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Chapter 361: Dungeon Meat Festival
Otherwise known as big delete chapter: Starting count 2100
On the day of the Dungeon Meat Festival.
Stalls lined both sides of the main streets with plenty of people stopping by this or that booth for grilled skewers, stews and other meat related food. [6] The atmosphere was similar to a festival day in Japan.
There were visitors from locals as well as tourists who came just for the festival.
“Thank you for your purchase~” [3] I waved off a pair of parent and child who bought a hotdog from my stall.
“Big brother!”
“Oh, it’s Lewis and friends. Hello again.” [5]
“Wow, I heard that your stall is right at the end of the street, but this is really riiight at the very end,” [7] commented Lewis.
“Yes, well, that’s what happens with late applications,” I said.
My ‘stall’ consisted of my custom made barbecue stove [6] and an earth magic raised table. [1] Sui, Fer and Dora-chan were napping at the back while I operated my stall.
They complained about not being able to go have fun and eat food from other stalls. However, I somehow managed to convince them to relax today while I operate my stall. [5]
“Humph, tomorrow and the day after, we will eat all the stalls.”
“… could you please say it in a less scary way?”
“Big brother! You don’t have many customers due to your bad location,”
“That’s true, but I still have customers,” [3] I said, perfectly happy to slowly entertain the few customers that come by instead of dealing with a crush of people.
“By the way, that looks really delicious. You put a whole sausage into the bread we made?”
“That’s right, I cut a slit here and stuff the sausage in. Then pour some of the tomato sauce over the meat…”
Gulp!!
Lewis and his little friends were all staring at my homemade hotdog.
“It looks really good…”
“Oi, this is merchandise, so I can’t give it to you for free. However, you are welcome to have it for 6 iron coins.”
“Aww…” [5]
Ahem, I know it sounded kind of mean, but I really don’t want them to develop a habit of thinking they could get free things randomly from me. [6] Furthermore, I properly paid them a silver coin each for their labour, so I know these kids have money.
The kids huddled together on the side.
“What should we do?”
“That hotdog thing looks really good,”
“But I want to try stuff from other stalls too,”
“Then again, everything that brother made is delicious,”
“True, true,”
“6 iron coins is a little expensive…”
“It’s meat and a whole sausage stuffed in a bread, how is that expensive?” [5]
“Hmm… alright, I’m gonna buy one!” Lewis broke off from the huddle to hand 6 coins to me.
“Thank you for the purchase,” I said as I put a sausage on the grill and made a cut into the orphanage made bun. [6] The bread ended up being something closer to a whole grained French baguette with a crispy crust rather than the soft, pillowy brioche buns that I could buy from [Net Super]. Still, it was good enough to pass as a local hotdog.
After stuffing the sausage into the bun, I slathered on the thickened sauce and handed the hotdog to Lewis.
“Woah, looks really good.”
“It doesn’t just look good, it tastes good too!” I promised.
Lewis took a large bite, [3] “Delish~~”
Seeing Lewis’ happy face, the others could no longer resist and all ordered a hotdog too.
When they finally have their hotdogs in hand, everyone mimicked Lewis, opening their mouths wide and taking a large bite.
“Delicious~~~” [5] [8]
“Bread and meat, yummy~~”
“The sausage is really delicious and juicy~~”
“Silly, the sauce is what makes it good. The sour tanginess really ties it all together…”
Goodness, even though these guys are orphans, they really know their food. [1] Is it because Rosendal is a gourmet town?
Anyway, with the kids eating so deliciously in front of my stall, others began to drop by too. Specifically, an elf.
“One please,” said the elf.
“Thank you, that’s 6 iron coins, please.”
I handed the elf a hotdog and watched as the mouth on that elegant face dropped open wide and bit off one end. After some contemplative chewing, his eyes suddenly shot open and he devoured the whole thing in a few bites. Woah, that’s too incredible.
The elf exhaled and said, “Oh my, that was really good. I always come to the Meat Festival in search of good food. [5] Looks like I found a winner today. Another, please.”
“Sure,”
The elf devoured the second hotdog more slowly, “Hm, delicious. Not only is the sausage very juicy, but it is also generously seasoned with salt and pepper too. The concentrated tomato sauce on top lent a moderate amount of acidity to the meat and brings out the flavour well.”
Well, this elf sure has a lot to say.
“Hahh, apologies, when it comes to good food, I’m afraid I have a habit of thinking out loud,”
Yeah, yeah, you’re a noisy gourmet elf, I get it.
