Chapter 204

　　“Ho… this is really not bad ~” I said as I admired the scenery from the garden .

　　I am currently looking at the legendary ‘Ocean View’ . [1] The view that automatically increase the prices of any kinds of properties . Be it hotel rooms, apartments or houses .

　　[2] When I showed my letter of introduction from Marks-san to the Merchant’s Guild, I was introduced to the person in charge of Verulean’s real estate department . A certain Denis-san had been very helpful thus far .

　　When I told Denis-san that I wanted to rent a nice place to stay for a week, he introduced four different properties to me . He was even kind enough to bring me to view all four properties according to the ones I’m most interested in .

　　The first one we visited was a 7LDK property similar to the one at Neihoff . I liked that one best since we had a good experience with a property in that size . However, when we went to view it, I found that the garden was not quite as large as I had imagined .

　　[3] “What do you think?” asked Denis-san after we toured the mansion .

　　[3] “The mansion itself is good, but the garden… I’d like a bigger garden actually,” I said a little apologetically .

　　[3] “Oh? That’s an interesting request for a short term rental,” Denis-san probed . “May I ask why?”

　　[3] “I plan to do some outside cooking,” I said, since barbecue is probably not in their vocabulary . “With the garden so small, the neighbours are rather a little too near . So the smell might disturb them . ”

　　Denis-san was too much of a professional to ask why I wanted to cook outside when there’s a perfectly wonderful kitchen equipped with a Magic Stove inside the house . I could feel his probing gaze, but in the end, he said, [3] “I may have the perfect location for you . Well, it’s a little further outside the city centre, would that be alright?”

　　I thought about it . With Fer to carry me around, distance isn’t really an issue . So I said, “No problem, please show me the property . ”

　　And that was how we ended up at this 9LDK property with an Ocean View . Ahh, a property with a garden overlooking the sea, am I a celebrity? Am I dreaming? How luxurious is this ~

　　[3] “This is the second property on the list,” said Denis-san with a smile . “What do you think of it?”

　　The Ocean View garden already more or less cinched the deal, but I went through the motions of going through the house with Denis-san . This place was once owned by aristocracy and the upkeep was very well done, so everything was in excellent condition . The bathroom was great, the kitchen was well equipped with a Magic Stove and all the rooms were very s.p.a.cious and gorgeous .

　　I have no complaints, but what about everyone else?

　　The question was sent telepathically to them and my mind was bombarded by:

　　“Umu, the size is good . Big, I can move easily in it . ”

　　“Yay! I like the big garden . ”

　　“Sui likes it too ~”

　　Excellent .

　　The rent for this property was 73 gold per week, just a little higher than the other property we saw . However, the garden with the Ocean View was definitely worth it . Also, we have plenty of money, ufufufu, so that’s not a problem at all . Also, since I have a letter of introduction from the Guild Master, the price went down to 70 gold coins .

　　Alright, “I’m happy with this one,” [3][4]I said to Denis-san who smiled and we headed over to sit at the garden table to sign the contract .

　　I took out 70 gold coins from my [Item Box] and handed it over to Denis-san, who carefully counted them . [4] Gold coins were nice to see and good to hold, but they were a bit of a pain to count so I pretended not to look at him when he did so .

　　“Alright, everything checks out . Here’s the key to the mansion . Please enjoy your stay at Verulean . ” With that final greeting, Denis-san left us to enjoy our time at the mansion .

　　[4] Woohoo!

　　[4] What an awesome garden! What an awesome view!

　　“Hey, it’s lunchtime now . ”

　　“Yeah, I’m hungry . ”

　　“Sui is hungry too~”

　　Yeah, I kind of antic.i.p.ated this . Well, it’s past lunchtime anyway so, “Please wait a bit,”

　　Let’s see, I’ve cooked a lot of rice, so there’s some leftover . There were also some fried food, Salisbury Steaks and some stir-fried vegetables…

　　Oh, I could make that!

　　The vegetables were stir-fried with garlic sauce, so I roughly chopped up the Salisbury Steaks, heated up my largest pan and tossed both meat and vegetables in . When both meat and vegetables were heated through, I served this special [5] ‘Stamina Stir-fry’ over the still-warm rice I pulled out from my [Item Box] .

　　I also dug up all my random fried stuff and piled them onto plates as an extra side dish . By the time Fer and Sui had their seconds, everything I had prepared for this trip was gone .

　　After lunch was free time . That weird hour after a late lunch and not really enough time to do anything before night falls .

　　Fer, however, disagreed, [3] “Hey, why don’t we go hunt that Kraken now?”

