Genjitsushugi Yuusha no Oukokusaikenki. Arc 3 Interlude 3

Translator Corner

This is Yukkuri demasu!

This actually had been finished yesterday... Yeah, sorry…

This chapter is a translator nightmare, though…… What with choosing a correct term to maintain the ‘otherness’ of the story.

DISCLAIMER: There is no guarantee that my translation is 100% correct. Please correct me if I was wrong.

Translator:

Yukkuri Oniisan

Editor, Proofreader:

So-Chintzy

Postwar Arc

Interlude: Ishidzuka-sama

Whether it was in the Kingdom’s Capital 『Parnam』 or the Dukedom’s Capital 『Van』, the King’s job never changes. Scanning the documents that Hakuya had brought to the government affairs room and then signing them over. After we had occupied Van, the workload that needeed to be done had also increased. The amount of paperwork that had been amassed for several days due to the music program plan was painful to see. Even after working from sunrise to sunset and fully utilizing 『Living Poltergeist』, the accumulated stacks of documents by no means decreased. In the end, even in Van, I slept on a bed placed in the corner of the room, so I could immediately go to work after waking up.

「There are many rooms in the castle, so why did you turn this room into your bedroom?」(Liscia)

Liscia, who was helping in the paperwork besides me, spoke out in amazement at how I got to work as soon as I woke up, day after day, constantly staring at the documents that were piled up on the desk underneath the morning rays that slipped through into the room.

「Since in the end, I can concentrate on working from morning to evening this way. There is no reason to make another room just for me to sleep in. Really, even though Elfrieden’s matters had settled down, Van’s capitulation made the work multiply again. Is this a black company?[1]」(Souma)

「Don’t say something that is incomprehensible. Here, the next document.」(Liscia)

「Yeah……Eh? This again?」(Souma)

Receiving the document, I sighed after skimming over it. The content was 「The citizens of Van said that they want to hold an outdoor music concert in the plaza, may this be permitted?」. Even today, I had processed numerous petitions with similar contents in them. Either it was about a music concert, theatrical play, art exhibition, calligraphy exhibition, or circus troupes, it covered a wide range of different forms of entertainment. It seems that thanks to that broadcast, the citizens of Van had become conscious about self-expression in the arts. This situation is,

「Cultural revival movement Renaissan~ce ♪」[2](Souma)

「……What are you saying all of sudden?」(Liscia)

「……It’s nothing.」(Souma)

Liscia looked at me coldly. Yeah, in order to make this gag come true, first I must make the phrase『Amidonian Renaissance』 become an established name. Well, the original Renaissance was an act to escape from the influence of Christianity and to revive the culture based on the humanism of Ancient Greece and Rome, but perhaps in Amidonia’s case, the cultural revival was more about freeing themselves from the military-first doctrine and glorifying the arts and culture.

「But you know… Even if they are latecomers in the arts, their awakening is too much.」(Souma)

To be honest, I really want them to spare me from their incessant desire to hold events related to the arts. This place was, more or less, an occupied town, after all. There is a possibility that an event where a lot of people are gathered could be used to brew a conspiracy or become a target of a terror act, that’s why there was a need to check each and every single event. Well, this was also something that I wanted.

「We couldn’t help it, right? After all, the broadcast was eye-opening, right? These kind of things have been considerably suppressed until now.」(Liscia)

「You’re right…… A military nation wouldn’t permit something like self-expression.」(Souma)

Even if there is just a short sentence written in a book that is negative towards the government, it would be a target for book burning. Just by singing a song that advocated peace, someone could be imprisoned. If there was a play that was a satire of the government, the troupe leader would be publicly executed…… Amidonia’s government is capable of doing anything without hesitation. That’s why the people’s excited attitude towards art was a backlash against the previous regime’s acts.

