Chapter 5: Meat Dungeon Festival
Chapter 5: Meat Dungeon Festival
The day of the Meat Dungeon Festival.
Both sides of the main road were packed tightly with stalls.
And the streets themselves were crammed full of people, people, and more people who were there to experience said stalls.
They’d come from both inside and outside Rosenthal. The Meat Dungeon Festival was certainly livening up the town.
“Thanks~!” I sent off a customer who bought a hot dog.
“We’re here, bro!”
“Oh, Luis! It’s been a while.” Luis and his party had come over to my stall.
“I heard you were way out in the middle of nowhere. Man, they weren’t kidding.”
“Well, yeah. I was late in applying, so it’s only natural though.” My stall was located on the very end of the city of stalls that had been erected for the Meat Dungeon Festival.
Well, rather than a stall, it was more like I just brought out my grill and started serving food off of it.
By the way, my familiars were napping in an empty space behind me. They complained endlessly about not being able to tour the stalls, but I managed to talk them down by saying that today would be the only day I was doing this. It was a little scary how determined my familiars sounded when they said, “We will be eating everything in our tour of the stalls over the next few days.”
“You really don’t get many customers out here, do you? Compared to the stalls in better spots.”
“Yeah, but I still get a fair few.” I personally preferred this level of business, where I could still deal with customers one-on-one and maybe have a chat.
“Sure, sure. That looks really good, though. So you put a sausage in the bread you bought from us?”
“Yep. I just take one of these nicely grilled sausages and put it in the bread I bought from you guys, then add this tomato sauce on top.”
““““““*Gulp*...”””””” Luis and the others all had their eyes glued on the sausages.
“Looks good...”
“Hey, these are for sale so you aren’t getting any. If you want some, pay up,” I said, and they all looked crestfallen.
But I really couldn’t just give these away for free.
Just buy it.
“Yeah, thought so. What do you guys want to do?” Luis asked the others.
“Big bro’s food looks good, but I really want to try other places too...”
“But big bro cooks really really good.”
“Yeah...”
“It’s really hard to decide, isn’t it...?”
“So, how much is it?”
Oh ho?
“Hey bro, how much are these?”
“These? They’re 6 iron coins for one.”
“6 iron coins? Hmm~... That’s kind of expensive.”
“Huh? Really? It’s bread and sausage. I thought this was a pretty good price.”
“Well yeah, when you put it like that. There’s both bread and meat so it seems like it’d fill you up. Hmmm... Okay! I’ll take one, bro!” Luis ended up ordering one.
“Sure. Thanks for the business.” I took the 6 iron coins from Luis.
I took a nicely grilled sausage, stuck it between the bread I’d bought from the orphanage, and slathered tomato sauce on top.
“Wow! Looks good.”
“It doesn’t just look good. It is good. Try it.” Luis took a big bite into the hot dog.
“Woww~!” Luis looked really happy as he ate. The others looked like they ran out of willpower after seeing that, and they all ordered hot dogs one after the other.
Then, they started chowing down right then and there.
“Delicious!”
“That was money well spent!”
“I never thought just sausage in bread could taste this good.”
“Stuuuuupid. This sausage itself is amazing. It snaps, and the inside is so juicy!”
“You’re the stupid one. It’s true that the sausage is great, but this red sauce on top really brings it all together. The combination is why it’s so delicious.”
Huh. These orphans have surprisingly sharp palates. I guess it’s because we’re in the meat dungeon town?
Luis and the others continued their friendly bickering while they enjoyed their hot dogs. The sight seemed to have worked as some sort of advertisement, as a nearby elf man walked over to order one.
“Give me one please.”
“Yessir!” I took his 6 iron coins and handed him a hot dog.
The elegant-looking elf opened his mouth wide and chomped into the hot dog.
He closed his eyes and chewed slowly so as to savor the taste before gulping it down.
The next instant, his eyes snapped open wide, and he wolfed down the rest of it.
Having finished his hot dog in but a mere moment, he sighed.
“Oh my~, that was absolutely incredible. It’s because I get to encounter unprecedented new foods like this that I can’t stop coming to this Meat Dungeon Festival~!” The elf said with a smile. “May I have another?”
