bookworm

Chapter 4: Mukohda’s Party Consumes the Bounty of the OceanAs soon as we got back to the house, my familiars...“I am looking forward to dinner.”《I’m looking forward to that good food, got it?》《Master, make something good, okay~?》They all said stuff like that, full of expectation...I got through the moment by replying, “Got it,” and now I’m in the kitchen... what should I make...For the moment, I decided to try a bit of the kraken, sea serpent, and aspidochelone to see how they tasted.Let’s see... The kraken is...... Yeah, it’s just a regular squid. Even though it’s that big, it’s not tasteless or anything. But it’s just a little bit elastic in the mouth, so it kind of feels like eating cuttlefish. If it’s like this, then just using it like regular squid for food seems to be fine.The sea serpent is...... Yeah, just like I thought, it tastes like black and red serpent. Or rather, it tastes vaguely like chicken. Both the black and red serpents were really good as karaage... It might be good to make sea serpent into karaage too. Or something that would usually require chicken.The aspidochelone is...... Yep, it’s just like Appraisal said, “The highest class of white meat.” This one would probably be great cooked in any way.I decided to treat the kraken like regular squid. Truthfully, grilling it on a charcoal grill like one would a fish would be great, but I didn’t have one at the moment, so I’ll use a frying pan. I also went with salt-cooked kraken and vegetables. I liked squid, so I would make two dishes. For the sea serpent, I planned on making karaage, since it couldn’t miss. It tasted similar to black and red serpent, so it should be delicious, and everyone liked karaage, too. Finally, I decided on aspidochelone cooked with a sweet vinegar ankake sauce.I had time for now, so I decided to make several dishes, making sure each one wouldn’t require too much time to cook.First is getting ingredients off of my Online Supermarket. I have all the seasonings and sauces I need for grilled squid, so it’s just the ingredients for the salt-cooked kraken, huh? It didn’t matter what vegetables I used, so I went with asparagus and red bell pepper for color. I also went with raw garlic and ginger. I already had garlic, so I just bought the ginger, and I had all the seasonings I needed, so that was it. I make karaage a lot, so I have everything already and I don’t need to get anything else. As for the white meat fish, I needed onions, carrots, and peppers for the ankake’s vegetable portion, as well as enoki mushrooms and boiled bamboo shoots. And I also picked up some ketchup because I was out of it.Now then, I’ve got all I need, so I guess let’s get started.~◇~◇~◇~First, start marinating the sea serpent meat in both soy sauce and salt-based tare. Meanwhile, start on the next dish: the grilled squid to be made from kraken. Start off by mixing together sake, mirin, soy sauce, and grated ginger to make the sauce. Grated ginger from a tube works fine, but freshly grated ginger will give it a better taste. This time, I had fresh ginger already, so I grated it myself.After cutting down the kraken into easier-to-eat pieces, start cooking it in an oiled frying pan. Once the kraken turns white and is cooked through, mix it around in the sauce. Quickly coat the whole piece of kraken in the sauce to finish it.~◇~◇~◇~Eating this with mayonnaise on top is delicious. Ahh...no good no good, I need to move on. I was just about to bring out some mayo... That was close.I split up the grilled squid and plated everyone’s portions. I had extra, so what was left was thrown into my Item Box while still in the frying pan. Next would be the vegetables and salt-cooked kraken.~◇~◇~◇~Cut a lattice pattern into the kraken meat before rendering it into bite-sized pieces, and mince the garlic and ginger. Use a peeler to remove the hard bottom skin of the asparagus before cutting it into diagonal wedges of around 5cm. Then, remove the seeds from the red bell pepper before cutting it into slightly large strips.Oil up a heated frying pan, and lightly sauté the asparagus and red bell pepper. Once they’ve been heated through, remove them from the pan. Oil up the same frying pan again, and sauté the minced garlic and ginger until they release their fragrance before adding in the kraken and continuing to cook. Once the kraken meat turns white, add the asparagus and red bell pepper back in. Then, add in salt and pepper, sake, and chicken broth, and bring the solution to a boil before thickening it with potato starch dissolved in water to finish it.~◇~◇~◇~It looks really colorful and pretty because the asparagus and red bell pepper aren’t too overdone, doesn’t it? After plating these as well, I also put the leftovers still in the frying pan into my Item Box. Since frying would take a lot of oil I was going to leave that for last, so next would be the aspidochelone cooked with sweet vinegar ankake.