Leave a comment

I was watching them hunting horned rabbits from the side, but… since this was their first time… I probably should’ve expected this?

Anyway, the first rabbit was a disaster. Maricle still couldn’t use the shield well, and the three girls found it hard to find the timing to stab the rabbit with the spear. They managed to defeat it, but… the rabbit was full of holes. The corpse was cruelly stabbed to death. They only had to get used to this.

“…There are so many holes.”
“The taste won’t really change when you eat it.”
“That’s right…”

After killing the first rabbit, I hung it near my tent outside the forest to drain the blood from the meat. I dug a hole right under it so the blood would drip there. I would put the internal organs into that hole once I dismantled the rabbit, then bury it. Other monsters and wild animals would gather if I drained the blood or dismantled it in the forest, so we should do it like this even if it was troublesome. I could just do it quickly, but they were all still amateurs. This would be a good lesson for them.

Once I drain the blood and dismantle the first rabbit, we went to the forest again to look for the second one. By the way, I gifted them a leather bag to store the dismantled materials. I put the skin, meat, and horns in separate bags. For now, I put the leather bag in my tent. By the way, I got the bones. I wonder if we should eat dashi after this.

They got more used in using their weapons when battling with the second rabbit. Maricle struck the rabbit to the ground while warding it off and made a gap for the girls to attack. The three girls stabbed their spears at that chance and won. They sure got used to this fast.

I finished dismantling the second animal quickly, and they hunted the third, fourth, and fifth animals smoothly. Their eyes were sparkling as they saw the bulging bag full of meat. Hm.

By the way, the reason they managed to hunt a lot of rabbits continuously was that Norn and Bell scared the rabbits out of their hiding place. As expected from Norn. Eh? What did I do? I was collecting herbs while everyone else was working hard. After this, I was planning to grill and eat the meat, so I needed this to teach them simple cooking methods. I wasn’t idle at all. Buying seasoning was expensive after all.

In the first place, it would be wrong to expect me to have melee combat capabilities. In my past life, I used to have pretty good reflexes, though… I wonder why did I become like this.

When they were hunting the sixth rabbit, they started to aim for the vitals as soon as possible. They could sell the skin, so of course, it would be better to make sure there were fewer holes in the skin.

Maricle finally learned how to do a shield bash on the seventh rabbit. Before the rabbit could fall on the ground after being knocked on the tree trunk, the girls stabbed it with their spears and pinned it onto the tree until it stopped breathing.

By the way, the horned rabbit was relatively large. It was around forty centimeters from head to tail, so even one rabbit could give a lot of meat. I mean, it was still August now. Even if they caught this many, it would become rotten immediately if they left it at room temperature… Let’s think about this problem a little.

“This is the eight rabbit, right?”
“Wow! A lot of meat!”
“What should we do now? Continue hunting!?”

Hmm, the three people other than Triela who I had been feeding were energetic, but… they should stop here.

“Stop. We’ll end this here today.”
“Eh!? But we can still go!”
“If you hunt too much, the meat will get rotten.”
“Ahhh, that’s right!?”
“I think selling it is also a good idea, but there are some things you have to consider. However, you all did a great job today.”
“Really!?”
“Yes. So let’s stop here and eat right now.”

Aged meat was more delicious, but thinking every single detail was troublesome, so let’s eat freshly caught meat. One rabbit should be enough to fill two people’s stomachs… I should use three rabbits for now.

“Triela, Arle, Kuro, please help me. Maricle, please shave the wood and make skewers.”
“I understand.”
“We’ll work hard!”
“Leave it to me.”

I made a simple furnace with earth magic, collected dry woods, and started the fire. In addition, I made a cooking table with earth magic and cleaned the surface with [Washing]. I gave kitchen knives to the three girls and have them cut the meat into bite-sized pieces. Since I was planning to grill the meat with herbs, I chopped the herbs I collected. Then I pour the cut meat, chopped herbs, and salt into the pan and mix it thoroughly and evenly.

