Chapter 8: The Wyverns Were Delicious

“Hello.”

“Ohh, Mukohda. Welcome!”

Today, I brought myself to Lambert’s store to see how things were going. I was curious to see how well my otherworld products were selling.

“So, how are the soaps and shampoos selling?”

“About that, I was just about to send someone to get you.” According to him, Marie’s advertising must have worked, and from there, word must have spread and now there was no end to the ladies that came to buy the stuff.

“As you can see, Marie is also excitedly explaining the merchandise. And that’s leading to even more sales.”

Over in the corner with the soaps and shampoos, Marie was explaining the effects and use of the merchandise while touching her own hair. The ladies were also surprised after touching Marie’s hair, and looked extremely interested in them.

“Thanks to Marie, sales are through the roof. Of course, it’s also thanks to your products being wonderful, Mukohda.”

I was told that the cheaper soap, as well as the shampoo with conditioner were close to selling out. As I had expected, pricewise those were much easier to budget for, it seemed. It also appeared that the rose scented soap and the shampoo and hair treatment set were popular with ladies who had a lot of room in their purses and were almost two-thirds of the way gone. As for the hair mask, it was very expensive, but even that did not stop them from selling almost one-third of what I had prepared, so I was surprised about that, too.

“I’m surprised at how well these are selling. Man, I really underestimated how fervently ladies pursued beauty. There was even one customer who said that they liked the scent and bought five of the high-class soaps.”

Apparently, Lambert was also surprised at how well these were selling.

The world may be different, but a woman’s tenacity toward beauty will always be the same, huh? (Blank eyes.)

My older sister was a beauty nut, and while we were at home would often say things like, “Nowadays even men have to pay attention to their looks,” and she would push the shampoos, conditioners, face lotions and other beauty products she no longer used onto me.

Though all that was really happening was that all her old stuff got rotated to me for space while she kept pursuing newer and newer products.

Leaving the past where it was, I was still happy that the merchandise was selling well.

“Oh, also, as a happy coincidence, my usual leather wares are selling well, too.”

Apparently, the ladies who came to buy soaps and shampoos would also take a look at the leather goods while they were at it, and if there was anything they liked and if they had money left, they would buy it. There were also those who came to the store accompanied by men, and they would beg their escorts for the goods as well (as for the men, they would buy it, wanting to look good). So at any rate, due to synergy, the leather goods, especially the ladies’ bags, were selling well.

“I would have never thought that it would affect the sales of bags as well. What a happy miscalculation.” Lambert was all smiles. It was to be expected, since his usual goods were selling as well.

“And so I have to ask you......”

Lambert wanted to order more stock. Thanks to the trial period, Lambert now believed that just as Marie said, the goods would sell.

As for the additional order, he wanted 600 of the cheaper soaps, 200 of the rose scented soaps, 500 bottles of shampoo with conditioner, 200 of the shampoo and hair treatment sets, and 60 more bottles of hair masks.

I was surprised since the numbers were so large, especially for the cheaper soap. Is 600 really all right? So I thought, but apparently looking at the trial sales, having that much stock wouldn’t be a problem.

Due to Marie’s decision, they would line up the soap bars directly instead of in their bags, so it would attract women to them with their scent.

Of course, even the cheaper soap was very expensive to regular women who weren’t nobles or merchants, but those with comparatively larger earning power like guild employees or female adventurers could be seen splurging and buying them.

Lambert had predicted that it would get even more popular as a luxury item that one could get if they just tried a little harder.

“The numbers are a little too large, so can I trouble you to do the repackaging into bottles yourself, Lambert? The hair masks are bought with the bottles, so I’ll do that myself, though.”

“Yes, that’ll be fine. Also, I’ve already thought to make it so that those who’ve already bought a bottle with us can just bring their bottles in to get them refilled.”

Now that I think about it, I do remember him saying something like that. At any rate, I’m just happy that I don’t have to do the repackaging myself. It would have been awful if I had to do all that myself.

“Then, I’ll get all that ready by tomorrow and bring it over.”

I had thought that it would sell, but I was still surprised at getting such a large order so suddenly. I’ll have to start buying as soon as I get back.

I couldn’t just hand over the refill pouches as they were, so I still had to move them into larger containers. Let’s go and get some wood boxes and pots at the general store real quick on the way back.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

“Yesss! Finally done~!”

By the time I was done preparing Lambert’s order, the sun had sunk considerably.

“Oh crap, Fel’s probably really hungry by now.”

Taking Sui with me and heading toward the kennel in a hurry, I found Fel in a sulking mood.

“You are late.”

“Sorry, sorry. I’ll make something good, so forgive me.”

I took out the pot of beef stew from my Item Box. I had time last night, so I cooked it some more. It was very nice as it was now, and the meat was extremely tender.

I poured the beef stew on a plate and served it.

“Here. It’s hot so be careful.” I also woke up Sui and served it some beef stew.

“This is new. Let me see......” Fel lapped up the beef stew as if he was drinking it.

