39

Chapter 39

The final strip of jerky was hung in the yard.

“……”

Gio applauded.

“It’s nothing short of a field of meat.”

“Kkururuk.”

“Dad agrees. What a beautiful sight.”

That did not mean he had turned all the meat into jerky. Trusting the forest where ingredients did not spoil, he had placed several cuts of raw meat in the ice storage. And then….

“I should turn the remaining meat into sausages or store it away.”

The System had said the effect would appear as long as it was ‘processed meat dried in the sun.’ Gio had therefore marinated sliced meat in seasoning and hung it out like dried seafood, but he had deliberately used only tender cuts so it would be easy to eat later.

Now it was time to deal with the scraps left from making the jerky.

“I separated the intestines and stomach to remove the odor, so they should be ready to use.”

He had not given the waterfowl every one of the deer’s organs. He had set aside the rope-like length of intestines and the stomach, filled with abundant evidence that the animal had clearly eaten a great deal.

He had removed everything that smelled and soaked them in water blended with apples, lemons, and onions, so no strange odor should trouble him.

“As I recall, we still have plenty of meat too.”

“Kkurururu.”

“I’m still inexperienced at butchering… so there are a lot of broken pieces. They should be perfect for making sausages.”

They would not have been bad in soup either, but had the System not said that if he wished to enhance the Wood-Horned Deer’s effects, he should make it into ‘processed meat dried in the sun’?

Instead of drying each scrap separately, gathering them together into sausages and hanging those up seemed more efficient. It was also an excellent way to preserve leftover meat.

“Let’s make soup with the remaining bones and meat later.”

“Kkurururururu!”

Preparing bone broth in advance seemed like a good idea too.

“Now the important question is how to season it.”

Honey rejoiced.

“Oink.”

“A pig?”

“Kkuru.”

“I see.”

Gio wondered whether Honey had finally acknowledged his true identity.

“Since we’ve come this far, I’d like to find a more unusual spice….”

Even at a cursory glance, the forest around the cabin was quite vast.

Gio visited the same places every time, so there had to be many locations and fruits he had yet to see.

“Shall we go exploring for the first time in a while?”

“Kkukkukkuk.”

“Of course I’m taking you.”

Remembering the ferocity with which Honey had devoured even the deer’s organs, Gio could not have felt more reassured.

‘The animals in this forest may be friendly toward me… but there’s no guarantee that animals from other dimensions will be. I’m afraid, so Honey absolutely must come.’

That was right. Gio was intimidated.

“No matter how I think about it, an invasive species was too much.”

“Kkuk…?”

“If a deer with metal antlers and hooves rampaged, I’m confident I would die within ten seconds.”

“Kkungkkung….”

“Protect your fragile father.”

As for where they should go now and which spice they should seek,

“If we simply start moving, perhaps I’ll discover what I want to do.”

Having reached this lucid conclusion, Gio rummaged out his cloak and put it on. Even though he wore it whenever he ventured a little farther away, it remained perfectly clean.

‘I should upgrade this later too.’

He felt as though he had thought that more than fifty times already. Usually, that meant he would never touch it.

“……”

“Kkuru….”

“I will do it someday.”

Carrying a basket as usual, Gio set his highest-priority objective.

“I hope we can find a new spice or sauce. There must be unique ingredients that only exist in a fantasy world like this, such as Rurupu or Mangdung Fruit….”

Pepper, salt, or sugar, for example.

“There is a limit to how long I can depend upon the cabin.”

The cupboards and storage spaces of the cabin were filled with basic ingredients and spices. But Gio did not know how long they would last, or whether they would automatically replenish themselves as they had at the beginning once he used them all.

“It’s better to prepare in advance than make extra work for myself by painting every item later.”

“Kkururu.”

“Salt in particular is essential for survival….”

The water in the waterfowl lake was salty, so perhaps evaporating it somehow would produce salt.

‘I haven’t tried it yet, but it shouldn’t be impossible.’

Gio abruptly murmured,

“I wouldn’t mind if a dairy cow or a chicken dropped in from somewhere.”

He was even wishing for livestock now.

“Then I could obtain milk and eggs whenever I wanted.”

“Kkurururu?”

“You… Aren’t you male?”

Gio had no basis for the assumption, but he had thought Honey was male. Could he lay eggs?

“Were you my daughter rather than my son?”

“Kkung.”

“Ah, that isn’t it.”

“Kkungkkung.”

“…Oh….”

Apparently Honey had no sex.

“Remarkable.”

Then again, looking at the lake’s waterfowl, which multiplied by splitting their eggs apart like amoebas, a process such as mating did not appear necessary.

Gio nodded.

“It’s too troublesome to ponder deeply, so let’s simply say you’re my son. Do you agree?”

“Kkuruk.”

