Chapter 18

Heart-Pounding Pottery (1)
Marylia, who had reached the coast, collected various items once the golem had finished making another round of salt, and then returned to the base with the golem, gathering dry branches along the way.

Rather than having the golem make polished stone tools, she had it mine clay instead. Mining clay was an urgent task!

"Well then, let's go ahead and boil this bark... Wow, it's turning brown."

Meanwhile, Marylia quickly set about boiling the bark to make tanning liquid. The pot was handy as it could be placed directly on the fire. If she were doing this with earthenware, she would have had to continuously add heated stones to the bark and water, a different process entirely.

"... It turns so brown that it becomes this opaque, huh."

… As she continued to boil it, the liquid in the pot became increasingly brown. It got so dark that she could no longer see the bottom of the pot. A thoroughly opaque liquid was being produced. It was probably extremely bitter. She decided that she would definitely not taste it.

Once the boiling liquid was ready, she poured it into a jar and soaked deer hides in it. The plan was to knead them every few hours.

After extracting the tanning liquid, the bark had served its purpose, so she fed it to the slimes in the field. The three slimes eagerly approached the bark, happily devouring it.

"... I wonder if it isn't too bitter for them?"

Perhaps slimes weren't particular about taste. There was no hesitation in the way they were devouring the likely bitter bark.

For the slimes, taste might be a trivial matter. It might even be that the softened bark was easier to eat because it was tender.

"I don't get it, but oh well, they're cute, so it's fine~ Hehe."

Marylia poked at the slimes. Watching them jiggle, she took a short break!

After her break, she moved on to making pottery. It was an urgent task. This was the top priority!

The feathered hide of the Peryton was salted and set out to dry for the time being. Once the hide was rehydrated, it should still be possible to tan it in time.

… However, it would be a waste to leave it as is, so she wanted a container large enough to soak it in as soon as possible.

Large pots consumed a lot of clay. Moreover, it was prone to failure, making it a tough task for Marylia.

"I think I'd better make some Mud Golems again and focus on making pots for a while..."

If it rained, she would have to start over, but even so, it was impossible to knead and transport clay alone indefinitely. Marylia decided to make some Mud Golems immediately.

She re-kneaded the remnants of the last Mud Golem she had made and somehow managed to create about three Mud Golems.

Then, after rewriting their orders several times, she headed to the clay mining site she had discovered recently.

"Alright, you three will dig out the clay. Terracotta Golem, you will stuff as much clay as you can into the basket, then dump it at the designated spot at the base. Once the basket is empty, come back here to refill it."

After giving the orders to the golems, they began to move sluggishly. The Terracotta Golem was fine, but the Mud Golems were really slow. Still, she was grateful they would do the work. It was nice that things progressed without her having to lift a finger.

Watching the Mud Golems slowly break the clay layer with wooden sticks, Marylia smiled.

Once the clay supply line was established, Marylia returned to the base and, before starting on pots, began hanging up the salted meat.

… The brick drying area had become a meat drying area. Well, it was being put to good use, so that was fine.

"Now, let's salt the rest of the meat just in case... Hmm."

She salted the remaining bit of meat, finally finishing the meat processing for real this time.

But then...

"... There's still some fat left."

Indeed, when making the salted meat, there were parts cut off along with the bones. These were the fatty portions.

So, Marylia decided to put the fat into a pot and slowly fry it over the embers.

Yes, she was extracting oil!

"With fat, I can make light."

Smiling, Marylia brought out a bowl that had cracked when it was fired. Even with a crack, it should be fine for storing deer or bird fat. After all, the fat would solidify at room temperature.

As the fat sizzled and popped in the pot, she poked it with a stick, carefully rendering the fat. She added a sprig of rosemary partway through. This would help slow down the oxidation of the fat. Oxidized fat would start to smell unpleasant, which was a serious problem.

With the benefits of rosemary, the fat now had a faintly pleasant aroma. As soon as enough fat was extracted, she poured it into the bowl. Then, she added more fat to the pot and tossed in more rosemary as needed...

… By the time the Terracotta Golem had brought back enough clay to form a small mountain.

"I've gotten quite a bit, haven't I?"

The fat couldn't all fit into the bowl; there was still quite a bit left in the pot.

Well then, Marylia thought as she peeked into the pot... and then, an idea struck her.

"... Let's try making some soap."

So, Marylia tossed a few stones into the fire, grabbed a jar, and headed to the sea!

"Oh, I knew it. Hehehe..."

When she reached the coast, she found a lot of ash scattered around where the golem had been making salt. Naturally, making salt required a lot of fire, and a lot of fire meant burning a lot of wood. That meant a lot of ash was produced as well.

Smiling, Marylia scooped up a lot of ash into the jar, then carried it back to the base. Then she fetched water from the river near the base...

"Heave-ho… wah, it splashes quite a bit, doesn’t it? Oh no~..."

She dropped heated stones into the lye to boil the water. When using stones to heat up water like this, the pottery won’t easily crack, so it’s the best method for boiling water with clay.

