Arc II - Agrarian Revolution

Chapter 4 - The Old Man in the Forest

Day 26 Since the Summoning

Kamelia stood off to the side with Lorgi, talking to the local elder and asking where this old man, Zogen, lived.

Alan stood on the grass with his hands clasped behind his back, simply staring upward. They were standing right at the foot of the Southern Mountains, where the village of Gormeln was nestled. The mountains towered before Alan, illuminated by the bright sun against a clear blue sky. The lower hills were lush and green, gradually transitioning into jagged brown cliffs the higher they went.

'God, it's gorgeous... so beautiful... It's like I'm right back in my native Austria... I wonder how Jake and Vanessa are doing right now? They're probably worried sick that I went missing... Professor Brown is probably worried about me too... fuck... if only I could send them some kind of sign...'

He shook his head and fixed his eyes on the mountains again.

'I swear, they are stunning... I could live here, build a little cabin, just look at the view... instead of dealing with all this shit.'

Alan kept staring at the mountains, and a single tear slipped down his cheek, moved by the sheer beauty of the sight. He quickly wiped it away and walked over to Kamelia. "So, what's the word, Your Grace?"

All three turned around.

"My Lady, who is this young man?" the gray-haired elder asked.

"This is my... personal advisor, Lord Gothwald."

The old man's gaze lingered on Alan's simple attire, but he kept his thoughts to himself and bowed to Alan. "Do you have any other questions, Your Grace?"

Kamelia shook her head. "No. You may go."

The elder bowed again and quietly departed. The countess turned to Alan. "Anyway, this Zogen lives in that house over there, not far from the square. Shall we?"

Alan nodded. "Let's go." All three made their way toward Zogen's house, while the rest of the guards stayed behind at the edge of the village.

'Well... at least he's not a hermit living in a hollowed-out tree trunk. That's a start.'

They approached an unassuming, completely ordinary wooden cabin. Alan stepped onto the porch and knocked. A few seconds later, footsteps echoed inside, and the door opened.

Before them stood a short old man with a trimmed gray beard and a receding hairline, wearing a simple shirt and trousers, and completely barefoot. His gaze immediately locked onto Kamelia, and he bowed instantly. "Greetings. Can I help you?"

"I am Countess Armenas, and I have business with you."

Zogen froze for a second. "Co... please forgive the mess! I did not expect you to visit!"

Kamelia raised a hand. "Peace, this is not a formal state visit. You are Zogen, correct? We need to speak. My advisor wishes to ask you some questions." She gestured toward Alan.

A minute later, the three of them were sitting around a table: Alan, Kamelia, and Zogen. Lorgi remained standing guard inside by the door. The cabin was thoroughly average, a hearth in the corner, a small bed, and a shelf lined with various dried herbs.

Alan rested his hands on the table. "Zogen, I hear you know a lot about plants. Is that true?"

The old man nodded. "Yes, milord, I do."

"Then I'll get straight to the point. Do you know which plants are edible, but hardly anyone actually eats?"

Zogen blinked. "Um... yes, of course I do, but... if I may ask, milord, why does this interest you?"

Alan steepled his fingers. "Famine is ravaging the county right now. The crops failed, and we need to feed the people with whatever we can find in the short term."

"By the way," Kamelia chimed in. "I noticed that the people in this village seem to be doing... better than the others. They are thin like everyone else, yes, but they seem more... alive, somehow?"

Alan glanced at her. "Really?" He turned back to the old man. "I assume you're the one behind that. You know which plants are edible, which is why the famine isn't hitting you as hard, right?"

The old man froze for a second, his hands beneath the table tightly gripping his knees. "You are very perceptive... Yes. Since there is no harvest yet and our winter reserves are nearly exhausted... but it is summer, and the forest yields plenty of food at this time of year." He swallowed hard and bowed his head. "I beg of you, Your Grace... we were simply starving... we had no desire to steal from your forest... we were only..."