「Thanks to that my workload ended up increasing.」(Souma)

「No complaining. This is much better than open rebellion, right?」(Liscia)

「Well, yeah…… Perhaps I need to establish a bureau for events related services soon. I will appoint Margarita as the bureau chief and make her deal with all the tasks related to the event.」(Souma)

「That’s good…… But you need to do the paperwork for that.」(Liscia)

「*urrgh*……」(Souma)

In the end, no matter what I do, my work won’t decrease. Just like that, I continued working until the afternoon without any changes. When my stomach became empty and I told Liscia about taking a break for a meal, Poncho Ishidzuka, the Minister that was responsible for matters relating to food, entered the room. Poncho’s perfectly round stomach shook when he stood before me and he made a bow with a nervous expression.

「U-umm, Your Majesty, can I have a bit of your time?」(Poncho)

He was chattering his teeth. Even if he looks like this, his all-around competence related to food problems had played an active part in my plan, and so I personally appointed him as a close associate, as someone in this kingdom that I acknowledged his superiority in his field.  That’s way, I beg of you, I wish for you to act more at ease when standing in front of me……

「Did something happen?」(Souma)

「Ah, yes! There is something that I want Your Majesty to see, yes!」(Poncho)

After saying this, Poncho took out something from his bag and then placed it on the desk.

「Something that you want him to see…… A flower?」(Liscia)

Liscia, who saw it from my side, tilted her head. Yes, what Poncho had taken out was a flower stem. That flower had an appearance similar to a lily. However, the petal’s color, was colored in a marbled colors of pink, yellow and light brown, giving off a poisonous shade. If this was a mushroom, then it would be something that mustn’t be eaten. Although, there was an American candy colored like this (prejudice).[3]

「What is this?」(Souma)

「Y-yes! This is a flower called 『Bewitching Susanna』[4], yes!」(Poncho)

「Ah, Susanna means a lily,[5] but what’s with the “bewitching” part?」(Souma)

「Actually, this flower has a strong hallucinogenic effect, just by inhaling, it could make someone fall into a condition similar to a sleep-walking state.[6] It is mostly grown gregariously in mountainous region. In the past, there was an incident where an army division, that inhaled their pollen when marching close to the flower field, was annihilated after falling from the cliff, chasing over a nonexistent enemy army.」(Poncho)

「Scary!」(Souma)

Wasn’t this something that you could consider to be an illegal substance?

「Or rather, why did you bring something like this to this place!?」(Souma)

「I-it’s fine. The pollen has already been removed.」(Poncho)

「……Then it will be alright, I guess.」(Souma)

「Also the effect won’t appear if it’s only inhaling the pollen from several flowers. But if it is a place where several hundred flowers were growing, then even putting a cloth to cover the nose and mouth would be futile…… Yes.」(Poncho)

Well, if it wasn’t a high efficiency filter mask, then it would be hard to completely remove the pollen. Well I don’t have it, but someone with hay fever would have a hard time if it’s only with a normal mask.[7]

「Then, did you want to show this flower to me?」(Souma)

「No, Your Majesty. This flower is just something like an extra. What I wanted to show to Your Majesty is this, yes.」(Poncho)

When he said this, Poncho took out something that rolled on the table. This is…… a vegetable? It appearance was white, round, rugged, and had numerous cloves like a leek or garlic that was crowded like a pinecone.[8]

「This is?」(Souma)

「This is the bulb of the 『Bewitching Susanna』, yes」(Poncho)

「Bulbs… Ah, lily root!」(Souma)

「Hyaa! ……What’s with you, suddenly yelling…」(Liscia)

When I suddenly yelled, Liscia became surprised. I had unconsciously become excited at the sudden appearance of a high class ingredient. Eh? This is lily root? I have seen a fragment of them used for the chawanmushi[9], but this is the first time I’ve seen it in its bulbous state. Certainly, it had the same taste like that of a potato.

