By the Grace of the Gods (LN) - Volume 9 - Chapter 23

Chapter 6 Episode 23: The Village Festival and a Local Delicacy in the Making

Three evenings following the hot springs cleaning gig, I found myself in the village plaza with most of the village’s population, who were crowded around bonfires, cauldrons, and tables upon tables of food.

The isle rats had built their nests to shut off the river flowing out of the lake, which led to the number of mad salamanders drastically decreasing within that timeframe. The fishermen in the area and villages at large, Sikum included, had been notified of the fishing season’s end by the fishermen’s union.

Preparations for a festival celebrating the end of the season had been underway since this morning, using the last catch of the year and food brought in from the city. In fact, the festival was just about to begin. There was just one thing left...

“The lord has arrived!” A male villager announced as he ran into the plaza.

Led by the village elder, a line of village higher-ups formed a line to greet Lord Fatoma. I quietly filed in at the end, and we headed to the beach.

Just as we reached the beach, Lord Fatoma came ashore.

“Thank you for coming, my lord.”

“My, thank you for such a warm welcome.” After greeting the village elder, Lord Fatoma approached me. “And thank you for the invitation, Ryoma. I’ve been looking forward to this.”

“Likewise. I know it’s asking a lot, but really, thanks for coming out here.”

Upon finishing cleaning the hot spring, I realized that Lord Fatoma had never specified when and how he wanted me to propose the potential local delicacy he had asked for; perhaps this was down to him being more concerned with the cleaning job. I asked him to come to Sikum’s end-of-season festival, where I would serve him the dish. While I wasn’t sure how he would take it, he gladly accepted my invite.

And so, here we were. On this day, Lord Fatoma was accompanied by his two dragonewt guards, Pigu, and another pig beastkin, whom I was told was the head chef at the count’s estate, while we made our way back to the plaza.

Once we got there, the proceedings formally commenced. Apparently, these things didn’t have a set schedule; they just started once the villagers decided that everyone was ready. The village elder and Lord Fatoma each said a few words, but they kept things succinct.

After that, we headed to a corner of the plaza, close to the statue that I had once prayed to. Beside it, I set up my specially made magical cookware.

The head chef immediately showed interest in it. “This is a very large and highly functional cookware, especially for being portable. And you even have a hot plate, a large oven, and enough space for four pots... Splendid!”

“I know a talented craftsman, so I had it made to order. Camping is a big part of adventuring, but I try to eat a hot meal whenever I can. Luckily, I can use space magic, so it’s not an issue if my equipment’s on the larger side.”

Lord Fatoma gave a chortle. “You’re quite the foodie, I see. I’ve met my fair share of adventurers, but I’ve never seen anyone with your array of equipment. And looking at the crest on the cookware... Perchance, did this come from the Dinome workshop?”

So he knows about them. “Indeed it is. Very perceptive.”

“Perception is nothing if not a curse all nobles must bear. One wouldn’t want to be the odd one out at a party, so keeping up with all the latest trends is a necessity,” he chuckled with an air of self-deprecation. I guess even nobles have it rough, in their own way.

“The dishes I’m going to present to you today are best served hot, so I’ll be cooking them now. Preparation is already taken care of, so it won’t take very long. There are plenty of other dishes for the festival as well, if you would like to enjoy those in the meantime.”

“How exciting. What’s on your menu?”

“If you want my recommendation, I suggest the oden. Some of the villagers have tasted it themselves, and I’ve been told by them that it’s a more elaborate version of their usual soup. It contains fish, tofu, and vegetables. Having it with ground horice made it more closely resemble the local soup dish, and it was popular among my tasters. Fortunately, I was able to receive assistance from someone who makes great tofu, so I’m serving fried tofu, a meatless burger, some inari sushi—”

“Sushi? Did you say sushi?” One of the normally expressionless dragonewts was now evidently giving me his full attention. I think they said his name was Kichomaru, or something...

