Bonus Short Stories

Mukohda’s God-Awful Stall Reformation Plan

“Hahh......”

......Sh-Should I ask him what’s wrong?

We were in the morning market at the seaside town of Berléand. I had bought a lot at the stalls around the place, and we had just found an empty space for everyone to sit down and eat, but...... The dude running a stall next to us seemed really depressed. He’s been sighing this entire time. All three of my familiars didn’t seem to mind and simply scarfed down their food, so the difference between our atmosphere and his was all the more stark and uncomfortable.

“Hey, more of this.” Fel finished the grilled fish that was on his plate and demanded more while licking the flavor off his muzzle.

Fel, dude, at least try reading the atmosphere a little......

《I want more of this shellfish soup.》

《Sui also wants more soup~.》

That goes for you two as well.

The food that everyone demanded seconds of was grilled pieces of a fish called mackeren (which is like a mackerel), as well as a shellfish soup with giant hard clams in it. It had been well recieved by everyone when we had it before, so I bought a lot this time. I bought a lot, but......

“Hey. Hurry up and get more.”

《Give me more.》

《More~.》

Aaahhh fine! You guys try being at least a little considerate once in a while~!

...Oh, that dude in the stall is staring at us. While trying not to meet his eyes, I served the three of them their food.

Seeing everyone eat with so much gusto, the guy at the stall talked to me. “Are they your familiars?”

“Huh? Ah, well......”

“They eat a lot.”

“W-Well, yeah, kinda......”

Our conversation cut off.

“Uhh, if you’d like, you can give these to your familiars, too,” the guy said. He handed me an entire pot of the soup he was selling at his stall.

“What? Shouldn’t you be selling this?”

“Hahaha. As you can see nobody’s coming, so it’s fine.” The guy gave a small laugh of self-deprecation. I couldn’t very well refuse it like this, so I took it for the moment.

“Hey, you guys, he gave this to us,” I said, and served out the soup, but......

Fel, after smelling the soup, made a disgusted face and refused to eat it.

“Hey! Fel?!”

《Just from the smell I can tell this is no good. This is definitely disgusting.》

Even though you used telepathy, you still can’t make those statements, you know?

《Geh, something smells fishy in here—.》Dora, who stuck his nose in and smelled it, said as he hurriedly flew away.

“Even you Dora-chan?! What are you doing?!” What the hell is with that attitude, you haven’t even tried it! You just smelled it, you know?! That’s way too rude, you guys.

Sui must have figured out how I was feeling, because the slime stuck a tentacle into the soup and tasted it.

《What is this—, this isn’t goo—d,》 Sui said, immediately withdrawing its tentacle.

“Whaaaat? You too, Sui?”

《But it isn’t—. It even smells weird, this thing—.》

I mean, it’s true that it doesn’t look that good, but... And I can kinda tell that it smells, too. But, there’s no way I can say that right in front of the guy, right?

After Fel and the other’s awful reactions, I peeked over at the stall guy, and......

“Hahaha, even monsters rejected it. Is my cooking really that bad?” He was in the depths of despair, with eyes similar to those of a dead fish.

“Wha-, no, uhhh... ehhh... See, m-my familiars are just really picky about flavor.”

“......Bro, that’s not helping,” the stall guy said, expressionless.

“S-Sure. M-my name’s Mukohda. U-Uhh, I can at least listen to what’s wrong, so cheer up?” I offered.

The stall guy’s eyes bulged, and he grabbed my shoulders with both hands. “You’ll listen, Mukohda?”

“Huh? No, w-well......” I did say that I’d listen, but you were never gonna let me get away, were you?

I served Fel and the others more helpings of stall food and listened to the guy talk.

“You see, I’m......”

According to him, his name was Oswald, and he was slightly younger than me at 24. Oswald was from this town’s slums, and after becoming an adult he went through several jobs. He had a lover who came from the slums as well, and it was about time to be thinking of marriage.

To that end, he wanted a job that paid at least a certain amount, so he used the money he’d saved to start a stall business. With a stall, he’d be able to keep the cost of startup within budget, and most importantly the harder he worked, the more he’d earn. With the will to succeed no matter the cost, he......

“So it’s not going well?”

“Yes...... It’s been a month since I started this stall, and nothing’s selling. I’m coming close to having blown through all my savings, too......” Oswald said, looking depressed.

It wasn’t nice to say, but I could understand why this soup didn’t sell. My three familiars already said it, but in the first place, the smell was no good. Nothing about that smell would attract someone and draw their appetite. In fact, I’d like to ask how anyone would think that people would pay for a soup with a faint unpleasant fishy smell to it.

Actually, I’m curious as to how he’s even making this soup now. I mean, it’s just a simple soup that boils fish and vegetables together, you know? So why does it smell so bad? Is it because he’s not preparing the fish properly?

“Hey, by the way, are you butchering the fish yourself, Oswald?”

“What? That’s right.”

“Uhh, then can you try butchering this?”

I took out a mackeren I bought at the morning market out of my Item Box and handed it to Oswald.

“You have an Item Box? I’m jealous.”

“It’s small, though. Anyway, who cares about that, just butcher it like you always do.”

“Fine, I guess. I use mackeren a lot, anyway......” Oswald said, as he started to butcher the mackeren.

.............Yep. I figured out why the soup smells so bad.

First, the way he descales the fish is really rough. From what I saw, there are still places with scales on them. Also, he’s no good at taking out the innards. He’s fine splitting the belly and taking out the innards, but he doesn’t even bother washing them, he just cuts it away. Of course it’d smell.

“I see. So you just cut it like that and throw it in the soup?”

“Yeah.”

“Hahhh......”

“What? What’s wrong? What did I do?”

“The way you prepare your fish is just awful. Hey, did you really not notice anything about the way you’ve been doing things this entire time?”

“No, not really......”

“How was the taste?”

“The taste? Now that you mentioned it, it tasted kind of fishy, but it wasn’t inedible.”

Not inedible? Well I guess. ......Wait. NO, THIS IDIOOOOOT!!

“I’ll give it to you straight. You’re not suited for having a stall that sells food.”

“What?! Why not?!!”

“Why not? Just think about it. They’re paying customers, you know? Do you think they’d pay money for something you yourself say is, ‘not inedible?’”

“Ah!!”

“Of course you’d want to give your money for something that’s actually delicious! That goes for you too, right Oswald?”

“......Yeah.” Having gone that far, Oswald finally got the hint, and he hung his head in shame.

“From what I saw you’re not especially good at cooking, either. So why not take this chance and change jobs?” I said, and Oswald brought his head back up with force.

“I can’t do that! I used all my savings to buy this stall, I don’t have anywhere else to turn!”

No, I mean, even if you say that......

“How... What should I do!?!”

You’re asking me? We just met today; you know that, right?

Oswald, desperate, was grabbing on to both of my arms. He was talking about marriage with his girlfriend, and he had sunk all his savings into this, so it truly was all on the line for him. Of course he’d be desperate.

“From what I’ve been hearing, you’re really knowledgeable about food. Please, pleeaasse share your wisdom with me! I’m begging you!”

So that’s what they mean by grasping at straws.

I caved in to Oswald’s begging. I mean, he doesn’t seem like he’d let me go if I said no, either, so...

“For now, let’s go somewhere else.”

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇=

We moved to Oswald’s house. Apparently, he moved here mainly for storage when he started the stall for storage, among other reasons.

“If this keeps going, I’ll have to move again, though......”

“W-Well, that’s why I’m here, isn’t it? To stop that from happening.”

“That’s right! Please, please, I’m counting on you for everything! This is all I have right now, but I swear I’ll pay!” The amount Oswald pushed into my hands as he said that was a pittance, only 4 silver.

“This is fine. I just thought of something even you’d be able to cook, anyway.”

“Already?!”

“Yeah. It’s called fritters......”

I explained why Oswald could make this dish. This town’s specialty was tyrant fish. Those tyrant fish were white meat, which was perfect for cooking into fritters. Also, if you just buy the filleted pieces of tyrant fish from stores, then it’ll save the trouble of having to butcher them. And even if you buy an entire fish, you can just ask them to butcher the fish for you since you’ve made such a large purchase.

However, befitting of the fact that tyrant fish are monsters, they were more expensive than other fish. But that wouldn’t be a problem as long as one is strict about their clientele.

Sure, locals might think that it’s expensive, but what about adventurers? There are a lot of adventurers walking around with a pretty sum in their pockets, and they come and go all the time. As long as the adventurer doesn’t just settle down here, wouldn’t it be normal for them to want to try this town’s specialty? So if you mainly target those adventurers, there’ll be a decent amount of profit, was what I thought.

When I finished talking, Oswald muttered, “I see. Adventurers, huh?”

“Of course, it won’t work if you can’t cook it well. So learn how to do this properly so you can cook good white meat fish fritters.”

“Yessir!”

The stall cart that Oswald bought was really cheap since it was from a friend. It was old, but it came with a magic stove, so I decided to use it to teach him how to make the fritters. “I’ll supply the ingredients just this once. First is the all-important tyrant fish. Then, you need eggs, flour, salt, and olive oil.”

“Huh. There’s less than I expected.”

“Yeah. Eggs might be a little expensive like the tyrant fish, but you won’t need too much of it. Now, let’s get cracking.”

“Okay.”

First, cut the tyrant fish into large bite-sized pieces, and salt lightly. Next, separate the egg yolks and whites into their own bowls. I used a wooden bowl from this world for this step.

“Oswald, just mix this for now,” I instructed Oswald, handing him the egg whites in the wooden bowl as well as a wooden whisk that I’d found in this world. “Whoops, make sure to throw in a pinch of salt first.”

“Salt?”

“That’s right. Mix this well so it becomes white and foamy. Adding salt helps with that.”

“I see. So just whisk it until it becomes white and foamy?”

“That’s right. I’m counting on you.”

