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“Yo, Wendelin. It’s been a while, hasn’t it?”
“You don’t look as worn out as Peter made you out to be?”
“Well, I’ve been ruling over the Philip Dukedom while serving as His Majesty’s advisor in the capital. It’s very exhausting work, so I’m making sure to eat and sleep properly. Though I can’t do much else besides that. I’m happy you’re visiting today.”
“Yeah, we came to procure some of the northern sea food.”
“And Doushi is needed for that?”
“I am needed! I will choose my own share with my own hands!”
One week after having had a private beach party with Peter, we went to meet Alfons, the present Duke Philip, who had some time for us by chance. He looked healthy, but seemed very unhappy about the lack of vacation he was getting.
“See, it’s quite a chore, isn’t it?”
“Therese, you look very lively and relaxed.”
“Obviously. I don’t have to deal with any annoying work. All I occasionally do is give Wendelin some advice. Yet, Wendelin cherishes me dearly.”
“Ye───eah, thanks for the treat.”
“As a matter of fact, I don’t have any experience as a high-ranking noble, so I value Therese’s advice highly.”
Therese had also come along on our trip to the Philip Dukedom. It was the first time in a long while for her to visit her old homeland, but since it’d be bad for her to show her face in the dukedom, she got Katia to tie her hair into pigtails and hid herself by pulling down her hood.
“Therese, you look somehow weird.”
“I thought you’d say that, Alfons. I might still be recognized, but it’s better than doing nothing at all, right?”
“Since it’s unlikely for you to have such a hairstyle, I doubt anyone will recognize you.”
“Is that supposed to be a praise? Or are you mocking me?”
“That’s not the point here.”
Before being exposed by others, Therese’s look with her twintails was…too unexpected, or rather, it didn’t match her usual image…
When I asked Katia why she had used a twintail hairstyle, she told me she aimed at the element of surprise as no one would ever expect Therese to use such a hairstyle.
Once she took off the hood in a place with no onlookers, it didn’t look awful, but…
“Katia, couldn’t thou have chosen a slightly different hairstyle? I cannot calm down since I’m not familiar with it.”
“Isn’t it fine either way, since you’ll go back to your old hairstyle once we get back home anyway? I have been using this hairstyle since I became aware of what was going on around me as a little child.”
“It suits thee and thou are fine with it since thou became used to it.”
As long as she stayed silent, Katia was as pretty as a doll. The twintails suited her well too.
Sometime ago I talked a bit with a veteran adventurer who was acquainted with Katia. He told me that many of the young adventurers, who saw Katia for the first time, fell in love with her. But, because the men tended to have a lot of pride, they couldn’t regard a female adventurer, who had more skill than them, as a romantic interest. The ones approaching here were only male adventurers, intending to leech off her and those guys were harshly rejected by Katia.
This was the reason why male presence around her disappeared.
“Even if you braid it, it’d suit you, I think.”
“Hubby, the other day Elise braided them for me out of fun, but I don’t wanna maintain such a troublesome hairstyle! Wouldn’t I need to redo the braiding every day when I wash my hair!?”
Come to think of it, just like me, Katia didn’t put much effort into her appearance. She’d take a bath every day since she loved cleanliness, but it sounds like she’d hate to braid her hair every morning.
“I admire people like Katharina who are willing to take every day the time to fix their hair in such a way. It’d be impossible for me.”
When it comes to Katharina, her hair was terribly unruly and it’d look like it exploded every morning. But, she used a drill hairstyle, which took a lot of time and effort, because she believed it was a hairstyle appropriate for a true noblewoman.
When I explained this to Katia, she said, “True noble, eh…? You can find quite a few noble ladies with such a hairstyle if you go to the capital. But I didn’t see much of it in the Empire.”
Now that she mentions it, the number of women using a drill hairstyle is low among imperial nobility. But maybe that was because we came here during a civil war?
“These sorts of hairstyles are en vogue every once in a while. They were a fad around thirty years ago in the Empire.”
“Ah, so the hairstyles of nobles follow trends as well, huh?”
I thought they chose whatever their family decided. Nobles do seem quite fussy about family rules and so on, after all.
