Volume 9 Chapter 3 Part 3
「Rtoll Trolls don’t pose any threat.」
「Yes, desu.」
「I think it will be alright.」
Setting what Roxanne said aside, if even Sherry says there is no problem with Rtoll Trolls, it must really be the case.
「Today, Vesta did not receive any attack on the eighteenth floor. Will you be alright fighting on the nineteenth floor like that? as well?」
「Yes. I barely felt any pain from yesterday’s attacks, so I think I will be alright.」
Is Vesta really alright? Because she herself says she is alright, I guess she really is. There is a possibility that she has high tolerance for pain. Nah, she probably realized it when I was healing her. She stopped me after just one cast of 「Heal」, so I guess it is not the case. Even if it is the nineteenth floor, I don’t think she will be done in with a single blow. And if it does come to pass, the effect of Sacrificial Misanga will activate, saving her from death, so I guess we will be fine fighting on the nineteenth floor as we are.
We moved to the nineteenth floor of Haruba’s Labyrinth and began its exploration.
「Is it nearly evening? Then we might as well stop here.」
「Yes, it is.」
We explored around the nineteenth floor of Haruba’s Labyrinth until the evening, and then I spoke with Roxanne and we decided to finish it up.
Vesta wasn’t exposed to any attacks today as well after all, but since we just recently switched the method of our exploration, it’s important that we don’t try to run into large groups of enemies right off the bat.
If there is only one monster as our enemy, then Roxanne takes it on. Miria is also in the front if there is a second one or any more of them present. When the vanguard has three people, each of them is engaging in a one vs one scenario, and the difficulty isn’t that high.
We’ve gone through a lot of monsters so far, but should we increase the difficulty again?
「We’ll go to the first floor before we finish up exploring for today. Please lead us to a Cheep Sheep, Roxanne.」
「Certainly.」
Before we finish, I want to test out 「Ignore Life & Death」on the first floor. The level of my Bounty Hunter Job is now Lv.26, but even then, it didn’t succeed when I tried to use it.
Or maybe the problem here is my expectation that it’s a Skill that defeats demons in a single
Blow? Was I wrong in assuming that this entire time? There’s no helping it now, so I kill it with Durandal.
Kobolds are even weaker than Cheap Sheep, so maybe I should try the first floor of Quratar’s Labyrinth? Or is there no chance to do it there since it’s going to be crowded as usual?
I’ll probably have to keep trying it every single day until I finally succeed.
「Are we going to be doing an experiment?」
「Yes, but a small one this time.」
「Really?」
Sherry asks with interest, thinking that I don’t fight things I can kill in one strike unless I’m conducting an experiment. Sherry seems to have become quite familiar with my way of doing things.
It’s a good thing.
We left the first floor of Quratar’s Labyrinth, and then sold off our items in the Adventurers Guild.
「For today’s dinner, Miria will cook the Lean Tuna, okay?」
「Yes, desu!」
「Great. In the meantime, I will make a meat dish with Vesta’s help.」
Vesta can help me. I’ll make a meat dish.”
「I will be helping master? I understand.」
There is only one Lean Tuna, so Miria is definitely going to want to eat the most of it. Therefore, I need to make a main meat dish so that all of us could have a filling meal as well.
「Then Sherry and I should make a soup and something else?」
「Then I’ll stir-fry some vegetables, so can you make the soup Roxanne?」
「Okay, lets do that.」
Sherry seems to have made the decision for Roxanne as well. We buy the ingredients for dinner, and then return to the house.
「Vesta, do you know about minced meat?」
「I’ve heard the name.」
「Oh, minced meat?」
Roxanne has a strange expression on her face. Could it be that she actually doesn’t like it? And on top of that, Sherry has a similar expression on her face as well.
「You don’t want me to make minced meat?」
「Well…」
「Minced meat is believed to be eaten only by poor, crude people. My grandfather never ate it even once while he was alive.」
Sherry explains to me. So, there’s an annoying taboo like that in this world, huh? Well, I guess it’s understandable to a degree, since there are people in various corners of the earth that don’t eat pig or octopus too.
Is coming across this sort of thing unavoidable?
「So master actually eats it…」
「Yes, I am. Is that a problem for you?」
「I don’t mind it because it’s master, but the fact that master eats it should be kept secret.」
Roxanne makes a recommendation. She’s willing to overlook the taboo since I don’t have any problems with minced meat, even though it seems it’s a dish that only the members of the lower classes tend to eat, while people from the high classes seem to be avoiding it altogether?
Well, I mean, it’s definitely not a luxury food, so I can understand why they’d do that, but still…
「Is that so?」
「Yes, so please everyone, keep this a secret.」
「That would be good.」
「Yes, desu.」
「Ok, I understand.」
Roxanne got approval from all the other girls, even if they all have 「What?」 or 「Even this?」 expressions. On their faces.
It’s quite a variety of reaction faces, honestly.
「Will all of you be fine with a dish that uses minced meat?」
「There isn’t any problem with it in our case.」
It would be troublesome to change the menu now that the preparations were already underway, so I should just make it exactly as I planned.
「Can you make minced meat, Vesta?」
「Uhm…」
「If you can finely chop meat, then that’s going to be good enough.」
Roxanne gives Vesta the instructions on how to make the minced meat. She seems to have made it before.
「I understand.」
「Then please make the minced meat.」
「Okay.」
The pig ribs from the Pig Hog, and the meat that I bought are passed to Vesta. They might not be your typical ingredients, but they should be suitable enough to make minced meat.
While Vesta is making the minced meat, I soak some bread in milk, and fry some vegetables. Firm vegetables like celery. They are meant to have a crunchy texture, and I add some onions as well. It should be good with these vegetables. I add some flour to it as well.
「Good, this is alright. Please mix it just like that.」
After making the minced meat, it gets stirred.
Vesta is stirring it with salt, pepper, eggs, vegetables, and torn up pieces of bread. It’s going to be hamburger meat.
We cook it, and then fry some flour, wine, and mushroom in the remaining juices. I then add some fish sauce as well, and leave it to boil over the fire. I don’t know if that is how hamburger meat is normally made, but it seems to be alright so far?
When it is ready, I pour the sauce over it and carry it to the table. I serve the soup along with the Lean Tuna that Miria cooked. The hamburger meat is served with the gravy dripping all over it.
Even though it’s the first time I made it, it turned out quite good.
「This is delicious. I can’t even notice the bread you added. As expected of master.」
「Is that so? Using the bread as a filler softens it up.」
Roxanne knew about minced meat, so there is probably a way to cook it different from the one that I just used.
「It’s really soft and delicious. Even though it’s something poor people eat, this is still so delicious that I think I’m going to have to change my perception of it. Even though it’s made from minced meat, it’s amazing!」
Meat is normally cooked intact and then eaten, and meat that is not suitable for doing that is turned into minced meat.
Cheap (modern industrial) minced meat is usually made from scraps too small to sell individually, that’s why it’s cheap.
I’m not sure if how minced meat was handled in medieval times.
It always baffles me, how Japanese regard hamburger steak so much, that they include it into nearby every WN/LN/manga/anime… (Maybe it’s forced by the editors as advertisement?)