand-new, but I'm sure you'll be able to find a way to make the most out of your time with this particular brand-new, but I'm sure you'll be able to find a way to make the most out of your time with this particular brand-new, but I'm sure you'll be able to find a way to make the most out of this new situation. It's also possible.

'In the meantime, I'll have Shiroumaru and the others to be on guard, and I'll be careful on my end, but don't go too far, and as soon as you feel something unusual, raise your voice and run away to where I am or by Juubae's side.

When I told my balls to Mary Ally, I don't know if she understood, but all three of them squealed back. And then they just rushed off into the grass. As expected, I was worried, so I put out a few golems and increased my vigilance a bit.

''Well then, don't take care of the jubae too. Well, there's no point in being too vigilant and getting stressed out, so be moderate.

Boom!

Joubert said, "I got it! I replied emphatically, and I decided to head out to retrieve the fish.

'Looks like some of them have recovered and escaped. Slarin', ignore the muddy ones and let's capture them from the ones that look good!

With that, I floated in the air with my 'flying' and Slarin took up a position on a large rock nearby.

'This one looks like a trout. I wonder if this is a chaya?　Let's let Huna go, and we'll keep the carp.....

I magically fill the dimension bag with water and put the fish in it.

"The catfish is secured. Next up is ... oh!　Eels, get it!　Slarin, if you see this slender one, make it a priority to catch it.

He shouted at Slarin and made a circle with his tentacles. Such a Slarin was reaching out with his tentacles from the top of a rock to catch fish on the surface of the water. I saw a certain archaeologist in such a Slarin's image.

After catching most of the fish, Slarin and I checked the species again, sorted the fish into two categories: those that needed to be muddied and those that didn't. We put the fish that needed to be muddied into a water-filled dimension bag, and those that didn't, we rinsed them lightly and strained them into a magic bag.

That's it," he said. Now we just need to relax and keep an eye on the area... hmm?

I was just about to climb up to the roof of the carriage to see what the tamas are up to now that we're done with fish relations, when I hear the footsteps of a horse running towards us in the distance. Shiroumaru noticed it sooner than I did, and he is on alert, so I can intercept it if it were to attack me, but it could also be that it is simply running nearby, so I decided to use my "appraisal" to determine what it was. Then.

'An acquaintance of yours... shall we say?　Well, let's just be vigilant. Jube, get everyone over here!

Bumoo!

I don't think it's there, but I instructed him to keep it in his dimension bag just in case he might point his sword at Jouvees and the others for some reason. And.

What's going on there, my dear sir... excuse me!

I'll get the captain as soon as I can!

The knight(...) who tried to question me with a strong tone, noticed my identity and hurriedly went to call the person in charge. And the person in charge who came after a while is.........

Primera, good to see you.

'Yes, it's been a while. By the way, what have you been doing here, Temma-san?

'No, I think that's more of a line from me, since I focus on King's Landing and Seigen, don't you think?

I don't mean to hide or cheat, but it would be more unusual for the Primera belonging to the Knights of Gunjo City to lead her subordinates to the vicinity of the royal capital than me, an adventurer, to be in the grasslands near the royal capital, no matter how you think about it.

''No, well, that's true, but.......I'm a knight, so I have a duty of confidentiality......''

'Indeed it was. I was walking Jube and the others as I was seeing Namitaro off.

Primera and the others would not have to worry about harming them, so they let Juubae and the others go outside, but Juubae and Hiro took up a position between the Knights and Tama-chan and the others behind Primera, as if to protect Tama-chan and Merry Ally, who were jumping out of their bags and playing around.

''Well we're on our way to the royal capital on a mission, so we'll have to excuse ourselves here.

After a quick chat, Primera looked at Jouveye and Hiro and smiled bitterly, slowly backing away and keeping a distance between them, and riding her horse to the King's Capital on a path as far away from Tama-chan and the others as possible.

''Look, as you can see, Primera and the others have gone, so Juubae and the others should go and relax.''

When the Primera and the others were out of sight, Joubert and the others finally let their guard down and began to graze as they looked at Tama-chan and the others.

'Let's take a look around the area and see if we can find anything interesting.

I walked around the area with such a light heart....

Really, it's nothing!

Despite what we expected, we found nothing.

'Well, I guess once we captured the fish, there was nothing left to gain,'

With that in mind, I decided it was time to head back to the mansion. But.

Mary and your balls have too much energy.

It took a little longer because the two animals didn't want to leave and ran around. Eventually, Mary was teased by Slarin's tentacles, and Tama-chan went back into the bag after being pissed off by Juve and Hiro. Incidentally, Allie came to me as soon as I called her. Allie had been sleeping in the bag for the whole time they were running away, but Mary, in spite of being caught, head-butted him and forced him to wake up.

