Chapter 3: Grilled Entrails

I took out the dungeon pig and dungeon cow entrails from my Item Box.

When I unwrapped the leaves...

“This is heart, liver, and large intestine. This one here is tongue, first stomach, and small intestine. There’s lots of different innards in here.” I was organizing the innards using Appraisal.

Luckily, both the dungeon pigs and dungeon cows dropped a number of the various innards.

“There’s so many different organs, I’ll have a bunch of options. But the first dish has gotta be... grilled!” Grilled offal has gotta be the only choice for something hearty. I have my barbecue grill too, so I can use charcoal...

When I saw both large and small intestines, the desire to eat fried offal just welled up in me.

I remembered the sight of fat dripping off meat onto burning charcoal, only to sizzle and turn to fragrant smoke.

Then, I thought of the soft texture of the organ meat and the almost sweet fattiness......

*Slrrp*

Oh crap, I’m drooling.

Of course, I’d also be cooking other parts too.

With that decided, I moved on to preparing the entrails. It was a lot of work, but if it wasn’t done it’d ruin the entire dish. The intestines, called “chitterlings” when cooked, were what I was most excited about, and they required particularly close attention, otherwise they’d be unusable.

I had to carefully and thoroughly prepare each organ. Personally, I liked to use flour for this part. I read online that this was the way that restaurants did it, so I followed suit.

◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇

Put flour on the intestines and massage thoroughly. By doing so, the flour will absorb any smell or filth in the intestine. After fully massaging the flour in, wash the intestines clean with water. If the smell is gone, put the intestines into a sieve and let them drain to finish the preparation. If the smell remains, then repeat the flour step once more.

“I already knew this, but it sure is a lot of work. Well, it’s necessary for something delicious, so it’s fine though.” After that, I silently and fixedly continued to prepare the meat.

“Whew~, managed to finish.” I not only prepared the organ meat, but managed to season it too. I was completely prepared.

In my opinion, a miso sauce suited offal best, so that was the only choice to take.

I mixed miso, sake, mirin, sugar, red chili paste, grated garlic, grated ginger, and sesame oil together to make a sauce which I massaged into the offal.

Of course, I also prepared yakiniku sauce for some parts that I didn’t season.

In addition to the usual long-selling flavor I liked, I also splurged a little for the sauce from a certain high-class yakiniku shop.

Now all that’s left is to set up the barbecue grill outside and start cooking.

◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇

The sizzling sounds of cooking offal filled the air. As did the fragrant smoke of fat hitting the charcoal. The whole scene really stirred the appetite. And the smell of burnt miso sauce only worked me up more.

I was using tongs to grill up a whole bunch of chitterlings.

《Hey, is it done yet?》

《Hurry it up!》

《Masteerrr, is it done yet?》 My familiars were all drooling and out of patience.

“Hmmm, wait a second. ...Maybe these are good?” I piled up some savory-smelling dungeon beef chitterlings on a plate and served them out.

“Here.”

《So this is intestine? It smells so appetizing, but...》

“Just try eating it. I can guarantee the taste.”

《I see. In that case...》 After Fel took a bite, something seemed to snap in him, and he started wolfing the food down.

Dora-chan and Sui were the same.

They were all stuffing themselves in a trance.

“Hahaha, it’s good right? Oh, these are about done too.” Next were the dungeon pig’s chitterlings.

Since it’s pork, I cooked it for a long time.

The intestines were cooked well enough that they became so swollen it looked like they might explode. I had to swallow the drool that was about to come out of my mouth just from looking at it.

Oh! I need to bring that thing I bought out.

I reached into my Item Box and retrieved an ice-cold beer.

I figured that a sharp and dry beer would go perfectly with the fatty intestines, so I chose A-company’s beer this time.

*Psshh*

“Right. The beer’s ready now. Time to eat.” I took a bite of chitterlings that were just dripping fat.

