Volume 2 Chapter 30 Autopsy
Edited by: Kanaa-senpai
The mornings at ‘The Boar’s Trot Inn’ start early.
The Pigfoot father and daughter rise with the sunrise, and after finishing their morning prayers and getting ready, they immediately begin preparing to open the inn.
After shopping for meat, vegetables, and seasonings, Robert begins the preparations for cooking.
Once Esther checks the state of the ale they will serve that day, she moves to the basement to start kneading the dough.
She starts kneading at 7 and lights the oven by 7-30.
The oven will be ready 2 and a half hours later, giving her about an hour to prepare the kneading board and dough.
In the meantime, Esther mingles with the employees who are clearing out the soot and mud from the previous day in the hall, or she helps Robert in the kitchen.
However, on this particular day, it seems she has left most of the work to Melissa, Moimoi, and other employees.
As Kian comes down the stairs from the second floor, he finds Esther waiting for him, changed into her easy-to-move leather gear and wearing a backpack.
Today is finally the day they had promised to revisit the ‘Labyrinth of Roses.’
Kian, Esther, along with the vampire researcher Oswald and his subordinate, the dark elf Aisha, are set to go to the site.
”Good morning, Esther. Is it heavy?”
”Good morning. No, it’s fine. Are you okay, Mr. Kian? It seems like you got back quite late last night.”
The ponytailed girl said this while looking up at him with a worried expression.
Kian had a little fight with some assassins in the town yesterday, then buried the crows, and then repaired the flower beds and windows of ‘The Boar’s Trot Inn.
By the time it’s all over, the sky is pitch black.
Since he went to Aliona’s without having dinner, Esther probably thought that Kian was working nonstop.
That’s not the case, but he won’t make the mistake of explaining that he was hanging out with Aliona last night.
Kian decided to laugh softly and cover it up.
”I’m fine. But is it really okay to leave the baking to Ms. Moimoi and the others?”
”Oh, yes. They’ve been taking care of things like stacking firewood and cleaning the soot from inside the oven for a while now. …I’ve been having trouble moving around in the bread oven lately because I’ve gained weight.”
Esther darkened her brown eyes and let out a low laugh, “Ha ha ha…”
Since Kian, the one with glasses, told her to lose weight, she often resorts to self-deprecation like this.
”Esther, you’re already thin and beautiful as you are. If you lose more weight, you’ll just become skin and bones. Fat is important.”
”…Mr. Kian is really good with words, always saying one thing after another, and I can’t help but get carried away.”
”I mean it from the heart.”
”Is this really how it is?”
As Esther said that, she pinched her belly, which was squeezed by her leather armor.
Knowing how a bit flabby it looked when she took it off, it was a recognizable degree of stretch.
(Wow, it looks just like bread dough before it’s been fermented.)
’That can’t be how much it stretches. Was there no other metaphor?’
”Muu…”
As she silently gazed down at the flesh of Esther’s belly, she puffed out her cheeks with a pouty look.
”…You really do think I’m fat, don’t you?”
”Eh? I don’t think so”
”I can’t believe it. I’m definitely going to lose weight! I’m determined!”
”You don’t have to force yourself to lose weight. If Esther restricts her diet and becomes less active, it will be difficult for ‘The Boar’s Trot Inn’”
”Before I turned ten, my dad was running it by himself, so I think it’s okay to a certain extent. …You can’t lose fat unless you sacrifice something. I’ll do it.”
Esther snorts and gasps.
It was a slightly comical moment in the morning, when a loud voice interrupted their conversation.
”Hey, Esther!”
”Oh, MoiMoi. What’s wrong?”
”Where’s the leaven bottle? I can’t find it.”
”The bottle…? I told you it’s in the underground storehouse.”
”Really? But there’s no bottle”
”It’s not in a bottle. Look, there’s a bag of rye and fava beans over there, right? It’s on the shelf next to it.”
”Huh? You idiot, if it wasn’t in a bottle, everything would be a mess, right? How do you store it? It’s so confusing.”
”What are you talking about? I already explained that our bread starter is solid. I thought I told you where it is too.”
”So it’s not liquid, huh? Well, this is a tavern, so I guess that makes sense.”
Next to Esther, Kian murmured quietly.