“Sure thing.” I took the payment and handed the elf another hot dog.
The elf once again bit into it.
And...
“Yeah, that’s great. This sausage is so juicy, and I can tell it’s seasoned with not only salt, but pepper too. Also, this stewed tomato you put on top has a perfect amount of acidity, which binds the sausage and bread perfectly,” the elf muttered. “Ah! Sorry. I don’t know if you know this already, but elves are all really obsessed with food. In my case, I have a habit of just muttering my impressions of what I eat to myself.”
Oh right, elves are really picky eaters. Yeah sure, I know. I mean, I already know a certain Adventurer’s guild guildmaster and a certain cool beauty of an adventurer from an A-ranked party. Well to be fair, the two of them are more gluttons than picky eaters.
After some conversation, I found out that the elf man’s name was Gabriel, and that he was a traveling merchant. I also learned that he’d been attending this Meat Dungeon Festival since its inception.
Every year? That’s some dedication.
“I always wonder what I should do around this time of year, but I always end up here.” Normally, he traveled and did business between the capital and a town called Bischoff, which was about the same distance to the capital as Rosenthal was. But whenever it came time for the festival, he always ended up stopping here for a breather.
“I know other elves. I guess it really is true that all elves are weak to good food.”
“Hahaha, we are elves, after all.” I continued talking to Gabriel, and...
“Ohhhh, is that why there are so many elves in town this time of year~?” Luis, who’d been eavesdropping on our whole conversation, said.
“Oh yeah. You always see a lot of elves around during the festival, don’t you?” Luis’s friends nodded.
Now that they mention it, I can see elves here and there, too.
“You can try a whole bunch of good food during the Meat Dungeon Festival, after all. It’s no wonder we get drawn here.” Apparently elves tended to gather here, aiming for new good food.
It was scary the lengths elves were willing to go for food.
Still, it’s not like I didn’t have experience with my own set of incorrigible gluttons.
“I was right to come this year, too. Since I got to have this. I’ll come tomorrow, too!” Gabriel stated his intention to visit on the second day as well.
But...
“Umm, sorry, but I’m only opening this stall today.”
“Whaaaaaat?! N-No way...”
I don’t think it’s so awful that you need to cry that hard, Gabriel...
“Ah! Right! Then please wait a second,” he said before rifling around in his Item Box.
I guess it’s only natural for elves like Gabriel to have Item Boxes, since they’re so gifted with magic.
“There it is! Can you stuff as many hot dogs into this as you can?” Gabriel handed me a small basket.
I said small, but it still looked like it could fit about ten hot dogs inside.
“Are you sure? That’ll be quite a lot. Also, even if you have an Item Box, this is still perishable food, so if you don’t eat them soon...” Unless he had an Item Box that stopped time like mine, it was a bad idea for food storage.
“It’ll be fine. With this many, I can probably finish them by tomorrow.”
All this by tomorrow...
With that, I no longer had any reason to refuse, so I took the basket and filled it with hot dogs.
I was right, the basket fit ten hot dogs perfectly.
“Here you go.”
“Thank you very much! Well then,” Gabriel said, already biting into another hot dog as he left.
Then, an hour later ———
“Huh? Wh-What the hell...” For some reason, my store was swamped with elves.
At first, I’d simply noticed that it was getting a little busier than usual so I dealt with it, but at some point the swarm of elves started growing exponentially...
I had my hands full just making hot dogs and taking payment.
I somehow managed to deal with the sudden influx of customers by having Luis and the others help, since until now they’d been loitering near my stall with nothing to do.
As I was busy cooking up a mountain of sausages, I heard the impressions of the elves who were eating my hot dogs.
“Gabriel was right. This is great!”
“I came because I’m staying with Gabriel and he said it was really good. He was right!”
“Yeah, I heard about this from Gabriel too. You really can rely on a fellow elf’s info~!”
............IT WAS GABRIEL!! I appreciated him spreading word of my stall, but this was too much.
I wonder if all elves just want to try stuff immediately when they hear it’s good?
I mulled that over in my head as I silently continued to cook hot dogs.
“*Sigh* Somehow managed to finish...” I finally managed to get through all the elves’ orders.
