Part 3 – Osaka’s Auntie, Rescue the Beastmen

Chapter 13 – Collect Money from the Dungeons

 

“Ah, that’s wrong, that’s wrong. You can’t press it like that. You’ll crush it, nen. It must be crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside. Fluffiness is important, fluffy!”

“Even if you say things like that, I really can’t understand this way of cooking…”

Natalia was learning how to make Okonomiyaki at [Haru-chan] at the Level 13 floor dungeon.

“It’s perfectly simple, you’ll get it sooner or later. Just practise some more, Natalia can eat all the failed Okonomiyaki, wa. The nutrition value is still the same.”

Natalia dubiously stuffed a failed Okonomiyaki with a badly drawn sauce pattern on it into her mouth.

“Oh, it’s more delicious than I thought.”

Living frugally, almost pitifully, in order to save money, Natalia had not had a good hot meal for a long time.

“If you sell it as it is, you can still make money since this is the only shop in the dungeons, right? Isn’t it fine like this?”

“Well, it certainly is delicious as a pan-fried pancake with sauce on top, but I can’t call that a proper Okonomiyaki. So, please work harder.”

On top of that, Natalia seemed to have even more trouble with customer service.

“Hello, thank you for your patronage~! Hey, handsome bro, since you’re so good looking today I’ll make your Okonomiyaki extra large, wa~ Oh, you’re also a boarder here? We’re very grateful to have you, na~”

“H-hey, this kind of attitude is just too shameful! Moreover, you’re a great knight adventurer, the best among the best. As a superior warrior, you should be kissing these sad toes!”

“Kishinosato isn’t something you should look down on, ya.”

[There’s a pun here, Kishi no sato is literally, Knight of the village, which Haruna misheard as ‘Kishinosato’…well, I did my best with ‘kissing these sad toes’]

“Though Kishinosato is well known for its farm lands and vast fields, there’s more to it than that, wa.”

“Like how Noda is not at just famous for its farm lands, but its soy sauce is the best in Chiba Prefecture. Kishinosato is Osaka’s Noda, famous for being the home of the Hanshin Electric Railway [1] head office.”

It’s been a while since Haruna was transmigrated into this world. However, she’d still blithely spill random facts about Osaka on a regular basis to people.

“Anyway, just practise until you get used to it. Most of the people who come to our shop may be having a bad day, so it’s our job to cheer them up. I’m giving you some worldly advice here, worldly advice. A smile will bring in good fortune. Ebe-san [2] is always smiling, yan.”

 

In the west of Kanto area, these two cities were the first ones to gain popularity and growth, thanks to the God of Luck, Ebisu.

Nishinomiya Ebisu of Nishinomiya City, Hyogo Prefecture, is famous for its youthful energy and vitality, an incredibly popular place with the young. There is an impression that the entire country collectively prayed for the success of Japan’s baseball team, the Tigers.

Imamiya is of course, famous for Imamiya Ebisu, which Natalia naturally knew nothing about.

 

At that point, some of the regulars started to turn up.

“Oh, there’s a new girl here. Looks like a Beast Clan kid.”

“Ah, looks like she’s being given the super serious Okonomiyaki grilling lessons. That’s really hard work, ah.”

“Oh, is she going to spread the Okonomiyaki to the Beast Clan people as well?”

The regulars were fairly used to Haruna’s eccentric character by now.

“If the quality of the Okonomiyaki went down, our number of customers will reduce as well, won’t it? So, I’ll spare no effort in perfecting her skills. Ah, but don’t you think this kid is pretty good looking, ya ro?”

“Hm, now that you mention it, I can sort of see it.”

“No way, Haruna-chan will always be my Number 1!”

“Aah, but it is said that the Demon King has the appearance of a beautiful lady. Just what is the definition of a true beauty, I wonder?”

The rest of the regulars continued to argue back and forth about this matter.

“Thank you, everyone~ Sadly, since I’m everyone’s idol, there’s no way I can get married, wa~ The man I married may get stabbed in the back by a jealous admirer, yan.”

Haruna’s mood was greatly lifted by this flattery fest.

“Yes, yes, I’ll give everyone a discount, today. So, what will it be?”

“All right! One grilled leek, ham and cheese Okonomiyaki!”

“One ham and cheese Okonomiyaki, here!”

“I want the latest cream filled Okonomiyaki! That dish is devilishly tasty!”

