I set off walking again, bringing Zoe along with me.
There had been an unexpected incident right at the start, but as far as the inspection went, we had barely seen anything yet.
Hoping to look around a bit more, I started walking, and Zoe fell in behind me.
After a short distance, I spotted a commotion up ahead.
Near one of the plumes of rising cooking smoke, beside a pot of freshly cooked white rice, stood a middle-aged man and a young girl.
The man looked to be in his forties or so, while the girl was barely ten, if that.
Holding a chipped bowl, the girl was pleading with him.
"U-Um... isn't this... a bit too little?"
"Hah? You tryin' to pick a fight with me?"
"N-No, that's not it, but... never mind..."
Intimidated by his harsh tone, whatever she had tried to say fell flat. Having no other recourse, she could do nothing but retreat dejectedly.
Holding her single bowl of steaming white rice, the girl trudged away with heavy steps.
Quickening my pace, I caught up to her.
Zoe followed close behind.
"You there, little girl."
"Huh?"
"Do you have a moment?"
When I called out to her, the girl stopped in her tracks.
Looking at us, she grew visibly frightened.
Catching sight of our attire, fear gripped her.
There was a certain portion of commoners who were inherently terrified of government officials, even when they had done nothing wrong.
As a natural consequence of elevating official authority, a timid person could end up frightened simply by the mere presence of such figures.
This girl had not done anything wrong either; she was merely intimidated by the sight of a well-dressed official—namely, me.
"Don't be afraid. I just want to ask you a few questions."
"Y-Yes. What is it?"
"It looked like you were having a dispute just now. Did something happen?"
"Ah... um..."
The girl cast her eyes downward.
After a brief hesitation, she spoke timidly.
"I had someone... cook rice for me instead."
"Instead of doing it yourself?"
"Yes. Um, my father and mother aren't around anymore, so I don't know how to cook rice."
"I see."
Behind me, I felt the air around Zoe shift.
It was an aura of irritation—or rather, sheer indignation.
This, too, was an adverse effect of distributing raw rice.
Cooking rice required skill, and it required tools.
Without tools, it demanded even greater ingenuity.
This girl, who had lost her parents and likely her home in the earthquake, had known better than to eat the raw rice directly, unlike those boys earlier. However, she lacked the knowledge to cook it herself.
Unable to do it on her own, she must have begged someone capable to cook it on her behalf.
"So he cooked it properly, but cheated you out of your portion?"
"Probably... I don't really know, but other people had much more rice after theirs was cooked..."
Saying that, the girl cast a wistful glance down at the white rice in her hands.
"I shall go confront him—"
"No need."
Zoe turned on her heel to leave, but I called her back.
She froze in place and looked toward me.
"More importantly, go get some rice and a pot."
"Yes, Master."
Without asking a single question, Zoe sprinted off.
I surveyed our surroundings.
A short distance away stood a small grove of trees.
"Do you have any family left?"
"No, it's just me."
"Is that so? Come with me."
With that, I began walking with the girl in tow.
Still holding her bowl of rice, she followed behind me.
Leaving the soup kitchen grounds, we arrived at the grove.
In one section of the woods, bamboo grew in abundance.
I summoned Leviathan and sliced several stalks down at their base.
"Gather some dead bamboo."
"Y-Yes!"
The girl flusteredly complied with my instructions.
Still holding her rice, she skillfully used one hand to gather dry, browned bamboo as directed.
Meanwhile, I set about working on the freshly cut green bamboo.
Using one of the hollow segments, I fashioned a cylinder and carved out a lid that could be opened and closed.
By the time I finished, the girl had returned with an armful of dead bamboo.
"Is this okay?"
"Yeah. It's split through and the moisture is gone. This will make good firewood."
After checking the bamboo she had gathered, I started a fire with it.
Many people commonly believe that throwing bamboo into a fire makes it explode. While true in part, that is not the whole story.
That only applies to fresh green bamboo.
If it is dead, dried out, and split open, it will not burst even when set ablaze.
I used the dry bamboo to kindle a fire, coaxing it into a steady flame.
In the back of my mind, Bahamut insisted that this was his time to shine, but I quieted him and let the fire build naturally.
As I did, Zoe returned.
Leading two soldiers, she brought back several pots, a decent amount of rice, and water.
"Master, will this suffice?"
"Yeah—now, I'm going to teach you how to cook rice. Watch and learn."
"Huh? Y-Yes!"
Though she had been bewildered until now, the girl's eyes sparkled upon hearing that I was going to teach her how to cook rice.
After a moment of heightened surprise, she grasped the meaning of my order, and her eyes shone with excitement.
I had Zoe wash the rice and prepare it in an ordinary pot.
In the same way, I placed washed rice into the bamboo cylinder and capped it with the bamboo lid.
Then, I set both the pot and the bamboo cylinder into the fire together.
All the while, I explained the process.
"This is roughly how much water you need. Having a bit too much isn't a big problem, but if it's too little, it'll burn. Keep that in mind."
"Yes!"
As I gave the detailed explanation, white froth began bubbling over from both the pot and the bamboo cylinder.
After leaving them on the heat for a little while longer, I pulled them away from the fire.