'You're finally home. You're so late, I was worried something had happened to you.

When I returned to the mansion, Maria and the others had already left, and Grandpa, who said he was worried, was relaxing in the dining room.

'Speaking of which, I met Primera in the meadow. She didn't tell me the details because of confidentiality or something, but it seems she came to the royal capital on a mission for the Knights.

Well then, you may be coming with the Duke or Albert in the near future. By the way, what is Temma doing here?

As I was in the kitchen, taking out the smaller fish and washing them, Grandpa peered in with interest.

Just as we were leaving Namitaro and the others, the baby emitted another ultrasonic wave, which caused the fish to pass out and float to the surface. It made the fish pass out and float to the surface, and we had a great time catching them. Storing them in a magic bag would solve the freshness problem, but I thought I'd make something else with a twist.

I'm going to do that prep work now, but my grandpa doesn't seem to want to help when I explain it to him. Rather, he grabbed a few washed fish and began to prepare grilled fish to accompany the drinks.

''Smells good...''

'Really... oh!　Temma, you're back?

The women (except Chris), who seemed to be out and about, reacted to the smell of Grandpa's roasting fish as soon as they came into the dining room. Jeanne had noticed me immediately, but Amour had noticed me in Jeanne's voice after walking up to Grandpa (smell).

'Master Temma, what are you making?'

Is there anything I can do to help?

Aura and Leni-san came in late and approached me to help me with my work... but unlike Leni-san, who was looking at my hand, Aura was obviously distracted by the grilled fish (smell).

Jeanne and Amour, who noticed that Aura and Leni-san were trying to help with the work, also asked if there was any work for them to do, but since there was no more urgent work to do, we decided to have them grill some grilled fish for dinner at random. While Jeanne and the others were explaining their work, Aura and Leni finished putting on their aprons and washing their hands and waited.

Aura removed the scales, guts and guts from these small fish and put them in the brine. Leni, you can grate these trout into three pieces.

He gave orders to Aura and asked Leni-san to do it, and they nodded and began to work. However, when Aura heard what she and Leni-san were working on, she asked, "Just my work, won't it smell fishy? He said, "I wonder what Aina would say if she heard that you made Leni do the hardest job of all? I muttered, "Now, let's get on with it! And it was a simple misunderstanding. Incidentally, he didn't let Jeanne do Leni's job simply because of the difference in skill in handling the fish.

'I need to make some smoked seasoning before Mr. Leni finishes judging me.

Since it was my first time making smoked fish, I decided to make a simple seasoning liquid (somule liquid) without using any herbs.

'Let's try sake, water, salt and sugar, and pepper for the rest.

This way, even if you fail, you won't have to make something so bad that you can't eat it.

'Temma-san, I'm done with this one, so I'll help you with the small fish.

Before the seasoning liquid had cooled, Leni finished judging the trout and moved on to help Aura. Leni's deftness didn't change when it came to the small fish, and the pile of small fish before it was processed was diminishing in the blink of an eye. And then.

I guess that's it.

In the end, Leni, who came in to help midway through the process, processed more than half of the small fish pile. After magically cooling the seasoning liquid and marinating the trout fillets, I stepped in to help, but I couldn't even process a fifth of the pile.

'The dried ones will just need to soak in the brine for a while and then dry them out. As for the smoked fish, if all goes well, it will be ready the day after tomorrow. Jeanne, Amour, bring me the burnt fish.

I asked them both to bring me some grilled fish and I saved all of it (...) in a magic bag. However, there was one thing that Grandpa didn't want to give away for his own nibbles, so we decided to have no dried and smoked fish instead. Well, the next minute I said that, he offered me some grilled fish other than the one I was eating now, so I retracted my statement.

''Now we've made the side dishes for this evening. Now all we need is some rice, miso soup and pickles.

One person is enough for the rest, so I've decided to let everyone do what they want to do... but...

Are you ready to eat, Temma?　

No, I don't think I could do it for an hour.

'Yes. Originally, dried fish were made for preservation purposes, so I suppose they have to be dried to some extent.

No one wanted to leave the dining room, as if the dried fish on the zaru was bothering them. It was the same with Grandpa, and I could see that he was listening closely when Amur asked him if he could eat it.

'I don't know if it's good or not, but I'll just use my magic to dry it out for what I'm going to serve for dinner.

I was defeated by Amour and Aura's (and Grandpa's) gaze, so I decided to try making dried fish using wind and fire magic.

''As expected, it's not safe to use fire magic inside the mansion, so let's go out into the garden.

