When I get back to the inn, I see Rurika is looking a lot better.
I leave her with Chris and Sera, and borrow the kitchen along with Hikari. And when Mia and Elsa hear we’re cooking, they tag along.
“Master, meat?”
“Yes, let’s use king minotaur and hellhound meat.”
Hikari smiles broadly. She’s probably looking forward to tasting hellhound the most, because we’ve never had it.
I know how to cook it thanks to the skill, so I follow it, and give Mia and Elsa instructions as we go along.
The most important part is to cut the sinew well and prepare it before we cook it, or it will be hard to bite into it.
I don’t think I could cook this without the skill. And Mia and Elsa really are good, because they understand how to do it properly by just watching me demonstrate and hearing my explanation.
As I watch Mia briskly cook, I think about how different she is compared to when we first met.
Cooking for us so many times really improved her skills.
“Can you roast this, Hikari?”
“Yes, leave it to me.”
There’s not much to watch out for when it comes to cooking hellhound meat. It’s pretty much the same as any other, so I leave it to Hikari.
As for the seasoning… I make sure to tell her to tell me when it’s time to season it.
If we cook it here, we’ll save ourselves some trouble while traveling. All thanks to the Item Box.
At this point, it’s pretty clear to me why Rurika and Chris told me back then that if it was known that I had Spatial Magic, I’d be invited to join parties for sure.
This one thing really changes the life of an adventurer.
And so, I store everything we’re cooking in the Item Box, except what we’re eating today.
◇ ◇ ◇
We go back to the room after we’re done, and see Yuno is also here to check up on Rurika.
We invite her to eat with us, so we end up eating with her party, Argo’s, and Naoto’s.
Siphon is the one that’s happiest about this, because most of the time, when we eat together like this, he’s allowed to drink.
When people drink, we split into two groups to eat, drinkers and non-drinkers.
The issue isn’t that drinkers like Siphon are bad drunks, or that they’re annoying, it’s the smell. Miharu and Kotori in particular hate it.
And because of the environment Elsa and Alto grew up in before they met us, they aren’t really bothered.
As for the otherworlders, Naoto and Kaede drink, and Kaede in particular is strong against it.
According to Shun, they’ve never seen her drunk. That said, she doesn’t actively drink, it’s just that she’ll drink when invited.
Apparently there was one time when Naoto asked Shun how strong he was against alcohol, but his face just twitched and he said nothing.
W-well, the world of drinking is incomprehensible for non-drinkers.
I shake my head and look at Hikari filling her mouth… And Alto. Hikari was always like this, but Alto has been eating a lot lately.
His body is also bigger compared to when we first met. Maybe going to the dungeon is related to it too.
He used to hide behind Elsa a lot, but he hasn’t been doing that lately. In fact, sometimes he jumps in front of Elsa. She looks happy when that happens, but a little sad too.
Elsa wipes Hikari and Alto’s mouth here and there, and she tries different kinds of food.
As I watch them, I suddenly think about what we’ll do after we’re done with the dungeon here.
Maybe it’s too early to think about it, but we’ll be going to another dungeon next. When that happens, it will be hard to bring them along.
There are five dungeons remaining, and three are in the empire.
My impression of the empire is all kinds of bad. There’s the enslavement and bad treatment of Sera, but the adventurers from the empire I’ve met on my travels were the worst too.
I feel bad taking them somewhere like that.
We have the future to think about too…
Maybe that’s not for me to worry about, but I can’t help it. I guess that will be up to Elsa and Alto themselves, and I should leave the rest to Chris and the others. I still have the sense of values of the world I came from, so my way of thinking is different.
Anyway, let’s enjoy the food today, and prepare tomorrow.
We’ll be preparing to go to the seventy-sixth floor, so I’ll be pretty busy with stuff like making weapons with Alchemy, and making a good number of disposable amulets with shields.
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Thanks for the treat.