Horizon:Volume 8C Chapter 73

Chapter 73: Cooker at the Hunting Grounds

Thanks for the food

Thank you for the food

Point Allocation (All Hell Is About To Break Loose…)

Mitsunari concluded the pope was a little late in waking up.

She opened a lernen figur in front of the others during their regular meeting in Aki’s surface dining hall that morning. Insulated containers were lined up on the long table like a buffet, providing as much food as a full dinner. It was a lot and it was heavy, but for good reason.

“Kohime! It is unbecoming to eat so much first thing in the morning!”

“No, no, no, no. I refuse to budge on this. Today is important. It’s the opening ceremony at school. We shouldn’t still be out here at our summer break training camp. So…”

Sakon’s thought was continued by Kasuya who sat across from her. Kasuya was filling her plate with nothing but meat dishes to ensure she got enough.

“Testament. So we need to finish this today. Or make enough headway that we can finish it tomorrow. Besides, we only have 4 left. There will probably be more now, but if we spend all day on this, we should be able to settle it.”

“I appreciate you saying so,” said Mitsunari.

Mitsunari knew she had set their pace too low to begin with.

The rate at which the dragons appeared had increased in the second half of their dragon slaying quest.

That had been a surprise, but she only had herself to blame for failing to take measures against the possibility.

…I was too closeminded in my schedule management.

She had tried to make use of the full time available to them and ensured there was time for breaks each day.

That had been a mistake. Not everything was going to play out the way she wanted. When the dragons started appearing in greater numbers in the second half, their leisurely schedule had fallen apart.

They should have poured all their efforts into it from the start, slayed all the dragons early, and spent the rest of their time resting and recuperating.

She had a feeling Kazumasa would lecture her on this when she returned to the Azuchi, but she knew she deserved it. She shouldn’t have delayed the end result in an attempt to keep things more leisurely.

She needed to focus on reaching the end result first.

…This was an important lesson.

Mitsunari had so much to learn. She had tried to learn as much as she could beforehand, but once she started using that knowledge, she was faced with surprise after surprise and felt flustered at all times. Not to mention that recent divine transmission from a member of the representative committee:

“Excuse me, Ishida-sama. I hate to be the bearer of bad news…”

“What is it? Go ahead and tell me.”

“Testament. Aki is wondering if you could pay a higher lodging fee. You are apparently using so much food it has pushed them well over their budget.”

She had bowed and apologized profusely, but when she looked at the breakfast before her eyes now, it did seem this group was eating too much from a statistical standpoint. However…

…Sakon-sama and Kasuya-sama always clean their plates.

That meant this was the correct amount. Or it could even be too little. She wondered how much she could pay out of her own pocket. Or could she ask Ootani to take money from an enemy nation’s divine transmission treasury?

But her biggest concern vis-à-vis food costs was not present today. Kasuya took a look around.

“Um, where is Hirano today?”

“Testament. Hirano-sama is at the Tsurugi Shrine setting up. She plans to join us later today.”

…I would really, really appreciate it if she has already eaten breakfast by the time she joins us.

No sooner had the thought entered her mind than the dining hall door opened.

“Yes! I made it in time for breakfast! You’re still serving breakfast, right!? You are, aren’t you!? Then I’ll start with an aperitif! …Oh, I’m Hirano Nagayasu. I’m with them over there! I brought some soy sauce with me, so I can eat whatever! Anyone else want some!?”

Mitsunari internally lamented the inopportune arrival of the girl who always consumed the most expensive alcohol.

…Today is going to be another long day, isn’t it?

It would have to be. Because…

“We’re going to be over budget come tomorrow, aren’t we?”

Mitsunari ran multiple calculations on whether or not she should stop the others from ordering more food with expressions she identified as smiles.

…Okay, I think it’s about time.

Asama knew today would be their last time enjoying an outdoor breakfast in front of the candy house. Tomorrow, a transport ship would collect them and their breakfast on the ship would be the bentos they made today.

That may have been why it was a rather large breakfast, even if they didn’t have to clean out the supplies or anything like that. Meat on the bone and various stews were lined up, but the many raw vegetables helped it feel more breakfasty. There was also a lot of bread, but Asama and Horizon had made this breakfast special.

