Ham And Cheese Sandwiches

The first thing I did when I woke up in the morning was bake bread.

I brought the dough I had prepared the previous night back to room temperature, then baked it in the preheated oven.

The lighter wheat bread finished baking first, followed by the heavier rye bread.

I heard a clunk and turned to find that a milk can had been placed nearby.

The brownies took care of the morning milking for me.

“That smells good.”

About thirty minutes had passed, and the rye bread was almost ready when the black-haired man appeared in the kitchen.

“Good morning. It’s cleared up nicely today, hasn’t it?”

The sky was perfectly clear.

“Good morning. What’s for breakfast?”

“Cheese omelets, roast chicken, carrot râpée, and pumpkin potage.”

“Sounds delicious.”

“Thank you. I’ll have everything ready shortly, so please take a seat and make yourself comfortable.”

Now that the weather had cleared, they would probably want to depart as soon as possible.

The brown-haired man appeared to have gone to check on the horses.

I quickly prepared breakfast.

I arranged the omelet, roast chicken, and carrot râpée together on a large plate and ladled the pumpkin potage into a soup bowl.

Once I had filled a basket with both wheat bread and rye bread, breakfast was ready.

For their drinks, I served hot peppermint tea.

Winter was fast approaching, but peppermint was an herb that could be harvested throughout the year. I found it extremely useful.

“Um…”

“I’m terribly sorry, but I still have some work to finish.”

The black-haired man seemed to have something he wanted to say, but my mornings were busy.

I practically ran back to the kitchen, spread butter on thin slices of rye bread, and began making sandwiches filled with ham and cheese.

“What are you making?”

I looked up with a start and discovered the black-haired man peering curiously into the kitchen from the doorway.

I had been so absorbed in my work that I hadn’t noticed him at all.

“I was making sandwiches.”

“Sandwiches?”

“Yes.”

“They look delicious. Mind if I have one?”

He was still eating?

“These are made with black bread, you know.”

“Your black bread is delicious.”

The black-haired man picked one up and took a generous bite.

“Delicious.”

“Thank you.”

“But you’re making an awful lot of them.”

“Travelers crossing the mountains buy them for lunch.”

On the other side of the mountains lay our neighboring country. Our two nations enjoyed friendly relations, and trade between them flourished. Even in late autumn, there was no shortage of people transporting goods or traveling across the border as merchants.

They preferred light meals like sandwiches that they could eat while traveling.

There were also children who came all the way here from town to gather firewood, mushrooms, and wild vegetables in the mountains.

They sold me the mushrooms and wild vegetables they collected. Some of the sandwiches were intended for those children.

Being conscientious youngsters, they helped me with the farmwork in exchange for the sandwiches.

Frankly speaking, the children were much better at farming than I was. They had been an enormous help to me over the past six months.

However, as winter approached, fewer and fewer children came this way.

The kitchen’s back door suddenly flew open.

“Lydia-san!”

The child who entered was one of the few who still came to visit.

“Ah…”

Upon noticing the unfamiliar black-haired man, the child looked startled and took a step backward.

“It’s all right. This gentleman is a guest. Good morning, Noah.”

“…Good morning, Lydia-san. I brought some mushrooms, and I collected the eggs from the chicken coop, too.”

Noah timidly placed the eggs and the mushrooms he had gathered in the forest on the table beside the back door.

“Thank you. Did you feed the chickens, too?”

“Yep.”

“Thank you very much. I’ll give you a boiled egg as a reward. It’s cold outside, so come in and warm yourself by the fire while you wait.”

“But…”

Noah seemed bothered by the presence of the black-haired man, who was a large, fully grown adult. He kept stealing glances at him before saying,

“…I’ll go check on the fields.”

With that, he dashed outside.

“Does he dislike me?”

The black-haired man murmured, sounding dejected.

“He lives with his mother and younger sister, so I think he’s uncomfortable around grown men.”

“I see. …But children his age should be attending school…”

Thanks to the local lord’s efforts, every town in this region had a school where children could receive an education free of charge.

“Apparently, he can only attend school occasionally.”

“Why? Surely education is free.”

“Because he needs to work and earn money.”

At my answer, the black-haired man’s shoulders slumped.

“I see…”

He had said he was born and raised in this region, so he probably felt a strong attachment to the land. He seemed distressed by the fact that some children couldn’t attend school as a matter of course.

I felt a little sorry for him and tried to offer some reassurance.

“This is a wonderful place to live. Our lord even allows his subjects to enter the mountains.”

From what I had heard, there were territories where the inhabitants were forbidden from entering the mountains.

There were all sorts of circumstances to consider, so I couldn’t categorically condemn such restrictions, but at the very least, the lord here was a good person.

Incidentally, only licensed hunters were permitted to hunt animals as large as deer or bigger. Ordinary people without hunting permits were apparently allowed to catch wild rabbits and certain types of birds.

Naturally, people also ate beef, pork, and chicken, but raising those animals required considerable money and effort, including the cost of feeding them. Rabbits and wild birds, on the other hand, were gifts from the mountains. Their meat was a precious source of protein that commoners could obtain for themselves.

When I explained all this, the man replied,

“…I-I see…”

The black-haired man ordinarily possessed the strong, resonant voice befitting a knight, but his reply was so quiet that it was barely audible. Finding this rather strange, I turned around and discovered that he looked embarrassed.

Why?

I couldn’t say I wasn’t curious, but mornings were busy. I returned to my work.

I put a pot on the stove to boil some eggs.

While I was at it, I looked inside the burlap sack Noah had left behind and discovered that he had gathered some mushrooms.

They smelled wonderful.

These would be delicious in soup.

“Well then, innkeeper, thank you for your hospitality.”

The black-haired man spoke.

“Are you leaving already?”

“Yes. Will this cover the remaining bill?”

He placed a gold coin on the counter.

He had already paid me a gold coin in advance, and I had assumed that would be more than enough. I certainly hadn’t expected him to give me another one.

“I can’t possibly accept this much.”

“Consider it thanks for the delicious food.”

The black-haired man smiled as he spoke.

“Well then.”

With that, he strode briskly toward the front entrance.

I hurriedly took a jar of cookies from the cupboard, wrapped some in a piece of linen, and chased after him.

“Please, at least take these with you. They’re cookies that keep well.”

I stopped the black-haired man and pressed the linen-wrapped package into his hands.

There were two varieties: salted cookies and cheese-flavored cookies. Neither was sweet, making them easy for men to enjoy, and they were also excellent accompaniments to alcohol. They were among my specialties.

Of course, they were nowhere near enough to make up for an entire gold coin, but…

“Are you sure?”

The black-haired man looked delighted.

“Of course.”

“I intend to come again.”

“Yes. I’ll look forward to seeing you.”

“Still…”

After saying that, the black-haired man smiled.

“Your kitchen smells wonderful. What’s that aroma?”

“Probably the demi-glace sauce.”

“Demi-glace…”

The black-haired man furrowed his brow in concentration.

Apparently, the name meant nothing to him, but it was hardly something that required such serious contemplation.

“I’m planning to make beef stew.”

“Ah, that!”

He seemed delighted to hear something he recognized.

“I love beef stew. What a shame. I would have liked to try it.”

“The sauce isn’t finished yet. It’ll take another two days.”

“That certainly takes a long time.”

“I simmer it thoroughly, so it takes five days. Even longer if I start by making the veal stock from scratch.”

Making demi-glace sauce was a major undertaking, even in the culinary world.

“Now I want to try it even more.”

The black-haired man laughed cheerfully, promised that he would return, and departed with his brown-haired companion.