Chapter 1: Shopping in a Ceramics Workshop

The four of us who had been staying in the town of Nijhoff had once again come to the Adventurer’s guild today. Avoiding the morning rush, we came a little later and managed to get to a receptionist without much fuss. When I showed the receptionist my guild card, Jöran came over immediately.

“Did you come to report on the cyclops request?”

“Yes. I also brought it back with me, just like you asked.”

“Ohh, I see. That’s great. Then going to the storehouse would be better, no? Please follow me, sonny.” Led by Jöran, we went to the storehouse.

There were around forty expert butchers at work in the storehouse, and they were busy when we came in. “Ah, guildmaster, did something happen?” One of them asked.

“You’ll be finished yourself soon, no? We can wait until then, Horace.”

“Then please wait just a little. I’ll finish in a flash.” With that statement, the butcher named Horace continued butchering his subject with practiced hands.

“Excuse us, Mukohda, but please wait just a little.”

“Yes, I’m fine with that.” I’m fine with waiting, but...... Urgh, that’s gross. The smell of blood, like rusted iron, filled the air and pricked at my nose.

Yeah, I don’t think I’ll ever get used to being here when they’re butchering.

After about five minutes, Horace, who had finished his work, came over to us again. “Sorry for keeping you waiting. So, what kind of business do you have?”

“Right. Mukohda, do you have the cyclops with you?”

“I do. It’s in my Item Box. May I take it out here?”

“W-W-W-Wai... A cyclops?! Taking out something that big here will just be a huge nuisance. We’ll need a place with enough space...... Ahh, there. Take it out there.” Hearing about the cyclops, Horace started talking in a panic.

“Then, here.” I brought out the cyclops where he told me to.

“Ohh! This is amazing. There’s basically no wounds at all. Something this untouched is rare. This’ll make for some good hide.”

Right? Right? I told everyone to make sure of that, after all. And they did as I asked!

“How’s the eyeball?”

Horace flipped open the cyclops’ eyelid and checked the eyeball. “Hmmm, this one is a little damaged. It’ll lower the price slightly, but well, there shouldn’t be a problem overall.”

What? The eyeball was damaged? Why...... Ah, the lightning strike to the head. When I looked over at Fel, he started sulking; he must have been listening in.

“Hmph! You only told me to avoid damaging the hide. I take no responsibility for the eye.”

“No, it looks like they’ll still buy it, so it’s fine.”

“But he said that it will lower the price.”

“Well, that’s true, but it’s not like we need the money, so it’s fine.”

“Hmph!” It seemed that it wounded Fel’s pride, like someone told him that his prey wasn’t worth much. Well, there isn’t really any need to care that much, though. Even if the price gets lowered, it’s not like we’re strapped for cash at the moment. Pretty much all the money we have right now is thanks to Fel anyways.

“So Fenrirs really do talk......” Horace whispered, looking surprised.

Ahh, right. Even if it’s normal for us, people who see it for the first time would be surprised.

“Oh, sorry. Man, I heard about it, but actually seeing it is surprising, or something......”

“Hahaha, I get it. I was incredibly surprised when I first met Fel, too.”

“Being able to understand and speak human language is really the mark of a legendary beast, no? That Fenrir is probably on the level of an ancient dragon.”

“Indeed. They are longer lived than we are, after all. So they are all crotchety old men and women with too much time on their hands. Being able to speak human language would be simple for them.”

So ancient dragons are now crotchety old men and women?

......My dear Fel.

Jöran was laughing “Ho, ho, ho!” and Horace was saying stuff like, “So he calls ancient dragons crotchety old men and women...”

Kinda... I’m really sorry.

“Uh-Uhm... Can I get you to butcher this, too?” In order to try and change the topic, I brought out the black serpent, giant dodo, and two cockatrices that Fel and Dora-chan hunted before leaving Dolan out from my Item Box. The dim grey rhino and the sabre tiger couldn’t be eaten, so I was keeping them for now.

“Oh, a black serpent, giant dodo, and cockatrices, huh? Of course that’s fine.”

“I’d like the meat back, and to sell everything else.”

“Yeah, got it. To butcher the cyclops and all this...... Can you come back around this time tomorrow?”

“Okay.”

“Well then, would it be fine if I handed over the request reward and the money for the cyclops materials tomorrow, too?”

“Yes, that’ll be fine.”

Now that that was all wrapped up, we left the Adventurer’s guild.

And we’ll go sightseeing after visiting the Adventurer’s guild tomorrow. It’s called the town of pottery, so I might want to buy some tableware if I find something good, too.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

“How about here? There is nobody around, so it seems perfect.”

“Yeah, you’re right. This place looks fine.”

After leaving the Adventurer’s guild, we also left the town itself in order to test out Sui’s new skill, “Giganticize,” which we confirmed yesterday. I had Fel bring us somewhere spacious and empty. Fel brought us to a grass field a little ways away from Nijhoff.

“Sui, can you come out for a bit?”

When I asked that, Sui came bouncing out of the bag. 《Master — what is it?》

“Remember how yesterday, we found out that you got a new skill?”

《Yeah. The one that makes Sui super big.》

“Right, right. That skill that makes you super big? I was thinking I wanted to see how big you can get, Sui. Can you try using it right now?”

《Yeah, that’s fine. Then everyone should get a little bit away from Sui, okay?》

《Hey hey, get away? Just how big are you becoming?》

“We’re gonna find that out right now, Dora-chan. Let’s do as Sui said and make some space.”

The three of us did as Sui asked and left.

《Okay then, let’s go—.》 With Sui’s voice as a trigger, Sui got bigger and bigger.

And we watched, dumbfounded. It truly was a skill to “Giganticize.” There sat an absolutely ginormous slime, about five meters tall and ten meters across.

《Maaasterrr — Sui caaann beeecome thiiis biiiiiig.》 It must have been because of his skill, but Sui’s telepathic messages sounded a lot lower and bassier.

《S-So big......》 Dora-chan was a little scared at Sui’s excessive hugeness.

“This is a huge slime? This is larger than the huge slimes I have met before,” Fel said.

I guess this would be enough to surprise even Fel, huh?

“To be so big it even surprises Fel... Is it because Sui’s special?”

“That is probably the case. I cannot think of any other reason.”

“So Sui really is a special slime...”

《Suuuiii iiis speeeciaaal? Yaaaaaaaaay!》

*THUD* *THUD* *THUD* *THUD*

Sui, happy, started bouncing around — still in gigantic form.

“Ahh! Sui! Calm down! Go back to your normal size!”

《Okaaaaaaaaay.》

I had no idea how it worked, but as soon as I said it was okay to go back, Sui smoothly started to shrink until it was back to its original size.

《How was it? Sui got super big, right?》

“Yeah, Sui was really big.”

《Eheheh. You know, Sui can become any size up to that one. Isn’t Sui amazing?》

Hm? So Sui can become any size it wants up to that size? That is pretty amazing.

《But, Sui likes being the size that can go inside this,》 Sui said, using a tentacle to poke at its favorite bag.

“I like that size, too. You’ve been that size ever since I met you, so it just feels like you, Sui.”

《Eheheh, Master feels the same as Sui—. Sui likes this size the best, so Sui will stay like this.》

“That’d be nice. But get bigger if I ask you to, okay?”

《Got it!》

Ah...... Looking over at where Sui giganticized, the grass was crushed completely flat.

Well, Sui made the perfect space, so let’s just eat here.

“Hey, it’s about time, so why don’t we just eat here?”

《Oh, that’s a great idea. The weather’s nice too, so eating here’ll feel awesome.》 Dora-chan seemed fully intent on the idea, as he flew circles around us.

“Indeed. It is a good idea.”

《Food~.》

“Then I’ll start cooking, so wait just a bit.” I was a bit lost as to what to make, but just as Dora-chan said, the weather was great, so it would have to be this for such good weather. I took out the barbecue grill I had order-made.

The weather is great, so let’s have a barbecue in a field. I was planning on grilling some more of the sausages I’d made before, as well as some bloody horn-bull and wyvern meat. Also, some vegetables for me as well. Having just meat really would get old, I figured, so I’d want to eat something refreshing to the palate. It’d be better to marinate the meat, but making the sauce and marinating it here would take time...... Ah! But I can just use that sauce and marinate it now.

I opened my Online Supermarket and started buying ingredients.

First I need the charcoal right? And also shiitake mushrooms and peppers for vegetables. Asparagus seems delicious, too, oh and corn seems like a good idea. After that... Oh that, that. That tare...... Ah, there it is. It’s a certain tare that’s a little more expensive than other yakiniku tares, and comes in a paper pack. For this one, it’s written on the package that it can be used to make a marinating tare, and I had tried it before to good results. This time, that’s what I’ll be using.

Okay, then first is the preparation.

~◇~◇~◇~

Put the bloody horn-bull and wyvern meat in the store-bought tare to marinate... there. The shiitake’s fine after I just cut off the feet, right?

Use a peeler to take off the hard skin on its bottom. The peppers and corn will be grilled as is, so I leave them alone.

Dump the charcoal into the appropriate drawer in the order-made barbecue grill and light the fire, and put the sausages and vegetables on the grill first.

Spread olive oil on the peppers and asparagus. After that, I grill the meat for the main dish on its sides.

Yeah, the meat’s done.

~◇~◇~◇~

“Heeyyy, it’s done!” Piling up an extra-large serving on their plates, I served out meat to everyone. Everyone started eating with gusto. I knew they’d probably ask for more, so I started grilling more meat right away.

Oh, the vegetables are done. The corn would still take a bit more time, so I left it on the grill. I ate the vegetables after seasoning them with only salt and pepper.

“Ohh! The peppers are sweet and delicious. There’s some sweetness when you bite into the whole asparagus too, that’s great. Eating shiitake mushrooms whole too is so good!”

“More.” 《More—!》 《More.》

Fine, fine. I added more grilled meat to everyone’s dishes.

As everyone was enjoying the barbecue...... “Hm? Someone’s coming.” I saw a person’s form from far away.

“Do not mind them. It is just some brats.”

Of course Fel noticed, I guess. But, if he isn’t that concerned I guess that just means it isn’t worth worrying about. Wait, brats? Does that mean children?

While I was being confused, “the brats,” according to Fel, showed themselves. Rather, it was a group of five young boys and girls in their mid-teens that seemed like new adventurers, wearing things like leather armor and robes.

“Sorry. Can we rest here a little?” asked the boy that seemed to be the leader of the group. The five of them didn’t just lack the liveliness of their youth, they were obviously tired to the bone.

“I’m Mukohda, and I’m also an adventurer, at least in name. You guys are adventurers, right? What happened?”

When I reflexively popped that question to the extremely tired boys and girls, the leader started talking. “Just as you say, Mukohda, we’re adventurers. Well I say that, but it’s still only been half a year, and we just got promoted to F-rank, though......”

Apparently, they were childhood friends that lived in Nijhoff who started an adventuring party with each other, named, “Stormbringer.” Everyone was 15, and the leader was a swordsman named Anton. There was another swordsman named Philip, an archer named Brigitta, a mage named Paul, and another mage named Livia. All of them finally had reached F-rank recently, and became able to take requests to hunt down monsters. That was when everyone decided to accept the F-ranked request of taking down a brown boar.

One day’s walk from Nijhoff, in a small village named Régnier, a brown boar had recently appeared, messing up their crops, so they were tasked with defeating it.

“We thought with five of us, we could defeat a brown boar......”

The brown boar was a boar type monster about a meter in size, which was about half the size of a red boar, another monster of the same type. I’d seen one before — though I only caught a glance — and it seemed that capturing one wasn’t too hard, as its meat was sold commonly in towns. According to Fel, it wasn’t really that delicious though, so it never appeared in our meals. So they accepted the request and traveled to Régnier, but it seemed that it wasn’t only a brown boar that appeared.

“We heard it was a brown boar, but a red boar came out.” The brown boar appeared, and they did well and defeated it, but right after that, a red boar appeared as well. They hadn’t heard about the red boar, and at their rank, with five of them, they would just barely be able to maybe beat it, so they all fell into a panic. They somehow managed to gather together and fight, but they were F-ranked. It seemed like it got pretty bad.

“It was really dangerous. At that time, if it wasn’t for Paul’s cleverness, one of us would definitely have been really injured.”

Apparently Paul, the mage, used his brains to use the Earth magic, Pitfall (well, simply described, it was a big hole trap), and dropped the red boar down it to get them out of danger. After that, they surrounded the red boar and beat on it until it died.

“Our teacher and the older adventurers all told us over and over, ‘Unexpected things happen during requests. Remember that.’ But when it came down to it......”

Everyone nodded in response to Anton.

“It was our first request outside of town, so we were all a little too excited, too. Even though we should have been even more careful because it was our first.” Brigitta was the one who offered those words of reflection.

I see — so they ran across an unexpected enemy, and that was the cause of their exhaustion in both mind and body, huh? Even though we’re all adventurers, my familiars’ presence was a huge factor. That’s why I figured I shouldn’t say anything, and didn’t.

But...... “Hey, is everyone hungry?”

As soon as I asked them that, all five of their stomachs rumbled loudly.

I took some plates out of my Item Box, and served them some grilled meat, sausage, and vegetables. “Here, eat this and cheer up.” That was about all I could do for them.

At first, they all hesitated, but I told them not to hold back, and everyone started eating furiously.

“T-Tasty!!”

“Delicious!!”

“Really, this is great!”

“It’s delicious!!”

“So gooood!”

Yep, they’re in their prime alright. Right from the word “go,”, they laid their hands on the meat and chowed down; just like for us, the meat was clearly the best ingredient. I poured some water into cups for them since their mouths were full of meat.

“I still have more, so calm down.”

“Hey, we are still eating, too.”

《Me too, give me one with all the meat packed in it.》

《Sui too—.》

My familiars must have wanted to get some too after seeing the other adventurers chow down, as all of them started demanding more.

“Fine, fine.” I served up some more grilled meat and sausages for them.

“Are those monsters your familiars, Mukohda?” Livia asked, her eyes sparkling with interest.

“Yeah, they are. This big one here is Fel, and the small dragon is Dora-chan, and this slime here is named Sui.” I introduced my three familiars.

“Ohh! It really is a dragon! Is it a child?” It seemed that Philip, who looked a little like a muscle brain, had an interest in dragons.

“No, Dora-chan’s an adult, even if he looks like this. He’s a rare type called a pixie dragon.”

“Hmm~, it’s my first time hearing of pixie dragons. But dragons really are dragons, huh? Nice! I’ve seen my first dragon!” Philip was happy, exclaiming this momentous occasion.

“Familiars... an adventurer with familiars............ Ah! Could it be, you’re......”

“What, Paul?”

“No, I just heard a rumor before at the Adventurer’s guild. That an A-ranked adventurer with familiars was coming to Nijhoff......”

““““A-ranked?!!”””” The four of them, other than Paul, all exclaimed in unison, their eyes glued on me.

No, I mean, I am A-ranked, yeah...... But it’s basically all thanks to my familiars, though.

After that, they hammered me with questions as they ate. Personally, I didn’t become an A-ranked adventurer on my own merits, so I just dodged all of those questions as they came, though. But I did feel a little guilty. Everyone was looking at me with admiring eyes, after all. With all that happening, everyone eventually got full and that was the end of mealtime.

“Ah, right. What are you all doing after this?”

They responded by saying that they were planning on walking back to Nijhoff, now that they had refreshed themselves.

“You gave us some really good food, Mukohda, so we’re gonna eke out a last spurt of energy.”

“Yeah, we were really tired until just now, but with all the good food we just ate, we’re back to 100%.”

“He’s right. If we try, we can make it back before sundown, too.”

“Yeah. Even if we don’t, we can just camp out in front of the gates and get in tomorrow morning.”

“Indeed. We can probably make it all the way there, after all.”

Hmmmm, walking really would take that long, huh? And it really would be impossible to have everyone ride Fel...... Ah!

“Sui, can you get big enough to let these five ride you and move?”

《Yeah, it’s fine. But Sui can’t move as fast as Uncle Fel, though.》

“I see, I see. Then, can you give them a ride?”

《Okay. Then, Sui will get bigger.》 As soon as Sui said that, it got as big as a wagon.

“Woah! The slime got bigger!” The five of them were surprised that Sui grew suddenly.

“Okay then, you guys get on Sui.”

“““““What?”””””

“I mean, you’re all so tired, won’t it be tough walking back? We’re going back to Nijhoff too, so let’s just go together. Now, now, just get on.”

When I said that, they all hesitantly got onto Sui.

“Make sure you don’t fall off.” I was, of course, on Fel’s back. “Well then, let’s go back.”

With those words as a trigger, we set off towards Nijhoff.

Sui, with the five adventurers on top, was fast. Of course, it couldn’t bring out as much speed as Fel could, but Sui went twice as fast as any carriage. The five adventurers riding on top of Sui were making a huge fuss of it.

“Heeeey, I can see the town!” The other members of the party reacted to that with surprise, saying, ““““What, already?!””””

Thanks to Sui, we all got back to town while it was still light out. Since we came riding up to the gates with Sui still huge, the gate guards were all a little frightened. But, I was still A-ranked and they remembered me, so we got in without trouble. Of course, I had the five of them get off Sui before entering, and had Sui return to its normal size.

“Okay then, Mukohda, is it fine to meet up in front of the Adventurer’s guild tomorrow around noon?” Anton asked.

“Yeah, can you do that? Sorry, though, for having you all show me around on your precious day off.”

We talked a lot, and ended up making plans for the five of them to show me around town tomorrow.

“My family’d be happy if I brought customers, anyway.”

“My family, too. They’d be a bit surprised that I brought a huge earner like an A-ranker, too.”

It seemed that Anton and Brigitta’s families owned workshops, and they planned to introduce me. I wanted to buy a bunch of dinnerware anyway, so I would take my sweet time looking around.

“Well then, see you tomorrow.” With those words, I split up with the five of them.

Tomorrow, after I get my money from the Adventurer’s guild, I’ll have the five of them show me around.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

As soon as I entered the Adventurer’s guild, the employees probably contacted the guildmaster, as I didn’t even have to go to the receptionist; Jöran came over immediately.

“Ohh, I’ve been waiting. Well then, there’s the matter of your meat, so let’s go to the storehouse, eh?” I followed Jöran over to the storehouse. There, Horace was waiting.

“Okey-dokey then, why don’t I start explaining the particulars of this transaction? But, before that, I guess I should hand over your share of the meat. Horace, is it ready?”

“Yes, of course. Uhmm, here’s the meat for the black serpent and giant dodo, as well as the two cockatrices.”

I took the meat Horace handed over as he said that and stored it in my Item Box. I was out of poultry; this refilled my stores a bit, and it would also be the first black serpent meat in a while, so I was feeling pretty good.

“So I’ll start explaining the particulars of this sale. First is the cyclops; the hide comes out to 180 gold. Since there really was so little damage to the hide, making the condition really good, I marked it up a little for you. Then, the eyeball is 58 gold. There was some real slight damage on it, so sorry, but I had to lower the price for that.”

They did mention the eye already yesterday. There was nothing to be done. Well, it’s not like I needed the money. Also, even lowered, I was still getting 58 gold, which was more than enough.

“Then there’s the magic stone. This one will be 215 gold.”

Ohh—, that’s A-rank for you. Just one is 215 gold, huh?

“And then the reward for defeating the cyclops is 350 gold.”

Ohhh, the materials from the cyclops and the reward for killing it combined is quite the sum, huh? I’ve got plans to get shown around town after this, and I plan to buy a lot of dinnerware at that time too, so this’ll turn into some “war funds.”

“And as for what you brought in, all of the black serpent’s parts combined, with the hide and poison sac and magic stone, amounts to 80 gold. Then, the giant dodo: this one didn’t have a magic stone, so it’s just 12 gold. And taking the meat from cockatrices leaves only their feathers, which will turn into 4 silver for you.”

I really just wanted the meat, but it turned into quite a lot of money here too, huh?

“All in all, that’s 895 gold and 4 silver. Would it be alright to pay in large gold coins this time, too?”

“Yes, please.” 895 gold and 4 silver, huh? That’s a lot of money.

“Alrighty then, this is your 89 large gold coins, 5 gold coins, and 4 silver coins. Please make sure it’s correct.”

“Uhh... 1, 2, 3...... Yes, it’s correct.”

“The requests had been sitting around for a while, but you cleared them up very fast. That really takes a load off these old bones. Thank you, truly, Mukohda.”

“No no, I already promised I would, after all. Also, everyone enjoys these requests, too,” I said, looking at Fel and the others.

“Ho! Ho! Ho! I see, I see. You’re a rising star of an adventurer after all, Mukohda. Do your best from now on too, eh?”

Even if you call me a rising star...... all those expectations are heavy. And it’s pretty much all thanks to my familiars, too.

“Okay then, I’ll take my leave.” After exchanging pleasantries, we left the Adventurer’s guild.

After leaving the guild building, the five young adventurers were already waiting.

“Yo, you’re all early.”

“Yeah, we did gather a little early.”

“Well then, let’s get going, shall we?”

“Yeah. Then first up, this way.” Everyone started walking towards the direction Anton pointed.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

The first place I was shown to was a store that dealt in all sorts of ceramics, named Iida Trading Company.

“In terms of good taste and stocked wares, this store is the best even in Nijhoff.” All five of them agreed as they introduced the store. According to them, this store could get anything made anywhere in Nijhoff, or something.

“Mukohda, the Iida company is over there.” The place Anton pointed to as he said that was a store just as big as everyone claimed it to be. As I entered, an employee quickly approached.

“Welcome...... Huh? Aren’t you... the owner of the Sevalier Workshop’s fourth son......?”

“Yes, I’m Anton. It’s been a while, Mr. Iida.”

“Ohh, I see, I see. So your name’s Anton.”

“We’re showing our senior adventurer, Mukohda here, around town, so we stopped by.”

Judging from what was being said, this person seemed to be the owner of the company. And Anton’s a fourth son. This world gives favor to the firstborn son, so there’s no way a fourth son would be able to inherit the house. That’s harsh... Well, that was probably one of the reasons why he became an adventurer, though.

“Mukohda, this is the master of this company, Mr. Iida.”

“Mr. Iida, this is the A-ranked adventurer, Mukohda.” Anton took the part of the middleman and introduced us.

“Ho~h, an A-ranked adventurer, huh? I see, I see.”

I don’t know what he means by that, but I feel like I’m now locked in his sights......

“I-I’m Mukohda. Pleased to meet you.”

“What kind of ceramics are you looking for today?” Iida’s rubbing his hands together... he’s totally planning to get me to buy something. Well, I already plan to buy stuff anyway, so whatever, I guess.

“I haven’t really decided, but I basically want to see what you have and buy what I like. Ah, they’re planning to show me around to Anton and Brigitta’s families’ workshops later, too, so I’d like it if you showed me what you have from places other than those.”

When I said that, Iida only then noticed Brigitta it seemed, nodding while saying, “So the daughter of the Dovan workshop is here too. Okay then, I will show you what we have that’s produced by places other than the Sevalier and Dovan workshops. This way, please.” Led by Iida, we were shown a lot of different earthenware. It was worthy of their recommendations, as the selection made my head spin.

“Oh man, what a selection.”

“Thank you very much. I like earthenware myself, you see. So I just started stocking them and before I knew it, the store became like this.” The Iida company’s store was truly rife with choice, and they had both the rustic styles of a certain type of Japanese pottery, as well as delicate white ceramics and porcelain, like from Europe. The art and colors on them were varied as well, and I felt like I’d never get tired of looking. According to him, each workshop took in magic and combined it with their own work to come up with their own unique production method. That was why each workshop’s products were so different.

“Oh......” While he was showing me his wares, my eyes glued onto some particularly large, deep dishes. These ones might be good as dishes for Fel and the others. The ones I was using right now were either wooden, or cheap stuff I bought before from a general store. Even setting Sui aside, both Fel and Dora-chan stick their faces in with such force to eat furiously that the dishes have started to show their age and lose stability.

It looked like they were all used to it already, but I do think that getting a more solid dish would be a good idea. The one in front of me right now was that certain Japanese-styled pottery, and it had a certain thickness and weight to it, as well, which was nice. Also, I liked the color. It wasn’t flashy, but a calm color that had a sort of taste to it.

Hmmm, I like it. Let’s buy it.

I was about to ask Fel and the others what color they wanted, but since the store was filled with fragile things and given the size of the passageways, Fel and Dora-chan were waiting outside. And Sui was sleeping inside my bag, too.

Geez, I guess I’ll just decide myself. Getting a different color for each of them would make it easier to differentiate; seems like a good idea. What should I get...... Oh, this calm blue color is nice. Also, I like this dark blue, azure, and faint purple too.

“Do you like it?”

“Yes. I do think these dishes are good......”

“Your eyes really are sharp. Those are from the Firmino workshop. They’ve been recently rising rapidly in popularity.”

I see, I see; “rising rapidly,” huh? “How much is it for one of these?”

“These plates are big, so 18 gold.”

18 gold, huh? That’s pretty expensive. But, they’d be expensive in Japan too if they were from someplace famous. And at any rate, I like the plate already... Yeah, let’s buy it.

“Well then, give me this and this and this.”

“Thank you very much.”

“Uhm, will you show me a bit more?”

“Yes, of course.”

After that, I had him show me more and more wares, and I ended up with a mug for me, a five-piece tumbler set, and another five-piece set of cups and saucers. The mug and tumbler set were Japanese-styled, and the cups and saucers were European porcelain-styled. I liked the mug because it was brown and had a rustic feel, and I liked the tumbler set because it was grey, like they didn’t bother to paint it and just baked it like that. The cups and saucers had that striking bone-white base color with a pattern of blue flowers painted over it, and seemed very fancy, so I thought they’d be good for when I have slightly higher quality tea or coffee.

Altogether, the price came out to 73 gold and 8 silver, but since I bought quite a lot, Iida took off the 8 silver. Iida saw us off with a happily-smiling face, saying, “We look forward to seeing you again.”

The five young adventurers’ admiring looks made me feel itchy, along with their statements of things like, “A-ranks really do earn way more,” or “A-ranks really are rich.”

“Now then, you’re taking me to Anton’s family’s workshop next, right?”

“Yes, it’s this way.” We headed towards Anton’s family’s workshop, the Sevalier Workshop.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

“It’s here.” Sevalier Workshop, owned by Anton’s family, was about a thirty minute walk away from the center of Nijhoff. It seemed that the front of the place was a store, whereas the back of the site was split into several buildings for things like the workshop.

“Come in.”

Everyone entered the storefront. Fel and Dora-chan were waiting outside once again.

“Ah, young master, what happened?” An employee greeted us as soon as we came into the store.

“Olof? No, I just came because I was showing my senior, Mukohda here, around. Can you call my old man?”

“Yes, please wait a minute.”

“Mukohda, I’ll go get my dad, so please wait a little.”

No, he’s probably busy, so you don’t have to bother him over just this, though...

After a while, the employee Olof came back, bringing along a well-built man that looked to be around fifty. “Yo! Anton. So you brought over some senior adventurer?”

“Ah, dad. This is the A-ranked adventurer, Mukohda.”

“A-rank?!! Why do you know someone that high-ranked?!” Anton’s dad was surprised, hearing that I was A-ranked. But, sorry, I’m A-ranked only in name, not in power.

“Man, a lot of stuff happened, and I met him yesterday. So right now we’re showing him around. I told him that we have a workshop, and he said that he wanted to see it, so here we are. After this, we’re swinging by Brigitta’s place too.”

“Hohh, is that so?”

“I’m Mukohda. I met Anton and the others here, and since this is their hometown, I asked to be shown around. Sorry for barging in so suddenly.”

“No no, don’t hold back here, look around as much as you like. You know I can’t show you the workshop, but this shop is owned by us, so it’s got products that haven’t made it to other stores yet.”

It seemed that the workshop had trade secrets. Or, rather every workshop had its own secret and unique techniques, so their inner workings were closed off to everyone but those who worked there. Oh yeah, didn’t Iida say that each workshop took in magic and combined it with their own work to come up with their own unique production method? If that’s the case, it’s true that they can’t just show their stuff so easily. It seems that this place has new products since they own the store, so let’s have them show me already.

Anton’s family, or the Sevalier Workshop, made Japanese-style pottery, and they had many pieces with quiet, sober coloring. It fit my tastes perfectly. The father followed along with me, and explained various things. Among the things I saw, what I especially liked was a newly made indigo colored cup.

“It was really hard to bring out this color. Also, this one is special. I mixed together and used several different magic stones in the glaze. So if you pour something into it, it’s made to cool the liquid inside.”

Wow, a self-cooling cup, huh? With both the shape and the color, this thing was basically made for me. Beer’ll probably taste great if I drink it out of this... I want it... “How much is this?”

“This? ......Hm, about 28 gold, I’d say.”

At first, I was startled hearing that just one cup was 28 gold. But when I thought about it, he used several magic stones to make this, so the price made sense. Actually, with the magic stones in mind, he might be losing out on this deal. Let’s keep an eye on this while looking at other stuff.

After looking around at lots of stuff, I ended up liking a five-piece set of pale beige large-ish plates made by the father’s apprentice, and another five-piece set of bowls made by the same apprentice that were colored a deep green as though it was growing moss, which were the perfect size for rice bowls.

Apparently this workshop was famous in Nijhoff, and while I was looking around, merchants from other towns also came in to stock up on items. I only listened in on their conversations in passing, but it seemed that there was a noble that loved the ceramics made here in this workshop.

Yeah, yeah. Anton’s dad has good taste, doesn’t he?

After waffling about for a while, I decided to buy the cup I was interested in, as well as both five-piece sets made by the apprentice. The father’s cup was 28 gold, and the apprentice’s plate set went for 15 gold while his bowl set would sell for 20, so all in all, it would have been 63 gold, but he brought it down to 60 gold for us.

“Uhmm, sorry.”

“No no, an A-ranked adventurer will be using our stuff, so I should be thanking you. Keep using our stuff, you hear?”

“Yes, I’ll be very careful with this.” I made a pretty good purchase.

“Hey, Anton, you lead him around properly, got it?”

“I know.”

Leaving Anton’s home, the Sevalier Workshop, we all headed for Brigitta’s, the Dovan workshop.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

Brigitta’s home, the Dovan workshop, was about fifteen minutes walk from the Sevalier Workshop.

“Mother, I’m home.”

“Oh my, it’s you, Brigitta. What happened?”

Dovan workshop was built the same as the Sevalier Workshop, with the store in front, and the grounds in the back with the workshop and other buildings. Brigitta’s mother was minding the store, it seemed.

“You see, we’re showing Mukohda around town He’s an adventurer we met recently. When I mentioned that my family ran a workshop, he wanted to see it, so I brought him here. By the way, Mukohda is an A-ranked adventurer.”

“A-RANK?!! Oh dear, oh my... I’ll go get your dad, so please wait here.” With those words, Brigitta’s mother left for the workshop. While we were waiting, we heard a voice yell, “Dear! It’s an emergency!! There’s an A-rank! An A-rank!! There’s an A-rank adventurer in the store!!”

Hearing that, Brigitta covered her face and whispered with embarrassment, “Mother......”

Seeing family like that really is embarrassing, right? Let’s not touch this.

After we waited a while in the store, Brigitta’s mother came back with her husband in tow.

“Dear, this is the A-ranked adventurer, Mukohda. Make sure not to be rude.”

“I know. I am Brigitta’s father, Dovan. Thanks for looking after my daughter.”

“I’m Mukohda. Sorry for barging in so suddenly.”

“No, no, if you’re fine with our wares, then please feel free to look around.”

“I’ll be explaining them to you, so father and mother needn’t bother,” Brigitta said, but it seemed that both of them were curious as to what I would buy, so they didn’t leave.

“Geez, the both of you...... Sorry, Mukohda.”

“No, no. It’s fine.”

Having them show me around the store, I found that this workshop made European-styled porcelain with a white base-color. A lot of their products had a floral pattern on them and gave off a high-class feel.

“We’ve only started this workshop since my father’s generation, so our workshop isn’t large, and unlike Anton’s Sevalier Workshop, we’re not famous either, but since we started, we have had a lot of loyal customers.”

Hmm~, is that so? These feel high-class, after all, and the floral patterns seem like they’d appeal to women.

“Oh, this is nice.” What caught my eye was a five-piece set of tall mugs with handles. These would not only suit hot drinks, but it wouldn’t be strange to serve something cold in them, either. The flower pattern wasn’t too ostentatious, and I liked that it was only on the upper parts.

“For those, the whole five-piece set is 4 gold.” I heard a voice coming from behind me.

“Father......”

It was Brigitta’s father, who stayed here instead of going back to the workshop.

“I-It’s fine to let it go for that price, isn’t it? The A-ranked adventurer is picking my work, you know?”

Even while looking upon that exchange happily, I thought, CHEAP! It seemed that Brigitta wasn’t lying when she said this place wasn’t famous. But, these are pretty, and they’re all good. It seems kinda cheap, so it might be nice to buy a lot. Let’s look around some more.

While I was looking around, Brigitta’s father had at some point come in and started explaining instead of her. Brigitta, seemingly resigned, looked on at her father.

In the end, after looking around I decided to buy the five-piece set of mugs I first saw, a five-piece small plate set that was perfect for cake slices, a five-piece large plate set, a five-piece soup saucer set, and lastly a five-piece soup bowl set and five-piece teacup and saucer set. Each one was charming, with a porcelain-white base and striking floral patterns. Especially the teacup and saucer set; the pattern was much more modest, but the flowers were all the more vivid, and I thought it was so pretty that I bought it without thinking. According to Brigitta’s father, that one was their best work recently.

The mug set was 4 gold, the small plate set 3 gold and 5 silver, the large plate set 6 gold, the soup saucer set 6 gold, the soup bowl set 6 gold, and the teacup and saucer set was 10 gold. In total, the price for what I bought was 35 gold and 5 silver, but they evened it out to 35 gold for me.

“You bought so much; thank you.”

“No no, thank you for showing me so much. Everything here was a real treat to behold.”

It’s great that I was able to buy so many plates and other wares. Still, well done, town of pottery. I managed to look at a lot of nice works, it was a sight for sore eyes. Buying stuff like this is nice once in a while.

Being seen off by Brigitta’s parents, we left the Dovan workshop. We ate up quite a lot of time shopping, didn’t we?

《Hey, I am getting hungry.》

《Me too.》

《Sui too—.》

While we were returning to town, all three of my familiars told me that with telepathy.

Hmmm, we had breakfast a little late, but given the time, it really would be pushing things, wouldn’t it? 《We’ll eat as soon as we get home, so bear with it for just a bit.》

《《《Okay.》》》

I see, if that’s the case maybe I should invite those five, since I’ve been bothering them on their day off...

“Hey, as thanks for today, do you want to come eat at my house?”

“Are you sure?” Right after Anton said that, he turned around to talk with the rest of them.

“““““It’ll be our pleasure!””””” All five of them replied, smiling.

Everyone had high expectations due to the barbecue yesterday. What a heavy responsibility. And I can’t take too long with the cooking since I can’t keep them waiting forever...... I’ll have to think of this on the way home.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

After entering the house, I showed the five of them into the living room. “W-What an amazing house......” said Philip.

“I’m only renting it, though. And only while I’m staying in town.” In response all of them said at once, “A-ranks are amazing.”

I don’t know about other A-ranks, but this is only because I’m having Fel and the others earn money for me.

“Okay then, I’ll get to cooking, so just wait while you drink this.” I let them into the living room, served them some drinks, and had them wait a while. I already got some use out of the mugs I’d bought from Brigitta’s place, the Dovan workshop. I served them orange juice, and they were gulping it down while exclaiming about its sweetness.

I gave Fel and the others fruit milk in the usual deep dishes. I was planning to use the deep dishes I bought from Iida for the meal I was just about to make.

I’ll have to hurry up with the cooking. Returning to the kitchen, I hurried to prepare the meal.

After a lot of thought, I decided on honey mustard sandwiches using cockatrice meat. It didn’t seem like those five got out of town much, if at all, so I wasn’t sure about serving them rice all of a sudden, which I doubted they had eaten before. That’s why I went with bread. And I just got some cockatrice meat in, too. It seems that the five of them liked sweeter flavors, too, so let’s make it a little fancy, like a meal in a cafe. Also, this is pretty simple.

First, I need the ingredients. I opened up my Online Supermarket and bought what I needed. I have soy sauce and bottled lemon juice already, so I need mustard powder and honey, right? Oh and also lettuce and white bread. Good, let’s start.

~◇~◇~◇~

After piercing holes through the cockatrice’s skin, season it with salt and pepper.

Then, start making the honey mustard sauce. Mix the powdered mustard, soy sauce, honey, and lemon juice all together.

Next, oil up a heated frying pan and start cooking the cockatrice meat starting from the skin side. Once the skin turns a light brown and is thoroughly cooked, flip it over and start cooking the other side. The fat will render out during cooking, so it’s possible to make it less greasy by soaking the fat up with kitchen paper as it comes out.

Once the meat is fully cooked, soak it in the honey mustard sauce and allow it to simmer a bit and mix with the flavor to finish it. Once the honey mustard flavor is soaked in, watch out for any jumping mustard powder.

Letting the finished honey mustard sautéed chicken cool for a while, lightly toast the bread in the oven for a bit, and wash some lettuce before tearing the leaves by hand into appropriate sizes. Layer the lettuce on the toasted bread, and put the honey mustard sautéed chicken on top of that before sandwiching it with another piece of toasted bread. Cut the sandwich in half to complete the dish.

~◇~◇~◇~

For Fel and the other’s portions, I lined them up on their new dishes (they’re deep, but it shouldn’t be a problem). Anton and the other’s portions would be served on plates bought from Anton’s family’s Sevalier Workshop. Of course, I made an extra-large portion for Fel and the others.

After that, I poured some orange juice into a glass pitcher. Thankfully, this house had utensils and other dinnerware in it. Among those was an actual glass pitcher, so I decided to make use of it. It seems a bit expensive, so I’ll have to be careful when I use it, won’t I? There was also a trolley, so I went ahead and used it to help bring the honey mustard sandwiches out into the living room.

“Sorry for keeping you waiting.” I handed out the food to everybody. Fel and the others must have been really hungry, because they started eating vigorously.

Or rather... Aahh, Fel just ate an entire half in a single bite. He’s gonna ask for more right away, isn’t he?

“Ah, does anyone want something to drink?”

“““““Please!”””””

Looks like they really took to the orange juice, huh? I poured more orange juice into all five of their mugs.

“S-So good!!” The first one who bit into the cockatrice honey mustard sandwiches and said that was Philip. “Yesterday was good too, but this one is delicious,” he said, while vacuuming down the food.

“He’s right. This is good! It’s a little sweet, and that’s the best!” Anton was wolfing down his food with just as much gusto.

“Yeah, it’s delicious. It’s a little sweet, but it’s not just sweet. It’s the first time I’ve had something that tasted like this, and I think it’s great.” Brigitta was the one who said that, eating one bite after another in quick succession.

“Even though it has so many flavors, like sweetness and spiciness and saltiness, it all comes together great. Yeah, this is amazingly good.” Paul, the one who seemed to be the calmest among the five of them, was the one who said that while nodding and eating.

“This is super delicious! Mmmph...... More!!” Livia, more already? You’re fast.

《《《More.》》》

The order for more came from my three familiars too.

“Then please wait a moment.” I cheerfully went back to the kitchen, and made more.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

“Whooh~, I sure ate.”

“That was amazing.”

“Yeah, it was great.”

“Mmhmm, it was delicious.”

“I’m soooo full.”

With dinner done, I was relaxing in the living room with the five of them, me with iced coffee and they with orange juice in hand. It seemed like they were all satisfied with the meal.

Fel and the others were apparently the same, too. Fel was just plopped down on his side, and Dora-chan was sleeping, reclining onto Fel. Sui was also sleeping, stuck to Fel’s side.

I ate, but it ended up having to be while cooking for everyone else. Well, I’m the one that invited them, and I was happy that they said it was delicious, so I was fine with it.

“Are you guys going to take another request tomorrow?”

“Yes, that’s the plan. I talked it over with everyone, and this time, we’re just going to take to heart that unexpected things can happen during missions.” Anton was the one who answered.

Even though all that happened just yesterday, they’re already planning to take another request tomorrow, huh? F-rank adventurers sure work hard.

“For people like us, if we don’t steadily take requests, we won’t rank up at all,” Philip complained.

“Yes. We have to start building up our achievements, starting with what little we can manage. I want to become D-ranked quickly, after all,” Brigitte said.

Was there something that happened at D-rank?

“Yeah. We want to get to D-rank quickly so we can go into dungeons, right?”

Hm? D-rank for dungeons? Is there some sort of connection between being D-ranked and dungeons, Paul?

“Yeah, right~? I want to get into a dungeon already.” Even Livia was saying that.

What does D-rank have to do with dungeons?

“Uh, um... Does becoming D-ranked have something to do with dungeons?”

When I asked that, all five of them looked at me like they were asking, “What are you talking about?”

“What? You don’t know? The Adventurer’s guild recommends only D-ranks and above go into dungeons,” said Anton.

What? Really? I had no idea. Oh yeah, I was already C-ranked, kind of, by the time I got to Dolan. Nobody ever told me of something that basic, and I never bothered asking, huh?

According to Anton, it was merely a recommendation, so it wasn’t like those who weren’t D-ranked couldn’t enter.

“But, entering at a low rank will probably just lead to dying a useless death. We’re not that stupid, so we’ll properly follow the guild’s recommendation and wait until we’re D-ranked to enter. We’re going to take some training before entering as well.”

According to Anton, the Adventurer’s guild hosted a class aimed for adventurers who were about to enter the dungeon for the first time. This was the first time I’d heard of something like that, though.

Actually, could it be that Dolan had that too? If they did, I would totally have taken it... Elrand didn’t say even a single word about that, though... Dammit, that stupid, useless, dragon-crazed elf!

“Speaking of dungeons, I heard a rumor recently...... Ahh, I just remembered!! There’s supposed to be an A-ranked adventurer arriving in Nijhoff who cleared a dungeon!” Paul said while looking at my face, realization dawning.

Everyone who was listening to Paul immediately turned their gaze towards me.

“I-Is that true?” Anton hesitantly asked.

“Ehhh, well... uhh... Kind of...”

The five of them all started making an excited fuss when I said that. They showered me in praise, saying things like, “That’s awesome!” or “So cool!” Everyone’s eyes seemed like they were sparkling when they looked at me. I felt a little guilty, so I told them the truth.

“Nooo, I mean, it was all thanks to my familiars that we managed it. My familiars are really strong, so I just rely on them for my part.”

“Of course that’s the case, you’re a tamer! Since your familiars are so strong, that means you’re super skilled! And that means that as an adventurer, you’re super skilled too! Respect!” Anton exclaimed. All the others nodded in agreement.

H-Huh? R-Really?

Next, they attacked me with a barrage of questions:

“How was the inside of the dungeon?!”

“What kinds of enemies were there?!”

“What about the drops?!”

“And the traps?!”

“What was inside your treasure chests?!”

I answered their questions, telling them of my experience in the dungeon.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

“What? Woah, it’s already this late?” Time moves fast, and it was already dark. “How about staying over, everyone?”

“No, we need to be up early tomorrow, so we’ll go back home. Right, guys?”

“Anton’s right. Listening to you made me feel really motivated, Mukohda.”

“Me too, Philip. I really want to go into a dungeon already.”

“I agree with Philip. I also want to go to the dungeon already.”

“Paul, we need to get to D-rank first. Let’s all do our best!”

Livia was the last one to speak and brought everyone together, as they nodded in agreement. It seemed they were filled to bursting with motivation after hearing me talk about Dolan’s dungeon.

“I see. Then be careful on the way back, everyone.”

“Okay. Thanks for everything today, Mukohda.”

“No, I should be thanking you for showing me around.”

Just like that, the five of them left. It seemed like they were all angling to go into a dungeon, so they asked a lot of questions. They talked really passionately too, since dungeons were the source of getting rich quickly, the adventurer’s dream. Though I didn’t ask, they even told me about dungeons other than Dolan’s.

It was useless information to me — though, I did see Fel with his eyes barely open, listening in. He’ll probably make another fuss about dungeons. *Sigh*~...

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

I bought a bunch of stuff yesterday, so what should I do today? As I was pondering that in the time after we had eaten breakfast......

“Okay, we are going to a dungeon,” Fel said, standing upright.

“Wha-? What are you saying all of a sudden?” Just because you heard all that talk about dungeons yesterday, isn’t going right away too far?

“I heard that talk about dungeons yesterday. From what those whelps said, there is a dungeon about ten days’ walk from here, yes? That distance is nothing to me, so we can go immediately.”

No-no-no, don’t be like “we can go,” to me. It’s true that, from what Anton said, there’s a dungeon city named Aveling south of Nijhoff. But this and that are different. In the first place, the entire reason we’re heading for Berléand is because Fel said he wanted to go to the ocean.

