An Open-Air Bath by the Lake

We were on our way to Sobana, the border city.

But I wanted to drain the blood from the monsters in my Item Box. It would be a terrible waste to ruin such delicious meat.

There was enough meat here to last us for several years.

I had also cut out and preserved part of the intestines, so I thought we might try eating them.

It was rare lesser dragon meat—but what I was doing was the same as always.

I removed the organs, chilled the body, hung it up, and drained the blood. However, the prey was enormous, so I used heavy machinery to hoist it up and drain it.

An incredible amount of blood poured out, flowing like a waterfall.

Now that I had somehow finished processing the enormous lesser dragon, I moved on to the next one—the wyvern.

This one was smaller than the lesser dragon, so it probably would not take as long.

Although they were about the same size, most of the wyvern was wings. To make it easier to process, I cut off the arms supporting the wings.

It had enormous wings, but it looked more like a giant bat than a bird...

I poured the monster's organs into the hole covered by the blue tarp again.

"Nyaaah!"

Myaree walked around inside the intestines, searching for the stone that supposedly became expensive incense.

Once all the organs were out, I used Ko○tsu-san to hoist the wyvern up and drain its blood.

I put plastic cases underneath again to collect the blood. I collected the heart and gallbladder too.

"Hey! Find anything?"

"Whoooa! Where is it?!"

"Sniff, sniff... I feel like I smell something, nya."

"Yeah, I think I smell something different from the organs."

The beastfolk said things like that, but the smell was so strong that my nose had gone numb, and I could not make much sense of it.

Its tail was long too, so I hoisted it up with the cherry picker.

After wrestling with the organs for about ten minutes, Myaree suddenly shouted.

"I found it, nya! This is probably it, nya!"

"Phew! I can smell it all the way over here!"

"This smelly one is probably the valuable one, nya. I don't really know, though."

Myaree was holding up a ball about the size of a baseball. It was called a ball, but it was bumpy rather than round.

"Oh! You found it. So what do we do now? Split it between the two of you?"

But the two of them stared at me blankly.

"What are you talking about, nya? Kenichi defeated it, so Kenichi has the rights to it, nya."

"That's right, Boss."

They looked exasperated, but what was I supposed to do?

"Huh? Really? Then—in that case... What will Anemone do?"

Anemone pinched her nose and shook her head.

"I don't want anything that smelly."

"Then split it three ways?"

"We didn't do anything, so we can't take that much."

"Huh? Then I'll take half, and you two can split the rest between you."

When I asked the princess, she said it was worth at least 500 gold coins (100 million yen).

"Even at that price, I would hesitate to pay out of my allowance. And if we put it up for auction, the price could rise even higher."

"Then I'll take 250 gold coins, and Myaree and Nyamena will get 125 gold coins each."

"...Uh." "Nya?"

The beastfolk tilted their heads. They could manage single-digit calculations, but once numbers reached ten or more, they thought in terms of how much one pile cost.

"It means you will receive about as much money as the reward Myaree got for the Shaga battle—or even more."

"Eeeh? Really? I heard that was a huge amount of money!" "Yay! I might be the richest beastfolk in the world, nya!"

"Maybe so, haha."

But the princess, who had been watching the beastfolk, looked puzzled.

"What is it?"

"Hmm? What is it? I simply cannot picture beastfolk spending a fortune."

"That's not true! The men who received the Shaga money probably blew it all on alcohol and women in no time, nya."

"That's right, Princess. We earn money so we can eat good food and drink, but when we're with Boss, we get all that without spending anything."

"Exactly. Ever since we came to Kenichi, we hardly spend any money, nya."

Well, that was true. It was not as though we had entertainment, or expensive luxury cars.

Jewelry probably did not suit beastfolk either. And even if they bought a mansion, beastfolk often did not settle down in one place.

"Why don't you dress yourselves in jewelry like nobles and get fat?"

"Aagh! That wouldn't be beastfolk, nya!" "That's right, Boss! That would be impossible!"

According to them, fat beastfolk weren't beastfolk at all. In fact, I had never seen an overweight beastfolk.

Some were broad around the middle, but they were not fat because of their body type.

I put the wyvern's organs into my Item Box and then threw them into the trash bin.

But, as with the lesser dragon, I preserved part of the organs.

Then, as with the lesser dragon, I recovered the black, gleaming magic stone. These seemed to sell for a high price too, but I would deal with them later.

I could keep them as proof of the monsters I had defeated.

Once the work was finished, I took off the white protective suit and threw it into the trash bin too.

