Midnight snack on Cal Mira
Growl …
[…]
No, I don’t hear anything. I’ll just pretend I don’t hear anything at all
It had been several hours since L’Arc and the others had been caught peeping here on Cal Mira Island.
Raphtalia, Filo and I had taken a family bath and then laid down to rest until a booming noise broke the silence of the room and jolted me out of my sleep.
I knew what that sound was: Filo’s stomach growling.
Raphtalia sat up and addressed me. [Mr. Naofumi …]
I knew what she was trying to tell me, but … I felt that I could safely ignore her. So I just pretended to still be asleep.
[Naofumi-sama, please wake up].
I guess I had no other choice … I had to get up.
[It’s still the middle of the night…]
[Um…]
Raphtalia’s facial expression showed me that she was also aware of the circumstances. She nodded silently and then laid down again. Uwah, Filo looked really creepy when she fought her hunger.
Because of the darkness, nothing was reflected in her blue eyes, so she looked like a dead fish.
Or was it just my imagination?
Maybe it was because she was really a ravenous beast.
I wondered if the light would return to her eyes when I spoke to her.
If she was hungry, then she should just eat something …
[Food …]
Don’t whisper that so creepily to yourself!
[Hah …]
As I sighed, the light returned to Filo’s eyes and she came back to her senses.
[Master …]
Growl…
[Filo’s hungry.]
[After eating so much?!]
She had actually had enough for dinner. No one would be able to say otherwise!
[Here in this hotel we shouldn’t be able to get anything at this time… But maybe there’s still a pub open somewhere. We could find something to munch on there].
In the castle where we stayed, there was also a restaurant where we could have dinner.
If you wanted to have something outside of normal hours, you had to go to one of the pubs outside the castle that didn’t open until around evening.
For me, it was already a bit too late for that, but on the other hand, together with L’Arc, we hadn’t been much earlier last time either.
[Or should I just make you something with my shield’s cooking skills].
[um…] Filo seemed downright exhausted and was not exactly drooling discreetly.
[Filo would rather have something prepared by master …]
What an annoying request. Why, of all things, did she have to ask me to prepare something for her …?
[Lately we’ve been getting a lot of different things to eat, but you’ve rarely cooked for us, Naofumi-sama], Raphtalia said softly while patting Filo’s head.
We were on vacation in a tourist place. Why should I prepare our own meals now…?
The food at the hotel wasn’t bad, and the food at the pub tasted good, too. The ingredients were fresh.
[Food]
Growl…
That growl could be heard even in the next room, couldn’t it? That’s how loud the growling was becoming.
So now Filo was threatening me with noises. She had really learned something.
[Filo, can’t it be something that Naofumi-sama doesn’t have to cook himself?]
[No … Filo wants to eat something cooked by master now …!]
Although I thought that she should just go eat something when she got hungry, Filo was adamant tonight that she didn’t want anything other than something cooked by me.
Normally she was rather guileless, but when it came to Melty or food, she was absolutely stubborn.
If I could just keep quiet and wait it out until tomorrow, she would surely let it go at some point, but … then we all wouldn’t get a peaceful night’s sleep.
[If it has to be … Then we’ll look around in the kitchen for usable ingredients].
Count Habenburg, who managed this lodging, gave us many liberties, and the Queen paid all our expenses, which more or less allowed us to do whatever we wanted on the island.
A few ingredients from the hotel should also be in there, as long as I only told the count about it afterward as well.
Filo exclaimed happily, sitting up and raising both her arms in the air.
Raphtalia could only sigh at her, and I mentally joined in.
The three of us left the room and went on our way.
We entered the dining room and continued through it to the kitchen. Since I had received a master key at the front desk, we simply entered.
[At noon there was so much going on here, but now, in the middle of the night, it’s so quiet. The hotel seems like a completely different place], Raphtalia said.
Yes … But it’s not much different in Melromarc Castle either], I interjected, [But there are guards there, so the atmosphere is a bit different …].
Somehow I couldn’t think of a suitable expression to describe the atmosphere.
Maybe it was a similar atmosphere as when you enter the quiet, empty school building after the end of class.
It felt like the three of us were doing a test of courage here.
And while we were talking about it, we finally arrived at the kitchen.
[Well then … Since this is a kitchen, we should actually be able to find food…]
And if not, then we had to go and get some.
I rummaged through the supplies.
Hm … There was some ingredients here, starting with smoked meat. And was this dried fish …?
Was it a bonito? Hmm, probably not, but it at least looked like a similar fish.
I also found dried mushrooms… These ingredients would make a good broth.
We had the food that I had stuffed Filo’s carriage with, which she really wanted to take.
For a midnight snack, I had best make udon noodles to go with it, too. Raphtalia and Filo already knew what it was from the last time I made stew and at the end they ate a portion of thick noodles with the rest of the broth.
