Beer (None) and Balsamic Glaze Seasoned Chicken
A few days after Catherine arrived in Fungusby village.
Just as Narke had predicted, packs of walnut-shaped Akusare mushroom golems kept streaming out of the forest to assault the village. Their numbers only swelled with time.
Yet the village itself felt safer than before. A subjugation force had reinforced Fungusby with extra supplies, and adventurers answering real-time hunting requests poured in as well. On top of that, the adventurers of the subjugation force had received Catherine’s broad capitalist buff—keep every scrap of loot—and threw themselves into the cull with feverish zeal.
It looked reckless at first glance, but of course it was. They might be called golems, yet in the end they were only giant mushrooms. Compared with golems of water, fire, stone, or the ice so common in Iceland, every blow against a mushroom golem landed for full damage. Even the towering Akusare mushroom golems whose heads brushed the palisade tops crumpled in moments once a few adventurer parties latched on and focused them down.
The fallen golems were left where they lay after their cores were ripped out; the adventurers immediately headed back into the woods. The silent carcasses piled up in front of the palisade for only a short while. Then, with the help of some of the adventurers, laborers hired by the subjugation force, and the villagers themselves, a vast pit was dug before Fungusby and every last remnant was shoved inside.
And after that?
“Whoa, look at that blaze go.”
From the command tower on the palisade, Karem watched the pit roar with flame. At first even magic had trouble setting the pile alight, but once the fire finally caught, it burned so fiercely the mushroom-golem remains vanished from sight.
“Is it because the base material is Akusare mushrooms? The first time was one thing, but the heat now is no joke.”
“Well, a golem’s traits always change depending on what it’s made of.”
“Hmm… then we probably can’t use fire magic in the forest anymore.”
Karem frowned at the heat rising on the wind.
“Hm? No real reason we can’t.”
“The flames down there are ridiculous.”
“Think about how long it took that pit to catch fire in the first place.”
Catherine flicked her fingers lightly; the heat that had reached even the tower vanished, replaced by dry cold.
“It’s almost summer, but the forest is still so damp you get dew on your boots just walking through it. Anything short of a real inferno won’t start a wildfire.”
“So water and ice magic would actually have the advantage.”
“Those are almost too effective, if anythi—”
“Ah, Lady Atanitas. Here you are.”
A thin, slightly winded voice floated up. Narke was climbing the stairs of the command tower.
“Oh, Karem’s here too?”
“Yep. Lunchtime’s almost here.”
“L-lunch!”
Narke’s drooping ears perked up, eyes bright with expectation.
Catherine crushed the mood without mercy.
“Finish the work first. I told you to investigate the cause. You’ve reached a conclusion, I take it?”
“Y-you mean the cause of the mana supersaturation phenomenon?”
“In this situation, is there anything else I’d be asking about?”
Catherine walked to the table in the tower, sat, and jerked her chin for them to join her.
“Sit.”
“Haa… i-it’s so dry and cool up here. Nice. Wait, that’s not important. The cause is exactly what you guessed. Th-the oil of the Akusare mushrooms.”
Gulp, gulp—Narke accepted the cup of water Karem handed her and wet her throat.
“O-of all things, the oil of Akusare mushrooms—already rich in mana and useful in so many ways. And they poured it into the forest for d-decades at least.”
“Until now it simply meant more mushrooms to harvest. But once the threshold was crossed, the mana supersaturated and golems started appearing.”
“Y-yes. That’s the exact conclusion.”
Catherine reflexively scratched the back of her head. The possibility she had half-formed a few nights earlier over dinner had turned out to be dead-on. Just as overeating becomes poison, the Akusare mushroom oil poured into the forest had enriched the soil and flooded it with mana until the critical point was passed and everything exploded.
“Then why are the golems charging out of the forest? Decades of parent-and-child mushrooms, harvested without mercy, finally taking revenge on humanity?”
It almost sounded plausible.
Contrary to Karem’s expectation, Catherine shook her head.
“What? Golems? As if. They look like that, but mushroom golems are still golems. Have you ever seen a rock get angry because you smashed a boulder?”
“The village I grew up in was nothing but forest and grassland around it—”
“That’s not what I meant and you know it! Well, if there were spirits involved it might be different, but anyway.”
Catherine, who had flared for a moment, let out a long sigh.
“Natural golems don’t even have a sense of their own kind. They only wander their territory and attack intruders. Unless the entire forest burns down, that’s all they are.”
“So something is actively provoking the mushroom golems right now?”
Like a single gunshot sending thousands of birds exploding out of a silent jungle.
“Exactly. And odds are high that undead are involved.”
Undead, all of a sudden?
Karem remembered Narke mentioning undead energy, yet not a single undead had shown its face near the village.
“Ah—so the mushrooms absorbed even the mana that would have created undead and turned into golems instead?”
“N-naturally occurring undead form underground, and mushroom spawn is underground too. There wouldn’t even be a chance for them to appear.”
As a necromancer and undead specialist, Narke spoke with certainty. Catherine nodded in agreement.
“I’ll keep feeding adventurers into the forest. Whatever’s stirring the mushroom golems up will surface soon enough. It’s not that big a wood.”
And that would be the moment Catherine herself stepped in. She had seen far too many strange disasters born from dragging things out. Once the cause was clear, the strongest force available had to end it in one stroke.
