novelraw Chapter 143
Chapter 143
Chapter 143
We had to take full responsibility for the supplies in this war.
These guys were terrible at logistics.
Even if they tried to prepare things on their own, how long could they really last?
They were simple-minded folk who knew how to fight but didn’t understand what a war truly entailed.
The Beastmen believed they could focus solely on fighting because they trusted that we would firmly support them from behind.
In fact, the Horse Tribe had even requested winter provisions along with their supplies, and I gladly agreed.
Anyway.
Preparing food wasn’t the issue — the real problem was transportation and storage.
This wasn’t going to be a battle that ended in half a day, so I had to plan ahead.
‘Supply is a serious matter.’
The most convenient option was, of course, jerky.
If I could secure enough jerky in bulk, that would already solve half the problem.
Especially since Beastmen went crazy for meat — throw them heaps of jerky and they wouldn’t complain one bit.
‘But that’s easier said than done.’
Jerky was a popular trade item with the Beastmen, so we had been producing it steadily for quite some time.
Even after setting aside what we needed for ourselves, we still had quite a bit stocked up.
The problem was that it looked like far more troops would be mobilized than we had anticipated.
After all, I hadn’t expected a war to break out this year.
Since I hadn’t prepared for war, our stock was severely insufficient.
‘And this isn’t something you can fix in a day or two.’
Even now, jerky was being dried all over the territory, but I doubted we could secure enough to satisfy me.
War was a monster that devoured money.
The consumption would be far greater than usual — how was I supposed to handle that?
I couldn’t help but think of another alternative.
‘Canned meat would be just right.’
I hadn’t even considered mixing beans and flour into some kind of combat ration.
If I served something like that to the Beastmen, morale would plummet.
So in the end, it still had to be meat.
And when it came to meat that could be eaten easily in the field, only canned meat came to mind.
That was about the extent of my knowledge.
My plan was simple.
Boil some Horned Rabbit meat, grind it up with a crusher, add a bit of seasoned brine, compress it, seal it inside Metal Slime cans, then boil it again for storage.
I wouldn’t know the result until I actually made it, but I expected it to be reasonably edible.
“What? Hey, how are we supposed to make that right now?”
But I hit a snag right from the start.
Bad news — we couldn’t make a grinder, something I thought would be easy.
When I asked Peter to make one, the guy looked thrilled to death.
“Why not? You made a press machine just fine.”
I had my reasoning.
We had already built a press machine to extract peanut oil.
So I figured if we could make a press, why not a grinder?
But that was an assumption born from ignorance.
“That’s because the Builders helped. I’m an Alchemist, remember?”
“The Builders… ah, right, they’re all deployed over there now.”
The versatile Builders of the Golem School had a fair amount of mechanical knowledge, and thanks to their help, the press machine had been completed.
The issue was that those Builders were now all dispatched to the Cow Tribe’s territory, enchanting weapons.
That, too, was an important task, so I couldn’t pull them back.
“And do you have any idea how long it took me to make that thing?”
Time was another problem.
We weren’t talking about some household grinder.
To make one capable of grinding large amounts of meat at once would take a lot of preparation.
It wasn’t something Peter could whip up just because I asked.
“Ah, is this project doomed then?”
My canned meat project was about to sink before it even began.
Then, a chieftain from the Mouse Tribe came to me.
He suggested that we try making it without a grinder.
“Is that even possible?”
“As long as it’s edible, isn’t that enough?”
“Is that so?”
“In fact, we’ve made something similar before.”
As expected of the Mouse Tribe, who already made peach preserves, they had once made canned meat too.
They had boiled sliced meat in salt brine, pressed it tightly, sealed it in a Slime container, and then boiled it again for storage.
It was apparently edible.
Something like a slightly different form of pressed meat?
That actually sounded fine.
‘Yeah, better than any flour-based preserved food. At least it’s still meat.’
So I decided to go ahead with it.
Improving quality could wait until after the war.
Given the Beastmen’s lack of proper storage facilities, canned meat would be a highly attractive item — even the increasingly hostile South might seriously covet it.
So I planned to refine it later, but for now, the priority was to produce as much as possible, as quickly as possible.
A few days later, the finished product arrived before me.
It was made from boiled Horned Rabbit meat, cooked in brine seasoned with salt, pepper, herbs, and natural spices, pressed, and sealed in a Slime container — a proper canned meat product.
Peter had gone crazy all night modifying the press machine, but somehow, he’d managed to make it work.
“Let’s see… hmm.”
I opened the Slime container and took the meat out.
Nothing particularly special about the appearance — just pressed meat.
The aroma wasn’t bad, and the texture was decent enough.
“The real question is the taste. So then…”
I cut a piece and popped it into my mouth.
First came the salty flavor, followed by the distinctive aroma of Horned Rabbit filling my mouth.
It couldn’t compare to properly cooked Horned Rabbit, and it was a little inferior to jerky, but it was better than I expected.
And best of all, though it required a bit more effort, it could be made much faster than jerky.
