Chapter 574 - Backyard of Stray Priest ㉒
This is the aftermath of Chapter 19.
Around the time the sun rose and the voices of birds could be heard as a matter of course, the Otter man woke up.
Crawling out from his bed, which was covered with several layers of bear fur, he pushed the board blocking the window of the south-facing room. Squinting at the morning sun shining from the east, he poked his head out the window, and the voices of birds could be heard even louder. It seems the weather will be fine today too.
He propped up a support stick against the wooden board, stretched grandly, and headed to the kitchen-cum-living room. In the kitchen, his wife was in the middle of preparing breakfast for him.
In the kitchen, there was a newly made cupboard, and brand new dishes were lined up inside. All of them were things obtained through interactions with humans.
Next, I want a bed. That looks comfortable to sleep in.
The Otter man, thinking so, sat down on the bench next to the dining table.
「Good morning.」
「Ah, good morning, you're up.」
His wife, who had married into his family from the neighboring settlement last year, woke up earlier than her husband and was diligently doing the cooking.
Normally, among beastmen, women hunt just like men. However, most of the childcare until the children learn to hunt is the woman's job. During that time, the man purely chases prey and delivers it to the family. Therefore, basic housework was considered the woman's job.
It could be said that the wife who married in was lucky. Just after she crossed her first winter, trade with humans began. Moreover, just by being present when humans were fishing in the rivers of their territory—calling it an entry fee or something—it became a source of income. Of course, usually, the Otters also fish together. They could earn their keep and even get additional income on top of that.
In addition, when that negotiation was concluded, the humans made clever enclosures, calling them ranches, a little way up the river. By intentionally turning the fish into monsters, they could sell them to humans for a higher price as they were larger and tasted better.
Of course, the benefits of trade with humans aren't just for the Otters. Their entire village is flourishing as never before. The Prince of the Kingdom of Regnentes showed more understanding of their lives than expected. As a result, an economic agreement quite beneficial for the beastmen was concluded. It seems there's an intention to conclude agreements with other settlements in the future, but that too is on the premise of success in this settlement. It will take several years for results to show. In other words, currently, only the village she married into is receiving the benefits.
Ahead of the Otters in other settlements, she was able to obtain sophisticated and convenient furniture and dishes made by humans—which until now were at most only in the Elder's house—using the gold dust, gold grains, and human gold and copper coins she had obtained. Also, the clothes and accessories they buy for her when they go to the trading post made her happy, even if they were cheap.
Today's breakfast is river fish that became monsters and grew larger than usual, meat dumplings made by grinding river crabs and river shrimp, and then vegetables and fruit exchanged in the settlement.
Beastmen are not good with fire, so only the Foxes do cooking using fire. Other races mostly ate things raw; however, recently, they have started to season and eat with herb seeds and salt obtained through trade with humans.
「Wait just a bit more.」
When the wife spoke to her husband, who was drinking water scooped from a water jar into a bowl, the husband, with a half-asleep face, nodded lightly.
Every morning, it's a repetition of the same thing.
When the meal was finished, the Otter couple, who are skilled in water magic, both washed the dishes with water produced by magic and placed them face down on a wire mesh to dry. This wire mesh was also something bought at the trading post.
「Well, shall we go?」
「Yes.」
They don't need lunch boxes. Because they can catch fish in the river.
Thus, the day began for the two who left the house.
In the beastman settlement near the silver mine in eastern Regnentes, there are four Otter households. Among them, there are seven people who are workers. Four men and three women.
Their houses are along the river that flows through the settlement, a little way upstream. They are made by digging holes in the cliffs created by the river's flow. Inevitably, the houses are lined up in a single horizontal line along the river. Their family lives at the furthest upstream side. He had just started a household a few years ago with his wife, who came from a neighboring settlement several mountains to the east. Everyone leads much the same life, and while they come out without anyone in particular and talk as a morning greeting, those heading for the day's fishing gather. Today, all seven people gathered.
「Are you two going to that enclosure today?」
His father, who lives next door, asked. He was the second son, and the eldest son would inherit the succession. So he married and became independent.
「Yeah, it's our turn today.」
The four households take turns taking care of the enclosure. Otherwise, only specific houses would profit. That would be a source of conflict. The one who stood at the negotiation table with the humans was his father, who leads the Otters in this village.
