Chapter 020: Peerless Mister Fer

Re-Translated by Gumihou

Please read this at kitchennovel dot com

 

“Fuwaaahh… I slept really well,” I sighed, caressing the soft futon. Sleep quality depends a lot on beddings after all. Hohoho-

[6] …ho

“Hooouu! What’s this!!?”

I was surrounded by corpses.

Three mountains worth of corpses!!!!

“Fer! Fer! What’s this pile of dead bodies? Isn’t this overkill?! Even for you?!!”

Fer was still smirking even with his eyes closed. He had been napping when I grabbed the back of his neck and tried to shake him. 

However, he was sleeping so well that I couldn’t shake him awake.

Aaaahhhh!! What should I do now?!

First, let’s put everything into the [Item Box]. I had noticed this unique feature about the [Item Box]. [6] As someone who cooks all the time, I’m sensitive to food spoilage and tend to check my ingredients often. The meat and vegetables from a week ago were all as fresh as the day I stuck them into the [Item Box].

“Haaa…” I sighed at the three mountains of corpses, trying to decide how to start.

“[Appraisal],” let’s identify and categorize the monsters first and decide what to do with them later. I could always sell them wholesale to Adventurer’s Guilds if there are really too many of them.

The other option is to learn Dismantling, but… I know this is going to sound hypocritical but I don’t think I have the stomach for the blood and gore involved in the actual butchering.

Augh, let’s not think about that.

Anyway, let’s see. Hmm,

1 x Giant Dodo

1 x Giant Deer

Both of which were larger than the ones Fer caught before.

3 x Rockbirds

Well, Rockbirds were basically the local giant chicken. It’s delicious so it’s fine to have more than one.

1 x Black Serpent

1 x Murder Grizzly

Both of these have lots of valuable stuff in them, so it’s a good thing!

Though… I’m a little scared to think how much money they would fetch.

1 x Red Serpent

I could only really see the head, but to my inexperienced eye, it looked bigger than the Black Serpent. It might well be bigger than normal Red Serpents.

5 x Orc Generals

1 x Orc King

…

Wait.

Wait, wait, wait!

To have Orc Generals, you must have Orc Armies, right?

To have 5 Orc Generals that means… a whole lot of Orc Soldiers?

Mister Fer?

What did you do?

I was still standing there like a stunned idiot when Peerless Mister Fer finally deigned to wake up.

“Mu, what is it?” Fer blinked at me, as though I was the one who had done something outrageous.

I waved a hand at the three mountains of corpses. “What. Is. That?”

“Mmm, the result of my very successful hunting.” He looked very pleased with himself.

“No, no, no, I mean, I get that. But, but, isn’t this a little too much?!”

“Mu, I was filled with energy yesterday. It was like having wings under my feet. It was tiring but very fun too.”

“Haa… setting that aside. This Orc King here. If there’s an Orc King surely there are other… ordinary Orcs? Soldier Orcs?”

“I stumbled over an Orc Village. I was going to leave them alone but they attacked. So naturally, I treated them to a blood festival,” he smirked. “I only brought the Orc Generals and Orc King back since stronger monsters are tastier.”

… what was that about a blood festival?

“H-how big was the village?”

“Hmm, about 150 beings?”

“H- h- h- hundred and f-f-f-”

I had known, of course, that Fer was very strong. However, when powered up with Other World food, he became ridiculously powerful.

Orcs were not the last of it.

I reluctantly appraised the rest of the pile.

4 x Ogres

“… can Ogres be eaten?”

“Too muscular and hard, not good for eating. However, Ogre skin are prized by humans for their durability. I believe they are a popular material for armour. I can’t eat it, but you can sell it for money.”

“Aah, I see.” I admit, I was a little touched by Fer’s thoughtfulness. I continued to appraise.

1 x Blue Ogre

Well, aside from its blue skin, it did not look much different from the standard Ogre. A variant? It might fetch a little more if a rich Adventurer wants an armour made out of a Blue Ogre.

Next is

1 x Metal Lizard

I stared at the ridiculous grey-ish silver lizard with metal like skin. It was clearly quite dead, but I can’t see how it was killed. There was no obvious cuts or contusion or… you know what? I don’t want to know.

