Basic Veal Stock: Preparation

With winter now in full swing, the number of travelers using the highway had decreased considerably.

Fewer guests visited my inn, and the winter days passed quietly.

According to the brown-haired man, who visited us afterward, cabbage, sugar, and nuts had been successfully delivered to the fortress, and a mage capable of using healing magic had also been dispatched. For the time being, the number of people suffering from winter colds had remained around the usual level.

Everything in town was much the same as always, too.

It was probably fair to say that our disease prevention measures had been reasonably successful.

With plenty of free time on my hands, I decided to help Noah and Mirei with their studies.

Both children were naturally bright, and they absorbed everything I taught them as quickly as a sponge soaked up water.

Cassie had been steadily adding embroidery to the linen around the house and was now embroidering spare tablecloths and drawstring bags. I was sure they’d be enormously popular with the guests who visited in spring.

Cassie particularly liked the homemade magic-stone lamp in the dining room, saying that its light was bright and easy on her eyes, so she did her work there.

At the next table, I taught the children while occasionally watching Cassie work.

Neither Cassie nor I was particularly talkative, but thanks to Noah and Mirei, we’d managed to become reasonably close.

Without the three of them, winter would undoubtedly have been a much lonelier season.

The black-haired man had also started visiting approximately once every two weeks.

Apparently, the brown-haired man was concentrating on disease prevention measures at the fortress and in the surrounding area, so the black-haired man came alone.

Every time he visited, he brought me unusual gifts, such as coffee beans and fruit.

As for that baking soda we’d discussed, he’d returned with roughly a hundred times the amount I’d originally given him.

It was during one of the black-haired man’s many visits.

There were no other guests in the dining room, so I served him coffee, apologizing that I was merely offering him something he’d given me.

He sorted through the beans and ground them, while I brewed enough coffee for the two of us.

Cassie apparently wasn’t particularly fond of coffee. She was drinking hot milk with the children in another room.

After taking a sip of his coffee, the black-haired man began to speak.

“Actually, we’ve introduced your drying system and your method of heating with magic stones at the fortress.”

“You have…?”

I was surprised.

Both my drying machine and the use of magic stones for heating had been theoretically established long ago.

However, the reality was that magic was almost never used in everyday life in our country.

This stemmed from a long history of persecution in many countries, where mages had once been treated like livestock.

As a result, the number of people possessing magical power had dwindled, and countries subsequently became desperate to protect their remaining mages.

They weren’t about to waste their precious mages on such “menial” tasks as heating fireplaces or drying laundry.

Mages themselves took pride in their abilities, and because they were employed at extremely high salaries, they tended to dislike such work.

The fact that many people possessing magical power were nobles was probably another reason.

My drying machine and fireplace were little more than the idle amusements of a mage with too much time on her hands. They weren’t proper applications of magic. Respectable people would probably frown upon such unconventional practices.

It was one thing for someone like me, whose damaged magical circuits had reduced her to a low-level mage, but I was impressed that active-duty combat mages and magic knights had agreed to cooperate.

“Dennis—that’s the name of the knight who accompanied me before—handled that part quite skillfully. Although I suspect the biggest factor was the dreadful environment at the fortress. It’s freezing cold, and the laundry never dries.”

The black-haired man let out a deep sigh, as though he had firsthand experience of serving at the fortress.

Apparently, even the mages had been won over by the practical benefits.

“The military also prohibited mages from using magic outside their assigned duties.”

At a military garrison, a battle could break out at any moment. If mages carelessly exhausted their magical power, they might be useless when they were actually needed.

Even if they had plenty of magical power to spare, the military had good reasons for wanting to prevent them from expending it unnecessarily.

“However, I believe such restrictions limit the potential of mages,” the black-haired man said.

“…That’s…”

“At present, the only thing expected of mages is the strength of their offensive magic. But I believe magic should be something much freer than that.”

A multitude of emotions stirred within me as I gazed at the black-haired man.

“I agree with you completely,” I said.

I’d once been a magic knight who prided herself on possessing tremendous magical power.

I’d been rather conceited about my abilities, so I’d never questioned the current emphasis on offensive magic. Now that I’d lost most of my magical power, however, I’d come to realize that magic wasn’t limited to such things. It possessed far greater possibilities.

But that was something I’d only come to understand after losing my power. Unlike this man, I’d never been able to recognize those possibilities while I still possessed my former strength.

…How should I put it? I felt as though I’d just been shown the difference in the caliber of our characters.

However, the black-haired man said,

“And you’re the one who made me think that way.”

“Me?”

“I was able to introduce the drying room and the heating system because I’d already experienced how convenient they were. Without that experience, I would never have been able to persuade everyone else.”

“I’m glad I could contribute to your thinking,” I said.

Apparently, installing the drying room and introducing magic stones for heating had allowed the fortress to enjoy an unusually comfortable winter.

He intended to promote the use of everyday magic at other military garrisons as well.

Incidentally, the black-haired man was an unfortunate fellow.

For quite some time, he’d been telling me that he wanted to eat beef stew.

Beef stew was the dish that had opened my eyes to the astonishing realization that something so delicious could exist in this world.

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that a single dish had changed the course of my life. I’d thought I could happily eat it every day, but in reality, even the most beloved food became tiresome if eaten daily.

Whenever I made a batch, I ended up eating beef stew for two days straight during the busy summer season. In winter, if I was unlucky, I could find myself eating it for as many as four consecutive days.

For that reason, I’d established a rule that beef stew would only be prepared once a month during winter.

Unfortunately, his visits had never coincided with the right day, so he hadn’t managed to taste my beef stew even once.

“I’m off tomorrow, so I’d like to stay the night.”

Even on the day he said that, beef stew wasn’t on the menu.

I’d been craving beef stew myself lately, so that very morning, I’d decided to start by preparing the veal stock I needed to make it.

When I told him this, the black-haired man said,

“Perfect timing. I’ve been wanting to see how you make beef stew. Please let me help.”

Strictly speaking, I wasn’t making beef stew yet, but rather the veal stock that came before it. However, the initial stages of preparing the two were actually almost identical.

“Making veal stock is hard work, you know. It involves quite a bit of physical labor.”

“All the more reason I can’t let you do it alone.”

The black-haired man said something that made him sound like the very embodiment of chivalry.

At first, I thought he was joking, but he seemed surprisingly determined, so I decided to accept his help.

First, I couldn’t allow his knight’s uniform to get dirty. He needed to take it off and change into something else.

Knights’ uniforms were issued equipment, and you could get into serious trouble if you got them dirty. I was sure that was true of every knight order.

The black-haired man removed his uniform surcoat, but even the shirt he wore underneath was a spotless, high-quality garment.

If I splattered blood all over that, the servants in his household would probably burst into tears.

I told him to remove his shirt as well and had him put on a smock that Cassie had made from some bedsheets I’d been planning to discard. It was specifically intended for preparing raw ingredients.

Over that, I made him wear an apron reserved for the same purpose. I also gave him a triangular headscarf and a pair of sturdy leather gloves.

“That’s quite a lot of protective equipment.”

The man’s eyes widened in surprise, but that was simply what making veal stock entailed.

Once all our preparations were complete, it was time to get to work.