"Heave-ho..."
Choosing a day when snow had piled up and no visitors came to the royal castle to play, I decided to sort through my Magic Bag and Dimension Bag. The reason stemmed from when I had taken Gramps and the others to an izakaya recently.
After we finished our meal there, I'd put the souvenirs for Slarin and the others into the Magic Bag, and that's when I realized—I had quite a lot of leftover purchased souvenirs still sitting in there.
This was largely due to my own poor management, but another reason was that once things were placed in a Magic Bag, they lasted for what could be called a semi-permanent amount of time. So, I thought I'd check what was inside each bag and get rid of the unnecessary items.
Right now, I had seven Magic Bags in total—four in use and three unused. I also had five Dimension Bags—three in use and two unused.
Among the Magic Bags in use were some I'd received from the gods, while the Dimension Bags included ones used by Slarin and the others, one exclusively for Raiiden, and another I used as a storage compartment. Slarin's group's bag, shared by all the Familiars except Raiiden, was the largest, followed by Raiiden's exclusive one, then the unused bags, and finally the storage compartment bag.
The storage bag held items requiring the passage of time (unfinished miso and soy sauce, aged meat, etc.), and when separating things into room temperature and low temperature, I used a spare bag to divide them. Since it was currently just the miso and soy sauce, I only needed one storage bag.
"Just a quick look, and there's already a ton of food-related stuff..."
Most of the food was in the Magic Bags, but even a cursory check showed that nearly a third of the contents were food-related. There were ingredients, seasonings, and finished products all together. It wasn't a problem to leave them as they was, but maybe that very lack of urgency was why the stash had grown so large.
First, I moved all the ingredients into an empty Magic Box, then turned my attention to the next largest category: materials.
"Should I sell some of these in bulk next time?"
For materials, I kept the rare ones and those I used frequently, putting the easily gathered or unnecessary ones up for sale at the Adventurer's Guild. Primarily, these were materials from lower-rank Monsters, but since some were B-rank (or equivalent) or higher, selling them all together would bring in a decent sum.
I started moving these into another temporarily empty Magic Bag, but partway through, all the available Magic Bags became full, so I paused the material transfer, moved the remaining materials into one of the bags received from the gods, and then resumed the job.
"That should wrap up one section."
After about two hours from when I started, the task of sorting the Magic Bags' contents was finished.
I divided them into rough categories, but since there weren't enough Magic Bags, I also used the empty Dimension Bags.
The categories were: 'Food & Ingredients,' 'Materials,' 'Weapons & Armor,' 'Items,' 'Money,' 'To Sell,' 'Trash,' and 'Other.' The 'Other' category included things like furniture and the carriage, which couldn't be further subdivided due to the limited number of empty bags. Also, there were medicines and medicinal ingredients mixed into 'Materials' and 'Items,' so I'd have to sort through them again soon.
The 'Money' category was so vast it was almost nauseating to count, so I'd sorted it into boxes by type inside a Dimension Bag.
"This is the real problem..."
The biggest headache when sorting things out was the items I thought of as "not needed right now, but too valuable to throw away."
These were mostly the ones I'd put in the 'Weapons & Armor' category—things with minor damage that could be repaired and used, but whose performance couldn't match what I was currently using. Even if I did decide to throw them out, I had sentimental attachments to them, and selling them wouldn't fetch much of a price either. If I had to say, maybe I'd keep them as backups? ...But if I did that, there'd be no point in sorting them in the first place. And so my thoughts circled back to the beginning...
"With these, the right thing to do would be to just bite the bullet and throw them out... but I can't bring myself to do it..."
After mulling it over for a while, I decided to rank them by my own judgment, dispose of the lower-ranked ones, and repair the higher-ranked ones. However, since some of them wouldn't fit even after being repaired, I decided to give those to Emmy. The academy apparently had practical training sessions and the like, so there'd be opportunities to use them—and since she was my disciple, it wouldn't be strange to give them to her.
"Next time, I should bring Emmy along and pay a visit to Chris... He's probably got nothing to do these days anyway."
If adventurers' activities were decreasing, then Chris's business—catering to adventurers—would decline as well. Some adventurers might take this time to overhaul their equipment, but even so, there probably wouldn't be that many.
