Chapter 250: Reliable Leader
Translated by Zzonkedd
Edited by Gumihou and Onionpi
Please read this at kitchennovel dot com
[6] We decided to take a break and sleep in the safe room before continuing our journey the next day. [8] The next morning, I treated the people from the [Ark] to breakfast.
It was kind of hard not to since they were all looking at me expectantly, especially Feodora-san. [8] Have you ever been stared at expectantly by a beautiful woman before? It’s rather difficult to deny a woman when she stares at you with those shiny eyes…
[6] Ahem.Anyway, breakfast for today is the donburi.
[8] To be more precise, the Minced Meat Donburi, topped with plenty of stir-fried minced meat, shredded cabbage and, hmm, let’s go with raw egg yolks to make it a little more luxurious. [6] I got out few wooden bowls and padded the bottom with rice, covered it with lots of minced meat and made a ring of shredded cabbage over the brown meat. Then, I expertly cracked an egg, scooped out the intact yolk and plopped it right in the middle of the shredded cabbage ring. Fufufu, the green and brown rings with a bright yellow centre looks really attractive. [6] It did not take long to assemble the food. [6] Naturally, my familiars get much bigger portions with three egg yolks in the centre. [6] “Alright, time to eat!”Fer, Sui and Dora-chan sucked the egg yolks up first before digging into the meat and rice. This is… not exactly the correct way of eating, but it works I guess.
Yosh, time to dig in~
“Ahem, excuse me, Mukouda-san,” Elland-san interrupted me. “But, how do we eat this?”
[9] “Oh? Oh! Sorry, sorry, this is a rather unique delicacy in my home town, hahaha,” I had completely forgotten about my guests! My fantasy world guests who had never seen rice before! Didn’t I specifically buy black bread to avoid being seen as strange? To think I outed myself by serving them strange Other World Japonica rice!! [9] Keep calm, keep calm, unique delicacies could be found in unexpected places. So, I’m not busted yet. [9] I hope. [9] Let’s just brazen it through.“So,” I said loudly. “This is how you eat it. First, break the yolk with the spoon and mix it into the minced meat. Then you eat it with the rice, like this,” I demonstrated the move and stuffed my mouth full.
[9] Please don’t ask me about the rice.Most of the [Ark’s] attention was focussed on Elland-san and Feodora-san. Demonstrating the ‘To know if something’s delicious, ask an elf’ attitude. [9] A drop of sweat rolled down my back, I’m fairly sure of my cooking, but the rice! Are they going to ask me about where I get these ‘grains’?
[9] While I was busy trying to come up with a plausible story, Feodora-san and Elland-san solemnly mixed their egg yolk and meat before lifting a bit of the egg yolk infused meat for a sniff.Suddenly, their eyes widened and they dug their spoons deeper into the rice bowl, scooped up rice, meat and shredded cabbages together and stuffed their cheeks. [6] Aside from the voracious ‘paku paku’ sounds of eating, nothing was heard from these two elves.
As for the men of the [Ark], they slowly switched their gazes from the gobbling elves to their bowls. [9] My spoon trembled.
[6] The men broke the yolks and mixed them with the minced meat. [9] Here it comes. [6] They stuffed their mouths with rice and meat in one go and chewed with their eyes closed. [9] I’m having trouble swallowing now. Water, where’s the water… [6] “Mukouda-san,” said Gaudino-san. [9] “Here!” I squeaked, coughed and said in a more normal tone. “Ahem, yes?”“I never thought of eating eggs raw before, but this is… really delicious…”
… breathe, I need to breathe! “Haa, hahaha, i-is that so? Hahaha…”
“Mmm, I always believed that raw eggs would spoil one’s stomach. Well, it might still spoil the stomach, but it’s unexpectedly delicious,” said Siegwald-san as he chewed his mouthful thoughtfully.
“A- ah, that is, the eggs must be very fresh! I certainly don’t recommend eating raw eggs from an unknown source. Overall, it’s better to cook them for safety’s sake, but I happen to come across some very fresh eggs and thought I’d make this special hometown delicacy…”
[9] Stop talking! I should stop talking. [5] [8] Luckily, Fer happened to come and nudge me with his bowl, “Seconds” [6] “Excuse me, I need to feed my familiars!” [5]“It’s my first time eating raw eggs too, but I must say it’s pretty delicious. The combination of the yolk and the minced meat created a kind of mellow taste that’s almost like a sauce that goes really well with this grain.”
