Chapter 92

Jio had no thoughts at all.

"Mmm..."

He took a hearty bite of stew, and warmth spread through his whole body.

'This is it.'

Jio nodded.

At the table, thinking about anything besides the food was an insult to the food and practically a declaration of war against pigs.

Above all, when he was having a meal this incredible, he could not think about anything else in the first place.

'This is such a good dish to eat when your body is cold or weak.'

Even a priest of the Sun, who lived with warmth always at his side, was not immune to colds or body aches.

At times like that, Giovanni would make and eat this kind of stew.

The charm of stew as a warm dish became especially appealing when one was ill.

"It's delicious."

"Coo."

Of course, it was delicious when eaten in good health too.

'This is why people eat stew.'

The natural acidity of tomatoes took on a deeper flavor when it held warmth.

It gave off a complex aroma, like a sticky, sweet broth made by simmering chicken feet for a long time, and the flesh that slowly collapsed with the tongue alone had a certain elegant sweetness.

"It goes well with the carrots too."

"That is the good thing about Edlen stew. It goes well with anything you put in it."

"Though that is also a characteristic of tomato stew."

The distinctive bitter yet sharp, stimulating aroma of carrots had seeped subtly into the stew.

The carrots were not assertive enough to be off-putting, but as they mingled with the other ingredients and fully soaked up the broth, even their texture revealed a special grain.

"And... I think it was a good idea to add potatoes too."

When it came to soaking up broth, potatoes could not be left out.

"Iser recommended them, didn't he?"

"We used to put them in our household stew... often, after all."

"That's right. It reminds me of the old days."

"They are cooked really well."

"That is thanks to Iser stirring them so well. I can tell the heat spread evenly."

The potatoes, imbued with the red flavor of tomatoes and the deeply drawn-out juices of vegetables, were soft enough to mash with one's gums.

The finely crumbling texture unique to potatoes added weight to the stew, which might otherwise have seemed ready to fly away on acidity and sweetness.

'Maybe because the other ingredients are so assertive, adding something with a clean taste like this makes the flavor of the stew much deeper. And for that, there is no ingredient that suits it better than potatoes.'

On top of that, potatoes did not simply serve as a blank canvas.

"You can taste the aroma of the ingredients just from the broth."

The starch that flowed out of the potatoes also served as a stepping stone that bound the various vegetables together and gently elevated their juices.

Jio looked at Iser and smiled faintly.

"There were a lot of ingredients to stir, so your arm must have hurt."

"That... is embarrassing. I am long past the age where my arm would hurt from something like this."

"Is that so? You still look like a child to me, so this is quite a problem."

The cabbage slipped in here and there was quite good too.

"The cabbage is cooked very well."

"Coooor."

"Yes, I like this kind of cabbage best too."

Cabbage soaked thoroughly in tomato-based broth.

The cabbage, blotched with the color of the broth, seemed to give a strange springiness when bitten, but quickly broke down and released its clean juice.

The warmer broth spreading through every part of his mouth was different from the stew's.

"Ah, right."

Jio looked back at the campfire where the clams were cooking.

"I think we can start eating the clams now."

"Mmf, arf arf arf..."

"You have the makings of a pig too. Wait just a little longer."

When he stroked Dana's small, round head once, her catlike triangular ears folded smoothly back and then returned.

The part where she flattened her ears even before his hand touched her was extremely cute.

'I should worship and serve her for the rest of my life.'

Just the feel of that small, precious skull fitting snugly in his hand was enough to make him full without eating.

His heart grew warm and solid like beef-bone soup with rice.

This was how one raised satisfaction in life.

"Let's see..."

Most of the clams were fully cooked, so Jio put them on a tray and brought them to the table.

There was a clattering sound as the shells struck one another.

The sea scent unique to clams, dressed in the fragrance of charcoal, mingled with the forest's faint spring breeze and gave off pleasant smoke.

"They seem fully cooked."

"Will you shuck them for us?"

"No, you are all grown now, so you should each shuck your own."

"I think clams shucked by you personally tasted better, Teacher, so that part is a little disappointing."

"What do you mean, disappointing... Ah, hot."

"What??"

Iser was flustered.

"Is it hot?"

"Would it be hot?"

Aria, who had scolded her younger brother as naturally as breathing, soon looked at Jio as though she found it absurd.

"What kind of whining is this when you hold the divinity of the Sun, Teacher?"

"A freshly grilled clam being hot is only natural, so I said it without thinking."

"Can someone become deified and still fail to abandon human habits...?"

"Maybe they can. Why are you taking it out on me? You would do well to discard your prejudice."

"Prejudice? I have never been so wronged. I am saying this because it makes no sense."

"People should always live with an open mind."

"Is that something that can happen just because your mind is open?"

"You must not have such narrow thoughts."

Having broadened his student's world a little further, Jio began shucking the clams with his characteristic noble smile, which to some might look shameless.

The properly cooked clams each showed off their milky flesh and gave off the sweet, savory aroma unique to shellfish.

"Becoming the second Sun God is nice in this regard."

"... Shucking clams with your bare hands?"

"It always felt like such a waste to let them cool before eating them, so this turned out very well."

"Is it all right to use divinity that way?"

"Why wouldn't it be?"

Leaving the mermaids bewildered by this sudden blasphemy, Jio and the teddy bear were simply delighted.

Their stomachs were still far from full, and there was plenty of room for grilled clams.

The teddy bear was waiting for the clam meat with an excited face.

Jio handed the teddy bear the flesh of a black tray clam, steam rising from it in curls and its juice rich and thick as fresh sea urchin roe.

"Here you are, Father."

"Coo."

"How does it taste?"

"Coo coo coo coo coo..."

"I am very glad you enjoy the taste of clams."

