Chapter 36: A Table with Love

Lutz and Claudia were in a good mood in the morning.

When swords and knives sold for high prices and they could afford to live on them, they were able to add a side dish to their regular meals.

The basic meal is black bread, soup, and beer. Cheese and salted herring were added to it. That alone made a huge difference in the enjoyment of eating. Another big advantage is that you get a lot of protein.

Preservation is the first priority for salted herring, and taste is secondary or tertiary. It was so salty that I felt as if I was eating a lump of salt.

Claudia couldn’t eat more than one piece. She used one piece to eat the bread and soup, adding stimulation to the bread and soup, and that was fine.

Lutz, on the other hand, whose job it is to sweat in front of the furnace, loved to eat this intensely salted food.

“Yeah, it’s delicious. This stuff is delicious!”

Then, the head and tail are chewed and crunched. It was difficult for Claudia to understand, but she decided to assume that such differences in lifestyle resulted in such differences.

We had just finished eating and were relaxing a bit when Claudia came up with the idea.

“Basically, nobility only eats meat, but I think that’s not very good for their health.”

Nobles eat meat, and only meat. This is because it is a symbol of power. Being able to eat a lot of meat is a sign of being a strong aristocrat. Bread, vegetables, and fish are all for side dishes; the main course is always meat.

However, in those days when preservation technology was still in its infancy, meat was not always available, and people often had to eat meat that was on the verge of rotting.

The meat, which has melted a bit at the edges and turned green, is cooked and eaten with a generous amount of odor-eliminating spices. The smell is gone, which means the toxins are gone too.

“… They seem to be seriously thinking  something like that, but rotten meat is rotten after all. You shove that stuff in your stomach, get a stomach ache, and then go out in the garden and get bloated. That’s right, even the Count would not be able to keep his body strong. There’s no way it will be.”

“Clau, how to say it. The way you say it.”

“I want you to appreciate the consideration I waited until the meal was over.”

Claudia burst into laughter.

“I know that meat is delicious. I also know that eating meat makes your body bigger. However, I think it’s just a suspension of thought to rank meat as the best and fish as the third best and eat only that.”

“If you can only prepare rotten meat, you need the flexibility to eat fresh vegetables or fish.”

“That’s what I mean. There’s nothing but rotten meat, so let’s prepare spices to eat it deliciously, so why, why would we want to prepare spices to make it taste better?　That would clearly be the wrong direction for our efforts!”

Claudia’s fist slammed into the table many times, and each time the unbalanced table shook violently.

“It must be especially difficult to secure meat in the winter. The worst way to die is to eat carrion with your upper mouth, let it drip out of your lower mouth, and then slip on the frozen puke and hit your head and go to heaven. Even God would be disgusted to hear the cause of death.”

“Claudia, the way you say it.”

“… I’m sorry, I got too heated.  I didn’t want to talk about the Count’s asshole, I just wanted to say that if he would take more different kinds of meals, we would have more business.”

“The problem is that fish is more perishable than meat.”

Lutz said, twirling his fingers, and Claudia nodded.

“Salted fish is also good for workers, in fact I ate it myself. But it would not suit the noble palate of an aristocrat.”

“Just one bite and you’ll look like a cat with smelly paws. If that’s the case, the fish will have to be transported alive. We could put the fish in a fish tank and bring them in.”

A horse-drawn carriage is needed to transport a large fish tank. If possible, I would like a large road connecting the fortified city and the fishing village. Aside from eating fish occasionally, it is important to have a stable supply when it comes to eating it on a daily basis.

If you build a road, you also need maintenance. New labor will be imposed on neighboring residents, and dissatisfaction must be suppressed.

Claudia opened her arms wide and looked up at the ceiling. She was in over her head.

Bottom line, it’s impossible.

Changing the diet of the nobility, just that alone is too far away. Even if I was asked to build and manage roads because it would entrust the procurement of fish, it would never pay off.

There are many things in the world that cannot be changed even if we know that it is better to do so.

“By the way, there is an even bigger problem.”

“Are there more problems…?”

“The Bible says that meat is the finest of all foods.”

Claudia’s explanation made Lutz ponder for a while. He is an unbeliever who has not memorized the contents of the Bible in detail.

“What is written in the Bible is the order in which God created life, and I don’t think that is the greatness of life…”

“Oops, Lutz-kun, stop. If you accept that, it will shake the idea that humans are the greatest, so it’s useless. There are many people who would be troubled if the order in which God created us were not the same as the order of life.”

Claudia laughed and shook her head.

“Beast meat is the best food. Nobles who eat it are great. Hunting is a privilege of nobility, and only aristocrats can eat meat freely. Eating meat is also a way for the nobility to establish their authority.”

“So you’re sitting around with diarrhea in your belly. I hate to say it, but you must be an idiot.”

“Lutz-kun, how to say it. The way you say it.”

“I hope I didn’t come across as disrespectful. So, back to the beginning… I think it’s best to eat a well-balanced diet of seasonal foods.”

“That’s for sure.”

The conversation was over, and when I was thinking about going to the iron sand digging again today, there was a violent knock on the door.

“Lutz, the blacksmith? My name is Jocel, high knight, and I am here on behalf of my master, the great spellcaster Gerhard!”

Early in the morning, a guy with a very loud voice and exaggerated words came.

When I sent my gaze to Claudia wondering what was wrong, she had a very disgusted look on her face. That’s exactly the face like she was told to eat rotten meat. Her dislike of knights seems to be unchanged.

“I have a very bad feeling about this. What do you want me to do, send him away?”

“It’s a very attractive proposal, Lutz-kun. The question is, will he give up on it and stop coming after tomorrow?”

No,” Lutz said, smiling bitterly and standing up.

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