Catherine clapped her hands.
“Until then we conserve stamina and mana. Which means—”
“Yes. I know.”
Karem set the basket he had left on the floor onto the table. Narke gave a small clap of her own.
“P-perfect timing. I’ve been starving since I started thinking so hard before dawn.”
“Even when work is urgent, you still should have eaten breakfast.”
“Uuung…”
Narke could never say whose fault that had been. The very person responsible was watching her with a languid face but razor-sharp eyes, daring her to speak. Of course the moment Karem lifted the basket lid and a sweet-and-savory aroma flooded the command tower, the staring contest ended.
“What a delicious smell—”
The praise lasted only a second. Catherine’s voice stretched out as though she doubted her own eyes.
The dish Karem had taken from the basket was piled high with chicken. Yet even without sunlight the chicken glowed a bright, vivid dark red, blackened patches clotted across its surface, giving off an almost sinister air. Still, like gold and jewels that shine even in the dark, a clear glossy sheen caught both their eyes.
“K-Karem. What in the world did you do to the fried chicken?!”
“It’s sweet-and-spicy seasoned chicken based on the Red Witch’s Finger.”
“E-even so, the color is terrifying! I-is it going to kill us if we eat it?!”
“What do you take me for? Of course I adjusted the heat for both of your palates.”
“B-but still—”
“Forget the color prejudice and just smell it. How is it?”
Of course it was fine. Just as Karem promised with his sly little smile, the aroma ranked among the top five most seductive scents either of them had ever encountered. He had called it spicy, yet almost no sharp heat stabbed the nose. Instead a gentle acidity cut through the enveloping sweetness, refreshing the senses every time the thick sugar threatened to numb them.
Catherine filled her lungs. The source of that clinging sweetness that soaked both nose and tongue root was unmistakably honey. The bright sour note was similar to vinegar, yet she could not be sure—too many layers for simple vinegar.
There was only one way to learn everything. Yet her hand still hesitated.
“I-it really does look delicious, so maybe Lady Atanitas should try it first…”
Narke offered the trembling encouragement. Catherine instantly read the true meaning.
“Oh? So it looks tasty but you don’t want to risk it yourself, and you’d like me to confirm it first?”
“I-I never said it that far!”
“That sentence just now is basically a confession, isn’t it?”
“I-I would never think something so wicked.”
Catherine naturally did not believe a word. Anyone who could not meet her eyes while speaking was an open book. Still, she sighed.
“Kid. What are you doing?”
“Preparing the seasoned chicken for Lady Atanitas to eat.”
“When did I say I was eating it?”
“Come now, don’t just look at the outside—try one bite.”
Having finished setting the dishes, Karem worked the fork and knife with practiced ease. Faster than anyone could have coated the pieces by hand, he cut the boneless chicken into bite-sized chunks and brought one straight to Catherine’s lips.
The dark crimson still gave her pause, yet the scent was irresistible. The greasy crisp coating hidden under the sauce and the soft breast meat still bursting with juice battered the last of her defenses.
“Haa… if it weren’t for this damn smell…”
All her earlier resolve gone, Catherine ate the chicken at once.
Crunch!
His skill was, as always, beyond dispute. Under a crust even crispier than the chicken they had eaten the first night, the chewy skin shattered with a clean crack before the meat tore free without resistance. Then the exact sweetness that had filled the air wrapped her tongue in sticky silk and slipped between the fibers of the soft flesh. Chicken fat and juices welled up, blending with the rich sweetness, yet her tongue never tired. A complex acidity, a faint heat, and the fragrant nuttiness of toasted nuts danced across palate and nose, canceling one another out in perfect balance.
“This is… balsamic vinegar?”
“Well? Does it suit your taste?”
“Hah. It’s outstanding.”
Karem, who had been holding his breath, finally relaxed.
A proper seasoned-chicken sauce almost always needed ketchup and gochujang. Ketchup was still only a rumor of tomatoes, and he had no idea how to recreate gochujang. Yet cooking had always been the art of substituting until the approximation tasted good enough. In place of ketchup he had used caramelized sugar, roasted Akusare mushroom paste, and balsamic vinegar. In place of gochujang he had used toasted flour, garlic, honey, a touch of fruit, and chili powder. The result was nothing like the original, but Karem congratulated himself all the same. He had at least managed a silhouette visible from a great distance.
Am I a genius? He did not seriously think so, yet the feeling showed plainly on his face.
Catherine felt a sudden urge to smack him, then decided against it. Anyone who delivered food this magnificent deserved a little smugness. She was not petty enough to hit someone just because their expression was annoying.
The first fried chicken had been magnificent in its own right—the crackling skins that sang different notes with every bite, the flood of savory juice and oil, the meat that dissolved like silk. This seasoned chicken excelled in a completely different direction. The greasiness that usually built up toward the end of a fried meal was completely masked by the sweet-sour, gently spicy glaze.
Catherine swallowed and asked,
“Any chance there’s alcohol? Ideally something sparkling. Eisenwald beer would be perfect.”
“You think a village this small has Eisenwald beer?”
“Khhh… that’s really a shame.”
Catherine made no attempt to hide her disappointment and casually turned her gaze.
“Narke. Are you just going to sit there staring?”
Attached Materials
— Balsamic Sauce Seasoned Chicken —
This is a picture drawn by ChatGPT.