Chapter 617: Chapter 600: Everything in Moderation

Gumihou: Added some details to make the narrative more interesting.

The High Elves and my slave employees have all gathered in the dining room.

On the long table were several large plates piled high with Mincemeat Cutlets.

All eyes were glued upon the piles and piles of freshly fried cutlets which, thanks to my time-stop [Item Box].

The children (and the twins) were almost vibrating with anticipation.

[1] Sui was already vibrating in place.

As for myself, I’m not sure whether it was being around fried food, having fried the food, or seeing the sheer number of beige crispy things in front of me, but I was feeling a little nauseous looking at the piles of fried food.

Although it was a special request from the High Elves, I wished that I had made something else instead. Either that or make something else other than just Mincemeat Cutlets.

Tonight’s banquet was more like a ‘get-to-know-each-other’ dinner party, so, I guess having party-style food like Mincemeat Cutlets is okay? [1] Oh, that’s right, there’s the cabbage slices and buns I had bought from [Net Super]. Let’s bring out the Worcestershire sauce and mayonnaise too, and fizzy drinks. Can’t have fried food without something cold and sweet to counter all that oil. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

“Ahem, so, today’s dinner party is to welcome these Elf friends who came to our house. And, that’s it. That’s the end of the speeches, so let’s eat, drink and be happy. Cheers~!”

“CHEERS!!”

Gulping sounds were heard, followed by thumps of mugs hitting the table.

“Woah, that was amazing!” cried Luke.

“Cold beer is the best after all!” shouted Irvin.

“I can feel the beer flowing through my body~” said Bartel with a sigh.

“Is that cold ale?” asked one of the elves.

“Ou, it’s ale, but not like ale,” said Bartel knowledgeably. “You’ll know when you have some.”

“Woah, so it really is different.”

“It’s bitter but somehow refreshing, is it because it is cold?”

“It’s definitely different from the usual warm sweet ale.”

“The froth is different too.”

“I could grow to like this.”

“Yeah, it’s not bad.”

Looks like the bottles of ice-cold beer were popular among the High Elves too.

The other adults were already familiar with the deliciousness of beer and were enjoying themselves happily with plates of Mincemeat Cutlets.

As for the children [1a], everyone was paying serious attention to Lotte-chan as she said, “…and then, you put the meat on the greens and then the sauce, and then you close it with the other bread and… Nom!”

[1a] Sauce squirted from the side of the burger and the side of her mouth.

[1a] “Lotte!” Selia-chan said a little sternly as she rushed forward with a handkerchief. After that little incident, the children decided that it was too ‘risky’ to eat the Mincemeat Cutlets this way and decided to just have the cutlets on their own first.

[1a] “Mukouda-san did say that it’s good with this sauce,” said Selia-chan. “I’m going to eat mine without the sauce first.”

“I’ll have mine plain too!”

“Same here!”

In the end, while Lotte nibbled on her plate of cut-up burgers, the rest of the kids helped themselves to the Mincemeat Cutlets. Only Oliver added Worcestershire sauce to his Cutlet, though.

“Woah, that’s really juicy~”

When it looked like everyone else was occupied with their food, I took my first bite of the crispy, freshly fried Mincemeat Cutlet. After cutting out a small bite with my fork like a well-mannered person, [1] of course. I don’t plan to simply chomp into half of a whole Cutlet like the twins who were now huffing and puffing all over their place as the hot meat juice burned their tongues.

Crunch-

[2] [2a]

“This- what is this-?”

“Woah, it’s really long~!”

“Wait, why don’t I get one like that?”

“That’s cheese,” said Selia-chan knowledgeably. “Some of the cutlets have them.

“REALLY!!?”

“Woah, I want to try that too!”

Soon, there was a scuffle as the children and High Elves tried to employ different techniques to discover which one of the cutlets had cheese in them.

“Haha, have fun with that,” I said. I had mixed up some of the Cheese In versions with the plain ones by accident, but at least everyone seemed to enjoy it.

[2] [2a]

My next Cutlet had cheese in it, nice.

After taking a bite of the juicy, crispy Cutlet I had a swig of alcohol to wash it down. Then, I had another bite, and then a beer to wash it down-

[3] “Mukouda, is that the best way to enjoy the food?” Jurgen asked.

[3] “Hm?” I looked up to see six High Elves staring at me with very intense eyes.

[3] “You ate one bite of the food first, followed by a swig of beer. Then, you repeated it again.”

[3] “Oh, er, this? Haha… how should I explain it? Um, I think this is the best way to fully enjoy both the beer and the Cutlet. The Cutlet itself is delicious and juicy, but the strong taste and slight greasiness could get a bit much so a nice gulp of cold beer washes out the greasy feeling and refreshes your palate for the next bite of Cutlet~”

“Woah, that’s pretty deep,”

“Puhhhhh, that’s awesome!”

“Mukouda is right, this way, the impact of the cutlet is enhanced. The impact of the beer is enhanced too!”

“Woohoo! I can’t stop!”

“Ahh~~ I feel like I can eat this forever!”

“Wow, Wow! I want to live here for the rest of my life!”

Well, the adults are certainly enjoying themselves.

“Oi, seconds!”

“I as well, Master. Oh, another keg of beer too.”

“”Seconds on the regular Cutlets!””

“”Sui wants the one with white stuffy~””

“Yes, yes,” I said indulgently as I fulfilled their orders. After that, I showed the kids the best way to make the Mincemeat Cutlet Burgers. The next thing I knew, the buns soon disappeared as the adults started stacking up their own burgers.