“Oohhh, the meat is so soft it melts in my mouth.”

《It’s true. And the flavor of the soup is soaked in. It’s so good~.》

Thank goodness, the beef stew went over well.

“More.”

《More!》

I gave the two a heaping second helping.

Buying some French bread with my skill, I also started to enjoy my share of the beef stew. The meat was tender, and the flavor was thick and delicious. Huh, it might have been nice to put mushrooms in this. Let’s try that next time.

As for the bread, I had thought that hard bread would go better with the soup, so I got French bread, but the one I bought with my skill was soft. Oh well. I should have known that for hard-crusted French bread I would have needed an actual bakery. Aww man, and hard bread would have gone so well with the beef stew.

......Ah, but this world already has hard bread. That hard black stuff.

Just eating some alone didn’t seem very appetizing, but it would probably match well with the beef stew. Hard bread is good with beef stew since even with the stew soaking the bread, it won’t lose its texture and crispness. Yeah, let’s buy some black bread for next time.

“More.”

《More!》

Fine, fine.

“Mm? Does putting that in this make it better?” Fel keenly locked onto my dipping the French bread into the beef stew and asked about it.

“Yeah. Dipping the bread in the beef stew like this is good.”

“Then give me some of that too.”

《Sui wants some too!》

Buying French bread for the two of them, I cut the loaves up and soaked the pieces in their stews for them.

“Try eating it. If it’s good, I’ll cut up more.”

“Okay.”

Fel and Sui ate the bread with the beef stew on it.

“Hohh, this is delicious. This bread has soaked up the flavor of the stew and become amazingly good.”

《It’s true — eating it with the bread is amazing!》

It looked like both Fel and Sui approved of eating the beef stew with bread, so I treated them to several more helpings.

“Yes, I am full.”

《Whoohh, Sui is full too.》

“You two sure eat a lot.”

“I ate a little too much.”

I see, I see. But that just means the beef stew was that good to you.

I thought I made a lot, but the pot was completely empty now. The stew needs quite some time to cook, but I guess I can try and make it again whenever I’m free.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

I had come to Lambert’s store to deliver his order. I was just about to take out the wooden boxes and pots and get Lambert to check their contents. Just like always, Fel and Sui were with me, but they must have no interest in this at all, since Sui was asleep in the bag and Fel was asleep behind my chair.

“Yes, there’s no mistake. It’s nice that you were so quick about it. Especially for this soap, it was just about to sell out.” Lambert said as he laid his hand on one of the wooden boxes with the cheaper soap inside.

“As for the payment, it’s over 100 gold coins, so is it okay if I pay in large gold coins?”

“Yes, that’s fine.” I calculated this yesterday, and if I did it correctly, it should be 612 gold.

My status right now was of a person that has come upon huge amounts of money numerous times and has finally started to not even be surprised that it’s happening.

Who would have thought that although while I was in Japan, I was always living the poor life before payday, but here I would be making money this fast...... I mean, I’m thankful that I’m not at all troubled for money, but......

“Then, this is your payment of 60 large gold coins and 12 gold coins. Please make sure the amount is correct.”

As always, he slid it toward me in neat stacks of 10.

Since a large gold coin is 10 gold coins, 60 large gold and 12 gold is right.

“Yes, there’s no problem.”

According to Lambert, it was custom between merchants to use large gold coins for transactions dealing in over 100 gold coins. It made sense, since going over 100 gold coins would mean quite the amount. It also made sense for when they would go and get stock in other cities, since it didn’t seem that they’d be able to carry too much coinage with them.

It might be a little inconvenient for use around the town, but large gold coins were lighter overall and much better to carry around. Not to mention the fact that I already had more than enough regular gold coins.

By the way apparently white gold coins, which were made by mixing gold with mithril, were only used for trade between countries, or between merchants where the amounts easily pass over 1000 gold coins.

“Ahh right, I have something I want to ask you, Lambert: do you make mantles here?”

“Yes, we order make leather ones here. What kind of leather would you like?”

“You see......” I told Lambert about the wyverns.

“W-Wyverns? ......I had heard that wyverns had appeared, but I never would have thought you would be the one to defeat them, Mukohda............”

Well, it wasn’t me, though. Fel and Sui were the ones that actually killed them.

“And so, I would like to have a mantle, shoes, and a belt with a scabbard made from wyvern hide.”

“I’ve also wanted to eventually deal in wyvern hides. I’ll take this order as the biggest job in this store’s lifetime,” Lambert said, showing his resolve.

The biggest job of a lifetime? Are wyvern materials really like that? The guildmaster from the Adventurer’s guild was all ‘make a mantle out of it!’ and I had some materials left over, so I decided to get one without thinking too much about it, but......

“But when it comes to wyvern hide, it will take some time, is that fine?”

“How long?”

“Let’s see, about half a year, I think......”

That much? But wyverns do require a mithril knife to even butcher, so it really might take that long to make the things I want. Especially since it looks like it would take a while to tan, too. Well, I’m not in any real hurry so I guess I can just look forward to half a year from now.

