Chapter 11
The day after we were put in charge of the food storeroom, we set out to do some shopping right away.
I asked Glantz-sama to provide us with a budget and, while he was at it, some extra hands. Rufa and I couldn't handle the work alone—I was weak, and she was petite.
We were assigned a large soldier named Dick with the words, "Then take this guy with you."
Dick was incredibly strong, but he had an easygoing personality and apparently often skipped training. As a result, despite his ability, he hadn't been chosen as part of the standing troops.
Dick wasn't the only one; soldiers who weren't kept constantly ready to deploy as standing troops were called upon in their assigned regions to build forts and maintain urban infrastructure.
Although Rudek was relatively prosperous, it still couldn't afford to keep a total of tens of thousands of knights idle at all times.
In any case, Rudectrad's main street was bustling today as well. Merchants and goods from Gadeland's harbor kept streaming in. Among the many races passing along the street, there were even people who looked like merchants, their deep-blue hair shining just like Rufa's.
Pure-blooded Salsha people who noticed Rufa striding along passed by with faintly surprised expressions.
I suppose seeing a pure-blooded Salsha girl this far across the sea really is unusual.
"But why are we buying vegetables and fruit when they won't keep? And what in the world are these empty bottles for?"
The boxes Dick carried with ease contained root vegetables, fruit, and a large number of empty bottles—about as many as we could carry.
"Yeah. Just a little experiment," I answered, and we made our way back to the royal palace, weaving through the crowds.
The Tenth Knight Order's barracks stood just outside the palace district. The facilities belonging to the Tenth and First Knight Orders were adjacent to the royal palace.
I asked the cook-san to let us use a corner of the dining hall and a large cooking pot.
"Dick-san, I'm sorry, but could you fetch a lot of water? And some firewood, too?"
"Sure, got it."
"Rufa, I'd like you to cut the vegetables and fruit. Cut the vegetables into long strips so they'll fit easily into the bottles. Turn half the fruit into dried fruit and make jam with the rest."
"Jam? Why are we making jam?"
"Just do it, just do it. Can you? Oh, right, use plenty of sugar—make it almost too sweet."
"......All right."
I lined the empty bottles up in the pot, poured in the water Dick had brought, and lit the fire beneath it.
"Boiling bottles won't make them edible, you know?" Dick-san said, peering into the pot.
"We're not going to eat the bottles. This is just preparation."
"I've finished cutting the vegetables."
"Ah, they look just right. Now let's put them in the bottles."
I carefully removed the piping-hot bottles so I wouldn't burn myself, then packed the vegetables inside. After arranging them in the pot again, I poured in water so that it would enter the jars as well, loosely corked them, and heated them once more.
Once they had been heated sufficiently, I sealed the bottles tightly with corks, forcing out the air inside. Then I used wax I had prepared beforehand to secure the corks firmly in place.
After cooking the fruit down into jam, I sealed the jars in the same way while heating them.
"Done." I had been standing in front of the hearth the whole time, so I was drenched in sweat.
"Here." Right on cue, Rufa held out some fruit water made from the leftover fruit. It was a little lukewarm, but delicious. I drank it down in one gulp and finally felt refreshed.
"Thanks, Rufa."
"So, is this finished?" In front of us stood jars filled with various vegetables and jam. We'd made five jars of each kind so we could have samples of both success and failure, so quite a number of jars were lined up.
"Yes. Now...... let's leave them in the food storeroom for somewhere between ten days and half a month and see whether they'll keep well enough to eat."
"Half a month? Will they really keep with a method like this?" Her gaze was fixed on the jam. She looked as though she thought it would be a waste if the jam went bad, vegetables aside.
"Who knows? The vegetables should probably be fine as long as the liquid inside remains clear. As for the jam, we won't know until we open it. We'll have to smell each one and take a small bite to see how it's doing, though."
"I've never heard of a method like this. You seem awfully practiced for someone who only read about it in a book......?"
"Do I?" I kept my expression calm while sweat trickled down my back.
The reason I was so practiced was that, more than thirty years from now, I'd made this kind of thing while wandering from place to place and working as a day laborer.
The bottles and lids were shaped differently from those thirty years from now, so I couldn't be sure it would work. If it did, though, we'd be able to eat unwilted vegetables and jam at the front lines.
"......Well, we won't know anything until we see the results. The jars should have cooled down enough by now, so shall we move them to storage? Dick-san, could I ask you to do one more thing?"
I changed the subject. Rufa, who still didn't seem entirely convinced, peered at me, but I pressed on before I could let anything else slip.
Just as I was thinking that, someone addressed me. "What is this?" It was Warrior Princess Rapilia-sama. Even easygoing Dick-san immediately stood at attention.
"Rapilia-sama? Why are you here?"
"Never mind me. I'm asking what this is."
Faced with her no-nonsense tone, I explained the jars.
"......And that's why I think that, if this succeeds, we may be able to preserve vegetables and jam for a long time......"
"......Really?" Rapilia-sama gave me a skeptical look.
"It's still only at the experimental stage......"
Her gaze returned to the jars, focusing mainly on the ones filled with jam.
"All right. Then I'll help you, too."
"Huh?"
"I'll keep a few of these for you. It would be better to see how they differ in a different environment, wouldn't it?"
"Well, yes, I suppose so......"
"Yes, we should stagger the dates, too. Let's open them in stages at three, five, seven, ten, and fifteen days."
"Ah, that's true. Then bring them to me once you've opened them. I'll taste them."
"I'll do the tasting myself, so that's fine."
"What!? But what if they've gone bad......"
"No problem. I have a strong stomach."
"Even so......" If I let Rapilia-sama eat something strange, it could cost me my life.
"Just do as I say. I'll check the smell first, of course, and start with a small amount. It's settled!"
Having unilaterally declared the matter settled, Rapilia-sama left before I could stop her, taking five different jars of jam with her.
Maybe she just wanted to eat jam...
"......Shall we clean up?"
I felt exhausted all of a sudden at the very end, but in any case, the bottling was finished.