Chapter 6: Job Orientation

I brought everyone with me back to my house, and every single one of them stared open-mouthed when they saw how grand the whole thing was.

Right? Right? I shouldn’t be saying this as the owner, but I totally get how you feel.

For the moment, we were gathered in the biggest living room on the first floor, but everyone was too busy staring at the lavishness of the interior.

There was a table with ball and claw feet that could seat several people, but fourteen people was way too many, so I just had them sit on the floor. The carpet was deep and soft, so it should be fine.

The last time I’ve had to speak in front of so many people was back when I was still working my job, huh? I’m a little nervous.

“Uhh... I already introduced myself earlier, but I am Mukohda, the one that bought all of you. I’ll be in your care from now on,” I squeezed out through my nervousness. Both families returned a “Pleased to meet you,” and the five adventurers just silently bowed their heads.

“I am an S-ranked adventurer, and I also play at being a merchant in my spare time. And, these are my familiars that I introduced you to earlier as well...... Fel.”

“Indeed. I am kin to the Goddess of Wind, Ninrir, and a Fenrir. My name is Fel. You are all his slaves, so you will obey me, too. Understood?”

*Sigh* What do you mean obey you?

Wait! Agh! Both the Tony and Alban families are frozen after seeing Fel talk! It looks like all the ex-adventurers kinda figured it out, but actually seeing him talk is still a shocking sight.

“Ahh, so, this is Fel, a Fenrir. I’m kinda keeping the fact that he’s a Fenrir a secret, but it looks like some people can just tell, so it’s fine as long as you don’t spread the news everywhere you go. It looks like you five adventurers knew, right? He’s acting all high and mighty, saying he’s a legendary magic beast and stuff, but he’s basically fine if you leave him alone. So just keep in mind that he’s here.”

“Hey, what do you mean, ‘leave him alone?’ I am proud kin to the Goddess of Wind.”

“Ahh, sure, right. I get it, I get it. Okay, next is Dora-chan.”

“Grrrr...”

“So the next one here is a pixie dragon. His name is Dora-chan. He’s a dragon, and this is his adult size. He won’t become any bigger than this, so please don’t be afraid. This one is also fine if you just basically leave him alone.”

Dora-chan flew around me and waved his right hand, as if to say, “Yo!”

“And the last one is...... Come out, Sui,” I said, and Sui popped out from inside my bag.

“This is Sui, a slime. You can just leave this one alone too.”

Sui bounced around me.

Then, Theresa, the mother of the Alban family, showed a bit of her gutsy, motherly spirit and slowly raised her hand. “Um, master, may I ask a question?”

Master, huh? I mean, I guess from their perspective I am their master, but it kinda doesn’t feel right. In the first place it’s making me cringe hearing people address me with such formal language.

“Ahh, Theresa, you can just call me Mukohda. All of you can just call me Mukohda. Being called ‘master’ all formally like that doesn’t really feel right...... Also, you said you had a question?”

“Um, if that is master’s—”

“Please, call me Mukohda.”

“Uhh, if that is master’s wish, I will do so. Also, please don’t be formal with me, either. Also, my question was this: You told us to leave the familiars alone, but what about meals?”

A perfectly valid question. But............

“I’ll be taking care of all the meals for us. More importantly, what I want to ask you all to do is......”

I gave them all their assignments. The women of the Tony and Alban families would maintain this main building. This place was huge, so it would probably be a really hard job, but I wanted them to do their best. Given its size, I wouldn’t make them clean it end-to-end every day. Like, just doing half of one floor and then half again the next day — something like that would be just fine. Basically, as long as they didn’t let it get obviously dirty, and kept some semblance of order and cleanliness, it would be fine.

Then, for the guys, I would have them help maintain the grounds. They’d mow the lawn and tend to the flower beds and trees and stuff. There was a lot to do there too, so I wouldn’t require them to keep the entire place free of weeds all the time or anything like that. As long as it was fairly well maintained, it should be fine. Basically, as long as there was no place that was just clearly full of weeds and hadn’t been maintained at all, I felt it would be OK.

“Also, there’s something else I would like you all to do...... I checked this when we formed the contract, and this has to do with my skills, so please don’t reveal this to anyone. Of course, that goes for you five too, although you won’t have anything to do with this job.”

I waited to make sure they understood; they all nodded in response.

“Do you all know of the soaps and shampoos and stuff that are being sold at Lambert’s store?” I asked, and Tabatha raised her hand.

“It’s a little expensive, but it’s that soap with the really good smell, right? I have one too.”

“Huh?!! You have one, sis?!”

“When did you buy something like that?!”

“Oh, shut up! I’m a girl too, you know!”

So even super adventurer-like macho ladies are interested in soap and shampoo and stuff.

“Oh, yes, Miss Tabatha—”

“Mukohda, Theresa just said the same, but please, don’t be so formal with us. We’re all your slaves, after all,” Tabatha said, and everyone nodded in agreement.

“R-Really? Then, I’ll do that.”

Miss- I mean, Tabatha’s right. They are in fact all my slaves. I guess I don’t really have to be formal with them at all. I guess I just need to get used to this, a little at a time.

“We got derailed, but yes, that good-smelling soap. I’m the one selling that to Lambert.”

