WeTried Translations
Translator: Abood
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Saviour Embarks on a Nameless Journey
Chapter 52: Grape Leaf Rolls
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“Vineyards!”
“So they are.”
Alina turned toward me with sparkling eyes, her face asking, I am right, am I not?
Just as Alina said, vineyards spread across the gentle hills around the town.
The grapevines had been kept low for ease of tending, and the sight of them lined up in orderly rows over a wide area was unique. I did think they might have been better off allowed to stretch their branches and leaves as they pleased, but it was far better than a ruined landscape.
It was said that wine made from grapes harvested from old vines was best. The reasons given were that young trees had strong vigor and used much of their energy to grow branches and leaves rather than fruit, or that their roots were shallow and could not draw up nutrients from the soil.
I did not know whether those reasons were correct, but old vines were raised with care and their fruit was handled carefully, so if there was a difference in taste, I thought that was likely the reason. In truth, there were many delicious wines made from the fruit of young vines as well.
Well, old vines that had survived an age when monsters roamed were rare, so I understood the desire to treat them as special.
Alina and Io were too young, so I did not bring it up, but along with grape leaf rolls, wine was also a specialty of this town.
This town was a relaxed place, like a village that had simply grown larger. There were people at the entrance from the road who served as gatekeepers of a sort, and a passage tax was collected, but no one checked our identities.
“Could one not enter freely from anywhere off the road...?”
Io tilted her head slightly.
“There are only vineyards around it, and the whole town watches who enters and leaves. ‘Watches’ may be a rather strong word, but I expect anyone entering from some random spot would be called out by someone.”
Marius said this.
“I see. Real towns have all sorts of forms beyond what I learned, so it is bewildering.”
Io sounded a little troubled.
Once we entered town, the first thing we asked about was where we could leave the magic horses. In large towns, a horse rental shop or an inn would usually take them in, while in villages, one could give a little money and have them kept in a stable or barn.
This time, it was an inn. We took rooms, left the magic horses, and immediately went back out. It was a standard inn where one could eat on the first floor, but because Alina had requested that we try as many kinds of grape leaf rolls as possible, we headed to the stalls we had seen in the square.
“When we’re in town, I’d like to sit down and eat properly, but if there’s a specialty, you’ve gotta try it.”
So said Tain.
If he were alone, he would probably have finished his meal on the first floor of the inn while drinking.
At the stalls, many varieties were sold by small shops. Of course, they sold other things too, but many shops handled grape leaf rolls alongside their other wares, and we likely could not eat them all.
“They are larger than I expected...”
Seeing the real thing, Alina seemed to be consulting with her own stomach over how many she could eat.
“The grape leaves here are large, and even without thinning the blossoms, the fruit receives enough nourishment and grows splendidly. In the age when the Demon King still existed, this was a land where villagers who grew grapes saved a sacred beast and received a blessing.”
Sacred beasts and spirits had left such legends here and there.
No matter how one thought about it, they were different from Pya. Quite different.
“Alina, after we buy one, we can cut it in half with a knife.”
“Please.”
The two girls discussed sharing one so they could try many kinds.
Both of them ate lightly. No, Alina’s appetite was appropriate for her age, but she was smaller than Io. In palace life, they had likely never shared food with another person, and the act of splitting something to eat seemed itself to make her happy and excited.
“For now, shall we begin with the most standard one?”
Marius said this and promptly ordered.
The standard was rice and lamb seasoned with spices and steamed. When I put it into my mouth, the grape leaf was faintly sour and refreshing.
“There is much more meat than in the old days.”
“And onion.”
“Pya.”
After chewing and swallowing, Marius and I murmured our impressions without looking at one another. Pya, who had quickly finished eating, cried out for the next one.
“I remember the one with dried scallops being good, but which shop carried it?”
“Pya.”
As Tain moved his gaze from stall to stall, Pya showed interest. He leaned out from my shoulder and cried insistently, as if telling me to follow.
“Why not move onto Tain’s back?”
“Pya.”
Pya scraped at my back with his hind legs.
“Shinju-sama, some grow mean-spirited with age.”
Marius aimed an exaggeratedly suspicious smile at me.
“Grandfather, I would also like to try the kind Tain-sama says is delicious.”
Alina said this with a smile.
“Very well...”
I could not refuse a request from my adorable granddaughter.
We kept eating all sorts of things, boiled egg, minced meat, butter and dried grapes, and in the end, we had the dried scallop one we had been aiming for wrapped to take back to the inn.
Since then, we had not encountered any large monsters, and for the moment, our journey was peaceful. No, we had run into a few along the way. They were so weak that they had not left much of an impression.
“To search for weapons for Alina and Io, it may be best to visit places where people seldom set foot.”
“If they are coming with us to the next core-bearer battle, it would be better to enter places where some monsters still remain.”
Marius and I exchanged those words.
Tain, who seemed to have overheard, froze. It is training!
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