Chapter 113
Chapter 113 -- Sukiyaki
When I got back to the inn all the food I had put out for my three contracted monsters had been vacuumed up, the plates left clean and sparkling . Everyone was sleeping soundly in the stables . Notably, Dora-chan was lying on his back because his belly was bulging . It seemed like the snacks I had left for them had been to his taste .
I decided to get on with preparing dinner without waking them up as it would be easier working without an audience staring over my shoulder all the time . Right then, I had promised Dora-chan we'd be eating delicious food tonight . It didn't take me long to decide on what to cook . I had thinly sliced a lot of Wyvern meat before I left Carerina in preparation for making sukiyaki at a later date . Now seemed like a good time, it would be tasty and luxurious so Dora-chan wouldn't complain (probably) .
First of all I had to shop at the Net Super . I bought three sukiyaki cooking pots along with three small stoves since I'd need them later . Veggies? Well, Chinese cabbage of course, leeks and enoki mushrooms and maybe some edible chrysanthemums? Yep, I decided . After that first order I added shirataki noodles, baked tofu and eggs . The sukiyaki sauce I bought ready-made, it tastes good and it saves me a lot of time .
First I prepared the raw ingredients . The leeks were cut diagonally 1 cm wide and the cabbage chopped roughly into easy-to-eat pieces . The chrysanthemums were cut about 5 cm long, the tofu similarly cut into chunks easily picked up with chopsticks . I broke up the enoki mushrooms after trimming the roots so they would fit into the sukiyaki pots . Once everything was ready I started the cooking process .
I heated up the big frying pan and added the Wyvern meat, letting its thick fat ooze out and provide the cooking oil I would have otherwise added to fry leaner meat . The green onions were next, sizzling away as I kept a careful eye on the Wyvern meat . I wanted it to cook through but not brown, just enough for it to change colour as I added a little sukiyaki sauce to the pan from the bottle . When the meat changed colour I took it out and put it to one side before adding more meat . Lots more meat . My two, no three gluttons were going to demand lots of meat, I was sure .
Once the spring onions were thoroughly cooked I turned down the heat a bit and added the other ingredients I had ready, shirataki noodles, grilled tofu, enoki mushrooms, Chinese cabbage and spring chrysanthemum and let them cook until they were ready to eat . Doing a real sukiyaki hotpot wasn't an option when my contracted monsters couldn't dip items in and out of boiling water using chopsticks . Instead I'd use the small stoves I'd just bought from the Net Super to keep the dishes hot for them and finish the cooking .
To make up for the lack of extra liquid I added raw eggs to each dish along with a generous dash of sukiyaki sauce . It was something I sometimes did for myself at home . For Fer and Sui I put two eggs each into their dishes . Dora-chan is a lot smaller than those two but I remembered the way he had gobbled up gyoza the night before so I put two eggs in his serving as well . I mixed the eggs into the mixture of Wyvern meat and lots of veggies, letting them cook slowly on a low heat and leaving them runny .
Time to wake the Three Gluttons, I decided as I turned but they already were lined up behind me in anticipation . Of course . Both Fer and Dora-chan were drooling . Of course . And was that sweat gleaming on Sui's skin or was it drool too? I decided not to think about it too much . Fer was a Bad Example to cute little Sui sometimes .
"Right, here you are . " I took the dishes off the stoves and put them in front on the three hungry monsters . They dived in, unable to wait .
"This meat is tasty," Dora-chan said around a big mouthful .
"Umu, this sauce goes well with the meat . And there's egg too?" Fer tilted his head, considering the taste in the manner of an intrigued gastronome . "Hommm, the way it's blended in, quite delicious . "
"Yeah yeah," Sui chimed in, "It's very delicious when meat and egg, sweet and salty come together-" It seemed sukiyaki was considered best if eaten it with raw eggs . As I watched them eat, especially Dora-chan I had a sudden horrible thought . Ah . . . Aren't Wyverns a subspecies of Dragon? I hadn't really considered that before, after all they looked more like a Pteranodon . Was it OK for Dora-chan to be eating a relative?
"Ummm Dora-chan," I interrupted the Pixie Dragon who raised its head, "That meat, it's Wyvern meat . Is it, is it okay for you to be eating it? I thought, you know, Wyverns were related to Dragons? Isn't it a bit, uh, like cannibalism?"
