Rice for Enoch's Second Expeditionary Unit

Chapter 03: Disgusting dried meat

After the mission of two days ended, we returned to the Knights' dormitories.
My only thought were that I wanted to take a bath as soon as possible, because I've been sleeping in the open with mud and bugs.

The Captain ordered us "to disperse" in front of the Knights' gate, but moments later he called me, when I was about to follow Vice-Captain Berly back to the women's dormitories.

"Hey, Wild Rabbit"
"Yes?"

I responded to him by mistake, but I'm not a wild rabbit! I'm Mel Squirrelly!

"Are you angry for some reason?"

"The captain got my name wrong, A headless wild bird appeared in front of me by surprise. Oh, and he picked my ears with his fingertips to make fun of them. Yes, it was very uncomfortable."

"Oh, that's...!"

He said, "I'm sorry" in a voice almost inaudible.

As I'm a very generous person, I'll forgive him.
Still, I was surprised that he was worried about me.
In my mind, I apologized for calling him "bandit chief" and after saying "goodbye" finally went to the women dormitories.

The bath was already heated by the dorm maid.

A large tub full of hot water. What a luxury!

In my village, we boil water in a pot and use that, if there's no more we have to fill it up again.

We would only take a bath once or twice a month.
Since the water has to be carried all the way from a lake in the forest, it can't be used for bathing very often.

I soaked with soap myself and then entered the bathtub.

"Haha, it's heaven, heaven!!"

I've had the courage to come to the capital, and I've learned a lot, but this! It's probably for the best of all of it.
Life in the forest was too difficult for me.

　If I couldn't find a husband to marry, then it didn't matter if I was there or not.

　Thinking about that, I would prefer to live comfortably in a place like this where people don't talk of me behind my back while pointing their fingers at me.

　... The only thing is I miss my family, I do miss them so much.

　Remembering the loneliness I feel, sighed.

　When I get my first paycheck, I'm going to go into the marketplace, buy a lot of sweets and send them to my brothers and sisters.

　The next day...

　I wake up before sunrise, change my clothes, braid my hair and wash my face.

　Breakfast is served in the cafeteria, a deduction from my paycheck, so I have to sign in at the door before I can have it.

　Today's menu - vegetable soup, bread, sausage and boiled eggs.

　A woman serving at the cafeteria put a several of them on my plate.

　It's paradise!! All the bread you can eat! And... and all the jam and butter too.

"... Do you want some more bread, Miss Squirrelly?"

"No, I've had enough. Thank you!"

　She served three round breads as big as the palm of her hand.
There's no way to not be full after eating all of this!!

　Until now, I had thought of myself as a glutton, but the female knights around me ate even more than me.

　If I work out, will my body become muscular too?
　No, I'm a doctor, so I don't have to work out... That much.

　Once we finish breakfast, we move to the Second Expeditionary Unit's private building. It's like a five-minute walk from the female knights' dormitories.

　There's a lunch box in the bag I carry on my back.
What a surprise! The lady in the dining hall makes lunchboxes for the female knights every day.

　However, the knights are men mostly.
In the dormitory, there were female knights everywhere, but once you step outside, you cannot find one of them.

　If you walked down the corridor across the buildings, you could see one or two of them but no more... a forest elf, it must be even more rare to see.

　When I tried to put on the hood of the jacket I was wearing over my uniform, I was called out from behind.

"Oh~, it's a forest elf, isn't it?"

　Turning around, I saw a young, slender knight.
He didn't look familiar, of course.

"What's the matter?　Did you get lost in the woods and ended here?"

　If my ears were enough long and pointing, I would use them to prick him on the eyes.
　What he said was so rude and to a woman he never met before!

"You, what unit are you in? What's your name?"

　Do not give your name to strangers, Mom taught me that before I turned 5.
　I clenched my mouth's lips tightly together and ignored the question.

　But still, this man is surprisingly air-headed.

　His waist-length brown hair is tied with a single knot, and his ears have shiny earrings.
He had a flamboyant appearance, like to yell - I'm a womanizer-.

"Geez, can't you even say hello? Is it some kind of rule of the forest?"

　Exactly but not only of the forest! I was about to scream at him, when suddenly my body floated.
　The figure of a large, man with a bearded face appeared in front of me.

"Waaa, bandits~!"

　He shouted that in surprise, but no, sorry. Upon closer inspection, you can see it's non-other than our captain.
　He lifted me up with one hand and carried me on his shoulders like a bag of potatoes.

"Wha, why?"

"Hey, Kinnon, you need something from our doctor?"

"No, no - it's just that... She looked like she was in trouble."

　I wasn't in troubles, not before you appeared, at all!
　It was a matter of interpreting it the way he liked it, uhmm?

"This is our Doctor. I won't allow you to do anything without permission."

"Ohh... Of course~"

　With those words, the man ran off.

　Now that's settled!
Or, so I thought, until knights coming from all directions appeared.
　Their footsteps stopped in front of the captain.

