Orc Harem Vol 5 Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Today’s Specially Selected Ingredient!

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In order to heal my magic circuit too, I have to create a dessert  that can satisfy the great sage and his daughters for my stall.

「He is someone who is called the great sage, so could it be that he is knowledgeable in cooking or sweets making too?」(Tita)

「Perhaps so. After all that person literally know everything.」

「Can you really make a sweets that amaze such person!?」(Kururu)

「I only have one idea in mind. Now then, let’s go out.」

I quickly put together my luggage.

It has been a long time since I go there.

◇

We left the city, drove Ork Car for around 100 km until a mountain ahead, and then we even climbed up the mountain.

「Why are we coming to this faraway place?」

「What kind of thing can there be in this kind of place?」(Kururu)

「There is a ranch that I’m managing here.」

The place that we are coming until this far to visit is a ranch that I owned.

The place is really vast with grass growing in abundance.

Cows are lying around as they pleased. It’s an idyllic scenery.

「Why is it this far? There is other nearer mountain.」(Tita)

「This is the only viable place considering the water quality and the  climate. The cows will get stressed if there is no delicious water for  them. Besides, the grass here is also special. They fit the requirements  for raising these guys.」

I didn’t buy a land this far because I liked it.

I waved my hand to the workers taking care of the cows. They came toward me.

「Owner, things are going well here.」

By owner they meant me.

「That’s great. Today I want to get some milk.」

「Then, I’ll prepare the best quality milks of each type.」

The worker bowed his head and left with a jog.

There are around thirty people working in this place.

「Umm, Ork, there shouldn’t be any city or village around here.」

「Great job remembering the geography of this area properly. You have really studied hard.」

「Where are these people living?」

「If there was no village, create one, prepare the infrastructure,  arrange the ranch, and then lure people to migrate here by offering them  a lot of money. Unexpectedly there were a lot of applicants who got  interested and the quota was immediately filled. Not all of them are  working here, some of them are doing normal farming or other things.」

「You went that far to make this ranch!?」

「……Ork-san, you are really extreme when doing something. I can’t  believe you made a village just to create a ranch, but, won’t you get  scolded by the feudal lord if you do something like that?」

「I have also laid the groundwork properly in regard to that. Well, if  you have money and connection, you can do most things somehow.」

I also loved milk and beef.

I won’t hesitate to put in effort if it’s for the sake of obtaining them.

Besides, although this place is in the red right now, it has the prospect to be in the black in the future.

「Is it because of Ork’s fixation that there are also two types of cow here?」

「Of course. Actually cow that produce a lot of milk with delicious  taste and cow with delicious meat are different. That’s why this place  are breeding two types of cow.」

「How thorough. But, I almost never see cow milk or beef meat sold in the city. Are they really that delicious?」

When talking about milk in the commercial city, most times it refer  to goat or sheep milk. And when it comes to meat, bird meat or pork are  common.

「They’re delicious. You can even call cow as the king of meat. They aren’t cultivated simply because it’s expensive.」

「What do you mean?」(Kururu)

「It’s hard to increase cow’s number. Goat can give birth to one until  three children each time, and pig can give birth to ten or more each  time. But cow can only give birth to one each time. And even before  that, pig and goat can give birth twice per year, but cow can only give  birth once per year at most……and in the first place a cow has to be two  years old first before it can get pregnant.」

「Certainly, I don’t feel like raising cow now after hearing that. It  will be hard to turn them into meat if it’s that hard to increase their  number.」

Monsters are running rampant in this world. The hygiene is bad, and  the medical technology is also low, in other words it’s easy for  livestock to die.

Amidst that, cow can only give birth to one calf each year, and on  top of that they have to grow for two years first before a cow can be  pregnant. The risk of raising them is extremely high. Or rather, it’s  mostly impossible. Many times they will be eaten by monster or die from  sickness or injury. With that their number will decrease before finally  going extinct in the end.