Luis and the others who I hired as emergency help also looked exhausted. They really helped out this time. Without them around I’d have been in trouble.
As I considered upping their pay, an older guy called out to me.
“Hey bro. The stuff those elves are really enjoying is from your stall, right?” There were lots of elves still hanging around enjoying their hot dogs.
“Well, yeah.”
“Thought so! Give me one too. Oh man, if you can entrance the elves’ discerning palate, then you’ve got to have something good. I was so curious!” This guy buying his hot dog was the signal for another huge wave of customers to come.
They were all like the older guy who saw the elves eating and got lured over.
“Give me one too!”
“Me too!”
“One here as well!”
“I want two!”
“W-Woah! H-Hey, get to work you guys!” I called Luis and the others back to work and somehow managed to deal with this wave too.
“Okay that’s it! We’re sold out! Sorry, but we’re closing!” I sold off my last hot dog.
All the sausages that I had Maynard and Enzo help me prepare were gone, even though I thought I’d made extra.
“Aagghh, I’m so tired.”
“Me too, bro.” Luis’s party all silently nodded in agreement.
“You guys really helped out today, so I’ll pay you extra. 2 silver a person.”
“Really?!”
“Of course. Here.” I paid each of them and watched as their faces lit up.
“Great! Now we can eat!”
“““““Yeah!”””””
You guys were still that energetic? So materialistic.
“Well then, later bro~!” Luis and his friends still seemed hyped as they disappeared into the streets to enjoy the Meat Dungeon Festival.
“Now then, we should go home too.” I called out to Fel and the others, but Fel sounded unhappy.
《Hey, have you not forgotten something?》
“Hm?”
《Food. Food!》
“Ahh! Sorry, sorry. I was so busy I forgot.” After the coming of the elves I was so swamped with customers I didn’t have time to think about my familiars and their lunch.
《Geez. You know, it was hard on us having to smell that food with how hungry we were!》 Dora-chan was also angry.
《Master, Sui is so hungry...》 Even Sui was sounding pretty sad and pathetic.
“Sorry, everyone. Really! I’ll buy you anything you want from these stalls to make up for it. Okay?” I put my hands together in supplication and bowed to my familiars.
《Hmph! Of course you will!》
《Yeah!》
《Sui will eat lots!》 After that, I was made to spend oodles of money and run every which way to satisfy my familiars, and the first day of the Meat Dungeon Festival was over.
◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇
On the second day of the Meat Dungeon Festival, once again the streets of Rosenthal were overflowing with people. It was a huge party.
《We are going to eat our hearts out today.》
《Of course we are!》
《Sui will eat looooooooooots and loooooooooooooooots!》
............It’s fine that you’re all excited to eat, but it’s scary given how much you all eat normally. Not to mention how much you all ate yesterday, too.
A significant chunk of my wallet went towards appeasing my familiars yesterday.
“Didn’t you all eat a bunch yesterday, too?”
《Yesterday was yesterday. And that was only the beginning.》
《Exactly. There’s still lots of stalls we didn’t get to yesterday, too!》
《Hehehe~, we tried lots of stuff!》 Apparently the feast they had yesterday was just a sneak preview of things to come.
《Okay, let us start from the skewer stalls. Dora, Sui, come.》
《Alright! I’m gonna stuff myself today too!》
《Meat~!》 They said before immediately diving in and approaching a stall selling dungeon beef skewers.
The older guy manning the stall didn’t mind the monsters that suddenly appeared at his stall and just kept cooking.
I bet he’s like one of those standard stubborn old men who takes pride in how good he is at his work.
The skewers the guy was cooking had two large pieces of meat on each of them.
The dungeon beef was sizzling in its own juices, and that smell along with the spicy aroma of its sauce, which probably had dried herbs or something in it, made the whole thing seem really good.
《Hey, I want ten of these.》
《I’ll take five.》
《Sui wants 20!》
《Hey, Sui, settle for ten. We have a lot of stalls to get to.》
《Ah! You’re right! Okay, Sui will do as uncle Fel says since we’ll be eating at lots of other places! Yeah, Sui will have ten!》
“Sure, whatever. Then, I’ll go order... Excuse me, can I get 26 skewers?” I added an extra one for myself.
