“Also, one of the newer rumors is that you might be involved in deciding Lord Yoshitsune’s marriage partner.”
“Huh?” I said.
“Well, your apprentice was adopted by the Otori family and is now engaged to a royal. So, the theory is that the SAR might want Lord Yoshitsune to marry another one of your adopted daughters in exchange for marrying off a lady from the SAR to the capital. Specifically, people are speculating that your daughter might come from Duke Sanga’s family, Marquis Sammons’s family, or even Margrave Haust’s family.”
It was an amusing theory, and I had to admit it sounded just plausible enough to gain traction. But when I said I had no plans like that at all, Lani just chuckled and said, “I figured.”
“Still, if it did happen, the SAR—and more specifically the viscount’s family—would be tied to the Dragonslayer, to a high-ranking noble, and maybe even to the royal family. It’d be a far better match for their future prosperity than allying with some greedy noble who was only after power or influence,” he said.
It sounded like a bit of Lani’s real feelings had slipped out there, but I just smiled and let it slide.
“Well then, I guess I’ll try making something with all that yuzu. Lani, do you and Leni have a place to stay?” I asked.
They’d come straight to my place after arriving in the capital, so they hadn’t booked an inn yet. I offered to let them stay here. At first, Lani tried to politely decline, but when I said Leni could stay here alone if needed, he must’ve pictured what that would look like and gave a sheepish chuckle before agreeing.
“In that case, I’ll go take a look around the capital later. Oh, right, there’s still something I haven’t asked about Chaos. Would it be okay if we talk about it tonight?”
“I can’t make that call since it falls under classified kingdom intelligence,” I told him. “Even if you say you’ll drag Leni into it too, it’s not worth the risk for me.”
The classified information he was after was probably about when Chaos’s arm had regenerated. Based on what we already knew, it had likely grown back around the time he had escaped. The last place he had been transferred to had only started being mined about six months ago, and the physical description listed in the registry from then had noted that he still had one arm.
I hadn’t told Lani about any of this because it involved internal records from the mines. I thought sharing it would cross a line. When I turned him down, he just gave a little smile like he already knew and didn’t push any further.
After that, I showed him to the guest room. Once he finished unpacking, he headed out to stock up on goods. I saw him off and then made my way to the dining room.
“With this much yuzu, I could make a ton of stuff, but prepping it all’s going to be a pain.”
There was no way I could prep and cook all at once. I decided to focus on just prep today and to take my time cooking over the next few days.
Unfortunately, Jeanne and Aura were out shopping, so I had to ask Rocket for help. When I called him into the kitchen, he had a useless bonus member with him. I didn’t particularly care as long as they didn’t get in the way.
But of course, Solomon ended up sneaking a bite of yuzu. He freaked out from how sour it was and made a whole scene. Cleaning up after his little rampage ended up wasting more time than I expected, but I pulled myself together and got everything prepped in the end.
I then gave Rocket his instructions. His job was to clean the yuzu. I knew he could take them into his body and dissolve the dirt on the surface, getting them nice and clean. I was still going to rinse them off with water afterward, though.
Once they were clean, I separated the peels and the pulp, carefully removing as much of the white pith as possible.
“I just need to put it all in a container, pour in some high-proof alcohol, seal it up...and I’m done! Now it just needs to sit.”
Since I only had regular sugar, I didn’t add any. If it needed a little sweetness when it was done, I figured I could always mix some in when it was time to drink it.
“Maybe I’ll make some yuzu pepper paste next.”
I still had a ton of green chili peppers from last year’s harvest, so it was a good excuse to use up some of them. The process itself was pretty simple, but if I wanted to make the real thing, I’d have to pay attention to a bunch of details, and that was a pain. For now, I decided to whip up a quick, low-effort version and see how people reacted before going all in.
“Shiromaru, Solomon, don’t come near this stuff. It’s dangerous,” I warned them. I knew curiosity and hunger might get the best of them, so I had Rocket keep the two of them away.
“Next, I need to finely chop the yuzu peel and chilis, mix in salt, and grind it all up.”
Ideally, I’d remove the chili seeds too, but that was way too much work for now. I just lopped off the stems this time.
“Now I’ll stick it in a container and let it sit in a cool place. There we go!”
I put a label on the container—“WARNING: SUPER SPICY YUZU PEPPER PASTE”—to make sure no one accidentally ate it. Then, I stuck it in a cool, dark spot.
“Let’s see, what else can I make? Jam, tea, ponzu, maybe a cake? I bet I can swap it in for other citrus in a bunch of recipes too. Might as well experiment a little.”
And with that, round one of my yuzu cooking spree came to an end. But that evening...
“SPICYYYYYY!!!”
Two victims fell prey to the yuzu pepper paste.