Story 133: Mouth-Watering Beef Stew
It was Werner-san and Ramon-san, Franca, Rita and Vincent, the members of the C-ranked Adventurer party 'Iron Will' who had taken good care of me when I first came to this world. I never thought that I would meet them again and here they were, in Doran's dungeon?
"Everyone, it's been a long time." I said, pleased to see them again.
"It's been a long time, Mukouda-san. It's amazing that we should meet again here of all places." I shook hands with Iron Will's leader, Werner-san. As he explained it, after they left me in Fariel they set off to journey to Doran. It took a long time with many carriage journeys and they only arrived in the city the day before yesterday, beginning their dungeon exploration the day after.
"Is that so?" I gestured to Fer. "We are heading for the coastal city of Berleean. We only stopped off in Doran because Fer insisted we do so, to explore the dungeon here." The members of Iron Will nodded in understanding. They had spent some time with Fer and me in the past, they could sympathise with what I went through dealing with him. It was nice to be with people who knew what a hard life I led coping with the demanding Fenrir monster.
"So Mukouda-san, you've acquired another follower since we last met?" Werner-san said, studying Dora-chan closely. "A Dragon indeed, a baby Dragon?" Well anyone seeing Dora-chan for the first time would think he was a baby Dragon. Of course I had made a submission contract with both Dora-chan and Sui-chan since we had last met so I had two individuals to introduce.
"This Dragon is actually an adult, fully grown, it's a rare kind of Dragon called a Pixie Dragon. It's my contracted monster, I named it Dora-chan."
"You named it what..." Werner-san blurted.
"Splutter" Hey! Vincent, don't laugh when you hear the name I chose for Dora-chan. And you too, Werner-san, if you please.
Rita and Franca both said politely "Pleased to meet you, Dora-chan." Ramon stayed admirably silent despite his red face and shaking shoulders. I continued the introductions regardless.
"And this is my Slime, Sui." Sui-chan had crawled out of her bag to look around so I lifted her up to introduce her to the Iron Will party. Seeing the expressions on their faces I added, "Yes she's a Slime but she's a special type and very strong."
"Having Fer alone as your contracted monster was amazing, Mukouda-san." Werner-san said, examining Dora-chan and Sui-chan closely. "Contracting with two more formidable monsters such as these is a remarkable achievement. I am impressed." Werner-san's praise rather embarrassed me. But I had things to do, the Gluttonous Trio were hungry and wanting to be fed. That's why they had contracted with me after all, the other two as well as Fer.
"Hey, where's dinner?" Fer demanded.
"I'm hungry." Dora-chan added.
"Aruji, I'm hungry too-" Sui-chan said.
Oh, I'm sorry I'm sorry. "I'll get dinner for you, Fer, Sui, Dora-chan. Just give me a moment." Well, what should I serve them? The beef stew would be nice, I decided, along with the local black bread I had bought earlier in town. It's a bit firm but it should go well with something like beef stew. I took out the stockpot of hot beef stew from my Item Box and dished out generous servings to the Gluttonous Trio.
"I've eaten this food before." Fer mumbled, his muzzle deep in the gravy. "The meat is softly simmered, it melts in the mouth. Umu, delicious." Thank you, Fer, I appreciate hearing you like it.
"Oh, this food is delicious again. Really, all the food you make is delicious." It looked like Dora-chan was enjoying the beef stew too, the way his scaly nose was ringed with gravy.
"This is because the meat is soft and tastes good, too-" Sui-chan's seal of satisfaction completed the Trio's approval of my cooking. Wonderful! But a cold feeling along my spine caused me to shiver. What was it-
""" Gulp """
Looking around, I found the eyes of the Iron Will party were nailed to the pot of beef stew. Vincent and Rita had drool running down their chins. Rita, you're a girl, you shouldn't be drooling like that, it's not seemly. I sighed, it couldn't be helped, I'd feed them for old time's sake.
"Ah, do you want to eat some too?" I asked somewhat redundantly. The members of Iron Will nodded their heads vigorously. I got out more deep wooden bowls and a loaf of black bread and dished out more of the beef stew for them.
"Ha-, I can finally eat Mukouda-san's food again. It's the best." Vincent-san said, digging his spoon into the stew.