“So this is the new field ration?”
“You’ve made something quite curious, Lord Iron.”
“Heh, and you plan to sell this to other territories?”
I didn’t want to judge it alone, so I gathered a small panel of judges — Leisha, representing the Beastmen; Irene, for the Humans; and Yuria, representing the Merchants.
They all bit into the meat with serious expressions.
“Hmm, salted meat. Far too good for lowly warriors.”
Leisha passed, for now.
Well, she wasn’t much of a standard to begin with— not when it came to meat.
Still, most of the Beastmen who would actually be eating this were about the same level as Leisha.
It seemed perfectly suitable as field rations.
‘Well, first objective achieved, I suppose.’
—It seems best to make as many of these as possible, Master.
Satisfied with Leisha’s evaluation, I turned to the others.
Irene chewed the meat slowly, savoring it, then gave her verdict—it was decent enough.
“You’re storing it in Slime containers, right? Then how long can it last?”
“Quite a while, I’d say.”
“Then that’s good. Slime containers are convenient to transport too, right? You can even reshape them however you like.”
“If we stack them neatly in square shapes, even one wagon-load would hold quite a bit.”
“Exactly. I approve.”
Unlike Leisha, who didn’t care about anything except taste, Irene considered the efficiency of supply.
Jerky might be easier to carry, but this was efficient enough for use.
This should be quite useful in the coming war.
“Selling it… that’s something to think about. Honestly, it feels wasteful to use good Horned Rabbit meat like this.”
“You think so too?”
The only one who gave a negative opinion was Yuria.
She thought the product would need a lot of improvement before being sold commercially.
I agreed to some extent.
I had already planned to refine it after the war anyway.
Still, I believed it could sell reasonably well even as it was.
After all, sealed containers capable of long-term storage were rare in this world.
Even before the Great Cataclysm, such airtight containers didn’t exist, from what I’d heard.
Regardless of how the contents tasted, the mere fact that they could be stored long-term gave the product value.
Especially now, in these unstable times.
“Then let’s make as many as we can.”
Once the evaluation was done, we moved straight into mass production.
First, I asked the Cat Tribe, who didn’t have much else to do, to collect Metal Slimes in bulk.
They weren’t exactly enthusiastic about it.
They were the only Beastmen not eager to join this war— the kind more concerned about survival than fighting.
Still, when I offered to trade Metal Slime for other goods, they brought in piles of it.
Lacking enthusiasm, perhaps, but they were fast workers— perfect for gathering Metal Slime.
“Come on, move it! Hurry, hurry!”
“Careful, one wrong step into that giant cauldron and you’ll end up as boiled squirrel!”
“Chop it up! No need to make it pretty—just fast! And watch your hands!”
“All Slimes must be the same size and shape! So they stack perfectly!”
The entire process of making the canned meat was left to the Mouse Tribe.
Most of them had experience making canned meat or similar things, and they were the only ones capable of properly handling Metal Slime.
‘They were clumsy at first, but they’re doing fine now.’
—That’s because they lacked experience. This will be good practice for the Mouse Tribe too.
The Mouse Tribe had never worked together on something involving multiple villages before.
So at first, they fumbled a lot and made plenty of mistakes.
But after a few repetitions, everyone started doing their part smoothly.
As expected from survival experts who couldn’t live without diligence— they were incredibly hardworking folk.
“Lord Iron, a communication just came in from the Cow Tribe’s territory. It’s Sir Rudick.”
Just as the finished products were starting to pile up, a message arrived from the Cow Tribe’s domain.
The sender was Rudick.
That meant the quiet Imperial bastards were finally showing signs of movement.
“So, a merchant came again? What did he say this time?”
—Nothing new. Just repeating what he said before.
“‘Let’s drive out the Empire together,’ that one?”
—That’s right.
“So what did you do?”
—I told him we’d see about it and sent him off. What else could I do?
“Good. Let’s stall for now.”
—Understood. But we should start preparing soon. That man kept snooping around quite a bit.
“Of course. He was there to spy, after all.”
The reason those bastards kept sending merchants was simple.
To deceive and lure in the Cow Tribe, and to spy on their situation.
Since it was only natural that they’d send people again, we made some preparations of our own.
We drew a strengthening magic circle on the Cow Tribe’s fortress walls— but left it dormant for now.
So at the moment, things didn’t look much different than before.
‘If they let their guard down, they’ll regret it.’
Once that magic circle was activated,
not even Aura could easily break through the walls.
‘Looks like those bastards are getting ready to move too.’
They had once again inspected the Cow Tribe’s territory before returning.
With the harvest complete, the Cow Tribe’s granaries were full of grain— enough to make anyone drool.
Just as Rudick said, it was time for us to make our own preparations.
“But what about the Dog Tribe? Why haven’t we heard from them?”
At the very least, we needed the Dog Tribe to arrive before we could see the bigger picture.
“…They’ve come.”
And at that moment— new writing began to appear on the Dog Tribe’s shamanic message paper.