Isekai Rebuilding Project: Volume 2 Read online

  We were walking leisurely, but the caravan Baze had rescued seemed to have waited there. For three hours! Polite was one way to put it, but I was kind of hoping that they would have been gone by now.

  “No way around it now. Let’s make their acquaintance. We may thank or curse them for it later.”

  “I hope to thank them then.”

  We were already stumbling on a roadblock half a day in. Some journey we were on. In the distance, I could see who appeared to be the leader of the caravan noticing and greeting us.

  Judging by the amount of luggage, I had pegged them to be traveling merchants, but I was unfortunately off the mark. To our surprise, they were traveling performers.

  While that form of entertainment was mostly a thing of the past in modern-day Japan, I have heard that a band of traveling performers still annually visits the hot springs resorts in Jozankei, for example. It was much more popular back when there was less entertainment readily available. There was no radio, TV, or internet in this world. For the most part, people’s enjoyment came from food and drink. And, perhaps, the marital bed.

  “What else would a man and woman do after the sun goes down? Even in Japan today, families in the country are big.”

  I was being vague on purpose, but this dragon just had to dig deeper, didn’t she? In any case, families in this world also tended to be big. When most of one’s day is consumed by day-to-day life, there isn’t much space for entertainment. That’s why a band of traveling performances were a welcome source of it. While I can’t attest to the accuracy of it, I once read that leaders of these bands were highly respected and sometimes even stepped in to settle disputes in the towns they traveled to.

  “How can I possibly thank you for saving our lives?” the respected leader said as he came up to me.

  “Please. Baze is the one responsible for it. No need to thank me. Besides, we are adventurers. We are obligated to help those in need.”

  Even though we were F-rank, Tiamat and I were still adventurers, yes sir. Cats and wolves, by the way, could not become adventurers.

  “I admire your humility unbecoming of your youth.”

  The leader seemed impressed. His name was Murdock, a large man who looked to be in his fifties. Which meant that he was most likely around my age. With a rather rushed set of introductions, our familiarity began to grow.

  Mister Murdock then called for a member of his troupe and had him bring over something wrapped in cloth. Definitely a token of gratitude. I didn’t even have to guess. Judging by the size, it was cash.

  “Please forgive us for repaying our life debts with money.”

  With that, Mister Murdock took off the cloth. What appeared from under it was a pile of gold coins, perhaps fifty of them. That was a lot of money. Even my Chronograph only sold for one hundred gold coins.

  “Please! We can’t accept this!”

  I pushed it back, a little frazzled. If we did accept it, it meant that we were pressure-selling our kindness.

  “Still, we have no other way to repay you. We wouldn’t know what to do if you didn’t accept this.”

  “I understand, but...”

  We didn’t help them hoping for a reward. Really, it was just a coincidence that we happened to save them. Since Baze was the one who saved them, he should be the one to negotiate this, but I couldn’t expect a Fenrir to do that. In fact, he had chucked all the responsibility to me from the very start. With a nod, our silver-haired beauty reached out and took just four gold coins from the pile.

  “This will be enough for our reward, Murdock. We are merely F-rank adventurers.”

  Four coins. One per member. That was good. It would have hurt Mister Murdock’s pride to rescind his offer now, but fifty coins was way too much for us not to feel guilty about. So, using our F-rank status as an excuse, she accepted an amount that was harmless to both parties.

  “How abstemious...”

  “Greed hastens death. An adventurer’s mantra.”

  “Yep.”

  I smiled at Tiamat as she made a self-grandiose declaration, and picked the conversation up from there.

  “Mister Murdock. If you’re still unsatisfied, could we ask to join you for lunch?”

  I pointed at the sun, almost directly above us. We had been walking all morning, and it seemed an acceptable time for lunch. I couldn’t tell the exact time, though, since I didn’t have my watch!

  “Lunch...?”

  A slight shadow crossed Mister Murdock’s expression. Oh? I had only suggested it to make him feel better. Was something the matter?

  “Our meals are meager... Nothing we can possibly serve to guests...”

  Oh. That’s it?

  “Please don’t mind us. We are traveling, too. We’d feel bad if you served us an overly proper meal.”

  I also added that we would be contributing some food too. To be honest... just having them cook our food would have been wonderful. Our party, including myself, had zero skills in the kitchen. We had a good amount of gagd meat in our zeer pot on the donkey’s back, but we weren’t sure how we were going to consume it. Mister Milon went through the trouble of packing it for us, but I was worried that we would have to discard it pretty soon. I wouldn’t feel bad for the food if we could eat it all when we had the chance.

  8.

  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.

  9.

