"With this many people gathered, butchering should be a breeze."
We rented the butchering area attached to the guild and got to work processing the Bicorne. The ones doing the actual butchering were me, Jin, Garat, and Branca. Agri was directing the whole operation, Grandpa was keeping the surroundings clean with water and wind magic, and the women along with the Grappler Apes were handling odd jobs.
"Still, I never knew you could use healing magic like that..."
What I meant by "like that" was casting magic on the Bicorne's corpse. By doing so, you could cleanly erase the minor injuries on the Bicorne's body. Apparently, even though the Bicorne was dead, casting magic while the body's cells were still alive activated them and allowed the wounds to heal. However, casting magic over the entire body of a large Monster like a Bicorne consumed a tremendous amount of Magic Power, so it was beyond the ability of an ordinary magic user. And since spending that much on something of low value would result in a net loss, apparently not many people bothered. For the record, Agri was the one who told me this. Even Grandpa hadn't known about it, and he looked a bit put out.
"Gyee!"
"Gyeee!"
"Gyee!"
The ones letting out those warrior-like cries were Agri's Grappler Apes. I'd been wondering what they were doing with the water Grandpa had been producing, but it turned out they'd been washing the Bicorne's innards together. They'd apparently finished, because they brought them over to me.
"Thanks. Go wash your hands, and then you can rest. Take these too."
"Gyeeee!"
When I handed the Apes a bag of skewers, they all bowed in unison and took the bag. Agri had really trained them well—they had impeccable manners. Watching them with envy, my two almost made me wish I'd taught ours to behave the same way.
When I mentioned that to Agri, she said they were probably just being on their best behavior because Tenma was around. Those Apes knew that I was Shiromaru and the others' master, and that I'd defeated an Earth Dragon and a Wyvern, so they were making sure not to get on my bad side. Turns out, they were actually pretty good at reading the room.
Those same Apes were eating skewers together with my Familiars. Shiromaru and Solomon had been drooling while staring at the skewers, so the Apes hadn't been able to touch theirs, which was why I'd put out skewers for my three as well.
"Tenma, I'm done skinning it, so come take this. Here's the magic core, and these are the cock and the stones. The subcutaneous fat is in this bucket over here."
Jin called me over and handed off the parts he'd finished removing. They'd also stashed other organs—the heart and liver, among them—in the Magic Bag. They probably weren't planning to eat the liver, given the risk of parasites and the fact that it could be used as medicine. As evidence, the intestines the Apes had washed were set aside in oil-filled buckets. There were five buckets in all, and they looked like they held well over a hundred kilograms combined.
"Oh, I forgot to mention—make sure you extract the bones cleanly. Small ones if you can, but definitely get all the big ones."
"What do you need them for?"
"I'm thinking of using them to repair the Tanikaze. It got almost completely destroyed, so it needs some pretty serious repairs, and if I'm going that far anyway, I figured I might as well make some improvements while I'm at it~"
When I explained the Tanikaze modification plan to Grandpa, he listened with great interest. What I had in mind so far was to use the Bicorne's bones and magic core to reinforce and lighten the interior, and then use the Earth Dragon's scales on the exterior to boost its strength.
"That sounds mighty interesting~ If I had the materials, I'd want to build one too!"
Making a Golem on par with the Tanikaze wasn't something you could pull off with just any run-of-the-mill materials. On top of that, activating the Tanikaze relied heavily on Slarin, so there was no point in crafting just the shell alone.
This time, though, I was planning to take on the challenge of building something with high performance even without Slarin. The scorpion-type Golems I'd made a while back and given to Jeanne and Aura, along with the Golem I'd built for the royal family, were currently the closest to my ideal. I was thinking of applying the techniques I'd used back then. It might take some time, but the Tanikaze was important to me — practically family — so I had to see this through no matter what.
"Tenma, the disassembly is about half done. How about we take a break here?"
I turned at Agri's words and saw that the Bicorne had been butchered and its right half cut into blocks, separated by section.
"You're right. It's getting close to dinnertime — why don't we grill some meat and eat?"
""We've been waiting for that!""
The ones who reacted immediately to my suggestion were Jin, Garat, and Amour. And though they didn't say it out loud, Shiromaru and the others were clearly delighted too.
We grilled the meat on an iron plate — focusing on the lean cuts, along with some short ribs, spare ribs, and offal. I'd have preferred to cook it over a grill, but that would've meant going either into the dungeon or outside the city to find a place where the smoke wouldn't be an issue, so I gave up on that idea.
For seasoning, it was salt as the base, with a sauce made from fish sauce, sugar, and sake drizzled over the meat as it cooked.
"Oh man, this is incredible!"
"Medium rare is the best!"