We left the dining room with the suggestion of making dried fish in the garden, in case something should happen, but by the time we got to the garden, not only the four of us plus Grandpa, but also Slarin, Shiroumaru and Solomon had joined us. And then Tama-chan came in, probably because Slarin and the others were there, and Tama-chan was there, and Juve and Hiro also came to check on him, and then Mary came in with a sleepy Allie in tow, probably because they were all gone. And.

'Phew!　Ghohohoho....

Instead of a greeting, Merry gave Aura a headbutt on her stomach.

'Merry, Tama, I'm going to make some dried fish now, so don't make any dust.

Mr. Tenma, I'm not worried about my...

Aura said something to me, but I decided to ignore it because it was always the same. It was more important that Mary and Tama didn't ruin the dried fish.

'Here's the deal, let's get out the rock and the base to shelter from the wind, and since we don't have a drying net ... we'll put a cast net on the base ... that's it.'

Now that the foundation was ready, I sprinkled some water around the perimeter for the last time to wash away the dust and began to work my wind and fire magic.

'I hope this works,'

I'd prefer natural drying for the effort, but today I'll consider it a training and experiment. If the wind is strong, it won't get warm, and more importantly, the dried food will fly away. On the other hand, if the fire is strong, it will be like steaming and the dried fish will not be able to be made. If the balance is wrong, instead of 'warm wind', it could just be 'strong wind' or 'hot wind', or in the worst case, 'flame radiation'.

''Next time, let's teach this training method to Aimee and Tida.

As long as it doesn't become 'flaming', it's just a strong or hot wind, so maybe it's a rather good practice.

When I mentioned this to my grandfather, he agreed with me, so I decided to invite them over soon.

Grandpa agreed and we decided to call them over soon. I can't keep the wind up at just the right temperature while I'm talking to him, but it's usually hard for him to concentrate.

About an hour or so after we started to generate the 'warm air', my grandpa started to say something like that.

'Once you get used to it, all you have to do is keep doing the same thing. I guess it's kind of like running while talking.

It would be difficult to run a complicated course, but I don't think it's unusual for someone to be able to run the same course while chatting away.

If you put it that way, there's nothing you can't do. That being said, it's not impossible to do it if you're concentrating on it alone.

'But if you can't do it, you'll never be able to. Even if Aura was a master of magic, she would definitely poke around somewhere.

'Right. Aura would probably get distracted by the chatter and the magic would stop, or she'd blow dry or burn the whole place to the ground.

Amour and Jeanne's venomous tongue, Aura admitted to herself, even though she looked frustrated. Indeed, when considering the three of them, Aura seemed to be the least qualified.

''It's about time, isn't it?''

Once the laughter had died down, I decided to stop the magic and look at the dried fish. From the looks of it, there didn't seem to be any problems, so I used my fire magic to burn one on the spot and tasted it, and the taste wasn't particularly problematic either.

''I think it's like this.''

The fish was gone in an instant as they passed the tasted ones around to everyone else. The remaining bones were fought over by Shiroumar and Solomon, with Shiroumar getting the head and Solomon getting the rest.

'Slarin, eat the small ones,'

I handed the small dried fish to Slarin, who failed to eat it, and Shiroumar and Solomon lined up behind Slarin to get theirs too, but I made them hold back as we had less to eat.

'Not good,'

It's a bit bland compared to what I got as a souvenir from the South?

Maybe there's a difference in the fish?

Considering the ingredients and the way it's made, it's not bad, but it doesn't taste as good as what's sold in the South.

Amur and the three of them were reserved, but Leni was clear in her assessment. Well, there was no problem for them to eat themselves, so no one objected to serving it this evening.

'Hmm?　You look like a visitor.

I was about to collect the dry goods and go back to the mansion when the golem started moving at the gate, and I knew someone was coming. Incidentally, if I knew him, the golem would let him walk by unimpeded, so at least I knew it was someone the golem had judged to be a stranger.

''I'm going to go for a bit.

Aura went to deal with him and soon returned with a guest waiting.

''Temma-sama, there's a letter from the Sangha dukes. They wanted to get a reply as soon as possible, if possible, so I've asked the steward to wait a bit.

Okay.

When I received the letter and read the contents, it said, 'I would like to visit you soon, so let me know when it's convenient for you. Normally I don't pay attention to such things, but I wondered if something had happened, but I told the butler the afternoon after tomorrow anyway.

I've never seen anything like it before, so maybe something went wrong...By the way, why the afternoon after tomorrow and not the day after tomorrow?

Grandpa also seemed to be curious about the fact that the Duke of Sangha had gone out of his way to use his butler to send me a letter, but he seemed to be saying that it could happen. He was more concerned about the day I had specified.

'No, tomorrow would be too fast, and most importantly, I have to make some smoked food tomorrow.

My grandfather looked dumbfounded when I said this, but at last he laughed and said, "That's important, too.