“Just as you can tell from looking at Katharina, it’s troublesome to get it ready every morning, so people gradually stopped using that hairstyle. Nobles love to stand out, so there are still some people who are fixated on that hairstyle, despite its difficult maintenance.”
According to Therese, it appeared to be fashionable among imperial noble ladies to be proud of the prettiness of their hair rather than fussing over the hairstyle.
“Many noble ladies are vain. That is why they’re so particular about the shampoo they use to wash their hair or the creams to prevent their hair from drying out. They will buy up expensive products which use all sorts of high-grade ingredients. And since they use those products every day, it costs a large amount of money.”
And the ingredients for those high-grade products can only be obtained in monster domains, too. Some of the materials are monster blood, fats, and rarely, intestines.
Adventurers, on the other hand, can make a nice profit by collecting these materials.
As far as I’m concerned, I hand the materials directly to the stores and have them use those materials to craft the products for my wives.
“The shampoo and creams given to us by Wendelin are great products. My hair has become more luster as well.”
“Mine too, it seems. All the more so since my hair just dried out whenever I washed it in the past.”
“Katia, you should pay a bit more attention to your appearance.”
“I’m doing that now.”
That’s because she’s my wife. Since there are maids in the mansion, they’ll keep her appearance in order, matching time, place, and occasion, even without Katia herself doing anything. That’s why it’s not a big problem although Katia and I almost don’t do anything.
“A shampoo that uses the high-class materials of the Demon Forest for your wife, huh…? It does seem to show quite an effect.”
“Alfons, want me to give thee some of mine?”
“Would you? In that case, gladly.”
“I see. …Thou are having thine own share of hardships as well.”
Ah, because Alfons has been so busy with work, he has finally…”
“Now listen, Therese, Wendelin. You don’t have to look at my hair so suspiciously. It’s not falling out. The number of gray hairs has simply increased a bit so I thought I should give it some treatment while I still can!”
Alfons declared that he wasn’t going bald yet. It sounded like he regarded that information as a very important fact.
“Thou are right. Thou have simply been tired from work. I will give thee some of my shampoo and hair cream.”
“Therese, just let me say this once more: I’m not worried about my hair falling out!”
“……”
“Wendelin! I don’t have a wig or anything like that!”
He’s still young, so I didn’t really think he uses a wig, but since he was stressing this issue so much, I ended up feeling slightly doubtful. Since I’ve heard that there also exist magic wigs and hairpieces which are difficult to expose as such, I tried to probe with Detection for caution’s sake, but there was no response.
If it’s a normal hairpiece or wig, I won’t be able to tell.
“My hair has just turned slightly grayer. By the way, your destination for today is the northern harbor, right?”
Alfons asked us in order to shift the conversation away from hair.
“Yes. Wendelin apparently wants to get his hands on northern seafood.”
“Wendelin, seafood or your reunion with me, which is more important to you?”
“That’s a difficult question to answer, Alfons.”
“It’s fine to simply lie about that part, so please say that it’s me.”
＊
As Alfons seems to have some time for the first time in a while, he’s going to accompany us to the fishing harbor located in the northern harbor area. With me were Alfons, his guards, Doushi who wanted seafood like me, Therese who had come home in secret, Katia as a guard, and…
“The north is quite cold. But, it’s my first time to travel abroad since I was born, so I’m having fun.”
Only few people had a free schedule today and thus Amalie-san, who was usually busy taking care of Friedrich and the other babies, had come along. Since she hadn’t participated in the civil war, she was visiting the Empire for the first time today.
Given the listed members, we were moving around with relatively few people today.
“But, I must say, this fur is quite warm. Wend-kun, thanks for giving me such an expensive piece of cloth.”
“It’s not that expensive.”
Candy-san had tailored a monster pelt, which I had obtained in the Demon Forest, into a piece of a cloth for me. Still, I had given her──everyone had started to treat Candy-san as a woman──enough material for two sets of clothes, but since she could only deliver one, she had actually declined to take any money for it.
“But, I heard the fur of Silver Apes is being treated as valuable.”
“Well, isn’t it fine either way?”