There was also some kind of wheat flour here, which I guess was used for baking bread, so that would work out somehow.
[All right, Raphtalia, Filo, you go get the groceries from the carriage, please.]
I’d get started on the cooking here.
[Yes!]
[Yahaa!]
[And, Filo…]
I cut off some slices of smoked meat and held it out to her.
[Eat these to make that stomach rumbling go away.]
On the way here, her stomach had been rumbling as loudly as a car engine.
If that didn’t get quieter soon, she was going to wake everyone else up.
Filo took the slices of smoked meat from my hand and ate them one piece at a time.
[See you in a minute.]
[See you in a minute], I replied to Raphtalia.
As soon as they left, I went straight to cooking. First, I took some of the flour, added a little salt and water, and kneaded the mixture into a dough.
During the process, I noticed that my grip was stronger than expected. Maybe it was because I had leveled up a lot?
Normally you had to use your entire body weight to muster the strength necessary for kneading, but apparently, I was able to do it just with the strength of my arms.
Since Filo was going to get her fill of it, too, I estimated I had to prepare a good ten servings.
In the meantime, I made a fire to heat the stove and put the water on.
The dried mushrooms were then added to the hot water.
While these simmered and made a nice broth, I shaved off some of the dried fish to add the flakes as well … Hm.
The broth took a little getting used to, but it wasn’t bad. Instead of marinated and roasted pork, the smoked meat was added to my broth … and finally blood sausages, the specialty of Cal Mira.
We’re back,” Raphtalia announced when the two of them returned from the carriage with the food.
I took some herbs to flavor the dish. That should be enough for the pasta sauce.
Now all that was left was to roll out the dough with a rolling pin and then to cut them to size.
[That looks good already], I stated with satisfaction and put the just prepared noodles into the hot water.
[Oooh, that smells so good! Is this going to be a stew?], Filo asked.
[No, I’m making udon noodles.]
[Udooon!] Filo’s eyes really sparkled.
Now that the udon noodles were cooked, I could take them out of the water and portion them directly into a bowl.
Then I put some side dishes on top, put the pasta sauce over that, and handed Filo the finished food.
[It’s hot, so eat slowly or you’ll scald yourself.]
[Yahoo!] Filo held the bowl in his hand, blew on the noodles, and started eating.
[Do you want some, Raphtalia?]
[Yes, I’d love some . . .]
Good What should I give Raphtalia as a topping?
Then I remembered that in Japan they had tanuki udon, or raccoon style udon noodles.
In Tokyo, they put deep-fried breading on the udon, while in the Kansai region they used deep-fried tofu.
Which of the two would be more to the liking of the racoon-like Raphtalia?
[Huh? Are you thinking of something funny, Naofumi-sama? I thought you were just going to feed me udon?]
[Yes, that’s true, but I was thinking about how they should be served to best suit you, Raphtalia].
[So that they would best suit me?]
Good, at least she didn’t seem to get suspicious.
[Somehow, it smells so delicious here…]
Just as I was preparing her portion, someone suddenly poked his head in the kitchen door.
[ Oh? If it isn’t Kiddo! What are you doing here at this hour?]’ L’Arc asked, entering the kitchen.
[ You can see that: a late supper. Filo insisted that I should cook her something.]
[Aha! Is that true, Filo?]
[Yes! Filo’s master’s food is very tasty!], Filo replied, continuing to slurp her noodles.
[Well, you seem to be doing well. A late dinner for little Filo, huh? But don’t let her stay up all night.]
[Her stomach growled so loudly that we couldn’t sleep. What choice did I have?]
While I was explaining myself to him, the next voices were also raised.
[The smell came from here, didn’t it?]
[Yes…]
[I think so, too.]
The other three heroes joined in as well.
[Oh, Naofumi. What are you doing here?]
[Kiddo here was cooking food], L’Arc answered Motoyasu’s question.
[So that’s what we smelled.]
[What are you three doing here anyway?]
They should go to their rooms or to some pub for my sake.
When I said that to their faces, L’Arc raised his hands and said: [After we peeped in the women’s bath, we had to kneel on our heels as punishment. You got pulled out of that affair quite nicely!]
Oh yes, they had tried to secretly observe the woman in the bath.
They probably didn’t get away with it just like that.
[Why does Therese have to get so upset just because I wanted to look a little? She has no sense of romance whatsoever.]
[If that’s your sense of romance, you should definitely throw it overboard]. Really. He didn’t really think I would participate in such bullshit, did he?
[If you also participated in such actions, you wouldn’t be such a bore, Kiddo].
[Then I’m happy to be boring. So you had to sit kneeling on your heels as punishment?]
