Chapter 628 – Welcome Party

Translated by Gumihou

Edited by Gumihou >_<

 

“Brother Mukouda~ this meat is really, really yummy~” Lotte-chan said around a mouthful of meat.

She had a look of ecstasy on her face as [1] she stuffed small chunks of meat into her mouth. The chunks of meat were small because her mother had cut the steaks into smaller pieces after the little girl had tried to imitate Dora-chan and tear into a large chunk with her teeth.

I smiled down at her. “Is that so? Good, good, there’s plenty to go around, so eat lots, everyone!”

I made sure to let the children eat first. The older children get to cut into the extra-thick pieces of meat, looking all excited to sink their teeth into huge pieces of Gigantic Minotaur and high-grade dungeon beef.

To be honest, the meat was so tender that there was no need to use a knife to cut the meat. Not that commoners use knives here [2], or forks in general, since the meat was generally cooked into stews or pre-cut into strips for easy handling. Now that I think about it, I believe only the nobles ate with knives and forks because they were rich enough to have pieces of meat that were large enough that need special cutlery at the dining table.

While most of the children were stuffing their faces with gusto, there were two who stood on the side. Both of them looked uncertainly at the thick piece of meat in front of them. After much urging from Lotte, the two children, Nikolai and Katrina, finally took their first bite.

They froze.

I looked at them uncertainly. Was the meat not to their taste? Maybe it was too fatty, and their little stomachs could not digest it? Ahhh, I should have asked them what they like before suddenly slapping a huge piece of meat in front of them.

“Hey, if you don’t like red meat, how about some Leviathan? It’s meat too, but it’s more like fish? Wait, let me see if I have some…” After handing the grilling tongs to Aiya, I began looking through my [Item Box].

“Oi, oi, oi, I just heard something unbelievable. I think my hearing’s going…”

“I-I heard it too, something about a Leviathan…”

“S-same here…”

“Me too,”

“Me three…”

“Um, Mukouda-san?” said Tabasa. “Perhaps we should leave off the Leviathan… the mercenaries probably won’t be able to eat it…”

[1] “Oh, er, is that so?” I said, feeling a little embarrassed for some reason. That’s right, even though we have a lot of Leviathan meat, it doesn’t change the fact that it was a legendary, rarely-seen creature even in this magic world.

“Fumu, Leviathan is tasty, but it gets boring if we eat it every day,” Fer sniffed.

“Umu, if I had to pick, I would much prefer red meat,” said Grandpa Gon.

[1] “”Eh, I don’t mind Leviathan, but it’s not the same as red meat. Doesn’t have the same mouthfeel.””

[1] Was Dora-chan’s comment.

[1] Wow, he even knows how to use words like ‘mouthfeel’ to describe food.

[1] ““Sui likes everything Aruji makes~~””

“Ah, Sui-tan is still the best~~ that aside, you guys just want red meat, don’t you?” I said sternly. They make a lot of noise about Leviathan meat being boring, but to be honest, steaks all day and every day is super boring!

“Tch.”

While I was quarrelling with my familiars, one of the twins said, “Hey, Sis, our Master really doesn’t have much common sense, eh?”

“That’s right, that’s right, he had always been like this,” said twin number two.

“What the heck are you two talking about?”

“Oi, we’re the ones reaping the benefits, so leave that poor man alone,” Bartel snapped.

I glared at them, but then noticed Peter, Toni, Aiya, Alban, and Theresa nodding in agreement at this statement.

You guys…

“What are you guys talking about? This is a welcoming party, so of course, it makes sense to splurge a little,” I defended myself. “Isn’t that perfectly normal?”

“Sure, Mukouda-san.”

“You’re right, Mukouda-san.”

“Of course, Mukouda-san.”

They all agreed with me, but I can’t help feeling as though they were just indulging me…

“Ahem, if Mukouda-san doesn’t mind, we would like to try Leviathan meat…” one of the High Elves said.

“Oooh, please!”

“I never tried it before, but I did hear from my grandfather that it was incredibly delicious. Apparently, he happened to visit a village near the coast and tried it there. After that, he never stopped talking about it…”

Well, at least the High Elves were looking forward to it. They were all surprisingly gluttonous.

“Ahem, so, would you like something lighter? Like fish, Nikolai? Katrina?”

Someone muttered ‘Leviathan is not fish’ but I ignored it. I think it was one of the manly mercenaries.