“But if you want to go to a dungeon, what about the ocean? Didn’t you say that we needed to go there because krakens and sea serpents are delicious?”

“Yes, you are right. But given the choice between the ocean and a dungeon, I choose the dungeon.”

Whaaaat? What kind of nonsense are you spouting? Even though we went all this way just because you said you wanted to go to the ocean... And I had plans too, you know?

“No, no, that’s no good. You said ‘we’re going to the ocean,’ so we’re doing as planned and going to Berléand. I want to go to the ocean and get ingredients too, you know?”

I want to do a seafood barbecue!

“Mnrr... Seafood, huh......? Now that you mention it, that certainly would be hard to give up on...”

Right, right? Greedy eaters like you shouldn’t be saying no to good food. We need to taste our fill of the ocean’s bounty.

“Okay, then we will go to a dungeon after the ocean. Yes, that is what we will do.”

No, I already said we’re not doing that. I’m not going to some dungeon. If I say I won’t go, I won’t go. Definitely not... this time. Even though, when I said no to Dolan, we went in the end, anyway...

“Can’t you just give it a rest with the dungeons? We already went to the one in Dolan just a while ago — just let it be. We even went all the way and conquered it, too. That’s enough already.”

“What are you saying? Dungeons are best for raising levels, you know. And more than anything they are good exercise. It is two birds with one stone, no?”

“What two birds with one stone? And I’m still not going.”

“Hmph! I think you are the only one who would say that...... Hey, Dora, Sui, do you two want to go to a dungeon?”

What? You’re going to involve Dora-chan and Sui now? That’s not fair.

《Dungeon? Of course I want to go!》

《Sui also wants to go to a dungeon!》

“Yes. Right? Is that not the best? Heheh... Hey, Dora and Sui are both saying so.”

Kh...... What’s with that smug face? It’s cheating to involve Dora-chan and Sui.

“No way, I’m not going.”

《Whaaaat? Let’s go to a dungeon. Wasn’t the last dungeon super fun? I want to go again.》

Dora-chan, don’t say things like dungeons are fun. Adventurers risk their lives every day to go down there.

《Sui also wants to go to a dungeon again. And then beat lots of them like pew pew, you know?!》 Sui said while bouncing around.

Gnnrrr...... Fel... that bastard’s got Dora-chan and Sui completely on his side.

《Master —please. Sui wants to go to a dungeon again—.》

Sui...... And, I fall. Like, there’s no way I can say no if Sui asks like that...

“*Sigh*~... Fine. Let’s go.” I couldn’t win against Sui asking me.

“FUHAHAHAHAHA, I see I see.”

《Ohh! We can go to a dungeon?! Yesss!》

《Dungeon, dungeon, yaayyy!》 All three of them were celebrating loudly.

“Another human town with a dungeon, I am truly looking forward to it.”

《Yeah. What kind of monster will appear this time? Well, it won’t stand a chance against us, though! I’m so excited!》

《Sui is also excited~. Sui will go pew pew and beat sooooo many of them!》

Everyone’s already raring to go into a dungeon. But we won’t go right away.

“Ahhh, we’re not going right away, everyone. Just like we planned, we’re going to the seaside town of Berléand first after we’re done here. Then we can go.”

“Then let us go immediately,” Fel replied.

Of course I refused. “You know, I rented this house for a week. Leaving in the middle is just wasteful. We’re leaving the day after tomorrow.”

I already rented it for a week, so we’re going to use it for the full time, since you don’t get that many chances to live in a place like this. And I still want to enjoy the bath here.

Still, now my plans for today were decided. I was wondering about what I should do, but now that we’re definitely leaving the day after tomorrow, then I really would have to start concentrating on preparing food.

After all of that, I holed up in the kitchen and started cooking all the food we’d need for the trip. I spent the whole day cooking things like the usual fried stuff like karaage, pork, chicken and Hamburg cutlets, Hamburg steaks, stuff pickled in miso, vegetable stir fry, and minced meat with soy sauce, among other dishes.

While I was doing that, Fel and the others barged in saying they were hungry, but I managed to cook up all I’d need for the trip. However, my stock of meat lightened considerably. I only had about a fourth of the bloody horn-bull and wyvern meat I used to. It’d probably be more than enough to make it to Berléand, but at this rate I’d have to get lots of seafood and meat there.

Chapter 2: The Strategy to Destroy the Orc Settlement

We had come to the Adventurer’s guild in order to accept a quest. Just saying, but I wonder how long it’s been since we took a request that we chose, instead of something the guild handed us?

Today was supposed to be our last day in this town, and I had really just wanted to laze around the house, but Fel kept complaining that it was boring...... Dora-chan and Sui both said that they wanted to go outside, and that turned into talk that we might as well accept a quest then. I was an adventurer after all, at least formally.

That was why we were staring at the board, but...... there’s not really anything here...

Since I was technically A-ranked, the only requests I could take were A or S-ranked requests, but the requests posted on this board only extended up to B-rank in the first place. I guess that means I have to ask at the counter.

“Excuse me. I’d like to take a request.”

When I led with that and showed my guild card, the receptionist left her seat after saying, “Please wait.”

Oh, you’re calling Jöran over? I only came to take on a request, so it’s not like you have to......

After a while, Jöran came over. “Ohh, what good timing. Something slightly troubling just happened, and it’s been hard trying to gather good adventurers. I was starting to think that it would just be faster to ask you.”

According to Jöran, orcs had started to periodically show up around a village to the north of here and along the road as well, and since their numbers out in the wild were always assumed to be high, it was suspected that they may have established an orc settlement nearby. So Jöran put out a request to investigate the forest around the northern village and the road. The party that took on that request returned early this morning, and from their report, the existence of an orc settlement in the forest bordering the road and village came to light.

According to the report made by the investigating party, there were confirmed to be orc leaders and generals. They couldn’t verify the existence of an orc king, but from the size of the settlement, it should only be a matter of time until one appeared, if it hadn’t already. The settlement was close to the village and road too, so it needed to be taken care of as soon as possible, but that kind of request would require adventurers of C-rank or higher. And from their numbers, it would have to be a five or six member party at the very least. However, in a bout of unfortunate timing, almost all the C-rank members and above were currently out on quests.

“Thanks to you taking on the requests for the evil plants and the cyclops, the workshops have gone back to normal working order. Up until now, we’ve had some problems exporting our goods, but now that it’s all fixed, we’ve gotten more escort requests to other towns.”

Oof, so that’s what happened. So all the C-rank and above parties are out on escort missions, huh? It’s not my fault, but I can’t really say that I’m completely uninvolved, can I?

“I somehow managed to scare up a single C-ranked party that hadn’t left, but just one party is......” For Jöran, it seemed like the only options he had were either to wait for some of the parties to return, or ask me.

The only problem was, who knew how many days it would take for someone to come back, so Jöran was concerned about leaving the orcs to roam freely. If an orc king were to be born in that time, not only would a five- or six-man party not be enough, there would be a need for at least two B-ranked parties. So, in that case, he started thinking it would just be faster to ask me.

“Sorry for asking, Mukohda, but could you take on this quest?”

“Please wait a second...... Fel, what do you think? Personally, I think it’s fine, since it’s a good chance to get some meat.”

“An orc settlement? They are boring enemies, but, just as you said, it is true that they will be a good source of meat. Okay, let us go.”

Looks like Fel’s giving the all green.

《Dora-chan, Sui, are both of you fine, too?》 I asked the two of them through telepathy.

《I’m fine with it, too.》

《Sui is also fine.》

Looks like they’re on board as well. “We’ll take it, Jöran.”

“Ohh, I see, I see. Thank you. Alrighty then, you will be going with the C-rank party I managed to hire as well; is that fine?”

“Yes, that’s fine.”

So we’re gonna be taking this orc settlement destruction quest with a C-ranked party... This is our first time taking a request with another party, huh? Well, this will be an experience, too.

“Righty-ho, I’ll introduce you, so follow me please.”

The room Jöran led us to was a meeting room on the guild’s first floor. There, a group of four male adventurers that were around 30 and looked really tough with scary faces were sitting, waiting.

Yeah, can I run now? What the hell is with this lineup that just reeks of dudes? Everyone’s ripped to the max on top of those scary faces...

“Heyo — sorry for keeping you waiting.”

“So, guildmaster, what’s going on with the request?” The bald one with the scary face who seemed to be their leader spoke.

“Yes, I will be talking about that now.” With those words, Jöran moved to introduce me and those rough looking scary adventurers to each other.

“It’s an honor to be taking on a request with an A-ranked adventurer. Please treat us well.” With those words, the leader, Alonzo, went to shake my hand.

“Pleased to meet you.” Greeting the other members as well, I shook their hands.

They were a unique bunch with scary faces, and they reeked like a locker room, but it didn’t seem like they were bad people. Truthfully, I would have liked to have teamed up with some female adventurers, but it wasn’t like I could just say that.

Those four tough and scary looking adventurers were all members of the C-ranked party, “Shadow Warrior.”

I don’t know why, but all the people here sure do like to use some really cringey names. I’ve been letting it all go up until now, though. It seems like personal taste, so I guess I should just not bother.

The scary-faced bald leader, Alonzo, was a swordsman, a user of large swords. Clement was the scary-faced dude with long, wavy, dark brown hair, and he was also a swordsman, though a one-handed sword user. Matthias was the scary-faced guy with short blonde hair, and since he was the scout, he used daggers. Ernest, the scary-faced one with red-brown short hair, was a mage, and was accomplished in Fire and Wind magic, as well as a little Healing magic.

“I heard the rumors, but you really did tame a Fenrir...” said Alonzo, while looking at Fel.

He can tell because he’s C-ranked, huh? Also, it seems that Fel has recently started becoming more known. Well, we did defeat the dungeon in Dolan...

“Fel is strong, of course, but the pixie dragon here named Dora-chan, and this slime named Sui are also my familiars. They’re all strong.”

“I’ve never heard of a pixie dragon. And the slime is... strong?”

“Sui is special, you know? It’s strong. As for how they fight, look forward to when we get to the orc settlement.”

All of them are strong, after all. Sui gets underestimated since it’s a slime, but you can’t lump it in with other slimes. Sui is really just that incredible.

“Well then, let’s get going. Jöran, about where is the orc settlement?”

“Hm... It is in the forest about a day’s walk from here.”

What? A day?

“A day? But we’re planning on leaving tomorrow...... Ah, no. It’s fine. We can finish it today.” For moving around with large amounts of people, I have the ever reliable Sui with me.

“Hm? What do you mean?”

I told Jöran and the members of Shadow Warrior about Sui, but none of them believed me.

Then all I have to do is show them, I thought, so we all headed for the gates.

“Okay then, Sui, can you get big enough to fit these four on? ...Let’s see, about as big as you were the last time?”

《Got it.》 With that said, Sui grew to the same size it was when it gave Anton and the others a ride before. Seeing that, both Jöran and the members of Shadow Warrior were dumbstruck.

“*Ahem*, what an amazing thing.”

“This slime’s a first......”

Both Jöran and Alonzo’s statements had the other members of Shadow Warrior nodding in wordless agreement.

“We’re planning to leave here tomorrow, so this request needs to be completed today. Now, everyone get on.”

I hurried the members of Shadow Warrior along and had them get on top of Sui. I was riding on top of Fel, like always.

“Okay then Jöran, we’ll be off now.”

“We’re counting on you.”

Just like that, we headed off for the orc settlement.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

“There it is,” I heard one of the Shadow Warrior members whisper.

We were hidden behind a tree, peeking over at the orc settlement. Thanks to Sui, it didn’t take that long to get to the forest. And once we entered, thanks to Fel’s guidance, we found the orc settlement easily.

The entire Shadow Warrior party was surprised at how fast we moved, but we needed to do this as quickly as possible. I wanted to be finished by the end of today, after all. With the orc settlement in front of us, all that was left was to wipe them out.

The settlement was in a small clearing in the forest. I could see the shabby huts that were probably built by the orcs.

“Fel, do you know how many there are?” I whispered to Fel, so that we wouldn’t be noticed.

“At most, two hundred.”

Two hundred? That’s quite a lot... “Is there an orc king?”

“No. There are evolved forms, but I do not feel anything as strong as that.”

I guess that means that it’s just as I’d heard from Jöran, there’s only orc leaders and generals.

“What kind of plan are we going with?” asked Alonzo, and the other members of his party also looked towards me.

“Well, it’s not really a plan...... Fel, it’s just gonna be the usual, right?”

“Indeed. First strike wins. Attack is the best defense. Dora, Sui, and I will finish them. You all make sure no orcs manage to escape.”

Yep, it would be like that, wouldn’t it?

“That’s how it is. It’s fine to just leave it up to my familiars. Let’s just watch out for any orcs that try to run.”

When I said that, the members of Shadow Warrior all looked sort of confused, as if they were wondering if it would really be all right to just do that.

“Well then, let us move. Dora, Sui, on me.”

《Yah-hoo! I’ve been waiting!》

《Sui will try hard!》

And just like that, all three of them merrily flew off. And from then on, how should I describe it...

Well, there was no way my children would have any trouble with orcs, right?

*Zrrk———*

“““““Rrrreeeee!”””””

The death cries of a large number of orcs could be heard. Ohhh, that must be Fel’s Earth magic. Needles sprang up from the ground in a wide area like a “spiky frog” used in flower arrangements, skewering the orcs. That spell alone about halved the number of orcs.

“W-What the hell......” I heard someone whisper.

I looked beside me, and saw the members of Shadow Warrior, all with their mouths open in shock as they watched what was happening in the orc settlement. You can’t afford to use up all of your awe on just this, you know? Since Dora-chan and Sui are both gonna start attacking afterwards, too.

*Thdshh* *Thdshh* *Thdshh* *Thdsh-Thdsh-Thdhsh*

This time, sharp-pointed pillars of ice appeared and rained down upon the orcs, piercing them through. This has gotta be Dora-chan’s Ice magic.

And now there were only a fourth of the orcs there used to be.

*Splrrt* *Splrrt* *Splrrt* *Splrrt* *Splrrt*

Sui’s Acid Bullets hit the orcs every time and pierced through them. Almost all of the remaining orcs fell victim to that attack.

“What the hell... are those things......”

“An entire orc settlement... this fast......”

“No way......”

“Those familiars are way too strong......”

The people of Shadow Warrior were quietly muttering amongst themselves while watching Fel and the others fight. Yeah, I know how you feel, but it’s all real. My children are all strong.

Hm? I noticed that the orcs that were on the outskirts of the settlement and thus had managed to not get hit by their attacks were running. Not only that, but they were coming this way.

“The orcs that are running from the settlement are coming this way!!” I called out, and the members of Shadow Warrior all came to with a start, and readied their weapons.

I took out my mithril short sword from my Item Box and readied it as well. I’ve already taken down trolls and minotaurs in the dungeon, and orcs are weaker than that, so I should be fine as long as I calm down and fight.

Okay, they’re here!

“Hahh!” I slashed at one of the running orc’s legs. Once it flinched......

*Stab*

I thrust into its heart.

Yeah!

“Woah!” The moment I let my guard down because I’d defeated the orc, I was blown away from the side and hit a tree.

“That hurts...”

“Squeee!” The orc glared at me angrily.

“Oh you’ve done it now, you damn orc!! STONE BULLET! STONE BULLET! STONE BULLET!” I shot Stone Bullets at the orc that sent me flying.

*Thdshh* *Thdshh* *Thdshh*

Rocks around 5cm in size hit the orc.

“Ssqueee!” The orc fell to its knees, crying out in pain.

Without missing a beat, I closed in on the orc and lopped off its head with my mithril sword. “Heeiih!” The orc’s head fell to the ground with a thud.

“Whew~...” Looking around, I’d noticed that the people in Shadow Warrior managed to take down another two or three orcs.

“Are there any left?”

“No, all the orcs that ran are here,” said Alonzo.

“Well then, let’s head for the settlement.”

“What about these orcs?”

“I have an Item Box, so for now I’ll just stuff them in. Let’s decide what to do with them later.”

Leaving how to divide the spoils for later, I collected all the orcs and we headed towards Fel and the others.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

When we reached the orc settlement, I saw countless orc corpses scattered around — and among them stood my three familiars.

Yeah... That’s amazing. They’re all ridiculously strong.

The members of Shadow Warrior were all looking around at the huge amount of dead orcs with cramped looks on their faces.

“What a sight......”

“Yeah, they completely wiped out an entire orc settlement so quickly.”

“Normally, there’d be some casualties amongst adventurers when destroying an orc settlement, right......?”

“Yeah. And not only are we all fine, we’re already done...”

Ummm... sorry... But, this is just normal for us... Yeah...

“Okay then, I’ll be storing all the orcs around here, then.”

Ignoring the dumbstruck members of Shadow Warrior, I started retrieving the orcs with my familiars’ help.

“Whew, it’s finally done.” By the time I’d finished retrieving the orcs, the members of Shadow Warrior had collected themselves and were breaking down the huts that the orcs had built before burning them.

When I asked Alonzo why, apparently doing so was a rule that was set in stone for these kinds of situations. “If we leave it as is, it’ll just get used again by orcs or goblins.”

I see.

“Luckily, this time there weren’t any victims, but if there were, the rule would be to burn their bodies, too.”

So it really does happen, huh? Well, it makes sense.

I had heard that there were no female orcs or goblins, so they had to populate and grow ranks by using other animals, monsters, and people. Orcs and goblins all had very strong sexual desire, and especially liked human women, it seemed. With that in mind, it would make sense for there to be victims in the area, wouldn’t it?

I don’t know if I’d be able to stay calm in those situations, but I might have to just accept that that sort of thing happens.

“So about burning the bodies of victims, do you not hand them over to their families?”

“No. The victim wouldn’t want to be seen like that, and the victim’s family wouldn’t want to see the victim like that, either. So it’s become an unspoken agreement.”

I see...... Being taken by orcs or goblins is nothing other than a nightmare for the victim and the victim’s family, huh?

“Also, you can’t rule out the possibility of them becoming undead, so burning them is the rule,” added Clement.

Undead? They do exist, don’t they? Zombies... When I asked, it seemed that they were rare, but they did exist. I was also told that for dungeons, there were floors that had only those sorts of monsters in them, as well.

Blech... I can only hope that the dungeon in Aveling doesn’t have a floor like that. Wait, that’s only if they’re dead, right? What if they’re still alive?

“What if the victim’s still alive?” When I asked, the members of Shadow Warrior all looked at each other with sober expressions.

“......That would be the worst thing that could happen. Do you think you could stay sane after being played around with by orcs or goblins?”

Ahh, yeah......

“Almost every time, they’ll either just commit suicide right then and there, or they’ll have lost their sanity and be sent to be cared for in a temple. If they’re alive, we’ll take them back, but whether that’s a good or bad thing is up in the air......”

Apparently, the temples had a place where they would take in those with mental illnesses, or who have lost their limbs and could no longer live on their own. There weren’t many of them, but it seemed that there were places like that in this world, too. Apparently the members of Shadow Warrior had to deal with that sort of situation once, after decimating a nest of goblins. The victim was a girl still in her mid-teens, but by the time she was found she’d already lost her mind. That girl was sent to be cared for, and apparently they’d heard rumors that she was still convalescing even now.

“That’s why adventurers like us have to put our bodies on the line to actively hunt trash like this, in order to prevent there being any more victims,” said Matthias.

“That’s the problem. Orcs and goblins are like weeds; they come back real fast. We always make sure to hunt them if we see them.”

Ernest followed up on Matthias’ statement. All the adventurers in Shadow Warrior looked scary, but they were pretty stalwart, too. I’d only thought of adventurers as people who hunt monsters to sell their materials off for money, or dive into dungeons for drop items and loot, but I changed my mind after hearing them talk.

Truthfully, I’d hate to even look at goblins, but let’s start hunting them if we see any. Orcs too. It’d be nice if there’d be less victims thanks to us doing that.

Once the huts burned out, we left the former site of the orc settlement behind.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

We got out of the forest and were on the road; all that was left was to go home. Since destroying the orc settlement was so quick, there was still time until sunset.

“Okay then, let’s go home.”

“Mn, wait a second,” Fel butted in.

“What, Fel?”

“I am hungry.”

《Me too.》

《Sui too.》

Oh yeah, it’s past noon. “Sorry, Fel and the others are saying they’re hungry. Want to eat?” I called out to the members of Shadow Warrior.

“Now that you mention it, we haven’t eaten. Right then, let’s have a meal.”

We all sat wherever we wished along the side of the road. All four of the Shadow Warrior members retrieved black bread and dried meat from the bags on their backs. It wasn’t my place to say anything, but it didn’t look very appetizing.

Okay, we’re comrades who accepted the same request, so let’s share some food.

“Um, would you like to try the food I made? I think it’s better than dried meat.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes. Since we’re comrades who took the same request. Please wait a little.”

What should I make? Bread would be better than rice, right? So if that’s the case...... Yeah, let’s go with that. I still had lots of black bread that I bought from Dolan, so I used that.

First, take the round, black bread and cut it horizontally into two halves. Layer a bed of shredded cabbage on the bottom half, and lay the hamburger on top of it with lots of ketchup before closing it with the other half to finish up the burger...

Each of them should get two each, I think. They’d probably eat that much with those builds. And five each for my three familiars. I’m fine with one.

“Here you go.” I put the hamburgers on a plate and served them out to everyone. My three familiars started chowing down as usual. Looking at them go, the members of Shadow Warrior also bit into their hamburgers.

“I-It’s delicious! What is this? It’s the first time I’ve eaten something this good!” Alonzo said before stuffing his cheeks full of hamburger.

“So tasty!! This sauce on the meat is great!” Clement said, taking bite after bite of the food.

“Yeah, this sauce has acidity and also a little sweetness. It’s thick too, and delicious! It was a good thing we took this request, since we got to eat this!” Matthias followed up, and took a huge bite out of his hamburger.

“.........” Ernest was just silently munching away at his food, too preoccupied with enjoying it.

Looks like they all like it. That’s great.

“More.” 《More!》 And then came Fel and Sui’s order for more.

It looked like Dora-chan was already full. Black bread’s got some bite-back to it, after all.

I served Fel and Sui their extra servings, and started eating myself. Yeah, the black bread is hard, but it works. There’s no mistaking this for anything but a hamburger. Hamburgers are delicious.

It seemed like the adventurers of Shadow Warrior weren’t satisfied with just two, so I gave them each another one. Fel and Sui were both satisfied after several more helpings.

“Oh yeah, you said you were going to leave this town tomorrow, Mukohda. Do you have any plans?” While we were taking a short break to digest, Matthias asked me that question.

“Yes. Fel wants to go to the sea, so we’re heading for Berléand. It’s on the coast, so we’ll be able to eat fresh seafood. I’m looking forward to it.”

“Ohh! Berléand, huh? We went last year, ourselves. The fresh fish there was just the best, wasn’t it? But there was a certain someone who couldn’t enjoy it... Gahahaha!” Matthias said, laughing.

“Yeah. Matthias, Ernest, and I all had our fill of the food in Berléand, but Alonzo...... He hates fish, so he wouldn’t shut up about going to a different town already. Even though we were busy enjoying ourselves. You don’t get that many chances to enjoy fresh fish, you know?” Clement said, looking over at Alonzo with an exasperated expression on his face.

Alonzo hates fish?

“Right, right. Even though Berléand’s famous for being on the coast, all Alonzo ate was meat. Not only that, but the people in the stores and such all had faces like they wanted to ask, ‘if you’re not going to eat fish in a town by the sea, why did you even come?’ That was funny,” Ernest said, laughing loudly.

“Fish and stuff just smells, I can’t stand it. Personally, I don’t want anything to do with any place by the sea anymore. It’s gotta be meat for food, you know?” Alonzo complained.

But fish is delicious though...

“So if you’re going to Berléand, you have to go see the morning market near the port. Not only can you get fresh fish for cheap, there’s lots of food stalls around too. I’d recommend it,” Matthias said.

Hmm, the morning market, huh? He taught me something good. With both cheap, fresh seafood, and food stalls around, it’s a must-see.

“Hey, that fish, the one that Berléand’s famous for, that was delicious too, right? What was its name?” Ernest said, trying to remember. He kept muttering, “That one, right? That one...”

“Tyrant fish, right?” Matthias stepped in to help, and Ernest slapped his knees while saying, “Yeah! That!”

“If I remember correctly, that’s a kind of monster, right? It looks ferocious, but its white meat is light and delicious,” Ernest said, nodding. He must have been remembering the taste of the fish.

“It’s something that only those wild fishermen of Berléand can catch, so it’s that town’s specialty. Mukohda, if you ever go there, you definitely have to try some. It’s really good,” Clement recommended to me.

Tyrant fish, huh? I’ll remember it.

“Also, that shellfish... Uhhh... Was it called ‘big hard clam’? Those are great in soup.”

I inquired further, and big hard clams were apparently a bivalve that was about the size of my palm. I wonder if it’s like an Asian hard clam? Using it in Japanese-styled soup seems like it would lend its flavor to the dashi... That sounds delicious. It might also be tasty cooked with just a little soy sauce on it. That’d be perfect for some seafood barbecue.

*Sshlrrp*...... I feel like I’m about to start drooling. Since I’ve been eating so much meat due to Fel and the others, I had a craving for seafood. I’m gonna go to Berléand and have my fill of the bounty of the sea!

“Ahhh, talking with Mukohda about Berléand is making me wanna go again.”

“Yeah. I wanna eat some seafood.”

“Yeah, me too.”

Clement, Matthias, and Ernest each chimed in. And Alonzo quickly objected: “Don’t joke about that.”

“I won’t go to the sea, got it? Weren’t we going to Aveling next?” Looks like Alonzo’s quite bad with seafood, huh?

“Fuhahaha! Don’t get so mad, Alonzo. We just said we want to eat seafood. Don’t worry, we’re going to Aveling after this.”

“Yeah! It’ll be the first dive in a while for us. I’m getting excited.”

“Right? We’re planning to stay for a while too; let’s earn a whole lot.”

Oh, they’re all planning on going to Aveling after this? “So you’re all going from Nijhoff to Aveling?”

“Yeah. We’re staying in Nijhoff for another four or five days, and then going,” replied Alonzo.

“That’s a coincidence. We’re also planning to go to Aveling after we’re done with Berléand.”

“Ohh, is that right? This time we’re going to plant ourselves there and really challenge the dungeon, so we’re planning on staying for a while. We might meet again in Aveling.”

When Clement said that, Matthias followed up with, “It does happen in dungeons, doesn’t it? Just randomly reuniting with people.”

“Reuniting in a dungeon, it might happen. To tell you the truth......” I talked about how I met the adventuring party “Iron Will” again in Dolan’s dungeon.

The members of Shadow Warrior had apparently challenged the dungeon in Aveling before, and I managed to learn a lot about it. With this and that, the mood became excited with the subject of dungeons, and before I’d noticed, a large span of time had passed. Even though we finished eradicating the orc settlement quickly, we were running out of time.

“Okay then, it’s about time to go back.” We returned the same way we went, with the members of Shadow Warrior riding on the back of a giganticized Sui.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

When I entered the Adventurer’s guild along with the members of Shadow Warrior, Jöran, the guildmaster, came over immediately.

“Oh? Is it already done?”

“Yes. We’ve completely decimated it. Although we basically did none of the work,” Alonzo said, giving a bitter laugh.

Fel and the others basically killed everything on their own, after all.

“I want to sell the bodies, but there’s a lot.”

None of the adventurers in Shadow Warrior had an Item Box, so they all asked to sell the parts. Personally, I’d like to get the meat for however many they manage to finish butchering by tomorrow.

“I see. Then let’s head for the storehouse.”

We followed Jöran to the storehouse.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

“Oh? What is it today?” Horace asked as we entered the storehouse. It seemed like, in a bout of good timing, he’d just finished his work and was currently free.

“Is it all right to go with what we discussed before? Alonzo? Everyone?”

While we were returning to town, the members of Shadow Warrior and I discussed how to split the reward and the money from selling off the orcs.

“Yeah, it’s fine. Right, guys?” Alonzo asked, throwing the question to his comrades.

“Yeah, of course. We might even be getting too much.”

“If we were to complain about this, we’d meet divine punishment, seriously.”

“Right?” said Clement, Matthias, and Ernest, respectively.

“How many orcs can you butcher by tomorrow morning?” I asked Horace.

“If I do my best, fifteen, I think,” he replied.

“Then, I’ll ask you to take care of fifteen of them. So, I’d like all the meat returned to me, but for everything else, just sell it and give the money to these nice people in Shadow Warrior. That’s how we decided to split it,” I told him while taking the fifteen orcs from my Item Box.

“So the meat to you, Mukohda, and the money for the sale of everything else to the fine folks in Shadow Warrior? Got it,” Horace said, already inspecting the fifteen orc corpses I handed over.

This is what Shadow Warrior and I decided when we talked about it. First, I wanted meat, so I would get them to butcher as many orcs as they could by tomorrow morning. For those, I would get the meat, and the money for the sale of everything else would go to Shadow Warrior. As for the rest of the orcs, I tried to split them 50/50 with Shadow Warrior, but they pushed back, saying that they couldn’t take it.

“We can’t take that, we barely did any work,” all four of them replied.

So in the end, I took two-thirds of the orcs, and they got the rest of them. Even so, the people in Shadow Warrior still protested that they were getting too much. Really though, all the money I’d earned was thanks to Fel, and it was enough that I’d never be able to spend it all anyway. Meat was more important to us at the moment, too. And even turning them into meat, there were too many orcs, so that’s why I dealt them their share like that.

“Ah, are you all planning to sell off your one-third’s share here?”

“Yeah. None of us have an Item Box, and we don’t have a magic bag, either.” Even though they were only getting a third of the orcs, it was still a considerable amount, and the members of Shadow Warrior didn’t have any way to preserve them. And so they were planning to sell it all right away to the Nijhoff Adventurer’s guild.

“That’s how it is, so it’ll be quite a lot of them, but can I take them out here, Horace?”

“So Shadow Warrior is planning to sell their share to us here?”

“Yeah. Please.”

Led by Horace, I left the orcs in an open space in the storehouse. This time, the total tally of what we got from the orc settlement extermination was: 6x orc generals, 18x orc leaders, and 179x orcs. From those, leaving aside the fifteen I already gave over, one-third would mean 2x orc generals, 6x orc leaders, and 54x orcs for Shadow Warrior’s share, while the rest was mine.

“Umm, this is Shadow Warrior’s share. Two orc generals, six orc leaders, and fifty-four orcs. Please count them up, Alonzo.”

“I already did while you were taking them out, Mukohda. You’re fine.”

“Yeah, we did too, so there’s no mistake.”

Looks like I wasn’t mistaken then?

“We plan to stay in Nijhoff another four or five days, so prioritize what you’re giving to Mukohda,” said Alonzo, who had turned to face Horace.

“Got it. Well then, I’ll ensure I can hand over the meat to you tomorrow morning Mukohda, so come by to pick it up.”

“Understood.”

So I’ll need to swing by and pick up the meat before we leave tomorrow, huh?

“Have you finished your sale?” Jöran asked, proving that he’d been waiting for us to finish.

“Since Mukohda is leaving tomorrow, why don’t I pay your reward now? Okay then, the reward this time is 180 gold. Since Shadow Warrior is here, I’ve prepared the sum in gold coins. Is that fine?”

Since Shadow Warrior is here too, it’s true that gold coins might be better.

“Yes, that’s fine. Right, everyone?”

“Isn’t it normally gold coins?” Matthias asked, puzzled.

“Umm, just being paid in gold coins was too heavy, so up until now I’ve been paid in large gold coins.”

The members of Shadow Warrior were all surprised, and said in unison, “Wow, A-ranks really are different.”

“Okey-dokey then, here,” Jöran said, placing a bag of gold coins in front of me.

“All right then, one-third of 180 gold is 60 gold, so that’s Shadow Warrior’s share.” I counted 60 gold out of the bag and handed it over to Alonzo.

“I feel kinda guilty about this. We basically did nothing, but we’re getting all this stuff.”

“No, no, if you’re going to put it like that, I also did basically nothing, right? Or rather, that’s how it usually is. Fel and the others are strong, after all,” I said, looking over at Fel, who was sleeping in a corner of the storehouse.

“Yeah. That strength is like cheating. But well, I guess that should be expected out of a Fenrir.”

“It’s not just the Fenrir, Alonzo. That small dragon was also strong.”

“If you’re gonna say that, Clement, then the slime was really strong too. I never thought that slimes were that strong.”

Alonzo, Clement, and Matthias spoke amongst themselves.

“Basically, all of Mukohda’s familiars are strong, right?” Ernest said., Alonzo, Clement, and Matthias all replied with, “No doubt.”

“Well then, we’re going to be leaving here early tomorrow, so I’ll be taking my leave now.”

“Sure. We’ll be in Aveling a while before you.”

“Yes. Please teach me a lot when we meet each other again in Aveling.” Like that, I said goodbye to the members of Shadow Warrior, and left the Adventurer’s guild.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

I had planned to have a meal as soon as we got back home, but I was lost as to what to make, because today would be the last day I’d be able to use this fancy kitchen. I had been planning to just go with something that I’d already made for tomorrow’s breakfast since we were planning to leave early, but...

Hmmm... Let’s try making something kinda fancy for the last hurrah, here.

After some dithering, what I eventually decided to make was salt-crusted baked meat. A long time ago, I tried making it because it seemed interesting. I used pork back then, but it didn’t come out completely right. I did it as the recipe stated, but the meat was a bit too salty. When I looked it up online later, there were also recipes that said to wrap the meat in cabbage or lettuce so it doesn’t touch the salt directly. With that incident in mind, this time I’d be wrapping the meat in cabbage.

It’s time for a revenge match! Round Two!

This time, I planned to use bloody horn-bull meat. First up is getting the ingredients using my skill. I’d need sea salt and eggs for the salt crust, and I wanted something slightly higher quality for flavor, so I ended up buying natural salt, along with black pepper in its own grinding mill, as well as fresh rosemary.

Okay, let’s start.

~◇~◇~◇~

First, lightly boil the cabbage that’s going to be used to wrap the meat.

For the salt crust, add in the sea salt and egg whites into a bowl, and mix by hand until it stays clumped a bit when you lightly grasp a handful of it. Once the salt crust is ready, smear the bloody horn-bull meat with the natural salt and black pepper, and lay some finely cut fresh rosemary on top. Then, wrap that meat in several leaves of boiled cabbage.

Lay a cooking sheet over the baking tray, and spread the salt-crust mix over that so it’s a little bigger than the hunk of meat before laying the cabbage-wrapped meat on top. After that, coat the meat so it’s no longer visible with the salt-crust mix. Once that’s done, bake it in a preheated oven.

~◇~◇~◇~

The recipe called for baking at 200 degrees, but this kitchen’s oven was a range combined with the magic stovetop, so I could only eyeball the temperature and how it was cooking.

I also brought out my own magic stove in an empty space in the kitchen, and used its oven to bake too. Each oven was baking six bloody horn-bull roasts at a time. While I thought that might be a bit too much, I figured I could just store any leftovers in my Item Box.

“It seems about... done.”

I took the finished salt-crust baked meat out of the oven and let it rest. While the meat was resting, I made sauce. It seemed like it’d be delicious on its own, but I also thought powdered mustard sauce would fit it well, so I started making some.

Add powdered mustard, mirin, soy sauce to a pot and bring the mixture to a quick boil. Once the mixture has cooled from that, throw in a dash of olive oil to finish the sauce.

I wonder if the meat’s cooled off? ...Yeah, looks fine now.

Using the handle of the knife, I tapped on the salt crust to break it. The nice smell of the meat and herbs rose up. I peeled the cabbage off from the now-revealed bloody horn-bull meat, and removed the rosemary as well. When I tried cutting into the roast, the middle was a faint pink: it was well-cooked.

When I tried tasting the end of it......

“Tasty!”

The smell of herbs tickled my sinuses. It was perfectly salty; the meat was nice and soft, cooked to perfection, and plenty delicious even by itself. This time, the salt-crust bake was a huge success! Wrapping it in cabbage really was the right idea.

For now, I cut and plated an entire chunk of meat each for Fel and the others. I’d have them taste the meat without the sauce first. I also cut out a small amount for myself and put it on a separate plate. I shut the rest of the meat into my Item Box.

Putting the plated dishes on the trolley, I rolled them out to my familiars, who were waiting with empty stomachs.

“Sorry for making you wait.”

“We were getting sick of it, you know?” Fel said, sulkily.

“Sorry, sorry. Man, when I thought that today would be the last day I could use such a fancy kitchen, I started wanting to make something good. So in exchange, I’ve got some good stuff here. So let me off, okay?” I served the plates full of the well-done bloody horn-bull in front of the three of them.

“Ohhh, what scrumptious looking meat.”

《Yeah, yeah — it smells kinda good.》

《Looks tasty—.》

“It turned out well this time, so try it out.”

With that, everyone started eating.

“Mm? This is amazing,” Fel said, before digging in with even more enthusiasm.

《Wow, this meat is soft and delicious!》 Dora-chan said, proceeding to stuff his face full of meat.

《This meat smells and tastes nice~!》 said Sui, happily engulfing the meat.

The aroma of the herbs clung to the meat nicely, too. Using the fresh rosemary was a success. Well, when it’s too much trouble, I can always just use herb salt, I think. Now then, let’s eat too.

*Chomp*

Yep yep, it’s soft and moist and delicious. I could almost just keep eating this forever. Thank goodness the salt-crust bake worked. It might be nice to cook orc or rockbird meat this way, too. Ah, we’re going to Berléand next, so fish sounds nice, too.

“More.” 《More.》 《More!》

Yeah, yeah. I took out more of the meat from my Item Box.

“Mn? What is that?” Fel asked, puzzled at the sight of the salt-crust baked meat without the salt crust removed.

“The meat I just cooked is inside. Just use the knife handle like this......” I tapped the crust with the knife handle. After peeling off the cracked salt crust...... “See, there’s the meat. I baked it inside this, so the meat’s soft and moist.”

“I see. Okay, cut it thicker next and hand it over.”

《Thicker? That’s a good idea. Do it for me too.》

《Sui too—.》

You know I’m explaining all this to you, and you’re just going to go ahead and eat?!

I did as everyone asked and cut the meat thicker, and also slathered on the powdered mustard sauce before serving it.

“Ohh! This tingly stuff compliments this meat well. Indeed, this is good.”

《He’s right. It’s tingly and delicious.》

《It’s tingly, but Sui is all right with this much—. It’s tasty~.》

Looks like everyone likes the powdered mustard sauce. Let me try a bite too.

Yep, it’s great. The small bit of texture of the powdered mustard and its slight spiciness accents the meat nicely.

《Whew~, I’m full. I can’t eat another bite.》 Dora-chan raised the white flag after finishing only half of his second chunk of meat.

So two servings was too much for Dora-chan, huh?

《Then Sui will eat it~.》 With those words, Sui just scooped up Dora-chan’s leftover share. Of course, that wouldn’t satisfy either of them......

“More.” 《More.》 Fel and Sui still wanted more.

In the end, they both put down another four servings each. Even though just one chunk was already pretty big... For now, I managed to save two roasts, so I’ll let it go.

And since everyone tried hard today as well, I served them some dessert. For Fel, I chose a small sized whole strawberry shortcake; for Dora-chan, a pudding sundae with strawberries and bananas, as well as the usual pudding and choux creme; and for Sui, a small, whole chocolate cake with lots of fruit on top. “You all did your best today, after all. Here, eat it.”

“Indeed.”

Fel said, ‘indeed,’ all haughtily, but he seems happy.

《Yesss! Pudding!》

Dora-chan seemed overjoyed to be eating pudding.

《Chocolate cake! Yayyy!》

Sui was also thrilled.

I watched everyone happily eating cakes while I sipped on some drip bag brewed coffee. Tomorrow we’ll have to say goodbye to this fancy mansion, huh? It was really nice to stay in, though. Well, we still have money, so we can just rent another house in Berléand, I guess.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

“I have something to do, so you two can go to sleep first.”

After getting out of the bath, I told Dora-chan and Sui that before leaving the master bedroom for another room. It’d been about a week, and tomorrow we’d be traveling again, so I was going to get the offerings over with.

“Is everyone there?”

When I called out, I got answered by all the gods saying, “We’ve been waiting!”

“Tomorrow we’re headed for Berléand, so I’ll be listening to your orders tonight.”

Because it’d be too annoying to do while traveling. That’s why I really want to end this while I’m still here.

＜Mnn?! I can’t let that ‘annoying’ statement go. What are you even thinking?! Making offerings to us gods is a sacred act!!＞ She must have been listening in to my thoughts, as Ninrir the divine disappointment started chewing me out.

‘Sacred act?’ This? It’s a sacred act? No matter how you think about it, it’s just gods begging for stuff, right?

＜Begging...... Grrrr... I can’t deny it...＞

Oh, so you realize it yourself. Well, at any rate, I’m stuck with you gods, so it’s fine, though. More importantly, I’d like you all to hurry up so I can sleep. I have to wake up early tomorrow.

＜Grrr...There’s a lot I want to say, but there’s a line behind me... I want Fumiya’s cakes, like usual!＞

She really doesn’t waver, huh? I opened up Fumiya’s menu through my skill.

“For Fumiya’s cakes, there’s one more shortcake to try out of this shortcake section...... After that, there’s three of these cheesecake slices. These cheesecakes are all different, after all. All that’s left is...... It’d be these whole cakes, huh? They’re a bit big, but would that be okay?”

Huh? I’m not getting any reaction out of Ninrir... Even though whenever there’s a new cake, she always kicks up a huge fuss...

＜............W-W-W-W-What the hell?!! There’s dreamlike cakes like this?!!＞

Oh. Looks like Ninrir the divine disappointment is operating just fine. She was just too excited over whole cakes to express it.

“Seems like one of these smallest sizes is fine. Uhh...It’s 14.5cm in diameter, so...... it’s a round cake about this big,” I said, making a hand motion to indicate the general dimensions of the cake. “Even if it’s the smallest size, it’s still much bigger than the usual short cake slices, so would that be okay?”

＜Of course it’s fine!! Actually, just give me the huge cake already!!＞

Don’t tell me to just give it to you. You know you have to choose which cakes you want first, right?

＜Hm, for the type, I want you to start from the top again!＞

The same pattern with the shortcakes, huh? So that means... this one. It looked like a strawberry shortcake, but there were fruits sandwiched in between the sponges.

＜Mhehehoohoo~ Mmhehehoohoo~.＞ Ninrir the divine disappointment was laughing in kind of a weird voice. I’ve never seen her, so I don’t know what she looks like, but she’ll definitely scarf the whole thing down with a sloppy-ass expression. I can just see it. She really is a disappointment of a goddess. So let’s leave that disappointment alone and just move on to the next one.

＜Next is me, Kisharle. Wait, Ninrir’s laughing with a kind of creepy look on her face...＞

“I don’t care about that. I can’t take responsibility for it, either. Won’t she stop once I send the offerings?” Ninrir would probably immediately jump on any cake that appears in front of her, that divine disappointment.

＜That’s true. Then for what I want~... Hmm there isn’t really anything specific...... Hey, is there anything good for beauty that you can recommend?＞

Good for beauty... Hmm. From what my sister told me, beauty lotion was pretty important. She said that washing and cleansing your face, followed by facial lotion, milky lotion, and creams was a must, and that if one wanted to maintain the quality of one’s skin, beauty lotion was also important. She also said that they had strong effects, and that it was possible to pick a type depending on what you wanted: moisturizing or anti-aging. Oh yeah, I remember my sister poring over fashion magazines while trying to pick out what to use next, talking about this and that compound and about what new formulation would be effective.

“What about beauty lotion? It’s apparently something you put on after facial lotion, and you can choose what kind of lotion you want to use depending on what you want it to do, and from what I’ve heard, its effects are strong.”

＜S-Strong?! Yes, give me that! I’ll take the beauty lotion!!＞

Lady Kisharle’s really biting on that bait, huh? I looked through the available beauty lotions in the Online Supermarket.

“They’re different depending on your aim, so what do you want? There’s one for combating moisture and anti-aging... Well, it takes care of wrinkles and stuff, basically. It also looks like it has stuff to combat sun damage, so it works on spots and other things.”

＜W-Wrinkles......＞

Lady Kisharle, are you concerned about wrinkles? I pictured you as a young goddess, but could you actually be quite old?

＜Wa-hey! I’m no old lady!! I’m in the prime of my youth!＞

When Kisharle said that, all the other gods chimed in, retorting with, “If you’re young and beautiful, then so is everyone else here.”

＜Khh! Be quiet! Hey, otherworlder boy, is there one that helps with the suppleness of one’s skin? I’m going to become so breathtaking, I’ll make all of them faint!＞

Is Lady Kisharle old enough to be worrying about the turning point for skin beauty? If that’s the case......

“Then how about this? It’s a little expensive at 6 silver, but it has components for anti-aging. Would you like this beauty lotion?”

