Chapter 364: After the Festival
The Dungeon Meat Festival was over. It was time to talk about returning to Carelina.
Nevertheless, Fer, Sui and Dora-chan, Fer in particular, was still trying to insist on going for ‘one last hunt’ for the road. I had to quickly put a stop to that kind of talk.
While my [Item Box] has infinite space, it was already so full of meat that it made me cringe. It would make a great souvenir for the people back at Carelina [5], but I seriously don’t need that much meat…
What I really wanted to do was go back to Carelina and make all kinds of beef and pork dishes with these special meats in my special, fully equipped kitchen and sl- servant helpers. That said, we’re definitely coming back here every year.
As per tradition, I spent a couple of days making food for the trip home. [5] Sure, I could make food on the road, but it’s much easier to just take something out and arrange it on the rice or just put together a bunch of quick sandwiches.
This time, I prepared the much-beloved deep-fried Karaage, Tonkatsu, fried chicken cutlet, fried pork mince, as well as classics such as Salisbury steak, teriyaki chicken, Pork & Ginger Stir-fry and less traditional Very Meaty Vege Stir-fry.
Maynard and Enzo happened to come and visit me on the second day.
“Master, we’re really, really, very grateful for your help!”
“Thank you so very much for your help!” [5]
[4] “I mean, we’re really confident we’ll do well,”
[4] “But winning 5th place? That’s unimaginable!”
“Especially at our first try!”
“Yeah, yeah, [5] we received lots of invitations from different restaurants.”
[4] “We want to come immediately, but lots of representatives came to speak to us,”
[4] “There were a lot of invitations too!”
“Well, you guys did make it to the Top 5 on your first try after all [5]. So it made sense for restaurants to scout you.”
[5]
“We’re really happy…”
“Yeah, but here’s the thing…”
Oh wow, the atmosphere suddenly became serious.
[4] “We want to set up our own food stall!”
[5] “Oh?”
[4]
“See, being in a restaurant is good and all,”
“But we want to serve stuff we like.”
“Yeah, and we can see the customer’s faces when they first bite into offal meat!”
“It’s great! Like they don’t trust us or the meat, but then when the deliciousness hits them it’s like bam!” [5] [5] [5]
“That’s what we thought anyway, and we also talked to the orphanage director about it too.” [5]
[4]
[6] “I see, sounds like a good idea. Will you continue to serve offal meats?”
“Yeah, we’ll continue to serve all kinds of internal organ stuff the way you taught us. It’s delicious and above all, cheap to buy.”
“Our Orphanage Adventurer party sometimes picked up offal too,”
“I know you guys are really enthusiastic about using offal, but,” I cautioned.
“Offal meat spoils easily,”
“Yeah, we figured that one out already.”
“We’ll be careful and process the offal quickly,”
“Cooked offal doesn’t spoil as quickly, [6] but we already decided to take everything back and let everyone eat anything that doesn’t sell.”
[6] “Yeah, no point spoiling good food.”
“Good, so long as you guys are mindful about that.”
“Yeah!!”
“Ah right,” said Maynard. “By the way, I heard that the Merchant’s Guild Master went to Master’s stall.”
“Master, you took 13th place even though you only open for one day!” [5]
“You could have been Number 1!” [5]
“Lots of cooks already heard of your cooking and a lot tried to imitate you,”
“Really?” I was puzzled. “Well, it’s not like hotdogs are something hard to make, [6] things like sausages already exist.”
Maynard and Enzo sighed heavily.
“Master, I have learned many valuable things from you, but normally if people start to imitate something you make, you should fight them.”
“Enzo, isn’t that too much trouble? I’m not going to get into a fight over hotdogs. The bread was made at your orphanage, I just put sausage into the bread.”
It was a recipe I randomly thought of when trying to utilize ingredients of this world. [9] Even though I cheated a little by giving the sister half a kilo of dry yeast… [5]
Maynard sighed, “Master is too soft. You’ve made something that had never been seen before and everyone knew that you’re the person who first served up these hotdogs. You have every right to complain about these imitators!”
The hotdog really isn’t my original idea though… [5]
“Ahem, there’s no need to complain. I’d rather they work hard on the recipe and come up with even more delicious hotdogs,”
The boys sighed.
“I guess Master is Master after all. [5] I guess seeing others trying to imitate your dishes like idiots is kind of fun too.”
“Yeah, haha,”
[8] The two of them suddenly beamed at me.
[8] “Master…”
[8] “Is it possible for you to teach us more~”
[8] “Eh? Well, if you want to learn more. You can help me with my food preparation.”
[6] The two of them sighed again.
“I guess Master is the only person who could say such a thing sincerely.”
“Indeed, normally chefs guard their recipes like their life.”
“Well, I’m not a chef,”
“What are you saying?! Master’s skills are on par with the best of the best!”
“Even better than the best!”
“Ahahaha,” it’s all thanks to the excellent seasoning and sauces I get from [Net Super] after all.
