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Chapter 260: Warm Meals

「There are traces of something being dragged along over here too. 」
The illumination of the lantern revealed a streak running towards a single direction.

The trail was fortunately nothing huge, just a line, as if someone dragged an unsheathed sword on the ground while walking. It’s such a relief that it’s not a person that was dragged out here.

I could also ask the spirits to guide us, but I’m behaving myself. I’ll consider my next move after observing the first person we will encounter. The goal might’ve changed, but I’m still enjoying an ordinary adventurer’s way of searching.

By the way, Retze’s holding the lantern that I made. I’ve been seeing more adventurers using lanterns these days, and they looked like they were made by blowing glass directly into the brass framework, or something like that? The smell of oil and soot is terrible, but yup, that’s a lantern alright.

I registered it to the Adventurer’s Guild just like I did with the bags, but it seems like a shoddy version that was obviously made while cutting corners, or should I say they just made it with whatever material was available. That sort of inferior item is being circulated in the market now, and is also insanely expensive. Despite that, it’s still popular in the fortress city. It’s far more useful here than in Canum because folks explore dark places such as the Labyrinth and tunnels.

The theory is that one should use light magic during combat, but I was told to learn how to use it normally first. Making a light as big as the one Glasses made and having it illuminate the entire area just like I did back at the tunnel was not considered normal conduct, apparently.

「Our opponents probably don’t sleep, and there’s a difference of three to four days between us. There’s no point in rushing. 」
Dinosso said after we passed another fork road for the nth time as we all headed towards a place where we could sleep.

It’s perpetually dark in here, throwing off our sense of time, but if we’re active then we have to eat and sleep properly.

「I wonder what time is it now? 」
「Around 7. 」
「Probably 7. 」

They answered me when I asked, though.

Dinosso and Retze tend to keep their meal times and bed time consistent to make sure their body clock is in order. I see, I can wake up at 5am too!! That’s because of my strolls with Riche after all.
Ah, but unlike those two, I mostly lounge around when it’s raining, and I also take another nap after our strolls.

I also managed to slip out and go home to walk Riche this time too.

「A proper meal, finally…! 」
I cheerfully started to prepare.

「You won’t get a good fire going here since it’s damp. 」
Retze muttered.

If it’s in the forest, we can still light a fire by arranging thick logs into a heap and top it with firewood even if the ground is wet. However, we don’t have the luxury of doing that here because we can only bring a limited number of things with us.

「It’s alright, I made a fire pit. 」

I took out two sheets that had been folded to A4 size from my backpack and unfolded them. It’s just a simple H-shaped fire pit, but the iron slit plates also properly stayed in place.

「Jean-sama… 」
「You… 」
「You really are amazing, Twilight! 」

Dinosso and Butler were both astounded when I quickly started a fire. Chris also called me Twilight, and it’s been ages since he last did that. Retze’s curiosity exceeded his shock from the never before seen device; he quieted down.

I like building campfires the normal way, but I heard beforehand that this isn’t a place where we can do that, so I prepared this.

「Meat, meat… 」
Dean took out the lump of meat.

「Can I grill that? Cut it up for me. 」
「Ou. 」
Dean’s pretty upfront about his love for meat, so he won’t say anything.

It’s quite huge and not salted too much, so he probably brought it for all of us to enjoy on our first day.

I prepared the bread while Dean cut the bread. I brought a type of thinly sliced bread called biscotti. It’s made by cutting a baked bread in half and baking it again to dry it out. It taste a bit like not-so-sweet rusk since I added a little bit of honey. It doesn’t taste good if it’s moist, so I warmed it up a little bit.

I also brought flour, but it’d take too much time to bake, so I also prepared a few varieties of bread that can be stored, like biscotti with nuts and dried fruits.

I also prepared unsalted cultured butter, black currant jam and cheese.

With a dash of garlic powder and a pinch of pepper, I energetically grilled the meat over the hot iron plate. Energetically, because of how Dean sliced the meat.

「Toasted bread usually doesn’t taste great, but this one is tasty. 」
「You’re such a great cook even outdoors! It’s making me crave wine to go with this. 」
「Mm. 」
Retze, Chris and that last mm was from Ash. Ash, aren’t you putting a little too much jam? It’s making me a bit worried.

「Isn’t this high-grade meat too? 」
「Chris and I have prepared this as a token of appreciation for your help. 」
Dean’s awkwardly polite with Dinosso, as always.

「I should’ve brought more alcohol. 」
「Khan-sama, I’m not sure if that would be wise… 」
Khan was already drinking, so Butler was a bit baffled.

Half of him isn’t human, so Khan doesn’t really need to eat, but he loves wine. He did bring some jerky, cheese and nuts, but alcohol took up most of his baggage.

On top of being a diuretic, alcohol also requires water to break down within our body, so it’s easy to get dehydrated when drinking. In this place where folks couldn’t drink water as much as they wanted, Khan was the only one who dared to guzzle wine.

Dean and the others apparently misunderstood that Khan’s body changed into one nourished by alcohol because of the spirits, but he’s a good guy who only absorbs the teeny tiny spirits, alright?

Khan was also carrying charcoal that should’ve been useless for him, and he also brought plenty of cheese that I wanted, so I don’t have any complaints. Well, he’d been staying for ages in the desert unable to eat nor drink, so I’m glad that he’s now looking forward to eating.

After the meat was done, I grilled the rondelle-cut zucchini with olive oil until it’s tender and juicy, then I added semi-dried tomatoes and cheese and covered the lot with a plate to bake them, then I sprinkled some salt and added parsley. Actually, I wanted to use fresh tomatoes, but I didn’t bring any, unfortunately.
「The first time I went out with Jean, I thought things had totally changed with how adventurers do things compared to how it was before we decided to live in hiding in the countryside. 」
Dinosso emotionally commented.

「It has hardly changed since the days when I have been actively working as an adventurer. Jean-sama is an anomaly. 」
Butler quipped with a smile.

「Tasty and convenient, isn’t it better that way? 」
Let’s go on an adventure with only a jute bag on our shoulder! — that’s far more unbelievable!!

「You said this is a fire pit? Aren’t the flames a bit too strong? 」
Dean commented.

………..

「Oy, wait a sec, why are you turning away? 」
Retze looked at me with half lidded eyes.

「Further questioning is rejected. 」
I have to use the furnace to make things like this… but then a certain person (deity, ahem) likes to drop by when I do use it, you know? That’s why I left the first (terrible) edition behind.