Water, Wind, and people that act like they don’t care about each other“Ah, uhm …..welcome?”
I was stunned at seeing Angela and Elizabeth both standing there together.
Why is it this combination?
“Hey, Masaru! Who is this woman!”
Shouted Elizabeth.
“What’s with this woman! Wearing some weird black robes!”
Angela returned fire.
Why are they in such a stormy mood!?
“Uhm, there-there. Calm down, the two of you. She is Elizabeth from the B rank party Dawn’s Battleaxe, who I’ve been in the care of during the forest investigation. And she is Angela-san, a priestess from the temple, who I’ve also been in the care of in many cases.”
“B rank….”
“Priestess…..”
Even after I introduced them to each other they kept on glaring at each other.
“Ah, well. How about you come in for the time being….”
I let them both in.
“Mhu. Who are they?”
“I haven’t seen either of them yet. Why are they in your house?”
When they saw Tilika and Sati they asked once again.
“Well, she is Tilika-chan, a guild staff member. Also, this is Sati. I let her handle ch.o.r.es and such….”
“I’m Sati, Masaru-sama’s slave!”
Sati displayed a full faced smile that she can be proud of no matter the place and quickly bowed.
“Slave!? You bought one!?”
Angela looks at me with a heavy expression.
“Hnnn”
Elizabeth doesn’t look like she particularly cares. She is stealing glances at the freshly done cookings.
“So then you two, what brought you here today?”
I ask them while I invite them to sit.
“I came to see if Masaru is doing alright.”
“We will begin training soon, Masaru!”
“Ah, right. We are about to have lunch, how about you two join us?”
“I will have some.”
“Then I will take you up on you offer.”
I also introduce the two of them to Sati and Tilika. Tilika-chan is just listening without saying anything in particular. I have Sati prepare tea for the two of them.
Aah, the oil is bad. While I was looking away the temperature went up too much. I take it off the fire for a bit. The soup is nicely warming up. Hm, it’s difficult to control the temperature of the oil. Let’s decrease the amount of firewood and watch how it fares. I instruct Sati to prepare the bread and the salad. I add some bread flour to the oil and check its temperature. Should be alright. I put in the meat to be fried. While it’s frying I put bread flour on the remaining cutlets. I ready a plate and line them up on it.
Oh no, there are not enough tableware?
I wasn’t planning on having this number of guests, let’s get more next time, for now I can subst.i.tute them with these ones… Good, I was able to somehow arrange one for the bread and the salad.
The soup has warmed up enough so I bring it to the table. The fried meat is also getting done one after the other. I should’ve chosen a bigger pan for the oil. If the pan is too small it’s difficult to fry bigger quant.i.ties. I serve up the fried foods and take out the tartar sauce from the refrigerator and add that as well.
“You can all start eating now. Sati, you eat too.”
“Uhm, and Masaru-sama?”
“I still have to watch the frying.”
Fried foods are best right after they are done! If you don’t eat them right after they are done the flavor drops.
“There there, sit now. Today’s menu is bread, salad, and soup. You need to put the mayonnaise on the salad. Tartar sauce for the fried foods. Dragon meat is used for everything so they are all excellent! So, before it gets cold, eat up eat up”
Perhaps they couldn’t wait more because of the delicious smell, the women all reached out for the food without reservations.
“Oh, this is delicious.”
“What is this! It’s delicious.”
“Masaru-sama, it’s delicious!”
“….”
The cutlets get done one after the other, so I divide them up and bring them to the table.
“These are cutlets made from dragon meat. Put some sauce on it and try it.”
“These are also good.”
“Crispy and delicious!”
“It’s delicious! It’s delicious!”
“….”
It looks like it’s well received. Tilika-chan is just silently eating, but it looks she is eating it greedily so it’s probably alright.
Finally, the cutlets are also done, so I sit at the table. The fried meat and the dragon cutlets are both truly excellent. Is there this much of a difference when the ingredients are good? At home, I only used some cheap import meats.