This poor Metal Lizard must have died a miserable death.

Namu Amida Butsu… may you have peace in your next life.

Finally, we also have

1 x Chimera.

“… eh? That sounds kind of familiar, isn’t that monster the kind that usually appears as a… last boss?”

I blinked past the glowy words labelling the monster as ‘Chimera’. It has a lion head, next to it was a goat’s head, instead of a tail, it has a snake’s head and body…

[6] “… it’s a Chimera,” I said blankly.

“Umu, Chimeras are quite delicious you know? Usually, I had to put in a lot of effort to defeat them. But I took this one down with just one hit last night.”

[6] “Are you bragging?” He’s totally bragging, isn’t he?

This thing has to be beyond A Rank!

If I were to present this thing to the Adventurer’s Guild…. Uwoooh!!! A chill ran down my spine!

No!

Never!

This Chimera will sleep in my [Item Box] forever!

Forever and ever!

While I was still suffering from my crisis, Fer said, “I’m hungry.”

“Haha,” even though you ate a lot last night?

Well, it can’t be helped.

I silently stored the three mountains worth of Monsters into my [Item Box]. While I was at it, I packed away my beddings too.

Haaa, the clearing doesn’t look so bad now that the mountains of monsters were gone. However, last night taught me one important fact.

Giving Fer too much Other World food is a Bad Thing.

Vegetables and seasonings are still fine, so are staple food like spaghetti and rice, but meat is an absolute no, no.

In the future, I must plan menus mostly around meat caught in this world only or face the consequences of my actions again.

That’s right, moderation is the key.

Hmm, since we had a lot of pork and beef yesterday, let’s have chicken today.

I’m going to make a Japanese-Style Chicken Sauté.

First, cut the Cockatrice meat until it’s fairly wide and thin, about ¾ of an inch is fine, making sure to only take the parts with the skin on. I’ll make Karaage or stir fry the skinless meat later. Season the meat with a little salt and pepper after removing excess fat.

Next, cover the frying pan with a little oil. Once the pan is hot, place the Cockatrice skin side down and let it sizzle. If the cuts are thick, cover the pan with a lid to help with the cooking process.

Oh, to ensure even cooking, place a drop-lid on the Cockatrice to make sure that the meat is pressed firmly against the pan. I normally just do this with a spatula at home, but I’m cooking large amounts now so a drop-lid is helpful since I have to cover the meat to make sure the meat is cooked through.

Once the skin has turned golden brown, flip it over to fry the other side as well.

When the Cockatrice is done cooking, remove it from the pan and set it aside.

Now it’s time to make the sauce.

I remove most of the leftover oil from the pan. With the remaining oil, I stirred in butter and lemon juice (100% pure from a bottle), once the mixture began to bubble, I add a splash of soy sauce (because I’m Japanese) and the Lemon-Butter Sauce is done.

Lemon and butter on its own is delicious, but I always thought soy sauce gave it more depth. Anyway, I poured this Japanised Lemon-Butter Sauce over my Cockatrice and it’s done.

“Fer, it’s time to eat.”

Normally, I’d slice the Chicken Sauté and lay it out neatly next to a bed of vegetables, but today I just served them whole to Fer who wolfed them down hungrily.

I pressed my portion of Chicken Sauté between two slices of bread and ate it as Chicken Sauté Sandwich. Next to me was a canned coffee, the same brand as the one I had last night.

Ah, this is the life.

The Cockatrice was delicious, the canned coffee too. Hmm, maybe I should just get a whole case of it next time?

I should get instant coffee too. Hot coffee has its own charm after all, along with milk and sugar.

My stock of seasoning is running low too, I should get more Steak Sauce. Along with a variety of vegetables, can’t forget that. Let’s do some shopping tonight.

“Seconds,”

“Yes, yes,” I continued to list down the things I needed to buy from [Net Super] as I pan-fried more Cockatrice for Fer. Naturally, I served them with different kinds of sauces.

Finally, Fer had enough.

After cleaning and putting everything away, I got up and stretched.

“Shall we go?”

Thus, our journey continued.

Naturally, I kept training my magic along the way.

 

[Gumihou: Hmm, the chicken dish sounds easy enough to make]

 

[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