Smoked Salmon

Anemone used Explosive Magic—Explosion.

An explosion occurred over the lake, and the shock sent fish floating on the surface with their white bellies exposed.

Myaree and Nyamena collected them single-mindedly from the rubber boat.

Counting the fish—there are thirty-six of all sizes. Since Bell carried off one of the larger fish, that makes thirty-seven fish in total.

What a haul.

If I put them all straight into my Item Box, I could eat fresh fish whenever I wanted, but people here don't eat fish raw.

For preservation's sake, I decided to make dried fish.

"All right, let's get started. Come on, everyone, give me a hand."

"If we do it, it'll end up covered in fur, nya."

"It'll be fine if we wash it before drying it."

First, we cut off the heads, slit open the bellies, remove the guts, and wash them clean—then we fillet them into three pieces.

I handed Anemone a kitchen knife and had her help too, but—

"Anemone, are you all right? You can take a break if you want."

"I'm fine."

She seemed tired from the effects of the magic, but otherwise she was all right.

The beastfolk were butchering the fish with their own knives, and they were surprisingly good at it.

Primula was quite skilled with a kitchen knife too, but she said this was her first time filleting fish.

"All right, now use these tweezers to pull out the bones."

I handed them tweezers I'd bought from Shangri-La. They were apparently made in Zo○lingen, Germany—1,000 yen each.

I used the same kind back in my original world, and the wide overlap at the tips made them easy to use.

But when I looked at Shangri-La, it seemed there were even more expensive ones.

"Ke-Kenichi! Surely these must be the work of a highly renowned artisan!"

"Oh? You can tell, Primula?"

"Yes. It takes considerable skill to bring such a broad surface at the tips together so perfectly."

"Do people in the city use tweezers too?"

"No, only makeup-wearing royalty and nobles use things like these."

"Well, ordinary commoners probably don't have time to put on makeup... How much do you think I could sell them for?"

"For an item of this quality... There may be people willing to pay two silver coins (100,000 yen) each to one gold coin (200,000 yen)..."

"I see. At that price, I'd be willing to sell them."

Primula plucked one of her fine hairs and tested how well they worked.

If I priced them at around 10,000 yen each, I might be able to sell them to the wives of small and midsize merchants, as well as prostitutes.

However, I had to be careful about scattering products from my original world everywhere. Selling a small number to nobles was probably the right balance.

If I were selling to royalty and nobles, it might be better to use the high-end ones from Shangri-La that cost 4,000 to 5,000 yen each.

"From our perspective, it's hard to believe you'd go to all that trouble just to pluck hairs."

"Nya."

"Well, I suppose not."

Putting that aside, we all took tweezers and began pulling out the small bones from the fish. River fish were full of tiny bones, and they were practically inedible if you didn't do this.

The only question was whether to score the bones too.

"Phew, I've never prepared fish this carefully before."

"Nyaa."

"How do you usually eat it?"

"We grill it and bite right into it, nya~."

It was an approach that suited the beastfolk perfectly.

Then we soaked all the fillets in salt water for about three or four hours. If we started now, they'd be nicely brined by the time we went to bed.

"So we'll continue tomorrow, then."

"That's right."

"Phew, this takes a lot of time and effort. I've never done anything like this before."

"It won't taste good unless you put in the time and effort."

"I'll take your word for it, Boss."

"Nya."

That was all the work we would do for the day.

------◇◇◇------

――The next day.

In the morning, I made pancakes—the simplest kind, with flour, eggs, and sugar.

Instead of using baking powder, I whipped the egg whites to make them nice and fluffy.

I needed to teach Anemone how to cook too. It would be a problem if she became completely dependent on me for food.

"I'm going to stay with Kenichi!"

That's what she said, but no one could overcome an unforeseen accident or illness. I had to make sure she could survive on her own even if something happened to me.

Even simple pancakes were a problem, though—eggs and sugar weren't easy to get in the first place.

If those weren't available, people kneaded flour with salt, baked it, and ate it with soup.

It was probably similar to Indian naan, but food like that was a staple in this world.

However, bread starter was sold in the city, so people could bake bread and eat it. Of course, it contained no sugar and was simply salty bread.

After we finished eating, we continued making the dried fish we'd started yesterday evening.

From Shangri-La, I bought five netted boxes for making dried fish—drying baskets—at 1,500 yen each.

If you didn't put the fish inside nets like these, they'd end up covered in maggots.

Primula watched the blue net baskets arranged on the table with interest.

While keeping an eye on Primula, I arranged the fish fillets we'd soaked in salt water inside the drying baskets.

As I worked, Bell came over, stood on her hind legs, and begged me for a fillet, but—

"Bell, this is salty..."

But I couldn't tell whether she understood me or not.