The amount of fried meat on the big plate is decreasing quickly. I thought I made more than enough, but I guess it wasn’t.
Ah, Angela and Elizabeth are glaring at each other over the last piece.
“Leave that to me.”
“No way, I was aiming for that.”
Yoink, nom.
“”Ah!?””
Tilika-chan s.n.a.t.c.hed it from the side. Elizabeth has tears in her eyes. Did you want to eat it that much?
“Hey hey. There are still some dragon cutlets and soup.”
I’m glad we made quite an amount. We really made quite a lot so that we don’t have to bother with it for dinner, but it looks like it almost ran out.
Glancing at Sati, I see that she is eating very reservedly. There is no sign of her usual good appet.i.te.
“Sati, eat some more. You were the one who made this soup.”
So, I put the rest of the soup on her plate.
“Thank you very much, Masaru-sama.”
The three women were watching it intently. I just notice that there are no more cutlets.
“Uhhm. Should I make some more since it wasn’t enough?”
“No, it’s alright. Aren’t you quite good at this, Masaru?”
“Mm, I guess I’m already full. Masaru is good at cooking, huh. I’m surprised.”
“It was delicious.”
They were meant to be afternoon desserts, but maybe I should serve the pudding also. I take the puddings out of the refrigerator.
“After-meal dessert. It’s called pudding. It’s sweet.”
I hand out one for each of them. There are 6 puddings. The headcount is 5 people. A single pudding remains on the table.
I should’ve put it in the refrigerator right away, but I wanted to test how the pudding turned out, so I quickly started sampling it.
Yeah, it’s pudding. It was made from a bit peculiar horse milk and mystery eggs, but it turned out to be a normal pudding. Let’s also add caramel properly when we make some next time. I guess things can be properly made even if it’s a different world. Oil and sugar are expensive, but vegetables and spices are no different from the ones on earth, so there is no problem with foods. If I could have some rice, then I would have nothing to complain about.
At that time, a battle between women has commenced. While I was sampling the pudding the timing for stopping them has….
“This should belong to an exalted mage like me!”
“What exalted. If you say exalted, then a priestess should be the one called exalted.”
As expected, Tilika-chan, who was slowly reaching out with her hand, also pulled back when she was glared at by the two of them. The conflict reached a standstill, so the three of them looked my way. Are you telling me to decide!?
I quickly grabbed the pudding and gulped it down at once. Umu, tasty. I try to not look at the trio and instruct Sati.
“Sati, you saw how you can make this, right? I will advise you, so make some more.”
“Ah, right. Understood.”
Let’s go with this. It looks like the trio was also relieved after hearing that they can eat more. But why are they such gluttons…. Instead of doing the clean up, let’s first have the pudding made.
There was an ostrich(temp) egg, so I try breaking it. Its size is so big that if I hold it with both hands there is still some left over. It should be at least 2 kg. Its sh.e.l.l is hard so I carefully hit it with the back of the kitchen knife and tear it off. Finally, the white and the yolk of the egg come out. Will the horse milk be enough? I will have to restock it again. I put the egg, the horse milk, and the flour in the pot and Sati briskly mixes them. There is quite the amount so I will put half of it in a pot, like with bucket puddings, and put the rest in normal containers.
The fire in the stove has almost gone out already, so to save myself the trouble I boiled the water with magic and used it to cook the pudding. After waiting 10 minutes the ostrich(temp) pudding will be done. This time, I instructed Sati and had her make caramel also.
The women were excitedly watching over the process from the back.
“After boiling it in hot water for 10 minutes and then having it cool for 2 hours, it’s done.”
“Two hours!?”
Aah, they must’ve thought they would be able to eat it immediately. That’s unfortunate.
The bucket pudding looked like it would take a long time so I had Angela create some ice. With this, it should cool down in two hours.
I leave the rest to Sati and sit down at the table. When I tried to do the clean up, she claimed ‘That’s my job’.
“Anyway, when did you buy a slave anyway? If it’s about housework I would’ve lent you the children at our place.”