When it looked like the eating had slowed down a bit, I took out my special menu tray.

“Ahem, just for today, I have prepared a Special Mincemeat Cutlet. Since I made it with really good quality meat, there’s only one for each person.”

I said as I handed out the special menu item.

“Oi, we only get one?!” Fer yelled.

“Ah, well, Fer gets three…”

“Master, I believe three is too few.”

“”That’s right!””

“”Aruji~~ a bit more~?”

“Hmm, that’s unfortunate. These are very limited…”

“Just make more!”

[4] “Or, I could just give you none-”

“No way!”

“Three is plenty, Master.”

“”Er, yeah, plenty!””

“”Aruji~ can Aruji make more later~?”

[4] “Oh my, Sui-tan~ of course I can make more later~”

I pretend not to hear the other three whisper ‘Good job, Sui’ as I continue to distribute the special menu Cutlets.

[5]

“Mukoda, what do you mean by good meat?” asked Jorgen as he studied the Cutlet on his plate. I had to admit, it looked like all the other Mincemeat Cutlets. Palm size, found, and covered in a golden brown crust.

“You’ll understand when you taste it, Jorgen,” I said with a smile.

Jorgen stabbed the cutlet with his fork and took a bite.

The other High Elves also did the same.

“This!”

“What!”

[6] The various exclamations all came bursting out like fireworks.

Well, well, as expected~

As for the rest… I beamed at my slaves, who were… shaking?

Why are they shaking?

Are they shaking with joy?

“It is really concerning when Mukouda-san of all people say that something is ‘good’,” said Tabitha.

“What my sister said,”

“Yeah,”

“Hey, aren’t you two the most impetuous ones? Why are you hesitating now?”

“Well, Mukouda-san is someone who treats Rock Birds, dungeon pork and beef like ordinary meat…” said Bartel.

“To call this ‘good quality meat’ and in such small portion…” Peter mumbled.

The regular adults were not saying anything, but their faces were all scrunched up as they huddled together with their own plates of special menu cutlet.

“Well, it’s fine. Like I said, it’s limited to one each. So please enjoy it,” I said in my most this-is-all-normal voice.

“… …”

“Here, I shall demonstrate first.”

Crunch-

“Uwaah~ It’s delicious! As expected, this meat is best served with minimal seasoning. The meat juice is so fragrant, it’s even more amazing than regular cutlets!”

Drool—

[1] “L-lotte will eat it now!”

[1] “W-wait-”

[1] Crunch-

[1] “Y-yummy! It’s sho yummishhhh~~!!!”

As expected of Green Dragon meat. [1] Thanks to Lotte’s wonderful demonstration, the twins were the first to cave and the next thing I knew, there was another explosion of ‘Delish!’, which, if you must know, is very gratifying to me.

“Fufufu, my decision to use coarsely ground meat turns out to be a good one. This cutlet has a more luxurious mouthfeel…”

“I’m probably going to regret asking this, but, may I know what kind of meat this is?” asked Tabitha.

“That, there’s no need for you to know-”

“This is the meat of a Green Dragon. It was a truly magnificent individual.”

“… …”

“Green Dragon?”

“Th-this-!”

[5a] For a moment, the dining room fell into chaos. I blame Verde for dropping this bomb on my unsuspecting employees.

[5a] “Brother Mukouda, is this really dragon meat?!” Lotte-chan shrieked.

“Th-that’s right, isn’t it delicious?” I said quickly.

“It’s sho, sho, sho yummish~~!!”

“I-I get the feeling that we’re eating a whole house,” Irvin muttered.

“A house? Not a mansion?” grumbled Luke.

“M-my stomach…” said Peter.

“There, there,” said Tabitha, “Stay strong.”

My other employees’ faces have gone a bit stiff, but everyone was eating. Surely this is a good thing? Moreover, it’s not like I was being too excessive about sharing some precious meat. It was only a single Mincemeat Cutlet. I saw one of them ate five in one go…

As for the Gluttonous Quartet.

“Make enough so that I can eat my fill.”

[4] Yeah, yeah, I’ll think about it.

[Gumihou: Since comedy seems to be the goal, adjust the chapter towards that]

[1] Added details

[1a] Have Lotte give instructions on how to construct the burgers

[2] Deleted kids A through E exclaiming delish! Delish!

[2a] Replaced it with a ‘cheese pull fun’ scene

[3] Instead of repetitiveness, put in an explanation for Japanese ‘proper way to eat and enjoy’ technique

Gumihou: I mentioned this before in one of the earlier chapters, but Japanese people generally frowned on ‘mixing food’. For example, you should not put your rice into the miso soup, you shouldn’t eat rice and gyoza together etc. It was a completely different concept of eating compared to the Korean’s mix n match method.

Mukouda has a unique way of eating where he takes a bite of a side dish, followed by a bit of rice, chews and swallows before taking a swig of beer. He would continue to eat this way until all the food was gone. Some believe that this is the best way to enjoy food. While it is not quite ‘taboo’ or fixed, it was considered ideal by a lot of Japanese.

[4] Switch out cowardly Mukouda with threatening Mukouda… who simps Sui

[5] Moved down the scene where Mukouda’s eating the special menu cutlet

[5a] Realised why the scene had been awkwardly shoved in the middle of nowhere. It was to make the slaves realise what they have before they eat it so that they could have a scene that goes ‘Alban, Teresa, Toni, and Aiya were also eating with no expression on their faces’

I think it was meant to be funny, so facilitate this goal.

[6] Deleted excessive ‘Delicious! Delicious!’