"Seconds, please!"
"You three, eat over on this side, okay?"
The first ones to get the meat into their mouths were the three who'd been cheering the loudest. All three of them went for medium rare, so they were grabbing pieces faster than everyone else. Lina noticed this and herded them into one spot so the rest of us could eat at a leisurely pace. She even went so far as to line up vegetables between them and the rest of the group — thorough, to say the least.
"The offal is delicious too, but there's only so many pieces to go around."
"Indeed."
Grandpa and Agri were munching on offal while chatting contentedly. Even a Sage couldn't win against the march of time, it seemed.
"Mm, gnawing on the bone really makes it feel like you're eating meat."
"That's certainly true. Though the bones suit Garat even more, if you ask me."
"No doubt about it. Here, Shiromaru."
Branca held a spare rib directly in hand and gnawed on it heartily, then fed a bone still covered in meat to Shiromaru. Following his lead, Menase also handed the bone he'd been eating over to Solomon.
"Gyee-gyee!"
"Gyigyi!"
"GYEEEEEE!"
The apes were also each eating their favorite parts, though they occasionally shoved scalding-hot meat into their mouths, burned themselves, and let out shrieks.
In this way, they consumed several dozen kilograms of meat. The Bicorn's meat had little fat and was rich in flavor—quite delicious.
If there was a single problem, it was that it smelled far too good. They'd been grilling in a corner of the butchering area, so the aroma had wafted all the way to the guild, and they got chewed out by the staff.
"The butcher shops are going to make a killing today."
Everyone nodded at my murmur. Since continuing like this would probably get them thrown out of the guild, Grandpa and I set up a barrier around the area. It made things a bit smoky, but the smell wouldn't leak outside. Once the grilling was done, we could use wind magic to carry the smoke out. Though during the grilling, they'd need to be careful about carbon monoxide poisoning...
I told everyone to take precautions like making sure to ventilate properly when using fire. Hearing my words, everyone's hands froze as they reached for the meat—except for Amul, who went "nom nom" and shamelessly stuffed his cheeks with everyone else's portions too.
After that, they plunged into a lawless battle over the meat, which earned them an eviction order from the guild staff. And the butchering of the Bicorn wasn't even finished yet...
It was too dark to continue outside, and time-wise it wasn't feasible either, so it was decided they'd pick up the next morning outside the city walls. None of the others were given a choice in the matter. That was because, as a condition of letting them eat the Bicorn's meat, I'd made them promise to help with the butchering—and since it wasn't done yet, they were still bound by their contract with me. No one was getting away scot-free.
"So, meet me outside the south gate tomorrow morning. If you don't show up..."
Shiromaru
"gets unleashed. You won't be able to escape!"
"On!"
Shiromaru barked enthusiastically at Jin and the others. He seemed to know which among Agri and Jin's group was most likely to break their promise.
"We're not running!"
Seeing Jin and Garat react first, everyone laughed. With that punchline delivered, they broke up—though since half of them were heading the same direction, it didn't really feel like a proper dispersal.
"Alright, everyone's here, so let's pick up where we left off yesterday!"
"You bet! I'll do my best!"
The one who answered so energetically was Amy. When I'd handed her some of the leftover meat as a take-home gift yesterday at the apartment, she'd apparently become curious about the Bicorne, so she'd tagged along for today's butchering.
For the record, Amy had no experience butchering Monsters and wouldn't be much help in a fight, so she'd been assigned to the odd-jobs crew. Well, according to Grandpa, Amy was essentially seen as my apprentice from an outside perspective, so it was my responsibility to help her gain this kind of experience. For the record, her Familiars, Ii-chan and Shi-chan, were with her too.
"Alright, let's get started on the butchering. Same as yesterday — Agri, you'll give the overall directions. Grandpa, I need you to periodically use wind and water magic to keep the dust and sand down, plus handle things if any morons show up. I'll be doing the hide tanning, so Jin and the rest of you, follow Agri's instructions for the butchering. Ladies, you're on odd jobs... let's start with building the cooking stoves. I'll call on you for other things as they come up. Slarin and the Familiar crew, I need you to intercept or drive off any Monsters or morons drawn by the smell. I'll leave those judgment calls up to Slarin."
And so, yesterday's work resumed. First up was setting up the butchering tables. I hardened the earth with magic and laid wooden planks on top. We had two tables — one for butchering and one for processing hides.
"I'm going to disinfect the tables first, so everyone step back."
I scorched the tables with fire magic and sterilized the planks with boiling water. As a final precaution, I cast Cure and Antidote over them, and the disinfection was done. Now we could get to work.
We waited for the tables to cool down, then scattered to our respective tasks.
"Alright, the hide processing... I'll start by removing the excess fat."
