The Island-Banished Noblewoman - Chapter 16 (Patreon)

Hunting (4)
"… So, where should I start with butchering a Peryton?"

Marylia pondered.

She was determined to dismantle the Peryton, but she was already facing a dilemma.

The Peryton is a type of chimera, a creature that's a blend of a deer and a bird. Butchering it isn't as straightforward as handling just a deer or just a bird.

"Well... I suppose I should start by plucking the feathers."

With no better option, she decided to start by plucking the feathers. There’s no benefit to leaving them on during the butchering, so it’s best to remove them as quickly as possible.

One by one, she plucked the feathers, sorting and preserving them as she went.

First, she carefully removed and stored the tail feathers and wing feathers that were in good shape. These could be used to make quill pens, fletch arrows, or for various other crafts.

Next, she plucked the body feathers. She thought these could eventually be used to make a feather-filled quilt... if she ever managed to collect enough of them. At the moment, she didn’t have nearly enough to make a quilt, but if she combined them with fibers from plants similar to hemp, she might be able to create something quilt-like.

Lastly, she decided to keep the back feathers intact.

If she could preserve this fluffy bird fur as a pelt, it could serve as winter clothing or bedding, making it highly valuable.

"I should save the small feathers too."

While she worked, she also carefully collected the small feathers that inevitably fell. These could be used as stuffing for something or even as tinder to start a fire.

Marylia believed that everything had a use, no matter how small, so she packed the feathers into a wooden box she had found recently.

"Alright, let's prepare dinner for today."

Next, she moved on to separating the meat from the skin. The skin needed to be tanned for use.

"Let's see... first, I’ll slit the belly… ehehe, how delicious this looks."

She carefully cut open the Peryton's belly and began removing the organs without damaging them, especially the liver—Marylia was particularly fond of chicken liver!

"The intestines... These look usable too. They're much larger than a bird’s."

The organs she extracted were quite large. The intestines, for example, were as thick as those from a cow or pig. She figured these could be used for something—like making sausages.

"I wonder if I can turn this into a water pouch..."

As for the bladder, it was a precious material for making a water bag, so she was especially careful not to damage it.

She continued to remove the heart, lungs, and other organs, finishing the Peryton’s insides. Since the creature had the organs of both a bird and a deer, the task was quite challenging, but also quite rewarding.

"This will be today’s meal… Hehe… Hehehe..."

The organ meats wouldn’t keep long, so they were destined to be today’s feast. It was going to be an organ meat party! How could she not smile at that? No, she couldn’t help but laugh! With a grin, Marylia began sorting the organs into “edible” and “non-edible” piles, placing them into clay pots.

The organs were then soaked in water to remove the blood.

"Now, the skin! Hehehe… I’m excited! But how exactly should I skin this thing? I have no idea~… Hehehe…"

Finally, she began the process of removing the skin from the meat, sliding her knife between the flesh and skin. Since the Peryton was a mix of bird and deer, this task was especially tricky, but the difficulty added an element of fun, almost like solving a puzzle. Marylia diligently skinned the creature.

The main focus was the Peryton’s body—the bird part. Since the fine feathers on this part were still intact, she wanted to tan it as a fur pelt.

The skin on the deer-like legs was of a completely different quality, so she separated the leg and neck skins from the rest of the pelt.

"I should at least prepare these for tanning. Sigh, what a chore!"

Marylia smiled as she worked, her forehead beading with sweat as she continued to dismantle the Peryton.

She decided to deal with removing the meat from the bones later. The next step was to scrape off any remaining flesh from the skin and clean it.

"Oh, you are done! Thank you! Hehe, what a good kid."

With that, Marylia headed to the river to retrieve the polished stone tools that the Terracotta Golem had been crafting.

One of these tools was a crescent-shaped knife, which she would use to scrape away the remaining meat from the inside of the skin. She also planned to use this stone blade for cutting grass.

"Alright… Let’s get to scraping~!"

With renewed enthusiasm, Marylia gathered large leaves and branches with leaves still attached, spreading them out on the ground. She laid the Peryton's pelt on top and began scraping away the remaining flesh with the crescent-shaped knife.

If she left any meat on the skin, it wouldn’t properly turn into leather and would start to rot, ruining the pelt.

She had to be thorough in removing all the meat and fat, otherwise, she’d end up with a rotten pelt to sleep under. Marylia worked tirelessly, moving the crescent knife back and forth.

"This is for dinner… Hehehe…"

She didn’t discard the scraped-off meat. It would be her meal. This was the first meat she had encountered since arriving on the island, so she intended to savor it without wasting any.

While Marylia focused on cleaning the pelt, the Terracotta Golem was busy dismantling the rest of the Peryton’s meat as per her instructions, which were simple: "If there’s a piece bigger than your arm, cut it at the joints." As a result, the golem produced more and more bone-in meat.

As she glanced over at the golem carving the Peryton’s ribs one by one, Marylia continued her work on the pelt.

By the time she finished, it was well past noon. At last, she had managed to clean the inside of the pelt.

