A Whale of a Party
Satou here. They say you can tell how old someone is by how whale meat was prepared in their school lunches, but since that can differ depending on the area, I don’t think it’s a hard-and-fast rule. All that really matters is that it’s delicious.
“Hooray! We’re having a real Japanese-style lunch today!”
Dressed in a yukata, Arisa got especially excited when she saw the lineup on the dining table.
Today’s meal included rice with bamboo shoots, miso soup, chikuzen stew, kobumaki, simmered soybeans, edamame, fried tofu, cold tofu, meat simmered with soy sauce, and a pile of fried meat for the carnivorous beastfolk girls.
“Japeeese?”
“Japanesey, sir!”
Tama and Pochi didn’t know what “Japanese” meant, but they were still hopping up and down with joy when they saw the pile of fried meat. As long as they were having fun, that was fine with me.
Miss Karina and the other girls also looked eager when they saw all the food. We were having a full Japanese-style day today, so everyone was dressed in yukata like Arisa.
Arisa had dressed Nana and Miss Karina with extra care, which meant there wasn’t a single hint of their ample chests.
How disapp— I mean, how wholesome.
“What could this scent be? It is different from ordinary fried chicken.”
Liza narrowed her eyes at the mountain of meat, and Tama and Pochi promptly lined up at her side, sniffing the air excitedly.
In front of Mia’s seat, I’d placed a new kind of fried food.
“Vegetable katsu?”
“That’s right. I used veggies like asparagus and lotus root, just for you.”
“Satou!”
Mia hugged my waist with a rare smile.
She’d never been able to hide her envy when the other kids ate fried chicken, so I thought I’d give it a try, but her reaction was even happier than I expected.
“Master! There are yellow stars floating in the miso soup, I report!”
Nana had her face close to the miso soup as she waved me over frantically.
I’d cut steamed sweet potatoes into star shapes for the soup. Cutting around the stringy parts had been quite the undertaking.
All the extra effort was worth it to make everyone happy, though.
“Wow, I’ve never had such a feast!”
“Erina, remember, we’re here as Lady Karina’s guest. Be sure to show some restraint.”
“Right, right.”
Since we were celebrating a windfall of valuable ingredients today, I’d invited Miss Karina’s escort maids, Pina and Erina.
Now I was just waiting for everyone to take their seats so we could get started, but Arisa was too hyperactive to sit down.
“Oh man, simmered soybeans! Ooh, and edamame, too! Oh my gosh, if there’s ginger and green onions to top that cold tofu, I might just lose my mind!”
“Oh, Arisa, that’s enough celebrating for now. Can’t you sit down? We’re all waiting for you so we can start.”
“Whatever you say, my dear sister.”
Still hyper, Arisa made a gesture of surrender to Lulu and sat down.
Then she led the group in a chorus of “thanks for the food,” and the meal could finally begin.
“Nyummy!”
“This is the ultimate deliciousness, sir!”
“Amazing… Each bite is overflowing with savory flavor.”
Tama filled her cheeks with the fried meat.
Pochi seemed to have improved her vocabulary just to convey the tastiness.
And Liza appeared to be on the verge of tears.
“Master, this meat is incredible. I feel as if every bite is filling me with power.”
“Oh, Liza, you always exaggerate. Just pass me some of that fried stuff, please!”
Chuckling at Liza, Arisa opened her mouth wide and popped in some of the fried meat.
“Ooh, wait, this is gooood. I’ve never had anything so… Huh? Wait, it’s kinda familiar…” Arisa furrowed her brow seriously as she chewed. “Mm? What kind of meat is this? It’s not chicken, and it’s not pork. I’ve eaten it before, but I can’t quite remember…”
She tilted her head thoughtfully.
“…Wait, I’ve got it. This is whale, isn’t it?!”
I knew she’d get there.
“I used to have it simmered in soy sauce or fried tatsuage-style in my school lunches. How did you even get whale meat, though?”
“Let’s just say I got lucky.”
Today was very fortuitous indeed.
There was no other way to describe it, since high-quality ingredients had delivered themselves right to me.
“Want to try it simmered, too?”
“Oh-ho-ho-ho! You know I do!”
I gave her a small bowl of the whale meat simmered with soy sauce. Much to my chagrin, nobody else had tried it yet. Did it look that unappealing?
I would’ve liked to simmer it with red sauce, too, but I hadn’t been able to get any tomatoes in this world yet.
