Chapter 457: Finally Tasting it
「Here?」
「 Yeah, cut along that groove. 」
「 Ack, it’s not just the bones, even the tendons are super hard! 」
「 Oy, oy, what the heck is this? 」
「 Careful, gently now, it’ll be bitter if you tear that. 」
Dean, Chris and I follow Retze’s instructions as we work while Dinosso and Khan work under Hauron’s.
The dragon is ginormous and we’re all chopping away at it in a hubbub, making it feel more like we’re in a construction site doing manual labor. Ash and Butler are hauling the separated parts and cleaning the materials that we’re gonna make into tools.
「 The bigger it is, the harder it is to handle, huh. 」
Hauron commented while sketching.
Looks like our Grand Sage is making a record of everything, drawing detailed sketches and jotting down notes. Honestly, he’s pretty good. The pictures he drew with ink might even look cool as a postcard or something, maybe because from my perspective, it has that antique vibe.
Ink is commonly used here, and folks prefer parchment instead of paper since spirits don’t influence the former as much as they do the latter. I guess Hauron is making an anatomy diagram?
As we work, the dripping juices are starting to get a bit messy, but the spirits are floating them up into little spheres for us. They’re even keeping the smell contained, which is a relief. The meat doesn’t smell, but the juices do, apparently?
There’s tons of it too, and it’s kinda different from your regular meat juices. It’s not just blood—there’s something else mixed in.
「I’ve never seen anything put out this much stuff other than blood.」
「Yeah, I didn’t see anything about it either in the books that I already read, but then, there were still a ton of dragon books to get through.」
「Where… I wanna ask, but at the same time I don’t…」
Hauron’s making an awkward face while Retze and I chat.
「Jean, you had the spirits drain the blood, right? Maybe these fluids are usually mixed with blood so it’s hard to tell them apart. 」
「Should we store this stuff, though? Or just dump it in the ocean?」
Numerous slightly yellowish blobs float around us — honestly, I can’t tell if it’s fantasy cool or just straight-up gross.
「 What does your 【Appraisal】say? 」
Dinosso called out while in the middle of working.
「Oh. — Antifreeze blood ー this particular dragon species has two types of blood coursing through its body, one of which keeps it from freezing. The abundance of body fluids make it resistant to both fire and the cold ー so it says. 」
【Appraisal】-kun also mentioned something about it being ‘native to short and squat’, but I’m guessing that’s just a quirky translation of the dragon’s own 【Language】, so let’s just keep mum about that.
You know how literal translations can sound really weird sometimes, right. Plus, this second type of blood isn’t fit for consumption apparently so the description is very brief. The first type of blood we collected ーthe red oneー seemed useful for making different types of sauces, though.
「Oh my, so they have two types of blood? If you don’t need it, can I have it? I’d love to study it. 」
Hauron is interested in it, so I decided to collect it for him.
「Ash, can you collect them for Hauron and bring them to him? 」
「Got it. 」
The glob of blood moves when you nudge it and it stays perfectly round as it rolls away from the dragon. We’ve been pushing them off to the side earlier so they won’t get in the way, but now we’re gathering it up for Hauron.
Hauron looks like an evil sorcerer with those yellowish orbs floating behind him like a backdrop of some sort, but we can’t let the sight bother us. Ah, no, actually, with the faint and dim northern sunlight reflecting off it, you can say it’s kinda majestic?
Meanwhile, Shiva is expertly slicing the dragon meat into manageable portions—quick, clean, and precise.
「I got the shell off over here. 」
Khan shrugged out of his robe and is now cracking the hard exterior. Turns out the king is the strongest among us, huh.
We’re all using spirit swords, but this is no easy task even with such. Given how it is with this dragon, I bet it’ll be even harder to butcher the possessed dragon. The tough part isn’t killing it—it’s figuring out how to break it down for materials.
Once we’ve finished disassembling it and stashed everything away, it’s finally time for the meat!
—Well, bath first.
So, meat!
We returned to the Northern Continent for the feast of meat.
「Dream meat from manga! 」
「Manga? 」
Hauron echoes, confused.
This part isn’t exactly taken from the joint, but there’s a hefty slab of meat attached to the bone, perfectly shaped and sized like the ones you see in manga. The only problem? Even when you cook the outside, the inside stays raw.
But we’re not in Japan, so yeah. We take our time grilling it over charcoal, and with a little help from some fire spirits, it cooks evenly all the way through. The fire spirits dart between the surface and the center of the meat, making sure it’s perfectly charred outside and medium-rare inside.
While the giant slab roasts, the regular-sized steaks also sizzle.
「Ack, so good it’s insane. 」
Dean said while stuffing his face with a thick slab of meat.
「The first bite feels a bit elastic, but it’s not hard at all. 」
Shiva happily held her cheeks.
I take a huge bite ー the meat fills my mouth, and juices explode every time I chew, and the fibers easily fall apart with every bite. The loin part is the best for steak!
The breast meat is lightweight, and when you bite into it, it falls apart into fibers like scallops. The belly meat is really fatty, but roasting it right gives it a nice, smoky flavor and the fat gets crispy. Even if it’s a little charred, it’s still perfect. The texture’s this great mix between firm and bouncy and soft and chewy.
「Some cuts remind me of other animals, but the taste is on a whole different level. 」
Retze and Hauron were sampling all the different parts of the dragon like gourmet critics analyzing every bite.
「The fat doesn’t leave that greasy feeling in the mouth and it’s sweet. I’ve been missing out. I never knew dragon meat could be this delicious. 」
「Quite so, Ash-sama. This is the first time I have come to learn of it as well…」
Ash and Butler tried the same cut. Both of them were elegantly cutting the thick slab of steak in bite-sized pieces.
「Whoaah, it goes so well with booze. This thick one’s perfect with beer, and this one’s totally for wine. 」
Dinosso picked two different types of steak.
「… 」
Khan paired his steak with wine. A lot of spirits, including Hauron’s and Dinosso’s spirits, helped out while grilling the meat, so I bet he could taste it well.
ー Dean’s fire lizard-kun also helped, and of course, the meat it grilled was already on Dean’s plate.
Just for today, I won’t nag them to eat more veggies. I served some as palate refreshers, but everyone’s just washing it down with booze.
I sink my teeth into the perfectly cooked meat. Is this ribeye? I’m pretty stuffed, but I’ll still eat!
NEXT CHAPTER
RELEASE RATE
I Got Transferred in the Middle of a Mountain
Speed up schedule by 10 hours
Current schedule: Every 80 hours
Thanks for the treat.