Chapter 221 – Pilgrimage.
Krikaliev gathered together the split and thinned stems of the willow. It reminded me of when I was young, children used to grind weeds and play house. After grinding down the last willow stem, he checked the pot in which the water was boiled.
“I’ve gathered all the water.”
“You said water was gathered?”
If you follow him to the pot, you will see that the other pot next to the one he put on the brazier is full of water. Clearly, there was nothing up until now. Then he could tell where the water came from by looking at the water droplets dripping onto the water in the pot. The water flowed through a twisted tube attached to the lid of the pot being boiled in the brazier. He thought it was just salt water, but he soon put the crushed willow stalks together into a pot of water and stirred them. Then, since he really wants to be different from the children’s playing house, he puts the lid on the pot containing the willows and puts it aside.
“You’re not going to boil it, are you?”
“Anyway, I don’t think it’s a bit much.”
Whenever Nausicaa or people who knew him mentioned that he was cooking, he remembered his frightened look and was worried about whether or not the food would come out properly, so he took a pot and opened the lid of the pot he had put on the stove. Then, inside the exposed pot, the water disappeared completely and white and yellow crystals could be seen sticking to the pot’s walls and bottom. Thanks to him, I knew what he was boiling the water for. The process of removing the sand was omitted, but it must have been to obtain salt.
“Wait a minute! That’s a lot of salt!”
Then, belatedly, he shouted as he lifted the whole pot and tipped it into the pot, but the things in the pot were already pouring into the pot.
“This is fine. Don’t worry.”
Krikaliev put everything he had put in the pot into a saucepan with only the salt left, and then closed the lid. Inside, the sound of banging pots echoed as they ran amok.
“It’s really edible, right?”
Usher wondered if he could ever really eat proper food.
“I don’t draw until this time, if not at any other time.”
Even while he was anxious, Krikaliev placed a stone on top of the pot and opened the pot in which the willows had been ground and soaked in water. As he pours the water into a leather jug, he realizes that it is something like flour when he sees the remaining flour at the bottom of the pot clumping together and kneading it.
“Was that about making bread?”
“Because wheat doesn’t grow in Parzu. We make flour from willow.”
It is said that it is better to grind the roots of willows grown in Parz to make flour, but in the case of wild willows, it is better to grind the stems. Somehow, that was the reason why the bread he ate at Lantua and the bread he ate at Parz tasted different.
“Memorize these things. In case of emergency, you must make use of everything around you in order to survive.”
As Krikaliev put the dough near the hearth for the last time and tidied up the surroundings, darkness fell. Amidst the sound of the calm waves, the smell of a pot burning by the fire and bread browning in the hearth is subtle. I can no longer hear the sound of things struggling in the pot.
“Let’s eat now.”
First of all, when I listened to the bread placed next to the brazier, it felt better to be chewy than I thought, but the problem was the pot. I couldn’t help but be concerned when I saw Krikaliev cramming the catch into a saucepan full of salt.
“Is this okay?”
“If you eat it, you will know. If you eat it, you will know.”
Eventually, when he took out the pot and opened the lid, what unexpectedly came into his nose was a smell similar to crawfish he had eaten the other day. The inside of the pot was full of crustaceans covered in reddish, soft shells covered with golden-brown salt like white armor. Krikaliev took one of them, ripped open the soft shell, and chewed the soft flesh along with the bread.
“Well, that’s pretty good.”
His words weren’t very trustworthy, but I was hungry nonetheless. The smell wasn’t too bad either, Usher grabbed a red-ripe triops from the pot. As if to show off the salt that was filled in the pot, it looked salty, but somehow the shell was peeled off to reveal the white and reddish inside. It was a pity that only the fingers were left after the shell was peeled off.
“Gather the shells together in one place.”
Throwing away the shell separately in the pot he served, the flesh of the triops was placed on the simple bread, and when I took a bite, I could feel the savory aroma of the bread and the elasticity and salty taste.
“Delicious…Isn’t it?”
It was a bit salty as I used a lot of salt, but it was rather suitable for mild bread. In the case of bread, it was inferior compared to what I ate at Parz, but I couldn’t say that it was not tasty.
“Parzu has a lot of willows and Triops are caught well, so even if you know how to cook simple food, you won’t starve to death.”
As he ate while listening to him, he felt his throat choke. The bread was thicker than usual, and it was not easy to pass it. As he was tapping his chest, Krikaliev held out a water bottle. All in all, it was a bottle containing the water used to make bread with willows, so I was suspicious, but I drank it in a hurry, and the unsalty water unexpectedly wet my mouth.
“How did this happen?”
“It’s an application of the flask used by alchemists. If you boil salt water, the salt remains and the water evaporates, so if you collect the steam and transfer it to the tube, you can just get water.”
In Parz, it is said that they are already using it often to obtain water.
“Perhaps Lantua is no different.”
“In Lantua?”
“That’s right, isn’t that where the alchemists first came out?”
That was the first thing I noticed. After an evening that was richer than he thought, Usher lay down.
“Can’t you sleep, Mister?”
Even though only the fire of the hearth lit up the surroundings in the already pitch-dark darkness, Krikaliev was still sitting as if guarding the hearth, showing no sign of lying down.
“One of them has to watch. If there’s no Hildis Beanie and monsters or wild animals attack, it’s over.”
“Then me.”
“You’re just sleeping, man.”
