Archmage's Restaurant - Chapter 40: The Northern Forest and Chestnuts (1)
The high, blue autumn sky.
Today’s weather was particularly pleasant.
One of the great things about Grayke City is that it has four distinct seasons, just like my hometown. The green leaves had turned colors, and our dragon was still very sleepy.
On such a day, roasted chestnuts come to mind. Autumn is the season of chestnuts. The sweet taste of autumn chestnuts.
Chestnuts are a fantastic ingredient that can play both supporting and starring roles in various dishes. In autumn, any dish with chestnuts adds a touch of elegance.
While chestnuts are a common ingredient in other regions during the autumn season, they are surprisingly hard to come by in Grayke City.
The chestnuts, called “Bonin” in this world, were not distributed in Grayke City.
When merchants brought chestnuts from other regions, they were sold in the Grayke market, but the distribution cycle was highly irregular.
It’s also impossible to summon chestnuts directly. As I’ve mentioned before, raw ingredients cause issues with dimensional rifts.
Therefore, I needed to address the root cause. The reason chestnuts were not distributed in Grayke City was simple.
The Grayke Mountain, where the chestnut trees grew, was private property of the Grayke family.
Although Count Grayke had opened up the mountain, access to the northern forest, where the chestnut trees were most abundant, was strictly prohibited for several generations.
This actually made the solution simple.
The current head of the Grayke family was the young Lord Grayke. I went to him and obtained permission to enter the forest.
I also asked why the forest was restricted, but Grayke didn’t know the exact reason either. It was a traditional decree passed down through the family to prohibit entry to everyone except authorized personnel.
It was unlikely that the restriction was solely because of the chestnut trees. There must have been another reason, but that was none of my concern.
For now, I only cared about the chestnuts.
Thus, I stepped into the northern forest of Grayke Mountain.
“This is hard to walk through.”
“Yes, it is.”
Rurin and I simultaneously complained. The piled-up fallen leaves were like a mudflat, entangling our legs.
“But chestnuts are delicious, so it’s worth the trouble.”
“I prefer meat!”
“But you also like sweet things, don’t you? You just ate several fruit candies.”
“Hmm, are chestnuts as sweet as candy?”
“They are.”
“Oh!”
Rurin now looked a bit more interested. Meat and sweets were this gluttonous dragon’s favorite things.
As we ventured deeper into the forest, we found ourselves surrounded by chestnut trees. Chestnuts were hanging from the trees and scattered on the ground, covered in spiky burrs.
Pointing to a chestnut burr on the ground, I said to Rurin, “This is the chestnut I’ve been searching for. We call the spiky shell ‘chestnut burrs’ back in my hometown.”
“Are these supposed to be sweet? They look strange.”
Rurin squatted by a fallen chestnut burr and started rolling it around with a gust of wind.
Then she failed to control her mana, and her finger touched the burr. Rurin suddenly roared and breathed fire, her eyes tearing up.
The powerful attack incinerated the chestnut burr without a trace and left a crater on the ground, as if a meteor had struck. The chestnut trees were damaged, and the ground was scarred, but the dragon looked triumphant.
“That thing attacked me!”
The memory of the chewing gum incident flashed in my mind. This time, though, she attacked her target in retaliation. Unbelievable.
And using her breath attack, no less.
It was her fault for rolling the chestnut burr around with magic in the first place.
The chestnut burr had been rolling at a considerable speed due to the magic, causing small cuts on Rurin’s fingers.
“Come here.”
I grabbed Rurin’s arm and pulled her towards me. She looked up at me, puzzled.
Without a word, I took her wrist, leaned down, and put her bleeding finger in my mouth, sucking on it.
Rurin’s soft finger touched my tongue. The taste of blood spread on my tongue.
“Huh?”
The small cut quickly stopped bleeding. When I removed her finger from my mouth, a bit of my saliva lingered on it. Rurin stared at me in a daze, then at her finger, and then back at my lips.
She couldn’t speak, and when our eyes met, she looked down, her ears turning red. It was the first time I’d seen Rurin blush.
“Why are you reacting like that?”
“It’s nothing!”
“What?”
Rurin turned her back to me.
Could she be embarrassed? Just because I sucked on her finger a little? This was so unlike her. Not like Rurin at all.
After staying still for a moment, Rurin squatted again and started picking up chestnut burrs with her hand.
“Hey! What are you doing?”
When I pulled her by the neck, she fell back, sitting on the ground. She threw away the chestnut burr she was holding and crawled back to me, extending her finger.
It was bleeding again.
“Here!”
“What are you doing, Dragon?”
Why was she self-harming? She must have squeezed the burr harder this time, as the blood flow was doubled. Reluctantly, I brought her finger to my mouth again and sucked on it, causing Rurin to let out another strange sound.