＜Yes! That one please!＞

Sure thing. But there’s still some money left. “What do you want to do for the 1 silver you have left? I can save it for next time.”

＜Then please do so.＞

All right then, let’s save this 1 silver of Kisharle’s for later.

＜I’m next! It’s me, Agni, and I want the same beer as last time! Give me the same kinds of regular and black beer, okay? Man, all of that was amazingly good! It’s the best cold, right?＞

It seemed like Agni really took a shine to what I chose for her last time. I can see why though, since it was a lineup of all the famous company’s premium and black beers. I honestly think I made some great choices given what I had to choose from. Adding the same stuff that I got last time for Agni, I used the leftover money for some Australian white wine this time.

Okay. Next is Ruka, right?

＜......I also want the same as Ninrir. The big cake.＞

Sure, sure. A whole cake, right? Whole cakes really do just mesmerize anyone with a sweet tooth, huh? Though I don’t think one would be able to eat it by themselves at that size, even if it’s small.

＜It’s fine. Sweets get their own stomach.＞

Oh. She read my thoughts. Sweets get their own stomach, huh? So girls think the same way whether they’re gods or people, huh?

I picked out the same order as Ninrir for Ruka.

“Next is......”

＜Heyyyy, it’s us!＞

＜For us, first we want the world’s best whisky that we got before. One for each of us, got it? That’s the only thing we won’t compromise on.＞

＜Indeed. That’s something special we save only for ourselves.＞

Wow, they really liked S-company’s domestic whisky. Wasn’t that the lowest-grade available, too?

＜W-What? There’s whisky even more delicious than that?!!＞

＜Hey! Is that true? There’s even more delicious whisky?!!＞

Aw crap, they read my thoughts.

“Ah, no, that’s all I can buy with my Online Supermarket. If you want something better, then it’ll have to be at a specialty store......”

＜Specialty? So, a Tenant?＞

“Well, that’s if there’s a liquor store available as a Tenant.”

When I said that, Hephaestos and Vahagn both started whispering to each other.

＜By the way, how’s your level?＞ asked Hephaestos.

Level? Even if they ask, I’m not at the level where I’ll unlock the next Tenant......... Wait, ahh!! “Could it be... Were the two of you the ones who put the “Double Experience Gain” skill on me?”

＜I-I-I-I know nothing about that.＞

＜M-M-M-Me neither.＞

......You two, stuttering and squirming like that is basically like telling everyone you did it.

The goddesses behind them were saying things like, “They did something stupid again,” and, “They really do never learn.”

These two really will do anything for alcohol, huh? Well, it’s not like I was affected badly this time, so it’s fine. But......

“Uhm, it’s not like this incident was bad for me, so I won’t really complain, but please stop just putting skills on me at your own discretion. At the very least, tell me first.”

＜Mm, all right. I understand.＞

＜Fine, fine.＞

I guess it’s fine as long as they get it.

“Okay then, what do you want to do for the rest?”

＜I would like something I haven’t tried before. What do you think, War God?＞

＜Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. We need to explore new kinds of liquor.＞

Something they haven’t tried before...... That would only leave the relatively expensive stuff, then... Something they can buy with what they have left...... this one.

“From the amount of money you have left, I can buy the one that comes in this black bottle — is that fine?”

I pointed to a whisky that came in a bottle that looked like a black volumetric flask made by the domestic S-company.

＜I haven’t tried that one. I think it’s fine. How about it, Blacksmithing God?＞

＜Indeed, we have not tried that one. I also think that is a good choice.＞

Then it’s decided. I arranged all the gods’ offerings on their cardboard altars.

“Then please accept these offerings.” As I said that, the products on the altars all disappeared. I immediately heard the gods’ cheers.

It’s finally over.

When I moved to leave the room and go sleep, Hephaestos’ voice rang in my head.

＜By the way, what level are you now?＞

“Level? Oh yeah, I hadn’t checked after we finished that orc extermination. Please wait a second.”

【Name】 Mukohda (Tsuyoshi Mukouda)

【Age】 27

【Job】 Victim from Another World

【Level】 32

【HP】 335

【MP】 326

【Attack】 303

【Defense】 300

【Agility】 281

【Skills】 Appraisal, Item Box, Fire magic, Earth magic, Perfect Defense, Double Experience Gain, Familiars (Contracted Magic Beasts): Fenrir, Huge Slime, Pixie Dragon

【Unique Skill】 Online Supermarket

<<Tenant>> Fumiya

【Blessings】 Blessing of the Goddess of Wind, Ninrir (small); Blessing of the Goddess of Fire, Agni (small); Blessing of the Goddess of Earth, Kisharle (small)

Oh, it went up a bit. I only defeated two orcs, though. It might be because I was pretty close to leveling already thanks to the evil plants.

＜32, huh? That’s kind of... You should try a little harder.＞

This voice is Vahagn? Don’t just trail off like that.

＜Although... You’re going to a dungeon after Berléand, right? I’m looking forward to it.＞

＜Oh, oh, that’s right — I’m expecting a lot, too!＞

Those expectations don’t help, though... They’re probably trying to get me to my next Tenant, but it’s not certain that there’ll be a liquor store available. I’d like them to understand that.

“I’m just saying, you two, that I don’t know what will appear as the next Tenant. Don’t get your hopes up too high.”

＜I know, I know.＞

＜Right.＞

After the two of them replied, the connection cut off with a snap.

They replied lightly, but do those two really get it?

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

“That otherworlder didn’t get mad.”

“Yeah. Just like we expected.”

“He leveled up, but he’s still a ways away from level 40. But, he’s going to a dungeon...”

“If he’s going to be diving into a dungeon, he’ll level up even if he doesn’t want to.”

“That’s right.”

“Yeah. Finally, it’s time for another Tenant.”

“A Tenant!”

““A liquor store, right (no)?””

“Ahaha!”

“Gahaha!”

“Ahahahahahaha!”

“Gahahahahaha!”

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

The next morning after breakfast, we left the gorgeous mansion we’d stayed in for a week. By the way, breakfast was a minced meat rice bowl using some of the minced cockatrice with soy sauce I’d made before. I topped the rice bowl with the minced cockatrice and scrambled eggs with soy sauce, and Dora-chan and Sui said it was good. But for Fel, there was too little meat, and it was such a light meal that he seemed unsatisfied and wouldn’t stop booing it. He still had several more helpings, though.

Something like this is perfect for breakfast, right? In my opinion, it was really good.

We first went to the Merchant’s guild and returned the key to the mansion. On our way there, I was thinking that it might be too early, but true to the saying that time is money, the Merchant’s guild was open early in the morning.

Then, we headed for the Adventurer’s guild. When we entered the guild, Jöran approached us immediately.

“The orcs from yesterday are ready.”

We headed for the storehouse, and received the meat from the fifteen orcs.

“Are you going to head to Berléand now?”

“Yes, that’s the plan.”

“I see. You really have done well for us, boy.”

“No, no. You’re the one that’s been treating me well.”

“If you get the chance, I’d be happy if you came back.”

“Yeah. I’ll definitely come if I can.”

“I contacted the guildmaster at Berléand, so go do good there, too.”

“Right.”

Like that, we left Nijhoff behind, and set off for the seaside town of Berléand.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

Six days after we left Nijhoff.

We were making good time. I’d gotten quite used to traveling, and I asked Fel to raise his speed slightly. With that as a factor, we proceeded at a pretty fast pace, and according to Fel, we’d already be at Berléand by around noon tomorrow.

“Just moving like this is pretty boring.”

《Yeah.》

Fel started complaining (with me on his back), and Dora-chan, flying next to us, agreed. As for Sui, it was sleeping soundly in the usual bag.

“What kind of nonsense are you two saying? Easy travel like this is a good thing.”

“That is true, but just running like this is still boring.”

《Yeah, he’s right. And it wouldn’t matter if some random monster attacked us, since Fel and I are here. As long as it isn’t ridiculously strong, the monster wouldn’t even be able to scratch us.》

So it really was true: it must be their wild instincts, but they can probably tell who’s strong. Traveling with Fel and the others, we don’t see many monsters and they don’t really come attacking at all. Personally I’m really happy with that, but it seems that Fel and the others don’t feel the same way.

“Indeed. I do not feel any significantly strong presences...... hm?”

《What, Fel?》

“This is... a troll? There is a stray troll heading for the road.”

A troll? I’ve only seen them in dungeons. So those huge things really do exist in the outside world.

《A troll, huh? Those things are stupid, after all. I get how they can come attacking with no thought at all with us here. I’m not super happy about having to hunt it, but I’ll be going.》

With that, Dora-chan flew off.

“Hey, that is unfair Dora!! I am lacking in exercise too — I will do it!”

“H-Hey! Fel!” Fel ran faster while I was still on his back.

“Guuoohhhh!” Right in the middle of the road, the troll stood imposingly and unleashed a roar.

*Thudshhh*

Ah, it’s dead. Dora-chan, wreathed in Fire magic, busted straight through the troll’s gut, and the troll fell over backwards.

*Thud*

“Dora! I was the one who found that troll!”

《As if I care. It’s first come first serve in times like these.》

“Grrrrrr...”

As I got off of Fel and stored the dead troll in my Item Box, Fel and Dora-chan started arguing.

“Now now, don’t fight you two. We’re getting to Berléand by noon, right? If that’s the case, we’ll be accepting more requests anyway, so you can let it out there.”

“Mnn, fine. Dora, I get priority then.”

《Hah! As if.》

“Dora-chan, don’t talk like that.”

《Tch!》

Don’t you click your tongue at me, wow. Stop arguing over who gets to defeat monsters.

Fel and Dora-chan are so violent, it’s awful. Is it because of Vahagn’s blessing? But they were pretty ruthless against monsters even before they got that... I’m not really sure why, but I’ll need to give them a place to exercise soon, huh?

After that, we proceeded smoothly, and we managed to reach Berléand by noon, just as Fel said. Thanks to the shiny golden A-rank guild card, I managed to get into Berléand smoothly with Fel and the others in tow. The air smelled like the tide. It really feels like we’ve come to a seaside town.

Now then, first up is showing my face at the Adventurer’s guild, so let’s go.

Gossip: The Three Heroes ~Entering the Kingdom of Marveil~

Since we ran away from Reijseger, two weeks had passed while we traveled a path with no road through the forest. Rio, who had lost her left arm, was now able to move normally. Actually, Rio’s been a big help.

“Stone Bullet!!”

We killed three orcs that we encountered.

“They’re orcs, so we can sell them, right?” Kanon said, touching the orc corpses. The orcs she touched were stored in her Item Box.

“Did the power of your magic go up again, Kaito?” asked Rio.

“Yeah. I think so, too. Status Open.” I checked my own status.

【Name】 Kaito Saitou

【Age】 17

【Job】 Hero from Another World

【Level】 18

【HP】 1235

【MP】 1195

【Attack】 1207

【Defense】 1174

【Agility】 1162

【Skills】 Appraisal, Item Box, Holy Sword Arts, Fire magic, Water magic, Earth magic, Wind magic, Light magic, Lightning magic, Ice magic, Healing magic

I’ve leveled up once since the last time I checked. “My level went up — I’m 18 now.”

“That’s awesome!”

“Really! You’re the strongest out of all of us, Kaito.”

Kanon was level 17, and her only stats over 1000 were MP and Attack. Rio was level 16, and she only had her MP over 1000. But, it could be said that we were only able to level like this over the past two weeks thanks to Rio.

“It’s because of Rio that we gained so many levels like this.”

Kanon agreed. “It’s thanks to Rio that we’ve become able to use all sorts of magic, after all. We’re able to use Ice and Lightning magic now too, even though we weren’t taught how.”

“That’s not true. I just said what I thought......” Rio said embarrassed.

But it really was thanks to Rio. She was the one who fervently pored through magic tomes and everything. Neither I nor Kanon bothered to read books. And even if we did, we might not have made the same connections. Both Kanon and I swallowed what we were taught whole, after all. If Rio didn’t mention it to us, we would have just thought that that was the way things were. I only figured it out when Rio said to me, “I don’t think you need those incantations to use magic.”

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

It happened five days after we started to move towards Marveil through the forest. That was around when Rio’s condition stabilized, and she’d recovered until she was able to move around normally, even without her left arm. This was also thanks to the powers of Kanon and Rio’s Healing magic.

Since we were in a forest, we saw a lot of monsters. We knew that we could sell their corpses, so we stored them all as we defeated them, since they’d be valuable sources of money once we made it to Marveil.

It was just when we’d finished defeating a goblin that appeared that day.

“O invisible blade of wind, cut mine enemy apart! Wind Cutter!!”

For a single goblin, one Wind Cutter was more than enough.

“Hey, you know, I was interested in magic, so I read some books on magic, right?” Rio started.

“Oh, yeah you did. I saw you reading some thick book before, huh?”

“Yeah,” Kanon agreed, “I was interested in magic too, but I never could get the motivation to open a book that thick.”

“Well, I figured it out when I was reading, but actually the incantations for magic are different depending on where you learn them or who you learn from,” Rio explained.

“What? Really?” Kanon was surprised at what Rio said.

So was I. We just thought that that was how magic was. We never even considered that there could be different incantations.

“So you know, I figured it out by reading a lot of books, but isn’t it just that incantations are there to help fix the image of the magic in your mind, and if you can imagine it properly, you don’t actually need the incantation? We’re Japanese. We’ve seen a lot of anime and movies and stuff, so we should be better at that stuff than these people.”

I see. Image, huh? That actually sounds possible. And I totally get that it’s easier for us to imagine with all the anime and movies we watch.

“So I tested it out. Look......” Rio said, before nervously taking a deep breath. And......

“Wind Cutter!”

*Zzshh*

The weeds in front of me were cut and thrown into the air.

“W-Woah!”

“Wow, Rio! That’s awesome!”

Rio started acting all shy and embarrassed. “I tried a lot of different things, but if you activate magic without saying anything, it gets weaker and harder to time. So fixing the image in your head and saying the name of the magic to shoot it works well. I became able to do it, so I think it’s definitely possible for the two of you as well.”

“Okay! Kanon and I will start practicing it now.”

“Yes. I’ll practice as much as I need if it means I don’t need to be spouting those cringey lines anymore.”

“Ahahaha! Cringey? Well, it’s true, I guess.”

“Everyone keeps saying those lines all seriously, I’ve lost count of how many times I almost burst out laughing.”

“Heheh... Oh you.”

“Can you oversee our practice, Rio? And if you see something we can do better, don’t hesitate to tell us.”

“Yeah, please.”

“Okay, got it.”

After that, Kanon and I spent the entire day practicing, and we learned to use magic by only saying its name, just like Rio.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

It really was a good thing that we’d learned to use magic without incantations, since having to say those incantations ate up time. It was only two or three seconds, so someone might think that it wasn’t much, but in a pinch, it could be the difference between life and death. We felt that difference really keenly while we were traveling in the forest.

Monsters don’t wait, after all.

We’d tried using magic without saying anything, but it was just as Rio told us: the magic’s power was weaker, and most importantly, it was hard to grasp the timing of the magic, making it harder to actually hit the monsters.

Just as she’d advised, it was best to just shout the magic’s name. Once we started activating magic by calling out the spell’s name, we managed to get the hang of things. And since we were just imagining the magic, I wondered if we could use magic we hadn’t ‘learned’ yet, and got everyone to try Ice and Lightning magic too. When we did, it actually worked!

After testing a lot of ideas while moving through the forest, the three of us became basically able to not only perform all four basic elements of magic, but also Ice, Lightning, and Healing magic as well.

Especially Rio: claiming that it was because she didn’t think she could use a sword or spear anymore due to the loss of her left arm, she trained extra hard in the use of magic. Thanks to that, she even figured out how to use the buffing and debuffing spells from Holy magic. Neither Kanon nor I had even thought of buffing or debuffing, but apparently Rio had because of her experience with video games.

I was pretty impressed that she managed to learn all that through practice. Kanon and I also personally experienced how nice it was to have that magic. Having a physical ability boost or defense boost cast on you markedly improved your movements, and on the other hand, having those same aspects debuffed would cause a monster’s movements to dull and makes them much easier to defeat.

After a lot of testing, we found that the spells had a time limit of around ten minutes, and Rio’s magic became a strong ally. But Rio, having obtained Holy magic, started to glow faintly whenever she cast it. It seemed that Holy magic was really effective against the undead, but there were none in the area. Since the magic was clearly cast though, it should work.

Rio will just have to do her best if any undead show up.

“Kaito! Rio! Over there! We’re out of the forest!” Kanon was the first one to notice that we had reached the end of the forest. “It’s a road, I can see a road! And people!”

Ahead of us, a road stretched along beyond the edge of the forest. On the other side of that road, we could see farmers working their fields. Kanon, excited at what she saw, started to dash off.

“Wait a second!” I called out to Kanon to stop her.

“What, Kaito?”

“We have to change clothes,” I said, and Kanon looked down at herself.

“Oh, right. This would be......”

We were wearing the same plate mail as knights from the Reijseger Kingdom. Plate mail that had the crest of the Kingdom of Reijseger firmly engraved on it. The clothes we were wearing under it were also littered with holes and really dirty due to our little jaunt through the forest.

We changed into the clothes and armor we’d prepared beforehand. Rio borrowed clothes from Kanon to change into. I had managed to buy some leather armor in town without being caught somehow, as did Kanon. She apparently had got a set of robes too, which she gave to Rio to wear.

“Okay, this should be a bit better.”

“What do we do with this plate mail?” Kanon asked. It’d probably sell for a lot, but it has the crest of Reijseger on it, so I don’t know if we’d be able to...

“Yeah, it’d probably be bad if we tried to sell this, huh?”

“Probably. It seems expensive, but it’s got the crest on it, so they’d probably ask where we got it.”

So Rio thinks so too, huh?

“It’s kind of a waste, but let’s bury it here.”

Digging a hole with Earth magic, we first threw in the clothes we’d been wearing up until now and burned them. After that, we dumped our plate mail and buried it.

“Well then, let’s go,” I said, and both Rio and Kanon nodded in response.

We left the forest, and called out to the farmers. “Excuuusee uusss!”

“Hm? What’s up?”

“Where are we?”

“Huh? You all adventurers?”

“Yes. This is our first time in this country, so we’re a little lost.”

“Oh, so your rank is low. You gotta watch out for that kind o’ stuff, you know?”

“We just started, so......”

“Well, whatever. This’s Lamperts. We’s a town on the border of Marveil. You can see the entrance if you go a little further up the road there. Do y’all have a guild card? You can get in if ya show it.”

“Thanks.” We walked in the direction he pointed us towards.

“Great! Everything’s going good. We managed to get into Marveil.”

“Yes. We did it!”

“Yeah!”

I wanted to yell out and celebrate, but it wouldn’t be good to draw suspicion from the farmers, so I held it in. We bit down on our excitement at having succeeded at running to Marveil.

Chapter 3: The Town by the Sea, Berléand

“So this is Berléand’s Adventurer’s guild, huh? It’s not as big as Dolan’s, but it’s still pretty big.”

Although it wasn’t as big as a dungeon city would be, Berléand was still a large city, and its Adventurer’s guild was larger than the ones in both Krehl and Nijhoff. The town also had a port, so it had quite a large population, too.

Now then, let’s go in.

It was just about noon, so the receptionists weren’t busy at all. For Adventurer’s guilds, the busy hours were usually during the morning and evening.

I immediately went up to a receptionist, and showed my guild card.

“Uhm, I’m Mukohda. I think there should have been some communication from the guildmaster at Nijhoff......”

The receptionist girl at the window checked my guild card and said, “Please wait a little,” before leaving her seat.

I waited just like that, and from beyond came a huge, absolutely ripped, bald man who might have been in his mid-40’s and looked like a pirate with his eyepatch. Woah! He’s even bigger up close. He’s probably taller than 190cm.

“Yo! Happy to see you here. I’m the guildmaster of this here Adventurer’s guild in Berléand. My name is Marcus. I heard from that old man Jöran. So let’s hurry this up and go to my room.”

We followed behind Marcus. Apparently the guildmaster’s room in every guild was on the second floor. We were thus led to the second floor Berléand guildmaster’s room too.

“Okay, just sit and take a load off.” Urged on by the guildmaster, we both sat in a pair of chairs. “I’ve heard a lot about you. Looks like it’s true that you made a Fenrir into your familiar. And a pixie dragon, was it? I never even knew that kind of dragon existed until I heard of yours, you know? Gahahahahaha!” Marcus laughed heartily while looking over at Fel and Dora-chan.

“It looks like pixie dragons are a really rare type, after all. Also, I have a slime familiar, too.” I picked Sui up out of my bag and showed it to Marcus.

“Oh right, yeah. There was a special, really strong slime, wasn’t there?” Marcus said, as he looked at Sui and nodded. “From the rumors going ’round the mill, you’re taking on high-ranking quests that’ve been sitting for a while, right?”

“Yes.”

“We have a pretty good number of adventurers here, so we don’t really have anything piled up... Though, to tell you the truth, about three days ago, a kraken appeared a bit off the port. Luckily, the fishermen who went out to fish saw its figure and turned back immediately, so as of right now there aren’t any casualties, but......”

Damn, a kraken? Hearing that name, Fel who was sleeping behind my chair woke up, and he plopped himself down again next to me, intent on listening.

“The fishermen can’t go out to fish, so they’re really pushing us to do something about it...”

I heard that the fishermen here are...rough. Yeah... I bet they barged in yelling. But fishermen not being able to go out and fish is a matter of life and death. So I get how desperate they are.

“I brought the quest up to a party of B-rank adventurers who’re staying in town, but they refused because fighting a monster at sea is way more difficult than fighting one on land. So I was wondering what I should do, but...... Will you take it on?”

Take it on, huh? That’s why we came here, though.

“Indeed. That is fine. Krakens are delicious.” Before I was able to answer, Fel did it for me.

“So it is.” When I said that, Marcus’ face cramped up.

“H-Hey, you can eat krakens?”

What? You can’t? When I looked over at Fel, he said, “You can. They are delicious.”

“Well, it seems you can......”

“R-Really? I’ve never heard of anyone eating kraken...... W-Well, whatever.”

A-Anyway, in Japan we eat squid and octopus, but there are also countries that don’t, so I guess this is just that kind of thing.

“At any rate, I take it that you’re accepting the request?”

“Indeed. We will.” Fel’s totally motivated to do it.

“Seems like it’s fine.”

“I see. That’s great.” Marcus’ face cleared up markedly. Most likely because he’d just solved a hard problem. “By the way, I hear you conquered Dolan’s dungeon?”

“Yes. Well, kind of.” Even though we’re a ways away from Dolan, I guess guildmasters would know.

“I see, I see. Then, I have something I want to ask you......”

Summing up what Marcus asked simply, he wanted to buy what we got out of the dungeon if there was anything left over. Apparently, most times drops from a dungeon are sold right then and there, so it’s rare for them to reach this town. Since we’d probably gotten a huge number of items from conquering the dungeon, he thought that we’d have some left over that Dolan wasn’t able to buy, so that’s why he asked.

Well, he’s right. But, I’ll have to figure out what’s left again before I can answer him, huh?

“Uhm, can we do this after I confirm what I have left?”

“Yeah, of course.”

“I think taking care of the kraken is most important right now, so I’ll show you what I have left afterwards.”

“Sure, I’m counting on you.”

Ah, right, I have to go check in on the Merchant’s guild, too. “Uhm, where’s the Merchant’s guild?”

“What? Do you need something from the Merchant’s guild?”

I told Marcus that I wanted to rent a house big enough to stay in with my familiars. Since that was the case, he wrote a letter of introduction, just as Jöran, the guildmaster in Nijhoff, did. With that in hand, we left the Adventurer’s guild and headed for the Merchant’s guild.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

“Ohh — That’s nice~.” I exited into the garden, which had an impressive ocean-front view.

I was in the middle of getting shown properties by one of the Merchant’s guild’s employees, Dennis. When I showed the letter of introduction from Marcus at the Merchant’s guild, the guildmaster came and introduced me to Dennis, who headed the real estate department. I told Dennis that I wanted to rent a house that I could stay in with Fel and the others for a week, so he showed me four properties, and we were going to look at them in order of what interested me.

The best one on paper to me was a 7LDK — that is, seven bedrooms plus living room, dining room, and kitchen space — the same as when we stayed at Nijhoff, but when I actually saw it, although the mansion itself was nice, the outside yard was smaller than I thought it would be. And it was close to its neighbors, so I wasn’t sure how good that would be. I wanted to have a seafood barbecue this time, so having a larger yard would be better, and I’d like the neighboring houses to be farther away so that the smell wouldn’t travel.

So the next best property on paper was what I was seeing right now. This one was a 9LDK, and was originally a villa belonging to a noble, apparently. The insides were befitting of having been owned by a noble, and were both spacious and gorgeously shaped. Of course, the bath was also splendid, and the kitchen was wide and perfectly stocked, complete with a magic stove. It was a bit away from town, but with Fel that shouldn’t be a problem. It was detached from the neighboring houses, too, and the yard was more than wide enough.

Yeah, I like it. All that’s left is to see how they like it. 《Heeey, what do you guys think of this house?》 Since Dennis would be shocked out of his wits if Fel just suddenly started talking, I asked everyone using telepathy.

《Hm, it is large enough for me to move around easily. I like it.》

《I like it too. It’s great that the yard is this big.》

《Sui also likes it~.》

Looks like everyone loves this yard’s size.

It was more expensive to rent this one than the previous at 73 gold a week, but it was worth it, and I wasn’t that troubled for money anyway. And it also seemed that they’d bring the price down to 70 gold thanks to the letter of introduction, too. Okay, let’s take this one.

“We want this one, Dennis.”

“I see. Thank you very much. Then it will be 70 gold, just like we discussed.”

I retrieved 70 gold from my Item Box, and handed it over to Dennis.

“Yes, I have certainly received 70 gold. Okay then, this is the key to the mansion.” Dennis handed the key over to me before leaving.

“Okay, it is time for food. I am hungry.”

《I’m getting famished, too.》

《Sui is also hungry—!》

I thought they’d say it. It was past noon, after all. “Wait a second.”

I steamed a lot of rice, so I’ve still got some left over, and if I remember right I should have some small amounts of the fried stuff, Hamburg steaks, and vegetable stir fry left...... Oh, there it is.

The vegetable stir fry was made using a sauce with garlic in it, so I used it along with the leftover rice to make vegetable stir fry stamina bowls. I also served the remaining fried foods I had.

Once Fel and Sui asked for more, all the prepared food I’d had left for traveling was gone. After lunch, there wasn’t really any time to do anything, so I decided to give everyone free time.

Only Fel went, “Hm? Are we not going to hunt the kraken?” But with the current time... I had him wait for tomorrow.

In the end, it looked like everyone just decided to take a nap. Fel was sleeping in the living room like he’d just tipped over on his side, and Dora-chan and Sui were both sleeping curled up on him. As for me, I was going to take inventory on what I had from the dungeon again. Although, I still had the list from before, so all I’d be doing is crossing out what I’d already sold in Dolan.

Now then, let’s get to it.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

I finished taking inventory on what I had left of the dungeon, and there was quite a bit — or rather, a lot, left.

Once I finished figuring out what I had, there was some meat left: minotaur meat, that is. Meat as a drop item depended on the monster, but it wasn’t really that large an amount. At least, from my perspective, given how much meat we go through. In the first place, each chunk was only about 1 or 2kg, or 3 at the most. So it didn’t even count as a single portion.

I thought I’d used all of it, but there were still 11 chunks of minotaur meat left. Okay, let’s use this for tonight’s dinner.

As for the rest of the items, it all looked like this.

【Monster Materials】

Venom tarantula venom sacs x3, orc testes x31, troll’s poison claws x48, minotaur horns x49, minotaur’s iron axes x15, orc king testes x1, red ogre magic stone (medium) x1, spriggan magic stones (large) x5, giant killer mantis scythes x38, murder grizzly pelts x21, murder grizzly magic stones (large) x3, cockatrice feathers x7, rockbird beaks x10, rockbird feathers x13, paralyze butterfly paralyzing poison scales x27, giant dodo feathers x9, giant centipede shells x3, giant centipede magic stones (large) x2, wild ape pelts x41, killer hornet poison stingers x286, killer hornet’s royal jelly x1, vaasuki fangs x1, vaasuki hide x1, vaasuki magic stone (very large) x1, manticore fur x1, manticore poison barb x1, manticore magic stone (very large) x1, Gustav hide x1, Gustav fangs x1, Gustav spine x1, Gustav magic stone (very large) x1, giant sand scorpion poison stingers x6, giant sand scorpion magic stones (medium) x3, sand worm teeth x8, sand worm magic stones (large) x4, death sidewinder skins x7, death sidewinder venom sacs x5, death sidewinder magic stones (large) x3, giant sand golem magic stone (very large) x1, behemoth hide x1, behemoth magic stone (extremely large) x1, behemoth (dungeon boss) treasure chest x1, mimic treasure chest (small) x1, mimic treasure chests (large) x2

【Gems and the like】

Sapphire (medium) x1, alexandrite (medium) x1, yellow diamond (large) x1, tanzanite necklace x1

I’d be using the meat, and the magic items I planned to use or sell on my own, so I excluded them, since I’d already presented the Necklace of Antidotes to the king. And the magic sword Caladbolg was also a no go, so I took that out too.

But looking at the list, there’s still so much left... I don’t know what they’ll buy out of this, but let’s copy down this list and hand it over to Marcus. Okay, that’s all I have to do, so let’s go cook dinner using this minotaur meat.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

Now then, what should I make out of this minotaur meat......? Oh, how about that?

Hashed beef rice. When I made curry the last time, I also saw some hashed beef rice roux and thought that I’d like to try that. But with this, there’ll be some meat left over... So let’s make some Bolognese too. Just using a can of meat sauce would be fine too, but I can produce a different kind of taste if I were to make it myself. Also, it would not only go well with pasta as a matter of course, but it’d fit bread, too. It might be nice to use for tomorrow’s breakfast. I could put it in some hot dog buns with some melty cheese. And even if there’s some left over, that’d be fine, since I can use it in lots of different dishes, too.

Okay, now that that’s decided, I’ll need to do some shopping. Let’s make it simple for the hashed beef rice and only use onions and mushrooms.

In exchange, I picked out a slightly more expensive roux. It was a roux from S-company that was slightly more expensive than others. Its selling point was that it used fond de veau veal broth for full bodied flavor. For the Bolognese, I already had Worcestershire sauce and ketchup, so I just needed onions, carrots, celery, garlic, and also a can of whole tomatoes, red wine, a bay leaf, and soup bouillon cubes.

First is tonight’s main dish, the hashed beef rice.

~◇~◇~◇~

Slice the minotaur meat — as well as the onions and mushrooms — thin. After oiling up a pot, heat it, and start off by cooking the onions until they turn clear.

Next, add in the meat and season the whole thing with salt and pepper as you cook. Once the meat changes color, add the mushrooms into the mix and lightly sauté the contents of the pot.

Then, add water, and continue to stew the combination for 20 minutes while scooping out any scum that forms, before turning off the heat. After that, add the hashed beef rice roux to the pot and melt it.

Turn on the fire once again, and continue to stew and stir until the mixture thickens.

~◇~◇~◇~

Yeah, smells nice. Let’s try a bit.

Ohh, the flavor is deep and rich. It’s good. Even without any special hidden flavors, this is plenty good on its own. Yeah, this definitely stirs the appetite.

So that it wouldn’t cool too much, I quickly stored the finished hashed beef rice into my Item Box. Next is the Bolognese.

~◇~◇~◇~

First, run the minotaur meat through the mincer.

After that step is done, chop the garlic finely, and then the onions, carrots, and celery somewhat more coarsely. After adding olive oil and the chopped garlic into a pot, turn on the flame to low and start cooking.

When the garlic starts to become fragrant, add in the onions, carrots, and celery and continue cooking.

Once the vegetables soften up, throw in the ground minotaur meat and keep cooking.

After the heat has passed through the ground meat and it has changed its color, pour in a can of whole tomatoes, some red wine, the soup bouillon cube, and the bay leaf. Let it stew while crushing the whole tomatoes.

When the whole tomatoes have been crushed to a certain consistency, add the Worcestershire sauce and ketchup into the mix. Adding these in gives the Bolognese some body.

Maintain the heat at just barely a light boil or a simmer, and continue to stew the contents of the pot while stirring so it doesn’t burn. Once enough water has evaporated, season to taste with salt and pepper to finish the dish.

~◇~◇~◇~

It turned into a Bolognese with a great amount of ground meat inside, but where the flavor of the vegetables inside could still show itself.

Yeah, looks delicious. Let’s try some...... Yep, perfect.

I stored it in my Item Box while still in the pot.

The sun had sunk quite low by now, so it was about time to have dinner. Of course, tonight’s dinner would be hashed beef rice. I plated the food for Fel, Sui, and Dora-chan, each in their own personal dishes that I bought for them in Nijhoff, with lots of the hashed beef on top. I’ll just use a regular plate for myself.

And as one would expect from a mansion that used to be a noble’s villa, there was a trolley here, too. Putting the plates on the trolley, I wheeled the food out to Fel and the others in the living room.

“Food!”

As soon as I said that, everyone woke up.

“Ohh, it smells quite good.” Fel was sniffing the food.

《It really does.》 Dora-chan followed suit.

《What a nice smell~.》 And I still have no idea how Sui manages to smell anything. But, mysteriously enough, both Sui’s sense of smell and taste are really sharp.

I put the dishes full of hashed beef rice in front of each of them. All three of them wordlessly started chowing down.

“More!” 《More!》 《More!》

That was quick. Fel and Dora-chan’s mouths are both stained brown......

As soon as I served all of them their second helpings, everyone started eating vigorously. They didn’t say anything, but with how greedily they were eating, it was easy to tell that they liked it.

Let’s see, I should eat too. Making sure to get both the rice and lots of sauce in one bite, I put it in my mouth.

Hahh, that’s delicious. Hayashi rice is really great when eaten every once in a while. I made the right call buying the roux from S-company. Looks like their selling point, the flavor of the fond de veau, wasn’t just talk. I can’t stop eating.

《Hahh~, that was amazing~.》 Dora-chan looked really full after two servings, as he lay down spread eagled.

“More.” 《More.》

On the other hand, it seemed like neither Fel nor Sui were done yet. And when I served them their next portions, they went right back to scarfing down the food.

When the pot was nearly empty, Fel and Sui were finally done.

“Whoohhh, that was delicious.”

《It was great~.》

Fel and Sui really do eat so much... I thought I’d made quite a lot, but the entire pot’s just empty.

《Master — Sui wants to eat cake...》

Even though Sui ate so much, it still wanted cake.

“Indeed, a dessert after dinner is fundamental.”

What do you even mean by that, Fel...

《Pudding! Pudding!》

Even Dora-chan, who was keeled over and spread eagled, still got up with intense speed and started yelling about pudding.

“Fine, then you all still have two for today.” I promised them two a day, and they hadn’t eaten any all day, after all.

Just like always, I opened up Fumiya’s menu. Fel had the usual strawberry shortcake, Dora-chan had pudding, and Sui had a mont blanc and a summer-limited mango rare cheesecake.

As soon as I handed over their treats, they started eating again. All in all, everyone loves sweets, huh? While watching everyone eat their dessert, I enjoyed an after-meal coffee.

We’ll finally be fighting a kraken tomorrow, huh? I wonder how it’ll go.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

In the evening, I got in the bath with Sui and Dora-chan. After that, I went looking for Fel, who had disappeared up on the second floor, and I found him sleeping in the master bedroom, just like last time. There was nothing else I could do about it, so I laid out Fel’s futon. When I went to sleep in a different room, Sui appeared...

《Master, let’s sleep together~.》

And since it asked like that, I couldn’t refuse. In the end, we all ended up sleeping together in the master bedroom, just like in Nijhoff.

We’ve rented a 9LDK, an incredibly gorgeous mansion, so why are we all sleeping in the same room? But the master bedroom was spacious, the bed was huge, and it wasn’t that different from when we were traveling, so I didn’t mind too much. And early the next morning, the plan was to go out to defeat the kraken right after everyone had their breakfast. All three of my familiars did great in the morning, they all just sprang up as soon as it became bright. I think it might be habit so they don’t miss out on a chance to eat.

Now then, I think for today’s breakfast I want to use the Bolognese I made yesterday. I considered serving it with bread, but after smelling the Bolognese, I really just wanted pasta for some reason. What should I do......

Yeah, let’s go with pasta. I think it might be a little heavy for the morning, but I was surprised to learn in the past that pasta’s easily digested, and I’ve heard it turns into energy really quickly. And, because Fel and the others would find it easier to eat, I chose short pasta — penne, to be exact.

So I bought penne with my skill, cooked it, mixed it with the Bolognese sauce, and had it for breakfast. The penne picked up the Bolognese well, and it was great. It was popular with all three of my familiars, too.

Once we’d finished breakfast, we all set out to kill a kraken.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

It’s fine that we got all the way to the port, but......

Fel had experience in killing krakens, and he was full of confidence, so I thought he had some sort of way to get to it...

But the kraken’s all the way off the coast, isn’t it? What do we even do?

Oh yeah, I never asked about the details. How did Fel kill a kraken again?

“Hey, Fel, how did you kill that kraken?”

“Hm? I stood on the top of a cliff and hit the kraken in the sea with lightning magic.”

............On top of... a cliff?

“H-Hey, so you said, ‘on top of a cliff;’ does that mean you could see the kraken from where you were?”

“Indeed. He was close to the cliff, you see.”

............THIS HUGE FUCKING IDIOOOOOT!

Wasn’t Fel listening right along with me to what Marcus said yesterday? He’s way offshore!

“Hey, hey, what do we do then? This time the kraken’s all the way out there off the coast!”

“Mn, now that you mention it, that is true. So, what do we do?”

‘What do we do,’ indeed. Don’t ask me that.

“You were so full of confidence, I thought you had some way to do it, so I didn’t think of anything.”

“Gh! ......A-As long as I can see it, I can defeat that kraken right away, I swear it.”

“But you need to see it, right? Weren’t you listening yesterday, Fel? Can you see a kraken all the way in the ocean from here?”

“Gnnrrrrrrr...”

Don’t ‘grr’ me, dude.

“Hahh~...... We already accepted the request to kill the kraken, so we still have to do something. If we’re going to go out to sea, then we’ll need a boat.”

With that in mind, I went to see if we could set sail in one of the fishermen’s boats.

“No way, no! As if I could go out to sea with a kraken out there!!”

I was refused with amazing vehemence. From what I was told, krakens were famous for catching ships with their tentacles and squeezing them until they broke, so fishermen were especially wary of them. And that went double for fishermen who owned boats — it seemed like they would never go out anywhere near a kraken. For the fishermen with boats, their boats were directly connected to their lives, and something to be treasured. So they would never do something reckless that could get their boat broken under their very noses.

I tried the other fishermen at the port as well, but their answers were all the same.

“It’s great for us that you’ll try to defeat the kraken, but...”

They all said that, but in the end they all also refused. Since they couldn’t fish near a kraken, it seemed that all the fishermen were going somewhere else, and the amount they caught lessened. Apparently, the area where the kraken had settled itself was right in the best fishing spot in the area. It might be that the kraken settled there because it was such a good fishing spot, though.

Hmmm... this is troubling. If we don’t have a boat, we can’t go and fight the kraken.

《Master—! Look, look! It feels nice in this salty water!》

I looked over; at some point, Sui had jumped into the ocean and was floating around.

《Ah! Something’s there—》 said Sui, and the slime swam like it was sliding across the water’s surface over to where I could see the shadow of a fish. And......

《Hah!》

*Thud*

A tentacle from Sui’s body pierced through the fish. Sui picked the fish up......

《Master — look at this—! Sui caught it! Hey, hey, master — can Sui eat thi—s?》

Eat? It’s kinda... yellowish green. Is it poisonous? For now, I tried appraising it.

【Green Fish】

A fish that lives near the coast. Edible.

Oh, it says it’s edible. Looks like it’s safe to eat.

“You can eat it, Sui.” As soon as I said that, Sui put the green fish into its body.

《Hmmm, it’s not that gooood...》 Looks like it didn’t really like the green fish. 《Is there anything better...?》 Sui asked, still floating in the water.

Floating in the water, floating... in... the... ah! Sui’s floating! And swimming, too!

If I gave it any thought, Sui had the blessing of the Goddess of Water, Miss Ruka, so it should have been no surprise that Sui could swim. Also......

“Sui, can you still get big in the water like that?”

《Hmm? Become big in this salty water? Sui can do it—.》 Just like that, Sui got bigger while still floating in the water.

“YESSSSSS! Nice job, Sui!” Now we can get out into the water!

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

We were currently moving across the water to get to where the kraken was.

“Thanks Sui. It’s because of you that we can go fight the kraken like this.”

《Eheheh... Is Sui awesome?》

“Yeah, Sui’s awesome. You really saved us, Sui.”

It truly was a lifesaver that Sui was around. If we remained unable to get out into the ocean like that, we might have had to give up on fighting the kraken.

“Unlike someone who’s just full of confidence but doesn’t think about anything...”

“Gnnrrr...”

《Ahahaha! He’s talking about you, Fel!》

Fel looked bitter over what I said, and Dora-chan was laughing.

All three of us were riding on Sui, who was currently huge. It was actually a really smooth ride over the water: even though we were going quite fast, there was no sway at all. Not only that, but Sui was soft, so it was perfect to sit on, too.

Sui’s strong, and can give everyone a ride like this... Honestly, Sui’s just amazing.

But my only worry was......

“Fel, I’m counting on you for that barrier around Sui.”

“I know already.”

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

“Since it is in the water it is a little hard to tell, but I can feel the kraken a little further ahead...... Hm? This is............” Fel looked over at the patch of water where the kraken was with a stern look.

“Hey, it is not just a kraken!! This presence...... There is also a sea serpent!! And something else too, although it is not as strong as either of them!”

W-Whaaaaaat?! W-W-What the hell? Not just a kraken and a sea serpent, but something else on top of that, too?!

*Ssshhhpplloooommm*

With a huge spray of water, both a 10m-class kraken and a sea serpent appeared.

“W-W-W-WHAT THE HELLLLLLLLL!!”

The kraken had the sea serpent’s long and thin body entangled in its suction-cupped tentacles, and the sea serpent was biting into the kraken’s head with its sharp teeth. Before our eyes, a clash of titans was unfolding.

“This is like a movie where two kaiju fight......” With this happening right in front of me, I could do nothing but stare, dumbfounded.

“Hey! I will take care of the kraken! Dora, you kill the sea serpent! Sui will fight the one that is still under the water!”

《Sure! The sea serpent’s mine! Let’s do it!》

《Sui just has to fight the big fish under the water, right? Sui will do it!》

Huh? Under the water? Looking closely, there’s a shadow of a large fish over near where the kraken and sea serpent are fighting...... It’s smaller than the kraken and sea serpent, but it’s still really big. W-What is that?

I thought it was going to turn into a three-sided fight, but the huge fish over on the side wasn’t moving. Could it be? Is this thing waiting for them to finish their fight? Both the kraken and sea serpent were about even in power, so it was completely possible that their fight could result in both of them dead. And even if it didn’t, one would probably be severely wounded. And at that time the huge fish’ll make its move......

So you’re trying to profit off of this fight? But it won’t go as you planned.

*THCRACCKKKKKK*

That must’ve been Fel’s Lightning magic. A flash of lightning fell on top of the kraken’s head while it was fighting the sea serpent.

*BOOOOOOMMM*

The next one was probably Dora-chan’s Lightning magic, as another bolt of lightning hit the sea serpent in its huge body while it was focused on the kraken.

Oh............ Both of the monsters, stricken by my familiars’ Lightning magic, fell over and stopped moving. I’d seen the Lightning magic that Fel and Dora-chan use several times, but it was terrifyingly powerful every time. Somehow, I’m starting to feel tingling, like I got electrocuted too. Thank goodness I got Fel to put up a barrier.

A black shadow gradually approached the kraken and sea serpent, which were floating on the surface of the water, motionless.

*Splooooooshhh*

The shadow that had been lurking under the water finally showed itself. It was a huge reddish-black fish. Said gargantuan fish tried to bite into the kraken with its mouth, lined with sharp teeth. So rather than striving to prove its own strength, it’s just going to try to steal our spoils? That won’t fly.

A tentacle from Sui’s body headed for the reddish-black fish.

*Thddsshhh*

The thick tentacle pierced through the fish. It tried to put up a fight and flailed around with its tail fin for a while, but it quickly stopped moving.

《Yayyy! Sui got the big fish!》 Sui said happily.

Huh, I guess nothing changes even on the ocean. We were all the way off the coast, so I thought that they would have at least some trouble fighting sea monsters, but there was no problem at all.

Attack first, and kill them quickly: all three of them are operating just as usual.

“Hm, it is over.”