"The wooden and leather ones I don't need, I'll take out to the grasslands and dispose of by burning. As for the iron ones, I'll consult Chris about them. Some of them could probably be reforged into sellable goods."
With that, I finished sorting the 'Weapons & Armor,' and put whatever remained into the same Dimension Bag where I kept my money. Then, I placed the items I wanted Chris to reforge and the ones I needed to discuss disposal of into an empty Magic Bag.
"'Food & Ingredients'... I could start working through these from today. I'll keep a few on hand, but for things like the meat, maybe I should hold a feast soon and burn through it all at once."
This category was easy enough to organize. Basically, food and ingredients were the kind of thing you'd buy in bulk on a single shopping trip and consume in large quantities during meals, so it was just a matter of disposing of whatever was left over. The reason I kept a few things back was to save them for snacks during adventures or commissions. Besides, something with high rarity value like the White-furred wild ox meat was probably better kept for when the real need came. It would be a waste to serve it at a binge-drinking fest of a feast that just mass-produced drunks.
The 'Food & Ingredients' I decided to keep, I put into the Magic Bag I'd received from the gods, and the portions to be consumed I entrusted to Jeanne and Aura. It was a decent quantity, but both of them had been given Magic Bags as well, so there'd be no problem handing it all over.
To get the Magic Bags organized, I went looking for the two of them so I could hand things over right away, but they happened to be in the kitchen figuring out the dinner menu. They were happy that more ingredients had become available, but the sheer quantity left them dumbfounded. Meanwhile, Shiromaru and Solomon—who'd been loitering in the kitchen hoping to snag snacks from the two of them—ended up consuming nearly ten percent of the food on the spot...
"Master, I found something weird!"
Just as Shiromaru and Solomon had finished their snacks, Emmy came rushing into the dining hall in a flustered state. Apparently she'd found it in front of the mansion, but I really needed to tell her to stop picking up strange things.
"Emmy, what if it had been something dangerous?"
"Sorry... but this
strange fish
was frozen right in front of your house with your family crest on it!"
I was about to start by giving her a lecture, but Emmy had already blurted out a word that sent a chill down my spine.
"Emmy, quickly—
That
and bring it out here!"
"Okay!"
Emmy opened the mouth of the Dimension Bag that usually held I-chan and Sh-chan, and tried to pull out the weird frozen fish from inside, but it was too big, and even borrowing I-chan and Sh-chan's power, she couldn't move it.
"How did you get
this
in here?"
Taking Emmy's place, I peered into the bag to retrieve the strange fish. Just as I thought, Namitaro's frozen form was inside.
"I asked the Golem at the gate to help me."
Now that she mentioned it, Emmy, who could move freely in and out of this mansion, was able to give simple commands to the Golems. I had forgotten because she usually held back and didn't use them much.
"Ah, right, that's true... alright, heave-ho!"
Even for me, pulling Namitaro out was tough, so I summoned a Gigant and extracted Namitaro to the outside.
"Is this frozen all the way through?"
"It's rock hard!"
Emmy tapped the hardness like knocking on a door, and beside her, I-chan and Sh-chan were poking the completely solid Namitaro.
"Tenma, there's no way he's dead in this state, right?"
"Not even Namitaro could handle this, I'm afraid..."
Jeanne and Aura, who had been watching from behind me, seemed to think the same—that even Namitaro couldn't survive in this condition. But the opponent was
that
Namitaro. He wasn't the kind of fellow to die from something like this.
"I'm taking you straight to the bath! Defrost time!"
I felt it might be okay to let him thaw naturally, but doing it in hot water would probably be faster. Sure enough…
"Phew… Man, I hate this! You could make the water hotter, y'know!"
Namitaro, having revived, proceeded to enjoy the bath thoroughly. Jeanne and Aura, dumbfounded by his vitality, said they still had work to do and returned to their tasks.
Emmy was clearly intrigued by the creature she was seeing for the first time, but perhaps because of my earlier comment about him being 'one of the dangerous things,' she didn't approach carelessly.
"So, why did you run out of energy in front of the mansion again?"
"Well, fish aren't exactly built for traveling through snow. I managed to get right next to the mansion, but that was my limit! If I'd gone any further, I would've turned into 'Carp Ruibe' for sure!"
