Chương 62: Chapter 60: Braising Sauce

In all my days, I'd never braised something before. The actual process of it was something my skill told me was possible, but didn't actually give me much in the way of insight into the process of - that was Alfredo's job as my teacher, it turned out. The first step was to sear the venison.

What I had wasn't the ideal cut of meat for this apparently, and drying it out hadn't been kind to it, but I'd set it to soaking and already removed most of the fatty bits already to make soap with, so that was good - Venison fat, as it turned out, was a little waxy tasting for this endeavor. Giving the meat a sear was a simple matter with the sunflower oil I had. It was ideal, Alfredo said, because it had a very high smoking point and didn't have a strong flavor profile of its own, so the meat would really shine.

First, we patted the slabs of dried meat down as much as we good, and got rid of as much of the water as we could. Then, we salted the meat. The salt I had, as it turned out, was sea salt. I guess I'd known that, but Alfredo was quite pleased at the news as we rubbed the salt in, and started searing the meat. There were quite a few chunks of it, and the pair of us turning pieces over, getting each bit browned didn't feel like it took long at all with the pair of us working on it.

It smelled so good - I only realized I was snacking as I went when Alfredo commented on it.

"Hound, that's not cooked!" he admonished"Save some for your dish!"

"Sorry! It's just so tasty and I'm hungry!" I complained and the man gently slapped my hand, grinning, as I lifted a mostly raw piece of meat to my lips again, knocking it back into the pan. I let out a tiny sigh laced with a canine whine, but really I didn't complain all that much - he was probably right. I could really eat every bit of meat on offer here, and that just wouldn't be fair to the others. Besides! Cooked up and nice like, it'd be so much better! Then came the aromatics, as Alfredo put it!

We cleaned up and chopped some of the carrots, the queenslace stems, and the ramps, and set them to going. The ramps were the stinky stars of the show, and went from stinky stinky root things to something that had the adventurers sitting up and groaning a little as the veggies softened up a bit. AT his instruction and using a wooden spoon, I de-glazed the pan with a generous splash of the Hooch, taking up all the caramelized and tasty bits of the veggies.

Then, I covered the pot to let the hooch render a little with the offered veggies.

"What I wouldn't give for a tomato." Alfredo sighed wistfully, and I grinned. My wolf was getting antsy, so maybe now was a time to try out my cursed pantry? I nodded at Alfredo, and started for the basement. The man only realized what I was about a beat too late and in my wolf-ren, I saw him half reach out towards me to stop me before hesitating.

"I... oh." he said as he realized. Then, he looked like he swallowed a bug as he snagged my knife and pressed it into my hand. I blinked at his ancestral blade, his gift to me for becoming his apprentice as a cook, and remembered - it was enchanted to carve up plant monsters, wasn't it? I grinned and nodded at him, but.. found him following along with me.

"We're gonna go raid the pantry for some tomatoes" I said, and the others didn't seem to mind.

"If you hear any screaming, it's probably a monster tomato." I said, and set off with Alfredo in tow as the adventurers still failed to react until we were already most of the way to the trap door to the basement behind the bar.

"Wait... what?" Torch said, and I grinned a little.

"You don't need to come if you don't want to, Alfredo" I said, and the man, looking a bit gray-faced, stuck out his bottom jaw with a manful grunt. I pressed the knife back into his hands hilt first.

"Well alright but you use this for now - You'll need this more than me." I said. Alfredo protested, his face creasing a little"But what will you use, girl? Don't be silly!" He said. Did he really not remember I was a werewolf? I held up my hand, and a bit of stamina pressed into my arm later, and my hand expanded a bit into a kind of paw as golden fur strained the sleeve of my tunic. I flexed my fingers a little, and claws slid silently out. They should have made a noise like 'pling!'

or something, I felt, but I felt like it was still pretty impressive. It certainly made an impression on Alfredo. His eyes widened a little!

"Oh." He said in a tiny voice"Right. I... kind of forgot that you're... World knows I mean no offense, girl, but I even forget that I am a monster sometimes, and you're such a nice woman, it's hard to hold that in my head at the same time as I think of you as a werewolf." He said. I pat him with my paw-y hand and he flinched just a little.

"It's no trouble! Now - let's go squish some tomators." I said, and led the way into the basement. The Cursed Pantry was a strange artifact. We'd locked it carefully and barred it shut, which was a good thing because when we got downstairs I could actually hear it rattling and jerking a tiny bit. On reflection, the sound of it had been present to my senses for some time since I'd returned from the forest, but I'd had other htings to think about and it was a constant noise - easy to ignore.