Add water to the bowl with the yolks and whisk well. Add in the flour to the bowl and mix again.

“Uuoooaahhh!!” Oswald was whisking hard at the whites with a snap of his wrist.

Hm, you’re pretty good.

“Hahh, hahh... Is this good?”

“Let’s see...... Yeah. It’s peaked and everything, so it’s fine. Remember how that looks.”

Take the well foamed whites — well, it’s really a meringue now — and mix it in with the bowl containing the yolks using a wooden spatula, half a bowl at a time. That finishes the breading. After that, coat the tyrant fish pieces in the breading and fry it up in the oil that’s been heated on medium heat to finish the fritters.

“It turned out pretty well. Have a taste.”

“Okay. Wait, uhh... It’s a little hard to eat......” Oswald was looking at......

《You guys......》 My familiars were all staring fixedly at the tyrant fish fritters.

《Let us eat it.》

《Yeah! Yeah!》

《Sui wants to eat~.》

《Geez. We didn’t make that much, so all you get is a taste, get it?》 I made sure they understood via telepathy and handed two pieces each to them.

《What, there really is not much...》

《Yeah.》

《So little—.》

Everyone looked unsatisfied at the amount, which they could put down with a single lick and a swallow.

That’s why I told you we didn’t have much. Geez.

“Ah, try some Oswald. It’s already got some base flavor to it since we used salt, but you can add more if you think the taste is too thin.”

“This crispy texture’s an entirely new way to eat fish, isn’t it? But the taste really might be too thin as it is. I’d prefer it with more salt on top.”

“In that case, it might be a good idea to use salt mixed with dried herbs to flavor it. You can mix that yourself to your tastes.”

“I see.”

“So? Do you think you can do it?’

“Yes, if it’s just this much even I can make do.”

“Well, it’s all up to how hard you work, Oswald. Do your best.”

“Yes!”

Revived, it seemed like Oswald was going to start selling tyrant fish fritters as early as tomorrow.

“Right, this is done. We are returning home. And you are making those fritters, as you call it, for us.”

“You want me to make it? Weren’t you all just stuffing yourselves full on grilled fish and soup from the stalls?”

《Awww... But just that one bite before really wasn’t enough...》

《Sui also wants more of that thing earlier—.》

“Aahhh fine! I get it!”

As soon as we got back to the house we were renting in Berléand, I was forced to fry up tons of tyrant fish fritters.

And I let it slip that they went well with ketchup or tartar sauce too, so now a lot of that’s used up as well. I really should learn to keep my mouth shut.

Three days later—

Concerned about how Oswald was doing, I went to look in on his stall...... There was a crowd of rough looking adventurer-like men and women. It seemed like word of mouth had already spread.

“Yo, Oswald. Looking good.”

“Ah! Mukohda! Yes I am. And it’s all thanks to you!”

“I see. That’s nice, but there’s something that’s been bugging me. Who’s that next to Oswald?”

“Oh yeah. Next to me is my wife, Nera.”

“I am Nera. I heard about you from my husband. Thank you very much.”

Huh? Wife? Just when did you get married, Oswald?

According to Oswald, Nera noticed Oswald’s plight and it turned into a little fight. Oswald wanted to get married in a bit after his job settled, but Nera was saying she would quit her job right now and help him...... Nera was extremely stubborn, so Oswald worked up his courage and held a wedding at the temple, it seemed. Apparently weddings in this world were valid as long as you said you were willing in front of a priest in a church, so they happened to be really fast.

“And so, I’m doing my best with Nera right now.” Oswald’s smile as he said that was bright. Too bright.

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

Weren’t you making a face like you were about to die just three days ago, Oswald?! And now you’re a full blown normie?! Khh... I’m so jealous...

Red Dragon Hunting

As I was hunting in the forest along with Dora and Sui, I happened upon a strong presence. “Mm? This presence is......”

The presence was emanating from around the summit of a mountain that was just up ahead.

“Dora, Sui, I feel a strong presence ahead. Follow me,” I said, and proceeded to lead Dora and Sui towards the presence on top of the mountain. As we approached the mountain, I could feel the presence gradually coming closer.

“As I thought, this is......”

《Hey! It’s a dragon! There’s a red dragon!》

A red dragon had flown up from the top of the mountain. Seeing that, Dora shouted out.

《Uwaah~, something huge and red flew up!》 Sui, seeing the red dragon fly as well, was surprised.

The red dragon rose into the sky with an air of composure, as if to say that it knew just how strong it was.

I do not like that. That is just insulting.

“Dora, Sui. We are going to kill it.”

《We’re going to go get that big red thing~? Sui will do it!》

《W-Wait a second! We’re hunting that?!!》 Sui was all for it, but Dora panicked. Did he feel fear seeing the red dragon?

“Hmph. What, afraid?”

《Haahh? A-As if! In fact, I hate them since they’re so proud!》

“Then there is no problem?”

《O-Of course not. I’ll do it! Just watch me!》

“Do not forget those words. Their meat is really delicious. It will make for a good present.”

《That big red one is delicious~? Sui will fight hard!》

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

My eyes, which see far into the distance, chased after Dora.

Just as we had planned, Dora, who was flying in the sky, unleashed Ice magic at the red dragon. The sharp pillars of ice crashed into the back of the red dragon one after the other. Of course, just that would not pierce through its hard scales. As if it felt offended that anything would attack something as powerful as itself, the dragon glared at Dora, the culprit.

《See? I’m right here, you fatass! Try to catch me if you think you can!》

“GRAAAHHHHH!” Having let the insults go to both its head and its heart, the red dragon chased Dora. However, there was no way it could keep up in a contest of speed with a pixie dragon.

《I’ve got the fatass behind me!》 Dora said casually, from above mine and Sui’s heads.

“Sui, it is your turn.”

《Got it—! Let’s go!》

*Pew* *Pew* *Pew*

Sui aimed and unleashed its Acid Bullets. Just like I had taught it when we hunted wyverns before, it aimed at the base of the dragon’s wings and shot them through.

“Gyuhh! Gyuwaaahhh!?!” With a large hole opened in its wings, the red dragon lost its balance and fell to the ground.

Of course, I would be the one to deal with the red dragon, now that it had fallen to the ground so hard it caused a small earthquake. Seeing me, the red dragon stood back up immediately and attempted to unleash its breath. However, I did not allow him to do that. A dragon that has fallen to the ground is no threat at all. Even less so because it had a huge hole in its wings already. It was like twisting the neck of a baby.

“Just quietly become my feed.”

The moment the red dragon opened its mouth to unleash its breath, I let my own Lightning magic fly.

*THUDDDD*

“Gah......Gaahh......” The red dragon was completely dead.

“Heh. It was no match for me.”

《...............YEEEEAAAHHHH!! We did it! We really did it! We killed a red dragon—!!》

《Yayyy! We beat the big red thing—!》

After Dora and Sui finished celebrating, we threw the carcass of the red dragon into the magic bag that Mukohda gave me. All that was left to do was to present the dragon to him.

“This one’s meat is delicious. I am looking forward to how he will prepare it.”

《I’ve never eaten red dragon meat before. But if you say it’s good, Fel, then it’s gotta be. I’m excited!》

《Sui is looking forward to the delicious meat~.》

...In the end, Mukohda screamed at the sight of the red dragon that Fel showed him after he dumped the carcass out of the magic bag.

A Long Bath

We were in the residence we’d rented after all of us came to town. I wanted to get into the bath with Dora-chan and Sui, but I suddenly remembered something.

“Ah!”

Oh yeah, I ran out of that.

《What happened?》

“Oh, I just remembered that I was out of bath additives.”

《Bath... additives?》 Dora asked, cocking his head in confusion. It seemed like it didn’t occur to him that I was referring to what I always put in our bathwater.

“Yeah. It’s what I use every time we take a bath.”

《The one with the good smell—?》

“Exactly. Just as you say Sui, the one with the good smell.”

《Oh, that!》

“It’s better to have it, right?”

《Yeah. It smells nice, and having it when we get in really takes the fatigue away for some reason.》

《Sui also likes the bath that smells good—.》

Bath additives really are necessary, aren’t they? I feel like using them loosens up your body more, or rather, it eases exhaustion more than not having any. On top of that, there’s the relaxing effect from the nice smell, which helps you sleep after you get out.

“I’ll go buy some now, so just wait a second.” Opening my Online Supermarket, I looked over the bath additives they carried.

“Oh. They’ve got new ones. Let’s see, ‘For the end of a busy day, have an adult’s premium relaxing time,’ huh?” The scent seemed nice, and the pomegranate extract and jojoba oil mixture it was advertising seemed good for the skin. And most importantly, the fact that it was premium made me want it. It was the same brand as the additives that I used many times before, so I felt like I could trust it, and the price was nice, too.

Okay, let’s get this one. And, click!

I chose the peach scent, which had the most reviews. Apparently this would allow us to enjoy the fragrance of fresh peaches, so much so that we might melt. Bath additives were usually some kind of citrus scent or a green herb scent, so enjoying the sweet smell of peaches would be nice once in a while. Sui would probably like it.

Recently it’s all been the clear type, so having a cloudy bath for the first time in a while will be nice, too.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

“Aahhhhh~...” The relaxing feeling soaked deep into my tired body.

《Khhh~...》 Dora-chan was stretching out his limbs as far as they would go while floating in the bathtub, as if he was trying to stretch out a knot.

《What a pretty color~. It smells sweet — so nice~.》 While floating in the water, Sui was looking a little more spellbound by the bath than usual as well.

The water really was a nice color. The water was cloudy white with just a little refined hint of pink in it. The smell of fresh peaches wasn’t too sweet or too strong, and made for a good “seasoning” to the bath. It was extremely relaxing. Along with the almost-too-extravagant extremely large bath, I was in the lap of luxury. This really was worth the label of ‘premium.’

While I was relaxing, I decided to also massage the soles of my feet, putting powerful pressure on my sole’s pressure points.