Usher wanted to help even at this time, but Krikaliev simply put him down as he tried to get up. I turned away from him and closed my eyes because I felt like tears would come out of the feeling that filled his chest. The sound of the tired breathing of the horse supporting him and the sound of the waves that were heard today were reciting a lullaby.
“Ugh, it’s cold.”
It was only for a while that I entrusted myself to the energy of sleep brought by the waves. Even though it seemed like I had just fallen asleep, I was awakened by the shivering cold that penetrated my clothes and the touch of water drops tapping on my nose. Even though I was leaning against the horse and covering myself with a blanket, the cold, damp energy that penetrated through the blanket seemed to soak the bandages that wrapped around my body. The sound of the waves that sang a lullaby last night also wakes him up. When I slowly opened my eyes, a thick fog covered my eyes.
“Mister?”
“Are you awake?”
Then Krikaliev’s voice, heard casually from beyond the fog, reassured him.
“What is all this?”
I squeezed the blanket tightly to wrap myself in the cold energy that entangled my body, and I stood up and asked, but the fog was so thick that I couldn’t look around.
“It’s like this at dawn. It’s all around the sea of water, so it’s going to be like this until the sun is a little bit brighter, so grow up a little more.”
It’s so thick that you can’t find him, even though you can hear his voice nearby. However, Usher held back the drowsiness that came back and got up.
“It’s okay. I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep anyway because my clothes are damp.”
“Is that so?”
Until the fog lifted, they sat still and passed the time. I didn’t see Krikaliev, but I knew he was right there, so I wasn’t too worried. Soon, as if the day was dawning, the fog turned crimson, and soon it lifted, and, just like last night, I saw Krikaliev sitting down and lighting a fire in the brazier that had been turned off.
“It looks like the fog will lift soon, so let’s just have breakfast and leave.”
When the fog clears enough to tell each other apart, Krikaliev puts the pot on the stove. I couldn’t see the contents, but when I shake the closed pot with my hand as if something were being stir-fried, I heard the sound of hard things hitting the pot wall from the inside. It didn’t seem as heavy as a stone. The sound of scratching the pot wall was light. I realized that the salty smell that had been brushing my nose from earlier was a bit different from the smell of the water here. It smells like a little burning, but like the Triops I ate yesterday, it’s a bit fishy and savory.
He continued to shake the pot over the fire, then took a pitcher and poured water into the open pot. Then, the water touches the hot pot, cools down, and the smell that had been irritating the nose from earlier fades away. It didn’t stop there, but I took out a spoon and watched as it was being stirred, and soon I saw the pot being put down with a bubbling sound. Only then was I able to check the contents. Wherever he got it, he saw a thick soup with reddish tinge.
“Is this soup?”
“Yeah, do you remember collecting the remaining shells yesterday?”
“You made this with it?”
I couldn’t believe it, but when I held the spoon and recalled the contents, I saw the pieces I had seen in the shell of the Triops that I had eaten and left yesterday.
“The shells of crustaceans such as triops and triwavids are difficult to eat simply, but when heated, they soften and when boiled in water, broth comes out. Each one of these is precious.”
Krikaliev put the water in another pot to boil, put the pitcher on the lid and sat down beside him with a spoon.
“What are you doing without eating?”
“Ah, I will eat well.”
When I lifted the spoon with him and swallowed the soup, the taste I had once tasted reached the tip of my tongue.
“Lobster?”
It tasted like the crawfish soup I made when I first met Donnar and Sif and crossed the Clouds together. I couldn’t say it was completely the same when I scooped it up and ate it again, but the taste was similar enough to come to mind.
“Huh? What is it? Have you ever eaten crayfish?”
“That’s how it happened.”
Hearing his words, Usher trembled for a moment when he saw Krikaliev staring at him. He was obviously just staring at him, but it was because the one-eyed yellow face revealed by the iron mask he had taken off to eat gave a strange pressure just to face it. Come to think of it, crayfish were considered dangerous enough to be similar to dragons. As he belatedly recalled the fact and rolled his eyes, Krikaliev muttered, stroking his chin.
“Hmm, I expected crayfish to taste similar to these guys, but I’m a bit disappointed.”
“Is that all?”
“Then what else is there? Do you think your teacher is great?”
“…Not like that.”
I can’t go back to Lantua anymore. I don’t know why the people here make his chest hurt like this. The soup tasted of longing and tears.
“Let’s start quickly, kid.”
After a brief meal, Krikaliev packed up his things and began tying them with ropes to the raft that had been pulled over the island. It was when Usher helped him get the pot.
“Ugh, what is it?”
Usher looked down in surprise at the soft feel of his boots. Because he had stepped on it, I could see a black liquid oozing out of it, as if something had been expelled from under the sand. I wondered if I had stepped on the excrement of a wild animal by mistake, but I didn’t think it was because it was sticky like mucus and kept its shape without being absorbed by the subject buried in the sand. He wants to take a closer look, and Krikaliev calls him.
“Ride quickly. It’s slow, but you should start early.”
At the sound of his call, Usher gathered the pot and mounted the horse. And when he looked back, albeit for a moment, on the island on which they had stayed, he realized something strange. Now that the fog had almost lifted, I could see the island. The white sand beach was full of uneven places like a small desert. The sand on the island I saw yesterday was flat with no curves.
“Uuuuuo
I looked at Krikaliev just in case, but he only guided me through meaningless complaints.
