Chapter 111: Remote Land Pub Plan!
Volume 3 — The Northern Nobleman and the Raptor Wife’s Village, Great Renovation Plan!?
The plan for the pub gradually proceeded.
The location of the establishment is next to the gift store. Fortunately, the shop owner and her husband welcomed us.
The building was being raised smoothly.
The craftsmen of the village were doing well.
The store was to a wooden single storey building, and I am planning on painting the roof white and the walls blue.
Since there are many red houses in the village, I wanted it to stand out and I wanted it to be in the colour Sieg likes.
It would be finished two months later.
I want to open it before the polar nights (kaamos).
The polar nights will come about three months later.
Buying alcohol and canned foods, designing the interior, thinking up the menu, there was a mountain of work to do.
Thinking that it would be nice if it could become a place where people can spend the depressing polar nights happily, I did my best every day.
◇◇◇
In our bedroom, after our son went off to sleep, we made rustling noises under faint light.
Presents arrived from Sieg’s family. Three large wooden boxes.
A box of potatoes and a box of apples. In the other box, according to father-in-law, there are many miscellaneous goods.
“The apples are harvested in this period.”
“I see~”
There are no apples around this area, so I was not used them. Apparently, father-in-law had been growing them in a corner of the ranch.
Sieg handed me an apple. It seems like it was alright for me to try it.
After thanking her, I took a bite.
“——Uwah, sour!!”
Since I would wake Arno, I quickly covered my mouth.
Sieg burst out into laughter.
“Isn’t this too sour?”
“Sour you say.”
I gave her the half-eaten apple and told her that it was really sour.
But unexpectedly, my wife had the sour apple without changing her expression.
“Eh, it’s not sour?”
“No, not really.”
“That can’t be~”
“It’s just normal and delicious.”
“N~n.”
While we were talking about that, a memory from a year ago became clearer in my head.
“Ah!”
I remembered.
We had apples in a foreign port.
That was a year ago. On that day, we discovered that Sieg was pregnant.
Pregnant women like sour food.
“Liking sour food, c-could it be!?”
“No, I don’t think so.”
“!?”
“I did enjoy sour apples from a long time ago.”
“Ah, really?”
“Sorry.”
“N-No.”
Oops, I’m being greedy, to be hoping for a second child. Furthermore, giving birth puts great strain on the mother. She still has to rest.
Just having Arno born is a miracle already.
While I was kneeling down on the floor and feeling crestfallen, Sieg patted me.
She had a troubled expression, so I quickly explained.
“Ah, sorry! Erm, I’m not being disappointed, but I’m just embarrassed of myself should I say……”
I confessed what I was thinking in a frail voice.
Then, Sieg tightly grasped my hand.
When I looked up at the face in alarm, she had a soft smile on her face.
“It would be nice if we could have a second child.”
“!”
Unexpectedly, Sieg told me a wonderful wish.
The moment I heard that, I thought of hugging her and kissing her, but she promptly turned around and headed back for the luggage, to open the third box.
My outstretched hands flailed in the air and from that momentum I slipped and banged my forehead on the floor.
Both my body and my heart hurt.
“A-Are you alright?”
“Y-Yeah, what about Arno?”
“No, he didn’t wake.”
“Then, it’s alright.”
She asked me just what I was trying to do, but I lied and said that I just slipped while trying to get up.
In the third box from father-in-law, there were fruits, nuts, berries, confectioneries and bottled goods.
“The fruits smell nice~”
The box was filled with a sweet scent.
Pears, red peaches, plums, walnuts, chestnuts. It was full of the tastes of autumn.
“There are many kinds of fruit in Sieg’s country.”
“Our country doesn’t have that much though.”
“I see.”
As for this land, the fruits that grow here are berries.
There are many fruits in the market, but they’re mostly imported. Moreover, they’re expensive.
I think that it would be nice to have an orchard here, but the trees will wilt from the cold.
Sieg said that the situation was similar in her country.
There are not that many kinds, but the fruits that can grow in snow are aromatic and sweet and sour, with apples being the prime example.
Sieg told me a story about fruits.
“In my homeland, there are three words for describing kinds of fruit.”
Sieg held up a bottle strawberry jam in her hand.
“We called berries like strawberries ‘Beeren’.”
The meaning is grainy fruit.
Berries also grow in Sieg’s country, but it seems like the variety is not the same as my country.
“The second are fruits with large stones inside, ‘Steinobst’.”
The meaning is stone fruit.
Apricots, plums, peaches and cherries are included in this variety.
“Finally, fruits with small seed at the core, ‘Kernobst’.”
The meaning is core fruit.
They usually refer to apples and pears.
It seems that the demand for ‘kenobst’ is high.
“My country is called ‘the country of apples’ by people of other countries.”
Sieg’s country produces a lot of apples, fruits which are loved from a long time ago.
“I recall a foreigner getting surprised from seeing me take an apple out of my bag.”
“That really is surprising.”
Carrying fruits in a bag, it’s the first time I heard of something like that. For getting full, quenching thirst, there are many uses for it.
That really is nice. I didn’t know that Sieg liked apples that much.
Since they sell apples occasionally at the market, I thought that it would be nice to buy some.
The fruits that were sent this time could be stored for long periods of time, and they were usually used for confectioneries.
There were lots of them, so I might be able to think up a menu that serves them.
Apple pie, apple cake, baked apple, apple scone.
Nn, it feels lke they will all use a lot of butter and eggs.
Dairy is precious so I don’t want to have to use it in the pub during the polar nights as much as possible. In addition, we can’t procure eggs in the polar nights.
“It’s a pub, so wouldn’t it be alright to not have confectionery?”
“But still.”
I would like female customers as well, not just men.
However, to make baked goods, I would need eggs and butter.
I can buy butter, but I can’t make mass purchases of eggs, which spoil easily.
“I think caramelised apples would be the limit.”
“They might go well with crackers or biscuits.”
“Alright.”
Crackers and biscuits have to be imported, but they can be stored for long periods of time.
I might introduce coffee or black tea for female customers.
“S-Somehow it’s not really a pub anymore.”
“It’s not a café either.”
We’re not just serving food, so it’s not a restaurant either.
I wonder, something like a pub, something……? Or is it different.
“Well, it’s okay. Not tied down by anything, the liberal ‘Sieglinde’.”
“The name is wrong.”
“Right! ‘The Crimson Eagle’.”
I want the establishment to have a warm interior and a bright mood.
The poster girl would of course be Sieglinde……, while I was having delusions, I suddenly realised something. I had not yet asked her to work as a waitress at the pub.
I promptly told her about it.
“Erm, Sieg.”
“What is it?”
“I have a request.”
When I bowed and asked if she could help with the pub, she said that she will help even if I hadn’t asked.
“I will help as much as possible.”
“I-I’m happy!”
If there’s someone so cute like Sieg, there might be men who come to see her.
When I told her that, Sieg had an awkward expression.
“I think that there’s a higher probability for cute girls to come in……”
R-Right!
I remembered that Sieg was popular with the women.
Even before the store opened, I felt that there would be many female customers, so I burned up with a mysterious sense of duty that I have to fill the menu with many sweet foods.
Note:
Gahh German terms again… any help (checking the terms) would be greatly appreciated.