CH 7

Shizuko thought that it would be fine even if one of the deer were captured alive. The deer would start to produce a smell peculiar to meat if one didn’t process it quickly. The deer which got stuck at the texas gate was unharmed but the one that was trapped by the bear trap had hurt its leg. It was obvious which one should be processed first.

“We will be processing the one caught by the trap first. Can you do the processing that I tell you beforehand?”

“There is no problem, village chief.”

The villagers nodded simultaneously at Shizuko’s query. Shizuko loaded a stone to her staff sling.

“Well then, let’s go.”

With that signal, Shizuko stood up and jumped out from the hiding bush. The deer noticed Shizuko and company and tried to escape but it couldn’t move anywhere.

“Let it hit, please…. ei!”

Shizuko’s shot was aimed at the back of the struggling deer head. The stone drew a beautiful arc and hit the back of its head. The deer, which suffered a shock to its brain because of the damage, fell to the ground as it staggered. She looked at its condition for a bit to make sure that it wouldn’t rise up again but the deer had completely fainted.

“Tie the deer from its hind legs! When you are done, undo the trap and restrain its forefeet.”

“Got it!”

Since the deer hadn’t died yet, it wasn’t known when it would get up. It would be very dangerous if the deer regained its consciousness and struggled around when being transported. However, the villagers who weren’t used to doing this took some time to bind the deer’s legs.

“Well then, let’s bring it to the slaughterhouse.”

Luckily, they were able to tie both their legs before the deer woke up. After that, they carried the deer to the hanging place built around the river to drain its blood. Now, there won’t be any rampages since there will be low blood pressure as we drained its blood.

Since the river was near the farm, it didn’t take long to reach it. The villagers set up the deer they carried in the hanging place.

After submerging the first one in the river’s water, the second one also went through the same process. Then, they were submerged in the water for two to three hours, and soon the blood draining and low-temperature treatment was carried out.

While waiting for that process to finish, Shizuko ate the liver after sprinkling it with salt and grilling it. In this era, two meals a day is the norm, Shizuko didn’t have a habit of eating lunch but since there was no cold storage for food so she ate the liver. Hence, eating the liver was treated similarly to eating snacks. The villagers were perplexed at first but after knowing that it was delicious, they competed over it.

“Hang it upwards this time.”

Shizuko thought that it was the time to take the deer out from the river.

“Yes~”

While returning a lively reply to Shizuko’s order, the villagers hung the deer from the head again. After washing her hand and the knife, Shizuko would start dismantling the skin and the meat next.

(I will start from the hind legs after I finish skinning the deer.)

Shizuko would dismantle the hind legs after skinning the deer up to their necks. Shizuko stabbed the knife at the spine that was connected to the hipbone and cut the tendon at the center of the joint. It seemed that it could be done easily but it required considerable skill in reality.

After cutting all of the legs, Shizuko cut the back loin. Then, she disassembled the deer; first taking out the backstrap, then the tenderloin from the trunk, the boned rib from around the rib cage, the meat around the neck, and every part of the meat around the trunk. She then dismantled the bone connecting the feet joints. Shizuko had a trouble removing the scapula with the shape of battledore which was only in the forelegs but she managed to remove it cleanly somehow. She cut the meat around the head and the tongue after she was done removing bones in the thigh meat.

(*Sigh*… it’s a fine effort if I say so myself. Grandpa, are you always doing this kind of thing alone?)

Completely dismantling a deer was pretty taxing work. Shizuko honestly thought that she was already too tired to dismantle another one but she couldn’t say it.

“I’m fine by myself after this. So please help with the farm work.”

“Yes ma’amー”

Shizuko ordered the villagers who helped her to hang up the deer to do farm work. They couldn’t do any farm work for a day because they were preparing for dealing the deer since morning.

Shizuko motivated herself to dismantle the deer after seeing the villagers off. It took quite a while to finish the other one with the same method.

“It is over at last…”