However, I was drenched in sweat, so I jumped into the lake and washed myself thoroughly.

There was as much water as we could want, so we could use it freely. It really was better to have water near where you lived.

"Kenichi, bring out the magic tool that makes warm air, nya."

"All right, leave it to me."

I set up a table by the water and installed the jet heater.

We could dance as sexily as we wanted here without a problem.

"You only had your heads sticking out, so didn't the smell get into your fur?"

"We washed with soap, so it should be fine, nya."

"Are you sure? Smells that seep into fur are pretty hard to remove."

"That's why we put on Boss's white clothes—sniff, sniff."

The beastfolk sniffed their own bodies.

By the time the enormous monster had finished bleeding out, it was beginning to grow dark. Primula, who had confirmed that the work was over, cautiously emerged from the house.

Even before I put it away, the monster's meat remained cold. Apparently, something this large took a long time to warm up.

Normally, things cool down or warm up slowly from the outside as their temperature changes, but magic changed the temperature evenly all the way through.

"So, shall we try eating the wyvern meat now that it has been properly processed?"

I would cook the meat, while Anemone and Primula prepared the meal and baked bread.

It was such good meat that I would have preferred medium to medium-rare, but wild meat could be dangerous unless it was thoroughly cooked.

We had no idea what diseases or parasites it might contain.

"Hmm, basically, all we need is to raise its temperature to around sixty degrees."

I remembered seeing something called a low-temperature cooker, so I searched for one on Shangri-La.

There it was—a device that used electricity, had a thermostat, and automatically cooked food at the set temperature. It cost 8,000 yen.

"Let's see... It needs a vacuum-packing machine?"

Apparently, you put the meat in a vacuum pack and then warmed it in hot water.

With a princess here and so many big eaters, we needed a lot of meat. I bought the largest vacuum-packing machine and stuffed thickly sliced meat into transparent bags.

"A transparent box and transparent bags... Did you create all of those with alchemy?"

"I did, but I cannot teach you how to make them."

"I know!"

Even if I wanted to teach her, I did not know how to make plastic or vinyl myself.

Then I vacuum-packed the meat. The air inside the bags was sucked out before my eyes, and the princess watched with great interest.

"Oh? What does that magic tool do?"

"It removes the air from the bags."

"What? The air? Why would you do that...?"

"To keep the meat's flavor from escaping."

Then I filled plastic cases with water and had Anemone heat it with magic.

"Anemone, heat it to a little hotter than bathwater."

"Got it."

"Princess, what kind of dish will this become?"

"I have no idea..."

The maids watched my cooking with puzzled expressions too.

However, there was a huge amount of meat and water. One electric low-temperature cooker was obviously not powerful enough, so I bought two.

I took a generator out of my Item Box and connected the cookers.

If that still was not enough, I would have Anemone help with her magic.

—And then, after an hour of chatting.

Everyone was hungry, but they waited patiently.

I wondered what I would do if it tasted terrible—but in that case, I could only apologize.

For now, I cut off a little and tossed it into my mouth. Rich juices burst forth, and an enticing aroma rose into my nose.

There was no gamey smell at all. This was definitely delicious! It was like roast beef because it had no fat, but the flavor was unlike anything I had ever eaten.

Now that I had tasted this, I was looking forward to finding out how the lesser dragon tasted too.

I placed a wyvern steak on a plate and poured sauce from Shangri-La over it.

The beastfolk would probably prefer the garlic sauce.

And to eat steak, we needed knives.

Even in this world, people used long, narrow knives similar to steak knives when eating thick cuts of meat.

There were no forks, so people simply stabbed the meat with their knives and ate it.

When I tried to give the beastfolk steak knives too, they had already cut off huge pieces with their own knives and were about to bring them to their mouths—then stopped.

They were staring intently at the cut surface of the meat.

"...Boss? Isn't this raw?" "It looks raw, nya."

"It's cooked. Meat being cooked is like being burned. If you put your hand into a hot bath, you would get burned even if the water wasn't boiling, right?"

"I suppose that's true..." "If Kenichi says so, I'll try it, nya."

The beastfolk ate a lot of meat, so they should understand how delicious this was.

"Munch... What the hell is this?! Is this really meat?"

"Nyaaah! I've never eaten meat like this before, nya!"

"The sauce smells terrible too! But this pungent spice really whets my appetite!"

That's right—the smell of garlic whetted your appetite, didn't it? Why was that, when it smelled so strong?

"Whoa! My knife won't stop!"