“Oh, yes, I did. Inari sushi, to be exact. The kind wrapped in fried tofu.” Is he a sushi guy?

Lord Fatoma interjected. “Kichomaru has a strict diet as a part of his training regimen.”

“I see.” Figures.

Just as I was wondering whether I should have asked about the guards’ dietary restrictions, Lord Fatoma added, “But there are exceptions to everything. One of them was sushi, I believe.”

“That is correct. My exceptions are sushi, tempura, and sukiyaki.”

Well, that’s...strangely specific. Getting odd feelings about that... Sort of a “the only Japanese foods foreigners knew about a decade or two ago” vibe... Then I remembered what Asagi had told me when I was still new to the Gimul area. The dragonewt settlement was created out of the actions of a past traveler, who was evidently a foreigner with a decidedly skewed perspective of Japan.

“Well, I’m glad that there’s something on the menu fit for your consumption. I have everything I need to make sukiyaki and tempura as well. It may be a little different from what you’re used to, but would you care to partake?”

“Really?! I would love some of that...‘inari’ sushi, as you called it, and some sukiyaki and tempura as well.”

“Coming right up. I also have zong, dirty rice, kinpira-gobo, and fried or spiced lotus root.”

“We’ll take one of everything,” Lord Fatoma ordered.

“You got it. Now, then...”

I asked the village elder to gather the simpler orders while I began preparing my ingredients: mixing into soup, steaming, grilling, frying...

“Hm. You’re frying shredded fish or crushed tofu and occasionally re-shaping them by mixing vegetables. With this much variety, I wouldn’t soon become tired of this.”

“This fried tofu has a gentle flavor too. The dashi’s seeped into the breading and everything.”

“I love lotus root enough already, but when it’s fried like this...”

“I thought it was some strange take on the sushi since I don’t see it at home, but the inari is quite enjoyable.”

“Remember how our homeland had dirty rice and kinpira? My, this brings back memories...”

As high praise came my way, I remembered to finish up with a dipping sauce.

“Thank you for your patience. Now, this is what I most highly recommend—gyoza.”

The table was occupied by plentiful dishes that were now nearly cleared, so I exchanged some of the empty plates for plates of freshly prepared gyoza.

“Hm. It seems you’ve wrapped something with a flour-based dough and grilled it. I saw the same thing in soup, fried, or steamed... But they seem identical at their core.”

“That’s correct. I have employees from Gilmar, who’ve told me that they have a similar dish there.”

“A Gilmar dish, eh? Let’s give it a try.”

“I’ve prepared eight variations of dipping sauces. Please dig in.”

Lord Fatoma and his attendants each plopped a gyoza into their mouths.

“Mm! Hot, but delicious!”

“Indeed. One bite of the grilled gyoza, and the meat just about melts in your mouth.”

“It makes for a wonderful combination with the soup.”

“Great texture as well on the fried ones.”

The group continued to compare the variety of gyoza, which were well received...except by Lord Fatoma, who looked a bit disappointed. I wasn’t surprised, seeing how I only prepared ordinary gyoza.

“It is delicious. But...”

“It won’t be a local selling point, will it?”

“Mm. The gyoza is made up of pork and vegetables wrapped in flour. Rice flour, for the steamed gyoza... Unfortunately, almost none of the ingredients are sourced locally. We have a decent importation infrastructure right now, but we can’t push this as a local dish if it’s made entirely of imported ingredients. You, of all people, should know that. You’re telling us to make a gyoza with different ingredients.” Lord Fatoma took the words right out of my mouth.

“Indeed. I only intended to make suggestions for today, and I prepared these gyoza as a sampler of this simple yet versatile dish.”

“Versatile?”