They had given everything Far Eastern seasoning.

The simplest example was the soy sauce. They added a bit if a twist with the mirin. And they got creative with the kinako.

In the sauces for the meats, they had used the soy sauce as a secret ingredient and the mirin in place of wine and such. The kinako helped drive home the Far Eastern flavor, but it also worked well in a dessert sauce.

Trying her hand at Western dishes had been a bit of an adventure for Asama. After all, her mother hadn’t taught her much in that regard.

But she had learned something from all her contact with European cooking here.

…European food has a lot less variation in types of cooking. Or maybe you could call it types of flavors.

Most of their cooking was done through boiling it in a pot or baking it in an oven. And then the occasional frying.

Asama got the impression that the flavor was defined more by the sauce than by how it was cooked.

There were stews and soups, but those were generally a variation on the salt-based pot-au-feu. They were more about boiling everything down as much as possible and then adding in different sauces to be boiled in.

“The type of stock isn’t as important for them.”

In the Far East, soups were widely categorized by the type of stock used. It was even common for a soup to use multiple types of stock. For example, there was the difference between suimono and miso soup. Chicken soups were different again. You couldn’t just add miso to something to make it a miso soup. Horizon does that, but that’s something brand new if you ask me. Yes.

But in Europe, it was all pot-au-feu at its base. They took salt, vegetables, meat, and maybe fish and then boiled that down into a stock. That one stock was enthroned at the top as king.

Of course, there were also soups made without a stock, like the M.H.R.R. onion soup that Naruze and Naito had shown off, but…

“That was really just chopped onions, butter, and salt and it was difficult to cook right since you had to use middle heat and ensure the onions browned up without burning. Then you added a bit more hot water to make a thick onion soup.”

“That stuff is the best if you turn it into a paste and add it to meat or soak some bread in it. But since it’s so hard to make, it isn’t great for making every day.”

In other words, it wasn’t something you could just whip up on a whim.

Asama had tried it herself and burning it only a little had made the whole soup bitter. She had actually burned it intentionally thinking it would taste better with a bit of charring, so she had learned an important lesson. Adele, it had turned out, was a pro at making it.

“Well, you only need water, onions, and butter to make it, so it’s about all I eat in the winter!”

“Why did you list water first? And what happened to the salt?” Naito had pressed with the strictness of a local.

But thinking back…

…It’s so different from the Far East where we have several different stocks and the soups branch off from there.

On the other hand, the Far East didn’t seem to have many soups that required a lot of attention to make.

But when a dish was sauce-based, you could get more creative with the flavor.

So that was what they had done for the final breakfast. He had been wandering around nearby, worried about something, but Asama had left him with Kimi and prepared the breakfast she had envisioned. And that cooking had led her to another realization too.

Horizon could learn.

…Oh?

Asama had seen all of the super dishes Horizon made and the reactions of the victims, so she had assumed Horizon was the self-taught type. He would often explain things to her and give her lessons, but whenever she did her own thing, it never worked out well.

But it turned out Horizon was willing to learn from Asama.

Asama honestly wasn’t sure what this implied, but she decided it had to be a good thing.

Asama herself had had a tendency to learn from her mother but refuse to learn from anyone else. For example, there was the time her father had tried to teach her how to cook his specialty.

“I prefer mom’s cooking.”

She had refused and left that cultural man feeling very blue.

Was this something similar?

Had Horizon accepted Asama, or did she feel comfortable around Asama? It felt wrong to come out and ask that, but whatever her reasons were, Horizon had chosen to learn from her.

So nothing needed to change.

Asama felt comfortable continuing on like this. The most important lesson was managing the fire. Because the alternative was dangerous. Then there was the amount of water, the amount of ingredients, and how to chop and slice things. It was important to roll up your sleeves and handle each tool correctly. With seasonings, you needed to first imagine what you wanted to do with the base ingredients.

