Chapter 84 – Thunderbird, and then…1

After the six days of travel to reach the royal capital, I headed to the guild right away.

Due to being in a not active time of the day2, there are few people in the guild.

I peeped into the quest board and went to the receptionist desk with the wooden tag for the thunderbird’s subjugation request.

「Excuse me, this request please」

As usual, the receptionist is Airi-san.3

「Fujino-sama, this request is S-rank. Fujino-sama cannot accept it.」

Of course I know.

「Yes, so, it’s a report of the completion of the thunderbird subjugation request, Ah, as a proof, the thunderbird is on the carriage outside.」

「… Please wait for a while as we check.」

Airi-san talked about something with the person in the back, making an incomprehensible face.

After a while some men went outside and came back again.

Seeing Airi-san talk to the man in the back, I entered the back room.

「Fujino-sama, we’ve confirmed it. I will approve the completion of the subjugation request of the thunderbird」

Saying that, she placed the bag with the reward on the counter.

When I reached for it, Airi-san grabbed my hand.

「……. Fujino-sama? May I speak to you for a bit?」

A dangerous light filler her eyes, I nodded while a single drop of sweat fell from my temple.

「Excellent. Let’s talk in that room.」

I could only nod with a koku koku4 as she took me there ….

「The subjugation request for the thunderbird came 10 days ago, why did Fujino-sama take down the thunderbird? By no means will you say it was by chance, will you? Even if Fujino-sama has the skill to kill a lesser dragon, dangerous things are still dangerous. Why do you think the guild’s rules exist in the first place? Although you have successfully done it this time, it does not mean things will always go well, you know? To begin with, Fujino-sama is…」

Wa, I was a bad girl, please forgive me and don’t make a sermon.

After about 2 hours, I desperately bowed my head asking for forgiveness, as the sermon was still going on.

I was finally released from Airi-san’s h.e.l.lish sermon5, and with the hard fight against the thunderbird behind me, I unsteadily got into a carriage to go shopping. The rent of the carriage is made by paying for a specific number of days, so I can return it by tomorrow. Maa, I will return it after this as there are still the costs of feeding the horses.

I will buy what I need and go pick up Eru in the castle at the same time.

I dropped my luggage at home and went to return the carriage.

…… If possible, I was planning to have a complete meal6 of thunderbird tonight, but because of the ser

mon, I lost my time and energy.

So tonight is a simple menu.

The main is gratin with bread, simple salad and yakitori. I will make a soup with a potato potage. Of course, I’m omitting some steps.

On the morning of the next day it’s time to disa.s.semble the thunderbird……. It’s what I thought, but I’ve never really dismantled one. No, I do have the knowledge about it …. Generally, If you live in a j.a.panese town, there are just no to disa.s.sembles of chickens …. In the first place, the size is also a problem.7

So I went to Butcher-san in the morning and asked him to do it for me.

Because it was the first time Butcher-san was going to dismantle a thunderbird, he was also very surprised, but he cheerfully accepted it once I sold half of it as payment.

Maa, even if you work hard, the size is the size….8 I can’t really eat that much. It seems hard to be able to eat even half of it.

By the way I don’t like the visceral systems very much. My father and older brother seemed to like heart, gizzard and liver, but I like sasami9and the thigh’s meat.

Eh? That’s a childish taste? How rude….

Anyway, I will leave the disa.s.sembly to the butcher. It will end at 2 of 710, which means around 3 o’clock, so I will wait while thinking about tonight’s menu.

The main dish will be the breast meat is cooked with herbs, it is also good to have some standard fried chicken. Teriyaki with roast chicken is also nice, and a simple sasami’s salad would be delicious. A  sautéed sasami cheese cutlet also seems delicious. Ah, I’m drooling ….

Whichever I make, it is the finest and rumored thunderbird meat. Aah, I can hardly wait for the night …!

After lunch time, I started preparing dinner quite early. To avoid losing to the main course, I also put plenty of power on the soup and the salad.

Of course, I’m preparing so that I can cook as soon as the thunderbird’s dismantling is over.

I carefully take the soup while preparing the other dishes.

And around 2:30, it was a little earlier than the promised time, but I could not wait and went to Butcher-san’s shop.