In the Franz Kingdom, fermented bread is mainstream, but the microorganisms necessary for fermentation are kept in a fermented dough known as ‘sourdough starter.’
By mixing this dough, which contains a lot of microorganisms, into the dough being baked that day, the entire bread dough ferments.
Maintaining the bread starter requires regularly sprinkling warm water and dusting it with flour.
Microorganisms need their ‘food’ too.
This means that taking care of the microorganisms living in the starter dough requires an incredible amount of time and effort.
So, in remote mountain villages that bake bread only a few times a year, they don’t bother to keep the solid fermented dough from the last time they baked.
So what do they do──.
The answer is, each time they make bread, they create the starter from scratch for the fermented bread.
This ‘sourdough starter’ is used immediately after being made, so the drying process is omitted.
That’s why it’s still liquid and gooey.
The daughter of a tavern that has the habit of storing solid dough starter.
And a girl from a small farming village who makes her own dough and uses it in its liquid form.
That’s probably where the difference in their perceptions comes from.
(I’m pretty sure Ms. Moimoi is from the countryside. She came to this prosperous town to work.)
’She must have been around 13 years old. Her mother was still the one doing the bread making, and she was probably just watching from the side with a runny nose. It’s not surprising that she didn’t know.’
”Hmm? That doesn’t make sense”
”I explained it properly…”
Esther lowers her eyebrows.
Kian put his hand on her shoulder.
”You should go and help out. At this rate, Ms. Melissa must be having trouble figuring out how to turn on the oven. “
”Oh, by the way, I was having some trouble. Kian, you’re sharp.”
”Well, the size of bread ovens varies from household to household, and there’s no way to adjust the temperature just by explaining the amount of firewood needed for such a large tavern’s oven. There’s still time, so it would be good to help out. I’ll wait here──”
Just when Kian was saying this, someone interrupted again.
This time it was Robert, who had been working in the kitchen.
”Hey, Kian. You have a letter. A Guild messenger came by the back entrance a little while ago.”
The bear-like large man said, waving a small letter in his hand.
”A letter from the Guild…? Thank you. But what could it be?”
”Who knows? But it shouldn’t be anything that important like an acceptance notice. There’s no way the lazy Guild would keep track of where adventurers who take the promotion exam sleep.”
He took the letter, broke the wax seal, and pulled out the contents to examine.
It was a summons from Guild Master Friedrich.
It seemed that the body of the female assassin he had nearly killed in the sewers yesterday had been retrieved from the water moat surrounding the town and was being taken to the military’s coroner facility.
”…According to the letter, Sir Oswald seems to be at the coroner facility too. It looks like he’s asking for an explanation about yesterday’s situation.”
”Could that person be going to ‘Labyrinth of Roses’ with us today, Kian…?”
”Yes, he was the noble. I cannot ignore the summons from him and the Guildmaster. I will now go to the post-mortem facility. After that, I will go directly to the meeting place with Sir Oswald and the others.”
”Okay. Then I’ll help MoiMoi and the others and then head to the meeting place. It’s the east gate, right?”
”Yes. I think it will probably be slower. If it takes too long or Sir Oswald cancels, I’ll send the letter to my subordinate crow.”
”I understand. …But still, a morgue in the morning…”
”Kian, you have it tough. I don’t want to go to the morgue at all.”
”Hey, Kian. I know it’s work, but make sure to wash up before you come back. I won’t take responsibility if you bring any sickness into our tavern.”
”I understand, Mr. Robert, and Esther.”
”Alright then, I’ll get back to preparations.”
”Okay, Mr. Robert. …Well then, Esther, see you later.”
”Yes. Let’s meet up later.”
After saying that, Esther took Moimoi and disappeared from the counter into the depths of the kitchen.
There was a staircase in the kitchen that led to the cellar.
Kian turned on his heel and stepped out of ‘The Boar’s Trot Inn’ onto the main street.
Having lived as a lower-rank adventurer for so long, he felt little resistance to going to the morgue.
Instead, there was an uncomfortable sensation in his mind, like a fishbone lodged in his throat.
Please bookmark this series and rate ☆☆☆☆☆ on here!
Edited by Kanaa-senpai.
Thanks for reading.
Leave a Reply