I was considering telling them all about my skill, just in case. That way, I wouldn’t have to bother with being all secretive. We’d be together a long time, so they’d probably find out eventually, and, if I made it clear right from the start, it should be less shocking and they’d get used to it faster.

In the first place, it’d probably be stranger to expect them to not figure something out from the plastic containers and colorful labels and designs and strange words they were going to see when I asked them to repackage all that stuff. Rather than getting found out while being sneaky, I decided it would be better to just tell them straight up — all while reminding them of their contractual secrecy, naturally.

“So, as for how I’m getting it, that has something to do with my skill...... Well, it’ll be faster to just show you.”

I had everyone take a spot behind me, and opened my Online Supermarket, just like always.

“This is my unique skill, the Online Supermarket.”

Both the Tony and Alban families were speechless, and the five ex-adventurers were making a fuss, saying, “The heck is that?”

“I can use this skill to get convenient things from another world.”

“Another world? Then does that mean mast— sorry, you are a ‘Hero?’” asked the dwarf, Barthel.

He really is the oldest one. Not only that, but he used to be B-ranked, so it’s not strange that he knows stuff like this.

“No, I’m not. In my case, the short explanation is that I was caught in the hero summoning and came to this world by accident. I’m just a normal person. But, thanks to that, while I might not be good at combat, I have a convenient skill like this. Well, anyway, it’s much faster to show you all than to explain it. Just watch this in action.”

I decided to just give them a demonstration. I manipulated the menu, adding soap and shampoo to the cart. I was planning to give them to everyone as supplies. Surprisingly, all the servant’s houses came with baths, even though the houses were pretty small.

With a mansion this big, I suppose you’d require some level of cleanliness from your servants. It’s a good thing. Baths feel good, and I’d personally like them to be clean, too. It’d just be really weird if I asked them to clean my house while the cleaners themselves were filthy.

*Growwwl*

I heard a soft grumbling sound, and I looked around. Selja from the Tony family was looking down with her face beet red.

Well, we did take a long time doing this, so I guess they would get hungry. I do want to get all this explanation done beforehand, but this is perfect timing — let’s just get them something to fill their bellies with from my Online Supermarket.

What should I buy......? Well whatever, let’s just get snack buns. Oh, and orange juice would be nice too.

Right, and checkout...

When I pressed the checkout button, a cardboard box appeared in front of me. I heard oohs and ahhs sound from behind me.

It’s just the usual thing to me, but I guess that kind of reaction is natural.

I peeled open the cardboard box and took out what was inside.

“You guys are probably hungry, so for now listen to me while you eat this,” I told them, handing out snack buns.

Then, I opened up the 1.5 liter plastic bottle of orange juice and took out enough cups for everyone.

“As for drinks, everyone, just serve yourselves,” I said, and Aija, who had experience in an eatery, immediately got to pouring everybody’s share before handing them out.

Looks like Aija’s going to have no trouble with handling daily life at least, although it’s hard to say she’s fully recovered from her illness. Of course, I’ve already thought of a way to get her working from now on, too.

Once everyone had their share of food and orange juice, I returned to talking. “Just like that, I can obtain things from another world. So, what I want you all to do is......”

I told everyone they could eat while they listened, but for some reason, none of them were eating.

......Ahhh, I get it. They don’t know how to open it.

“Uh, this is how you open it.” I demonstrated by opening my own packaging. When I did, Fel popped up, hearing the sound of the wrapper being opened.

“Mn? That is that sweet bread, no? You know, eating by yourself is unfair. I will also have sweet bread. Give me some.”

《Ahh, he’s right! No fair!! I want sweet bread too!》

《Sui will also eat sweet bread!》

Dora-chan jumped on Fel’s bandwagon, and Sui started making a fuss too since it liked sweet things.

“This was just supposed to be a small snack, and I was gonna make dinner after this though......”

Pressured by Fel and the others making a fuss about wanting to eat bread, I ended up buying a ton of it with my skill. After I removed the wrappers and piled them all up on some plates, I served it to the three of them.

“I’m talking to these people right now, so just take this and be quiet. Once I’m done, I’ll make dinner.”

They must have been satisfied with the bread, since all of them telepathically said, “Got it.”

“Sorry for making you...wait, why haven’t you eaten? You can eat while you listen, you know?”

She must have been unable to win against their hunger and curiosity, as the youngest child of the Alban family, Lotte, opened up her bun and bit into it.

“So deliciouuusss! It’s so fluffy and sweeeet!” she said, with her little mouth full of food.

“Now then, why don’t you all dig in?” I urged them on, and everyone finally laid their hands on their food.

I heard exclamations of “Good!” “Sweet!” and “Soft!” being thrown about.

Selja, whose stomach had just let out a cute grumble, was currently biting into her snack, looking like she was experiencing heaven. It seemed like they all liked the orange juice too, since they were all gulping it down.

I guess I should eat too, I’m a little peckish myself.

For my own portion, I had a red bean bun and canned coffee.

Yep, this stuff really is good. And it’s gotta be canned coffee to pair with red bean buns.

While I was thinking stuff like that, I felt a tugging on my pants. Looking down, I saw that it was Lotte.

“Hey, hey, mister. Lotte wants more fluffy white bread.”