“Also, even if you’re bringing in your own hide, the number of artisans who can work the materials are limited, and most of all it takes a lot of effort, so the price would be......”

Well, that does make sense.

After asking about it, I was told that since the amount of work hours that would go into it would be quite large, he couldn’t say, but it might cost over 500 gold all told. As I was now, it was something I could afford to pay, but I should have expected something order made to cost that much.

But I guess there’s nothing to be done, it looks like handling wyvern hide is pretty hard, and also takes a lot of work. Ah, right. I wonder if I can use the leftovers of the wyvern hide as part of the payment? A single wyvern probably has more than enough hide to make what I want, so it would be nice if I could.

“Uhmm, that cost, could I pay for part of it with what’s left over of the wyvern hide?”

“Huh? You’re fine with that? It’s not something one can come across very often, so that would be a great deal for me......”

Even if I held on to it, the only thing I could do with the thing is sell it anyway, so using it as payment would just lessen the amount of gold that would have to change hands and, therefore, minimize effort on my part, so I’d rather do that than anything.

“If you would accept that, I’d be grateful......” When I said that, Lambert agreed.

“Then I’m going to head over to the Adventurer’s guild now. I’ll bring back the wyvern hide, so I’ll be in your care then.”

“Indeed, I’ll be waiting for you.”

We left Lambert’s store behind and headed for the Adventurer’s guild.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

Entering the guild, we were immediately greeted by the guildmaster. He must have been informed by one of the employees of my arrival.

Accompanying the guildmaster to the storehouse, we found old man Johan there as usual.

“Oh, you’re here. It’s done. Here’s your wyvern meat, your share of the wyvern hides, and two magic stones. Man, I have no idea how you did it, but it’s the first time I’ve seen such a good job of draining blood. Thanks to that, butchering it was easy.”

Ahh, the blood draining. Thanks to Sui, it was perfect. Sui really is all-purpose.

“I had Sui do the blood draining.” When I patted the bag Sui was in, Sui popped its head out.

“That slime familiar? So slimes can be used that way, huh?”

“Hey, Johan. This slime’s probably the only one that can do something this skillful. It seems it’s special.”

“Then it’s probably impossible to have a slime for each adventurer party, huh? If we could do that, my job would be so much easier, though.”

“Well, the world’s not that easy. Hahaha.”

Wow, that wyvern meat is huge, like I expected. This’ll turn into a lot of meals.

The guild’s buying five sets of the wyverns’ hides and magic stones, so I’m getting two of each, right? So these are magic stones. The wyverns’ magic stones were around 20cm in diameter, and were round and smooth black stones. It seemed that they were good for use in magic tools, so they were traded at high prices, but I didn’t have any use for them.

Let’s sell these when I’m in need of money.

Thanks to this, my wallet was actually so fat it was overflowing, so I had no idea when that would be, though.

The wyvern hides felt thin to the touch. If someone were to ask me what kind of hide they were like, I wouldn’t be able to tell them, but I liked the color. It was a calm, dark grey.

This certainly would look cool if I were to make it into a mantle.

“As for your money, do you mind if I give it to you along with the money for the rest of the wyverns once that’s done?”

“Sure.”

“Ah, right, I need to give you this first.” The guildmaster handed me 10 gold.

“This is for the high-grade potion. I properly went and got payment from the party that was healed. Well, I say that, but they were beginner adventurers, so they borrowed the money from the guild. Hahaha.”

Oh right, I did give him one of Sui’s high-grade potions. I totally forgot. So I got 10 gold, but do normal high-grade potions cost 10 gold?

“The potion you handed me was clearly much better than a regular high-grade potion, though. Those guys were really grateful too, you know? As for the money, I’m sorry, but please think of this as a favor between adventurers and leave it at that?”

“I got that basically for free, so don’t mind it too much.”

“I’m really curious as to how you got something like that for free, but I know that it’s forbidden to pry.”

Yeah I’d be grateful if you didn’t. (Forced laughter.)

There was no way I could tell him that Sui made it.

“Now that you mention it, how much do potions usually cost?”

“Potions? Low-grades are 5 silver, middle-grades are 1 gold, and high-grades are 10 gold. There’s a special grade above that, but that one would be 50 gold. Adventurers would carry around at most middle-grade potions. Although there’s some high-ranking adventurers out there that have high-grades as well.”

I was told that the Adventurer’s guild usually carried a stock of high-grade potions for emergencies but had coincidentally run out of stock when the wyverns attacked.

“Does the Adventurer’s guild not carry special grade potions?”

“Those are way too expensive. The guild in the capital would have some, but outside of that, no.”

I see, 50 gold certainly is a lot. The guildmaster did say that he squeezed payment out of those beginner adventurers. It must have been because, even outside of this instance, whenever a potion was used, the adventurer who used it would have to pay for it, and a normal adventurer would never be able to pay 50 gold. Incidentally, for special grade potions, even severed limbs could be reattached if too much time hadn’t passed.

