Winter (1)
The next day, Brach Gul and his mercenary company left the inn.
The rooms they'd stayed in were a little worse for wear, but nothing was seriously broken—well, almost nothing. And whatever mess remained was nothing Riaen's auto-cleaning skill couldn't handle without breaking a sweat.
What was left, then…
"What on earth did they do in here to leave this room looking like this?"
A few things had been thoroughly wrecked. Every other room was spotless. This one alone was a disaster. Thanks to Riaen there was no filth left, but every last bed had been smashed to pieces.
"The orcs assigned to this room were exceptionally heal—"
"Stop."
Grace's words were enough. I understood exactly what had gone on in here last night.
Well… people do that sort of thing at an inn. Fair enough. The place was already as good as cleaned, so it wasn't dirty—just the thought of it soured my mood. I opened the windows to air the room out.
Cold wind poured in the moment I did.
"…Come to think of it, Grace. What's the climate like in the Dragon Canyon?"
"I can tell what you're getting at. By the standards of your world, Master, you could say the four seasons are quite distinct here."
Grace glanced out the window and went on.
"Which is precisely why it's a hard place for living things to survive."
"Wouldn't four seasons make it easier to live?"
"Well." Her tone was matter-of-fact. "Creatures born for summer can't make it through winter. Ones adapted to winter can't endure the summer. The same goes for anything tuned to spring or autumn—when the other seasons arrive, they die. In the end, only the ones that can survive all four seasons remain."
Meaning only the toughest creatures had held on in the Dragon Canyon.
"Though to be fair, four seasons aren't unique to the canyon. The real reason only the strong are left here is the dragons and monsters that live in it—not the weather."
So there were four seasons, at least.
"Looking at it now, winter's almost upon us."
That explained the chill in the air outside. Winter was drawing near.
"Then I suppose we ought to start preparing for it."
"Do we really need to? We haul wood down from the cliffs every day—that should be more than enough firewood. And within the inn's bounds, I doubt the temperature will drop below a certain point anyway."
More pressingly—
"Shall we fix the beds first?"
Grace pointed at the wrecked frames as she said it.
Ah. Right. We should.
Repairing the beds turned out to be simple. Just like the time Rain had demolished a bathroom wall, all I had to do was hold the necessary materials up to the beds and they fixed themselves.
Once Grace and I finished inspecting the guest rooms, we headed back to the dining hall—the heart of the inn—and found the other employees gathered around Sarluk, busy with something.
"What are you all up to?"
"Ah, Master. Would you take a look at this?"
Silver sounded thoroughly pleased with herself. Apparently she'd made something, and everyone had crowded around to admire it.
Whatever it is, the option that improves the quality of finished goods must have triggered. There's no other reason she'd look this happy.
"All right, what did you make?"
I stepped closer as I asked, and the others parted so I could see. That was all it took.
"…Is that…"
A bungeoppang mold?
I knew the thing on sight. I just never expected to see one here.
"Yes. Bungeoppang. The winter snack from your original world, right, Master?"
"That's right. I'm impressed you managed to make this."
Silver knowing about bungeoppang wasn't strange—we'd formed a Dragon's Contract, after all. But knowing about them and actually forging a mold for them were two very different things.
…A hundred percent the option kicked in and made this for her.
This was Silver, who could take a perfectly good harpoon and turn it into scrap. There was no way she could craft something like a bungeoppang mold on her own.
"This is truly a bread mold?"
"I've seen patterned molds before, but… why shape it like a fish…?"
"Is it perhaps a bread with fish meat inside?"
Unlike the dragons bound by the Dragon's Contract, Eliona, Riaen, and Sarluk had never heard of bungeoppang. They couldn't make sense of the mold's shape at all.
"Well, we've got the mold. I'd love to try making some, but…"
The problem was, I didn't actually know how. More precisely, I didn't know how to make the batter. And the dragons who'd inherited my knowledge were almost certainly in the same boat.
Or so I thought.
"That won't be difficult. If I go by the texture and smell of bungeoppang from your memories, Master, I can get reasonably close."
Grace was terrifyingly competent.
"Eliona, Riaen—you two oil the molds with the oil I'll bring you. I'll handle the batter and the filling. Rain and Silver, get the molds heating."
Issuing orders as she went, Grace headed for the kitchen. Rain and Silver conjured small flames with casual magic and began warming the molds, while Eliona and Riaen collected a pot of oil and a brush from Grace.
Everyone was still getting ready when Grace returned—batter and filling already finished, as if no time had passed at all.
Did she ferment it with magic?
No—thinking about how meat left on that kitchen cutting board transformed itself into something ready to cook, the batter had probably been produced by the kitchen's own functions.