At that, her parents, Alban and Theresa, hurriedly jumped forward, faces pale.

“Hey! Lotte! We’re so sorry, Mukohda!”

“We’re really sorry about that. You apologize too, Lotte!”

“No no, I don’t mind. More importantly...... Don’t call me, ‘mister,’ Lotte. Call me ‘big brother.’ Got it?”

If I let her call me ‘mister’ from now on the damage to my psyche really would be...... I have to stop that at all costs.

“Okay! Got it. So, big brother Mukohda — Lotte wants more fluffy white bread.”

Children really do adapt fast.

“Hmmm, I can give you more, but it’s almost time for dinner... If I give you more bread now, won’t you be too full for dinner? Are you sure? I was gonna make some really good food~...”

“Good food?”

“That’s right.”

“Then Lotte will wait!”

“I see. Then it’ll just be a little longer.”

“Okay!”

Yep, it’s best for children to be earnest like that.

After that, I explained to them that I needed them to repackage the soap into wooden boxes and put the shampoos and hair treatments into pots. Once I was done explaining everything I could think of for the moment, I moved on to the five ex-adventurers.

“Next are you ex-adventurers. Miss...... ahem...... Tabatha, Luke, Irvine, Peter, Barthel — as for your jobs, I basically just want you to guard this place. It’s got to do with this shampoo and soap: after hearing about its success, there are some annoying people sniffing around.”

I told the five of them what Lambert told me.

“Staas Trading Company, huh......?”

“I don’t hear anything good about those guys...”

All five of them started talking about the company’s bad image. Basically, they had a reputation for acts of cold-blooded and excessive viciousness.

“I’m an adventurer, so I’ll be leaving this place a lot. I need you five to guard the place while I’m gone. Of course, you’ll also need to do that even while I’m here.”

It’s kind of an annoying job. But,they’re all pretty powerful, so they should be up to the task, at least.

“Understood. I’ll do my best.”

The other four said the same as Tabatha.

“If something happens, Tony family, Alban family, come see either me or these five. Got it?”

The ex-adventurers could fight to a certain extent, so I didn’t worry about them, but I did worry about the Tony and Alban families; I told them to make sure they had at least one of the five adventurers guarding them if they ever needed to go outside of the grounds.

Still, it might be best to have somewhere everyone can evacuate to if something happens. Let’s talk to Lambert and the adventurer’s guild about this later.

All that’s left is to show them to the servant’s houses, I guess — they do need to know where they’re going to be sleeping, after all. I feel sorry for Lotte, but food will have to wait until after that.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

“All right then. Please follow me, everyone, I’ll be leading you to where you’ll be living from now on. Lotte, just wait a little longer, okay?”

“Aww, fine,” Lotte said, pouting with puffed-out cheeks.

Seeing that, her older brother Oliver cuffed her over the head. Erik looked panicked, and their parents immediately apologized.

It’s so charming, seeing them act like such a tight-knit family. I’m still a little envious of Alban for having one though.

With everyone in tow, we left the main building, and I showed them to the servant’s houses behind the main building. “This is where you’ll all be staying.”

“Huh? C-Can we really stay in a house?” Tony asked, looking surprised.

“Yes. These are the servant’s houses. It’ll probably be too stressful if we were to all live together, so please. This is for the good of all of us.”

I wouldn’t be happy living with strangers the entire time either, since I wouldn’t be able to relax. I’d be keeping the main building to myself. I decided to basically only have them around during the day when they were working.

“Dear, this is way better than the house we were living in......” I heard Theresa mutter; it sounded to me like it just kinda came out of her though.

In response to that, everyone from the Tony and Alban families nodded in agreement.

“There’s three houses, so the house on the left......”

All three of the servant’s houses were the same, so I divided them among everyone. The one on the left went to the Tony family, the one in the middle went to the Alban family, and the one on the right went to the adventurers.

“Sorry for sticking you alone in a house full of men, Tabatha, but please use room assignments or something to deal with it.”

“No, it’s no problem at all. I never even thought I’d be able to live in a place as nice as this. I’ll probably be able to live way better than when I was an adventurer,” Tabatha said with earnest happiness as she looked at the house.

Even though she was with her two younger brothers, I was thinking it wouldn’t be proper for a woman to be in a house full of men alone, but since the Tonys and the Albans had their own families, I could only divide things this way. There was no way I could split the families apart to better even things out, after all.

“No need to worry, Mukohda. There’s no man alive who’d attack big sis. I mean, if anyone was manly enough to do that in the first place, I think I’d want him to make her his wife.”

Oh no, Luke, that’s a really cruel way to say things. It’s true that Tabatha’s tall and incredibly macho, so it’ll really depend on someone’s tastes, but I think she’s plenty beautiful, what with her strong will and well-defined face.

“Right? She’s too old already anyway. You know if Peter and Barthel want they can feel free to go for her. If you do, you’re basically locked into marrying her though. GAHAHAH!”

Wow, Irvine too?

“I’ve already decided to only marry a fellow dwarf.”

You don’t have to answer him, Barthel.

Peter, stop averting your eyes.

Luke and Irvine were laughing uproariously seeing Barthel’s and Peter’s reactions.

But is this fine? There’s someone with the face of a vengeful demon behind you.