~◇~◇~◇~Slice the aspidochelone meat into appropriate sizes. Thinly slice the onions, and cut the carrots, peppers, and boiled bamboo shoots into strips. For the enoki mushrooms, cut off the foot of the mushroom and untangle the different pieces. Take the cut aspidochelone meat and season it with salt and pepper before lightly coating it in potato starch. Using a largeish amount of oil, the next step is to fry the meat in the frying pan. Once the sliced chunks turn a light brown and it’s been cooked through, take the meat out of the pan to rest for a while.Since there’d be leftover oil in the pan used to fry the meat, use the same pan to cook the vegetables. Sauté the onions; once they become clear, add in the carrots, peppers, and boiled bamboo shoots and continue to cook until they soften up a little. Then, add in the enoki mushrooms. Once all the vegetables have been cooked through, add a little water, soy sauce, vinegar, mirin, sugar, and ketchup and bring the whole thing to a quick boil before adding in potato starch to thicken it up.With all that done, plate the aspidochelone slices along with lots of the sauce with vegetables in it on top to finish out the dish.~◇~◇~◇~I put this in my Item Box as well, along with the extra cooked aspidochelone meat and sauce still in the frying pan. And since everyone liked karaage and would probably want a lot, I made bunches and bunches of it.“Whew~, I’m done.”After plating everyone’s portion of karaage as well, I shoved the tray, now piled high, into my Item Box as well. Now then, let’s go over to everyone. They’re probably hungry.◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇“Sorry to keep you waiting.”“Ohh, finally. We have been so hungry, we were about to go over to you.”《It’s true. Geez.》《Sui is also starving~.》“Sorry, sorry. In exchange I’ve got lots of different food,” I said, before serving everyone their dishes. “This one is grilled kraken, and this one’s a salt-cooked kraken with vegetables. And this one is white meat aspidochelone cooked with a sweet vinegar ankake, and sea serpent karaage.”“It loses points for having vegetables, but well, it looks delicious.”Fel really hates vegetables, doesn’t he? Well, he’s still eating it even if he complains, so it’s fine I guess.《Ohh! It all looks so good!》Dora-chan, you’re drooling.《All of it looks delicious~.》Sui lookslike it was just going to go ahead and start enveloping the grilled kraken right away.Right, right? Doesn’t the grilled kraken look good? Wait, I have to put that on! “WAIT A SECOND!”“Mg...... what?”Oh my, Fel already started eating his grilled kraken.《Aw come on, you can’t do that just before we’re about to eat.》《Master~, Sui wants to eat~.》“Sorry, sorry. But the grilled kraken will be more delicious if you put this on it.” I took mayonnaise out of my Item Box and put it on everyone’s grilled kraken.“Grilled kraken really does need mayo. Yeah, it’s fine. Go ahead and eat.” Everyone started eating the grilled kraken after I put the mayo on it.“Ohh, you were correct. Adding this white stuff makes it more delicious.”Right, Fel?《Mm, I love this elasticity. And I could get really hooked on this taste, too.》The combination of the kraken’s texture, the soy sauce, and the mayo is the best, right?《This is so goo~d.》It looked like even Sui the gourmand liked the grilled kraken.“This thing called karaage really is delicious.”Looks like Fel started on the karaage. He really does love that stuff.《This other cooked kraken is good too.》Seems like Dora-chan really took a liking to kraken meat. It’s good, I know. I like it too.《This fishy with this sauce is just a little sour and it’s so tasty—.》And for Sui it’s the sweet vinegar ankake, huh? I tried a little bit of that too, and it turned out great.Now then, I should start too. First is the grilled kraken. Yep, it’s good. Mayo really was the right idea. Ahhh, I want some beer. Next is the aspidochelone with sweet vinegar ankake. Hmmm, this one makes me want white rice.I opened up my Online Supermarket and bought some beer and white rice. This time, I chose A-company’s dry beer, since it seemed like it would pair really well with the grilled squid.“Ahhh, this sweet vinegar ankake and salt-cooked squid really goes with rice...”Using the aspidochelone with sweet vinegar ankake and salt-cooked kraken with vegetables as side dishes, I surrounded them with rice.“More. I want this kraken that has been grilled, and this karaage.” Fel came in with the usual order for more.Grilled kraken and karaage right? I plated his extra order and served it to him. Of course, I added the mayo to the grilled kraken.《Sui wants more too~. Uhhh, Sui wants...all of it—.》A-All of it? I served Sui more of everything. W-Well, eat a lot and grow bigger, I guess. Wait, it’s already big. Sui’s a huge slime, after all.《This is just the usual, but you guys eat way too fast.》 Dora-chan said, looking exasperated.After all, even though I brought out way more than usual, both Fel and Sui put it down in a heartbeat. I’ll need to secure some grilled kraken and sea serpent karaage for my beer before everyone finishes all of it.I put some mayo on the grilled kraken and popped it in my mouth. “Ohh, so good~.”And......