"Alright, let’s leave this as it is... and once the fat in the pot solidifies, let’s transfer it onto some leaves..."

Since it would be problematic if the pots used for cooking were occupied by fat alone, once the fat solidifies, she will move it accordingly. It’s convenient that animal fats solidify at room temperature. If piled up neatly, it can be preserved, so she decided to overlook the smell.

Now then.

Having roughly finished processing the fat, Marylia nibbled on the crispy fried fat as a snack and began making pottery.

The first step in making pottery was sorting the clay.

If pieces of branches, roots, dead leaves, dead grass, or small stones were mixed into the clay, it reduced the quality of the clay, making it more prone to cracking when fired.

Therefore, it was necessary to knead the clay and remove these impurities, but...

"... It’s going to be tough sorting out this amount."

Another load of clay, delivered by the Terracotta Golem, was dumped in the heap. There was already a mountain of it—a mountain of clay.

Doing all the sorting alone would be impossible, and it’s a bit too much for the golems to handle. The Mud Golems, being made of mud, would mix mud into the clay. Although the Terracotta Golem could manage, the amount of work was still overwhelming.

Marylia thought of a way to make the sorting process easier...

"Oh, maybe I could use water sieving!"

Indeed, she had a breakthrough!

Water sieving, is akin to a sieve using the power of water.

For instance, while mud remains mud on its own, if you turn it into muddy water and let it sit for a while, the larger, heavier particles like pebbles sink first, followed by sand, and finally, clay composed of tiny particles accumulates on top.

Once the sediment settles and the water is still murky, transferring that murky water into another container to let the particles settle would leave behind only fine, high-quality clay. This way, she could obtain only the finest clay.

And if she wanted to collect sand, she could stop the process when the sand has settled, while the clay was still suspended in the water, by draining the water, leaving behind the sand. That’s right, water sieving was truly a sieve powered by water.

However...

"... But, I don’t have a container to do the water sieving!"

She didn’t have a container. There was no container to carry out the water sieving needed to make the container! A vicious cycle!

"Hmm... No, it’s fine. I only need to use the top layer of what I sieve. The bottom layer will be mixed with other soil anyway, so it doesn’t matter..."

But Marylia wasn't discouraged. She quickly decided that the finer details didn’t matter.

"I'll do it on the ground."

… And so, Marylia decided to use the ground as a container.

She dug into the ground and packed it firmly, creating a wide and shallow depression.

Then, she piled up the excavated soil, creating a slightly elevated area. She packed that area down too, making another wide and shallow depression, just above the first one.

And with that, it was done.

"Now, I just need to add clay and water to the upper level, mix it into muddy water... then let the clearer water flow into the lower level, and leave it to settle!"

Marylia smiled cheerfully and immediately began carrying the water and clay!

She added water to the clay, stomped on it to mix well, removed the floating roots and dead leaves, waited for the gravel to sink... then opened the dam and let the smooth, muddy water flow into the lower level.

Repeating this several times, a large amount of smooth, muddy water accumulated in the lower section of her water sieving setup. When she scooped up the bottom with her hand, she felt the smooth texture of the clay. It seemed she was successful.

"I’ll just leave it as is for now."

And so, Marylia took a break from water sieving. After the clay settled completely and the unwanted water was absorbed into the ground, she would need to collect the clay. There was nothing more to do for now.

… Even though the Terracotta Golem had brought in a huge pile of clay, it would eventually be handled by it, or processed by Marylia when she had some free time to separate the clay.

After all, she couldn’t fire all the pottery at once. She planned to prepare the clay daily in batches that matched the furnace’s capacity and make the pottery in the same manner.

After drying the salted meat, it was time for dinner.

Dinner consisted of meat. Using the fat she had collected the day before, she sautéed the salted meat and wild vegetables, then simmered them slowly to make soup.

The browned surface of the meat, achieved by the initial sautéing, was delightfully fragrant and aromatic. The slightly charred, crispy parts added a nice touch.

"Hehe, so yummy~!"

The meat, salted for about a day, had lost water and seemed to have concentrated its umami flavor. It was also likely that the aging process had enhanced the taste further.

By the campfire, savoring the soup in an unglazed bowl, Marylia looked up at the sky.

… The sky on this deserted island was quiet, and the stars were beautiful. It reminded her of the starry nights she saw while leading the army during their encampments.

"It’s a lovely night."

Marylia smiled and bit into an apricot for dessert… Perhaps it would be best to dry all the apricots tomorrow. Though the fresh, juicy texture was appealing, it would be pointless if they didn’t keep well.

There were so many things to consider. But each one of them was enjoyable in its own way.

"Let’s do our best again tomorrow."

Marylia stretched her arms wide and smiled brightly at the starry sky.

And the next morning.

"Oh my! This is good clay!"

As soon as she woke up, Marylia checked on her water sieving facility, and she was greeted by a successful sight.

… The water sieving process had succeeded. A smooth layer of clay had accumulated in the large, shallow depression!

Now! Time to make the pottery!