The room where ministers of natural resources were gathered was filled with tension so thick you could cut it. I was in a butler outfit —provided by the Nomille family— standing behind Lena with Blanche who was wearing the same black wig as I did. Though, that maid outfit is so cute!
"Greetings, ministers of Natural resources and Head Guildmasters of the Fishermen guilds. My name is Lena Nomille, I am daughter of Duke Nomille and granddaughter of lord Kalvig," Lena introduced herself flawlessly, "This man behind me is Alito Roppa, my Butler-in-training and a chef. He will show you a way to prepare Ellee and one of the recipes."
"Good day, ministers of the Alliance, my name is Alito Roppa, and today I will be your chef."
You might wonder, what led to this and to explain it for the best, we need to return three days back.
***
It was three days after the meeting with the other Ministers of Natural resources started. At that time, the roof of the orphanage's atelier was finished and we accepted four more kids that were slowly getting used to all the new rules we had in store for them. I started furnishing the shop and tried my hands at creating a new Magic item with the Space Slime's Blue moon liquid called Warping paint. This paint allowed for creating magic items and enchanting. This paint was also the reason I could make Magic Bags.
I bought some barrels made entirely from brass and poured the paint inside. Once the paint was over all sides, I drained the excess and used an Item box spell to activate the paint. In my previous attempts I found out that once a spell was casted the paint hardened. This way, I could have my slimes just sit on top and have them release the alcohol and no matter what, I would not run out of space.
Hahaha, a pun.
The Roof of the dormitory was also coming along nicely, so I was expecting it to be done any day now, so I started putting my merchandise into the basement that only I could enter from the shop. I also installed the company logo above the doors and put up a sign that we will be opening soon. And that was when it happened.
"An emergency quest?"
"Indeed. A pack of Skull bears appeared near the highway to the royal capital and knights were dispatched to take care of them. However, the pack turned out to be bigger than they thought and the knights had to retreat due to lack of medicine and supplies," Miss Aaya explained to me and Lena.
"So that is why the medicine ingredients went up in price… So why are you asking us? Do you want us to take the quest?"
"The guildmaster said it would be in good hands if you took it," Aaya confirmed, "Mainly, because we don't have fast enough teams."
"This works perfectly. With your Item box and Blanches summoning a ride monster, we can get there faster than others," Lena nodded approvingly, "Plus I can support you with the knights from the rear with my magic."
"But it's Skull bears… shouldn't the knights be capable of slaying a horde of those guys?"
"Um… sir Arito, Skull Bears are A rank difficulty monsters. Pack like this one could be considered S or SS rank."
"Really?!"
Those pushovers are that strong? They can't even defeat my slimes, how could they be A rank or above?!
"Do you get it now?" Lena looked at me with a somewhat smug expression.
"Yeaaaah…" Seems I'm just a little too off the charts myself… or my slimes are…
"Let's take the quest. Miss Aaya, could you prepare the boxes with medicine for us? I will take them in my Item box."
"Understood. Please come with me to the back," Miss Aaya led me to the back where I collected about fifty kilos of medicine.
About a half hour later we set off for the forest, where we arrived at around three pm. I could've realized it sooner, but traveling on the back of a flying monster is really fun and spares a lot of time. On horses it would take a day, or two to arrive.
"I-is that a Wyrm?!"
"Oh Gods, what have we done to incur your wrath…"
The knights were clearly panicked. The information I got was that there were about 200 knights, 50 mages and another 50 support troops, making for 300 people strong force, but from what I could see, there were only around half of them remaining.
"We are the Green Leaf party of Aula city's adventurers guild! We came on an Emergency quest with supplies!" I used rope to get down to the troops, Lena following shortly behind me.
"I'm Lena Nomille of the Nomille Duchy! Member of the Green Leaf party, who is in charge here?"
"The Nomille duchy?"
"Really? So is that their tamed monster?"
"I never heard the Nomille family had someone with aptitude with scale monsters, though."
"This Wind Wyrm is a summoned beast of our third party member, I have the provisions in my Item Box, who is in charge?"
"Our captain is bedridden and we lost our Vice-Captain too."
"So who is in charge, then?"
"That would be me…" a man with a peg leg came to us. He was holding a cane in each hand and on his back were two swords, one blue and one red.
"Captain!" The men swarmed around the older captain with a worried look.
"Stuff it! Are you calling this order of knights?! A laughing stock!" The knight captain was clearly a tough skinned soldier.
"Lady of the Nomille house, I am Mark Mattius, knight of the third knight order."
"The Bloodmist."
"Ah, I see you've heard about me, that pleases these old bones," the man, Mark, smiled, showing his pearly whites. Some of his teeth were missing, probably due to getting hit by something hard.
"Did the bears do this to you?"
"Ye… That leg is gone, but they will see me again in action soon enough!" The captain acted tough in front of his subordinates.