*Pssht* *Glglglglglg* *Ppphaahhh*“Yep, the best.”Next, I popped some sea serpent karaage into my mouth. This one was juicy and delicious. It tasted like black and red serpent, but sea serpent may be just a little softer when it hits the fryer. Yep, yep, it’s delicious.*Glglglg*“Both the grilled kraken and the karaage go great with beer~.”Seafood really is awesome. I feel that even stronger because of all the meat we’d been eating.“Man I just love the bounty of the sea. It’s delicious.”“Indeed. It is really nice once in a while.”《Really. How many decades has it been for me? I’d never been near the sea all that much in the first place.》《Hey, hey, you know? What was that salty water, the ocean? It was Sui’s first time eating stuff from the ocean~. It’s suuuuuper delicious~!》It really was the right choice to come to the sea. Let’s get a lot of stuff from tomorrow’s morning market.“Ah, tomorrow morning I’m going to the market. They have stalls there, so we’ll be eating out for breakfast.”“Hohh, if that is the case we will be able to eat fresh things, right? I am looking forward to it.”《Human stalls, huh? I wonder what they’ll have? I’m excited.》《Master—, can Sui eat a whoooole lot?》“Yeah, it’s fine.”Looks like everyone’s looking forward to the morning market. I’m excited too —I wonder what kind of fish will be there.《Ah, master — more of this fishy, please.》Sui still wants more? I plated and served Sui some more aspidochelone with sweet vinegar ankake.That day, we thoroughly enjoyed the bounty of the sea that everyone managed to catch.◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇“Welcome! Welcome! It’s all cheap~!” A cheerful voice rang out into the crowd. We were at the morning market near the port.“Hohh, there are quite a few species around.”I was wondering how it would be since this was another world, but there were more different kinds of fish than I’d imagined on sale. The fish were of all kinds, big and small, and some of them even made me question whether or not they were edible. It was the same for shellfish too; there were even ones that looked just like manila clams, or some that looked like scallops. Well then, I’ll just have to buy a whole bunch of different stuff then, won’t I?I walked around the morning market. Although people were shocked at first seeing Fel and the others, as soon as they understood that they were familiars they were unexpectedly okay with it. It seemed that the old men selling fish here were all fishermen too, so they had guts. The old ladies were...... Hm, well they’re basically the strongest in any universe, aren’t they? They just don’t sweat the small stuff.

With Fel and the others in tow, I continued to walk around the morning market and bought a huge amount of all different kinds of food. The first thing I bought was a fish that looked a lot like mackerel, called mackeren. It was a very popular fish in the area and was eaten often. The guy manning the store said it was really delicious grilled. It looked like it’d be great used in miso mackerel, so I bought all the store had.When I asked if it would be alright to buy out the store......“As you can see, this place is full of fish. Even if one place sells out of fish, other places have the same ones anyway. Don’t worry about that stuff and just buy all you want,” said the older guy.I see. Just as he said, the morning market was teeming with stalls selling fish. Of course, no store would only sell only one type of fish, so it seemed like it was natural for several stores to be selling the same thing. Just as he claimed, even if one store sold out, other stores would still have it, so there wasn’t really any need to pay attention to that.After that, there was a fish that looked exactly like a salmon, called salmen. It was a little bigger than normal salmon, but its meat was pink, and it looked exactly like salmon. Apparently, this fish was also popular in the area. According to the lady in the store, this one was also delicious grilled. Salmon could be used in a lot of different dishes, so I also bought out this store’s supply.The next one I noticed was a fish that looked a lot like horse mackerel. It was called mackero, and it was treated like junk food. I was told that it’s only use was as dried food. It looked exactly like a horse mackerel though. My instincts were telling me that it’d definitely be delicious fried. It was incredibly cheap at just 3 copper for an entire bucket, so I bought all I could of this as well.Just like that, I spent time walking around the morning market and buying whatever I felt like......