Chapter 49: Salsa Verde

The next morning, I wake before dawn and walk down to the kitchen. Jen will try to cook if she gets here first – so this needs to be a high-speed operation. I pull cutting boards, knives, pans, olive oil, potatoes, bacon, eggs, bread, and spices from storage. While multiple burners heat their respective pans, I cut and season the potatoes to start home fries. I lay bacon into a hot pan and use a knife to push the potatoes off a cutting board and into the pan with hot oil.

Hmm, the sizzling is loud, and it’ll be fragrant soon. I release magic behind me and condense it into a barrier that cuts off the kitchen. This should let Jen sleep.

The bacon is finished first and placed onto a cloth to drain, while eggs are cracked into the same pan. Over medium eggs finish as the home fries start showing an even golden brown. I place everything on a warming burner in the back and clean the kitchen.

The sun is coming up, and no sign of Jen.. I’ll let her sleep and go swing my sword around outside. I rely too much on speed when I fight. My technique needs a little more polish.

I step outside and take a breath of the morning air. The patchy grass is dewy, and the sun is starting to peek past the eastern mountains. I work through the sword forms I’ve practiced since childhood. The first few movements are slow and focused on getting the motion perfect. The subsequent movements get faster, until my body and blade create a violent wind that carves into the ground at my feet. I’m too focused on technique to bother with barriers – but maybe that’s a flaw in my training since I throw condensed magic around like candy when I fight.

The world around me blends as I move, and even keeping track of time is difficult. My practice ends, and a single trickle of sweat runs down my face. I toss my sword into storage and breathe the fresh air deeply once again. I turn to the house and-

“OH shi- hi Jen, I didn’t notice you get up,” I say. Jen is sitting on the step into the house and watching me closely.

“My nose woke me,” she says gently.

Balls, I dropped the kitchen barrier when I started dicking around out here.

“Right, sorry to wake you, you can sleep more if you’d like to – the food can sit on the warming burner for a while and be fine,” I respond while scratching my cheek.

“That’s ok,” Jen says quietly, “um.. have you always trained so aggressively?” she asks as her eyes look over the destroyed ground in front of the house.

“Aha yea I got a bit carried away..” I reply, feeling embarrassed. She seemed pretty accepting of everything last night – but did seeing me swing my sword like an ape scare her?

Jen seems to sense my unease as she stands and smiles at me.

“Let’s eat then, I’m sure you’ve worked up an appetite,” she says.

We head inside and fill our bellies. It’s odd to have someone in the house that I’m not torturing for information – but it’s a nice change. Assuming nothing blows up in my face, I’m glad Jen knows my freak side.

Argh, phrasing.

“So the plant we’re looking for is a small green fruit on a thin vine, my professor says they’re typically found in sunny areas near dark rocks,” I explain.

Jen takes the information in, then tilts her head.

“That’s pretty specific, but that describes a lot of this area,” she says.

“It does, but we just need to find one plant, then I’ll be able to find more with magic,” I reply confidently.

“There’s magic for finding fruit?” Jen asks with a confused expression.

“Not exactly, but everything reacts to magic differently. Metals, gems, and spell stones are the easiest to notice since they absorb or reflect magic substantially, but if I’m holding one of the fruits, then I should be able to sense anything with the same reaction to my magic inside of a certain area,” I explain.

“That’s useful.. but also not how I read magic works,” Jen says with a concerned expression.

“Right.. books on magic are about half right and half very wrong,” I reply.

“Half?” Jen repeats curtly before shaking her head, “I didn’t think to ask yesterday, but how did you learn so much about magic that seemingly no one else has?” she asks.

“It’s hard to explain, but I can see and feel the magic I use as well as the magic that other people use. I started playing around with it when I was young and learned everything I know through experimentation,” I answer.

“You see magic.. what does it look like?” Jen asks curiously.

“Most of the time, it looks like a faint light, though I know one person whose magic is brighter than the sun. And it can take on a color when being used in certain ways – for instance, healing magic looks green,” I reply.

Jen looks at me with wonder in her eyes. She’s never seemed interested in this kind of thing, but maybe all the free time she’s had has given her some new interests.

“Wow, healing magic has a specific color – does every magic have a specific color?” Jen asks.

“It’s hard to say because other types of magic create phenomena that have their own colors, but if I condense magic enough, it appears red,” I answer.

“Right, I didn’t think of that, sorry,” Jen says shamefully.

“Don’t feel sorry, ask me whatever comes to your mind,” I say gently, “do you want to get exploring?” I ask with a large smirk.

“Yes! Let’s!” Jen says enthusiastically and stands up.

I pack the house into storage, and we work our way down from the hill we camped on. Jen thinks that if we’re looking for the fruit in a sunny area, then we should avoid hills where the sun would be blocked for half the day. Kinda ashamed I didn’t think of that myself.