「There are also other problems. Cow eat a lot, and their growth is  also slow. To have one kg meat of pig or goat, you need three kg of  grass, but in the case of cow, you need four times of that, around ten  until twelve kg of grass. You need to have abundance of grass like in  this place for that or it will be no good. Their number can’t increase,  and the fodder and effort and time needed to get meat from them are  several times greater……well, normally nobody will be able to raise  them.」

At the medieval times, cow was mainly used to assist in farming work  or heavy work. They were also milked. They were turned into meat when  they couldn’t work anymore. That was how they were treated.

They were raised solely for their milk and meat only since the early  modern period. It became possible only because there was leeway for  people to enjoy luxury. In this world only very few people were able to  have that kind of luxury.

But sadly, mana existed in this world. Human who is strengthened with  mana is stronger than the like of cow, so there is no demand for cow to  be used like heavy machinery. Because of that sheep and pig that have  better productivity are prioritized.

Because of that, keeping cow as livestock is in the minority.

When I came for the first time to the commercial city and some thugs  tried to make trouble with me, they said that I must have named the cow  in my home Hanako. I was shocked when hearing that. Those thugs, perhaps  they came from a very rich village.

By the way, keeping cow in the orc village is considered as an  extravagance. Cow milk and cow meat are orc’s favorite food. That  village is able to raise cow because it’s pointlessly wealthy and has a  lot of leeway.

「Even so Ork-san is raising cow despite all those negatives huh……」

「They’re tasty after all!」

At my previous life, it wasn’t just for show that cow could keep  acting like the king of livestock even though their productivity was  that bad.

Even if it‘s inefficient, even if it take a lot of time and effort,  if the environment enabled people to be extravagant then they will want  to raise cow. That’s how it is.

「Owner, here is the milk that has been just milked this morning!」

The worker come bringing a huge leather sack that is filled with around twenty liters cow milk.

「Yosh, this is a good chance. I’ll have you two taste the greatness of cow milk.」

I requested the earth spirits to dig out clay from underground and asked fire spirits to bake it to create improvised cups.

……As expected, the results aren’t like in my imagination. They deviated from my image in their creation.

But, they’re still usable.

I pour the milk into the cups.

「Bottom up.」

「Then, I’ll drink.」(Tita)

「The smell is weaker than sheep’s milk. I don’t really like that particular smell.」(Kururu)

As expected from a fox, Kururu is sensitive to smell. One of the  reasons why cow milk is liked is its lack of smell. It will become a  powerful weapon for making sweets. Milk with strong smell is hard to be  mixed with ingredients like fruit and the like.

「Delicious, it’s really sweet.」

「I understand now why Ork-san went this far for this!」

The color of the two’s eyes changed.

Fufufu, so you two get it now.

「Cow is really amazing.」(Tita)

「Fufufu, it’s true the cow is amazing, but the milk isn’t this tasty just because of that.」

「……Does Ork-san still has other strange fixation than this?」

「First, is the grass that has been selectively breed solely for  raising cow. Then the super thoroughbred cow that has gone through many  generations of selective breeding in orc’s village where only the most  excellent cow is selected. And the clincher is the low temperature  heating!」

I intentionally returned back to the village just to get this grass  and the super thoroughbred cow to ask them to share these two with me.

I got them to give me young cow that can give birth to calf and several calves.

「Enough with the suspense. Just tell us already about this low temperature heating.」(Tita)

「People drinking animal milk will cause a lot of them to get  diarrhea, so in the commercial city only milk that has been heated to  sterilize it can be sold. That’s why the livestock breeders all boiled  their product before selling them, but the taste will drop if you do  that.」

「That means, this milk hasn’t been boiled?」(Tita)

「Of course it has. It has been sterilized by heating it at 60 ℃ for  twenty minutes. That is the method of low temperature heating.」

「Uwaa, that sounds troublesome. It will be over in a flash if it’s  boiled, but just heating it for twenty minutes while continuing to keep  watch all that time and adjusting so that the temperature won’t  rise……it’s just plainly a pain to do.」(Kururu)

「The taste of this cow milk is like this only because we went that far.」

It’ll be easy to just boil it. It also doesn’t take much time.

But the taste will drop drastically that way.

「Looks like we will be able to make amazingly delicious sweets if we use this.」(Tita)

「Well, this isn’t all though.」

In the end this most delicious milk is just one of my weapons.