“If you want a stronger flavor, use more. If you want a lighter flavor, use less. That might seem basic, but it’s surprisingly easy to forget. Sometimes people use more because they want to get the flavor just right and then it’s too strong. Other times people use less because they’re afraid it will be too strong and then it’s too light.”

“You seem to be suggesting there is not a correct amount to reproduce a specific flavor.”

“Because there isn’t. The ‘correct amount’ differs from person to person.”

Asama put her mother’s lessons in her own words.

“The flavor you experience here today can be your baseline. Use that to decide whether you want a stronger or lighter flavor. That can be your flavor, no matter what anyone else thinks.”

“In that case…”

“You season a dish by adjusting the seasonings to approach the flavor you would want. So I don’t think you are as bad at cooking as some might think. You do get the occasional blast of a creative frontier spirit, but I think the problem is your lack of a baseline or a sense of your own tastes.”

Asama knew why that was.

Horizon had no memories. And since she had become an automaton, her tongue did not remember the flavors either. Not to mention…

…Toori-kun is a bit at fault too.

He must have tried to teach Horizon how to cook.

But that wasn’t what he had done.

“First, you need to learn which seasonings give which ingredients a certain flavor. Then you can use the processes you have learned to create the dish. The flavor is more important than the process. When you learn the process first, it can be harder to get the flavor right. Because you end up focusing so much on the work.”

Horizon stared at Asama.

“…”

She smacked herself on the head and took Asama’s hand.

“A brilliant lesson, Asama-sama! So much better than that impudent boy.”

“Your pot! Your pot is boiling over!”

Asama could guess how it had ended up that way. At the Blue Thunder, his mother was cooking as a job, so it really was nothing but work to complete. And since he knew how it was done already, his attempts at clever lessons ended up focusing on the process.

Asama had cooked alongside Horizon before this, but he or someone else had always been there too. She had never gotten into this then because she didn’t want to get in the way, but…

…I see.

She realized now that was the wrong way to look at it.

Oh, yes, right, I get it. She kept nodding in her mind, but that really was it. Horizon had no memories and her tongue was inexperienced. Lining up the ingredients and seasonings in front of someone and teaching them the proper method could work, but…

…Only if they already know what flavors those seasonings have.

Asama’s mother had taught her how to cook and how to season. That let her imagine the end result if she stewed fish or stewed meat and then seasoned them the same.

Horizon had been taught the methods without an understanding of the flavors. So she hadn’t paid much attention to the seasoning and cooked things according the methods she had learned, leading to a tendency toward creativity.

So Asama wanted to make up for that lack of education. She did so by cooking Western dishes in a Far Eastern style.

“This has soy sauce in it, doesn’t it?”

All of the Western dishes were ones they had eaten at some point during their stay here. That meant Horizon knew what they normally tasted like. So what happened when one of the seasonings was changed?

“You can tell? I used soy sauce as a secret ingredient.”

“That gives it a definite Far Eastern flavor, Asama-sama!”

That was how seasoning worked.

Since Horizon could tell, she did indeed have a sense of taste. So…

…Wow.

This introduced a lot more to look forward to in their new life living together. It could be fun to ask Horizon for some seasonings she wanted to try out and then actually use them as an experiment to see what happened.

But they had other business to take care of first.

…Our meeting with Akechi Mitsuhide at Kyou.

Some of them also had to share the final results of their research or investigation and Asama had some concerns regarding hers. Also…

“It’s about time, isn’t it?”

Once everyone had eaten the breakfast they had cooked, it would be time for their next task.

That task was getting some rest. They did have to prepare lunch, but other than that, everyone had the day off until sharing the research results at the meeting that night. Asama knew she would likely have to prepare for a dip in the spring, but…

“Asama-chi.”

Naito was gesturing her and Horizon over so only those two could see. Asama and Horizon exchanged a nod, and…

“Mito.”

She called out to Mitotsudaira who was sighing in satisfaction after her meal.

Asama and Horizon gathered the plates from the table and turned to Mitotsudaira.

“We will clean up here, so why don’t you go into the candy house and change into your swimsuit ahead of us?”

“Eh? Oh, judge. It’s that time already?”

“Um, yes. We have some preparations of our own to make, so it’d be great if you got things started for us,” said Naruze.