Silver apes were large monsters with silver fur which resemble gorillas. They were an albino subspecies of black gorillas and because they rarely showed themselves, their materials were valuable. Because an old book called “Encyclopedia of Monsters and their Produce” mentioned that their fur was suited to be tailored into coats, I requested Candy-san to make such coats for me as a test and I gave the prototype of that to Amalie-san as present.
“We always have you watch over Friedrich and my other children. So it’s a present from us.”
Elise and the others were especially busy during the unification of the Akitsushima Island, so the care-taking of the children had been left completely up to Amalie-san during that time. For this reason, the fur coat was also a present from my wives.
“Thanks.”
“Give one soon to me as a present as well.”
While we were chatting, we eventually arrived at the fish market held in the fishing harbor. When we quickly toured the market, we found out that a fish auction was being held inside a building, where people could bid on the fish caught this morning. The auction was carried out with a unique code language and we couldn’t quite grasp how much the bidders actually paid for their fish.
“Oh, they have tuna.”
“Noble sir, the tuna has been won by a broker from Mizuho.”
Dozens of tuna were lying on the stone floor, but all of them had apparently already been sold. It looks like the Mizuho people love tuna as much as the Japanese people do.
“Mizuho people sure love fish. But so do I.”
Alfons regretfully stared at the sold tuna.
“We can buy other fish and cook them at the mansion.”
“True. There’s many other seafood to be found here.”
Strangely, the seafood found in the northern seas wasn’t that different from the one found in Japanese waters. There were all sorts of fish I knew, so I bought one after the other.
“Aren’t you buying way too many?”
“Even if we have some left over later, I can just store them away in my magic bag.”
“I don’t know what I should think about you pointlessly hoarding stuff in your magic bag like that.”
“I’ll be careful to not overdo it.”
“Wendelin, thou are quite weak when it comes to Amalie…”
Actually I do have a step sister as well, but since I don’t have any real contact with her, Amalie-san is like a real elder sister to me. Whenever she cautions me, I reflect on things seriously.
“Wendelin, you seem to be generally weak when it comes to older women.”
“How about you, Alfons?”
“I’m also weak when it comes to the person who used to be my wet nurse. Even nowadays I’m told to properly eat my vegetables when it’s just the two of us. She’s kind of like a mother.”
Men would be scolded by women, no matter how old they became.
“But, overall the haul looks kind of small, doesn’t it?”
“Now that you mention it…,” Therese agreed with my opinion.
Originally she had tackled the industrialization of fishing as Duchess Philip, so she had apparently noticed the lacking liveliness at the fishing harbor.
“You think so?”
“Alfons, I really don’t want to meddle here, but to me it looks like the haul is around half that from before. Assuming there is some sort of problem, the fishermen will end up starving if thou don’t take any immediate actions to deal with it.”
She knew that he was busy, but Therese still warned Alfons that he had to properly keep an eye on the things going on in the dukedom.
The fishing in the Philip Dukedom had continued to grow and in the past more than half the workers were Mizuho people, but nowadays many of the local residents, including the Ran clan, were employed in this business as well.
If the hauls kept dwindling, they might lose their jobs. And if the number of residents, who can’t put food on the table, increased, the territory itself would become unstable.
Therese had warned Alfons about that as he didn’t realize it.
From an outsider’s perspective, a strange, hooded woman was scolding the lord of the land, so it must look like a quite weird spectacle to behold, but no one would expect her to actually be the former duchess.
“Usually Alfons would have noticed it as well, though.”
Peter was busy, but so was Alfons. In spite of ruling the Philip Dukedom, he had to also help out Peter. Because of that, he likely can’t look at his own territory as much as he should.
“I feel greatly obliged for the warning, I guess.”
“Sorry for meddling unnecessarily.”
“Criticism is proof that one cares.”
Alfons obediently accepted Therese’s warning. That broad-minded attitude of his was also proof of his qualification as lord. Most of the lords wouldn’t want to listen to the advice of the previous lord and thus many of them would turn a deaf ear to such advice, too.
“Why has the haul decreased?”
At once Alfons asked a nearby, elderly fisherman about the circumstances.
“It’s not the prohibition of fishing and limitation periods to guarantee the recovery of the fishing grounds, is it?”