“Hot! Hot! Haagghh, haaghh...... It’s hot, but amazingly good!” The fatty juices welled up in my mouth, and they tasted savory and a little sweet.

The miso sauce I seasoned the organ meat with fit better than I could have ever imagined.

It was basically B-class cuisine that I’d go to a store to buy.

And after having a bite of chitterlings, of course...

*glugluglugluglug* “Aahhhhh!”

“I love this!” This! This is it! So good!

I continued to intersperse bites of chitterlings with mouthfuls of beer.

“Ahhh~, this really is the best.” While I was soaking in this almost miraculous pairing of food and drink, I was interrupted by my familiars’ demands for more.

《Hey, that looks good too. Give me what you are having.》

《Me too!》

《Sui too!》

“Sure, sure. Dungeon pork it is.” This time I piled up dungeon pork chitterlings for my familiars and served it to them.

They quickly started chowing down.

《This dungeon pork is a delight!》

《Yeah. Still, I never expected intestines to be this good.》

《Indeed. Neither did I.》

“You see, entrails need to be properly cleaned and prepared to be good. It just takes a lot of work.”

《It’s delicious!》 Like that, we continued to enjoy the charcoal-grilled intestine.

By the way, the dungeon beef chitterlings with miso sauce on it were also just perfect, with their savory and juicy flavors and just a hint of sweetness in the fat.

But while we were enjoying the grilled intestine, the smoke coming up from the grill drew some spectators...

I actually wasn’t sure if it was the smoke or the smell, but I could see lots of people outside trying to peek in.

Of course, the house I rented was surrounded by an iron fence so none of them tried to barge in and we could continue to enjoy the food at our leisure. That is, until some people appeared who weren’t deterred so easily.

《Hey...》 Dora-chan couldn’t just ignore what was going on beyond the fence and kept looking that way.

“Ahh, don’t worry about it. Just ignore them.”

《You say that, but I can’t just keep eating while being stared at this hard.》

《That is the look of someone with a lot of tenacity towards food.》 For even Fel to say that... That’s scary.

I slowly and subtly glanced towards the fence, and...

There were a multitude of snot-nosed little kids clinging to the fence and drooling.

There were the kids I’d saved on a whim yesterday in front, and a bunch of others behind them too.

“Why are they even here...?” While I felt exasperated, it didn’t seem like they’d leave any time soon as long as we were still having our meal.

Like Dora-chan said, being stared at so intently made it hard to enjoy the food.

“Geez, fine.” With no other choice, I got up and headed for the fence.

◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇

“What do you kids want?” I spoke to the leader kid from the orphan party yesterday.

“Ah! Old m- I mean, big bro!”

Youuu... I’m not old!

“So, did you need anything?”

“Yeah. I wanted to ask you something.”

“What?”

“Yeah. Honestly...” According to the leader kid, Luis, when they returned to the orphanage yesterday with their new weapons made by Sui, the other kids who went into the dungeon all saw them and wanted their own.

So all the other kids crowded Luis and the others, wanting to know where they got them...

“So you told them about me?”

“Sorry bro. I don’t know how many times I told them we shouldn’t do this since we’d be a bother, but none of ’em would listen...” Luis said, looking sorry.

Makes sense. They are going into a dungeon, even if it is only the first floor. If they aren’t careful, they’ll get hurt, so of course they’d want better weapons if they can get them.

“I understand. But how did you know I was here?”

“You’re easy to find if you just ask around a little. Everybody’s talking about the S-ranked tamer adventurer, you know? Like, I didn’t know you were S-ranked, that’s awesome! You don’t look like one at all!” Hey, you added something unnecessary on the end there. It’s true I don’t look like an S-ranked adventurer, though.

“Well, whatever. Just come inside for now. If you keep gluing yourselves to the fence like that, you’ll block foot traffic, and we can’t eat in peace either.”

“We couldn’t help it, okay? That smell is just amazing. Right, everyone?” Luis turned to the others, and they all nodded fervently.

