Chapter 239: The Two Choices of Being Scared of Me or Taking Me on

<– Previous Chapter | Table of Contents | Next Chapter –>

Short Update:

I’ve finished stocking up on the successor(s) of this series (chosen by the patrons), seeing how this series has completely finished over there. As such, the Thursday slot of Allrounders will now be yielded to one of the new series.

Before we parted in front of the inn, Ms. Ivana looked back at me.

“Sorry,” she apologized all of a sudden. “…I got in your way during the cooking. I was jealous of you.”

……

“So the woman, who seems flawless at a glance, actually being a klutz wasn’t gap moe?”

I was slightly shocked about this. It was calculative!? She had planned for this!?

“Yep. Otherwise I wouldn’t be allowed to work at the inn.”

“Really? I’d think that it’d be highly popular with male customers as a klutz trait usually becomes a cuteness factor instead.”

“……That’s…I’ll work hard on it from now on.”

It was calculative, huh!? She did it deliberately, eh?

…as I remained dumbstruck, Ms. Ivana lowered her face and whispered, “Also, could you apologize for me to Mr. Sword? …In reality, I planned to use a bit of a love potion.”

…Love potion? What’s that?

“An aphrodisiac?”

Ms. Ivana immediately became bright red with a poof when I asked.

“Hmm, I see. So it wasn’t a secret spice, huh? No, in a certain sense, it was a secret spice, I guess. I’m sorry to tell you, but that kind of drug won’t work on Sword. Of course, it won’t work on me either.”

“Really!?” Support the translator by reading this novel at infinite novel translations

“He said he became resistant to such drugs because he was served tons of them while being targeted by all sorts of people in the past. I haven’t been given any such drugs, but since I didn’t die even after getting showered by poisonous mushroom spores which would cause any ordinary person to die instantly, it looks like I got a decent poison resistance.”

Though it’s a mystery why I’ve obtained such a resistance.

“Anyway, let’s interpret it as youthful indiscretion! Sword is on edge all the time, but I’m going to give him a good scolding that such incidents keep happening because he treats women, who want him to look their way, so cruelly. Don’t mind it.”

Ms. Ivana looked somewhat relieved and then put on an ambiguous expression, “…Indra, tell me…you look young, but aren’t you actually lying about your age?”

“I’m a young, lovely girl!!”

Why did I receive the old-man treatment when I was consoling her!?

＊

When I came back to Char while sulking, Sword had been waiting for me with the meal.

“Hmm? You didn’t eat?”

“I wanted to eat with you!”

Somehow he’s still pissed.

“Don’t be so upset. She’s not the only maiden who’s fallen in love with you, is she? Also, the aphrodis…love potion wouldn’t have worked on you anyway, so who cares. She probably wanted to create some nice memories with you for one night, so you could also sympathize with her feelings of love.”

“Whoa, here we go ‘gain. A flurry of old-man comments.”

The heck!?

“Ms. Ivana mentioned it as well, but why would you describe my consolation as old-man comments!? I’m just consoling you people, sheesh!”

Sword burst into laughter when I got all worked up.

“She told you that your talkin’ like an old man, too!? And your tellin’ me to treat you like a woman!”

Stuff it!!!

“She didn’t say it like that, though! M-Ms. Ivana used kinder words! Even though she pulled the same expression as you. She told me that I’d eventually become a startling beauty without calling my beautiful legs 『legs of a brat』!”

“Bah, I feel like I’m pretty much finished when bein’ told by YOU that I’ve got no delicacy.”

Then you’re finished. I just tell what has to be told to those, who have to hear it, at a time when it should be properly communicated.

＊

After adding some finishing touches to the dishes and lining them up on the table, Sword’s mood improved visibly.

“Oh, that looks damn delicious.”

“If we’re talking about a feast in the other world, it’s this – a “Hamburg steak.” You mince meat, add veggies, bread crumbs and spices, mix it into a pulp, shape balls out of it, and grill them. People debate on whether the meat juices should spill out or not. I prefer not. Visually it looks a lot tastier if meat juices overflow when you cut into it, but I prefer them oozing out after you put them into the mouth.”

Sword swallowed his spit.