[9] I stiffened. However, there was no follow up. Everyone was more shocked by the raw egg. Why are you guys like this? Never mind, I don’t care, I’m eternally grateful. May the gods and goddesses preserve my mental health.I was more than happy to refill Elland-san’s empty bowl. As for Feodora-san, ah, you don’t have to look at me furtively like that, I’ll gladly fill your bowl too. [5]
“Would anyone else like seconds?” [9] As long as no one asks awkward questions, eat! Eat as much as you like!
“Please,”
“Ah, me too,”
“Same for me.”
I was more than happy to assemble these Soboro Donburi for them. As expected from Adventurers. Well, I am one too, but one bowl is good enough for me.
In fact, Feodora-san had three helpings. I had to wonder where those meat and rice went…
Naturally, my familiars ate a lot more and their bowls are much bigger. [TZ 1] So even if the number of ‘seconds’ are the same, my familiars still won the quantity challenge.
After breakfast, we all lie back with full stomachs and a satisfied sigh.
“By the way,” Gaudino-san sat up and looked solemnly at us. “I know it’s probably unreasonable for me to ask for anything more after all that you’ve done for us…”
“Eh?” I sat up seriously. “Ah, please speak your mind.” [9] As long as it has nothing to do with the origin of the rice…
[4] “Our party came down to the 14th floor knowing that it’s the Insect Zone. We thought we were well prepared with one vial of antidote per person. However, we did not anticipate the great number of special individual monsters…” [4] [8] “We had already used up three of the four vials,” said Gideon-san seriously. “We’ve talked it over and decide to return to the surface and re-evaluate our strategy.” [8] “That is to say,” Gaudino-san continued, “I’d be very grateful if we could join your party up to the Boss Room. Once there, we’ll get back to the surface on our own.”Gaudino-san and his team members were all A Rankers. How terrible must the danger be for them to ask for help like this? Well, it’s all the same for me since my familiars were the ones who sweep all the enemies away. [5]
“Elland-san, what do you think?”
“Well, you’re the party leader, so it’s really up to you. I mean, the rest of us hardly need to fight with you around.”
[6] “Ahahaha,” More like, with Fer and the rest around, I thought.Members of the [Ark] looked at each other, unsure if Elland-san was joking.
“Excuse me, if your party wants to return to the surface, doesn’t it make sense to back instead of moving forward?” We’re not far from the stairs to the 13th floor after all.
“That’s what we’d normally do, but there’s a way to get to the 11th floor from the Boss Room, we don’t have to go through floors 13 and 12 if we go through the Boss Room,” said Gaudino-san.
“Oh yes, there’s that way too, but I hardly ever used it,” said Elland-san. “It’s kind of like a backdoor to the upper floors. It utilizes a magic circle that sends Adventurers to either the surface or a safer floor.”
“Oh,” I said. “So, it’s kind of like a fail-safe.”
“Yes,” said Elland-san with an enigmatic smile. “However, the magic needed to activate the magic circle is quite high, depending on the Adventurer’s level. B Rank Adventurers would need 4 magic stones worth of magic to teleport. However, an A Ranker only needs 2 magic stones worth. [6] I guess this must be a way to discourage beginners from simply teleporting away when the going gets tough.” [5]
“We plan to go to the 11th floor and slowly make our way back. It would be a waste of this dungeon trip to return to the surface right away,” said Gaudino-san.
Siegwald-san said, “I’m glad Gaudino-san is our party leader, he’s very thorough and careful, and always acts in the members’ best interest.”
“Yeah,” said Gideon-san. “It was a miscalculation this time, we were just trying to decide on the best way to get out of this place with one antidote when you guys came.”
Feodora-san said nothing, but she nodded fervently several times.
“Ahem, enough of that,” said Gaudino-san. “It only makes sense to be careful. If there’s a way to prolong one’s life, one should take it.”
“Oooh, I can totally get behind that!” I said enthusiastically.
Safety first!
[TZ 1: I have no idea why he felt the need to say this at this moment, but okay…] [Gumi: Lol, I can’t [5] the bowl statement away since Zzonkedd commented on it, but I guess it’s just to pad the chapter? Which author-san could totally do with rice, but I guess he’s too Japanese to realise that not everyone know what rice is]
[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 [9] Donburi = Rice Bowl
I know everyone and their dog in Japan probably know what donburi or at least recognise what ‘rice’ is. However, since even Fer only called it ‘a grain’, I’m surprised no one said anything about it especially since they made a such huge fuss about raw eggs.
This is why Gumihou decides to include it as part of a little cultural talk thing. Especially in the wake of Uncle Roger and the colander rice incident.