“Whale really is the best—”
Arisa was happily filling up on the simmered meat when her face suddenly froze.
“…Wait a minute. Whale?”
Was the seasoning not good enough?
“…Master. Didn’t you say you fought some kind of greater hell demons today?” Arisa whispered into my ear after immediately plopping herself down beside me.
I fought a lot of different monsters today, but I had a feeling I knew what she was asking, and I responded in a low voice, “Yes. Giant monster fish.”
“S-so by giant monster fish, you mean…those, uh, flying whales that were in the pictures of Ancestral King Yamato?”
I nodded slightly. I’m sure King Yamato enjoyed the whale meat, too.
“Giant monster fish… The floating fortress…”
Arisa sat stock-still.
Huh? Did it bother her that the meat was from giant monster fish?
“…Well, it’s delicious, so no harm done!”
After chewing her lip for a moment, she hopped up and declared her ruling.
“Innoceeent?”
“Not guilty, sir!”
Tama and Pochi pulled out fans from their yukata and danced next to Arisa.
Arisa must have been teaching them some weird jokes.
“Arisa! Don’t put your feet up on the table!”
“Yes, ma’am! Sorry, ma’am!”
Arisa, who’d posed with one foot on the table in her excitement, quickly bowed apologetically to Lulu.
Liza scolded Tama and Pochi as well.
Though her comment was forgotten in the wake of Arisa’s dramatic reactions, I realized later that Liza’s intuition had been correct.
With the help of Arisa, who could monitor her own skills, we later discovered that eating the fried whale meat temporarily increased some stats, like strength and stamina, by about 10 percent.
Because I couldn’t reproduce the effect with ordinary ingredients, it must work only with certain kinds of monsters. I’d have to investigate further as soon as I had the chance.
At any rate, the fried whale was very popular with the whole group.
“With every biiite…”
“The meat is practically still moving, sir.”
Okay, Pochi. I get that you like it and all, so please just calm down and eat without the creepy comments. Otherwise I’ll get flashbacks to creepy meat monsters from those old horror games.
“Sir, was this meat perhaps very valuable?”
Liza looked anxious.
It was valuable in that there was no way to buy it no matter how much money you had, but each of the whales also weighed several tons; we would probably never run out of it.
“Do you like it? There’s plenty more where that came from, so don’t worry about it.”
“…Yes, sir.”
Liza clenched her fists and nodded solemnly. Just relax and eat, please.
Some of the other girls, like Karina and the beastfolk duo, were wolfing down the fried whale at a remarkable rate.
Miss Karina and her maids were too absorbed in chewing to speak.
“Tama, Pochi, I am taking command of this fried meat. Those two pieces on each of your forks will have to be your last. Ah, Lady Karina, please try to savor the taste more before you swallow it so quickly…”
Really, Liza, calm down.
The rapid disappearance of the mountain of food must have alarmed her.
There was a maid standing by the wall and watching with a warm smile, and I asked her to bring more fried whale from the insulated magic item I was storing it in.
Of course, the other dishes were well received, too.
“Bamboo shoots.”
“Yes, they’re tasty, aren’t they?”
“Mm. Yummy.”
“Mia, the chikuzen stew is delicious as well, I report.”
“Gimme.”
The other girls were enjoying the food at their own pace.
“Mia, there isn’t any fish in the kobumaki with the red wrapping.”
“Satou!”
Mia smiled happily as she reached out with her chopsticks.
“The fried stuff is great, but so is the stew! And the fish in this kobumaki is amazing! Oh, cold tofu, it’s been so long! With the ginger and soy sauce on top, it’s almost too powerful…”
Arisa seemed to have her own way of enjoying things, so I decided to leave her to it.
She sounded sort of like an old man, but I didn’t want to rain on her parade.
Personally, the smiles on everyone’s faces were what made the food truly exceptional for me.
After a delightful dinner, we had a certain visitor.
When the maid told me we had a guest, I assumed it must be an acquaintance or someone connected to the hero.
But the person the maid brought into the parlor was someone I’d never met—a young girl with pink hair and turquoise eyes.
I had seen her before. If I remembered right, this was the girl who’d been standing next to Miss Karina during the fight against the yellow demon earlier that day.
“Black hair… Japanese…”
Looking at my face, her eyes sparkled.
With the dreamy sigh of a maiden in love, she gave a very unexpected greeting.
“So we meet at last, my hero.”
That was how I met Princess Menea of the small kingdom of Lumork.
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