　　[3] “No! We have just arrived here after a long journey . Kraken hunting comes tomorrow, it’s already been agreed . I’m tired . I refuse to go Kraken hunting!” I must admit to being slightly hysterical…

　　In the end, my familiars decided to take a nap in the garden . [1] The warm salty breeze from the sea, as well as the sound of waves cras.h.i.+ng to the sh.o.r.e, was very soothing…

　　Ah, but I have work . I need to go check my inventory for the items I got from the dungeon . Well, I still have the original list of all the things I had gotten from the Doran Dungeon, all I have to do is subtract the ones sold to Doran and start from then .

　　Alright, let’s get to work .

　　Please read this at kitchennovel dot com ~

　　I spent the rest of the day sorting through the dungeon items and found there were actually quite a few left .

　　Rather, quite a lot of the so-called items were actually dropped meat . Minatour meat in fact .

　　I’ve already used up all the dropped meat from other, more familiar, monsters . Well, to be fair each drop was only about 1 to 2 kg, sometimes 3kg . [1] Considering my meat, meat, meat loving companions, 3kg is less than one serving…

　　Anyway, it turned out I have about 11 portions of Minotaur meat left . I guess we can eat those and clear them out of my [Item Box]

　　As for the other dungeon items… well, my inventory kind of looked like this:

　　Venom Tarantula poison sac x 3

　　Orc t.e.s.t.i.c.l.es x 31

　　Troll poison claw x 48

　　Minotaur horn x 49

　　Minotaur iron axe x 15

　　Orc King t.e.s.t.i.c.l.es x 1

　　Red Ogre magic stone (middle) x 1

　　Spriggan magic stone (large) x 5

　　Giant Killer Mantis sickle x 38

　　Murder Grizzly fur x 21

　　Murder Grizzly magic stone (large) x 3

　　c.o.c.katrice feathers x 7

　　Rockbird beak x 10

　　Rockbird feather x 13

　　Paralyzing b.u.t.terfly paralyzing poison scales x 27

　　Giant Dodo feather x 9

　　Giant Centipede outer sh.e.l.l x 3

　　Giant Centipede magic stone (large) x 2

　　Wild Ape fur x 41

　　Killer Hornet’s poison needle x 286

　　Killer Hornet’s royal jelly x 1

　　Vasuki fangs x 1

　　Vasuki skin x 1

　　Vasuki’s magic stone (extra large) x 1

　　Manticore skin x 1

　　Manticore poison needle x 1

　　Manticore magic stone (extra large) x 1

　　Gustave skin x 1

　　Gustave fangs x 1

　　Gustave spine x 1

　　Gustave magic stone (extra large) x 1

　　Giant Scorpion poison needle x 6

　　Giant Scorpion magic stone (middle) x 3

　　Sandworm teeth x 8

　　Sandworm magic stone (large) x 4

　　Death Sidewinder skin x 7

　　Death Sidewinder poison bag x 5

　　Death Sidewinder magic stone (large) x 3

　　Giant Sand Golem magic stone (Extra Large) x 1

　　Behemoth skin x 1

　　Behemoth magic stone (super oversized) x 1

　　Behemoth (dungeon boss) treasure chest x 1

　　Mimic Treasure Chest (small) x 1

　　Mimic Treasure Chest (large) x 2

　　Treasure Chest, drop jewelry Sapphire (medium grain) x 1

　　Alexandrite (medium grain) x 1

　　Yellow Diamond (large grain) x 1

　　Tanzanite Necklace x 1

　　I have removed all the dropped meat as well as magic items that I wanted for myself, or those that I think could be useful in the future . [6] The Detoxification Necklace had already been presented to the King . I have also kept the magic sword Caladbolg because it was too dangerous to be shown to the public . Even so, the list still looked quite extensive .

　　Well, I have no idea how much Marks-san intended to buy, but he can study this list at his leisure tomorrow when we go Kraken hunting .

　　Now that my housekeeping work is done, let’s get on with the preparations for dinner with Minotaur meat!

　　[Gumihou: I like conscientious people like Mukouda-san]

　　[1] Added More Details: For artistic purpose

　　[2] Structural Change: Rearranged information for logistical purpose . I basically cracked down one A4 page of text and rearranged it to look more aesthetically pleasing .

　　[3] Structural Change: Switched out some plain sentences to dialogue

　　[4] Additional Information for Logistical Purposes: Rather than the standard favourite:

　　“I should do a thing”

　　I’m thinking of doing the thing .

　　“Yes, you did the thing”

　　-formulae that author-san seems to favour, I decided to take some liberties and vary the text with some ‘show don’t tell’ techniques .

　　[5] Stamina Stir-fry – The j.a.panese called anything that has loads of meat Stamina whatever . Stamina Stir-fry, Stamina Set, Stamina Soup…

　　[6] Structural Change: Combine 2 or 3 sentences together