Not that it mattered much either way.
"Ohh…"
"……"
With practiced hands, Grace poured batter into the molds, spooned in a measure of filling, topped it with more batter, and closed the lids.
"Just cook them like this?"
"If your memories are right, Master."
"Huh. Nothing that special about it, then?"
Rain adjusted the flame, sounding faintly disappointed. Apparently this world had similar snacks of its own. The onlookers looked a little let down too.
"They're done."
After a short while, Rain declared the bungeoppang finished and opened the molds. Golden-brown fish-shaped pastries emerged.
"Oh… the shape looks about right."
"So this is a 'bungeo'?"
"It does rather resemble one."
Confirming they were cooked through, Grace lifted the bungeoppang onto a plate with tongs—too hot to touch bare-handed—then oiled the molds again and added fresh batter and filling.
"What, you're making more?"
"You think a handful of these is enough for everyone here?"
Rain glanced at the plate, then nodded as if that settled it.
Meanwhile Sarluk picked up a freshly made one with his bare hands, apparently unbothered by the heat.
"May I simply eat it as is?"
"Yeah. Just try not to spill the red bean paste inside."
Sarluk took my advice—and shoved the entire thing into his mouth in one bite.
…He just ate the whole thing at once.
"Hmm. Crisp on the outside, and the filling inside—red bean paste, you called it?—is rather sweet. Frankly, not to my taste."
"That so? Well, to each their own."
"I prefer fruit, myself."
…Personally, I didn't think bungeoppang and fruit went together at all. But that was probably just prejudice from never having tried a fruit-filled one. Modern Earth had every weird bungeoppang variant imaginable, after all.
"Ah—hot!"
"Hoo… hoo…"
Eliona and Riaen, it seemed, had grabbed their share bare-handed and burned themselves.
"You okay?"
"Yes, I'm fine. It merely startled me."
Saying so, Eliona carefully cooled her bungeoppang and nibbled only the tip of the tail. Unlike the paste-stuffed body, the tail cooled quickly.
"…It's ordinary good bread."
Which was another way of saying the tail had no filling in it.
"Try the part with the paste too."
"This part is still hot, though…"
"Mmmph!"
While Eliona hesitated, Silver swallowed her own bungeoppang and called over.
"Eliona! Bring us some beer!"
"Hm?"
"This sweet stuff would go amazingly with a drink, don't you think?"
"Hoh…?"
Rain, who still hadn't tasted one because she'd been managing the fire, let the corner of her mouth curl upward. Grace, still baking more, glanced toward the pub as well. I saw no reason to stop them.
"Don't overdo it."
"Aye aye!"
And just like that, an unseasonable drinking party broke out.
Grace brought more batter from the kitchen, along with every kind of filling she could wring from the pantry—not just red bean, but fruit, nuts, jam, anything she could turn into a paste. Thanks to her, we got to enjoy all sorts of bungeoppang.
A little too many sorts, honestly.
The variety was wonderful. The sheer volume covering the dining tables was another matter.
"Urgh… I don't think I can eat another bite… Forgive me…"
"Hey, if you're full, just stop. Nobody's forcing you."
Sarluk was the first to surrender. For someone who claimed to prefer fruit, he'd clearly overdone it on the fruit-filled ones.
"Another red-bean bungeoppang over here!"
"Coming."
At some point the baking duties had shifted from Grace to Riaen. She could manage the fire magic well enough, and frying bungeoppang didn't exactly demand master craftsmanship.
Come to think of it… Riaen can use magic?
Nothing combat-grade, clearly. But she had been royalty—she'd probably received some magical education. Did that mean Eliona could too?
I felt a small pang of envy.
Anyway…
I watched the dragons pile bungeoppang on the table and keep eating. It was genuinely impressive how all of that disappeared into their bodies. I knew perfectly well their true forms dwarfed these human shapes, but still.
I was still watching them wash down pastries with alcohol when—
"Hmm… snow, it seems."
Sarluk was looking out the window. He was right. Outside, lightly but unmistakably, snow was falling.
Winter had been drawing near, she'd said.
It had already arrived.
"Snow?"
"…Snow?"
Hearing us, Eliona and Riaen both turned our way.
…Why that reaction?
"Ah—neither of them has ever seen snow fall in their lives. The Valerian Kingdom is warm year-round."
Silver gazed at Eliona and Riaen the way one looks at something unbearably cute. Even knowing both were adults, watching them stare at snow with such wonder pulled a smile out of me before I could stop it.
"Want to go outside and feel it?"
Eliona and Riaen nodded so hard I thought their heads might come off.
Right—better bundle them up warm before we head out.