*Thump* *Thubthump*

Both Luke and Irvine tasted Tabatha’s iron fist at the same time.

These twins are idiots, I see.

Getting back on track, I gave them all a tour of their houses. The houses were identical, so I just showed them the adventurer’s house, which was closest.

“They’re all the same.” I had them all follow me to see the inside.

Each house was a 3LDK — more than enough to live in, in my opinion. There was a well in front of the three houses too, so there was no problem with water.

“Also, each house has its own bath,” I said, causing a cheer from the ex-adventurers, who seemed to have taken a bath before.

I get it, since houses with baths in them usually belong to nobles or merchants. I bet both the Tony and Alban families hadn’t ever had a bath, in fact.

“However, it needs a water and fire magic stone, so I’ll get those supplied later. Once the bath becomes usable, please use it as much as you can. I’d prefer you all to be clean too, after all,” I said, to which they all nodded.

For the servant’s bath, there was a tank placed next to the bath where the water and fire magic stones would be set in it to make the hot water. From what I’d heard when I bought the house, a magic stone smaller than the tip of one’s pinky would be just fine. Still, magic stones were pretty expensive no matter their size, so even without using them, the well out front meant that there would still be no problems living there. Nevertheless, since there were baths here anyway, I wanted them to make use of them. As a bath-loving Japanese person, I wanted them all to experience how good baths felt.

“All right then. I’ll hand over everything you’ll need to live here. Since we’re already here, I’ll start with this house.”

The servant’s houses were furnished, but they had no daily necessities apart from that. I opened up my Online Supermarket and first bought futons for everyone. Sleep was important, after all. I picked out pretty decent futon-and-sheets sets from what I saw being sold. I took out some soap and shampoo and stuff that I just bought out of my Item Box. After that, I also bought plates and utensils, as well as a bucket to get water with. Then, I also picked up a toothbrush set.

Good oral hygiene is important too, you know.

Toothbrushes did exist in this world, but they were just unraveled wood fibers, and didn’t feel very good to use. Since that was the case, there was no one who seriously took care of their teeth, and it seemed that there were many people suffering from cavities. Every once in a while, I had come across somebody with really bad breath, too.

I taught them all how to use the brushes, telling them to brush their teeth every morning and evening. I heard one of the idiot twins, Irvine, mutter, “ugh, way too troublesome...” So I replied, “If you really want to get cavities, I won’t stop you. But nobody likes a guy with bad breath.” Irvine checked his own breath and groaned. Seeing that, Luke also checked his breath, and groaned the same way.

I couldn’t stop myself from laughing. These two really are idiots!

By the way, I couldn’t get cavities due to my blessings, apparently, but I still brushed every day anyway since it felt bad if I didn’t, and I wanted to prevent bad breath.

After that, I did the same for both the Tonys’ house and the Albans’ house, and told everyone to just tell me if they needed anything else.

Now that I’ve supplied all their houses, all that’s left is food at the main house, right?

I planned to cook for everyone until life calmed down. Once it did, I’d hand over ingredients and seasonings and have them cook for themselves. Today was the first day, so I was planning to go a little fancy to help energize them.

Let’s have Aija and Theresa help. But, before that...... the first thing I need to do when we return to the main house is to heal up Aija.

Once we were back in a living room in the main house, I called out to Aija.

“Excuse me, is Aija still not feeling well?” I asked, and the husband, Tony, immediately bowed his head with vigor.

“We’ll get her healed somehow! Please, please don’t let us go!”

The son, Kosti, and the daughter, Selja, both looked uneasy, and Aija was gripping onto her own clothes.

Looks like they’re misunderstanding me in a bad way. That’s way off the mark, you know? I bought all of you, so I’m not letting you all go so quickly.

“No, no, not that.”

Oh this is too troublesome. It’ll be faster to just use Appraisal.

When I appraised Aija, her status showed that she wasn’t fully healed from a lung disease. In her current state, it was looking like all the treatments that put them into debt were working and her illness had settled down, but it wasn’t completely gone yet.

If that’s the case, then I’ve got to use this, huh?

I took out one of Sui’s Special Elixirs (lesser version) from my Item Box. I hadn’t used any since giving one to Darryl and Iris, who I had met in Dolan, so the rest were still stowed in my Item Box. I had two bottles left, sitting completely untouched. I handed them a small bottle containing Sui’s Special Elixir.

“Please drink this. It’ll cure your illness.”

Aija took the elixir, but hesitated.

“Excuse me, is this a potion? The color is a little different from what I’ve seen before......” Tony cautiously asked, sounding worried.

Well, it’s his wife, so I get where he’s coming from.

“That’s an elixir. It’ll heal any illness in one shot,” I said, and all five of the former adventurers did spit takes.

Gross.

“Nonononono, Mukohda — a-an elixir?! You can’t give that to her!” Tabatha jumped forward and said.

“I thought you’d have one, Mukohda, since you’re an S-ranked adventurer and I heard you conquered Dolan’s dungeon, but big sis is right. You can’t use it here for this! Why are you just using it willy-nilly on a slave?!!” Luke followed up on Tabatha’s exclamation.

Wait, they know I conquered Dolan’s dungeon?

