CH 204

“Ho… this is really not bad ~” I said as I admired the scenery from the garden.

I am currently looking at the legendary ‘Ocean View’. [1] The view that automatically increase the prices of any kinds of properties. Be it hotel rooms, apartments or houses.

[2] When I showed my letter of introduction from Marks-san to the Merchant’s Guild, I was introduced to the person in charge of Verulean’s real estate department. A certain Denis-san had been very helpful thus far.

When I told Denis-san that I wanted to rent a nice place to stay for a week, he introduced four different properties to me. He was even kind enough to bring me to view all four properties according to the ones I’m most interested in.

The first one we visited was a 7LDK property similar to the one at Neihoff. I liked that one best since we had a good experience with a property in that size. However, when we went to view it, I found that the garden was not quite as large as I had imagined.

[3] “What do you think?” asked Denis-san after we toured the mansion.

[3] “The mansion itself is good, but the garden… I’d like a bigger garden actually,” I said a little apologetically.

[3] “Oh? That’s an interesting request for a short term rental,” Denis-san probed. “May I ask why?”

[3] “I plan to do some outside cooking,” I said, since barbecue is probably not in their vocabulary. “With the garden so small, the neighbours are rather a little too near. So the smell might disturb them.”

Denis-san was too much of a professional to ask why I wanted to cook outside when there’s a perfectly wonderful kitchen equipped with a Magic Stove inside the house. I could feel his probing gaze, but in the end, he said, [3] “I may have the perfect location for you. Well, it’s a little further outside the city centre, would that be alright?”

I thought about it. With Fer to carry me around, distance isn’t really an issue. So I said, “No problem, please show me the property.”

And that was how we ended up at this 9LDK property with an Ocean View. Ahh, a property with a garden overlooking the sea, am I a celebrity? Am I dreaming? How luxurious is this ~

[3] “This is the second property on the list,” said Denis-san with a smile. “What do you think of it?”

The Ocean View garden already more or less cinched the deal, but I went through the motions of going through the house with Denis-san. This place was once owned by aristocracy and the upkeep was very well done, so everything was in excellent condition. The bathroom was great, the kitchen was well equipped with a Magic Stove and all the rooms were very spacious and gorgeous.

I have no complaints, but what about everyone else?

The question was sent telepathically to them and my mind was bombarded by:

“Umu, the size is good. Big, I can move easily in it.”

“Yay! I like the big garden.”

“Sui likes it too ~”

Excellent.

The rent for this property was 73 gold per week, just a little higher than the other property we saw. However, the garden with the Ocean View was definitely worth it. Also, we have plenty of money, ufufufu, so that’s not a problem at all. Also, since I have a letter of introduction from the Guild Master, the price went down to 70 gold coins.

Alright, “I’m happy with this one,” [3][4]I said to Denis-san who smiled and we headed over to sit at the garden table to sign the contract.

I took out 70 gold coins from my [Item Box] and handed it over to Denis-san, who carefully counted them. [4] Gold coins were nice to see and good to hold, but they were a bit of a pain to count so I pretended not to look at him when he did so.

“Alright, everything checks out. Here’s the key to the mansion. Please enjoy your stay at Verulean.” With that final greeting, Denis-san left us to enjoy our time at the mansion.

[4] Woohoo!

[4] What an awesome garden! What an awesome view!

“Hey, it’s lunchtime now.”

“Yeah, I’m hungry.”

“Sui is hungry too~”

Yeah, I kind of anticipated this. Well, it’s past lunchtime anyway so, “Please wait a bit,”

Let’s see, I’ve cooked a lot of rice, so there’s some leftover. There were also some fried food, Salisbury Steaks and some stir-fried vegetables…

Oh, I could make that!

The vegetables were stir-fried with garlic sauce, so I roughly chopped up the Salisbury Steaks, heated up my largest pan and tossed both meat and vegetables in. When both meat and vegetables were heated through, I served this special [5] ‘Stamina Stir-fry’ over the still-warm rice I pulled out from my [Item Box].

I also dug up all my random fried stuff and piled them onto plates as an extra side dish. By the time Fer and Sui had their seconds, everything I had prepared for this trip was gone.

After lunch was free time. That weird hour after a late lunch and not really enough time to do anything before night falls.

Fer, however, disagreed, [3] “Hey, why don’t we go hunt that Kraken now?”

