Chapter 40
"Come on, Eisa-san, eat your fill. You're our lifesaver!"
That night, one of the farmers I'd helped during the day, Ajilte, invited me to his home, where his wife served me her home cooking.
The menu was exceptionally lavish. First to catch my eye was a large platter of Greed Boar spare ribs generously covered in apple sauce.
Apples tenderized the meat and helped suppress its gaminess.
Above all, of course, they tasted good.
There was also apple pie, a meat pie made with minced Greed Boar, and a rather surprising apple soup.
To top it off, there was rather sweet cider. Yes, it was a truly lavish feast.
The reason I'd been invited to Ajilte's home was that I'd refused the reward the farmers tried to offer for defeating the Greed Boar.
After all, I wasn't an adventurer, and I hadn't killed the Greed Boar for money.
If someone were about to be killed by a monster right before my eyes, and there was anything I could do, I would help them, rich or poor.
Of course, if it were someone I clearly shouldn't help—someone likely to cause trouble for me or those around me—I might leave them to their fate.
Even so, I had no objection to adventurers helping people and receiving rewards for it. If anything, I thought it was a good thing.
I was simply saying that I wasn't an adventurer at the moment, and that I hadn't hunted the Greed Boar for money.
I wasn't a professional monster hunter; I was merely a hunter who happened to be passing by and brought down his prey.
But the farmers—especially Ajilte, who seemed to be their leader—wouldn't let it go. They invited me to his home, insisting that, at the very least, I let them treat me while I stayed in Aldeno.
It wasn't a mountain lodge or a hot-pot meal, but Ajilte's hospitality was warm, and the food was wonderful too.
Greed Boar spare ribs had a powerful savory flavor, but the apple sauce kept them from feeling too rich.
They had a bit of a distinctive flavor, of course, but it was well within my preferences.
Apples tasted similar to Apua fruit and were considered one of the fruits elves favored.
But when cooked like this, they were definitely still apples, yet they revealed an entirely different appeal.
I dug in enthusiastically, stuffing myself without quite becoming uncouth.
Since setting out on my journey, I've had many more chances to eat delicious food, and I'm very happy about it.
"Hahaha, I'm glad my wife's cooking seems to suit your tastes. I had no idea what an elf might like."
At Ajilte's cheerful words, his wife laughed too.
That said, I ate almost anything, so I probably wasn't useful at all for gauging the preferences of picky elves or high elves.
Still, I thought many elves would be delighted by these apple dishes.
Judging from the lavish hospitality, the size of the house, and even its interior, Ajilte seemed fairly wealthy.
Apparently, growing fruit was quite profitable.
In other words, that meant the town of Aldeno, where fruit growing was the main industry—or perhaps the Kingdom of Aldeno itself—was prosperous.
Of course, with the caveat that this was in relation to the country's size.
The next day, I thanked Ajilte and left both his home and the town of Aldeno behind.
They repeatedly urged me to stay longer, but... this may sound strange, yet when someone is trying to hold you back, it's more graceful to leave while they're still doing so.
I had learned firsthand that a life utterly dependent on other people for food and lodging was not something one should experience too often, since depending on them too much could easily become a habit.
Besides, more than anything else, I wanted to have the Greed Boar hide I was carrying processed.
According to Ajilte, there was a village called Parnol between Aldeno and Fokka, a city in the Republic of Tsiar that I would visit next.
The village belonged not to the Kingdom of Aldeno, but to the Republic of Tsiar.
Parnol was apparently located along the banks of a river flowing out of Lake Tsiar, the lake that had given the Republic of Tsiar its name.
In Parnol, they used the river's abundant water to dye cloth and tan hides.
I had heard somewhere that one of the tanning processes involved leaving hides immersed in a flowing river, but I couldn't remember where.
Probably when I was doing blacksmithing work in the Kingdom of Rudoria.
As for leather after it had been tanned, I myself had worked with it many times.
I had wrapped it around sword grips, attached it to shields, lined the inside of metal armor with it, and sewn it into leather armor.
So once the Greed Boar hide was tanned, I could think about how to use it whenever I had time.
Since it was the hide of a large, tough monster, it would surely have any number of uses.
It was a day's walk from Aldeno to Parnol.
It was another day's walk from Parnol to Fokka.
I had the Greed Boar hide tanned in Parnol, stayed there for just one night, and then headed for Fokka.
I was interested in the tanning process itself, but unlike in large towns, small villages were sensitive about letting traditional techniques passed down through generations leak out.
Since I was leaving them a large hide and asking them to do the work, it would be wrong to inconvenience the villagers of Parnol.
Besides, if I truly wanted to learn, I could properly become an apprentice at a leather workshop in a larger town.
After more than a decade in the human world, I had finally learned to show at least that much consideration.
Well, then there was—yes—the matter of time.
Carefully tanning a hide could sometimes take as long as several months.
Even I couldn't wait that long. ...I could have waited if I weren't traveling, but I couldn't wait now, so I had no choice but to prioritize heading to Odine, the magical nation.
I could find a place to stay in Odine, spend several months there, and then return to Parnol, or I could ask a merchant or hire an adventurer to retrieve the leather for me.
So, though I was a little reluctant to part with it, I entrusted the Greed Boar hide to the villagers of Parnol and continued my journey, looking forward to seeing it again in its new form as leather.