Chapter 7

First Comes Food (5)
The golem was diligently tending to the campfire, which was leisurely and on the verge of extinguishing. It seemed to be out of fuel. Well, that was only natural.

Marylia hurriedly added firewood while saying, "Oh dear, oh dear," and managed to revive the fire by blowing on it. It was quite a task.

After stacking more firewood near the golem and saying, "Please, take care of it again," Marylia immediately grabbed a bottle and headed for the sea!

Yes! To get seawater!

"Wow, it's beautiful."

By the time she reached the sea, the sky was already starting to darken. The edge of the sky was gently turning yellow. Sunset was imminent. She had to hurry.

She had to hurry, but… the unobstructed sky was incredibly beautiful. Bathed in honey-colored light, Marylia enjoyed the vast sky and sea while filling the bottle with seawater. It would be today's seasoning.

She also checked for any flotsam, but as expected, nothing significant had washed ashore. Perhaps something might appear the next time the sea gets rough. With a little hope of a storm, Marylia decided to head back to the base.

Now then.

"Let's wrap the roots in wet leaves and place them next to the campfire."

First, she cut the Man-Eater roots into appropriate sizes, wrapped them in large wet leaves found around, and rolled them near the campfire. Occasionally, she would change their positions and let them cook slowly.

"The stems and buds will be for soup. Ehehe..."

Next, she filled a pot with water and added the seawater. Once it reached the right level of saltiness, she threw in the chopped stems and buds of the Man-Eater. She also added a bit of dried meat, which served as emergency food, to enhance the flavor.

"Let's add some wild plants from around here too."

Since an all-Man-Eater meal would be a bit much, Marylia foraged for some edible, tender, and tasty-looking wild plants near the base, washed them, and threw them into the pot.

Humming a tune, she stirred the pot with a stick and leisurely simmered the soup.

Watching the ingredients float and sink in the boiling pot was enjoyable. The slightly greenish-yellow buds of the Man-Eater, the light green stems, and the darker greens of the added wild plants combined to make it look quite appetizing.

Well, even if it didn't taste good, she had no choice but to eat it. During her time leading the army, Marylia and her comrades, including Cyril, had eaten things that couldn't even be called food, so she had no resistance to this.

As the pot simmered to a certain extent,

"How are the roots... ow, ow, hot."

Marylia retrieved the slowly cooked Man-Eater roots from beside the campfire.

The roots wrapped in leaves had been perfectly steam-roasted. Some parts too close to the fire were burnt along with the outer leaves, but that would add a nice accent.

The soup also seemed to have simmered well. The stems of the Man-Eater had turned slightly translucent, and the buds had shrunk a bit from the heat, making it look ready to eat.

… Having said that.

"Well, let's eat! Hehe, I'm going to eat, I'm going to eaaat~..."

Marylia was about to drink the soup when...

"Oh, I don't have any tableware."

… She realized that fact!

"Oh sheesh, come on, how absent-minded... haah."

With no other choice, she decided to eat with two sticks. Since there were no bowls, she would eat directly from the pot. It couldn't be helped.

She immediately picked up a Man-Eater stem with the sticks and brought it to her mouth... and.

"Oh my, it's quite tasty!"

The Man-Eater stem had a texture similar to celery. It seemed to soften when cooked.

"And it's a bit sour. It tastes a bit like purslane... Well, it's delicious in its own way."

It also had a unique sourness. Well, it served as a soup stock. As Marylia pondered, "I wonder if drying the Man-Eater stems would make a good preserved food," she tried the Man-Eater buds next.

"Oh!? Meat!? No, it's not… meat, hmm...? It's like a mushroom, I guess..."

The Man-Eater buds, used to capture prey, had a texture somewhat similar to meat despite being a plant. It was probably because of its frequent movement. It felt like a cross between meat and mushrooms.

"Well, delicious is delicious. Ehehehe."

Whether meat or mushroom, it was still delicious. The broth from the dried meat added another layer of flavor, making the soup itself quite tasty.

With a smile, Marylia thought, "If I were to dry and preserve it, the buds would be better than the stems." She wondered if it would become something like a mix of dried meat and dried mushrooms. It was something to look forward to.

"Thinking about preserved food... I need to make baskets and jars soon. And salt..."

Since there wouldn't always be Man-Eaters around, she wanted to preserve some food. But making preserved food also required tools. For sun-drying, baskets would be more efficient, and for pickling, jars and salt were necessary.

"I need to build the furnace soon..."

Well, she wanted to make pottery quickly. After glancing at the half-built furnace, Marylia moved on to eating the steamed root.

"Oh my, this root is really delicious! Hehe, tastes like a potato."

The Man-Eater root was, essentially, a potato.

A potato. It was a potato. The taste of this starch-filled... nutritious root!

Marylia's body craved this! She enjoyed the meaty taste of the Man-Eater buds and the vegetable-like flavor of the stems and wild plants. But what her hungry body wanted most was, after all, starch!

"Ohhhh, this is so delicious... Ah! It's also tasty dipped in the soup! Starchy goodness with a salty flavor! Ahhhh."

Marylia was completely absorbed in the long-awaited starch and saltiness. She ate a lot with enthusiasm.

For the first time since being exiled to the island, Marylia was finally able to feel full!

“Mm, good night.”

So Marylia went to sleep. Being able to sleep with a full stomach is a true happiness.

Because of this happiness, Marylia fell asleep quickly. The time she spent mumbling was brief. It didn’t take long for her to start breathing peacefully in her sleep.