「They've started to get big.」
「Then, should we prepare the next ones?」
「Yeah, please.」
「Got it.」
After such an exchange, the couple both jumped into the river and swam upstream against the current. Three of the five who saw them off, excluding the two who were off duty, went down the river to fish with the humans.
They swam for about an hour and arrived at their destination. It has already become a mountain stream and the current is fast. The humans, after consulting with the Gnome, had dared to choose such a place.
As they climbed up a flow where several small waterfalls continued, they came to a place where the current was gentle. After swimming for a while, cliffs rising steeply appeared on both sides of the river.
They scrambled up onto the rocks on the shore where it had become a shallow. When they came here, the two always did so.
From there, a long, long pool can be seen.
The cliffs on both banks continue for a quite long distance, even though they meander very gently. They can see for quite a distance. Between that canyon, water of a color like dark blue mixed with green flows slowly as a pool. The water surface where the sun shines was creating a beautiful gradation as the light yellow-green color sparkled and rustled with the river's flow.
「This place is really beautiful no matter when I see it.」
「Yeah, it's beautiful.」
「It's your favorite place, isn't it? You brought me here when I first came to the village.」
Both banks of the river tower as if they were made by cutting through rocky mountains with a gray, grainy feel using magic or something. Looking up, it's a height that makes one give up on ever being able to climb to the top at the same time. On the way up the steep cliffs, no trees or grass grow. In the distance, there is a place where water falls and pours down like a waterfall. Other than the sound of that water, not even the voices of birds can be heard. This place, enveloped in a mysterious silence, was a place that could be called sacred, where the Otters, who usually fish while being buffeted by mountain streams, could feel a calm mood. In fact, in one corner, there is a shrine that the Otters of the village made themselves, and on the day of the annual festival for the Goddess, they make offerings separately from the village.
The two, who had been looking as if huddling together for a while, entered the river slowly as if afraid of making a splashing sound, and swam upstream with only their faces out.
This canyon continues for a distance of about half a station. During that time, only one river flows, but in between, there are over ten narrow pools that form tributaries. It's a sight as if water flowed into cracks that occurred when a single line was pierced into a giant single rock, creating the canyon.
When the Otter couple reached the first crack, they swam deep inside along the rock surface. They found a mark carved into the rock and dove into the water there.
It's unexpectedly deep. Diving just like that, they saw a water tank made by digging the riverbed and piling stones. An underwater enclosure. The water tank is quite large, with a depth higher than an Otter's height, a width of three steps, and a length of ten steps, and the upper part is partially a wire mesh. That wire mesh could be opened like a door, and they could enter inside. There were wire mesh doors in two places. There are three of those water tanks.
The Otter couple took stones from the riverbed in their hands and banged on the water tank. Then fish gathered around the wire mesh. Trout. There are about ten of them.
They're still small. Thinking so, they took out bait from the bags slung over their shoulders and scattered it. They are extra-large live earthworms. The earthworms are being increased by burying water jars in the ground in the forest on the cliff where the Otters' houses are. The method of increasing them was taught by humans.
The couple did the same work for all three water tanks and then swam toward the next crack.
There are cracks with water tanks in twelve locations, and all twelve locations have three water tanks each. In three of those locations, the trout that had become monsters were of sufficient size. Since there are nine water tanks, ninety fish can be expected.
When they banged with a stone near one side of the wire mesh, the fish that thought they could eat bait gathered there. In the meantime, they opened the door on the opposite side and entered. They caught all the gathered fish with their bare hands. The caught fish were put into four fine-mesh net bags bought from humans and left submerged in the enclosure.
「It looks like we'll get ten fish tomorrow too.」
「Yeah, it would be nice if we had a big catch every day.」
There are thirty-six water tanks in total, divided into four groups of nine each. This is because the time it takes for trout to become monsters is about three months.
For rearing, they catch ten ordinary trout, throw them into the enclosure, and give them bait every day for three months. After three months, they grow to a satisfying size. Since they are originally being reared in a river pool, they don't become monsters with a body length exceeding a human's height like those in large, deep lakes, but for the Otters who only know pool fish, it was a satisfying size.
First, they start rearing the nine enclosures of the first group. Then, one month later, they start rearing the second group. Two months after starting, they start rearing the third group. By the time they start rearing the fourth group three months later, the first group has reached a sufficient size.
