How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom: Volume 1

by Dojyomaru

  “Like rigor mortis, I guess,” I said.

  “Yes. If you leave it longer, the fluids will evaporate and it will turn into a dry husk, but around two hours after death, while it has hardened somewhat but the flesh is still supple, it is possible to cook it. That would be the state this one is in, yes.”

  Hmm... I get that you can cook it, but isn’t that a separate issue from whether you can eat it? As I was thinking that, Poncho took out a knife and began making a vertical cut in the gelin.

  “When the gelin is in this state, you can insert the knife vertically and cut it into pieces without the body collapsing. The fibers of the gelin’s body run vertically, so doing it this way gives it the best texture, yes.”

  Poncho skillfully cut the gelin into long thin strips, like making ika somen. It was turning into noodles with an udon-like thickness. Poncho took those and put them into a pot of boiling water.

  “Now, if we boil them in a pot of water with a little salt, the flesh will firm up more.”

  Now it was seriously starting to turn into something like soba or udon. As they were boiling, that vibrant bluish-green color had darkened, starting to look something like green tea soba, too. Then Poncho added things like dried mushrooms and kelp to the pot with the boiling gelin.

  Is he boiling those to get broth out of them?

  Lastly, after adding more salt to adjust the flavor, he served them to each of us in a bowl of soup.

  “Here you go. This is Gelin Udon.”

  “He’s even calling it udon!” I exclaimed.

  “I-Is something the matter, sire?” Poncho asked.

  “Oh, no, nothing.”

  I heard this country’s language as Japanese. “Udon” was probably some other word that had gotten translated into that. How confusing. Though, well, setting that aside, what was laid out in front of us looked exactly like Kansai-style green udon in a clear broth.

  Red Fox and Green Gelin, is it? I thought. Yeah... Now’s not the time to escape reality by remembering old commercial jingles for instant udon. Huh? Wait, I seriously have to eat this?

  When I looked around, everyone was looking at me as if to say, “Go ahead, go ahead.”

  I haven’t put up my hand and said “Okay, I’ll eat it,” yet, you know!

  ...Well, I guess I’ve been making Liscia eat things she’s not used to. It wouldn’t be fair for me to be the only one who runs away! Time to dig in!

  Slurp...

  “?!”

  “W-Well, how is it, Souma?” Liscia asked with a worried look.

  “...This is surprisingly good,” I responded.

  Yeah. I wonder what it is. This is completely different from what I imagined.

  I had been imagining something like ika somen, with a slimy texture and fishy flavor, but these were smooth and chewy, no fishy flavor at all. Rather than udon, it was like kuzu-kiri that you cook in a pot, or Malony noodles. However, when you bit into it, there was a unique squeaky texture. Was that fiber, maybe?

  If I were to describe it as a whole, I would say, “It looks like udon, tastes like kuzu-kiri, with the texture of a regional dish from Kyushu.”

  Yeah, it’s not bad. Not bad at all.

  “You’re right... It’s surprisingly good,” Liscia said.

  “It’s delicious the way they’ve absorbed the flavor of the broth,” Juna agreed.

  “Is this really gelin? I’m shocked,” Tomoe said.

  “SLURRRRRP.”

  That was Aisha.

  It seemed everyone who ate after me had a good impression of it, as well. Well, of course they did, because it was delicious. If you were to ask which tasted better, this or normal udon, I would say the question was nonsense. It would be like asking which was more delicious, soba or udon: it’s just a matter of personal preference.

  “By the way, what sort of nutrients are in this stuff?” I asked.

  “Nutrients... I don’t know what those are, but I suspect that its similar to the gelatin you can extract from bones,” Poncho said.

  “Collagen, huh.”

  So they have the protein you find in animal bones with fiber like you would find in plants, huh. It really is hard to decide whether gelins are plants or animals.

  “Anyway, it sounds like it should be fine nutritionally,” I said. “Gelins are everywhere. If people eat them, it should alleviate the food crisis a fair bit, don’t you think?”