“Ugh…”
The taste of blood mixed with the salty taste of her finger. The look on the dragon’s face was unsettling.
“You…!”
So I bit the base of her finger to snap her out of it.
“Ow! Why did you bite me?”
Her grumbling was a relief—it was the Rurin I knew.
“Are you deliberately hurting yourself? No more food if you do it again.”
“I didn’t do it on purpose! That thing attacked me! It hurt…”
When I let go of her finger, Rurin quickly retreated, sitting with her back to me, not moving. I couldn’t see what she was doing from that position.
What is she doing?
Who knows what a dragon is thinking.
Leaving the confused dragon alone, I used my feet to crush the chestnut burrs on the ground, revealing the plump chestnuts inside.
“That’s a chestnut?”
“When did you get here?”
“Just now! Hehe.”
Thankfully, the dragon had recovered. She clung to my back, smiling her characteristic smile.
“For something edible, it’s quite armored. But it was a good armor. You ate my finger!”
“What? I didn’t eat it!”
“You drank my blood! Doesn’t that mean my blood is now inside you?”
I was startled and looked at Rurin. Indeed, this shameless dragon wouldn’t be embarrassed by a mere finger-licking. She often snuggled into my bed without any qualms.
Was it the blood that made her act strange?
“Well, it’s in me now…”
“I think I’m happy. Hehe.”
Rurin started laughing so brightly that I couldn’t help but smile back.
So, I focused on gathering chestnuts. Let’s not mess with the happy dragon.
Ignoring Rurin, I continued crushing the burrs to extract the chestnuts and put them in a basket. The happy dragon began mimicking me.
“Is this really delicious? It looks unappetizing.”
“Well, that’s just the shell. You have to peel it. Raw chestnuts are good, but they taste best when boiled or roasted. We need to gather more to make roasted chestnuts, so start peeling the burrs and putting the chestnuts in the basket.”
“Got it!”
Obediently, Rurin followed my instructions, and we continued gathering chestnuts. After what felt like a long time, our basket was full.
“That should be enough. Let’s roast them.”
I prefer roasted chestnuts above all chestnut dishes. So, we were going to make roasted chestnuts. Fortunately, the crater Rurin had created seemed perfect for the job.
I threw a suitable amount of chestnuts into the crater, followed by some dry twigs.
“Rurin, cast a protective barrier around this area to prevent the fire from spreading.”
Rurin nodded and used her mana. An invisible barrier must have formed around us. I waited for a moment, then placed the chestnuts on the twigs and used a Fireball. Flames leaped up around the chestnuts and twigs.
But soon enough, the chestnuts started exploding.
Pop!
Pop!
Pop!
The chestnuts flew in all directions like fireworks.
“Ooooh!”
Rurin exclaimed in awe, but this was a clear mistake. The flying chestnuts hit the barrier and ricocheted.
In an instant, chestnuts were flying everywhere within the confined space of the barrier.
“Hey! Why is the barrier so small? Take it down!”
“Hehe! Why? It’s fun!”
Dodging the flying chestnuts, Rurin eventually removed the barrier.
I forgot.
When roasting chestnuts, it’s best to soak them in water and make slits in the shells. If you try to roast chestnuts without slitting them, they explode, just like when you try to cook them in a frying pan.
This is the critical point in making roasted chestnuts.
The slits allow the shells to open up, letting the chestnuts cook properly.
If this had happened in the restaurant, it would have been a disaster.
“What was that? The chestnuts flying everywhere were fun!”
“Well, that was a mistake.”
I was at a loss for words.
Fortunately, we still had more chestnuts. That was a relief.
I filled the basket with water and soaked the chestnuts. Then I made slits in the shells. This step was crucial.
After going through the proper procedures, I began roasting the chestnuts again in the crater Rurin had created.
“Hey! What’s that? It’s black but not a noble black.”
Rurin pointed at a bear.
The bear must have been attracted by the noise.
It was a massive bear, about four times the size of a human. It was as big as an ogre. The bear, eyes glaring, crawled towards us.
“Well, compared to a dragon’s fur, it’s not very noble.”
I answered nonchalantly.
In this world, bears were called Muranq. They were quite strong among animals.
Among animals.
“Grrrr!”
The bear seemed to see us as prey and attacked Rurin with its front paw. Rurin caught its paw.
“Grrrr?”
Realizing something was wrong, the bear’s growl changed.
“Now that I look at you, you’re even less noble! Grrrr!”
Rurin, imitating the bear’s growl, started shaking its paw vigorously.
The bear, its pride wounded, tried to fight back, but Rurin calmly placed her hand on its head and spoke.