“Th-That’s right!! Just how much do you think you can get for just that one bottle?!! It’d be enough to buy all of us here and still have some left! You can’t just let go of a treasure worth that much for this!” Irvine shouted passionately.

“Yes, that’s right!! There’re lots of people who’d pay any amount of money if they hear about an elixir!” Barthel said, sounding really flustered.

Peter was just repeatedly nodding in agreement to what everyone else was saying.

No, you know, even I wouldn’t just be throwing around things I got in a dungeon like that. But this is......

“No, even though this is an elixir, it’s just a lesser version. It’ll heal illnesses and wounds, but it won’t extend one’s life. Also, I had this made myself, so I didn’t get it from a dungeon,” I explained. The five of them stared in shock.

“Y-Yourself?”

“............Hey, are elixirs something someone can just make?”

“I remember — I heard this from an elf I met a long time ago. There’s a recipe for it, but with the ingredients it requires, it’s said to be probably impossible,” Barthel, the oldest, said, and the other ex-adventurers all gulped.

“So, what are the ingredients?”

“Like a dragon’s liver and blood and stuff, it seems. The elf told me it uses a bunch of other really rare ingredients, too.”

...............I kinda wish you five wouldn’t stay so silent.

“W-Well, how I made it aside, the point is this isn’t something irreplaceable to me. So I’m having Aija use it. Now now, put it all down in one go.”

Now, while the five of them are still stunned, drink it!

Everybody in the Tony family was giving me their thanks while crying.

I get it already, stop bowing like you’re worshiping me.

Kosti and Selja, both in tears, shouted, “We’ll work our entire lives!”

Guys, you’re children — you can just help out a little.

“Uhhh, Aija, could you hurry up and drink it?” I urged. Aija bowed deeply before drinking Sui’s Special Elixir.

As soon as she finished, Aija’s body began to glow white. Everyone was surprised at the sudden glow, but it settled down quickly.

The Alban family, who had quietly watched it all happen, looked shocked. The five adventurers were also wide-eyed in surprise.

This was the first time I’d ever seen someone drink the elixir, so it was a surprise to me too. Even I felt a little worried.

“A-Are you okay?” I asked Aija quickly, and she laughed while crying.

“I’m fine......! It’s always been so painful, and I always felt so sluggish, but right now... right now, I’m completely fine!!”

Hearing what Aija said, the Tony family all hugged each other and celebrated.

That’s so nice~. But I’m not rude enough to get in the middle of this.

Aija was looking healthy now. The color of her face had gotten better, too. When I used Appraisal on her to check, I saw that her illness was gone.

Great! Just what I expected from Sui’s special elixir — it works perfectly.

Now then, it looks like the Tony family has calmed down, so next is the meal Lotte’s been looking forward to.

Meanwhile, the idiot twins were whispering to each other: “He really used an elixir on a slave.” “He’d be able to play around for his entire life for one of those. What an idiot.”

You guys really shouldn’t be calling your owner an idiot.

They were probably trying to keep that a secret, but I can hear everything. Actually, shouldn’t whispering secrets like that fundamentally be done in a quieter voice? Those idiot twins are so stupid, I can’t even work up the will to be mad.

*Sigh*

As soon as I thought that, Tabatha once again brought her fist down on the two of them, since they could be heard by everyone. Naturally, she made an earnest apology.

Those twins are... uhh... stereotypical muscle-brains, or something. Although I can’t seem to bring myself to hate them.

“Well then, I’ll go cook dinner. Theresa, can you and...... Aija help?” I asked.

“Of course,” Aija said. It seemed like she was overflowing with energy now that she’d recovered.

“Oh, Selja, can you help too?”

“Yes!” I’d heard that Selja could hold her own with house chores.

Now then, let’s get cooking.

I took the three women to the kitchen.

Clearly, we would be making hot pot. Hot pot is perfect for bonding over. It’s easy to make and delicious — perfect for big parties like this.

This time I was planning on making a hot pot out of the various kinds of seafood I got from Berléand, as well as salted chicken hot pot using rockbird meat.

First, I bought any ingredients I needed with my skill. I’d already told everyone about my skill, so I felt free to use it in the open. I bought all the vegetables I’d need to put into the hot pot. I’d definitely need Chinese cabbage, and I thought the rest could just be carrots, spring onions, enoki mushrooms, and tofu.

All that was left was the all-important hot pot broth. I didn’t want to bother, so I just bought pre-made broth with my skill.

Don’t discount it just because it’s store-bought. It’s pretty damn good.

This time, I went with a pack of broth that you could just dump straight into the pot. The best thing about it was that there was no need to dilute the broth. I could just dump it straight into the pot and heat it up, so it was very easy and low-effort, and it was great whenever I’d used it before. I bought a dashi with bonito and seaweed for the seafood hot pot, and a dashi with chicken stock for the salted chicken hot pot. For the finisher, I was planning on zosui soup and ramen, so I made sure to buy some noodles since I didn’t have any.

After that, I just need knives for Aija and the others, don’t I? Although this kitchen is stocked with everything needed to cook, the knives in this world are a little big and hard to use.

I also bought a peeler for the carrots. I figured that for Selja, a peeler would be better than a knife.

Now then, time to start cooking. Well, I say cooking, but it’s really just cutting ingredients and boiling them in broth.