"What's up?"

"No, We just heard someone yelling... like a bandits' attack or something."

"...."

　Sorry, the bandit was the captain.
　I was still carried over his shoulder and had to apologize to the assembled knights in a posture with my butt facing their faces.

　After that, the captain did not put me down.
　I was carried away, as if I was a package of potatoes.

"I'm fine now, please put me down."
"You're walking around and that guy will come back surely."
"I'm so sorry."

"By the way, are you eating your meals right?"

"Yes, they gave me a lot this morning!"

　I've been told that I weigh as light as a feather, but that shouldn't be true.
　More bread in the morning...?　No, I can't.
And a doctor, I don't think one needs to do bodybuilding too, right?.

"You'll need more strength if you want to keep up with our unit during expeditions."

"... That's true, Sir."

　Well, I wanted to advance in my training... slowly while getting used to the living environment in the city.

　While we were talking about this, we arrived at the Department of the Second Expeditionary Unit Knights.

　It's an independent building, made entirely of wood, a simple-looking hut for meetings and three huts next to it and the stable.

　The morning meeting was held in the "captain's office", and each of us was assigned a task.

　I heard that Miss Berly, the Vice Captain, would be training with Mr. Gull, and Mr. Urgas would be teaching me about the job I'll be doing while we stay in the city.
　After about five minutes, the morning meeting was over, and we were dismissed.

"There's a lot of work to be done by the lower ranks, uhmm~"

　First, we cleaned the knight's "hut".

"No! How can I say it... It's just plain too dirty!!"

"Sorry, I'm not good at cleaning."

　It seems that cleaning the building is also a part of the knight's job.
　The corridors are dusty, the rooms are messy, and the small kitchen is filled with dishes to wash.

"How often do you clean?"

"Once ... or twice ... a week?"

　I thought I was going to have a heart attack.
So unsanitary!!

"Cleaning has to be done every day."

"No, that's not possible--"

"We must do it!"

　We split up the chores to clean up it completely.

"Mr. Urgas, you can't do that in that way! You need to use the back of it! "

　The basics about the cleaning process was unknown to him... if so, I'm going to teach you how to do it from zero!
　
... I couldn't tell which one of us was the senior here.

　It took until noon to clean the knight's house.

　The captain is gone for a meeting with his superiors and won't come back for today, so the office, which was particularly dirty, can be aired out and cleaned without worries.

"See, if the room is clean, doesn't it feel better?"

"...yes, I see..."

　After only half a day of cleaning, Urgas was more tired than he was on his way back from the expedition...

Is he from the expeditionary unit, isn't he? Yes, not enough training.

　After lunch, he led me to the outside of the hut for lunch.

　One of the three huts is an armory, the other one is a tool room, and the other one is-- ??

"It's a storeroom where we save the preserved food."

　It's out there! Those hard, disgusting ... preserved food??!
He told me that they receive a budget but the preserved food should be bought by them themselves.

"However, it wasn't enough for all of us..."

　They started to make their own dried meat and bread, etc., based on a book the captain had brought with him.
　Sure, it was a lot of food, but the treatment result was disappointing, the specifications came from him... That explains it.

　As soon as I opened the door accompanied by Mr Urgas, I was assaulted by the smell of meat.

"Ugh!"
"I'm sorry..."

　On the inside of the hut, there was meat lined up, hanging on strings and bread that was being dried in one corner.

"It smells like rancid meat...!"

"Oh, right! I forgot about the meat I bought the day before yesterday."

"What did you say?"

　The source of the smell was the raw meat that had been neglected.

　He couldn't afford to process it because he was suddenly ordered to go on an expedition, at the end it was left there without any preservative treatment.

"Processed??! Mr. Urgas, the meat we ate, it was just dried?"
"Yes, making preserves is a menial job."

"I see."

　What kind of process is used to produce the dried meat?
　I asked him the question with trepidation.

"Well, first we buy a chunk of meat at the market, cut it into thin slices, grill it, boil it, and finally dry it out."

"Oh, I see..."

　Fundamentally, it was made in the wrong way.
　It's not that they used a special kind of meat.

　If they were dried it without salt or anything to conserve it ... Just how many times they were near to die for their own homemade poison rather than the monsters in the past expeditions?

　I summoned up all my courage to say what I was thinking.

"The dried meat and bread were hard as a stone, very sour and tasteless."

"At first we thought so too, but I'm afraid... we got used to it..."

　There's a way to make good dried meat without having to put up with this stuff.
　It's true, the mission is always announced so sudden that they don't have even time to pack.
So the meals are prepared quickly and usually it's just preserved food.

　But was this the reason why it tasted so bad?
　It's a problem that needed to be solved quickly.

"Mr. Urgas, let's go to the market."

　I had suggested an alliance with another lowly-rank like me, Mr. Urgas, so we can make some delicious dried meat for the next expedition.

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