Letting them steam for a bit, I lifted the lids of both the pot and the bamboo cylinder.
Steam billowed outward, revealing freshly cooked white rice.
"Waaaah..."
"Roughly speaking, it goes like this. Do you understand?"
"Y-Yes."
"A pot is best, but as you can see, you can manage with bamboo too. Those without pots even make do using things like armor or helmets."
"......Um."
"What is it? Is there something you don't understand?"
"Would a... kettle be okay too?"
The girl asked me with an air of hesitation.
I was mildly impressed.
"Yeah. If you do it right, it'll work. For that matter, even an earthenware water jug could do the trick. In short, as long as you have a vessel that won't burn through and won't leak water, you can manage somehow."
"Yes!"
Having learned the method, the girl nodded with a bright smile.
I served her some of the freshly cooked white rice.
She compared it with the rice in her bowl, the portion cooked by the middle-aged man.
She praised how delicious it was, showing particular interest in the rice cooked inside the bamboo cylinder.
Her surprise and delight at discovering that rice could be cooked in bamboo were plain to see.
I ordered the soldiers to clean up the fire, look after the girl's immediate needs, and escort her back.
As she departed, the girl looked back again and again, bowing repeatedly before walking away.
"Master, what was that about...?"
Having seen the girl off, Zoe asked once we were alone again.
"I taught her how to cook rice."
"I understand that, but... why?"
"Giving her a fish is easy enough, but in the long run, you have to teach them how to fish."
"Ah..."
A look of understanding dawned on Zoe's face.
"And besides..."
I pondered.
Extinguishing the remnants of the fire, I clasped my hands behind my back and thought as I began to walk.
"Those boys earlier, and that girl just now. In the end, it all comes down to the fact that they were cast out into the world without the knowledge or skills passed down from their parents."
"Yes... It is a common occurrence during disasters. Children manage to survive somehow through sheer vitality, but immediately after, it is always like that."
"Indeed."
I nodded.
The boys would likely suffer some stomach trouble, but it wouldn't kill them.
The girl might come to resent adults or grow distrustful of people after this, but she wouldn't die either.
That came from the sheer resilience of children.
"..."
"Master?"
Zoe peered at me with a look of mild concern.
"I was remembering the flood in Dosso."
"Dosso? Um, back when I had just begun serving you, Master?"
"That's right."
I nodded.
The flood in Dosso was likely what had cemented Zoe's loyalty to me.
Having ordered Duran to oversee the land's preservation, I remembered the events of that time from various reports I had received.
"There was a child who was the sole survivor in his family. He returned home and dug up a money jar from beneath the floorboards. In a sense, he had inherited his parents' legacy—yet, holding that very jar of money in his arms, he nearly starved to death."
"In the immediate aftermath of a flood, no amount of money is of any use."
"Yeah. In times like that, knowledge is what matters. And that knowledge is usually passed down by parents, but..."
The child in Dosso, the boys with upset stomachs, and the girl cheated out of her food.
None of them had been able to inherit that knowledge from their parents.
"Zoe."
"Yes?"
"Do you know how to eat tree bark?"
"Tree bark...? No... is that even edible?"
"Yeah, some kinds are. Naturally, eating it raw causes stomach troubles far worse than raw rice, and depending on the tree, it can be fatal."
"I see..."
Zoe made a face that said she fully expected as much.
Normally, the thought of eating tree bark wouldn't even cross someone's mind, and it was easy to imagine that eating it would wreak havoc on one's stomach.
"However, if prepared properly... one can at least stave off starvation in a disaster."
"Tree bark—trees would remain standing even after a flood or an earthquake... But not everyone would know how to do that..."
"..."
I walked in silence.
We moved farther away from the soup kitchen.
After walking for a bit, we came upon an area where piles of refuse were heaped high.
Just as some people pitched tents, quite a few took up residence right around the soup kitchen grounds.
Where people lived, trash was inevitable.
And mixed in with that refuse was rubble, likely from buildings that had collapsed in the earthquake.
From among the debris, I picked up a single roof tile.
I stared intently at it.
"Is something the matter with that tile?"
"Hypothetically speaking, what if this had instructions engraved upon it—how to cook rice, how to process tree bark, and other edible emergency rations along with how to prepare them?"
"...That is brilliant, Master."
Zoe looked blank for an instant before understanding my intent.
"Roof tiles would survive floods, earthquakes, and even the fires that inevitably follow."
"Indeed. We shall compile knowledge for disaster situations, and make it mandatory to use tiles inscribed with it when constructing new buildings."
"That is wonderful, Master. I never would have thought of such an idea."
"Not with text, but with illustrations. Gather people who can draw pictures that explain things clearly."
"Understood."
"The aqueducts, too."
"The aqueducts?"
"Yeah. The Empire's aqueducts, especially the Class One aqueducts, are built solidly. There is no record of an aqueduct ever being destroyed without a trace. Let us incorporate disaster survival guides into the very structures of the aqueducts as well."
"I see!"
"And other places as well. In any case, we must preserve knowledge in physical forms that will endure even disasters and remain easy to consult. If you think of anything else, bring it to me."
"Understood—you are truly amazing, Master."
Zoe said, her eyes shining with admiration.