Chapter 216

“Ooh… I’m fairly pale myself, but Sheele is even whiter. This part’s a lighter color too.”

“Melt, that’s improper—please don’t say things like that. Now then, bring your tail over here.”

“Okay. Nnhuhu… that tickles! You’re good at this, Sheele.”

“Am I? …Your tail feels really nice, Melt.”

“It’s my pride and joy! Next, I’ll wash you, Sheele!”

“Hyah! I don’t have a tail, you know?”

“Then I’ll scrub your butt until it’s sparkling!”

—

Sorry, but we can hear everything, so please keep your voices down a bit.

The communal bath was one of the larger facilities in the village.

The floor was stone and tile, and the walls looked like slabs cut from highly waterproof stone. It gave the impression that a lot of effort had gone into its construction. The tubs themselves were sturdily assembled from wood, and a faintly sweet, woody aroma drifted through the air.

A hinoki bath, perhaps?

Maybe the communal bath had originally been built to entertain explorers coming from outside. That would explain why it was so grand—almost out of place for a village like this.

“Heh… sounds like some young ladies from outside the village are here.”

“Those voices are so youthful it’s driving me crazy…”

“If we go to the open-air baths, we might get a look, you know.”

See? People like this always show up.

Probably due to age-related deterioration, I picked up an old, worn tile that had fallen in the bathhouse and addressed the men who were running their mouths.

“Excuse me—could you take a look at this tile?”

“Huh? What is it, kid? You come from outside too?”

“What about that tile?”

I clenched my grip and crushed it; it crumbled to powder and scattered onto the bathhouse floor.

“I can do the same thing even if the material were iron. And the voices you’re hearing right now—they belong to my party members. So, what’ll it be? Want me to try it on iron, or test it on humans first?”

“We’re sorry…”

“It was a moment of weakness… s-sorry…”

“Please don’t kill us…”

Consider that a warning.

I watched the three of them hurry off, then settled in to enjoy the hinoki bath.

Ahh… this is nice. This really is what it means to cleanse both body and soul.

“Hoo… territorial disputes among monsters, huh… Even deep in the forest, if water sources are scarce, that can happen… If the village had ponds or fountains, it might’ve been dangerous.”

Fortunately, the village had a water supply drawn from groundwater and wells; there were no places like reservoirs. In that case, there was no reason for monsters to leave a forest rich in food and come all the way to the village.

An overly fertile forest… At first glance it seems harmless, but when you actually see how village life is affected, all sorts of problems crop up.

A dungeon… If we manage to clear it and obtain the core, I should look into whether it can be used somewhere. It might be able to suppress this forest’s abnormal growth.

I stretched again in the hot water, washed up, and headed back to the changing room.

A big bath really is the best.

—

“Oh—so you two got out first.”

After changing and heading to the bathhouse lounge, I found Melt and Sheele being hit on by the same three men from earlier.

Hey now—after seeing even a fraction of my strength, don’t you think those two would be just as strong?

Maybe because explorers from outside rarely come here, they don’t realize how strong—and dangerous—people like us can be.

“Hey, hey, come have a drink with us! A cold one after a bath is the best!”

“We’ll invite your buddy later too, yeah?”

“Man! I can’t take all this sex appeal! Come on, let’s go!”

From the looks of it, these guys were still pretty young. Living in a remote place like this, it’s understandable they’d be starved for encounters—but I don’t know them.

“If you don’t stop, I’ll burn you. Like this.”

“Eek!”

Suddenly, the leather pouch one of them was holding—probably a wallet he’d been flashing while saying he’d treat—burst into silent flames, and coins spilled across the floor.

“By the way, I can produce flames hot enough to melt those coins too. Maybe it’d be better to try it on people before the coins.”

“Eeek! She’s saying the same thing as that guy earlier!”

“I told you we should’ve stopped!”

“Please don’t kill us! Help!”

Hmmm… textbook low-level thug behavior. And it’s funny how Sheele’s threats are almost word-for-word the same as mine.

Maybe spending so much time around me has rubbed off on her?

“Sorry to keep you waiting, you two.”

“Oh, welcome back! Just now, Sheele chased off some guys again! I’m going to use that as a reference!”

“Welcome back. It looks like you had some kind of encounter with those three as well, Shizuma.”

“Yeah. They were trying to peek at the open-air bath, so I gave them a light scare. Said something pretty similar to what Sheele did.”

“Oh, so that’s why you said that at the end… What exactly did you threaten them with?”

I told the two of them exactly what had happened in the bathhouse.

“Heehee! It really is almost exactly the same! Heehee… I guess we do end up sounding alike.”

“Yeah, maybe so. Anyway… once we get back to the inn, how about we share some of the wild vegetables we gathered? We can also ask if they can make tempura.”

“In that case, shall I share one of the birds I caught as well? I’ve only gutted it and drained the blood, but would that be alright?”