“First of all, as you said, gyoza uses a flour-based wrap to enclose other ingredients; it was pork and vegetables today, but you can have various other ingredients, and as many of them as you like. The wrap can be made from any powdered grain as well. For example, I’ve used rice flour for the steamed and soup gyoza. That was just my preference, but I wanted to show that there are at least two choices when it comes to wraps. There are four different ways to cook them—boiling, grilling, steaming, and frying. I was already able to prepare eight different sauces. Even ignoring the infinite combination of ingredients inside the gyoza, that’s sixty-four combinations in all. You can also enjoy them neat without any sauce, and combined with a variety of ingredients...”

“Hrm... Very intriguing. The variety is practically limitless.”

“That was my thinking. So, I had some of the villagers prepare some gyoza of their own.”

“What?”

I gave the village elder a glance, and he swiftly came right up to us.

“My lord, members of our villages have these gyoza ready. It would be a privilege if you could taste them...”

“How kind of them. I would love to.”

A line quickly formed, each villager bringing their own gyoza concoction. First was an elderly woman, bowing to Lord Fatoma as her grandchild supported her.

Lord Fatoma ate the gyoza. “Hm... A gyoza in horice soup. Very soft and warm.”

“Thank you, my lord. My husband and I are too old for harder foods now... I thought it best to use familiar flavors.”

The second in line was a burly fisherman, who was clearly intimidated. “I-I almost never do anything in the kitchen, but I hope you appreciate it...”

“Ha ha ha. It’s not as shapely as some, but this grilled gyoza is quite tasty.”

“Th-Thank you, my lord! My wife’s expecting, so I wanted to make something energizing!”

Third came a portly woman, who seemed more confident in her cooking than the rest.

“Delicious!” Lord Fatoma explained. “Juicy swamp shrimp with julienne-cut lotus root... Wonderful texture.”

After the fourth and fifth tastings, Lord Fatoma began to look concerned. “Well... They were all delicious, and I cannot argue with this dish’s versatility. That makes choosing one all the more difficult.”

“I don’t think you need to choose just one,” I suggested.

“How so?”

“What if you had the people of each village and region in Fatoma concoct their own gyoza? Some of them may receive the blessing of the lake while others may not, for example. While fish is fresh and plentiful in Sikum, other meats are rarer. Perhaps there are regions closer to the border of Fatoma where meats, vegetables, and flour are easier to come by.”

“Hm. Indeed, there are. You make a good point about the difference in their culinary culture. Come to think of it, some of them might serve me the same meat-based gyoza you first served me... I see. If I were to give each locale autonomy to create their own gyoza, people across Fatoma could enjoy a variety of flavors. If that appeals to merchants and nobles passing through Fatoma, that could energize those regions.”

There were cities in Japan that famously gained their renown through gyoza, such Utsunomiya and Hamamatsu, and you’d be hard-pressed to come across someone who didn’t like them. Setting this up as a sort of friendly competition within Fatoma had the potential to further encourage each region to thrive. Another thing on my mind was the unoccupied buildings dotted along the travel roads of Fatoma that were opened as shelters for travelers; I asked the lord about them.

“Those were lodgings for the workers, used when my father was having the road paved. They’ve served their purpose, but it would only cost money to demolish them. It rains quite often here, so I decided to open their doors to help out travelers... What about them?”

Staffing them would be a hurdle, but it seemed like a waste to leave those buildings abandoned. What if they could be made into the equivalent of rest stops on Earth?

Lord Fatoma considered my suggestion. “Hm... If we want to spread the word about Fatoma’s gyoza, we need as many people as possible to eat them firsthand. Even those not looking to stop here for long will still need to eat... Even if they eat on their carriages, fresh gyoza will be more satisfying than a bag of dried meat. Soup could be a hard sell, but I can see travelers buying grilled, fried, and steamed gyoza. Perhaps there could be a workaround for the soup as well. As it turns out, I’ve been thinking about those buildings a fair amount myself. To prevent bandits and other types squatting in them, I’ve been sending patrols out to inspect both the buildings and the road. I could have them stationed...”