Even if he had turned into ruibe, I wouldn't eat him. And if I had to eat him, I would definitely cook it first.
"He looks kind of bland, huh."
"What'd you say?! There's no fish with a more delicate flavor than me!"
Namitaro didn't miss a beat in calling out Emmy's slightly off-target comment. This caused Emmy to hide behind me, but Namitaro continued enjoying his bath without a care.
"Tenma, get out of the way for a sec… There! …Ouch!"
With a burst of energy, Namitaro launched himself out of the bathwater, slid across the floor, and shot into the changing room, where he seemed to slam right into the shelf. Later, when I inspected the shelf, a considerable area around the point of impact was shattered.
"My bad."
That was the first thing he said after I extracted him from the shelf he was embedded in… It really irritated me. I decided to handle the repairs later and took Namitaro to the parlor.
However, Namitaro acted like he knew the place by heart, leaving Emmy and me behind as he glided smoothly across the floor… Just to be sure, I touched the floor, but it wasn't wet or covered in any slug-like slime. I wondered how he was moving like that, but then decided that, well, this was Namitaro, so things like this just happen.
"Master, what exactly is Namitaro?"
She apparently knew from someone that he had participated in the tournament as one of my Familiars, but didn't know the details.
In response to Emmy's question, I said…
"Actually, I don't really know either."
Well, it was Namitaro after all… Emmy gave me a slightly exasperated look at my answer, but she'd come to understand eventually — that Namitaro was one of this world's seven wonders…
"Anyway, jokes aside, let's get moving. Leave Namitaro alone for too long, and there's no telling what he'll get up to."
When I said that, Emmy laughed and matched my quickened pace.
"Heave-ho! Heave-ho-ooo!"
As we drew closer to the reception room, the ominous chanting grew steadily louder. When I opened the reception room door and laid eyes on Namitaro, it seemed my premonition had been right on the mark… Not happy about it in the least…
"Namitaro, great job!"
Take that back. I was ecstatic. Because…
"Squid, octopus, horse mackerel, mackerel, sardine, bonito, and tuna! Sea bream, flounder, sole, scallop, clam, cockle, oyster, abalone, and sea urchin! Wakame, sea lettuce, hijiki, and kombu seaweed~… Ta-da!"
For a former Japanese like me, this was the best souvenir imaginable. Above all, the kombu was probably the most delightful of them all. The fact that it was properly dried scored major points too. Besides kombu, there were also dried squid and octopus, and apparently all sorts of seafood beyond what Namitaro had sung about — what was spread out before us was said to be less than half of the haul.
"Ta-daaa!"
When Namitaro kept shoving things my way, I offered him a sweet potato jelly from my Magic Bag as thanks. Namitaro snatched it from my hand with impressive speed and popped it straight into his mouth.
"I'll put these to use for tonight's dinner!"
Thinking up various recipes as I went, I tucked the souvenirs from Namitaro into my Magic Bag one after another.
"This squid is delicious…"
While I was tearing off strips of dried squid to snack on as I worked, Shiromaru and Solomon tiptoed up beside me, both opening their mouths expectantly. However, dried squid needed proper chewing to bring out the flavor, and these two had a habit of swallowing things quickly, so it apparently wasn't to their taste.
Jeanne and Aura also seemed interested in the seafood, but aside from octopus — which they'd tried before — everything available was raw, seaweed, or dried squid. Reaching for it seemed a bit daunting, so they apparently decided to wait patiently until it was cooked. For the record, Amour was gnawing on dried squid behind the two of them.
Apparently, there weren't many opportunities to eat squid down south, but Amour had been told that if they could eat octopus, squid would be no problem — so they swiped the piece I'd been snacking on from the side. For the record, I'd been tearing the dried squid by hand, so the indirect kiss Amour had been hoping for never came to fruition.
"Sensei, does the sea have chestnuts too?"
Emmy seemed interested in the sea urchin, but it was more the appearance than the taste that caught her attention.
So, I cracked one open right in front of her eyes, and Emmy — who'd thought it was related to chestnuts — was quite surprised. Moreover, she apparently never imagined that the yellow stuff inside was edible, so when I scooped up the sea urchin gonads with my finger and ate them, she looked a little put off.