Looking at it now, I could see how someone could find the thing worrisome. It had jolly carvings of people cooking, of monster veggies dancing, but in this dim light it looked like a sneering, wicked face that loomed large in the space of the room we'd set aside solely for its presence. Even as I watched, it juked and rattled a little, and a low growl began to fill the air. I only realized it was coming from my breast when Alfredo gave me a concerned look and... I felt, more than saw, him trembling.

Was I scaring him?

"I suppose first thing is... popping it open and killing whatever comes out, right?" I asked, and he nodded.

"It's not actually... bulging, so I don't think it will be... bad, but... be on your guard." the man said, and seemed to steel himself up as he checked the knife with a brief visual inspection. I nodded at him, and strode to the door. It rattled again and shook as I reached out, and... then went still as my hand closed on the handle.

"Wait a moment. Visualize what you want." He said"It might help to speak aloud what kind of vegetable you want also." He said, and I nodded at that. I visualized... a tomato plant. I'd seen them often enough as a girl, looking at my father's little porch garden and my grandparents' more extensive gardens.

"I need Tomatoes." I said, and... something spoke to me. Something I was coming to recognize as the strange, cracked instructions of my Braucherei skill. On instinct, I dipped my words in mana, making my throat tingle and heat a little as words came to my mind.

"Sun distilled and crimson delight, tomato plant, I call you to fight!" I said, and the Pantry shivered visibly in my senses as it began to make a buzzing noise and glow, the carvings shimmering under my hand with a glow that seemed to come from inside the wood! Then, without preamble, I popped the latch on the pantry... This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. BONK.

The door hit me full-on in the face as a surge of earthy, pleasant smelling vines shot out in a tide, splashing over me and snaking out to grip at the pantry, at me, at the floor, at the walls, and at the doorway on the end of the hall! My nose, running with blood, hurt way way too much, and for a moment my eyes were blurried shut with tears as I recoiled and... found myself being pushed bodily backward under the onslaught of vines!

Alfredo let out a cry, and began laying about with his knife, slicing easily through the hairy green leafy lengths to cut his way towards me as I saw something bulbous and red start shifting its way out of the pantry! Tomatorr Vinechild, Level 6, hungry, gleeful It looked basically like a big hot house tomato, bulbous and bright red with...

beady, glassy black eyes and no mouth as such on its frame, but I saw fronds of its viny limbs wrapping around my limbs, and those ended in sharp-toothed little mouths that jabbered insanely and screeched, especially as Alfredo laid about with my cooking knife, slashing them apart with ease. Not to be outdone, I grabbed a thick vine in one hand as it coiled around my body and arm, binding it to my side, and simply hauled. Once again, my body asked how much, and this time I answered Ten.

My mana went down by ten points, and I simply pulled. The vines offered little resistance as they were parted from my side and physically snapped with a sound like a balloon bursting, and ichorous green-black fluid began to spurt out of the thing as the Tomatorr let out a wail!

It'd made a mistake getting this close to me, and I ignored little mouths that rose to its defense and sank into my chest and belly in chompy bites that were at least partially foiled by both my armored clothing and a generous use of stamina. They hurt, sure, but they were like the scrabblings of a mouse's teeth on the hide of a cat - not really worth getting worked up over.

I let out a ripping battle snarl anyhow, my left arm shooting out like a piston to seize the Tomatorr plant by the base of its body where it connected to the stalk, and didn't care a wit for its health or safety as I pulled one from the other savagely with a meaty SPUK sort of noise that cut off the screams of the many little mouths of its frondy limbs in an instant of wheezing and deflating as they went limp. Good Girl! You have plucked Tomatorr Vinechild, level 6, from this mortal coil!

Bonus XP is gained for finishing it quickly! Due to combatting as a group, reward is reduced. Easy! I shut the door of the pantry and latched it again firmly. As I bled from a dozen rapidly-closing little wounds, I turned to Alfredo. I must have looked like quite a sight because he flinched, his face creasing with fright that stabbed me right in the heart. He took an involuntary step backwards from me before steeling his nerves and taking a deep, shaky breath.

I'd noticed him flinching earlier, but this was so much sharper. I blinked at him and he tried to play off his reaction to me.

"I hate that pantry." Mr. Gehrman confided to me.

"Next time... I will simply let you handle it, I think. If I never see that curse'd evil box again it will be too soon" He said. The Tomatorr vanished, leaving... a few strings of bright red tomatoes on the vine that smelled amazing! I was still covered in the evidence of the fight, but Alfredo smiled at me - especially once I stopped putting stamina into my body and returned more or less to normal. Despite myself... I felt a little bad. A question bubbled out of me before I could stop it.