“Ahh, right. I’ll be bringing out the rest of the wyverns now.” I released the other six wyverns. I had almost forgotten amongst all that potion talk, but I had come here to do that.

“Hey, do not forget to have them butcher what I went and got as well.”

“Ahh, that’s right.” Reminded by Fel, I turned my thoughts toward the earth dragon.

It would have been fine if I had just forgotten about it forever like this, though. Man, I don’t want to take it out......

“Hm? If Fel hunted something again, does that mean it’s something ridiculous?” Having heard our conversation, the guildmaster stepped in.

“Yes, actually, Fel went and hunted an earth dragon......”

...............

............

......

“If my ears haven’t broken due to old age, does that mean I just heard you say... ‘earth dragon,’ just now?” After a sizable chunk of time, that was what the guildmaster said.

“Y-Yes.”

“.........Is it really, really an earth dragon?”

“Y-Yes. I’ll bring it out now so make sure, please.” I revealed the earth dragon from my Item Box.

“............”

“............”

Both the guildmaster and old man Johan were speechless at the sight of the earth dragon.

Huh? This is... taking a while. He—y, wake up, both of you.

“Uh, uhmm......”

“Y-Yeah, sorry. No, I mean, we just blanked out from surprise there.”

Really, I’m so sorry.

“Hey, Johan, you alright?” The guildmaster brought Johan back by slapping the old man on the shoulder.

“Y-Yeah, guildmaster. A-Am I dreaming? I think I see an earth dragon in front of me, hahaha.”

Ahhh yep, that’d be the reaction, wouldn’t it? Guildmaster, old man Johan, I really am just incredibly sorry.

“Uhmm, so apparently dragon meat is delicious, so Fel wants you to butcher it at the very least, or so he says.”

“Indeed. Dragons are good. Wyverns are tasty too, but dragons are better.”

When Fel said that, the guildmaster and old man Johan fell silent again.

“............So dragons are delicious.”

“Y-Yeah. No one else knows how dragons taste, you know?”

Huh? There’s no dragon steak or anything?

“After all, the last time a dragon’s been defeated was around 200 years ago......”

“Yeah, a long-lived elf or dwarf might know stories from back then, but......”

From what I’d heard in passing before, elves lived for around 500 to 600 years while high elves lived for around 1000 years. Dwarves lived from around 200 to 300 years at most. So, if it was 200 years ago, just as old man Johan said, only an elf or a dwarf would know.

“I think I know what you’re going to say, but about the materials......”

“Don’t ask the impossible. We can’t even handle your chimera and orthrus, there’s no way we’d be able to take earth dragon stuff, which would be even harder to handle.”

Ahh, yeah I knew it. Well, of course it would be this way.

“I understand, but can you at least just butcher it?”

“Hrmmm, what do you think, Johan?”

“It’s impossible. There’s nothing to throw away when it comes to a dragon. From its blood to its innards, everything is an ingredient for something, it’s said. Doing such careful work that not even a single drop of blood goes to waste is just impossible for me alone. Not to mention, we don’t have the proper tools here.”

Apparently there needed to be proper tools for butchering a dragon. Well, it made sense, since there probably needed to be a lot of preparations to not waste a single drop of blood.

“It’s impossible here, but the guilds at the capital or a dungeon city might be able to do it.”

“Certainly. If it’s the capital or a dungeon city, there’d be employees that specialize in butchering monster corpses.”

The capital or a dungeon city, huh? At any rate, it looks like it’d be impossible to do here.

“Fel, they’re saying they can’t do it here.”

“It is unfortunate, but there is nothing to be done.”

I put the earth dragon back into my Item Box.

“Sorry, bro.”

“No no, I’m actually grateful you’re acting like my personal butcher. Well, that’s probably going to be over soon.”

I’d actually stayed in this town too long, doing this and that, after all. Fel’s been saying that he wants to go to the ocean, and he’s probably going to start hurrying me up soon, too.

I was thinking of leaving town right after receiving the rest of the money and materials from the wyverns. I wanted to go and look around this country, after all.

“Hm? Are you leaving already?”

“Yes. Once I get payment for the wyverns, I’m thinking of going back on my journey.”

“I see. That’s too bad, but I can’t stop you. We talked about this already, too. If that’s the case, then before you leave, just like we talked about......”

“Oh, the thing about taking high ranking quests from other towns we stop by on the way?”

“Yeah, are you still up for that?”

“I think that’ll be fine, but we haven’t actually decided where we’re going to pass through...... Ah, does the guild have a map of this country or something?”

“Oh, we do. If you’re asking for that, I’ll show you in my room. We need to think about the future, after all.”

As I was leaving with the guildmaster to go back to his room, I heard old man Johan call out to me.

“Ah, these wyverns are also nicely drained of blood so it won’t take too long. It’ll be fine to come for these the day after tomorrow.”

“Got it. Then I’ll come the day after tomorrow, so I’ll be in your care then.”