The only step left was tanning the skins. However, since she didn’t have the necessary materials for tanning, she decided to simply dry them for now. Once she had the time, she would start the tanning process.

"The fat distribution is so different from a deer’s… What a task this has been…"

Marylia sighed and rolled her shoulders. After hours of bending over her work, her shoulders and back ached. But…

"Well, it’s all good. Now, let’s eat~! Ehehehe…"

Marylia was in high spirits, humming cheerfully.

And for good reason. Soon, it would be time for an offals feast!

With that in mind, Marylia headed to the shore.

She brought a pot, firewood, and the organs she planned to eat, all to the beach.

… The reason was simple. Marylia needed to make salt, and she figured she could do so while enjoying her lunch.

The Peryton meat she had was plentiful—so much that it would take more than a day or two to eat it all.

… This meant Marylia needed to preserve the meat.

When it comes to preserving meat, the key is to get it to a low-moisture state. To achieve this, she needs to salt it, dry it, or smoke it.

In the worst-case scenario, she could thinly slice the meat to make it easier to dry over a fire, resulting in unsalted dried meat. However, doing this in the warmth of early summer was a bit concerning. The warmer it is, the quicker meat spoils, and once it spoils, salting or drying it afterward won't reverse the damage.

Drying meat before it spoils is quite tricky. Plus, even if it dries out, continuous rain could reintroduce moisture and cause mold. So...

"Well, the salting might be tough… but it’s best to salt the meat first to draw out the moisture before drying and smoking it..."

Marylia decided to make salt to draw out the moisture from the large amount of meat she had.

With that decision, she began boiling seawater in a pot.

Using pottery directly over a fire can cause it to crack, so Marylia opted for her usual metal pot to boil down the seawater.

She filled the pot with seawater and placed it over the fire to bring it to a boil.

"I knew I’d end up using my petticoat fabric for this. Well, I saw it coming."

Meanwhile, she tore up one of her petticoats. Although she only needed less than half of one, she needed the fabric to filter the seawater.

The white linen used in the petticoat was perfect for this. Marylia had anticipated needing fabric for salt-making, so this was within her expectations.

As the seawater boiled down and a white film began to form on the surface, she poured the contents into a clay pot and filtered it through the cloth.

"This is gypsum."

The first substance to precipitate out was gypsum—a fine, white, mud-like substance that Marylia gently placed on a leaf. Who knows, it might be useful later.

As she continued boiling down the seawater, salt eventually began to crystallize. At this point, she filtered it through another cloth before all the moisture evaporated. This was the salt.

The remaining liquid was nigari—a very bitter liquid. She placed it in a bowl for the time being.

So, Marylia was able to make salt by boiling down seawater. But...

"How many times will I have to do this to get enough salt?"

Even after filling the pot with seawater and boiling it down, the amount of salt she obtained was just a small handful. This was going to be challenging!

"I’d love to scale up salt production someday..."

Marylia sighed, but for now, she had no choice but to continue this process. As she went to fetch more seawater, she began roasting the Peryton organs with the salt she had just made.

"Wah~ it’s been so long since I had meat! Hehe, it’s delicious..."

As the afternoon wore on, and it became snack time, the Peryton organs ended up in Marylia’s stomach.

The liver was smooth and rich, almost like a buttery pâté. The lungs had a unique texture, both fluffy and chewy. The heart was firm and satisfying, giving her a real sense of eating meat. She kept the intestines, stomach, and bladder for potential use as water bags, but most of the other organs were eaten.

And as she enjoyed this not-quite-lunch, not-quite-snack meal, more salt slowly accumulated.

"This should be enough for now... I’ll let the golem handle the rest."

Marylia decided to have the golem take over the salt-making process. She returned to her base with the salt she had collected.

Once back, she fetched the golem and returned to the shore, where she etched the salt-making process onto a clay tablet. The instructions included fetching seawater, heating it, filtering out the gypsum, boiling down the remaining liquid, and filtering out the salt. She pressed the tablet onto the golem’s chest.

The golem could only perform simple tasks like "follow" or "obey orders," but with detailed instructions, it could carry out more complex tasks. Although this consumed more of its mana, potentially causing it to stop functioning by the next morning, it was a necessary trade-off.

Now that the golem was making salt, Marylia returned to her base to begin salting the meat.

"Let’s remove as many bones as I can. There’s no way it’ll all fit in the jars otherwise."

She removed the bones from the meat the golem had cut, rubbed it with salt, and stored the meat in the clay pots. She added some rosemary for flavor.

"Okay. Tomorrow, once the water has been drawn out, I’ll dry and smoke it."

By evening, Marylia had managed to salt as much meat as could fit in the pots. The rest of the meat was seasoned with rosemary leaves, wrapped in large leaves, and set aside.

The butchering process took all day, but the rewards were substantial—so much so that it was becoming a bit overwhelming to handle!

But it was better to have too much than too little. Marylia, thinking about continuing the salting process and preparing for tanning the hides the next day, eagerly began preparing dinner.

For dinner, she planned to make blood sausages using the meat scraped from the hides and the blood she had collected!