Next to her, Natalia was in a daze.

“Wh-what is with this atmosphere?”

These people were being way too casual for dungeon challengers.

Everyone lost interest in Natalia as the Okonomiyaki were being grilled.

From that day onwards, Natalia could never deny the power of Okonomiyaki’s deliciousness.

 

Please read this at kitchennovel dot com yan ~

 

For two days, Haruna grilled Natalia over the art of Okonomiyaki grilling.

While the basics of cooking Okonomiyaki were fairly easy, she had to fulfil Haruna’s incredibly strict taste test.

“Well, do your best in making Okonomiyaki, na. If any monsters turned up, it’s fine to just use your magic to kill them without mercy. You can also use the Health Restoration Items in the shop. As for me, I normally just use Magical Healing on myself.”

“I’d certainly won’t lose with so many items here…”
Natalia was impressed by the ground breaking idea of opening a shop within the dungeons.

“Actually, I had plans to open another shop deeper within the dungeon. The problem is, the deeper it is, the less customers we’ll get. Not to mention staffing problems, I can only hire high level adventurers for the job.”

“So, rather than adventurers, what you’re really looking for are shopkeepers…”

“Anyway, we’ll just have to take each day as they come. One day at a time.”

Now that she thought about it, she had been devoting herself to the matter of business making and had not explored the dungeons for a long while.

At any rate, Haruna had no problem challenging the dungeons all the way down to Level 84.

“I’m now at Level 30, should I go all the way to Level 35, na?”

There were almost no humans at that level. The monsters there were some of the first prey she had killed when she first came to this world. After a while, only the sounds of strikes were heard. In other words, the sound of monsters getting beaten up.

“Tei! Tei!”

The sword swung and monsters were cut down, more than a few of them immediately melted into magic stones.

Haruna’s sword was an excellent investment, the best money could buy in terms of hacking and chopping the enemy to pieces. However, Haruna never did have any formal training as a swordsman. The thought of an Osakan Auntie having sword skill was just too absurd, no matter how badass she was. Most of the time she just randomly hacked her way through, over and over again.

Nevertheless, that was enough to get her all the way down to Level 84.

“You there, you have too many openings, yan. Well then, hand over your magic stones! It’s not like you’ll ever spend the money at Shinchi anyway!”

 

Shinchi is actually a red-light district near Umeda. North Shinchi is also popular for regular drinking and night clubbing.

 

As expected of Level 35 floor, all the monsters that appeared were all powerful beings.

Haruna was currently facing off against a turtle monster covered by a hard rock shell. Clearly a creature with super high defence power. The creature was a Rock Turtle — and all it took was one strike from Haruna, and the protective shell shattered to pieces.

“Well now, that sounded a lot like a thunder clap, na.”

After that, an extremely ugly monkey, high level demon-type monster attacked — as expected, it was destroyed with just one hit.

“Monkeys should just go back to Minoh!”

 

Minoh is a place North of Osaka that is famous for its mountain, kind of like Tokyo’s Mt. Takao. Its popularity was due to the numerous waterfalls and the brilliant colour changing leaves during autumn. Minoh is Osaka’s Number 1 choice for a mountain hike.

Additionally, there are lots of monkeys at Mt Hiei, which lies between Kyoto and Shiga Prefecture. There is also a famous shinto shrine at the foot of the hill dedicated to the worship of a monkey god.

 

Next, the thing that charged out was a wild boar, which was as large as a bear.

“Wild boars should just go back to Mt Rokko or Tamba’s Mt Sasa!”

That monster was also quickly hacked by Haruna’s sword.

 

Mt Rokko, as suggested, has lots of wild boars on it. Additionally, Sasayama City, which was named after Tamba’s Mt. Sasa, or Sasayama, is particularly famous for its wild boar stew [3]. Sasayama City is only an hour from Osaka by train.

 

[Gumihou: Lots of random information about Osaka and Kansai area, makes me want to visit and try things like wild boar hotpot! Please continue to support kitchennovel dot com]

 

[1] Hanshin Electric Railway – Private Railway Group that links Osaka and Kobe

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanshin_Electric_Railway

[2] Ebe-san, short for Ebisu-san – God of luck and fortune

[3] Wild Boar stew – Also known as Botan Nabe – Botan actually means peony, as in the flower, for the appearance of meat which was arranged in a flower pattern. Another name for this dish is just Inoshishi nabe – literally Wild Boar Stew