The festival was over.
The guests and spectators had returned home, and a sense of quiet had finally settled over the village. Although Progenitor-san and Dos were still hanging around.
As she had been planning for some time, Lu moved to Shashato City to focus on her research into the Teleportation Gates. I wished her the best of luck. While she was away, Alfred was entrusted to Ann’s care, and Lupumirina was left with Tia. I felt a bit bad for the trouble I was causing them. Of course, I intended to look after the children myself whenever I had a spare moment.
Ire was also scheduled to move to Shashato City to film baseball at the Demon King's request, but he couldn't travel with Lu. The issue was the logistics of transporting all the filming equipment. It would have been a simple task if we could have used the Universal Ship, but that wasn't an option, so we needed a different plan.
The solution we came up with was a convoy of carriages. To make things more efficient, the Mountain Elves began modifying the carriages so they could serve as a mobile filming headquarters. It seemed their experience building the camping carriages was proving invaluable.
They built five specialized carriages, each with a unique function.
The first was the Broadcasting Headquarters Carriage. It housed the equipment to manage the footage from the cameras and allowed the operators to select which feed to display on the screens. While moving, it could only fit two people, but once parked and deployed, ten people could work inside comfortably.
The second was the Receiving Carriage. This one was dedicated to receiving the signals from the cameras. Its most striking feature was a roof-mounted antenna that could extend to a height of five meters. Since it made the carriage top-heavy and unstable, the antenna stayed retracted during travel. Its primary use was being linked directly to the first carriage.
The third was the Equipment Carriage. This was a dedicated transport unit lined with shelves to store numerous cameras, wired cables, relay devices, and projection equipment. It wasn't designed for passengers at all.
The fourth was the Screen Carriage. One side of this carriage functioned as a built-in screen for viewing footage. Additionally, it could be unfolded when stationary to assemble a massive screen measuring roughly six by ten meters.
The fifth was the Staff Carriage. Per Ire’s request, this was essentially a camping carriage packed with essentials like an outhouse, a kitchen, and a nap room.
Since they also needed a carriage for the filming staff themselves, the convoy would consist of at least six vehicles. Ire mentioned that once you factored in the escorts, the final convoy would probably total about ten carriages.
While waiting for the construction to finish, I tried my hand at making a tripod and a crane to support the cameras. The cameras were rectangular boxes with a small lens hole; not knowing any better, I’d initially mistaken them for still-photo cameras. To operate them, you had to hold the box with both hands and press a switch on the side. That was fine for stationary shots, but I didn't think it was a practical design for capturing action.
That led to the tripod and the crane. The tripod was a three-legged stand to fix the camera's height. It allowed the operator to pan and tilt while maintaining a stable image. The crane was modeled after the rigs used in TV studios to move the camera itself through the air. This would allow for much more dynamic, three-dimensional shots.
A tripod might have been sufficient, but I got a little carried away and built the crane as well. Ire seemed pleased with the results, but he begged me to stop at just one crane. While the mechanics weren't overly complex, making it light enough to be portable was a real struggle. The tripod was destined for the Equipment Carriage, while the crane was slated for the Screen Carriage.
The filming team departing from the Village of the Great Tree consisted of Ire, three Civil Official Girls, one Minotaur from Village Two, five members of the Devil Race from Village Four, and two Dream Demons. One of the Civil Official Girls was the one who had excelled at live commentary during the festival, while the other two had apparently shown an unexpected knack for production. Ire had practically begged Frau to let them join the team.
The Minotaur and the members of the Devil and Dream Demon races had all volunteered after seeing the filming process in person. I’d secured permission from their respective village representatives, so there were no issues there.
Ire had also wanted to take some of Kuro's and Zabuton's children along, but everyone talked him out of it. For my part, the Demon King had specifically asked me to refrain from sending them to the city, so I had to tell Ire to give up on that idea. I didn't want the wolves or spiders to be pointlessly feared by outsiders, nor did I want them to get hurt in any potential friction. The rest of the staff would be recruited locally in Shashato City.
That meant they would need funding. I provided them with a budget and told them that if it wasn't enough, they should reach out to Michael-san of the Goroun Company.
Between Lu, Marcos, and Paula in Shashato City, not to mention Miyo from the Mercury Race and the Civil Official Girls assisting her, the team wouldn't be without allies. Even so, I decided to write letters of introduction to Michael-san and the Magistrate of Shashato City. Since Lu was already gone, I had Frau check my wording.
