City ​​of Witches 284

Chapter 284 – #63_Interlude(6)

#282

1.
The prime location of Ars Magna Town.
If you follow the hillside path densely planted with beech and sawtooth oak trees, you’ll reach the Jemernai Manor at the summit.

The Jemernai Count’s manor is also called the “Jemernai Palace” among witches.
The entire manor grounds are about the size of a small village, and the manor itself boasts such excellent facilities and size that it could be used as a hotel with just a little infrastructure.

It borders a large lake that runs through Ars Magna Town to the east, and there are more than four artificial ponds inside, so you can get a rough idea of its scale.
Passing through the massive main gate that seems to overwhelm visitors, you’ll find a garden where magically treated flowers are in full bloom regardless of the season.

Walking on the lush green lawn of the seemingly endless garden and passing six fountains, you’ll reach the main building of the manor, which is also famous for its beauty.

The hall that you see as soon as you open the main gate exudes a dignified beauty with its double-arched ceiling, like a cathedral, and the grandeur of the marble staircase.
The long gallery, which is connected to the main gate hall and used as a banquet hall, is over 6 meters wide and 70 meters long, and various beautiful paintings and sculptures are lined up like flower vases.

It was by no means the ostentation or vanity of a nouveau riche.
Despite the extravagance and waste, this manor has an aristocratic and elegant grace that doesn’t feel at all vulgar.
Every corner of the manor, even a single ivory carving decorating the stairs, is a testament to the ultimate luxury and opulence.

Conversely, this also meant that it was a place where a subtle tension lingered, as if you would be scrutinized for simply breathing carelessly.

However, this situation improves somewhat if you go through the north corridor to the annex.
Originally used as the main building, it is now used as an annex after expansion, so it is managed somewhat loosely.

Therefore, the rooms of the apprentice witch twins, the lodgings of the 50 or so employees, and the rooms where those employees work were mostly gathered here.
If there are this many employees in a manor of this size, there are naturally plenty of jobs and rooms to carry them out.

A stillroom for preparing base ingredients that require fire day and night, such as jams and soup stocks.
A pantry for storing luxurious plates and glasses.
A knife room for storing knives and cutlery with ivory handles.
A larder for processing and handling meat and storing various food ingredients such as eggs, cheese, and butter.
A laundry room for washing and ironing clothes using the heat from the boiler room, and so on.
There are rooms that busily assist the peaceful daily life of the vast manor.

However, the daily life of the manor, which runs busily from early dawn to late evening, also becomes quiet at night.
Especially in the kitchen, where food is prepared, the lights are rarely on at this hour unless it’s the day before a festival or banquet.

But tonight, even though it was well past 11 o’clock, a faint light was leaking from the basement window where the kitchen was located.

“Hmm….”
“Why, sis? Is there a problem?”

The ones occupying the spacious kitchen were Jemernai Odile and Odette.
The twins, who were always busy bickering, were tonight facing the same goal and the same worries, putting their heads together.

It was scheduled that their assistant, who had solved the problem in the mortal realm, would visit the manor soon.
While that in itself was exciting, they were planning and preparing to serve a hand-cooked capon stew for an even more heartfelt welcome.

However, the twins, who grew up as the precious daughters of the Count’s family and had never even gotten their hands wet, were already faltering from the start of their ambitious plan to make the world’s best capon stew.

“Odette, can you show me the recipe Lena gave us again?”
“You already memorized the recipe.”
“Just give it to me. I’m wondering if this is right.”

First of all, the preparation of the base ingredients was perfect.

One large capon, already cleaned.
They wanted to prepare it from start to finish, but they couldn’t bring themselves to pluck the feathers and clean the insides of a live capon, so they had asked Pecha to do it in advance.

“Thinly sliced black garlic, check, carrots, sage, ginger, celery, check, bay leaves and… rosemary, okay, all kinds of spices, check, butter, check…”
“Why? It’s just like Lena told us, right?”
“Doesn’t it seem like something’s missing?”

That’s right.
Lena had washed all kinds of vegetables and peeled them, worried that Odile and Odette would hurt their hands.
She had not only soaked the capon in milk to remove the blood and fishy smell, but had also already preheated the oven.
In fact, she had prepared the ingredients as if it were a ready-to-cook kit rather than a homemade dish.

The remaining task for the twins, who were clumsy but had no difficulty chopping the vegetables, was simple.
Marinate by applying olive oil, salt, rosemary, and melted butter thoroughly on the surface.
Fill the emptied capon with the crookedly cut vegetables and various spices, and sew it up with thread and needle.
Place the capon on a bed of leftover vegetables and herbs to prevent it from directly touching the oven floor, and then bake it in the preheated oven for about an hour.

It was actually not a very difficult dish, and since Lena and Pecha had taken care of the troublesome preparation process, the recipe was also very simple.
However, the reason why Odile’s expression didn’t brighten was because the process was ‘too simple’.

“Listen, Odette.”
“Yes, sis.”
“We’re clearly trying to make the world’s best capon stew, right? And we’re going to serve it to our assistant.”
“That’s right, that’s right.”
“But is this enough? This is just a dish where we put vegetables inside a capon and bake it.”
“Huh?”

Odette, who had been listening carefully to her sister’s words, seemed to have suddenly realized something.

The capon stew placed on the table was definitely delicious.

A luxurious texture closer to a wild bird than ordinary chicken.
The thick skin, which had turned a yellowish-brown color, was crispy like the surface of a cookie.
As the fat under the skin melted in the heat and wrapped around the tender meat, and the flavor of the vegetables and herbs that filled the inside was added, you would be immersed in a blissful feeling as if your tongue was being caressed.