The spicy smell had me craving one too.
“You got it.” I exchanged money for the just-finished skewers.
Then, I found an empty bit of space so I could take the meat off of the skewers and serve it to Fel and the others in their special bowls.
They immediately started digging in and quickly finished it all off.
《It was okay.》
《Yeah. And the tiny bit of spice in it made me even hungrier.》
《Meat is so good! Sui wants more and more and more!》
“You’re all way too fast. I’m still only halfway through.”
《Why are you wasting time like this? Hurry and eat. You are making us wait.》
“You can complain all you want. This skewer’s pretty big and I can’t eat as fast as all of you.”
Dora-chan took Fel’s side, saying, 《Yeah! Hurry up!》 Even Sui was just staring at me, so with no allies anywhere, I had to endure eating while being pestered and hurried along.
I wasn’t sure what kind of herb was used here, but the sauce was tingly and spicy. It matched really well with the meat, which was pure red with no fat to it.
However, while it was good, my enjoyment of it was halved because I was being badgered the whole time.
《Good, you are done.》
《Next! Next!》
《Meat~!》 As soon as they confirmed I’d finished, my familiars once again charged for their next target.
They just don’t get that good food is best savored slowly... Looks like this’s gonna be a long day...
《Hey, this one is next. Hurry it up.》 Fel commanded through telepathy.
“Yeah, yeah. I’m coming.” I jogged over to where Fel and the others were.
◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇
After going through more than ten stalls following Fel’s and the other’s desires, I finally came upon a familiar face.
“Oh, there’s Maynard and Enzo.”
“Hm? Oh, those whelps that came to the mansion earlier. I believe you taught them how to cook entrails?”
“Yeah. They’ve got quite a line. Looks like they’re doing well. That’s great to see.” The line at Maynard and Enzo’s stall told me that they were prospering and on track for their goal.
Then, Dora-chan muttered something while looking at them. 《Guts, huh? They don’t look appetizing, but they were pretty good, weren’t they?》
Sui, having heard that, bounced up and down as it replied, 《It was good!》
“...Hm, then shall we try the innards that those whelps have cooked?” Fel said haughtily as he sauntered away towards Maynard and Enzo’s stall, clearly intending to ignore the line.
《I want to eat too.》
《Sui too!》 My other two familiars said as they followed Fel.
“W-W-Wai- Wai-... Hey, come on, wait a second!” I grabbed on to Fel and Dora-chan’s tails in a panic to hurriedly hold them back.
“Sui, no! Stop!” Sui alone continued to bounce forward, so I had to call out to it to stop it.
“Why are you stopping us?” Fel said unhappily.
“Don’t ‘why’ me! There’s a line! If you want some you have to wait!”
“Mrr, do we really have to? How annoying.”
“Then do you want to go somewhere else?”
“Mnn... I am now craving innards after remembering that taste. I must have their food.”
“Then line up. Come on, let’s go.”
“Fine.” I lined up along with Fel and the others.
After we did, several people started flashing glances towards us.
Is it because I have Fel and the others with me? We’ve been here ten days already, so Fel should be pretty well known around here by now.
“Do we still have to wait?”
“We just lined up. Actually wait a little.”
Geez, as if we’d immediately get to order just by lining up.
“.........Ah.”
“What?”
“Fel, telepathy! Use telepathy!” Flustered, I whispered urgently into Fel’s ear.
I’d made it a policy for Fel to use telepathy as much as possible in places with people, but right then Fel was talking normally.
《Mnn, oh, right.》
“Don’t ‘oh, right’ me! Come on~!”
It may have been okay in Karelina, but come on, it’ll totally cause a huge commotion here. So I guess all the people who’re glancing at us heard our conversation. Fel wasn’t speaking especially loud, so we got away with just a few people here, but...
*Glance*
Some of the glances sent our way were singling me out in particular.
Crap!
They were still doing it.
In this case... I’m just gonna have to pretend I don’t notice, huh? Yeah...
After a while of waiting while dealing with all that...
“Sorry for the wait. Next please!”
“You guys are doing pretty well for yourselves.”
