CH 82

I gathered the Kinka grass while thinking of how sad it is that I won’t be able to work at the sanctuary for a while. This plant is crazy expensive so it’s been overplucked, making it hard to find in the forest’s shallow area where there’s a lot of people passing through. That’s not the case though if you went deeper into the forest, up to where I’m currently at.

They propagate through rhizomes and seeds. Their fertility as plants is quite high in the first place, so there’s a lot of clusters growing here. I gathered a lot while moving around and chucked them inside my usual bag that could house half a bear.

It should be the whole plant, so I shake the mud off the roots. It’s a hassle drawing water from the well, so I just put them inside a colander and washed them at my house. By ‘wash’, I mean dipping the colander in the stream that’s flowing around my house; that’s enough to clean it.

I tossed them inside 【 Storage 】. Ingredient preparation is now complete. I went back to the rented house and installed a workbench and a copper distillation apparatus on the third floor. It was quite bulky, much to my distress. I imagined it would look something like Sherlock Holmes’ experiment equipment, but that wouldn’t do, apparently. First of all, the glass flasks…er, almost everything is made from either copper or porcelain.

Wait, is it really fine not putting water or something that can be used for cooling in this distiller? The distillation bottle was shaped like a flask, and that’s where I’m putting the stuff to be distilled. It’s covered with a dome-shaped lid-looking thing with a tubing attached to it.

There are grooves inside that lid. Apparently, the system works by collecting stuff in those grooves which will then flow through the tubing. We’re supposed to heat the distillation bottle, but aren’t we supposed to cool the lid, too, so that it will turn back into liquid? Isn’t this the same process that you do in improvised saltwater conversion — the one you do by placing a cup in the middle of a pot filled with seawater and putting a wok on top of it? You put seawater inside the wok too so that it’ll cool, right?

So, did the time come for me to use that smithing room and light a fire in the stove over there? Anyway, I’ll just do the remodeling of the apparatus later. Besides, it’ll be better if it takes a long time before we complete this project. Anyway, I just hope that the Gold team will hurry up and leave for their second expedition before we’re done making the medicine.

It feels like there’s a ton of activities I want to do and stuff to create…Well, I’m glad that I’m free to choose what to do and the sequence and process of doing it.

When I asked the librarian where the books about Ruf’s people were kept, he took a lighted incense burner — the light was a spirit, too — with a chain handle and led me there. There was a faint scent wafting with the smoke of the incense burner, but it easily dispersed in air and vanished soon after between the rows of books.

The brightly lit pathway turned dimmer as I followed him. Books that contained things not really remembered by people, things that they wanted to forget, and things forgotten were apparently placed in a dark place.

Now back to Ruf — Ruf’s people are classified into two types, apparently.

First would be people of Ruf who established the Pasa Kingdom during the era of the ancient kingdoms and it was said that they received protection from the spirits regardless of who it was. They were able to build numerous powerful kingdoms. Their civilizations were relatively advanced to the point that it is said to surpass the current era. They perished due to the power struggles for the throne and the invasion of barbarians who outnumbered them.

Several kingdoms rose afterward, but because of poor governance, those succeeding dynasties didn’t last long. Stability was finally achieved after they discovered a relatively long-lived Ruf woman in the frontier and crowned her queen. The kingdom was then named Ruf, and the residents became known as Ruf’s people.

「So, when the Ruf Kingdom fell into ruins, the entire royal family was annihilated, huh.」

Naturally, Ruf’s people that were said to be part of the pedigree of spirits, referred to the guys who established the Kingdom of Pasa. The other type of people claiming to be Ruf’s descendants in this era were mostly descendants of folks that weren’t related to them. It’s just that there were a lot of spirits in the kingdom thanks to their affinity with the royal family, and their people get a lot of magical energy from the surroundings. Nevertheless, there were more spirits in the Ancient Kingdoms than there are now, and besides, it was rumored that people possessed more magical energy back then compared to now.

The people who named themselves Ruf B afterward weren’t as strong as the original Ruf A people, said to be part of the lineage of spirits. Even so, they were infinitely stronger than the people now. Actually, it’s more accurate to say that they were adept at handling the spirits, rather than say that they had an affinity. Thus, there’s no way to resolve the misunderstanding, it seems.

The people who took the name Ruf (B) weren’t as strong as the original Ruf A folks — the people said to be part of the lineage of the spirits. Because they were infinitely stronger than the people of the current age and they were adept at handling the spirits, there is no chance to clear up the misunderstanding.

When Ruf A were under the protection of the spirits, they were able to perfectly wield the power of those spirits even without incantations. However, the protective spirit would no longer be visible. Perhaps, the protection that Ruf A received was something akin to divine beasts and monsters.

I heaved a sigh while drinking coffee.

I’m not sure which Ruf it is, but the Ruf’s name would pop up in the annals of the kingdom’s rise and fall. Well, it can pass as legend, I suppose, but it’s actually quite a complicated existence. Hah, makes me wanna look it up if they still have any traces remaining.

***

「 Good work~!! 」

I raised my cup in toast.

The bone-in rib roast that looked like it weighed a kilo was distributed to each of our plates. Ahm, not actually a plate but more like a cutting board. The meat is a bit tough; I chew with great gusto and it’s making me excited!!

「 The beef is also tasty! 」

Dean gulped the white wine in his cup as if it’s beer, then he tore the meat off with his teeth.

「 Ahhh, what a relief that beef’s texture is fine … 」

「 Freshly roasted beef is really awesome, you know!! 」

Retze and Chris seemed dissatisfied with the jerky they ate and the meat of the monsters they hunted on site during the expedition.

They also served another dish at the same time; the lump of beef was seasoned with rock salt before grilling, and we had two options for sauces — one was a sauce made with oregano, onion and salt, and the other one was made from garlic, parsley and some wine.

Let me correct, there’s a ton of dishes spread all over the table, since they used a whole cow, after all.

We had beef shank stewed in black pepper, white wine, rosemary and bay leaf inside a pot that was placed in the corner of a furnace used to bake bricks. It was spicy and packed with the rich flavor of white wine, a bit different from the stew I was familiar with but still very yummy.

There’s a fried, dumpling-like dish with meat and cheese inside. It would hit the spot if a bit more bouillon was added, I think?

「 Mm. Won’t they serve meat pies? 」

I’m getting better at grasping Ash’s mumblings.

I sliced a bit of the beef fillet that had been stewed with root crops, milk, cheese and some sauce, placed it on top of my bread and ate. Okay, I’ll make this later, I’ll swap the milk with half and half fresh cream. Bet it’ll surely taste better.

…er, I want to eat some veggies. Really, the amount of meat from one whole cow is a bit….