I asked Aija, Theresa, and Selja to cut the vegetables.

“Selja, you peel the carrots.”

I taught her how to use the peeler. “Hold down the carrot like this, and move the peeler like so...... And just like that, the peel is off. You try it.”

Selja took the peeler, and timidly started to move like I taught her. “Wow! Amazing!! It came right off!” Selja was excited that the carrot was perfectly peeled.

“That’s great! Okay then, there’s kind of a lot, but can you peel everything here?”

“Okay!” Selja replied, smiling and full of energy.

“Aija, Theresa, I’d like you two to cut the vegetables, so this is how you handle Chinese cabbage......”

I scored the root of the cabbage’s stem before peeling off the leaves and washing them. Then, I cut the leaves into chunks. As for the white stem, since it was so thick, I cut it into thin pieces along the fibers.

“And cut the carrots that Selja peels about this size.” I cut the carrots into strips at around the size where it would be easy to boil.

“For the spring onions, cut them diagonally like this after giving them a light wash.” Of course, I cut the onions diagonally.

“For these enoki mushrooms, cut off this bottom part, then just untangle them like this so that they’re about this big.” After cutting off the base of the enoki mushroom, I untangled them just enough that they wouldn’t be completely undone and become too small.

“For this tofu, cut it horizontally like this, then cross it like this.” I cut the tofu into eight even pieces.

Just what one would expect out of professional housewives; even when dealing with an ingredient like tofu for the first time, they cut it well.

Both Aija and Theresa were amazed by how thin the knives were. From what they told me, in normal households, using a single-edged knife was a matter of course, so a lot of the time, the softer ingredients would just be squished rather than cut under the thicker and blunter knives of this world.

They really liked the fact that the knives I bought with my skill practically slid through the ingredients, and they were really happy when I said that they could take back the knives, cutting boards, and peeler.

Since I only bought the one peeler for Selja, I’ll have to get another one later, too huh?

I bought a T-shaped peeler, so I should get I-shaped peelers as well for potatoes and the like. Potatoes were a fairly popular vegetable in this world, so they appeared often at meals.

I was going to get a set for the five adventurers too, but I wondered: Can those people even cook? I would have to ask about that later.

Now then, leaving that aside, I should get to work on the seafood and rockbird meat.

I took out the aspidochelone, tyrant fish, and small hard clams that I got from Berléand from my Item Box. I figured the white meat fish, aspidochelone and tyrant fish, as well as the small hard clams (basically, they were slightly larger Asian clams), would be perfect in a seafood hot pot.

The aspidochelone and tyrant fish were already in slices, so I just cut them down into more manageable sizes. I made the cuts for my familiar’s portions a little bigger.

As for the small hard clams, I just washed them a little after cleaning out any sand and dirt.

I also simply cut the rockbird meat into bite-sized pieces. I could form the rockbird into chicken meatballs, but right now everyone was waiting, so I didn’t have enough time. Rockbird meat itself was already delicious, so it’d probably be fine as is.

After that, all I had to do was warm up the pot with the broth in it, add in all the ingredients, and boil it all to finish. Using the two four-burner stoves in the kitchen as well as the one I had on me, I turned all of them on at once and started making hot pots.

Once the broth was hot, I had Aija and Theresa help me add in the ingredients.

“So once all the ingredients are cooked, it’s finished.”

The broth was bubbling, so they seemed to be cooking well.

“I think it’s pretty much done.”

“It smells good.”

“It really does.”

“It smells so nice~!”

“Now then, they’re all probably hungry, so let’s hurry and eat.”

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

First, I had Aija and the others help me to serve Fel and my other familiars. If I left them for later, Fel would never shut up about it, after all.

“This is a seafood hot pot, and this one is a rockbird hot pot.”

“Mn? I am fine with just the meat one.”

“Now, now, this one’s good too, so try it.”

“Mm... Fine.”

“It’s really hot, so be careful. There’s going to be something special afterwards with the soup, so leave some.”

Dora-chan would probably be full once he ate the finisher, but Fel and Sui would probably still want to eat more and more.

I’ll just have to deal with that with whatever I already have made in my Item Box, huh?

After serving Fel and the other familiars, I moved on to the others. I hurriedly bought some heat-resistant mats to lay on a huge table in the dining room that I then laid the hot pots on.

The Tony and Alban families got one each of the two kinds of hot pots. The former adventurers had fewer people, but they seemed to be able to eat a lot, so I readied a seafood hot pot and two salted chicken hot pots. For myself, I picked a seafood hot pot.

“Wooww~, it smells so good!” Lotte, who’d been waiting all this time for food, looked with sparkling eyes at the sight.

“I promised you good food, so here it is. Now, sit over there,” I said, and Lotte sat down where I pointed with a little grunt.

“Everyone else, sit anywhere there’s room.”

Great. Everyone’s seated now.

“This is a dish from my home, so I don’t know if you’ll all like it, but give it a try. This one is a seafood hot pot, and this one is rockbird,” I said, and once again the five former adventurers did a spit take.

“R-R-Rockbird’s a really expensive ingredient!”

“Big sis is right! Even us B- and C-rankers who earn a decent amount of money can only eat it enough times to count on one hand!”

Tabatha and Irvine shouted, sounding worked up.