We walk along rocky flatlands for most of the day. There are all kinds of weird plants in this area, but it’s nearly dinner time before we achieve our goal.

“Alfred!” Jen yells as she falls to her knees.

“Wha- Jen! Are you ok!?” I rush to her side in a panic.

“What? I found it!” Jen says excitedly as she holds a small green-looking tomato in her hand. The vine has a few smaller ones on it as well, but there’s no mistaking it. This is related to the red tomatoes I love.

“Wow, you really did,” I reply in awe.

“Take it and do the magic thingy before it gets dark!” Jen commands.

I take the green fruit into my hand and release a burst of magic. The area is flat and mostly empty, so I release even more and stretch my detection range to its maximum. I focus on the magic around the fruit in my hand and how much it absorbs and deflects. I take that awareness and apply it to the magic that’s strewn about – there are five more plants around, and all of them are near dense rocks.

“There are five more within a few hundred meters, that should be enough to make a test sauce,” I say to Jen.

“Then mission accomplished!” Jens yells and throws her hands up, “Lead the way, Alfred!”

“Aha, they’re all over. Can you stay here for a second while I grab them? The plant you found is the largest, so I want to pot it before we leave,” I reply.

Jen smiles at me, then looks down at the plant she found.

“That’s fine, I’ll look after this little guy,” she says with a smirk.

I kick off of a barrier at my feet and fly between the plants. I gather them all and return to Jen.

“We have more than eno-“

“You can fly that fast??” Jen interrupts with a worried look.

“What?” I ask and tilt my head.

“You just flew way faster than we flew on the way here..” Jen says.

“Oh well yea, it’s harder to balance with multiple people, and I didn’t want to scare yo,u” I reply.

“So.. how fast can you fly alone?” Jen asks.

“Fast,” I say, “but if I fly faster than sound moves through the air, it makes a ridiculously loud noise, so I typically don’t go that speed unless I’m over the ocean,” I explain.

“Faster than sound moves through the air?” Jen asks and looks at me curiously.

“It’s called the sound barrier, and breaking it sounds like you’re in a thunderstorm. You wouldn’t like it,” I reply.

“Huh, I guess you learn a lot at the academy that I wouldn’t have a way to know,” Jen says and accepts the explanation at face value.

Hopefully, she doesn’t bring that up to anyone. This world doesn’t even understand that sound moves through things.

I lean down to the plant in front of us and use earth magic to compress some rocks into a small pot around the plant, then pick it up. I take Jen into a bridal carry, fly to the nearest hill, and set up the house. We rush into the kitchen and start prepping our experiment.

“I’m thinking we use half to make a pizza sauce and half to make a salsa – what do you think, Jen?” I ask.

Jen looks at the pile of green tomatoes on the counter, then turns to me.

“I think we slice one in half and taste it first, that will tell us if we need to adjust the recipes,” she says adamantly.

What a great call. We slice one of the tomatoes, and each eat half. The similarity in flavor is uncanny, but the skin is different. It’s slightly bitter.

“It’s close, but the skin wouldn’t taste good in the pizza sauce,” Jen says and I nod.

“Agreed, we should peel them for the pizza sauce, but I think the bitterness would be fine with the salsa,” I reply.

Jen nods, and our work begins. I char some tomatoes, onions, and peppers that are smothered in oil, salt, and pepper before pureeing them to create a salsa verde. Jen diligently recreates my garlicly pizza sauce recipe while prepping some dough.

I pull some tortillas from storage and slice them into small triangles, then fry them while Jen works. They’re on the thicker side, but should taste great with fresh salsa. Using citrus juice instead of lime feels like a sin with a green salsa, but I haven’t found limes anywhere, and it needs the acidity.

I place the fresh salsa in a bowl, then place the bowl in the center of a plate surrounded by the crispy tortilla chips. It’s hard not to smile like an idiot at such a beautiful creation.

“Having fun, Alfred?” Jen asks in a teasing tone.

“Oh yes, sorry, I was enjoying the plating,” I reply with a smirk.

“It does look nice - how does it taste?” Jen asks.

“I was waiting for you. Let’s try it together,” I suggest.

Jen flashes a pleased smile as we both reach for chips to dunk. Our arms clash for a moment as we rush to try the green salsa. Jen giggles at our lack of coordination while I adjust course and grab the nearest available chip. I scoop a heap of salsa onto my chip and bite down. My eyes close as I chew the hot, crunchy chip and fresh salsa. I can’t hold back my food noises.

“Bahahaha,” Jen laughs.

My eyes shoot open as I turn to see what she’s laughing at.

“What?” I ask.

“Aha, it’s clear you like it, Alfred,” Jen says, salsa-covered chip still in her hand.

“It’s good!” I protest her mocking, “Try it.”