[3] “No! We have just arrived here after a long journey. Kraken hunting comes tomorrow, it’s already been agreed. I’m tired. I refuse to go Kraken hunting!” I must admit to being slightly hysterical…

In the end, my familiars decided to take a nap in the garden. [1] The warm salty breeze from the sea, as well as the sound of waves crashing to the shore, was very soothing…

Ah, but I have work. I need to go check my inventory for the items I got from the dungeon. Well, I still have the original list of all the things I had gotten from the Doran Dungeon, all I have to do is subtract the ones sold to Doran and start from then.

Alright, let’s get to work.

Please read this at kitchennovel dot com ~

I spent the rest of the day sorting through the dungeon items and found there were actually quite a few left.

Rather, quite a lot of the so-called items were actually dropped meat. Minatour meat in fact.

I’ve already used up all the dropped meat from other, more familiar, monsters. Well, to be fair each drop was only about 1 to 2 kg, sometimes 3kg. [1] Considering my meat, meat, meat loving companions, 3kg is less than one serving…

Anyway, it turned out I have about 11 portions of Minotaur meat left. I guess we can eat those and clear them out of my [Item Box]

As for the other dungeon items… well, my inventory kind of looked like this:

Venom Tarantula poison sac x 3

Orc testicles x 31

Troll poison claw x 48

Minotaur horn x 49

Minotaur iron axe x 15

Orc King testicles x 1

Red Ogre magic stone (middle) x 1

Spriggan magic stone (large) x 5

Giant Killer Mantis sickle x 38

Murder Grizzly fur x 21

Murder Grizzly magic stone (large) x 3

Cockatrice feathers x 7

Rockbird beak x 10

Rockbird feather x 13

Paralyzing Butterfly paralyzing poison scales x 27

Giant Dodo feather x 9

Giant Centipede outer shell x 3

Giant Centipede magic stone (large) x 2

Wild Ape fur x 41

Killer Hornet’s poison needle x 286

Killer Hornet’s royal jelly x 1

Vasuki fangs x 1

Vasuki skin x 1

Vasuki’s magic stone (extra large) x 1

Manticore skin x 1

Manticore poison needle x 1

Manticore magic stone (extra large) x 1

Gustave skin x 1

Gustave fangs x 1

Gustave spine x 1

Gustave magic stone (extra large) x 1

Giant Scorpion poison needle x 6

Giant Scorpion magic stone (middle) x 3

Sandworm teeth x 8

Sandworm magic stone (large) x 4

Death Sidewinder skin x 7

Death Sidewinder poison bag x 5

Death Sidewinder magic stone (large) x 3

Giant Sand Golem magic stone (Extra Large) x 1

Behemoth skin x 1

Behemoth magic stone (super oversized) x 1

Behemoth (dungeon boss) treasure chest x 1

Mimic Treasure Chest (small) x 1

Mimic Treasure Chest (large) x 2

Treasure Chest, drop jewelry Sapphire (medium grain) x 1

Alexandrite (medium grain) x 1

Yellow Diamond (large grain) x 1

Tanzanite Necklace x 1

I have removed all the dropped meat as well as magic items that I wanted for myself, or those that I think could be useful in the future. [6] The Detoxification Necklace had already been presented to the King. I have also kept the magic sword Caladbolg because it was too dangerous to be shown to the public. Even so, the list still looked quite extensive.

Well, I have no idea how much Marks-san intended to buy, but he can study this list at his leisure tomorrow when we go Kraken hunting.

Now that my housekeeping work is done, let’s get on with the preparations for dinner with Minotaur meat!

[Gumihou: I like conscientious people like Mukouda-san]

[1] Added More Details: For artistic purpose

[2] Structural Change: Rearranged information for logistical purpose. I basically cracked down one A4 page of text and rearranged it to look more aesthetically pleasing.

[3] Structural Change: Switched out some plain sentences to dialogue

[4] Additional Information for Logistical Purposes: Rather than the standard favourite:

“I should do a thing”

I’m thinking of doing the thing.

“Yes, you did the thing”

-formulae that author-san seems to favour, I decided to take some liberties and vary the text with some ‘show don’t tell’ techniques.

[5] Stamina Stir-fry – The Japanese called anything that has loads of meat Stamina whatever. Stamina Stir-fry, Stamina Set, Stamina Soup…

[6] Structural Change: Combine 2 or 3 sentences together