Jin and the others had been removing fat as they skinned it, but bits still clung to the finer areas, so I used a Mithril knife to shave it all clean. Once that was done, I gave it a wash and shaved off the surface fur. That finished the prep work. And the last step was...
"Slarin, I'm counting on you."
I was handing the whole thing off to Slarin. Apparently, traditional tanning involved soaking salted hides in alum or tannins. There was also a method that involved chewing the hide, but I had no idea where to find alum, and while tannins were present in tea, I wasn't sure that would work. Besides, chewing might be feasible for something small, but there was no way with something this large.
So it was Slarin to the rescue, as usual. Tanning removed proteins and fats from the hide to soften it, and the plan was to have Slarin dissolve whatever fat and protein couldn't be removed manually, and soften it in the process. Soap made from Slarin's bodily fluids had moisturizing properties for hair and skin, so it might actually work quite well. And if it failed, well — if Slarin couldn't do it, nothing could.
Slarin absorbed the Bicorne hide into its body, then headed back over to where Shiromaru and the others were.
With that section wrapped up, I looked over at the others. Emiri was stacking stones for a cooking stove and looked about halfway done. However, all three women were building their own stoves, so there were four half-finished ones in total. Well, with this many people eating at once, having extra stoves wasn't a problem. If anything, four might not be enough.
Jin and the others were making strong progress and looked like they'd finish the butchering soon. Only Jin, Garat, and Branca were working, but all three had above-average stamina, and having done a full run-through yesterday, they were moving fast.
Grandpa sat in his self-made chair, casting spells as needed. Because he'd set up the barrier at the start, he didn't have much to do and looked the most bored of everyone.
Slarin and the others looked like they were just wandering around playing, but by positioning themselves between us and the onlookers, they were doing their jobs properly. A few tried to circle around for a peek, but whenever anyone got too close, they'd bark or advance to keep them at bay.
"Tenma! We'll be done in just a bit, so go ahead and start prepping the barbecue!"
Since Jin shouted it out loud, Shiromaru and the other food-lovers came rushing over to me all at once. At the same time, there were people trying to get closer, but Slarin noticed right away and gave Shiromaru instructions to send them back to their posts.
Keeping one eye on Shiromaru and the others, I placed a metal grill on the stone stove that Amy and the rest had built. The grill was something I'd bought at a general store on the way back yesterday—I'd picked up a few since I figured we'd use it again. The grill was a little big for the stove, but it didn't seem to be much of a problem, so I stacked firewood inside and lit it. Once the flames settled down, I asked Menace and the others to manage it, then headed over to where Shiromaru and the rest were.
"Slarin, you're done here. I'll put the Golems out to cover for everyone."
With that, I summoned several Golems and had them build earthen walls in a roughly fifty-meter radius around the stove. They were only about a meter high, so scaling them wouldn't be hard if someone really tried—but the instant they did, the Golems would knock them out. And even if someone managed to slip past the Golems, they'd end up making enemies of us next.
This wasn't anything hostile—it was standard procedure for adventurers, a clear signal that anyone who crossed that line toward us would be treated as an enemy. Anyone who knew the rules would never dream of stepping inside.
And so, the second barbecue was officially underway. The stove was shared among the big-eating men (three), the women (four), Agri and Agri's Familiars, plus me, Grandpa, and Slarin's group.
Today's spread included not just Baicon meat, but beef left in the bag (not White-furred wild ox—the kind from when we'd encountered Tida and the others), pork (Orc and boar meat), and several kinds of vegetables. Baicon meat alone would've been nutritionally lopsided and boring. Besides, it would've been wasteful...
"Use salt and yesterday's sauce for seasoning. Now, cheers!"
"Cheers!"
The barbecue kicked off, but there was quite a noticeable disparity in how fast things disappeared. The group that burned through meat the fastest was Jin's crew, followed by Amour's women's group, then my spot, with Agri's group last. However, vegetables went in reverse—Agri's group finished theirs first, then mine and Amour's, and Jin's group came in last.
"I forgot to mention, the Baicon meat is only what's on offer right now. After that, help yourselves to the beef or pork."
At this, Jin and Amour started grumbling, but the moment I said, "I can take the meat away entirely, you know," they quieted right down. Everyone else wore expressions that said "obviously," and they dug into the scarce Baicon meat with focused determination.
They say people go quiet when they eat crab, but with barbecue, it seems to get louder instead. It was so noisy that a crowd began forming at a distance from the Golems' patrol zone. Among them were some who mistakenly thought they could pay to eat, and they were turned away by the Golems. But most of the crowd seemed to know adventurer etiquette—they were telling off the ones the Golems had blocked.
