CH 55

I bathed in the river stark naked. It was shallow, so I squatted down and washed my head. The water’s freezing, but it’s a lot better than staying drenched with blood.

I washed my clothes too. Fortunately, my pants were waterproof, so just wiping them was fine. I didn’t have any change for that, after all. Retze brought my stuff for me, and he also lit the fire.

「 You’re so perfunctory with those things, huh. Give them to me, I’ll wash them. 」

「 Thanks. 」

I gratefully handed him everything except my underwear, of course.

I wasn’t too keen on doing cleaning and laundry. I’d rather remake everything again. Well, Riche was staying at home, so I did clean my house, but he’s smart, and he wasn’t naughty, either.

Retze lent me a robe, so I sat on top of my sheet, wearing nothing except my underwear underneath. The clothes were hung to dry by the campfire.

If there would be a next time, then I would slay the monster cleanly, returning normally in an easy-going manner. I’d also bring a change of pants.

Retze was systematic, huh. Nah, it’s a bit different than just being systematic, I guess.

I stared at the man disassembling the fox.

He would frequently use unraveled hemp rope to start the fire, but he preferred to consume alternatives that he could get within the forest. He wouldn’t touch the supplies he brought with him without a good reason as much as possible. He was also meticulous in laundry, and even disassembling. He wasn’t a stifling guy, despite all that.

Dean had introduced him to me so he could be my model. I had addressed him politely, being the eldest guy around here, but he stopped me since he didn’t like that.

My clothes finally dried while I was grinding the nettle beside the campfire. Thank goodness they hadn’t returned yet. — Still, I didn’t expect that making this paste would take a lot of work. I would bring a mortar and pestle next time since I could also grind some medicinal herbs.

「 What’s this? 」

「 Fox. 」

「 Yeah, I get that, but still. 」

Dean was the first one to return. He dragged a tri-horned monitor lizard, and a copper pheasant hung from his waist.

「 Heyo, I’m back! — What’s this? 」

「 Fox. 」

Chris returned almost right after Dean, and he asked the same thing. He hunted a bicorn and a copper pheasant.

「 Ah, no, I can see that, but — 」

「 We have returned — What happened here? 」

Chris hadn’t finished his sentence yet when Ash and Butler returned — single horn, bicorn and two green pheasants.

Everyone seemed to have returned almost at the same time, but I got the feeling that they did it just in time for dinner.

「 That’s a bicorn fox, and Jean had hunted it. 」

「 It’s truly a relief that you are safe… 」

「 Were you injured, Twilight? What an amazing guy you are, even though you’re bronze-rank! That’s truly a magnificent victory! 」

「 Well, he can wield the sword at par with me. But he’s not that used to exploring, though. 」

「 Mm. 」

Dean and Ash said. They’re the guys who fought together with me before. Well, both of them were my models when it came to swordsmanship, though.

「 Setting aside Jean’s awesomeness, I thought it’s only the monitor lizard we had to watch out for, but this is bad, right. 」

「 Yeah…. 」

Dean and Chris fell silent at Retze’s words. The two people who had been in Canum for less than a year like me also didn’t say a word.

「 Monitor lizards rarely travel far, but it’s a different story for foxes. If there are tri-horn foxes and wolves, they’ll go to the city in an instant. 」

「 And since it was spotted in the area of tri-horns, there’s a high chance that foxes will also become tri-horns. This one’s already a bicorn, after all. 」

Dean and Chris’ expressions were complicated as they explained.

「 We can’t take our sweet time hunting them, huh. Let’s return first thing in the morning. 」

Everyone nodded at Dean’s words.

So, it’s dinner time.

Each of them handed the birds they caught to me. Yup, it’s probably because I said that our karaage lunch was usually made from birds, huh? I’m glad that you guys liked it, but still, two meals in a row!?

I didn’t have eggs to make a proper batter, and I added a lot of garlic as flavoring, so the finished product was crunchy, deep-fried birds. It’s still a karaage, alright? I wouldn’t be able to make bread without wheat flour back at home, so I didn’t want to use any more than this.

— When you say cutlet, you usually think of it as flat, right?

I made them do prep work for their own birds. Yeah, they already drained the blood, but it was still way too much!

I dropped the coated meat into the hot oil, and a loud bubbling noise resounded as the surface was rapidly covered with froth. The sound gradually weakened, and when it changed to crackling, it meant the karaage was done. Both sounds were great.

We had the nettle pasta as our staple food as planned. I made rusks using the remaining bread from making the breadcrumbs. I sliced them thinly, sprinkled some sugar, then fried them.

「 It’s truly astounding how you can make this place more like a home in such a short time. 」

「 I just started building the walls. 」

Butler was looking all around the campsite.

「 You’re not used to exploring, and yet this is way beyond being used to staying outdoors. It’s a whole new level altogether. 」

「 That’s so true. I always participated in expeditions aside from this one, but this is the first time I experienced this, Twilight.」

Dean stared at me with narrowed eyes, while Chris agreed with him.

「 I feel like I’m eating a lot better here than when I was in town…」

I used garlic, ginger, and a bit of wine and fish sauce. I tried my best not to use the soy sauce, and I didn’t have any Japanese sake or brandy, so I used the wine offered by Chris. It was fast becoming a karaage enigma.

「 Indeed, I could say the same. This pasta is also excellent. 」

「 Mm. I like fried bird more. 」

I agreed with Ash.

Birds were really better than lizards, maybe because I was used to it. Moreso if it was chicken. Ahh, white rice would have been nice.

We made our way home safely, without any sort of incident.

I went with them to the guild just to show my face and let the folks there know that we’ve returned, but I pushed all the reporting to them. Well, Dean and Chris were the stars in this expedition, after all.

If the report was submitted through documents or by an intermediary, those bigwigs might quickly forget about it, but if they did it face-to-face then those guys won’t be able to use「 Did not notice 」 as an excuse. Kaina-san guided them directly to the guild’s higher-ups, so I escaped and went home, but not before promising Dean that we’ll meet again tomorrow to talk.

I wanted to go take a bath immediately and sleep on my bed more than anything else!

———

T/N: Karaage (ka-ra-a-ge) – Japanese deep-fried foods, typically made from boneless chicken, but can be any kind of meat.

E/N: I listened to a y-tube video of how to say this and it is basically the same in both Japanese and English with the main difference being the way we English speakers pronounce our short “a” also taking into account that it is NOT an English word. So short a, double short a and the e at the end is our ey, you know like hey with a g… (que PSA music) The more you know. (TLer: Actually, it’s pronounced ‘e’, as in get’.. :D)

OK, I get it for the blood and bodily fluids but!!! WTF dude no cleaning or laundry and you are going to remake everything? NO F-ing way! If you don’t want to clean/laundry you are NOT going to want to tan hides or make cloth and clothes! WAY MORE WORK TO MAKE NEW!! (TLer: LOL!!!!)