"Nyaaah! If I eat this, I'll never be able to eat ordinary meat again, nya!"

"And when you wash it down with red wine—ahh! This is incredible!"

"Nyaaah! I won't be able to leave Kenichi's side again, nya."

"What is it, Kuro? If you're looking for a chance to leave Boss, you can leave everything to me and go."

"No way!"

The princess, who had been watching the beastfolk, decided to try the meat too. Her sauce contained a generous amount of fruit.

She cut off a large piece with her knife and brought it to her mouth.

"Mmph... Whaaat?! What is this?! Is this really meat? If this is the pure taste of meat, then what have we been eating...?"

"This is truly delicious. It may not be the ordinary meat we eat in town, but it is completely different from what we ate at the pass... I never knew meat could taste so different depending on how it was processed."

"Faaah... My mouth is filled with happiness..."

Anemone and Primula seemed to like it too.

When Bell returned from patrolling the area, I gave her the same meat everyone else was eating, along with some canned cat food.

"It does take some time because it is cooked at a low temperature."

"I see... This has overturned my fixed ideas about cooking meat with boiling water or fire. If cooking meat is the same as burning yourself, then even hot bathwater would burn you."

"It is somewhat difficult, but I think the castle could reproduce it too."

"Indeed. The food at the castle will become even more delicious!"

Behind the princess, who was devouring the meat at an incredible pace, the maids were fidgeting.

They probably wanted to try it.

I cut up some meat and served it on a plate with a small fork.

"Maylen-san, would you like to try some too?"

"Er...?"

"Go ahead, Maylen. You should try this astonishing dish too."

"Yes."

Maylen-san ate the meat, then froze with her face bright red.

"What is it? Did it get stuck in your throat?"

I held out some wine, but that did not seem to be the problem.

"I-I am afraid that if I eat food like this, my everyday meals will become painful..."

"Haha, everyone who eats Boss's cooking says the same thing."

"We've become unable to eat outside, nya."

"The town's alcohol tastes so bad I can't drink it anymore."

Saying that, Nyamena drained the wine in her cup.

"Here, want a refill?"

I poured more wine into Nyamena's cup.

"Ahh, this is the life."

"I see. No wonder you no longer spend money outside!"

"That's right, Princess. There's no reason to pay money to eat terrible food outside—haha."

While we ate, I talked with the princess about this region.

"Lilith-sama, this lake seems to be connected to a river, but are we heading toward Sobana along the highway?"

"Hmm? Hmm... I believe we are, but..."

I see. Then they must make rafts from the trees they cut down and transport them to Sobana.

Rivers seemed like important transportation routes, but the Kadan Kingdom did not appear to use them.

"There is a river near the royal capital too, but it is not used much for water transport, is it?"

"That is right. At most, it is used to transport goods around the castle town."

"Is there a reason it is not used as a waterway for transporting cargo downstream?"

"The Anis River is wide enough, but it runs through the depths of the forest."

"Then there is a high chance of being attacked by monsters if you use the river...?"

"Exactly."

Apparently, the great Anis River flowed on the opposite side of the mountain from the large lake where we had been—the Astilbe Lake.

It meandered repeatedly across the plains, where oxbow lakes and wetlands spread out, and the entire area was apparently full of slimes.

"Then does no one live beside the river?"

"I suppose only elves live there. Even elves do not live in the wetlands, though."

Wetlands, huh... It would be impossible to build a city there. Perhaps we could clear the forest with heavy machinery and fill in the wetlands.

"The eccentric Kenichi might say he wants to go to the Great Wetland, but absolutely not, nya."

"That's right. It's a huge slime nest."

Slimes were not cute little things, apparently. They were said to be about the size of a hut.

According to the beastfolk, there were lots of them. When beastfolk said lots, they probably meant hundreds or thousands.

Even if we disposed of one or two with magic, we would be overwhelmed by their numbers. That really was impossible.

Besides, they apparently became indistinguishable when they were in the water. That was frightening.

In RPGs, slimes had the image of weak mobs, but they did not seem weak at all.

Once our pleasant meal was over, I left the cleanup to everyone else and stored the monsters whose blood I had drained.

I lowered them from the heavy machinery and folded them into small, compact shapes. With the organs and blood gone, their bellies had huge holes in them, and they seemed considerably lighter.

"All right, store ×2."

Naturally, they fit neatly inside.

"Now we won't have to worry about running out of delicious meat for a while, nya."

"Miss, don't sell the dragon meat."