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

“So then, have you decided where you want to go?” the guildmaster asked after sitting across from me.

“Rather than a destination, we’ve only decided that we want to go see the ocean.”

“Indeed. The ocean. I want to eat krakens and sea serpents.”

“So he says.”

“Krakens and sea serpents, huh? There’s some pretty ridiculous names in there again.”

“Uhmm, sorry. Fel just says they’re tasty and won’t listen to me......”

“Muh, those are good, you know? Also, eating seafood every once in a while is good. And if you cook it, it will certainly become even better.”

Ahh yeah yeah, I get it already.

“So that being said, we want to go see the ocean.”

“The ocean, huh? Wait a second.” Saying that, the guildmaster got up and retrieved a piece of paper from inside his desk drawer.

“This is a map of this country and the kingdom of Erman.”

The map he laid out on the desk pictured both the kingdoms of Leonhardt and Erman. It was pretty detailed. By the way, apparently this same map was sold at any Adventurer’s guild in both countries.

“If you’re going to the ocean, then I’d like for you to go along this road. The road’s being maintained so I’d recommend it for that too, but you’d also be passing by three major townships, so it’d be great if you could take requests at those places.”

“I’m fine with that, but where are the three towns?”

“The first one you’ll see coming from here is a town named Krehl. Passing through that, next is the dungeon city of Dolan. Then next is Nijhoff. Then last is the seaside town of Berléand.”

The guildmaster’s finger was pointed at the end of the line, at Berléand, a town facing the ocean. The first town we would visit, Krehl, wasn’t as big as this one, but apparently it was famous for its textiles industry. I was told that it was a lively town since many merchants would come for its colorful threads and cloths, or something to that effect.

The next one, the dungeon city of Dolan, had a dungeon in it just as its name implied. By having a dungeon, both merchants and adventurers would gather, and towns would grow large.

This town of Karelina was the 5th largest town in the kingdom of Leonhardt, but the towns above it consisted of the capital and three different dungeon cities. So that means that having a dungeon helps a city flourish, huh? It looked like a large city, so I was looking forward to it.

And the town of Nijhoff was a town of earthenware, so pottery and ceramics workshops were apparently everywhere. It seemed that they also made bathtubs there.

And lastly was the port town Berléand. It was famous enough that it was known that, for fresh fish, this town was the place to go. This world even had monsters in its oceans, so normally fishing would be impossible, but apparently this town’s fishermen openly defied the monsters and fished. Apparently, it was famously known that to be a fisherman of Berléand, one had to be strong above all else.

What aggressive fishermen, to not even mind monsters like that. Well, thanks to that, there was no other town with a more prosperous fishing industry. As a seafood loving Japanese person, I’m totally looking forward to those fish.

“I especially recommend the dungeon city of Dolan among these. Since a lot of adventurers gather, not only are there a lot of weapons and armor shops, the food is good too. Also, there’s a lot of rare things that come out of the dungeon being sold there. Right, if you have time why not try entering the dungeon?”

“Hm? A dungeon, huh? This is my first time in a dungeon in a human town. How fun.”

Don’t you go reacting to dungeons, Fel. Ugh, I’m getting a bad feeling......

《Dungeon? Are we fighting—?》

Ahhh, Sui’s come out of its bag, too.

“Yes, we are. Sui, let us go to the dungeon.”

《Dungeon~》 Sui, who for some reason was in high spirits, started bouncing around.

“Sui, stop jumping around. Hey, I’m not getting anywhere near that dungeon, just so you know.” I’m already sick and tired of dungeons. I’m not going anywhere near this one, you hear?

“Dungeons, huh? I have heard something nice. Let us go quickly.”

《Sui wants to go to the dungeon too!》

“No, no, I already said we’re not going. Also don’t ‘let us go’ me. We’re not leaving yet. We still haven’t got the money and other stuff for the rest of the wyverns, so at the earliest we won’t be leaving until the day after tomorrow.”

The guildmaster laughed after hearing the conversation between Fel and I (Sui was talking with telepathy so only we could hear it).

“Hahaha, it’s fine that you’re excited about the dungeon, but don’t forget about taking requests on the way to Berléand, please. Of course, there should also be quests left over in Dolan, too.”

“I understand. For me, something like that will be over with quickly. It should be fine to enter the dungeon then, no?”

“Yes, of course. I’ll tell Dolan’s guildmaster about this ahead of time.”

“Indeed. A dungeon in a human town, huh? I am looking forward to it.”

《Sui is too~.》

“Nonono, I already said I’m not going anywhere near it.”

Once Fel asked what he wanted to ask and said what he wanted to say, he went and fell asleep again. Just as always, he refuses to listen to other people. Goddammit, this guy... Hahh~

“Hahaha, you’ve got your fair share of troubles too, huh?”

“Yes, exactly.”

“I’ll give this map to you, so do your best with the requests.”

“Got it. I’m counting on you to tell them about us, guildmaster.”