「……Then, what of it, Poncho Ishidzuka Paramedic?」[10](Souma)

「I-it’s Panacotta.」(Poncho)

「Can it be eaten?」(Souma)

「Yes, this is certainly edible. These roots don’t have any hallucinogenic effects.」(Poncho)

「Then what about the taste?」(Souma)

「If it is boiled, it wil have this delicious soft and flaky tecture. Then these 『Bewitching Susannas』 are growing everywhere in large numbers in the Amidonian mountainous region.」(Poncho)

This is good. Lily roots certainly contain carbohydrates. It can be used as a staple food just like potato. If we could harvest this, then wouldn’t it become a breakthrough to settle the food shortage in Amidonia?

「However, we can’t approach the location where the plants were growing due to the pollen, right?」(Souma)

「Yes, furthermore we couldn’t harvest them outside the pollen season as the toxin spread into the bulbs. That’s why it’s not an Amidonian custom to eat this,  yes.」(Poncho)

「Then it will be impossible, right?」(Souma)

Even if it’s edible, if it can’t be harvested, then there is no point in…… eh? Wait a minute? Then how could there be a bulb right here? Poncho immediately took out a map and pointed at the northeastern region of the Grand Chaos Empire.

「The people, who lived in the mountainous region in the Grand Chaos Empire, harvested Bewitching Susannas and ate it as their staple food. They used a special harvesting method, yes.」(Poncho)

「Harvesting method?」(Souma)

「They are using Pongos, yes.」[11](Poncho)

Pongos…… In other words, apes? Poncho nodded.

「The Pongos that lived in the mountain have a resistance to the Bewitching Susanna’s pollen. It seems that these Pongos dug the Bewitching Susanna’s bulbs and ate it on a routinely basis. The mountain people in the Empire tamed these Pongos and made them harvest the bulbs.」

I see, it was similar to the cormorants used in cormorant fishing.[12] It seems to be difficult to tame and train them…… but our country have someone who is an expert in this field.

「Do those Pongos also live in Amidonia?」(Souma)

「Yes. They are inhabiting a mountain near Van. I already asked Tomoe-dono to do negotiations with the Pongos. Since it was well known that Pongos love alcoholic drinks, I believed that they would gladly working if we paid them with casks of alcohol as their wage.」(Poncho)

「……It’s a good thing that the work will progress quickly.」

So not only had I made a Rhinosaurus Reserve, but also an Neva Ape Army[13]? Before long, Elfrieden Kingdom would literally become an Animal Kingdom. HAHAHA……

「……Listen, Liscia.」(Souma)

「What?」(Liscia)

「This plan is dangerous, if you think so then we can stop it, right?」(Souma)

「………」(Liscia)

But she resolutely turned her face away as if to say, don’t demand an opinion for this from me.

◇　◇　◇

By the way, one week (8 days) later, among the food rations that were distributed to Van, was a dumpling that was made from Bewitching Susannas’ bulbs (popular name: 『Susanna’s root』[14]). This dumpling, that can either be boiled or fried, became renowned as delicious, and took a role in pacifying the hearts of the occupied people. And then, in Van’s food culture using Susanna’s root, Poncho, who had been helping to distribute this dumpling, was respected by the housewives that lived in Van, as if he was some kind of deity. They called him 『Ishidzuka-sama』. Perhaps one day he would be deified, just like Biliken-san in Japan[15].

☾☽☾☽☾☽☾☽☾☽☾☽☾☽☾☽☾☽☾☽

Previous Chapter | Table of Contents | Next Chapter

Next chapter: Souma’s date with a loli and a beauty!

---

[1] A black company (ブラック企業 Burakku kigyou), also referred to in English as a black corporation or black business, is a Japanese term for an exploitative sweatshop-type employment system. While the term "sweatshop" is associated with manufacturing, and the garment trade in particular, in Japan, black companies are not necessarily associated with the clothing industry, but more often with office work.

[2] Souma is mimicking Hige Danshaku (a manzai duo), their gag catchphrase is ルネッサン~~ス, as you can see they prolonged the word ending.