“I know it’s not up to me, but please don’t reveal your recipes so easily!” cried Maynard.
“Well…”
“Please, please at least keep the offal dishes a secret. That’s one of the things that’s being imitated now!” Enzo was clinging to me now.
“Eh? For real? [5]”
“Yeah, however, it looks like they haven’t realised the secret prep work behind offal preparation, so everything tasted like crap.”
[6] “Literally like crap!”
“So, please, please, please! [5]”
“H-hey, there’s no need to stick that close. Alright, I promise not to reveal the secrets of the offal dishes.” I said.
The boys looked relieved but, “Hey, I’m fine with that but what about the other kids? They helped with the offal preparation, right?”
“Don’t worry, we’ll talk to them too,”
“Yeah, we’ll talk to them properly,”
Ahem, the grins on their faces looked a little villainous… [5]
“That aside, I’ll be leaving soon.”
“Eh? Already?”
“Don’t be too surprised, Maynard. I’m not actually a citizen here,”
“Well, that’s true, but…”
“I’ve collected a lot of meat from the dungeon and enjoyed the festival too. But it’s time to go back.”
“But, we want to learn more from you, Master…”
“Don’t be too sad, Enzo. You guys did very well at the festival. I’m sure you’ll do fine,” [7] I said encouragingly.
“But, I want to know how to make the offal stew even more delicious…”
“What are you saying? Making things more delicious is your job as an apprentice. I’ve already given you the basics, it’s up to you to improve it,” I said sternly.
The boys still looked a little uneasy [5].
“What’s with these gloomy faces? I’ll be back for the next Dungeon Meat Festival, so make sure to improve your cooking. I’ll be looking forward to trying it!”
Maynard and Enzo exchanged a look and cried, “We will!!”
“Ah, speaking of which, I’d like to order more bread from the orphanage,” those [9] French baguette type of bread could be used in all kinds of ways. I could make Banh Mi for example…
[6] [9] Maybe, once I get back, I’ll try to get Teresa to try and make the real koppe-pan…
“Yes! [10] Thanks to you, we suddenly have an increase in orders for bread. The director’s really happy!”
[10] “The orphanage sells bread too?” I asked. I mean, I bought from them before but I didn’t know they actively sell bread.
[10] “We don’t sell a lot because there are bakeries in town, but yeah, it’s one way the orphanage makes money with the surplus wheat we get.”
“I see,”
[10] “We get orders for ‘hotdog bread’ now when chefs in town realised that’s where you get your special bread from.”
[10] “Is that so? Will you tell the director that I’d like to buy as much as the orphanage could make? I’ll probably pay a visit tomorrow evening.”
After all, there’s no need to worry about the bread going bad with my time stop [Item Box].
“Understood. I have to say, though, Master, your wallet’s really generous.”
“Well, I might not look like it but I am still an S-Rank adventurer after all”
Of course, it’s all thanks to Fer and the rest.
[Gumihou: So many deletes… Also, the koppe-pan thing… triggered Gumi…]
[1] Structural Change: Combine 2 paragraphs
[2] Structural Change: Combine 3 paragraphs
[3] Structural Change: Combine paragraph & dialogue
[4] Structural Change: Change passive sentence to dialogue
[5] Delete Repetitive or Pointless Information.
[6] Additional Information for Aesthetic Purpose
[7] Add Dialogue Tag
[8] Creative Licence Taken – ‘their real intention was to steal some recipes’ this so-called intention was not clear. Make it clearer.
[9] Gumi added the yeast back in chapter 359. Because making koppe-pan, a light, soft, mildly flavoured bread is impossible without it. Even so, it’s a very rich dough recipe made with milk, sugar and butter. Sugar alone is an expensive ingredient in this world
With the local bread common sense, possible oven technology and the fact that it’s an orphanage, the closest Mukouda could possibly get would be the French inspired Banh Mi baguette which is crispy on the outside but very soft inside.
It’s possible that Eguchi-san is operating on the Japanese common sense of ‘bread = soft’. My Czech friend despises Japanese bread, calling them cakes. The Japanese palate tends to favour softer textures, which is why in a lot of isekai stories, the MC would amaze the foreigners with their soft-bread making skills.
However, not all things should be made soft.
A5 Wagyu meat so soft you can drink it?
No thanks, I want actual meat I can chew. I’m here for a steak, not a drink.
Soft Cotton Cheesecake that my friend adored?
Uh huh, sure, go ahead and pay extra for all that air while I have this cheap ass chiffon cake. I happened to receive a cotton cheesecake as a gift once and ate most of it 3 days later when the ‘fluffy’ cake finally collapsed into something closer to true ‘cheesecake’.
Also, what’s wrong with a crusty roll? Gimme a crusty roll over a tasteless koppe-pan any day!
[10] Uh, it’s never mentioned that the orphanage sells bread? Whatever, doing my best to incorporate this new information.