I already had some experience with gluttonous elves. [5] [4] “My name is Gabriel, I’m a merchant. I have been visiting the Dungeon Meat Festival since its conception.” [5] [6] “I see…”
“For some reason, my feet always led me here during this time of the year. I usually sell my wares between the Royal Capital and Bischoff,”
[6] “Bischoff?”
“It’s a city located between here and the Royal Capital,” said Gabriel with a smile.
“I have some elf friends,” I said. “You guys sure know how to enjoy your food.”
“Fufu, you’re right. It’s part of our nature.”
“Hey, is that why we always see lots of elves during the festival?” piped up Lewis. [5]
“Mmm, it’s considered part of a yearly pilgrimage for some,” said Gabriel-san dreamily. [5] “Farewell, I shall come again tomorrow.”
“Ahem,” I said. “Apologies but I won’t be operating my stall tomorrow.”
“Wait, what?!” Gabriel-san actually looked shocked. In fact… was that a single tear crystallized at the corner of his eye? “Whyyyy???”
“Uhm, I only plan to open my stall for one day.”
“I see, wait. Hold on,” Gabriel-san rummaged through his [Item Box], looks like he must be magically quite powerful to have one.
“Here! Please fill up this basket!”
The basket looked large enough to contain 10 hotdogs. [5]
“Sure, I have no problem doing that, but you’ll have to eat them soon, they won’t keep well…” [5]
“Oh, it’s fine. I’ll most probably eat everything by the end of tomorrow.” [5]
“If that’s the case…” I grilled and assembled 10 hotdogs. As expected, it all packed nicely into the basket.
An hour later.
My stall was mobbed by a sudden wave of elves.
“Eh? What’s going on…?”
While I rushed to fill out orders, I heard the elves talking amongst themselves.
“Gabriel is right, these are great.”
“Luckily we met him, otherwise we wouldn’t have come to this end of the street first.”
“This stall only operates for a single day, let’s order more. 10 for me please!”
“Me too! 10 here!”
Ughh, so it’s that Gabriel guy’s fault!
[4] “Hi, big brother, looks like you have quite a lot of customers now.”
[4] “Lewis! It’s Lewis! Great! Are your friends here? Help me out, I’ll pay!!”
Sometime later…
“W-we somehow survived it…”
Lewis and his little friends were drooping on the side. Thanks to them, I managed to barely survive the assault from those elves.
I was just trying to think of the best way to reward the kids when an old man stopped in front of my stall.
“Hey, this is your stall? The one where loads of elves just left?”
“Yes…”
[8]
“Right, I’ll have one of whatever they just bought.”
“Me too,”
“Two here, please,”
“And here…”
“Woah, w-wait, everyone, back to work!”
Somehow, the orphanage team and I managed to survive this second assault.
This went on until…
“Sold out! We’re all sold out. Apologies but there’s no more.”
The sausages were all gone and so was the tomato sauce.
“Woah, that was intense,” said Lewis.
“We’re so tired…”
Lewis and the orphanage party looked quite worn out.
“Thanks to you guys, I was able to survive this,” I said. “Here’s 2 silver coins for your trouble.”
“Wait, really?”
“Yes, you deserve it.”
“Hey, thanks… wait, you’re paying us 2 silver coins per person?!”
“Why not? You really saved me back then.”
“Woah, awesome!!”
Fatigue seemed to have left the kids as they bounced to their feet and cheered.
“Right everyone, time to eat delicious food!!”
“Yeahhh!!”
You guys still have plenty of energy, huh?
“See you later, big brother!”
Ah, youth…
I turned to my familiars, “Well, shall we go home?”
“Hey, aren’t you forgetting something?”
“Hm?”
“Food, food!”
“Ahh, right, right, sorry. I was so busy that I forgot.”
““Grr, the smell of food is so strong here that my stomach keeps growling!”” Dora-chan also sounded pretty hangry.
““Master, Sui hungry…””
“Sorry, sorry everyone. I’ll buy whatever you want!”
“Humph, it’s only right,”
““Food!!””
““Sui get to eat lots~!””
Thus, my exhausting first day as a stall owner ended with a tour of all the nearby stalls until my familiars were satisfied to leave.
Word count: 1558
[Gumihou: Operating a stall sounds pretty fun, but really, all those wowee yum and numerous ‘open their mouth really wide to chomp’ remarks were unnecessary.]
[1] Structural Change: Combine 2 paragraphs
[2] Structural Change: Combine 3 paragraphs
[3] Structural Change: Combine paragraph & dialogue
[4] Structural Change: Change passive sentence to dialogue
[5] Delete Repetitive or Pointless Information
[6] Additional Information for Aesthetic Purpose
[7] Add Dialogue Tag
[8] Creative Licence Taken – Adjusted to make dialogue appear more normal