[Yes! But man, we almost got away with it! What a pity!], Motoyasu replied angrily, while Ren and Itsuki just looked away as if it was none of their business.
[I got dragged into this by them,] Ren said.
[That’s right, we wanted to stop them from doing it], Itsuki defended himself.
[But you didn’t protest much, you just went along with it. And because you didn’t see reason, we had to wait so long.]
[Maybe.]
Why did they sound so proud of themselves?
It seemed like Ren and Itsuki were halfway carried away.
[But we …]
[… really have no understanding at all!]
For a glimpse of paradise, we’ll take any challenge!], L’Arc and Motoyasu finally emphasized as if from the same mouth.
Well, they got along splendidly … Maybe because they were so similar?
[Raphtalia, please find Therese. It could be that they just ran away from there.]
[Roger.]
[Hey… Hey, Kiddo! You can’t just rat us out to Therese!]
So they really did run away.
Raphtalia disappeared from the kitchen and went in search of Therese.
Now I just had to make sure that L’Arc and the others didn’t run away…
[And then you were lured by the scent from the kitchen as you fled?]
[Yes! No wonder you get hungry when you’ve had to serve your sentence for so long!], L’Arc answered me and kept squinting at Filo’s soup.
By the way, Filo always got new portions from me as soon as the noodles were ready, so that her bowl was never empty.
One portion would not have been enough for her under any circumstances. If I didn’t let her eat enough, then she would nag incessantly that she was still hungry.
[If you’ve already made so much, then give us some too!]
(Of course, it was large quantities that I had cooked, so that I could somehow get Filo full… Well, it should be possible to give the others something.)
[After you’ve eaten, you’ll go back, right?]
[That depends on your cooking, Kiddo. Don’t think I’m too easy to please!]
He was acting up! And he was a peeping Tom.
[Well, wait and see…]
I prepared four portions for them.
Do they know how to eat it?
But before I could even finish thinking, L’Arc grabbed a couple of chopsticks and started shoveling his portion down.
Motoyasu joined him. [Oh? That’s a good broth you’ve made!], he praised my udon dish after the first bite.
[Were the ingredients from here that good?]
The dried fish was actually of normal quality. The ingredients I used couldn’t have been very expensive.
[Oh! The noodles are totally delicious! The consistency is perfect! It almost goes down on its own!]
[Yes, they really do taste great. I didn’t think I would get to eat udon here] Itsuki said.
[The taste isn’t bad at all], Ren said.
[Naofumi, can you make tempura to go with it?]
Had Itsuki seriously ordered tempura from me?
[You’ve got a lot of nerve asking for seconds here!]
[Oh, good idea! I’ll help too!]
Motoyasu wanted to give me a hand and started stroking the fire in the stove.
Well… Actually, you didn’t need such a hot fire for that, because as long as you had some oil, you could make tempura.
[Hmph. I’ll have tempura, too, then.]
[You want to eat some too?! Don’t act up here!] Now Ren was also involved. He just didn’t want to be left out, did he?
[Hah… Motoyasu, heat the oil in this pot, will you? And Ren, you know water magic, right? Then prepare some cold water]
I decided that I would actually make them tempura to buy some time until Raphtalia could return with Therese and the others.
[Master! Filo wants more!]
[Ah, yeah, right.]
I gave Filo her second helping, had Motoyasu heat the oil, Ren prepare the cold water, and set about preparing the tempura myself.
With this method, I wouldn’t use a lot of flour, but would first cool the ingredients in the cold water and then deep fry them until they were crispy
[Motoyasu, you need to lower the heat a bit.]
[Okay! Ooh! That looks good! I’ll put some in, too!]
In addition to the tempura I put in the oil myself, Motoyasu also put in his own.
Well, I let him do it.
[Here you go, herb tempura!] I served Itsuki the finished pieces in his bowl.
Herbs, Naofumi? Isn’t there a more elegant way to say that? Wild vegetables, for example …]
[You really have extravagant wishes, don’t you? You already wanted tempura, so be glad you’re getting some. And … here’s some mushroom tempura].
I gave the leftovers to Filo.
[Oooh! It’s so crispy and delicious!]
[The texture is good …] After that, Ren ate his tempura udon without another word.
[The herbs aren’t bad either …]
Itsuki admitted.
[That sounds good! Kiddo, I’ll have some of that as a snack, too!]
All of a sudden, L’Arc had gotten a bottle of alcohol from somewhere and was now enjoying udon and tempura with it.
[Why are you boozing too now?!]
[Don’t be like that! You eat something delicious and then fight!
[A warrior can’t be luckier than that!]
What was I supposed to do with this adventurer wisdom? I hope Raphtalia comes back quickly with Therese!
[It smells really delicious here …] Now other guests were joining us!
[It’s nice that people gather here. A late, convivial dinner!]
