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High School Hack and Slash Chapter 179 Part 1

Oni Wife-Catching

―― Territory『Hanging Woodland』 ――

―― countdown: 05: 18: 00: 59 ――

 

Well then, riding the fuzzy cloud, I’m driving in the direction pointed by Subaru-kun.

By all rights, I should have collected Subaru-kun, with whom I managed to regroup, and proceeded in a tandem drive.

However, the person in question went and refused to regroup, so there’s nothing I can do.

No matter how you look at it, it was the home base of a boss-class oni, and I think Subaru-kun was also being treated as a prisoner of war.

However, it was also Subaru-kun who stopped me when I was about to say hello for a bit.

He told me to leave quickly without doing anything and go to the place I ought to be heading to originally.

I couldn’t care less about such incomprehensible rules, but Subaru-kun showed the face of a man who had resolved himself.

Forcefully taking him out would be an insult to that resolve.

Good grief, he may have a girlish face, but he is a tough boy with a backbone.

Even his body and gestures have changed to girlish, but let’s put that aside for the time being.

「The destination is the『Mount Kinojou』 territory, huh.」

For better or worse, the Interface notifies me when I cross the territory.

However, it’s unclear how far into this direction I should go.

Somehow or another, I feel like I’m being made to do an errand quest in an online game.

Subaru-kun’s face was upright, but I’d excuse myself from being thrown around by this foresight whatnot.

I couldn’t care less about this『event』 or『key』 thingy, so I’ll take the liberty to do what I want to do.

Therefore, a few detours are unavoidable.

「I’m hungry.」

As such, it’s time to cook for myself.

I was rushed out of bed, so I haven’t eaten anything.

*Growl growl* My stomach has been rumbling since a while ago.

It feels like the skin on my stomach and back is going to stick.

First thing first, I land on the ground.

「Hyayaya, are you some kind of specter?!」

There’s some kind of dubious oni there, so I give him one shot of lightning bolt.

The charred and twitching oni falls into the river and gets washed away.

Somehow, I have a feeling it was Hoshikuma-douji, one of the lol Four Heavenly Kings.

He was being too careless, wasn’t he?

Or rather, what was he doing in such a place, I wonder?

My hunger is unbearable, so I’ll put off the checking for later.

Fortunately, the prey that guy left behind doesn’t get charred, but it’s not quite something I could eat.

「Let’s make curry.」

When it comes to camp cooking, it has to be curry.

First, I wash the rice.

This time, I use the outdoor cooking utensils I have prepared in expectation for such an eventuality.

*Scrape scrape* Put into the rice container, I relentlessly wash the rice with water from the river where the oni has fallen.

In the middle of it, a mysterious freshwater crab appears, so I secure it.

It’s quite big, so it doesn’t fit in the rice container.

It’s about one meter long, so let’s roast it for the time being.

Most organic matter can be eaten once it is roasted or boiled.

After piling up stones from the river to make two kilns, I lit them on fire.

One kiln is for the rice container and the curry pot.

As for the other kiln, I put the crab on it and roast it.

Now then, let’s do the prep work for the curry until the rice is done cooking, shall we?

For curry roux, I always have it at the ready in the Item Box.

It’s not a store-bought roux, but a special spicy blend made by Touma-senpai.

However, there are no ingredients.

Curry without ingredients tastes good, but the nutritional balance is bad.

Making their appearances there are the kind vegetable series.

Peas that come over with ivy swirling around them and a pumpkin that passes me live ammunition like bombardment.

After that, turnips that grow normally as opposed to running on their own.

What a terribly fishy turnip.

It makes me worried about whether or not I can really eat it, but I think it will be OK once I put it through the cooker.

I’ve ended up gathering ingredients that are different from the standard curry.

Well, I’ll eat it, though.

Pouring water into the iron pot in which I made takikomi gohan last time, I simmer the ingredients, thankful for the favor of Mother Nature all the while.

「… There’s no meat.」

The lack of protein is sad mood-wise.

No, guess I could remove the crab meat and toss it in, huh.

It’s a river food soup curry, not seafood.

The crab, which is roasted from the bottom with a blazing fire, is nicely turning reddish.

The same is true for crayfish, but crustaceans, whether from the sea or the river, turn red when roasted.

For the time being, let’s pluck off the claws and toss the inside into the pot.

The『Shirohizamaru』, which I usually use instead of a knife, is still lent to Kotarou-kun.

I have no other choice, so let’s use The Ripper (Bhaudhara) to dismantle the crab.

「Meat….」

「Hiii!」

When I turn around as I hear some kind of scream, I see that Prey-san left behind by Hoshikuma-douji has woken up.

◇ ◇ ◇

「U, umm…」

「Now, eat up.」

Trembling with a pale face is a female student I’ve gotten acquainted with.

Nonetheless, she’s not someone with whom I have a personal relationship.

She’s Tatsuya’s female classmate-cum-party member, with whom he has worked together on a number of raid conquests.

Her name is, yes… Honami-san, right?

It simply slipped from my memory for a bit.

She should be the one Tatsuya was looking for as he infiltrated the oni capital.

「No need to be shy.」

「… Y, yes.」

First is the freshly roasted crab.

As for the curry, I’m still in the middle of steaming the rice, so….

Turning over the crab, which has turned reddish, I tear off its belly shell.

The brown meat-ish part has already been tossed into the curry.

The crab meat from the claws has also been used as an ingredient.

Cracking open the shell of the remaining legs, I hand it over to Honami-san.

Given its size, it’s quite a mouthful.

If I have to describe the taste, it normally tastes like a crab stick.

It feels like biting into a lump of crab sticks.

「… Ah. A crab stick, is it.」

It seems that Honami-san, who timidly takes a bite into the crabmeat, also has the same opinion as me.

Well, roasted crab is an appetizer.

When I open the lid of the rice container, which has been turned upside down, steam from the piping hot rice rises.

The rice is slightly burnt, but that is no problem.

I put the rice on the crab shell and pour a lot of the fishy curry on it.

No, it’s not fishy.

I’m a little worried about the turnip, but it’s become half-melty, so I don’t think it would start moving.

「Come now.」

「Hii, I… I will have some!」

It’s a normally tasty curry.

◇ ◇ ◇

　Perhaps having ended up drifting downstream or sinking, I can’t find the Hoshikuma-douji-ish oni.

The river in front of me is too deep to be called a mountain stream, and the current is too fast.

I think he has probably been washed quite far away.

Even if I were to finish him off, he would simply return from death, and going my way to look for him is also a pain.

「U, umm… Touma-san, right?」

「Yeah.」

While I’m washing the rice container and iron pot with the river sand, I get called out from behind.

Why the questioning manner, I wonder?

Come to think of it, we’ve never had a direct conversation, huh.

Ultimately, I’ve only been in contact with her as a member of Tatsuya’s group.

「Umm, did you, by any chance, come to my rescue?」

As I scrub the pot, I struggle with my answer.

It wasn’t like I was looking for her or anything.

To Tatsuya and Riru-san, she may be a rescue target, but I’m merely giving Kotarou-kun a hand.

Though, if Honami-san were to seek help from me, I would not be so devilish as to abandon her.