“No, it’s not. As a matter of fact, a strange, huge creature has appeared in the northern areas of the ocean.”
“A huge creature?”
“Yes. It’s a very big crab!”
You couldn’t say that monster domains didn’t exist in the northern sea, but a huge crab appearing in an area, where the fishermen were usually fishing, maybe meant that it was a wild animal just like the serpents?
No wait, crabs look kind of like aliens, so do they enter the category of monsters?
“Is it such a big crab?”
If you consider common sense, a crab remains a crab, no matter how big it might be. Alfons apparently doubted that a crab with a size big enough to hinder fishing could actually exist.
“How big is it?”
“I think its height exceeds twenty meters. Its movement is slow, but if it attacks a ship with such big pincers, no ship will be able to resist. And in reality one fishing boat has already sunk.”
Luckily there were no casualties because another ship quickly rescued the fishermen after they lost their boat, but thanks to the crab, the fishermen are now only able to fish in a small area of the ocean. At this rate, they will be forced to lower the number of fishermen, the elderly fisherman explained.
“A crab, huh?”
“It sounds delicious!”
“Certainly…”
Doushi and I were more interested in the big crab than feeling pity for the fishermen.
Crabs were generally treated as a high-class ingredient, so I was wondering whether I could somehow defeat and eat it.
“What sort of crab is it?”
“Hmm… Its whole body is covered by short, thorn.like protrusions… It only has eight legs. And its color is close to violet, I guess?”
I asked the elderly fisherman about the traits of the crab monster, but I immediately thought of a certain type of crab when I heard this.
“(A red king crab?)”
“Didn’t crabs have ten legs?”
Crabs were naturally inhabiting the northern regions as well and some species were also edible. They were often given to the Duke Philip House as a gift, so Alfons knew about them having ten legs.
But, if the huge crab belonged to a species close to a red king crab, I could agree with it having eight legs instead.
Anyway, this doesn’t really matter. If this is really a red king crab species, I must get a taste of it by all means.
Due to that, I have no choice but to defeat it and…I don’t feel a shred of remorse about that either. Let’s hurry up and bring it down so that I can test its taste.
“Did you happen to see a small specimen of that crab?”
“No, the most famous crab in this area of the sea is the swimming crab, I guess…”
The northern waters tended to be similar to Japan in that you could catch lots of seafood over here, but prawns and crabs were usually more abundant in the southern seas.
Bigger prawns and crabs inhabited the southern seas in greater numbers, so the crab, which was eaten the most in the north, was a much smaller swimming crab which was commonly called Gazami over here.
The prawns not only were small, but the south, where you could catch prawns similar to lobsters, was much more famous for its prawns.
“(In exchange, a super huge type of crab inhabits the far north. What a punchline…) There are no huge gazami, right?”
“No, there aren’t, but in reality, there have been precedents of other big crabs…”
“What crabs were those?”
“The shell’s height is around 15 meters. The shell itself has a shape close to a triangle, and its body color is dark red. Its legs are slender.”
That is a queen crab without a doubt.
“Actually, there’s still more…”
Does that mean there’s three types among the huge crabs?
“This one is smaller. But, the height of its shell is still around ten meters…its whole body is short and stout, and it has a lot of fur growing.”
Any Japanese person would be able to tell the true nature of that crab. It’s undoubtedly a hair crab or a species close to that.
“Three huge crab species, huh…? Were there no precedents of witnessing them so far?”
“Stories about fishermen having sighted huge crabs in the distant north have been around for many generations. Their features sound familiar to our current issue as well. But, ultimately those were stories. It’s the first time for us to be directly faced with them.”
For some reason, the crabs moved southwards. Is it a strange increase of their population? Did they lose in turf wars? Or did the realize that there’s plenty of food in the south? Either way, the crabs’ move southwards might be temporary, or it could continue regularly from now on. We don’t know.
“Let’s go and have a look at the actual place.”
“I shall accompany you as well!”
Getting the delicious crab as soon as possible…not. It’s very likely that the huge crab isn’t a monster, but even so it’s still a threat for ordinary people.
This is the time for us magicians to cook the crab deliciously…err, no, we must face it and secure the safety of the fishing zone.
