Vol. 1 Chapter 2.8 – Mid-October, 1566

With the harvesting and presentation of the major crops completed, a somewhat leisurely atmosphere had settled over Shizuko’s village.

Normally, the villagers would have been bustling about securing enough food to survive the winter but this year, there was no need for such efforts.

Although they could hardly be described as having an abundance, they had sufficient sweet potatoes, along with a considerable stockpile of pumpkins to serve as winter provisions.

They also had a reasonable amount of rice, so as long as they avoided extravagance, they would have no trouble securing enough food to last until the following autumn.

As for work, there were no major tasks remaining apart from further expanding the farmland.

They had planted rapeseed for the purpose of extracting rapeseed oil but all the other winter vegetables were already under cultivation.

Expanding farmland did not require the complicated procedures of modern times either. It was simply a matter of deciding,『Let’s turn the land from here to here into farmland』.

Of course, she still needed to report any newly expanded farmland to Nobunaga afterward, but since she had entrusted those matters entirely to Aya, Shizuko no longer needed to make the trip herself.

“Well then, let’s go mushroom hunting today!”

“…Shizuko-sama, please stop suddenly handing me a basket and dragging me along without giving me any say in the matter.”

At Aya’s calm retort, Shizuko abruptly turned her head in a completely different direction and began pretending to whistle, despite being unable to whistle at all.

Aya was so exasperated that she was practically at a loss for words. However, deciding that even voicing a complaint would be pointless, she merely let out a heavy sigh.

“Come on, come on! Autumn is mushroom season, so help me gather some. There’s plenty to harvest, but we just don’t have enough people to collect them all.”

Shizuko scratched the back of her head with a wry smile.

Mushroom seasons varied depending on the species but most reached their peak between September and October, or November at the latest.

Generally speaking, however, October was the main harvesting season for mushrooms.

Although Nobunaga technically owned the surrounding mountains, he had given her permission to use their resources without reporting every instance, provided they were not certain designated resources.

Minerals, namely gold, silver, and iron, had to be reported immediately upon discovery.

“Mufufu…All sorts of things happened last year, so I couldn’t gather very many. But this year, I’m going to make sure we harvest everything we can!”

Since there were no other nearby settlements apart from Nisaku’s village, she was free to gather as much as she wanted, provided she did not encroach upon their territory.

In other words, she could fully indulge in the delicious flavors of autumn.

“Um, what exactly are you planning to gather?”

Unable to keep up with Shizuko’s excitement, Aya instinctively recoiled a little. However, since she needed to know what her mistress intended to do, she posed the question to Shizuko, who was spinning around in delight.

“Hm? Hmm, let’s see. This year, I want maitake, hon-shimeji, buna-shimeji, kabu-shimeji, nameko, and, above all, matsutake! Oh, speaking of which, my attempt failed last year, but I wonder if the shiitake cultivation is going well this year?”

At that very instant, Aya nearly spat out in shock.

She then began coughing violently, prompting Shizuko to hurriedly rub her back.

“A-are you alright!?”

“I’m fine. Something just caught in my throat, that’s all.”

Aya steadied her breathing as she spoke but Shizuko continued watching her with a worried expression.

After calming herself, Aya restored her usual poker face.

‘She’s springing this on me out of nowhere…?’

“ Well then, shall we get going, Shizuko-sama?”

“Yeah… But don’t push yourself too hard, okay? If you’re not feeling well, you can just stay home and rest, you know?”

“I’m perfectly fine. If anything, leaving you alone would worry me so much that I doubt I’d be able to sleep.”

“How rude! I’ll have you know I’m quite familiar with the mountains!”

Her declaration lacked even the slightest shred of persuasiveness but Aya merely sighed softly and said nothing.

Their relationship seemed less like that of a mistress and her servant and more like that of two friends with a considerable age gap.

‘This is something I’ll need to report.’

“By the way, Shizuko-sama, you mentioned cultivating shiitake mushrooms. What exactly do you intend to do with them once they’re grown?”

“What do you mean, what am I going to do with them? What else would you use shiitake for besides eating them? Oh, if you’re making dashi (stock), they taste better when dried!”

Hearing that answer, Aya felt an overwhelming urge to clutch her head in disbelief.

Shizuko, who was speaking from a modern perspective, did not realize it but shiitake mushrooms had been a luxury item until methods of artificial cultivation were established in the twentieth century.

Although shiitake had existed in Japan since ancient times, there had been no established method for cultivating them artificially, leaving the collection of naturally growing mushrooms as the only means of obtaining them.