“Then I roasted eggs on the iron plate and placed them, which are called 『sunny-side-up fried eggs』, on the Hamburg steaks. Given that the egg yolk is half done, you can also eat it after mixing steak and yolk. As a garnish I made French fries and salad with an onion dressing. As an appetizer, I thought I’d go with a consommé jelly made out of steamed meat and veggies. That’s all we got on the table now.”

“Whoa…that’s truly nothing short of a feast.”

You told me to make one, didn’t you?

＊

Sword immediately cut the Hamburg steak alongside the egg yolk, allowing them to mix, before putting it into his mouth.

“～～～～!!”

He was stunned.

“Was it too hot?”

“No, it’s too damn awesome!!” He roared at me.

“I absolutely love this. It’s incredible. Just what the hell’s this!? Does Amato know of this too?”

“He should? But, there are various ways you can cook this. I stick relatively close to the original, but then again, the meat in this world is different from the one in the other world, so I won’t be able to achieve the same taste.”

I also took a bite.

Yep, it’s good. I like eating either minced beef or beef and pork ground together, but I prefer the latter when it comes to making it myself. A single meat type feels kinda like the quality of it decides the dish, but a mixture of minced beef and pig increases the depth of the umami.

On the other hand, I dislike putting cheese into a Hamburg steak. I managed to make the cheese itself by having Black Fatty throw up gastric juices which I solidified through proteins,

Argh, recalling this makes me want to meet with Black Fatty again.

“‘nyway…I’m sorry.”

I suddenly received an apology.

“You’re always way too sudden. What do you want me to do when you abruptly apologize without any prefaces whatsoever!?”

“I’m talkin’ ’bout Ivana. …Even though it’s because of me, I pushed things on you since they’re too troublesome.”

Ah, that’s what he’s on about.

“I don’t particularly mind since it’s no trouble for me. But, you gotta man up too, you know? It’s not good to raise her hopes, but if you don’t want to deal with her, reject her clearly. Your honey trap evasion skill is nothing to scoff at, but before you use that, you could also just refuse a woman when you notice that she got feelings for you. Since she doesn’t know about your antics, she harbors faint hopes and approaches you aggressively, going even to the extent of using aphrodisiacs.”

“…Won’t they just laugh at me as that’s way too conceited?”

“Who cares!!!”

Because you always pay attention to appearances like that, you’re being served aphrodisiacs!

Sword looked at me for a while and then laughed, “Which reminds me, you’ve been immediately turnin’ down people without carin’ ’bout conceit or misunderstandings.”

“It’s not just me either. Damsel Scarlet has been repeatedly rejecting me, even though I’m a woman in the first place!”

Apparently recalling those scenes, Sword laughed once more.

“True. Now that you mention it, your right. Everyone is refusin’ properly without worryin’ ’bout being seen as conceited or ‘nythin’.”

“They’re free to see you as whatever they want, no? You can’t change what others think anyway. I’m always just stating my own will. Period.”

Sword nodded.

“Alright, gotcha. …Sorry, it was my fault. That girl didn’t lash out at you or ‘nythin’, right? She’s been treatin’ you as a woman, so she also felt somewhat jealous of you, didn’t she?”

“Yeah, she told me so as well, and apologized for it.”

“Oh, really?”

I nodded, “Well, I’m not so narrow-minded that I’d whine each time someone acts like that towards me. There was no damage done either, so it doesn’t really matter.”

“And while we’re at it, don’t be so soft-hearted on women,” he added.

“Give me a break, I just follow the maxim of 『Cuteness is Justice』, got it?”

“Come to think of it, you mentioned somethin’ like that before. You’ve been actually kind to monsters, dungeon cores, pretty elves, and dwarves with cute faces as well. I guess you just don’t consider human men as cute.”

I nodded, “If I had to push it, I guess Swannyboy could work? His trembling while being scared and frightened of me was as cute as that of the cockatrices.”

When I explained while remembering, Sword looked at me with an apathetic look, “…With Swannyboy you mean the guy who shared a room with you while spyin’ on you, right? I truly pity him for havin’ been forced to spy even while being so scared that he actually trembled. “By the way, the threat level of cockatrices is set to B. Then again, threat level don’t matter with you ‘nyway, I s’pose.”

Yep, it’s unrelated to me! Their only choice is being scared of me or taking me on!