Chapter 776: Wine Part 2
Chapter 776: Wine Part 2
Eisen looked at the figure he was seeing from the corner of his eye, smiling lightly when he saw who was standing there. Not that he recognized them; it was simply a small child curiously looking at what Eisen was doing in here.
“Hey there, kid. Can I help you?” Eisen asked with a smile, but the child quickly shook her head, not saying anything in response. Since he didn’t want to just keep staring at her and ask questions, Eisen simply chuckled under his beard and continued working. If she wanted to say something, she would do so eventually.
Though, it didn’t take as long as Eisen was thinking it would. Just as he was getting ready to sift the flower petals out of the water, that little girl was already standing further in the shop, “What are you doing?” She asked, and Eisen quickly smiled at her, “Do you know what wine is?”
“I think mommy sells that?” the girl replied, and Eisen raised a brow. This girl’s mother probably worked in one of the pubs around here, then. This might actually be a good opportunity.
“She does? Do you think your mommy would be interested in selling some of the wine I’m making right now?” the old man asked curiously, but the girl just looked at him blankly. Not sure about what that reaction meant, Eisen looked at the girl for a few more moments, when she finally blurted out, “Making wine takes super long, right?”
“Ah…” Eisen let out. So that’s what she was worried about. Maybe this child knew more about all of this than Eisen had assumed at first. He squatted down next to her and pulled out an object out of his pocket. It was a small disk with an enchantment engraved on it; this was a small version of the speed-fermentation item that Eisen had built with Jyuuk. He just needed to place a cup or bottle of something onto this so that he could have a sample of what something he was making would roughly taste like. The slightly slower and more stable version he would be using for these wines did result in a somewhat different taste, but it was good enough to get an idea of whether or not he needed to change something.
“You probably know about enchanting, right? A friend of mine has an ability that can speed the process up a bit, and I made something to use that ability to make wine more quickly.”
The girl curiously looked at the small plate and then past Eisen at the five figures busily working behind him, “Is that friend one of those?” She asked with a surprisingly excited expression, pointing at one of the doubles, but Eisen just chuckled and shook his head, “No, no, these are just some helpers I have with me. That friend isn’t here right now.”
Disappointed, the girl averted her gaze, “Awe… I thought maybe he could help mommy…”
“Hm?” Eisen looked at the girl a little confused. Why would this girl’s mother need help like that? Rather than just working at one of the pubs, maybe she had a brewery around here instead?
“…I think maybe I can find a way to help your mother. Could you try to bring her here?” Eisen asked, and the girl’s face immediately lit up brightly. Without a word in response, she turned around and sprinted out of the workshop, disappearing out of Eisen’s sight pretty quickly.
With a slight laugh, Eisen just returned to work. He knew that he didn’t have too much time to spend here, but he figured that if he could find ways to help people out here, he might as well take those chances. And if there was someone that had a brewery and they were skilled enough, Eisen could teach them some of Gordon’s recipes. That would be one way to bring them to the people as well. But for now, he should continue getting everything ready. Once the others got to this ravine city, Eisen would have to leave here, since they were on a relatively tight schedule.
After straining the flowers out of the water, Eisen wrapped the petals in cloth and squeezed as much of the leftover juices out of them, before bringing the new pots of strained liquids to a boil again. By now, the water had taken on quite vibrant colors, and was smelling pretty nice as well. Eisen took a few of the lemons that he had cut up and squeezed a bit of lemon juices into each of the boiling pots, before adding sugar to the pots as well. The water was stirred until all the sugar was dissolved, and then Eisen had to wait for it to cool to room temperature.
While that was happening, he got started on the lemon wine; the other fruit were still being turned into pulp by the doubles.
Eisen put the lemon slices into a large pot, covering them with water and sugar, bringing it all to a boil and mixing it until the sugar was dissolved. By the time he was done with this and this mixture was ready to start cooling down, the petal-infused sugar water was at room temperature. He poured the contents of the pots into the large fermentation containers, added the yeast and proper nutrients for the reaction, and started the fermentation process. In a couple of hours, they would be done and ready to be bottled.
And now, Eisen could do the same thing with the lemon wine, putting everything into a proper fermentation container, just that this time he didn’t need to remove the lemons. They could just stay in here until the wine was done.
The old man was just about to head over to where the fruit were being turned into pulp, when he could hear two people approaching, one set of footsteps considerably lighter than the other. Before he knew it, two people were standing at the workshop’s entrance, that little girl, and a woman right next to her. To Eisen’s surprise, it was the woman he had briefly spoken to earlier when he was trying to find a place to put this workshop.
But it wasn’t only him that was surprised, she was rather baffled too. After all, she knew that there wasn’t a place like this just a few hours ago. Just carving out some space in the walls was one thing, but completely constructing a building like this inside of that space was another.
“Here! This is my mommy! Can you help her now?” the girl asked, and Eisen approached her with a smile. But her mother quickly pulled the girl behind her, “What do you mean, ‘help me’? Who are you?” she asked, and Eisen immediately stopped. It made sense for her to be a bit suspicious, so he quickly tried to make sure to alleviate her worries.
“I’m just a traveler. I set up my workshop here earlier to get some work done, when your daughter suddenly came by,” Eisen explained, but the woman didn’t seem particularly convinced, “Right, but how did you do that? How did you make this place so quickly?”
“Ah, that’s what you’re worried about?” the old man chuckled, pushing his hand into the wall where he opened his storage space, quickly pulling out another small key. He walked outside the workshop, and quickly used the key in the middle of the air in front of him.
This time, instead of a building, a carriage was being built out of nowhere, folding outward from the key, “I’m a rather skilled craftsman. Since I travel a lot, I made sure that I could always have whatever I need, no matter where I am,” Eisen explained, and he could practically hear the confusion enter the woman’s mind, while her daughter was excitedly looking at the carriage that simply popped up out of nowhere.
“Don’t worry, I know it might seem a bit suspicious, but I’m just an old man hoping to spend the evening of his life working on his hobbies,” Eisen assured her. He wasn’t sure if it was only his words, or if it was his charisma and the abilities he had connected to it that carried most of the workload, but before he knew it, he noticed that the woman relaxed a bit, “Now, your daughter said you sell alcohol?”