When she stood up, she was taller than I was... She knocked me over and snatched the fillet from my hand.

Then Bell clamped it in her mouth, carried it a short distance away, and began eating it. I really shouldn't feed salty food to a cat, though.

"This takes an awful lot of work."

I heard Nyamena grumbling as she worked.

"I told you yesterday, it won't taste good unless you put in the effort."

As I climbed a stepladder and hung the drying baskets beneath the eaves of the house, I made a suggestion to Anemone.

"How about we bake some bread for lunch?"

"Okay!"

I needed to teach her how to make bread too. Apparently, her parents had given her no education of that sort whatsoever.

In fact, they hadn't even given her enough food to eat.

Well, their difficult circumstances probably had something to do with it.

"I was always hungry, so I prayed to God..."

"Didn't you have any brothers or sisters?"

"I had a little brother and sister. But I wasn't their real child, so..."

Apparently, she'd been taken in by a woman who had collapsed on the street. That was probably part of the reason she hadn't received any parental affection.

"Were your little brother and sister hungry too?"

"Yes... We always went into the forest together to look for nuts and anything else we could eat."

It was practically survival.

Even so, things must have become impossible, and Anemone alone was sold to reduce the number of mouths to feed.

She'd been skin and bones when I met her. In that condition, she wouldn't even have been able to do hard labor.

"Good grief."

I patted Anemone on the head. I suppose this sort of thing was normal in this world.

"But, Miss Anemone, now that you can use magic, I don't think you'll ever have to worry about starving again."

"Yeah."

"Nya, if you can use magic that amazing, adventurers will be clamoring for you."

"If I go adventuring, I'll do it with Kenichi."

"Hey, now. I'm not interested in anything too dangerous."

Besides, I had enough money that we wouldn't have to worry about food even without doing anything dangerous.

"That's right. I can do business and support Kenichi, so he won't have to do anything dangerous."

"That would be a little... Isn't that bad for me as a man?"

"Haha, then you'd be a kept man."

Well, Nyamena had a point. I could do without that too.

"I'm going adventuring with Kenichi!"

"Doing business with me would be peaceful and much better suited to Kenichi."

"Gnnnh..."

It was as though invisible sparks were flying between Anemone and Primula.

"Oh, right!"

Nyamena suddenly slapped her knee.

"What is it? Did you think of something?"

"Could it be that Miss Anemone's amazing magic comes from her mother?"

"That makes sense... It's the most reasonable explanation. Does she have anything left that belonged to her real mother?"

She silently shook her head. Well, she hadn't had anything with her when I'd met her either.

"But it seems my real mother gave me my name."

Still, judging by her incredible magical power, her mother might have been a fairly famous mage.

"If we looked, we might even find some relatives..."

"No."

She shook her head again. She really didn't seem interested in any of that.

"Boss—a woman doesn't need anything else when the man she loves is right in front of her."

"How big an age gap do you think there is between us? Besides, even Primula and I are old enough to be father and daughter."

"What are you talking about, Boss? If there's love, an age gap isn't even an obstacle."

I never expected to hear something like that from a beastfolk.

"You know, Boss... When I look at you, I feel like more women might join us."

"That's probably just your imagination."

"I always say the same thing, nya. Kenichi is too kind. Someday, some bad woman is going to take advantage of you, nya."

"Even so, if someone I knew got kidnapped, I couldn't just ignore it, could I?"

"Oh, right, nya! Back then, if I'd said a noble was looking for you and helped you escape the city, I could have had you all to myself, nya."

"Well, if Primula hadn't been there, I never would have met you, Nyamena."

"You bastard, Blackie! Your belly fur is white, but your insides are pitch-black!"

"Nyahaha."

I couldn't tell whether Myaree was serious or joking.

But she had been the first to come to my aid when I rescued Primula. I wanted to believe she was joking.

Everyone stared intently at my face.

"It's all right. If someone asked, I could just say I already have a first wife and turn her down, right?"

"What if she said being a mistress was fine, nya?"

"Turn her down!"

"I told you, there's no need to get angry over a hypothetical situation."

But the work of hanging the drying baskets was finished. All we had to do now was wait for the fish to dry.

I decided to bake some bread for lunch.

I could connect a bread maker to the generator and leave it alone until the bread was ready, but that wouldn't help Anemone learn.

I kneaded bread flour with sugar, salt, and bread starter (yeast), then shaped it into a ball.

Bread starter was sold in the markets here too, so it wasn't difficult to obtain, but I had no idea what it was made from.

Then I left it alone for about an hour, and it swelled to twice its original size. Unfortunately, this was something I couldn't have the beastfolk help with.

Otherwise, the dough would end up covered in fur.

Then it was time to bake it—but I bought a Ta○-san bread baker from Shangri-La, a deep, thick pot shaped like a doughnut with a raised center.

