Volume 3 Chapter 2 Part2 (1/2)

“Uwaaa … nii-sama, there are a lot of little shops”

Tomoe pranced around seeing the stalls lined up in the plaza. The place Juna took us for lunch was the plaza where the Royal Broadcast receiver was installed. It was nothing but a field just a month ago, but it was now crowded with stalls peddling food and goods. We could hear the peddlers calling for customers and the customers haggling even though we haven’t yet set foot in the plaza.

There were also all kinds of people pa.s.sing by. Housewives shopping for dinner, flocks of merchants having lunch, and off-duty Elfriedenian soldiers looking for something to eat 1. We could see travellers and adventurers, and also the figures of a lot of people from non-human races. It was bustling with men and women of all ages without regard to race, occupation, or nationality.

“… How did it turn into this?”

“Even though the food shortage in Vannes had been dealt with somewhat, there are still very few shop owners who have food to sell. However, people who thought they could at least open a stall have been gathering, so we’re having Vannes’ first market now”

I asked and Juna explained.

“This far out of the way? Shouldn’t they rather do it on the main streets or something?”

“That would be because the Royal Broadcast receiver is here”

Ah, I see. It’s not that people gathered because the shops are here, but the shops gathered here aiming for the people who gathered to see the Royal Broadcast. We had been broadcasting Chris Tachyon’s news programme, which doubled as a test, during the day and the music programme at night almost every day since the music programme. So everyone must be coming here to see that. It’s like a post-war black market here, or rather, it’s like Ameyoko 2.

Incidentally, the Lorelei Juna only appeared in the music programme in weekends, whereas on other days, we have [Singing Contests] to gather aspiring applicants. It was a heavy burden since they’re all broadcasted live. The candidates that pa.s.sed the [Singing Contests] became [Singers] like Margarita, or if they also had a good appearance, they became [Lorelei] or [Orpheus 3].

The Broadcasts were simulcasted to both Elfrieden and Amidonia, so anyone can see them anywhere there’s a broadcast receiver. Not to mention Amidonia, but every town in Elfrieden should have turned like this by now. I suppose I should calculate the effect on the economy later. I was grinning with that in mind when Tomoe pulled on my travel coat 4.

“Nii-sama, I’m hungry”

“Oh, right. We should go buy something at a stall I suppose”

“Yes!”

“I concur”

The three of us then browsed the stalls around the plaza. All in all, four out of every ten shops sell food, two handle accessories, two deal in equipment, and the rest sell other things. Most of the ones who sell food sell skewered grills. Since Vannes was far from the sea all they could get were river fish; grains and vegetables were low in stock. So on that point, the meat would be slaughtered wild animals. They must be grilling game they caught outside the walls. For that reason, none of the stalls could say what meat they were selling. Rather than putting a sheep’s head on dog meat 5, the were putting a mystery head on mystery meat.

“I think getting grilled meat’s going to be a gamble …”

Wild rabbit meat is fine, but great rat or great lizard meat … would whittle down on my SAN points. Also, if they were hunting whatever they could find nearby, they wouldn’t know what poisons or pathogens or parasites it had, right. This world didn’t have food hygiene laws and they didn’t need licenses to be cooks … I suppose I should put some in place when we have surplus food.

“It will be alright”

“Eh?”

Juna said with a ‘really nice’ smile.

“I had the escort marines go ahead and do poison-tasting. I will show you to the safe stalls”

“Poison-tasting!? You don’t mean sampling do you!?”

“If anything happened to you it would be a big problem for the country, so of course the street food would at least be poison-tested. Your body doesn’t only belong to you anymore, right?”

What am I, a pregnant lady? or so I would like to retort, but I get what she’s trying to say. If I collapsed from food poisoning, I couldn’t be sure I could still use Living Poltergeist. If I couldn’t then nine me’s worth of work would stop being done … yep poison-tasting is necessary for the sake of the nation. Let’s leave it at that.

“… and the results are?”

“One person fell to stomach ache”

“Send a messenger to the palace! Put out a notice saying that all sellers of meat and fish are to be required to indicate their raw materials! If anyone put on misleading signage their business is to be suspended. Draw up the notice and publish it!”

“Understood”

Juna called a guard marine over and sent him to the palace with the message. It was the run that began Elfrieden’s Food Hygiene Law. I plan to extend the ingredients indication later, but for now I have to forestall people trying to camouflage meat. There are lives at stake when it comes to poisons and pathogens.

“Guardian marine. Your death would not be in vain”

“Um, he didn’t die. Just food poisoning”

Juna retorted in amazement. No no no, even food poisoning could kill, you know? My grandpa ate a raw egg past it’s best before date, caught salmonella and had to be hospitalized for days once. Thankfully it didn’t turn out too bad, but it cost him several thousands in hospital fees just because he didn’t want to waste a ten-yen-a-box egg. Grandma teased him about it for a long while afterwards. Well, that aside, we bought grilled skewers at a stall Juna recommended and some mixed juice at a fruit stall. We sat down on a bench and ate.

“Hmm nom nom … mm, it’s tasty, nii-sama”

“Yeah. This meat goes down easy”

“The juice is good too, Kazuya-san”

The meat was nice and juicy. It didn’t taste much different to a beef skewer you get in a festival, so I asked and it turned out to be made from Bigbull, a buffalo-like animal, meat. The mix juice was room temperature, but since it was autumn, it wasn’t too warm. It was a little sour but it went well with the oily aftertaste of the skewered meat.

With our stomachs full, we took a breather and got into a slow mood. Tomoe began to nod off next to me so I supposed it was nap time for her. With my lap as a pillow, Tomoe curled her body into a ball and began snoring. I pat her head, it was fluffy, just like a dog’s fur. It felt good in my hand.

“Fufu, she’s cute isn’t she”

Said Juna who was sitting next to me, watching Tomoe’s face as she slept. She then leaned on to me until our shoulders touched and sadly muttered.

“If only these peaceful days could go on …”

“… but that won’t happen, would it?”

I asked and Juna gulped.

“Yes. The imperial army are already here. They number about fifty thousand”

“Fifty thousand? That’s much fewer than I expected”

The number of Elfriedenian soldiers stationed in Vannes now was 45 thousand, so we’re about even. Of course, we’re at a disadvantage if we took into account the number of Amidonian soldiers, but I thought they would at least take three times our numbers. The empire that was already fighting the Demon King Army would have a two front war in their hands if hostilities broke, so I didn’t think they would attack, but the threat posed by bringing enough troops to capture Vannes would have been significant. Juna, however, shook her head.