164: Butcher
Walking up the stairs, Archie bowed.
“Welcome back, sir. I have some good news to report. The butchery room you requested has been finished well ahead of schedule and is ready for your inspection. Also, the salt has arrived, and all seven barrels have been left in the kitchen,” he said.
Looking back at Liane, who was coming up the stairs as well, she already had a grin on her face, so I knew where we were heading next.
“Lead on then, please, Archie. I’d love to see it!” I said excitedly.
Archie straightened up and led us into the house, turning towards the dining room and kitchen. Before long, I finally saw a set of wooden double doors in the wall that Milo had destroyed. You’d never have known it was destroyed at some point now. It all blended perfectly with the surrounding walls.
Archie approached the doors and opened them. I noticed then that they were considerably heavier and thicker than all the other doors in the house so far, and entering the room I also spotted two runes on the wall.
“Welcome to the new butchery room. It’s rather basic right now, but I’m sure over time we can convert it to better suit your needs. Currently, it has two runes on the side: the first one having a cooling function to keep this room cold, then the next has a cleaning function of sorts. It will flood the floor, washing away any blood into one of the four drains in the corners,” he explained, activating the cold rune on the wall.
I didn’t notice any difference, but that was likely Crisplet’s doing. He currently seemed to be fascinated by the drain in the corner.
Deciding to test the room a little, I moved forward and pulled out the Titan Boar, which would have been the second-largest item I currently had. It hit the ground with a heavy thud, causing Archie to jump ever so slightly.
I stared up at the colossal beast in front of me, and I was just about to butcher when a small cough sounded from the door.
“Trev, before we lose you for a few hours, best we debrief on what happened,” Milo said from the doorway.
With a sigh, I stored the boar away.
“Before we leave, you should test the drake just to make sure it does not damage the place. If it does, Archie can get it sorted,” Liane whispered.
Nodding, I moved the drake from storage, and it just fit inside, with spikes on the creature’s back barely not touching the roof.
“My, that’s an enormous beast,” Archie said, looking up at it.
With a smile, I stored it again, calling Crisplet to the brazier, noticing the room temperature drop almost immediately when he entered the brazier. With only one thing left to try, I activated the floor-cleaning rune as we were walking out, and it appeared like four jets in the centre of each wall opened up.
The water spray grew wider and wider, but at no point did it splash out onto the kitchen floor.
“That’s really handy,” Milo said, looking over my shoulder at the scene.
We made our way back to the library. I gave Cameron a wave as we passed. He was currently dusting the statue in the middle of the hall. I had not seen him since the night we lost all our staff, even though Archie mentioned he remained.
Taking a seat in the library, Hari was already waiting with Jen and Micca. Liane had already skipped ahead and was seated in a chair in the corner.
“Liane has filled us in with most of what was said, Trev. Well, the very brief notes, and what she felt the main goal for the meeting was, and I have to agree. We have received a message in return from the king. He will address our concerns before the dinner, and Kathrine will visit tomorrow afternoon to discuss it,” Hari began.
“Not the king?” I asked.
Milo chuckled. “No, the number of visits the king has made is already unheard of and breaking every expectation. It’s honestly for the best he keeps the house visits to a minimum. Also, we need to visit the palace again so you can complete that quest, right?” he said.
I just nodded. That made sense. Part of me was surprised that Luis had not visited again yet, but I didn’t really want to invite him. I knew that Darren and George would benefit from his training, but I was getting distracted…
“I also agree with Liane’s assessment that there is really no point hiding too much anymore. If the houses are already discussing it as fact, and the royal family already knows, we can hide some of the more extreme things, perhaps like speed, perhaps some of your more extreme stacks, and especially permanent stats, but I think the rest you just own it,” Hari said.
“Ultimately, Trev, you’re basically sixteen now. You’re an adult in this kingdom, so it’s your choice, and we’ll respect it,” Jen said.
“The other concern is people trying to pit you against the king and claim you want to take his throne. It’s best you address that as soon as possible,” Hari said.
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I just nodded. Again, I wanted nothing to do with it.
“I would wait until the king has his discussion with Sylverith when she returns before you request the dark forest holding. I imagine Sylverith is going to ask the king to stay away from her land anyway, so it’ll help him out by giving it to you,” Milo said.
“Yes, that’s smart. He won’t go against the dragon, so it would make that land essentially worthless to him. That’s good,” Hari nodded.
“So, about the store?” Micca put her hand up.
“Ah yes. Well, if Trev decides to come out in the open, we can boost up your supply. It’ll work well for you, and it’ll work well for Trev in getting experience. Importantly, you will need to hire more guards and perhaps keep Darren and George as assistants or training guards,” Milo said.