“Don’t worry, don’t worry. It’s not rare to me. Just eat.”

All three of my familiars were gourmands, so it can’t be helped that I always end up with stuff like this, right? And for rockbird meat, there’s more being butchered by the Adventurer’s guild right now too.

“B-By the way, but what is this seafood?” Barthel fearfully asked.

“Delicious white meat fish,” I answered. “Anyways, it’s fine as long as it’s good, right? Right? So rather than all that fussing, let’s just hurry up and eat.”

Luke and Peter must not have been able to win against their appetites even with their surprise, since they were already drooling even as they waited. The Tony and Alban families weren’t eating either after seeing the surprise of the five former adventurers, though.

Lotte looks like she really wants to eat, too. Oh fine.

I scooped out a portion of my own hot pot and started eating.

“You all split your own food amongst yourselves, too,” I said, and everybody finally, slowly, started serving themselves.

I just used whatever was already in the house for dinnerware, and the previous owner must have had some specific tastes, since all the plates were attractive pieces of what looked like white bone china, decorated with charming flower patterns. They didn’t match the pots I used for the hot pot at all.

“So gooooood! Big bro Mukohda, this is delicious!” Lotte smacked her lips in enjoyment after eating some of the rockbird hot pot.

“Right? It’s good, isn’t it?”

“Yeah!” Lotte was smiling as she happily bit into the rockbird meat.

“Ohh! So fish could be this good......”

“It really is delicious. It’s been a few years since I’ve had fish, but the ones I had before were nowhere near this good.” Alban and Tony seemed keenly moved as they tasted the seafood hot pot.

Right? Right? Aspidochelone and tyrant fish break down really well in the mouth, and their light and simple flavors hit really well with each bite.

When I explained that it was fish from the sea, I learned that neither of the families had ever had sea fish before, since aquatic monsters could also be hunted in inland rivers and lakes, and it was rare in this world to eat fish in the first place.

The other children — Kosti, Selja, Oliver, and Erik — all looked like they were really enjoying their food and eating as much as they could. Aija and Theresa were laughing through their tears, seeing their children enjoy themselves like that. “It’s been a long time since they’ve been able to eat their fill. Thank you so much!” they said.

Makes sense, since it’s really rare for a slave to be able to eat their fill. Even if the adults can bear with it, it’s hard for children to have empty stomachs.

“Eat up, everyone,” I said to the kids, and they all nodded with full faced smiles.

The five former adventurers dug in with gusto, which made sense for how big they were. They ate like they were racing each other, all the while exclaiming about how good the food was. I kept one pot to myself, but as I expected, I couldn’t finish it all, so when I asked them, “Do you want it?” the idiot twins and Peter took the whole pot like they were robbing me.

While that was going on, I put on the finisher for Fel and the other familiars since they’d finished their pots, and once our own pots were empty, I showed everyone the final surprise of hot pots.

“You see, these pots are delicious right down to the end.” I took the pots, which only had soup left, and heated them up a little on a portable stove. Then, for the seafood hot pot I added rice and a beaten egg on top. For the salted chicken hot pot, I added in the ramen noodles I had bought and cooked it for a while in the soup.

“Okay. This should be good. The finisher is zosui soup and ramen.”

Apparently, this was a really impressive thing to do since eggs were rare, so the Tony and Alban families looked like they were really enjoying the zosui soup. The ramen didn’t seem to be popular with them, but I wanted some for myself, so I went with that.

After scooping up some noodles with the soup, I added a little bit of butter on top.

*Slurrrrrrrp*

“Salted butter ramen is so gooood~...”

Right after I started enjoying my salted butter ramen finisher, I felt everyone’s gazes......

I guess they’re really surprised that I’m loudly slurping my ramen.

“Ahh, this tastes better if you slurp it like this,” I said, which led to all five of the former adventurers trying the ramen. Only Peter was able to slurp properly. But it looked like they all liked the taste, so it was finished quickly.

“Whew, I sure ate!”

I’m completely satisfied. The finishing touches of a hot pot really are great.

All of them — the Tony and Alban families, and the five former adventurers — looked satisfied as well.

“Hey. I still want to eat.”

《Sui too!》

《Haha! Fel and Sui really eat a lot. I’m already full.》

.........So there were some who weren’t satisfied. I served Fel and Sui some karaage and Hamburg steaks that I had pre-made in my Item Box.

For today, I had the Tony family, the Alban family, and the five former adventurers go back to their houses to rest.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

We were taking a rest in the living room to digest. I was drinking coffee, while my three familiars were laying on their sides on the fluffy carpet.

Oh, that’s right. It’s about time for me to make an offering to Demiurge. Let’s see, I’ll take a look.

While continuing to sip on my coffee, I opened up my Online Supermarket. When I opened the menu for my Tenant, the Liquor Shop Tanaka, I found that they were holding some sort of wine festival. During this event, one of the owner’s employees who had a sommelier’s license would carefully pick out wines to advertise specially.

“Hmm~, wine huh? Wine is popular...”

Oh yeah, my boss back in my former world really liked wine, and every time all of us in the company went out to drink, he’d talk endlessly about it.

I leaned back in my chair and looked at the wine specials. When I did, Sui popped up onto the chair.