At the same time, however, they were an essential ingredient for preparing dashi in shojin ryori (Buddhist vegetarian cuisine).

There was even an anecdote concerning Dogen, a Zen monk from the early Kamakura period, who, upon traveling to Southern Song, one of China’s ruling dynasties, was asked by a local monk whether he had brought any dried shiitake mushrooms with him.

Shiitake was such a luxurious mushroom that there were even shiitake dishes recorded in history. However, to Shizuko, who still retained her modern sensibilities, it was merely a cheap mushroom one could buy at any supermarket.

Conversely, matsutake, which she considered a luxury item, was nothing particularly rare or remarkable to people of the Sengoku period.

After all, they grew practically everywhere in the mountains, and very few people went out of their way to eat them.

In an era when filling one’s stomach took precedence over everything else, few people could afford the luxury of appreciating a mushroom simply for its fragrance.

“Well, my attempt at cultivating them failed last year, so this year might not work out either.”

After making that remarkably carefree remark, Shizuko readjusted the basket on her back and set off.

Aya followed behind her, wearing a thoroughly conflicted expression.

‘It’s exactly as Mori-sama said. This woman’s sense of values is somehow different…’

Aya stared almost accusingly at Shizuko’s back as she walked along so cheerfully that she seemed ready to start humming.

Her gaze was so intense that it almost radiated killing intent, yet the person on the receiving end remained completely oblivious, casually making her way up the mountain.

“We’re almost at the shimeji patch, so make sure you have your basket ready, okay?”

If anything, Shizuko even turned toward Aya with a completely innocent smile.

Aya found herself thinking that she truly could not understand this person named Shizuko. Nevertheless, she resolved to remain faithful to her assigned duties.

‘I suppose I’ll just have to take my time.’ 

“Understood. Also, please watch where you’re going or you’ll hurt yourself.”

Her duty was to thoroughly investigate the talents Shizuko possessed.

After several dozen minutes of walking while exchanging conversation, the two finally arrived at one of Shizuko’s intended destinations: the shimeji patch.

Although she called it a shimeji patch, it was merely an area where wild shimeji mushrooms happened to grow in clusters, rather than a place where they were being cultivated artificially.

Shizuko had simply taken areas where certain mushrooms were relatively easy to gather and named them after the mushrooms, referring to them as fields.

“This one’s ready to eat. This one’s still too young… This one’s poisonous. Oh, now that’s a big one!”

As though possessing an exceptionally keen sense of smell, Shizuko spotted mushrooms one after another and placed them into her basket.

In no time at all, she filled the basket she was carrying in her hands, then carefully transferred its contents into the larger basket strapped to her back.

Nearly every mushroom in the surrounding area had been harvested, leaving behind only those that were still too small and the poisonous varieties.

“Next up, maitake! After that, matsutake. We can leave the shiitake for last.”

Without giving Aya so much as a chance to interject, Shizuko readjusted the basket on her back and headed toward the next gathering spot.

Aya hurried after her but merely keeping up with Shizuko, who was thoroughly accustomed to traversing the mountains, took all her effort.

She certainly had no breathing room left to voice any questions.

Only now did she realize that Shizuko had deliberately slowed her walking pace at the beginning of their climb out of consideration for Aya’s physical condition.

“Alright! We’ve reached the maitake hunting grounds! Oh, I’ve already found one!”

Aya had hoped that they could finally take a short break now that they had arrived but Shizuko apparently spotted some maitake mushrooms and dashed off at tremendous speed.

Aya no longer had the energy to run, and Shizuko was not far enough away for her to lose sight of her anyway. After wiping the sweat from her forehead, she quenched her thirst with the bamboo canteen hanging at her waist.

The slightly chilled water felt wonderfully refreshing against her overheated body.

“I wonder if this one alone weighs around ten kilograms. Oh, there’s another one over there! This year’s going to be a bumper year!”

Leaving Aya to rest against a tree, Shizuko devoted herself entirely to gathering maitake mushrooms.

By the time they had finished collecting shimeji, maitake and matsutake, their baskets were full, so the two descended the mountain.

Shizuko had intended to leave the shiitake for another day, but Aya insisted that she wanted to see them, so they ended up climbing the mountain once again.

After approximately ten minutes of climbing, they arrived at the shiitake cultivation site Shizuko had established.

“I wonder if they’ve grown this year.”

Shizuko muttered casually, striking a pose as though gazing into the distance.

Aya, on the other hand, held her breath, utterly captivated by the sight before her.

Although the mushrooms did not cover the entire area, there were still what could only be described as enormous quantities of shiitake growing there.