Yep, this is all about noblesse oblige where we’ll face off against the crabs in order to help the fishermen who live diligent lives every day.
“Wendelin, Doushi, are you going there for us?”
“Of course, Alfons! We are friends, are we not?”
What, I don’t need any pay for the subjugation. As long as you yield the right to the defeated crabs to me.
“I am itching to put my skills to use!”
“With that said, won’t anyone lend us their boat? Ah, Therese, Katia, and Amalie-san, you’re going to stay back.”
“I won’t be much help as a combat force atop a boat, so I suppose it can’t be helped.”
Katia has increased her mana, but she didn’t have any means to connect her attacks against a huge crab which could dive underwater. Since it’d be dangerous, I had no choice but to make her stay back.
“Wouldn’t it be better for me to be present?”
“Won’t it be bad if you act too flashy around here, Therese?”
She’s disguising herself, but some people might have already realized her true identity. If she uses magic in such a situation, some people wishing for her return as duchess might come out of the woodwork.
I think it’ll be best to hide her magic and pretend that she only came here to visit her family in absolute secrecy.
“I think I’ll get some cooking lessons from you, Amalie.”
“I’m going to prepare what we bought, so let’s eat this after you come back.”
“Yaaaay!”
“Wendelin, are thou a child…?”
It’s going to be an assorted mix of all sorts of northern seafood for the first time in a while. If the crab subjugation goes well and it’s an edible species of crab as I imagine…
An all-you-can-eat to stuff my belly with huge crab meat. The meat of serpents won’t be able to measure up to that.
“Let’s have a crab party with everyone.”
“Can you actually eat such a strange crab?”
Amalie-san tilted her head.
While being seen off by Therese, Katia, and Alfons, Doushi and I departed onto the rough northern sea with its cold winds and raging waves, using a boat steered by local fishermen.
＊ ＊ ＊
“Sir noble, this is the place where the huge crab appeared.”
Once we proceeded through the northern sea on a fishing boat for around half a day, we finally reached the place where the mysterious crab supposedly appeared. We weren’t that far away from land and there were no islands in the vicinity.
As soon as the northern sea becomes rougher with the waves being taller and the wind stronger, one will always be exposed to the danger of freezing to death and their ship sinking. Yet, the fish, which could be caught in these fishing grounds, sold for high prices, and thus the fishers braved the dangers. You could rightfully call those challengers Men of the Sea.
“Doushi, do you sense anything?”
“Hnng! Further north!”
Both of us searched with Detection magic, but it looked as though the huge crab wasn’t a monster but a wild animal after all. If it was a monster at that size, we’d pick up a much bigger response, but the response of the huge crab was small. If we were slightly further away, even Doushi and I wouldn’t be able to pick it up.
“Head further north!”
“Aye, aye!”
Hearing Doushi’s order, the fishermen turned the ship further north. Because it was a dangerous job, many of the fishermen were rough and rowdy fellows, but unfortunately for them, Doushi was even rowdier. All of them obediently followed Doushi’s instructions, doing their work briskly.
“(I doubt it’d have gone this smoothly for me…) It’s right under us.”
“It is at the bottom of the ocean!”
This area of the sea should have a depth of several hundred meters. There were several responses, seeming to belong to huge crabs, below us.
The huge crabs would apparently rise to the surface to get their food or to tell the fishermen to not trespass into their territory.
“Are they not going to surface?”
We waited here for a while, thinking they might come up to the surface since we’re here, but the crab-like responses remained at the bottom of the ocean. Given that it’s just one board, they might not have noticed us or they could be thinking that we’re not worth the effort.
“Margrave Baumeister, what should we do?”
“Now that it has come to this, let’s lure them up with food.”
“Food, you say?”
“Yes, it’s a bit of a waste, but…”
I took out a huge bear, which had been left inside my magic bag just like that since it was too much trouble to drain its blood and dismantle it, tied a long rope around its body, and tossed it into the ocean alongside a stone as weight. Because I cut open the bear’s stomach on that occasion, huge amounts of blood floated in the sea.
“I don’t know whether the crabs eat this, but if this much blood scent lingers in the sea, it should have some sort of effect, I think.”