《Master — what are you looking at?》

“Hm? This? I’m wondering what I should offer to god.”

《God?》

“That’s right. It’s an offering to ask them if they’ll watch over us.”

《Huhhh...》

I couldn’t tell if Sui got it or not. But it seemed like it was interested in what I was looking at, and was peeking at the screen.

“You are making an offering for Ninrir, no? Make sure to do a good job,” Fel warned me, moving just his head as he lay on the carpet.

“No, this isn’t for Ninrir.”

After all, that goddess is currently in the throes of house arrest.

“What?!! Are you planning on not offering anything to Ninrir?!”

“No, you see, I’m offering this to the God of All Creation, who’s more important than Ninrir. It can’t be helped. Or what? Are you going to complain to the most important god of all, the one that created this entire world, Fel?”

If you are, then go complain to Demiurge. It’s not my fault.

“Grr... Th-That is......”

Demiurge is the most important god of this world, so even Fel can’t complain, I bet.

Fel seemed reluctant, but he had to relent.

When I returned my focus to the screen, Sui was also staring at it.

《Hey, hey master, is this food?》

“Hmmm... This is alcohol. It’s too soon for you, Sui. Oh, that’s right, rather than this, wouldn’t you rather have a cake, Sui? You haven’t had any today, right?”

《Cake! Sui will eat!》 Hearing cake, Sui started bouncing up and down.

“You guys want some too, right? Fel, Dora-chan?”

“Of course.”

《I’ll have some pudding!》

I opened Fumiya’s menu and took everyone’s requests.

“Of course, I will be having the usual. That one really is the most delicious.”

Acting as if it was only to be expected, Fel asked for two strawberry shortcakes.

《It’s gotta be pudding for me.》 Dora-chan also asked for his favorite dessert. There was a new strawberry milk pudding, so I told him about it, and he asked for one of those and one of the usual custard puddings.

《Sui wants this and this!》 Sui chose a blueberry tart and a strawberry roll cake. He was apparently in a mood for those two today.

I served everyone their treats, and then I went back to looking at the menu screen for the Liquor Shop Tanaka as I sipped on my second cup of coffee.

Wine, huh......? I’ve only given him Japanese sake so far, so maybe wine will be fine this time?

I decided to add some of that on top of the usual Japanese sake in my offering to Demiurge. However, I wasn’t well-versed in wine either. In situations like these, it was best to just take advantage of recommendations.

The first bottle I chose was the owner’s most recommended wine, a white wine from Germany. Apparently, almost all the wine Germany made was white wine; among those, this wine was the face of all white wines made with Riesling grapes. The description said that it was known as a wine that Bismarck loved to death, and the fresh, fruity scent and acidity gave a sweet and refreshing feeling on the palate.

The second bottle was a French wine that the employee with the sommelier license recommended the most. It became famous after it appeared in a well-known manga about wine. The description said that it was balanced and delicate, having a well-harmonized flavor: a very delicious wine for its price.

It shouldn’t be a mistake to choose these two. After all, they are being pushed the hardest by the owner and the sommelier.

For the Japanese sake, I picked those from the rankings as usual — the weekly rankings this time.

The shining top of the weekly rankings was a sake from the Aomori prefecture, which had gained popularity through word of mouth. It was known for being refreshing on the palate while still having a very deep and complex taste.

And I got one more bottle, the 2nd in the rankings.. It was a Junmai Daiginjo from the Fukushima prefecture that had a label made of traditional Japanese paper. There were a lot of reviews really singing its praises, saying things like, “It’s seriously good,” and “I’m definitely getting this again,” so it should definitely be a good choice.

With two bottles of wine and two bottles of Japanese sake in the cart, I also added in a premium Kantsuma gift set, as usual. I also bought some Camembert cheese and smoked cheese to pair with the wine this time.

“Right. This should do it.”

After checking out my purchase and getting the delivery, I placed the items on top of the cardboard altar.

“Please accept this, Demiurge.”

＜Ohh, it’s you. Sorry for troubling you every time.＞

“This time I included alcohol made with a fruit called ‘grapes,’ please try them. Of course, there is still Japanese sake. I also have the usual Kantsuma snacks, and some cheese to pair with the wine.”

＜Ohh, I’m looking forward to that. Ho! Ho! Ho!＞

The wine, Japanese sake, Kantsuma gift set, and cheese all disappeared in a glow of faint light.

“All right. Today was pretty busy, so let’s hurry up and take a bath and go right to sleep.”

《Bath?》

“That’s right. You’ll take one too, right Sui?”

《Yeah!》

“What about you, Dora-chan?”

《Of course I’ll get in.》

I enjoyed the spacious bath along with Sui and Dora-chan.

Oh man~, a huge bath where I can stretch my legs and relax is just the best!

Dora-chan and Sui also immediately took a liking to this house’s huge bath. They looked like they were feeling really good when they swam for a while, before they started to just float.

After relieving our exhaustion in the bath, we all fell asleep quickly in the similarly huge bed.

............But for some reason, I was once again with all of my familiars. It was so natural when they said, “Goodnight~” that I thought nothing of it, since it was as usual.

Come to think of it, with this many rooms, it’s not like we have to sleep together at all.

...Well, I guess it’s fine for today.