A Taste of Sweet Betrayal
Ant-wolf Territory (2). Potatoes, chili peppers, and a few fruits they had never seen before. As Chester and Monia gathered all these bounties, something strange appeared before them.
"What is this?"
"Is it... a fruit?"
"I wonder..."
It was a strange-looking plant, with a single stalk rising straight from the ground, topped by a fruit. The fruit itself was covered in sharp spikes, and a tuft of spiky green leaves sprouted from its very top.
"What kind of fruit is this?"
"Is it edible?"
"Since it's a fruit, as long as we're careful with the seeds..."
What on earth was this? Chester and Monia stared at the bizarre fruit for a long time before deciding that since it was a fruit anyway, they might as well try it. Chester stabbed the base of the fruit with his claw knife, harvested it, and placed it in their basket. Once they shaved off all the prickly outer skin, a vibrant yellow flesh was revealed.
"Oh, it's yellow."
"It looks incredibly juicy just by looking at it."
"Indeed. It smells good."
Chester sliced off a small piece of the flesh with his claw knife and shared it amicably with Monia.
"Oh."
"Wow."
It was incredibly refreshing. On this Floating Island, where most fruits were cloyingly sweet, this rare, tangy tartness burst forth with overflowing juice, washing down their throats.
"This is great. Right?"
"Yes! It's delicious!"
A novel flavor was always welcome. After happily devouring the mysterious fruit, the two continued their walk.
The Ant-wolf Territory was larger than they had expected. Furthermore, just as crossing a river changes the landscape, the vegetation here was significantly different from the area around Chester and Monia's shelter.
For starters, snakes were rarely seen. Instead, giant spiders made frequent appearances. The variety of fruits had become more diverse, while aromatic herbs had slightly decreased. However, they spotted many plants that could be used as seasonings. Along with chili peppers, there was even pepper—though only in small quantities.
"Black pepper!"
"Is this pepper?"
"Yes! I was so curious about what pepper looked like that I wanted to see it! I've actually seen it in person before!"
Upon discovering the pepper, Monia practically lost her mind. Anyone watching would have thought she had struck liquid gold. The pepper they found was fresh and undried, hanging in clusters like tiny grapes. Monia's eyes gleamed with greed as she tried to harvest every single peppercorn in sight. Chester had to hold her back, though.
Since they didn't know if they could successfully cultivate pepper or chilies yet, mindlessly stripping the plants bare and wiping out the local seed supply was a bad idea.
"If we leave them, will they spread on their own again?"
"Yeah. Remember what I told you before? Fruits aren't poisonous because they need animals to eat them and spread the seeds."
"Yes."
"Chilies and pepper will also find their own ways to propagate and grow."
"That's fascinating."
Monia looked at the surrounding plants with newfound wonder.
"Well, they don't all rely on other living creatures."
"They don't?"
"Dandelions have light seeds, so they just drift away on the wind to spread. Some flowers have seed pods that burst open, using that force to fling their seeds in all directions."
"Ooh."
Monia listened to Chester's explanation with sparkling eyes, like a child listening to a wondrous fairy tale. As if trying to hear him better, she subtly nudged closer to his side, walking shoulder-to-shoulder with him as she listened.
"Do you find this kind of stuff interesting?"
"Ah, well...! Yes. It's... it's just that I never knew about any of this, so it's quite fascinating."
Sensing something slightly awkward in her behavior, Chester narrowed his eyes and looked down at her. But Monia was too distracted to notice his gaze.
Looking at him like this, Chester's face isn't bad at all. And his body is... well.
His broad shoulders were entirely different from those of noble young men who only learned swordsmanship for etiquette. His thick neck, his defined traps, and the faint contours of his chest and abdominal muscles visible beneath his vest...
I don't think I noticed those before.
The vest that used to fit him perfectly had become too tight, accentuating the sharp definition of his muscles.
Did his body get bigger?
Monia's guess was spot on. He was no longer skipping meals like he did during his butler days, nor was he starving from a lack of food like during their early days on the Floating Island. Thus, while Monia had grown slimmer after losing her daily tea times and multi-course meals, Chester had actually bulked up now that his nutritional needs were fully met. Compared to his current physique, his past self looked like nothing but skin and bones.
I didn't realize it because I see him every day...
With his nutritional deficiencies resolved, his frame had filled out, and with plenty of physical labor, he had even grown taller, completing a delayed growth spurt. Sensing Chester's larger, more imposing presence, Monia suddenly recalled the time she had been held snugly in his arms.
"Ughhh."
"What's wrong?"
"Ah, n-nothing! It's nothing!"
"Really?"
Monia frantically rolled her eyes, scanning their surroundings to distract him.
"Ah, over there!"
She pointed toward something unusual she had spotted.
"Let's go over there! I see something!"