《HEHAHAH! I BEAT THE SEA SERPENT!》

《Sui too! Look! Look at the big fish Sui caught!》

Fel and Dora-chan both brought down their targets with a single Lightning spell, and even Sui skewered the fish through with its thick tentacle... So it doesn’t matter if it’s on the water or on land, anything goes, huh? Still, what is up with that enormous fish Sui killed? Let’s try appraising it.

【Aspidochelone】

An S-ranked monster. Edible. The highest grade of white meat fish.

What, aspidochelone? That’s a pretty hard to say name for a monster. Ohh, it says it’s S-ranked. I guess they’ve gotta be S-ranked if they’re this big. And it’s even edible, and the best white meat on top of that. I’m gonna have to do whatever I can to get this meat, won’t I?

Since I was at it already, I also appraised the sea serpent and kraken, and they were both S-ranked too. They were edible as well.

Marcus said, “I’ve never heard of anybody eating a kraken,” but it certainly seems like you can. Actually, my Appraisal has started to show things as “edible.” Is that an effect of my level? Although it’s kind of iffy, just being able to tell if something is edible or not. Well, thinking about it, whether or not something’s edible is really important to us, I guess.

And this also makes our first seafood ever! And it’s a huge fish. In addition to taking down a kraken, we also got a sea serpent and an aspidochelone. That bodes well. This means we’ve finished the request, and I can head to the morning market tomorrow.

I shut the kraken, sea serpent, and aspidochelone into my Item Box.

“Well then, let’s go back.”

“Indeed.”

《Sure!》

《Yeah!》

“Sui, I’m counting on you for the way back, too.”

When I said that, Sui started moving towards the port at speed.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

After returning to the port, we headed for the Adventurer’s guild. When I showed my guild card to a receptionist, Marcus showed up quickly.

“Yo, you came. So, how was it today?”

“We beat the kraken,” I said, and Marcus went quiet with a blank look of shock on his face.

“Uhm......”

“Y-You beat the kraken? But we only just talked yesterday? Also, what happened to a boat? You didn’t borrow the guild’s boat, right?”

Ahhh, so the guild has its own boat. Well, it’s the Adventurer’s guild for a port town and they probably have to go out to sea to fight monsters quite a lot, so it makes sense for the guild to have a boat, I guess. But if that’s the case then tell me that from the beginning, come on—!

“Uhm, for the boat, we had our own way of getting out there, so it was fine.”

“I-I see. I-I heard about you already, but you really are extraordinary......”

I’ll pretend I didn’t hear those last words. I’m not the one that’s extraordinary, it’s my three familiars.

“So? Where’s the kraken?”

“Yes. It’s in my Item Box. Also......”

When I explained that I also had a sea serpent and an aspidochelone, Marcus once again was dumbstruck with his mouth hanging open. What a huge waste of his scary pirate looks and eyepatch.

“Marcus?”

“Hah! S-Sorry, that was just too surprising. Anyway, it’s not like we can check it here, so let’s go to the storehouse.”

We followed Marcus to the storehouse.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

“Oi! You all’ve got work!” Marcus yelled out as soon as he stepped foot into the storehouse. When he did, almost ten butchers who were employed there came out of the woodwork.

“What’s up, guildmaster?”

“Heheh, don’t get scared now — it’s a kraken.”

A commotion spread among the butchers as they cried out.

“And that’s not all. There’s also a sea serpent and aspidochelone.”

“R-Really?”

“W-Wow!”

Once again, a commotion spread among the butchers.

“You all get it, right? Freshness is key for sea monsters. The iron rule is to be quick.”

“““““YESSIR!”””””

W-Wow, this guild kinda seems really jock-ish.

“There are more butchers here compared to other guilds, aren’t there?”

“Yeah. This town is by the sea, after all. A lot of people come in with sea monsters. Like I said just now, freshness is key for sea monsters. And it’s not just for edible meat, there’re a lot of materials that get ruined if they go bad. So I secured more butchers than usual.”

I see. So freshness isn’t just important for the edible parts, but many of the parts that’ll become materials too, huh? If that’s the case, then I get why there’re so many of them here.

“Okay then, can you show us the kraken?”

“Yes.” I deposited the kraken onto the empty workspace they directed me to.

“I’d like to get the others too, but there’s no space. Since time is of the essence, we’ll make sure to finish all three of them by the evening, so can you stay with us until then?”

Just as I’d expect out of a seaside town like this. It’s good that they understand how important freshness is.

“Yes, that’s fine...... Ah, can you give me back the meat? I’ll sell everything else.”

“Got it. Sea serpent and aspidochelone meat are both of the highest quality, so it’s too bad we won’t be able to buy it, but it’s still great for us that you’ll sell us everything else.”

Apparently, it had been eight years since a kraken had been caught, and thirteen years since the last sea serpent. Aspidochelones were S-ranked, but on the lower end of that scale, so it was hunted more frequently and thus it wasn’t as rare, but even then it’d been two years since the guild had seen one.

“Well then, let’s get to work!!”

“““““Yeah!”””””

All nearly ten of the butchers got to work on taking the kraken apart. Marcus was giving out instructions while watching over them. Since it’d been so long since something huge like this came along, it seemed that Marcus was going to stay and help.

《Hey.》 As I was also watching the work on the kraken being done, Fel communicated via telepathy.

《What?》

《I am hungry.》

《I’m hungry too.》

《Sui too.》

Ahhh, right. It was already past noon by the time we got to the guild. I guess they would be hungry.

《Wait a second.》

“Excuse me, Fel and the others are hungry, so I’ll be off to feed them,” I told Marcus, and we moved to a spot in the warehouse where we wouldn’t stand out. Like this, we probably won’t be seen while I feed Fel and the others. I can’t cook here, so let’s just get some snack buns.

I used my skill to buy a bunch of snack buns, cider, and cola. Then, I plated the snack buns on their dishes and served them out.

“Sorry, but you’ll have to make do with this. We should have the kraken by the evening, so I’ll be able to cook something better for dinner.”

“Mn, fine then.”

《Make sure that dinner is delicious, then.》

《Got it—.》

—They said, before chowing down on the bread.

“What about drinks? I bought cider and cola.”

“I will have the black one.”

《Me too.》

《Sui wants the clear fizzy one—.》

So, cola for Fel and Dora-chan, and cider for Sui. I poured the drinks into deep dishes for them. “Okay then, stay quiet here until they finish butchering the monsters,” I said to everyone before returning to Marcus.

The butchering progressed, and the kraken’s tentacles and innards had already been removed. Apparently, they’d all be used as materials. It seemed like each of the leg’s suction pads were great materials for shields, and Marcus’ face was all warm and joyous. Since the kraken’s suction pads were both light and tough, shields made out of them sold for a good amount and were quite popular. And the kraken’s eyes and mouth were ingredients used for alchemy, so I was told they would sell for a high price among those circles. And as for the kraken’s innards like its guts or squid ink, apparently they’d be used as fertilizer for a high-class fruit that was mainly sold to nobles, so the fertilizer sold well even though it cost several times more than normal. Though it was said that all of the kraken would become materials, the legs themselves would be scrapped after having their suction pads removed. From what Fel told me, the legs were just hard and inedible, after all. They also took out the bones. Those bones were both supple and strong, so I was told they’d be used to make fishing rods for huge fish.

Also, the kraken was S-ranked, so it had a magic stone. The magic stone was fairly large, indigo-colored, and shaped like a rugby ball. It seemed to be of quite good quality, judging by Marcus’s wide smile as he nodded.

All that was left was its meat, and it seemed that this was normally disposed of. “This meat... Usually, we get rid of it. Are you really going to eat it?” Marcus asked me while they were taking care of the kraken’s legs and innards.

“Yes, since Fel says it’s delicious.”

And also because it’s a huge squid, no matter how you look at it. I like squid, you know? From the look of it, kraken meat is thick but softer than I thought it’d be. However, this skin might be in the way no matter how I try to prepare it. A normal squid’s skin wouldn’t be a bother no matter how it was cooked, but it looks like the kraken’s skin is a little too thick, so it should probably be removed. And for this kraken — or any monster really, including the fish sold in the morning market — I really should refrain from making sashimi.

These fish and monsters were from another world, after all. I had no idea what was in them, so I was going to cook them as a basic safety measure.

Ah, right. It’s huge... I wonder if I can get some help with this kraken.

“Excuse me, can I get help with peeling off this skin?”

“Hm? That’s fine. Since you brought all these huge catches and all,” Marcus agreed, and called over several of the butchers.

“Well then, I’m counting on you for the help. First, here......” I plunged my arm between its body and its ear-like fins and separated them. Then, while having the butchers hold down the tip of the body, another butcher and I grabbed on to the fins and pulled. And from the tear left behind by pulling on the fins, several of us started peeling away the rest of the skin.

Let’s get this off... Whew, okay. Next is...... Normally, a knife is used to scrape off the hard base where the bone is attached, but this spot is pretty hard...I have no other choice but to remove the lower part.

Producing a mithril knife from my Item Box, I cut it off.

“A mithril knife, huh? Wow, you really are A-ranked,” Marcus said, sounding moved.

“Well, even though it’s mithril, it’s still just a knife,” I said, laughing vaguely.

Truthfully, it was made out of mithril ore I’d picked up out of a certain place and had Sui work it, so it was basically free. I’d never say that even if they were to cut me open, though.

While breaking down the peeled kraken meat into appropriately sized pieces, I threw the completed pieces into my Item Box.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

“Okay then, next I’ll take out the sea serpent.”

“Yeah. Hey all of you! Next is the sea serpent!”

I took the sea serpent out of my Item Box. Looking at it, all the butchers started whispering among themselves.

“Hey, I don’t have an Item Box myself, but I’ve never seen someone with an Item Box that big...”

“Yeah. Also, that adventurer had a kraken inside there, too. For both a kraken and a sea serpent, just how big is his Item Box?”

“From what the guildmaster said, doesn’t he also have an aspidochelone? Seriously, just how huge is that adventurer’s Item Box?”

Uhhh... I can hear you all very clearly. I think my Item Box is just about infinite in size, just so you know. It’s the one unique to otherworlders. But, I’d like it if you didn’t try to pry into that fact. I don’t want anyone to know that I’m from another world.

“Hey, stop the chatter. And I’ll tell you now: this adventurer, Mukohda, is the one that directive from the capital’s Adventurer’s guild is about. Don’t pry too much. Depending on the case, you might not even be able to stay in the country, let alone this guild, you know?”

When Marcus said that, all the whispering among the butchers suddenly stopped.

Wait. Huh? What’s up with that? From what I’d heard, the king told the nobles to leave me alone, but I see the Adventurer’s guild had something like that, too. I’m thankful that nobody will be weirdly persistent when it comes to me, but I don’t really like that it sounds like they’re threatening people, with all that stuff about not being able to stay in the guild or the country or whatever... Well, thanks to Marcus saying that, everyone stopped talking, so I guess it’s fine? I mean, there’s my case, but there’s Fel and the others, too, so people prying into my affairs would be the worst. So I guess it’s fine if I can stop them from doing that...

Even while that conversation was happening, the sea serpent butchering continued. It was being taken apart even during all that fuss. Its skin was peeled off, and its body, head, and bones were separated. In its head, everything other than the eyes, fangs, and skull were to be scrapped, and the same went for the serpent’s innards. The skin would become materials for armor, and the bones, fangs, and skull would become materials for weapons like swords, knives, or arrowheads. It seemed like the eyes would become ingredients in some sort of medicine. And the sea serpent was also S-ranked, so of course it had a magic stone. This one was a large, perfectly round magic stone, and it was colored a striking blue. It seemed that the magic stone was of good quality, and Marcus’ scary face had a huge smile on it.

Of course, I got the meat back. From its looks, it was the same as a black serpent or red serpent. I wouldn’t know for sure until I ate it, but I imagined it would taste the same as well.

And lastly......

“Okay then, I’m going to take out the aspidochelone.”

“Yeah.”

I took the huge fish, aspidochelone, out of my Item Box. Though it was a little smaller than the kraken or sea serpent, which were each in the 10-meter class of monsters. But, it was still an almost 10-meter fish, so it was big enough to call a giant fish.

The butchering of the aspidochelone also continued amidst a fuss. Its scales were stripped, and its head was separated from its body. Then, its innards were taken out, and it was filleted. Apparently, the scales would be used for jewelry, like necklaces, rings, or brooches. When polished, they’d shine a rainbow color, and jewelry made from them was so popular with women, it practically flew off the shelves, I heard.

I thought of taking its head and bones to make broth with, but Marcus stopped me with tears in his eyes. “What are you thinking? Using all this stuff that’ll make for great weapons for soup......” was what he said.

I mean, it said, “the highest class of white meat,” when I appraised it, so I just thought that if I used them for broth it’d turn out great...

But the aspidochelone’s bones would apparently become good swords, knives, or arrowheads as well, and those weapons were also quite popular. When I heard that, I couldn’t very well insist that they give the bones to me, so with no other choice, I gave up on the idea. Beyond that, it seemed that the hard parts, like its tail and dorsal fin, would also make for good weapons.

And of course, the aspidochelone was also S-ranked, so it had a magic stone. The aspidochelone’s magic stone was round and flat, and the color of water. This one was also of pretty good quality, and Marcus looked satisfied.

The leftover innards would be disposed of. I got the meat back from this as well, so I put it into my Item Box. Just like Appraisal (“the highest class of white meat”) claimed, its white meat was beautiful to behold, and it looked like it would be perfect cooked any way, whether it was grilled, boiled, or fried.

“The butchering is done, so all that’s left is to price out the materials and that’ll take a little while. Would that be fine?”

Marcus notified me that the butchering of the kraken, sea serpent, and aspidochelone were all finished. As I thought, it would take some time, huh? They’re all pretty big, so it would probably take a while to appraise the materials, too.

“Yes, that’s fine. When should I come back?”

“Let’s see. I’ll get it done by afternoon tomorrow.”

Tomorrow afternoon, huh? That’s great. I was planning to go to the morning market that those guys in Shadow Warrior told me about, anyway. I want to get some seafood there and get breakfast at the stalls.

“Well then, I’ll come back tomorrow afternoon.”

“Sure. I’ll be waiting.”

I woke up my familiars, who’d fallen asleep in a corner of the storehouse, and we left the Adventurer’s guild.

Chapter 4: Mukohda’s Party Consumes the Bounty of the Ocean

As soon as we got back to the house, my familiars...

“I am looking forward to dinner.”

《I’m looking forward to that good food, got it?》

《Master, make something good, okay~?》

They all said stuff like that, full of expectation...

I got through the moment by replying, “Got it,” and now I’m in the kitchen... what should I make...

For the moment, I decided to try a bit of the kraken, sea serpent, and aspidochelone to see how they tasted.

Let’s see... The kraken is...... Yeah, it’s just a regular squid. Even though it’s that big, it’s not tasteless or anything. But it’s just a little bit elastic in the mouth, so it kind of feels like eating cuttlefish. If it’s like this, then just using it like regular squid for food seems to be fine.

The sea serpent is...... Yeah, just like I thought, it tastes like black and red serpent. Or rather, it tastes vaguely like chicken. Both the black and red serpents were really good as karaage... It might be good to make sea serpent into karaage too. Or something that would usually require chicken.

The aspidochelone is...... Yep, it’s just like Appraisal said, “The highest class of white meat.” This one would probably be great cooked in any way.

I decided to treat the kraken like regular squid. Truthfully, grilling it on a charcoal grill like one would a fish would be great, but I didn’t have one at the moment, so I’ll use a frying pan. I also went with salt-cooked kraken and vegetables. I liked squid, so I would make two dishes. For the sea serpent, I planned on making karaage, since it couldn’t miss. It tasted similar to black and red serpent, so it should be delicious, and everyone liked karaage, too. Finally, I decided on aspidochelone cooked with a sweet vinegar ankake sauce.

I had time for now, so I decided to make several dishes, making sure each one wouldn’t require too much time to cook.

First is getting ingredients off of my Online Supermarket. I have all the seasonings and sauces I need for grilled squid, so it’s just the ingredients for the salt-cooked kraken, huh? It didn’t matter what vegetables I used, so I went with asparagus and red bell pepper for color. I also went with raw garlic and ginger. I already had garlic, so I just bought the ginger, and I had all the seasonings I needed, so that was it. I make karaage a lot, so I have everything already and I don’t need to get anything else. As for the white meat fish, I needed onions, carrots, and peppers for the ankake’s vegetable portion, as well as enoki mushrooms and boiled bamboo shoots. And I also picked up some ketchup because I was out of it.

Now then, I’ve got all I need, so I guess let’s get started.

~◇~◇~◇~

First, start marinating the sea serpent meat in both soy sauce and salt-based tare. Meanwhile, start on the next dish: the grilled squid to be made from kraken. Start off by mixing together sake, mirin, soy sauce, and grated ginger to make the sauce. Grated ginger from a tube works fine, but freshly grated ginger will give it a better taste. This time, I had fresh ginger already, so I grated it myself.

After cutting down the kraken into easier-to-eat pieces, start cooking it in an oiled frying pan. Once the kraken turns white and is cooked through, mix it around in the sauce. Quickly coat the whole piece of kraken in the sauce to finish it.

~◇~◇~◇~

Eating this with mayonnaise on top is delicious. Ahh...no good no good, I need to move on. I was just about to bring out some mayo... That was close.

I split up the grilled squid and plated everyone’s portions. I had extra, so what was left was thrown into my Item Box while still in the frying pan. Next would be the vegetables and salt-cooked kraken.

~◇~◇~◇~

Cut a lattice pattern into the kraken meat before rendering it into bite-sized pieces, and mince the garlic and ginger. Use a peeler to remove the hard bottom skin of the asparagus before cutting it into diagonal wedges of around 5cm. Then, remove the seeds from the red bell pepper before cutting it into slightly large strips.

Oil up a heated frying pan, and lightly sauté the asparagus and red bell pepper. Once they’ve been heated through, remove them from the pan. Oil up the same frying pan again, and sauté the minced garlic and ginger until they release their fragrance before adding in the kraken and continuing to cook. Once the kraken meat turns white, add the asparagus and red bell pepper back in. Then, add in salt and pepper, sake, and chicken broth, and bring the solution to a boil before thickening it with potato starch dissolved in water to finish it.

~◇~◇~◇~

It looks really colorful and pretty because the asparagus and red bell pepper aren’t too overdone, doesn’t it? After plating these as well, I also put the leftovers still in the frying pan into my Item Box. Since frying would take a lot of oil I was going to leave that for last, so next would be the aspidochelone cooked with sweet vinegar ankake.

~◇~◇~◇~

Slice the aspidochelone meat into appropriate sizes. Thinly slice the onions, and cut the carrots, peppers, and boiled bamboo shoots into strips. For the enoki mushrooms, cut off the foot of the mushroom and untangle the different pieces. Take the cut aspidochelone meat and season it with salt and pepper before lightly coating it in potato starch. Using a largeish amount of oil, the next step is to fry the meat in the frying pan. Once the sliced chunks turn a light brown and it’s been cooked through, take the meat out of the pan to rest for a while.

Since there’d be leftover oil in the pan used to fry the meat, use the same pan to cook the vegetables. Sauté the onions; once they become clear, add in the carrots, peppers, and boiled bamboo shoots and continue to cook until they soften up a little. Then, add in the enoki mushrooms. Once all the vegetables have been cooked through, add a little water, soy sauce, vinegar, mirin, sugar, and ketchup and bring the whole thing to a quick boil before adding in potato starch to thicken it up.

With all that done, plate the aspidochelone slices along with lots of the sauce with vegetables in it on top to finish out the dish.

~◇~◇~◇~

I put this in my Item Box as well, along with the extra cooked aspidochelone meat and sauce still in the frying pan. And since everyone liked karaage and would probably want a lot, I made bunches and bunches of it.

“Whew~, I’m done.”

After plating everyone’s portion of karaage as well, I shoved the tray, now piled high, into my Item Box as well. Now then, let’s go over to everyone. They’re probably hungry.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

“Sorry to keep you waiting.”

“Ohh, finally. We have been so hungry, we were about to go over to you.”

《It’s true. Geez.》

《Sui is also starving~.》

“Sorry, sorry. In exchange I’ve got lots of different food,” I said, before serving everyone their dishes. “This one is grilled kraken, and this one’s a salt-cooked kraken with vegetables. And this one is white meat aspidochelone cooked with a sweet vinegar ankake, and sea serpent karaage.”

“It loses points for having vegetables, but well, it looks delicious.”

Fel really hates vegetables, doesn’t he? Well, he’s still eating it even if he complains, so it’s fine I guess.

《Ohh! It all looks so good!》

Dora-chan, you’re drooling.

《All of it looks delicious~.》

Sui looks like it was just going to go ahead and start enveloping the grilled kraken right away.

Right, right? Doesn’t the grilled kraken look good? Wait, I have to put that on! “WAIT A SECOND!”

“Mg...... what?”

Oh my, Fel already started eating his grilled kraken.

《Aw come on, you can’t do that just before we’re about to eat.》

《Master~, Sui wants to eat~.》

“Sorry, sorry. But the grilled kraken will be more delicious if you put this on it.” I took mayonnaise out of my Item Box and put it on everyone’s grilled kraken.

“Grilled kraken really does need mayo. Yeah, it’s fine. Go ahead and eat.” Everyone started eating the grilled kraken after I put the mayo on it.

“Ohh, you were correct. Adding this white stuff makes it more delicious.”

Right, Fel?

《Mm, I love this elasticity. And I could get really hooked on this taste, too.》

The combination of the kraken’s texture, the soy sauce, and the mayo is the best, right?

《This is so goo~d.》

It looked like even Sui the gourmand liked the grilled kraken.

“This thing called karaage really is delicious.”

Looks like Fel started on the karaage. He really does love that stuff.

《This other cooked kraken is good too.》

Seems like Dora-chan really took a liking to kraken meat. It’s good, I know. I like it too.

《This fishy with this sauce is just a little sour and it’s so tasty—.》

And for Sui it’s the sweet vinegar ankake, huh? I tried a little bit of that too, and it turned out great.

Now then, I should start too. First is the grilled kraken. Yep, it’s good. Mayo really was the right idea. Ahhh, I want some beer. Next is the aspidochelone with sweet vinegar ankake. Hmmm, this one makes me want white rice.

I opened up my Online Supermarket and bought some beer and white rice. This time, I chose A-company’s dry beer, since it seemed like it would pair really well with the grilled squid.

“Ahhh, this sweet vinegar ankake and salt-cooked squid really goes with rice...”

Using the aspidochelone with sweet vinegar ankake and salt-cooked kraken with vegetables as side dishes, I surrounded them with rice.

“More. I want this kraken that has been grilled, and this karaage.” Fel came in with the usual order for more.

Grilled kraken and karaage right? I plated his extra order and served it to him. Of course, I added the mayo to the grilled kraken.

《Sui wants more too~. Uhhh, Sui wants...all of it—.》

A-All of it? I served Sui more of everything. W-Well, eat a lot and grow bigger, I guess. Wait, it’s already big. Sui’s a huge slime, after all.

《This is just the usual, but you guys eat way too fast.》 Dora-chan said, looking exasperated.

After all, even though I brought out way more than usual, both Fel and Sui put it down in a heartbeat. I’ll need to secure some grilled kraken and sea serpent karaage for my beer before everyone finishes all of it.

I put some mayo on the grilled kraken and popped it in my mouth. “Ohh, so good~.”

And......

*Pssht* *Glglglglglg* *Ppphaahhh*

“Yep, the best.”

Next, I popped some sea serpent karaage into my mouth. This one was juicy and delicious. It tasted like black and red serpent, but sea serpent may be just a little softer when it hits the fryer. Yep, yep, it’s delicious.

*Glglglg*

“Both the grilled kraken and the karaage go great with beer~.”

Seafood really is awesome. I feel that even stronger because of all the meat we’d been eating.

“Man I just love the bounty of the sea. It’s delicious.”

“Indeed. It is really nice once in a while.”

《Really. How many decades has it been for me? I’d never been near the sea all that much in the first place.》

《Hey, hey, you know? What was that salty water, the ocean? It was Sui’s first time eating stuff from the ocean~. It’s suuuuuper delicious~!》

It really was the right choice to come to the sea. Let’s get a lot of stuff from tomorrow’s morning market.

“Ah, tomorrow morning I’m going to the market. They have stalls there, so we’ll be eating out for breakfast.”

“Hohh, if that is the case we will be able to eat fresh things, right? I am looking forward to it.”

《Human stalls, huh? I wonder what they’ll have? I’m excited.》

《Master—, can Sui eat a whoooole lot?》

“Yeah, it’s fine.”

Looks like everyone’s looking forward to the morning market. I’m excited too — I wonder what kind of fish will be there.

《Ah, master — more of this fishy, please.》

Sui still wants more? I plated and served Sui some more aspidochelone with sweet vinegar ankake.

That day, we thoroughly enjoyed the bounty of the sea that everyone managed to catch.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

“Welcome! Welcome! It’s all cheap~!” A cheerful voice rang out into the crowd. We were at the morning market near the port.

“Hohh, there are quite a few species around.”

I was wondering how it would be since this was another world, but there were more different kinds of fish than I’d imagined on sale. The fish were of all kinds, big and small, and some of them even made me question whether or not they were edible. It was the same for shellfish too; there were even ones that looked just like manila clams, or some that looked like scallops. Well then, I’ll just have to buy a whole bunch of different stuff then, won’t I?

I walked around the morning market. Although people were shocked at first seeing Fel and the others, as soon as they understood that they were familiars they were unexpectedly okay with it. It seemed that the old men selling fish here were all fishermen too, so they had guts. The old ladies were...... Hm, well they’re basically the strongest in any universe, aren’t they? They just don’t sweat the small stuff.

With Fel and the others in tow, I continued to walk around the morning market and bought a huge amount of all different kinds of food. The first thing I bought was a fish that looked a lot like mackerel, called mackeren. It was a very popular fish in the area and was eaten often. The guy manning the store said it was really delicious grilled. It looked like it’d be great used in miso mackerel, so I bought all the store had.

When I asked if it would be alright to buy out the store......

“As you can see, this place is full of fish. Even if one place sells out of fish, other places have the same ones anyway. Don’t worry about that stuff and just buy all you want,” said the older guy.

I see. Just as he said, the morning market was teeming with stalls selling fish. Of course, no store would only sell only one type of fish, so it seemed like it was natural for several stores to be selling the same thing. Just as he claimed, even if one store sold out, other stores would still have it, so there wasn’t really any need to pay attention to that.

After that, there was a fish that looked exactly like a salmon, called salmen. It was a little bigger than normal salmon, but its meat was pink, and it looked exactly like salmon. Apparently, this fish was also popular in the area. According to the lady in the store, this one was also delicious grilled. Salmon could be used in a lot of different dishes, so I also bought out this store’s supply.

The next one I noticed was a fish that looked a lot like horse mackerel. It was called mackero, and it was treated like junk food. I was told that it’s only use was as dried food. It looked exactly like a horse mackerel though. My instincts were telling me that it’d definitely be delicious fried. It was incredibly cheap at just 3 copper for an entire bucket, so I bought all I could of this as well.

Just like that, I spent time walking around the morning market and buying whatever I felt like......

“Welcome, welcome! It’s Berléand’s famous tyrant fish! They’re fresh, just caught today! Now buy it! Buy it all!”

Tyrant fish, huh? That’s the fish that those guys in Shadow Warrior praised so much, right? I definitely need to get some.

I headed towards the store that was selling tyrant fish, and saw the fish that seemed to be the tyrant fish displayed boldly. The fish, which was almost 2 meters across, looked exactly like a pirarucu, the world’s largest freshwater fish that only lived in the Amazon river. If I were to reach for difference, just about the only point would be its mouth full of sharp teeth, and that it lived in the ocean.

“Excuse me. I’d like a tyrant fish.”

“Sure! Thanks fer tha business! Tyrant fish is great grilled or even in soup, you know—.”

Grilled or in soup, huh? Looks like they really don’t eat anything raw. But, I guess I’ll at least try asking......

“Uhm, do you not eat them raw?”

“Raw?! Of course not, that’s idiotic! If you eat it raw you’ll die!!” said the old man quite forcefully. “Wait, bro, could you be a foreigner?”

This country was largely inhabited by people with Anglo-Saxon features, and although black hair wasn’t impossible, it was rare, so it seemed that was the impression the guy working the store got. So I rode that misconception.

“Yes, well...”

“I see. There’s countries without access to the ocean, so I guess you wouldn’t know. Then I’ll tell you so you won’t die......”

And when I listened to the guy talk, it turned out parasites really did exist. It was called the vorbalas fishworm, and it seemed that it was a parasite that could infect anything that lived in the ocean. Apparently this parasite lived in between a fish’s skin and meat, and laid its eggs there. It wasn’t an especially rare parasite, and it didn’t affect the fish that was its host, so it seemed like it happened often enough that fish with the parasite were sold in this market. But if that parasite were to infect a human, it’d be pretty bad. It would eat through your innards, and in the end it would kill its host. And since that would only take a short week to ten days, it was way too strong. However, this vorbalas fishworm had a very decisive weakness, and that was heat.

“The vorbalas fishworm lives in between the fish’s skin and meat, you see. So even if it’s just for a little bit, heating it up is very important.”

According to him, it would be fine as long as you grill, boil, or even roast the fish for even a little. Yeah, not eating it raw really was correct. Or rather, when I ate that giant talepo tataki before, in hindsight I really shouldn’t have been thinking from Japanese standards. It was pretty good, but the unspoken question of, “What about parasites?” had me pretty worried.

Since I was fine even after a while had passed, I felt relieved. But there’s gotta be parasites for land monsters and animals too, right? I don’t think I’ll ever be eating any meat that’s close to raw again. When I asked the guy about it anyway due to the flow of conversation, I was told that there really were parasites for land creatures. It was similar to the vorbalas fishworm, and it was also weak to heat. It looked like I was safe because I gave one side of the giant talepo a quick sear just in case.

Th-Thank goodness.

“In any case, the most important thing is to heat it, at least a little,” said the guy at the store, nodding to himself.

I’ll keep that in mind.

So although completely raw is out the window, a quick sear like with tataki is fine, huh? That being said, I’d just heard about the vorbalas fishworm. I don’t think I can work up the courage to eat tataki anytime soon. There’s a lot of ways to enjoy food without eating it raw, so for now I’ll just enjoy seafood by boiling, grilling, frying, or even steaming.

“So, bro, how many tyrant fish do you want?”

“Ah, I’ll take all the slices you have there, and can I get you to butcher this one, too? Then I’ll buy the rest you’ve got.”

“You sure you’re good on money, bro?” the guy asked, a little bewildered at how much I was buying.

Well, that makes sense. Including the sliced meat, it’d be about three whole tyrant fishes’ worth. Also, since tyrant fish are at least nominally a monster, they’re more expensive than other fish.

“It’s fine. Even if I look like this I’m a pretty high-ranked adventurer.”

“Ohh, is that so? Then please wait a second.” With just those words, the guy started filleting the tyrant fish. Clearly, I wouldn’t be good enough to do that myself for something that big. Leaving stuff like this to the pros is the best choice.

He took no time at all to finish butchering the fish, and I took it along with the displayed slices. All in all, it was 2 gold. Even though it was expensive compared to other fish, all this tyrant fish was still cheap at just 2 gold. As expected out of a port town. It’ll all be fine if I just throw it into my Item Box, so let’s keep buying.

The next things that caught my eye were shrimp and crabs. There were vermillion shrimp that looked like tiger prawns, but quite a bit bigger, and a prettier scarlet color. Bronze king crabs, which looked like red king crabs: these were also quite a bit bigger than their counterpart in my world, aside from the bronze color. There’s no way shrimp and crab could be bad. Thinking I couldn’t go wrong since I saw quite a lot of locals buying this stuff, I also bought out all the shrimp and crabs in the store.

I also bought some shellfish that looked like manila clams in both appearance and size. In this world, they were called mini clams. And they were packed full into buckets, and sold at next-to-free prices due to them being so small. Of course, I bought all I could. They’d be good in miso soup, or steamed with salt and some sake, or even in western clam chowder.

Also, there were the big hard clams that those guys in Shadow Warrior told me about. Just as I’d heard, they were huge,about the size of my palm. I also bought as many of them as I could, and I also bought out their small hard clams, a smaller version of big hard clams, which were slightly larger than my fist. Small hard clams were a little bigger than normal Asian hard clams in my world, so I think they’d be perfect for barbecue.

Afterwards, I also bought some yellow scallops, which were similar to scallops in my world. They were around twice as big as regular scallops, and their shells were yellow. But the inside was the exact same as a regular scallop. Since these were also good grilled, they were a favorite in food stalls. Of course, I bought as many as they had.

I felt like I wanted to look around a bit more, but it seemed like Fel and the others were getting fidgety because they were hungry, so I decided to end it there for the day. But, it was all so cheap. There was so much variety, too. Just what I expected out of this seaside town. Even though I bought so much, I still didn’t quite manage to spend 5 gold. Still, it would only amount to a scant couple of meals for Fel and the others’ stomachs. I swore to buy as much seafood as I could while we were here.

“Now then, let’s go try out some of these stalls.”

“I was getting tired of waiting.”

《Really.》

《Sui is so hungry~.》

“Sorry, sorry. It looks like there’s a lot of stalls, so cheer up. Let’s try a bunch of them.”

“Mn, are any of them okay?”

“Sure.”

“I see. Then let us start from the beginning. Dora, Sui, we are going.”

《Yeah!》

《Sui will eat lots~.》

I headed for the food stalls, following after my familiars who were moving speedily.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

The stalls were lined up around a certain plaza in the morning market. The first one that Fel and the others laid their eyes on was one that sold grilled fish. I wonder what kind of fish it is? They were serving slices of it. The fragrant smell of the grilling fish stirred the appetite.

“Okay, we are eating this fish.”

《Yeah!》

《Fish~!》

Looks like everyone’s raring to chow down.

“Excuse me.”

“Hey! Welcome.”

“I’d like all the fish that’s already cooked here, as well as all the fish you’re grilling right now.”

When I said that, the older guy manning the stall froze in shock. When I explained that I’d be eating along with my familiars, he understood.

“What kind of fish is this?”

“It’s mackeren. It’s fresh, so it’s good—!”

That mackerel-looking fish named mackeren, huh? Looks like the only flavoring is salt, but it looks pretty fatty and delicious. I paid the man, and took the fish. Looking at the stalls, they wanted you to bring your own utensils, and there were people buying them as well, so that’s what I did.

For my familiar’s portions, I took their personal dishes from my Item Box and piled the fish inside. I ate mine still skewered.

We moved somewhere where we wouldn’t be in the way, and everyone started eating their fish.

“Hm. This is pretty good.”

《Yeah, it really is so good because it’s fresh.》

《Fish is so tasty~.》

“It’s just salt for flavoring, but this mackerel’s fattiness is really tasty.”

Everyone was satisfied with the flavor. All the fish in their dishes quickly disappeared.

“Okay, next.”

《Next! Next~!》

《Sui wants more~.》

The next stall they went to was selling soup with shellfish and vegetables in it, and it smelled delicious.

“What a nice smell. What kind of soup is it?” I asked the old lady manning the stall.

“This one? This is a soup made by taking big hard clams, cutting them into large chunks, and boiling them slowly with vegetables. It’s good, try some.”

Of course I will. All my familiar’s attention is glued to the soup, after all.

“Well then, can you fill up each of these dishes?”

“Sure thing. Thanks!”

I paid the lady at the stall, and had her quickly ladle out the soup into everyone’s dishes. Of course, I also had a large soup bowl for myself. Everyone quickly started eating.

With lots of clams inside, it’s really got some texture. This one is also probably only flavored with salt, but with the sweetness of the vegetables and good broth made with the giant hard clams, it is delicious. I worried about big hard clams, thinking that they might be more tasteless since they’re so big, but apparently that isn’t the case. It makes for good, solid broth, and the meat is soft and delicious. This soup is light and easy to eat. It’s great. I could drink this just about forever.

“Hey.” Around when I was half finished with the soup, Fel...... “I want more.”

《Sui also wants more.》

Fel and Sui had finished in the blink of an eye. More already?

《I want some too, but if I do that then I probably won’t be able to fit what’s next. It’s too bad, but I’ll hold back on it.》

Dora-chan also looked like he wanted some, but he decided to refrain. Dora-chan also eats a lot when compared to someone like me, but he isn’t nearly at the level of Fel or Sui. If he eats here again, he won’t be able to fully enjoy all the stalls anymore. I paid, and had the old lady give Fel and Sui another helping.

“Hm. This soup is light, and is in itself pretty delicious.”

《Sui also likes this~.》 Fel and Sui finished their second bowl quickly as well.

“We are going to the next one.” With Fel in the lead, the next stall we went for was one that was grilling both giant and small hard clams. Just from looking, I could tell there was no way this would be terrible. The giant and small hard clams would pop open due to being grilled. There was a sound coming from the plump, thick meat inside and the boiling essence of clam that was pooled around the meat......

*Shlrrp* I was drooling. Looks good. There’s no mistake. It’s definitely going to be delicious.

《How many do you want?》

Each giant clam was big, so I asked them through telepathy how much they wanted.

《I will have ten for now.》

《Hmmm, I’m fine with three.》

《Sui wants to be the same as uncle Fel with ten!》

I paid what I owed, and I took everyone’s giant hard clams and dumped the meat and juices out of the shell and into their dishes since Fel and the others wouldn’t be able to eat it with the shell still there. When I served them their dishes, all of them quickly started chowing down.

“Hohh, this is good.”

《Yeah. Every time I bite into it, there’s a burst of delicious juice.》

《So good~.》

It seems like the grilled giant hard clams are popular with all three of them. It looked good right from the start, after all. I should eat, too.

I took one each of the giant and small hard clams and compared them. Still, every time I see the giant hard clam, it seems bigger and bigger. I feel like I’d get full from just one. Now then, let’s try it.

I bit into the giant hard clam’s plump and tender meat. Instantly, the clam’s umami spread throughout my mouth. With every chew, the clam’s savoriness flooded out.

This is delicious! The tender meat gives it a good texture, and more than anything it tastes good. And just as its appearance suggested, it’s like an Asian hard clam. Why is this clam so delicious? If it’s this good just by grilling it, how delicious would it be with some soy sauce? I’m definitely gonna do a seafood barbecue.

I continued eating bite after bite, before slurping down the juices left in the shell, too.

“Hahh, that was good.”

Next was the small hard clam. I downed the entire thing in one go. The umami spilled over and filled my mouth. It’s the same flavor as the giant hard clam. Just like its name, the small hard clam is just a tiny version of a giant hard clam, huh? But the texture is a little better with this one. It’s got just a little more bite-back. The giant hard clam was softer. This one also seems like it’d be great with some soy sauce. This is definitely going into the seafood barbecue.

After that, we enjoyed food like grilled vermillion shrimp which resembled tiger prawns, bronze king crabs that were like red king crabs in both grilled and boiled form, and an acqua pazza with lots of different seafood boiled in it.

Dora-chan and I tapped out in the middle, but Fel and Sui just kept happily going around the stalls.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

It was almost noon before Fel and Sui were finally satisfied.

“Hm, that was good.”

《It was so good~. Sui is fuulllll.》

Well yeah, with how much you two ate.

《You all eat way too much.》

Dora-chan was a little exasperated at Fel and Sui’s appetites. But Dora-chan also ate quite a bit, and his stomach was bulging. Like this, they probably won’t need lunch, huh?

《Aahhh no good. It’s too hard to fly.》 As he said that, Dora-chan clamped onto the back of my head.

“D-Dora-chan?”

《It’s too hard to fly because I ate too much. You’re the master so you should at least take care of your familiars.》

That’s not......

Dora-chan was totally intent on riding around on me, clamped onto the back of my head with his legs on my shoulders like I was giving him a shoulder ride.

“Hahhh~, fine.”

《Now, now, where to next?》

“Next is the Adventurer’s guild. We have to go pick up the money for selling off the kraken, sea serpent, and aspidochelone parts from yesterday.”

《Then, let’s go to the Adventurer’s guild!》

“Fine, fine. Wait, huh? Where’s Sui?”

Sui, who was at my feet until just a moment ago, wasn’t there anymore. When I looked around trying to find Sui, Fel said, “If you are looking for Sui, it has been in your bag for a while now.”

When I gently peeked into my bag, I found Sui sleeping. So fast! Now then, let’s regroup and head for the Adventurer’s guild, I guess.

While still giving Dora-chan a ride, I followed Fel to the Adventurer’s guild.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

When we entered the Adventurer’s guild, I got stared at since I was giving Dora-chan a shoulder ride. When I ignored the stares and proceeded to a receptionist, I found said receptionist also staring, and her cheeks were twitching, too.

If you want to laugh, just do it. Actually, can’t you just get off already, Dora-chan?

Afterwards, I was quickly led to the 2nd floor and the guildmaster’s room.

“Ohh, you’re here...... Wait, what the hell is that?” Marcus said after looking up from his desk and seeing me.

“It’s, umm... Just think of it as my familiar’s whims.”

“R-Really?”

“Really.”

Yeah, please just leave it at that. I-I haven’t become Dora-chan’s taxi or anything, I swear.

“I’ll just finish this one now, so please sit down over there and wait.”

“Okay.”

I sat down on the chair and talked to Dora-chan using telepathy.

《Now, now, get off Dora-chan. Sit next to me.》

《Fine, fine.》 Giving off a reluctant feeling, Dora-chan climbed off and sat next to me.

I felt relieved, having a literal weight off of my shoulders. I mean, Dora-chan was unexpectedly heavy.

I sipped on a tea that was served by an employee which had a similar toasted-rice fragrance as genmaicha. I quietly glanced over at Marcus, who was fighting with his documents. Just looking at him, I figured that Marcus would be extremely active, gung-ho, and reckless during his active years... But now that he’s a guildmaster he seems to have a lot of trouble with all those documents, huh?

After about ten minutes of waiting, Marcus finally finished cleaning up his paperwork and left his desk.

“Sorry for making you wait. When you get to be a guildmaster, there’s a lot of paperwork, and no matter how you shake it, I’m terrible at it. I always end up taking more time than normal.”

No matter how I look at him, Marcus is the jockish type, after all. He’s probably better at moving his body.

“Well then, hopping right into it: let’s talk about how much we owe you for the kraken, sea serpent, and aspidochelone yesterday. First is the kraken. Eyes, mouth, suction pads, and magic stone — all told, it’s 628 gold.”

Ohhh, yep, it’s S-ranked alright. According to Marcus, the rating on the magic stone said it really was high quality. The stone from the kraken was pretty big, after all.

“Then, next is the sea serpent. The materials for this one would be its skin, bones, fangs, and magic stone. All in all, it’s 659 gold.”

Oh this one is worth a lot too. The sea serpent’s also S-ranked, after all. From what Marcus said, since there hasn’t been a sea serpent caught in thirteen years, its materials went up in price. Apparently the buyers for its skin and fangs were already decided. It seemed that said buyer was a local weapons shop. I had no idea how they got their info, but they heard about it way too quickly.

Both the sea serpent and kraken had their magic stones valued most highly. They were both huge, after all. As I thought, the bigger a stone is the more expensive, huh?

“Last up is the aspidochelone. This one is the scales, bones, and magic stone. Totaled up, it comes out to 452 gold.”

So the aspidochelone turned into quite the sum too, huh? I’d heard it was on the lower end of S-rank, so I thought it’d be a little lower. Not to mention I took all the meat, which would have raked in the most money after the magic stone and scales. Since that was the case, I wasn’t expecting much, but it went all the way up to 452 gold.

“Finally, that comes out to 1739 gold. Also, the reward for defeating the kraken is 400 gold. With that added in, it’ll be 2139 gold.”

Oh, and the money pile grows ever larger. Thanks to Fel, I’m just saving up more and more of it.

“I’d heard from old man Jöran that paying in large gold coins is fine, right?”

“Yes, please.”

I have more than enough money, after all. I’d be happier getting anything I wouldn’t use right away in large gold coins.

“Okay then. Here’s 213 large gold coins, and 9 gold coins. Please confirm the amount.”

Uhhh... 1, 2, 3............ 213 large gold coins and 9 gold coins. Yep. It’s all here.

“Yes, it’s correct.”

“And as for the dungeon drops we talked about before......”

Right, right. I have the list here, but I haven’t given it to Marcus yet.

“I’ll hand over the list of what I have left,” I said, and gave it to him.

“Ohhh! There’s quite a lot. As expected of the conqueror. Actually, is there really this much left after you sold some in Dolan?”

“Yes. They mainly focused on the numerous hides and magic stones in Dolan, so I have most of the other stuff.”

“It really is first come first serve for those things, huh? We wanted hides, too...”

They did say that hides for leather armor were in demand everywhere. So he wanted some for the guild, huh? But......

“If it’s hides, I have them. Stuff like a vaasuki’s hide, or a manticore pelt, or Gustav’s hide.”