As I stumbled along trying to ask my question, Dora-chan burst out laughing . "No member of the different species of Dragons will accept Wyverns are anything like them . " Dora-chan explained, a smirk on his gravy-stained muzzle . "All Dragons as a whole are really smart, like me . " He took a quick look into his mostly-empty bowl . "Stupid creatures like Wyverns can't be called Dragons no matter how tasty they are . " He shrugged . "Anyway as far as we're concerned it would only be cannibalism if I ate another Pixie Dragon . This is a harsh world where only the fittest survive . If I had to I would eat anything except members of my own family . " Dora-chan dived back into the bowl, eager to finish off his helping of Wyvern sukiyaki .
Dora-chan turned out to be unexpectedly savage despite his diminutively cute appearance, boldly stating he'd eat anything except his family, I mused as Fer chimed in .
"It is as Dora just said . In this world the weak are food for the strong . That's just how it is . " Fer said, nodding in agreement with Dora-chan's cold-blooded assessment of how this world worked . It sounded quite brutal but I accepted it . Thanks to Fer who reigned at the top of this world's food pyramid we got to eat the finest and tastiest monster meat, after all .
"Don't think about it too hard, eat some of this yourself . It's really good . " Dora-chan added . Well, of course it's good, Dora-chan, I made it after all, I thought to myself smugly . I started to dish out my own portion and-
"Seconds" came from Fer and Sui .
I didn't get to eat right away . Instead I made another portion of sukiyaki for the two (other) gluttons .
"I am so full up . That was delicious~ . " Dora-chan announced, settling back . "It turns out signing up to be your contracted monster was the right thing to do . "
"Well, I'd have to agree with that . " Fer said . "Aruji's cooking is always tasty . Sui's happy to eat Aruji's delicious meals every day-" Sui added .
Dora-chan and Fer's attitude is that my cooking is the main reason they hang around with me but for me Sui's [Sui-sweetness] is the main reward for my efforts . Without Sui, well . . . Really, Sui-chan is too cute . Fer, he definitely isn't cute in any way whatsoever . Still, I'd miss him if we got separated . A bit . Some . Okay, more than a bit . Not cute though .
I finally got to eat some sukiyaki myself alongside a helping of white rice . I wanted to drink sake for the first time in a while so I went to the Net Super and bought some to go with the sukiyaki . As an aside the edible chrysanthemums were unpopular with Fer, Sui and Dora-chan so I ate the remainder by myself . The bitter sharpness of its taste wasn't to their liking somehow .
"Fuu, that was delicious . "
"Sui's tummy is totally full-"
Finally both Fer and Sui seemed satisfied .
"So then Fer, once we get the purchase price for the Venom Tarantula subjugation at the Guild tomorrow, do you want to head for Doran right after?" I asked . "Umu . I want to get to that dungeon as soon as possible . " Dungeons, dungeons, dungeons, was that all he could think about?
"W- what? Are we going into a dungeon?" Dora-chan reacted to Fer's statement, leaping into the air (a little sluggishly, I noticed, his well-rounded belly an obvious hindrance) and buzzing around madly .
"Well, after we leave here we're heading for the Dungeon City of Doran . I'm really looking forward to entering the dungeon there since I've never been in a human Dungeon City's dungeon before . " Fer explained .
"That sound like a lot of fun! It'll be my first time going into a human city's dungeon too!"
"Sui thinks dungeons are fun too~" Oh, darling Sui-chan too? Why are all these hangers-on saying they're looking forward to entering a dark dangerous dungeon? I'm not looking forward to it at all .
"Okay then, tomorrow we will go to the Guild early and then set off for Doran . " I said, surrendering to the inevitable .
"Umu, that's good . " Fer agreed .
I managed to persuade a sleepy Dora-chan to settle down in the beast stables with Fer again . Sui-chan got into her bag and I returned to my room with her safely concealed from the landlady's penetrating vision . It was settled, after finishing our business at the Guild tomorrow and getting paid we'd be leaving for Doran . Fer, Sui and even Dora-chan were looking forward to conquering the dungeon there so I was a bit worried that my stay in Doran was going to be a long one .