Chapter 619: Noisy
Eguchi Ren: This update is two days late (sweat). I have mentioned this before, but if my update is late, just a.s.sume that I am busy and ignore it.
The next day, I woke up at the usual time.
The first thing I noticed was…
“Hey, where’s Grandpa Gon? Don’t tell me…”
“We’ll probably find him belly up in the middle of the garden again,” said Fer with an unconcerned yawn. “Take a look.”
“Ah, well… I told him to practice moderation…” [1]
[2] It was true, Grandpa Gon was snoring loudly in the middle of a pile of empty bottles and crates. If I didn’t know better, I would have thought that this dragon had a propensity for empty bottles and crates instead of the usual gold and treasures.
“”Tsk, that dragon can’t control his drinking,””
“”Grandpa sleep in garden~?””
“I wonder if he wants breakfast?” I muttered to myself as I looked out the window… wait, is that a shoe? And, did someone leave their trousers… ah… After blinking a couple of times, I finally understood what I was seeing. There was a Dwarf draped over a tree root, with his bottom facing us. Now that I had noticed one, it was impossible not to notice other bearded little men littering my garden. Some still hugging a whisky bottle or three.
“How shameful.”
“”Indeed.””
“”Dead~? Eat~?””
“No, no, no! Ah, Sui must be hungry. Come on, I’ll make breakfast for you.”
I quickly grabbed Sui and practically sprinted downstairs. After leaving her in the dining room, I made my way to the kitchen.
Although I had prepared a lot of meat for yesterday’s party, the Gluttonous Quartet plus the High Elves and our guests have nearly decimated everything. A quick rummage through the [Item Box] revealed that I only have one bag of marinated Dungeon Beef left.
“What should I do with this… Hmm, I have all this rice… why not make some Grilled Beef Fried Rice?”
It was quite easy to make this Fried Rice. However, since it had to be super meat-heavy, I shall have to make some adjustments. Let’s see, first, let’s get some garlic sprouts and a tray of eggs. Fried rice just isn’t the same without lots of eggs.
Once I have collected all the ingredients, cut the beef into cubes and set aside. Slice the garlic sprouts into inch-long pieces and set those aside as well. Since the meat had already been seasoned, I just had to lightly stir-fry it.
Normally, I’d fry the scrambled eggs first, pus.h.i.+ng them aside before adding more oil and frying up the beef and garlic sprouts before adding in the rice. To make it extra fragrant, just add the standard Yakiniku Sauce or Grilled Beef Sauce as a final touch and it’s done.
[3] However, since I would be making loads, the first step would be to fry lots and lots of the eggs first and set them aside. Next, stir-fry the beef and garlic sprouts until the beef has changed colour. Add the rice and stir in a splash of the Yakiniku Sauce for that extra flavour. By adding in the eggs last, the golden yellow of the scrambled eggs contrasted nicely against the delicious browned meat.
To be honest, although the ‘Grilled Beef Fried Rice’ looked more like ‘Grilled Beef Fried with a Bit of Rice’, it was extremely well received by the Gluttonous Three.
For anyone interested, Fer did not complain about the garlic sprouts. I guess the dish was meat-heavy enough for him to enjoy.
Feeling a little smug, I had a small bowl of fried rice that was cooked with a little less meat than the rest.
After a break from the super heavy breakfast, we set out to the garden.
Time to wake the dragon.
“Phun, what a pitiful sight.”
Fer’s voice was dripping with sarcasm.
Well, I don’t blame him. Up close, the devastation was even more obvious.
“”Whee~~!!””
[1] And, just like before, Sui was bouncing on top of Grandpa Gon’s exposed belly.
A little Slime bouncing on the belly of a fainted Dragon… surrounded by inebriated Dwarves was a… very surreal sight to say the least.
Guoo guooo~
Gwaa~ snort! Gwaa~
Gurururu…
What was even more surreal was the chorus of snores that surrounded us.