“Youuuu... If I went for something expensive like that, I’d be done with only a single piece.”

Tch! So I can’t sell off the drops from the lower floors here, either huh? As for stuff that I haven’t sold yet, there’s that, too— the earth dragon’s parts. I still have its blood and eyes and innards and such. Even if the hides are impossible, the Adventurer’s guild here in Berléand is pretty big, so I guess I’ll just push as much as I can onto them.

“Outside of the stuff I got from the dungeon, I also have this. Will you buy it?”

I produced some of the earth dragon’s materials to show him: a bottle of blood, and another one with an eye in it.

“This is?”

“An earth dragon’s blood and eye.”

“Bpphhth!”

Ah, a spit take. Y-You don’t have to be that surprised, you know?

“Y-Y-Y-You! You finished off o-o-one of those?!!”

No, I wasn’t the one that did it. It was Fel.

“Hahh... an earth dragon, huh......? Now that I’ve seen it, I want some earth dragon materials too... Especially the blood, there’s a lot of uses for it... But I want the dungeon drops, too...... I want to think on this awhile, so can you wait a couple days?” Marcus said, and I assented.

If I stockpile too much, it’ll be a huge hassle to manage it all, so I’d be glad to get rid of anything when I can.

Okay, now that we’re finished here, let’s go back.

Saying goodbye to Marcus, we left the Adventurer’s guild.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

My three familiars were taking a nap in the living room.

Now then, what should I do? Even if I wanted to prepare for dinner, there’s nothing especially hard to do today. With all the fish we’ve been eating, it makes sense for Fel and the others to want some meat......

“The fish here is good, but it has gone on too long. I want meat for dinner,” Fel had said earlier. Dora-chan agreed:

《He’s right. I really want to eat some solid meat. Ah, that sauce that was salty and sweet and you used it to grill... What was it? Uhhh... Ah! Yakiniku bowl! I want yakiniku bowls!》

And Dora-chan had even started going on about how he wanted yakiniku bowls.

《Sui also wants meat. Sui wants yakiniku bowls—!》

Sui then hopped on the wagon too, and started saying it wanted yakiniku bowls as well.

Everyone loves meat by nature, after all.

That being the case, I ended up just agreeing to make yakiniku bowls for dinner, since it was just grilling the meat and coating it in the sauce. I’d need to steam some rice, but that wouldn’t take all that much time, either. And so, I’m bored.

While I was idly spacing out, wondering what I should do, I started feeling like I was forgetting something. What was it......? ...............Ah!! I forgot to make my offerings to the gods! I did it before we left Nijhoff, so it totally slipped my mind. It’s been over a week. Oh no. There’s gonna be some sort of oracle soon, like this.

Okay, I’m free, so let’s just do it right now.

I moved to a room on the second floor.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

“Sorry to keep you waiting, everyone. Are you there?”

I thought I heard some fuss going on, but a voice immediately rang out.

＜YOU! YOU FORGOT AGAIN, DIDN’T YOU—!!＞

＜You’re finally here...＞

＜Geez, stop forgetting your promises, man.＞

＜......No... forgetting.＞

＜You! It’s unreal that you forgot!! You heathen!!＞

＜Yeah! We were just about to go wild if you took any longer!＞

One of them spouted something dangerous. Let’s just pretend that didn’t happen.

＜Did you forget that you promised to do this once a week, otherworlder boy?＞

This voice is Kisharle, huh? She’s really sharp... I have a bad feeling......

＜You broke your promise, so I think you should change our allowance from 6 silver to a gold, right?＞

Yep. There it is.

In response to Kisharle’s suggestion, the other gods all agreed, saying things like, “Yeah! Yeah!” and “Indeed, what a great idea.”

I did forget, but to raise it from 6 silver all the way to 1 gold at once... Hmmm...

＜You broke a promise to us gods, otherworlder boy. You know what that means, don’t you?＞

If you put it like that...... It is all my fault for forgetting... Well, I have money. I guess it’s fine just this once.

＜Oh my, I didn’t mean just this once — I meant from now on.＞

“Whaaat?!”

＜You know, you broke a promise to the gods. And just because you forgot. You get it?＞

Ghh...... It’s the truth, so I can’t say anything back...

＜And we’re saying that we’ll let it go if you just let us have 1 gold’s worth from now on...＞

Gnnrrrrr... Kisharle really is sharp... Hahhh, fine. It was my fault this time, after all. And I have a feeling I won’t be able to win no matter what I say.

“I understand. From today on, I’ll up it to 1 gold.”

When I said that, all the gods cheered.

＜As long as you understand. And don’t you forget it.＞ I heard Kisharle say. I’d never seen her face, but I imagined she looked incredibly smug right now.

＜Well done, Kisharle.＞

＜Yeah.＞

＜......Good.＞

＜Good job. You’re better than I thought, Kisharle.＞

＜I already thought you had a way with words, woman. As expected.＞

Hahhh, fine. Let’s just get this over with.

“Okay then, from now on you all have 1 gold. First is Ninrir, right?”

＜That’s right, it is I! I want the usual cakes from Fumiya. That round huge cake from before would be best!＞

Fine, fine. Whole cakes, right?

＜Ninrir, are you sure that’s okay?＞

＜What do you mean?＞

＜Haven’t you gotten fatter recently after scarfing down that huge cake by yourself?＞

＜Gnhh......＞

These voices are Kisharle and... Ninrir, the disappointment? Just like I thought, she ate the whole cake by herself, huh? And all at once, too.

“Uhmm, you know that that large round cake is usually cut into pieces and shared between several people...”

＜Sh-Shut up, shut up, shut uuuppp! You have no right to tell me h-how to eat what I want!＞

Woah, she blew up. Yep, the divine disappointment strikes again. If you’re going to put it like that, it’s fine, but don’t come complaining to me when you’re fat. I’m begging you, take responsibility for your own actions.

I picked up the whole cakes that Ninrir wanted. With 1 gold, there was quite the amount. I’d picked out a small-sized whole strawberry shortcake that had strawberries inside the cream layers of the cake, a small-sized whole chocolate cake that also had strawberries on top as well as layers of chocolate sponge sandwiching chocolate cream, a strawberry tart just full of strawberries, and an apple pie. Seeing it, Ninrir got all excited and started yelling at me to hurry and give it to her.

Still, does she really plan to eat this all by herself? Please take responsibility for yourself.

“Next is......”

＜Yes! Yes! It’s me~.＞

Kisharle. Then, of course...

＜Of course, I want beauty products~. Since we have 1 gold this time I’d like something that seems really effective.＞

Should I start getting into the really expensive stuff? There’s no end to this sort of thing, after all.

I remembered my sister showing me a magazine and pointing out what she wanted. I did a double take back then when I noticed the price. It was a surprising 108,000 yen (tax included). I thought it was a joke. It’s over 100 thousand you know? That’s ridiculous.

I wondered if there’d be anyone that would want to buy it, but given how there was actually such a person right in front of me, I could only marvel at how scary a woman’s tenacity for beauty is.

Leaving those memories aside, I need to choose what to offer to Kisharle. My Online Supermarket was basically the same as the one I used back home, and for some reason it stocked all of the famous domestic cosmetics companies’ main series products. When I looked at the page... Oh, how about this one?

“How about this one, Kisharle? This face lotion and cream come out to exactly 1 gold. It says it brings some bounciness back to the skin and will set you onto the path of a youthful complexion.”

After I said that, I heard some rattling sounds.

＜Y-Youthful skin?! That one! That one that one!! Give it to me!＞

So she really is at that age when you start having to worry about your skin. But I’m kind of curious. Just how old is she?

＜Ohoho, asking a girl her age is a breach of manners.＞

......*Shiver* Urgh, somehow I got the chills.

“Ah, right. What will you do about the 1 silver you had saved up from last time?”

＜You raised our budget to 1 gold, so I’ll graciously let it go. In exchange, find me something good next time.＞

It seems she’ll let it go. Still, I had to raise their allowance to 1 gold, though. It’s a complicated feeling.

I bought the lotion and cream for Kisharle.

“Uhh... Next is Agni, right?”

＜Yeah! It’s me. I really do just want beer. And some good snacks if you have it.＞

Beer and snacks, huh......? With a single gold, I could get a case of beer, couldn’t I? Let’s see... Oh, they’re selling a case of A-company’s premium beer. Agni said it was good too, so let’s get it. And a six-pack of K-company’s premium beer and Y-bisu beer like usual. Also, let’s get a 6 pack of S-company’s premium beer as well this time. Since it’s gotta be fried stuff when talking about beer snacks, I bought mostly fried foods for side dishes.

“Next is......”

＜Me, Ruka. I wasn’t sure, but I decided on the same as Ninrir.＞

Looks like Ruka was also charmed by the wiles of cake, huh? But is that fine? Please, take responsibility yourself.

＜It’s fine. Unlike Ninrir, I am still growing. So I won’t get fat.＞

Ah. I-Is that right?

＜Y-Y-You know, I-I’m not fat either!＞

Ah, I can hear Ninrir, the divine disappointment. You know, that shrill voice is basically like you’re admitting it.

I bought the same cakes for Ruka as I did for Ninrir.

Next is, of course......

＜Next is us!＞

＜Yo! We were waiting.＞

＜＜One gold for each of us, huh? Geheheheheh...＞＞

‘Geheheheheh?’ Please don’t laugh all creepy like that.

＜First would be the usual whiskey, yeah. Can’t do without that.＞

＜Right?＞

＜As for everything else, I think it’d be good to get stuff we haven’t tried before......＞

“Ah, if that’s the case, how about some of the stuff that was too expensive before?”

Up until now, there were quite a number of whiskies from S-company that were too expensive to buy.

＜Ohh, that’s a good idea. How about it, Blacksmithing God?＞

＜Indeed. I think it’s a good idea, too.＞

“How about this one?” The one I pointed out to the two of them was a black labeled American whiskey that was so famous even I knew of it. It also said “premium whiskey” on the label, so I thought it’d be a great idea.

＜Oh, we haven’t tried this one before.＞

＜I don’t remember this one... I think it’s fine, how about you, War God?＞

＜I like it too.＞

And so, in the cart it goes. Also...... I don’t think I’ve gotten this one before, either.

“What about this?”

It was a Scotch whisky in a green bottle.

＜I don’t remember drinking this one, either.＞

＜Yeah.＞

So in the cart it goes, too. And then...... Oh, this one’s perfect for the amount they have left. Might be good.

“How about this one for last?” It was a Japanese single-malt whisky.

＜I don’t think we’ve seen this one, either.＞

＜Same here.＞

So this one gets bought too. Whew, all that’s left is to sort them out onto their cardboard altars.

“Please accept this, everyone.”

The items on top of their cardboard altars disappeared. And the cry of excitement from the gods was quickly raised.

Good, it’s finally over. I just get really tired of having to deal with these gods.

Of course, I made the requested yakiniku bowl for dinner. I used wyvern meat with a long-selling popular yakiniku tare, and everyone was happily scarfing it down.

Yep. Yakiniku bowls are never a mistake. But, tomorrow it will be fish again. I have the ingredients, so it’ll finally be time for a seafood barbecue.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

We had a light breakfast. Well, Fel and the others still had lots of meat, though.

I told everyone that we’d be having a seafood barbecue for lunch. I was currently preparing for said barbecue.

I’ve made sure that all the sand is out of the shellfish, so those are okay. I’m planning to grill the shrimp whole, so I’ve only deveined them.

Once that was done, I moved on to the crabs. They’re pretty big, so it’d be best to cut off their legs before grilling, huh? I steadily cut apart the crabs.

Oh, and a foil bake would be good, too. I have that salmen that’s exactly like salmon, so let’s make it a chanchanyaki-style roast with miso.

I filleted the salmen. It was huge, so I had some trouble, but I somehow managed it. Choosing to ignore the fact that my attempt was slightly ugly this time, I kept on filleting another four of them.

All I needed was some vegetables after that. Let’s get the vegetables along with everything else I need from my skill. Opening my Online Supermarket, I picked through the vegetables.

The ones we had for our last barbecue were great, so let’s just get the same ones: shiitake mushrooms, peppers, asparagus, and corn, right? The shiitake and peppers seem like they’d work in the foil bake, too. If we’re going for that, I should get some onions and carrots too, huh?

I also got some enoki mushrooms, which I would definitely need for a foil bake. Enoki mushrooms were cheap and had good flavor as well as texture, so they were really good for using in all kinds of dishes.

Now that the vegetables were sorted, it was time to prepare them for the barbecue. The peppers and corn would just be grilled as is, so they could be left alone. I bought whole ears of corn; grilling it like that would kind of steam it, which brings out its flavor. For the shiitake mushrooms, I cut off the foot, and used a peeler for the asparagus to take off its hard skin. As for the onions and carrots, I just sliced them into thick pieces.

Lastly were the preparations for the foil bake. The plan was to make two types of foil bakes: the chanchanyaki-style with salmen, and, since I had white-meat fish too, I decided on tyrant fish flavored with lemon butter and soy sauce. It was a pain to choose, so I just used the same vegetables for both of them.

Take the feet off of the shiitake mushrooms and cut them thin, and halve the onions before cutting those thin as well. Cut the carrots and peppers into small strips, and untangle the enoki mushrooms after cutting off the feet...

Let’s do the chanchanyaki-style salmen first.

~◇~◇~◇~

Smear some butter on the aluminum foil and spread around some onions. Then, lay the salmen that’s been cut into appropriately-sized pieces on top and lightly season with salt and pepper. For Fel and the others, I made sure to cut the pieces larger than usual. On top of that, lay down lots of shiitake, carrots, peppers, and enoki mushrooms.

Then, mix miso, sugar, sake, and mirin together to make a blended seasoning, and put some butter on top of that before wrapping the whole thing in foil to complete the preparations for chanchanyaki style salmen foil bake.

~◇~◇~◇~

I did about the same thing for the tyrant fish foil bake flavored with lemon butter and soy sauce. Spread some butter on foil and spread the onion, lay the tyrant fish slices on top of that and season with salt and pepper. Lay the vegetables on top of the fish, and put some more butter on top before wrapping up the foil. Putting the lemon and soy sauce on right before you eat it makes it more delicious.

Okay, now I’m all prepared for the seafood barbecue. So let’s get into this in the spacious yard.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

“Is it not done yet?”

How many times have you asked that, Fel?

“Just a little longer.”

All three of my familiars were staring fixedly at the seafood currently cooking on the barbecue grill. The yellow scallop, which resembled an earth scallop, opened with a pop, showing the face of its meat to the world. The other shellfish followed right after. They all looked truly delicious.

Just put on some soy sauce... there we go.

“Okay, it’s good.”

Scooping the yellow scallop out of its shell, I threw away the inedible parts and just plated the meat in a dish. I did the same with the big hard clams and served them out.

“Hm... It is more delicious than the ones we ate at the stall yesterday.”

《Yeah. It really does taste different when you cook it.》

《Master — it’s delicious—.》

Heheheheheh, right? Right? It’s because I have this godly seasoning called soy sauce, which only I can get in this world. Not only that, but soy sauce fits perfectly with seafood. There’s no way something with soy sauce on it wouldn’t be delicious.

I’ll eat too. Let’s start with this yellow scallop. The meat was plump and... Anyway, it was really big. I stuffed my face with its bulk.

“So good!!”

It tasted exactly like a scallop. Every time I chewed, its umami spread throughout my mouth. It was perfect with the soy sauce.

Hahh~. I’m so happy. It’s just nice eating good food, isn’t it?

Mm, it’s about time to move onto these, huh?

“The shrimp and crab here are done too. Want some?”

I salted the vermillion shrimp, which were like tiger prawns, and grilled them whole. I also grilled the bronze king crab, which resembled red king crabs as well.

“I do.”

《Me too.》

《Sui too—.》

I was told that leaving the shell on the vermillion shrimp was fine, so I just threw those in, but I took the meat from the bronze king crabs out of their shells before putting them in the dishes and serving them out. According to Fel and the others, if it’s only as thick as the shell on a vermillion shrimp, then leaving it on would increase the savoriness of the shrimp. The shells on the giant hard clams, yellow scallops, and bronze king crabs weren’t completely inedible, but they were really hard, after all, and would hurt their mouths, so it was better to not have them.

I peeled the shell of the vermillion shrimp before eating it, though. When I peeled back its red shell, the plump, jiggly, and delicious-looking meat showed itself.

When I bit into it, the sweetness and texture of the shrimp was...... It was just what I expected of shrimp: awesome. Shrimp is delicious!! It was pretty huge, but I finished it almost immediately.

Next was the bronze king crab. First, I’ll try it as is. I just love that savory smell. I stuffed my face with it, and my mouth was filled with the crab’s juiciness and sweetness. Hahh~, why is crab this good, I wonder? Next, let’s eat it with soy sauce. Hmmm, yep, it’s great with soy sauce. Ah, right. There’s something else I can do with this...

Mix the crab’s brown meat from its shell and the other crab meat... It’s brown meat-flavored grilled crab.

“Ohh~! This is awesome!”

“Hm? What? What you are eating looks good. Give me some too.”

《Me too.》

《Sui wants some too—.》

I served everyone some grilled crab dressed with its own brown meat.

“Oh! I have never experienced this flavor before. How rich and delectable.”

《Yeah, it’s great.》

It went over well with Fel and Dora-chan, but it seemed that wasn’t the case for Sui. Looks like that kind of flavor is too early for Sui.

This is making me want some beer. Opening my Online Supermarket, I bought some beer that was apparently A-company’s newest product. Richness and sharpness seemed to be the beer’s selling points, so it looked like it would fit well with this seafood barbecue.

Oh, looks like the chanchanyaki-style salmen and tyrant fish foil bakes are done, too.

To finish the tyrant fish foil bake, I opened it up and poured on some lemon juice and soy sauce.

“Hmhm, this is delicious, too.”

《This salty-sweet one is great. And this one is just a little sour. It’s refreshing and tasty.》

《This fish is delicious~.》

Thank goodness both of them went over well. Now then, I should eat too.

The chanchanyaki is delicious because I used a sweeter miso. Salmon really does pair great with the sweeter kind — the taste makes me want white rice. As for the lemon butter and soy sauce flavor, the butter and soy sauce match perfectly with the lemon and pair nicely with the white meat of the fish. And it’s great that there’s so many vegetables.

They’re all fantastic. This is all because I was able to get some fresh seafood. Seafood barbecue’s are the best!

After that, we all thoroughly enjoyed our seafood barbecue.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

Today, we’d gone to the Adventurers guild in the morning. Without even having to go to a receptionist, we were immediately shown to the second floor guildmaster’s room. When we entered, Marcus was already waiting for us.

“Hey, you’ve come. Please have a seat.” I sat down in a chair across from Marcus.

“Man, I gotta tell you, I had a lot of trouble choosing. Not only were there so many things to choose from the dungeon, but you went and showed me the earth dragon parts, too.”

“So, did you decide on what you wanted to buy?”

“Yeah.”

The items from the dungeon that Marcus decided on were: orc testes x31, minotaur’s iron axes x15, orc king testes x1, red ogre magic stone (medium) x1, giant killer mantis scythe x38, murder grizzly pelt x21, giant centipede shell x3, killer hornet poison stinger x286, and mimic treasure chest (small) x1. And for the earth dragon materials, he decided on two bottles of blood.

“You don’t see dungeon or earth dragon materials like this all too often here, so I really wanted to buy more, but this really is the limit...” Marcus said, seeming slightly regretful.

But he bought some of the earth dragon blood, so I was happy that they took more than I expected. Of course I couldn’t just hand over the items here, so we decided to move to the storehouse.

“You probably expected this with how much we’re buying, but it’ll take a while to inspect all the items. Can you wait until tomorrow afternoon?” Marcus asked as we were moving to the storehouse.

“Yes, that’s fine.”

He did buy quite a lot. At the moment, I didn’t have much else to do other than stock up on seafood, so it was no problem at all.

Reaching the storehouse, I produced the items that he wanted. Once I was finished, Marcus called out to me again.

“Sorry, sorry — there was a message for you. The messenger came early in the morning — apparently, they have something to tell you, so they want you to come to the Merchant’s guild.”

From the Merchant’s guild? I am registered to the Merchant’s guild, at least formally...... What is it? Well, let’s just go there for now, I guess.

I headed for the Merchant’s guild.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

Alright, now that I’ve come all the way to the Merchant’s guild, I wonder what they want? Entering the building, I first went to a receptionist.

“Uhm, my name is Mukohda, and I was told to come to the Merchant’s guild......”

I showed my Adventurer’s guild card as well as my Merchant’s guild card to the receptionist, just in case. When I did, I was led to a conference room in the back. I asked if it was fine for Fel and the others to come with me and they said yes, so my familiars followed. The guildmaster of the Merchant’s guild — his name is Gelt, I think — anyway, Gelt was sitting in his chair, along with a lanky man that seemed to be around 40.

“Welcome to the Merchant’s guild. Now, now, please sit,” said Gelt, and I sat next to the lanky man. Fel and the others waited behind me.

“I met you briefly before, but once again, I am the guildmaster, Gelt. Pleased to meet you.”

“The pleasure is all mine.”

“I’ve heard of your exploits. You conquered Dolan’s dungeon, yes? Also, you defeated the kraken that was causing this town’s problems — you’re a rising star, aren’t you?”

Is it just me, or did Gelt’s eyes just flash ominously for a second?

“Yeah, well......” All those accomplishments were thanks to Fel, though. He probably didn’t call me all the way here just to flatter me. What does he want?

“Uhhh, so, what sort of business do you have with me?”

“Ohh, sorry for getting off track. To tell you the truth, I’ve been in touch with Lambert’s company from Karelina. He wanted me to introduce you to his store here.”

According to Gelt, the Merchant’s guild has a teleportation device just like the Adventurer’s guild, which they use to send letters back and forth. Unlike the Adventurer’s guild, they didn’t have one in every branch, but they were placed in large settlements like here, in Berléand. So apparently he was using that device to communicate with Lambert.

“I am Adrian, and I manage our stock. Pleased to meet you. I have been ordered by our president to come to Berléand to meet you, Sir Mukohda.”

It seemed that Adrian got the message because he was close to Berléand already. So this is all Lambert, huh? Could it be, he’s already running low on that stuff?

“Well then guildmaster, from this point on our discussion will be private, so...” said Adrian, and Gelt replied with, “You’re right,” rising from his seat.

“I still have something to talk to you about, so please see the receptionist before you leave, Mukohda,” Gelt said before leaving the room.

“So? What does Lambert have to say?”

“Yes, he said that if I showed you this letter, you would understand,” Adrian said, as he handed me a letter.

When I read it...... It really was about those soaps and shampoos. It seemed that they sold quite well, enough that they had to limit the amount a customer could buy at once. The letter said that even with those measures in place, their stores were running low, and he wanted some more as soon as possible. That was why they used the Merchant’s guild’s teleportation device to contact me.

Lambert wrote what he wanted: 1000 of the cheaper soaps, 500 of the rose scented soaps, 1000 bottles of the shampoo with conditioner, 400 bottles of the shampoo and hair treatment, and 100 hair masks. The total price was 1185 gold. That was surprising enough on its own,, but the fact that the demand was so high even with a strict limit per customer made me want to shout. Now, word of the quality of the products had spread among women, and younger girls especially were coming to buy them. All that just means that women in any world want to be beautiful, huh?

“I have read the letter and understand the situation. I will prepare it by tomorrow morning.”

“Understood.”

I told Adrian about the house I was staying in during my time in Berléand, and asked him to come tomorrow morning. Now then, I’ll need to start preparations myself. I’ll have to stop by a general store to buy wooden boxes and pots, won’t I? It’ll be tough doing this much all by myself, but there’s no way I could show the plastic containers and stuff they come in to natives of this world. And more importantly, it was Lambert, who had taken very good care of me, requesting it, so I’ll just have to suck it up.

My conversation with Adrian was finished, so after leaving the room I did as Gelt asked and went to see a receptionist.

“Excuse me. My name is Mukohda and the guildmaster, Gelt, told me to talk to you before I left...” I said, and the receptionist replied, “Please wait a little,” before getting up. It didn’t take long for Gelt to come over.

“Sorry for stopping you on your way home. There was just something I had to ask you for, no matter what......”

Apparently, Gelt also wanted to buy what I got from the dungeon. It was true that materials from the dungeon were rare here, so it seemed that the Merchant’s guild also wanted a stake. Just like the guild in Dolan, they especially wanted jewelry and gemstones. That would be the case, wouldn’t it? I remembered that bitter experience I had in Dolan.

I don’t know how much gems are worth, so I don’t think I’d be able to win against experienced old merchants. It’s a bit sad, but I can only imagine myself being played around with.

“Uhm, I don’t mind selling it, but could it be through the Adventurer’s guild?” I said, and after a pause Gelt gave the OK.

Even if there’s a fee, it’d be better to have someone well versed in gems from the Adventurer’s guild with me, I think.

“I’ll go talk to the guildmaster of the Adventurer’s guild, Marcus, about it, so I think I can do this tomorrow or the day after. I’ll be in contact in case the Adventurer’s guild needs to extend that timeline.”

“I am here almost every day, so any time that is convenient for you is fine with me.”

“Okay.”

We left the Merchant’s guild while being seen off by Gelt.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

“Sorry for troubling you so early in the morning, Adrian.”

“No, no, this is work, too. Well then, this is the money we owe you. Please confirm the amount.”

1, 2, 3...... 118 large gold coins and 5 gold coins makes 1185 gold coins.

“Yes, it’s all correct.”

“Okay then, I need to get back to Karelina as soon as possible, so excuse me.”

“Travel safe. Ah, please give my regards to Lambert.”

Adrian, who dragged along a party of adventurers to guard him so early in the morning, set off for Karelina.

“Whew, it’s over. I somehow managed to make it.” I was up late yesterday repackaging shampoos and soaps all by myself. It was just simple work like taking the soaps out of their wrappings and packages to pack them into boxes, or pouring the shampoo with conditioner or other shampoos into pots, though. Still, with the amount being what it was, it took quite a while.

However, I was getting it done more efficiently than the last time I had to do it. And that was all thanks to there being a super huge size that was the equivalent to 6 of the regular-sized refill packs for the shampoo and conditioner, and the shampoo and hair treatment. I didn’t remember it being there last time, but I saw it this time.

I didn’t look too closely, but I suspected that the selection had grown a little thanks to my level rising. It was still just a supermarket, so even if they increased their stock, it was boring stuff like having new sizes of things like this, though. So thanks to that, although it was hard, I somehow managed it without having to stay up all night.

Still......

“Huawwhhh~, so sleepy...”

I was still a little lacking in sleep. I’ll have to drink a stronger coffee to wake up, won’t I? We have to head for the Adventurer’s guild after breakfast, after all.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

They definitely remembered my face at the Adventurer’s guild over these last few days, because as soon as I entered, I was led to the 2nd floor.

“Can you sit and wait a little? I’ll finish quickly,” Marcus said, so I did as asked. It looked like they were checking the money they were handing to me, because he was rifling through a bag with an employee.

Once that was finished, Marcus sat facing me. “Sorry about that, I had to make sure of the amount we were handing you. So......” Marcus was checking a paper; it must have had the details of this transaction written on it.

“I’ll be breaking down the sale for you. For the dungeon items: the thirty-one orc testes will be 24 gold and 8 silver; the fifteen minotaur’s iron axes will be 30 gold; the orc king testes, 13 gold; red ogre magic stone (medium), 80 gold; thirty-eight giant killer mantis scythes for 76 gold; twenty-one murder grizzly pelts for 52 gold and 5 silver; three giant centipede shells for 246 gold; 286 killer hornet’s poison stingers for 143 gold; and a mimic treasure chest (small) for 188 gold. All in all, that’s 853 gold and 3 silver.”

Even just the sale of dungeon materials came out to quite the sum, huh?

“After that is the earth dragon blood, and I’ll be buying that from you at 180 gold a bottle. So for two bottles, that’s 360 gold. Since it’s a really rare thing to see, I marked it up a lot for you.”

Ohh! 180 gold for one bottle? That’s better than when I sold some at Dolan.

“So, with both sales together, that’s 1213 gold and 3 silver. I’ve prepared it in large gold coins again. Please check it.”

Sure, sure. Uhhh, 121 large gold coins, 3 gold coins, and 3 silver? Looks fine to me.

“Yes, it’s correct.” I stored the money into my Item Box. Ah, I have to ask him about that stuff with the Merchant’s guild.

“Marcus, I have something I want to talk to you about......” I told Marcus that the Merchant’s guild also wanted to buy my loot from the dungeon.

“So you see, it seems like the Merchant’s guild especially wants to buy things like gems and jewelry, but I’m not too familiar with the prices those things fetch......” I told him what happened with Dolan’s merchant’s guild.

“I see. Adventurers would be ignorant of that sort of thing. Actually, that’s really sharp of that guy from Dolan, Ugohl. He’s good.”

“You know of Ugohl too?”

“Well, I am acquainted, at least. It’s actually a pretty famous story, that Dolan’s guild only runs because of the sub-guildmaster, Ugohl.”

Is it? I didn’t know. But it’s completely correct, though.

“Their guildmaster used to be an S-ranked adventurer, but I hear that he’s a weirdo that only does things that he likes when it comes to his job.”

...............Elrand, you’ve got some real bad rumors floating around about you. Well, for rumors, they’re all pretty much exactly correct, though. He leaves everything he doesn’t feel like doing to Ugohl, and he goes crazy when it comes to dragons, after all.

“You mean Elrand, right? The guildmaster from Dolan? It’s true he was weird......”

“You knew him? I see. You were in Dolan before coming here, after all.”

“Yes. He was a really strange person. Loved dragons. Hahaha...”

He looked like he would have rubbed his cheek up against that earth dragon corpse, given half the chance... He’s not a bad guy, but truthfully his unnaturally intense dragon LOVE has me creeped out. W-Well, let’s just drop the subject of Elrand for now.

“Getting back on track, I’d like to go to the Merchant’s guild with someone who knows how to assess the value of gems and the like. Of course, I’ll pay for the service.”

“If we’re talking about the person who’s most familiar with ‘gems and the like,’ that’d be her, huh? Right then, I’ll introduce you, so come with me.”

The person that Marcus introduced me to after I followed him was a plump woman in her mid-40’s that seemed to be a veteran here, even by guild standards. Her name was Charlotte.

“Charlotte here is the most knowledgeable on what you need here in the guild.”

“What’s going on, Guildmaster?”

“Well, you see......” Marcus explained the situation to Charlotte.

“My, my, that sounds very fun, doesn’t it? Gem and jewelry sales don’t happen very often from the guilds here; this is going to be worth the challenge~.”

Charlotte’s really excited about this...

“I’ll join in for future reference. Is that fine?”

“It is, but is that really fine with your schedules?” When I asked after their schedules, it seemed they were all free after noon tomorrow, so we decided to go to the Merchant’s guild then.

“Well then, I’ll come back tomorrow after noon,” I said.

“Yeah, we’ll be waiting,” Marcus replied.

“I’ll be waiting, okay~? I’m looking forward to it,” said Charlotte.

I left the Adventurer’s guild while being seen off by both Marcus and Charlotte.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

The next morning, I did my best to get as much seafood as I could from the morning market. They must have stepped on the gas in terms of their work after the kraken was defeated, as the market was already much livelier than the last time we came. They were selling an even larger variety of seafood than before, too. Thanks to that, it had gotten much more fulfilling to shop for seafood. I managed to get more of the salmen which looked just like earth salmon, as well as Berléand’s famous tyrant fish. I also managed to get more of the tiger prawn-like vermillion shrimp, the red king crab-like bronze king crab, big hard clams, which were basically huge Asian clams, and finally the earth scallop-like yellow scallops, because they were all really, really good in the end.

This time, I also found ooisters, which looked just like earth oysters, so I went around several places and bought lots of them. I just had to, since they were about twice as big as regular oysters, and their meat was plump and soft-looking. I was tempted to just eat one raw with some lemon juice on top, but as one would expect, I really couldn’t go through with it. I didn’t want to die, after all. Especially not to something like parasites. Not in a million years. So eating it raw was out, but oysters were plenty good cooked, too.

Fried oyster is great, and making them into a gratin would be a good idea, too. As soon as I started trying to think of ideas, they just came spilling out. But I had no regrets. *Gleam*

Also, I bought a fish that looked just like sea bream, called brebream, though the brebream was quite a bit bigger than bream was, at over a meter long. I obviously wouldn’t be able to butcher it myself at that size, so I asked the guy at the store to fillet it for me. The meat was white and felt like sea bream, so it seemed like it’d be great whether I sautéed, boiled, or steamed it. This time I made sure to get the skull and bones, too. The guy at the store looked like he was really confused as to why I wanted it, though. I could make fish head soup with it.

Once I was finished going through the morning market, of course we sampled the food stalls. It looked like there were stalls we didn’t manage to get to last time, so Fel and the others were happy, too. We spent the time before I had to get to the Adventurer’s guild enjoying their fares.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

When we entered the Adventurer’s guild, Marcus and Charlotte came out to greet me immediately.

“Hey, you came.”

“We were waiting. It’s finally time for the Merchant’s guild, isn’t it? I’m so excited~.” Charlotte was all smiles.

“Sorry for the trouble. I’ll be counting on the two of you today.”

“Well, I’m just along for the experience, though. Okay then, let’s hurry to the Merchant’s guild.”

“Yes.”

We headed off for the Merchant’s guild.

After entering the Merchant’s guild, when we went up to the counter, Gelt had already come out before we could ask them to call for him.

“Ohh! Sir Mukohda, I’ve been waiting for you. Hm? So you’re here with the guildmaster of the Adventurer’s guild, I see.”

“It’s been a while, Gelt. I’m just here to observe and learn.”

“I see. Now, now, this way.” We followed Gelt to a negotiation room.

After we entered the negotiation room, we were followed in by a long bearded man with a good physique who looked to be around 40.

“This is Heinz. He appraises gems and the like for us here,” Gelt introduced him.

“This is Charlotte. She can assess the value of gems as well, and she works for us. Please treat her well.” Marcus also introduced Charlotte.

............W-What’s up with this uncomfortable atmosphere...

Not only Gelt and Heinz, but even Marcus and Charlotte were smiling that smile that didn’t reach their eyes.

This is looking like a fight between the Merchant’s and the Adventurer’s guilds, isn’t it? Everyone’s so scary. In times like this, it’s best to just get things over with.

“Uh, uhm... Gelt, you want to buy the gems and jewelry that I picked up in the dungeon, so for now is it alright if I just take them out here?”

“Ah, please wait a second,” Gelt said, before spreading out a soft cloth that he’d prepared on the table.

“Please, go ahead.” I placed the items on the cloth. A sapphire (medium), alexandrite (medium), and a yellow diamond (large), along with a tanzanite necklace.

“How exquisite.”

“I sold most of them at Dolan, so there isn’t a lot left......” I sold quite a bit to that Merchant’s guild, after all.

Heinz started inspecting the items with an, “Excuse me.”

“This is...... As one would expect from a dungeon, they’re all wonderfully exquisite pieces. Clear as day, and without a single scratch to be seen. Especially this yellow diamond...... In my entire life, this would be the most expensive gem I have ever seen,” Heinz said, staring passionately at the teardrop-cut yellow diamond.

“As I thought. Colored diamonds are rare, after all. Still, for it to be yellow......” Gelt said, his gaze also fixed on the yellow diamond.

If I remember right, yellow is prized because it’s perceived as being good luck for money, right?

Gelt and Heinz held their own little two-man conference in whispers. They’re probably discussing whether to buy the yellow diamond, aren’t they? However, this is something that the Merchant’s guild in Dolan wouldn’t buy. It was something that their veteran appraiser, Ruslan, ranked as the best in the world, after all. Even I wouldn’t let it go for just a ‘reasonable’ sum. Oh wait, would they be interested in those too, if they wanted gemstones and jewelry?

“Excuse me, I also have this, if we’re speaking of jewelry.” I brought out my two mimic treasure chests (large).

“Ohh! Treasure chests this large are rare. This is my first time seeing one,” Heinz said excitedly, before starting to carefully go over them. “These are decorated with...... This one has emeralds and diamonds. The emerald is pretty large, and though the diamonds are small, there are a lot of them. This one here uses diamonds and aquamarines to accent a sapphire. Hm, they’re both wonderful pieces with good design.”

Looks like they’re interested.

“Well then, if you would please wait a while...” Gelt said before leaving the room with Heinz. I put everything back into my Item Box. Then, all three of us waited while drinking the tea we were served.

“My word, though. Dungeon-spawned stuff is amazing. Those were really wonderful pieces,” Charlotte said, seemingly moved.

“I have no idea about this stuff, but is it really that awesome?” Marcus asked.

Male adventurers are all like that, aren’t we?

“Yes. Heinz just said this earlier, but the yellow diamond was especially amazing. Most likely it’ll never go for below 2500 gold, even at the lowest,” Charlotte said.

“J-Just that thing is 2500 gold......” Marcus marveled.

“Of course, the other stuff was good too. I especially like the tanzanite necklace. Tanzanite itself isn’t seen too often, and the gem itself is so big. The design is a little dated, but that’s just fine. You can just take out the tanzanite and put it into another ring or necklace, or whatever you wish,” Charlotte explained.

Ahh, right. I was told it was out of style in Dolan too, but now that I think about it, it’s true that you can just take out the gem and set it in a more fashionable piece. I see... I never had any interest in accessories or jewelry so it never occurred to me.

While I was busy being impressed by Charlotte’s insight, Gelt and Heinz returned.

“Sorry for making you wait. Now then, as for what we’d like to buy......”

Gelt wanted to buy the sapphire (medium), the tanzanite necklace, and the mimic treasure chest (large) with the emerald.

“As for their prices, how does 310 gold for the sapphire (medium), 230 gold for the tanzanite necklace, and 380 gold for the treasure chest (large) with the emerald sound?”

I can’t answer even if you ask me that, I don’t know how much these things are worth. And just for this occasion......

“How about it, Ms. Charlotte?”

“If you’re asking my opinion, I think the price is a little too low on the tanzanite necklace.”

After Charlotte made that statement, Heinz and Gelt wasted no time in rebutting, as one would expect of seasoned merchants:

“As you can tell just by looking, this tanzanite necklace’s design is too old.”

“We took that into account and gave you that number...”

But Charlotte just said...... “That’s strange, isn’t it~? I know the design is old-fashioned, but wouldn’t it be fine to just take out the tanzanite and set it in a more fashionable ring or necklace? The tanzanite in that necklace alone is worth 230 gold, so I still think it’s too low a price...” Charlotte said, prompting Gelt and Heinz to start whispering to each other again.

“I don’t think it’s too cheap, but if you insist...... how about 250 gold?” They asked me, so I threw it over to Charlotte with a, “How is it?”

“Normally that’d be fine, but this is from a dungeon... The color is clear and there are no flaws in it at all, so with its quality in mind, it should be worth a little more, I think.”

“Then we can make it 260 gold. But any more than that......” Gelt said, as if trying to rein in Charlotte’s speech.

“Is it fine to assume that you are not in desperate need of money at the moment, Mr. Mukohda?”

“Yes. Not especially......” Money just keeps piling up in my possession, so no I’m not troubled for money.

“If that’s the case, then not selling to them here and keeping it for another town is certainly an option. If you go to the capital, then you can probably get a better price for it.”

It’s not like I need the money, so doing what Charlotte says really is an option, isn’t it? It’s not like I’ll be going to the capital or whatever right away, but I have an Item Box, and just keeping it to sell eventually if that time ever comes won’t bother me in any way.

“W-Wait a second. If you’re going to be like that, we can work out 280 gold somehow. Please, sell it here at our guild.” When Charlotte brought up the capital, Gelt started to panic.

I looked over at Charlotte; she was smiling.

“Yes, please,” I said, and Gelt smiled, relieved.

Now that that was settled, I once again produced the items that I’d retrieved from my Item Box, placing the sapphire (medium), the tanzanite necklace, and the mimic treasure chest (large) with the emerald onto the table.

“Okay then, we owe you 970 gold, yes? I will go get that now, so please wait a while.” After Heinz left his seat, another employee entered after a while and handed a bag over to Gelt.

“Now then, here is your money. With the amount being what it is, I’ve prepared it in large gold coins. Please confirm the amount.”

1, 2, 3...... 97 large gold coins makes 970 gold. “Yes, there’s no mistake.”

“Thank you for selling us your treasures from the dungeon today. Pleasure doing business with you,” Gelt said with a smile, now that the sale was over.

“No, thank you.”

All’s well that ends well, I guess. But it really was the right decision to get Charlotte to join me. I have no clue about this kind of stuff, and thinking in hindsight, perspective really does change depending on the person.

With the sale done, we all left the Merchant’s guild.

“Ah, right. How much do I owe you two for that just now?” I asked Marcus.

He replied, “No charge this time. Of course, we’ll be giving Charlotte a special bonus from the guild for her excellent work today.”

“Really? Wow, that was such a nice job, to think I would also get a reward on top of getting to see those top shelf items...” said Charlotte, grinning from ear to ear.

“Is that really fine, Marcus?”

“Yeah. Thanks to you, our guild’s made a lot of money. I feel like something bad will happen if we keep profiting from you like that without giving back.”

What, really? W-Well, if he’s going to put it like that, then I’ll just accept it gratefully...

With that settled, I no longer had to go back to the Adventurer’s guild. So, after saying farewell to Marcus and Charlotte on the road, we headed back home.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

Now then, it was time for dinner. I’d already decided on today’s menu.

Heheheheheh, I’m going to make fried oysters (fried ooisters?) using the ooisters that I’d bought from the morning market. With lots of tartar sauce on top...... Yeah, it’ll be great. Urgh, I almost drooled just thinking about it. Okay, let’s get to it.

First up is getting ingredients with my skill. The ooisters come in their shells, so I’ll need some gloves and a knife and table to open them, won’t I? And I’ll need some flour, eggs, and raw panko for the breading, as well as cabbage for garnish.

I was planning on making my own tartar sauce this time, so I put in some extra eggs, and also some mayonnaise. The pickles I used for my homemade tartar sauce came minced in a bottle. I started using it after seeing it on the site, and it was really convenient since it also had minced onions and paprika in it. You could make homemade tartar sauce really quickly just by mixing in some mayonnaise.

Though I also mix in some hard boiled eggs for flavor. Doing that makes it taste really good... Oh right, I’ll need this potato masher to mince the egg for mixing into the tartar sauce. It had holes in the head, like a net. Using a knife to mince eggs always gets some egg stuck on the knife, so it’s kind of awful, but using this makes it quick, easy, and clean.

Okay. With this potato masher, that completes my preparations.

I had to start by shelling the ooisters, but that would take a long while, so at the same time, I was steaming rice and boiling the eggs I’d be mincing for my tartar sauce. After preparing the rice for steaming and the water for boiling the eggs, it was time to shell.

It might be about time to start stockpiling food for our trip to the next town. Maybe I should shell some extra on top of that too, I might want to use some in other dishes.

I diligently started shelling ooisters.

“Whew~, this should be fine.” They were all huge, and I went through a lot of them.

Next was washing off the slime and sand and stuff, and then preparing for the actual cooking. Put the meat into a bowl along with some salt, flour, and potato starch, and knead lightly. Then, add in some water and gently stir, allowing the impurities to fall off and dirty the water. Dump the dirty water, replace it with fresh water, and repeat. Doing this about three times should be okay.

With the preparations finished, I put about half of them into a strainer and stored it in my Item Box. While I was shelling, the rice finished steaming, and the eggs finished boiling.

I finished the most annoying part, the shelling, so all that’s left is frying the ooisters... But let’s mince the cabbage garnish and make the tartar sauce first. Fel and the others don’t really bother with the minced cabbage, so let’s make a little less of it.

Next is the tartar sauce. After peeling the finished hard boiled eggs and halving them, put the halves into a bowl and go at it with the potato masher. Then, just mix it into the bottled minced pickles along with mayonnaise, and that’s it: that’s the super easy homemade tartar sauce done. I didn’t do it this time, but adding in some lemon juice adds a hint of lemony tanginess to it, and it’s great.

With the minced cabbage garnish and the tartar sauce finished, it was finally time to fry the main dish.

~◇~◇~◇~

Wipe the meat with a paper towel to remove excess water, and then dredge it in flour. Then, after coating it with the egg wash, thoroughly cover it in raw panko with both hands. I strongly recommend raw panko for frying — it’s crispy and delicious.

Once the panko is stuck on, fry it at high heat, around 180 degrees, until it’s evenly cooked and light brown. Then, it’s finished. Overcooking it will make the whole thing too tough, so the iron rule is to fry it quickly.

~◇~◇~◇~

*Gulp......*

The extra-large ooisters were fried to a glowing light brown. They looked especially crispy and delicious. Yeah, I just have to give it a taste test, don’t I? Now then, add some homemade tartar sauce, and... *Crssp*

“Ooooh, juicy. This is great.”