““Master!””
“I came to try out your food.” After a small conversation, I heard from them that everybody shrank away after first hearing that they were serving intestines.
But eventually, some curious people tried it out...
And after others saw people exclaim about how delicious it was while wolfing the food down, they started to get more and more business until things grew to where they were today.
Since they were using normally reviled entrails, the tomato stew was only 4 iron coins, and the chitterling skewers were only 3 iron coins. Part of their success was that they were able to sell their food so cheaply.
Yeah, in cases like these having someone actually try it is always best.
If it’s good, people will start buying on their own.
“I’m happy for you two.”
““Thanks!!”” Maynard and Enzo seemed full of vim and vigor seeing their stall so prosperous.
“For now, give me three people’s worth of tomato stew. Also, 26 skewers.” I handed them my familiar’s bowls from my Item Box and the payment for their food.
Since I was getting pretty full, I was only having a skewer.
《Hey, I want more than that.》
“No no, there’s a line. You can’t just buy up all the food for yourself. I can make some too, later, so you three control yourselves. Got it?”
《Mrr, fine. But you will be making this soon.》
“Yeah, yeah, I know.” While that conversation was happening, the food I ordered was finished.
“Here you go, Master.”
“Thanks. You two, keep doing your best.” I took the food and left Maynard and Enzo’s stall.
Then, as always, I found a bit of empty space to feed my familiars.
《This stew is not bad, though it still falls somewhat short of yours.》
《Yeah. This is pretty good.》
《It’s delicious! But there’s not a lot...》 I ordered a serving for each of them, but it seemed like that wasn’t enough for their stomachs.
Next are the chitterling skewers.
I pulled the organ meat off the skewers and served it to my familiars in their dishes. All three of them just started wolfing the food down.
I should try it too.
I bit into the skewer, and the juices burst out into my mouth.
The ‘ultimate sauce’ Maynard and Enzo were talking about was salt-based.
They must have used some type of herb that was like lemongrass, since there was a nice and refreshing taste to it that cleared the sinuses.
“Ohh? This is pretty good. With this flavoring, even oily and fatty offal didn’t weigh heavily on the tongue.”
You can really tell they’re aiming to be chefs.
《It is serviceable. Those whelps are fairly skilled.》
《You said it. I wasn’t expecting much, but this was surprisingly okay.》
《It was good!》 Even my spoiled gluttonous gourmands gave it a passing mark.
“That means their stall is pretty much a shoo-in to place, huh?” Even though I’d only taught them a little, I was still rooting for them.
《Okay, next stall.》
《Yeah!》
《Meat, meat~!》
“We’ve gone through quite a number already. Do you guys seriously still want to eat?”
《Of course.》
《I can keep going!》
《Sui wants loooots more~!》 And so the gluttonous trio once again dove into the fray.
“*Sigh* What appetites...” Exasperated, I followed after them.
◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇
In the end, we visited close to 30 stalls that day. My familiars certainly had their fill of meat dishes. After having a feast of meat, meat, and more meat, Fel and Dora-chan finally seemed happy and had swollen bellies full to bursting. Even Sui, who didn’t change on the outside, was seemingly satisfied as it slept soundly in its usual spot in my bag as we went home.
《We ate everything we could today. It only affirms that meat really is great. We will be feasting tomorrow, as well.》
《Yep! Let’s fill ourselves up tomorrow, too!》
《Mmnnmnnn... meat~............》 I almost thought that they’d finally eaten themselves out after all they had today, but the gluttonous trio continued to impress, I guess.
I suppose we’ll be going around stalls tomorrow too... Urp...... Yeah, I think I’m done with meat after today.
◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇
Entering the third day and final of the Meat Dungeon Festival, the town was bustling even still, with people crowding around to try the food.
《Great. We are going to eat this town to pieces today.》
《Yeah! Gonna have a meat feast again today!》
《Sui will eat tons and tooooons of meat today~!》 My gluttonous carnivores were ready and raring to stuff themselves again today.
Same as yesterday, my familiars were still in the mood to tour stalls.
That being said, I was paid a visit by one of the Merchant’s guild’s employees this morning, begging for me to reopen my stall.
