Chapter 90

By the time they had finished the entire harvest.

"..."

"Now then, let's go wash them."

"Um, Teacher, this is a little..."

"We don't have time."

Jio and Iser headed to the stream, carrying the crops they had harvested.

"Isn't it convenient having a stream right in front of the house?"

"Ah, it is fresh water... right?"

"There is no way seawater would be in the middle of a forest like this."

"That is true, but I feel common sense rarely applies here."

"This much is common sense."

They washed the dirt off the crops.

There was, of course, a basketful of tomatoes that would become the main ingredient, along with six each of firm onions, potatoes, and sweet potatoes, one head of cabbage, ten pods of peas, one small pumpkin, and three carrots.

"..."

"..."

With each one of them so large, they formed a small hill.

"... Was that a little much?"

"I was about to tell you that I thought this was a bit much."

"You enjoyed yourself too."

"Th-That is true."

Because it had reminded him of the old days, Iser only realized after quite some time that something about the situation had begun to go strangely.

And by the time he realized it, the hill was already being completed.

It was too late for regrets.

Iser smiled awkwardly.

"At this rate, we will end up with three large pots."

"Don't be ridiculous. No matter how much there is, it will only be one pot."

"..."

"... Though it might grow a little while we make it..."

Jio liked cooking by roughly tossing this and that in by feel, rather than meticulously measuring exact amounts of ingredients, so the quantity often increased absurdly during the cooking process.

Aria used to watch that happen and say, "The stew is multiplying."

"... Hm..."

Jio had no shame.

"If we make it first, we can keep eating it for a long time or share it with the neighbors."

"I do not quite understand. Where are there neighbors here? Beyond this forest?"

"Your Temple of the Deep Sea could be called my neighbor too."

"Your definition of neighbor is truly broad. I am impressed by that generosity."

"You cannot see them right now, but when I go in front of the frame, neighbors sometimes appear."

"Ah, in that way..."

Iser, who had been nodding, froze for a moment.

"... Did you share it with humans?"

"Does that rub you the wrong way?"

"I could never say it does not, but those feeble humans who melt if they are put in seawater?"

"What problem is there?"

"That is..."

After hesitating, Iser spoke.

"... I think such a gift is too good for humans."

"Do humans not even deserve to eat my cooking with me?"

"If you put it like that, it sounds rather strange, but is that not more or less the case?"

"Didn't your teacher tell you that people shouldn't discriminate against each other over food, Iser?"

"... Of course, those words are right as well, but..."

Iser trailed off and worked his lips.

'... There is no way food made by a god would be an ordinary gift to humans.'

Iser still did not know exactly what kind of being Jio was.

However, he was the so-called second Sun God, having inherited the Sun God's divinity, and even aside from that trait, he was a being of unfathomable standing whose foundation seemed to be a "portrait."

'Can ordinary food really come out when a being like that cooks?'

Ordinary people called such things sacred objects.

Moreover, if it was not an ordinary object that could only be admired or touched, but edible food... humans often called that a god's favor.

It created saints and saintesses.

"..."

"Iser?"

"... Then again, since it is in the form of tomato stew, it would be difficult to say anything about it."

"Stew is stew. What else would there be?"

"No, in any case, it is food. Everything you say is right, Teacher."

Even when he had been human, Giovanni had often done things that surpassed common sense and limits.

At this point, there was nothing particularly strange about him going around handing out tomato stew close to a sacred object to people on Earth.

"But I am still jealous. Humans receiving that kind of kindness from you makes me feel twisted inside."

"There is no need to feel twisted over sharing a bit of cooking."

Giovanni shrugged.

"Things like this happened often when we lived in Edlen village too."

"Those wicked bastards ate your delicious cooking and betrayed you in the end..."

"Have another tomato."

As a mermaid, whose body structure meant he could not help being a big eater, Iser did not refuse the food Jio gave him.

It was a truly delicious tomato.

"Still, it does seem the quantity will increase."

"If there is any left after sharing, shouldn't you all take care of it?"

"Why... Why should we take care of that?"

"..."

Jio looked closely at Iser.

"..."

"... Um..."

"As I thought, you're too thin."

"Teacher, most mermaids have this body type."

"Being so skinny makes this teacher's heart ache."

"I am not skinny."

Giovanni had never been able to stand seeing people go hungry even in the past, but for some reason, his already generous hand seemed to have grown even bigger while they had not seen each other.

Iser remembered Giovanni smiling wistfully as he said, "I wish everyone would become pigs."

'Can a person really remain this unchanged? No, it feels like he has gotten worse...'

Leaving Iser like that, Jio began the next task.

"Now we should cut them. Iser, if it is all right, could you check the state of the club trumpets?"

"... Ah, yes. I will change the water once and then come to the kitchen."

"Take your time."

Jio carried the hill of countless vegetables on his back and entered the cabin.

"..."

"Oh, Aria. Did you rest well?"