"I am not my father," Kamelia said firmly, her face remaining set in stone. "I have no intention of punishing you for trying to survive. I did not come here to discipline you or your village. I want you to share your knowledge with us, so we can teach other people what they can eat to survive the famine."

Zogen sat motionless, his head bowed. He remained silent for about ten seconds before slowly looking up. His gaze drifted to Alan, who gave him a silent nod.

The old man sighed. "Very well... I will show you these plants and where to find them." He glanced out the window. "There is still plenty of daylight left. We can head out right now, if you wish."

"Perfect!" Alan said, then turned to Kamelia. "Ka... Lady Armenas, did you bring writing materials?"

She nodded. "Yes, I have parchment, a quill, and ink in my saddlebag."

Half an hour later, Alan, Kamelia, Zogen, and Lorgi were walking through the lush green forest. The old man peered intently at the forest floor, then pointed. "Look!"

Everyone turned to look where he was pointing. Long, straight, knee-high leaves were growing there. "This is called konshitaya," Zogen explained. "It usually grows where there is water beneath the ground. The leaves are useless, but the root is very filling... though not particularly tasty."

Lorgi bent over, resting his hands on his knees. "Konshitaya, you say... I've seen this before, but I never imagined it was edible. I mean... it just looks like regular leaves. Does this thing actually have a large root?"

Zogen nodded. "Yes. Would you mind pulling it out?" He gave a weak wave of his hand. "I am no longer young, I don't have the strength."

Kamelia silently nodded to Lorgi. The captain stepped forward, gripped the leaves right at the soil, and slowly began to pull. The plant started to rise, dislodging a bit of dirt, until the captain finally yanked out a completely round root vegetable about the size of a fist. "Whoa... that is a big one."

Alan took a step closer, examining the vegetable in the guard's hands. "Hmm... that looks like it could make a decent meal."

Zogen nodded. "Very filling, as I said. But... see those seeds where the root meets the stem? You must drop a few of them back into the dirt and cover them, so a new konshitaya will grow next year."

By late afternoon, all four of them were standing at the edge of the village, with about a dozen different plants piled up in a single heap. Zogen walked over to the well to get a drink of water.

Alan, already holding the quill and parchment, laid them on a tree stump and began to write. "Alright... let's start with this... konshitaya..." He started writing, but after just three words, the ink ran dry. He blinked.

'Fuck... I've never written with a quill before... my third phenomenal medieval experience, right after the dungeon and scraping my balls off in the saddle. How the hell do you even write with this piece of shit?'

He pressed down a little harder, tearing right through the parchment and smudging ink all over it. "Goddammit!"

Kamelia whipped her head around from her horse. "What happened?"

He held up the quill. "How do you even write with this garbage?"

Kamelia frowned. "You don't know how... fine, let me show you." She took the quill, winced slightly at the ruined parchment, and touched the tip to the surface. "I thought you were literate."

Alan threw his hands up. "I am literate! I just don't know how to write with a damn feather!"

Kamelia blinked. "Then... what did you use to write in your world?"

He let out a sigh. "It's hard to explain. It's... a little stick that you can move in any direction, and it leaves a trail of ink. We call it a pen."

The countess nodded. "Ah... I see. So this 'pen' is very simple. With a quill it's not quite like that; personally, it took me an entire year to learn to write with one."

Alan's mouth fell open.

'A whole fucking year? Jesus... I actually didn't know that medieval fact... putting that piece of knowledge in the bank.'

"Alright... then you write. I don't have time to practice and ruin the parchment."

Kamelia began to write. "But how did you plan on writing anyway? You don't know our script..." She froze. "By the way, speaking of the language... remember in that village when you made that peasant woman, the girl's mother, walk back and forth and speak? You never explained what that was about." She turned to face him. "Are you going to explain it now?"

Alan scratched the back of his head. "Oh... completely forgot about that. Well, as you know, when I was summoned, I... sort of already knew your language and could understand you, right?"

The countess nodded. "Yes, it is the same for all heroes. And?"