"Huh? Really?"
Since the trees blocked his view from where he stood, Chester leaned over toward Monia to look in the direction she was pointing. The moment he saw a shimmering, golden object swaying gently in the breeze, his eyes widened in surprise.
"Oh."
Then, with a grin, he patted Monia on the head.
"Good job."
"Pardon?"
Clueless about what was happening, Monia looked utterly bewildered by his sudden praise.
Chester and Monia stared at the grain laid out before them.
"Is this wheat?"
"Hmm... I wonder."
"If it's a grain, isn't it wheat?"
"No, there are other wild grains besides wheat."
"Oh."
At the very least, it was certain that the plant before them wasn't wheat. It looked quite different from any wheat Chester knew.
"Well, a grain is still a grain."
Chester brought over one of the wide clay plates he had made for cooking.
"First, let's beat this with a branch to thresh the grains."
"Right, okay."
"Beat it gently so we don't lose any grains."
"Okay."
Placing the stalks on the plate, Chester and Monia began to gently tap them with branches to thresh the grains. Because they worked with extreme care to avoid losing a single grain, the process took quite some time.
"Phew."
Once they finally finished threshing, Chester placed the plate over the campfire to separate the grains from their husks. As he roasted the grains, stirring them with a bamboo spatula, the husks began to loosen and separate.
After roasting them thoroughly, Chester fetched some water and poured it onto the plate.
"The grains will absorb the water and sink. So we just need to scoop out the husks that float to the top like this."
"Okay."
"Once we scoop the husks out, let's roast them again."
"Huh? What are you going to use them for?"
"I'm going to brew them into tea."
Thinking that the husks might still hold some flavor or nutrients, Chester decided to turn them into tea. He carefully scooped the husks into another plate, drained the water, and began roasting the grains once more.
After roasting the grains to dry out the moisture, he did the same with the husks. Chester stored the roasted grains and roasted husks in separate bamboo containers.
"Phew."
"What are we doing with the roasted grains?"
"We have to grind them into flour."
"Flour."
"Yeah."
For this very moment, Chester brought out a clean stone slab he had never used before. Since the slab was slightly concave in the center, he placed the roasted grains in the middle and began grinding them with another stone.
"Won't stone dust get mixed in?"
"We'll just have to deal with it."
"Eww."
He crushed the grains with a stone, ground them between the rocks, crushed them again, and ground them further. Fearing that the precious flour might blow away in the wind, they closed all the windows and carefully ground the grains, relying solely on the dim light of the campfire.
As they ground the grains with utmost care, a small mound of pure white flour soon piled up in the concave center of the stone slab.
"Ooh. Is this flour?"
"Yeah. Though I'm still not sure if that plant was actually wheat."
"We're making bread with this, right?"
"Bread, huh..."
"What is it?"
"We're missing some key ingredients to make bread."
"Really?"
"Yeah."
To make bread rise, they needed yeast.
"Yeast?"
"Yeah."
"Then let's make it! Yeast!"
"But I don't know how to make yeast."
A look of utter betrayal began to wash over Monia's face.
"Is there anything you do know?!"
"I don't know everything in the world, you know."
"Bread...! You said we could eat bread! What about cake...?!"
Chester avoided her gaze. Monia clung to him, shaking his body violently.
"You lied to meee! How could you do this?! Traitor! Scumbag! You're just like Jordy!"
"Hey, that's going too far. Look, even if we can't make bread, we can make other things!"
"Like what?!"
"Like pie!"
Freeze. At the word 'pie,' Monia froze.
"...Do it."
"Huh?"
"Right now! In front of me! Make it! Otherwise, I won't believe you!!"
"Fine, sigh... Alright, alright."
Chester poured water into the small mound of flour and began to knead. Since there wasn't much flour, he didn't use his whole hands; instead, he just stirred it with his fingers and pressed it together.
As he worked it with his fingers, the flour soon transformed into a white dough. Chester patted and pressed the dough with his palms, flattening it out.
"Ooh. It looks like you're playing with mud."
"Well, it's similar. Though mud doesn't hold together quite like this."
Indeed, having spent so much time mixing soil and water to make clay, this task felt remarkably familiar. In any case, he raised the edges of the flattened dough to form a bowl shape, then filled it with the salted sweet-fruits Monia had preserved.
"Oh, it actually looks like a pie!"
"Does it?"
"Yes! Hehe, pie! Pie!"
Monia beamed with joy, her previous sense of betrayal completely forgotten. Chester finished it off by drizzling a thin layer of wild honey over the sweet-fruits nestled in the dough, then stepped out of the shelter toward the kiln. Monia scurried right after him.
The two placed their carefully crafted pie inside the clay kiln and lit a fire. Then, as they quietly waited for the pie to bake, they chatted away happily.