The flavor was exactly that of an oyster. But it was huge, so there was a little more bite-back. Yep, it’s great. Okay. Let’s keep going.

“Okay. That’s all of them.” I plated the fried ooisters next to the minced cabbage garnish on the plate. After flavoring with lots of homemade tartar sauce on top, the dish was complete. I put the dishes of fried ooisters on the trolley and went to the living room.

“Dinner’s ready—!”

“Ohh! You sure kept us waiting.”

《I’m so hungry—!》

《Sui is also hungry—!》

I served everyone their dishes of fried ooisters.

“Hm? What is this? This does not smell like meat,” Fel asked, sniffing the food.

“Yeah. I fried up the ooisters that I bought at today’s morning market. It’s delicious.”

“Is it really? Hm............ Ohh! You are correct, this really is delicious. I only saw it grilled or in soup at the stalls, but this dish definitely works. Indeed, it is delectable.”

Seems that Fel likes it. He complained about only seeing it in soup or grilled, but that’s the case with everything in this world, isn’t it? I’m just about the only person that will fry things. But if you’re gonna cook an oyster anyway, it’s gotta be fried, right? They’re good sautéed or in a gratin, but frying really is the best.

《Wow, this is crisp and delicious! And the juices just come bursting out from inside!》

That’s right, Dora-chan. The best points of fried oyster is the combo of its crispness and juiciness.

《Master — this white sauce is great with the food. It’s sooooo good.》

Yep, yep, that’s just like Sui. It’s just gotta be tartar sauce with fried oysters, right?

Right, let’s eat too.

For my meal, I had white rice and miso soup to go with the fried oyster main dish, although it was an instant miso soup. It’s kinda like some sort of fried oyster set meal, isn’t it? Start off with the main dish, an extra-large fried oyster with lots of tartar sauce on top......

*Crrrnch*

I already knew because I had a taste test, but it really was delicious. The extra-large, plump fried oyster’s abundant juice, full of umami, burst out. Fried oysters are so good...

*Sslrrp* It’s instant, but the miso soup still hits the spot. And now some white rice, and some more fried oyster... So tasty. It’s so nice to have some seafood as an option. Just that fact made it worth it to come here.

“More.” 《More.》 《More.》

Fine, fine. Looks like everyone took to the fried oysters, huh? I served up more dishes of fried oyster to everyone.

“Give me a lot of that white sauce.”

《Me too.》

《Sui too.》

The tartar sauce is popular too, huh? I added lots of tartar sauce to the fried oysters. Tartar really is the best choice for fried seafood. Oh yeah, I got some fish that was like horse mackerel too, didn’t I? Might be worth frying that next time. Ah, the yellow scallops... Those might be nice fried too.

With those thoughts in mind, I enjoyed the first fried oyster since I came to this world. Fel and Sui, just as usual, had several more servings.

Chapter 5: W-W-W-WHAT THE HELL DID YOU HUNT－－－－－!!!

After breakfast, I was relaxing in the living room with some coffee.

By the way, breakfast was meat, at my familiars’ request. It was a quick ginger-fried orc bowl. Tempted by the smell, I ended up eating a really heavy breakfast, too.

“Hey, everyone, it’ll be a week tomorrow since we rented this house. What do you all think about extending it three more days?”

I wanted to go to the morning market at least one more time, and I needed to stock up on food for the trip, too — hence the three extra days.

“Mm, three days? But that will delay our foray into the dungeon,” Fel said with a stony face.

《Whaaat, three whole days? It’s true that the fish here is delicious, but I want to hurry up and go to the dungeon...》

Dora-chan was also unhappy about it.

《You know, Sui wants to go to the dungeon, but Sui is fine if it’s only for a little while. The fishies here are really good.》

My only friend here is Sui... Isn’t three days fine?

“Please? It’s only three days. I want to get some more seafood, and I need to cook the food we’ll be eating while we travel. So it’s just three days. It’s fine, isn’t it?”

“Fine. I get it. In exchange we are going to the forest today. I have been cooped up in this town this entire time, I want to hunt to get some exercise,” Fel said.

《Oh fine. A hunt in the forest, huh? That’s a great idea. I want to go too.》

The forest, huh? I can still get orc meat if I have some butchered, but I’m running low on wyvern and bloody horn-bull meat, aren’t I? I can never get enough meat, so going to the forest might not be a bad idea.

“Well then, let’s go to the forest. But before that, I have to go to the Merchant’s guild to ask for the extension, and there’s also some stuff I want to buy, so we’ll be stopping by the general store, too. Also, I have some business to attend to, so we’ll go to the Adventurer’s guild as well. Since we’ll be going to the forest anyway, we might as well get some requests on the way.”

“Indeed. Might as well if we are going to the forest anyway.”

With that settled, we headed off.

For the business I had with the Adventurer’s guild... Well, given what happened yesterday, I wanted to pass something off to Marcus and Charlotte as thanks. After much consideration, I, of course, thought that it had to be sweets, so I baked some more pound cake last night. I’d already done it last time for Ugohl too, so I figured there’d be no way I’d botch it if it was pound cake.

This time, in addition to the plain pound cake, I also made some with earl grey tea leaves inside to make tea-flavored pound cake. When I opened up my Online Supermarket, there was a surprising amount of varieties of tea, so I splurged a little and got a slightly more expensive one in a can. For the tea pound cake, you don’t put in the vanilla essence you would in a plain pound cake, but instead just mix in some black tea leaves that have been thoroughly powdered by putting them in a vinyl bag and crushing them with a rolling pin at the step where you add in the mixture of weak flour and baking powder.

It turned out to be very full of the tea’s great fragrance, as I expected when I used the expensive leaves. This time I used good tea leaves, but using the kind that comes in bags would be just fine. At that point, they’re already crushed, so you can just mix them in as is. I figured I could use pound cakes as a thank you gift, and since my oven was so big, I baked quite a lot. I was prepared to hand over the tea pound cakes to Marcus and Charlotte as a thank you, so all that was left was to get the basket I’d use for that at a general store and pass it on, plate and all.

Now then, first up, let’s go to the Merchant’s guild and extend my stay another three days.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

I entered the Merchant’s guild, and the process to extend my rental ended in what felt like an instant. When I asked for the extension, I was told that all I had to do was pay the money I would owe and that would be it, so I just handed over 28 gold and it was finished, easy as pie.

After that, I went to a general store that was near the Merchant’s guild and bought two baskets before heading for the Adventurer’s guild.

When I got to the front of the line at the Adventurer’s guild, the receptionist immediately called the guildmaster for me.

“Hey, what’s up?”

“I came to give my thanks, since you and Charlotte did really well for me yesterday.”

“What? You didn’t have to do that, you know?”

“Here. Please try this. Can you hand this one to Charlotte?”

“Sure, got it. Sorry for making you go through all that. I’ll be taking this with gratitude. And I’ll take responsibility for getting this one to Charlotte. Still, snacks, huh? My wife’ll be happy,” Marcus said, grinning.

Impressed that even a guy with a face that scary can get a wife, I asked about her in the spur of the moment, and he started babbling happily. Even about stuff that I didn’t ask about. Just on and on...

It seemed that Marcus used to be an A-ranked adventurer, and as an adventurer he wandered around everywhere, so he never got married back then. Apparently that was the reason why most high-ranked adventurers got married late, if at all. There are a lot of problems that can only be solved by high-ranked people, so it seemed that that was why they went all over the place.

“It was because of this wound here that I ended up retiring at 40 to become the guildmaster here......”

Apparently it was in this town that he had met the woman who would be his wife, who was away from home to work. His wife was a village girl he met ten years prior on a request while Marcus was still an adventurer, and apparently it was her that recognized him first. Marcus also remembered the village, and he was really surprised that the village’s biggest tomboy grew to be so pretty, he told me. So it seemed that from then on they met from time to time due to their history together. At the time, his wife was 22 and was just at the age in this world where people would start to say that it was too late for her. It seemed that she was so busy working to make money for her sickly parents that she had no time for romance. But about a year before she met Marcus again, it seemed her parents left this world one after the other, which apparently caused her to start thinking about her future.

“My wife, you know, she said that she likely wouldn’t be able to marry at all her entire life, so she wanted to first learn how to read and write so she could live on her own.”

So it seemed that she asked Marcus, who she knew could read and write, to teach her. People got married a lot earlier in this world, and most girls were already taken and with children by the time they were 18, or even 15 at the earliest. It seemed that women who were older than that and single would feel ashamed. So Marcus was shot in the heart seeing that optimistic and brave girl... was how the story went. Without even minding the age gap that was so wide she could be his own daughter, he made really earnest and fervent moves on her and got her, so to speak.

“I just had a daughter last year, you know? She’s like her mother, so cute~,” said Marcus, all lovestruck.

Stop putting out that aura of happiness with your pirate face dammit. Fuck, to think this scary dude who totally looks like a pirate and nothing else was a normie......

“When I was an adventurer, I would’ve rather died than get married, but you know, marriage is great~,” said Marcus, sounding completely heartfelt as he nodded repeatedly.

“You’re a high-ranked adventurer too, so make sure you don’t miss your chance either, you hear?” Marcus said, slamming his hand into my back.

Stop hitting me with that idiot brawn of yours, please. Actually, like, if I had someone, I’d have been married already, damn. I can’t stand this normie version of Marcus, spraying his happy vibes all over the place. I gotta leave.

“Well then, I’ll go look to see if there’s any requests I can take so...” I went towards the board.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

I looked at the board, but the outlook was grim. There’s not much for the forest, is there?

“What, you’re going to take a request?”

You were still here, you damn normie? *Ahem* I mean Marcus.

“Yes. Fel and the others want to go hunting in the forest for exercise, so I figured I might as well try to take a request while we’re there.”

“The forest, huh? There’s not really any for high-rankers at the moment...”

Just as Marcus said, there were basically no requests for high-ranking adventurers. Although there were quite a lot for low-to-mid-ranking ones...

Hmmm, what should I do...... Hm? My eyes stopped on a certain request that was posted at the very edge of the board.

“Marcus, this sabre tiger request......”

“Oh, that. That one’s just like a permanent request......”

Apparently there was a count or viscount or some sort of noble who retired here after having his son inherit his position, and his hobby was collecting taxidermy mounts. It seemed that he was the one that asked for a sabre tiger.

“He said it’s not really urgent or anything. In the first place, there’s no sabre tigers around here, and the reward is a little low for something of this level, so it’s ended up being about a year since it was first posted.”

The reward was 70 gold with materials. If I remember right, the sabre tiger was A-ranked, right? With that in mind the reward certainly is low. But I actually have a sabre tiger right now... I think it was back when we were in Dolan?

Dora-chan caught one when he and Fel went out to hunt. I was told that sabre tigers tasted terrible and were inedible, so I just left it in my Item Box. I was sure that it would only continue to fertilize my Item Box at this rate, so I was thinking that it’d be fine to just bring it out here.

“Uhhh, I have a sabre tiger... Will I complete the request if I bring that out here?”

“Hm? What, you have one?”

“Yes. I have one that was hunted while we were traveling.”

“That’s not something you just hunt because it’s there, but well, it’s you... I guess it’s not really that strange.”

What? What does that mean, because ‘it’s you’? I think Marcus’ way of treating me is a little weird... I’m just a normal guy. The ones who just put down high-ranking monsters left and right are Fel, Dora-chan, and Sui.

“If you just hand over the sabre tiger you’ll complete the request, since it’s not asking for you to defeat one. Those requests require you to go out and defeat one, but this is just for materials. As long as you have them, then you can complete it.”

“Ah, the sabre tiger has a big hole in its body, is that fine?” Dora-chan’s attack blew a hole clean through it.

“He said that he’d just be preserving the head, so I think it’s fine, but...... It’s been a while since I’ve seen a sabre tiger, so I’ll take a look anyway. Let’s go to the storehouse.”

With that, I followed Marcus, who was gleefully taking huge strides towards the storehouse.

“Okay then, let’s see it.”

I produced the sabre tiger from my Item Box.

“Ohh, it really is a sabre tiger. It’s just as you said, there’s a hole in it, but...... Yeah, it should be fine. Still, what kind of attack caused this hole?”

“Well, uhhhh......”

《It’s me! I did it—!》 Dora-chan said while flying circles around me.

《Dora-chan, only Fel, Sui, and I can hear your telepathy.》

《Tch! That’s right. But I wanted the humans to know the tales of my bravery...》

Now, now, just calm down, Dora-chan.

“This pixie dragon here was the one who brought down the sabre tiger,” I said, to which Marcus reacted with slight surprise.

“So that tiny dragon’s pretty strong, contrary to how it looks.”

That’s right. My familiars are all strong. Ah, since I’m already here in the storehouse, let’s ask them to butcher some more stuff.

“Sorry, can I ask you to butcher some orcs, too? I’d just like the meat back, and you can buy the rest of it.”

“Sure, orcs right? That’s fine.”

With that, I brought out ten orcs from my Item Box.

“Ten orcs, huh? Should be finished by this evening. Isn’t that right, guys?” When Marcus asked all the butchers that, they all replied with a hearty, “Yes!”

“How much do I owe you for the service?”

“What are you talking about? You’ve brought this guild so much profit — as if we could take fees from you.”

Oh, so there won’t be any? That’s great.

“Okay then, can you give me the reward for the sabre tiger request along with that stuff?”

“Sure. I’ll get it ready.”

“Is it over? We are going to the forest.” Fel must have gotten impatient, as he came over to talk.

“Yeah. We just finished. Okay, let’s go to the forest. All right then, bye Marcus, we’re heading off to the forest.”

“Sure. Ah, if you guys catch something big, bring it over. I’ll make the butchering free. In exchange, let us have all the materials other than the meat.”

“Okay.” Now then, let’s get to the forest.

Just like that, we left Berléand for the forest.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

After about an hour of riding on Fel’s back as he ran, we came to a stop.

“Hm, around here should be fine, there is no one around.”

“Okay then, I’ll be here cooking the food for when we travel, so just put up a barrier please.”

“Understood. Well then, let us go, Dora.”

“Yeah!” Just as Fel and Dora-chan were about to go off hunting, Sui jumped out of my bag.

《Sui wants to go too—.》

“What? You’re going too, Sui?”

《Sui wants to go pew-pew and beat things up.》

But then I’ll be here alone... “Fel, can your barrier really defend from things around here?”

“Of course. There is no problem.”

I already know how amazing Fel’s barrier is, so I guess it’ll be fine if Fel says so... And I have the Perfect Defense skill the gods gave me too, at least, so...... Okay, it’s probably fine.

“Okay. This time you can go too, Sui.”

《Yayyyy!》 When I allowed Sui to go, it started happily bouncing around.

“Ah, Fel, take this.” I hung the magic bag (medium) around Fel’s neck. “Also, this hunt is meant for getting more meat, so make sure you all get things that are edible this time, you hear?”

“Mn, I understand.”

《Fine, fine.》

《Yeeesss.》

I reminded them just in case, since, if they bring back something we can’t eat, it’ll just sit in my Item Box forever.

“Well then, let us go, Dora, Sui,” Fel said, and all three of them went off into the forest.

Now then, let’s start cooking.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

First, I decided to build up my stock of meat-based dishes. I started working on a menu around things that could be made into a rice bowl or put into a sandwich since we’d be eating it on the move.

You’ve got to have miso-grilled orc and bloody horn-bull, right? And ginger-fried orc and beef bowls made with wyvern and bloody horn-bull meat.

It felt a little like overspending what I had, but I also decided on two kinds of vegetable stir-fry using both wyvern and orc meat. So that they’d both work in a rice bowl, I flavored them with a garlic yakiniku sauce and a slightly spicy yakiniku sauce. Then, I ground up some mixed orc and bloody horn-bull meat for making Hamburg steaks, soy-marinated minced-meat rice bowls, and Bolognese sauce. And, since it would work great with rice, I made some keema curry.

Of course, I also cooked up the fried dishes all of them liked so much. I fried up pork cutlets, Hamburg steak cutlets, and karaage made from the sea serpent meat. It would have been great if I still had something that could pass for poultry left, but unfortunately I didn’t, so I just fried up a huge amount of sea serpent meat. Of course, I flavored it with both soy-based and salt-based sauces.

Meanwhile, I used the oven to make roasted wyvern. Of course, I steamed rice as well, and minced a large amount of cabbage.

“Whew—, this should be it for the meat.” Before I’d really noticed, I’d already made a lot of varied meat dishes.

As I thought, I’m able to cook this smoothly and quickly because my level’s higher, isn’t it? Of course the fact that I’m used to cooking for Fel and the others every day is a part of it, but a lot of my movements are most definitely faster than before, too. But I don’t know how I feel about only noticing the effects of my leveling up during cooking......

I was a little miffed that everything was happening just as the gods wanted, but maybe I’d try a little harder in the next dungeon instead of just leaving everything up to Fel and the others. I’m not trying to unlock any new Tenants, but I do feel like I want to see just how strong I can get...

Simply put, I should get stronger from every level up, so even for swinging a sword, I should be able to do it much better and with more power than before. And I have more magic now too, so my Earth and Fire magic might have gotten stronger as well. Okay, so let’s try some stuff out in the next dungeon.

Ah, I’ve just been using a sword up until now, but it might be nice to have a spear. I don’t have a swordsmanship skill or anything, so it’s not like I have to stick to swords at all. What I use would be categorized as short swords, so it’d be nice to have a spear that I can maintain some range with.

Okay, let’s buy a spear when we get to the next dungeon city of Aveling.

Wait, more importantly I need to keep cooking. It doesn’t seem like Fel and the others will be coming back any time soon, so next is seafood.

Grilled squid using the kraken was easy and delicious the last time I did it, so I decided to cook that. The salt-grilled kraken with vegetables was good, too. I made it both salt-grilled and with oyster sauce too.

The fried oysters from last time were also really delicious, so I decided to fry up other seafood too. I fried up the mackero that resembled horse mackerel (it even looked exactly like horse mackerel when fried), the vermillion shrimp (this one looked exactly like fried shrimp too), the kraken, yellow scallop, and big hard clams too. The clams were truly huge, so I halved them before frying.

White meat fish were great fried too, so I also fried up some aspidochelone and tyrant fish.

After a while of thinking, this would be great fried, and then frying it, I ended up with a huge amount of fried seafood. Well, they all seemed delicious and I could just leave them in my Item Box, so I decided not to mind too much.

Since it was absolutely necessary for fried seafood, I made a matching amount of the homemade tartar sauce I’d made yesterday. I’d keep it a secret that I couldn’t hold myself back while I was doing that and ended up having a taste test of the fried mackero and scallops.

“Whew~, this should be fine for today.” I managed to finish most of the cooking I’d need for travel.

“Still, Fel and the others sure are late. Are they so caught up with hunting that they forgot food? The sun’s about to set......”

Fel and the others headed off to hunt before noon. They hadn’t even come back for lunch. Even though they were all big eaters, I figured that missing just one meal wouldn’t kill them, so they’d be back for dinner and I wasn’t worried, but......

After that, almost another hour passed, and the sun had already halfway set, when everyone finally returned.

“Sorry we are late.”

《Mannn~, I got so caught up in the hunt.》

《It was fun—.》

Geez, so they really were just having too much fun, huh? But it looks like they got a lot. It must have been too much for the magic bag, because an enlarged Sui was carrying more bodies inside it.

“We have to get back before they close the gates, so you’ll have to eat after we get back.”

“Mnrr, fine.”

《But I’m hungry... Aww man, we have to wait till we get back—?》

《Sui is hungry~.》

“It’s your fault for being late. Just suck it up a little. Also, as for what you got...... Sui’s holding it all?”

“Indeed. Sui, let it go.”

《Oka—y.》

Sui dropped four cockatrices, two rockbirds, a huge horned rabbit that I’d never seen before which was as big as a light truck, and a cow that was also a first for me. It was a little smaller than the rabbit, but still plenty big in its own right, and was colored brown with a goldish patch on its back. When I appraised them, I found that the rabbit was called a “giant horn rabbit,” and the cow was called a “golden-backed bull.”

It seemed that they were both B-ranked monsters. Looks like they made sure to only catch edible monsters this time.

“Also, this.” With that, what Fel dumped out of the magic bag was......

“W-W-W-WHAT THE HELL DID YOU HUNT－－－－－!!!!”

I couldn’t help but scream, seeing the reddish-black giant carcass that Fel showed me.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

“Stop being so loud.”

《Wow, that was loud.》

《Master —why did you shout so loud?》

Everyone shot back.

Nonono, I’m not the one in the wrong here. Of course I’d shout if you showed me this.

I stared at the giant reddish black carcass in front of me. No matter how much I stare, it’s......

“This is......”

“Indeed. It is a red dragon.”

.........Yep, that’s what I thought. It looks exactly like a red dragon. I can’t think it’s anything else.

《Isn’t it awesome? We hunted it down!》 Dora-chan said, looking all smug.

《Sui went pew-pew and hit it too~.》 Sui — now back to its original size after spitting out all their prey — said that as it started happily hopping around the place.

“A red dragon......... What the hell do you even expect me to do with something like this......?”

Even just the earth dragon was really hard...

“Well, this red dragon is still young, so it is on the smaller side. That was exactly why we managed to fit it inside that magic bag.”

This is on the small side...... From the tip of its snout to the end of its tail, it’s around 12-13 meters...

“Red dragon meat is also delicious, you know?”

Fel, my guy, you’re going to eat this too? Wait, if the earth dragon was that delicious, is the red dragon even more so? At any rate, getting the red dragon butchered at the Adventurer’s guild in Berléand will most likely be impossible. I really will have to go ask that guy again, won’t I......? Elrand, the dragon-crazy guildmaster of the Adventurer’s guild in Dolan...

“We’ll probably have to go back to Dolan to get this butchered...”

“That strange elf?”

“Since you apparently need both the skills and equipment to butcher a dragon, you know? Also, I did in fact promise Elrand that I’d bring any dragons we got back to him. If I asked anybody else, I can totally see him actually quitting as a guildmaster to come with us......”

He’s a stalker I say, a stalker.

“From what I have seen, that does seem probable......” Fel said, remembering what Elrand was like. He made an expression like he hated the idea.

That guy did in fact start rubbing his cheek on the earth dragon’s carcass...... If it wasn’t for his mania for dragons he’d be a good guy, but we have Dora-chan here, so there’d be no worse companion.

“Well, nothing will come of it if we just sit here thinking, and we have to go back to the Adventurer’s guild too...... At any rate, we’re going back to town.”

“Indeed.”

I shoved the monsters everyone hunted into my Item Box.

“Ah, I’ll be having you explain why you went and hunted something like a red dragon once we get back.”

《Of course. I’ll tell you all about our tales of bravery and strength!》Dora-chan declared, sounding rather proud for some reason.

Well anyway, getting back to town comes first.

We hurried back.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

Somehow, we barely managed to make it back before they closed the gates for the night. And right now, we were inside the Adventurer’s guild.

It’s kinda noisy in here, isn’t it?

As soon as we got to the front of the line, the receptionist went and got Marcus.

“Did something happen?” I asked.

“Well, to tell you the truth......” He told me that there was a red dragon spotted near a mountain a little ways away from town. Apparently, it was spotted in flight, so it most likely wasn’t nested near here, but they still had to be on alert.

A red dragon, huh......? What timely news. Could it be? That the red dragon they’re talking about was the one that Fel and the others beat?

I tried asking Fel about it.

“Hey Fel, could the red dragon that Marcus is talking about......”

“Indeed. From its presence, it mostly likely is the same red dragon, since there was no other presence as powerful as that one anywhere nearby.”

I-I see. So there’s no way I can just......keep quiet about this, can I? While looking at Marcus, who was shouting orders all over the place, I started feeling like there was no way I could stay quiet about it.

“Uhmm, Marcus, could you come with me to the storehouse for a bit?”

“Hm? Sorry, but I’m busy right now.”

“It’s related to what’s happening right now, so please.” I stayed persistent, and Marcus, who sensed that something was up, came with me in the end.

“So? What is it?”

“Can you close the doors please?” I asked, and Marcus had a nearby butcher close the door.

“Uhmmm, around here looks fine. Please, don’t be surprised, everyone,” I warned Marcus and the other butchers beforehand, and took the red dragon out of my Item Box.

“This is the red dragon.”

............

.........

......

“Uhm, Marcus?”

Marcus and the other butchers were standing stock still and silent, staring at the red dragon.

Yep, this would happen when a person sees a red dragon. I waited a while for them to calm down, but neither Marcus nor anyone else said a single word.

“U-Uhmm, excuse me, is everyone alright?”

Marcus finally came to after I said that. “A-Ahhh, sorry. It was too much, I lost myself for a moment there.”

It wasn’t a moment, but well, whatever.

“So, this red dragon is......”

“Yes. It seems that this is in fact the red dragon that was seen.”

“I-I see...... So the problem’s already over. Still, wow, for you to have defeated a red dragon......”

“Well, it was kind of on the spur of the moment......” I said, and turned my eyes over to Fel and the others.

They said they wanted to go hunting, so I took them out, and this is what I get. You know, I never once said anything about going to go hunt a dragon.

“That’s right. I forgot because they’re always so quiet — but you’ve got a legendary Fenrir as a familiar, don’t you? I guess a red dragon isn’t much of an opponent for a Fenrir.”

“Indeed. It would be no problem for me to bring down a red dragon by myself, but today, Dora and Sui were there too. It was an easy hunt.”

Marcus froze for a moment when Fel spoke up, but he got over it himself, saying, “Oh yeah, Fenrirs can speak human language.”

“A red dragon is easy prey, huh......” Marcus was a little exasperated at Fel’s statement.

That’s only natural, though. To claim that dragons are easy... Only someone like Fel could ever say that.

“Oh yeah, you’re A-ranked, aren’t you?” Marcus said, suddenly turning the subject of the conversation to me.

“Huh? Yeah, you’re correct...”

“Wouldn’t it be fine for you to be S-ranked already?”

“What? Nonono, that has nothing to do with me. It was Fel and the others that killed the red dragon.”

“Being S-ranked would be no problem for you, since you have familiars that can easily bring down a red dragon, right? Or rather, if you aren’t S-ranked, it calls into question what our current S-ranks even are.”

Even if you tell me that, what do you want me to do about it?

“Well, whatever. There’s no way I can leave you at A-rank anyway if you show me something like this. You’re S-ranked now. You don’t get to say no.”

“Whaaat!! But I only showed you this thing so I could prove to you that the incident is over. I actually wanted you to keep it a secret that I have this...”

“You idiot. As if I could keep the fact that you killed a red dragon a secret. It’s not like it’s an earth dragon......”

According to Marcus, something might have been done if it was an earth dragon, whose movements are very limited, but for flight-capable dragons with wings, methods of defeating them are to be shared between guilds as a matter of course, since they could be considered a threat to an entire continent given their mobility.

And the method was — to sic Fel and the others at them, since they brought down a red dragon so easily.

“Sharing info for emergencies is the most basic of basics, you know?”

If you put it like that...... “Well, I guess that’s unavoidable then, but can you still make it so the other employees and adventurers don’t find out? I’d rather they not make a huge fuss.”

“If you really want it like that, I can make it so only sub-guildmasters and above are privy to the info.”

I guess that’ll be fine.

“Please. I’m counting on you.”

“Sure! All of you, stop spacing out! Get it together!” Marcus’ yell awakened all the butchers, who were still in a shocked torpor.

“Alright, listen up, all of you. Don’t tell anyone about what you saw here. Get it?” Marcus said, and all the butchers silently started nodding fervently.

“So, what do you want to do with this? We can’t butcher it for you, just so you know,” Marcus said.

Yep, thought so. But, it’s fine, because that guy’ll happily take it apart for me.

“It’s fine. I’m going to ask Elrand, Dolan’s guildmaster to do it.”

“Ahh, that guy. If it’s him, he’ll probably be able to take apart a dragon.”

“Yes. To tell you the truth, he’s also the one who butchered the earth dragon. He was reeaaaallly happy about it.”

“Haha! He probably was,” Marcus said, giving a strained laugh. Elrand’s love for dragon’s wasn’t something to scoff at.

“So, you’re going to Dolan after this?”

“No. I think we’ll stop by Dolan after we go to the dungeon city of Aveling.”

“Gonna go dungeon diving?”

“Yes. Fel and the others all say they want to go.”

“So you’re gonna go and conquer the dungeon in Aveling after Dolan, huh?”

I’m not sure myself, but Fel and the others seem totally intent on it.

“Well, I’ll inform the Adventurer’s guild in Aveling for now. So, when are you leaving?”

“I plan to leave in three days. Until then I’ll be stocking up on as much seafood as I can get.”

“Gahahaha! I get it, this place’s fish is great!”

After that, I got the meat for the orcs I left with them that morning, as well as the money for the rest of the orcs and the sabre tiger request from that morning.

All in all, I got 74 gold. Since they had a lot of the superior dungeon-spawned version of orc testes, the naturally spawned, or rather, normal kind, were devalued. I didn’t care as long as I got my meat, though.

Then, I asked them to also take apart the cockatrices, rockbirds, giant horn rabbit, and golden-backed bull that Fel and the others caught today. When I showed them the giant horn rabbit and golden-backed bull, Marcus reacted with, “You brought something rare again...”

It seemed that although they were only B-ranked, they were rare monsters that you couldn’t see unless you went deep into the forest. Their meat was also of the highest quality, and sold for a lot since they were so rare. Since it’d turn into quite a sum if I sold the meat, Marcus asked me, “You sure you don’t want to sell it?” But of course I refused.

I wasn’t in need of money, and I’d incur the meat lovers’ wrath if I sold them now.

“Come back tomorrow for it.”

“Okay. I’m planning on heading to the morning market tomorrow, so I’ll stop by after that.”

Leaving the Adventurer’s guild, we were finally on our way home.

Chapter 6: The Trio is Invincible

As soon as we got home, it was a chorus of how hungry everyone was. I was hungry too, but also tired, so I just used the fried foods I’d made that afternoon for a meal. I piled fried mackero, fried vermillion shrimp, fried yellow scallop, and fried big hard clams onto their dishes and served them out — with lots of my homemade tartar sauce on top, of course.

“Mm. This is good. Especially this one,” Fel said, while eating a fried vermillion shrimp whole, starting from the head.

《This white sauce goes great with stuff from the ocean, doesn’t it? They’re all great.》 Dora-chan said, chewing through some food with tartar sauce on it.

《This is delicious~. Sui can eat lo—ts of this.》

Looks like Sui loves the fried stuff. It’s great with tartar sauce, after all. Right, I should eat too.

Just like with the fried oyster, I had my meal with white rice and instant miso soup. First up, this fried mackero with lots of tartar sauce.

*Crssp*

Ohh! The plump and soft meat is amazing. And it’s great with my homemade tartar sauce. I quickly finished the whole thing.

Let’s try one more with Worcestershire sauce. For fried seafood I’m all in on the tartar sauce camp, but I do sometimes just want Worcestershire sauce.

I bit into the fried mackero with Worcestershire sauce on it. Mm, this is good, too.

“Mn? What is that brown stuff?” Fel asked, shrewdly noticing that I ate something with Worcestershire on it.

“This? This is Worcestershire sauce. It’s good on fried food. I love the white stuff, that tartar sauce, more, but the Worcestershire sauce is good sometimes too. Do you want to try some, Fel?”

“Yes. I will. Also, I want more. Put that ‘Worcester sauce’ or whatever it is on that.”

Ah, Fel’s already eaten all of it. I put a second helping of the fried food in a dish and smothered it with Worcestershire sauce before serving it to Fel.

“Mm? This ‘Worcester sauce’ or whatever is good, actually. It goes especially well with this fish and this shellfish,” Fel said, pointing out the mackero and the big hard clam.

To prefer tartar sauce or Worcestershire sauce depending on the fried food... Fel’s starting to act like a connoisseur, isn’t he?

《Ah, no fair! I want some food with that brown stuff on it too!》

《Sui wants some too—.》

Dora-chan and Sui both asked to try the Worcestershire sauce.

After piling up seconds for Dora-chan and Sui, I put on the Worcestershire sauce and served it to them.

《Ohh! This is great, too! They’re both delicious!》

Seems like Dora-chan can’t decide which one is better.

《This one is delicious too, but Sui likes the white one better—.》

And Sui’s in the tartar sauce camp, just like me, huh?

We had skipped lunch, so everyone was asking for more and more as they chowed down. Since everyone kept asking me to put on the white stuff or the brown stuff depending on their whims and preferences, it was pretty hard.

With all that happening, dinner ended, and I breathed a sigh of relief. I drank some cold tea, and served everyone else some cola. Seemed like everyone was satisfied, with their stomachs so full. All the stuff that I had fried, which had seemed like so much, was mostly gone now. I’ll have to start frying some more before we leave.

After taking a gulp of tea, I brought up what was on my mind. “So, how did you kill the red dragon?”

“At first, we were hunting normally. But......”

According to Fel, at first they were hunting normal prey in the forest. But apparently, while they were doing that, Fel sensed a powerful presence, or something. So, Fel told the other two, and everyone decided to chase after that presence.

“And the thing we found at the end of that chase was the red dragon. So we killed it.”

So you killed it just because you found it, you......

But Dora-chan was nodding proudly along with Fel’s story.

《You know, amongst us dragons, the red dragons are the proudest of all of us. I never liked them from the start.》

However, even if they decided to fight it, the red dragon was flying. So the three of them worked together to bring it down, apparently.

《And the one who landed a beautiful first strike was me. After all, I’m the only one who can fly,》 Dora-chan said proudly.

According to him, Dora-chan first flew close to the red dragon and annoyed it into heading towards Fel and Sui. Then, once the red dragon got low enough......

《Sui shot its Acid Bullet. Sui aimed at the red dragon’s wings, and opened a hole in them! Right, Sui?》

《Yeah! Sui went pew-pew at the red dragon, you know! And just like Uncle Fel taught Sui before, Sui aimed at the wings~.》

From what Dora-chan said, it seemed like dragons didn’t use their wings to fly like birds did, but rather, used magic. Of course, Dora-chan was the same way, and used magic to fly. But apparently, even though dragons use magic to fly, it wasn’t like their wings did nothing. It seemed that wings had their own important use; they were absolutely necessary to adjust things like speed, direction, and balance.

《So when Sui opened up a hole in its wings, of course it lost its balance and fell to the ground.》

“Indeed. At that point, I quickly finished it with my Lightning magic.”

I see. So Dora-chan flew and led the dragon to dropping its altitude where Sui could down it with an Acid Bullet. Then, Fel quickly finished off the fallen red dragon with lightning magic, huh?

This trio is just invincible, aren’t they? Seeing them attack all at once together was already something, but if they work together like that they can even bring down a red dragon with ease, huh? Ahhh, but......

“You know, next time you see a dragon, just leave it alone, okay?”

“Hm? Why?”

“You don’t have to fight it, wouldn’t it be fine to just leave it alone?”

“That is true, but dragons are delicious.”

You know... Don’t just call them delicious like that means something.

“Speaking truthfully, it’s just really troublesome to deal with whenever you hunt a dragon.”

After all, Elrand’s the only one guy I can ask to butcher them.

“Just think about it. Elrand’s the only one I can ask to take them apart, you know? So every time you kill one, we’ll have to go to Dolan, and the parts are so expensive I can’t sell them all off, either. Even the earth dragon’s materials are just sitting in my Item Box, and I’m having trouble getting rid of them. It’s a terrible time having to deal with this.”

I can’t even tell how long it’ll take for me to sell all of it off. I finally managed to sell just two bottles of the blood here in Berléand — and now there’s going to be red dragon parts added to my plate, too. Even assuming I get Elrand to butcher it, I already had them buy some earth dragon parts and a lot of stuff I got from the dungeon, so who knows if they’ll be able to buy red dragon parts as well. I could just leave it in my Item Box forever, but there’s already so many things like that in there...

“I think that not hunting dragons we don’t need is the best choice.”

“Grnnn...”

“Well, I don’t think we’ll be seeing dragons left and right like that anyway, though. At any rate, as long as they don’t attack us, please don’t bother them.”

“Hmph! Fine.”

It seemed like Fel was very unsatisfied with that, but he agreed in the end.

“That goes for you too, Dora-chan, Sui.”

《Tch! Oh fine.》

《Got it—!》

Dora-chan was also a little unsatisfied with that, but he agreed too. Looks like Sui doesn’t really care about dragons, though.

“Now, now, don’t look so depressed. We’re going to the dungeon city of Aveling anyway, so you’ll be fighting a lot no matter what.”

“Mn, oh right. After this place, we were going to go to another dungeon in a human city.”

《Ohh! That’s right! We’re going to another dungeon. I’m so excited!》

《Dungeon, dungeon! So excited~.》

I wonder how Aveling’s dungeon will be? I planned to try a little this time too, so I’ll have to be extra careful with my prep this time, won’t I?

Extra: Everyone Needs Hope

We had arrived at the town of Varienfeld. This town was famous for its woodworking, especially of small objects, so when I heard that, I wanted to stop by. Among the crafts they were famous for, one of them was wooden tea caddies, and the beauty of their designs and decorations made them popular even amongst nobles. It was said that some went so far as to prefer the ones made here.

I used to be exclusively in the tea bag camp, but ever since I found out that I could buy loose leaves with my skill, I started to use those instead. Though all I was doing was putting a tea strainer that I also got from my skill with the leaves in it on top of a cup. But even doing just that was enough to make the taste a level better than using teabags, so I started drinking tea quite often.

For that reason, when I heard of these tea caddies I thought to myself, I definitely want one, and came here. So the first thing I did was go to show my face at the Adventurer’s guild, but......

Varienfeld itself wasn’t that big a town, so the Adventurer’s guild reflected that. When I asked Fel and the others to wait outside and tried to get to the receptionist by myself, I was immediately accosted by some rough looking adventurers.

I’m the type to get messed with just because I’m not with Fel and the others. How depressing... It’s true that compared to the other people here, I’m thin and just seem like an extra in a movie.

Just as I was torn between complaining internally that they didn’t have to come at me like the biggest cliché in the universe, and wondering how to get out of the situation, another adventurer saved me. He was B-ranked, and somewhat famous among the adventurers here in Varienfeld. His name was Mauritz, a wolf beastman and solo adventurer. Due to that event, we started to become friendly, and when I told Mauritz about the tea caddies, he led me to the store he recommended.

After being shown their wares, the one that stood out to me was one that was a deep, glossy brown with a detailed geometric pattern carved into its grain. The detail of its work could be summed up as splendid, and although it was a little expensive, personally, I was very happy with it, since I got something I liked. I heard later that it was created by a famous woodworker, so I understood why it was so expensive.

Although I’d already accomplished what I came here for, I was about to try and convince Fel and the others to stay a bit longer since we took the trouble to come anyway. Especially since Mauritz was going to show me to other good stores as well.

Mauritz showed up at the house I was renting one night.

“Yo, Mukohda. Sorry for the late visit. I have something to talk to you about, regarding tomorrow. Just a smaaalll thing......” Mauritz said, his huge 190cm tall body appearing to shrink.

“I was wondering who it was, but it’s you, Mauritz. Come in, come in.”

I led him to the living room. The house I was renting wasn’t the usual huge mansion I’d go for since this town was so small, but it was still fairly large and luxurious. It was after we had already eaten, so all three of my familiars were lounging around. I had Mauritz, who was commenting on how large the house was in wonderment, take a seat as I served him some tea.

“This tea is good.” Mauritz drank the tea and breathed a sigh in relaxation.

“The plan was to meet up tomorrow. What happened?” Mauritz was going to show me around the shops...

“Well, you see......”

Mauritz said that he wanted to cancel the plans for tomorrow. It seemed that Mauritz had to go deep into the forest east of this town to hunt down a monster called a green gecko at the request of his wife, who was an apothecary three years older than him. From Mauritz’s explanation, after roasting the green gecko (which, as its name implied, was a gecko monster) and crushing it into powder, it can be made into an energy supplement. Not only that, but if you mix it with the stuff made from an orc’s you-know-what, the effects get even stronger, so it seemed that couples who wanted children would pay huge sums for it.

But capturing a green gecko wasn’t easy. The green gecko itself was only about 30cm long, and weak, but on top of its territory being limited, it seemed that they weren’t that numerous. And as for its territory, it was deep, deep in the forest and difficult to get to — since it was a matter of course that strong monsters made their homes deeper in forests. However, there was no way they could let this opportunity to capture them go.

Actually, right now was the time right before green geckos lay their eggs, something that only happened once every four years, and it seemed that both males and females would be in great condition, with all sorts of nutrients stored in their bodies. Compared to normal green geckos, green geckos in this state apparently made for much more effective medicine, so I could understand why they would want to get as many as they could at this time.

“At first I was going to go by myself, but since it’s so deep in the forest, I might end up coming back empty-handed. My wife asked me to do this, but personally, I really wanted some as well. So I had an idea...... I’m asking you as an S-ranked adventurer, Mukohda: will you form a temporary party with me?”

I don’t really mind, but I am curious. “Why do you want one so badly?”

The medicine made from those green geckos would probably sell for a lot, but from how Mauritz was talking I felt like he had some other reason for wanting them...

“Since you’ll be forming a party with me, I guess I have to tell you......”

Of course part of the reason was because his wife asked him, but apparently the biggest reason was for the two of them — Mauritz was a wolf beastman and his wife was human.

It was the first time I’d heard of it, but apparently when the couple was of different races, it was much harder to make a child. Of course it wasn’t at all impossible, but even if they did manage it, there would only be one. I was told that there were many couples that ended their lives without having a single child. In Mauritz’s case, they were lucky and had a daughter after six years, but......

“I wouldn’t say it to her, but I actually do want another one or two children, since I have five siblings myself. I can’t help but think that way. So you see, I ended up saying that to my wife when I was drunk — that I’d like another child.”

Apparently all of Mauritz and his wife’s friends and acquaintances had two or three children. Mauritz told me that he suspected that his wife was jealous, seeing that.

“Although for a couple like us, just having one daughter is lucky......”

The worlds may be different, but a couple’s worries are still the same, huh? Especially when it comes to infertility. I remember reading something like that in a special article about worries that couples have, and apparently it was a big one.

“So, how about it? Will you temporarily party with me?”

As if I could say no after a story like that. Well, it’s not like I mind, but I still have to ask Fel and the others.

“Uhhh, wait a second please.” I hurried to talk to Fel and the others telepathically.

《Fel, Dora-chan, Sui, were you listening? How about it?》

《Hmm, I do not mind. In fact, it is a perfect opportunity to do some hunting.》

《I don’t mind, either. I was just about itching to go hunting anyway.》

《We can all go pew-pew and beat up lots, right? Then Sui is ok too~.》

Everyone gave the OK, so there didn’t seem to be a problem.

“I’ll take you up on it, Mauritz.”

“I-I see!! That’s great—! Thanks, man! Really!” Mauritz took my hand in his giant paws and shook it up and down in big swings.

“You should thank me after we get some green geckos.”

“Haha, you’re right.”

We decided to set off for the eastern forest along with Mauritz early the next day.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

“Sorry for making you wait.”

Mauritz was already waiting for us in front of the eastern gates.

“No, I just got here too.”

“Then let’s go. How long will it take to get to the eastern forest?”

“It’s not that far. If we start walking now, we’ll get there by noon.”

So a little less than four hours on foot, huh? Four hours on foot...... That’s no good. So it’s time for Sui, isn’t it?

I tapped my bag and telepathically called out to Sui. 《Wake up, Sui. There’s something I want you to do.》

Sui jumped out of the bag quickly.

《Master —what do you want Sui to do—?》

《We’re going to the eastern forest; can you let this guy ride?》

《That’s fine~.》

After that telepathic exchange, Sui grew to be about two meters. Mauritz, the guards at the gate, and the travelers and merchants that were waiting to get in were all surprised that Sui just grew suddenly. There were even those among the soldiers and adventurers that grabbed their weapons.

“Uhhh, this slime is my familiar, so......”

It’s too late, but it might actually have been better to do this a ways out from the town instead of right at the gates. But it’s already happened, so there’s no helping it. It’s not like I can lie and get out of it. For now it’d be best to just get out of here as quickly as possible, wouldn’t it?

“Mauritz, please get on top of Sui.”

“Wha-? Sui? You mean this slime?”

“Yes.”

“You want me to ride this......” Mauritz seemed confused, like he couldn’t understand the meaning behind it.

“It’s fine. Now, now, get on.” I pushed Mauritz and had him get on top of Sui. And I got on top of Fel, like usual. Okay, everything’s ready.

“Sui, make sure not to drop Mauritz, got it?”

《Yeah, it’s fine~.》

“Fel, match your speed with Sui’s.”

“Understood. We will be a little slower, but there is no way around that I suppose.”

“Dora-chan, just follow us like usual.”

《Sure, got it.》

“Oh that’s right. Mauritz, can we just keep going along this road to get to the forest in the east?”

“Y-Yeah. Just keep going straight this way, and the dense forest on the left will be it.”

“Got it. Well then, let’s go.”

Everyone started moving as soon as I said go.