  I had to think about that proposition. Tagging along with the Murdock troupe would come with considerable benefits, first and foremost of which was food. While I could barely cook, the other three in my party were even worse. There was no way we could expect any decent meal along the way. We could manage while staying at inns, but if we camped out in the middle of nowhere, I would just starve alone. I mean, I was sure Baze or Hieronymus would hunt something for us, but if they handed me, say, some kind of bird, I couldn’t do anything to it.

  In that sense, it wasn’t a bad choice for us to freeload on the troupe. We had been freeloading at Mister Milon’s the whole time we were at Lishua, and now we were going to freeload off the Murdock troupe on our way to Noura. Some Hermits we were.

  Setting our lack of pride aside, it was undeniable that traveling with a troupe of performers came with some perks. Most importantly, we would attract much less unwanted attention. It would be a little tiresome to be worshiped as Hermits everywhere we go. If we could accompany the troupe under the guise of security, I expected that we would be able to avoid getting in trouble.

  However, we would need to explain to the members of the Murdock troupe our true identities. It was just too dishonest to keep a secret when they would be accompanying us out of their good will, and keeping a secret only festered the potential damage if and when it ever came to light.

  “We can’t stay transformed forever, either.”

  “Is that so, Tia?”

  “Mm-hm. The spell will break after twelve hours or so. Of course, I can always cast it again, but being in a skin that is not my own can be a little stressful.”

  “That’s the way it is, huh?”

  “For example, even if you dressed in drag for work, you wouldn’t want to keep it up off the clock.”

  “I don’t remember working for such a free-spirited city that I would need to dress in drag to work as its clerk.”

  That would be one funky city office. That being said, I understood what Tiamat meant. Blending into the crowd was one thing, but I didn’t think it was an uncommon desire to want to return to their true form at night or in private. I have been told that the first thing women want to do when they come home is to take off their makeup.

  “If we’re going to be with the Murdock troupe, you guys, for the most part, want to do so in your regular forms.”

  “Mm-hm. We’ll transform when we’re walking into a city.”

  “We’ll see if that’s an acceptable condition for Mister Murdock.”

  After a very short huddle, I returned to Mister Murdock and revealed my identity as a Hermit to see if they would still accompany us.

  “Oh, that.”

  Mister Murdock accepted my explanation much too easily. It seemed that he knew from the start. Egg on my face.

  “When Mister Baze single-handedly took care of the bandits, he was too strong and too fast to be human.
No one would expect his ‘Boss Man’ to be a mere human, either.”

  He was laughing. Unfortunately, I was a mere human. If we went into combat, I doubted I could even beat Miss Eily the dagger-thrower. I didn’t have any cheat codes, after all. The truth hurt.

  “You overestimate me, but let us redo our introductions. I’m Eiji, a Hermit. And this is Tiamat, also a Hermit.”

  In response to my introduction, Tiamat poofed back into her dragon form.

  “Baze the Fenrir, and Hieronymus the Cait Sith.”

  The other two followed suit. While the members of the troupe were surprised, they didn’t fall into a panic. They had some guts. Syfer’s team was ready to die fighting Baze when they first encountered him. I wondered if the title of Hermits carried some weight here. By the way, the women were gathering around Hieronymus again. A good-looking human form and irresistible to women in his true form? He didn’t have to rub it in my face, dammit.

  “Oh... Ohhh...”

  While not panicking, one of the members was brought to tears. The storyteller, as I recalled, who told various legends and myths throughout the show. I imagined the role to be similar to an Ainu (the indigenous people of Japan) storyteller.

  “A hermit leading a dragon, Fenrir, and Cait Sith... Embarking on a journey to save the world from destruction...”

  Stop that. Don’t make it into a poem. Don’t go spreading this around like it’s some legendary story. Please.

  The Murdock troupe, whom we stumbled into accompanying for the journey, was a group of ten members with an enclosed, two-horse-drawn carriage. They were a rather large travel group with a wide age-range, too, from a ten-year-old boy to an elder in his sixties. Mister Murdock was 46, by the way. Of course, everyone was surprised when I told them my age; I was getting used to it. They usually spent about two years at a time touring each nation in these parts, about eight in total. A grand tour spanning over one hundred cities.

  “By any chance, have you noticed beriberi outbreaks in the cities you’ve visited?”

  “Yes, of course.”

  Mister Murdock nodded with a painful expression. As expected, the issue reached beyond the borders of Azur. The farming system that Mister Hero had brought over did, indeed, change the world. Steady production, efficient harvesting, and most importantly, better taste. That’s what a batch of Kirara 397, one of the best-rated varieties of rice today, would do to a medieval fantasy world. It’s tasty on its own to the spoiled taste buds of the modern Japanese. No one would substitute that for an inferior tasting product. Dear brother-in-law had really left us with quite the uphill battle.