The next morning.

“Good morning! Ah, what a nice morning! My stomach still feels happy.”

Marylia woke up full of energy.

Thanks to last night’s meal, her body was full of vitality. Additionally…

“There are leftovers from last night’s meal. Haha, I’m going to eat plenty this morning too.”

There was food. What a wonderful thing.

Marylia cheerfully greeted the fire golem with a meaningless “Good morning,” and then started eating last night’s leftovers!

Now.

After finishing breakfast and feeling even more energetic, Marylia began working on the furnace again.

“I didn’t touch it at all yesterday…”

She decided to have the mud golem dig up clay and knead it. However, as the mud golem stomped on the clay, mud mixed in with the clay.

So Marylia prepared suitable wooden sticks for the mud golems and commanded them to “pound and knead the clay.” The mud golem began pounding the clay with a pitter-patter sound that was rather cute.

She transported the prepared clay in baskets and started building the kiln.

The first layer had dried nicely, so she added more clay on top. She smoothed out the joints as much as possible...

“Let’s also prepare some pottery at the same time.”

Marylia decided to make some pottery while the second layer of the furnace was drying.

“First, some jars. Ones that can be used for cooking, fetching water, storing seawater, and just keeping things. I’ll also need them for pickling salt in the future... Hmm, I need a lot! And I want some bowls! It’s better to carve spoons out of wood, though...”

So Marylia kneaded the clay, rolled it into coils, and stacked them to make pottery.

First, a simple jar. It was just a cylindrical shape with a bottom. But having this would be very useful. Now she had to use a pot to fetch water, but with this jar, she could fetch and store a lot of water at once. Although it would leak somewhat as it was unglazed, having more options was always a good thing.

“And then, bowls. It’s a bit inconvenient to drink soup directly from the pot...”

Next, she made some bowls. Since these were smaller, they were completed quickly. Considering the possibility of them breaking during firing, she made three of the same shape.

“Now, next... Ah, the clay is stuck. What should I do?”

As she was about to move the shaped pottery, she found that it had stuck to the large stone she was using as a base! This was to be expected with clay!

“Should I do it on leaves? Or maybe dust the stone with sand first... No, let’s use ash.”

Marylia managed to separate the pottery from the stone by cutting it with a thin branch, then coated the pottery with ash from the campfire. This prevented the clay from sticking everywhere. Reflecting on this, she decided to dust the base with ash before shaping the next piece. Marylia spent the whole day, until dusk, building the furnace and shaping pottery.

In the evening, as she started preparing dinner, Marylia hurried to the pond.

She had completely forgotten to check the traps today, but how would they be?

Although she still had yesterday’s Man-Eater, she hoped to have some fish if possible. With this in mind, she excitedly headed to the pond.

“Oh, a fish! Hehe, tonight’s dinner will be fish and Man-Eater soup! Or maybe I should try grilling both... What should I do?”

In the first trap she checked, there was a reasonably sized fish. Marylia happily moved the fish to her basket and checked the second trap.

“This one... Oh, another fish. Oh my... What should I do? When there’s no food, there’s none, but when there is, it just keeps coming...”

She wished she had caught these yesterday. With that thought, Marylia moved another fish to her basket, reset the second trap, and finally moved to the last trap.

“And the third one...”

From the overturned trap, a slime slipped out.

… Perhaps the slime had been sleeping in the trap. It was probably a perfect size and made a nice bed for the slime.

The slime, having fallen into Marylia’s hand, began trembling and tried to escape, but unfortunately, it was firmly held in her hand.

“... Shall I eat you?”

Marylia smiled, and the slime tried to jump away in panic. But Marylia didn’t let it escape.

“Just kidding. Ehe, since you’re here, let’s keep you in the garden.”

The poor slime was carried away by the cheerful Marylia.

“Stay here and have some food.”

Marylia placed the slime on the soil she had designated as her garden and gave it some tough parts of the Man-Eater’s stalk and peelings from the roots. These were kitchen scraps from the preparation process.

But to the slime, this was a feast. The slime, having understood that it was being fed, stayed in the garden, eating the scraps enthusiastically.

Slimes consume everything, digest it, and excrete it as a mass. Essentially, they are like compost bins. They can also be compared to earthworms in the garden.

“Hehe, I hope the garden becomes a bit more fertile now.”

Having understood that it would be fed, the slime didn’t try to escape even when Marylia poked it gently. It just kept eating the scraps enthusiastically!

Thus, a slime was added to her base. That evening’s dinner was “Man-Eater and fish stew with seawater flavor.”

She simmered all parts of the Man-Eater — roots, stalks, and buds — and added fish meat. She grilled the fish lightly before adding it to avoid overcooking it, also to remove any unpleasant odors. This method worked well, and she was able to enjoy a reasonably delicious meal.

The fish bones were grilled and dried. She planned to try using them as broth. If that didn’t work, she would feed them to the slime. Marylia decided on this and went to bed early.

Living on a deserted island means living with the sun, so she went to bed early. “Ideally, I’d like to stay up a bit later, but I don’t have any books to read, nor do I have paper and pen to jot down my ideas...” she thought with a bit of regret as she closed her eyes.

… She hoped to secure at least paper and pen in the near future. Marylia resolved this in her heart.

And the next morning.

“Mm~ what a nice morning...”

Marylia woke up and looked up at the sky, noticing something.

“... Oh my.”

The sky she was looking at... Today, it was cloudy. And...

“The clouds look... ominous...”

… It looked like it was going to pour.