"Vincent cried when Mukouda-san left us back in Fariel," Rita added, her own spoon poised over her bowl, "but I agree, Mukouda-san's food was delicious."
"Hold on there, Rita," Vincent interrupted. "It was you that cried when he left, not me. But yes," he said, dipping his spoon into his bowl once again, "it was delicious."
"Oh, maybe you're right." she admitted, eyes shining. "And it is still really delicious."
So while Vincent and Rita were talking to each other ....
"Oh, it's delicious." Franca agreed. "The vegetables are also boiled so softly... After all is said and done the way this meat melts in my mouth leaves me speechless."
"Oh, it's really delicious. Eating this bread with the stew is just the perfect thing." Werner-san bit off a chunk of gravy-soaked bread and chewed it ecstatically.
"This deep taste with its rich flavour... I can't believe that such delicious food can be eaten in a dungeon." Ramon wiped away a tear. "Mukouda-san, you can truly work miracles."
Iron Will were filling their mouths with beef stew, mumbling between spoonfuls about how good it tasted. Yeah, it was great that everyone liked it - but I hadn't had any myself yet. That was easily fixed though, once I had my own bowl in front of me. The first mouthful, yep as they said it's really delicious. The Bloody Horn Bull meat was thoroughly simmered, so soft that it could be broken with a spoon. The soft boiled meat crumbled into flakes when I put in my mouth.
I soaked a piece of the black bread in beef stew and bit into it. The demi-glace sauce in the gravy and the chewy black bread, sheer bliss. Delicious. I took another spoonful...
"""Seconds"""
Fer, Dora-chan, and Sui were all wanting more. Even Dora-chan was asking for extra stew, I was surprised. What sort of evil magic had the stew worked on his little stomach that he wanted seconds? I put out more beef stew on each plate for the Gluttonous Trio.
"This stew is truly delicious. What kind of meat is in it?" Vincent asked as he dipped his spoon in the bowl again. When I replied, "Bloody Horn Bull meat," Vincent nearly choked in shock. The other members of Iron Will froze at my words, their mouths hanging open.
"Mukouda, the meat, it really is Bloody Horn Bull meat?" Werner-san asked in a quiet voice. "In this stew...? I'm sorry. I didn't know that it was such a high-class food, I wouldn't have accepted it if I had known..." I held up my hand to get him to stop apologising. It was so like the reaction of Rashu-san and his Adventurer party, 'Phoenix' in Carerina when they discovered the food I had cooked for them on the road had been made with similarly high-class meats, Rock Bird and Black Serpent and the like.
Saying that this stew was just normal everyday food for us, nothing special. Well, the Dragon steaks we had eaten yesterday at Elland-san's house were special but they were exceptional for many reasons. Of course with Fer tagging along with me I had to provide food for him every day of the sort a nobleman might eat once a month if that, and of course I also had to feed it to Dora-chan and Sui-chan too. It helped that I could always rely on Fer to replenish our meat supply, a necessity since the Gluttonous Trio ate a lot of meat. Still, eating delicious food was a bonus.
"No, please don't apologise. We've still got a lot of Bloody Horn Bull meat left." Werner-san looked surprised. "Fer and Sui-chan got it for me." Werner-san let out an "Ah" as he understood what I had said.
"Fer-sama is amazing-" he said, nodding at Fer.
"Thank you Fer," Vincent and Rita said, their eyes shining as they bowed to Fer. Franca and Ramon added their own thanks and praises.
"Anyway that's why you shouldn't worry about it." I said. "Now would you like another bowl?"
"Is that ok?" and "of course" and "please!" and "go on" and "thank you" were the responses. Fer looked displeased.
"Hey, there won't be any more left for me!" he said telepathically. His own bowl of "Seconds" was already empty and I knew Thirds wouldn't be the end of the meal for him.
"I owe Werner-san from before." I explained. I had hired Iron Will to get me out of a certain country before the borders were closed and war broke out and they had done their job helping me to successfully escape. "I'll cook some more meat for you, Fer." He brightened up at my words.
"Oh, that Drago..." he said audibly before I clamped my hands around his muzzle to silence him. "Mumble mumble..." He gave up trying to speak out loud. "What are you doing?" he asked telepathically.