“Welcome, welcome! It’s Berléand’s famous tyrant fish! They’re fresh, just caught today! Now buy it! Buy it all!”Tyrant fish, huh? That’s the fish that those guys in Shadow Warrior praised so much, right? I definitely need to get some.I headed towards the store that was selling tyrant fish, and saw the fish that seemed to be the tyrant fish displayed boldly. The fish, which was almost 2 meters across, looked exactly like a pirarucu, the world’s largest freshwater fish that only lived in the Amazon river. If I were to reach for difference, just about the only point would be its mouth full of sharp teeth, and that it lived in the ocean.“Excuse me. I’d like a tyrant fish.”“Sure! Thanks fer tha business! Tyrant fish is great grilled or even in soup, you know—.”Grilled or in soup, huh? Looks like they really don’t eat anything raw. But, I guess I’ll at least try asking......“Uhm, do you not eat them raw?”“Raw?! Of course not, that’s idiotic! If you eat it raw you’ll die!!” said the old man quite forcefully. “Wait, bro, could you be a foreigner?”This country was largely inhabited by people with Anglo-Saxon features, and although black hair wasn’t impossible, it was rare, so it seemed that was the impression the guy working the store got. So I rode that misconception.“Yes, well...”“I see. There’s countries without access to the ocean, so I guess you wouldn’t know. Then I’ll tell you so you won’t die......”And when I listened to the guy talk, it turned out parasites really did exist. It was called the vorbalas fishworm, and it seemed that it was a parasite that could infect anything that lived in the ocean. Apparently this parasite lived in between a fish’s skin and meat, and laid its eggs there. It wasn’t an especially rare parasite, and it didn’t affect the fish that was its host, so it seemed like it happened often enough that fish with the parasite were sold in this market. But if that parasite were to infect a human, it’d be pretty bad. It would eat through your innards, and in the end it would kill its host. And since that would only take a short week to ten days, it was way too strong. However, this vorbalas fishworm had a very decisive weakness, and that was heat.“The vorbalas fishworm lives in between the fish’s skin and meat, you see. So even if it’s just for a little bit, heating it up is very important.”According to him, it would be fine as long as you grill, boil, or even roast the fish for even a little. Yeah, not eating it raw really was correct. Or rather, when I ate that giant talepo tataki before, in hindsight I really shouldn’t have been thinking from Japanese standards. It was pretty good, but the unspoken question of, “What about parasites?” had me pretty worried.Since I was fine even after a while had passed, I felt relieved. But there’s gotta be parasites for land monsters and animals too, right? I don’t think I’ll ever be eating any meat that’s close to raw again. When I asked the guy about it anyway due to the flow of conversation, I was told that there really were parasites for land creatures. It was similar to the vorbalas fishworm, and it was also weak to heat. It looked like I was safe because I gave one side of the giant talepo a quick sear just in case.Th-Thank goodness.“In any case, the most important thing is to heat it, at least a little,” said the guy at the store, nodding to himself.I’ll keep that in mind.So although completely raw is out the window, a quick sear like with tataki is fine, huh? That being said, I’d just heard about the vorbalas fishworm. I don’t think I can work up the courage to eat tataki anytime soon. There’s a lot of ways to enjoy food without eating it raw, so for now I’ll just enjoy seafood by boiling, grilling, frying, or even steaming.“So, bro, how many tyrant fish do you want?”“Ah, I’ll take all the slices you have there, and can I get you to butcher this one, too? Then I’ll buy the rest you’ve got.”“You sure you’re good on money, bro?” the guy asked, a little bewildered at how much I was buying.Well, that makes sense. Including the sliced meat, it’d be about three whole tyrant fishes’ worth. Also, since tyrant fish are at least nominally a monster, they’re more expensive than other fish.“It’s fine. Even if I look like this I’m a pretty high-ranked adventurer.”“Ohh, is that so? Then please wait a second.” With just those words, the guy started filleting the tyrant fish. Clearly, I wouldn’t be good enough to do that myself for something that big. Leaving stuff like this to the pros is the best choice.He took no time at all to finish butchering the fish, and I took it along with the displayed slices. All in all, it was 2 gold. Even though it was expensive compared to other fish, all this tyrant fish was still cheap at just 2 gold. As expected out of a port town. It’ll all be fine if I just throw it into my Item Box, so let’s keep buying.The next things that caught my eye were shrimp and crabs. There were vermillion shrimp that looked like tiger prawns, but quite a bit bigger, and a prettier scarlet color. Bronze king crabs, which looked like red king crabs: these were also quite a bit bigger than their counterpart in my world, aside from the bronze color. There’s no way shrimp and crab could be bad. Thinking I couldn’t go wrong