Starting his first lesson, Kajima held a gengiri carapace and was conversing with Azi about the different uses of a carapace. Kajima showed Azi some armor pieces made from multiple gengiri carapaces weaved together into a scale mail pattern.
The pattern was unique as each piece of gengiri carapace were like smooth scales with edges that were sanded down to fit together in a perfect alignment which made it seem as if there were no gaps between the pieces. Azi could see how much attention to detail Kajima gave in his work since it seemed that not even a piece of sand could get in between the carapace pieces.
Hefting the armor onto himself, Azi was surprised by how the chainmail-like armor felt only somewhat heavy. It was on the much larger sides as his stature was smaller than the average person in Yamato, but even with the added weight he felt he could run comfortably in it. As he was taking it off, Kajima rummaged for a few more books and answered Azi.
"Gengiri carapaces are lighter than steel but have the strength of bronze, so using a steel knife or saw makes it easy to reform the carapaces to the needed shapes. This is my current design and it's supposed to be worn over leather armor to provide more lightweight protection."
"Could I try my hand at shaping some carapaces?"
Impressed by how eager Azi was, Kajima nonetheless had to calm him down.
"Yes, but no need to rush head first in. Let's have you study from this monster anatomy book first. There is also something I want to show you."
"Alright, I'll hold onto the book for now. What's next?"
"Next I will show you how to disassemble a gengiri."
Leaving the workshop, Azi followed behind Kajima. They stepped out into the snowy grounds surrounding the house and arrived in front of a small warehouse. The cold winds chilled their bodies, but due to Kajima's foresight they had adequate coverage with the use of some fur coats he had grabbed on the way out.
Covered in a warm fur coat to protect him from the cold, Kajima pushed open the heavy doors of his warehouse and began searching in a lax manner as if he were just picking up some groceries. Azi looked around and could see stacks upon stacks of materials. Ores of different colors were organized into wooden crates that filled the small warehouse.
Off to another side of the warehouse, hee could see that Kajima was moving to grab something that was wrapped in a cloth and what looked like a wooden stand with hooks. After retrieving what he needed, Kajima moved to the outside of the warehouse and began to set up the wooden stand with its hooks.
What now hung in Azi's sight was a gengiri corpse hanging from the wooden stand. With practiced motions, Kajima moved to disassemble the gengiri with his own carving knife.
"First, you would drain the blood by making an incision and then stick a tube into the incision to drain the blood into containers. The blood of the gengiri is poisonous but is useful as a poison and can be made into antidotes. I have already removed the blood and since this is simple you should have no problem in doing so. I'll show you where to cut when it's your turn, but the real issue is how to remove all the flesh from the corpse to ensure that there is none of it remaining on the carapace."
Kajima began showing Azi the tricks he came up with to more easily remove the flesh from the carapace which involved shoving the knife in between each carapace piece to loosen them from each other.
Then cutting as many of the contact points between carapace and flesh, and the final tip was to cut a grid pattern into the underside of the gengiri's body so that a large shovel could then be used to scrape out the flesh from the carapace.
With the flesh cut into smaller pieces and its connection to the carapace weakened. The flesh was scooped out cleanly in only a few shovelfuls. Any remaining flesh could be either burned off or cut off with a knife.
While Azi was taken aback by the abhorrent smell of the gengiri when its flesh was getting removed. He knew it was not that bad since if the blood was not drained beforehand then the smell could have been 10 times worse.
After Kajima finished showing his example to Azi, he grabbed a fresher gengiri corpse from the warehouse and told Azi to try his hand at butchering this gengiri corpse. Equipped himself with the carving knife, Azi began to disassemble the gengiri using what he learned.
He grabbed a few buckets and a rubber-like hose from the workshop and began to drain the blood after Kajima told him how to identify the veins in the monster. He then began cutting the carapace connections to each other and the flesh. Made a grid pattern on the underside and finally scooped out the flesh with a shovel.
At some points, Azi had to hold his breath to prevent himself from inhaling too much of the corpse's stench, but this did not deter him. With his focus sharpening like a freshly sharpened spear, Azi continued his work until there was nothing left for him to do.
Breathing through his mouth helped as it lessened the stench from getting into his head.
It took Azi much longer than Kajima to butcher one gengiri, but Kajima told him to take his time.
"It's better that it is done right rather than quickly. When you make tools from materials, it is best if those materials are in good condition." Said Kajima.