There were enough that one could confidently declare them worth a considerable fortune.

Yet Shizuko was merely delighted that her attempt at cultivating shiitake had succeeded. She showed absolutely no trace of greed or desire for money.

‘This is…’ 

“With this many, we really must report the matter to our lord.”

“Huh? Really? Over something as ordinary as shiitake?”

At that moment, Aya let out an extraordinarily weary sigh, making absolutely no attempt to conceal her exasperation.

In the end, the two harvested every last shiitake mushroom and brought them home, where Shizuko immediately attempted to grill some to eat.

Aya stopped her with all her might, and they proceeded to process all the mushrooms into dried shiitake, excluding those that had been damaged by insects.

When shiitake mushrooms are dried in the sun, they lose vitamin B, but their vitamin D content increases tenfold in exchange.

Their umami compounds also increase, and their fragrance improves considerably, making dried shiitake far superior to fresh ones.

“Still, are shiitake really that expensive?”

Unable to fully comprehend the value of shiitake, Shizuko questioned Aya, who was silently working away.

Aya stopped what she was doing, let out a small sigh, and spoke while gazing at the shiitake she had arranged in a basket for drying.

“I do not know their precise value myself, but I have heard rumors that approximately fifteen kanme (about 56.25 kilograms) would be enough to purchase an entire castle.”

“Then with this much, we could probably buy a really big house! Not that I’d want one. Cleaning it would be such a hassle.”

“…If you could afford to employ a large number of servants, would you consider building a spacious residence?”

“Huh? But if the house were that big, I wouldn’t even be able to use all that space. My current home is more than enough.”

Aya had posed the hypothetical question in an attempt to gauge just how much greed Shizuko might display but the answer she received revealed a degree of indifference toward wealth that far exceeded her expectations.

Harvesting the bounty of the mountains was not something that could be completed in a mere day or two.

They had to climb the mountains repeatedly over several days, gather whatever they were after, bring their harvest home and process it.

Furthermore, what they went out to gather differed from day to day.

One day, they would harvest wild astringent and sweet persimmons. Another day, they would collect fallen chestnuts, spiny burrs and all, dig up wild yams or pick up acorns scattered across the ground. They gathered a wide variety of mountain produce.

They also harvested fruits other than persimmons but because those did not keep for very long, most were eaten on the spot as snacks while they continued gathering.

“Let’s hurry up and turn these astringent persimmons into dried persimmons.”

Standing before a pot bubbling away, Shizuko began peeling the astringent persimmons.

Once she had finished peeling one, she tied a string around its stem and dipped the persimmon into the boiling water for approximately five seconds.

After completing that process, she tied the strings to the drying rack she had prepared, taking care to ensure that the persimmons did not overlap or touch one another.

There were not particularly many persimmons, only around thirty but Shizuko worked with such efficiency that even Aya was astonished.

“And that’s that. They should be ready in about forty days.”

Shizuko smiled in satisfaction at the sight of the various foods laid out to dry, including shiitake mushrooms and persimmons.

“Autumn’s wonderful because there’s so much to harvest!”

“…Indeed it is. By the way, Shizuko-sama, you seem to possess considerable knowledge of mushrooms. Where did you acquire such knowledge?”

Aya posed the question to Shizuko, who was inspecting the various foods laid out to dry, taking care to make it sound like a perfectly natural part of their conversation.

She wanted to avoid arousing any unnecessary suspicion. Fortunately for her, Shizuko was somewhat absentminded and never suspected for a moment that Aya had any ulterior motives.

“Hm? Oh, one of my relatives was a mycologist, you see. I remember them getting all excited and teaching me all sorts of things, saying,『Mushrooms are fascinating, Shizuko!』”

“I see.”

“The place where I used to live had a rapidly aging population, you know. So I guess everyone wanted someone to carry on their work? They ended up teaching me all sorts of things. Thanks to everything they taught me from such a young age, I managed to enroll in an agricultural high school directly administered by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries!”

“A-agriculture and forestry? Agricultural… high school? E-enroll?”

Aya could not understand a single word of the latter half of Shizuko’s explanation. However, she did understand that Shizuko possessed such a broad range of knowledge because the people of her village, eager to find successors, had taught her everything they knew.

In other words, Aya concluded that Shizuko was the culmination of all the knowledge possessed by that village.

‘A village possessing such advanced techniques…I’ve never heard of anything like it.’

“Alright, all done! It’s going to get cold soon, so shall we head back inside?”

“…Yes, let’s.”

Aya had hoped to uncover more about Shizuko’s origins but instead, the mystery had only deepened, leaving her utterly bewildered.