“*Sigh* Fine, I get it, I get it. Just come in for now.” I ushered the boys and girls from the orphanage past the fence.

That much was fine, but...

Their eyes were glued on the grill.

Like, mega-strength epoxy glued.

You can stare at it all you want, but there’s nothing even on the grill anymore. I gave the rest of it to Fel and the others.

Well, it was in a state where I could start cooking again immediately, though.

But geez, they were all looking like starving beasts.

I didn’t mind feeding them a little, but I wondered if I had enough. Preparing entrails takes a long time, so I only made enough for me and my familiars.

......Ah, I have an idea.

Why not just have them prepare it?

I still had lots of entrails, so I could make it something like payment for letting them eat.

Yeah. That sounds good.

“Hey, do you guys want some food?” I asked, and they all nodded enthusiastically.

“I’m okay with letting you have some, but...” As soon as I said that, they all cheered and rushed the barbecue grill.

“Wait just a second!!! Listen here! First, you have to listen to what I have to say.”

“Aww, what is it big bro? Weren’t you gonna feed us?” Luis said, looking unsatisfied.

The expressions of the children around him mirrored his sentiment.

“Hey now, I never said I’d feed you for free. See, if you want to eat my food I’m going to have you do some work first. If you’re fine with that, I’ll feed you. How about it?”

“Oh, so it’s like that. As long as we don’t need to pay you money we’re fine with anything. Right?” Luis turned the question over to the others, and they all agreed with him.

“Great, then wait a second.” I took forks and plates out from my Item Box.

There were 21 children in total.

It was lucky that I had just enough for everyone.

“Okay, I’ll start cooking now.” Once again, I started to grill intestines on the barbecue grill.

The sizzling sounds of the cooking meat as well as the smell really stimulated the appetite.

“Hey, do not just be feeding these whelps. We are still eating too,” Fel said unhappily as he peeked over.

“Woah! The huge wolf just talked!”

“Wooww! I’ve never seen a talking wolf before!”

“Me neither! Amazing!” The kids were all surprised that Fel could speak.

It looked like none of the children from the orphanage knew about Fenrirs. While they were probably aware of the fairy tales with Fenrirs in them, they probably couldn’t tell that Fel was a Fenrir himself. But, like children tended to be, they were curious rather than afraid. They were just as interested in Dora-chan and Sui, who were next to Fel, but their appetites were more important to them in the end.

“It’s done.” The moment I said that, the children all pushed my familiars aside in a mad rush to put their plate out first.

That left even my familiars dazed with shock.

So I decided to serve the hungry children first before getting back to Fel and the others.

“To have been able to outrace me to food, these whelps are pretty good,” Fel half-griped as he ate.

The children in question easily put down the food, saying, “It feels kind of weird but it’s delicious.”

Of course, the children weren’t satisfied with just that, and I was made to grill up even more chitterlings.

When I first told them that they were eating the intestines of dungeon cows and dungeon pigs, they all reacted with surprise, saying things like “What? That booby prize?” and “You mean that flabby and gross stuff?” But in the end, it was delicious so they didn’t stop eating.

And since I had to feed 21 children with bottomless-pit stomachs on top of my familiars, the chitterlings I prepared all disappeared quickly......

“Oh no, there’s none left. And it’ll take a long time to prepare more... Oh well, I guess I’ll just have to break out the dungeon pork and dungeon beef. The regular cuts, I mean.” The meat from the evolved monsters was too luxurious for the kids.

They were still plenty excited to be eating the regular versions, though.

Since they were getting a rare feast, everyone was stuffing themselves as full as they could.

Damn, at least hold back a little.

◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇

“Whew, I’m stuffed,” Luis said, seeming satisfied.

“I’m so full~!”

“I’ve never eaten meat like this before. I’m so happy...”

“That was so good~...” The kids all looked satisfied, with round and full bellies.

“Okay, everyone, once you’ve digested a little, I’m going to have you work like you promised.”