  “Yes, I suppose so. Raising gelins is easy. If you just give them raw garbage as food, they’ll grow and multiply on their own,” Poncho said.

  “...Uh, no, I don’t want to give weird stuff to something I’m going to be eating,” I said. “I don’t want to eat a gelin that’s absorbed toxic chemicals and have it give me food poisoning.”

  “I-I suppose not.”

  “Anyway, let’s try raising them as an experiment. Hunting them in the wild is fine, too, but I wouldn’t want to reduce their numbers too much and have it impact the local ecosystem...”

  “I think that would be for the best,” Poncho agreed.

  All of that aside, we greatly enjoyed the rest of the gelin udon.

  ◇　◇　◇

  “Are they really edible?” someone asked.

  “Well, the king and the others seemed to be enjoying them,” another person responded.

  “I think I’m going to request a gelin capture quest at the adventurers’ guild.”

  “Oh, me too, then.”

  It seems there were conversations like this in fountain plazas everywhere.

  “Elfrieden’s signature dish is gelin.” Who could have predicted that people would be saying that in the not-too-distant future?

  ◇　◇　◇

  “Now then, on to our last ingredient. I have something already cooked and prepared.”

  When we saw what was inside the container Poncho opened after saying that...

  ““““Uwah...””””

  ...was our universal response.

  Because inside it were “insects.” What was more, this sort of dish existed in my world... In Japan even, as well.

  “This is inago no tsukudani, isn’t it?” I asked.

  “Yes. This is large locust tsukudani.”

  “Yeah... They certainly are large.”

  With the inago no tsukudani I remembered, each one was about the size of a cricket. With these, on the other hand, each one was the size of a kuruma prawn.

  Though the color suggests they have that spicy-sweet flavor boiled into them and have the flavor properly seeped all the way in... Wait? Tsukudani?

  “If these are tsukudani,” I said, “that means...”

  “Huh? Souma, you’re going to eat them?”

  Since I had suddenly stabbed my fork into one of the big locusts, Liscia was now looking at me, shocked. Fair enough; they did look like the sort of thing you’d normally hesitate to eat. If I were more calm, I might have eaten it a bit more timidly. But, right now, there was something I was more interested to find out.

  Munch, munch...

  “?!”

  The texture was like shrimp with the shell on, but there was something more important.

  This taste... there’s no mistaking it!

  “This tsukudani... is made with soy sauce!”

  “Soy sauce?”

  Soy sauce.

  Yes, soy sauce.

  The flavor of the Japanese heart.

  You can’t have sashimi or nimono without it. It’s the magic sauce that can turn ramen, hamburg steak, spaghetti, and any other foreign dish into a “Japanese” one. It was the flavor I had probably longed for most since coming to this country. The mystic sauce that, due to its fermentation process, I couldn’t recreate as easily as I had mayonnaise. Now, a dish made with it lay before my very eyes! Locusts or not, they were looking like fine cuisine to me.

  “What? No way, Souma, are you crying?” Liscia exclaimed.

  “How can I not?! This is... the taste of my homeland.”

  “The taste of your homel
and...”

  “Brother, they have large locust tsukudani in your homeland, too?”

  When I looked over, Tomoe was crunching away at the large locust tsukudani and clearly enjoying them. Come to think of it, when everyone else had been recoiling in shock, this kid had been the only one who was unsurprised.

  “Could it be, this dish is...” I said.

  “Yes. I ate it a lot back in the mystic wolf village.”

  “Then do the mystic wolves make soy sauce?!”

  “Soy sauce... do you mean hishio water, maybe?”

  “Hishio water?”

  “Hishio water is a sauce that the mystic wolves are fond of using, yes,” Poncho jumped in to explain. “Originally, the mystic wolves would coat soybeans in salt and allow them to ferment, creating a sauce called ‘bean hishio.’ When they take the clear liquid that is created in that process and let it ferment, that produces hishio water. Both are sauces with a unique flavor not found in this country, yes.”