“Yeah, I know. Ah, also, about the earth dragon, Dolan might be able to butcher it. I’ll be telling Dolan’s guildmaster about that, too.”

“Thank you. Ah, also, would you mind telling the merchant Lambert about my whereabouts if he ever comes to ask about it?” I knew that the Adventurer’s guilds communicated to each other through letters teleported by a magic tool, so they should know where I am at any given moment.

“Hohh, so you know Lambert?”

“Yes. I’ve been in his care in a lot of ways. Also, I’ll be asking him to make a mantle using the wyvern hide.”

“I see. Understood. If Lambert comes, I’ll tell him.”

“Please and thank you. Well then, I’ll be back the day after tomorrow.” Like that, we left the Adventurer’s guild.

“I would like wyvern meat for today’s meal.”

“I know already.” Wyvern meat, huh? I wonder how it tastes. I can’t really imagine. When I saw it in the storehouse, it kind of looked like wagyu beef... It seems it’s a high-class ingredient, so it shouldn’t be bad. I’m looking forward to it, just a little though.

“Ahh, right. I need to go and bring the wyvern hide to Lambert’s place. Fel, I’ll be heading to Lambert’s store for a bit.”

“Got it. Be quick.”

When I swung by Lambert’s store, Lambert himself just happened to be in.

“Lambert, I’ve brought the hide.”

“Ohh, then this way, please.”

I entered the parlor room in the back of the store along with Lambert.

“Then, I’ll be counting on you to make a mantle, a belt with an attached scabbard, and a pair of shoes with this.”

“Yes, certainly. Now then, can I ask you to wait for a little bit?” Leaving those words behind, Lambert stood up and left the room, before coming back after a little while.

“Here, please accept this as proof of your order.” Lambert handed me a wooden tag. It had today’s date, as well as what I ordered and what I left with them (the wyvern hide) burnt onto it.

“In half a year I’ll be exchanging your order for this and the payment, so make sure not to lose it. Well, even if you do, I won’t forget you so it should be fine, Mukohda. Hahaha.”

“No no, I’ll make sure to safeguard it properly. I’m looking forward to half a year from now, after all. Ahh, right. I’ll be leaving town soon, so I need to tell you. You can ask for my whereabouts at the Adventurer’s guild. I’ve asked the guildmaster there to tell you if you ask, Lambert, so if you need something you’ll know where I am.”

“Ohhh, so you’re finally leaving? You’ve been good to me, Mukohda.”

“No, I’m the one who’s been treated well by you. I’ll come back in half a year about when the mantle and stuff should be done, so I’ll be in your care again at that time.”

“No no, we’ll be the ones in your care. I’ll be waiting for you with some good stuff.”

“Yes, I’ll be counting on you for that.” Handing the wyvern hide over to Lambert, we left Lambert’s store behind.

“Hey, Fel, you said you wanted to go to the ocean, but is it okay to leave right after receiving the money and materials from those wyverns the day after tomorrow?”

“Yes. I have become interested after hearing about that dungeon earlier. I want to go as soon as possible.”

“No, I don’t know how many times I have to tell you this, but I’m not going anywhere near any dungeons. Not to mention, we’ll be stopping by Krehl before the dungeon city Dolan, so you won’t be going right away anyway.”

“Mhh, you are correct. We have to take a request there, no?”

“That’s right. But it should be easy for you, right Fel?”

“Of course. It will be nothing for one such as me. Let us quickly take care of the request in Krehl and hurry to the dungeon city.”

“It won’t be that quick, though. Since we already have the go ahead to be free in this country, I want to take advantage of that and sightsee in Krehl too. It seems that they’re famous for their textiles, so I want to get new clothes there, too. We’ll be staying there for several days.”

“But, dungeon......”

“Even if you don’t hurry that much, it’s not like the dungeon will run away. Also, it’s not like we’re rushing toward anything, so why not take it easy and look around?”

“Muh, fine. It cannot be helped.”

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

“Now then, let’s eat.”

“Indeed. Remember the wyvern meat.”

“Yeah, yeah.” I retrieved the wyvern meat from my Item Box.

What... what expensive looking meat.

It looked exactly like those cuts of A5 wagyu meat basically meant only for gourmet places you see featured on magazines and TV. It was well marbled, and looked the picture of high-class gourmet meat. They say you can tell how well fed animals were by the state of their meat, and from looking at this meat, those wyverns must have eaten pretty damn well.

They seemed to be a pretty strong species so I could understand why, though. In these cases, it might actually turn out tastier if I don’t try to do too much and just make a simple dish to let the ingredients shine. And if that’s the case, it’s gotta be steak.

Having decided that, I opened my Online Supermarket. With meat this high quality, I also wanted to be a bit more picky about the kind of salt and pepper I used as well. Looking at the page for salt, my eyes stopped on a single item.

What is this? “Sea salt taken from the ocean and dried for one year: Sun dried sea salt”? This looks good, I’m getting it. Next is pepper. Oh, this looks good.

