Extra: Mukohda’s Village Revitalization

“It’s because you’re you that I am asking you this, Sir Mukohda. Of course, I will reward you for your efforts. So please, please think of it as saving this village, and lend us your knowledge.”

The one bowing and scraping in front of me was the head of Merelä village. Just how did it come to this......

In one of the towns I stopped by before I came here, I had heard that this place was famous for its honey, so all I did was decide to stop by because it was interesting... Stopping by with light feelings since I wasn’t in any hurry on my travels or anything came back to bite me on the ass.

The reason why the village chief was so desperate as to bow to me had to do with the honey that this village was famed for. In this world, honey was considered a luxury, but this land had always been abundant in greenery and flowers, and along with that came a large number of bees, so this place became known for its honey production, it seemed. However, once the Opatrný region that was located in the southern area of this country finally succeeded in their beekeeping, the situation turned around all at once. The honey from the Opatrný region carried the flavor and fragrance of the ohränge blossoms that were unique to that region, and suddenly became popular amongst nobles. And inversely, the sales of the honey here only plummeted.

Indirectly, if one asked a merchant, they would all apparently say, “Right now, speaking of honey, the ones from the Opatrný region sell.” And when it came to recent times, almost no merchants at all would come to stock up on honey. Since they also farmed at the same time, up until now they’ve somehow been able to survive, but I’ve been told that if by some chance their crops ever failed or they got a low yield, there were many families that would be driven to sell themselves off to slavery. And that’s the village that we unwittingly visited.

On top of that, since I bought a huge amount of the village’s special honey that hadn’t been selling recently, I was showered in attention. All three of my familiars were pretty fond of sweet things, and honey had many uses, and all of that just connected to me buying a lot. In the first place, I never planned to stay here for long. After getting the honey, I was about to leave the next day, but this time the village chief visited me.

In the first place, why me? When I thought that, the village chief said, “Please, teach us some dish that we can use our village’s special honey in.” This village didn’t have any inns, so we had asked the village chief to borrow an empty house outside of the village proper, and apparently that’s how I was caught cooking. Not only that, but it was right when I was using the honey to cook.

I had to prepare an enormous amount of food for Fel and the others, and I thought that it would be better to use the cooking utensils I was used to and that’s why I was cooking in the yard. We were outside the village, so I figured I wouldn’t so easily be discovered. At that time, I didn’t know that this village was so troubled, and I would never have thought I was being paid so much attention by the villagers. But, in reality there were villagers that saw me cooking.

And, having heard from the villagers that I was cooking something they’d never seen before using the honey, the village chief came to ask me that — “begging and scraping” quite literally. And that was because, since honey was such an expensive thing, its most common use was to just eat it as is, or if one felt like being really luxurious, they would add it to their tea, apparently. But I was using it in cooking. The village chief, who heard that, set his eyes on that novelty.

“Our village’s honey doesn’t taste bad, you know? However, compared to Opatrný’s honey......”

Apparently, everyone in the village once pooled together their meager resources and bought some of Opatrný’s honey, and they were all stunned into silence at the taste. True to the rumors, Opatrný’s honey had a wonderful fragrance and taste, and it was clearly several stages better than this village’s honey, everyone in the village agreed. Given that, the village chief figured that just selling the honey like the village has been up until now wouldn’t work, and so he started grasping for some sort of idea to get the merchants to buy their honey again. However, there was no way they would come up with an idea that quickly, so the village chief went to literally every merchant that had a connection to the village to somehow beg them to stock their honey, but he was coldly refused every time.

It was at that time that we appeared. And not only did we appear, we even used honey in cooking, not in tea or by itself. And that was how the village chief discovered the possibilities of honey.

“If we can communicate that Merelä village’s honey can be used like that, then I think we can gain an advantage.” The village chief explained that by his estimation, the Opatrný region’s honey was wonderful in both taste and smell, and thanks to that, the price of it could make someone faint just by hearing about it. Due to that fact, not even nobles could lightheartedly use it in cooking.

The honey made in Merelä village was also expensive, but it was only about half so compared to that from the Opatrný region, so one could buy from Opatrný if they wanted to just eat the honey, but from the village if they wanted it for slightly luxurious cooking. Splitting the uses like that lent some weight to the village chief’s logic. Also, according to the village chief, “There are a lot of nobles that enjoy new things, too.” And so, if they were to discover a new way of enjoying honey, there would be many who would want to try it out, and the village chief was expecting much out of that desire.

