I built a manor in the Middle Ages

Chapter 79 Bear Meat and Grapes

Martin's death was just an episode. Except for making Mary a little scared, the others felt happy. After all, this was the last bandit who attacked Ward Village. They finally felt that their hatred had been completely avenged.
It's just that besides being happy, my subconscious mind inevitably has a few strange feelings.
As early as when Luc rescued them, everyone had witnessed the power of Luc and his men. After all, they were an army that slaughtered all the vicious bandits with just a few men! But because they were prisoners themselves and Old Eike was there, they had a different perspective and didn't think the massacre was so bloody.

But at this moment, facing Martin's death, in addition to feeling Luc's kindness to them during this period, everyone also felt a new feeling.

"Sir, the raft is ready."

Old Eike rubbed his gray beard, walked calmly to Luc's side, and pointed to the newly built raft.

"That's right. Pick three women who still have strength and go with me to the other side to carry the bear back."

"it is good!"

"By the way, sir, do we need to keep Martin's head hanging for a few days?"

".Forget it, let's just drag them all to the back hill and bury them."

"Yes sir."

The experienced old Eike said no more and walked away slowly.

Luc wiped the blood off the knight's sword and put it back into the cabin along with the linen clothes on Martin's body. He and Ryan and several peasant women who had come over took two rafts back to the other side. One of the two peasant women was Mary.

When they reached the other side, Luke took the vines he had just cut and rushed towards the dead brown bear with everyone else.

About ten minutes later, Luc led the way with a torch in one hand and three intact javelins and long-handled blades in the other. Behind him, three men and three women used a frame made of wooden sticks and rattan ropes to carry the more than 300-pound brown bear onto the raft step by step.

The brown bear was placed on a new raft, and the seven people boarded the other two rafts. Under Luc's instructions, two hollow ropes were specially opened on the front of the new raft, which was tied with vines. Everyone paddled hard to transport the brown bear back to the cabin.

As soon as they arrived, Old Ek led his men to support and together they carried the brown bear to the open space. This time, Luc didn't have to slaughter the bear alone, as Old Ek also had rich experience.

"Lian, give Old Eike your butcher knife."

First, they drained the blood, then the two men picked up the butcher knife and began to dissect the brown bear.

Luc skillfully turned the bear's belly upwards, which is almost the most commonly used posture for dissecting animals. He cut along the neck all the way to the bottom. Luc and old Eike each took one side and carefully peeled the bear's skin.

Unlike peeling the deer and pig skins before, this time the bear skin had to be peeled off in one go, striving for a complete bear skin, so both people were very careful with their knives, following the membrane between the scarlet flesh and the bear skin, and peeling off the bear skin on both sides like peeling off silk threads.

After peeling both sides, the two people came together and began to carefully carve the bear paw.

Old Eike held the huge bear paw in his hand, while Luc used the tip of his knife to pry open the cracks, then delicately cut the skin. He then repeated the process, finishing all four paws, and then moved on to the bear's head. Once that was done, he called for Miller to bring out some utensils, and the two of them finally shaved off the bear meat piece by piece.
The bear had a lot of fat, and as the two men cut into the meat, they could even hear Miller swallowing unconsciously. Luc looked over at him in amusement, and Miller quickly looked away in embarrassment. As for the others' fear or calmness at Luc's execution of Martin, Miller, the young man, was filled with admiration. He even thought Mr. Ryan's chopping off of Martin's head was full of beauty, and he didn't know whether it was a good thing or a bad thing for him.

"Sir, what do we do with the internal organs?"

Luke and Old Eck had almost finished all the meat in a short while. Old Eck turned around and asked how to deal with the internal organs.

Before, whether it was a wild boar or a red deer, Luc had not chosen to take the internal organs, but this time it was different. With enough manpower, Luc of course had to keep the internal organs.

"Save the gallbladder for me, and clean up the rest of the offal. Autumn plowing is coming soon, and since we successfully hunted this brown bear, I'm going to give you these offal as a reward. Everyone, have a good meal, and we'll have a bonfire dinner tomorrow night!"

Luc's words reached the ears of the serfs who were helping around. Everyone covered their mouths in surprise. Old Eike even bowed slightly to thank Luc for his kindness and generosity.

Of course, Old Eike knew that Luc killed Martin more as a demonstration, but this did not reduce Old Eike's respect for him. Now that he rewarded everyone with his internal organs, Old Eike was even more full of admiration for Luc.

Since it was decided to keep the internal organs, Luc removed them using the old method and handed the large intestine to several peasant women, asking them to clean it carefully. People in the Middle Ages, especially slaves, were not so picky. Not eating internal organs was only a "privilege" of the powerful class, and the real poor people were lucky to have some meat to eat.

With the enthusiasm to eat meat, everyone washed the bear liver, bear heart, etc. enthusiastically, regardless of the darkening night. They handed the precious bear gall to Ryan and asked him to help keep it. Luke and Old Ek continued to scrape the last blood fat. Soon, a complete and wide bear skin was spread on the grass.

There were six holes around the bear skin, which still smelled of blood. In addition, there were rows of bear teeth placed aside.

"Sir, if this bear skin is made into tan leather, it will definitely fetch a good price!"

Luc smiled and nodded. He was the only leatherworker in the entire manor, so he would be busy from now on.

They were busy until late at night, and everyone gradually fell asleep.

The cellar built earlier came in handy at this moment. The meat and internal organs were placed in it. The four bear paws were even placed in an ice kiln that was dug deeper. The broken and cold ice cubes submerged most of the bear paws, adding a touch of beauty to the food.

Later the next day, everyone got up slowly. Luc took some people with him again and paddled the raft to the other side. They returned to the grapevine that they had first discovered. With a wave of his hand, everyone held the vine baskets and put all the round grapes into the baskets. The grapes, emitting a slight rose scent, lingered around everyone's noses, making them feel happy unconsciously.

Of course, they also knew that only Luc could enjoy these grapes, but just being able to smell them was enough to satisfy them.

Everyone returned with a full load, but the work did not stop. They followed a small path to the apple orchard and continued to pick a few baskets of apples before returning to the forest.

These apples are not for eating. In order to trade with the next caravan, Luke plans to do one more thing.
——Make cider!
The most famous cider at the moment comes from the Duchy of Brittany in western France, but that doesn't mean there is no cider in other regions. The price of cider is still generally higher, at least better than kvass.

After finishing all this, the urge in everyone's heart has not subsided. Today they did not go out to find food, but worked hard on various kitchen utensils and meat, and took out some vegetables to start mixing, because they knew that tonight was the highlight.
——The dinner is about to begin!

(End of this chapter)