The Murdock troupe didn’t have a designated cook. As they shared responsibilities within the troupe, they took turns. The chef of the day was a girl named Eily. With light golden hair and reddish-brown eyes, she was fourteen or fifteen. Her role in the troupe was a knife thrower.
“Is this meat... It’s cold!”
She was astonished by the gagd meat we provided.
“Were you chilling it with magic, Eiji?”
“No, no. Anyone can make this pot. No magic involved.”
I suppose she was more surprised by the zeer pot. We had about four kilos of gagd meat, by the way. There was no sense in us carrying it around, so we decided to contribute all of it. Even if all ten members of the troupe and us four split it, we would each come out with a good amount.
“Everyone would love a side dish,” she said.
“I’m glad.”
In the zeer pot, we only had a bit of edamame and beet sugar left. Nonperishables were kept in a separate bag. Mister Garish from the Adventurers’ Guild had given us rock-hard bread, jerky, and wine. The problem was whether or not my jaw could withstand the bread.
How were we going to survive on our own? Especially if we aren’t able to stay at an inn at times. Oblivious to my worries for our future, Eily began cooking rice. It seemed that they mostly ate rice, too. I was impressed, considering they didn’t have a rice cooker.
“The people we visit think it’s funny.”
Catching my glance, Eily stuck her tongue out. Was she doing something funny? I was just thinking that it was impressive how she was cooking rice in a pot over a fire.
“We mix all sorts of things in our rice.”
“Really?”
“It feels like just white rice doesn’t give us enough energy. We mix in all sorts of things, depending on who’s cooking.”
Eily showed me a sort of wild rice.
“This is the Eily blend.”
It had wheat, millet, brown rice, and even soybeans. There was more variety in there, but I didn’t know what the rest of them were.
“Oh!”
It clicked. Because they were traveling, they couldn’t always have enough, or expect to get enough, white rice. They had to ration the rice while they traveled. Perhaps they had initially intended to inflate the amount of rice by mixing in other grains. In the end, that saved this troupe from beriberi. No wonder they were all healthy, despite their physical workload. They prevented beriberi, thanks to their own experiences.
“This is the wisdom of humanity. Perhaps they are the real saviors of this world, Eiji.”
Tiamat approached me, impressed. I completely agreed. Humanity has the ability to find the answer. The smell of cooked rice and grilled meat began to fill the air.
“Hmm. I wish there were a little more options for seasoning...” I said, chewing on the bland wild rice. Baze and Hieronymus, on the other hand, were eating it without any complaints. These two basically ate anything. The polar opposite of picky eaters. How wonderful for them.
“Noura faces the ocean. Perhaps they’ll have fish sauce or something comparable,” Tiamat said, skillfully maneuvering her spoon. Right. Now that she’d transformed, she could properly use her hands. So could Baze and Hieronymus, who had spent their lives thus far on all fours. Magic worked in mysterious ways.
“Like Shottsuru? Hrm...”
I recalled the taste of the brand of fish sauce I was familiar with.
“I remember you didn’t like it or nam pla.”
A brand of Thai fish sauce.
“I don’t like how they taste like fish.”
“Then we’ll just have to make miso. Sake, too, if we can.”
There were soybeans, and there was rice. Once we have miso, we should be able to make soy sauce and vinegar from there. If we could get to that point, we would really have sparked a change in the culinary culture of this world. Without enough condiments, we could only go so far in our quest of popularizing side dishes if we were only using the flavors of the ingredients.
“But can we go that far...?”
“That ship has sailed. We already created sugar. That will take the world by storm, in no time. No harm in teaching them how to make other condiments.”
“You’re right, of course...”
I wanted to prevent a future where the people of this fantasy world are plagued by lifestyle diseases and obesity. Actually, after centuries or millennia those things would become an issue. As technology and culinary culture improved, any world seemed destined to reach that point. Still, I wanted to keep that in the distant future. At this point, the thought of me pulling the trigger still terrified me.
“You’re overthinking again, about something you’re never going to figure out,” Tiamat said.
And she kissed the back of my head, for some reason.
“...”
“...”
“...That’s a unique way of showing your affection, Tia.”
I made sure to grin, ear-to-ear. I bet she tried to bite my head, forgetting that she turned herself into a human. While I couldn’t see her behind me, I was sure that she was blushing. I did it. I had won. Did everyone see that? I won against Tiamat.
“It really makes me feel loved.”
Grinny-grin-grin.
“Shut up!”
“Aghhh!”
My scream echoed. Tiamat, this violent woman, grabbed me by the ear and held me up in the air. Even though she looked like a human now, it seemed that she retained her strength. Isn’t magic wonderful?
“Ow! Ow! You’re tearing my ear off!”
“Eiji the Earless.”
“This isn’t at all like the— Ow ow ow ow ow!”
“Have you learned your lesson?”
“Yes! I have! I’m sorry!”
“Mm.”
She let me go. My ear hurt. I touched it to make sure it wasn’t ripped off...
I had failed. I couldn’t defeat Tiamat.
Heroes of the future. You must fulfill your destiny...
Death.
“What are you talking about, you crazed fool.”
Tiamat smacked me across the head. When I tried to turn around, however, she had me tight in an armlock for some reason. I complied, though. I wasn’t supposed to turn around right now. Unlike the protagonist in the old folklore, I wouldn’t open a door a lady has asked me not to.
“You said Noura faced a sea, right?”
“Mm.”
Then we could get our hands on some pollack roe. Not right away, though, since it was a winter fish.
“I guess we’ll prep to make miso while we research what fish we can catch.”
If the climate here was the same as Hokkaido, we would have the same kind of fish... I hoped. We had already found gagd; we couldn’t keep our hopes up too high.
“Mister Eiji. Are you two headed for Noura?” Mister Murdock asked carefully.
I assumed that he was giving us two lovebirds some room. While he wasn’t mistaken about our relationship, it didn’t seem right to categorize our interaction as something lovey-dovey. Sure, Tiamat is the form my fiancée took upon coming to this world, but she’s a dragon now. She only looked human because of a transformation spell; she could still wipe away an entire forest with her breath. We couldn’t possibly... do what lovers do, at the moment.
“Yes. For now, our destination is the Kingdom of Noura.”
Of course, our journey wouldn’t end there. We had to find out how far the aftermath of my brother-in-law-slash-hero’s actions reached, and figure out remedies for it. I couldn’t let history solve the problem for us with war like it did when I died.
“Would you like to travel with us, Mister Eiji? We’re also headed to Noura.”
The leader of the traveling troupe smiled at us.