It was a thick black iron pot, somewhat expensive at 7,000 yen each, but similar pots were used as bread bakers in this world too.

Ordinary households used bread bakers like these when they baked bread.

I built a simple stove out of concrete blocks and heated the bread baker over a fire. Once it was hot, I arranged the dough, torn into round pieces, inside it.

"Fwaaah, I've never seen anything like this before."

Anemone peered into the round bread baker.

"Had you never baked bread at home?"

"We didn't have such a fine pot..."

From what I heard, they had eaten only one meal a day, with something like suiton made from vegetable scraps as their staple food.

Once the dough had filled the doughnut-shaped pot, I put the lid on and heated it for about fifteen minutes. Then I flipped it over and heated it for another ten minutes.

"It smells wonderful!"

"Whoa, it smells so nice and toasty. I can tell it's delicious just from the smell!"

When I lifted the lid, steam and the aroma of freshly baked bread and yeast filled the air.

"Looks like it turned out nicely."

"Nyaa!"

I tore the fresh bread into pieces and handed some to everyone, and they all bit into it at once.

"Delicious!"

"Yummy!"

"Whoa!"

"It's delicious."

Everyone's eyes widened at how good the bread tasted—but Primula's reaction was ordinary. She had probably eaten fresh bread at home.

"Of course fresh bread tastes good, but yours is still different, Boss."

"That's right, nya."

"The flour itself must be different."

"As expected of a merchant's daughter."

Flour in this world meant whole wheat flour—in other words, wheat that had been ground whole.

Unlike in my original world, flour wasn't divided according to its use, but since it was whole wheat, it was nutritious.

It was probably like the difference between white rice and brown rice. Of course, the milling technology was probably different too.

"But the method is the same. If you buy flour and bread starter at the market and make it the same way we did today, you can bake bread."

"Yeah. I'll bake the bread!"

"Oh! I'll leave it to you."

In that case, I should buy two more of the Ta○-san bread bakers I bought today. Baking with three of them should make enough for five people.

After lunch, I did a little work in the fields.

The tomatoes had turned red, so it was time to harvest them. I also had some black tomatoes I'd bought from Shangri-La.

Fully ripe tomatoes were sweet and incredibly delicious.

"Boss, is this red thing a fruit?"

"It's technically considered a vegetable, but some people classify it as a fruit."

"Is the black one the same, nya?"

"Yes. It's black on the outside, but the inside is the same."

I picked them into a basket and put them in my Item Box. I gave one to each of the others too.

"It's so sweet!"

"This is definitely a fruit, nya!"

"Whoa, this one is delicious too!"

"It's delicious... So juicy."

"It's good raw, but it's delicious in soup too."

I took soy sauce from my Item Box and poured it over a tomato before eating it. The old folks back home sometimes sprinkled sugar on theirs instead.

What else should I plant? Cabbage seemed like it would be useful in all sorts of dishes. I wanted some bean sprouts too, but would it be faster just to buy them?

I once grew sprouts hydroponically, but...

When I searched Shangri-La, I found ordinary bean sprouts and sprouting kits for sale.

A mung bean sprouting kit sounded interesting—I decided to buy one.

"Click."

A plastic bowl, a mesh screen, and a set of mung beans dropped down.

All I had to do was fill it with water until it just covered the beans and scatter them around... It was incredibly simple.

"What's that?"

Anemone looked curiously at the things I'd bought.

"You sprout the beans and eat them as vegetables."

"Ohhh."

"Primula, don't they have food like this around here?"

"No, they don't."

"I've never heard of anything like it either."

"I see. I'll let you try some later."

But they were skeptical—or rather, perhaps they were wary because they'd never eaten anything like it.

I thought they were all too prone to disliking things they'd never tried—but maybe Japanese people were simply too willing to eat anything.

――In the evening, the sun began to sink.

I checked the dried fish hanging beneath the eaves. It had dried nicely. Maybe magic could finish this kind of thing instantly too.

I brought in all the dried fillets and stored them in my Item Box.

Then, for the finishing touch, I bought a large smoking pot from Shangri-La—3,600 yen.

I also bought cherry wood chips to use for smoking.

"Boss, what are you going to do?"

"I'm going to smoke the fish."

"Oh."

I brought a table outside, took a burner out of my Item Box, and set it up. I spread the cherry wood chips across the smoking pot and began heating them.

Once smoke began to rise, I arranged the dried fillets on the rack inside the smoking pot and put the lid on.

Ten to twenty minutes should be enough.

"Wow, what a wonderful smell."

"This is fragrant wood, isn't it?"

Anemone and Primula stood around the smoking pot, sniffing at the rising smoke.

Cherry wood really did smell good. It reminded me of the cherry wood that sometimes came mixed in with the firewood I'd received in my original world.