Nodded in affirmation, Azi continued and a few more moments passed as he soon finished his first disassembly. Kajima appraised his work and made a few comments on how he could have improved and where he went wrong.
Azi listened to every word Kajima told him with a passionate focus which amused Kajima. He was so amused that he had to ask at this point.
"Why do you always seem so interested when we talk about things like this?"
While looking over his work, Azi pondered as he examined the differences between his work and Kajima's.
"I don't really know. I just find it fascinating. There are many topics I have no knowledge of. So when I think about being able to learn it I feel an urge to learn it."
"Your motivation and passion to learn is admirable, I'll be sure to teach you what I can." Giving his approval of Azi's answer, Kajima gave a big smile as he was amused by his reasoning.
"Thank you, teacher."
"Teacher?"
"Yes, Teacher, that is what I'll call you now."
Kajima laughed as he believed he was too old to be considered a teacher but felt that it was alright in this situation but had a few conditions. Looking to Azi, Kajima had a slight flush on his face as he told in a cheery tone.
"Okay, but only call me that during lessons. It's embarrassing to have someone as old as you call me teacher."
"Deal. I'll do my best. Teacher."
"As will I."
Kajima and Azi both had a small laugh and continued with their lesson where they then moved onto beowolves.
Changing over to Shizu, she had finished cleaning and left Kajima's house to handle the transactions of the materials from the investigation. She arrived at the village barracks and got two men to aid her in moving the materials to the assigned village store houses.
She then discussed the price of the materials with the village warehouse master.
"So what can you give me for what we brought you today?"
The warehouse master began to fiddle with a ledger as he flipped through it. "In all, you have 1 kengiri, 28 gengiri, and 4 beowolves. The usual going rate for each gengiri and beowolves are respectively 1 bronze plate and 2 bronze plates. The kengiri comes to 1 silver coin, so after a bit of math the payout is 4 silver coins and 6 bronze plates or 46000 Minos (~$4600)"
Agreeing with the payout, Shizu nodded which the warehouse master responded by handing her the money and getting her to sign the needed paperwork. He then bowed before walking away to a deeper section inside the storehouse to direct the workers on moving the materials around. With her business finished, Shizu returned to the village barracks and divided the money into portions.
With 46000 Minos and with 6 teams, each team would receive 7000 Minos and the remainder would then be given to the village treasurer as a gift.
During usual hunts or investigations, soldiers would usually not be paid extra for monster material submissions, but this case was different as Ozen had negotiated on how to use the money from the surplus materials they had gathered.
It was agreed that the soldiers would be given a bonus on this last hunt while the remainder of the money would go to the village for its growth.
With the extra money, the village could pay the troops coming to reinforce the village watch and offer some of it as an up-front tax as an early offering to the Emperor of Yamato. At the turn of every season a tax would be collected by the emperor, so sending some of the taxes early was a small gesture to curry favor with the Emperor or top officials in the Empire's capital.
After Shizu's business was finished, she made her way back to Kajima's house. Along the way she bought a few meat skewers and a few bottles of sake for everyone back at the house. While the time was still in the afternoon, Shizu decided to take today off to let Azi and Kajima relax after a hunt and their lessons.
She opened the door to the living room of the house and saw Azi sitting down at the dining table reading a large book. She heard the loud banging of metal coming from the workshop and deduced that Kajima was likely working on some of his commissions.
"I'm home! Azi, you want a snack!"
Startled from his intense focus, he reflexively turned his head to the direction of the loud voice and saw that Shizu had bags in her hands. Wanting to at least get on her good side, he got up and walked over to grab them from her.
"Here, pass it to me. Where do you need them?"
"Thanks, just put them on the dining table. It's mostly food and drink so let's enjoy it together."
Hearing that the bag contained food, Azi shot a questioning gaze at the bags and took a whiff of the leaking aroma from the bags. A smile formed on his face as he could recognize the smell of grilled meat that reminded him of bbq from his memories. He wondered if the meat would taste like chicken, beef, or pork and this thought caused him to slightly drool. Noticing this funny sight, Shizu cracked up at the smile of bliss on his face.
"Hahaha, don't drool on the food Azi, we all need to eat it."
Snapping out of his short daze, he recomposed himself and deftly wiped the drool away with his short sleeve.
"My bad. Kajima said he will finish soon so let's get started since he will be out in just a moment."
Shizu gave a nod and the two began to set the table.
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