That great sage can’t be satisfied with just this. Or rather, that  great sage has known about the taste of cow milk from orc village since a  long time. He often came to buy some for souvenir to his daughters.

「But, can we really make money with this? With this much investment  and time and effort needed, I don’t see how we can make profit from it.」

「That’s if we are selling to the ordinary people. From the start this  is intended for nobles or rich people. It’s for those guys who don’t  care about money as long as it’s for delicious food. Even if you attach a  stupidly high price to it, if it’s a delicious food that you can’t get  from anywhere else, those guys won’t hesitate to pay no matter how  expensive it is. I also have the connection to reach them. The project  will be on track in two years, and within five years I’ll manage to  recover my investment.」

「Five years.」(Tita)

「That’s how normally business work. I can do something like this too  because we have the earning from sugar. Also the beef meat is also  really delicious you know? The deliciousness of meat from cow that is  fully raised just for it alone is in different dimension. I’ll let you  two try I around next year.」

「Eh, we still can’t eat the meat now!?」

Kururu screamed. There is drool dripping from her mouth. She is someone who greatly loved meat.

「I’ll be troubled if the parent cow that is shared with me doesn’t  give birth first, and it will still take time until the calf can give  meat. Be patient for now.」

「Uuuuu, telling me that after raising my expectation like this, that’s horrible.」

「……Can’t be helped. I’ll go to orc village later to get the meat from there.」

「That’s a promise okay!」

It’s really far but, I’ll work hard if it’s for Kururu’s sake.

「I’m also looking forward to it……hey, Ork.」

Tita’s look of innocent joy turned into a suspecting look.

「What is it?」

「You are also doing many other things right?」

Twitch.

「T-there is no such thing.」

It’s a lie.

I have relatively quite a lot of this kind of project that serve as  both my hobby and also profitable business. Getting my hand on a lot of  money subconsciously made me wanted to make use of it.

「As I thought, you are doing a lot of things behind my back. You’re  running wild too much when it comes to your hobby Ork. I’m your  secretary, so tell me about all of them thoroughly later. I won’t oppose  your doing, so tell me properly about them.」

「……You aren’t going to stop me?」

「Yep, because, although Ork made this kind of things for yourself, but they are also to make us happy. I know that.」

「Now that you mention it, Ork-san, you look like you’re having a lot of fun when explaining this kind of thing to us.」

「I’m happy that you two understand that.」

Yes, this act of mind that is running wild toward my hobby is also for the sake of making my women happy!

「But, you should hold back a little Ork. I don’t want us to go bankrupt.」

「Of course! I’ll absolutely protect the livelihood of my women! I’m  properly stocking up hidden assets in the safe houses that are located  at multiple cities in case my business failed and go under, so I  guarantee that we won’t lack the minimum requirement no matter what  happen!」

Eh, strange, Tita and Kururu’s gazes are painful.

Recently I got the feeling that they often look at me with this kind of gaze.

「How should I say it, I have to admit that’s really reliable but, no,  um, it’s true I want my husband to be dependable but, it feels like  there is something wrong with it, ah, I find a nice word for it. It  feels like a letdown!」

「Yep, letdown, that’s a nice word! It really fit Ork.」

What a horrible thing to say.

Even though I’m trying to fulfill my responsibility as a husband properly in my own way.

「Then, let’s go home.」

「Right. Surely the result of our replication for making a stall has also come out.」

「It will be nice if we can get a good place for the stall.」(Kururu)

I feel bad for the two, but to be frank, I don’t have any high expectation at all regarding that.

After all, although at the surface it looks like the assignment of  the stall’s location is decided with lottery, the one managing it is  those guys at the commerce association.

Nine out of ten, we will be assigned with the worst place. Most  likely it will be near the temporary toilet, what’s more it will be the  one with medieval standard where bad smell hang in the air……or perhaps  we will be placed at the suburb alone, isolated from anywhere as a  harassment, or near the garbage piling area, that kind of place.

I’m thinking of countermeasure for that.

In any case, I have obtained the greatest ingredient for the greatest sweets.

Let’s go back for now.