"All right! I think it's ready."

When I opened the lid, what emerged was smoked salmon. Rainbow trout raised in the ocean had been called salmon trout in my original world, so I decided this counted as salmon too.

I tried a little. There was the saltiness, the smoky aroma rising through my nose, and then a rich savor spreading across my tongue.

"Mmm, it's delicious."

"Boss, you're eating it just like that? Isn't it raw...?"

"It's been smoked, so it's fine."

"I want some too!"

Apparently, Anemone had learned that anything I ate was safe, because she eagerly jumped in.

"It's a little salty, but delicious! Is this really fish?"

"You watched me make it, didn't you?"

Nyamena had been watching Anemone and me talk, and apparently decided to summon her courage and try some. She took a bite, tore it off, and began chewing.

"..."

"How is it? Not to your taste?"

Myaree was quietly devouring the smoked salmon alongside Nyamena.

"Boss! Alcohol!"

Nyamena, who had been silent, suddenly shouted.

"Huh?"

"Alcohol! I want alcohol! This is perfect with a drink!"

"Ah, I see... Wait a minute. Wine doesn't go with fish, so... How about sake?"

When I checked Shangri-La, I found junmai sake in a 2-liter paper carton for 1,000 yen. This would do.

I didn't drink sake, so I had no idea which kind was good.

"Click."

The junmai sake dropped down, and I poured it into a cup for him.

"Isn't that wine?"

"I don't think wine goes with fish."

"Hmm... Whoa! What is this?"

Nyamena took a sip of the junmai sake and cried out in surprise.

"Boss, is this fruit wine?"

"No, it's alcohol made from grain."

"Grain? This? Even the smell is more like fruit wine... But this is delicious—or rather..."

"What's wrong?"

"Aah! Damn it! After feeding me food like this and giving me drinks like this, what are you planning to do with me?! Damn it! Do whatever you want with me!"

Nyamena left the table and sprawled out on the ground.

"What are you talking about?" they both said, nya.

"I wouldn't mind if you did anything to me, Boss."

"What kind of logic is that? How did you get there?"

"Fnyah!"

Myaree pounced on Nyamena, but the tiger-striped one nimbly dodged her.

The two of them began squabbling loudly.

"Ah, you're so noisy. Both of you, be quiet."

"Young lady! This is dangerous. Any woman will fall head over heels after eating the Boss's cooking!"

"That's an exaggeration."

"At this rate, even royalty and nobles might be in danger."

"People that high up are already eating good food. I doubt they'd be swayed by my cooking."

"..."

Primula seemed to be silently savoring the smoked salmon, but...

"Boss isn't just a good cook—he knows as much as a sage. If you eat delicious food while listening to pleasant stories about an unfamiliar world, even some proper noblewoman would fall for him in an instant."

"Cough! Cough!"

Primula began choking, so I gave her some tea from my Item Box.

"As I said before, don't attack me over a hypothetical situation. Besides, I'm not interested in royalty or nobles."

"Even if you aren't interested, Boss..."

"Besides, we already established that I'd turn her down because I already have a first wife."

"If the other woman were royalty or a noble, you could just hand the young lady a huge settlement..."

When I looked at Primula, she was staring intently at me with a face that looked ready to cry, so I pulled her close.

"Yes, yes, stop getting angry over something that hasn't even happened."

"...Yes."

"And Nyamena, stop egging Primula on. I'll stop feeding you if you keep it up."

"Ugh! Fine..."

"Kenichi!"

When I turned around, Anemone was reaching both arms toward me. She wanted to be carried.

"Yes, yes."

As I held Anemone, Primula looked down and muttered to herself.

I thought she was upset over something that hadn't happened, but she was actually thinking about business.

"...We can sell this smoked fish."

"Young lady! No way! I'm eating all of it!"

"Not if I can help it, nya! I'm eating some too, nya!"

It seemed the beastfolk were huge fans of smoked salmon.

"Then, Kenichi, may I sell this method?"

"Sell it? Where? I doubt nobles would buy something like this..."

She silently pointed toward the village of Santanka.

"I see. You want to have them make it in Santanka Village, then buy it from them and sell it in the city."

"Yes."

"As expected of a merchant. We might even find fragrant wood in the forest to use as a substitute for smoking."

If it worked and became a specialty of the village, the village chief might be willing to cooperate too.

I'd leave that sort of business to Primula.

Just like with Primula's chain stores, all I had to do was take a percentage of the sales. That way, tens of millions of yen would quietly flow into my hands.

To smoke all the remaining fillets, I bought a vertical smoker about sixty centimeters tall—20,000 yen.

I'll smoke all of them tomorrow.

For dinner, I made sandwiches with smoked salmon, tomatoes, cheese, and vegetables.

Everyone loved them.