“““““Whaaaat?!””””” The kids were all unhappy to be brought back to the real world by my words while they were basking in a drowsy stupor after the meal they had.

“Don’t ‘what’ me. You promised, didn’t you? I fed you all until you were stuffed. So now you work.” They promised, so I was going to collect in full.

“Well, fine, I guess. We did promise, everyone. Plus the food he gave us was really good,” Luis said, and the other kids all one by one voiced their agreement.

“True.”

“Aww, fine.”

“He did feed us all that meat...”

Hehahahaha, workforce obtained!

I’m gonna make them prepare all the intestines I have!

And that way I won’t have to do it later when I cook them.

Now then, let’s have them get to work.

◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇

“All right, no time to rest! Massage them with the flour, don’t let up.”

“I’m so tirreeedddd~!”

“Don’t complain. You’re going to work for all the food I gave you guys.”

“Boooo!”

At the moment, I was in the kitchen watching over and instructing the children as they prepared my entrails for cooking. They were in the middle of working with the large and small intestines, which I had an especially large quantity of. I had them massaging the intestines in a bowl with flour, then rinsing it all out with water.

At first, the kids were all excited, saying things like, “Ewww it’s so squidgy~,” and, “It looks so gross,” but after repeating the process several times all of them were starting to complain about being tired.

This certainly is fairly intensive labor.

But a promise is a promise.

I did have them take proper breaks and everything, too.

It was impossible to finish preparing all the entrails I had today, but they did manage to finish two-thirds of all the intestines I had.

Looking back, it would have been really hard to do all that on my own.

Work really does go by faster with more helping hands.

“Ahh~, I’m so tired. You’re a slave driver, bro,” Luis complained.

The other children all silently nodded in agreement. They seemed just as worn out as Luis.

“Well, uhhh... You guys really helped me today. Thanks. And you did good work, so here.” I handed the children two chunks of dungeon pork.

I didn’t know how many children were in the orphanage, but even if it wasn’t enough for everyone to have a steak or whatever, that amount should have been enough for a filling soup or some sort of stir fry at least.

Especially since the meat chunks that regular dungeon pigs dropped were pretty large.

““““““YEEESSSSSS!”””””” As soon as they saw the chunks of dungeon pork, the exhausted kids were all instantly revived.

“You sure, bro?!” Luis asked, excited beyond measure.

“Yeah. You all worked really hard today,” I said, and the children all gave a cheer.

“So what should I do with this? It’s pretty heavy, can you all carry it back home? If you want I can carry it for you.”

“No need. Hey, Geraldo, can you take two or three people and borrow a board from the old man’s store?”

“Sure.” Geraldo, who was Luis’ party member, took three people with him and left. After a while, they came back carrying a wooden board.

Apparently they had an acquaintance who owned a store nearby where they occasionally worked, so they borrowed a board from there.

“Good. We can just put the meat on this and have everyone help carry it.”

I see. Yeah, they should be able to carry the meat with this.

The children were all excited and happy that they’d be able to bring such a nice present back home.

And they were looking so exhausted just a moment ago, too... what a mercenary mindset. But, well, I guess that makes it easier to ask them to do things in the future.

“I have a question, Luis. You said you worked just now, right? How much do you make a day?”

“Hm? You mean how much I’m paid? Around 7 or 8 copper coins a day. It’s not a lot, but we don’t really get many chances to make money anyway so we’re grateful for the work.”

I see, I see. That’s good info. Now it’s even easier to ask. They might even accept.

“I see. Then I have another offer for you. To tell you the truth, I still have more entrails to go through. If you come back tomorrow to do the same thing, I’ll give you 1 silver each. How does that sound? Of course, I’ll feed you, too.”

“Really, bro?! We’ll do it! Definitely!”

“Hey, don’t you need to ask everyone else first?”

“Oh, right. But I’m pretty sure they’ll say yes anyway. Wait a second.” Luis went to consult with the other children.