since I saw quite a lot of locals buying this stuff, I also bought out all the shrimp and crabs in the store.I also bought some shellfish that looked like manila clams in both appearance and size. In this world, they were called mini clams. And they were packed full into buckets, and sold at next-to-free prices due to them being so small. Of course, I bought all I could. They’d be good in miso soup, or steamed with salt and some sake, or even in western clam chowder.Also, there were the big hard clams that those guys in Shadow Warrior told me about. Just as I’d heard, they were huge,about the size of my palm. I also bought as many of them as I could, and I also bought out their small hard clams, a smaller version of big hard clams, which were slightly larger than my fist. Small hard clams were a little bigger than normal Asian hard clams in my world, so I think they’d be perfect for barbecue.Afterwards, I also bought some yellow scallops, which were similar to scallops in my world. They were around twice as big as regular scallops, and their shells were yellow. But the inside was the exact same as a regular scallop. Since these were also good grilled, they were a favorite in food stalls. Of course, I bought as many as they had.I felt like I wanted to look around a bit more, but it seemed like Fel and the others were getting fidgety because they were hungry, so I decided to end it there for the day. But, it was all so cheap. There was so much variety, too. Just what I expected out of this seaside town. Even though I bought so much, I still didn’t quite manage to spend 5 gold. Still, it would only amount to a scant couple of meals for Fel and the others’ stomachs. I swore to buy as much seafood as I could while we were here.“Now then, let’s go try out some of these stalls.”“I was getting tired of waiting.”《Really.》《Sui is so hungry~.》“Sorry, sorry. It looks like there’s a lot of stalls, so cheer up. Let’s try a bunch of them.”“Mn, are any of them okay?”“Sure.”“I see. Then let us start from the beginning. Dora, Sui, we are going.”《Yeah!》《Sui will eat lots~.》I headed for the food stalls, following after my familiars who were moving speedily.◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇The stalls were lined up around a certain plaza in the morning market. The first one that Fel and the others laid their eyes on was one that sold grilled fish. I wonder what kind of fish it is? They were serving slices of it. The fragrant smell of the grilling fish stirred the appetite.“Okay, we are eating this fish.”《Yeah!》《Fish~!》Looks like everyone’s raring to chow down.“Excuse me.”“Hey! Welcome.”“I’d like all the fish that’s already cooked here, as well as all the fish you’re grilling right now.”When I said that, the older guy manning the stall froze in shock. When I explained that I’d be eating along with my familiars, he understood.“What kind of fish is this?”“It’s mackeren. It’s fresh, so it’s good—!”That mackerel-looking fish named mackeren, huh? Looks like the only flavoring is salt, but it looks pretty fatty and delicious. I paid the man, and took the fish. Looking at the stalls, they wanted you to bring your own utensils, and there were people buying them as well, so that’s what I did.For my familiar’s portions, I took their personal dishes from my Item Box and piled the fish inside. I ate mine still skewered.We moved somewhere where we wouldn’t be in the way, and everyone started eating their fish.“Hm. This is pretty good.”《Yeah, it really is so good because it’s fresh.》《Fish is so tasty~.》“It’s just salt for flavoring, but this mackerel’s fattiness is really tasty.”Everyone was satisfied with the flavor. All the fish in their dishes quickly disappeared.“Okay, next.”《Next! Next~!》《Sui wants more~.》The next stall they went to was selling soup with shellfish and vegetables in it, and it smelled delicious.“What a nice smell. What kind of soup is it?” I asked the old lady manning the stall.“This one? This is a soup made by taking big hard clams, cutting them into large chunks, and boiling them slowly with vegetables. It’s good, try some.”Of course I will. All my familiar’s attention is glued to the soup, after all.“Well then, can you fill up each of these dishes?”“Sure thing. Thanks!”I paid the lady at the stall, and had her quickly ladle out the soup into everyone’s dishes. Of course, I also had a large soup bowl for myself. Everyone quickly started eating.With lots of clams inside, it’s really got some texture. This one is also probably only flavored with salt, but with the sweetness of the vegetables and good broth made with the giant hard clams, it is delicious. I worried about big hard clams, thinking that they might be more tasteless since they’re so big, but apparently that isn’t the case. It makes for good, solid broth, and the meat is soft and delicious. This soup is light and easy to eat. It’s great. I could drink this just about forever.“Hey.” Around when I was half finished with the soup, Fel...... “I want more.”