Mitotsudaira nodded and got up.

“Then I should hurry up and get changed so we have as much time to play as possible. Wait just a moment. I have cleared the back bedroom as a changing room.”

Mitotsudaira walked to the candy house and everyone heard the door open and close.

After three seconds passed, Adele looked to the others.

“She fell for it.”

“Yeah, that was shockingly easy,” said the 3rd Special Duty Officer, folding her arms in amazement.

“Fell for what?” asked the Date Vice Chancellor, who was still eating her breakfast and checking the news for different regions on her sign frame. “If this is some kind of trap, I hope it won’t affect me.”

“It’s not a trap. Not really, anyway,” said the 4th Special Duty Officer, who had been operating a Magie Figur for a while now.

Someone approached them as if in response.

“Oh, done with breakfast already? I was just washing my cup.”

It was the Chancellor. The 1st and 2nd Special Duty Officers followed after him, but the Vicereine spoke to him.

“Toori-sama, Mitotsudaira-sama said she wanted your help with something. In the candy house.”

“Huh? Nate did? Hmm.”

He tilted his head, but the 1st Special Duty Officer took his cup and set it down on the table.

“We will prepare for our day off here, so you go deal with whatever that is.”

“Sure. We can continue our conversation later.”

With that, the Chancellor walked toward the candy house. The 4th Special Duty Officer continued drawing something on her Magie Figur and slowly stood up while watching him go.

Her Weiss Hexen crop mark frame Magie Figur displayed a drawing of…

…The 5th Special Duty Officer.

The sketches were accurate and even had various backgrounds roughly drawn in as quick line drawings.

Art-Ga: “This should be a close approximation of a real-time feed.”

It showed the 5th Special Duty Officer enter the candy house’s dining room and look to the table. The extra meat Asama and the Vicereine had sliced up that morning sat there, so she took and ate a piece before wiping her mouth off with a handkerchief.

“How rude of me,” said the speech bubble coming from the bitter smile on her face. Then she moved to the living/bedroom in the back.

She unlocked the door and stepped in to the makeshift changing room where all their luggage was stored.

“Huh? Come to think of it, does the house’s front entrance lock from the inside?” quietly asked Asama.

When the 5th Special Duty Officer entered the back room, the front entrance opened in Naruze’s drawings.

“That house would never prevent the wolf’s king from entering,” said Kimi with a slight smile. “The Reine des Garous and my foolish brother have an understanding, after all.”

The Chancellor entered and looked around inside, puzzled.

“Ga-chan, am I imagining it, or did your drawing speed drop as soon as the scene shifted to the Chancellor?”

“Yeah, my motivation took a hit.”

Regardless, the Chancellor walked further inside. The candy house took on a cross-section view that showed the 5th Special Duty officer lock the room’s door and start to undress in the bedroom to the left while the Chancellor opened the pots on the stove to check inside.

“Oh, he’s checking to see which ones Horizon made,” noted Asama.

“Checking behind my back like that is such a stalkerish thing to do. What a creep.”

The 5th Special Duty Officer failed to notice the presence in the kitchen as she removed her inner suit. The drawing placed her behind the luggage stacked up in the bedroom to cover up her nudity. That must have been the 4th Special Duty Officer’s brand of mercy.

But just as the 5th Special Duty Officer picked up her swimsuit, the Chancellor opened the door to the bedroom.

“Hey, Nate. What was it you wanted help with?”

The 5th Special Duty Officer’s scream came from the real candy house and the 4th Special Duty Officer clenched her fist in triumph.

“Wh-wait, what is going on!?”

Toori considered Mitotsudaira’s question while standing with the door half open.

…What’s going on, huh?

“I opened the door and found you naked and staring at a swimsuit?”

“Correct! Absolutely correct! But that isn’t what I meant!”

It’s great that Nate will play along with these things, he thought. Horizon would get physical right away, Asama would find some way to lecture me about it, and I feel like it would turn into something else entirely with sis.

But what kind of something else?

“Sooo you were changing? You should really lock the door first.”

“I-I did lock it!”