The two children stiffened again. Then, Nikolai stuttered, “U-um, well, it’s delicious, really…”

Katrina nodded on the side.

Well, it looks like they are not against eating meat.

“Well, great! There’s plenty to go around, so eat up!” [1] I said as I moved towards the grill where Aiya and Theresa were already placing the steaks onto a tray and leaving them to rest.

As I prepared the plates, my familiars stared covered tray.

“We get the next batch, right?”

“Umu.”

“”Yesss, meat~””

““Meaty~~””

As the Gluttonous Quartet started to inch forward, I took great pleasure in saying, “Nope, that’s not yours.”

“WHAT?!”

“What do you mean ‘what’? This is a welcoming feast, so of course it is to welcome the new people,” I said innocently, enjoying the look of dumbfound shock on their faces. “Now, move aside and go wait over there.”

I waved my tongs at a location under a tree. None of them moved.

“Ah, well, if you don’t want to move, I can give you these first. I guess you don’t want the extra thick piece of meat that comes to those who are willing to wait~”

At that, their eyes widened, and drool began to spill out of their mouths.

“Is that so?”

“Extra thick…”

“”Meat~””

“”Sui can wait~~””

Woah, their eyes are really scary. I knew that I was challenging the natural order of things by teasing these apex predators, but no matter what, I refused to allow these meat, meat, meat enthusiasts to bother me more than necessary.

Ah, but Sui was so excited by the prospect of eating extra-thick meat that she had started vibrating while sitting on top of Fer’s head.

“So,” I said firmly. “Go sit there and wait for your Charcoal Grilled Extra Thick Steaks. I’ll call you when it’s done.”

“Umu.”

“Hrumph.”

““Thick meat~””

“”Thick meaty~””

Fortunately, that was enough to send them away from my barbecue grill, allowing the others to approach. [1] By the way, Aiya and Theresa had efficiently placed more meat on the grill while this was going on.

Right, since we’re welcoming the newcomers…

I chose two nicely grilled steaks and set them on a plate with a fork, and handed them out to two very flustered individuals.

“Here you go, Victor, Nerina.”

“Oh, um, that is…” Both of them waved their hands awkwardly at me.

I continue to hold out the plates. “Go on, while it’s still warm.”

In the end, both accepted their plates of food and took a hesitant bite of their steaks.

“It’s… delicious…”

“It’s the most delicious thing I’ve ever had…”

Their praise made me happy.

“Well, what you have is actually two different kinds of meat. Gigantic Minotaur and high-quality Dungeon Beef. Good, right?”

“Eh…?”

“Mino…taur?”

Nerina’s plate started to tip over, but was quickly rescued by Victor’s quick hand.

“Woah, great save, Victor,” I said, giving him a thumbs up.

“W-we apologise…”

“Oh, hey, no, no, nothing happened, right? No harm done.”

“To be fair, Minotaur meat is considered high-class meat, even nobles have trouble getting their hands on. For slaves… well,” one of the bearded merchants said.

I wished he would just shut up.

“That’s just how Mukouda-san is,” said twin one with a shrug.

“Indeed, the master gives us good quality meat. When it’s a party, he even gives us S rank meat!” said twin two.

“Umu, some of the best alcohol too. Mukouda-san is an excellent master,” said Bartel.

The other employees nodded.

“Yes, he would regularly give us cases of wine too.”

“The most normal meat we have here is Orc and Cockatrice meat,” said one of the High Elves.

Oh, so it’s their turn now?

“There is never a day without meat.”

“And we can have eggs every day too!”

“Meat we used to eat on special occasions is now a regular thing…”

Even Theresa, Aiya and Celia pitched in their opinions.

W-well, at least it seems like everyone’s pretty happy with their lives here.

That’s always a good thing.

“Ahem, I’m just serving up what I have on hand. Since we all have to eat, might as well eat something delicious, right? Don’t worry about it, just eat.”

That’s right. This is our ‘company culture’, so get used to it!

“Next up, Andrei’s party.”

That’s right, it was these bearded macho men’s turn to receive their steaks.

 

[Gumihou: See, the way Mukouda refuse to serve the Gluttonous Quartet first reinforces the assumption that he is all that spineless. Hence why I injected a bit more spine into him in the last chapter.]

 

[1] Added details

[2] Give a reasonable reason why no knives. Because, according to history, knives were there first, not forks. Eguchi-san probably didn’t know this.

 

 

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