Incidentally, the seafood Namitarou brought had apparently been chilled to below freezing to set it, so its freshness was outstanding, and it was safe to eat raw. The taste of the sea urchin, which I hadn’t eaten in ages, was ridiculously delicious—I almost wanted to just eat it over rice like that.
"Tenma, seconds. A large serving of rice, please."
"Me too, please."
"Mine as well."
"Sensei, me too."
And with that, the sea urchin decisively won over the hearts of the ladies. Seeing me eat the sea urchin in front of Emmy must have convinced Shiromaru and Solomon that it was tasty, because they both came over to me, clamoring for some. Following their lead were Amour, Aura, Jeanne, and finally, a little shyly, Emmy, who lined up behind Shiromaru and the others.
Since it couldn’t be helped, I processed a large amount of the urchins and made *uni-don* (sea urchin rice bowls) to give everyone some sense of fullness, but apparently, it still wasn’t enough. By the time I’d made portions for all five people and five familiars (surprisingly, even Slarin, Goru, and Jiru ate some), I’d used up nearly half of the urchins Namitarou had brought. By the way, Namitarou said he’d gotten sick of eating urchins at sea, so he didn’t want any uni-don.
"Since we’ve used up quite a bit, no more sea urchin. Instead, I’ll make a seafood donburi with the other sashimi."
I couldn’t have everyone just eating urchin the whole time, so I decided they’d have to make do with other fish.
When they heard the urchin course was over, the others looked disappointed, but the moment they saw what I’d prepared instead, their faces lit up, and they eagerly started piling their favorites onto their rice.
My concept was "Katte-don" (Custom Bowl). This way, everyone could choose what they liked, take small portions of various items, and sample everything at once.
"Just so you know, after you take one scoop, it’s the next person’s turn. Otherwise, someone might try to hog it all…"
As I said that, I noticed Amour, who had been putting only the same thing in his bowl since the start. He quietly set the deep dish containing seared tuna back on the table. It was seared tuna, but to be precise, it was made by pounding together the meat scraped from the bones and the skin-scraped flesh, and in my mind, it was the main feature among all the dishes I’d prepared.
When I asked Amour why he’d been going for that one thing so single-mindedly,
"It was the best part, just like with the salmon," he said.
Hearing this, the others scrambled to reach for the plate of seared tuna. The first to grab it was Jeanne.
"Yes!"
She’d apparently been aiming for it after Amour all along, as she moved faster than anyone else. Next was Aura, followed by Slarin, then Emmy, and I was last. The order was determined by whose hand (or, in Slarin’s case, tentacle) reached the plate first, and I was the judge.
What surprised me, though, was that given Slarin’s personality, I’d thought they’d yield to Emmy, but they didn’t.
While I was thinking about that, Jeanne finished her scoop, and it was Aura’s turn next.
"Heh heh heh... Jeanne, you're too sweet."
For some reason, Aura flashed a fearless grin, then deliberately lifted the spoon embedded in the seared tuna, scooping up a generous mound from the bottom of the deep plate.
"This is what scooping means!"
Amour and Jeanne wore expressions that said "that hand though!" but if they thought about it for even a moment, they should've realized the danger. And sure enough, exactly what I'd feared was about to happen. It was...
"Oh..."
The moment Aura moved the spoon heaped with tuna toward her bowl, the mountain of fish collapsed from its base and tumbled onto the table.
"..."
"You're—out, Aura~! Spoon—confiscated~!"
After the tuna fell, Aura tried to go for another attempt as if nothing had happened, but Amour and Jeanne moved in perfect sync, snatching the spoon away from her. They plopped the few remaining scraps of seared tuna onto Aura's bowl with a little "pon," then handed the spoon off to Slarin.
Slarin took the spoon, and just when I thought she'd scoop up the tuna right away, she first moved the rice to the side of the plate.
"Mine too?"
Next, Slarin extended a tentacle toward Emmy, took her bowl, and set it beside her own. Then, with a fluid motion, she plunged the spoon into the seared tuna.
"Whoa!"
"Fa~ ll~ of~f!"
When Slarin lifted the spoon, an even bigger mountain than Aura's had formed. Amour, Jeanne, Emmy, and I all cried out in amazement, but Aura alone was silently cursing Slarin.
