And so, between carpentry jobs, Katia began construction of THAT — the device that makes our “alchemy” possible.
Completion will take a while, which — fair enough.
It genuinely does amount to alchemy, and it should become one of the structural pillars of the household economy.
Meanwhile, after conferring with Ouroboros, the palm-top rabbits’ hunting quota has been cut to one third.
By the math, that vaporizes over half our income.
We were running an extraction racket to begin with, in fairness.
So even once the alchemy revenue arrives, the budget stays tight. That hasn’t changed.
“No imported alcohol for the foreseeable future…”
Which settled it: we’re going into serious home-production — and SALES — of alcohol.
The production process, described in legal detail, would be Very Bad, so let’s skip it—
Point is: mass wine production has commenced.
The vineyard was expanded for exactly this purpose ages ago, so idiotic volumes are achievable.
Tune the fermentation and it becomes wine vinegar too — a seasoning line and a beverage line from one crop. Two birds, one vineyard.
The first trial batch came out, we tasted it — and I recoiled slightly.
The source grapes have absurd sugar content, so the prototype is intensely sweet.
The fermentation ran a touch short, and paradoxically that made it BETTER.
Sweet enough to pass as ultra-premium fruit wine, no questions asked.
The women’s wing gave it rave reviews — “This’ll sell at RIP-OFF prices, no problem!” per Arisa.
And then Arisa, oddly fired up, proposed this:
“How’s about we invite some town brass out here?”
Her reasoning: wine sells best to humans.
And THAT — the device Katia’s building — will also fetch its best prices from humans.
Both will presumably move through the Adventurer King’s trading company via Maria’s connection — but our operation’s scale is genuinely growing now.
So: invite the town’s administrative executives over, make introductions, talk business properly.
A few days later—
Arisa and the Adventurer King greased the wheels, and a delegation of town administrators was scheduled to visit the homestead.
“Guests… coming HERE… why am I nervous?”
Alcohol sales are regulated under town rules, so getting official buy-in is mandatory, apparently.
But formal hospitality is not a skill I’ve ever trained.
The gift lineup for the VIPs came together like this:
・Our wine (as product)
・Our sugar (as product)
・Smoked devil boar
・Potato chips (via the ordering skill)
The head official is reportedly a hardliner — actual bribes would backfire.
Hence deliberately omitting anything money-shaped… though is THIS gift basket really acceptable? I genuinely can’t tell.
He’s also reportedly a serious drinker, so I prepped a spread of strong-flavored banquet dishes to match…
And what I’m cooking right now is the main event.
The dish planned as the banquet’s closer, that is.
The workflow:
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Simmer death hawk and devil boar bones in the stockpot for 24 hours — that’s the base soup.
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Pressure-cook devil boar in soy sauce, mirin, sake, and garlic for two hours. Result: meltingly tender chashu.
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The chashu also gets deployed across the banquet dishes.
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Boil noodles imported from Japan.
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Combine the chashu braising liquid with the base soup. Add MSG in quantities I decline to disclose.
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Ramen: complete.
My first from-scratch ramen in another world… how will it land, I wonder.
If reviews are strong, maybe I drop the MSG step and open a shop somewhere. A man can dream.