Jen lifts the concoction to her mouth and eats her salsa’d chip.

“Oh..nomom.. I apologize, Alfred, I wasn’t aware this was a divine gift,” Jen says seriously.

“I salted the chips while they were still hot with a bit of oil on them, I swear it makes more flavor come out of the whole thing,” I reply just as seriously.

Jen and I destroy the plate of chips and salsa while the pizza dough rises. The pizza is rolled and topped in seconds before it’s transferred to the pizza oven. We stand shoulder to shoulder and watch it cook in silence. It’s moved to the bar top with haste when the last corner of the pizza throws a puff of smoke.

“Jen, I want to show you something I made for your restaurant,” I say and pull the pizza cutting wheel from storage.

“A metal wheel with a handle?” Jen asks as she takes it in her hand, “Oh, it’s sharp,” her eyes light up.

I just nod and let her chef’s instincts take over. Jen turns to the pizza and cuts it into slices effortlessly. Her mouth is agape, looking at the perfectly sliced pizza before she looks at me like a kid who got their preferred Christmas present.

“This is perfect,” she says with a bounce and sparkling eyes.

We each take a slice of pizza and bite down simultaneously.

Crunch

“Mmm, it’s definitely pizza,” I say.

“It’s really the same, though green food is a bit abnormal..” Jen says.

We eat a few slices and toss the rest in storage for another day. Jen asks for more of the iced tea we had the night prior. I make a batch and bring it in icy cups to the couches.

“Alfred,” Jen looks at me seriously, “how much trouble do you think it will be to grow these on a farm?” she asks.

“Hmm, I’ve been thinking about that all day, and there are some things I suspect are important,” I reply, “every plant I found was near a dense dark stone, like my professor said” I say.

“So we’d need farm land that has a lot of rocks?” Jen asks.

“Kind of, I think the rocks were holding the sun’s heat and keeping the plants warm, the red variety of tomato in the north is grown in a very warm climate,” I answer, “I think this family of fruit needs heat to grow, so the best place for a farm would be the northern edge of the country.”

“Right, and luckily that land is hardly used. Kids don’t even stray very far into the rocky areas to play,” Jen replies.

“There won’t be competition for the land, but we can’t grow it in my father’s territory unless we build greenhouses, and I haven’t learned how to make glass,” I say.

Jen tilts her head.

“What’s a greenhouse?” she asks.

“Oh, it’s something that helps you grow warm weather plants in cold climates, but it’s difficult to operate on a large scale,” I answer, “I’ll send a letter to Father and ask him to officially lease a swath of rocky land in Marquis Duren’s territory, and I’ll ask Eric to speak to his father to expedite it”

“That all sounds pretty official..” Jen says nervously.

“Marquis Duren is a connection fiend, and my family has risen in notoriety over the last few years. It’ll be simpler than I’m making it sound,” I say to try and soothe Jen’s unease, “although I could ask the King to gift some of the land to me personally..”

Jen throws her hands up in panic.

“Ah, Alfred, you don’t need to bother the King with something like this,” she says with a tremble.

“Hmm, you’re right, I don’t.. but he owes me a favor, and it’d be better to have total control over the land..” I hum.

Jen’s panic doesn’t cease as sweat runs down her brow.

“B-but wouldn’t Marquis Duren be upset if he lost a piece of his territory? Even if it’s unused land..” Jen says nervously.

“Maybe, I’ll talk to Eric and the Princess, the northwest of the continent is rocky land that can’t be farmed, and mountains, so there might be a patch of land that isn’t technically part of a house’s territory,” I say, thinking out loud.

“That would be better.. but what about transportation?” Jen asks.

“Right, I’d want the closest patch that’s available so I could build a road that connects to the Marquis’s roads. Then we could ship into the capital through the river..” I keep pondering.

“You’d build a road..” Jen’s head falls into her hands.

“Right, flying is better.. maybe a boat with wings and a powerful spell stone that uses wind magic..” My stream of consciousness won’t stop.

“Ugh, Alfred, if you make a boat that flies, my heart will give out,” Jen says, nearly in tears.

“Huh,” Jen’s tone pulls me back to reality, “sorry, I was thinking out loud.” I shake my head.

Jen sighs and leans forward.

“Why are you going through so much effort for this?” she asks.

“So you don’t have to leave the capital..?” I reply with a cocked head, “I thought we already talked about that.”

“Is it that important to keep a commoner who’s only good at baking around?” Jen asks, self-deprecatingly.

Argh, that self-esteem. Class society died in my last world for good reason.

“When you have the most popular restaurant in the capital, you’ll understand,” I reply with a hopeful smile.

“Aha, you have high expectations,” Jen says with a chuckle.

“You’ll see,” I say in a teasing tone, “but there’s something I want to test in the meantime."