Tondemo Fanfiction - 028 - Employees [Part 4]

Mukouda’s Employees [Part 4]

Bartel

“Cheers!”

“Drink up! Drink up!”

“Ou!”

“Gahahah!”

Bartel chugged his whisky down.

He could see the wince on Mukouda-san’s face as he swallowed the contents of the glass bottle in less than five gulps. Honestly speaking, it wasn’t that strong…

However, Mukouda-san had some fixed ideas on how certain alcohol should be drunk, and he tried to respect that. Really, he did. However, the beer that most of the others liked was like water to him, so it had to be whisky!

Ah, whisky… that sublime drink…

He had not realised there were so many different kinds of alcohol until he came to become Mukouda-san’s possession. Honestly speaking, he was eating and drinking way better as a slave than he ever had, which was probably why he blew all his money on ale.

What was that? Why would he spend good money on bad alcohol?

In the first place, Bartel would like everyone to know that there’s no such thing as bad alcohol.

There’s alcohol, there’s good alcohol, and then there are the ones supplied by Mukouda-san. That’s right, Mukouda-san’s alcohol choices are on a completely different level and, therefore, could not be compared.

While he would love to drink whisky every day, he was not audacious enough to beg his owner to supply him with the good stuff every day.

That said…

There’s no reason not to enjoy the free flow of drinks during these parties!

“Oi, Dwarf, your smoked cheese is delicious,” said the Ancient Dragon.

“Ou, it is a privilege to be complimented by the great dragon,” Bartel lifted his glass bottle. “I’ll drink to that!”

“Ou, me too!”

“Hey, save some for me!” one of the twins, Irvine, yelped as he set out the smoked meats and cheeses.

As the youngest, he was tasked to serve the snacks that Bartel had already prepared earlier. The human female, Theresa, always made sure to set aside a bit of embers at the end of her baking for him to try out his little experiments.

Unlike most other Dwarves, he never really did have any patience for smithing. Sure, he could craft a decent knife or even a sword, but he had never been really good at it. Recently, he had found a passion for smoked goods. Other Dwarves would probably laugh if they found out just how much he enjoyed playing about with the little fire and smoke, testing out wood chips and smoking all kinds of cheese, meats and anything else he could think of…

However, they were not here, and everyone within the residence enjoyed the result of his experiments! Haha! Even little Lotte enjoyed the smoked egg and cheese sandwich he had made for her last time, that cute little tyke.

However, the most important thing was that these smoked snacks matched well with a great variety of drinks! To the point that even the local drinkers pestered him for his snacks! There was even that one tavern that tried to get him to supply them with a steady shipment of smoked cheese. Which was awkward considering he was still a slave…

Naturally, he brought the matter up with Mukouda-san.

Instead of getting angry or suspicious, Mukouda-san showed interest in his smoked products! How amazing! The human even offered him a ridiculous amount of ‘seed money’ to start a small cottage-style business consisting of smoked food.

At first, Bartel had refused. Mostly out of confusion, but Mukouda-san had been insistent in that passive, aggressive way of his. And, well, he really wanted to continue with his experiments too, so…

What had started as a whim now became a regular thing for him. He would buy meat and cheese as well as anything that caught his eye at the market, and try smoking them. As for selling…

“Brokk and Dvalin’s at the gate. They want some cheese and smoked meats,” said Luke, the twin who was on guard duty today.

“Huh? Didn’t they just come a couple of days ago? Tell them to leave, we don’t have enough,” said Luke irritably.

That’s right, he had roped the twins into his industry. Tabasa had decided that this was good for the twins and, uh, encouraged them.

Well, with how insulated they were within Mukouda-san’s residence, it was a good idea to make them participate in activities that would have them interact with the world outside.

As for Bartel himself, he was having fun with his little smoke and fire business.

Life was excellent.

Irvine

“Ugh, we only have a couple of pounds of cheese left. Tell them to come next week!” said Irvine.

Luke made a rude gesture at his brother but ran off to deliver the message. Ever since Bartel started selling his ‘Smoked Snacks’, alcoholics started turning up at their gate at a regular basis, demanding to buy the snacks.

It felt a little odd to be doing something that did not involve being with his twin all the time. He, Luke and Tabasa had been together for as long as he could remember. Tabasa was their naggy elder sister, who would always bail them out of trouble, while Luke was his fellow troublemaker.

They had joined an Adventurer’s party together, gone on missions together and later, had been thrown into slavery together.

Oddly enough, it was only once they were chucked into this place that the three of them finally started doing their own thing. They had even lived together until recently. Tabasa now has her own space with Peter and… Mukouda had given the twins their own rooms, and Irvine had to admit that it was nice to have his own space for his own things.

Being together with Luke was great, but it was nice to have things that he did not have to share either.

The project started by Bartel was kind of like a hobby. A delicious hobby, one that he found great interest in, especially with Luke doing more and more escort work with Costi. In a way, Irvine was a little less sociable than Luke, not that most people could tell.

He had… really liked making these snacks with Bartel.

It was nice to make things. It was different from fighting. Drinking was fun too, it was especially fun to find out why certain smoke work with certain foods and how well the end result go with alcohol.

He had always watched Bartel chugged at whisky in dismay. Surely it is better to take a little sip followed by a little bite of the smoked cheese? Alcohol and smoked food have one great thing in common and that was the time and effort put into the goods.

Therefore, surely it is better to savour the snacks and drinks slowly?

He had never thought of alcohol as anything but a drink to get drunk on. However, after observing the way Mukouda-san sipped and nibbled at his snacks, Irvine had tried it too and…

It was great.

It was really nice to slow down and enjoy life…

[Gumihou: Well, that became a little more introspective than I had expected…]

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