“Ohh~, that feels nice.”

Of course I would be used to travel by now, but whenever it ran long, the exhaustion would all be stored in my feet.

《What’re you doing?》

“Hm? I’m massaging the pressure points on the soles of my feet. It feels good.”

《Really? Do it for me,》 Dora-chan said, swimming over close to me, pointing his small feet my way.

“Oh fine.” I started off by weakly pushing down on the center of the soles of Dora-chan’s proportionally small-sized feet. “How is it?”

《Ahh, well it’s not bad? You can go harder...》 Dora-chan said, so I put in a little more power. 《Ohh~, it’s working, it’s working~. This is great.》

You’re sounding like an old grandpa, Dora-chan.

As I continued to press on his feet, Dora-chan started looking more and more blissful, leaving his mouth wide open. After a while, I started to hear his breathing. He was sleeping blissfully.

......He’s totally sleeping, isn’t he?

“Dora-chan?” I poked his belly.

《Mnn...... Ohh, it felt so good I fell asleep.》

“I agree that it feels good, but don’t sleep in the bath.”

《Mmnnn......》 Dora-chan made a sound, wiping his eyes as he floated in the bath like he was drowsy.

Well, I guess I can just wake him up when it’s time to get out.

But yeah, baths really are amazing. Especially since I haven’t been able to get in every day since I got here. So it hits harder every time I’m able to relax like this.

“Whew~, I guess we’ll have to get out in a little bit~.”

《Mnnn......》

《Okaayy......》

...Went the conversation, as the three of us enjoyed our leisurely time in the bath.

Since it took too long for us to come out, Fel came to check in on us, so we finally had to leave.

Mukohda’s Cooking Class 4

Today, I came with everyone to get a look at the harbor. A boat had just come back, and they were unloading their catch. When I tried talking a little to the fishermen who were there, they told me their boat used a net to fish. They were carrying out large amounts of fish all the time, from large fish to fish monsters with severe faces, to even regular, medium-sized fish.

“Hehh~, so they catch small ones like that, too.”

The fishermen were carrying out buckets packed full of small shrimp that looked like Shiba shrimp.

You could totally just eat small shrimp like that shell and all — it’s great. Just by frying it and throwing some salt on top, it becomes so delicious the taste just stays with you. It’s perfect as a beer snack, too.

I swallowed my drool that welled up while I was thinking about ice cold beer and crispy shrimp. Now I’m gonna have to get some on the way back.

As that thought ran through my mind......

“Captain~, I’ll be throwing this out like always, okay~?”

“Sure! I’m counting on you.”

Huh? You’re throwing that... away?

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

“Wait just a second there!”

The fishermen fixed their eyes on me, as I reflexively jumped forward, yelling.

“Throwing that out would be a waste! Those are perfect as snacks with beer — they’re great!”

“What? Good with beer?” The fishermen latched on to my statement, their eyes seeming to sparkle with intensity.

“Okay! Just wait a little bro, our work’s almost done already. Teach us how to make that delicious snack you talk about. In exchange, we’ll give you half of these — deal?” The captain said as he grabbed my shoulder, clearly unwilling to let me get away.

What? I just want some of those shrimp, though. Or so I thought, but it looked like they were really, really looking forward to that snack, so it didn’t seem like I’d be able to get away now.

Oh fine, I guess I have to play along.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

“First, wash the shrimp thoroughly in water.”

In the end, I had to demonstrate how to make the dish. I explained it to the captain, but he was still doubtful, saying, “Will that really make it good?”

So I figured that it’d be faster to just show him. He was still surprised when I told him I had an Item Box and brought out my magic stove, though. He was all, “You’re walking around with a really serious piece of hardware there, bro.”

“Make sure to dry off the shrimp that you wash. If you don’t, it’ll splash out all hot when you put it in the oil, so you have to be careful.”

I’d really rather do this with paper towels, but I couldn’t use them with all these fishermen watching, so I just made do with a clean cloth.

“After that, just fry up the small shrimp.”

I used the common olive oil from this world to fry it in. Keeping the temperature between 170 and 180 degrees, I fried the shrimp until it was crisp.

“Once it’s fried all crispy like this, wipe off the oil and sprinkle some salt on top, and it’s done.”

I tried one. Every bite was crunchy and made pleasant sounds in my mouth.

Yeah, it’s savory and delicious. The best part is that you can taste it all from head to tail.

When I proffered one to the captain, he hesitantly bit into one, still clearly doubting if it was actually good.

*Crrnch* *Crrnch*

Silently, he took another shrimp and threw it in his mouth. Ad nauseam.

“Ehh... Uhhh, captain?”

“Woah! Sorry, I couldn’t help it. It’s good.”

“Couldn’t help it? That’s unfair, cap!”

“Yeah! Let us have some too—!”

“Now just wait a second. It’s true that this’ll go great with beer, just like you said, bro. There’s no doubt, since I’m saying it and I love beer. So... Hey! Fritz! Kuntz! Come ’ere!”

“What, cap?” Two young fishermen who seemed to be the lowest on the totem pole around here approached the captain.

“You two go get some beer,” the captain said, handing the two of them some money. They ran off happily in search of some booze.

“Okaayy! It’s a party! We’ll be eating all the great snacks this guy here makes!”

“““““YEEEAAAAHHHHH!!””””” All the fishermen cheered in response to the captain’s declaration.

“Of course you’ll be drinking too, right? We’re countin’ on ya for those snacks, bro!”

“No, uhmm......”

Without any way I could interrupt their party and tell them I was going home, I ended up having to continue cooking bare-fried shrimp for them. When they were finally done and I could leave, the captain called up a bunch of his friends and rounded up a bunch of the small shrimp for me. He must have felt responsible for dragging me in.

Just as I was thinking about frying up this fresh catch, some indomitable presences behind me......

“Hey, you know what is about to happen, right?”

《We stayed quiet and waited all this time — of course, you’ll let us eat some too, right?》

《Sui wants some too~.》

“...............Okay.”

I Lost to the Pressure

“Hmm, a Tōhoku delicacies fair, huh?”

We were currently camping after a day of travel. We’d finally eaten through our reserves the day before, so for today’s dinner I was trying to think of what to do as I opened the menu of my Online Supermarket. That was when I happened to see that they had an event going on.

I’d heard that even seven years after that huge earthquake, life still wasn’t back to how it was before. It seemed that part of the intent behind this was to get people to eat their food and cheer them on. Bemused, I flipped through the menu and found foods from all of Tōhoku’s prefectures lined up and organized.

For Aomori, it had to be apples, but apples weren’t in season, so it was just several varieties of apple juice. Of course, all of them were 100% juice. Then there was garlic and scallops, too. The meaty scallops seemed like they’d be good as sashimi, or sauteed, or even fried.

Iwate has oysters and wagyu beef, huh? Simply on sight, it was as if the large jiggly oyster had, ‘I’m delicious raw or cooked!’ written all over it. And nothing needed to be said about how delicious wagyu beef was. As if beef with marbling like that could be bad.

Of course Miyagi would have their famous Kesennuma shark fins. It was just a simple dish that heated the fin up a little, but even then, the price was somewhat high. I still wanted to try it, though. There was also bamboo kamaboko and beef tongue. Slightly roasted bamboo kamaboko was great for a beer snack. And after seeing the beef tongue, I started wanting to eat beef tongue with onion salt sauce, something that I last had a long while ago.

Akita had lots of rice, so their section was rice and Japanese sake. They also had a local breed of chicken. The chicken seemed like it’d be delicious in a nabe or roasted. Good rice and good chicken: a combo that makes you feel like you could eat endlessly.

When it comes to Yamagata, the first thing you would think of is cherries. The carefully packed boxes of large cherries with their glossy red sheen were pretty expensive, but they were also sweet and a little tangy and delicious. Yamagata also had wagyu beef. Seeing all this delicious meat on display was giving me a craving. There was also wine; I wasn’t sure, but it seemed that Yamagata was as big of a Japanese wine producer as Yamanashi, Shizuoka, and Hokkaido.

Fukushima was famous for its peaches. But those weren’t in season either, so the store carried peach juice. Of course, these were also 100% peach juice. This reminded me of the last time I was gifted peach juice from Fukushima. It was really good.

And there was no leaving out Kitakata ramen. The light soy sauce flavor was just my taste. I had lost count of how many times I’d ordered it. It seemed that they had recreated the taste of famous stores here. They even had the chashu and bamboo shoots that I had to have in a set. This is great. I want to try it.

“The taste of Tōhoku It all looks so delicious~. Seeing all this is making me want to eat it. Maybe I should just pick one to buy......”

“All of it.”

“Woah! You surprised me!” The one that silently popped up from behind me was Fel.

“That otherworld food. All of it is good, no? Let me eat them too.”

《Yeah! We’ve been watching you mumbling to yourself and staring at that screen like you’re going to fall into it this entire time, you know? If it’s good, give it to us!》

《Sui wants to eat too—.》

Apparently it wasn’t just Fel; all of them saw it.

“Huh? No, this is......” Eating stuff from my world buffs their stats for a while, right? If they eat all of this, how much will it all go up? I’ve got nothing but doubts and worries.

“Eating food from the other world makes us stronger, no? Why are you being so stingy?”

《What? Really? Then I want to eat even more!》

《Sui wants to eeeaat!》

“Well, you’re only stronger for a little while.”

“There is no problem with getting stronger, no? Is it not fine every once in a while? Hm?”

F-Fel, you’re too close. And your eyes, why are they so still?

《Yeah! Yeah! Let us eat!》

Dora-chan, it’s fine that you’re on my head, but digging your claws into me like that hurts.

《Master—, Sui wants to eat too~.》

That’s not fair, Sui, begging on my lap like that.

“Let us eat it!”

《Feed us!》

《Sui wants it!》

Accosted by all three of them, I...... “I-I got it! I’ll let you eat it!”