Just see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkNPbIQ7Bcs

Please Souma, stop making obscure references that is hard for non-Japanese to understand.

[3] I think Souma means “marbled candy”.

[4] 幻惑リリー (Genwaku Ririi)

[5] In the raw, Souma comment thatリリー (Ririi) is actually 百合 (Yuri), the Japanese words for lily. Since I can’t find any ancient English words nor synonyms for Lily, I change the sentence so it would make sense in English. Bewitching Susanna came from shoshan, the Hebrew word for Lily. I can use Greek: Keiron or Leiron, too. (E/N: Maybe Susanna. Ancient Egypt is older than Ancient Greece. Plus Bewitching Susanna feels like a reference to the poisonous Belladonna, which has a harmless Lily version, too.) Just like that, for the rest of the story リリー will be translated as Susanna (Other world’s Lily) while百合will be translated as Lily (Earth’s Lily).

[6] Fun fact, some lilies do have hallucinogenic effects. I don’t recommend you to use them, though, as they are also poisonous. I don’t want to have guilt if some of my readers died while trying to get high… (E/N: Pfft, westerners don’t need lily roots to get high. That’s what bath salts are for.) Ah, yeah I remember a doctor’s joke about USA: It is easier to obtain methamphetamine to synthesize pseudoephedrine, than buying pseudoephedrine in the pharmacy. The irony.

[7] Use HEPA Mask for heavy anti-pollen duty! For people with low money, use a NIOSH N95 dust mask!

[8] Something that look like this

[9] Chawanmushi (茶碗蒸し,Chawanmushi, literally "tea cup steam" or "steamed in a tea bowl") is an egg custard dish found in Japan. Unlike many other custards, it is usually eaten as a dish in a meal. The custard consists of an egg mixture flavored with soy sauce, dashi, and mirin, with numerous ingredients such as shiitake mushrooms, kamaboko, yuri-ne (lily root), ginkgo and boiled shrimp placed into a tea-cup-like container. Just looking at their picture make me want to try… 

(E/N: Low budget  fast way of doing it is to dumping water & a beaten egg into a bowl & microwaving it. I usually use chopsticks to beat the egg.) My egg custard version is just egg, water, strained with maize flour, with cabbage, beans, and beansprout, put into a bowl and placed in the middle of boiling pot.

[10] パラメディック Paramedikku ⇨ パナコッタ Panakotta

[11] Actually, it’s 猩猩 (Shoujou), a type of Japanese spirit, that was imported from a Chinese myth (also named 猩猩 or Xingxing), in the myth they are a furred ape that loves sake. Since translating it literally as : LIVE-LIVELY or just keep it as SHOUJOU is unsatisfactory to me, I went another route. Since 猩猩 was also the word used to refer to Orangutans (Pongo sp.) in Japanese, I will translate 猩猩 as PONGO(S), since Orangutans don’t make sense, as Orangutans in Indonesian means: Forest Man/People and 猩猩 lived in the mountains. Calling it Orangunungs (Mountain Man/People) works too, though…… (E/N: Stick with Pongos for that Japanese fantasy feel lol.)

[12] Cormorant fishing: Using a bird (cormorant) that will catch fish in the water. The small fish will be eaten by the cormorant while the larger fish wouldn’t be able to pass its throat as its throat where tied using a rope or leather cord. See this Acashic Record.

[13] I’m sorry I don’t know what Souma refer to in this sentence. Perhaps he refer to Nikkou Monkey Troupe(日光猿軍団)? But what is Neva? Nevada? NERV?

[14] In actual Japanese, the term is Yuri-Ne百合根, but this sentence use Ririi-Ne リリー根. Yuri-Ne is Lily’s Root. While Ririi-ne is Susanna’s Root.

[15] Okay… This is kinda weird. But just read this

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billiken#Japan .

To put in simply: A doll made in America, ended up being enshrined because of the doll’s relationship to good fortune.