To the twins who remembered that ecstatic taste, the recipe, which was only eight lines long, seemed too simple.

“Could it be that Lena hid a secret recipe and didn’t tell us?”
“Oh, come on, sis, surely not. Lena is so close to us, why would she lie like that?”
“No, she once picked up a turtle without permission and got caught by us. Lena can lie to us if she wants to.”
“Is… is that so?”

Odile seriously furrowed her brow and preached her opinion to her innocent younger sister.
Since Odette had joined forces with her for the sake of serving a delicious homemade meal to their assistant, no objections were raised.
Instead, she nodded her chin with a plausible expression.

“Originally, special sauces and recipes are like a witch’s inherent magic.
It’s a very secret and precious thing that is passed down from grandmother to mother, and from that mother to her daughter. There’s even a saying, ‘a sauce that isn’t even revealed to the daughter-in-law’.”
“Then… then, wasn’t it very rude of us to ask Lena for the recipe?”
“Maybe. So, there’s no need to blame Lena for hiding the special recipe. The important thing is that we need to make an arrangement here to achieve our original goal.”

Odile and Odette, who had already concluded that ‘Lena hid a secret recipe!’, simultaneously turned their gaze to the capon on the cutting board.
The capon, which was almost 50cm in size, was lying down, showing off a seductive figure as if it had been coated with oil before sunbathing.
However, surely, even if they looked at it again, it didn’t seem like that beautiful taste would come out just by putting vegetables inside and baking it.

“Sis, should we fill it with vegetables first? After all, it seems like the taste will depend on what ingredients we put inside.”
“Okay, but let’s only fill half! The rest, we’ll think carefully and come up with a better recipe.”
“Okay!”

Odette, full of enthusiasm, snorted and headed towards the food storage room.
Odile filled about half of the cool and damp belly of the capon with various vegetables, whole peppercorns, and spices, grabbing whatever she could get her hands on.

“Sis! How about this?”

Odette, who had disappeared for a moment, came back with oysters that were buried in the middle of a box full of sawdust and ice.
One of Odette’s favorite foods was to eat fresh raw oysters with lime, mustard, and vinegar.

When they went to Taro Town, she had even asked the oyster vendor who rang the bell to move his cart to their outpost.

Moreover, the quality of the oysters sold by the oyster vendor in Taro Town and the oysters delivered to the Jemernai Count’s family was like heaven and earth.
They were expensive, natural oysters, larger than the palm of Odette’s hand, with a unique fragrant and savory taste that was said to be the flower of the sea.
Odette was not one to pass up such good ingredients.

“Odette! That’s a very good idea, for once?”

Delicious oysters + delicious capon =?
A ridiculously delicious capon.
There was no way it wouldn’t be delicious.

Odile, who liked oysters as much as Odette, though not as much, couldn’t help but praise the novel idea.
Odette’s nose rose higher as she became more confident.

“Ahem! Sometimes, a change of perspective is important, sis. First, um… let’s put in 10.”
“Let’s do it!”

Odette washed the sawdust off the shells with water, and even brought a special knife for preparing oysters, and handed the prepared oysters to Odile with skillful movements.
But something was still missing.
It seemed like they could put in even better ingredients.

“Sis, if we put in oysters, don’t we need something to get rid of the fishy smell?”
“I was just thinking about that. How about lemon or lime? They go well with oysters.”
“That’s a good idea! Wait! I’ll go find some!”

The cooking research club was gradually turning astral.
If Lena had heard them, she would have grabbed the twins’ skirts and stopped them, but unfortunately, there was no one to stop the twins’ rampage tonight.
One after another, all sorts of ‘delicious ingredients’ began to mix inside the capon’s belly.

“We learned when we went to the mortal realm, right? Sweet and salty is very important.”
“Then, should we put in a little honey?”
“Hmm… I think sugar would be more suitable than honey.”
“Wouldn’t it be better to bring out the sweetness by using fruit rather than sugar?”

The pride of creating an even greater dish by breaking away from the existing recipe.
The twins, who had come to feel like great chefs because of it, began to add various ingredients while having a plausible discussion in their own way.

“Then, pears would be good. I’ll slice them… what! Odette! The skin doesn’t peel well.”
“Let’s just put them in with the skin! We can take them out later anyway.”
“Hmm, well, I guess we have no choice. Actually, I remember hearing that there’s a lot of good flavor in the skin of fruits.”

And so, whole sliced pears.
Added.

“Odette, I think the flavor is a little lacking as it is, right? There are only pepper and rosemary as spices.”
“I think you’re right, sis. Wait, hmm… cheese? Isn’t cheese good?”
“We’re on the same page today! Cheese is delicious too.”

And so, cheddar cheese, which was rolled out of the larder in a large chunk and grated with a grater.
Added.

“Cheese will add a rich flavor, but the flavor is still lacking. Okay, let’s add cinnamon sticks to balance the taste.”
“Cinnamon sticks?”
“That’s right, cinnamon goes very well with pears, right?”
“Sis, you look cool today.”
“What are you talking about, Odette? I’m impressed with myself too.”
“Hehe.”

As they built a warm friendship and added this and that, the belly of the large capon was already bulging like a pregnant woman.
They had quite a hard time sewing up the gap between its legs with thread, while touching its soft, frog-like flesh.

“Okay, I think this is enough?”

Odile pushed the oysters that were trying to poke out through the sewn gap back in with her finger.

“It’s going to be a perfect dish.”

Odette used a brush to apply butter to the surface so that it could brown nicely.
The two of them put the large capon in the oven with pounding hearts and confident expressions.