"GRRAAAAAAAARRHHHH!!!"
"Eeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!"
The roar from the forest sent some of the soldiers to their knees.
One lone bear exited the forest, acting as if he owned the place. To the soldiers it must've looked like he was smirking at them.
WZOOOOOM!
An arrow flew through the air and dug deep into the bear's forehead.
"Arito! This one was weaker than the ones back home!" Blanche smiled from the top of Berga, her Wind Wyrm before descending down to us, her trusty bow on her back. Yue, who was also outside the Dimension home, grabbed her yellow spear and stood at the ready with several slimes around her.
"They are weaker? Aaah, no fun… Yue, please continue spreading the medicine."
"Yes master!"
"Their lord is probably weaker than the one at Kassana forest."
"I think too… that guy is too strong, but if those guys' boss is weaker, then we might have a shot. Captain, were you able to confirm the boss of the pack?"
"I-indeed. It was a Black Skull Bear."
"Aaah, that might be a problem."
"Wait really?! Didn't we defeat one of those last winter?" Blanche got a little surprised, her face crouching a little.
"Yeah, we don't have enough Lumossa to distract the guy. That was the main ingredient we used in that strategy, remember?"
"Oh yeah…even though we stocked up during the Blue Moon… damn it… what was it used for?"
"I used it for the light source in the orchard and to keep the bugs off."
"Yeah, that makes sense… that's where it's needed after all…"
Me and Blanche continued our little talk while we unloaded the medicine and started preparing traps with our slimes.
"Um… young lady? What is… happening?"
"Urgh… those two are rather odd, you see? The Ancient boy is actually a natural enemy of Skull Bears."
"I see, he's—WHAT?!"
"It just shows how many of them he slew already. To him, they are like rabbits on a field and he is the falcon. The moment the guild sends us here, the bears' fate has been sealed."
"I-I see. The Nomille duchy's knights are really something else…"
"Those two are no knights. Just adventurers we stumbled upon while traveling here. To be honest, thanks to them, I myself have grown."
"ORIIIIIIIIII!"
"What was it now?" the knight captain asked as he watched me blow a pipe with a tiny wind crystal embedded inside it.
"Oh, this? This is a Bear flute I made. It imitates the sound of a Skull bear female in heat."
"Wha…"
"You see, the interesting thing about the Skull bears is that females usually are not that loud. That is because, when they call—"
"GRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUU~♥♥♥!!"
"GRRAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!"
"—both females and males come rushing. Males to expand their lineage, but females to crush another one and preserve their own. It's a love-hate relationship on steroids, you see?"
"GRRAAAAAAAARRHHHH!!!"
"Ah, our first contenders came, let us have fun, shall we?"
"Right!"
"By your side, master," Yue came to my side alongside Blanche as well. Yue was so far helping the wounded soldiers with the slimes, but now she basically teleported to my side with her yellow spear in hand.
"Now, I would love to say let the hunt begin, but our prey is already balls deep in our traps…"
The sight before us showed a group of around forty to fifty Skull bears stuck to sticky-steel threads of the cocoon slimes that were coated in slow acting paralysis poison of the poison and medicine slimes.
"Everyone! Pick up your spears! The bears have been restrained and paralyzed!"
"Attaaaaaaaaaaaaaackkk!!!" Blanche answered my rouse with a cry of her own. The arrows she released whizzed through the air and struck the bear's heads. One by one, the bears fell to her arrows. I, of course, picked up a bow too, and started shooting the bears on the opposite side. Yue jumped over the strings thanks to her wings that helped her hover higher than normal humans could and started culling their numbers from the other side.
"W-we would like to, but…"
"You're not letting others get any!" Lena got a little angry.
"Oh, Lena, could you prepare a Light magic spell? Something stronger than Light Arrow, if you will."
"That's the strongest spell I know!"
"I see, too bad. I only have Purification, and that is not great for this situation— Well, well, we have him here."
"GA-RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
A big black bear with crimson red eyes and white fur on its head that looked exactly like a skull came out of the forest. His aura was dark and malicious and had a feel of sinister flames of hell to it. Just by walking, it destroyed the strings, just like the Spider Skull Bear did months ago.
"Eiii—"
"Don't falter! Do not show fear! Dark slime, Grow!" I commanded the knights like they were my kobolds and ordered my Dark slime to unshrink. The Slime grew and grew until it was about the same size as me.
"A BIG SLIME?!"
"Let's go!"
I jumped in with my sword at ready and the Dark slime following closely behind me.
"GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!"
The bear's roar threatened me, but I could not care about such trivial things. Unlike the Spider Skull Bear, the Black Skull Bear had one enormous weakness. It was slow and not as strong as other Skull bear variants. The only redeeming quality the bear has is its tough fur and heavy body, but with a good sword in my hands and my slimes that was nothing to fear. In other words the Black Skull Bear was my prey like any other.