It clearly hadn’t been locked, but if Nate was that insistent, maybe it had been?

Did I mess this up somehow? he wondered, raising his right hand

“Let’s put this to the test.”

“How exactly?”

“Close the door again and lock it from the inside.”

“Judge,” said Nate, covering up with a towel and approaching the door.

Mitotsudaira felt some regret as the bedroom door closed in front of her.

She remembered locking it, but then her king had come in. She didn’t know why, but it meant he had wanted a chance to be with her.

…What am I doing?

She mentally glared while speaking through the door.

She made sure to lock the door from the inside.

“My king, I just locked it.”

“Okay, then I’ll open it.”

It opened.

…Huh!?

Her king stuck his head through the cracked door.

“I thought you locked it?” was the first thing out of his mouth.

“I-I did lock it!”

She turned the lock to demonstrate. The machinery in the door latch operated and the deadbolt stuck out.

“See, I was doing it right.”

“Hm, then try it again.”

She tried it again. But…

“I thought you locked it?”

Her king stuck his head in again and she could only tilt her head.

“Hmm,” he turned his head. “Could the lock be broken? Let’s try it the other way around.”

“Good idea. We might notice something different on the other sides.”

“Right?” He smiled. “We don’t want people thinking it’s locked when it isn’t, so let’s keep testing.”

Naito joined a casual scrum with the others while viewing the Magie Figur by her hands.

The Magie Figur provided the situation inside the candy house. That situation might progress beyond Naruze’s imagination, so she was basing it off of the audio from the auditory spell that Horizon’s arms had carried beneath the floor.

As the Reine des Garous’s house, it had excellent anti-spell security, so the voices were only arriving in bits and pieces.

“Now I see why no one could overhear their 24-day marathon.”

“Didn’t most of that happen outdoors, though?”

“Would it be best to storm in like we did at the Asama Shrine with Asama-sama?”

“That is what happened with me, wasn’t it?”

Asama smiled and looked them all in the eye in turn, so everyone looked away. But Horizon…

“Last time it was Asama-sama’s turn and now it is Mitotsudaira-sama’s turn. This is excellent fodder- an excellent opportunity for my peeping- for my pursuit of life experiences.”

“You’re really enjoying this, aren’t you?”

“Judge. By deepening his relationship with Mitotsudaira-sama, Toori-sama is further proving his worth as a man.”

Is that how you see it? wondered Naito. Is that how it works? she also wondered. But Narumi had her own response to Horizon.

“You sure are confident.”

That hit the nail on the head. Yes, Horizon was confident. And in her opinion…

“I am Toori-sama’s pair and duplicate, so there is no replacement for me. There is also no replacement for Asama-sama or Mitotsudaira-sama, but I tend to keep my distance and I am a special case. So in a way, I am resting on my laurels with the relationship I have here. However…”

However…

“There is the issue of my personality.”

“H-Horizon, if you think there is a problem with your personality, I can help you fix it,” said Asama.

“Heh heh. That’s right, Horizon!” said Kimi. “If you see a problem there, just leave it to me! Do as your wise sister says and that problem will be 5 or 6 times worse in a week, guaranteed!”

“No, no. I know I have hidden it well, but I am actually quite lazy.”

Everyone exchanged a glance and Noriki finally raised his hand.

“Should I say it?”

“No, I think everyone’s already thinking it,” said Naito.

“Never mind then!”

Noririn has been really Noririn lately.

But Horizon cracked her neck and continued.

“Anyway, in our first step toward being a surveillance state, let us find out what those two are up to. My arms are providing an on-scene report.”

Mitotsudaira saw the door close in front of her.

This time, her king was in the bedroom and she was in the kitchen.

“Oh, I should probably get changed too,” he said on the other side.

“Not into women’s clothing this time, please!”

Curious, Mitotsudaira checked the front door.

…It’s open too!?

She distinctly remembered locking it. She tried relocking it and it did indeed lock. What is going on here? she wondered before hearing the bedroom door lock. The metal deadbolt audibly slotted into the wall.

Okay, she thought, rushing back and grabbing the knob. She turned it, but…

“Huh?”