Then, it seemed that the disa.s.sembly was just finished, and each part had been put on a bag.

I will quickly put them on my own in a bag and take it home. The talk about purchasing the remaining meat comes at a later date.

Saa! Here comes the main dis.h.!.+

First of all, it is grilled chicken breast with herbs. Leave the meat marinating in the seasoning for a while.11

Meanwhile, I will make roasted chicken. Since there is not enough time to soak it, I will cheat with a magic tool. In a short time it feels as if it was submersed for plenty of hours. Then carefully bake it in the oven.

Then I will make the sasami cutlet. I thought that cooking it with herbs would be better than making just roasted chicken because it would be more juicy.

I wrap the sasami with herbs that are similar to s.h.i.+so12, attaching them with some coating I prepared beforehand.13 This is also the last minute to fry it.

At my feet, Eru impatiently coils around it.

「No good. I’m enduring it as well, so please wait until dinner Eru. Or do you want to eat a bit now and miss dinner later?」

As I said that, Eru faced down, visibly giving up.

「Ni~.」

Now that it decided to patiently wait, it’s time to prepare dinner.

Boil the eggs, make salad a with bacon and put it in the refrigerator.

I will also put the ingredients on the soup and further cook it.

Incidentally, today’s soup has a lot of vegetables, including carrots, cabbage, burdock and potatoes.

I feel this kind of troublesome work is more fun than usual if I think it is for dinner.

Aah, what kind of taste is that …? That’s the legendary thunderbird meat….

I always feel the pa.s.sage of time, but this time it seems to be going by slower. Soon the sun will set, and the neighborhood will get darker. I won’t be able to see unless I turn on the light of the house.

It’s time to the cooking herbs on the oven!

Fufufu, please come out delicious, for me~?

Set the oven and fry the sasami cutlets until it is baked.

I will serve the dishes in sequential order

By the time the sasami cutlet was fried, it seems that the oven had also finished baking.

Subst.i.tuting the cooked herbs, I put a roasted chicken on the oven for the finis.h.i.+ng touches.

I just need to arrange the dishes on the table, and the dinner is finished!

Preparing some sliced ​​lemon, I’ve arranged it together with some bread on a basket.

Soup was already put on the plate since I’m expecting the prince.

I actually invited Chiffon-san, but I gave up since she couldn’t take a day off neither today or yesterday. I wanted to thank her for taking care of Eru, but I will do it in another opportunity.

When I was looking at the dishes arranged in the table, I heard a voice coming from the front door.

It seems that the prince came.

I hurriedly made the greetings, then made him set up the table with sasato14. In any case, I have been holding back for quite some time now. I’d like to eat the thunderbird quickly!

Putting the soup in place, we can finally start eating.

First of all, throw out the cooking herbs ….

Aah, this smell doesn’t pile up!15 The meat’s juices overflows from the face …!16 The prince is also gulping loudly.

Then … without delay.

Put the meat in your mouth and slowly chew. At the moment you do it, the fragrant meat flavor and scent of herbs will pa.s.s through your nose, and the meat juice overflows in your mouth the next moment.

The meat was very soft but crispy, and it seemed that the taste seemed to fill you as you chewed.17

A rich sweet taste that lives up to the rumors …. It is definitely a first rate material! It cannot even be compared with the “delicacy” that is dragon steak!!

At my foot, Eru also gnaws greedily at the meat.

The prince hardened himself at the wonderful taste.18

It’s too delicious, my hands, that I’m using for eating, will not stop moving.

The amount that I thought was too much, disappeared together with the bread and the salad.

By the way, during the meal there was silence. I focused too much on eating so there was no conversation.

The top of the plate became empty, and the hands stopped at last.

「Fuu … it was more delicious than I expected …」Sakura said.

I ate too much, my little stomach is feeling hurt.19 However, if it was still in front of me, it was delicious enough to stretch out my hand.

「That’s right … If that happens everyday, I will definitely get fat.」The prince said.

I can not stop it will not stop. Like a certain CM20, I really couldn’t stop my hands.21

However, despite eating that much, I still wish to eat more meat. …… Awesome, thunderbird …!

Aside from its strength in fighting, even after dying it still torments me, such a troublesome monster…!