“Huh? Wha-? Wai-......! WooaaaAAAHHH!” Mauritz’s throaty cry echoed in the wind.

...............

.........

......

“We are here.”

“Th-Thanks.”

《Master — this mister here is kinda limp. Is he okay?》

Mauritz was spaced out on top of Sui, like he was an empty husk that his soul left behind.

“AAHH! Are you okay, Mauritz?!! We’re here!”

Mauritz came to with a start in response to my voice, and jumped off of Sui.

“I-I-I’m fine. I-I’m totally fine!”

You know Mauritz, your knees are shaking like a newborn deer. Seeing a huge guy like Mauritz quivering like that made me want to laugh, but I managed to keep the impulse down.

“Whew...... We’ll be able to spend a longer time searching since we got here early, won’t we? But I wish you would have told me how we were going to get here in the first place.”

“Sorry. When I heard that it would take until noon to walk here, I figured it would be better to get here even a little faster.”

“Yeah, you’re right. But to think that your familiars can even do this...... It’s amazing to think about. S-rank tamers really are in another class,” Mauritz said. I only smiled vaguely.

There’s no way I can tell him that all three of them only became my familiars to get at my food, can I?

“Okay then, let’s go. Don’t let your guard down. There’s a lot of high-ranking monsters in this forest. Oh, I shouldn’t have to tell you, huh? You’re S-ranked, Mukohda. Hahah.”

No — I’m S-ranked, but I’m weak. So I asked Fel for a favor through telepathy.

《Fel, can you secretly put up a barrier around Mauritz?》

《Fine.》

《Ah, don’t forget me, too.》

《I know.》

《Thanks.》

There’s no point if something happens to Mauritz, after all.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

Parting the dense, thick forest, we moved ever onwards. Once in a while, we heard the unsettling cry of a bird or something off in the distance. Of course, we never let our guards down. Fel and the others were with us too, but every now and again, they’d leave for a while, so they were probably hunting. It was probably fine; Fel told me they might do that right after we went in, so I had put the magic bag around his neck.

After a while trudging through the forest, Mauritz called out.

“High-ranking monsters start to appear from around here. And this is also where the green geckos live.”

“Finally, huh? So, what kind of place do these green geckos live?”

“They’re nocturnal, so during the day they hide in the hollows of trees or gaps in between rocks; basically anywhere that’s tight and damp.”

“I see. So it’d be best to concentrate on places like that, huh?”

“Yeah. But from now on it’ll be even more dangerous. So keep your guard up.”

“Roger.”

Mauritz and I started looking in every nook and cranny that green geckos might be in.

How about there?

I was looking at the roots of a large tree. Some of the roots were bulging out of the ground, forming a little shadowed space. I tried peeking inside, but nothing looked like a green gecko. Hmmm, I’m not really finding anything......

Apparently there’s not many of them in the first place, so I guess there’s no way I’ll just find one right away, huh?

I looked over at Mauritz, and it seemed that he wasn’t having any luck either, as he shook his head.

“They’re not easy to find, are they?”

“There aren’t a lot of them to find. But it’s still too early to give up. Let’s keep looking.”

“You’re right. Let’s go.”

We started our search for green geckos once again.

After a while, Mauritz, who was peeking into the shadow of a fallen, rotten tree stopped moving.

......(I see one!) Without speaking a word, Mauritz mimed that with his fingers. And, when he brought out the knife that was in the holster on his hip......

*Ssk*

There, stuck on the end of his knife, was a green colored gecko that was stabbed through the head: a green gecko.

“We did it! We got one!”

“That’s great, Mauritz!”

Finally, a smile appeared on Mauritz’s face. Even I breathed a sigh of relief that we got what we came for.

“This makes one. But, and this might just be me being greedy, but I’d like one or two more.”

I have no idea how much just one would make, but it’s true that it doesn’t look like it would amount to much. It’s not that big in the first place, after all. I feel like it’s about a size smaller than what I’d heard from Mauritz.

Since we got to the forest early, there was still time. It’d probably be fine to keep at it for a little longer.

“There’s still time, Mauritz. Let’s keep looking for a while longer.”

“Sorry.”

And so the hunt for green geckos was reopened. As I was peeking through the dense leaves of some shrubbery at their trunk, I heard a rustling noise. Wondering what it was, I turned around to look......

“KIEEEHHHH!”

A huge bird with a tough looking beak was looking down at me—It’s a giant dodo———!

“Ohshitohshitohshit...”

It was much closer than I thought it was, so in my surprise, I fell on my ass. But there was no way the giant dodo would care about that.

“Mukohda!!” I heard Mauritz yell in a panic.

Just as the giant dodo raised its beak to finish me off......

《No bullying master—!》

*Pew*

Sui, who jumped over, unleashed an Acid Bullet that pierced through the giant dodo’s chest. That single blow was fatal, and the giant dodo fell to the side with a thud.

“Sui~, you saved me—! Thanks.” I picked Sui up and started rubbing my cheek on it.

《Eheheh~, is Sui awesome? Sui is awesome, right?》

“So awesome! The most awesome! Keep saving me from now on, okay~?”

《Yeah! Sui will go beat up everybody that bullies master—!》

“Thanks, Sui~!”

Having strong, reliable friends really was a lifesaver. But I never knew that the giant dodos we were always eating were this vicious. No matter what anyone said, it’s a high-ranking monster, but I’d only ever seen it dead, so I never really realized it.

So it was totally a carnivorous bird, huh? I need to be careful.

With those thoughts rolling around in my head, I stored the giant dodo that Sui killed into my Item Box. And......

“Huh? What happened, Mauritz?”

Mauritz was pointing at Sui and I while wordlessly opening and closing his mouth like a fish.

“Don’t ‘what happened’ me! W-W-What the hell is that slime?! It gets big and lets me ride it, and what’s up with that power?! I’ve never seen or heard of a slime like that!”

Even if you tell me that...

“My Sui is special.”

Isn’t that right? It can all be summed up in one sentence. That’s why Sui’s strong. I’m a little proud.

“Special? Can a slime really do all that just because it’s special? It’s right there in front of me, though......”

“Well, can’t we just leave it as my Sui here being special? More importantly, we should hurry and find that second gecko.”

“Y-Yeah...”

When I started looking for green geckos once again, Fel and Dora-chan, who had been away to hunt, came back.

“Mm? Did something happen?”

“Yeah, there was a giant dodo. Sui got it, though.”

《Sui beat it~.》

《Giant dodo? You mean those huge birds that don’t fly? I got one too. And a similar rockbird, too.》

Rockbirds really do look like giant dodos, don’t they? Giant dodos, with their sorta large and solidly built bodies, were kind of like if you up-sized a turkey and made it way meaner. Meanwhile, rockbirds were like if you did the same thing to an emu.

“I have downed some as well. This forest has a lot of bird-type monsters. Those things are fast on their feet. You should be careful. Well, you have my barrier so nothing bad should happen, though.”

“Got it.”

Even with Fel’s barrier, there’s no way I wouldn’t get scared if a violent looking monster was right up in my face. Honestly, I was just about to wet myself earlier, too. I don’t want to get threatened by angry monsters either, so I’ll be as careful as I can be.

And then......

“It’s great that you managed to get another one, isn’t it, Mauritz?”

“Yeah. I was wondering how it would turn out, but we managed to find another somehow. I’m relieved.”

“Then let’s go back.”

“Yeah.”

“Ah, you’re going to be riding Sui on the way back too.”

“Urgh, I’m gonna have to ride that slime again?”

“You rode him to come here already, so you should be fine.”

“W-Well yeah, I guess......”

As I was discussing our trip home with Mauritz, we heard thudding footsteps along with a sudden cry that sounded like, “GUOOHHHH!” Mauritz, whose eyes went sharp in a flash, readied his halberd. And what appeared before us was a huge bear — a murder grizzly!

“GUOOOOOHHHH!”

“Fel, I’m counting on you!”

“I would kill it whether you told me to or not,” Fel said before taking a step forward.

“Guoh!!?” The murder grizzly took one look at Fel and faltered. Then, it turned right around and tried to run away, leaving only the sounds of its thudding footsteps and the rustling of parting greenery.

“Eeehhh......”

“It must have sensed the difference in power between us. However, it already tried to challenge me, I will not let it go. Dora.”

《Sure thing!》 Dora-chan, chosen by Fel, went to chase after the murder grizzly. And......

*Thdshhh* *Thdshhh* *Thdshhh* *Thdshhh*

Pillars of ice grew out of the murder grizzly’s back.

That’s so sad. But, it’s still meat. I made sure to store it in my Item Box.

“I-I won’t get surprised again. I already know that your familiars are abnormal from that slime.”

“They’re all strong.”

After that, we left the forest, and just like how we got here in the morning, Mauritz rode Sui, and I rode Fel back to the town of Varienfeld.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

And, the next evening...

Mauritz came to my house once again.

“Yo, Mukohda. Thanks for yesterday.”

I showed him to my living room and was told that apparently, his wife was very happy with the two green geckos and spent all night making the medicine. The finished products sold as soon as they were put up, and apparently some noble heard the rumors and even sent a servant over for some.

“Man, I heard about it too, but I never thought they’d sell this fast. It only took this long to sell all of it you know? All of it!”

It seemed that the effectiveness of green geckos in their egg laying season was famous to those in the know, since it wasn’t actually sold that often, so even Mauritz was surprised at how well it sold.

“Well, we secured our portion already though. I talked to my wife, and we decided to try for a second child.”

He declared that he’d make another baby. Mauritz told me that, according to his wife, although medicine made from green geckos would never be as powerful as those from an orc king’s, they could be close, so it seemed that they’d definitely succeed. That’s fine, but I don’t see why you had to come all this way to tell me that you were gonna go for another kid.

“So, there’s something I want to hand over to you......” Mauritz said, taking out a small pouch from a pocket in his chest.

“This is your reward. Half of the earnings from selling the medicine.”

“What? Can I really have half?”

“Yeah. We already made plenty of profit, you see. Also, it’s thanks to you that not only did we manage to catch so many green geckos in such a short time, but I didn’t get hurt either.”

“If you’re going to put it like that, I’ll take it, but...”

“Oh, and I can’t forget this.” What Mauritz took out next was a small wooden case that fit into the palm of his hand. Inside were three black pills.

“It’s the vitality medicine my wife made. Well, try it out if you ever feel the need for it. One for each time, got it?”

............Is he trying to insinuate something? I don’t even have anyone to do it with, what am I supposed to......

If I need it? There hasn’t even been a hint of that all this time, you know———!

I wanted to just take that case and throw it who-knows-where, but I held in the impulse. And I took it, at least for show.

Y-You know, on the off chance, like one in a million, that something might happen. E-Even I need hope, you know? Hope!

Afterword

It’s Eguchi Ren. Thank you very much for purchasing Campfire Cooking with my Absurd Skill 5: Mixed Fried Foods and Monsters of the Sea!

Volume 5 is finally on sale. We managed to get to volume 5 rather suddenly. And it’s thanks to all you readers that we’ve been able to continue this far. I’m just full of gratitude for all of you.

Volume 5 is all about the seaside town of Berléand. The trio of Fel, Dora-chan, and Sui, who are always going on and on about meat, enjoy some seafood for a change, so it’d be great if you all enjoyed it. And surprise! Volume 5 has a special edition that comes with a drama CD! The script for the drama CD was something I specially wrote for this, so I’d like it if all of you who are looking at the regular version considered the special edition with the drama CD as well. As for all those who bought the special edition, I think you’ll be surprised at the wonderful lineup of voice actors we have as you enjoy it with volume 5. I was really shocked that we got voice actors that even I’ve heard of as an author who isn’t that knowledgeable about anime. I thank all the voice actors who participated in this drama CD from the bottom of my heart.

And, just like volume 4, volume 2 of the comic has been released at the same time as volume 5! It’s been really incredibly well received, so as the original author, I’m very happy.

I want to say my heartfelt thanks to Masa-sensei, who draws the illustrations for these light novels, and Akagishi K-sensei, who is in charge of the comic. Thanks to their hard work, I can feel even more life being breathed into my work. Thank you all so much, Masa-sensei who draws the illustrations, Akagishi K-sensei who draws the comic, all the voice actors who took part in the drama CD this time, my editor master I, and everyone else at Overlap.

This is the end, so everyone, please keep enjoying the laid back and heartwarming adventures of Mukohda, Fel, Dora-chan, and Sui in “Campfire Cooking in Another World with my Absurd Skill” in web, novel, or comic formats!

I’m praying that I meet you all again in volume 6.

Bonus Short Stories

Mukohda’s God-Awful Stall Reformation Plan

“Hahh......”

......Sh-Should I ask him what’s wrong?

We were in the morning market at the seaside town of Berléand. I had bought a lot at the stalls around the place, and we had just found an empty space for everyone to sit down and eat, but...... The dude running a stall next to us seemed really depressed. He’s been sighing this entire time. All three of my familiars didn’t seem to mind and simply scarfed down their food, so the difference between our atmosphere and his was all the more stark and uncomfortable.

“Hey, more of this.” Fel finished the grilled fish that was on his plate and demanded more while licking the flavor off his muzzle.

Fel, dude, at least try reading the atmosphere a little......

《I want more of this shellfish soup.》

《Sui also wants more soup~.》

That goes for you two as well.

The food that everyone demanded seconds of was grilled pieces of a fish called mackeren (which is like a mackerel), as well as a shellfish soup with giant hard clams in it. It had been well recieved by everyone when we had it before, so I bought a lot this time. I bought a lot, but......

“Hey. Hurry up and get more.”

《Give me more.》

《More~.》

Aaahhh fine! You guys try being at least a little considerate once in a while~!

...Oh, that dude in the stall is staring at us. While trying not to meet his eyes, I served the three of them their food.

Seeing everyone eat with so much gusto, the guy at the stall talked to me. “Are they your familiars?”

“Huh? Ah, well......”

“They eat a lot.”

“W-Well, yeah, kinda......”

Our conversation cut off.

“Uhh, if you’d like, you can give these to your familiars, too,” the guy said. He handed me an entire pot of the soup he was selling at his stall.

“What? Shouldn’t you be selling this?”

“Hahaha. As you can see nobody’s coming, so it’s fine.” The guy gave a small laugh of self-deprecation. I couldn’t very well refuse it like this, so I took it for the moment.

“Hey, you guys, he gave this to us,” I said, and served out the soup, but......

Fel, after smelling the soup, made a disgusted face and refused to eat it.

“Hey! Fel?!”

《Just from the smell I can tell this is no good. This is definitely disgusting.》

Even though you used telepathy, you still can’t make those statements, you know?

《Geh, something smells fishy in here—.》Dora, who stuck his nose in and smelled it, said as he hurriedly flew away.

“Even you Dora-chan?! What are you doing?!” What the hell is with that attitude, you haven’t even tried it! You just smelled it, you know?! That’s way too rude, you guys.

Sui must have figured out how I was feeling, because the slime stuck a tentacle into the soup and tasted it.

《What is this—, this isn’t goo—d,》 Sui said, immediately withdrawing its tentacle.

“Whaaaat? You too, Sui?”

《But it isn’t—. It even smells weird, this thing—.》

I mean, it’s true that it doesn’t look that good, but... And I can kinda tell that it smells, too. But, there’s no way I can say that right in front of the guy, right?

After Fel and the other’s awful reactions, I peeked over at the stall guy, and......

“Hahaha, even monsters rejected it. Is my cooking really that bad?” He was in the depths of despair, with eyes similar to those of a dead fish.

“Wha-, no, uhhh... ehhh... See, m-my familiars are just really picky about flavor.”

“......Bro, that’s not helping,” the stall guy said, expressionless.

“S-Sure. M-my name’s Mukohda. U-Uhh, I can at least listen to what’s wrong, so cheer up?” I offered.

The stall guy’s eyes bulged, and he grabbed my shoulders with both hands. “You’ll listen, Mukohda?”

“Huh? No, w-well......” I did say that I’d listen, but you were never gonna let me get away, were you?

I served Fel and the others more helpings of stall food and listened to the guy talk.

“You see, I’m......”

According to him, his name was Oswald, and he was slightly younger than me at 24. Oswald was from this town’s slums, and after becoming an adult he went through several jobs. He had a lover who came from the slums as well, and it was about time to be thinking of marriage.

To that end, he wanted a job that paid at least a certain amount, so he used the money he’d saved to start a stall business. With a stall, he’d be able to keep the cost of startup within budget, and most importantly the harder he worked, the more he’d earn. With the will to succeed no matter the cost, he......

“So it’s not going well?”

“Yes...... It’s been a month since I started this stall, and nothing’s selling. I’m coming close to having blown through all my savings, too......” Oswald said, looking depressed.

It wasn’t nice to say, but I could understand why this soup didn’t sell. My three familiars already said it, but in the first place, the smell was no good. Nothing about that smell would attract someone and draw their appetite. In fact, I’d like to ask how anyone would think that people would pay for a soup with a faint unpleasant fishy smell to it.

Actually, I’m curious as to how he’s even making this soup now. I mean, it’s just a simple soup that boils fish and vegetables together, you know? So why does it smell so bad? Is it because he’s not preparing the fish properly?

“Hey, by the way, are you butchering the fish yourself, Oswald?”

“What? That’s right.”

“Uhh, then can you try butchering this?”

I took out a mackeren I bought at the morning market out of my Item Box and handed it to Oswald.

“You have an Item Box? I’m jealous.”

“It’s small, though. Anyway, who cares about that, just butcher it like you always do.”

“Fine, I guess. I use mackeren a lot, anyway......” Oswald said, as he started to butcher the mackeren.

.............Yep. I figured out why the soup smells so bad.

First, the way he descales the fish is really rough. From what I saw, there are still places with scales on them. Also, he’s no good at taking out the innards. He’s fine splitting the belly and taking out the innards, but he doesn’t even bother washing them, he just cuts it away. Of course it’d smell.

“I see. So you just cut it like that and throw it in the soup?”

“Yeah.”

“Hahhh......”

“What? What’s wrong? What did I do?”

“The way you prepare your fish is just awful. Hey, did you really not notice anything about the way you’ve been doing things this entire time?”

“No, not really......”

“How was the taste?”

“The taste? Now that you mentioned it, it tasted kind of fishy, but it wasn’t inedible.”

Not inedible? Well I guess. ......Wait. NO, THIS IDIOOOOOT!!

“I’ll give it to you straight. You’re not suited for having a stall that sells food.”

“What?! Why not?!!”

“Why not? Just think about it. They’re paying customers, you know? Do you think they’d pay money for something you yourself say is, ‘not inedible?’”

“Ah!!”

“Of course you’d want to give your money for something that’s actually delicious! That goes for you too, right Oswald?”

“......Yeah.” Having gone that far, Oswald finally got the hint, and he hung his head in shame.

“From what I saw you’re not especially good at cooking, either. So why not take this chance and change jobs?” I said, and Oswald brought his head back up with force.

“I can’t do that! I used all my savings to buy this stall, I don’t have anywhere else to turn!”

No, I mean, even if you say that......

“How... What should I do!?!”

You’re asking me? We just met today; you know that, right?

Oswald, desperate, was grabbing on to both of my arms. He was talking about marriage with his girlfriend, and he had sunk all his savings into this, so it truly was all on the line for him. Of course he’d be desperate.

“From what I’ve been hearing, you’re really knowledgeable about food. Please, pleeaasse share your wisdom with me! I’m begging you!”

So that’s what they mean by grasping at straws.

I caved in to Oswald’s begging. I mean, he doesn’t seem like he’d let me go if I said no, either, so...

“For now, let’s go somewhere else.”

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇=

We moved to Oswald’s house. Apparently, he moved here mainly for storage when he started the stall for storage, among other reasons.

“If this keeps going, I’ll have to move again, though......”

“W-Well, that’s why I’m here, isn’t it? To stop that from happening.”

“That’s right! Please, please, I’m counting on you for everything! This is all I have right now, but I swear I’ll pay!” The amount Oswald pushed into my hands as he said that was a pittance, only 4 silver.

“This is fine. I just thought of something even you’d be able to cook, anyway.”

“Already?!”

“Yeah. It’s called fritters......”

I explained why Oswald could make this dish. This town’s specialty was tyrant fish. Those tyrant fish were white meat, which was perfect for cooking into fritters. Also, if you just buy the filleted pieces of tyrant fish from stores, then it’ll save the trouble of having to butcher them. And even if you buy an entire fish, you can just ask them to butcher the fish for you since you’ve made such a large purchase.

However, befitting of the fact that tyrant fish are monsters, they were more expensive than other fish. But that wouldn’t be a problem as long as one is strict about their clientele.

Sure, locals might think that it’s expensive, but what about adventurers? There are a lot of adventurers walking around with a pretty sum in their pockets, and they come and go all the time. As long as the adventurer doesn’t just settle down here, wouldn’t it be normal for them to want to try this town’s specialty? So if you mainly target those adventurers, there’ll be a decent amount of profit, was what I thought.

When I finished talking, Oswald muttered, “I see. Adventurers, huh?”

“Of course, it won’t work if you can’t cook it well. So learn how to do this properly so you can cook good white meat fish fritters.”

“Yessir!”

The stall cart that Oswald bought was really cheap since it was from a friend. It was old, but it came with a magic stove, so I decided to use it to teach him how to make the fritters. “I’ll supply the ingredients just this once. First is the all-important tyrant fish. Then, you need eggs, flour, salt, and olive oil.”

“Huh. There’s less than I expected.”

“Yeah. Eggs might be a little expensive like the tyrant fish, but you won’t need too much of it. Now, let’s get cracking.”

“Okay.”

First, cut the tyrant fish into large bite-sized pieces, and salt lightly. Next, separate the egg yolks and whites into their own bowls. I used a wooden bowl from this world for this step.

“Oswald, just mix this for now,” I instructed Oswald, handing him the egg whites in the wooden bowl as well as a wooden whisk that I’d found in this world. “Whoops, make sure to throw in a pinch of salt first.”

“Salt?”

“That’s right. Mix this well so it becomes white and foamy. Adding salt helps with that.”

“I see. So just whisk it until it becomes white and foamy?”

“That’s right. I’m counting on you.”

Add water to the bowl with the yolks and whisk well. Add in the flour to the bowl and mix again.

“Uuoooaahhh!!” Oswald was whisking hard at the whites with a snap of his wrist.

Hm, you’re pretty good.

“Hahh, hahh... Is this good?”

“Let’s see...... Yeah. It’s peaked and everything, so it’s fine. Remember how that looks.”

Take the well foamed whites — well, it’s really a meringue now — and mix it in with the bowl containing the yolks using a wooden spatula, half a bowl at a time. That finishes the breading. After that, coat the tyrant fish pieces in the breading and fry it up in the oil that’s been heated on medium heat to finish the fritters.

“It turned out pretty well. Have a taste.”

“Okay. Wait, uhh... It’s a little hard to eat......” Oswald was looking at......

《You guys......》 My familiars were all staring fixedly at the tyrant fish fritters.

《Let us eat it.》

《Yeah! Yeah!》

《Sui wants to eat~.》

《Geez. We didn’t make that much, so all you get is a taste, get it?》 I made sure they understood via telepathy and handed two pieces each to them.

《What, there really is not much...》

《Yeah.》

《So little—.》

Everyone looked unsatisfied at the amount, which they could put down with a single lick and a swallow.

That’s why I told you we didn’t have much. Geez.

“Ah, try some Oswald. It’s already got some base flavor to it since we used salt, but you can add more if you think the taste is too thin.”

“This crispy texture’s an entirely new way to eat fish, isn’t it? But the taste really might be too thin as it is. I’d prefer it with more salt on top.”

“In that case, it might be a good idea to use salt mixed with dried herbs to flavor it. You can mix that yourself to your tastes.”

“I see.”

“So? Do you think you can do it?’

“Yes, if it’s just this much even I can make do.”

“Well, it’s all up to how hard you work, Oswald. Do your best.”

“Yes!”

Revived, it seemed like Oswald was going to start selling tyrant fish fritters as early as tomorrow.

“Right, this is done. We are returning home. And you are making those fritters, as you call it, for us.”

“You want me to make it? Weren’t you all just stuffing yourselves full on grilled fish and soup from the stalls?”

《Awww... But just that one bite before really wasn’t enough...》

《Sui also wants more of that thing earlier—.》

“Aahhh fine! I get it!”

As soon as we got back to the house we were renting in Berléand, I was forced to fry up tons of tyrant fish fritters.

And I let it slip that they went well with ketchup or tartar sauce too, so now a lot of that’s used up as well. I really should learn to keep my mouth shut.

Three days later—

Concerned about how Oswald was doing, I went to look in on his stall...... There was a crowd of rough looking adventurer-like men and women. It seemed like word of mouth had already spread.

“Yo, Oswald. Looking good.”

“Ah! Mukohda! Yes I am. And it’s all thanks to you!”

“I see. That’s nice, but there’s something that’s been bugging me. Who’s that next to Oswald?”

“Oh yeah. Next to me is my wife, Nera.”

“I am Nera. I heard about you from my husband. Thank you very much.”

Huh? Wife? Just when did you get married, Oswald?

According to Oswald, Nera noticed Oswald’s plight and it turned into a little fight. Oswald wanted to get married in a bit after his job settled, but Nera was saying she would quit her job right now and help him...... Nera was extremely stubborn, so Oswald worked up his courage and held a wedding at the temple, it seemed. Apparently weddings in this world were valid as long as you said you were willing in front of a priest in a church, so they happened to be really fast.

“And so, I’m doing my best with Nera right now.” Oswald’s smile as he said that was bright. Too bright.

...............

Weren’t you making a face like you were about to die just three days ago, Oswald?! And now you’re a full blown normie?! Khh... I’m so jealous...

Red Dragon Hunting

As I was hunting in the forest along with Dora and Sui, I happened upon a strong presence. “Mm? This presence is......”

The presence was emanating from around the summit of a mountain that was just up ahead.

“Dora, Sui, I feel a strong presence ahead. Follow me,” I said, and proceeded to lead Dora and Sui towards the presence on top of the mountain. As we approached the mountain, I could feel the presence gradually coming closer.

“As I thought, this is......”

《Hey! It’s a dragon! There’s a red dragon!》

A red dragon had flown up from the top of the mountain. Seeing that, Dora shouted out.

《Uwaah~, something huge and red flew up!》 Sui, seeing the red dragon fly as well, was surprised.

The red dragon rose into the sky with an air of composure, as if to say that it knew just how strong it was.

I do not like that. That is just insulting.

“Dora, Sui. We are going to kill it.”

《We’re going to go get that big red thing~? Sui will do it!》

《W-Wait a second! We’re hunting that?!!》 Sui was all for it, but Dora panicked. Did he feel fear seeing the red dragon?

“Hmph. What, afraid?”

《Haahh? A-As if! In fact, I hate them since they’re so proud!》

“Then there is no problem?”

《O-Of course not. I’ll do it! Just watch me!》

“Do not forget those words. Their meat is really delicious. It will make for a good present.”

《That big red one is delicious~? Sui will fight hard!》

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

My eyes, which see far into the distance, chased after Dora.

Just as we had planned, Dora, who was flying in the sky, unleashed Ice magic at the red dragon. The sharp pillars of ice crashed into the back of the red dragon one after the other. Of course, just that would not pierce through its hard scales. As if it felt offended that anything would attack something as powerful as itself, the dragon glared at Dora, the culprit.

《See? I’m right here, you fatass! Try to catch me if you think you can!》

“GRAAAHHHHH!” Having let the insults go to both its head and its heart, the red dragon chased Dora. However, there was no way it could keep up in a contest of speed with a pixie dragon.

《I’ve got the fatass behind me!》 Dora said casually, from above mine and Sui’s heads.

“Sui, it is your turn.”

《Got it—! Let’s go!》

*Pew* *Pew* *Pew*

Sui aimed and unleashed its Acid Bullets. Just like I had taught it when we hunted wyverns before, it aimed at the base of the dragon’s wings and shot them through.

“Gyuhh! Gyuwaaahhh!?!” With a large hole opened in its wings, the red dragon lost its balance and fell to the ground.

Of course, I would be the one to deal with the red dragon, now that it had fallen to the ground so hard it caused a small earthquake. Seeing me, the red dragon stood back up immediately and attempted to unleash its breath. However, I did not allow him to do that. A dragon that has fallen to the ground is no threat at all. Even less so because it had a huge hole in its wings already. It was like twisting the neck of a baby.

“Just quietly become my feed.”

The moment the red dragon opened its mouth to unleash its breath, I let my own Lightning magic fly.

*THUDDDD*

“Gah......Gaahh......” The red dragon was completely dead.

“Heh. It was no match for me.”

《...............YEEEEAAAHHHH!! We did it! We really did it! We killed a red dragon—!!》

《Yayyy! We beat the big red thing—!》

After Dora and Sui finished celebrating, we threw the carcass of the red dragon into the magic bag that Mukohda gave me. All that was left to do was to present the dragon to him.

“This one’s meat is delicious. I am looking forward to how he will prepare it.”

《I’ve never eaten red dragon meat before. But if you say it’s good, Fel, then it’s gotta be. I’m excited!》

《Sui is looking forward to the delicious meat~.》

...In the end, Mukohda screamed at the sight of the red dragon that Fel showed him after he dumped the carcass out of the magic bag.

A Long Bath

We were in the residence we’d rented after all of us came to town. I wanted to get into the bath with Dora-chan and Sui, but I suddenly remembered something.

“Ah!”

Oh yeah, I ran out of that.

《What happened?》

“Oh, I just remembered that I was out of bath additives.”

《Bath... additives?》 Dora asked, cocking his head in confusion. It seemed like it didn’t occur to him that I was referring to what I always put in our bathwater.

“Yeah. It’s what I use every time we take a bath.”

《The one with the good smell—?》

“Exactly. Just as you say Sui, the one with the good smell.”

《Oh, that!》

“It’s better to have it, right?”

《Yeah. It smells nice, and having it when we get in really takes the fatigue away for some reason.》

《Sui also likes the bath that smells good—.》

Bath additives really are necessary, aren’t they? I feel like using them loosens up your body more, or rather, it eases exhaustion more than not having any. On top of that, there’s the relaxing effect from the nice smell, which helps you sleep after you get out.

“I’ll go buy some now, so just wait a second.” Opening my Online Supermarket, I looked over the bath additives they carried.

“Oh. They’ve got new ones. Let’s see, ‘For the end of a busy day, have an adult’s premium relaxing time,’ huh?” The scent seemed nice, and the pomegranate extract and jojoba oil mixture it was advertising seemed good for the skin. And most importantly, the fact that it was premium made me want it. It was the same brand as the additives that I used many times before, so I felt like I could trust it, and the price was nice, too.

Okay, let’s get this one. And, click!

I chose the peach scent, which had the most reviews. Apparently this would allow us to enjoy the fragrance of fresh peaches, so much so that we might melt. Bath additives were usually some kind of citrus scent or a green herb scent, so enjoying the sweet smell of peaches would be nice once in a while. Sui would probably like it.

Recently it’s all been the clear type, so having a cloudy bath for the first time in a while will be nice, too.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

“Aahhhhh~...” The relaxing feeling soaked deep into my tired body.

《Khhh~...》 Dora-chan was stretching out his limbs as far as they would go while floating in the bathtub, as if he was trying to stretch out a knot.

《What a pretty color~. It smells sweet — so nice~.》 While floating in the water, Sui was looking a little more spellbound by the bath than usual as well.

The water really was a nice color. The water was cloudy white with just a little refined hint of pink in it. The smell of fresh peaches wasn’t too sweet or too strong, and made for a good “seasoning” to the bath. It was extremely relaxing. Along with the almost-too-extravagant extremely large bath, I was in the lap of luxury. This really was worth the label of ‘premium.’

While I was relaxing, I decided to also massage the soles of my feet, putting powerful pressure on my sole’s pressure points.

“Ohh~, that feels nice.”

Of course I would be used to travel by now, but whenever it ran long, the exhaustion would all be stored in my feet.

《What’re you doing?》

“Hm? I’m massaging the pressure points on the soles of my feet. It feels good.”

《Really? Do it for me,》 Dora-chan said, swimming over close to me, pointing his small feet my way.

“Oh fine.” I started off by weakly pushing down on the center of the soles of Dora-chan’s proportionally small-sized feet. “How is it?”

《Ahh, well it’s not bad? You can go harder...》 Dora-chan said, so I put in a little more power. 《Ohh~, it’s working, it’s working~. This is great.》

You’re sounding like an old grandpa, Dora-chan.

As I continued to press on his feet, Dora-chan started looking more and more blissful, leaving his mouth wide open. After a while, I started to hear his breathing. He was sleeping blissfully.

......He’s totally sleeping, isn’t he?

“Dora-chan?” I poked his belly.

《Mnn...... Ohh, it felt so good I fell asleep.》

“I agree that it feels good, but don’t sleep in the bath.”

《Mmnnn......》 Dora-chan made a sound, wiping his eyes as he floated in the bath like he was drowsy.

Well, I guess I can just wake him up when it’s time to get out.

But yeah, baths really are amazing. Especially since I haven’t been able to get in every day since I got here. So it hits harder every time I’m able to relax like this.

“Whew~, I guess we’ll have to get out in a little bit~.”

《Mnnn......》

《Okaayy......》

...Went the conversation, as the three of us enjoyed our leisurely time in the bath.

Since it took too long for us to come out, Fel came to check in on us, so we finally had to leave.

Mukohda’s Cooking Class 4

Today, I came with everyone to get a look at the harbor. A boat had just come back, and they were unloading their catch. When I tried talking a little to the fishermen who were there, they told me their boat used a net to fish. They were carrying out large amounts of fish all the time, from large fish to fish monsters with severe faces, to even regular, medium-sized fish.

“Hehh~, so they catch small ones like that, too.”

The fishermen were carrying out buckets packed full of small shrimp that looked like Shiba shrimp.

You could totally just eat small shrimp like that shell and all — it’s great. Just by frying it and throwing some salt on top, it becomes so delicious the taste just stays with you. It’s perfect as a beer snack, too.

I swallowed my drool that welled up while I was thinking about ice cold beer and crispy shrimp. Now I’m gonna have to get some on the way back.

As that thought ran through my mind......

“Captain~, I’ll be throwing this out like always, okay~?”

“Sure! I’m counting on you.”

Huh? You’re throwing that... away?

............

“Wait just a second there!”

The fishermen fixed their eyes on me, as I reflexively jumped forward, yelling.

“Throwing that out would be a waste! Those are perfect as snacks with beer — they’re great!”

“What? Good with beer?” The fishermen latched on to my statement, their eyes seeming to sparkle with intensity.

“Okay! Just wait a little bro, our work’s almost done already. Teach us how to make that delicious snack you talk about. In exchange, we’ll give you half of these — deal?” The captain said as he grabbed my shoulder, clearly unwilling to let me get away.

What? I just want some of those shrimp, though. Or so I thought, but it looked like they were really, really looking forward to that snack, so it didn’t seem like I’d be able to get away now.

Oh fine, I guess I have to play along.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

“First, wash the shrimp thoroughly in water.”

In the end, I had to demonstrate how to make the dish. I explained it to the captain, but he was still doubtful, saying, “Will that really make it good?”

So I figured that it’d be faster to just show him. He was still surprised when I told him I had an Item Box and brought out my magic stove, though. He was all, “You’re walking around with a really serious piece of hardware there, bro.”

“Make sure to dry off the shrimp that you wash. If you don’t, it’ll splash out all hot when you put it in the oil, so you have to be careful.”

I’d really rather do this with paper towels, but I couldn’t use them with all these fishermen watching, so I just made do with a clean cloth.

“After that, just fry up the small shrimp.”

I used the common olive oil from this world to fry it in. Keeping the temperature between 170 and 180 degrees, I fried the shrimp until it was crisp.

“Once it’s fried all crispy like this, wipe off the oil and sprinkle some salt on top, and it’s done.”

I tried one. Every bite was crunchy and made pleasant sounds in my mouth.

Yeah, it’s savory and delicious. The best part is that you can taste it all from head to tail.

When I proffered one to the captain, he hesitantly bit into one, still clearly doubting if it was actually good.

*Crrnch* *Crrnch*

Silently, he took another shrimp and threw it in his mouth. Ad nauseam.

“Ehh... Uhhh, captain?”

“Woah! Sorry, I couldn’t help it. It’s good.”

“Couldn’t help it? That’s unfair, cap!”

“Yeah! Let us have some too—!”

“Now just wait a second. It’s true that this’ll go great with beer, just like you said, bro. There’s no doubt, since I’m saying it and I love beer. So... Hey! Fritz! Kuntz! Come ’ere!”

“What, cap?” Two young fishermen who seemed to be the lowest on the totem pole around here approached the captain.

“You two go get some beer,” the captain said, handing the two of them some money. They ran off happily in search of some booze.

“Okaayy! It’s a party! We’ll be eating all the great snacks this guy here makes!”

“““““YEEEAAAAHHHHH!!””””” All the fishermen cheered in response to the captain’s declaration.

“Of course you’ll be drinking too, right? We’re countin’ on ya for those snacks, bro!”

“No, uhmm......”

Without any way I could interrupt their party and tell them I was going home, I ended up having to continue cooking bare-fried shrimp for them. When they were finally done and I could leave, the captain called up a bunch of his friends and rounded up a bunch of the small shrimp for me. He must have felt responsible for dragging me in.

Just as I was thinking about frying up this fresh catch, some indomitable presences behind me......

“Hey, you know what is about to happen, right?”

《We stayed quiet and waited all this time — of course, you’ll let us eat some too, right?》

《Sui wants some too~.》

“...............Okay.”

I Lost to the Pressure

“Hmm, a Tōhoku delicacies fair, huh?”

We were currently camping after a day of travel. We’d finally eaten through our reserves the day before, so for today’s dinner I was trying to think of what to do as I opened the menu of my Online Supermarket. That was when I happened to see that they had an event going on.

I’d heard that even seven years after that huge earthquake, life still wasn’t back to how it was before. It seemed that part of the intent behind this was to get people to eat their food and cheer them on. Bemused, I flipped through the menu and found foods from all of Tōhoku’s prefectures lined up and organized.

For Aomori, it had to be apples, but apples weren’t in season, so it was just several varieties of apple juice. Of course, all of them were 100% juice. Then there was garlic and scallops, too. The meaty scallops seemed like they’d be good as sashimi, or sauteed, or even fried.

Iwate has oysters and wagyu beef, huh? Simply on sight, it was as if the large jiggly oyster had, ‘I’m delicious raw or cooked!’ written all over it. And nothing needed to be said about how delicious wagyu beef was. As if beef with marbling like that could be bad.

Of course Miyagi would have their famous Kesennuma shark fins. It was just a simple dish that heated the fin up a little, but even then, the price was somewhat high. I still wanted to try it, though. There was also bamboo kamaboko and beef tongue. Slightly roasted bamboo kamaboko was great for a beer snack. And after seeing the beef tongue, I started wanting to eat beef tongue with onion salt sauce, something that I last had a long while ago.

Akita had lots of rice, so their section was rice and Japanese sake. They also had a local breed of chicken. The chicken seemed like it’d be delicious in a nabe or roasted. Good rice and good chicken: a combo that makes you feel like you could eat endlessly.

When it comes to Yamagata, the first thing you would think of is cherries. The carefully packed boxes of large cherries with their glossy red sheen were pretty expensive, but they were also sweet and a little tangy and delicious. Yamagata also had wagyu beef. Seeing all this delicious meat on display was giving me a craving. There was also wine; I wasn’t sure, but it seemed that Yamagata was as big of a Japanese wine producer as Yamanashi, Shizuoka, and Hokkaido.

Fukushima was famous for its peaches. But those weren’t in season either, so the store carried peach juice. Of course, these were also 100% peach juice. This reminded me of the last time I was gifted peach juice from Fukushima. It was really good.

And there was no leaving out Kitakata ramen. The light soy sauce flavor was just my taste. I had lost count of how many times I’d ordered it. It seemed that they had recreated the taste of famous stores here. They even had the chashu and bamboo shoots that I had to have in a set. This is great. I want to try it.

“The taste of Tōhoku It all looks so delicious~. Seeing all this is making me want to eat it. Maybe I should just pick one to buy......”

“All of it.”

“Woah! You surprised me!” The one that silently popped up from behind me was Fel.

“That otherworld food. All of it is good, no? Let me eat them too.”

《Yeah! We’ve been watching you mumbling to yourself and staring at that screen like you’re going to fall into it this entire time, you know? If it’s good, give it to us!》

《Sui wants to eat too—.》

Apparently it wasn’t just Fel; all of them saw it.

“Huh? No, this is......” Eating stuff from my world buffs their stats for a while, right? If they eat all of this, how much will it all go up? I’ve got nothing but doubts and worries.

“Eating food from the other world makes us stronger, no? Why are you being so stingy?”

《What? Really? Then I want to eat even more!》

《Sui wants to eeeaat!》

“Well, you’re only stronger for a little while.”

“There is no problem with getting stronger, no? Is it not fine every once in a while? Hm?”

F-Fel, you’re too close. And your eyes, why are they so still?

《Yeah! Yeah! Let us eat!》

Dora-chan, it’s fine that you’re on my head, but digging your claws into me like that hurts.

《Master—, Sui wants to eat too~.》

That’s not fair, Sui, begging on my lap like that.

“Let us eat it!”

《Feed us!》

《Sui wants it!》

Accosted by all three of them, I...... “I-I got it! I’ll let you eat it!”

...I caved. “However, you better be behaved after you eat it! No hunting just because you got strong or anything!”

It’ll be awful if they all go hunting like Fel did before because they couldn’t deal with all the excess energy and ended up killing some truly scary stuff.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

“Whew~, I’m stuffed......”

“Indeed. It was truly magnificent.”

《Yeah. I really liked that beef tongue or whatever it was!》

《You know~, Sui thought the chicken thing was really good! Also, the apple juice, and the peach juice, and cherries!》

《Oh yeah, those drinks were great! They were so sweet! The usual fizzy stuff is also good, but so was the stuff we had today.》

“That sweetness was just right, no? Also, those fruits called cherries are hard to eat because they are so small, but their taste was perfect for after the meal.”

We had eaten all Tōhoku had to offer. I was a little scared that just for this one meal, I ended up having to spend several tens of gold coins though.

W-Well, that’s fine every once in a while. Yeah.

I bought everything on the list, but, naturally, the three of them liked the meat the most. Of course, I also got the scallops and oysters so we could taste seafood, but it didn’t seem like they enjoyed the scallop sashimi or the raw oysters much, so I tried cooking the scallops in butter and sauteeing the oysters. It didn’t seem like they hated the cooked versions of the scallops and oysters, but as meat lovers, their main focus was predictably on the meat. But that let me enjoy the scallops and oysters as much as I wanted. I also got the expensive shark fin, but it didn’t look like they understood how delicious that was, either. Well, shark fin itself didn’t have any flavor, after all. Thanks to that, though, I got as much shark fin as I wanted as well. I was feeling the extravagance as I ate it.

Still, it was only a small break in between having to use the barbecue grill I had made in Dolan to continuously grill steaks for them. For Fel, I cooked his favorite wagyu beef, cut thick with crisscross char marks on it. I started with just salt and pepper, and moved on to the usual steak sauces. He ended up eating several cuts one after the other. Dora-chan had his favorite beef tongue, also cut thick. Once it was done cooking, I was going to slather whatever sauce he wanted on top, but he took a liking to the salt flavored one, so that was all he had. Sui really took a liking to the chicken grilled with salt and pepper, so it happily ate a lot of it. Sui also downed a whole lot of both the apple and peach juices.

The cherries I’d busted out for dessert were unexpectedly well received, and I had to buy several extra boxes. I laughed when Fel kept eating them one after the other, seeds and all, while exclaiming about how delicious they were.

“I guess this kind of thing is fine once in a while, too,” I said, rubbing my belly. Fel immediately replied, “Right?”

“There are good things in the other world too, so you should be feeding them to us.”

What do you mean, “should be?”

“Still, I am overflowing with energy,” Fel said, breathing heavily.

《I thought that too. I really just want to go wild right now,》” Dora-chan said, flying all over the place.

《Sui too!》 Sui said while bouncing at high speed all over the walls.

“Nononono, wait a second everyone. Didn’t I just tell you to stay behaved after we all ate?”

“Even so. I am overflowing with energy; I cannot stay still...... Okay, we are going hunting! Dora, Sui!”

《Yeaahhhaaaahhh!! I’m gonna go wild!》

《Sui will get lots and lots!》

“Ah! Wai-! Waiwaiwa- WAIT A SECOND I SAID—!”

Not listening to me as I tried to stop them, all three of my familiars disappeared into the forest.

The next morning, people could apparently hear Mukohda’s cry echoing out into the world, shouting, “WHAT DO YOU EVEN WANT ME TO DO WITH ALL THIS———!”

A Refreshing Pickled Dish

“All this meat really is making me want something refreshing......”