The knob turned without catching anything and the door didn’t open. She tried it a few more times, but it still didn’t work. Wondering if there was a trick to it, she pushed in or pulled out while turning, but still nothing.

“Hey, Nate. How’s it going?”

“I-it won’t open.”

“Eh? It won’t?”

There was an odd pause after that. After 4 or 5 seconds of silence, Mitotsudaira glared at the door.

“The girls’ luggage is in there, but I will make you regret it if you mess with any of it.”

“L-let’s not suspect people based on nothing! I wasn’t at all admiring how big the chest of Asama’s swimsuit is!”

“Asama-san! Asama-san! Either blush or aim your bow! You can’t do both!”

“Is Asama-sama’s reaction here one possible future I could have had!?”

“N-not at all, Horizon. My reaction is, um, kind of special.”

“So what would happen if he dug through Horizon’s stuff?”

“By the way, my king. Are you not interested in Horizon’s swimsuit?”

“The instant I started toward Horizon’s luggage, I saw a right arm silhouette in the window and thought better of it.”

Mitotsudaira was somewhat bothered by how much that made sense to her. But…

“So it won’t open?” he asked.

“No, it won’t.”

That was when it hit her.

…This is mother’s doing.

She didn’t know how it worked and it was wrong to suspect someone without evidence, but this felt exactly like something her mother would do. Yes, it was only a feeling, but she was pretty sure that feeling was accurate.

If she had to guess, the house itself understood the hierarchy of its residents and gave out permission accordingly. So while her mother had put her in charge, her king would naturally have greater authority.

…And mother really likes my king too.

That her father also liked him probably helped. But…

“Hm, so is there some weird rule where it only locks when I lock it?” her king asked.

He unlocked it and poked his head out.

“Anyway, Nate. You should hurry up and get changed.”

“J-judge. That’s right.”

She was covering up with a towel, but only her front. She wanted to avoid staying like this for long, so she entered the bedroom while her king left and got changed.

She put on her swimsuit and put on a shirt to keep the sun off and to keep her warm.

“But, my king, why are you here?”

“Hm? I thought you wanted help with something.”

…Huh!?

“That’s what Asama and the others said. So what is it?”

Silver Wolf: “Wh-what is the meaning of this, everyone!? What would I want help with!?”

Almost Everyone: “…”

Silver Wolf: “N-no response!? You’re watching this, aren’t you!? That’s the only explanation!”

“She’s the type to say it out loud because it turns her on, isn’t she?”

“Yeah, I give her a lot of lines like that in the dounjinshis.”

“I didn’t realize how fun this is when you’re not the victim.”

“Asama-sama! Do you see now how amusing you are as a victim!?”

“That’s not quite what I said…”

I just need to ignore them, thought Mitotsudaira. The front door was locked after all.

And she did have business with her king.

“Um, my king? You said you would tell me about when I fell asleep before, remember?”

On the other side of the door, her king gave an “oh” of realization. And, “You promised to show me your swimsuit.”

…I-I forgot about that!

Well, we’re basically in a closely monitored box here, so this can’t go too far, she decided, opening the bedroom door.

“Hi,” said her king as he stepped inside.

She panicked a bit on the inside.

“Y-you don’t need to greet me.”

“Just setting the mood.”

He sat on the bed and patted on the blanket next to him.

“C’mon, Nate.”

This is a bedroom, you know? she thought, but she sat there anyway. Then he slid down to sit on the floor.

“Show me.”

In his mind, the bed must have been a stage, but this created a problem for Mitotsudaira.

“I-I have to adlib!?”

“Hm, then how bout you start with the crotch? Hey, don’t glare! Okay, fine. You can start by explaining the intent of the design and how each part functions.”

…That’s awfully businesslike.

She felt like they were killing each other’s anticipation here, but they were both beginners when it came to living together. However…

“Hey, Nate?”

“Yes?”

He looked up at her from the floor.

“My first impression is that it looks cool.”

She didn’t mind being told that. In fact, she felt heat building inside her. So…

“Then let us take a closer look and see if it lives up to your first impression.”

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