The bear, seeing its roar was not effective, tried to rush me, but it forgot that I was not here alone. An arrow flew past me and hit its eye… or at least it looked that way. The arrow scraped by side and the damage to the head was miniscule. Just a little blood trickled down the bear's fur.
"Taxin Arrow?"
"You got it!" Blanche smiled at my question.
Taxin is another of the Blue Moon Liquids, this one however came from Poison slimes. This liquid was amazing in that it was mostly non-poisonous, but when ingested, or shot in blood flow, it would absorb the internal magic power to become poisonous. Once the flow of magic power stopped, the poison would become non-poisonous again, but this time permanently, meaning it would be safe to eat. The only problem here would be that it now won't be usable as a material for Magic crystal.
"GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!"
Some greenish blood trickled down the Black Skull bear's face.
"Huh?! He nullified it?!" Blanche became surprised at the situation's development.
"He probably has a high leveled Poison resistance skill… worst case scenario he has the Poison Immunity."
"What are we gonna do?" Lena panicked a little, charging her defensive spell.
""Switch to plan B."" Me and Blanche said at the same time.
The Dark slime slithered its way to the Bear's side and spread over the ground like a puddle of mud during rain. It protected its core by having a tentacle stretched out of the battlefield, so it was relatively safe too. The bear tried to attack me, so it did not even realize that he was lured on top of the Dark slime.
"NOW!" I shouted as the bear's paw missed me by a hair's breadth. The slime shot more of its tentacles upward and coiled around the bear, locking the two in a tight hug. The bear thrashed around, roared, tried to bite through the slime, but could not do anything else, the Dark Slime in it's Big Slime form had a skill called Physical damage nullification, so even when it did tiny amount of damage, the slime could heal by absorbing the dark element from the Black Skull bear's body.
With the bear unable to move, I took my dagger and stabbed it into its neck. The dagger tore through flesh and even hit the bone on the other side. The Bear tried to roar once more, but it could not do so much as whimper weakly as its strength left its body. The beast died just like that.
"The Lord is dead! Clean up the rest of the Skull bears!"
"Understood master!" Yue was first to reply to me and went to hunt the rest. There were only about five or six bears remaining, so it would be quick for her and her spear.
As she was doing this, I had the Dark slime raise the Black Skull Bear up in the air so I could drain the blood. I was using a barrel for it, because I could tell that there would be much more blood than normally. The amount of blood filled the space magic enhanced barrel and I had the Bloody slimes drink the blood of the remaining Skull Bears. Luckily, the soldiers who were so terrified to do something previously, were now at least useful by managing the material and taking apart the carcasses.
"These slimes of yours are really amazing. Who would've thought you could drain the blood so easily… I wouldn't be surprised if it became the highest quality meat," the Captain smiled next to me.
"Yes, the Bloody slimes are one of the most useful Slimes for hunting. I also have Grime and Corpse slimes that can dispose of any useless material, or bandit… Well, most of the slimes are useful when used correctly."
"I don't think there are many people who would see use in keeping slimes. Adventurers know that higher ranked slimes, like Poison, Acid or Cocoon can be dangerous in their own right, but most of the regular people don't see them that way. Even some nobles tend to underestimate them and when they fall prey to them, the entire family becomes a laughing stock."
"It's a shame for the slimes, but nothing I could do anything about," I shrugged and continued loading the meat into the Magic Bags and my Item Box.
I also took out some wooden frames and fastened the skin inside them with Cocoon slime's steel thread to even it out. With the skin like this, I could have the acid slimes eat the excess meat and fat stuck to the skin. Later, I would smear the skin with ash and fat to make it more elastic.
Black Skull Bear's skin
Skin of Lord class Black Skull Bear. Even after its death the skin has an enormous excess of Dark magical energy stored inside.
The Black Skull Bear's skin seemed to be quite charged with magic power and the barrel with its blood was also leaking some seriously sinister aura, so it would most likely be useful for some kind of magic item down the line. Anyway, I stored all of these items in my Item Box or Dimension Home and decided to call it quits for the day.
"It's getting quite late. What should we do?" Lena asked me when she came back with a report on the bears and soldier equipment.
"Hmm… let's break the camp and stay the night. We can move out in the morning. There seem to be other monsters unlike the forest ones, so I would like to take a look at them as well. Captain, can you show me reports on the surrounding area?"
"Yeah, but there are not that many useful monsters, you know?"
"It's fine. I'm a monster researcher, so any new monster is a potential research subject."
"Okay. This is the most recent report we have."
"Thank you."
The report showed some Ogres, Orks and Goblins to the west from here, Goblins and Wolves to north, Orks, Razor Boars and Smash Boars to south and House Rabbits to east, where the highway was.
"House Rabbits? What are those?"