It caused a bit of commotion, but the barbecue concluded without incident. After we finished cleaning up, we decided to disperse right there. Same as yesterday—half of us were headed the same way back—but...
"Oh, hang on, I need to make a quick stop."
"Again, Tenma? We're going ahead."
"I'm coming too."
"Oh, then so am I."
"Well then, I guess this is where we part ways."
This was my fifth time detouring like this. I'd been stopping whenever I spotted a general store or weapon shop, and Grandpa had finally reached his limit with me. The Dawn Sword crew and Branca were heading home early too, so only Amour and Amy stayed behind to follow me.
My target was Mithril, and I'd been scouring the shops for Mithril items for a while now. They didn't have much in stock, obviously, but I needed as much as I could get for repairing Tanikaze. Ideally, I wanted one ton, but I'd settle for at least half. The old Tanikaze had been made mostly of magic iron, which was why it went down before Byakone's lightning magic. This time, I was planning to make Mithril the centerpiece, boosting its resistance to magic.
"Even combining what I have on hand, I'm not even close to a hundred kilograms... It's going to be a long road. Maybe I should consult with Master Gantz."
Once an idea struck me, there was no putting it off, so I decided to head over right away.
"I'm here!"
So I made my way to the master's workshop, and just as I'd imagined, Amour came along. The surprise was that Amy followed as well.
"You could have gone home ahead of me, you know."
"You could have gone home ahead of me, you know."
Amour repeated my words back to me. Her voice carried a faint edge to it.
"I finished earlier than expected, so I've got nothing to do. There's nothing for me back home either... Was it a problem that I tagged along?"
When she put it like that, I couldn't very well say it was. Amour saw Amy's slightly hurt expression and didn't press the issue any further.
"Is Master Gantz in?"
"It's Tenma... What do you want?"
When we visited the workshop, the master had been writing something on the ground, but the moment he noticed me, he wiped it away with his foot. Whatever it was, it wasn't something he could let outsiders see.
"I'm looking for Mithril... Do you have any?"
"Ah, I do. How much do you need? Of course, it won't be free."
The master opened a bag with a grin and thrust his hand inside. It was probably a Magic Bag used for storing materials.
"Well, I'd like about one ton..."
"...Are you kidding me?"
After that, I got an earful from the master. But once I explained why I wanted it, he let it go. Apparently, he understood the desire of a craftsman to get his hands on Mithril. When you know the process for creating something but can't because you lack the materials, every craftsman goes through that at least once.
"Fine, I could sell you about twenty kilograms. I'll ask around with some acquaintances nearby, but don't get your hopes up. Leave the money on that counter over there."
With that, the master took the Mithril ingots out of the bag, placed them on the workbench, and left the workshop. He said he'd go ask around right now. While waiting for him to return, I left the market price of ten million G (fifty thousand G per kilogram, twenty kilograms total) plus an extra two million G on the counter. Even at that amount, I still had plenty of savings, so it didn't hurt.
"I'm back. Tenma, I managed to gather about a hundred kilograms."
The master returned after roughly an hour. Without ceremony, he swept the money sitting on the workbench aside and started placing Mithril in the cleared space.
"They said the market price is fine. I can hand it over now if you want—what'll it be?"
Apparently some of the master's acquaintances had workshops tucked away in hard-to-reach places, and some of them were difficult people to deal with, so it would be better for the master or one of his apprentices to go collect it. So I decided to entrust the money to him along with my thanks. The extra I had added on top, however, was pushed right back. The master's reasoning was that he couldn't very well take a premium for himself alone.
After bidding the master farewell and stepping out of the workshop, I spotted various craftsmen here and there finishing up their work and heading home. Since we had come all this way, we decided to stop by some shops and do a bit of shopping before heading back, and the whole group went browsing together.
"So, what should we have for dinner tonight… Meat two days in a row, so maybe something vegetable-focused?"
Solomon let out a protesting cry at my murmur, but Shiromaru remained perfectly docile. Amy looked surprised at that, but when I told her about yesterday's incident, she understood. Still, the one most shocked by Shiromaru's behavior was Solomon. The companion who always took the lead in voicing protests was quiet today, and Solomon looked visibly thrown by it. In the end, Solomon was the only one who made a fuss, so tonight's dinner was decided to be a vegetable-heavy menu.
Once shopping was done, we headed straight home and parted ways with Amy in front of the house. I gave her some Baicorn meat as a souvenir, so Amy's dinner tonight might end up being yakiniku… Two meals of grilled meat in a row sounded rough for Amy, but she didn't seem bothered by it in the slightest.
Later on, when Amy's family learned that Baicorn meat was an ultra-premium delicacy, it ended up causing them tremendous inconvenience.