“Excellent.”

For a moment, Gio nearly became afraid of his own boundless ability. Then he realized that the only thing he intended to create with that power was baked potatoes, and relaxed again.

“There is no way a harmless person like me could be a creature that threatens world peace.”

“……”

“Agree at once, Honey. Dad is a harmless living creature.”

Honey refused to agree to the very end.

“How resolute.”

Honey was capable of saying no when something was not true.

The forest around the cabin was wonderfully cool. Beneath the shade, a refreshing breeze blew, while in the sunlight, cozy air enveloped them like bedding aired out in spring.

Even wandering without any particular destination held a pleasant elegance, like going on a picnic.

“Ah.”

As Gio forged ahead without a plan, he finally found a decent harvest.

“This looks edible.”

“Kkurururuk.”

“Doesn’t it? And the scent is unusual….”

It was a plant with small, transparent, tetrahedral fruits hanging in rows like lily-of-the-valley blossoms.

Milky Way Mary

A flower distinguished by its transparent fruit and black stems. It was named ‘Milky Way Mary’ after Mary, its first discoverer, and its distinctive appearance. Each specimen bears eleven fruits. The fruit is mildly toxic when eaten as is, but if dried until hard, it can be used as a spice with a hot, pungent aroma.

“……”

Its first discoverer?

‘There was a first discoverer named Mary?’

That one detail abruptly broadened the scale of the world. Did it not mean that the plants—and perhaps even the animals—growing here might also exist in another dimension?

“So this ecosystem wasn’t created solely from my imagination.”

“Kkuruk?”

“No, it doesn’t make me feel bad.”

He merely found the absurdly expansive worldbuilding rather funny.

“Spirits of heaven and earth.”

Where in the world had he landed?

“Life truly is a roller coaster.”

Elixir Refining Method: Soaking it in the sap of a Dorong-Dorong Tree neutralizes its toxicity and stops the drying process. Store it in a sealed jar, then later grind it together with the wings of a Forest Butterfly and form the mixture into small pills to make an effective fatigue remedy. Store in a dark place out of sunlight.

…Read only on MUGEX…

The System had even provided an Elixir Refining Method, but Gio was not very interested. He focused solely on its flavor and aroma.

“So it’s pepper?”

Fatigue remedy or not, he paid it no mind.

Delighted to find a spice after so long, Gio promptly picked the fruit of the ‘Milky Way Mary.’ The fruit was already ripe, so a light tap sent it pattering down.

“I must remember this place.”

After gathering more than a handful of fruit, Gio straightened and murmured,

“This must be a colony of Milky Way Mary.”

The flower bed glittering with countless small, transparent fruits was too beautiful to keep to himself. Perhaps because the forest was so dark, the fruit’s transparency stood out even more, making it truly resemble the Milky Way.

“It must look even more magnificent at night.”

“Kkururu….”

“In any case, that takes care of the pepper.”

He sniffed it, but at present it had no scent.

“…Does its aroma emerge once it dries?”

Like Mangdung Fruit.

‘What kind of heat will it have?’

The description called its aroma hot and pungent, but he could not tell precisely what that meant.

“It might be more like a small, spicy chili pepper than black pepper.”

“Kkururu?”

“Or perhaps similar to Sichuan peppercorns? But those are closer to numbing than spicy… I suppose I’ll have to dry it myself before I know which dishes I can use it in.”

The small fruits glittered like transparent beads, but they were fragile and rustled as though made of thin plastic film. Inside, he could feel flesh that was firmer than the skin… yet it seemed likely to crush easily.

“And this becomes hard when dried.”

It was the sort of wondrous vegetation one might encounter in a fairy tale. Its appearance was too.

“I should try it the next time I grill meat.”

Feeling the satisfaction of a life well lived, Gio cradled the basket carefully against his chest.

Pepper had supposedly been treated almost like gold on Earth in the past, and that was exactly how Gio felt now.

“I wonder if there are any other spices?”

“Kkuru?”

“Even so, making sausage with pepper alone would be far too plain.”

“Kkuk.”

“Let’s go a little farther in.”

Sausage could be made in a tremendous variety of ways.

“Meat and fat are the basic necessities, first of all.”

He had already separated those by cut and prepared them. To prevent them from spoiling, he had placed them in the cool storage room and covered them with a large cloth. Once he had gathered all the other ingredients, he intended to begin mincing the meat.

The meat he had butchered this time did not smell gamey, but he still needed other spices to enhance its savoriness. Making sausages with nothing but salt, pepper, and meat would be far too boring.

“A sausage ought to have a deep aroma and flavor.”

Fortunately, he had already found ‘Milky Way Mary,’ which would serve as both chili pepper and black pepper.

“But this alone is not enough.”