Even after the five carriages were finished, Ire and his team didn't leave immediately. They were waiting for Raimeiren. Apparently, Ire had a promise from her to receive some surplus cameras. That certainly explained why the broadcast had been showing so much footage of Hiichiro during the festival races.
Raimeiren herself was running late due to some unspecified trouble, but shortly after we received word of the delay, Graffaloon arrived to deliver the items on her behalf.
"These are the cameras we promised," Graffaloon said.
The cameras she brought were also box-shaped, but they were significantly larger. They looked far too heavy to hold by hand... though I suppose a Minotaur wouldn't have much trouble. Ire was ecstatic as he began exploring the various advanced functions.
"Also, there was this as well..."
She presented a massive crystal, about one meter wide and two meters tall. Ire was so preoccupied with the new cameras that he didn't even look at it, so I stepped in.
"What is this?"
"It is a crystal intended for recording the footage captured by the cameras," she explained.
At those words, Ire froze. I froze as well.
"My mother-in-law entrusted this to me, saying that while it has its limitations, you would surely find a way to master it."
A recording device? Ire and I were beyond excited. We immediately set to work, and a sixth vehicle—the Recording Carriage—was built in record time.
Finally, Ire and the filming team departed. The Centaurs pulled the carriages through the Teleportation Gate as far as Village Five, where they switched to horses I had arranged. Accompanied by the escorts hired in Village Five, they set out for Shashato City. I prayed for their safe travels.
With that settled, I turned my attention to a problem brewing within the village. It was something I had only recently noticed. The issue was the food. Not my food, mind you—the meals prepared by those who didn't eat with me.
Let me give you an example. This was the recorded menu for a single day for a certain Minotaur:
Breakfast: Tonkatsu. Lunch: Kushikatsu. Dinner: Tonkatsu.
To supplement that, here were the daily meals for a certain Centaur:
Breakfast: Vegetable Tempura. Lunch: Fish Tempura. Dinner: Fish and Vegetable Tempura.
And the daily intake for one of the representatives from Village One:
Breakfast: Tomato stew and bread. Lunch: Tomato stew. Dinner: Tomato stew.
Every village had learned to cook a wide variety of dishes, and since Ann and the others always served me something different, I had become complacent. I only realized the truth when I happened to chat with a Minotaur stationed here as a resident. I investigated further and discovered a massive problem with nutritional imbalance.
While a few people in the Village of the Great Tree had similar habits, they were a minority. Villages One, Two, and Three were in much worse shape. However, when I spoke with the residents, their reasons were understandable. Everyone was busy with work and didn't want to spend too much time in the kitchen. They would either cook everything in bulk in the morning or stick to one preparation style for the whole day to save on cleanup.
I understood their logic, but still. To that certain Minotaur: Breakfast, Tonkatsu; Lunch, Kushikatsu; Dinner, Tonkatsu. I’d heard he’d kept that up for an entire week. When confronted, his defense was that the Kushikatsu had different fillings and the Tonkatsu was shaped differently every time, so it was "safe."
I decided this couldn't continue and called an emergency meeting to find a solution. I knew it was unrealistic to demand they suddenly change their entire cooking routine every meal. They had comfortable lives, but they preferred to spend their extra energy on their work. The reason Village Four didn't have this problem was because Bell and Gou were there to manage things. I wondered if I needed to appoint managers for the other villages as well.
"Village Head, I have a proposal," said Rasshashi, the caretaker for Village Three.
Her idea was surprisingly simple.
"In each village, we will randomly select one family every day and require them to report their meals for that day."
Since no one would know which family would be picked, everyone would have to be careful.
"If we keep this up for even a month, I believe the habit of varying their meals will become second nature."
It wasn't a bad idea, but Donovan, the Elder Dwarf, had his doubts.
"Will just reporting it actually change anything? There are no penalties, after all."
Rasshashi puffed out her chest confidently. "I have already accounted for that."
The meal reporting began. The caretaker of each village randomly selected families and recorded their menus. As Donovan noted, there were no punishments for poor choices. However, a single sentence was added to the bottom of the announcement:
"The Village Head will personally review every one of these reports."
I wasn't sure if that would be enough, but the reports showed an immediate improvement.
The updated daily meals for that same Minotaur: Breakfast: Tonkatsu and cabbage. Lunch: Kushikatsu. Dinner: Katsudon and vegetable juice.
Well, it was a start.
Thinking about it, the residents of Villages One, Two, and Three might simply lack the concept of a "balanced diet." That was my oversight. I would have to take my time and teach them properly. For now, I warned them not to eat fried or oily foods for every meal and decided to keep the reporting system in place until the Autumn Martial Arts Tournament.