"They are distant relatives of Flex Rabbits, but their meat is softer. They also have thick fur in which live insect monsters called Bullet Fleas. Those things get launched by the House Rabbits sometimes and if you are unlucky, you might end up dead. Bullet Fleas can pierce even weaker Magic armor, and they are hard to spot, as they are only as big as a fingernail," the Captain explained to me.
"I see… I guess there isn't anything really eye-catching, then," with a sad shrug, I went to help make dinner for the knights. Tonight's dinner would be grilled bear meat seasoned with salt and some herbs. To get the soldiers some other nutrients, I started making potato soup with other vegetables and remaining Ironcrow Duchess' meat I had from the Kassana Forest. Luckily, I had enough wooden bowls for everyone, because I was making sure I had enough dishes for all the kids in the orphanage. I got a little carried away and made about a hundred bowls, only to find out the next morning that Lena ordered about two hundred bowls for me from carpenters in the city. Well, doing everything on my own is one of my flaws…
"Aaaah, thank you oh Great Gods for allowing us to enjoy another meal," one especially zealous knight prayed before tearing up when he drinked the soup.
The soldiers were enjoying the food and started being merrier by the second as the night continued.
"Mr. Arito, Mrs. Blanche, Lady Lena, thank you for helping us with our assignment. I'm sure that without you, there would be a much greater amount of casualties. Could I ask you to accompany us to the capital? I would like to honor you like the heroes you are," the captain looked at us seriously, but I wasn't really feeling that way.
"What is your take on this as a noble, Lena?"
"As nobles, the prestige from slaying this amount of Skull bears, should at least get you honorary baronet title from the king. But as adventurers, you should be able to move to the S-rank."
"That really doesn't strike me… it's just a pest extermination, after all," Blanche said bluntly, stuffing her cheeks with meat on skewers.
"Pest extermination…" Some of the knights were quite baffled by her statement and a little ashamed of themselves. Even Lena looked at Blanche with her mouth slightly opened and blank look in her eyes.
Is this normal reaction to calling Skull bears pests?
"I don't really need the title, nor guild rank right away, so could we give the credit to the knights?"
"Not a chance!" the knights screamed out in unison.
"Eh?"
"Mr. Arito… this kind of thing is against the knight order's sense of valor. You would be doing my men a disservice."
"I see… Well, could we at least call it a team effort, then?"
"No!" The knights spoke in unison again.
"Mr. Arito, it took us half a day to take down one Skull bear. You in less time took down all of them, the entire pack of twenty Skull Bears and even Black Skull Bear Lord! If we took credit for that, we would be ashamed of ourselves. We could never call ourselves knights!"
"What the captain said!" the knights raised their fist to the sky, some of them still clenching their bowls in them.
"Hmmm… what to do…"
"If you get a higher rank, then you should be more protected from nobles who would like to use you. It is stated in Alliance's law that adventurers of S rank or higher are to be treated as high nobility."
"That law was put in place to please the adventurers and to keep them in the alliance's lands," Captain added to Lena's words.
"Plus it will make it easier to travel within the Aliance's lands."
"Fiiiiiineee~ I understand, I will take it…"
"Will you take the adventurer route, or noble one?"
"Noble style seems too stuffy for me, so adventurer way it is."
"Thought so. Anyway, I will have to report this to his majesty, so you can expect some kind of thank you from him as well."
"I'm not getting off am I?"
"I will help you with that. I will tell uncle you don't like the stuffy things so he will keep it short," Lena tried to comfort me.
"You're not helping, you know that?" The rest of the evening was spent by making contracts with new bloody slimes that split while drinking the Skull Bears' blood, effectively doubling their numbers.
***
The next morning was the fourth day from the first meeting of the ministers of Natural Resources and we were heading towards the capital with the knights. As it turned out, they had a few more people waiting in the outskirts of the forest.
"We will go east from here and then use the highway to go to the capital."
"Yes captain!"
The knights and their captain were so relieved that they let their faces crumble to lose grins.
As for me, Blanche and Lena, we were riding horses that lost their owners. The distance to the capital was around half a day on horseback. If my calculation was correct, we would make it on Berga's back in about an hour, maybe even less.
"The highway is pretty safe, I don't see, nor detect any monsters or suspicious people…"
"That is because of those pillars by the side. They use a Sorcery stone called Warding Stone to keep monsters away. For bandits there are patrols from the Royal Knight force keeping things clean."
"I remember hearing about sorcery stones before, but I never heard the details about them."
"Oh, then let me explain. Sorcery stones are naturally appearing stones with various abilities. Unlike Magic stones, they can't store vast amounts of magic power, but can produce similar effects to magic crystals. Sorcery stones can only have one effect though and they cannot be changed even with Schtaffe. From Sorcery stones that I know of, there is the Warding Stone that wards monsters away; Aqua Stone that produces water; Sun stone that helps plants grow; Glowstone that emits light in dark places and lastly Flame stone that easily ignites."