“So that being the case, Mr. Mukohda, please... PLEASE, lend us your knowledge,” the village chief begged, bowing his head so low it was like he was praying to me.

If he’s going that far, just coldly refusing would be a little... Still though, I can’t just teach the village what I made exactly as I made it. After all, I made teriyaki cockatrice using this village’s honey. Since I used soy sauce bought with my skill, there’d be no way for this village to replicate it. So a dish using honey that can be made using only ingredients from this world, huh? Well, it doesn’t have to be cooking, it can just be some way to enjoy it outside of just eating it or putting it in tea, right? I can think of several things, but I still want some time...

“Understood. I don’t know if you’ll be happy with it, but I’ll try thinking of some things.”

When I gave that reply, the village chief started worshiping me, saying, “Oh thank you, oh thank you!”

“No no, please raise your head.”

“No, this will save Merelä village. Thank you, oh thank you!”

Eeegghh...... “Save the village?” You’re making too big a deal out of this. And also, I’d really rather you not place so much expectation on me.

With the village chief worshiping me the way he was, it didn’t seem like I’d be able to talk to him, so I just said, “Please give me three days,” and had him give me time to think my own way of something to use and enjoy honey with.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

“Truly, thank you Mr. Mukohda, for listening to my unreasonable request.”

After the promised three days, I went to visit the village chief. All three of my familiars were left minding the house with lots of food to eat.

“Since this crisis involves the village, I gathered people who are like the headsmen of this place.”

True to the village chief’s word, there were eight old men and women around.

“Okay. I’ve thought of several things, so I think it would be best for everyone to try them so I can hear your opinions.” Since I’d also be cooking, I had to borrow the village chief’s house’s kitchen, so we all moved there.

“Okay then, first is something simple. I’ll be making a drink. What I’ll need is......”

...A lemoné fruit that I found here. It was exactly like a lemon, and in this world was used to clean a lot of different things. Apparently it was a fruit off of a short tree, and it was pretty common; in rural areas just about every house had a tree. As for this lemoné fruit, I stopped by a neighbor’s house before coming here and borrowed some. Other than the lemoné fruit, it was just this village’s honey and some water.

“Please wait a second. That’s a lemoné fruit, right?” The older lady looked at the yellow lemoné fruit and scrunched up her face. The villagers also started chittering, saying things like, “Isn’t that a cleaner?” and, “It’s probably not poisonous, but what are you even planning on doing with that thing?”

“Uhhm, just like she’s said this is a lemoné fruit. As you all know, this is very sour, and we will be using the fruit juice’s sourness. Of course, it’ll just be really sour with this, so we will combine it with this village’s honey. The taste is...... well I’ll be making it anyway, so it’ll be faster if you all just drink it.”

After mixing together the honey and the lemoné fruit’s juice, pour in some water to complete the honey lemon- no, the honey lemoné drink.

When I tried a little as a taste test, the lemoné’s refreshing sourness and the soft sweetness of the honey felt good on the throat.

“Here you go, everyone.” I poured it into cups and handed them out to the villagers. They all fearfully and hesitantly reached out for the cups...

“This is surprising. To think that that sour lemoné would become something like this......” said the lady who had previously scrunched up her face at the sight of the lemoné, surprised.

“It’s got an invigorating feel going down the throat, but the sweetness of the honey is properly there.”

“It’s delicious because the taste is so refreshing. I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of this.”

The impression of the villagers was all good. Honey lemon- I mean, honey lemoné was simple to make but really delicious to consume. It was perfect for slightly hot days like this.

“And lastly will be a meat dish that uses honey.” It didn’t seem like they were surprised since they’d probably heard that I had done this before, but it did seem like they were really interested in what was going to happen, as they were staring very fixedly. While thinking of something I could make with ingredients found in this world, I finally settled upon “chicken ham.” On top of it not taking too many ingredients, cooking it was simple since the only process was marinating the meat and then boiling it.

“First, I’ll start explaining from the ingredients. We’ll be using the breast of a cockatrice. We will also be needing salt, dried herbs to your liking, and honey. Okay then, I’ll start cooking.”

“After taking the skin off of the cockatrice’s breast, open it up with a knife and flatten it out so it’s of uniform thickness. Then, in order to help the flavor soak in better, start piercing holes into the meat with a fork.”

“Then, take a mixture of the salt and finely ground dried herbs, or handmade herb salt, and rub it into the meat along with the honey; let the flavors soak in for about thirty minutes. Truthfully, it would be best to also rub in pepper, but pepper is far too expensive in this world, so I’m leaving it out this time.”