...I caved. “However, you better be behaved after you eat it! No hunting just because you got strong or anything!”

It’ll be awful if they all go hunting like Fel did before because they couldn’t deal with all the excess energy and ended up killing some truly scary stuff.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

“Whew~, I’m stuffed......”

“Indeed. It was truly magnificent.”

《Yeah. I really liked that beef tongue or whatever it was!》

《You know~, Sui thought the chicken thing was really good! Also, the apple juice, and the peach juice, and cherries!》

《Oh yeah, those drinks were great! They were so sweet! The usual fizzy stuff is also good, but so was the stuff we had today.》

“That sweetness was just right, no? Also, those fruits called cherries are hard to eat because they are so small, but their taste was perfect for after the meal.”

We had eaten all Tōhoku had to offer. I was a little scared that just for this one meal, I ended up having to spend several tens of gold coins though.

W-Well, that’s fine every once in a while. Yeah.

I bought everything on the list, but, naturally, the three of them liked the meat the most. Of course, I also got the scallops and oysters so we could taste seafood, but it didn’t seem like they enjoyed the scallop sashimi or the raw oysters much, so I tried cooking the scallops in butter and sauteeing the oysters. It didn’t seem like they hated the cooked versions of the scallops and oysters, but as meat lovers, their main focus was predictably on the meat. But that let me enjoy the scallops and oysters as much as I wanted. I also got the expensive shark fin, but it didn’t look like they understood how delicious that was, either. Well, shark fin itself didn’t have any flavor, after all. Thanks to that, though, I got as much shark fin as I wanted as well. I was feeling the extravagance as I ate it.

Still, it was only a small break in between having to use the barbecue grill I had made in Dolan to continuously grill steaks for them. For Fel, I cooked his favorite wagyu beef, cut thick with crisscross char marks on it. I started with just salt and pepper, and moved on to the usual steak sauces. He ended up eating several cuts one after the other. Dora-chan had his favorite beef tongue, also cut thick. Once it was done cooking, I was going to slather whatever sauce he wanted on top, but he took a liking to the salt flavored one, so that was all he had. Sui really took a liking to the chicken grilled with salt and pepper, so it happily ate a lot of it. Sui also downed a whole lot of both the apple and peach juices.

The cherries I’d busted out for dessert were unexpectedly well received, and I had to buy several extra boxes. I laughed when Fel kept eating them one after the other, seeds and all, while exclaiming about how delicious they were.

“I guess this kind of thing is fine once in a while, too,” I said, rubbing my belly. Fel immediately replied, “Right?”

“There are good things in the other world too, so you should be feeding them to us.”

What do you mean, “should be?”

“Still, I am overflowing with energy,” Fel said, breathing heavily.

《I thought that too. I really just want to go wild right now,》” Dora-chan said, flying all over the place.

《Sui too!》 Sui said while bouncing at high speed all over the walls.

“Nononono, wait a second everyone. Didn’t I just tell you to stay behaved after we all ate?”

“Even so. I am overflowing with energy; I cannot stay still...... Okay, we are going hunting! Dora, Sui!”

《Yeaahhhaaaahhh!! I’m gonna go wild!》

《Sui will get lots and lots!》

“Ah! Wai-! Waiwaiwa- WAIT A SECOND I SAID—!”

Not listening to me as I tried to stop them, all three of my familiars disappeared into the forest.

The next morning, people could apparently hear Mukohda’s cry echoing out into the world, shouting, “WHAT DO YOU EVEN WANT ME TO DO WITH ALL THIS———!”

A Refreshing Pickled Dish

“All this meat really is making me want something refreshing......”

Our meals are really just meat though... And today’s dinner was also going to be wyvern steak, at everybody’s request. It doesn’t seem like any of them will ever get tired of meat even after eating it every day. Meat is expected even in the morning. Of course, I don’t accompany them for that, but I eat the same food for lunch and dinner, so I always end up eating so much meat. Still, it must be thanks to the goddess Ninrir’s blessing that I’m still healthy. Thankfully.

I tried changing the meat up as much as I could, flavoring it to be refreshing or whatever else, but even so, with all the meat I’d been eating, I’d been wanting to eat anything other than meat.

“I guess I’ll just look around my Online Supermarket for now.”

When I opened the menu...... “Seasonal raw seaweed from the Sanriku coast is in! Put them in salads or pickle them or whatever you like!” was how the banner read.

“Pickled, huh? Yeah, that’d be nice. It’s easy, too. Okay, let’s pickle some.” I immediately moved to buy the ingredients — seasonal raw seaweed, cucumbers, and white udo. The white udo was for personal preference. I loved their crispness and unique bitterness.

First I need to prepare each ingredient, don’t I?

~◇~◇~◇~

Cut the cucumbers into thin discs, rub some salt on them, and set them aside for now. Skin the white udo with a peeler and cut them into thin pieces, about 4cm long. Take those pieces and soak them in water mixed with vinegar for about ten minutes to remove any astringency.

Dip the raw seaweed into hot water quickly until it turns a pretty green and then soak it in cold water. Once it’s cooled off, cut it into easily bite-sized pieces.

After that, put the dried-out cucumbers into a bowl, along with the cut seaweed and white udo. At this point, just throw in a mixture of vinegar, sugar, and soy sauce to complete it.

~◇~◇~◇~

I took a taste test. The crunchy texture of the raw seaweed and the crispness of the white udo and cucumber felt nice together. The unique bitterness of the white udo and the taste of the vinegar pair well, too.

“It’s this! This! This kind of refreshing thing is exactly what I wanted!” Even though it was just a taste test, I couldn’t help eating more.

“Hey, is it still not ready?”

《I’m hungry. When’s the steak~?》

《Master—, Sui is hungry—. Is the meat ready—?》

“Ahh, sorry, sorry. I’ll grill the steak now.”

“So, what were you just eating?” Looks like Fel totally noticed me eating the vinegared dish.

“Ahh, this? It’s a vinegared dish. I wanted something refreshing.”

“Vinegared?”

“Yes. It’s sour.”

“Is it good?”

“I like it...... Do you want to try some?”

“Indeed.”

《Give some to me too.》

《Sui too!》

It looked like everyone wanted to try, so for the moment I took a little of it and served it out on dishes. All three of them gave some strange reactions, though......

“......It is not inedible, but in the end meat is best.”

《Yeah. I’d rather have meat.》

《Meat is more delicious, Sui thinks.》

Gnnrr, even though you all were the ones that wanted to try it... It’s fine, it’s fine. I can just eat it all myself.

After I grilled up the wyvern steaks and served them out, all three of them happily ate.

“Meat really is the best. This is good.”

《Yeah. I just love all these juices stuffed with umami!》

《Meat is so delicious~. Sui loves meat—! Sui can eat meat forever~.》

It seems that meat really is the most popular here. I had a smaller sized steak myself, but if anything the vinegared Sanriku pickles were my main dish. I also used the leftover seaweed to make seaweed sashimi. It made me want some sake, so I bought some in a hurry. I made it Japanese sake to pair with today’s menu.

To go along with the vinegared raw seaweed, cucumbers, and white udo as well as the raw seaweed sashimi, I slowly sipped on my Japanese sake. I’d been drinking beer all the time until now, but Japanese sake was also worth having sometimes.

“Hey! Next! Next!”

《I want more too!》

《Sui also wants more—!》

“Alrighty.”

Although it was too bad I couldn’t enjoy my sake in peace...

Blended Salt

It happened in a town that we stopped by for a break during a particularly long stretch of travel. There, the proprietress at the inn we stayed in told us that we made it just in time for the monthly market tomorrow. There’d be a lot of stalls, and the nearby villages would all come with their crops and whatever they’d built or crafted. It would apparently be a pretty lively sight. We weren’t in any special hurry on our trip, and it seemed fun, so we all decided to go see the market together.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

“Okay. Let us go to that stall.”

《The one selling the skewers? That’s a good idea. Let’s go!》

《Meat~.》

“Hey! W-Wait a second!”

I chased after the three of them who were lured in by the smell of cooking meat skewers. The owner of the stall was cowed by the three of them, who were basically camped out right in front of him. No other customers would come close, either......

This is definitely obstruction of business, right? Wait, then that means I have to do something about it?!

“Excuse me. Uhhh......” I then asked how many each of them wanted through telepathy.

《I will have twenty.》

《I’ll take five for now.》

《Sui wants the same as Uncle Fel! twenty!》

“Sure, sure. Got it.”

Still, they’re going hard right from the morning, huh? Wait, no that’s normal for them.

“Excuse me. Forty-five skewers please.”

“F-Forty-five......! W-Wait a little, please.”

Sorry for the huge order. It looked like he didn’t have enough prepared, as he quickly started cooking.

I found an open space and managed to put all the meat into dishes before serving it to Fel and the others.

“That man claimed this was horn rabbit meat, so I did not expect much from the meat itself, but this taste is still too thin......”

《You’re right. It’d be better with even just a little more salt...》”

《It’s not that goo~d.》

Apparently the taste was kind of meh, probably because it was a pretty big step down from the kind of meat we usually ate. Even so, it’d probably still be decent if it was seasoned well, but this place was pretty far inland, so that stuff would be expensive. So I guess it’s understandable why the owner was holding back.

Hmmm... If that’s the case......

“Want me to season it?”

From my Item Box, I took the cans of salt and pepper that I always used ever since I bought them with my skill.

“Please.”

《Me too!》

《Sui wants some too—!》

After I seasoned all their food......

“Mm, it has become much more palatable.”

《Yeah. This much salt really is perfect.》

《It got good—.》

“And we can also try this......” I said, taking out several bottles from my Item Box. “There’s the usual herb salt, garlic salt, and lemon salt. And then, I’ve also got seaweed salt, yuzu salt, sanshou salt, and chili pepper salt. Oh, there’s also wasabi salt, matcha salt, plum salt, and curry salt.”