So Sorcery stones are like magic stones you usually see in games. Magic Crystals correspond to the world's magic elements and Magic Stones are like batteries…
"I see, thank you for explaining. Are Sorcery Stones considered rare?"
"It depends on the type. The Warding Stones for example, are commonly found in Xesnuaji's desert and are their greatest export, same way as these pillars. The Glowstones are exceedingly rare though, so small Magic Crystals of the light element are much more commonly used for lighting."
"Thank you, Mr. Mattius," I bobbed my head.
"Ah, stuff that! I can't have the savior of my subordinates, and my as well, call me that stiffly. Just call me Mark!"
"If you think so, Mr. Mark…"
"Aaah, you are a piece of work. Let's get some drinks once we make it back to the capital!"
"Are you inviting us captain?" one particularly loud man shouted from the midst of the knights.
"Only Arito you drunkards!" the captain shouted back.
"I am a little interested in the capital's alcohol, so I shall accept your offer."
"Really? That's good to hear! Do you have a favorite brew?"
"Sadly, I do not. I've been making my own liquors so far, so I'm not very well versed in brands of alcohol."
"Is that so? Then I better take you to my favorite winery!!"
The trip was filled with happy laughter and joyful banter. It felt much shorter than normal travels.
***
"So this is the royal capital, huh? It looks really big…"
The walls in front of our group were at least thirty meters high, the Southern gate we arrived at sported two golem-like structures that looked really impressive, even though their faces looked a little goofy. Apparently, this city was built on the bank of the great river and the royal castle was seated on the left side, while the Royal academy was on the right side. The total number of bridges here was sixteen and the entire city was made from eight city districts. The academy belonged to the Second district, while the castle and noble mansions were in the first district. Coincidentally, the Southern gate was a part of the Third city district that slithered like a snake on the right bank of the river.
"It really is. Now, let's come to the guild!" Captain Mark had me, Blanche and Lena follow him to the adventurers guild.
"Hey! Is Riksha here?"
Me and Lena chuckled a little hearing that name to a great confusion of Blanche.
"Huuh?! What da ya want pipsqueak?!" an older lady came down from the stairs, looked Mark up and down and smacked him with her cane. "Yer been reckless again, huh?! Ya 'now what's gonna happen next aye?!"
"Auntie, wait! You need to hear it! It's about the emergency quest!!!"
"Huh?! Ah, I see. Let's go upstairs. You too, brats!"
"Sorry about her, she's a little rowdy."
"It's fine."
"I definitely don't mind."
"Me neither."
With that, we went upstairs and entered a somewhat main looking room. There, the old lady and her secretary were already waiting. The room was decently furnished and we sat on a sofa and received some tea freshly brewed by the secretary.
"Huh?! It's whiskey?!" Clearly, what I thought was tea was actually an alcohol.
"Whiskey? This is Hot Malti liquor. I never heard the name 'Whiskey' before," the old woman, Riksha, frowned a little.
"It might be just our local name, please don't mind it," I bobbed my head to her and took in the aroma.
"Yer a polite lil' fellow… So whaddya want, careless brat?" Riksha turned to Mark sitting on the other side from us.
"These three, the Green Leaf party, have accepted the emergency quest and finished it without a single blemish. And to boost that, they wiped out the rest of the Skull Bears. There were around twenty of them, plus one Black Skull bear lord."
"What?! And you want me to believe that?!" Riksha was surprised and glared at me. I took out my Status board and showed her my title of [Natural enemy of Skull Bears]
"The fuck?! Are you really ten?!"
"Yes. A ten year old Ancient, nothing more and nothing less," I smiled at her.
"Argh… Susu, prepare applications. We will raise these guys' ranks, then."
"Oh, just for Blanche and Arito please. I didn't do anything in the battle so you should reward only those two," Lena rejected her rank raise right away.
"Fiiiiine. Just two applications. What's your rank anyway?"
"We are F ranks."
"YA HAVE A DEATH WISH?!!! WHY DID YOU EVEN ACCEPT THE EMERGENCY REQUEST?!"
"It looked good to me," I answered honestly, which made the guildmaster just stare emptily at us.
***
It took some time, but we made it through the explanation and me and Blanche became D ranks. Apparently, to become C ranks, we would need to take at least one escort mission, so we were granted just this rank for the time being. Actually, we would be normally bumped right up to the S rank, but for that to happen, we would need to go public about our exploits and that isn't something we really need right now. I also found out that guildmaster is related to the biggest Malti liquor brewer in the royal capital and got a basic recipe for it. I might be able to get malt and hops. And that means whiskey and beer!!! I haven't had a beer since I came to this world! Ah, how amazing it would be to get one cold beer after a hard day's work…
"So, what should we do now?" I asked Lena who was walking between me and Blanche.
"Hmm… Let's go talk with dad first. He should be in our mansion with brother Hazel."
"I heard a lot about him, but what is he like?"
"…you'll see…" Lena said with almost empty eyes.