"Are you scared of me, Alfredo?" I asked. The innkeeper didn't meet my eyes, he just fidgeted with his spectral mustache fretfully as he steeled himself. The ghostly man nodded his head firmly then, and stared somewhere in the vicinity of my knees.

"A bit." He admitted.

"I..." he hesitated over his words, and I let him think about things, let him get what words he wanted to say out.

"I do apologize, but... yes, you do frighten me a little." he said, and my heart sank a little more. He continued"You are a sweet woman and you're... well, a good person. But." and the word hung in the air like a hook.

"You were raised to be afraid of werewolves. We're monsters - dangerous ones, right?" I said, and he frowned at me but he nodded just the same. I didn't sound too happy about things in my own ears.

"Yes. That's right. Your kind - that sounds like such a dreadful thing to say - are some of the most dangerous monsters of the Western Woods and its environs. Boss monsters, each and every one of you. Even you gentle Hound, apprentice mine, as sweet a girl as you are... are marked as a boss monster" He said"Admittedly... not just at this moment, you read to me as a Peasant, but... earlier? Or when you demonstrated you wouldn't need the knife?" he shrugged, and clearly felt a bit bad.

Quietly, I started for the doorway he stood in front of, and he didn't flinch away... So I hugged him! He tensed a moment, and I saw his eyes go a little wide before softening. Then, he hugged me back, relaxing into the simple embrace a bit. Almost as an afterthought, he started patting my back.

"I'm sorry for scaring you, Alfredo!" I said, and he shook his head.

"It is nothing, it is nothing. I am sorry for continuing to be a skittish little rabbit of a man! You are no danger. I know this." he said, and clapped my shoulder firmly.

"You are a good and noble person. I am honored to call you my friend." he said as he looked me in the eye. Wolf stirred inside me, and I felt her slight disquiet as he looked me in the eye like that. NOT CHALLENGE No, he's a friend. You don't like people looking us in the eye? Wolf shrugged a little, and waggled her tail CAN BE CHALLENGE she said, ISN' T Huh. What's the difference? SOFT EYES she explained and... you know, I kind of understood that. It was the context of the eye contact.

Alfredo wasn't looking at me like a threat or like he was angry, he was looking at me with determination and acceptance. I pat the man's shoulder once and nodded to him.

"Thanks Alfredo, for... well, teaching me, and for being honest with me. I'll have to be careful around strangers, I think." I said, and he nodded at that.

"If you would take my advice..." Alfredo began, and gave me a searching look. I nodded, and he continued"Do not let it show" he said"I do not think it will pay to advertise that you are a werewolf. Perhaps in Lambstock it would be fine to be a bit dangerous, a bit exotic, where people will be ready and expecting to see these things, but the people, they will not wish danger in their daily life." he said, and there was sense in that.

"But if you are safe, and if you are steady, and if the people know this truth of you, it will fix in their minds your safeness, your reliability. Call upon your power at need only, and this will be a fine thing in their mind." he continued, and it sounded like solid advice.

"Sort of like... a performance?" and he nodded.

"As a cook and an artist, I must tell you that Presentation is Everything." he confirmed.

"People think in stories that they tell to themselves. It will be all the stronger for being the truth also." In a thoughtful frame of mind, I made my way with him back upstairs and we started making tomato paste. He assured me that the only way to do this properly was to dry the tomatoes in the sun, but seeing as how we didn't have time for that, cooking them soft in some oil until they softened, pushing them through a siev, and then rendering them down a little while would have to do.

While Alfredo worked on that part, I started making the fried rice properly, now that the rice had had a few hours to soak up water. It was nice and tender, and after a rinse to get rid of some of the starch, it was perfect. Sunflower oil was glorious. I'd never really used it before, and working with it was a treat! It just held the heat so well and didn't even smoke at the temperatures I fried at, working in most of the remaining stock of veggies I'd hunted down.

Then came the main event - adding the meat and tomatoes to the braising sauce, tearing up some of the mint leaves into the mixture, and adding several big, clean fronds of sage, we filled the pot until the liquid just about covered the meat, covered it, and set it in the oven to cook for the rest of the afternoon. In the meanwhile, Tea happened! I poured each of my friends out a mug of the tea I'd set going earlier, and sat down to join them.

Alfredo even joined in and we told him about the adventures we'd had together so far, about how we met, and... it was nice.