The teddy bear clapped its cotton paws together.

Jio felt proud, and the mermaids looked dumbfounded.

Honey quietly slipped back toward the stew pot, while Dana finished all of her share of stew and flopped over on her back.

'What a peaceful mess.'

This could be called the abridged version of a true life.

He felt pleased and proud.

As expected, there was nothing he could not do.

Jio picked up a new black tray clam.

It had a shape similar to abalone, but its shell was much darker and smoother, and the flesh cooked over charcoal showed off a white, springy appearance.

'Compared to this, abalone is closer to yellow.'

The black tray clam was a shellfish that boasted such vivid black and white that staring at it too long made one's eyes hurt.

The milky whiteness of its flesh was different from abalone.

It also differed in that the edges were not bumpy in the slightest, but cleanly rounded.

But its taste and texture definitely brought abalone to mind.

"..."

CHEW.

"Oh."

Insane springiness struck Jio's brain.

'It is nice eating this after so long.'

The deranged umami made his salivary glands flare up irritably.

It was practically nature's own stock powder.

The flesh, in which one could feel the black tray clam's strong vitality, was pleasantly springy without its elasticity becoming unpleasant, and the more he chewed, the more savory the flavor became, like nuts roasted over fire.

'Maybe because it was not grilled that long, it is tender too...'

One could say there was a grain to it.

The flesh, scattering as smoothly as silk, split helplessly when pressed with the teeth, giving him the pleasure of chewing.

The clam juice that flowed out without restraint felt so similar to clam soup eaten on a winter day.

"..."

Because the clam meat was not small, it filled his mouth.

It was quite a while later that Jio opened his mouth.

"It is so delicious."

"... It looks that way."

"This is life."

"You seem to have grown even more greedy for food while I haven't seen you."

"And all of you lost yours."

"Haha..."

Iser wore a calm smile that resembled Giovanni's.

"Since there was no need to eat, I stopped taking care to eat."

In truth, that was not the only reason.

Iser had eaten Jio while he was still alive.

Was it because that living, moving muscle, that sensation of it writhing in his mouth, still remained even now?

After that, Iser had put nothing in his mouth unless the situation required it.

"But still..."

"This is good, isn't it?"

"... Yes, it is delicious."

It had been a long time since he truly felt as though he were eating "food."

"It feels nice."

Enough to give him the illusion that he had become human.

"The sunlight conches... will you use the shells, Teacher?"

"I am thinking of grinding them finely later and making paint."

"I see."

Giovanni used to paint using the shells of clams like these.

He especially liked painting the sea, and his paintings always smelled of the sea.

"Then I should gather them."

"Please do."

Regardless of whether Iser sank into sentiment, Jio picked up a club trumpet clam this time.

The clam, with an area as round as a pen-shell scallop, already had half its shell split open, revealing its flesh.

"..."

MUNCH.

His teeth sank right in.

"... It came out really soft..."

"I grilled it, after all."

"Excellent, Aria. As expected, you have talent for cooking."

It was a characteristic of clams that they became tough if grilled too long, but in the case of club trumpets, if cooked at a suitable temperature and time, one could feel the ultimate softness.

The tenderness with which the delicate grain melted away was even more yielding than raw pen-shell scallop.

'To think I could feel this kind of texture from warm grilled clams.'

For Giovanni, it was a texture he could taste without much difficulty, but for Seo Jio, an Earthling, it was an unfamiliar and exciting sensation.

Thinking about it, the clam Giovanni had liked best had indeed been the club trumpet.

"I think it would taste good grilled with butter..."

"That was not a dish we tried making when we were in Edlen village."

Aria smiled faintly.

"Butter was not exactly a precious ingredient there either."

"It was avoided more than anything."

Butter was troublesome to make, and there was a strong perception that it was the dregs of milk.

On top of that, in a seaside village right by the coast, it was difficult to raise cattle, so there were not many dishes that used dairy products.

"But I really think it would taste good grilled with butter."

"... We can try making it later."

"Good."

There was a slightly inconvenient aspect to picking the meat out of sunlight conches.

Only by taking a dedicated skewer and turning it round and round would the meat pop out, and the texture was quite similar to the conches on Earth.

However, its sweetness was extraordinary.

"..."

This sweetness that had seeped deeply into the flesh itself, and the bitter stimulation that somehow brought the scent of medicinal herbs to mind.

Sunlight conches had an effect that warmed the body so well there was even a superstition that eating them when one caught a cold would make the body recover.

'... So it really is because of this kind of feeling that they are used as medicine too...'

Perhaps because they were sunlight conches from a country that served the Sun God, the ridiculous thought came to him that even the shellfish might have received some blessing.

It was a sweet and salty taste that seemed as though the seasoning would be just right if one made spicy seasoned whelks with it.

"I seem to recall mermaids not handling spicy things well. How about now?"

"We have come too far to consider such things now. In terms of eating, there is nothing that could be called a problem anymore."

Iser, who had been cutting and eating the flesh of a club trumpet, continued.

"So if we were to eat anything, I think we could. Much of what could be called taste has faded, and rather than being mermaids who lived in that sea back then, our biological traits have also changed..."

"Then you can eat things that are a little spicy?"

"I have not particularly sought them out, but yes. Is the next dish you will make perhaps a little spicy?"

"It should not be that spicy..."

"When I remember you, Teacher, who liked experimental cooking, I do not feel reassured."

As he said that, Iser was smiling.

"Would you allow me to taste it before the meal?"

"I can show that much mercy as much as you like. If you help me prepare the meal."

"That sounds good."

Iser murmured.

"... Really good."

Unable to shake off that strange feeling, he ultimately came to have a question similar to his sister's.

Why was it so peaceful?