Once I explained to him the ideas of rest stops and drive-thru restaurants, he was surprisingly receptive to the idea. Hearing him pondering over stationing guards brought to my mind the neighborhood police stations in Japan.

“Even if there are only one or two guards in there at any time, travelers will feel much safer if there are stations along the road they can visit in case of an emergency.”

“I concur. Plus, gyoza doesn’t seem too complicated a dish to prepare. One of the villagers who offered me them earlier mentioned he isn’t normally the type to cook. If gyoza is that simple to learn how to make, it should be relatively easy to spread it to other villages.”

“Yes. I think that many of the natural foods in Fatoma get a bad rep on appearance alone.”

Crab and octopus came to mind. They also had creatures similar to squid and sea cucumbers. Octopi were called “devil fish” in some regions, and many cultures flat-out refused to even consider eating them. Such was the gulf between individual food cultures... On the other hand, I could sympathize with not eating things that didn’t look appetizing.

“If people avoid eating certain foods because of how they look, perhaps serving them as gyoza fillings would help to combat the stigma.”

“Gyoza ingredients are ground and wrapped up, after all. Make them bite-size and no one would see what’s inside... Ha, ha ha ha ha!” Lord Fatoma broke into laughter that culminated into another porcine snort. This garnered the attention of the villagers, but he continued talking, unbothered.

“Very interesting, indeed. I can tell you’ve put a lot of thought into this. Many chefs and home cooks have sent me their recipes, but you’re the first one to consider how to market the dish. Of course, I’ve only advertised for a recipe. When I asked you to consider this, I didn’t expect you to give me such a well-thought-out solution, especially for someone your age. This may be embarrassing for you, but I dare say that you live up to your reputation as the Barley Tea Sage. Or the Barley Tea and Gyoza Sage, perhaps?”

It seemed I was rapidly becoming a summertime staple. As practical as ever, Lord Fatoma continued. “There are issues on my end with logistics and whatnot, so I can’t make a decision tonight, but your proposal deserves serious consideration; your idea has a great deal of merit to it. Thank you.”

“You are too kind. I was only able to make this suggestion because we went to the hot springs the other day. Otherwise, I would have served you a hot pot with local fish and tofu.”

“Oh? I would certainly love to try that as well sometime... Still, I remember our prior conversation. Would you mind sharing your thoughts?”

The biggest factor was that handwritten map; it was the only non-necessity in that cottage. Anyone who’s tried it knows that drawing a map is harder than it looks. Of course, drawing a little map of a neighborhood was one thing, but drawing an entire territory, including the main roads and topography, on the other hand... Only someone who knew the land like the back of their hand could do that. I never could have done it myself, at least. Even if the previous Lord Fatoma knew the land well as part of his job, I figured there might have been some reason or significance in hanging the map in such a private retreat.

Something I only discovered because of the details in the map was that the mountain with the hot spring was one of the few mountains in the territory, and the tallest one at that. So, the summit of that mountain was the best spot to oversee most of Fatoma. Considering how he had his grave built there, I could only imagine how much the previous lord treasured Fatoma and its people. Looking at the map, I had only traveled a small portion of the roads in the territory, which made sense, since I’d gone directly to Sikum for mad salamander hunting. I hadn’t even made so much as a detour on the way. I only knew about other hot springs in the territory because Pigu mentioned them to me while we were looking at the map. I’d had a wonderful time in Sikum, but it seemed like Fatoma had so much more to offer that I didn’t know about yet.

“I started looking at this request in a different way.” I didn’t know enough about this land to come up with a local delicacy, so I only had to ask people with that knowledge to cook the dish. Considering the point of creating a local dish in the first place... “I eventually thought of gyoza. But I was so caught up in my thoughts that I caused quite a stir within the village.”

“How so?”

“I was thinking about this at the hot spring, and I spoke to you before we left.”

“When you invited me to the festival, you didn’t...?”

“All I could do was ask the villagers for forgiveness.”