Apparently rumors of my hot dogs abounded, and there were a lot of requests being made at the Merchant’s guild.
The employee begged me over and over, but unfortunately, I’d never planned to be open for more than one day so I didn’t have anything to sell.
After all, the sausages I’d prepared all sold out on the first day.
I still had some bread rolls from the orphanage left, but I couldn’t serve hot dogs with just bread.
Even if I wanted to make more sausages, that would take a lot of time, too...
While I felt sorry for him, I had to refuse.
It definitely wasn’t because Fel was right behind me, glaring holes into the back of my head and repeating, 《Refuse,》 over and over in my head through telepathy.
............Probably not, anyway.
At any rate, I couldn’t do something I was utterly unprepared for, so I declined. The employee wilted in disappointment, but there was nothing to be done about it.
After that exchange, Fel seemed extra motivated for some reason, though that might have just been my imagination. He was saying there was a stall that caught his eye yesterday and stuff, too.
Still...
“You all ate enough meat yesterday to cause anyone heartburn. I’m surprised you aren’t tired of it,” I muttered, and Fel with his sharp ears reacted immediately.
《How could you think that? Meat is delicious.》
《Why’re you just stating the obvious, Fel? Also, I only found this out after following this guy, but the meat that humans eat has so many flavors, it’s great. I just never get bored.》
《Dora is correct. Humans are foolish, but I can appreciate their skill for making food.》
《Yep.》
“Wow. You two sure are up on that high horse.”
《I am on no horse. I am simply higher than all of you.》
《Exactly. Since we’re so strong.》 I felt exasperated seeing Fel and Dora-chan’s groundless smug expressions, but Sui interrupted by telepathically saying something.
《Hey, hey, master, let’s hurry and go have meat!》
“Ah, you’re right. Let’s go then.” Geez, Sui’s the only nice and honest one of the bunch.
《There is a stall I have had my eye on since yesterday. We will start there.》
“Sure, sure.”
Fel gleefully moved for the stall he talked about, so the rest of us followed.
The stall we arrived at was near the center of the whole festival. Apparently it served dungeon pork skewers. The meat on the skewers was a thick cut of dungeon pork belly that was clearly bursting with juices even from a single glance, and the ones being served out looked perfectly cooked.
The skin, meat, and fat were neatly layered, almost like the kind of pork you see in food advertisement pictures. The fat dripping off the cooked pork belly gave off an indescribable aroma. And as soon as they were cooked, the chef at the stall would quickly grate some rock salt on top.
*Gulp*———
After yesterday I was feeling pretty tired of meat, but I just couldn’t resist this.
“Come on, try some bro!” The kindly-looking stall owner, who had to be almost 40, called out to me.
“Do you just use salt for flavoring?”
“Yeah. Just salt. But I carefully picked out this dungeon pork and I gave it juuuust the right amount of salt. It’s good, trust me~!” It was only flavored with salt, but the simplicity gave it all the more impact.
Even though all the other stalls were trying to use sauces to bring out their own little flavors, this one really stood out.
Yeah, looking at this I’m pretty confident I can trust his eye.
《Hey, hurry up and buy it.》
“Sure, sure. How many do you want?”
《This looks really delicious. For now, buy 30.》
“What about Dora-chan and Sui?”
《I’ll have... hmmm... well, there’ll be more after this, so I’ll take ten.》
《Sui wants the same as Uncle Fel, 30!》
So, 70 for all of them? This guy’s really confident in his food... I want to try one too so I’ll add one for myself.
“Excuse me, can I have 71 skewers?”
“Oh ho! That’s quite a lot!”
“Haha, it’s for my picky familiars.”
“Thank ye kindly!” I exchanged money for the delicious-looking skewers.
I hurried to move to an open space, and all of us started on the food as fast as we could.
“Amazing!” It was a simple flavor since it was just salt, but that meant that there was nothing in the way of the dungeon pork’s natural taste.
I forgot to ask where he got his rock salt from, but it was a mildish salt that wasn’t too strong, so it went really well with the dungeon pork and drew out its natural flavor even more.
《Hm, as always I have an eye for this.》
《Man this is good!》
《So gooood!》 My familiars all loved it, and quickly put the food down.