We walked through the streets, absorbing the atmosphere, and skipped over a bridge to the First district. I was expecting the city to be much more guarded, but we were not stopped a single time. The festive feeling could be seen and felt all over the capital. People were setting up stalls and colorful flags were hung between houses. Even the noble district was decorated brightly.
"I know the Summer festival and Summer auction are held close to each other, but what does it entail?"
"On the last day of the festival there is a big light show which leads to the start of the Auction. There is a 5% fee for auctioning the items and the money raised is split between the alliance members and used for public affairs."
"Oh, if it isn't my deer little sister," a voice came from behind us. The one who the voice belonged to was a boy around twelve or thirteen years old. He looked similar to Lena, but his eyes were green like his mother's. He had silver rimmed glasses, which gave him quite a serious look.
"Hazel… it's been quite some time. You've not come home for spring break," Lena smiled weakly.
"It was time I could have spent studying, so I don't think it was a time wasted."
"Does that mean spending time with family is a waste?!"
"Definitely not… it's just… aah, forget it…" Hazel looked away, his cheeks slightly red.
Is he embarrassed? How can he be so cute…
"Erm, and you are?" his gaze fell on me, returning to the cool and serious front he had on before.
"Oh. My name is Arito Aruze, my partner and I have the great honor of adventuring with your sister, Miss Lena."
"Why the heck are you so polite?!" Lena got completely grossed out by my politeness.
"Ah, so you are the person that saved my older sister from goblins, you have my thanks for that Mr. Aruze. And you lady? I believe I have not caught your name."
"I'm Blanche Aruze. Arito's p-partner," Blanche stuttered.
"Honor to meet you two," Hazel's words came out a little harsh, but were definitely genuine.
"I believe you will be staying at our mansion, right? Let's meet at dinner tonight, now if you'll excuse me, I have to go look for Prince Andy."
"Huh? Is he missing?"
"Oh, no. He just got in a fight with his mother and is hiding somewhere. My Shade is tailing him, though."
"So that's how it is. Well, good luck with that."
"Thanks. Well, I will see you later," Hazel waved at us and continued walking to the river.
"He seems nice," I said with a smile and Lena looked at me with a blank expression.
"You are probably the first one to call him that, ever."
We continued through the streets until we made it to one extremely big mansion. It wasn't as opulent as the others, but it still had a classy look.
"Is this where you live in the capital?"
"Yep. Oh, Lev!"
"Young lady?! Aren't you supposed to be in Aula?"
"I came here due to an emergency quest so I thought we would crash here before heading back."
"I see, please wait a moment, I will inform the master right away!" The guard took a flute to his hand and as he was about to blow it, Raven appeared before us with an intermediate Warp spell. In the next moment he was holding all three of us and warped back into the mansion.
"Master Henry, your daughter, Miss Lena came with Mr. Arito and Miss Blanche."
"Huh?!" Henry sounded confused from the other side of the doors, but had no time to react any other way, because Lena marched to the doors and flung them open.
"I'm home, Father!"
"L-Lena, what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be in Aula with your mother?"
"Emergency quest. A big pack of Skull Bears. Arito took care of them. His Majesty will know soon."
"Is that really all you will tell your father?" I looked at her slightly exasperated.
"I get the gist of it… I hope… anyway, Raven please prepare rooms for Arito and Blanche… but I guess one will be enough?" Henry asked and I nodded, "I thought so. While you stay here, do you want to look into our spell books?"
"That is really nice of you, so I will take you on that offer," I nodded, "Oh, do you want some Skull Bear meat? We have a little excess right now."
"Yes, that would be great. I will be holding a party with other dukes in attendance and I was a little worried about what to offer them."
"Noble parties usually use extreme amounts of spices, but you can use less if you have high class meat," Lena explained with a sour look.
"Guess you don't really like that?"
"It ruins the taste most of the time, so I don't enjoy it. Flame bunnies are surprisingly tasty though…"
Flame Bunnies live near volcanoes, so they are really rare here. The only volcano near here is on the island of the Amoeba Principality…
"Yeah, most of the time the food is practically inedible. The cooks work hard to prepare it, but nobles tend to destroy it by their quest for fame," Henry looked equally as grossed out as Lena.
I'm so glad I came to this world the way I came… I couldn't be a noble from birth.
"In that case, I will go and drop the meat to the cooks. I believe they will need time to come up with an appropriate recipe."
"Yes. And thank you," Henry nodded.
"I think I will go around town afterwards, Blanche, do you want to come too?"
"Of course!"
***
We walked through the town, the festive feeling enveloping us.
"I wonder if we'll find something interesting here… oh, what is this?" Blanche led me by hand to one stall on main street. The person in charge was a Myconid woman in her late twenties by appearances. She had a mushroom cap growing on her head and had no body hair. No hairs, eyebrows, anything visible. She was dressed in light clothes that were somewhat see-through, but by layering the fabric, it made blind spots. It somehow reminded me of the Arabian nights, minus the shiny metal pieces.