"When that peasant woman went to the barn for honey, I yelled something to her from the house, and she yelled back... and we couldn't understand each other. I heard your actual language, and you heard mine. I realized it's all about the radius.... the distance, I mean. When a person is close, I can understand them; when they're far away, I can't. That's the story."

Kamelia blinked. "Wow... I had no idea heroes had such a limitation." She went back to writing.

Alan stood over her, looking down at the parchment.

'What a bizarre writing system... doesn't look like Latin, and it's not even close to Eastern hieroglyphs. Looks more like Sumerian pictograms. Huh... she suddenly remembered to ask her questions, what a memory... oh, right, I was supposed to ask her something too.'

"Hey, Kamelia, what are shinnors?"

Kamelia didn't look up from her writing. "Ooh, where did you hear that name?"

"Dunko said it when he was trying to talk me out of going into the forest. He said there could be jerkoses and shinnors in there... Well, I've already seen a jerkos, but what kind of beasts are shinnors?"

Kamelia paused for a second, as if blowing dust off a memory, then resumed writing. "Shinnors are... how do I put it... small beasts, slightly larger than cats. They are completely dark green with stripes, have incredibly long tails, sharp teeth and claws, and large ears. They usually stay in the trees in the forest. They often attack humans if you wander into their territory."

Alan nodded.

'Right... so shinnors are their version of lynxes... and they're green. For camouflage in the trees, maybe? But that would suck in the winter; they'd glow like Christmas trees. Or maybe they shed and change their coat like rabbits do?'

His thoughts were cut short by Zogen, who had returned with a bucket of water. "My Lady, would you like a drink?"

"I wouldn't say no."

Alan eyed the water warily. "Where did you get that?"

Zogen blinked. "From the well... why?"

Gothwald didn't answer. He crouched over the bucket, smelled the water, inspected it, took a dab of it on his finger, and tasted it. "Well... seems clean." He took the mug from Zogen, scooped some up, drank it down, and handed it to Kamelia. She refilled it and drank, then passed it to Lorgi, and so the cup went around.

"Alright, Zogen," Kamelia said. "I've written down some of the plants. Dictate the rest, how to prepare them, and what to do with them."

Late that night, Alan lay on the straw-covered floor of a barn.

'Look, I get it, space is tight and all... but why the fuck am I sleeping on the floor of a barn?! Am I just some nobody? I'm an advisor! ...Haha, right, yeah, an advisor. Quit kidding yourself, Alan.'

He clasped his hands behind his head and sighed.

'Okay, we have eleven plants that people don't usually eat, but are actually edible. We prepared a few... oh god, it was terrible. Sure, I'm actually full, but this... this is a total nightmare. I nearly puked up my guts from the taste... but the peasants somehow choke it down. If only we could make it taste a little better... or even better, make it more caloric.'

He suddenly sat bolt upright.

'Tastier... what makes food taste better? SAUCES! The cheapest condiment imaginable... fucking mayonnaise!'

Alan clasped his hands behind his back and began pacing the barn, illuminated by the moonlight filtering through the windows.

'Mayonnaise is incredibly simple, but it makes food taste so much better, and it's a total calorie bomb! It can solve several problems at once. First, even if the peasants can force this garbage down, making it taste better will skyrocket their morale. People aren't machines that you just refuel and point in a direction. Second, mayonnaise is packed with calories, which is critical during a famine!'

He struck his palm with his fist. "It's decided! Tomorrow, I will officially introduce the recipe for mayonnaise to this absolute dump!"

He paused.

'But where am I going to find all the ingredients here? I saw chickens. Oil... I'm sure we can find some cheap oil, even if it's the absolute lowest quality... though it'll probably taste like garbage. Unless... we mask it all with garlic? Yeah, that could work. Garlic can add some heat, kickstart their appetite, and cover up the taste of cheap ingredients... Alright, so pure mayonnaise is out. Goddamn Middle Ages and their constant shortages.'