“Of course we’ll do it!”

“1 silver and food?! Ah, yeah!”

“He’s gonna feed us that good stuff again, right?! Of course I’ll do it!”

“I’m in! Totally in! Food on top of 1 silver? Talk about a score!” After hearing about the offer from Luis, the other children all enthusiastically exclaimed their willingness in chorus.

“You probably heard them already bro, but they’re all ready and willing.”

“I see. That’s great. Then I’ll see you all tomorrow,” I said, and the children all replied energetically.

“Yeah!”

“We’ll be back tomorrow!”

“Okay!”

“I’m looking forward to good food tomorrow, too!” The children all made to leave, already loudly making conversation as they moved to return to the orphanage.

Of course, they didn’t forget the dungeon pork that I gave them.

“Ah! Wait a second! What about the clubs?” I finally remembered why the children originally came after watching them start leaving.

“Ah! That’s right!” It seemed the children had completely forgotten thanks to all the excitement from being given meat.

They all turned back so I could start (or rather, Sui could start) the process of improving their clubs (well, they were actually just solid pieces of firewood).

“Sui, can you make these into the same thing as yesterday?”

“Yeah, okay!” I handed Sui the clubs, and it quickly shaped them into bats one after another.

When I handed them back to the children, they all seemed impressed, going, “Woaahh, amazing.”

All of them immediately gave their new weapons test swings.

“Alright, now I’ll see you all tomorrow.”

““““““Yeah!”””””” The children all left, happily carrying their new wooden bats and meat.

They’d most likely finish preparing all my entrails tomorrow.

That meant that I’d be able to quickly and easily make not only grilled chitterlings, but I’d also be able to use the prepared offal for hot pot and stew.

I’m looking forward to it.

The next offal dish will have to be that, complete with finisher.

◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇

After having an early breakfast, I waited for the children to come...

“We’re here, bro~!”

“Oh, welco...me? Hey, wait a second, this is way too many people!” The crowd of children was clearly larger than yesterday.

“Yeah, about that...” Luis guiltily started, his eyes darting away and back to me over and over.

It turned out to be the same pattern as yesterday.

When they got back with the dungeon pork, all the other kids asked, “Where did you get that?” That was when the more talkative kids started talking about the grilled chitterlings and my job offer.

Of course, that became a hot topic, and when they learned that they’d get 1 silver on top of a delicious meal...

“So that’s why there’s so many of you. Well, I guess having more hands is always better.”

“Yeah, it looks like pretty much everyone who wasn’t already busy today came.” Just by quick estimation, I figured there must have been twice as many children here as yesterday.

“And I’m not really sure what’s up with this, but some of them insisted on coming since they want to become chefs with their own stalls or restaurants in the future.”

“Not really sure? Come on, of course it’s because they want to know how to prepare entrails for the future.” Given what happened yesterday, that’s pretty obvious.

“Huh? Why?”

“Well, what did you think of yesterday’s food?”

“It was amazing!” Luis thought back to the food yesterday, and added, “It, like, burst in my mouth!”

“Right? And what did I say that meat was?”

“............Ah!! I see, that was all booby prizes!” It seemed like Luis finally cottoned on.

Entrail drops were considered booby prizes in the dungeon here, and most adventurers would immediately just throw away any they got.

Each drop was fairly large for both dungeon pigs and dungeon cows.

It was enough to make me wonder if it would be profitable to buy cheap entrails from adventurers for a store.

If there was a way to make something that had up until now been considered terrible due to lack of proper preparation into something delicious, then any proper cook would want to know it.

“Then are you sure about this, bro? Isn’t this the sort of thing you keep a secret? It’d be like a special for your restaurant or something. You shouldn’t be sharing it with just anyone.”

“Hmmm, well that’s true. If I wanted to open a restaurant here, then yeah that might be the case. But I’m not planning to. Plus, it’s a good thing for people to be able to enjoy more food.”