What I had latched onto was black pepper that came in a grinder. It came in the bottle still as peppercorns, and by turning the end, you would grind the peppers out. I bought the salt and pepper, as well as some wine because I felt like enjoying all this meat with some.

~◇~◇~◇~

Cut the wyvern meat into thick chunks for cooking into steaks. Oil up the frying pan and then put it over high heat. I’m trying out using the fattiest parts of the wyvern as a substitute for oil. After seasoning the wyvern meat with salt and pepper, lay a steak down onto the frying pan. When I do this, it elicits a nice sizzling sound. Since it’s such good meat, it should taste just fine rare, so quickly roast both sides of the steak.

~◇~◇~◇~

From sight alone, I could tell it was just the most delicious thing.

Right, first I need to taste test it......*mlowm*

......Oh my god.

What the heck? This is just...beautiful.

It’s so soft it melts in my mouth. And then my mouth just overflows with the meat’s umami. As a flavor, it kind of resembles beef.

I thought back to the times when I would splurge and get some wagyu steaks whenever I got my bonus pay. No, this was even better than that.

“Hey, hurry up with my share.”

《Sui wants some too—.》

“Ahh, sorry, sorry. I’ll cook them up now. This meat’s amazing by itself, so I think it’s best not to drown it out with too much stuff. I’ll just simply season it with some salt and pepper and cook it, okay?”

The wyvern meat was just too good, I spaced out for a bit.

“Anything is fine, just hurry it up.”

《Master, faster—!》

Fel was already drooling an ocean, and Sui was also looking like it’d jump on me at any moment. I hurried to finish cooking the wyvern steaks seasoned with salt and pepper.

“Ohh, the wyvern meat is delicious, just as I remembered!”

《This meat is soft and tasty—!》

I know, right? An unbelievable taste came out of that already amazing looking meat. I ate my own share of the wyvern meat as I cooked up more portions for Fel and Sui. I also had a cup of wine to go with it. Of course, the wine was red.

Mouth-meltingly soft and delicious meat with wine, what a feeling of luxury this brings.

After that, we indulged ourselves to the fullest with the wyvern meat. Fel and Sui both had several extra portions of the meat, and ate until they were ready to burst.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

Since we were planning to leave town tomorrow, today I was going to spend time preparing for the trip by doing things like pre-making food. Of course, I borrowed the inn’s courtyard for this once more.

I started from the fried foods that were becoming a regular in our menu.

Using the four different meats of red serpent, black serpent, rockbird, and giant dodo, I fried up both of the previous flavors of karaage. Then, I also made some of the pork cutlet and the popular cheese-stuffed chicken cutlet.

Next, using the remaining ground meat, I prepared Hamburg steak cutlets. I made both regular steak cutlets and cheese-stuffed steak cutlets, since Sui liked the cheese-stuffed kind.

I used up all the ground meat, so I set about making some more. Using the hand-cranked mincer, I diligently ground out both orc general and bloody horn-bull meat. Turning the crank over and over, I continued to grind out large amounts of meat.

“This much should be fine. Whew~, that was tiring.”

Next was something I thought of while eating the wyvern meat yesterday; that being the fact that the wyvern meat would do good in shabu-shabu, or sukiyaki. And so I started to chop up a large amount of thinly sliced cuts of the wyvern meat.

Although running out midway sometimes also has its own charm.

Nevertheless, I made quite a lot of the thinly sliced wyvern meat. I laid the cuts out on a plate, wrapped the plate, and stored it in my Item Box.

There were a lot of scraps left over from creating those thin slices of wyvern meat, so I decided to make some wyvern Hamburg steaks with the leftovers. I’ve seen people using wagyu scraps to make 100% wagyu patties on a gourmet show before, so I was going to try and imitate that.

If I remember correctly, the recipe needed nutmeg...

I didn’t usually put nutmeg in my patties. I was the type to not bother putting in ingredients that didn’t have to be there (eyes sparkling), after all... just kidding. I was just too lazy to go and buy the ingredients, so I never ended up putting them in.

I’m using good meat this time so let’s do this properly.

The show I watched said that doing it that way enhanced the taste of it. And so I bought nutmeg with my skill.

~◇~◇~◇~

Start off by cooking the onions until they are completely soft and brown, and then leave them to cool.

This time, instead of running the wyvern meat through a mincer, we are going to mince the meat with a knife. Unlike with a mincer, cutting the meat with a knife often leaves differently sized chunks and makes it harder to shape. And having water content left in the onions makes the patties even harder to form, so that was why we cooked the onions earlier. Even I properly go through this step, although I’m normally of the raw onion faction.

Next, roughly mince the wyvern meat with a knife. According to the show, leaving the chunks at a size where you think it’s just a little large gives the patty a chunky feeling and helps the umami flavor.

Once the mincing of the meat is finished, put the meat into a bowl along with the cooked onions, panko, beaten eggs, nutmeg, and salt and pepper, and mix thoroughly.

