9 - Princess Knight and grilled meat
At night, in the camper, the wind chimes ringing on the
porch.
Naoto sat there, relaxing.
Mimi was sleeping in the loft, where the ceiling had been
raised, and the puppy was in the mandarin orange box in place.
Sofia was not in the car, but far ahead of Naoto's gaze, her
burning hair blending into the other world of the night, becoming part of the
landscape, like the moon reflected on the surface of the water.
“Maybe I should go get her... no, I shouldn't.”
He thought for a moment about moving the car, but glanced at
the interior and decided against it.
Trained by the crowded trains of his corporate life, Naoto
has a body that can sleep soundly no matter how bumpy the car is, but he
doesn't know if the half-elf girl is the same.
Since she was sleeping so comfortably, he decided to try not
to wake her up.
So he waited for a while without doing anything, and the
glow of the burning hair in his eyes disappeared. After waiting for a while
more, Sophia came back.
She was dragging something in her hand.
“I'm back, Naoto.”
“What is that?”
“It's the tail of a dinosaur.”
“The tail of a dinosaur?”
"A different dinosaur"
"dinosaur·"
"Dinosaur"
"Dinosaur"
[TN: They’re both saying it different. Sophia is calling it
a 恐竜 (Kyōryū) and Naoto is calling it a きょうりゅう
(kyō ryū)'. In the last one, she says it just like Naoto.]
Naoto and Sofia repeat the same words even though they are
being told differently.
To Naoto's ears, it sounded like the same pronunciation,
only with a subtle difference in accent.
I wonder if there is something there. As he thought this,
Sofia explained to him.
“The fearsome dragon Shielius, a dragon known for its
extremely timid nature, inhabits this area.”
“Oh, you mean fearful dragon.”
“It's famous for cutting off its own tail when it senses
danger, attracting the attention of its opponents and fleeing while it does so.”
“It's like a lizard.”
“I threatened him a bit. That's enough to last us a few
days.”
“Yeah.”
Naoto nods to Sophia, who points to the tail.
Just a few minutes ago, Naoto told her that the contents of
the refrigerator were getting low, so she went to get them for them.
“But is it any good?”
“It's pretty good, fits most cooking methods, but it's
especially good when grilled.”
“All right, let's cook it up a little.”
“You're cooking it now?”
“I'm in the mood for a midnight snack.”
“Oh, well, that's all right.”
Sophia nodded and said she would make a fire, gathering dead
wood and leaves from around her. She held out her hand toward it, her hair
burning, and lit it with magic.
“That's convenient.”
“I resent that you call it convenient. It's a royal secret.”
“Oh, I'm sorry.”
Naoto apologized honestly.
In the meantime, the fire she had lit had flared up all at
once.
Naoto felt excited, as if he were lighting a bonfire in his
own yard.
Suddenly, he remembered something.
“Sophia, the meat from that tail tastes best when it's
grilled, doesn't it?”
“Yes, as far as I know, it does.”
“It could be made into Stone Age primitive meat but... let's
go with that.”
“That?”
“Hold on a second.”
He got up, leaving Sophia to wonder, went back into the car,
filled a pot with water in the sink, and came back with it.
He threw it on the ground away from the bonfire, where there
was no grass, only soil.
He kneaded up the mud there, which had become muddy, as if
preparing to build a castle on the beach.
“What are you going to do with it?”
“You'll see. Yes, can you cut the tail into pieces? Cut it
into rounds about two fists' width.”
“Like this?”
With her flaming hair out, she made a flaming sword at the
tip of her finger and cut the tail in a snap.
It turned into a lump of meat, just as Naoto had ordered.
“You casually used an amazing technique.”
“Not really.”
Sophia responded to the compliment without hesitation, but
Naoto did not miss the momentary blush on her face.
He didn't miss it, but he didn’t dare to point it out.
He took the slice of tail that Sophia had cut off and
smeared it with mud.
Applying a full coating, being especially careful on the
scales.
After a while, the rings of the tail turned into chunks of
mud.
“Naoto? What are you going to do with it?”
“I'll do this.”
Naoto then placed a chunk of mud in the middle of the fire.
He folded his arms and stared at the flames.
“And then what?”
“Just this.”
“What?”
Sophia's eyes widen in surprise.
“This is all you have to do?”
“Yeah, it's all right.”
“That's not... cooking.”
“……”
Naoto didn't say anything back with a faint smile on his
face.
Sophia looked worried when he didn't say anything, but
seeing Naoto's confident look, she decided to wait and see.
And for a while, they stared at the bonfire and the mass of
mud in its centre.
The fire burned the surface, which caused the water to drain
away and the colour of the mud to gradually lighten, eventually turning to a
charred black.
"It's about time"
Gradually, the fire became smaller and smaller, and
eventually went out. Naoto picked up a piece of dead wood and poked at the
smouldering embers of the fire.
When they avoided the ashes, a completely blackened mass of
mud was revealed.
The smell of burning stung the nose.
“Isn't that already inedible?”
“You'll see.”
Naoto used his feet to push the hot chunks of mud out of the
bonfire. He then picked up a fist-sized stone lying at his feet and carefully
tapped it against the mass of mud.
Clack, clack. With a careful hand, as if cracking an egg, he
struck it with a dull sound.
Eventually, the baked mud cracked open.
“Ohhhh...”
Instantly, the fragrant scent of gravy, which had been
trapped in the mud, spread throughout the area.
