Ch 128 -- Truly Deplorable Elland-san

　　So the next morning I was busy cooking again, preparing food before we entered the dungeon the following day. I was working hard to make as much food as possible since I was on a deadline, especially since I intended to go to the Adventurers Guild in the afternoon. Before I went to bed last night I minced a lot of meat to make hamburger and cabbage rolls. They're good food to have on hand to make other dishes with. I went to the Net Super and bought yet another half-size stockpot and a large can of chopped tomatoes along with instant soup powder and cheese too.

　　After forming some of the the ground meat into patties with my fingers I took half of them and separated them to make Cheese IN hamburgers while the rest were left as regular hamburgers. The rest of the minced meat was for cabbage rolls. I peeled off the outer leaves of the remaining cabbages I had bought in the shops in Doran to expose the tender inside leaves which I then boiled for a short time before wrapping them around a handful of ground meat and securing them in place with a toothpick. As an experiment I made some of them with Cheese IN as well.

　　I put the cabbage rolls side by side in the bottom of the new stockpot and added water and cans of chopped tomato until they were covered. I broke up the instant soup powder and sprinkled it on top and then added some ketchup to sweeten the sauce a little. I brought the mixture to a boil then turned the heat down and covered the top with aluminium foil, letting it simmer and bubble for thirty minutes or so. I cooked the hamburgers I had made while this went on, alternating the cooking process until noon and putting everything away in my Item Box. After I finished cleaning up we had lunch consisting of the rest of the ground meat with bean sprouts and sweet bell peppers in a spicy Chinese miso sauce before we all headed off to the Adventurers Guild.

　　* * * * *

　　We were directed straight to the warehouse by the receptionist at the Adventurers Guild, as apparently Elland-san was waiting there for us. Well, not "waiting", I presumed it was more like he had never actually left the warehouse in the past three days. When we entered the warehouse Elland-san was standing over in the area he had reserved for the dismantling of the Earth Dragon's body. Lined up on the workbench, was that all the Dragon materials?

　　"Ummm, Elland-san?" I said hesitantly but he didn't respond as he stared fixedly at a gla.s.s bottle containing a red liquid in his hand. I tried speaking louder.

　　"Ahem, Elland-san......" Nope, no response. He was in a world of his own.

　　"Ahhh, this is truly the blood of a Dragon. This crimson colour is wonderful. I could stare into your depths forever..." Elland-san muttered as he held the bottle to his cheek, rubbing it against his ecstatic face. I worried that he might drop it the way he was trembling. Use both hands to hold it please, Elland-san, I thought to myself.

　　I waited a few more seconds, hoping Elland-san would come to his senses and notice we were here but he continued to ignore us, muttering under his breath to the bottle in his hand. He's the Guild Master of an important city's Adventurers Guild, he's the man, well the Elf I entrusted the Earth Dragon to for disa.s.sembly, had that really been a good idea after all? I finally gave up and spoke out loudly.

　　"Elland-san!"

　　"Oh, it's Mukouda-san, isn't it?" Elland-san finally noticed my existence. Yes, it is Mukouda-san, I thought to myself exasperatedly.

　　"Yes, I'm here about the Earth Dragon..."

　　"Yes yes yes, I started dismantling it without delay, as soon as you left in fact and it's all gone perfectly." His expression changed. "This has been the most wonderful experience of this Elf's long life." he sang. "I can't think of a better time..." he sighed. Really, Elland-san, disa.s.sembling an Earth Dragon is the number one experience of your hundreds of years of life? I decided it was best not to dwell on what he was saying too much and pressed on with business.

　　"Anyway, you were talking earlier about buying some of the Dragon materials?" I enquired. Elland-san's expression changed again, back to what I was starting to think of as his business-like "Guild Master" face, an expression I was really thankful to see.

　　"Well, this has given me the hardest decision I've ever had to make in my long Elf's life." Yes, I know Elves have long lives, you don't have to keep mentioning it. "But, after wrestling with the problem for three days I finally came to a decision!" Elland-san said firmly, shaking his fist (not the one holding the bottle, I should add).

　　"So, what parts of the Dragon are you wanting then?" Keep him engaged on business or he'll start singing, or worse, dancing, I thought to myself despairingly. Focus, man- uh, Elf, focus.

　　"I gave great consideration to what you said but I was really really conflicted." He gestured at the workbench. "Everything here is something I desperately wanted to keep, but... well, to start with I chose this, the Earth Dragon's blood." Elland-san picked up another of the bottles containing red liquid lined up on the workbench.

　　"See, Dragon's blood, look, look!" He held out both bottles to me, his eyes gleaming. "It is a panacea of sorts because it is one of the ingredients for Elixir. If mixed with other medicines it will magnify their effectiveness immeasurably. Moreover a medicine made from Dragon's blood excels in its power as a preventative tonic. Indeed it is said that drinking one drop prevents any sort of illness for an entire year!"

　　Heeee~, that was amazing, but please calm down Elland-san.

　　"These are two bottles of Dragon's blood." He looked down at the bottles in his hands, thankfully quieting down again. "I would like to purchase them, 150 gold coins per bottle."

　　 …………What? 1 bottle, 150 gold coins? Wait a moment. Looking at the bottle, it resembled a sake bottle with a cork in the top, maybe about a litre or so? I transferred my gaze to the workbench where the rest of the bottles were lined up... there had to be over a hundred bottles there-

　　"Incidentally, I got 160 bottles of Dragon's blood from the disa.s.sembly." Elland-san said with a smile of satisfaction on his face.

　　Hu- A hundred and sixty bottles... Lessee, a bottle is 150 gold coins, there are 160 bottles, ummm, that's how much in total? I couldn't think, I started to count on my fingers and forced myself to stop. I felt faint. Elland-san continued, oblivious to my dazed expression.