“I see. Thanks, bro.”

“Well, I’ll still have you do your work properly. ...Actually, I’ve been wondering this for a while now. What’re you planning to do with children that small?” I was looking at some toddlers who were only around five years old holding the hands of the older kids.

There were about six of them, on a quick count.

There was one boy with bunny ears, a girl with dog ears, another with cat ears, two human boys, and one human girl.

I wasn’t sure what exactly they were doing here, but they were holding on to the hands of the older kids and smiling happily.

“Well, they said they were coming with us and wouldn’t take no for an answer. Even if we tried to leave them behind they’d start crying...” Luis seemed genuinely troubled.

Apparently he was forced to take them along since otherwise they’d start bawling their eyes out.

“W-Well, I guess there’s nothing to do about it now that they’re here.”

“Yeah, sorry bro. Really.”

◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇

“Hey, why have I been saddled with responsibility over these guttersnipes?”

“It’s not just you, Fel. Dora-chan and Sui are with you, too.”

《I hate kids, just so you know. I’m just going to be supporting you, that’s all. Got it?》

《Sui wants to play with eeeeveryone!》 Sui was bouncing around beside the orphans.

Seeing that, the kids were also happily playing around with it.

“Mister Wolf~!” Flora, one of the human girls, clung onto Fel.

“Ah, that’s not fair! I wanna do that too!” The cat-eared beastfolk girl, Debbie, followed suit.

When she did, the other children all piled on as well.

“H-Hey! You brats! Leave me be!” The toddlers all clung onto Fel and enjoyed his fluffiness. It was pretty funny.

“The weather’s nice outside, so just go out and play with them. It seems they all like you Fel, so I need you to look after them. We’re going to be doing the same thing as yesterday, preparing entrails.”

“W-Wait!”

“Okay, I’m counting on you guys. Ah, be careful not to hurt them. And don’t let them outside the house. You three take care of the children together, you hear? I’ll make something good for dinner.”

《Oh fine, you’re really twistin’ my leg here...》

《Yayyy! Sui will do Sui’s best!》

“You remember this! It will come back to you!”

Oh? Did Fel say something? I didn’t catch it. Nope, totally didn’t.

“H-Hey, bro, you sure it’ll be alright?”

“It’ll be fine. Fine, I say! My familiars are pretty reliable. More importantly, you guys are gonna continue where you left off yesterday. I want to finish all the entrails I have today, so get ready to work hard!” After that, the older kids all worked hard preparing the entrails that I had left.

They finished off all the intestines I had left, then I had them do the liver, heart, and other stuff too.

For the liver, I had them use the salt and vinegar I had on hand to prepare it. The way to do it is, you have to massage both the salt and vinegar in for around 10 to 15 minutes before rinsing it with water until the water starts coming out clear. Liver can also be soaked in milk to clean it, but since I didn’t have any milk on hand I had the kids use this method. The salt and vinegar method is useful for when milk isn’t available or when there isn’t enough time, since it’s also a little faster.

For the hearts, I had them cut into them to remove all the clotted blood and wash out anything else. Then, they had to hand wash the hearts in salt water before leaving them in ice water to soak.

Beef reticulum — that is, the second compartment of the stomach — took the most work out of all the edible entrails, but there was nothing to be done about that, so they just had to work hard for their money.

First, you have to soak it in water-baths of different temperatures to loosen up the black skin on the organ, then scrape off the black skin with a spoon. Doing so requires a lot of patience, but without it the thing would be almost inedible. After peeling off the skin, it has to be boiled for a while too. This usually takes a long time, so I decided to handle that myself.

In the meantime, I had the orphans get back to work on other organs, while bearing their stream of complaints.

But among the children, the kids who wanted to be chefs were muttering to themselves passionately, saying things like, “I see, so this is how you get rid of the stink and gameyness...”

They asked me a lot of questions, too.

Well, I did make sure to teach them as much as I could.

At any rate, work went on like that until...