I, an outsider, had decided without their permission to invite their lord! There was no way they could uninvite him either. I still felt kinda bad about it. I even asked the villagers to make their own gyoza so I could present them to Lord Fatoma. I felt so bad about manipulating everything the way I did that I ended up trying to help out around the village as much as I could, which seemed to surprise the villagers.

“You have a one-track mind.”

“True. I’m just lucky the villagers were so accepting.” My eyes drifted over to the village elder, to whom I gave a bow.

“We were surprised at first,” the elder explained, “but having our lord at the festival is a terrific honor. Besides, all of us owe the previous lord a great deal, especially old codgers like myself, so we were glad to be of assistance. You even donated expensive beef for the festival and set up some sort of magical barrier to keep the plaza warm. No one took offense to any of it, so I say we should just enjoy the festivities together. My lord and company, there are still plenty of dishes to be had. Please, enjoy the festival to your hearts’ content.”

I really couldn’t thank them enough...

“Well, it’s nice to see everything worked out,” Lord Fatoma said. “By the way, there’s a boy who’s been watching us for quite some time now. I think he wants to talk to you, Ryoma.”

“What?”

I turned in the direction the lord was pointing to find Nikki, who was now flustered by the numerous sets of eyes directed at him. I quickly waved him over to dispel the tension. “This is a friend of mine. He’s proven to be of great help with all the preparations as well.”

“Is that so?” Lord Fatoma turned to Nikki. “What is your name?”

“Nikki, my lord!”

“Well, Nikki, thank you for all of your wonderful help. Thanks to you, I’ve tasted many delicious dishes.”

“R-Really?” Nikki chuckled, looking nervous for once, but happy. “We’ve got a lot more good grub where that came from! Right, Slime Guy?”

“What?” That took me completely off guard.

“More, you say?”

What’s he on about? I’ve already served all of the dishes we prepared...

“That thing, remember?” Nikki insisted. “You were doing all those ‘experiment’ things with that new, evolved slime!”

“You mean the ash smoking one?”

One of my slimes, which had eaten ash, had newly evolved sometime during the past three days; I’d found it in my charcoal oven a while back. It just fed on ash day after day without doing anything much of note, until it helped itself to the ash discarded from the hearths throughout the village and evolved into an ash slime, as one would expect. Incidentally, its stats were as follows.

Ash Slime

Skills: Disperse (3), Condense (3), Absorb Moisture (5), Dry Out (5), Disinfect (3), Consume (1), Absorb (2), Split (2)

The ash slime was the driest slime I had ever encountered, resembling a powdery pile of ash. That explained the Disperse, Condense, Dry Out, and Disinfect skills. It kicked up ash every time it moved and whenever there was a breeze, but the particles returned to the pile on their own. Additionally, it didn’t drink water like other slimes. Well, it did drink some water, but it seemed to need drastically less hydration than my other species, so it was content with the moisture from the air and the ground alone. In fact, it apparently couldn’t handle large amounts of water at all. It could use its Dry Out skill to deal with excessive moisture, though, so it wouldn’t have a problem unless someone kept dowsing the thing with water, or threw it into a lake or something. In fact, I was wondering if its Absorb Moisture skill could come in handy like a dehumidifier.

In addition to that, I had come up with ash smoking as a use for it. At some point during my time on Earth, one of my coworkers had gotten me fish which had been smoked under volcanic ash. But my ash slime had been consuming ashes from wood, not from a volcano, and I had only made some fish the same way as an experiment; I couldn’t make any certain claims about the taste. Alas, Lord Fatoma was already staring at me with blatant curiosity.

“Now, I’ll warn you, I can’t guarantee it’ll be any good—”

“What? You said they tasted great. Not just the ash-smoked fish, but the eel, sea ruffe, and puffer fish too.”

What the hell?! How does he—

“I saw you sneaking out the non-parasitic fish from the haul we got from the processing plant. Figured you were using it to feed the slimes. Weren’t you doing that today?”