"Hello, young ones looking for some fine accessories?" she asked us in a sweet tone.
The accessories were using braided threads made from a special type of kelp and the accessories themselves were made from polished shells. One necklace was even using tip of a narwhal-like monster's spiral horn.
"This hair tie would look good on you, don't you think? It has the same blue color as your eyes," Blanche pointed at one braided cord with two shells at the end.
"May we try it out?"
"Of course, sir," the lady smiled at us.
Currently, I was holding back my long hair with a cord I made myself from Skull bears leather. No need to say I needed a new one. Blanche on the other hand had her hairs braided and tied at the end similarly to mine.
"Hmm… it does look nice… Miss, I will take it. Blanche, what about you trying out this one?" I picked a similar looking cord that she was eyeing for a little while. Too bad I have experience with this! I can use this to score bonus points! Buh-hah-hah-hah-haah!
"Y-you think?"
"I'm sure. Try it!" I gave Blanche a reassuring smile.
She carefully took the cord and tied it to her braided hairs.
"I knew it would look nice."
"It really is…" Blanche said with a slight blush.
"I will take that one too, miss shopkeeper."
"It will be forty Alba, sir," the shopkeeper smiled and I paid her.
"Thanks, Arito…"
"Everything for you," I smiled at her and received a kiss on my cheek. We continued our walk, hands intervened, stopping at different stores and stalls, enjoying the festivities like there was no tomorrow.
"Geh-heh, now give us yer money if ya wanna live!" This clishé line came from a side alley we passed around.
"Should we take a look?"
"It won't hurt us to check," Blanche nodded, quickly finishing her shrimp and fish skewer.
We returned back to the side alley and took a glance. Deep in the alley, was a human looking boy with blue tipped black hairs guarding Myconid girl with his body. In front of them was a bald man with an eye patch, sneering at them.
"Hello there," I smiled at them, "Wouldn't you know where I could find toilets? I can't find them anywhere," I lied to fool them.
"Get lost kid," the man snorted at me.
"Oh, was I not polite enough? Should I ask the kids then?" I turned to the kids. They had some fancy looking clothes, so I thought they might be nobles.
"Um… err… my friend here can guide you," the boy pushed the girl towards us.
"S-Sir Andy…"
Andy?
"Hooooo~" A Shadow Owl flew above us silently.
"What is happening here?!" Hazel came from the other side of the alley.
"Oh, Mr. Hazel, is this gentleman the one we spoke of before?" I called out to him.
"Mr. Arito…" Hazel looked at me, then the man with the eyepatch and the boy closer to him, before continuing, "Indeed."
"That makes things simple," I smiled, rushed the man and used lightning magic spell Spark to knock him out.
"Hazel! You were tailing me?"
"No, but my Shade here was. Never did I think I would find you with princess Mushrooza running through the city unguarded. Young lady, my name is Hazel Nomille, son of Duke Nomille. I was tasked with bringing you both to the palace," Hazel said with his usual stern expression.
"Thank you Mr. Hazel… and who are these two helpers of yours?" The girl looked at us, "They seem to know you, but their clothes don't look like that of nobles."
"I am but a simple adventurer passing by, lady Mushrooza," I bowed exaggeratedly.
"Your name. Tell me your name, please," she looked at me directly, her eyes sparkling a little.
"His name is Arito Aruze. The girl behind him is Blanche Aruze, they are members of the Green Leaf party my younger sister is a part of," Hazel explained, looking slightly smug.
"I see…"
"Oh, does that mean, Miss Lena is in town?" Prince Andy seemed elated by the news.
"Your highness, I hate to interrupt you, but we need to do something about this fellow, should we not summon guards first?" I asked, pointing at the man Blanche tied up in the meantime.
"Ah! Yes… Hazel, could I ask you to use your familiar?"
"Of course your highness," Hazel bowed lightly and his shadow owl took flight. Not even five minutes later two city guards came into view and took the tied and still unconscious man away.
"Now, I believe you should return to the palace, your highness. Your parents are one thing, but lady Mushrooza should head to her parents too."
"I-indeed… I shall do so…" Clearly, he wanted to show his cool side in front of, not just any ordinary girl, but princess of a nation to boot.
"Sir Arito, Madame Blanche, we shall see each other again, I hope you will accept my tea party invitation. You too, Sir Hazel and Sir Andreas," the princess made a slight courtesy, her eyes still on me.
"We will make sure to make ourselves presentable when the day comes," I bowed slightly, implying that we could not be presented to high nobility, which no one, except for Hazel, saw through.
"Yes. I can't wait for it myself. Mr. Arito, allow me to give you my thanks as well, I shall… um… I'm not sure what I can do for you myself so I will have to ask father first… I don't really want to make a fool of myself," Prince Andy scratched the back of his head with a smile.