  “I see.”

  After that explanation, I was certain of it. I had read in a book somewhere that soy sauce was born from the process of making miso. So, basically, bean hishio was miso and hishio water was soy sauce. (The reason I didn’t hear those words as miso and soy sauce may have been because they were similar to, but distinctly different from, modern soy sauce.) Maybe the mystic wolves had eating habits similar to the Japanese... Wait, hold on. This flavor permeating through the locust is...

  “Hey, Tomoe. Alcohol is used in making these, too, right?”

  “Ah, yes. It’s an alcohol made from the seeds of a plant.”

  “What kind of seeds?”

  “Let’s see... It’s a plant that grows in marshy areas, it has ears that look like the end of a broom, and on them, there are lots of little seeds like with wheat.”

  No doubt about it! Those are rice plants! My hope for the future!

  For the transition from cash crops to food crops, I had wanted to grow rice, because I had heard that paddy fields didn’t degrade the fertility of the soil, unlike wheat in dry fields, but because the all-important rice plants didn’t exist in this country, that plan had ground to a halt.

  Now I see. It grows further north, huh? I’d very much like to bring some here and try cultivating it. Still, these mystic wolves... Between the soy sauce, miso, and now rice, their race has a lot of the things I’ve been wanting.

  I paused.

  “Okay, that settles it! I’ll give the mystic wolves among the refugees a district in Parnam.”

  “Whaaaa?!” Tomoe exclaimed.

  I wanted them to produce this bean hishio and hishio water there. We had plenty of soybeans, since we had planted them as part of the soil restoration process.

  “Hold on, Souma, are you serious?!” Liscia seemed confused and flustered, but I was as serious as serious gets.

  “With soy sauce and miso... I mean, hishio water and bean hishio, I can recreate most of the dishes from the country I came from. It sounds like there’s rice here, too. Don’t you want to try the tasty foods of another world?”

  “Th-That’s...”

  “Yes! I really want to try them!” Aisha raised her hand with gusto.

  “Ha ha... while they may not feel as strongly as Aisha, I’m sure our people would like to try them. If I publish the recipes, they’ll either gather the ingredients and make them themselves, or go to a restaurant that serves them, I’m sure. Either way, it will cause a lot of movement in the economy.”

  Huge market liquidity would bring prosperity to this country. That, I firmly believed. That was why I said this to the people watching:

  “My search for the gifted is still ongoing. If people have a gift, I will use them even if they are refugees. This race has superior food production techniques, so I have no reason not to accept them. Oh, I know... For the next five years, I will grant the mystic wolves a monopoly on bean hishio and hishio water. We will clamp down on illicit production by any other parties. However, five years from now, I will lift the monopoly on bean hishio and hishio water to create a free market, so I recommend the mystic wolves create a firm economic base for themselves in that time. That is all.”

  ◇　◇　◇

  After this pronouncement, a mystic wolf quarter was built in the capital Parnam, and bean hishio and hishio water were produced there with assistance from the country.

  In this world, there had been many cases where refugees had been given a district of their own and it had turned into a slum. That was because the refugees faced economic limitations (lack of jobs, being used for cheap labor, and more) and struggled with poverty.

  However, in the case of the mystic wolves, because they had been given a monopoly on bean hishio and hishio water by the king, they were able to build an economic base for themselves, and so their quarter did not turn into a slum, instead becoming an integrated part of the capital by the time the five-year limit was up.

  Furthermore, even after bean hishio and hishio water had been renamed to “miso” and “soy sauce” and the monopoly had ended, they continued to study it. The miso and soy sauce that the mystic wolves put out under the Kikkoro brand, marked with a hexagonal logo with a wolf in the center, would continue to be loved for a long time after that.

  ◇　◇　◇

  Cheery background music and the soft voice of Juna Doma echoed through the fountain plaza.

  “Now, it is time for this program, The King’s Brillunch, to come to a close. How did you feel about hosting, Poncho?”

