Ch.187187. Food Revolution (2)

The pouch that Gracchus received this time was made of red cloth.

It felt strange that this had emerged from the empty space before his eyes, but that feeling lasted only for a moment.

Instantly switching back to work mode and clearing his mind of distractions, Gracchus untied the string and examined the contents—the seeds inside.

If the seeds in the previous pouch resembled sunflower seeds in form, the seeds in the red pouch were round like peach pits.

However, not only did the sizes vary from seed to seed, but upon closer inspection, their shapes were slightly different as well.

“Those are called ‘meat tree’ seeds,” the vampire messenger said.

“What…?! Meat tree? Are you saying meat grows on trees?”

When he reacted with surprise to the vampire messenger’s words about meat trees,

she began her explanation with a subtly confident expression.

“Yes. The seeds in that pouch are all from different meat trees. Once planted, they grow into trees like fruit trees and produce ‘meat fruits’ at regular intervals for decades. They grow well in any environment; you just need to provide water and sunlight regularly.”

With those words, the vampire messenger, as she had done before, pulled out a tree from subspace.

Standing slightly below eye level for Gracchus, who was about 2 meters tall, the tree had dozens of pieces of meat hanging from its branches.

These chunks of meat, each slightly larger than what could be fully grasped in one hand, were unmistakably meat—beef, to be precise—even to Gracchus’s eyes.

“May I… may I examine it more closely?”

“Yes, of course.”

With permission granted, Gracchus picked one of the meat chunks and immediately seared its surface over the flames of the “punishment device” standing in a corner of his office—

“It’s real meat….”

After tearing off a bit of the well-cooked beef from the fruit’s surface and putting it in his mouth, he could also examine the seed embedded inside the fruit by cutting into it.

Without a doubt, this was perfect meat.

The flesh, though slightly charred, was still excellent quality meat with juices flowing freely, and the seed inside, though faint, emanated life force.

Gracchus was about to say something about the Lord bestowing such fruits upon them… but it was already too late.

‘Huh…? Already?’

Despite his considerable experience, even Gracchus failed to notice when the messenger vanished in an instant.

“O Great God of Vengeance! For this magnificent blessing—”

In the end, Gracchus had to substitute his intended words with a prayer to Ma-Duk.

※ ※ ※

Afterward, Gracchus did not immediately distribute the seeds bestowed by the God of Vengeance but first cultivated them in his personal garden to test and increase their numbers.

The results were truly astonishing.

After selecting about 100 seeds from those light brown fruits named grain fruits and cultivating them for three weeks, the number of seeds produced reached a staggering 100,000.

Additionally, the meat trees grew several times faster than expected, with meat fruits hanging abundantly after just one month.

“This, this is a miracle!! That the Lord would bestow such crops upon us!!”

The research team was genuinely delighted that these could greatly help solve the cult’s increasingly tight food situation.

Encouraged by this response, Gracchus issued a proclamation the next day.

[To the people of the cult, I proclaim: The Great Bleeding God of Vengeance has bestowed upon us daily bread and crops, so receive them from your nearby temples.]

Naturally, existing believers knocked on temple doors without hesitation, and the temple priests lovingly distributed food and seeds to them.

Meanwhile, some doubt circulated among new believers, but it was a lifeline thrown in the midst of their fear of starvation.

After some deliberation, even these hesitant believers eventually visited nearby temples, received seeds and food, and learned cultivation methods—

“Long live the Great God of Vengeance!!”

“May His foremost apostle live forever!!”

Before long, they transformed into fervent supporters.

The grain fruit, as it was named, was truly sufficient for filling one’s stomach.

Just one, properly baked, provided enough satiety, and when ground into flour without cooking, it served perfectly as a wheat flour substitute.

The leftover leaves and stems could be composted for fertilizer, and remarkably, the yield remained consistent even when grown in pots.

Its only drawback was its bland taste, but this became an advantage for those who wanted it as a staple food.

Bread baked with grain fruit flour gained popularity as a staple food due to its unique characteristic of rising and becoming soft.

Even the root parts could be processed as animal feed, or in a pinch, could be chewed raw—tasteless but not harmful to health.

Thus, grain fruit rapidly replaced most traditional grains and began spreading quickly throughout the cult’s territory—

Yet even the grain fruit could not surpass the popularity of meat fruit.

While grain fruit was a kind of revolutionary new variety, the spread of meat fruit was closer to a social phenomenon.

The meat tree, which allowed meat to be cultivated like ordinary fruit while being almost unaffected by environmental conditions, amazed the residents.

Naturally, this was because fresh meat was a luxury for the poor in the Roman Empire.

Surprisingly, even the poorest residents near the capital in the south rarely went without encountering meat at all.

Salted herring and preserved meats were imported, and prices were kept relatively low as part of the “bread and circuses” approach to pacify discontent.

In terms of cost, even a day laborer could afford to eat meat once a week.

However, the supply of fresh meat was unexpectedly limited.

Unless someone unfortunate wandered into the wrong alley, fresh meat was not supplied.

Sentient meat, symbolizing Rome’s corruption, was avoided by the poor and consumed only by some wealthy or middle-class people following trends.

Thus, being able to grow fresh meat in one’s backyard was a blessing for the poor, who made up a significant portion of new converts.

The variety of meat fruits from meat trees was incredibly diverse.

From common meats like beef, pork, lamb, and chicken, to less common livestock meats like goat, horse, duck, dog, and rabbit.

Different parts of the tree produced different cuts of meat, and rare meat trees also spread everywhere.

There were egg trees that bore eggs, blood trees that produced blood, and even processed meat trees that grew sausages.

Naturally, Roman and cult cuisine, which had been becoming bland and nearly as tasteless as British food, flourished with these abundant ingredients.

As the food situation improved, mushrooms cultivated in underground cities were introduced, and various vegetables would be grown again when the weather improved.

What they particularly looked forward to was olive—an essential element in Mediterranean cuisine.

For now, instead of olive oil, they could use lard from lard trees or butter from butter trees.

In this era, the importance of oil was several times higher than in modern times, so for the poor, having abundant access to oil was heavenly.

Thanks to this, the cult, which had been spreading in chaos, regained stability and even gained a new vitality and energy different from before.

But this was only the story of those being ruled (the believers).

Those who ruled (the god’s subordinates) merely saw this as resolving the food situation.

This wasn’t because they were psychopaths or had a chosen people complex, but simply because they were too busy preparing for a large-scale event.

All priests and officials of the Vengeance Cult gathered to begin preparations, and accordingly, the entire territory became excited with rising fervor.

As countless people dedicated their youth and efforts, this largest-ever event naturally became widely known….

The content of this event consisted of two main parts.

One was the founding ceremony of the nation to be formed from the reorganized Vengeance Cult, and the other was the coronation ceremony of the leader of that nation.