"I see. This is quite good," Jin murmured, his eyes fixed on the ground.
On March 4th, Jin was visiting the demon territory—or rather, the Northern People territory—along with Elsa and Lishia.
He had come to see off Sion and Marikka, who had been his guests for the Hina-matsuri the day before, but he also had a more technical goal in mind: observing the Northern People-style road construction.
"See? Isn't it wonderful?" Sion boasted.
"Sion, it’s not as if you were the one who thought of it, so don’t act so proud," her mother chided.
Jin was currently in the settlement’s central plaza with Sion and Rolona, Sion’s mother and a member of the All-Creation clan.
"I must admit, I am surprised," Marikka added. "I thought you knew everything there was to know, Jin-sama."
"Hardly. There is much more in this world that I don't know than what I do."
"Hehe, you’re very humble."
"Setting that aside, tell me more about the road construction here..."
The conversation had started when Jin mentioned to Sion and Marikka that a highway was being built to Lishia's village. He had mused about how to pave it, and Sion had piped up.
"Eh? Is it not enough to just spread gravel and pack it down?" she had asked.
Marikka had followed up with her own observation: "Um, if you spread crushed stone and keep packing it down, it eventually becomes very hard. I don’t... really know why, though."
"I may be an expert in craftsmanship, but I’m a complete amateur when it comes to civil engineering," Jin admitted as he listened to Rolona. In addition to her agricultural expertise, she possessed a fair amount of knowledge regarding construction.
"To create this surface, you crush large rocks, scatter the fragments, and then pack them down firmly," Rolona explained, carefully choosing her words. "My predecessors told me that crushed stones have jagged edges. When you compress them, the friction causes them to lock together, creating a solid foundation."
She mentioned that they sometimes sprayed water during the process to help the stones settle.
To Jin, this sounded exactly like macadamization—a method widely used on Earth until the mid-20th century. Since this world didn't have heavy trailers or massive trucks, it was a highly effective solution.
"I see. I understand now."
Jin decided to name the method "Northern Hardening." He figured that if he promoted it as a technique learned from the Northern People, it would help improve their standing in the eyes of other nations.
"Lishia, this looks like it will be useful for your village, doesn't it?"
"Y-Yes, definitely!"
It would have been ideal to show this to Princess Lieschen as well, but that wasn't an option at the moment. However, Reiko was recording everything and transmitting the data to Laojun. They would likely begin testing the method on Hourai Island and Kunlun Island immediately.
"Are you leaving already?" Sion asked, looking a bit disappointed.
"Yeah, sorry. I promise to come back another time and stay longer."
He had already pushed the limits of how much traveling he could ask Lishia to do in one trip.
"I'm very sorry for the trouble," Lishia said humbly as Jin escorted her back to Toka Village aboard Konron 3.
"...Spring is almost here."
"Mm."
Jin and Elsa were taking a leisurely stroll through Kaina Village.
While frozen patches of snow still clung to the shadows, the roads and fields were finally showing bare earth. The bright green shoots of wheat were beginning to stretch upward, a sure sign that the seasons were shifting.
"The cold storage room was packed with snow, too," Elsa noted. She had apparently checked earlier. "It feels like... it’s been a long time since we’ve just been able to relax like this."
"You're right..."
The two wandered through the village, waving back at the residents who paused their work in the fields to greet them. The sky was a brilliant blue, and while the breeze still carried a nip of winter, the sunlight felt genuinely warm.
For the past two weeks, Jin had been occupied with a mountain of minor tasks, and he had felt a constant sense of restlessness. Today was a welcome reprieve.
"Ah, Onii-chan! Big Sister Elsa!"
Hanna was returning from the banks of the Erme River, where she had been picking freshly sprouted mugwort. She held her basket out proudly.
"Look, there was so much of it!"
"Oh, wow. Good find."
Jin recalled making kusamochi when he had visited the foreign tribes with Hanna and found mugwort in the town of Ismar. Hanna had clearly remembered that experience; upon discovering that mugwort grew in Kaina Village as well, she had gone out to gather it herself. She had already confirmed it wasn't a toxic lookalike.
"Alright. With this much, we can definitely make kusamochi."
They borrowed Martha's kitchen and set to work. Jin recalled the recipe he had used in Ismar:
- Wash and boil the mugwort. Add a pinch of salt and a bit of baking soda to the water.
- Soak the boiled mugwort in cold water, then grind it into a fine paste using a mortar.
- Knead joshinko with hot water to form a dough, then boil it.
- Combine the dough with the mugwort paste and pound them together in the mortar until uniform.
- Shape into bite-sized balls and serve with kinako or sweet bean paste.
It wouldn't be ready for lunch, but it would be the perfect afternoon snack.
Elsa stood by the stove, boiling the red bean paste, while Reiko prepared the kinako. After a quick lunch, they finished the preparations.
Finally, it was time to eat.
"Oh, Jin, the aroma is wonderful!" Martha said, clearly delighted by her first taste of the treat.
"It really is delicious, Jin-sama," added Mine, Elsa's biological mother, who was also visiting.
"I like mine drizzled with syrup and covered in kinako!" Hanna chirped, happily munching away.
For Jin, there was no greater joy than seeing his friends and family enjoy the food he’d helped prepare.
"Maybe I should make a big batch at Jin Castle and hand them out to everyone," he mused, already planning to introduce kusamochi to the rest of the village.
"Jin-nii, you’d better eat yours quickly, or there won’t be any left," Elsa warned.
"Oops!"
The snack was even more popular than he’d anticipated. The pile of kusamochi was vanishing fast. Jin quickly grabbed one filled with bean paste and took a bite. The refreshing, herbal scent of the mugwort filled his mouth.
"I’m really happy right now..."
Jin watched Hanna enjoy her snack, a deep sense of contentment washing over him. Elsa, sitting beside him, leaned her shoulder against his.
He offered a silent prayer that this quiet, small happiness would last as long as possible. High above Kaina Village, a single white cloud drifted slowly across the peaceful sky.