Recently, there had been a boom of blended salts. At first, I just happened to find the seaweed salt when I was flipping through the menu and thought, Hehh~, so they have stuff like this too, before I bought it — which turned out to be a great decision. Even for a simple salted rice ball, just using the seaweed salt made it far better.

Ever since then, I was hooked and kept buying different flavors. On top of pairing well with most anything, all these blended salts allow one to experience a wealth of flavors, so I treasured them. Personally, I’d become a fan of using all the different flavors on the fried foods we ate.

“Hohh, that is quite the selection. Do you have something spicy?”

“Oh yeah, you like spicy, don’t you, Fel?”

“Indeed. The stimulation of spice is good. Do you have some?”

“If that’s the case, I have these three. Sanshou salt, chili pepper salt, and of course wasabi salt.”

“Then put all three on.”

“Sure.”

I added all three blended salts to his meat.

“This one has the sanshou salt, this one the chili pepper salt, and this one the wasabi salt.”

Fel snarfed down the meat one chunk after the other, as if he was in a race.

“Mmh, it is clearly better than before. Each seasoning is good and spicy, but I especially like this sanshou salt.”

《I’m next! Me! Give me some of that too.》

“Which ones do you want, Dora?”

《There’s so many I can’t decide. Just give me what you think I’ll like for now.》

Hmmm, stuff Dora-chan would like...... “If I remember correctly, you were pretty good with sour flavors, weren’t you, Dora-chan?”

《Hm? Ahh, yeah I don’t hate the sour stuff.》

“Then try this. Lemon salt, yuzu salt, and plum salt.” I used them to salt the meat on Dora-chan’s dish.

《Ohh! This definitely goes! They’re all so clear. The sourness gives the meat a refreshing taste. Especially this yuzu salt. I like that one the most!》

Oh, so Dora-chan likes the yuzu salt. Yuzu salt goes especially well with meat and fish, so I like it too.

《Sui too! Sui too!》

“What would you like, Sui?”

《Mnn~, stuff that goes with meat!》

“With meat, huh? Let’s see...... These three then. Herb salt, garlic salt, and curry salt.” I used the blended salts I picked out to season Sui’s meats as well.

《It became delicious! You know, Sui likes this curry one the best.》

Curry salt, huh? There’s no way that wouldn’t pair with meat. I think it’s great, too.

Fel, who was done with his food, stared unblinkingly at Dora-chan and Sui as they ate.

“What?”

“No, I just thought that Dora and Sui’s shares also seemed delicious.”

“The yuzu and curry salt?”

“Indeed.”

《Gulp...... I can still eat too. I want to try that spicy one that Fel had and the one that goes with meat that Sui tried too.》

《Sui also wants to eat more~.》

It seemed like they hadn’t had enough of the blended salts yet.

“Then of course we are moving on to the next stall. Dora, Sui. Let us go.”

《Alright!》

《Yayyy meat~.》

“Ah! Hey, I said wait!!”

Apparently the blended salts stirred up everyone’s appetites. They were delicious though. I still wasn’t sure how I felt about starting the day with meat, but I couldn’t just say no after seeing everyone enjoying their meat so much.

“I’ll be eating meat too, you hear~.”

Battle Cooking - Continued

“Please! Our marriages are riding on this!”

The ones looking so desperate as they said that, as if they were about to prostrate themselves before me at any moment, were the various female adventurers in this Adventurer’s guild.

“If you pull that on me so suddenly......” I was overwhelmed by the female adventurers’ vigor.

“Please! If we keep going like this, it’ll be too late for us!”

“Yeah! Our backs are to the wall! Please! Please!”

“““““WE’RE BEGGING YOU!!”””””

I continued to be bewildered by the desperate pleas of these female adventurers.

As for why this all happened......

This was the Adventurer’s guild of a town we just happened to stop by during our travels. When I showed my guild card at the counter just in case there was a request, it seemed that there was an A-ranked party that was supposed to come this way, so I was told that there was nothing really for us, who were S-ranked.

Peace is best. Since we were already here, I’d decided I wanted to at least see the sights, so I took Fel and the others with me. But before we left, a female adventurer called out to us.

“Uhm, excuse me, but could you be the S-ranked adventurer, Mukohda?”

I replied in the affirmative, and for some reason all the women adventurers around us raised a cheer. Wondering what was up, I asked, and apparently the cooking class I’d held the last time I was at an Adventurer’s guild became the subject of a lot of rumors.

“To think big sis Merrida got married!”

“I thought she’d spend her whole life single!”

“It’s frustrating that she is so happy.”

The female adventurers all raised a fuss about big sis Merrida, whoever she was. According to them, there was a B-ranked adventurer that was very caring and skilled, but, basically, not feminine at all. Her name was Merrida, and she was adored by a lot of other women adventurers. She attended the cooking class I’d held before, it seemed. After that, she retired from adventuring due to her age, and everyone thought that marriage would be impossible for her. She was already well into her 27th year when she retired, and she was completely useless at household chores, so everyone thought it was hopeless.

However, Merrida betrayed everyone’s expectations and got a husband really quickly. Apparently there was a female adventurer who saw her by chance after she returned to her hometown after retiring, and the word spread in an instant. So, according to the female adventurer who talked to Merrida directly, the man who became her husband was a childhood friend, and just happened to be single at the time too, so as fellow singles, they started meeting regularly.

Then, Merrida used the dish I taught her in order to make a quick approach. After that, it was an easy and smooth ride to marriage — that was the rumor.

“There’s no mistake: the delicious food she made was the reason they progressed so fast.”

“It’s really gotta be good food, right? If we can just hook a man with that, even we will have a good chance!”

“Even big sis Merrida got married, so we should be able to!”

All of them were breathing heavily. And so......

“I-I get it. I’ll hold a cooking class here too!”

Losing to their enthusiasm, it was decided that I would hold a cooking class. So with that settled, all the women moved fast. The negotiation with the guild for a space was quick.

But if you’re going to go on and on about marriage, why not me? I’m S-ranked on paper, and I have a fair amount of money... I thought, but I heard the women whispering.

“Hey, hey, he’s S-ranked and looks rich, wouldn’t Mukohda be a good choice?”

“Whaaat? That’s a little... I mean, his familiars are all scary. And like, I prefer men with sharper faces than that. Wait, why don’t you try for it?”

“I wouldn’t do that either. After all, I like more... like solid, muscly guys? They seem more reliable.”

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

Gggnnnnnrrrrr...

I-I know I’m an average-looking Japanese guy already! And I’m so thin I’m miles away from that macho look...

...A-And, I prefer more gentle-seeming women, unlike all the girls here!

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

On the day of the class—

As I was preparing for the class in the meeting hall in the Adventurer’s guild that was to be our room, all the women who heard the rumors came streaming in. The room filled up immediately, and the halls were overflowing with more female adventurers who couldn’t get in. With the complaints of the women who couldn’t get in, it was quickly decided that I would do both a morning and an afternoon class. I had the gathered women back up a little so I could have room to produce my magic stove.

“Well then, let’s get started.”

My three familiars were sleeping in a corner of the hall, since there was no way they could fit in the room. Of course, they declared, “We will be eating your finished food.”

After a lot of deliberation as to what to teach, in the end I decided on stewed meatballs with fresh tomatoes, since the previous class was stewed cockatrice with fresh tomatoes. Because it’s mostly the same preparation, you can just substitute the meatballs for cockatrice if you like. And most importantly, meatballs can be made more than delicious enough even with this world’s seasonings.

“Today, I will be teaching all of you how to make stewed meatballs with fresh tomatoes. If you decide to use cockatrice instead of meatballs, it will be the same dish that I taught in the cooking class that you all know Merrida participated in. This dish can be used with mostly any meat, so I feel like you should all experiment with that on your own. Now then, you, you, and you, let’s start cooking together.”

Since I had four burners, I chose several people to start cooking with me.

“M-Me?!!”

“I’m bad at cooking, oh no......”

“Th-This is for marriage... I’ve got to do my best!”

The women I chose all seemed nervous. But it’s fine. It’s not that hard.

“Okay then, I’ll start with the ingredients. First, for the meatballs......” The gazes from the female adventurers were the picture of earnestness.

The meat I used for meatballs this time was bloody horn-bull and orc meat.

~◇~◇~◇~

Use two knives and just keep chopping and chopping until the meat is minced finely. Take the minced meat and mix it together in a 7-3 ratio in favor of the bloody horn-bull meat. Take the finished minced meat mixture and combine with minced oneons, bread crumbs, and urcuckoo eggs (urcuckoos are weak, chicken-like monsters) until the mixture gets a little sticky. Make sure to season with salt and pepper while mixing.

...By the way, this world didn’t have anything like panko, so I explained how to make it by grating dried bread, or just crushing it into tiny crumbs. The common sense of this world dictated that one bake bread in large batches, so pretty much any house would have dried out hard-as-steel bread on hand, it was pretty easy to do...

Once the base of the meatballs is done, ball them up into large bite-sized spheres. Oil up a frying pan, and after heating it a bit, line up the meatballs and roll them around in the pan until the entire surface is browned evenly.

When the meatballs are done, remove from heat, and use another frying pan. Put some olive oil and minced garlic into that pan and start cooking. Once you can smell the garlic, add in some roughly chopped smoked jerky and keep cooking.

Once you can smell the fragrance of bacon and garlic, add in minced oneons and mushrooms with the feet cut off and unraveled. Once the oneons have gone slightly opaque and the mushrooms have wilted, throw in some tomatoes cut into chunks and continue cooking while crushing the tomatoes.

When you can tell that some of the water in the tomato has cooked off, add the cooked meatballs back in and let them stew in the sauce for about six to seven minutes. Make final adjustments to flavor with salt and pepper, and it’s done.

~◇~◇~◇~

“I... I did it......”

“Well, it worked out in the end.”

“I can do it if I try!”