Our meals are really just meat though... And today’s dinner was also going to be wyvern steak, at everybody’s request. It doesn’t seem like any of them will ever get tired of meat even after eating it every day. Meat is expected even in the morning. Of course, I don’t accompany them for that, but I eat the same food for lunch and dinner, so I always end up eating so much meat. Still, it must be thanks to the goddess Ninrir’s blessing that I’m still healthy. Thankfully.

I tried changing the meat up as much as I could, flavoring it to be refreshing or whatever else, but even so, with all the meat I’d been eating, I’d been wanting to eat anything other than meat.

“I guess I’ll just look around my Online Supermarket for now.”

When I opened the menu...... “Seasonal raw seaweed from the Sanriku coast is in! Put them in salads or pickle them or whatever you like!” was how the banner read.

“Pickled, huh? Yeah, that’d be nice. It’s easy, too. Okay, let’s pickle some.” I immediately moved to buy the ingredients — seasonal raw seaweed, cucumbers, and white udo. The white udo was for personal preference. I loved their crispness and unique bitterness.

First I need to prepare each ingredient, don’t I?

~◇~◇~◇~

Cut the cucumbers into thin discs, rub some salt on them, and set them aside for now. Skin the white udo with a peeler and cut them into thin pieces, about 4cm long. Take those pieces and soak them in water mixed with vinegar for about ten minutes to remove any astringency.

Dip the raw seaweed into hot water quickly until it turns a pretty green and then soak it in cold water. Once it’s cooled off, cut it into easily bite-sized pieces.

After that, put the dried-out cucumbers into a bowl, along with the cut seaweed and white udo. At this point, just throw in a mixture of vinegar, sugar, and soy sauce to complete it.

~◇~◇~◇~

I took a taste test. The crunchy texture of the raw seaweed and the crispness of the white udo and cucumber felt nice together. The unique bitterness of the white udo and the taste of the vinegar pair well, too.

“It’s this! This! This kind of refreshing thing is exactly what I wanted!” Even though it was just a taste test, I couldn’t help eating more.

“Hey, is it still not ready?”

《I’m hungry. When’s the steak~?》

《Master—, Sui is hungry—. Is the meat ready—?》

“Ahh, sorry, sorry. I’ll grill the steak now.”

“So, what were you just eating?” Looks like Fel totally noticed me eating the vinegared dish.

“Ahh, this? It’s a vinegared dish. I wanted something refreshing.”

“Vinegared?”

“Yes. It’s sour.”

“Is it good?”

“I like it...... Do you want to try some?”

“Indeed.”

《Give some to me too.》

《Sui too!》

It looked like everyone wanted to try, so for the moment I took a little of it and served it out on dishes. All three of them gave some strange reactions, though......

“......It is not inedible, but in the end meat is best.”

《Yeah. I’d rather have meat.》

《Meat is more delicious, Sui thinks.》

Gnnrr, even though you all were the ones that wanted to try it... It’s fine, it’s fine. I can just eat it all myself.

After I grilled up the wyvern steaks and served them out, all three of them happily ate.

“Meat really is the best. This is good.”

《Yeah. I just love all these juices stuffed with umami!》

《Meat is so delicious~. Sui loves meat—! Sui can eat meat forever~.》

It seems that meat really is the most popular here. I had a smaller sized steak myself, but if anything the vinegared Sanriku pickles were my main dish. I also used the leftover seaweed to make seaweed sashimi. It made me want some sake, so I bought some in a hurry. I made it Japanese sake to pair with today’s menu.

To go along with the vinegared raw seaweed, cucumbers, and white udo as well as the raw seaweed sashimi, I slowly sipped on my Japanese sake. I’d been drinking beer all the time until now, but Japanese sake was also worth having sometimes.

“Hey! Next! Next!”

《I want more too!》

《Sui also wants more—!》

“Alrighty.”

Although it was too bad I couldn’t enjoy my sake in peace...

Blended Salt

It happened in a town that we stopped by for a break during a particularly long stretch of travel. There, the proprietress at the inn we stayed in told us that we made it just in time for the monthly market tomorrow. There’d be a lot of stalls, and the nearby villages would all come with their crops and whatever they’d built or crafted. It would apparently be a pretty lively sight. We weren’t in any special hurry on our trip, and it seemed fun, so we all decided to go see the market together.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

“Okay. Let us go to that stall.”

《The one selling the skewers? That’s a good idea. Let’s go!》

《Meat~.》

“Hey! W-Wait a second!”

I chased after the three of them who were lured in by the smell of cooking meat skewers. The owner of the stall was cowed by the three of them, who were basically camped out right in front of him. No other customers would come close, either......

This is definitely obstruction of business, right? Wait, then that means I have to do something about it?!

“Excuse me. Uhhh......” I then asked how many each of them wanted through telepathy.

《I will have twenty.》

《I’ll take five for now.》

《Sui wants the same as Uncle Fel! twenty!》

“Sure, sure. Got it.”

Still, they’re going hard right from the morning, huh? Wait, no that’s normal for them.

“Excuse me. Forty-five skewers please.”

“F-Forty-five......! W-Wait a little, please.”

Sorry for the huge order. It looked like he didn’t have enough prepared, as he quickly started cooking.

I found an open space and managed to put all the meat into dishes before serving it to Fel and the others.

“That man claimed this was horn rabbit meat, so I did not expect much from the meat itself, but this taste is still too thin......”

《You’re right. It’d be better with even just a little more salt...》”

《It’s not that goo~d.》

Apparently the taste was kind of meh, probably because it was a pretty big step down from the kind of meat we usually ate. Even so, it’d probably still be decent if it was seasoned well, but this place was pretty far inland, so that stuff would be expensive. So I guess it’s understandable why the owner was holding back.

Hmmm... If that’s the case......

“Want me to season it?”

From my Item Box, I took the cans of salt and pepper that I always used ever since I bought them with my skill.

“Please.”

《Me too!》

《Sui wants some too—!》

After I seasoned all their food......

“Mm, it has become much more palatable.”

《Yeah. This much salt really is perfect.》

《It got good—.》

“And we can also try this......” I said, taking out several bottles from my Item Box. “There’s the usual herb salt, garlic salt, and lemon salt. And then, I’ve also got seaweed salt, yuzu salt, sanshou salt, and chili pepper salt. Oh, there’s also wasabi salt, matcha salt, plum salt, and curry salt.”

Recently, there had been a boom of blended salts. At first, I just happened to find the seaweed salt when I was flipping through the menu and thought, Hehh~, so they have stuff like this too, before I bought it — which turned out to be a great decision. Even for a simple salted rice ball, just using the seaweed salt made it far better.

Ever since then, I was hooked and kept buying different flavors. On top of pairing well with most anything, all these blended salts allow one to experience a wealth of flavors, so I treasured them. Personally, I’d become a fan of using all the different flavors on the fried foods we ate.

“Hohh, that is quite the selection. Do you have something spicy?”

“Oh yeah, you like spicy, don’t you, Fel?”

“Indeed. The stimulation of spice is good. Do you have some?”

“If that’s the case, I have these three. Sanshou salt, chili pepper salt, and of course wasabi salt.”

“Then put all three on.”

“Sure.”

I added all three blended salts to his meat.

“This one has the sanshou salt, this one the chili pepper salt, and this one the wasabi salt.”

Fel snarfed down the meat one chunk after the other, as if he was in a race.

“Mmh, it is clearly better than before. Each seasoning is good and spicy, but I especially like this sanshou salt.”

《I’m next! Me! Give me some of that too.》

“Which ones do you want, Dora?”

《There’s so many I can’t decide. Just give me what you think I’ll like for now.》

Hmmm, stuff Dora-chan would like...... “If I remember correctly, you were pretty good with sour flavors, weren’t you, Dora-chan?”

《Hm? Ahh, yeah I don’t hate the sour stuff.》

“Then try this. Lemon salt, yuzu salt, and plum salt.” I used them to salt the meat on Dora-chan’s dish.

《Ohh! This definitely goes! They’re all so clear. The sourness gives the meat a refreshing taste. Especially this yuzu salt. I like that one the most!》

Oh, so Dora-chan likes the yuzu salt. Yuzu salt goes especially well with meat and fish, so I like it too.

《Sui too! Sui too!》

“What would you like, Sui?”

《Mnn~, stuff that goes with meat!》

“With meat, huh? Let’s see...... These three then. Herb salt, garlic salt, and curry salt.” I used the blended salts I picked out to season Sui’s meats as well.

《It became delicious! You know, Sui likes this curry one the best.》

Curry salt, huh? There’s no way that wouldn’t pair with meat. I think it’s great, too.

Fel, who was done with his food, stared unblinkingly at Dora-chan and Sui as they ate.

“What?”

“No, I just thought that Dora and Sui’s shares also seemed delicious.”

“The yuzu and curry salt?”

“Indeed.”

《Gulp...... I can still eat too. I want to try that spicy one that Fel had and the one that goes with meat that Sui tried too.》

《Sui also wants to eat more~.》

It seemed like they hadn’t had enough of the blended salts yet.

“Then of course we are moving on to the next stall. Dora, Sui. Let us go.”

《Alright!》

《Yayyy meat~.》

“Ah! Hey, I said wait!!”

Apparently the blended salts stirred up everyone’s appetites. They were delicious though. I still wasn’t sure how I felt about starting the day with meat, but I couldn’t just say no after seeing everyone enjoying their meat so much.

“I’ll be eating meat too, you hear~.”

Battle Cooking - Continued

“Please! Our marriages are riding on this!”

The ones looking so desperate as they said that, as if they were about to prostrate themselves before me at any moment, were the various female adventurers in this Adventurer’s guild.

“If you pull that on me so suddenly......” I was overwhelmed by the female adventurers’ vigor.

“Please! If we keep going like this, it’ll be too late for us!”

“Yeah! Our backs are to the wall! Please! Please!”

“““““WE’RE BEGGING YOU!!”””””

I continued to be bewildered by the desperate pleas of these female adventurers.

As for why this all happened......

This was the Adventurer’s guild of a town we just happened to stop by during our travels. When I showed my guild card at the counter just in case there was a request, it seemed that there was an A-ranked party that was supposed to come this way, so I was told that there was nothing really for us, who were S-ranked.

Peace is best. Since we were already here, I’d decided I wanted to at least see the sights, so I took Fel and the others with me. But before we left, a female adventurer called out to us.

“Uhm, excuse me, but could you be the S-ranked adventurer, Mukohda?”

I replied in the affirmative, and for some reason all the women adventurers around us raised a cheer. Wondering what was up, I asked, and apparently the cooking class I’d held the last time I was at an Adventurer’s guild became the subject of a lot of rumors.

“To think big sis Merrida got married!”

“I thought she’d spend her whole life single!”

“It’s frustrating that she is so happy.”

The female adventurers all raised a fuss about big sis Merrida, whoever she was. According to them, there was a B-ranked adventurer that was very caring and skilled, but, basically, not feminine at all. Her name was Merrida, and she was adored by a lot of other women adventurers. She attended the cooking class I’d held before, it seemed. After that, she retired from adventuring due to her age, and everyone thought that marriage would be impossible for her. She was already well into her 27th year when she retired, and she was completely useless at household chores, so everyone thought it was hopeless.

However, Merrida betrayed everyone’s expectations and got a husband really quickly. Apparently there was a female adventurer who saw her by chance after she returned to her hometown after retiring, and the word spread in an instant. So, according to the female adventurer who talked to Merrida directly, the man who became her husband was a childhood friend, and just happened to be single at the time too, so as fellow singles, they started meeting regularly.

Then, Merrida used the dish I taught her in order to make a quick approach. After that, it was an easy and smooth ride to marriage — that was the rumor.

“There’s no mistake: the delicious food she made was the reason they progressed so fast.”

“It’s really gotta be good food, right? If we can just hook a man with that, even we will have a good chance!”

“Even big sis Merrida got married, so we should be able to!”

All of them were breathing heavily. And so......

“I-I get it. I’ll hold a cooking class here too!”

Losing to their enthusiasm, it was decided that I would hold a cooking class. So with that settled, all the women moved fast. The negotiation with the guild for a space was quick.

But if you’re going to go on and on about marriage, why not me? I’m S-ranked on paper, and I have a fair amount of money... I thought, but I heard the women whispering.

“Hey, hey, he’s S-ranked and looks rich, wouldn’t Mukohda be a good choice?”

“Whaaat? That’s a little... I mean, his familiars are all scary. And like, I prefer men with sharper faces than that. Wait, why don’t you try for it?”

“I wouldn’t do that either. After all, I like more... like solid, muscly guys? They seem more reliable.”

............

Gggnnnnnrrrrr...

I-I know I’m an average-looking Japanese guy already! And I’m so thin I’m miles away from that macho look...

...A-And, I prefer more gentle-seeming women, unlike all the girls here!

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

On the day of the class—

As I was preparing for the class in the meeting hall in the Adventurer’s guild that was to be our room, all the women who heard the rumors came streaming in. The room filled up immediately, and the halls were overflowing with more female adventurers who couldn’t get in. With the complaints of the women who couldn’t get in, it was quickly decided that I would do both a morning and an afternoon class. I had the gathered women back up a little so I could have room to produce my magic stove.

“Well then, let’s get started.”

My three familiars were sleeping in a corner of the hall, since there was no way they could fit in the room. Of course, they declared, “We will be eating your finished food.”

After a lot of deliberation as to what to teach, in the end I decided on stewed meatballs with fresh tomatoes, since the previous class was stewed cockatrice with fresh tomatoes. Because it’s mostly the same preparation, you can just substitute the meatballs for cockatrice if you like. And most importantly, meatballs can be made more than delicious enough even with this world’s seasonings.

“Today, I will be teaching all of you how to make stewed meatballs with fresh tomatoes. If you decide to use cockatrice instead of meatballs, it will be the same dish that I taught in the cooking class that you all know Merrida participated in. This dish can be used with mostly any meat, so I feel like you should all experiment with that on your own. Now then, you, you, and you, let’s start cooking together.”

Since I had four burners, I chose several people to start cooking with me.

“M-Me?!!”

“I’m bad at cooking, oh no......”

“Th-This is for marriage... I’ve got to do my best!”

The women I chose all seemed nervous. But it’s fine. It’s not that hard.

“Okay then, I’ll start with the ingredients. First, for the meatballs......” The gazes from the female adventurers were the picture of earnestness.

The meat I used for meatballs this time was bloody horn-bull and orc meat.

~◇~◇~◇~

Use two knives and just keep chopping and chopping until the meat is minced finely. Take the minced meat and mix it together in a 7-3 ratio in favor of the bloody horn-bull meat. Take the finished minced meat mixture and combine with minced oneons, bread crumbs, and urcuckoo eggs (urcuckoos are weak, chicken-like monsters) until the mixture gets a little sticky. Make sure to season with salt and pepper while mixing.

...By the way, this world didn’t have anything like panko, so I explained how to make it by grating dried bread, or just crushing it into tiny crumbs. The common sense of this world dictated that one bake bread in large batches, so pretty much any house would have dried out hard-as-steel bread on hand, it was pretty easy to do...

Once the base of the meatballs is done, ball them up into large bite-sized spheres. Oil up a frying pan, and after heating it a bit, line up the meatballs and roll them around in the pan until the entire surface is browned evenly.

When the meatballs are done, remove from heat, and use another frying pan. Put some olive oil and minced garlic into that pan and start cooking. Once you can smell the garlic, add in some roughly chopped smoked jerky and keep cooking.

Once you can smell the fragrance of bacon and garlic, add in minced oneons and mushrooms with the feet cut off and unraveled. Once the oneons have gone slightly opaque and the mushrooms have wilted, throw in some tomatoes cut into chunks and continue cooking while crushing the tomatoes.

When you can tell that some of the water in the tomato has cooked off, add the cooked meatballs back in and let them stew in the sauce for about six to seven minutes. Make final adjustments to flavor with salt and pepper, and it’s done.

~◇~◇~◇~

“I... I did it......”

“Well, it worked out in the end.”

“I can do it if I try!”

The girls I picked didn’t have that much confidence at first, but they finished the food without problems.

“Okay then everyone, have a taste,” I said, but given the numbers of women here, we had to split up the food into small portions.

“Yeah, it’s good!”

“Really!”

“More than anything, it’s great that it sounds like even I can do it.”

“Yeah, if she can do it then so can I.”

Noisy would have been putting it lightly. The excited chatter between them continued.

“Okay then. That’s it for this cooking class.” There was no way to control them, so I ended the class, and the women filed out of the room still making just as much noise.

“Whew. It’s finally done. Although I still have to do one more...”

While I was cleaning up the used plates and utensils in preparation for the afternoon class, Fel and the others, who had been waiting in the hall, came in.

“Hey. Where is our share?”

《You said you’d give us some, didn’t you?》Fel and Dora-chan said, which prompted me to remember.

“Ah!”

Whoops. I completely forgot. I didn’t make any extra. What should I do? While I was panicking, Fel and Dora-chan were staring intently.

《Master — where’s the meat?》

Sui............ I can’t just say I forgot.

“I’ll make it now, so wait a little.”

“Of course.”

《Yep.》

In the end, I had to keep making more stewed meatballs with fresh tomatoes for the three of them right up until the afternoon class was about to start.

Let’s Go Crab Hunting

“I’ve heard something good.”

“Indeed. I have seen that before, but I have never eaten it.”

《Me neither. But they said it’s good, right?》

“Should we go and get some right now?”

“That is a great idea. However, you seem to be much more spirited than usual.”

“Of course, I like them.”

《Are we gonna go get delicious stuff—?》

“Yeah. We’re gonna go hunt some delicious stuff.”

《Sui will get lots—! Make loooooots of good food, okay Master?》

“Of course! Okay then. Let’s all go crab hunting, everyone!”

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

“That’s it.”

“Indeed. Just as we heard.”

《Yeah. The crabs are migrating.》

《There’s so many~.》

We were hiding in the shade of a tree, watching the migration of a species of huge crabs that looked like fiddler crabs, each with one large pincer, only just over a meter in height. These crabs were a type of land crab monster called ‘giant fortress crabs.’

We heard of these monsters from the Adventurer’s guild. After finishing up a quest that was given by the guildmaster of an Adventurer’s guild in a town that we had just happened to stop by during our travels, I asked, “Is there anything good to eat around here?” His reply was to inform me about the giant fortress crabs.

There was a mountain named Mt. Leist near here, and the forest that spread around its feet is home to the giant fortress crabs. Apparently, those giant fortress crabs always left the mountain base around this time to lay eggs, going to a certain geyser. I was told that it was speculated the reason the crabs did this was to use the heat from the geyser to hatch their eggs. So, those giant fortress crabs, laden with eggs, were worth a lot.

Normally, a giant fortress crab without eggs would require a lot of people to take down, but it wasn’t impossible. However, a giant fortress crab with eggs, around this season, would require at least an A-ranked adventurer to hunt, it seemed. And that was simply because the deeper you went into the forest, or, the closer you got to the mountain, the stronger the monsters got. Even the migrating giant fortress crabs would get preyed upon by the other monsters that lived in the area, and only the rare few would actually get to lay their eggs apparently.

But you know, if you hear that it’s delicious...

It seemed that the guildmaster had tasted it just once, and it had been delicious enough for him to passionately sing its praises, saying things like, “Its meat, full of nutrients from preparing for birth, is sweet, and every bite causes a burst of amazing umami.” It wasn’t meat, but even Fel was pretty excited to try it, so we had all come here.

The sounds of the giant fortress crabs shuffling through the forest echoed around.

“Now then, let us do it.”

《Yeah!》

《Sui will do it!》

*Zzsshh———*

Fel unleashed a Rending Claws attack from his right front paw.

*Thudsss* *Thudsss* *Thudssthdssthssss*

The sharpened pillars of ice that Dora-chan summoned flew towards the giant fortress crabs.

*Plort* *Plort* *Plort* *Plort* *Plort*

Sui unleashed Acid Bullets one after the other at high fire rates at the giant fortress crabs.

............Oh.

There were a large number of giant fortress crabs arrayed in front of us, all in a tragic state.

“All of you, your attack power is too strong......”

Crabs that had been blown to pieces by Fel’s Rending Claws. Crabs that had huge holes opened up in them by Dora-chan’s Ice magic. And crabs that had most of their body melted away by Sui’s Acid Bullets.

“Like this, there’s nothing even left to eat...”

“Mmrr, true.”

《Holding back is hard.》

《Sui will try shooting something smaller—.》

From then on, everyone attacked while trying to manage the power of their blows.

“It’s about fine now,” I called out, and the three of them stopped. We’d harvested over a hundred giant forest crabs, so it was probably more than enough.

“But still......”

There were many giant fortress crabs that I hadn’t recovered. Or rather, couldn’t recover since their wounds were so large. Actually, even after their initial failure, holding back their power seemed to be hard for Fel and Dora-chan. Especially for Fel, in fact, and the two of them continued to have several failures even when they were trying.

“It’s pretty hard to try and kill them without damaging them too much. But still, Fel was the worst though. Haha.”

“Mmrr, it could not be helped, no? It was hard figuring out just how much I should hold back.”

It might have been harder since Fel was just bursting with so much raw power.

“Sui was the best, though. Almost half of these were done by Sui, so that’s pretty great.”

《Eheheh~, Sui tried hard—.》

“You did. Let’s hurry back to town and eat this.”

“Indeed.”

《Sure!》

《Crabby-crabs~》

The guildmaster said that if we were going to hunt giant fortress crabs anyway, then we should sell them at his guild, since they were so hard to come by, but that could wait for tomorrow.

Anyway, it’s time for crabs, I say. Crabs!

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

When we returned to the house I was renting in town, I immediately started preparing the crabs we’d just hunted. Although I’m just boiling them, but, as they say, ‘simple is best.’

Doing that was fine, but......

“Why am I just cracking crab shells like this forever?”

“Hey. Next. Hurry up.”

《Me too.》

《Sui too—.》

“......Yeah, yeah. Just wait a second.”

It was impossible to crack crab shells with Fel and Dora-chan’s paws, so I was made to do it in the end. Since their shells were so hard that it was almost impossible to do with a regular knife, I asked Sui to rush out a mithril one.

Even though the giant fortress crab’s shells were hard, both Fel and Dora-chan could just eat them whole, crunching through the shells if they wanted. However, that would prevent them from tasting the crab.

I had a small taste test, and it tasted like a hair crab with its slight sweetness. It was incredibly tasty. Not only that, but the insides were just full of meat, which was full of texture and “bite-back.” I just couldn’t stand to let them eat crab this good whole like that, so when I shelled them and served them out, it turned out like this.

Sui was dexterous, so I figured that Sui could shell the crabs itself, but I figured it’d be kind of sad to make just Sui do that, so I ended up taking on the slime’s portion as well.

And so, I was spending an eternity digging out crab meat.

“You’re all just eating the meat, but what about the roe? I tried them out, and they’re pretty good too.”

“What do you mean, roe?”

“Oh, basically the crab’s... giant fortress crab’s eggs.”

《Is something like that edible?》

Both Fel and Dora-chan were looking at the crab’s roe with skepticism. Well, given how it looks...

The giant fortress crab’s roe was a deep green, and even boiling it didn’t change the color at all. Each one was about the size of a small marble. But, they’re definitely edible.

“I appraised it, there’s no doubt it’s edible. I tried it with just a bit of dashi soy sauce, and the popping sensation and the dense burst of flavor spreading throughout my mouth was to die for,” I said, remembering the taste of the giant fortress crab’s roe. I heard Fel and Dora-chan swallowing saliva.

《Master — Sui wants to eat it.》

“I see. Then just wait a little.”

I piled some eggs onto a dish and dashed some soy sauce on top before serving it to Sui, who wasted no time in swallowing them up.

*Psshh*

《Waahh, it popped! It’s so good!》

It seemed like Sui loved the roe, and put down the dish in an instant.

《More—!》

“Mm, I will try some as well.”

《Me too!》

Seeing Sui enjoy it so immensely, Fel and Dora-chan stated that they wanted to try. When I served the roe for all three of them......

“Ohh, this taste is a first for me, but it is truly delicious! The feeling of popping them in your mouth is also great.”

《This is amazing! I think I like this more than the meat!》

《It’s so good—!》

So the roe was also massively popular.

“Eating the roe and the meat together seems like a good idea. Okay, give me some meat.”

《That’s good thinking, Fel! Give me some too.》

《Sui wants some too—.》

......How long am I gonna have to keep doing this?

“Hahh, it’s finally over.”

The three of them were finally satisfied.

“I’m so tired...... But this is adult’s time now. Crab meat, roe, and something I made sure was left over......crab butter!”

I figured it was too early for them since they still had childish tastes, so I held this back. Geheheh....

And I took out......

“Ta-dah! Japanese sake. I don’t usually drink this, but this is the only choice for crab butter.”

Sake for crab butter! Khahhhh! So extravagant~. Now then......

“Mmheheheheheh, so good... I just can’t stop drinking. Ah, how about this and this together?” I combined the crab butter and roe together.

*Chomp*

“Mnuwwoah! So good! This’d be the best with some sake.” There was no way I’d be able to stop drinking sake with food like this.

“Hey. You seem to be enjoying yourself mightily over there, all alone with your food.”

《Yeah, yeah, none for us, huh?》

《Master — is that good?》

*Grkk*

“H-Huhhh? Weren’t you all asleep?”

“As if I could fall asleep with all the noise you were making.”

《Yeah, yeah! If you say it’s good, then it’s good right? Give us some too.》

“N-No, this is a really adult taste. And, there’s not m-much......”

“Ohhh! This is quite delectable!”

“Fel! Why did you just start eating!?”

《Is it good? I want some too!》

《Sui wants some too—.》

“No, w-w-w-wait! THAT’S MIIIINNNEEE!”

The Spring Order Sweets Fair

“Hehh~, so they’re doing this kind of thing.”

The first thing that jumped out at me when I opened up the menu for my Online Supermarket were the words: “The Spring Order Sweets Fair is open!” It seemed to be an event where all the most popularly ordered spring seasonal sweets in the nation were gathered in one menu. Since it was spring, there were airy, sakura-colored sweets and strikingly green treats that used first tea leaves.

“Let’s see... sakura red bean paste, daifuku and dorayaki, and roll cakes with sakura too, huh?”

＜You. I demand that you immediately offer me all of those Ordered Sweets things.＞

“Geh! Goddess Ninrir......”

＜What do you mean ‘Geh!’ Huh?!＞

“Ah, uhh... sorry.”

There are other gods, so didn’t this kind of oracle where she’s basically trying to squeeze extra treats out of me become taboo?

＜Urgh! Yes, but I had no other choice! As if I could contain myself when you show me such delicious delicacies like that!＞

‘Show you?’ I wasn’t ‘showing you’......

“If they found out that you just sent down an oracle on your own they’ll get mad, you know? Also, it’s just really annoying for me to keep receiving constant oracles about how you want this and that.”

It was bad enough with just Ninrir, but now there were even more gods to deal with. And they all wanted different things, so if they all started coming in with their own orders, everything would just get out of hand. Given what had happened up until now, it’d be awful if I caved just because she was a goddess. I’ll have to be strong here and refuse.

＜Gnrrrr...... That’s...! I know! But, but... that faint peach colored sweet that makes my heart flutter, and that striking light green one, seeing those...... Khh! I can’t stand it! Please! For the love of all that is holy, GIVE ME THOSE SWEEEETTTSSS!!＞

......Ninrir, just how many times have you repeated that exact phrase?

＜This is the last time! Pleeeaasssee~. WAA-aaaahhhh~...＞ Ninrir begged, crying like a baby.

Is Ninrir really a goddess? I don’t feel any dignity or majesty or anything. But hmmm, I don’t think Ninrir would stop even if I told her no right now. She’s become in thrall to otherworld sweets, so I feel like she’d start sending me oracles at all hours of the day, every day, like a stalker.

............Just imagining it gives me the creeps. I think she’d really do it. If that’s the case, then I can imagine that the best choice is to impress on her that this really is the last time — this is important, I must be really clear about this — and get her to leave me alone already.

With that in mind......

＜JUST THIS ONCE! It’ll be just this once! I am the Goddess of the Wind, Ninrir! And a god does not go back on her word!＞

Really?

＜Reallyreallyreally! So please, pleeeaaaasseee!＞

“Oh, fine. But, it’ll really be just this once. This is set in stone, got it?”

＜I get it! Set in stone!＞

In order to prevent myself from being stalked, I had no choice but to offer her the sweets.

“I told you already, but I’m not giving you all of them.”

＜W-Whaaaa~t?＞

“Don’t you ‘whaaaat’ me. Just how much do you think there is here?”

There were easily over twenty varieties here. Giving her all of them would be giving in way too much, even for me.

“Five. You get five.”

＜Five?! That’s too little! Wouldn’t it be fine to just give me a little more?!＞

“No. If I let you get more here, it’ll just keep growing and growing. So you get five. I won’t budge on this.”

＜Mmnng... Only five? It’d be fine to let me have a little more, I think. Cheap men aren’t popular, you know?＞

“Did you say something, Ninrir? Should I just not do this?”

＜Waaahhhh! N-No, I didn’t say anything! I have been quiet this whole time! Five! Five, right? Of- Of- O-O-O-O, Of course that’s fine! Hah, hah...＞

“Okay. Then which ones do you want?”

＜Uhhhh, then......＞

After that, Ninrir took her time slowly picking out the five treats she wanted. For the first, as befitting of Ninrir, who loves dorayaki, she chose a dorayaki stuffed full of a mild sakura-colored sakura anko. For the second, a matcha chiffon cake using first tea leaves. She definitely chose this one for size. For the third, a baumkuchen with sakura kneaded into the paste, carefully baked layer by layer. For the fourth, a fluffy sakura-colored roll cake with lots of white fresh cream and wrapped in sakura petals. For the fifth, an artisanal matcha castella.

I added the treats Ninrir picked out into the cart one after the other. After checking out, they appeared in the usual cardboard box.

＜Faster! Hurry up!＞

“Yeah, yeah. I get it. Okay then, I’ll just send it to you like this, so check it yourself, please.”

＜Okay!＞

With those words, the newly appeared cardboard box disappeared surrounded by faint light.

＜Muhhhohhh! These sweets! Limited edition sweets you can only get now!＞

I heard a really, really excited voice.

............Will this... really be okay? Please stop just sending down oracles whenever you like, okay? You get it, right?

＜Muhhaahhhh! This sakura dorayaki, it’s sooooo~ good—!＞

Ninrir, you divine disappointment......

The Golden Fruit

《Heyheyheyhey, wanna go somewhere?》

The one who suggested that was Dora-chan. When I asked why, I learned that apparently there was a fruit that grew once every five years, and its season was just about here.

“Hehh~... So, is it good?” I figured it would be since it was enough for Dora-chan to actually ask to go, but I made sure anyway.

《Yeah. It’s a golden fruit. It’s sweet, but not cloying — and it’s super good. I go there every time to get some, it’s that good,》 Dora-chan said, passionately.

A golden fruit, huh? I don’t hate fruit; if anything, I’m a little interested.

“Mm? I know of that too. It is at the bottom of a valley a little ways away from here, no?”

《Yeah, yeah! That one!》

Apparently, Fel knew of it too.

“I have also eaten it, but well, it was not bad. I believe humans call it goldenberries or something? They should be highly valued.”

I see I see, highly valued, huh? Which means if we have too much, I can just sell it? Well, that assumes that we’d have “too much,” though. Still, a golden fruit named goldenberries? That’s some naming sense.

《Hey-hey, master — if it’s sweet, Sui wants to eat it...》 Sui was looking up at me from my feet.

If Sui’s going to say that, I guess we have to go.

“It’s not like we have anything actually planned right now... Why not, let’s go.”

《Yeah!》

“Indeed. This might be fun.”

《Yayyy! Sweet things—.》

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

“We are here.”

“F-Finally......”

I had heard it was pretty far, but it was still actually farther than expected. It took a whole week even with Fel running pretty fast. And though I was getting pretty used to riding on Fel’s back by now, it was difficult going having to cling on that hard the whole time.

We were at the southern end of the kingdom of Leonhardt, in the Riyan wilderness, a place of endless brownish-red earth stretching across the border to the Quine Republic. At that place, there existed a large crack splitting the earth, so well-hidden it could very well sneak up on you if you didn’t know it was there. It seemed this was the place to pick the golden fruits, according to Dora-chan.

“So, where does this golden fruit grow?”

《At the bottom of this valley. Since it glows gold in the darkness down there, it’s easy to distinguish.》

“Indeed. It is right there.”

I looked towards where Fel’s eyes were pointed, but all I could see was darkness.

《Master — did you find the sweet thing?》 Sui popped out of my bag.

“Ah, you’re awake, Sui? It looks like the sweet things are down there somewhere.”

《Here~? It’s so dark Sui can’t see—.》

“Right? Can you really see it Fel?”

“Of course. My eyes reach far into the distance,” Fel boasted, completely full of confidence.

“I see. Then how are we going to get it?”

“Get on. Get in the usual bag too, Sui.”

Since Fel told me to, I got on top of him. Sui also said, 《Got it—,》 and jumped in my bag again.

“Okay. Let us go. Hold on tight. Dora, you come too.”

《You got it!》

Fel suddenly jumped—

“Huh? Wha-?”

—Of course, down the ravine.

“GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH———!!!”

We were dropping down the ravine at an amazing speed, basically in freefall. I clutched onto Fel’s neck for dear life, screaming all the while.

“I’M GONNA DIE GONNADIEGONNADIEDIEIDIE!!”

“Shut up! Stop screaming in my ear! And of course there is no way that is happening!”

As if trying to control the speed of our fall, Fel would kick off the wall, and then rebound off the opposite side after a while. While bouncing off the walls in a zigzag pattern, we continued ever downwards. And finally, we reached the bottom.

“Hey. We are here. Get off.”

“............”

“I told you to get off!” Fel shook his body, and, tired from all the screaming and hanging on for dear life, I fell off.

*Thud*

“Urp... Why can’t you be a little nicer~......”

“It only takes that much to make you give in? You really are weak.”

You really don’t have to radiate so much exasperation while saying that, you know.

“Hahh... Where’s Dora-chan and Sui?”

“There. They found the goldenberries and are already eating.”

I looked towards where Fel was pointing with his snout, and saw Dora-chan and Sui eating shining golden fruits, making them seem really delicious.

“............Isn’t that just a little too heartless? Dora-chan, Sui?”

《Wah! Sorry, sorry. I lost to the smell.》 Dora-chan said that like he was trying to get out of responsibility with his excuses, while scratching at his cheek.

《Sorry~, Master—. It smelled really good so Sui really wanted to eat it~,》 said Sui, clearly crestfallen and looking just a little withered.

“Ahh~, fine I get it, I get it.” With some effort, I stood up. “So those are the goldenberries?” I asked, glancing at the place where Dora-chan and Sui were just eating the golden fruits. There, a bunch of shrubs grew out of the ground to about chest height. Those bushes produced golden fruits slightly bigger than my fist.

“Wow it really does look like it’s shining.”

《Right? Try one. It’s good.》

《This one, you know? It’s super delicious~.》

Recommended by Dora-chan and Sui, I quickly picked one. The fruit looked like a gold strawberry slightly larger than the size of my fist. It was kind of strange for something that came off of what was basically a tree, but this was another world. Now then, let’s try it......

“It’s good!” As soon as I bit into it, the juices flowed into my mouth. It had the sweetness and tartness of a strawberry but the juiciness of a peach. What a mysterious combination. But still, it was truly delicious. In fact, it might have been the best fruit I’d ever tasted.

“Hm, not bad, although it has been a while since I have eaten one.” Next to me, Fel was munching on goldenberries.

You’ve got way too many in your mouth, Fel. The juices are all spilling out.

《Fuhaha! Didn’t I tell you~?》

It’s not like you grew them yourself, Dora-chan.

《Hey, hey, master — can Sui eat too?》

“Yeah. Eat up. It’s a goldenberry hunt.”

With my statement as the trigger, everyone started picking goldenberries and eating......

《Ahh~, I’m so full. No more~.》

《Sui is also full~.》

Dora-chan was lying down spread-eagle, with Sui snuggled up to him.

“Urp...... I also went a little too far.” I couldn’t help it; the goldenberries were great.

“You did not have to eat so much you could not move,” said Fel, sounding a little exasperated.

I-I didn’t go that far. Also...... “After I recover, we’re taking the rest.”

《What? We’re still eating?》

“No. They’re this delicious. So we can just take more and use them for dessert later, or make them into a jam.”

《Jam—?》

“That’s right. A sweet and delicious jam. You can put it on bread, or on pancakes.”

《Pancakes! Sui likes pancakes!》

“I see. Then I’ll make pancakes after I finish the jam.”

《Yayyy!》

“So let’s pick lots of berries.”

《Yeah!》

After a small break, everyone picked the rest of the berries, leaving the area clean. I was feeling satisfaction at getting lots of good fruit in the form of goldenberries, but......

“Okay, we’re going back. Get on.”

“What? So that means......”

Fel, with me on him, made a huge jump.

“WWWWWAAAAHHHHHHHHH! I KNEW IIIIIIT———!”

“Of course! What did you think?!”

New Adventurers, Doing Their Best

We, of the Storm Bringer party, had come to the shallow end of the forest north of town.

I was the leader, a swordsman named Anton. And there was another swordsman Philip, the archer Brigitta, and the mages Paul and Livia. Since the harsh lesson we were taught three months ago, we had started moving more carefully while exchanging opinions. And we figured out a fairly safe way of clearing the boar-type monster extermination requests that were common in the Adventurer’s guild in the town of Nijhoff, where we lived.

Although all that really meant is that, at the end of a lot of debate, we just settled on the pitfall trap we used during that bitter experience we had earlier this year, as it seemed to be the most effective and safest way of beating boar-type monsters, who tended to charge a lot.

Other F-ranked adventurers might call us cowards or say that using traps was unfair, but I figured people who said that were definitely going to end up losing their lives one day. Even with courage, if you just charged in without the power to back it up, you would die, and if you had the skill but were too cautious, you’d get done in when the chips are down.

Everyone agreed. After all, we had all learned the harsh lesson that being an adventurer means putting your life at risk three months ago. Now was the time to gather experience. We eventually wanted to go into a dungeon, so in order to build up the funds for that, we aggressively took on boar hunting requests.

Today too, we were out hunting based on an eyewitness report of a red boar in the area.

“It’s here. Let’s move as planned,” I whispered to everybody, and they nodded. Just as we’d planned, I stood up and yelled towards the red boar that had shown itself.

“Hey! Over here!”

The red boar, reacting to my voice, let out a cry and charged towards me.

*Thd-d-d-d-d*

“Closer, closer......”

*Thud*

“Bhghii! Bhghhiiii!?”

“Great! It’s caught! Now!” I shouted, and everyone else who was hiding jumped out all at once. Then, all of us attacked the red boar that had fallen into the pitfall that we’d prepared beforehand.

“Graaahh!”

“Take that!”

“Yah!”

“Haahhh!”

“Die!”

Everyone beat up on the boar, focusing on its head, with branches or rocks or whatever. After all, any living thing will die if its head goes. We didn’t bother slashing with our swords, shooting our arrows, or using our magic, since the most valuable part of a red boar is its hide. Its meat was also worth something, but not as much as the hide. So there was no way we would purposefully damage it. Also, it’d be better if we could just whack it to death anyway, since it saves on arrows and magic.

“Just die already!!”

*Donk*

Philip, who had the best build in the party, swung his huge sword, which was still in the scabbard, down on its head as hard as he could, and the red boar finally stopped moving.

“Bb...... Bhhii......”

After making doubly sure that it was dead, we tapped each other on the shoulders, sharing in our victory.

“Okay, let’s hurry and bleed this thing dry. Paul, we’re counting on you. Brigitta, you’re on watch.”

“Got it.”

“Understood.”

Philip and I bound the red boar’s feet in rope, and used a thick branch to string it up. Under that, Paul opened up a hole with magic.

“Livia.”

“Understood,” Livia said, before she walked over and slit the neck of the red boar, who was hung upside down. When she did that, its blood spurted out with a fair amount of force into the hole that Paul had made. Whenever we split into separate chores, Livia would always get stuck with that one. At first, she wasn’t used to the blood and would always look like she was about to throw up, but now she’d gotten so used to it there wasn’t even any hesitation.

“Brigitta, make sure you strengthen your guard while we’re busy draining this thing,” I warned Brigitta, who had climbed up a tree and was keeping watch on the surroundings.

“I know. There’s no problems right now.”

At first, we hadn’t bothered draining our prey and just brought them to the guild, but the old man at the counter would always complain, saying, “With a boar this nice, it’d sell for a little more if you’d just drain its blood, but......” So we started doing it. We didn’t know how to drain blood, but the old man happily taught us when we asked him. From what he had told us back then, the meat gets much worse if the blood isn’t drained — so much so that, if enough time passes before the blood is let out, the meat would no longer be edible, and would have to be thrown out or used as fertilizer. Apparently that happened quite a lot, and the guy went as far as to say that people who could drain blood would see better returns, and the guild would be happier too. However, draining the blood would attract monsters during the process with its smell, so we had been warned not to let our guard down.

After talking it over with everyone, we decided to try draining a red boar, and it increased the price high enough that we couldn’t afford not to do it as F-ranked adventurers. Since then, we started draining the blood every time.

“It’s just about done,” Livia said, and Paul replied with, “I’ll go get the cart,” before running off to get the cart that we’d hidden. The cart was something we had bought and repurposed from my dad’s workshop, so it had been pretty cheap.

By the time Livia was done burying the blood, Paul came back with the cart. We loaded the red boar in the cart.

“This is a pretty good red boar. I’m looking forward to how much it sells for,” Paul said, and everyone agreed.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

“How was it?”

When I returned to the table at the cafeteria in the guild where my party was camped out, Philip jumped up and asked me that. The boar was a big one, so the assessment took some time. It just finished earlier, and as the representative, I went to receive the money.

“Ta-dah! 2 gold and 1 silver!” I showed them the money I had in my hands, and everyone raised an excited, “Oohh!”

“That went for a pretty damn good price, didn’t it?”

“Yeah. It was the best one so far.”

“It looks like the boars we hunt are well received. Apparently that’s part of the reason why they’re buying it at a higher price.”

“Ohh — is that so?”

“Yeah. There’s not much damage to the hide, and the meat is nice and odorless, they said.”

“We’re trying not to damage anything, and we’re draining the blood properly now too, after all. It’s a little annoying though. It’s nice to see it turn into money like this — makes it feel worth it.”

While everyone was excited and celebrating our greatest earnings yet, a small old grandpa sidled up to us.

“Could you youngins be Storm Bringer?”

“G-Guildmaster!”

I realized that the old man was the guildmaster of the Adventurer’s guild here in Nijhoff. Panicked, everyone hurried to rise out of their seats.

“You’re fine, you’re fine. Looks like all you whippersnappers are puttin’ in some effort, no? I hear the villages are doin’ real well thanks to you all taking on all these boar-type monster hunting quests when you can.”

Hearing that, I got a little happy, since it sounded like our efforts were helping people.

“Y’all are gettin’ promoted to D-rank. Should be fine, seein’ all the red boars you’ve hunted. And it looks like y’all know that they say that courage and recklessness are two sides of the same coin. Ho! Ho! Ho!”

With that said, the guildmaster left.

“H-Hey, he just said we’re D-ranked.”

“We blew straight past E to D-rank......”

“D-rank......”

“H-Hey, D-rank means we can go into dungeons.”

“Oh man, dungeons......”

Dungeons. The Adventurer’s guild recommends a party be D-rank or higher to go in one. And we all promised each other to go dungeon-diving when we got to D-rank.

But......

“Guys, we got to the guild-recommended D-rank, but I still think we’re not strong enough,” I said, and everyone nodded.

“Yeah, it’s frustrating though.”

“We want to go to Dolan or Aveling, after all. With that in mind, I agree.”

“I really, really want to go... but yeah, I think so too.”

“Me too. We’re still not strong enough, and we don’t have enough experience either, I think.”

We could go challenge a dungeon right now. But if we die because of it, that’d be putting the cart before the horse.

“Let’s go after we take a bunch of different quests, get stronger, and have way more experience, yeah?” I suggested, and everyone agreed.

“Speaking of dungeons, how’s Mukohda doing, I wonder?” Philip said, as if he was just reminded of it.

Mukohda, huh......? He was an A-ranked adventurer who we got to know by accident. Right after that fateful day, he treated us to a really good meal when we were exhausted. It was really, really delicious.

“I actually heard a rumor about him the other day. Apparently he became S-ranked.”

“Wha? S-rank......?”

“Wow......”

“We know someone really amazing huh? I mean, kinda......”

“Yeah......”

Somebody we knew and had talked to was an S-ranked adventurer. Somehow, just knowing that filled me with energy.

“Let’s do our best. We can’t lose.”

We swore to try even harder.

Storm Bringer would eventually become famous as an A-ranked party, but that’s a story for another time...