Chapter One Hundred and Thirteen: Delicious Food is Essential for Morale
After filling our stomachs with the meat and potato stew and roe rice, we spent the night near a small grove. I thought I heard some howling in the middle of the night, but without any warnings from Survival, and with everyone around… I ended up sleeping soundly. In the morning, I learned that there had been a pack of forest wolves nearby. Apparently, they’re intelligent enough to understand that attacking humans would lead to retaliation, so they just howled from a distance.
By the way, today’s breakfast is a thick-cut bacon and eggs dish using slab bacon I bought in town, leftover vegetable soup, and white rice. This thick-cut bacon… is insanely delicious! Being a preserved food, it’s made with a bit more salt, so you don’t even need seasoning when eating it with eggs. It’s well-smoked, so the surface is a deep amber color, but when you cut into it, you see layers of pink meat and white fat in perfect balance… When you fry it in a pan, the surface gets crispy while the inside maintains its meaty texture! When you bite into it, the fat and meat juices burst in your mouth, and it has enough chewiness to remind you that you’re eating meat. And this fat… it’s sweet! Rich, but not cloying at all. The shopkeeper said it was because "the pigs were raised on acorns," and it really is delicious! The moment you put it in your mouth, the smoky aroma wafts up your nose… and when you eat it with the runny yolk of a soft-boiled egg…! We cleaned our plates again today!
“Since you joined us, Rin, I can’t wait for mealtimes!”
“I totally agree with you. When she weren’t here, well…”
“Mm… hell…”
“We endured such hardships, wondering why we had to go through this ordeal just to complete quests.”
“O-Oh…”
After everyone showed such hearty appetites from the morning and cleaned their plates, this is the conversation we’re having… I’ve caught glimpses of the dark side of the Gourmands’ meals before, but I can’t help but wonder what kind of diet they’ve been living on…
Judging by the lifeless look in everyone’s eyes as they reminisce, I can only imagine…
“W-Well, I’ll do my best to plan the menu for today too…! Anyway, shall we get moving?”
“Right. At this pace, we should reach the town of Melnoa…”
“This time, let’s skip entering the town and head straight for the capital.”
“That would be best. Although Melnoa is an attractive place too…”
“Perhaps, they have good kitchen knives there…”
“Oh! That does sound interesting! But it’s probably better to enjoy that after we finish everything else.”
Being a blacksmith town, it seems you can buy not only weapons and armor but also high-quality knives, scissors, and other bladed tools there. It’s very tempting, but we should probably wait until after we report to the royal capital.
We finished cleaning up while chatting cheerfully, and as usual, I took the driver’s seat. Today, Mr. Xenon sat in the passenger seat.
“I see… The ride is so much more comfortable compared to the usual carriages we use.”
“Mr. Ville said the same thing. He said regular carriages make your butt sore.”
“That’s an apt description. After experiencing this comfort, I don’t think I can ride in a normal carriage again.”
Mr. Xenon’s eyes widened at the seat cushion, and he turned to me with a dazzling smile that could purify one’s soul. Damn it! He’s too handsome! Stop it! My HP is already at 0!
…Well, thankfully, he being in the passenger seat meant we were not directly facing each other, so I managed to avoid a critical hit. Phew, that was close… If I had been looking at him head-on, I would’ve ascended to heaven in an instant…!
“Your cooking is full of dishes I’ve never seen, even in the Elven village. I look forward to every meal.”
“Is that so? Now I’m curious about the food in the Elven village… What kind of meals did you have there?”
“We made ample use of the forest’s bounty… which sounds nice, but it was mostly tough game meat and wild herbs.”
“Ah… So, is it mainly wild game, not domesticated animals? That explains why you’re good at butchering…”
“We also had dishes using monster meat, but it’s a mystery why your cooking tastes so much better.”
As I drove, overwhelmed by the face value of this classic handsome elf chuckling happily beside me, Mr. Xenon kept bringing up topics that interested me or that I could easily answer while driving… Being handsome, considerate, and having a good sense for conversation… Hasn’t heaven given him too many gifts?
“Come to think of it, it feels like it’s been a while since we’ve been on a journey that spans multiple days.”
“Really? Didn’t you have long-distance quests before?”
“In our case, since we didn’t have anyone who could cook during camping… we had to rely solely on portable rations, which didn’t do much for morale…”
“Ah… I can see how that would throw off your nutritional balance too…”
“We could complete the missions, but the toll, including mental stress, was significant… So recently, we had only been taking on day-trip quests.”
Oops. Who would have thought there’d be such an unexpected side effect… I see… So their morale was so low due to the food situation that they were reluctant to take on missions…
No wonder they welcomed me, the cook, so enthusiastically.
“So, being able to go on multi-day journeys like this is all thanks to you, Rin.”
“Oh, no… I’m just cooking, that’s all.”
“For us, it feels like a gift from heaven. Please continue to take care of us.”
“I really enjoy cooking in this world too, so the pleasure is all mine!”
I said earlier that I "managed to avoid a critical hit" because he was in the passenger seat, right? That was a lie. Mr. Xenon’s radiant smile, which could outshine the sun, was a lethal weapon even from the passenger seat…
Handsome people are scary! That is what I thought once again, yup.
No comments:
Post a Comment