  “Y-Yes. If my knowledge has been able to help our countrymen in the slightest, that would make me very happy. Still, I think hosting was too great a burden for me, yes. Please, have someone else take my place next time.”

  “I wonder, will there be a next time? What do you say, sire?” June asked.

  “If the people demand it.”

  “Well, there you have it. I hope they do demand it, Poncho.”

  “I-I don’t think I want there to be a demand for me, yes!”

  “Oh, don’t say that. Do this with me again sometime!” Juna cried in a singsong tone.

  “Eeek! Please, spare me!” he yelped.

  “Now then, thank you all for watching. This is your hosts, Juna Doma...”

  “...and Poncho Ishizuka Panacotta, signing off, yes.”

  “Now everyone, I bid you good day.”

  The music cut out, and the video faded away. It seemed that the program had ended.

  From here and there around the plaza, sighs could be heard.

  “Aww... It’s over, huh.”

  “That was more interestin’ than I expected. Wish I coulda watched it a bit longer.”

  “Yeppers. It don’t hafta be every day, but I do hope they’ll make the broadcasts semi-regular.”

  “If there’s demand, they’ll do more, yeah? Well, how’s about we send in a request to the Congress of the People?”

  “Oh! Now that there’s an idea that wouldn’t’ve occurred to me! I’m gonna go talk to the mayor about it right now.”

  Conversations like this one happened in towns everywhere.

  The people were completely taken with this new form of entertainment called the “variety program.” Souma had intended it as an “information program” about the food crisis, but with Juna and Poncho playing off one another, the cooking program-like aspects, and pretty girls squealing over and then eating bizarre ingredients, you couldn’t blame them for seeing it that way.

  Later, the Congress of the People submitted a “request for the regular holding of Jewel Voice Broadcast programs.” With Souma’s assent, a time for a public broadcast that would take place every evening was established.

  There were those who took a different view of this from society at large.

  “When the new king suddenly took the throne, I suspected usurpation, but that young king seems to be a surprisingly affable fellow,“ said one old man.

  “You’re right,” another responded. “I can see why King Albert chose to abdica
te in favor of him.”

  “The princess seemed to be in good spirits, too. I had suspected she was forced into the betrothal.”

  “They were very natural together. They didn’t seem to be on bad terms.”

  “Ho, ho, ho, we may have an heir by next year, I reckon.”

  “A child between the wise and gentle king and the dignified princess, huh. The next generation will be one to look forward to.”

  “It really will. Ho, ho, ho.”

  The old men laughed quietly together.

  A wise and gentle king... that was how they had evaluated Souma. However, about half of that evaluation was wrong.

  Souma was not purely a gentle king.

  ◇　◇　◇

  Sitting in my chair in the king’s governmental affairs office, I spoke to Hakuya, who stood across from me.

  “Give me your report on the surrounding countries.”

  Right now, Hakuya and I were the only ones present in the room. Liscia and the others were elsewhere, probably having a great time at the party to celebrate the launch of the Jewel Voice Broadcast. Even Aisha, who usually stayed at my side at all times, claiming it was to guard me, was busy with the food that had been prepared for the occasion.

  We had left the celebration partway through, coming to the governmental affairs office for a secret meeting.

  Hakuya spread out a map of the world on my desk.

  “I will now make my report. First, I will review the surrounding countries. Our country, which is situated in the southeast of the continent, shares a border with three countries: the Union of Eastern Nations to the north, the Principality of Amidonia to the west, and the Turgis Republic to the southwest. Also, across the sea to the southeast there is the Kuzuryu Archipelago Union. In addition, to the west of Amidonia, the mercenary state Zem could also be called one of our surrounding countries. Of these, zero are friendly, four are neutral, and one is hostile.”

  “We’re pretty isolated, huh,” I said.

  “With all due respect, given that these are troubled times with the Demon Lord’s Domain expanding, this is normal. In these days where each nation eyes the others with suspicion, the only countries on friendly terms are those in the relationship of suzerain and vassal state.”

  “You call that a friendly relationship?”