"It is so delicious that it would be a waste to put it into soup for sale. I think it would fetch more if we sold it on its own..."

"I agree—I don't want to sell this. I want to cook it in all sorts of ways and eat it myself. We could probably enjoy delicious meat for years."

"I agree."

Anemone seemed opposed to selling it too.

"Yay!"

"Hooray! We can eat as much as we want. Besides, Boss will probably hunt another dragon eventually."

"That could happen, nya! A red dragon next, please, nya!"

Don't ask for the impossible.

"If we had more than we could eat, then I suppose we could sell some."

"Ah, to think we can sell dragon meat..."

"Primula, you can sell the lesser dragon's and wyvern's hearts and gallbladders if you want."

"Heehee... This is what it means to be a merchant."

Primula's eyes had taken on a frighteningly intense look.

Since there was plenty of water, we decided to take a bath together.

"Anemone, are you all right to use more magic? I imagine cooling the monsters consumed quite a bit of your magic power..."

"Heating water is fine."

"Boss! Dig a hole here for our bath!"

"Ah, are you going to use the water that collects in the hole to make a bath?"

"That's right, nya."

I wondered whether it would work. Wouldn't the water cool immediately? Still, it sounded interesting, so I decided to try it.

If it worked, perhaps we could do the same thing beside the lake where we had stayed.

"But the water that collects will be muddy."

"That doesn't matter, nya." "When insects swarm us, we sometimes jump into the mud."

The princess heard us and became interested in the open-air bath—but surely a princess of her age could not get naked outdoors.

After Maylen-san admonished her, she reluctantly went to bathe in the hut I had prepared.

I took out Yu○bo from my Item Box and dug a hole large enough for five people.

Normally, outdoor baths like this were made by heating stones and putting them in the water, but we had Anemone, who could use magic.

"Mmm! Warm!"

The water quickly began to warm. It was just like a hot spring.

"Yahoo!" "Nyaaah!"

The beastfolk stripped naked and jumped into the steaming open-air bath.

You could not do something like this in a normal bath. I jumped in too.

"This is great. When we get back to the waterfall, maybe we should make a larger bath."

"Should we make it near the lake like this, nya?"

"No, the top of the waterfall would be better. We could draw water from the river, and I think the view would be amazing."

"That sounds wonderful."

Primula also took off her clothes and got into the bath.

"Ahh, Primula has gotten completely used to being naked in front of people..."

"Kenichi corrupted me. You made me do so many embarrassing things that I cannot even mention them..."

"Boss! Do it to me too!"

"What are you talking about? I've done it plenty of times."

"Huh? But I don't remember any of that..."

"No fair! Do it with me too, nya!"

"Me too!"

Anemone hugged me while she was still naked.

"Faaaaah!"

"Hey, I told you not to hug me! It makes me hungry."

"Me too!" "Me too, nya!"

Everyone charged at me at once, and I sank beneath the water.

"Gah! Water got up my nose!"

"Faaah!" "Nyaaah!"

The women clinging to me let out breathy moans.

"Hey, I said let go!"

I forcibly pulled everyone away.

"We just ate, and now I'm hungry again."

I took out bananas from my Item Box and bought energy bars from Shangri-La.

"Does it really make you hungry, nya?"

"It does—munch, munch..."

That meant we were burning an absurd number of calories, so perhaps it was good for dieting.

But collapsing from low blood sugar or something would be troublesome. I might want to buy some glucose tablets too.

After getting out of the bath, we poured water over ourselves in the lake to wash off the mud. Nobody was around, so we could splash about naked together.

That would have been unthinkable in my original world. Then we all dried ourselves with the jet heater.

The princess came out of the hut wearing a white bathrobe and dried her hair too.

"I wanted to try bathing outside too..."

"No, Princess. Even this is already quite improper!"

It really was improper in all sorts of ways. Still, nobody would ever imagine that the princess was bathing here.

My hair was short, so it dried in no time. I began preparing for bed.

I took a large tent out of my Item Box for us to sleep in. This tent was surprisingly useful.

Primula was going to sleep in the tent with us tonight too.

"Everyone can sleep together, but don't hug me. It makes me hungry and wakes me up in the middle of the night."

"..."

"Well? Aren't you going to answer?"

Everyone gave vague replies that sounded as though they understood, though perhaps they did not.

"All right, I have a good idea. Kenichi, you should sleep with me in the house."

"No way!"

"Before Anemone says it—there is no way I can sleep in the same bed as a royal girl of marriageable age."

"Grrr..."

I really wished they would give me a break.