"Your words of thanks are all that I could ask for your Highness," I bowed lightly.
After that we separated and went to our own agendas. Everything was nice and beautiful, but it did not last long, because…
"Now that I think about it… did you give Mr. Kalvig the recipe for Ellee preparation?" this off handed remark from Blanche froze me over.
"I-I… I didn't… We need to hurry!!!"
We quickly returned back to the mansion and gave a quick retelling to Henry, Lena and Raven, all of whom almost fainted and started making preparations. The next morning a tailor was summoned to make us new clothes for the tea party and we were even given servant uniforms with wigs so we could go to the Ministers meeting incognito. The wigs had a recognition inhibiting feature, which I saw for the first time in this world. They even prepared body paint to hide my marks… How thoughtful they are.
"I'm sorry you three, I couldn't reach out to my father-in-law because the meetings are supposed to be secret until the deals are done."
"And there's that barrier too, right? Not everyone can bypass it," Lena nodded.
"I will go this evening to my brother for a meeting, just like all high ranking nobles are supposed to before the auction starts. I will get you three permission slips for the ministry."
"Thank you."
The next morning we got dressed in our servant-style uniforms and went with Lena to the meeting.
"I wish you all great luck… if you excuse me, my head hurts so I will go lie down…" Henry got wasted last night with the king so he was still experiencing a high class hangover.
"I will make this a success, father," Lena smiled and we boarded the carriage, riding to the Ministry district. On our way we were stopped, but just by showing the permission slip from the king, we were instantly allowed through.
***
And that leads us to the present time.
"Good day, ministers of the Alliance, my name is Alito Roppa, and today I will be your chef. As preparing Ellee is quite time consuming, I will have to hasten some parts of the process, however the recipe you will receive is written unshortened. If you could allow it, I would like to take this to the garden, is it acceptable?"
"Sure, do what you need to prepare," Kalvig nodded, his eyebrows twitching.
"I thank you from the deepest parts of my heart," I bowed once more and left the room after Lena who was going to 'watch over the procedures.'
Outside, I had the mansion's maids prepare a set of chairs and a table for eating, where I would place the finished dishes. For today, I was going for simply grilled meat with just base seasonings of salt, pepper and Citon slices on the side. I set up the grill, table to prepare Ellees with barrel under it and a table with plates for finished food I also took out box with water in which I had already chopped a decent number of Ellee meat, container with a Bloody slime and one bottle of Cleaner, a Blue moon liquid of the Cleaning Slimes, that have same power as the Cleaning slimes of eliminating impurities, which when diluted could be used for food items as well. For example, eliminating mucus from meat.
"Well, we are ready."
"Then I will go to summon the ministers," the maid bowed politely and went back inside.
The ministers came out of the mansion and I welcomed them with a polite bow.
"Now then, let's start. I have prepared some meat previously. As you can see, the meat was skewered and put in water after bleeding it. This water is not really just a water, it's a diluted Cleaner substance that was bought from MonsterWork company. I've been told that this substance was made from some kind of slime liquid, it can remove impurities from the meat. I understand that this Cleaner can't be produced in great quantities, however, you should be able to clean the meat if you leave it in clean water for three to four days. Giving the meat a light massage to release the mucus from the meat is also a good idea."
"But won't the meat go bad sinking for so long in the water?" one of the ministers asked.
"That certainly can be a worry with some kinds of meat, but from what I learned, Ellee meat can stay edible in clean water for a week. There might be problems if the water is not clean enough, so please remember that."
I took some of the meat out, massaged the salt and pepper in and put it over the fire. The sizzling sound of grilled meat loosened my stern expression into a loose smile.
"Blanche, I will have you in charge of the grilling."
"Okay," she nodded enthusiastically.
"Gentlemen, the Ellee will be presented shortly," With that, I checked on the Ellee I had prepared in the barrel under the table and went to slice some Citon.
Blanche arranged the meat on the plates and I added the Citon. With that, we served the meat to the ministers. They appraised it first and then took a bite.
"Hm?!"
"Uhm… this is actually…"
"Grrr… it's good."
"Is that really Ellee?!"
The four ministers frowned as they could not believe what they were eating. They were clearly taken by surprise by the deliciousness of the meat and the adding of Citon made them even more surprised.
"I understand your bewilderment, so please allow me to show you the entire process from killing the Ellee to serving it," I bowed once more and started preparing one of the Ellees from the barrel. It took a little longer, but once it was done, they had confirmation that I was indeed using Ellee.
"This is the most simple recipe so I believe your own chefs will be able to adapt it to more flavorful dishes," I bowed once more and let them discuss the following matters.
"Sir Kalvig, let us put on paper what we decided upon. The Ellee Sage must be rewarded for this."
What did you say?!!! What kind of lame nickname is that?!
My bewilderment was cut short by Lena's low voiced snickering.