[But that’s not for you to decide! The more people come, the less is left for Filo!]
[What? Filo’s having less food?]
[Naofumi! Just cook more!]
[Shut up!]
Motoyasu was being annoying as usual.
All I did was make dinner for Filo… So why did everything have to get so out of hand?! Damn it! Their easy-going attitude had already captivated everyone!
[Um… I’ll help you…]
[You’re the cook here!]
The hotel’s cook looked at me apologetically while I prepared more noodles.
[Yes… Well, the guests would certainly be disappointed if I just threw them all out of the kitchen. You seem to be regarded as hosts here, so I’ll help you while I’m making preparations for tomorrow].
[A… Oh, okay, thanks.]
Why did he look so down?
Later, when I asked Raphtalia if the cook had seemed tired to her, she replied, [I think it was because you had entered the kitchen, Naofumi-sama.]
Actually, the cook would still have been asleep at that time of night, but now we had burdened him with a late dinner as well.
[You’re a really good cook, Naofumi. I was attracted by the delicious smell, but there seems to be a lot going on here…]
Slowly, my strength dwindled because of all the guests who were attracted by the smell. Then Therese finally entered the kitchen alone. But Raphtalia was supposed to fetch her?
Where the hell was she looking for her?!
[Actually, I just wanted to make dinner for Filo. But tell me Therese, have you seen Raphtalia?]
[Not since the bath. Have you seen L’Arc by any chance? He was supposed to serve his sentence, but he ran away from me.]
[How did he get away from you?]
[Well, I had them guarded in shifts… But one of the guards fell asleep…]
What son of a bitch let L’Arc and the others get away?! Only later I found out that it was one of Motoyasu’s companions who had fallen asleep during the watch. The bitch had probably gone to sleep before.
[The real question is, where did L’Arc go again?]
I then gave Therese the decisive clue by looking in his direction.
The guy was sitting in a clearly visible place, namely outside on the terrace, where he was getting drunk with other guests.
[Excuse me, please.]
Therese left the bowl that had been set out for her and made her way to L’Arc.
Then, she grabbed him by the ear and dragged him back to me.
[Ow ow ow! Therese! Not so hard!]
[Come along with me! Really … You’re just taking off like that?! Obviously, you haven’t learned anything from your disgraceful actions!]
[I’m sorry! Something just got into me…]
[Just you wait, you…! Naofumi, I’m really sorry. I’ll give L’Arc a good telling off!]
[Well then, Kiddo, I guess we have to go back to our punishment place!]
[You’re obeyong her to the letter], I stated in amazement.
[Well, you gave me something tasty to eat as promised, so now I have to fulfill my end of the bargain, don’t I?]
Coming from a guy who had just run away, that didn’t sound very convincing….
[Naofumi-sama! I looked for Therese everywhere, but …] Now Raphtalia also came back to tell me that she couldn’t find Therese and looked around.
[Apparently, we kept missing each other somewhere, I’m sorry.]
[Oh, don’t be … I’m glad you still came].
L’Arc turned to the three heroes and the rest of the group and clapped his hands.
[(What happens, happens… Bye, Filo! It was great to see you!]
[Uh …?]
Motoyasu also returned without grumbling, while Filo tilted her head to the side and seemed to wonder what was so nice about it.
[It shouldn’t be much longer, so let’s get this over with. Come on, let’s go, Ren.]
[Pah … I just got dragged into this and would rather go to bed as soon as possible].
After eating proper tempura and udon earlier, Itsuki and Ren still followed Motoyasu and L’Arc out.
They all seemed uncharacteristically well-behaved. [Therese, you’d better keep a close eye on them.]
[But of course! Well then, let’s go! We have a long night ahead of us!]
[Huh?! You can’t be serious, Therese! I only got lost because of the good smell! Now cut me some slack …], L’Arc began to talk his way out of it, although he followed Therese outside.
And so the peeping toms, who had escaped their punishment, were led away again.
[Filo, finish up slowly now.]
[All right! Thanks for the good food!]
Although the dining room was still crowded, Filo put down her bowl.
[Now there’s only one serving left for Raphtalia…]
I finally made a portion of udon for her with some fried breading on top.
[Here, Raphtalia, your reward for looking for Therese. Eat up and then we’ll go to sleep!]
[Oh, thank you!]
I served her her portion of tanuki-udon.
[Thanks for the good food!]
[You’re welcome. Let’s go back to our room now.]
[Yes. It was really very tasty. And … suddenly there were so many people.]
[Oh, yes…]
[Master! That was really fun!]
[Yes, yes.]
Although it had been so quiet in the meantime, the dining room was bustling once again.
All the hustle and bustle were actually not so bad, but since we also had another long day ahead of us tomorrow, we returned to our room to really sleep this time.
End
