244 – Indigenous people (3)
“If you pay more, they will cook an extra special dish. Are you going to eat it?”
“Special dishes?”
At the word special dish, Chester looked at Monia.
Monia, who was fishing just a moment ago, looked at the water person who talked about the special dish with sparkling eyes with interest.
“Okay. Please.”
“It will be delicious.”
As the water person left to prepare the dish, Senna, who knew the identity of the dish, approached the two.
“Are you trying to eat that? They always ask if we want to eat something special after a while on the boat.”
“Hmm. Decided to eat What is your identity?”
“Ah, ah!”
When Chester asks what she is, Monia is so taken aback that she can’t even speak properly, and she lunges at Chester and covers her mouth.
“You have to look at the food without knowing anything about it!”
“Really?”
“To explain the dishes, you have to listen to the chef’s explanation when the chef brings out the dishes!”
“I don’t know if those guys will do delicate things like explaining the cooking… ….”
Chester watched the people preparing the dishes in a small boat attached to the side of the boat.
Water people making a huge bonfire on a wooden boat with a lot of mud spread on it.
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Seeing that, Chester and Monia at the same time recalled making a spot by spreading dirt on the floor of their house to make a bonfire in their house on the floating island.
“I miss you.”
“Sure.”
Two people holding each other’s waist lightly and starting to talk about memories while feeling longing.
Sena combed Rex’s tangled hair and tidied it up while listening to the story of the two.
The story of Monia’s hardships after being abandoned on a floating island with strong memories of her aristocratic days.
The story of holding Chester naked and hugging him tightly on a stormy day, I couldn’t think of anything at the time because of the fear and cold, but now that I think about it, it’s quite embarrassing and exciting.
I hated it at first, but now I like it.
The story of hard work to build a house. A story about making tools out of stone. The story of Chester’s fight with a bear. The story of going upstairs to treat Chester. The day I first met the black wind.
While Senna enjoyed overhearing the two of them, the dish was finished before she knew it.
“Zero!”
The dish brought by the water person was in a truly unconventional form.
“Huh? Uh? Uh?!”
Embarrassed, Monia just kept saying that.
“Oh, I miss you.”
Senna smiled and sat down.
Chester, who was also seated, looked over the browned dish and asked.
“The parts that can be eaten seem to have been peeled and marked. Is there a reason why they are grilled while preserving their shape?”
“That’s how customers like it!”
“Really.”
Having paid for his dish, Chester looked at the dish in front of him, then at the crocodile dragging his boat, then at the small grilled crocodile in front of him.
“Hmm.”
Yes.
The water people’s special dish was grilled crocodiles.
Unlike the huge crocodiles that pull the boat, they were small enough to prepare one for each person, but crocodiles were crocodiles.
“Does it taste good?”
Monia was surprised at first, but since she has a lot of experience in eating this and that, she quickly got used to it and sat down in front of her dish to prepare to eat.
“That woman has good guts.”
“Sure. He looked like an aristocrat.”
Grilled crocodile was a game that felt like a “Hateful experience” Or a “Horror experience” For the aristocrats because of the gross form of cooking that kept its heinous appearance and shape intact.
Male aristocrats try to eat bravely even though they are scared to impress the female aristocrats who came with them, and it is interesting to see them like that, so they say nonsense to tell them to be a little scared…… Among those who came from outside, there were people who thought that the crocodile was descended from the dragon and enjoyed eating it in order to gain the power of the dragon.
Chester and Monia, who first saw a crocodile on the floating island, mistook it for a dragon.
“Yum.”
Monia lifts up a whole crocodile leg and bites off the leg, showing off the hard meat.
Monia, who was chewing with meat grease and soot on her nose and mouth, swallowed the meat she was chewing and said.
“Chicken? Same taste? I think it is?”
“Chicken.”
Wooddeuk! Wood Deuk!
Just then, I heard a loud noise from the side. Looking around, I saw Rex biting and chewing the crocodile leg to the bone.
Rex ate the crocodile with his bright eyes.
“This is delicious!”
