Wow... So It *Was* That After All
“Wow... so it really was that.”
On the eastern side of Zenas Village, both at the base and the top of the sheer cliff, there it was.
“What d'ya mean, *that*?”
“Huh? Ah, no, it's nothing. Boss, could you cut down a few of them?”
“Sure. Leave it to me.”
“And I'd like some of the dead ones over there too.”
The “unusual tree” that His Excellency the Chancellor had mentioned was right here.
Growing straight upward, with a green trunk-like stem… it was bamboo.
I was surprised bamboo existed in this world at all, and even more surprised that it was growing in a place that was practically a wasteland.
His Excellency had called it thin, but it seemed a bit thicker than the bamboo I imagined. Maybe about twenty-five centimeters in diameter.
And it wasn't just the outside that was thick.
“Hoh. It really is hollow inside.”
“D-Damn, that's thick.”
“Is it?”
Were bamboo stalks really this thick? No, they should've been thinner.
The hollow interior was the same as the bamboo I knew, but the wall thickness was completely different. It had to be seven or eight centimeters thick.
It wasn't surprising that Boss, who knew nothing about bamboo, found the word *thick* odd.
“Huh? What's this? There's water inside.”
“Eh, water? Whoa, you're right.”
Inside the section beneath the cut Boss had made, water had pooled within the bamboo tube.
Maybe the other segments had water too?
Thinking that, I had him cut off a single section. Nothing.
But when he cut a different stalk, water spilled out in a gush.
“Looks like these things only store water near the ground.”
“Water in a place this barren... is there an underground waterway beneath it or something?”
“Maybe. Could be they trap what little water they get inside the trunk to survive the dry seasons.”
Earth's bamboo probably didn't have a function like that.
Maybe it was unique to this fantasy world.
“If there's this much water, couldn't we use it for irrigating fields?”
“But if we did that, wouldn't the bamboo die?”
“Bamboo? What's that?”
“Eh... ah. W-Well, look. It's such a taaall tree, so... bamboo.”
Crap.
There wasn't any tree called bamboo in this world.
“Hm, bamboo, huh? Bamboo because it's tall, eh? Kid, you've got no talent for naming things.”
Leave me alone!
Besides, I wasn't the one who came up with the name in the first place!
As for the dead bamboo the other dwarves had cut down…
“Yeah, there wasn't any water inside those.”
… Or so they reported.
Maybe they died once they ran out of water. Or maybe it was simply the natural lifespan of bamboo.
Still, the dead ones were concentrated around the outer edges of the grove.
Hmm. There had to be some reason for that.
But I didn't have time to investigate right now. I needed to haul this back and start preparing for the party.
We carried the bamboo back with a heave-ho, returning to the lord's manor.
The dead stalks would be used as fuel.
I vaguely remembered seeing something online saying bamboo burns easily, so you had to be careful.
But we didn't have any other firewood, so it couldn't be helped.
“For the green bamboo, cut it at each node and split it lengthwise.”
“The nodes? These things? And what're we doing after cutting them?”
“Coat the inside with oil… and ah, Head Chef. Could you roll up bread dough and put it inside these? Then I think we can just cook them over an open flame.”
“Huh? You're baking bread like that?”
I was pretty sure I'd seen that in an online video too. Something people did during barbecues.
I remembered watching it and thinking, “Camping looks fun…”
There was no way the manor's stove could bake enough bread for this many people.
I'd gone to check because I thought the Chancellor's strange tree might be bamboo. Good thing it was.
“We've returned. And wow, we found quite the catch.”
“Ah, welcome back, Sir RobergWAHHHHHHHH!”
What was riding in the wagon pushed by Sir Robert and several knights… was a gigantic scorpion!
No, seriously, huge! How many meters long was that thing? It was easily bigger than a grown man.
“Oho. A Flower Scorpion. These things are delicious. Man, if only we had some booze.”
“F-Flower?”
“Dermont-sama, over here. At the tip of its legs, you'll see organs that resemble flowers.”
Whoa, he's right. There was something that looked like a purple flower. Though when I looked closer, I could tell it wasn't real.
“Does it use those to lure prey before eating them?”
“Exactly. I'm impressed you figured that out.”
“Haha... haha, hahahaha. B-But how did you even find these things?”
Not just one, either. There were three of them. That was probably enough food for two or three days.
“Thank goodness Captain Robert used to be an adventurer.”
“They were half-buried in the ground. We would've never noticed them.”
“When he happily drew his sword and started slashing at a rock, we thought coming to the frontier had finally driven him insane.”
The knights all nodded in agreement. Sir Robert responded by planting a fist on each of their heads one after another.
Another dependable person among us.
“So how do you cook these?”
“Let's see. Most people just grilled them... Boss, how did your folks prepare them?”
“Same way. Just grilling 'em was plenty tasty.”
Grilled scorpion, huh.
Would we have enough fuel for that much cooking?
If things got desperate, Father could always help out.
And then…
“Niichama~”
“Aniue~”
Tiffany and Zeke returned, along with the escort knights.
I'd sent them into town to spread the word.
“Young Master. As expected, most of the villagers were inside their homes.”
“So it was like that after all. They were deliberately staying hidden.”
Just as Father had predicted, we weren't welcome.
That's why I'd had the two of them go around smiling and announcing:
“Tonight, there will be a welcome party at the lord's manor.”
And I'd had the escort knights spread another message:
“This is an order.”
In other words, attendance was mandatory.
Otherwise, nobody would've come.
“Alright, you two. Help set up the venue.”
““Okaaay~””
I just hoped everyone would enjoy it.
~ Read Chapters 24-57 in Advance on Patreon ~
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