Next is the forming of the patties and cooking them. Start with medium heat for one minute, then low heat for four, before flipping the patty and doing the same on the other side. While cooking the opposite side over low heat, hit the frying pan with some wine and steam with a lid for a while to finish out the dish.

~◇~◇~◇~

For the sauce, I made the usual mix of ketchup and Worcestershire, but I also added some wine and butter to it this time. This made the sauce richer than usual, and it looked like it would complement the wyvern meat nicely.

“Good. I should go call Fel and Sui......”

I didn’t even have to call them, the two were waiting right behind me.

“Here—.”

“Good.”

《Wo~w it looks good!》

The two of them started eating the wyvern Hamburg steak. Seeing that, I also started on my portion.

Ohh, the meat juices just explode out of the patty. And the texture of this chunky meat is nice. Mincing the meat by hand was a little more effort, but this kind of Hamburg steak is nice too.

“Mm? Is this wyvern meat?”

“Yeah it is. Just roasting wyvern meat makes it plenty delicious, but having it this way is nice too, right?”

“Indeed, this is good. Chopping it as finely as you did made the meat taste even better.”

《Yeah yeah, this is tasty~. Sui wants more!》

“Me too.”

Sure, sure.

I made a second helping for Fel and Sui. In the end, the Hamburg steak patties made out of wyvern meat, which I had made a fairly large amount of, were all consumed by Fel and Sui.

Man though, those two sure eat way too much.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

I had come to the Adventurer’s guild. They must have been used to it, since as soon as an employee saw me, they went to alert the guildmaster.

The guildmaster and I headed for the familiar storehouse.

“Hey bro, it’s done. Six wyverns worth of meat, hides, and magic stones.”

I threw all of the meat, hides, and magic stones Johan handed me into my Item Box.

Moving on, the guildmaster explained the details of my reward. The reward for the wyvern subjugation was 840 gold; this was raised a little since the request was made as an emergency. For the sale of the materials, the fangs, poison sacs, and poison barbs of all thirteen of them came out to 481 gold. As for the five sets of magic stones and hides, the hides were worth 1000 gold in all, and the magic stones were 1650 gold.

Altogether, I was to receive 3971 gold. That was paid in 397 large gold coins and 1 regular gold coin.

And I made another huge load of money... It was better than being poor, but I was feeling a little lost having so much of it. Maybe I’ll just splurge a little at places we visit.

Wait, huh?

“Uhmm, didn’t you say before that I’d be getting 2500 gold? This seems a little much......”

“Ahh, that? That was just for the sale of materials. Also, the hides this time were of real prime quality. So we’re paying a little extra. That, along with the subjugation request reward, makes this amount.”

I-I see.

“We were really saved by your being here this time. We were able to gather all the adventurers above C-rank that were in town along with the knights to go out and do the job, but doing so would have resulted in a lot of casualties. Really, you have my thanks. So I added my gratitude to your reward.”

So he added a little extra to my quest reward. Kinda... sorry. Fel and Sui both just killed them without any real effort. I guess I’ll go buy the two of them something. That being said, knowing the two of them it’ll be something food-related.

But still, lots of casualties, huh? So according to the guildmaster and also what little I gleaned from talking to the other adventurers briefly, killing wyvern herds results in a lot of casualties. But Fel and Sui just kind of beheaded them easily. The wyverns died without ever being able to do anything, haha. Fel and Sui are way too strong.

Especially Sui, that slime’s been getting so strong so quick ever since it evolved, huh? Wait, will Sui evolve again? Even though it’s already ridiculous... I’m getting a little scared. W-Well, it won’t be a problem as long as Sui remains cute like it is now.

While I was absorbed in my thoughts, the employee who had run to get the money returned.

“Then, here are your 397 large gold coins and 1 gold coin.” The guildmaster took the bag of money from the employee and put it in front of me.

Taking the bag from the guildmaster, I stored it in my Item Box.

“You leaving?”

“Yes.”

“I’ve already talked to the guildmasters at Krehl, Dolan, Nijhoff, and Berléand. Make sure you stop by those places,” the guildmaster said, fixing my travel plans in place.

“I know already. I want to go and see a lot of different towns, so I’ll make sure to stop by.”

“I’m counting on you. The other guildmasters are waiting.”

Wh— Doesn’t that just mean the other guildmasters are ready and waiting to foist all their leftover requests onto us? Damn.

“Okay then, the both of you have treated me very well until now. That being said, I’ll still be coming back in half a year to pick up my order from Lambert. So when that happens, I’ll be in your care once more.”

“Oh, I see I see. We’ll be waiting. Make sure you come back safe and sound, you hear?”

“Right, right, having a big earner like you around makes my job worth doing.”

After exchanging goodbyes with the guildmaster and old man Johan, we left the Adventurer’s guild.

“Well then, let’s go.”

“Indeed. Let us hurry to Krehl, or whatever the name was. Get on.”

Yeah, yeah... wait, don’t you just want to go to the dungeon city already? Well that’s fine, but we’re still staying at Krehl for several days.

Like that, we left the town of Karelina behind us.