While Az went to "gather ingredients," Ursula wasn't idle either.
She ladled the dinner originally set aside for Az into a bowl for Isis to tide her over. Then, as she added more firewood and put water on to boil, she fetched a large basket of unidentified plant tubers from the pantry, pulled out a Carving Knife, and proceeded to peel and dice them at a rapid pace.
"What are these?" Altaïr asked out of curiosity.
"Sea taro." Ursula's hands never stopped moving as she casually explained, "It's basically the staple food here in Moga Village. Think of it as... well, taro that grows in the sea?"
Not wanting to let an elder do all the work alone, Altaïr picked up one of the fist-sized sea taros from the bamboo basket and began helping to peel it.
The Princess, finding this all quite novel, wanted to borrow a small knife and try it herself, but the Head Maid hastily stopped her.
The knives used by Hunters might be called small knives, but in practice, they leaned more toward short swords or hand axes, heavy and razor-sharp. Her Highness the Princess had no experience handling sharp tools, and she might end up slicing off her own fingers.
With Altaïr and the others helping, the large basket of sea taro was soon completely prepared.
Just as the water in the large pot came to a boil, Az returned, soaking wet, carrying the heavy bamboo basket on his back. On his fishing spear was still skewered a bright red, massive fish that continued to twitch and thrash.
"Pretty good luck. There was a rather large Fiery Seabream hiding under the pier," Az said with a chuckle.
Jara stared at that nearly meter-long fish and swallowed hard.
In Val Habar, this was an incredibly expensive, high-priced fish. Here, you could just casually catch one?
Ursula dumped that entire basket of prepared sea taro into the newly boiling pot with a splash, the roiling water instantly falling calm.
Az handed the bamboo basket from his back over to Ursula, then hefted the Fiery Seabream over his shoulder and went off to the water's edge to clean and gut it.
Ursula tipped out the jumbled mess of seafood from the bamboo basket: common lobster, conch, spear squid, rock crab, and a few things you wouldn't normally see inland.
"What's this?" Isis asked, pointing to them one by one.
"This is sea cucumber, not much flavor. This is sea urchin; the roe can be eaten raw. Ah, and this is an ancient horseshoe crab, pretty uncommon. You've probably never seen one before?"
With a hint of mischief, Ursula patted the ancient horseshoe crab's carapace, and it began crawling slowly toward the Princess.
She had expected the pampered Princess to leap away in fright, but instead, the Princess curiously reached out a finger and poked at the ancient horseshoe crab.
"You can eat this hard-shelled thing too, ja?"
She rarely had the opportunity to interact with live animals. To her, a sea cockroach and a small shrimp were no different, nor were a horseshoe crab and a crab.
Ursula shrugged, seeming a little bored. She grabbed the ancient horseshoe crab, broke off its tail spine containing the Venom Gland, and tossed the whole thing into the pot.
"Not much meat on it, but it makes the broth taste wonderfully fresh."
One by one, she tossed the seafood from the bamboo basket into the pot. Ingredients requiring longer cooking went to the bottom, ones that cooked quickly layered on top. Then she covered it with a rattan lid to simmer.
"Done. Now we just wait and eat."
The Head Maid, kneeling behind the Princess, had a slightly strange expression on her face.
The Hunters hadn't wiped their knives after cutting the taro, and none of the seafood had been peeled, gutted, or washed. Such rough ingredient handling sat uneasily with her, but as a seasoned attendant, she naturally wouldn't spoil the mood by pointing it out at a time like this.
Before long, Az also returned.
He'd already broken down the massive Fiery Seabream into its skeleton and two large slabs of pure white meat. As for the innards, skin, and the rest, those had long since been tossed into the sea.
"Which of you is good with a knife? Slice up the meat, yeah? The thinner the better. You can eat it raw, or it's amazing just swished through the boiling broth!"
"I'll do it." As the only true "sword" fighter among them, Altaïr took on the task, using his small knife to slowly slice the fish into translucent sheets.
Several minutes later, Ursula lifted the lid with a smile. "It's all done. Nothing fancy; it's all about freshness. Everyone, dig in."
The steam rising from the large pot carried a distinct briny smell of the sea, but it did nothing to dampen anyone's appetite.
Sometimes, food cooked so simply was even more tempting than delicacies seasoned with meticulous care.
