Chapter 186.2: After Story IV – A New Ingredient (2/4)
“After all, no matter how smart they may be, in the end, they’re just chickens. The only reason they’ll do something like that is if they think you’ll make their life better if they make it hard for you to get their eggs. The real cause behind such poor behavior is none other than the person raising them himself. There are times when you’ll have to improve their living conditions such as when they fall sick, but if you improve their living conditions just because they’re grumbling, then they’ll get the misunderstanding that grumbling equals better life. And then they’ll start doing annoying things like not eating unless you feed them something better. Basically, they’ll turn into an annoying middle-aged lady that demands one unreasonable thing after another.” [Pioro]
“Sounds complicated…” [Ryouma]
“Incidentally, these guys are just on the ‘verge’ of becoming something like that… Their former owner was a former adventurer that had dealings with me. Before they became completely unraisable, he asked me to take them off his hands as meat to be consumed.” [Pioro]
It was here that I wondered about something.
“Since they were just on the ‘verge’ of becoming a problem, then I guess they haven’t completely turned into an annoying middle-aged women with unreasonable demands just yet? You did say that you took them off his hands before they became completely unraisable, right?” [Ryouma]
“There’s a reason for that. Look. Isn’t there a chick with black and white feathers at the center of the brood?” [Pioro]
Now that he mentions it… At the center are 6 chicks gathered, but only one of them has white fluff and black skin.
The rest of the chicks are all completely yellow. Is that chick the only silky fowl among them?
“Other than the color they all look the same to me.” [Ryouma]
“That’s a ‘Genius Chicken’. A higher variant of the clever chicken that is rarely born. It’s much smarter than the clever chicken, and when fully grown will take over as the head of the brood. Or at least, it’s supposed to eventually take over, but in this case, that chick is already the leader of the brood.” [Pioro]
Pioro-san talked about it a little more, and apparently, there have only been a few cases wherein a genius chicken is born and immediately takes over as the leader of the brood. It has only been reported to happen when a brood of clever chickens have been domesticated and have been provided an environment with some degree of safety for several generations.
Naturally, since the leader is a chick, one that had just literally been born, there is a high probability that the brood will simply do whatever it wants. To make the long story short, the chick is spoiled from birth and treated like some noble family’s little emperor. A chicken that acts just like a human.
“When the former owner saw that this brood was becoming selfish, he decided to let go of it to prevent the other broods from being influenced.” [Pioro]
“I see… It’s because the other broods will notice that only this brood was getting special treatment, which would lead to them becoming dissatisfied themselves.” [Ryouma]
The previous owner got rid of this brood to prevent the whole poultry farm from being compromised. And to make up for his losses as much as he could – as paltry of a sum it may be – he sold them as meat to be consumed to the Saionji Company. A correct and necessary decision for someone in the business of raising chickens (monster) to make a living.
“These critters are hard to handle, but they can lay a lot of eggs, so I thought you might be able to raise them. But if you don’t want them, then I’d like to ask for your help in preparing them. We don’t have a lot of people among us who can make good quality meat out of these critters, you see. Moreover, they’re young chicks that can lay eggs, so I was hoping to the best quality meat I could get out of them through the bloody slime’s blood sucking ability.
“So that’s what you mean about me coming at a good time.” [Ryouma]
It takes a lot of time and food before meat meant for consumption can be shipped.
Because of that raising livestock for their meat is highly inefficient.
There are times when chickens that have stopped laying eggs and cows that don’t produce milk – basically, livestock that can no longer fulfill their purpose – are processed into meat, but most livestock aren’t raised with that objective in mind right from the start. Moreover, the meat made in such cases are sold as luxury goods to the wealthy.
So it was only natural that Pioro-san would want the young chicks that could still lay eggs into the best meat they could be.
“Can I make my decision after attempting to form a contract with them?” [Ryouma]
“It seems like you more or less understood what I was saying earlier, so as you wish. Try approaching the cage and calling out to them. Don’t be modest. Be assertive and negotiate with the leader.” [Pioro]
“I understand!” [Ryouma]
When I walked to the cage close enough to touch it, all eyes gathered on me.
“Chickens, bring out your leader. I want to talk about your future.” [Ryouma]