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I guess mukouda forgot about the buffing effects of his food. An did guess the author did too huh. Thanks for the chapter gumiho
Hmm, rather than buffing effects. It’s the effect of turtle meat. The meat came from this world after all.
Idk what’s all the deal about rice, I mean, thinking that rice is only known in Japan is WRONG. to my understanding, rice is pretty much a staple food all around the world. The only cultures I’ve seen where rice isn’t an every day meal are those descendend from European and even so more like, English and it’s descendants.
I could be wrong, but I think rice is pretty prevalent in the “Latin” europe? Italy, Portugal and Spain? Just France that isn’t? Just maybe not everyday food? Though I think Italians do eat a lot of rice?
But I mean, whole Asia rice is a staple, everyday food. I think in India also, no?
And then here in Latin America. Rice and beans is just – the go to, everyday food.
I know here in Brazil it is. And I think it’s the same for everybody else in Latin America?
Idk much about African cuisine, but lots of Arabic and Turkish foods have rice. And a quick Google says in some parts of Africa it is.
A BBC article says that it’s a staple food of around 3.5 billion people, considering we’re 7.7-7.8 billion then it’s almost half of the world population.
So, hardly only known in Japan/Asia. It’s almost a 50-50 chance of being someone’s daily food or not.
And food exchange has been going for so long, sure, many things depended on the world discovery age, but rice?? Rice started being cultivated in Europe in 10th century.
So yeah… Their fantasy world seems more like Renaissance up, not full medieval. Not that big stretch to have rice. It depends more on climate than on how developed ships were.
Corn, tomatoes, cocoa/chocolate… These should be the elusive ones. Cause they were exclusive to the Americas. I don’t remember but, if they had corn and tomato being sold on the market but not rice, I call bs.
Fer could have calling it a grain could be because he was basically a carnivore. So everything not meat = some grain/some vegetal.
And just to comment it separately. I watched the video.
I don’t know who this uncle Roger is but, he’s pretty much spot on.
Actually, washing or no the rice (BEFORE COOKING ok) depends on the rice, and is sort of polemic. Back in time rice HAD to be washed cause they added – I don’t know if it was literally chalk but yeah… Some white powder thing to make it last.
But nowadays technology has advanced and it isn’t as imperative.
I remember cause there were a lot of tv shows discussing it and yes much polemic on the issue. Cause many of our moms grandmas etc continue washing rice and will continue to do so until the end of time.
But now, it’s technically okay not to do so anymore. At least here.
But now, this thing about washing COOKED RICE??
Oh My God. This is a monstrosity. I didn’t even know that was called a colander in English, I thought it was called sieve but anyways. It IS an abomination. The uncle is completely right.
HOW DARES SHE THINK SHE KNOWS HOW TO COOK RICE AND PASS THAT ON AS RIGHT
omg someone get that video down!!
I agree with the dude. Actually scratching a metal spoon on a pan is more acceptable than that evil abomination. (I’m not joking, that’s almost on the level of horror/cultural insult).
I can’t imagine anyone that knows how to cook, and that eats rice daily not look at that and be utterly dismayed. Even those that don’t know how to cook. If you eat rice daily, you’ve certainly seen a pot full of just ready and warm rice. Probably on these days you just get the pot directly to the table.
And his “does she think it’s pasta” was so true and spot on it made me laugh.
Well, rice is not known in that world after all. Some isekai (i forgot here) make rice as fodder since they didnt know rice could be cooked.
..as for eggs, i cook my sunny side up without completely cooking the yolk, but not cooking it entirely? im weirded out by the texture of the raw egg whites so no for me hahaha.
Tho we top sizzling dishes with raw egg, let it cook on the plate as it was mixed with the food
Oh yeah, I remember this, vaguely, everyone was like ‘you’re eating horse feed??!!’
But not memorable for me to even recall if the MC was male or female. Probably female.
Can’t say no to uncle Roger videos in my case
Had to watch it
Well, it’s not like the average person would know this, right?
Also, since the only carb mentioned by Mukouda-san in Fantasy Western World are the black bread, surely it would be in character for him to worry over nothing?
The scene was mainly added for funnies, otherwise, it would be close to 500 words only.
As Philip from above indicated, this was not on NU.
Thanks for the treat.
This chapter doesn’t appear in NU feed, for some reason, only the next one(251). Feels like very little content here, since it’s mostly about Mukoda being scared of bad impressions for his cooking, since he used raw egg yolk. Them Japanese and rice.
Thanks for the chapter! Awesome translation! May God bless you!
Yeah, that’s why I padded it up with proper worries.
Rice to meet you.
Also, I thought I’d fixed it. Which I did, but forgot to update my fix…