Chapter 20: Our Journey: Travelogue (13) – The Liv River and Everyday Things

Two days have passed since we began traveling up the Liv River.
At this pace, we’ll reach Heizen in six days.

These past two days haven’t exactly been a peaceful, relaxing river trip.

We were attacked by river bandits—basically pirates, but for rivers instead of seas.
They formed a fleet of small boats and came charging in, yelling wildly.

We moved to intercept them.
From the lookout platform of the Skiar Coffin Ele, Bid fired arrows.
With her Relic, [Area Shooting], river bandits tumbled one after another into the river.

Gymnema helped too—summoning monsters that tore into the river bandits.
I didn’t even know this river had that many monsters. Honestly, it was a little scary.

A few bandits used Relics—probably [Jump] or [Leap]—to spring onto the lookout tower.
But with [Swift Foot], Bid danced around them and cut them down.

I deflected arrows fired from their boats using the Blue Saint Gauntlet.
That thing is seriously useful.

I even jumped aboard their small boats to counterattack and deflected saber strikes.
Using my sword-breaker, I snapped their sabers and finished with knives from a different sea.

Apparently, that made them think I was some kind of sea demon—because several panicked and dove into the river to escape.

Yeah, back in my old world they called me “Devil Fish,” but I didn’t expect that nickname to work here too.

Well, this world does have giant octopus and squid big enough to destroy sailing ships, so maybe it fits.

Shaldina was fighting with her cutlass and [Impact].
She’d block with the cutlass and blast them, or blast first to create an opening then slash.
A very bold way to fight.

And Mineha—could she still fight? I had been worried.
But it was pointless. With the “star” of her [Phantom Star Spear], she sank boat after boat.

Hoss didn’t join the fight; he stayed in the kitchen cooking.
He trusted us completely. Anna Kreuz helped him.

The witch? She was napping.
As for Dagaa… yeah, she was on the river bandits’ main ship for some reason.

What was she even doing there?
I boarded the ship and found the river bandit boss waiting—big, muscular, dressed exactly like a stereotypical pirate captain. I actually laughed.
He wasn’t even that strong.

After taking enough compensation for the trouble, we reduced their fleet to river debris.
And that was that—we destroyed the bandits.

Today, though, was peaceful. A gentle river journey.

Before long, the sky turned orange, and it was almost dinner time.
I was in the kitchen.

“Thanks for letting me cook. I suddenly felt like doing it again.”

“That’s fine, but what’re ya makin’?”

“…?”

“You’ll see. It’s a surprise.”

With everything happening lately, my stress had been piling up.
So I decided to relieve that stress through cooking—by making something delicious.

In front of me were:
pork mince, cabbage, garlic chives, leeks, onions, ginger, garlic, sugar, lard, sake, vinegar, fish sauce, starch, and salt.

And the “wrappers” I’d made earlier—mixing wheat flour and bread flour into dough.
Rolled small, not cooked yet.

Honestly, this storage room has everything.

“All right, let’s begin.”

Into a giant mixing bowl went the pork mince.
Then we finely chopped cabbage, chives, leeks, onions, ginger, and garlic.

There was so much chopping that Hoss helped.
Anna would normally help too, but ever since that incident, she can’t handle knives anymore.
Being cut and stabbed had traumatized her.

Still, she keeps the fruit knife I gave her.
So I assigned her another important job—something essential for this dish.

When all the chopping was done, we added sugar, lard, sake, fish sauce, starch, salt, and the secret: chilled barley tea.

Then time to mix—properly.

“[Rave Move]!”

Using the Relic, I moved exactly as I envisioned, mixing thoroughly and evenly.

“Uoooooooohhhhhh!”

“W-what the—! Too fast to see!”

“Uoooooooohhhhhh!”

“Like a whirlwind!”

“UOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHH!”

I mixed with everything I had—soul included—until the perfect filling was formed.

“Done!”

Inside the bowl was a perfectly combined, spherical mound of filling.

“What’re ya doin’ with that?”

“Wrapping it with these skins, like this.”

I pinched off portions, placed them in the wrappers, and made neat pleats.

Over and over—
using [Reve Move] again.

“Tei-tei-tei-tei-tei-tei!”

“G-good grief! That speed!”

“Tei-tei-tei-tei-tei—hiyaaa!”

“Every one’s perfect… incredible.”

Not a millimeter off.
These were ideal gyoza.

While wrapping, I remembered working part-time at a little Chinese diner during my past life.
My uncle ran it, actually.

Maybe I should try making the place’s signature sweet-and-sour Tianjin rice sometime…

But no—focus. Today is GYOZA DAY.

“All right, prep is done.”

My arms were sore. [Reve Move] doesn’t stop fatigue.
I might get tendonitis.

But luckily—I drank a small bottle of elixir.

Instant recovery.
Using elixir for cooking might seem wrong, but great cooking demands no compromise.
That’s what my uncle always said.

“Now ya fry ’em?”

“Yes. Hoss, help me.”

“Got it.”

We prepared the wheat-water mixture and sesame oil.

Hoss heated the pan.
We placed the gyoza in a circle, poured the flour-water mix, heard it boil, then drizzled sesame oil and covered it.

When the lid opened—

A crisp, golden lace of “wings” appeared under the gyoza.

“Ohh, that looks amazing!”

“It’s delicious. Anna—how’s the rice?”

Anna, at the hearth, smiled like sunshine.
When she opened the pot, shining white rice appeared.

Just seeing it made me want to eat at least three bowls.

“Beautiful color and shine!”

“Right? Okay—let’s fry more. Lots more.”

“Gyoza, huh?”

“Yes. Gyoza. Perfect with rice.”

And so both gyoza and rice were ready.
I called everyone. It was Gyoza Party Time! Yeeeaaah!

Dinner Party

“This is this, hoh-hoh. You made all this, Wof boy?”

“Smells great. Oh—Anna, that’s a big heap of rice.”

“……”

“Looks amazing! Anna, that’s enough rice for me!”

“……”

“Anna! Shaldina wants a big mountain of rice!”

“……”

“Anna dear. I’ll have a normal portion. Mmm, what a fragrant dish.”

“……”

“Na!”

“………………”

Anna served everyone just as they asked.
Then all hands reached toward the gyoza at once.

“H-hot! Good! SO good!”

“Love the crunch!”

“Hoof-hoof, the juice is hot!”

“Rice never stops! Anna, seconds!”

“Me too, Anna—mountain-sized!”

“This is… good. I need ale.”

“Got cold ale here.”

“Ohh, what luck!”

“Hoof-hoof. I want ale too.”

“Na!”

“Anyone who can’t drink, there’s barley tea!”

“I’ll have more!”

“…………”

Anna happily kept serving rice, sneaking bites and drinks herself.
She seemed to really like it.

“Yeah. That went well.”

Cabbage and onion gave crunch, pork fat and fish sauce gave depth, the barley tea made the aftertaste refreshing.
Plenty of juices, crisp wings, perfect browning.

The dipping sauces were customized:
vinegar-layu, fish-sauce-layu, special sauce, etc.

Mineha even drizzled layu on her rice. I once knew a customer who did that.

The gyoza party was a huge success.
Over a hundred pieces—all gone. Terrifying.
But I felt refreshed and satisfied.

I woke up, used the restroom, and—just because—I wandered to the second-floor observation room.
I figured the stars would be gorgeous at this hour.

I thought no one would be there.

“Oh my, oh my, good evening, Wof boy.”

The witch was there.