Chapter 551: Book
Is the bitterness due to the ash or the watermelon? That’s a mystery.
Even when I use [Appraisal], all I get is something simple like, “Watermelon, a type that can be used as water in arid regions.” I probably can’t categorize the act of adding ash as cooking in my mind.
Come on, me! Recognize it as food! Otherwise, my [Appraisal] is going to stay cold and indifferent!
“Hahaha! This is terrible, Master!”
Even the Ex-Staff is unimpressed.
“With the water made from this, you can boil dried maize (corn) to eat or use it to wash your body.”
Ah, I think Karn mentioned maize before.
Is it referring to corn around here, or is it just the name from the Era of Fire?
“I see, boiling dried corn with that is a good idea.”
I remember that if you eat it as is, you can’t absorb essential amino acids properly, but if you boil it with lime, wood ash, or crushed shells, it becomes easier to absorb.
I know that Europeans who ate corn without knowing this ended up with pellagra and other deficiency diseases. Pellagra has a more striking appearance than beriberi, and it might be judged as a curse from the extinct indigenous people.
Alright, I didn’t understand why I should add a pinch of ash, but now I accept it as the wisdom of our predecessors! Ash is necessary!
“By the way, what kind of rhizome do you give to the goats?”
“Much bigger than you or the watermelon!”
It seems to be huge. For a moment, I thought it was the root of the watermelon, but it wasn’t. It was something round that I didn’t recognize.
“Master, one more!”
Thanks to the enthusiastic Ex-Staff, I ended up digging out four more unnecessarily, which I quietly stored away.
Now, what should I do? I was thinking of creating a watermelon with more water, but considering the nutrients in corn, it might be better not to mess with it.
Even if I say to treat it with alkalinity, it will definitely be lost someday. In that case, it’s better to keep the state of “using ash to obtain water” as it is.
“Alright, let’s make this watermelon bigger.”
From a small watermelon to a large one.
“Make it bigger?”
“Is that a problem?”
I asked the watermelon spirit, who seemed a bit confused.
“If you make it bigger, won’t the skin be thick and hard? The goats might not be able to eat it. They can only manage while it’s still young.”
“I see. Then let’s focus on increasing the number instead.”
If I make it bigger and thin the skin, it might crack halfway through, and carrying it on a journey would be troublesome.
“That sounds good.”
With the watermelon spirit’s approval, I decided on that direction. It seems like just increasing the number of plants would solve the issue. After all, it’s better to have many fruits from one seedling, right?
I took the seeds from the watermelon and poured my energy into them, asking the watermelon spirit to help them grow well.
I thanked the Spirits and used [Teleportation] to Kanum.
Now, just bringing watermelon seeds as a gift feels a bit lacking. Wine is a given, but what else should I bring? Bread and… what else would be good?
Speaking of which, was it around the time the doghouse was built? They mentioned doing a lot of sculpting this time, so maybe it’s not ready yet? I could check it out and measure the size of the futon to lay inside.
“Hello~! Is Haulon here?”
Even though it’s evening, the sun is still shining long in Kanum, and I show up at Haulon’s rental house again, just like yesterday.
“Yes, I’m here.”
“Are you feeling worn out?”
I say as I enter the living room, noticing Haulon looking rather ennui.
“Worn out? More like exasperated.”
“Why’s that?”
Please tell me I’m not the culprit here.
“It’s not here in Kanum, but the Spirits played a prank on a book!”
“Spirits tend to prank books quite a bit, don’t they?”
In this world, Shulm uses the power of Spirits to make paper, so there’s an abundance of it compared to parchment. The literacy rate isn’t particularly high, but it’s still accessible if you try hard enough.
By the way, while “original books” are fine, copies tend to degrade. It’s not just age-related; the Spirits mess with them, erasing or swapping specific characters, and the text or illustrations gradually change from the original.
The further you get from the original, the more pronounced it becomes. Also, unauthorized copies seem to be subject to all sorts of mischief.
Even so, the ones that are bound still hold up somewhat, but if you leave a single sheet unbound, it probably won’t last a month.
In this world, if you want to keep important texts, you either bind them into books, put them in envelopes, or seal them with wax. It’s a bit of a hassle.
“That’s not it. A properly made book, not a single character should be able to transfer that ink! But this time, it got rewritten!”
“Is that so?”
The original can be pranked too?
“If the original gets rewritten, what are we supposed to believe? This is a huge problem!”
Haulon is agitated.
“Thinking about it, that does sound serious, but I can’t help but wonder why the original hasn’t been pranked until now…”
I have the impression that Spirits prank indiscriminately, but it does seem like they prank books more than others.
Oh, maybe it’s because Rudil is making the Spirit Library. He’s actively having his retainers copy books. During that process, characters might get transferred, and they might just get bored and prank for fun.
“I’ve heard that the strength of one’s attachment to the text determines this. Some say that the feelings of both the writer and the reader get burned into the paper. —The desire to sell it for a high price doesn’t count when it comes to the text, but rather the product itself.”
“I see?”
“More importantly, right now, it’s about the contract book! Of all things, a contract!”
…Huh?
“Moreover, it’s from the Temple and the Royal Palace! Several bound contract books, each with different storage locations and creators!?”
…
Now that I think about it, when I messed with everyone’s contracts in the Demon Forest, the Guild’s contract book got burned, and when I cut the contract binding the zabuton, the zabuton itself went poof…
Alright, it’s just my imagination!!
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