“Okay, it’s all done. Good work, everyone,” I said, and the children raised a cheer.

Since I had so many helping hands, things went along quite a bit faster than I expected.

“Now, I promised all of you food. There’s a lot of you, so we’ll eat out in the yard,” I said, and once again the children cheered.

Then, in high spirits, they all rushed out into the yard. I chased after them and found the younger orphans all played out and sleeping on Fel. Sui was also fast asleep, mixed among them.

《You finally came...》 Fel looked exhausted.

《Do something about these tiny hellions. They keep pulling on my fur and trying to climb me. These things are way nastier than any monster.》

Ahh...... I get it, since they’re so young, they don’t have a concept of fear, so they do whatever they want. My condolences. But you really saved me.

I had Luis wake up the kids who were sleeping on Fel.

Some of them grumbled lightly, but as soon as they heard that they’d get good food, they woke right up.

《Ahh, thank you...》

“No, thank you for the hard work. We’ll be eating now. It’s going to be karaage, so eat lots and cheer up.”

《So I shall. I need to restore my willpower with a good meal or I will never last.》 After that, we all enjoyed a karaage party.

I used up a large chunk of the cockatrice meat we’d managed to gather last night in the dungeon.

I made both an orthodox karaage with a soy sauce-based sauce rubbed in, and one with a salt-based sauce rubbed in.

It was really popular with the kids, and the pile I’d made disappeared really fast.

My familiars kept up with the huge crowd of children too, and ate just as much.

“Was the karaage good?” I asked, and they all nodded fervently with their mouths still full.

“There’s still lots more so take your time and enjoy yourselves,” I said, but they still rushed to stuff themselves as fast as they could.

“Ah! I almost forgot! This is for you, bro!” Luis seemed to remember something while stuffing himself with karaage, and he took out a paper from his pocket.

“What’s this?”

“The director gave it to me. He wanted me to give it to you.” I read the letter, and it turned out to be a thank you note from the director.

The letter, which was neatly written and politely worded, made me feel a little itchy.

All I did was give them some meat...

The director also apologized in the letter for not thanking me in person.

Apparently one of his helpers quit, so the entire orphanage was currently being run with just the director and two nuns, who were all being kept extremely busy.

According to Luis, there were around 60 children living in the orphanage, including some who weren’t even old enough to eat solid food. It seemed like it was really tough going for the orphanage staff.

I should donate something to them while I’m in town.

I didn’t like making donations when I didn’t know what it’d be used for, but I felt no hesitation this time since I knew it would be for children.

◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇

“Aahhh~, that was great.”

“It was so delicious...”

“I’m stuffed,” the kids said, one after another, while rubbing their bellies.

You really can never go wrong with karaage. I was right to make so much.

“Master, I’d like to learn how to make this, ‘karaage,’ but before that I’d really like you to teach me how to cook all that offal we worked on!”

............Master? I don’t remember making you my apprentice.

“Yeah, master! Please teach us how to cook offal!”

Uhh, like I said, I don’t remember ever accepting any apprentices.

The two kids who cheekily started calling me ‘master’ were the ones who were the most passionate by far of those who wanted to be cooks in the future, and who kept asking me the most questions. Their names were Maynard and Enzo.

“Master, please!”

“Please!” The two of them continued to push.

“Ahhh fine, fine. But it’s too late today, so next time.”

“Next time? When exactly?!”

“Tomorrow?!”

““Please be clear about it!”” I wasn’t sure why, but the two of them were really imposing.

“Ah, ahhh... Tomorrow! You can come tomorrow morning, around the same time you arrived today!” I caved to the pressure given off by the two of them and said that before I could properly think things through.

The two of them smiled and said, “Then we’ll come again tomorrow.”

*Sigh* I don’t know why, but I guess I’ll be teaching the two of them how to cook intestines tomorrow.

Ah, I also remembered to pay the children who worked today.

All of them happily clutched the silver coin I gave them.