The girls I picked didn’t have that much confidence at first, but they finished the food without problems.

“Okay then everyone, have a taste,” I said, but given the numbers of women here, we had to split up the food into small portions.

“Yeah, it’s good!”

“Really!”

“More than anything, it’s great that it sounds like even I can do it.”

“Yeah, if she can do it then so can I.”

Noisy would have been putting it lightly. The excited chatter between them continued.

“Okay then. That’s it for this cooking class.” There was no way to control them, so I ended the class, and the women filed out of the room still making just as much noise.

“Whew. It’s finally done. Although I still have to do one more...”

While I was cleaning up the used plates and utensils in preparation for the afternoon class, Fel and the others, who had been waiting in the hall, came in.

“Hey. Where is our share?”

《You said you’d give us some, didn’t you?》Fel and Dora-chan said, which prompted me to remember.

“Ah!”

Whoops. I completely forgot. I didn’t make any extra. What should I do? While I was panicking, Fel and Dora-chan were staring intently.

《Master — where’s the meat?》

Sui............ I can’t just say I forgot.

“I’ll make it now, so wait a little.”

“Of course.”

《Yep.》

In the end, I had to keep making more stewed meatballs with fresh tomatoes for the three of them right up until the afternoon class was about to start.

Let’s Go Crab Hunting

“I’ve heard something good.”

“Indeed. I have seen that before, but I have never eaten it.”

《Me neither. But they said it’s good, right?》

“Should we go and get some right now?”

“That is a great idea. However, you seem to be much more spirited than usual.”

“Of course, I like them.”

《Are we gonna go get delicious stuff—?》

“Yeah. We’re gonna go hunt some delicious stuff.”

《Sui will get lots—! Make loooooots of good food, okay Master?》

“Of course! Okay then. Let’s all go crab hunting, everyone!”

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

“That’s it.”

“Indeed. Just as we heard.”

《Yeah. The crabs are migrating.》

《There’s so many~.》

We were hiding in the shade of a tree, watching the migration of a species of huge crabs that looked like fiddler crabs, each with one large pincer, only just over a meter in height. These crabs were a type of land crab monster called ‘giant fortress crabs.’

We heard of these monsters from the Adventurer’s guild. After finishing up a quest that was given by the guildmaster of an Adventurer’s guild in a town that we had just happened to stop by during our travels, I asked, “Is there anything good to eat around here?” His reply was to inform me about the giant fortress crabs.

There was a mountain named Mt. Leist near here, and the forest that spread around its feet is home to the giant fortress crabs. Apparently, those giant fortress crabs always left the mountain base around this time to lay eggs, going to a certain geyser. I was told that it was speculated the reason the crabs did this was to use the heat from the geyser to hatch their eggs. So, those giant fortress crabs, laden with eggs, were worth a lot.

Normally, a giant fortress crab without eggs would require a lot of people to take down, but it wasn’t impossible. However, a giant fortress crab with eggs, around this season, would require at least an A-ranked adventurer to hunt, it seemed. And that was simply because the deeper you went into the forest, or, the closer you got to the mountain, the stronger the monsters got. Even the migrating giant fortress crabs would get preyed upon by the other monsters that lived in the area, and only the rare few would actually get to lay their eggs apparently.

But you know, if you hear that it’s delicious...

It seemed that the guildmaster had tasted it just once, and it had been delicious enough for him to passionately sing its praises, saying things like, “Its meat, full of nutrients from preparing for birth, is sweet, and every bite causes a burst of amazing umami.” It wasn’t meat, but even Fel was pretty excited to try it, so we had all come here.

The sounds of the giant fortress crabs shuffling through the forest echoed around.

“Now then, let us do it.”

《Yeah!》

《Sui will do it!》

*Zzsshh———*

Fel unleashed a Rending Claws attack from his right front paw.

*Thudsss* *Thudsss* *Thudssthdssthssss*

The sharpened pillars of ice that Dora-chan summoned flew towards the giant fortress crabs.

*Plort* *Plort* *Plort* *Plort* *Plort*

Sui unleashed Acid Bullets one after the other at high fire rates at the giant fortress crabs.

............Oh.

There were a large number of giant fortress crabs arrayed in front of us, all in a tragic state.

“All of you, your attack power is too strong......”

Crabs that had been blown to pieces by Fel’s Rending Claws. Crabs that had huge holes opened up in them by Dora-chan’s Ice magic. And crabs that had most of their body melted away by Sui’s Acid Bullets.

“Like this, there’s nothing even left to eat...”

“Mmrr, true.”

《Holding back is hard.》

《Sui will try shooting something smaller—.》

From then on, everyone attacked while trying to manage the power of their blows.

“It’s about fine now,” I called out, and the three of them stopped. We’d harvested over a hundred giant forest crabs, so it was probably more than enough.

“But still......”

There were many giant fortress crabs that I hadn’t recovered. Or rather, couldn’t recover since their wounds were so large. Actually, even after their initial failure, holding back their power seemed to be hard for Fel and Dora-chan. Especially for Fel, in fact, and the two of them continued to have several failures even when they were trying.

“It’s pretty hard to try and kill them without damaging them too much. But still, Fel was the worst though. Haha.”

“Mmrr, it could not be helped, no? It was hard figuring out just how much I should hold back.”

It might have been harder since Fel was just bursting with so much raw power.

“Sui was the best, though. Almost half of these were done by Sui, so that’s pretty great.”

《Eheheh~, Sui tried hard—.》

“You did. Let’s hurry back to town and eat this.”

“Indeed.”

《Sure!》

《Crabby-crabs~》

The guildmaster said that if we were going to hunt giant fortress crabs anyway, then we should sell them at his guild, since they were so hard to come by, but that could wait for tomorrow.

Anyway, it’s time for crabs, I say. Crabs!

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

When we returned to the house I was renting in town, I immediately started preparing the crabs we’d just hunted. Although I’m just boiling them, but, as they say, ‘simple is best.’

Doing that was fine, but......

“Why am I just cracking crab shells like this forever?”

“Hey. Next. Hurry up.”

《Me too.》

《Sui too—.》

“......Yeah, yeah. Just wait a second.”

It was impossible to crack crab shells with Fel and Dora-chan’s paws, so I was made to do it in the end. Since their shells were so hard that it was almost impossible to do with a regular knife, I asked Sui to rush out a mithril one.

Even though the giant fortress crab’s shells were hard, both Fel and Dora-chan could just eat them whole, crunching through the shells if they wanted. However, that would prevent them from tasting the crab.

I had a small taste test, and it tasted like a hair crab with its slight sweetness. It was incredibly tasty. Not only that, but the insides were just full of meat, which was full of texture and “bite-back.” I just couldn’t stand to let them eat crab this good whole like that, so when I shelled them and served them out, it turned out like this.

Sui was dexterous, so I figured that Sui could shell the crabs itself, but I figured it’d be kind of sad to make just Sui do that, so I ended up taking on the slime’s portion as well.

And so, I was spending an eternity digging out crab meat.

“You’re all just eating the meat, but what about the roe? I tried them out, and they’re pretty good too.”

“What do you mean, roe?”

“Oh, basically the crab’s... giant fortress crab’s eggs.”

《Is something like that edible?》

Both Fel and Dora-chan were looking at the crab’s roe with skepticism. Well, given how it looks...

The giant fortress crab’s roe was a deep green, and even boiling it didn’t change the color at all. Each one was about the size of a small marble. But, they’re definitely edible.

“I appraised it, there’s no doubt it’s edible. I tried it with just a bit of dashi soy sauce, and the popping sensation and the dense burst of flavor spreading throughout my mouth was to die for,” I said, remembering the taste of the giant fortress crab’s roe. I heard Fel and Dora-chan swallowing saliva.

《Master — Sui wants to eat it.》

“I see. Then just wait a little.”

I piled some eggs onto a dish and dashed some soy sauce on top before serving it to Sui, who wasted no time in swallowing them up.

*Psshh*

《Waahh, it popped! It’s so good!》

It seemed like Sui loved the roe, and put down the dish in an instant.

《More—!》

“Mm, I will try some as well.”

《Me too!》

Seeing Sui enjoy it so immensely, Fel and Dora-chan stated that they wanted to try. When I served the roe for all three of them......

“Ohh, this taste is a first for me, but it is truly delicious! The feeling of popping them in your mouth is also great.”

《This is amazing! I think I like this more than the meat!》

《It’s so good—!》

So the roe was also massively popular.

“Eating the roe and the meat together seems like a good idea. Okay, give me some meat.”

《That’s good thinking, Fel! Give me some too.》

《Sui wants some too—.》

......How long am I gonna have to keep doing this?

“Hahh, it’s finally over.”

The three of them were finally satisfied.

“I’m so tired...... But this is adult’s time now. Crab meat, roe, and something I made sure was left over......crab butter!”

I figured it was too early for them since they still had childish tastes, so I held this back. Geheheh....

And I took out......

“Ta-dah! Japanese sake. I don’t usually drink this, but this is the only choice for crab butter.”

Sake for crab butter! Khahhhh! So extravagant~. Now then......

“Mmheheheheheh, so good... I just can’t stop drinking. Ah, how about this and this together?” I combined the crab butter and roe together.

*Chomp*

“Mnuwwoah! So good! This’d be the best with some sake.” There was no way I’d be able to stop drinking sake with food like this.

“Hey. You seem to be enjoying yourself mightily over there, all alone with your food.”

《Yeah, yeah, none for us, huh?》

《Master — is that good?》

*Grkk*

“H-Huhhh? Weren’t you all asleep?”

“As if I could fall asleep with all the noise you were making.”

《Yeah, yeah! If you say it’s good, then it’s good right? Give us some too.》

“N-No, this is a really adult taste. And, there’s not m-much......”

“Ohhh! This is quite delectable!”

“Fel! Why did you just start eating!?”