The harvest is decided as ten fish per water tank per day. At first, more are put in, but they are reduced on the way to leave the good ones.
The reason why the harvest of one group finishes over a week is that on the seventh day, all seven people come to catch all the remaining ones and take the catch to the exchange post with humans to sell.
By setting the work schedule in that way, the enclosure-related work becomes one week of harvest out of a month, and the remaining three weeks or so are devoted to cleaning the inside of the enclosures, taking care of the earthworms for bait, and fishing for trout to newly turn into monsters.
The fish that became monsters are divided among the four households by the number of people. A child was half an adult's share. It was fine to decide how to use the share basically at each household's discretion. They could eat them raw or make them into dried fish. Of course, they could also sell them to humans.
The young couple, after consulting together, were basically devoting their share to making dried fish to sell to humans. They will have children in the near future. By that time, they wanted to buy and have a full set of furniture from humans.
The couple went around the cracks in order from downstream to upstream and fed the other enclosures. Besides earthworms, they also threw in small fish bought from humans after killing those caught in the traps they set.
The two, who finished eating lunch on the rock where they always look at the canyon together, took two cloth bags each with fish in them and just gave themselves to the current. They are good at swimming, and they know well where and how to flow to go downstream smoothly. The river they took an hour to climb could be descended immediately.
They drifted to the front of their house and threw the fish into an empty enclosure among several enclosures made by the river. This was to distribute them after those out working returned. However, they set aside two fish from their share. This was an Otter rule that the one who caught them could choose.
「How was it today?」
The man's mother came out of the house and spoke to the couple, who were bleeding one of their share by cutting the gills.
「Ah, mother, hello.」
「It wasn't bad. The other enclosures are also doing well.」
She looked at the catch released into the enclosure. All the fish are swimming energetically. A wire mesh lid is also placed on this enclosure. This was also something bought from humans.
When the mother received the bag containing earthworms from the couple, she banged on the stones at the edge of the enclosure with a stone she held in her hand. Confirming that the fish had gathered near the water surface, she threw in the bait in pieces.
「Are you going to make dried fish?」
「Yeah, same as usual.」
「Then I'll help you. I'm free today.」
「Mother, is that okay? It's your day off.」
「People of my generation were always doing something or other. That's better.」
「Why don't you go to the exchange post with father once in a while?」
「That man is the same as me. He's taking care of the earthworms right now.」
「He really works hard.」
「It's his nature.」
The bleeding finished, and they butchered with a knife. They took off the heads and split the bellies. The heads are for dinner. The internal organs are for earthworm bait, so they put them in a leather bag separately. They hung the ones that had been made into just cylindrical bodies in a place where the sun shines well to dry. They are finished once they become hard. They also exchanged various information with humans on how to make such dried fish and were innovating according to the use.
Around the time a general prospect for making dried fish was established, the man took the extracted internal organs and went into the forest on the cliff.
The Otter man was doing some work alone.
「Father, I've brought new internal organs.」
「Oh, sorry. Put them in this jar.」
「Got it.」
It was his father, who was supposed to be off duty.
The man threw the new internal organs into the jar as he was told. The father covered them with soil from above. He stirred slowly with a stick he had placed nearby. After that, the earthworms inside would eat them on their own.
「Mother is the same, but you really work hard. You say it's your nature?」
「Well, yeah, people of my generation are like that.」
「Brother and his wife are here too, so why don't you take it a bit easier?」
「Yeah, that's right.」
The father, while saying so, was thrusting a wooden stick into another jar and stirring the soil. He has to move it slowly so as not to crush the earthworms. Even for a beastman, it's a job that uses quite a bit of physical strength. The jars buried in the ground easily exceed ten.
「But, you see, we're currently rearing trout as we were taught by humans, right?」
「Yeah.」
「I don't want to fail.」
「Well, that's true.」
「You probably haven't met them yet. Bishop Jeanne and Prince Seldic, who created the opportunity for us to do this.」
「I haven't met them yet.」
The father stopped his hand that was stirring with the wooden stick and looked at his son. The interaction with humans was done by him and his wife.
「I hope you can meet them as soon as possible.」
「New legendary figures, huh. Yeah, I'd like to meet them once.」
Saying so, the two took the wooden sticks in their hands and returned to the work of rearing earthworms.