Lawrence goes to sell his peppers to a merchant, but Horo quickly realizes the merchant is shady. A quick trick with a mug demonstrates how the merchant tried to work the balance, and so Lawrence blackmails the merchant for expensive armor sets in exchange for silence about the incident. With the trade complete, Horo is very eager to get to the city of Rubenheigen, after Lawrence describes the apples, pears, and peaches preserved in honey.
In addition to sticky honey treats, Horo also wants oil for her tail and offers to pay Lawrence back with interest. However, the trip might not be so easy, because there is a rumor about a magician who can summon and command wolves. Furthermore, there are some mercenaries wandering around. We also hear about the existence of special tariff free gold (a Church scam) and the harsh penalties for smuggling gold. All this is inconsequential, however, because Lawrence and Horo come upon the shepherd from the ED, and she turns out to be a cute blonde girl (just the type of person Horo hates).
Apparently episode 7 will be a DVD-only affair, so the director made this episode extra boring. The predictable pattern of a boring episode crammed with a bunch of random facts followed by a sorta-exciting episode that solves the mystery of the random facts is not doing it for me. The only good parts of this episode were the drunken Horo conversation, the return of the sight-gags, and the introduction of the shepherd.
I wonder why those preserved fruits are only accessible to the very rich. Preserving fruit is quite easy, and does not use expensive components (unless the honey costs a lot in this world). The only things I am looking forward to for next episode are Horo eating overpriced honeyed-fruits and learning how the shepherd fends off armies of wolves with a bell on a stick.
2 Comments
“I wonder why those preserved fruits are only accessible to the very rich. Preserving fruit is quite easy, and does not use expensive components (unless the honey costs a lot in this world).”
Apparently, they use ginger as well as honey to preserve apples and peaches. Ginger is a spice that was as hard to come by as pepper during the Middle Ages. That is probably why preserved fruits are an expensive luxury in Horo’s world.
Ahhh, those spices! That makes sense, although it seemed like only the premium super-deluxe preserved fruit had ginger. However, thinking of it in medieval times, I guess any preservation technique that resulted in tasty food would command a premium.