“You saw me?!”

Those were three fish that were not eaten around here on account of being poisonous. I had secretly been testing a hypothesis, wondering whether I could fillet them properly through Appraisal and the help of a poison slime, and whether I could safely consume it afterwards. And here I thought no one had been watching me.

“Heh! If you think you can slip away from the eyes of Sikum’s best prankster, you’ve got another thing coming, Slime Guy!”

“You little... Oh, never mind.”

Eventually, I explained everything to Lord Fatoma. “Are you still interested?”

“Of course. If a fish discarded for its poison could be cooked safely, we will have more food to go around. It would surely make life easier for my people. I wish to seriously consider every insight you have to offer, and if possible, I would love to taste them.”

“Likewise...” the village elder muttered.

Back in the city, I had procured plenty of the ingredients and seasonings necessary, including Japanese ones like miso and soy sauce to appease the dragonewts. At this point, I had no reason to refuse.

“Very well. I’ll use Appraisal to make sure there is no poison whatsoever.”

“Mm. I understand that these dishes are experimental, but I’d be glad to taste whatever you have.”

I procured the necessary ingredients from my Dimension Home and took the head chef up on his offer to help me prepare a smorgasbord of ash-smoked barramundi, tempura rockfish, grilled and marinated eel, puffer fish sashimi, puffer fish soup, and puffer fish fin sake.

After the tasting...

“I was curious how it would taste after cooking in ash, but... May I have another?”

“This is delicious!”

“Hmm... Crunchy on the outside, yet fluffy on the inside. Simply exquisite. It would be a waste to turn up my nose at this. I would love another rockfish, some vegetable tempura, and something else.”

“Amazing! There’s no bones or smell to any of it! What sorcery is this...”

“Pigu, the glazed one is even better. The elegance of the soup and the aroma of the sake pair perfectly with it. To think we have ignored such delectable food out of fear of being poisoned...”

The properly processed eel, rockfish, and puffer fish were well received too. But there was one problem. “I’m out of the ash-smoked fish! Tempura platter’s up! Um, I leave the eel in clean water for at least three days before cooking, so all the mud seeps out. And it had a lot of bones, so I did a process called Bonesplitter when filleting it...”

“Save the explaining for later, Ryoma! Next dish, please!”

“Right. Oh, but one more thing! puffer fish may be delicious, but you always have to be careful with the poison!”

“I will keep it in mind,” Lord Fatoma answered. I had to concentrate fully on the cooking for now, and I had good reason to...

“Hey, can we taste that ash-smoked thing?”

“One puffer fish sashimi, please!”

“Send some tempura my way!”

“Any more eel over there?!”

Many of the villagers had crowded the area, drawn in by the smell, especially from the marinated eel. With Lord Fatoma’s permission to forgo formalities, my portable magic kitchen had become no less bustling than a downtown food stand at rush hour.

“Ha ha ha! This is great!”

“These little buggers always chew up our nets! But from next year on, we’ll be the ones chewing them up!”

“More booze over here!”

“Bring over whatever you got!”

I’m running out of ingredients...!

“We’re out of puffer fish! The last rockfish is going in now!”

“How about the eel?!”

I still had some for now, but it seemed it wouldn’t last very long...! Just as I considered chopping them into rice, I realized I had some meat gyoza left over, so I fried up my excess rice to pair with it. I bought some preserved shapaya earlier... If I let it soak in the deodorizing solution for a while, I could sauté it with sesame oil to make a side! For drinks, I could serve some wine I had from fermenting fruit in the drunk slime’s alcohol... Heck, I could even try making some cocktails!

“Hey, we got some extra food over there. You want it?!”

“Yes, thank you!”

May to the rescue with extra food! I still have time to dance!

I was feeling weirdly hyper and elated, maybe because of the electric air of the festival, but it was a lot of fun cooking and serving as much food as I could as the evening darkness grew nearer...