Isis eagerly picked up a lobster just over twenty centimeters long. She tossed it back and forth between her hands a few times, and without waiting for it to cool, began to peel its shell.
"Those huge lobsters are all sold to out-of-towners to fleece them for money. Truth is, we don't think much of eating those; the meat's too tough. Lobsters this size are the best!" Az said with a chuckle.
The Princess, who'd been about to ask, "Why is this lobster so small?" blinked and closed her mouth.
"None of this has any seasoning added. The seafood itself has a bit of natural saltiness. If it's not enough, dip it in this." Ursula handed out several small saucers to everyone, then produced a bottle and poured a deep, amber-clear liquid into each.
"This is fish sauce, a specialty seasoning of our South Sea. You might find it a bit fishy-smelling, but it's really delicious, yeah?" Az introduced it with a grin.
Altaïr picked up a thin slice of fish, swished it through the boiling pot, dipped it lightly in the fish sauce, and put it in his mouth.
"Shh-ahh... a simple yet reassuring flavor."
"Right?" Az's eyes crinkled with delight.
Everyone ate their fill at this meal; even the finicky Princess managed to stuff herself.
To someone used to refined gourmet cuisine, this chaotic, thrown-together pot was not only novel but carried its own distinctive charm.
She especially adored the taro stewed in the seafood broth, even asking why they didn't send it to Loc Lac for the food festival, insisting she would make the taro win the championship.
Stuffed and content, the Princess was led away by the Head Maid to rest. Hibiki, meanwhile, noisily buried his face in the pot, polishing off the leftovers. Fish bones, crab shells, and all went crunching down his gullet.
Ursula finally found a moment to ask clearly about their purpose for visiting.
"Learning underwater combat?" She glanced at Az. "Him teaching? Forget it. Did he tell you to just jump into the sea wearing your armor?"
"Next step, he'd have you fighting Sharq barehanded."
"That's the only way he knows how to teach. Heh, Isis, your parents went through the same thing with him back then. Your mother even complained to me about it."
As one, the group turned to look at Az.
Az's smile turned sheepish. "Well, I'm a hands-on kinda guy. Aren't all the Sea People Hunters in the village taught by me like that? If you don't believe me, go ahead and ask any Sea People Hunter you meet in any city if they know Az. Every single one of 'em calls me 'Big Bro' or 'Instructor.'"
"You do realize those people are Sea People, right? You Sea People have webbing between your fingers and toes; do we? You Sea People can casually deep-dive one or two hundred meters and hold your breath for fifteen minutes; can we?"
Az rubbed his nose and fell silent.
"You should just go back to your fishing, or else later you'll be grumbling again about how, 'I finally come all the way back home and I can't even get a proper day of fishing in,' and then go running around everywhere looking for fish to catch."
Ursula, mimicking Az's accent, scolded him without mercy, then looked toward Altaïr and the others.
"I've got nothing but free time anyway. I'll teach you. When it comes to underwater combat, I can't match him, true, but what he knows that I don't, you wouldn't be able to learn anyway."
"There are a lot of details to underwater combat. How to swim efficiently. Never mind how to use your weapon; even just drinking a potion underwater is a major problem. If you're not careful, instead of getting the medicine down, you'll just swallow a whole bellyful of seawater."
Altaïr and the others nodded rapidly.
Compared to Senior Az, who one moment was childishly clinging to Clawdia and refusing to let go, the next was clamoring to go fishing, and the next was turning into a demon instructor ready to kick people into the sea, his whole demeanor seemed extremely unstable. Senior Ursula was clearly a much more suitable teacher.
Seeing that Altaïr had even taken out his memo to write notes, Ursula waved her hand dismissively. "Let's not talk too much more tonight. You all get your equipment on and come here early tomorrow morning."
"There's one thing that guy wasn't wrong about. It's fine if the Gunlance and Bowgun aren't meant for underwater combat, but you all need to learn basic underwater movement."
"If something happens to a companion, you'll at least be able to dive in and pull them up, instead of just standing helplessly on the shore."
Hearing this, Isis and Nymera both nodded repeatedly; they hadn't considered any of this before.
"Alright, alright. All of you, stuffed as you are, head back and rest now. Early to bed, early to rise. The next few days are going to wear you out."
(Translated by yourtl.app)