“Oi, you guys can’t sleep here,” I said faintly. I’m not sure which is the worst breach of etiquette. Waking up my guests while they were sleeping in the garden, or leaving them to sleep out here in the open like this.
Just because you guys could really drink, n.o.body asked you to drink this much…
While I was still in a daze, wondering what to do, a voice called out-
“So this is where you all are! I thought you would have been back by now.”
I recognised that cheerful strident voice.
“Anika-san?”
“Good morning~ Mukouda-san~ what a wonderful day, isn’t it? I had a lot of fun yesterday, thank you for throwing us that party. Although, I must say, some of us had a little too much fun, eh?”
Anika-san snorted as she aimed a kick at one of the nearby little bodies.
The Dwarf in question snorted, rolled over and continued snoring.
“We have work to do boys, time to wake up!”
Was it cowardly of me to want to scuttle away from this tiny woman? Yes, yes it was. Am I running away nevertheless? Watch me.
Anika-san had walked up to one particular dwarf hugging an empty whisky bottle. It took me a little while to recognise him as Bruno-san.
“Tsk, I told you to make sure the boys drink in moderation since we have work today… but look what happened?!”
Then, she kicked him in the head.
I flinched
“Wake up! Time to work!”
“Hmm… that hurts.”
I was… astounded. Despite being kicked in the head, all Bruno-san did was grunt a little and sat up. Was this a regular occurrence or something?
One by one, Anika-san proceeded to wake the Dwarves by kicking or smacking them awake.
“Time for work! Time for work! Time for work!”
“Ughh…”
“I need a break…”
“Hey, chief. Can I get the day off?”
“Ooof, yeah, I think we better take the day off…” muttered Bruno-san.
I was about to agree because looking at some of the Dwarves’ green faces was making me feel sick when a voice said threateningly, “A day off? After a night of drinking and partying? What are we? A bunch of no-good hooligans? Huh? Want a day off? Sure, why not? If you do that, you can forget about having even a drop of the drink for a month.”
Suddenly, all of the Dwarves sat up.
“Ou! It’s morning!”
“What a gorgeous morning for work!”
“I love work!”
“Work is the best!”
This sudden about-face is…
“Ou! It’s Mukouda!”
“Thank you for yesterday’s party!”
“It was an awesome part!”
“One for the books!”
“That’s enough! Get to work!” Anika-san barked.
Instead of being intimidated, the Dwarves bid a final farewell before rus.h.i.+ng off, probably to a construction site somewhere…
“Madam Anika,” I said. “You’re really impressive.”
“Heh, got to have a strong hand to control those boys,” said Anika-san dismissively. “Anyhow, time for me to leave. See you around, and say goodbye to Mister Dragon for me, eh?”
“Sure,” I said as I waved her farewell.
That’s right, even with all the commotion and Anika-san kicking and punching her fellow Dwarves awake, Grandpa Gon was still sleeping blissfully. I should also point out that all this while, Sui had been bouncing on his exposed belly… [1]
“”Dora-chan~ this is fun~ join me~””
“”Haahh… no thanks, I don’t want to have anything to do with that disgrace of a dragon.”” [1]
“”Hmm~?””
“Ahem, Sui-tan, why don’t we go inside? Let’s have some dessert and maybe some snacks…”
“”Yay~!!””
Sui happily bounced into my arms. Together, the three of us left the still-snoring Grandpa Gon in the middle of the garden.
Haahhh… I did tell you to take it easy on the liquor, didn’t I?
[Gumihou: Redid some scenes to make the chapter more interesting]
[1] Deleted a whole bunch of ‘Eh, where’s GG?’ and ‘haha GG went belly up again~’ because the joke’s no longer funny after the first 2 times.
[2] I thought it would be hilarious to have the description here first instead of letting the reader wade through [1] and a cooking/eating scene.
[3] Added my own twist to the dish