Kays Translations

Chapter 77: Creating a Village Specialty

Work on renovating the vacant building progressed steadily in preparation for the opening of the guild-run tavern.

The project had gone well beyond renovation and was practically new construction, but Tauro’s efficient work energized everyone around him, and progress remained smooth.

Carried along by that momentum, the tavern and inn were completed ten days ahead of schedule.

“We really built this…? Is this what people call stylish?”

“Right? I imagined something much rougher and more cramped.”

“Whatever it looks like, this is going to be our adventurers’ hangout from now on!”

The adventurers were deeply moved that they had created a new place to relax with their own hands.

Shin and Rumeya seemed equally impressed.

“It’s incredible that we built it ourselves…!”

“So this is going to be our next inn!”

They were brimming with excitement.

Then Tauro pointed out a dose of reality.

“Paying the lodging fee here will be difficult on what we earn in the F-rank band, so we’ll have to keep working hard.”

His words brought both of them back to earth. They checked the money in their wallets and slumped in disappointment.

Unlike the other two, Tauro had savings and income from side work, so he could have moved in immediately if he wished. For now, however, he decided to wait until Shin and Rumeya could afford to move as well.

Inspired by the adventurers’ conversation, Chloe named the establishment the Resting Pavilion, or Ikoi-tei.

The name was simple, but she hoped it would become exactly that: a place where people could relax.

She also vowed to turn it into a profitable new source of income for the branch.

In truth, the branch had nearly exhausted its funds on the project.

Tauro’s efforts had brought it to completion much sooner and saved a great deal in expenses. Even so, Chloe was acutely aware that if the business failed, the branch would be finished.

Oblivious to Chloe’s anxiety, Tauro took responsibility for training the cooks at the Resting Pavilion.

The existing inn had made fried dishes such as pork cutlets its specialty, so the new establishment needed a different menu to distinguish itself.

At first Tauro struggled to decide what to serve, but then he remembered something.

The dishes whose rights he had sold to the guild in Saisi belonged to the Adventurers’ Guild.

That meant there should be no problem serving them at another branch of the same guild.

When he checked with Chloe, she explained that each branch operated on an independent accounting basis. Since they were nevertheless part of the same Adventurers’ Guild, this branch could use the menu as long as it paid the appropriate usage fee.

Tauro immediately taught the cook how to make hamburger steak.

He had wanted to teach the village bakery how to make white bread, but the guild owned the rights to that recipe. He couldn’t infringe upon them, so he abandoned the idea.

For now, hamburger steak alone was novel enough to become popular.

Tauro also decided to make miso, although it would take time.

First he needed to make rice koji.

To make rice koji, he needed koji starter.

Fortunately, rice was used as livestock feed in the village, so it was easy to obtain.

He immediately began making the koji starter.

First, he milled and washed the rice, then soaked it while monitoring its water absorption until it had absorbed enough.

Next, he steamed it so that it would finish evenly, then cooled the steamed rice to a temperature at which the koji mold could grow.

He collected mold spores from rice plants and scattered them over the steamed rice.

Using [Purification] carefully so as not to kill the mold spores, he eliminated only the unwanted microbes, then adjusted the temperature and moisture and cultured the mold.

Once it was ready, he dried it with wind spirit magic, sifted it to collect only the spores, and mixed those with starch to complete the starter.

Without magic, the work would have taken an exhausting amount of time. After finishing it quickly, Tauro moved on to making the rice koji.

The process was nearly identical to making the starter up through the culturing stage.

He wrapped the prepared rice in a clean cloth, pressed it into as small and compact a ball as possible, placed it in a box, and kept it at roughly thirty to thirty-two degrees Celsius.

From time to time, he opened it to supply the koji mold with fresh oxygen, broke the clump back down into individual grains, and wrapped it in the cloth again.

After repeating the process several times over two days, the rice koji was finally complete.

“At last… Now I can start making the miso.”

Tauro felt faint merely thinking about how much work remained, but he rallied himself with the thought that the finished miso could become a specialty of the village.

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