"... What exactly are you trying to make? Are you going to donate stew for poverty relief?"

"No, we are going to eat it."

"Jio, I say this every time, but we are a species that cannot become pigs. Mermaid bodies do not change easily. It is difficult even with my research."

"You must not bind yourself to your own limits like that."

After encouraging his former student, who had returned to an adult form before he knew it, Jio set all the vegetables down on the kitchen table.

There were so many ingredients that instead of a thud, a rumbling sound rang through the cabin.

Dana, who had been receiving affection from the teddy bear, hopped up onto the table.

"Mmf-woof-woof-woof."

"You want to eat it now? It is not cooked yet. Won't it upset your stomach?"

"Mmf-woof-woof-woof-woof-woof..."

"Ah, wait, no."

"Mmph."

Dana ran off with a sweet potato in her mouth.

"... You have a clear sense of purpose, my daughter. When you grow up, you will become a fine hunter."

Soon after, Honey flew over and perched on his shoulder.

"Coo?"

"Did you come to steal ingredients too?"

"Coo."

"Yes, eating it after it is cooked would be better."

After nodding once, Jio began preparing the ingredients.

"First, it would be better to sauté the onions."

There were many ways to make stew, varying from household to household.

Some houses sautéed the meat that would go into the stew first, while others began with onions to bring out savoriness.

In other places, they reduced tomatoes first to create a rich flavor, but Jio preferred to sauté the onions in butter first.

"That way, the onions' savoriness rises as much as possible."

"Coo?"

"Meat? If you sauté meat first, fond sticks to the bottom of the pot and really boosts the flavor of the broth, but I feel like it is similar if you sear it in another pan and add it afterward... so I put the onions in first."

Especially in the case of a stainless-steel pot, sometimes the bottom burned before it reached a satisfying state.

Since Jio was not a professional chef, he inevitably made mistakes from time to time.

"The onion-and-butter combination is definitely the most stable."

It was the same with tomatoes.

"Even if you do not reduce the tomatoes first, the moisture evaporates as they boil, and since I will put the tomatoes in after the onions, I do not think there is a big difference."

"Coo, coo."

"Ah, of course, if you want the flavor of sautéed tomatoes, it would be more reasonable to put them in first. But if you make tomato paste in advance, you can add it later as much as you want."

"Coo?"

"... I do not have any paste made right now."

Tomato paste was, to put it simply, a sauce with a very strong tomato flavor.

Usually, you made a thick, dense paste to suit the household's taste, then diluted it later when using it.

"..."

Jio nodded.

"There is more to make now."

"Coo."

"When you make things like paste in advance, it feels as if the pantry of your heart becomes well stocked."

When it came to pickles and sauces, the more, the better.

If you made them well just once, the entire year became plentiful.

Onions could be cut small so they only added savoriness, but cutting them a little larger to help the texture was also good.

In stew, well-cooked onions had a fun texture, squishy and soft as they crumbled apart.

After cutting the onions into a suitable size, Jio put butter into a large pot and melted it.

"The more butter you put in, the better."

"Coo?"

"What should I call it? A pig-making machine."

The law of stew was that the more butter went in, and the more meat went in, the tastier it became.

Even people who said they liked it because it was healthy ultimately said it tasted good only when unhealthy things went in.

"And put all the onions in..."

Iser, who had returned after changing the water for purging the grit, asked.

"By any chance, are you planning to make onion soup?"

"Onion soup is good too, but today the tomato stew is the star."

"Aha..."

"Please stir."

"Yes, Teacher."

Jio entrusted the pot to Iser, telling him to stir so the onions would not burn and would turn a tasty brown, then continued preparing the ingredients.

Next was, of course, the tomatoes.

'They are definitely softer than Earth's tomatoes.'

They felt strongly like elastic jelly, or perhaps pudding.

When he pressed the blade down, it sank in as though cutting a giant jelly, then slowly split apart in a sticky way, letting him imagine that viscous texture.

"The finely chopped tomatoes are going in."

"It already looks as if the pot will overflow."

"Then let us add one more pot."

"In the end, it will multiply into three..."

"I will try to end it at two."

"Please do."

Without adding any more words, Iser brought out one more pot.

"I have faith in you."

"I will repay your trust."

"May it not overflow."

When Jio drew a brief sign of the sun and offered a prayer, the teddy bear that had been playing with Dana in the living room flinched.

Jio naturally ignored the sight and continued preparing the ingredients.

He peeled the potatoes and cut them into bite-sized cubes.

He cut half of the sweet potatoes they had pulled up into long sticks, and washed the other half well before placing them on a colander.

"I am going to roast these sweet potatoes over a campfire later. Sounds good, right?"

"Coooooo."

"What a splendid pig you are. As expected, you have the qualifications to be my son."

With a noble smile befitting a highest-ranking priest, Jio nodded and continued the next preparations.

For the cabbage, he removed the outermost leaves and used the head inside.