The pleasure of sausage-making lay in how dramatically the flavor and aroma changed depending on which herbs and spices one added to the filling.

Milky Way Mary, which he expected to carry a combined aroma of chili and black pepper, would probably produce a respectable sausage on its own, but….

“Shall we continue for now?”

“Kkurururu.”

“You must warn me if a dangerous animal appears.”

As Honey’s parent, Gio instinctively knew that this round waterfowl was not weak in the slightest. Honey might be small and precious, but despite his appearance, he served as a dependable bodyguard.

As he walked through the forest, Gio continued speaking.

“There are several important conditions for making delicious cured meat.”

First, adjust the amount of salt to suit the storage period and climate.

“That may sound pointless in a forest like this, where the ingredients themselves do not rot….”

“Kkuk?”

“If you use too much salt in cured meat, you can store it for a long time, but it becomes difficult to cook with. On the other hand, if you use too little, the curing process fails and the meat spoils.”

“Kkungkkungkkung….”

“Yes, it’s troublesome.”

And that was what made it enjoyable. Every finicky cooking method in the world held a fatal charm that stimulated Gio’s appetite for a challenge.

“The temperature in this forest is pleasantly mild, but as long as the cure takes properly, there’s no need to worry about the meat spoiling. I think that’s wonderful. I don’t particularly like jerky or sausage that’s far too salty.”

“Kkururuk….”

“If it’s too salty, you can’t eat much of it. You fill up too quickly.”

“Kkuk.”

“I knew you would agree with me.”

Father and son confirmed their trust in each other.

“Second: dry it according to its intended use.”

“Kkeung?”

His response roughly seemed to ask, ‘Even cured meat has different uses?’

“Not all sausages are the same.”

Having his son beside him made Gio happy because it meant he did not have to talk to himself. This was why people needed friends.

“Naturally, the longer you dry meat, the tougher it becomes, so there are many different types.”

“Kkururu….”

“You would eat anything, of course, but consider matters from a human perspective too.”

There were more cooking methods in the world than there were people.

“Some sausages are eaten fresh, while others are cooked and eaten only after being dried until completely hard.”

The former were usually boiled or grilled, while the latter might be boiled like fresh sausage or steamed.

“Fresh sausage overflows with juice as soon as it receives enough heat, but fully dried sausage doesn’t. Since no one wants to chew on a rock-hard sausage, I imagine those cooking methods are attempts to restore whatever moisture it lacks.”

And third,

“This is the most important condition: taste and aroma.”

“Kkururururu.”

Honey agreed emphatically.

“What a gourmet.”

In truth, Gio thought this accounted for 99.9 percent of what made a good sausage.

“Dad dislikes food that tastes bad.”

“Kheung.”

Once again, Honey agreed emphatically.

“So if I’m making them anyway, I want to do a good job this time too.”

The form of the ingredients used differed slightly depending on the type of sausage.

“There are endless ways to make sausage. If you want delicately flavored meat, add a little salt and only enough spice to remove any unpleasant odor. If you want a strongly seasoned side dish, add spices with aromas sharp enough to sting and heat that prickles your tongue.”

“Kkeung….”

“If you want an even wider variety of flavors, you can add vegetables as well as spices. Of course, vegetables that release too much water can be difficult… But in my experience, salting them, squeezing out all the moisture, and adding them to the mixture prevents water or mold from forming inside the sausage.”

Gio’s eyes rolled from side to side as he imagined the sausages he would make.

“I’ve started craving something spicy, so I’d like to find and bring back a spice or vegetable that can set my tongue pleasantly ablaze. When making that kind of sausage, adding an ingredient with a slightly bitter taste enriches the flavor. Too much would produce an abomination, of course….”

Gio’s self-esteem was far too high for him to worry about such a possibility.

“There is no way I, possessed of the soul of a magnificent artist, would make such a mistake. Trust me.”

“Kkururuk?”

“…Are you worried spicy food won’t suit your palate? I suppose it might be too stimulating for a bird.”

Gio nodded.

“Then I should make a mild sausage as well. The same principle applies there. If you want a richer flavor, add ingredients with an unobtrusive, gentle aroma. Mild herbs would be ideal.”

“……”

“But I still want something bold. How about making one spicy sausage and one intensely salty sausage? It would be nice to find an ingredient that pairs well with spices such as Milky Way Mary or ginger.”

“……”

Honey’s bright, focused gaze clearly asked, ‘Can you really do that?’ Gio nodded confidently.

“There is nothing Dad cannot do.”

What would he not do for delicious food? Gio was confident.

Then a promising object caught his eye.

Weeping Vine

Unrefined Weeping Vine has a deep blue-green color and a spicy flavor and aroma. Washing it in water mixed with sugar and the sap of a Dorong-Dorong Tree removes its toxicity.

“A perfect description.”

(To be continued)