《Is it good? I want some too!》

《Sui wants some too—.》

“No, w-w-w-wait! THAT’S MIIIINNNEEE!”

The Spring Order Sweets Fair

“Hehh~, so they’re doing this kind of thing.”

The first thing that jumped out at me when I opened up the menu for my Online Supermarket were the words: “The Spring Order Sweets Fair is open!” It seemed to be an event where all the most popularly ordered spring seasonal sweets in the nation were gathered in one menu. Since it was spring, there were airy, sakura-colored sweets and strikingly green treats that used first tea leaves.

“Let’s see... sakura red bean paste, daifuku and dorayaki, and roll cakes with sakura too, huh?”

＜You. I demand that you immediately offer me all of those Ordered Sweets things.＞

“Geh! Goddess Ninrir......”

＜What do you mean ‘Geh!’ Huh?!＞

“Ah, uhh... sorry.”

There are other gods, so didn’t this kind of oracle where she’s basically trying to squeeze extra treats out of me become taboo?

＜Urgh! Yes, but I had no other choice! As if I could contain myself when you show me such delicious delicacies like that!＞

‘Show you?’ I wasn’t ‘showing you’......

“If they found out that you just sent down an oracle on your own they’ll get mad, you know? Also, it’s just really annoying for me to keep receiving constant oracles about how you want this and that.”

It was bad enough with just Ninrir, but now there were even more gods to deal with. And they all wanted different things, so if they all started coming in with their own orders, everything would just get out of hand. Given what had happened up until now, it’d be awful if I caved just because she was a goddess. I’ll have to be strong here and refuse.

＜Gnrrrr...... That’s...! I know! But, but... that faint peach colored sweet that makes my heart flutter, and that striking light green one, seeing those...... Khh! I can’t stand it! Please! For the love of all that is holy, GIVE ME THOSE SWEEEETTTSSS!!＞

......Ninrir, just how many times have you repeated that exact phrase?

＜This is the last time! Pleeeaasssee~. WAA-aaaahhhh~...＞ Ninrir begged, crying like a baby.

Is Ninrir really a goddess? I don’t feel any dignity or majesty or anything. But hmmm, I don’t think Ninrir would stop even if I told her no right now. She’s become in thrall to otherworld sweets, so I feel like she’d start sending me oracles at all hours of the day, every day, like a stalker.

............Just imagining it gives me the creeps. I think she’d really do it. If that’s the case, then I can imagine that the best choice is to impress on her that this really is the last time — this is important, I must be really clear about this — and get her to leave me alone already.

With that in mind......

＜JUST THIS ONCE! It’ll be just this once! I am the Goddess of the Wind, Ninrir! And a god does not go back on her word!＞

Really?

＜Reallyreallyreally! So please, pleeeaaaasseee!＞

“Oh, fine. But, it’ll really be just this once. This is set in stone, got it?”

＜I get it! Set in stone!＞

In order to prevent myself from being stalked, I had no choice but to offer her the sweets.

“I told you already, but I’m not giving you all of them.”

＜W-Whaaaa~t?＞

“Don’t you ‘whaaaat’ me. Just how much do you think there is here?”

There were easily over twenty varieties here. Giving her all of them would be giving in way too much, even for me.

“Five. You get five.”

＜Five?! That’s too little! Wouldn’t it be fine to just give me a little more?!＞

“No. If I let you get more here, it’ll just keep growing and growing. So you get five. I won’t budge on this.”

＜Mmnng... Only five? It’d be fine to let me have a little more, I think. Cheap men aren’t popular, you know?＞

“Did you say something, Ninrir? Should I just not do this?”

＜Waaahhhh! N-No, I didn’t say anything! I have been quiet this whole time! Five! Five, right? Of- Of- O-O-O-O, Of course that’s fine! Hah, hah...＞

“Okay. Then which ones do you want?”

＜Uhhhh, then......＞

After that, Ninrir took her time slowly picking out the five treats she wanted. For the first, as befitting of Ninrir, who loves dorayaki, she chose a dorayaki stuffed full of a mild sakura-colored sakura anko. For the second, a matcha chiffon cake using first tea leaves. She definitely chose this one for size. For the third, a baumkuchen with sakura kneaded into the paste, carefully baked layer by layer. For the fourth, a fluffy sakura-colored roll cake with lots of white fresh cream and wrapped in sakura petals. For the fifth, an artisanal matcha castella.

I added the treats Ninrir picked out into the cart one after the other. After checking out, they appeared in the usual cardboard box.

＜Faster! Hurry up!＞

“Yeah, yeah. I get it. Okay then, I’ll just send it to you like this, so check it yourself, please.”

＜Okay!＞

With those words, the newly appeared cardboard box disappeared surrounded by faint light.

＜Muhhhohhh! These sweets! Limited edition sweets you can only get now!＞

I heard a really, really excited voice.

............Will this... really be okay? Please stop just sending down oracles whenever you like, okay? You get it, right?

＜Muhhaahhhh! This sakura dorayaki, it’s sooooo~ good—!＞

Ninrir, you divine disappointment......

The Golden Fruit

《Heyheyheyhey, wanna go somewhere?》

The one who suggested that was Dora-chan. When I asked why, I learned that apparently there was a fruit that grew once every five years, and its season was just about here.

“Hehh~... So, is it good?” I figured it would be since it was enough for Dora-chan to actually ask to go, but I made sure anyway.

《Yeah. It’s a golden fruit. It’s sweet, but not cloying — and it’s super good. I go there every time to get some, it’s that good,》 Dora-chan said, passionately.

A golden fruit, huh? I don’t hate fruit; if anything, I’m a little interested.

“Mm? I know of that too. It is at the bottom of a valley a little ways away from here, no?”

《Yeah, yeah! That one!》

Apparently, Fel knew of it too.

“I have also eaten it, but well, it was not bad. I believe humans call it goldenberries or something? They should be highly valued.”

I see I see, highly valued, huh? Which means if we have too much, I can just sell it? Well, that assumes that we’d have “too much,” though. Still, a golden fruit named goldenberries? That’s some naming sense.

《Hey-hey, master — if it’s sweet, Sui wants to eat it...》 Sui was looking up at me from my feet.

If Sui’s going to say that, I guess we have to go.

“It’s not like we have anything actually planned right now... Why not, let’s go.”

《Yeah!》

“Indeed. This might be fun.”

《Yayyy! Sweet things—.》

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

“We are here.”

“F-Finally......”

I had heard it was pretty far, but it was still actually farther than expected. It took a whole week even with Fel running pretty fast. And though I was getting pretty used to riding on Fel’s back by now, it was difficult going having to cling on that hard the whole time.

We were at the southern end of the kingdom of Leonhardt, in the Riyan wilderness, a place of endless brownish-red earth stretching across the border to the Quine Republic. At that place, there existed a large crack splitting the earth, so well-hidden it could very well sneak up on you if you didn’t know it was there. It seemed this was the place to pick the golden fruits, according to Dora-chan.

“So, where does this golden fruit grow?”

《At the bottom of this valley. Since it glows gold in the darkness down there, it’s easy to distinguish.》

“Indeed. It is right there.”

I looked towards where Fel’s eyes were pointed, but all I could see was darkness.

《Master — did you find the sweet thing?》 Sui popped out of my bag.

“Ah, you’re awake, Sui? It looks like the sweet things are down there somewhere.”

《Here~? It’s so dark Sui can’t see—.》

“Right? Can you really see it Fel?”

“Of course. My eyes reach far into the distance,” Fel boasted, completely full of confidence.

“I see. Then how are we going to get it?”

“Get on. Get in the usual bag too, Sui.”

Since Fel told me to, I got on top of him. Sui also said, 《Got it—,》 and jumped in my bag again.

“Okay. Let us go. Hold on tight. Dora, you come too.”

《You got it!》

Fel suddenly jumped—

“Huh? Wha-?”

—Of course, down the ravine.

“GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH———!!!”

We were dropping down the ravine at an amazing speed, basically in freefall. I clutched onto Fel’s neck for dear life, screaming all the while.

“I’M GONNA DIE GONNADIEGONNADIEDIEIDIE!!”

“Shut up! Stop screaming in my ear! And of course there is no way that is happening!”

As if trying to control the speed of our fall, Fel would kick off the wall, and then rebound off the opposite side after a while. While bouncing off the walls in a zigzag pattern, we continued ever downwards. And finally, we reached the bottom.

“Hey. We are here. Get off.”

“............”

“I told you to get off!” Fel shook his body, and, tired from all the screaming and hanging on for dear life, I fell off.

*Thud*

“Urp... Why can’t you be a little nicer~......”

“It only takes that much to make you give in? You really are weak.”

You really don’t have to radiate so much exasperation while saying that, you know.

“Hahh... Where’s Dora-chan and Sui?”

“There. They found the goldenberries and are already eating.”

I looked towards where Fel was pointing with his snout, and saw Dora-chan and Sui eating shining golden fruits, making them seem really delicious.

“............Isn’t that just a little too heartless? Dora-chan, Sui?”

《Wah! Sorry, sorry. I lost to the smell.》 Dora-chan said that like he was trying to get out of responsibility with his excuses, while scratching at his cheek.

《Sorry~, Master—. It smelled really good so Sui really wanted to eat it~,》 said Sui, clearly crestfallen and looking just a little withered.

“Ahh~, fine I get it, I get it.” With some effort, I stood up. “So those are the goldenberries?” I asked, glancing at the place where Dora-chan and Sui were just eating the golden fruits. There, a bunch of shrubs grew out of the ground to about chest height. Those bushes produced golden fruits slightly bigger than my fist.

“Wow it really does look like it’s shining.”

《Right? Try one. It’s good.》

《This one, you know? It’s super delicious~.》

Recommended by Dora-chan and Sui, I quickly picked one. The fruit looked like a gold strawberry slightly larger than the size of my fist. It was kind of strange for something that came off of what was basically a tree, but this was another world. Now then, let’s try it......

