Alec continued to murmur excuses as they readied themselves for the day, and once they had washed up and dressed, a knock came at the door. Breakfast was ready, and the staff had brought it promptly. Shiori opened the door to see the innkeeper, who had the inn’s waiting staff bring in trays piled with their breakfasts.
It began with a soup made with fresh milk and leafy vegetables, and offered all sorts of cuisine including colorful pickled vegetables, smoked meat fried with potatoes and beets, lightly toasted rye bread in baskets, boiled cockatrice eggs, black water buffalo cheese, beautifully pink ham, and berry jam.
“Are you sure it’s okay to give us this much...?” uttered Shiori.
As part of a bonus on top of their reward for having completed the request, the village was footing the bill for the adventurers’ room and board—but given the sheer amount of food they had just been presented with, Shiori wanted to make sure. The innkeeper assured them with a smile that the inn wasn’t serving them anything that would run up losses.
“Everything you’re being served was gathered by our villagers,” he said.
“Huh? You mean the village produces all of this?”
“Indeed it does. Excluding the salt and spices, everything is local.”
“Wow...that’s amazing.”
“I guess they don’t call this place Tris’s kitchen for nothing,” commented Alec.
One silver lining in the past snow wolf attack was that none of Brovito’s farming enterprises had suffered any damages. Because the damage had been confined to the main roads and the heart of the village proper, its farming locations had gone unscathed. The village had thus been able to continue shipping its produce to Tris, which had helped keep things up and running over the months during which it was recovering.
In emergencies, tourism was the first industry to suffer, and according to the innkeeper, the snow wolf attack had impressed upon the village elder the fact that they’d put too many of their eggs in their tourism basket.
“When the younger generation inherited things from their parents, many moved away from farming and turned to providing accommodations or opening restaurants and drinking establishments. However, those businesses rely almost entirely on visitors to make their money, and the snow wolf attack saw them facing a very sudden drought. We run our farm alongside our lodging business so we managed to make ends meet, but until spring of this year, many visitors to the village simply rested their feet at the footbath, then took off for the next town or village. Those were hard times, and have resulted in many saying we should take another look at how the village supports itself.”
Alec had been listening with a solemn look on his face, perhaps thinking about it all from the perspective of the elder brother of the king. After mulling things over, he spoke.
“It’s easy to get caught up in the thrill of it all when business is booming,” he said. “And not just in Brovito either. I think it might be time the nation turned its attention to its existing industries.”
“The neighboring Lovner domain, too, is seeing its farming business decrease,” said Shiori. “The younger generations of the farming villages are charmed by the idea of life in the city.”
Shiori and Alec were friends with Annelie Lovner, the countess who governed those lands, and that’s what she’d told them.
“They don’t call themselves a city of art for nothing,” said the innkeeper. “I’ve heard it’s even more lavish than the royal capital. Why, it was just in the newspaper the other day, in fact; something about the young countess unveiling a new plan for reform. The king, too, seems to be thinking a lot about the subject, and he’s gathering experts to discuss the matter. There’s the chancellor, and then...oh, what’s his name again? That agricultural professor who handed the family duties to his children so he could continue his research...”
“The potato professor, Lindvall,” said Alec. “Famous for his thesis on the coexistence of cities and farming villages.”
“Ah, yes, that’s the one. You’re quite knowledgeable on the topic.”
“Well, in this line of work you get requests from a whole range of clients. I try to keep abreast of recent stories and prominent figures so I don’t run out of things to talk about.”
“Oh, I see.”
“That said, I don’t usually read enough to get into any deeper, more complicated discussions.”
Alec’s upbringing had given him a wide and varied education, but Shiori knew where his knowledge of Professor Lindvall had come from, and she hid her wry grin with her napkin. Alec’s former lover from his youth had in fact married into the Lindvall family; she was none other than the professor’s wife. This was the reason Alec knew of the man in such detail.
“In any case, I’ve gone on for far too long,” said the innkeeper. “I’ll take my leave, so please enjoy breakfast at your leisure. Just ring the bell when you’re done.”
The innkeeper then left, and the two adventurers enjoyed their breakfasts in silence for a time, the only sounds that of a cockatrice clucking outside. Rurii, Bla, and Violid all happily enjoyed a breakfast of cocktrice giblets and freshly fished Tris salmon.
“I didn’t think you could eat cockatrice,” said Shiori.
“Really? As long as you remove the poison sacs, it’s perfectly fine,” said Alec. “And even the poison sacs make for good snacks with alcohol if you age them with medicinal herbs. That said, I steer clear of them out of fear.”
“Oh, is that so? Still, I wouldn’t want to accidentally get poisoned...”
“Clemens loves the stuff. He often orders it when we go out for a drink.”
“I have this image of him as a fan of bird cuisine,” Shiori mused. “He’s always delighted when I serve yakitori or liver paste... Oh, this cheese is just wonderful. It has a divine sweetness. I bet it would go great with wine. I wonder if they’ll have any at the souvenir stalls?”
“Wouldn’t surprise me. Let’s take a look after breakfast.”
“Great.”
“We can pick up some maple syrup while we’re at it. I love the scent of the syrup they make here.”
“The one that’s a touch stronger in flavor, yes? It almost sparkles; it’s very pretty.”
“That’s it. It emits light because it’s preserved with midnight sun maple leaves.”
“It emits light?”
“It’s quite dim, but you can see it when it’s dark.”
“Well, I never.”