Saying that, I grabbed her by the tail and started to eat it.
“Oh.”
“Ohhh.”
The water people who saw it watched Rex eat the crocodile with admiration, and then started to clap as Rex ate all of the crocodile.
“Awesome!”
“A real warrior!”
“I ate it all! Everything down to the bones!”
“Did you see the leather biting?! Crocodile skin blocks even arrows!”
Water People flocked to Rex and began giving him this and that, telling him to try this and that.
And whenever Rex ate something, he admired it.
Even when someone tried to give one plain twig, Monia, who saw that, was dumbfounded, she exclaimed.
“Don’t feed my child strange things!”
“Keah!”
She stopped eating the crocodile and got up and kicked the water man into the water. She saw the water man swim hard and came back onto her belly, then snorted and went back to eat the crocodile.
A water person who saw it helped her get aboard, she said.
“I know you did something wrong.”
“Yes… ….”
“Apologize later.”
“I guess so.”
“And thank you.”
“Why?”
The water man pointed at Rex with a peek.
Rex was looking at the water man who was trying to give him a twig as he twiddled his fist with a regretful face.
After seeing Rex’s big fist, the water man nodded deeply.
“I should also thank you. You saved his life.”
* * *
The tribe was galloping through the forest at breakneck speed.
“Did you check the beacon?”
“Yes. Those guys who lit a beacon around here are probably the prime suspects.”
The natives who confirmed the beacon indicated the direction the ship was moving.
“There were no other signs, so I guess.”
“Can you chase it? Water man boats are fast.”
When one of the inexperienced natives spoke, the other aborigines seemed indifferent.
“We move along the river instead. We run using a short path where the river does not flow.”
“Ah, if only I could chase it before the river diverged!”
“Yes.”
It must be bloody revenge. With just that thought, they ran after the ship.
* * *
Two days after the amazing experience of eating a crocodile, Chester lifted a spear for the first time in a while.
A wooden spear carved from a mysteriously strong tree obtained from a floating island.
No matter how strong it is, even after passing through the floating island for a long time, it was in excellent condition like other tools that had been carefully maintained.
However, just as wooden spears gradually declined along with the development of tools, this spear was also becoming less and less used as Chester and Monia were equipped with more various tools.
It’s slowly becoming a burden, so we’ll have to part someday. However, Chester couldn’t bear to throw it away because he had memories of fighting a bear with it.
Fighting the bear was worthwhile overcoming Chester’s own trauma.
“Now, the place where the river splits will come out.”
When Chester threw a wooden spear and caught a fish, the water people were busy giving instructions to each other.
“Did you tell the crocodile where to go?”
“I delivered!”
“Okay, keep an eye out for the crocodile so he doesn’t go astray!”
Although crocodiles are tamed and used, that does not mean that crocodiles listen to them.
They provide comfortable shelter, stable breeding opportunities and steady food for alligators, and alligators help them.
It could be said that it was close to a kind of symbiotic relationship.
If there was something they didn’t like, the crocodile wouldn’t listen to them and went on a rampage.
“Okay, watch out! Let’s go!”
Chester gave the fish he caught to Monia, and Monia cleaned the fish neatly.
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In the past, I would have just grilled it and ate it, but I learned various dishes and cooking techniques while living on the Matoto continent.
Among them, there was also a fish grooming method.
“You know what, Chester? I’ve heard that sailors eat fish alive! No cooking!”
“…… You are crazy.”
“Chester and the little snake were eaten raw.”
“It’s a real little snake, and on top of that, I don’t eat it raw unless I’m in a big hurry.”
Hearing that they eat fish raw, Chester frowned.
“What if you’re in a hurry, but there’s only fish to eat, and you can’t make a fire?”
“You should eat it.”
After hearing Chester’s nonchalant answer, Monia smiled and prepared the fish, and she got up to grill the fish.
The moment Monia woke up, an arrow flew into the spot where Monia was sitting just a moment ago.
“A raid!”
Immediately after seeing her flying arrow, Monia shouted loudly in the Tongdan Continental language she had learned from Sena.