《Sui also wants more.》Fel and Sui had finished in the blink of an eye. More already?《I want some too, but if I do that then I probably won’t be able to fit what’s next. It’s too bad, but I’ll hold back on it.》Dora-chan also looked like he wanted some, but he decided to refrain. Dora-chan also eats a lot when compared to someone like me, but he isn’t nearly at the level of Fel or Sui. If he eats here again, he won’t be able to fully enjoy all the stalls anymore. I paid, and had the old lady give Fel and Sui another helping.“Hm. This soup is light, and is in itself pretty delicious.”《Sui also likes this~.》 Fel and Sui finished their second bowl quickly as well.“We are going to the next one.” With Fel in the lead, the next stall we went for was one that was grilling both giant and small hard clams. Just from looking, I could tell there was no way this would be terrible. The giant and small hard clams would pop open due to being grilled. There was a sound coming from the plump, thick meat inside and the boiling essence of clam that was pooled around the meat......*Shlrrp* I was drooling. Looks good. There’s no mistake. It’s definitely going to be delicious.《How many do you want?》Each giant clam was big, so I asked them through telepathy how much they wanted.《I will have ten for now.》《Hmmm, I’m fine with three.》《Sui wants to be the same as uncle Fel with ten!》I paid what I owed, and I took everyone’s giant hard clams and dumped the meat and juices out of the shell and into their dishes since Fel and the others wouldn’t be able to eat it with the shell still there. When I served them their dishes, all of them quickly started chowing down.“Hohh, this is good.”《Yeah. Every time I bite into it, there’s a burst of delicious juice.》《So good~.》It seems like the grilled giant hard clams are popular with all three of them. It looked good right from the start, after all. I should eat, too.I took one each of the giant and small hard clams and compared them. Still, every time I see the giant hard clam, it seems bigger and bigger. I feel like I’d get full from just one. Now then, let’s try it.I bit into the giant hard clam’s plump and tender meat. Instantly, the clam’s umami spread throughout my mouth. With every chew, the clam’s savoriness flooded out.This is delicious! The tender meat gives it a good texture, and more than anything it tastes good. And just as its appearance suggested, it’s like an Asian hard clam. Why is this clam so delicious? If it’s this good just by grilling it, how delicious would it be with some soy sauce? I’m definitely gonna do a seafood barbecue.I continued eating bite after bite, before slurping down the juices left in the shell, too.“Hahh, that was good.”Next was the small hard clam. I downed the entire thing in one go. The umami spilled over and filled my mouth. It’s the same flavor as the giant hard clam. Just like its name, the small hard clam is just a tiny version of a giant hard clam, huh? But the texture is a little better with this one. It’s got just a little more bite-back. The giant hard clam was softer. This one also seems like it’d be great with some soy sauce. This is definitely going into the seafood barbecue.After that, we enjoyed food like grilled vermillion shrimp which resembled tiger prawns, bronze king crabs that were like red king crabs in both grilled and boiled form, and an acqua pazza with lots of different seafood boiled in it.Dora-chan and I tapped out in the middle, but Fel and Sui just kept happily going around the stalls.◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇It was almost noon before Fel and Sui were finally satisfied.“Hm, that was good.”《It was so good~. Sui is fuulllll.》Well yeah, with how much you two ate.《You all eat way too much.》Dora-chan was a little exasperated at Fel and Sui’s appetites. But Dora-chan also ate quite a bit, and his stomach was bulging. Like this, they probably won’t need lunch, huh?《Aahhh no good. It’s too hard to fly.》 As he said that, Dora-chan clamped onto the back of my head.“D-Dora-chan?”《It’s too hard to fly because I ate too much. You’re the master so you should at least take care of your familiars.》That’s not......Dora-chan was totally intent on riding around on me, clamped onto the back of my head with his legs on my shoulders like I was giving him a shoulder ride.“Hahhh~, fine.”《Now, now, where to next?》“Next is the Adventurer’s guild. We have to go pick up the money for selling off the kraken, sea serpent, and aspidochelone parts from yesterday.”《Then, let’s go to the Adventurer’s guild!》“Fine, fine. Wait, huh? Where’s Sui?”Sui, who was at my feet until just a moment ago, wasn’t there anymore. When I looked around trying to find Sui, Fel said, “If you are looking for Sui, it has been in your bag for a while now.”When I gently peeked into my bag, I found Sui sleeping. So fast! Now then, let’s regroup and head for the Adventurer’s guild, I guess.While still giving Dora-chan a ride, I followed Fel to the Adventurer’s guild.

◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇When we entered the Adventurer’s guild, I got stared at since I was giving Dora-chan a shoulder ride. When I ignored the stares and proceeded to a receptionist, I found said receptionist also staring, and her cheeks were twitching, too.If you want to laugh, just do it. Actually, can’t you just get off already, Dora-chan?Afterwards, I was quickly led to the 2nd floor and the guildmaster’s room.“Ohh, you’re here...... Wait, what the hell is that?” Marcus said after looking up from his desk and seeing me.“It’s, umm... Just think of it as my familiar’s whims.”“R-Really?”“Really.”Yeah, please just leave it at that. I-I haven’t become Dora-chan’s taxi or anything, I swear.“I’ll just finish this one now, so please sit down over there and wait.”“Okay.”I sat down on the chair and talked to Dora-chan using telepathy.《Now, now, get off Dora-chan. Sit next to me.》《Fine, fine.》 Giving off a reluctant feeling, Dora-chan climbed off and sat next to me.I felt relieved, having a literal weight off of my shoulders. I mean, Dora-chan was unexpectedly heavy.I sipped on a tea that was served by an employee which had a similar toasted-rice fragrance as genmaicha. I quietly glanced over at Marcus, who was fighting with his documents. Just looking at him, I figured that Marcus would be extremely active, gung-ho, and reckless during his active years... But now that he’s a guildmaster he seems to have a lot of trouble with all those documents, huh?After about ten minutes of waiting, Marcus finally finished cleaning up his paperwork and left his desk.“Sorry for making you wait. When you get to be a guildmaster, there’s a lot of paperwork, and no matter how you shake it, I’m terrible at it. I always end up taking more time than normal.”No matter how I look at him, Marcus is the jockish type, after all. He’s probably better at moving his body.“Well then, hopping right into it: let’s talk about how much we owe you for the kraken, sea serpent, and aspidochelone yesterday. First is the kraken. Eyes, mouth, suction pads, and magic stone — all told, it’s 628 gold.”Ohhh, yep, it’s S-ranked alright. According to Marcus, the rating on the magic stone said it really was high quality. The stone from the kraken was pretty big, after all.“Then, next is the sea serpent. The materials for this one would be its skin, bones, fangs, and magic stone. All in all, it’s 659 gold.”Oh this one is worth a lot too. The sea serpent’s also S-ranked, after all. From what Marcus said, since there hasn’t been a sea serpent caught in thirteen years, its materials went up in price. Apparently the buyers for its skin and fangs were already decided. It seemed that said buyer was a local weapons shop. I had no idea how they got their info, but they heard about it way too quickly.Both the sea serpent and kraken had their magic stones valued most highly. They were both huge, after all. As I thought, the bigger a stone is the more expensive, huh?“Last up is the aspidochelone. This one is the scales, bones, and magic stone. Totaled up, it comes out to 452 gold.”So the aspidochelone turned into quite the sum too, huh? I’d heard it was on the lower end of S-rank, so I thought it’d be a little lower. Not to mention I took all the meat, which would have raked in the most money after the magic stone and scales. Since that was the case, I wasn’t expecting much, but it went all the way up to 452 gold.“Finally, that comes out to 1739 gold. Also, the reward for defeating the kraken is 400 gold. With that added in, it’ll be 2139 gold.”Oh, and the money pile grows ever larger. Thanks to Fel, I’m just saving up more and more of it.“I’d heard from old man Jöran that paying in large gold coins is fine, right?”“Yes, please.”I have more than enough money, after all. I’d be happier getting anything I wouldn’t use right away in large gold coins.“Okay then. Here’s 213 large gold coins, and 9 gold coins. Please confirm the amount.”Uhhh... 1, 2, 3............ 213 large gold coins and 9 gold coins. Yep. It’s all here.“Yes, it’s correct.”“And as for the dungeon drops we talked about before......”Right, right. I have the list here, but I haven’t given it to Marcus yet.“I’ll hand over the list of what I have left,” I said, and gave it to him.“Ohhh! There’s quite a lot. As expected of the conqueror. Actually, is there really this much left after you sold some in Dolan?”“Yes. They mainly focused on the numerous hides and magic stones in Dolan, so I have most of the other stuff.”“It really is first come first serve for those things, huh? We wanted hides, too...”They did say that hides for leather armor were in demand everywhere. So he wanted some for the guild, huh? But......“If it’s hides, I have them. Stuff like a vaasuki’s hide, or a manticore pelt, or Gustav’s hide.”“Youuuu... If I went for something expensive like that, I’d be done with only a single piece.”Tch! So I can’t sell off the drops from the lower floors here, either huh? As for stuff that I haven’t sold yet, there’s that, too— the earth dragon’s parts. I still have its blood and eyes and innards and such. Even if the hides are impossible, the Adventurer’s guild here in Berléand is pretty big, so I guess I’ll just push as much as I can onto them.“Outside of the stuff I got from the dungeon, I also have this. Will you buy it?”I produced some of the earth dragon’s materials to show him: a bottle of blood, and another one with an eye in it.“This is?”“An earth dragon’s blood and eye.”“Bpphhth!”Ah, a spit take. Y-You don’t have to be that surprised, you know?“Y-Y-Y-You! You finished off o-o-one of those?!!”No, I wasn’t the one that did it. It was Fel.“Hahh... an earth dragon, huh......? Now that I’ve seen it, I want some earth dragon materials too... Especially the blood, there’s a lot of uses for it... But I want the dungeon drops, too...... I want to think on this awhile, so can you wait a couple days?” Marcus said, and I assented.If I stockpile too much, it’ll be a huge hassle to manage it all, so I’d be glad to get rid of anything when I can.Okay, now that we’re finished here, let’s go back.Saying goodbye to Marcus, we left the Adventurer’s guild.◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇My three familiars were taking a nap in the living room.Now then, what should I do? Even if I wanted to prepare for dinner, there’s nothing especially hard to do today. With all the fish we’ve been eating, it makes sense for Fel and the others to want some meat......