The smell of meat, to the point of violence.
When Sophia smelled it, she was instantly entranced.
Next to him, Naoto's mouth was occupied by overflowing
saliva, even though he was the one who made it and had expected it.
“I see. This looks delicious.”
As he said this, he became even more cautious and peeled off
the hardened mud skin from the baking.
Naoto carefully peeled off the mud.
“Hey, Naoto! What the hell is that?”
“Have you ever roasted a potato over a bonfire? It's the
same way. When I was a kid, I tried to make a baked potato, but we didn't have
any aluminium foil, so I tried wrapping it in mud instead... I guess it worked
better than aluminium foil. See?”
Naoto then showed Sophia a piece of the mud he had peeled
off.
“You see those scales here? When you use sticky mud, it not
only traps the fragrance, but when you peel it off, the scales and skin stick
together like this.”
“Oh, I see!”
“Most things that are good for baking and need to be peeled
will work this way. In simple terms, it's steaming. If it's a fish, don't scale
it at all, just take out the guts and stuff them with green onions and ginger
to make it even better.”
“But won't the whole thing get burnt if we throw it in?”
“Even then, the burnt bits stick to the mud and come off
with it. No problem.”
“Oh, yeah?”
Sophia could not contain her surprise. She stared at the
roasted meat and then salivated.
“Haha. Now it's peeled.”
Naoto brought out a knife and a plate and cut up the grilled
meat, placing it on the plate and handing it to Sophia.
Sophia took it, looked at it for a moment, and then took a
bite.
A moment.
"--!"
Sofia puts her hands on her cheeks and is entranced.
She was so overcome with emotion that she seemed to be at a
loss for words.
Satisfied with her reaction, Naoto cut his own portion and
ate it.
"Oh!"
He was also impressed by the deliciousness.
“This meat is amazing, it's very fatty, but it doesn’t taste
fatty, the main flavour is the meat.”
Naoto rolls the meat juice that fills his mouth onto his
tongue and expresses his impressions.
Meat and fat. Both are delicious, but they are two tastes
that are very difficult to exist at the same time.
Naoto remembered a time when he had eaten sirloin steak and
fillet steak together only once before.
Marbled sirloin and lean filet.
Both were delicious, but both were so good that the fat and
meat started fighting in his mouth.
He should have eaten them separately, Naoto thought at the
time.
However, this meat tasted like a good combination of both
sirloin and fillet.
“Mmm, yummy.”
“Yummy!”
As they talked, they brought the tails of the Shielius to
their mouths one after another. The first one was soon gone, so the remaining
portions were cut into pieces, wrapped in mud, and placed in the newly built
fire.
“It smells good...”
When it was done baking, Mimi woke up.
Her eyes were half open and she looked sleepy, but she was
staring at the meat and seemed to want to eat it.
“Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to wake you.”
“Meat…”
“You want some?”
“Yup…”
For a moment, Naoto wondered if he should give her food, as
she looked almost sleepy.
“Big brother…”
I was immediately taken in.
“All right, just one slice.”
“Yay”
The little girl, sleepy and overjoyed, raises her hands in
the air.
Naoto cut the meat from the tail into dice steak sized
pieces and put them on his plate and gave them to her.
"Delicious!!!"
Mimi's eyes snapped open as she took a bite of the meat.
She seemed to be instantly awakened by the deliciousness of
the food and swallowed it with a gulp.
“Another one!”
“Guess we woke up a sleepyhead.”
Laughing happily, Naoto cut more meat and handed it to Mimi.
"Seconds"
Cut and hand over.
"Seconds!"
Cut and hand over.
"It's really delicious! Another refill!"
cut--.
"How much do you eat!?"
"Wow ..."
Sophia's tongue wagged at Naoto, who couldn't help but gush.
The little girl had devoured the additional cooked tail meat
in a matter of seconds.
The portion baked afterwards weighed almost a kilo, Naoto
wondered if he himself could finish it? It was so much food that he wondered if
he could fit it in the fridge, but Mimi ate it all by herself.
In response to her request, he baked more of the same, but
again, Mimi ate it all by herself.
And yet—
"Seconds!"
“Sorry, it's gone. You eat a lot, though.”
The tail meat that Sophia had hunted was eaten up and only
the bones remained.
Naoto was surprised at the young girl's gluttony, though.
"Ogoo..."
Immediately, it kind of made sense to him.
“Hey, big brother, I want some more.”
“No, I can't help it if I don't have any.”
“Uuuu…”
Mimi's lips quirk up, but she quickly slumps her shoulders
in disappointment.
It was clear that it was actually no longer there, and she
seemed disheartened by that.
It made her feel so depressed that she felt sorry for
herself.
He wanted to do something for the lovely girl, but he
couldn't do anything about it.
“Wait for it.”
Then he heard a slightly stuttering voice. When he turned
around, he saw Sophia with an indescribably delicate look on her face.
“I'm going to hunt again.”
“Really?”
Mimi looks up at Sophia and her eyes sparkle.
The princess knight nodded silently, turned herself around,
and ran off.
"Thank you, Sister!"
Mimi shouted and waved her hand.
Sophia, just before she ran off, a scowl on her face as she
let out her flaming hair, but she was still very blue.
“She's a cat lover with allergies...”
Naoto somehow felt that way.
TN: We finally begin with new chapters. Yay!
Thanks
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