Chapter 39: Ahh, I Can't Stand it! I'll Buy it!
I stayed at the inn and started taking action the next day. But first of all, I need to gather more information. Oh, Norn and Bell were outside the village. As expected, there wasn’t any place they could stay at.
“Um, excuse me. This is miso soup, isn’t it?” “Hmm? Do you know about miso soup?” “Well, yes. So I wanted to get the kelp needed to make this soup stock.” “Hey now, so you even know about that too?”
When I listened to the explanation, it would seem that the recipe used for making the soup wasn’t something that was spread outside of the village. But it seems they could sell it to someone if they already knew about it. It wasn’t like I could just say that I knew about it because I was reincarnated, I could only say that I was something of a local cuisine enthusiast. So a local gourmet? Or something along those lines…… Anyways, in the end the dried kelp and bonito were sold to me. And I was given directions to the market. Which I was grateful for.
Hmm, maybe I should teach him a recipe that could be used with those ingredients as thanks? Nabe? But something too difficult would be problematic……speaking of which, the miso soup from earlier had tofu in it. Then how about yudofu?
“Um.” “Huh? What’s wrong?” “Nothing, I just wanted to express my thanks.”
Apparently, the recipe for yudofu didn’t exist, so he was quite happy. Although, I only said that after making a kombu dashi stock, you could also boil tofu in it. I also decided to teach him how to make a ponzu-esque sauce using soy sauce, dried bonito flakes, and vinegar that could be used as a dipping sauce for the tofu.
Afterwards, I went to the market that I was given directions for. Apparently, merchants would purchase ingredients from here, but merchants who couldn’t use water magic or possess ice-type magic tools wouldn’t buy much because the ingredients wouldn’t last too long. Although, none of that mattered to me.
However, because of that, there was little value in catching a lot of fish. As such, the amount of fish caught was quite small and usually only enough for village consumption. So I suppose it was something that couldn’t really be helped. Looking around, there were several fishermen sitting alongside each other with tubs and buckets filled with water. When I took a peek, there were various kinds of fish inside. There were even fishes that looked like flounders, seabreams, and mackerels. Thus, I decided to just buy everything for now.
“Excuse me, please give me all of this.” “What? All!?” “Yes, all.” “No, I can sell all of them if you really want them all, but are you sure? Won’t they go bad?” “Don’t worry about it. Please give me everything.” “O-Okay.”
After that, I went to the next person and bought everything, then to the next and next. But there weren’t any bonito or tuna. I want to eat sashimi. Katsuo no tataki would be nice too. I also still have quite a bit of yams left. I managed to find a lot of them growing in the forest near the river. I was about to move to the next person…….but I was called out from behind before I could.
“Hey, you. Are you still planning to buy more?” “Eh? Yes, I still want more.” “In that case, you should have someone go catch a bunch for you. You’ll be able to save more time and effort that way.”
It seems if I tell someone beforehand that I would buy all of their stock, they would go out and catch a lot of fish for me. That was useful information. I will buy them. I will buy everything. So I just have to negotiate with a fisherman about buying all their stock, let’s see who should I choose?
When I was deciding who to choose, a bunch of fishermen gathered around me and started promoting themselves. But as expected, I didn’t need that many.
“Well, then I’ll like to ask you since you were kind enough to tell me this info.”
In the end, I decided to go with the safe choice of asking the person who had informed me. He was reluctant at first, but left immediately when I gave him a small gold coin in advance. Well, I guess who wouldn’t be hesitant of a request from a suspicious person who was hiding their face under a hood, right?
Next up would be buying kombu and dried bonito flakes. I was taught where by the inn I was staying at, so I was able to purchase them without any problems. But I bought a lot since it was difficult to come across them. I didn’t know when I would be able to come here again. Thus, I had to do this. It had nothing to do with greed. The merchant’s face stiffened a bit but I ignored it.
After that, I went to admire the beach. No, I didn’t say I wasn’t doing anything, okay? I was using Creation Magic to make salt. A lot of it. I also managed to catch some bitterns. Since soybeans were regularly sold, I suppose I should be able to make tofu by myself now? Having self-sufficiency was good.
After lunch, I continued on absentmindedly at the same spot in the afternoon. And as expected, it was starting to look suspicious, so I decided to explore along the coast at the edge of the village.
The area was quite rocky, so you would get injured if you fell. Dangerous. However, when I looked closely, there was nori seaweeds growing, so I pulled them out and stored them. For starters, I didn’t take all of them, okay? But now I could make nori seaweed sheets with this! Rice balls with seaweed! Ah, I could make makizushi rolls too, nori rolls would also be nice……perhaps I could even make seafood rolls? Slurp!
I thought about the various things I could make. But many of the ingredients I needed only existed here. In that case, it would be better to have a lot in stock just in case, right?
After picking up the fish I had requested for in the evening, I returned back to the inn and enjoyed the seafood. I never thought I would be able to eat sashimi! And he was able to catch salmon and shrimp too. Amazing. I should immediately ask him to catch more tomorrow.
The next day, I went to ask the fisherman from yesterday for more fish. In addition, I managed to find shellfish when purchasing various things at the market. It seems that they would sometimes be found during dives. I must have this! And so, I bought all of it and asked for more to be harvested. As such, all the women in the village disappeared. ……Apparently, everyone went out to gather them.
Ah, would I be able to afford all of them?
I was a bit worried, so I went to sell some herbs to the guild, but the staff was overjoyed for some reason. It seems that there weren’t enough of these herbs in stock since the village was located in a rural area. However, there was apparently a limit to the amount that could be bought in one day, so the staff was a bit depressed.
As such, I was able to purchase all the shrimp and shellfish.
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