“It’s good!” As soon as I bit into it, the juices flowed into my mouth. It had the sweetness and tartness of a strawberry but the juiciness of a peach. What a mysterious combination. But still, it was truly delicious. In fact, it might have been the best fruit I’d ever tasted.

“Hm, not bad, although it has been a while since I have eaten one.” Next to me, Fel was munching on goldenberries.

You’ve got way too many in your mouth, Fel. The juices are all spilling out.

《Fuhaha! Didn’t I tell you~?》

It’s not like you grew them yourself, Dora-chan.

《Hey, hey, master — can Sui eat too?》

“Yeah. Eat up. It’s a goldenberry hunt.”

With my statement as the trigger, everyone started picking goldenberries and eating......

《Ahh~, I’m so full. No more~.》

《Sui is also full~.》

Dora-chan was lying down spread-eagle, with Sui snuggled up to him.

“Urp...... I also went a little too far.” I couldn’t help it; the goldenberries were great.

“You did not have to eat so much you could not move,” said Fel, sounding a little exasperated.

I-I didn’t go that far. Also...... “After I recover, we’re taking the rest.”

《What? We’re still eating?》

“No. They’re this delicious. So we can just take more and use them for dessert later, or make them into a jam.”

《Jam—?》

“That’s right. A sweet and delicious jam. You can put it on bread, or on pancakes.”

《Pancakes! Sui likes pancakes!》

“I see. Then I’ll make pancakes after I finish the jam.”

《Yayyy!》

“So let’s pick lots of berries.”

《Yeah!》

After a small break, everyone picked the rest of the berries, leaving the area clean. I was feeling satisfaction at getting lots of good fruit in the form of goldenberries, but......

“Okay, we’re going back. Get on.”

“What? So that means......”

Fel, with me on him, made a huge jump.

“WWWWWAAAAHHHHHHHHH! I KNEW IIIIIIT———!”

“Of course! What did you think?!”

New Adventurers, Doing Their Best

We, of the Storm Bringer party, had come to the shallow end of the forest north of town.

I was the leader, a swordsman named Anton. And there was another swordsman Philip, the archer Brigitta, and the mages Paul and Livia. Since the harsh lesson we were taught three months ago, we had started moving more carefully while exchanging opinions. And we figured out a fairly safe way of clearing the boar-type monster extermination requests that were common in the Adventurer’s guild in the town of Nijhoff, where we lived.

Although all that really meant is that, at the end of a lot of debate, we just settled on the pitfall trap we used during that bitter experience we had earlier this year, as it seemed to be the most effective and safest way of beating boar-type monsters, who tended to charge a lot.

Other F-ranked adventurers might call us cowards or say that using traps was unfair, but I figured people who said that were definitely going to end up losing their lives one day. Even with courage, if you just charged in without the power to back it up, you would die, and if you had the skill but were too cautious, you’d get done in when the chips are down.

Everyone agreed. After all, we had all learned the harsh lesson that being an adventurer means putting your life at risk three months ago. Now was the time to gather experience. We eventually wanted to go into a dungeon, so in order to build up the funds for that, we aggressively took on boar hunting requests.

Today too, we were out hunting based on an eyewitness report of a red boar in the area.

“It’s here. Let’s move as planned,” I whispered to everybody, and they nodded. Just as we’d planned, I stood up and yelled towards the red boar that had shown itself.

“Hey! Over here!”

The red boar, reacting to my voice, let out a cry and charged towards me.

*Thd-d-d-d-d*

“Closer, closer......”

*Thud*

“Bhghii! Bhghhiiii!?”

“Great! It’s caught! Now!” I shouted, and everyone else who was hiding jumped out all at once. Then, all of us attacked the red boar that had fallen into the pitfall that we’d prepared beforehand.

“Graaahh!”

“Take that!”

“Yah!”

“Haahhh!”

“Die!”

Everyone beat up on the boar, focusing on its head, with branches or rocks or whatever. After all, any living thing will die if its head goes. We didn’t bother slashing with our swords, shooting our arrows, or using our magic, since the most valuable part of a red boar is its hide. Its meat was also worth something, but not as much as the hide. So there was no way we would purposefully damage it. Also, it’d be better if we could just whack it to death anyway, since it saves on arrows and magic.

“Just die already!!”

*Donk*

Philip, who had the best build in the party, swung his huge sword, which was still in the scabbard, down on its head as hard as he could, and the red boar finally stopped moving.

“Bb...... Bhhii......”

After making doubly sure that it was dead, we tapped each other on the shoulders, sharing in our victory.

“Okay, let’s hurry and bleed this thing dry. Paul, we’re counting on you. Brigitta, you’re on watch.”

“Got it.”

“Understood.”

Philip and I bound the red boar’s feet in rope, and used a thick branch to string it up. Under that, Paul opened up a hole with magic.

“Livia.”

“Understood,” Livia said, before she walked over and slit the neck of the red boar, who was hung upside down. When she did that, its blood spurted out with a fair amount of force into the hole that Paul had made. Whenever we split into separate chores, Livia would always get stuck with that one. At first, she wasn’t used to the blood and would always look like she was about to throw up, but now she’d gotten so used to it there wasn’t even any hesitation.

“Brigitta, make sure you strengthen your guard while we’re busy draining this thing,” I warned Brigitta, who had climbed up a tree and was keeping watch on the surroundings.

“I know. There’s no problems right now.”

At first, we hadn’t bothered draining our prey and just brought them to the guild, but the old man at the counter would always complain, saying, “With a boar this nice, it’d sell for a little more if you’d just drain its blood, but......” So we started doing it. We didn’t know how to drain blood, but the old man happily taught us when we asked him. From what he had told us back then, the meat gets much worse if the blood isn’t drained — so much so that, if enough time passes before the blood is let out, the meat would no longer be edible, and would have to be thrown out or used as fertilizer. Apparently that happened quite a lot, and the guy went as far as to say that people who could drain blood would see better returns, and the guild would be happier too. However, draining the blood would attract monsters during the process with its smell, so we had been warned not to let our guard down.

After talking it over with everyone, we decided to try draining a red boar, and it increased the price high enough that we couldn’t afford not to do it as F-ranked adventurers. Since then, we started draining the blood every time.

“It’s just about done,” Livia said, and Paul replied with, “I’ll go get the cart,” before running off to get the cart that we’d hidden. The cart was something we had bought and repurposed from my dad’s workshop, so it had been pretty cheap.

By the time Livia was done burying the blood, Paul came back with the cart. We loaded the red boar in the cart.

“This is a pretty good red boar. I’m looking forward to how much it sells for,” Paul said, and everyone agreed.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

“How was it?”

When I returned to the table at the cafeteria in the guild where my party was camped out, Philip jumped up and asked me that. The boar was a big one, so the assessment took some time. It just finished earlier, and as the representative, I went to receive the money.

“Ta-dah! 2 gold and 1 silver!” I showed them the money I had in my hands, and everyone raised an excited, “Oohh!”

“That went for a pretty damn good price, didn’t it?”

“Yeah. It was the best one so far.”

“It looks like the boars we hunt are well received. Apparently that’s part of the reason why they’re buying it at a higher price.”

“Ohh — is that so?”

“Yeah. There’s not much damage to the hide, and the meat is nice and odorless, they said.”

“We’re trying not to damage anything, and we’re draining the blood properly now too, after all. It’s a little annoying though. It’s nice to see it turn into money like this — makes it feel worth it.”

While everyone was excited and celebrating our greatest earnings yet, a small old grandpa sidled up to us.

“Could you youngins be Storm Bringer?”

“G-Guildmaster!”

I realized that the old man was the guildmaster of the Adventurer’s guild here in Nijhoff. Panicked, everyone hurried to rise out of their seats.

“You’re fine, you’re fine. Looks like all you whippersnappers are puttin’ in some effort, no? I hear the villages are doin’ real well thanks to you all taking on all these boar-type monster hunting quests when you can.”

Hearing that, I got a little happy, since it sounded like our efforts were helping people.

“Y’all are gettin’ promoted to D-rank. Should be fine, seein’ all the red boars you’ve hunted. And it looks like y’all know that they say that courage and recklessness are two sides of the same coin. Ho! Ho! Ho!”

With that said, the guildmaster left.

“H-Hey, he just said we’re D-ranked.”

“We blew straight past E to D-rank......”

“D-rank......”

“H-Hey, D-rank means we can go into dungeons.”

“Oh man, dungeons......”

Dungeons. The Adventurer’s guild recommends a party be D-rank or higher to go in one. And we all promised each other to go dungeon-diving when we got to D-rank.

But......

“Guys, we got to the guild-recommended D-rank, but I still think we’re not strong enough,” I said, and everyone nodded.

“Yeah, it’s frustrating though.”

“We want to go to Dolan or Aveling, after all. With that in mind, I agree.”

“I really, really want to go... but yeah, I think so too.”

“Me too. We’re still not strong enough, and we don’t have enough experience either, I think.”

We could go challenge a dungeon right now. But if we die because of it, that’d be putting the cart before the horse.

“Let’s go after we take a bunch of different quests, get stronger, and have way more experience, yeah?” I suggested, and everyone agreed.

“Speaking of dungeons, how’s Mukohda doing, I wonder?” Philip said, as if he was just reminded of it.

Mukohda, huh......? He was an A-ranked adventurer who we got to know by accident. Right after that fateful day, he treated us to a really good meal when we were exhausted. It was really, really delicious.

“I actually heard a rumor about him the other day. Apparently he became S-ranked.”

“Wha? S-rank......?”

“Wow......”

“We know someone really amazing huh? I mean, kinda......”

“Yeah......”

Somebody we knew and had talked to was an S-ranked adventurer. Somehow, just knowing that filled me with energy.

“Let’s do our best. We can’t lose.”

We swore to try even harder.

Storm Bringer would eventually become famous as an A-ranked party, but that’s a story for another time...