《Okay, next.》
《Yep! Let’s go there now!》
《Sui will eat lots more meat!》 It seemed that starting with such good food only served to rev the gluttonous trio’s appetite engines. They immediately set off for another stall.
◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇
“Whew~, I ended up eating a lot today, too.” Being exposed to the sight and smell of all that food, my meat exhaustion flew out the window.
《Indeed. This festival is a good one. It is only too bad that today was the last day.》
《Yeah, we got to eat our fill of so much meat, after all. They should keep it up longer.》
《It’d be nice if we could eat like this eeeevery day~!》 My familiars seemed truly disappointed that the Meat Dungeon Festival was over after today. Even though they managed to fully take advantage of the last two days...
We’d come to the place where they were going to announce the top five stalls, which was the main event of this Meat Dungeon Festival. It was a square that was smack dab in the center of the city made of stalls that was erected inside Rosenthal.
There was a small stage made in the square, and the surrounding space was buried in a crowd of participants waiting with bated breath to hear the results.
I made sure to get my votes in before coming here. Still, only my votes counted since I was the only human in my group, and they went to that simple but amazingly tasty dungeon pork skewer stall. I’d asked for my familiars’ opinions, but they each had their own tastes and it was hard to come to an agreement. In the end, we all agreed that my favorite, the simple skewers stall, was good enough, so I was allowed to vote for it.
Maynard and Enzo’s stall was delicious, but well, I didn’t want to play favorites.
Sorry you two, I apologized to them in my head.
Anyway, since managing to place in the top five pretty much automatically put any store in the major leagues, everybody here was looking forward to the results.
While all that was happening, a slightly chubby man made his way to the stage.
Oh. Looks like it’s about time to start.
“Uhhh, my name is Reinholdt, the sub-guildmaster of the Merchant’s guild here, and I have the honor of being the chairman for this festival. Pleased to meet you all. This year’s Meat Dungeon Festival was blessed with good weather, and we’ve managed to conclude the final day with no real problems...”
“Come on! Tell us the results already!!” The sub-guildmaster, who was the chairman of this event, had just started his speech when some impatient person in the crowd cut in.
There were others who shouted in agreement, too.
I guess that was only natural since he seemed like he’d started rambling.
“Ahem! Uhhh, it seems like there are many who are impatient to hear the results of our traditional top five announcement, so I will do that now. Starting from fifth place. Fifth is...... the stall run by two first-time participants, the young Maynard and Enzo!” The announcement was met with cheers and clapping.
S-Seriously......? I did mention that they could attempt to place, but those two actually did it.
Maynard and Enzo looked really excited as they got up on stage.
“Please say a few words. Starting from you, Maynard.”
“We were pretty confident, but it’s still such a surprise to actually place... This is all thanks to our Master! And thank you to all of you who voted for us!”
“Then next is you, Enzo.”
“Thank you, everyone. And to our Master: We did it!”
“RAAAAHHHH!!”
Once again, a storm of cheering and applause kicked up.
Awww that was nice. It was worth teaching them just for this.
“Next, in fourth place......” Each announcement was met with cheers and applause, and everyone held feelings of joy and sadness after each one. The announcement of the Meat Dungeon Festival’s best five ended in a storm of wild enthusiasm.
As an aside, every single one of the top five, including Maynard and Enzo’s stall, were ones that passed muster with my familiars.
First was surprisingly the stall selling dungeon beef skewers with that special herb sauce.
Second was a stall selling dungeon pork steaks with a special sauce. Third was a stall that sold cockatrice skewers coated in a thick and rich special sauce. And fourth was the stall that I voted for, that had the simply-seasoned dungeon pork skewers.
All the stalls we visited during our tour were at my familiar’s whims. To think that we tried every single one that placed... The senses of my gluttonous trio were not to be underestimated.
“Now then, it’s about time to go back.” We left the square, which was still bursting with excitement.
The Meat Dungeon Festival———.
It was surprisingly fun to gorge on different stalls and stuff.
“Hey, let’s come back next year.”
《Indeed. We are definitely coming back next year.》
《Definitely.》
《We’ll come again~!》