Since letting it soak for half an hour would take too long, I simply took out a piece I’d prepared earlier from my Item Box. “Since time is short, I’ll just be using something I prepared beforehand.”

By the way, the piece of meat I just rubbed the herb salt and honey into will be used to fill Fel and the other’s bellies later.

“Wrap up the meat into a rod shape before wrapping it in the skin of an orange frog and tying the ends off with some hemp rope.”

Orange frog skin was something that was used in this world to wrap things. At first, I didn’t know of it, but the village chief told me about it when I asked him for something that would be used as a wrapping which was strong against heat. It was apparently the voice sac of an orange frog, a brightly-colored frog that lived in and around rivers, lakes, and other bodies of water. At first, I was both surprised and disgusted hearing that it was the skin of a frog, but it seemed that it was thin, flexible, tough, strong against heat, and perfect for preserving food. If that was the case, then since the saying was, “In Rome, do as the Romans do,” I tried using it to make the chicken ham, and although it wasn’t as light and easy as normal wrapping paper, it still worked pretty well.

“Take the meat wrapped in the orange frog skin and......”

I had asked the village chief’s wife to boil some water in a pot already, so I put the flame to low, or rather, I took the pot off of the flame and dumped the meat in.

“After letting it boil for about five minutes, take the pot off of the flame, put on the lid, and let the whole thing simmer down until the water cools off. The heat should pass through the entirety of the meat slowly this way and that should finish the dish.”

“So, this is the finished product.” I took out the completed dish that I had done yesterday out from my Item Box. After unwrapping the orange frog’s skin, I started cutting the meat apart. The faint smell of herbs stimulated the appetite.

“Try it.”

The villagers scarfed down the meat, seemingly full of interest.

“This is good!”

“Soft!”

“Delicious!”

“This makes me want some alcohol!”

...Came the positive reviews. It was popular enough that the villagers couldn’t stop eating the “chicken ham.” All the villagers that tasted it gave it their stamp of approval, claiming that with this, they could be saved.

The women were also excited, saying that, “It’s easy to make, let’s go try it right now.” The men enthusiastically talked about getting the merchants to try it and showing them the appeal of their village’s honey.

“Thank you so much, Mr. Mukohda.” The village chief gripped my hands with his old and dry ones, and he had faint tears staining his eyes. “With this, our village will be saved.”

“Oh come on, you’re making too big a deal out of it. You haven’t even actually sold any honey yet.”

“No, if they try these, the merchants will come running.”

“That’d be great if it happened. Just like you saw earlier, honey can be used a lot of different ways. I think it’d be best if you all experimented on your own to find different ways of using it.”

The reward I received from the village chief was 2 gold pieces. Given the village’s financial situation, they probably worked quite hard to come up with that much money. Still, I accepted it gratefully. And, I used all of it to buy more honey. That was probably better for the village, too. The next day, we, who had managed to obtain lots of honey from Merelä village, left said village behind.

Half a year later—

“Mukohda, I’m sharing this with you.”

Lambert, a merchant I had befriended, said this as he handed over a small pot. Inside was amber colored honey, which gave off a sweet scent.

“This is honey from a village in the eastern region of the country named Merelä. Some of my merchant friends who deal in food have been pushing it recently, so I tried buying some. I had thought that, for honey, the stuff produced by Opatrný was the best, but the honey from this Merelä village is also pretty good. And it’s interesting, I was told a lot of ways to eat this honey......”

Lambert started talking about all the ways he was told. And among them, the one Lambert liked the most was...... “Just smear a whole lot of honey on some lightly toasted bread. It’s so......”

Lambert must have remembered the taste, as he started looking as if he was in a trance. “I had completely thought that the only way to enjoy honey was to eat it or put it in tea. At first, I thought it was a huge waste to smear it on bread, but when I actually tried it, not only did it feel very luxurious, but it was just the most delicious thing!”

I didn’t remember teaching the villagers about smearing honey on bread, so they must have invented honey toast on their own, huh? Nice going. Not only that, but they’ve got people this hooked. Good job. Also, you’re way too into it, Lambert. You’ve been going on for forever about how good honey toast is.

“So anyway, it’s a really delicious honey, so please try it.”

“Thank you very much. I will.” Since honey from Merelä has made it so far away to here, Karelina, that must mean that their village was saved. Personally, that makes me feel a little relieved.