“The fish here is good, but it has gone on too long. I want meat for dinner,” Fel had said earlier. Dora-chan agreed:《He’s right. I really want to eat some solid meat. Ah, that sauce that was salty and sweet and you used it to grill... What was it? Uhhh... Ah! Yakiniku bowl! I want yakiniku bowls!》And Dora-chan had even started going on about how he wanted yakiniku bowls.《Sui also wants meat. Sui wants yakiniku bowls—!》Sui then hopped on the wagon too, and started saying it wanted yakiniku bowls as well.Everyone loves meat by nature, after all.

That being the case, I ended up just agreeing to make yakiniku bowls for dinner, since it was just grilling the meat and coating it in the sauce. I’d need to steam some rice, but that wouldn’t take all that much time, either. And so, I’m bored.While I was idly spacing out, wondering what I should do, I started feeling like I was forgetting something. What was it......? ...............Ah!! I forgot to make my offerings to the gods! I did it before we left Nijhoff, so it totally slipped my mind. It’s been over a week. Oh no. There’s gonna be some sort of oracle soon, like this.Okay, I’m free, so let’s just do it right now.I moved to a room on the second floor.◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇“Sorry to keep you waiting, everyone. Are you there?”I thought I heard some fuss going on, but a voice immediately rang out.＜YOU! YOU FORGOT AGAIN, DIDN’T YOU—!!＞＜You’re finally here...＞＜Geez, stop forgetting your promises, man.＞＜......No... forgetting.＞＜You! It’s unreal that you forgot!! You heathen!!＞＜Yeah! We were just about to go wild if you took any longer!＞One of them spouted something dangerous. Let’s just pretend that didn’t happen.＜Did you forget that you promised to do this once a week, otherworlder boy?＞This voice is Kisharle, huh? She’s really sharp... I have a bad feeling......＜You broke your promise, so I think you should change our allowance from 6 silver to a gold, right?＞Yep. There it is.In response to Kisharle’s suggestion, the other gods all agreed, saying things like, “Yeah! Yeah!” and “Indeed, what a great idea.”I did forget, but to raise it from 6 silver all the way to 1 gold at once... Hmmm...＜You broke a promise to us gods, otherworlder boy. You know what that means, don’t you?＞If you put it like that...... It is all my fault for forgetting... Well, I have money. I guess it’s fine just this once.＜Oh my, I didn’t mean just this once —I meant from now on.＞“Whaaat?!”＜You know, you broke a promise to the gods. And just because you forgot. You get it?＞Ghh...... It’s the truth, so I can’t say anything back...＜And we’re saying that we’ll let it go if you just let us have 1 gold’s worth from now on...＞Gnnrrrrr... Kisharle really is sharp... Hahhh, fine. It was my fault this time, after all. And I have a feeling I won’t be able to win no matter what I say.“I understand. From today on, I’ll up it to 1 gold.”When I said that, all the gods cheered.＜As long as you understand. And don’t you forget it.＞ I heard Kisharle say. I’d never seen her face, but I imagined she looked incredibly smug right now.＜Well done, Kisharle.＞＜Yeah.＞＜......Good.＞＜Good job. You’re better than I thought, Kisharle.＞＜I already thought you had a way with words, woman. As expected.＞Hahhh, fine. Let’s just get this over with.“Okay then, from now on you all have 1 gold. First is Ninrir, right?”＜That’s right, it is I! I want the usual cakes from Fumiya. That round huge cake from before would be best!＞Fine, fine. Whole cakes, right?＜Ninrir, are you sure that’s okay?＞＜What do you mean?＞＜Haven’t you gotten fatter recently after scarfing down that huge cake by yourself?＞＜Gnhh......＞