“Oh, a person should really have at least one slave.”
“I bought her yesterday. Were there slaves at Elizabeth’s place too?”
“That’s right, we had a few of them.”
“Hnn, we didn’t have any slaves at my home. I was curious and went to see them, then impulsively…”
“Guilty.”
Tilika-chan said this to me quietly, which caused me to twitch. I’m sorry, that was a lie…. Thankfully the other two looked like they didn’t know what that was about.
“Impulsively, you say.”
“I mean, they said if I didn’t buy her then she would’ve been sent to a brothel or to a mine….”
“You fool. That was obviously just sales-talk. Masaru, you were nicely duped. She has good looks and from what I can see she can move quite well so she would’ve sold easily soon after.”
“Sati had some circ.u.mstances, you see.”
I say in a low voice.
“Her eyes were bad.”
“It doesn’t look that way to me.”
“Because I healed them.”
“Eh, you can treat eyes? Even though that’s impossible for someone who’s not a pretty high-level specialist.”
“I couldn’t really heal them completely, you see. I was thinking of consulting Angela about it.”
“Mnn, it’s impossible at our place. You can only rely on some high ranking people at the Capital.”
There are no problems currently, so let’s put this matter on hold for now.
“Angela, you don’t need to be at the orphanage today?”
“It’s not like it doesn’t function without me there. I ask for some time off in the afternoon sometimes.”
‘So I can take my time today’, said Angela.
“Elizabeth, are you not together with Narnia-san today?”
“It’s not like we are together all the time, we are acting separately today.”
That’s unexpected. I thought Narnia-san was glued to Elizabeth and were pampering her.
“Rather than that! We are doing the Wind Magic training!”
“Masaru will be practicing Water Magic! Since I was the one that taught him first.”
Eh? Why are they glaring at each other that much?
Back to when things began. This is a true story I heard from the sharp eared Sati a few days after.
When they unexpectedly ran into each other at the front door, the first one to launch an attack was Elizabeth. They were at arms already that time. She was probably jealous of Angela’s big b.r.e.a.s.t.s. Since Elizabeth’s are more humble sized.
“Hey, you. Are you an acquaintance of Masaru?”
“That’s right…. and you?”
“I’m Masaru’s magic teacher!”
Elizabeth threw her head back arrogantly. Well, it’s not like I saw it. But it was probably something like that.
“I’m also teaching Healing Magic and Water Magic to Masaru?”
Two even!? Did I lose? Not just in terms of b.r.e.a.s.t.s, but also in magic!? No, it’s not yet decided whether I’ve lost or not. That may or may not be what she was thinking at that time, this is only my guess.
“You, you can go home now. Since I’ll be teaching Wind Magic to Masaru.”
This probably royally p.i.s.sed of Angela. This was the moment when I opened the door and entered the scene.
It’s not like these two are gluttonous characters. Usually, they act like a proper lady. However, today’s debacle was probably caused by their compet.i.tive spirits running wild. Another reason was, most likely they really liked the cooking too.
“I will be the one teaching him!”
“I will!”
Uuhhhm…..
“”Who will you be taught by!”””
The glaring two changed their aim to me. I can’t really make Angela lose face by saying that there wasn’t any promise to have her teach me magic.
“Uhm, both?”
I was intensely glared at by the two….. even though I really intend to learn both.
“Let’s see who can teach him magic! It’s a match!”
“Oh, I accept!”
As soon Elizabeth brought up the idea of a compet.i.tion Angela agreed right away. What is this? Is this already set in stone?
“Let’s go!”
Elizabeth firmly grabs my arm.
“Ah, hey. Hey, wait a minute. Tilika-chan, if you want to head back I will take you.”
Good, say here that you want to go back, Tilika-chan! Then with that, let’s run away. I’m somehow scared.
“I’ll wait.”
That riight~. You have to wait for the pudding to be ready…. They drag me away as my last hope have been cut off.
“Ah, Sati. Keep Tilika-chan company.”
“Yes, Masaru-sama.”