“Sheele, you even did all that…”

“Yes. I deliberately left some of the organs near a water source as bait. If monsters carry them off, we might be able to trace their tracks.”

“I see… You really leave nothing to chance.”

“Hehe. I’m a hunter and a scholar, after all. I’m fairly well-versed in the habits of wild animals.”

“Wow! Then maybe we can have both larais sprouts and bird tempura!”

“Well… that might be pushing it.”

—

“Well now, that’s much appreciated! A request for cooking, is it? If it’s just one dish or so, that’s no trouble at all.”

They were genuinely happy—and agreed to cook for us.

I see… Since traveling merchants rarely come by, wild vegetables and animal meat from deep in the forest must be valuable here.

They do cultivate some wild plants nearby, but with so little sunlight they can’t harvest enough. As for the bird, apparently the only way to get it is to collect ones that accidentally fall from trees.

I immediately explained the basics of tempura and went into the cooking details.

“Hm, wouldn’t making a batter work?”

“It would. The texture might end up a bit heavier, though.”

“Hmm… flour dusting, egg wash, and a small amount of wheat flour, huh… If you don’t mind, could you show me? If you can cook, that is.”

“Ah, is that okay? Then… could I ask you just to butcher the bird? I’ll handle the actual frying myself.”

“No problem at all. It’s a dish I’ve never seen before, after all. Information like that rarely makes its way here, so I want to pick up as much new knowledge as I can.”

And so, though I was a little nervous, I ended up teaching the innkeeper how to make tempura.

I do have [Cooking Lv. 4], after all… I’m trusting that I can manage it to some extent…!

—

The ingredients, coated in a thin, minimal layer of batter, were lowered into oil at the proper temperature, releasing fine bubbles as they fried.

If you add too much at once, the oil temperature drops, so you have to avoid overcrowding and add more at suitable intervals.

Each time, the oil popped lightly with a pleasant sound, and the batter gradually took on a faint golden color.

“You change the oil temperature and frying time depending on the ingredients. For wild vegetables, this is about right. Judge it by how the batter spreads. For meat, a slightly higher temperature is better—look for a point where the batter spreads more quickly.”

“Ohhh… you’re good at this. So the oil temperature really matters, huh… Amazing how even such a thin batter coats everything so nicely.”

Successfully coated in a light, delicate batter—well, let’s just call them tara-no-me.

The tara-no-me tempura came out perfectly, followed by the bird tempura. This time it wasn’t karaage, but toriten, made with the same batter.

The rusks and vegetable quiche the inn had prepared were already finished, so once everything was brought to the dining room, preparations were complete.

I arranged the tempura on a large platter and shared the meal together with the innkeeper.

—

“Oh! This really is different from fritters or schnitzel! It’s light and crispy—I could eat this endlessly! And I like the simplicity of eating it with just salt!”

“So good—larais sprouts turn this delicious, huh?”

“I see… the tara-no-me tempura deep in my memories… it’s no different from what I had in Asakusa.”

“So we’ve casually discovered that Sheele’s personality model lived in the city.”

“Hehe, I actually remember quite a bit—about the original person’s memories and the development process.”

“Whoa, now I’m curious. You’ll have to tell me sometime.”

“Sure—if you trade me stories about Shizuma’s past.”

The meal continued in a warm, relaxed atmosphere.

The crispy texture of the batter, the tara-no-me texture somewhere between fluffy and crunchy, the sweetness and wild flavor of the mountain vegetables with their faint forest aroma.

Even with just salt, why was it so delicious?

You could keep eating it casually, almost like a side dish.

And the vegetable quiche the innkeeper had made—carrots, and probably cabbage? Combined the sweetness of the vegetables and eggs with the savory aroma of cheese, resulting in a highly polished dish.

“But still, I never expected you to bring so much from the mountains. You delivered some to the guild too, didn’t you? Tomorrow the whole village will be celebrating. I’m really glad you came.”

“I’m happy to hear that. Starting tomorrow, we plan to patrol the forest and look for monster traces, so we’ll gather more things while we’re at it.”

“That’s great to hear. Then I’ll prepare something in return. If you’re challenging a dungeon, I’ll make some long-lasting preserved food for you.”

“Yay! That makes me so happy! I remember that preserved food made by someone who can cook is really good! Once, a chef made dried meat for me, and it was so delicious—it felt like a feast even eaten as-is, so I savored it bit by bit.”

“Alright, then I’ll make something like that. I’ll take it upon myself to thank you on behalf of this village. Thank you, kind and strong explorers.”

Receiving those heartfelt words of gratitude, my chest felt just as full as my stomach.

Holding onto that warm, happy feeling, the second night in the village quietly came to an end—

—

And then, the next day, when we visited the water source in question, we quickly learned that Sheele’s preparations had already borne fruit—