"Fer, don't say anything about Dragon meat." I answered him telepathically. I took my hands from his muzzle and gestured at the members of Iron Will. "They think that Bloody Horn Bull beef stew is amazing, if you mentioned we have Dragon meat they'd probably start a riot."
"Nuuuuu." Fer calmed down as my explanation percolated. "OK then, Wyvern's meat, that would be fine instead-"
"You can't have that either. Wyvern meat is also too good to cook in front of them, the smell..." I remembered the smell of Wyvern meat cooking, it was the best smell I had ever experienced until the day before when I had cooked Dragon steaks at Elland-san's house... I thought fast, I had fresh supplies of Orc meat, the drop from the boss room fight on the 11th level. That would do.
"Well, it can't be helped." Fer moped. For a country-destroying legendary monster with unbelievable powers he could be remarkably self-pitying. Once more I resisted the temptation to scritch his ears and pat him on the head to console him. "You had better put lots of seasoning on it though."
"Yeah yeah." I wish Fer could read the mood better when we were around people but I supposed he never had to be considerate of other people's feelings before he partnered up with me.
"So, is everyone ready for seconds?" I asked.
"Is it really OK?" Werner-san asked, his eyes on Fer, aware that he didn't care for the idea of me handing out his food to others.
"Yes, I still owe you for the help you gave me back then." At that time I was alone, new to this world and I didn't understand anything and then I ended up making a submission contract with Fer which complicated matters. It was only thanks to all the members of Iron Will that I got safely across the border and away from that Kingdom.
"Well I'll definitely have seconds!" Vincent broke in.
"Hey, Vincent." Party leader Werner-san said quietly and Vincent froze.
"Sorry, leader." Vincent looked down.
I listened to Vincent's apology then asked, "Well, Werner-san?"
Mr. Werner nodded to me and, saying "Please," he offered me his wooden bowl. Rita, Franca, Ramon and finally Vincent handed me their bowls too. It was a compliment of sorts, that so many people found my cooking delicious but serving them second helpings and Fer and Sui's third helpings emptied the pot of beef stew. I took out the little gas-bottle cooking stove I had bought from Net Super so long ago and fried Orc steaks for Fer and Sui-chan, with plenty of seasoning as Fer had demanded. The smell of cooking meat brought out hungry-looking expressions on Vincent and Rita's faces so I carved off a little bit of the steaks for them to nibble on.
Other Adventurers in the safe area glared at us enviously as they ate their own dungeon rations, typically dried meat and hard bread washed down with cold water. The smell of cooking steaks in such a small room was impossible to hide but I had to ignore their mute appeals because I couldn't really share our food with strangers, and besides I only really had enough for our own needs. Sure I had cooked and prepared a lot of food before we entered the dungeon but my contracted monsters, Fer especially, ate enormous quantities of food for each meal. It would all be gone soon enough.
After taking a short break after our meal I got on Fer's back and we prepared to head off for this level's boss room.
"Well then, take care everyone." I said in farewell.
"Same to you and the rest of your party, Mukouda-san," Werner-san replied. "Still I'm sure you'll be OK since Fer-sama is with you."
"Mukouda-san, you're going further down into the dungeon?" Vincent-san asked. "All the way to the bottom, I'd guess."
"Yes, because Fer wants to complete the dungeon......" I admitted.
"Behemoth is the Last Boss, they say." Rita laughed. "You'll have fun playing with that monster when you get there."
"That's for sure." Franca added to general laughter from the rest of the Iron Will party. They probably understood Fer's capabilities better than I did even after I had travelled with him for many months but Behemoth, brrr. Not a monster I actually wanted to encounter myself.
"See you again." I said as we left the safe area and headed straight for the boss room. The Iron Will party were going to explore this floor a little later before maybe going a couple of levels deeper depending on how difficult they found things. They had told me the 12th level's boss room reputedly had a bunch of Lizardmen. When we got to the boss room door there was no-one waiting so we entered straight away. Sure enough, the room was full of Lizardmen, lots of large lizards standing on two legs as the name suggested but they were no match for Fer, Dora-chan and Sui-chan. I collected the drop of Lizardman skins after the brief one-sided battle was over and we descended to the 13th level.