“So this plant can be used for cooking?”
“It can last for a long time once dried, so you should collect them later.”

Hmm, they would need these ingredients if they were going to cook their own food in the future. I wanted to give them 2kg of salt, but it would be too heavy and troublesome… I should give them when we returned to the town, I guess. My storage used ton as a unit, so I could even give them 100kg. After all, storage skill was convenient. Couldn’t I somehow make a magic bag for everyone…

Ah, I had to continue cooking. After leaving the mixture for a while, I stabbed the meat with the skewer and grilled it. Everyone ate the meat in order, starting from the grilled ones.

“What is this, delicious!”
“Ren, delish!”
“This is delicious…”

The three people who weren’t accustomed to eating too much meat could only say that it was delicious. Triela and I smiled bitterly and started eating.

“Hmm, Ren’s food is really delicious. But what should we do, Rico won’t be happy…”

“Should I make a little more for you to bring home later?”
“But it will get cold, right? We’ll have meat for a while, so I want to let her eat it when it’s freshly made.”

Arle made an unexpected proposal when we were thinking about Rico.

“Then we can just make it in the inn, right? We have a furnace in the shared backyard in our current inn. There’s nothing like that in the previous inn, though.”
“Eh, really? I never noticed.”
“Yeah. It seems like we can use the firewood for a cheap price because they’re using cheap scrap woods. We can bring back the meat for four people and make it there.”
“Huh? You guys changed your inn?”
“Ah, Ren. I haven’t told you? We changed to a nice inn the other day.”

At the inn where they stayed before, they slept together in a huddle. That was to prevent other adventurers from getting in and steal their belongings. They also gathered in large number for safety and prevent crime. After all, orphans who just came from the countryside easily got duped. Arle also added that that’s the reason they were together with Cain. If they didn’t have to, they wouldn’t include the three fools.

Still, the room they rented didn’t have any lock. If they left their belongings and went out, it might be stolen by the inn’s people. Therefore, they moved to an inn closer to the center of the town rather than the outer walls, which also served as crime prevention.

They chose their current inn after gathering information from the senior adventurers and the beginner adventurers in the same age they were acquainted with, only moving once they were sure that the inn was credible.

There was an additional charge for the meal on the ground floor which served as a bar and dining room. They could eat there or in their room. Arle said that they could also cook their own meals using the furnace in the shared backyard. If they wanted to wipe their body, they needed to draw the water by themselves from the well in the backyard, and there was a charge for hot water. It seemed like Triela rented two rooms for four people and separated the boys and girls.

“You guys are raising the grade straight away, I see.”
“No, the inn is cheaper than I expected. We can lock our room and we don’t have to worry about our things getting stolen like before.”

Then it’s a relief, I guess? To be honest, I was a little worried about how they would keep the shields and weapons I made today. I had a bad habit of acting without thinking… I couldn’t fix it all.

“Then it’s better to cook it at the inn. Did you remember how to make it?”
“I did! Can I also sell this when I open a store one day?”

By the way, Arle had always loved cooking.

“Right, I’ll give this knife for Arle. As well as this pot and frying pan.”
“Really!?”

The knife and pot were the ones I used earlier. I pretended to take out the frying pan from my bag even though I took it from my [Storage]. Let’s make Arle become the party’s cook. It’s the best choice to let the motivated child do what they wanted.

“Please take care of it, okay?”
“Thank you, Ren!”

Arle hugged me tightly. Hohoho, Arle’s dere side finally appeared now!? I didn’t hate the previous Tsundere Arle, but I also wanted to see affectionate Arle!

Setting aside my ulterior motive, a pot and frying pan should broaden her cooking range a little, right?

“Well then, let’s go home after collecting the herbs, okay?”
“Ah, is there any other herbs that can be used for cooking other than the previous one?”
“There is. This one, and this one…”
“Ohhhh!”

After cleaning up my tent, I decided to go back to the town after collecting the herbs for a reasonable amount of time while telling her about edible herbs. Ah, I also get rid of the furnace properly.