If you turned the cabbage over and stabbed the knife into the root part—deep, again, again, and swish—circling around the center, the core popped right out.

"Once the core is removed, cutting the cabbage roughly into quarters is about the right size."

Next, the peas.

"The sweet potatoes are one thing, and peas are another. They are not used much on Earth, but Edlen stew is characterized by having various vegetables in it. In particular, the tomatoes we are using this time are quite sweet, so it should be fine to add gentle ingredients like these."

When beans were added to stew, the way they popped as you chewed them along with the broth was good.

Most of all, weren't peas a crop that gave off a mild sweetness and rich nuttiness once cooked?

Among beans, Seo Jio especially liked peas.

"And the pumpkin too."

"Coo."

"This is shaped differently from the ones on Earth too."

The pumpkin he had harvested was the dull yellow mature pumpkin commonly known on Earth, but its size was as small as a kabocha.

It would not be very sweet, but it would add the soft flavor and texture unique to pumpkin.

"If I wander around this forest, I wonder if I can find a beehive."

"What are you going to make with it, Teacher?"

"The pumpkins in the kitchen garden are not that sweet, but their soft and nutty flavor is excellent. If you steam them well and put honey and butter on top, they should be quite delicious."

"That sounds good. Honey and butter..."

"If you sprinkle a little salt on it, the flavor becomes much deeper."

After answering Iser, Jio began preparing the pumpkin.

After scooping out the seeds and peeling off all the skin, he again cut the pumpkin into suitable pieces.

It might be an unfamiliar combination to people on Earth, but unexpectedly, pumpkin in tomato-based broth tasted quite excellent.

"Peel and cut the carrots too..."

The vegetables were finished.

"Next would be the shellfish and sausages."

"The club trumpets were still spitting out a little mud."

"Ah, is that so?"

"But I thought they would finish purging their grit in about twenty minutes."

"Then shall we prepare the sausages and the other shellfish first?"

Jio brought out ham and sausages he had made earlier from tree-antler deer meat from the storage room.

Some parts that had been salt-cured and aged whole had become excellent ham, and the sausages he had grilled from time to time still boasted the same deep aroma as before.

"First, I should remove the hard parts..."

For the ham, whose outer layer had hardened, he cut away the entire outside, then cut only the inner meat, which had turned firm and bright red from the curing, into small cubes.

For the sausages, he decided to use the minced meat inside after removing the tough intestine casing.

"... But maybe because they take so much work, it feels wasteful to throw away even the casing."

"Coooooo."

"Intestines that get nuttier the more you chew..."

In the end, he decided to cut the casing into suitable pieces and try putting it in the stew too.

Though it was a little tough from being dried, once it was boiled vigorously in the hot stew and came out, it would quickly regain its chewiness.

This casing was unusually resilient.

"How is the stew coming along?"

"It seems it will need some time until the vegetables cook."

The stew, boiled with all sorts of vegetables and Edlen village's groundwater, was characterized by its thoroughly cooked texture.

It seemed it would need another hour, so Jio nodded.

"Then let us put the prepared meat into one of the pots."

"It seems I need to keep watching the stew so the bottom does not burn. Should we put the meat in as it is?"

"I will sauté it, so please keep watching the pot."

After quickly sautéing the cured meats to bring out the aroma to a suitable degree, Jio put all of them into one of the pots.

Once they had been simmered thoroughly for more than an hour, they would be able to meet a soft texture.

And in the remaining time, he prepared the shellfish.

"Sunlight conches and black tray clams taste best when grilled... so I will scrape out the flesh from only a few, and set the rest aside like this..."

In particular, black tray clams cooked easily even over low heat, so one had to be careful with the heat.

Jio called Aria, who had been standing near the kitchen and watching him cook, and asked for help.

"Aria, could you help prepare the grilling?"

"... Should I prepare a campfire like before?"

"I would appreciate it if you also built walls so we can rest a wire grate on them."

"That is not difficult."

Aria left the cabin with the teddy bear tucked under one arm.

"...? Why Father...?"

He had no idea why she had dragged the Sun God along, but it seemed like an amusing little mishap might happen, so he ignored it for now.

Jio brought over the club trumpet clams that had finished purging their grit, washed them clean once, and split open their razor-clam-like shells to take out the flesh.

A soft, large flesh, like one long adductor muscle, was revealed.

"..."

"Coo?"

"Good."

This was exactly it.

"It would be delicious eaten raw too."

After cutting away the tough, chewy parts with a knife, Jio sliced the flesh into pieces about one centimeter thick.

When he put the pale yellow flesh, neither too thin nor too thick, into his mouth...

'This is romance. This is paradise.'

The sweet, springy taste that melted softly was incredible.

"Ah..."

Could he not just eat this raw?

A clean rice wine and one sweet slice of raw shellfish.

For Giovanni, a man in his thirties whose death had been reported, it was an unbearably powerful temptation.