“We can do that,” I said.
“I think turning the bottom floor into a cafe is ideal as well,” Micca said.
“Then let’s get builders on it right away. We want you to set up and operating before we leave the capital,” Jen said.
“Trev, the doctors are coming to visit you tomorrow morning, so make sure you’re not up all night butchering,” Milo said with a smile.
I took that as permission that we were done, and getting up from the chair, I rushed back to the butchery room. My goal tonight was to remove the belly from the boar, but I also wanted to cut some more pieces off the drake and see if the belly of the drake was even an option.
***
Seven hours passed and besides my pristine white jacket, I was covered in blood and gore. Butchering the entire Titan boar was not an option. The bones were just too tough to get through, but I had removed the belly along with the organs. I stored it all away.
The belly itself was incredibly thick. There were layers of fat that were thicker than my arm, with a deep yellow hue. The meat itself was a deep red, but there was no foul odour to it. It took me a while to remove the skin, and I wasn’t overly concerned with cutting too much of the fat off.
It wasn’t perfect by any stretch, but it was ready to go. All that was left was a boar belly that was at least five times the size of me.
I wasn’t sure if the curing process would be the same. Assuming the method would be the same: coat it in salt, then leave it. I had to assume seven days wouldn’t be enough time to cure this meat properly, and I would need to do some research into whether it’s possible to over-cure it.
Storing everything, I ran the jets to clean the floor, not really caring that it wet my shoes and pants, although Crisplet came back in the room, taking a break from a statue he was building in the other room, and quickly dried them for me once the cycle had ended.
Without Milo, I wouldn’t be able to actually cure this properly, as I’d absolutely need him to make the vessel to hold it.
So instead of bringing the boar back out, I pulled out the drake.
Looking it over, we had taken most of the cuts so far from the front shoulder, where the knacker had originally cut into it and secured the first large piece of meat. Now, however, I was after something different.
Drake bacon.
One tiny little problem: how in the world do I roll this over so I can get access to the belly easily? At least with the boar, it was on its side. This drake, however, was naturally laid on its belly with the legs splayed out.
“Lily, are you watching?” I called out, looking around.
Nothing…
“This is to make more bacon, a drake version of it,” I said.
If she was watching but just ignoring me, the mention of bacon would surely get her attention, and sure enough, from the doorway to the kitchen I saw the head of Lily appear, looking like she had her nap interrupted as she tilted her head at me.
“I need the drake turned over, so I can hopefully remove the belly and turn it into bacon,” I said, gesturing at the giant carcass behind me.
Lily did as I asked. The problem was, due to the size, she nudged it up against the wall to flip it over, and I saw a couple of visible cracks appear.
Problem for later. I’d need to tell Archie…
Grabbing the leg in her mouth, she dragged it away from the wall and back to the centre of the room before vanishing, appearing to lie down in the doorway between the butchery room and the kitchen.
I stared at the pale belly of the creature in front of me. There were scales here too, but they seemed smaller than the ones on the shoulder, and I felt like worst-case scenario I could get Lily to cut it. I just didn’t want the organs to burst and go everywhere.
I pushed my knife under the first scale, right next to the leg, and pushing hard, I managed to pierce the skin underneath. This area was far softer than the shoulder.
I didn’t like my chances of getting this as a single giant piece, so I cut up to the middle, and then started slicing towards the back. I couldn’t cut through any scales, so it was slow going getting my knife under each one.
The single slice of the knife wasn’t enough to cut through. In fact, it barely cut through the fat layer into the meat, so I kept at it.
What I didn’t expect was to nearly be crushed by the intestines as I finally cut through. The smell was overwhelming, and I struggled to get out from under them. Even when I wriggled my way out, a new problem occurred.
Where is my knife!
In the end, I stored the whole drake, and since it was all still connected, everything went back into storage, leaving my knife lying on the ground.
I pulled it out again, this time being more prepared, and climbed onto the intestines to figure out where they connected so I could store them away. I was lucky the rest of the organs had not also poured out, but I had not finished cutting the belly yet.
Soon I had the intestines stored, and was standing inside the drake’s chest cavity, removing what I could piece by piece and storing it, the smell here was intense, there was a strong coppery metallic taste to the air that coated your throat with every breath, while the meat itself had an incredibly earthy aroma, this was made more difficult with what little light was coming through the cut in the belly.
After a lot of work, and absolutely covered in filth, I finally had the two pieces of belly removed and stored them both. I would remove the skin later. All the organs had also been stored, so I finally stored the carcass as well.
Standing in the middle of the room, covered head to toe in blood, fat, and guts, I felt… dirty.
I was exhausted, and I desperately needed a bath. Also, how late was it?