Barrel after barrel of fresh grape juice and crate after crate of wheat flatbreads, wrapped in thick hemp cloth to keep them warm, were hauled out from behind the awards platform by the foremen in charge of preparing the food.
When the barrel lids were opened, the scents of fruit and wheat instantly filled the air.
The lids finally came off the great pots that had been simmering over the bonfires for a long time, revealing the delicacies within.
Inside the pots, vegetable porridge bubbled away. Fresh, plump wheat grains and chunks of vegetables of every color had nearly melted together after their long simmer.
Seasoned with nothing more than a little fine salt, it gave off the delicious mingled aroma of grain and vegetables.
"Don't just stand there!" Beruto called to everyone. "Go pick those vegetables from the field nearby. Everyone can have a taste of the delicious food bestowed by the Divine Tree!"
At his command, more than a dozen farmwomen, long since selected for their renowned cooking skills, sprang into action.
They deftly brought over long tables, benches, and chopping boards and set up their workstations. Other villagers volunteered to help, picking the vegetables and bringing them to the chopping boards.
Huge bell peppers, sweet onions, and crisp, tender carrots were cut into even chunks and threaded onto sharpened branches to make vegetable skewers.
The women then carefully brushed the vegetables with olive oil, which was used only for banquets at the castle.
Next, they sprinkled them with salt and a little precious ground spice, a small packet of which ordinarily took a large sack of grain to trade for from a caravan. Then the skewers were set beside the bonfires to roast.
As the flames licked at them, the oil burst into a pleasing sizzle, and the rich aroma unique to the blessed crops wafted out.
This novel cooking method, which Beruto had adapted on Mu En's advice, caused a stir among the watching villagers. The sound of people swallowing rose one after another.
Roasted vegetables were actually a very traditional and simple dish.
But in the past, never mind precious olive oil-even salt and spices were not something they dared sprinkle on so lavishly!
Before long, as everyone watched in eager anticipation, handfuls of vegetable skewers, roasted until their edges were lightly charred and wonderfully fragrant, were ready, along with the richly scented vegetable porridge.
Watching the people around her take their food, eagerly taste it, and then shower it with praise, Nausicaä could not help coming down from the platform herself.
Although she had already tasted dishes made from blessed crops at the castle banquet, the sight before her still filled her with a powerful desire to try them.
"Ah! Princess." A farmwoman busy at work smiled when she saw Nausicaä. "Please have a taste too. They've just come off the fire and are still hot!"
As she spoke, the farmwoman deftly slid a serving of roasted vegetables, still sizzling with oil, off a skewer and rolled them in a warm wheat flatbread freshly taken from a crate. She handed it to Nausicaä with both hands.
Nausicaä thanked her and accepted it, then took a small bite under the farmwoman's expectant gaze.
A wonderful flavor emerged, familiar yet elevated by the simple combination.
First, her teeth broke through the springy flatbread. Then the vegetables inside, rich with the flavor of the fire, burst with juice.
The oil and spices seemed to breathe life into the vegetables.
Each retained its own distinctive flavor, yet they blended perfectly under the heat of the flames.
She accepted a steaming bowl of vegetable porridge from someone nearby and brought a wooden spoonful to her mouth. It was another experience altogether.
Then she raised the wooden goblet in her hand, full of fresh grape juice, and tipped her head back for a drink.
Sweet but not cloying, fresh and refreshing, with just the right amount of tartness, it was as if a hundred of the plumpest grapes had burst in her mouth at once, without the bitter aftertaste of the fruit wine she had known before.
Using up this grape juice ahead of time had left Beruto privately lamenting the loss for quite a while, since he had been longing to brew a new fruit wine.
This is the food Lord Erdtree bestowed upon us? It's... so delicious!
The same thought occurred to every villager present.
Even Nausicaä felt that way, so the impact of this feast was all the more incomparable for the ordinary villagers, who had gone hungry for months and whose taste buds had long been deprived.
Compared with these blessed foods, the traditional fare the people of the Valley of the Wind had eaten before could only be described as "bland and tasteless."
Or, to put it bluntly, it would not be too much to call it bad.
Some even had tears in their eyes. They wiped them away as they stuffed great mouthfuls of food into their mouths, lamenting that they had lived their lives in vain before and only today learned what it truly meant to live.
Mu En quietly watched the sea of celebration before him, feeling the joy of every person in the Valley of the Wind.
It was thanks to his power that these people had escaped the shadow of hunger and tasted such delicious food.
A faint sense of pride welled up in his heart.
At the same time, the number of believers soared once more.
Over the course of the banquet, nearly two hundred new believers appeared.
That meant that eighty percent of the villagers in the entire Valley of the Wind had become believers in the Erdtree.
Mu En could not help finding it a little strange. Could the rewards and commendations he had carefully planned have been less effective at winning people's hearts than these seemingly ordinary foods before him?
In truth, Mu En was being a little too hard on himself.
It was not that Nausicaä's speech had failed to impress, nor that the commendations had failed to move people.
Rather, at the level of humanity's most basic needs, the happiness and satisfaction brought by good food could often touch people's hearts more readily than any words of encouragement.
And the people's enthusiasm for the blessed crops far exceeded what Nausicaä and the elders had initially imagined.
The barrels of grape juice were drunk to the last drop, more than a dozen pots of vegetable porridge were scraped clean, and even the crates of wheat flatbreads had long since run out.
The vegetable skewers, picked and roasted on the spot, were even more in demand than they could supply. Beruto had to fetch seeds in a hurry and perform another round of accelerated ripening on the spot before the villagers' craving for good food was satisfied.
Just as the feast reached its height, someone brought out instruments commonly found in the Valley of the Wind-tambourines, accordions, and bagpipes.
Soon, the light rhythm of a tambourine rang out first, joined by the melodious, cheerful sound of accordions and the distinctive tones of bagpipes. Together, they played a celebratory dance tune familiar to the people of the Valley of the Wind.
The music further enlivened the gathering. Many who had been sitting and enjoying their food could not help getting to their feet to perform a traditional circle dance in the open space beside the bonfires.
Cheers and music lit up the entire Valley of the Wind.
The revelry continued late into the night.
When the banquet ended, people returned home practically rubbing their round bellies, supporting one another along the way.
The woodland fell quiet once more, with only the sound of leaves rustling in the wind.
The celebration... what a wonderful night.
But next, we must pick up the pace.
The enemy won't stop and wait while we celebrate...