However, Aura's prayers went unanswered. Slarin deposited the mountain of tuna onto Emmy's bowl without dropping a single piece, then placed a mound of equal size onto her own. Strictly speaking, Slarin had
taken two scoops
which was technically a rule violation, but it wasn't done for her own sake, and no one was fallen enough to point it out when they could see how happy it made Emmy. Well, one person nearly was, but they barely held back.
"There's almost nothing left..."
Finally it was my turn, but the seared tuna had endured Amour's concentrated assault, Aura's self-destruction, and Slarin's two critical hits, leaving only a tiny amount behind. Though even in that state, there was still more than what Aura had.
Once the seared tuna was finished, we decided to move on to the next targets, but at that point a new rule was introduced. Everyone would simultaneously point at what they wanted to scoop next, and if no one's choices overlapped, they could go first; if there was a match, they'd settle the order with rock-paper-scissors. And even if you finished scooping early, you had to wait until everyone was done.
Aside from the seared tuna, the seared horse mackerel, mackerel, and sardines, as well as namero and bonito sashimi, were popular, while shellfish and white-fleshed fish didn't seem to get much attention.
After repeating this until almost everything was gone, Amour and Aura's bowls ended up with toppings about twice the amount of rice, mine was roughly half and half, and Jeanne and Emmy had slightly less toppings. For Amour and Aura, it was exactly the "as expected" kind of result—but the one who surpassed them all was Slarin.
Slarin's toppings were a staggering three to four times the amount of rice, stacked in a miraculous balance that formed a huge mountain.
"Slarin's being greedy~!"
The ones getting worked up over this were Amour and Aura, who were always said to have the biggest appetites. The two were having a great time teasing Slarin, conveniently ignoring that their own portions were so large people would call them greedy too...
"Slarin, kind."
"Separate plates, got it."
Slarin actually started dividing their own bowl to share with Shiromaru and the others. Since the bowl was split among Shiromaru, Solomon, Gol, and Jil—four in total—plus themselves, in the end Slarin ended up with fewer toppings than even Jeanne and Emmy.
Up until then, Amour and Aura had been teasing Slarin, but they couldn't withstand Jeanne's cold stare and the dissatisfied gazes of Shiromaru and Solomon—
—those pleading...
—looks proved too much, and they had no choice but to offer toppings from their own bowls. As for me, while Shiromaru and Solomon's gazes were locked on Amour and Aura's bowls, I took the opportunity to press forward with conquering my own.
Emmy had also retreated to my side for safety, but she couldn't win against Ii-chan, Shii-chan, and Ku-chan, who kept poking their heads out from the Dimension Bag that served as their home, and ended up giving away most of her bowl. When I saw her looking sad while holding a bowl that was less than half full, I had no choice but to share from my own. Well, I'd served myself generously, and since it was Emmy, I didn't need to hand over too much.
"Hm? What was everyone eating?"
As if he'd been waiting for everyone to finish, Grandpa returned from wherever he'd been and, seeing the empty plates on the table, asked that question.
"It's a souvenir for you~!"
With one word from Namitarou, Grandpa realized that a feast had been held in his absence, and he looked at me with expectant eyes. But the only thing I could make from the leftovers was a "white seafood bowl" with white-fleshed fish and scallop sashimi.
"It's tasty, but... I wanted to eat something other than white things too..."
Grandpa seemed to prefer the stronger flavors of tuna and blue-backed fish over the mild taste of white-fleshed fish, and he appeared slightly disappointed.
Incidentally, a few days later, Maria, Tida, Luna, and the others suddenly showed up at our house, and all the sea urchin was gone, along with nearly all the fatty tuna portions.
"I'm sorry, Master. Luna asked me what I ate, and I just couldn't help telling her..."
Apparently, that's what happened. While playing with Luna and Tida, she was asked whether we'd eaten anything unusual lately, and she ended up spilling the beans about the seafood rice bowl. Word of it reached Maria through Luna.
Apparently, Maria noticed that Luna was acting all fidgety and sensed something was up, so she brought Aina and Chris along and followed Luna and the others.
"Tenma... Next time you do something like this, I'd really appreciate it if you invited me directly, from your own mouth."
...was what Maria said to me with a smile. As an added note, since her own share would disappear if more people found out, she said it was perfectly fine not to tell the King, Lyle, or Ernest...