“I see. That is a good idea, Margrave Baumeister!”
It’s an idea anyone could have come up with, though. Still, if it’s Doushi, would it be possible for him to jump into the sea and start a brawl with the crabs?
“They have come!”
“Looks like it did have an effect!”
A few minutes after the bear sank, we could sense several responses heading towards the surface. They’re probably surfacing in response to the bear’s blood. It seems like the crabs are as carnivorous as the serpents.
“Doushi!”
“We will be able to see them anytime soon!”
At the same time as Doushi pulled up the bear bait, the ocean’s surface welled up and a huge crab appeared from the water.
“(It’s a red king craaaaab!)”
Its body color and features were no different from the red king crabs on Earth. Its overall height was close to 25 meters and when it came to its overall width, it was likely beyond 50 meters.
I had questions how it could float on the surface with such a huge frame, but rather than that, it’s more important to cook….err, subjugate that thing.
“Noble sir! It’s bigger than the crab we encountered before!”
The crab was bigger than a lesser dragon. Moreover, it seemed to be bigger than the crab which the fishermen encountered first. Even the rowdy fishermen collectively trembled due to its extreme size.
They’re no adventures, thus they aren’t used to dealing with such huge creatures.
“Such things aren’t that uncommon. I’m sure the previous crab must have been this one’s dad.”
Besides, it was convenient for us if it was bigger. I’m sure its shell, legs, and pincers are stuffed with plenty of meat and miso 1.
“Noble sir, contrary to your appearance, you’ve got quite some balls…”
“It’s just big, after all.”
“Hiii───! Noble siiiir!”
The crab attacked the boat with its big legs, but they were repelled by the MAgic Barrier which I had cast beforehand.
As I thought, it’s just some random, huge crap and doesn’t look like it’s going to breathe fire or something like that. Given that it’s a crab and not a dragon, I guess it’s only logical for it to not have a fire breath.
Just like the serpents, I’m going to have it turn into delicious food.
“Margrave Baumeister?”
“I’m going to handle it.”
“What is the reason?”
“Doushi, I have researched the parts that can be used as food and the cooking methods. That crab has to be taken down without damaging it as much as possible.”
I know the best cooking methods for all crabs, including red king crabs. Boiling it at the beach is the perfect method, but you cannot damage the crab body before that. It’s going to be a waste, if you break the legs.
Damaging the shell? Are you an idiot!? Is there any bigger loss for humanity than having the most delicious miso spill out?
Therefore I’ll have that thing die while keeping its shape in order. If I do it like that, everyone besides the crab will be able to become happy.
Once it dies, I’ll immediately put it in my magic bag to prevent a degradation of its quality and when I’m boiling water later, I must keep it in a state where only the crab will be thrown into the boiling water.
Boiling, grilling, or steaming, huh…?
I ended up worrying about how to cook it. Given the big size of the crab, I should prioritize the methods that are actually possible.
“Noble sir…”
“The noise is very loud…”
Even as I was brooding, the crab continued to hit my Magic Barrier with its legs. Each time, a loud bang could be heard from the barrier, so the fishermen, who were inexperienced in combat, appeared to feel uneasy.
Because the crab lacks the necessary offensive power to penetrate the barrier, there’s no need to worry whatsoever, but as far as I’m concerned, I’d like it to not put too much burden on its own legs. After all, it’d be a waste if the crab were to try the impossible, breaking its legs in the process.
Still, compared to the crabs on Earth, it’s very active.
“Don’t worry. It won’t be able to break the Magic Barrier, no matter what.”
“Really?”
“Its body is big, but its offensive abilities aren’t that much of a danger. In the end, it’s just a bigger animal.”
“Only magicians would be able to think of it like that!”
Nevertheless, if it directly hit a human with its legs, it’d kill them instantly, so it doesn’t change the fact that people will simply die, if they can’t use a magic barrier.
I think it’d be a tough call to subjugate these crabs with fishermen alone.
“Doushi, these crabs have likely come from the north, but is this proof of them having expanded their living space all the way to these waters?”
“I can only sense a few specimens in this area! You could also say that they simply wandered south by coincidence! And even if the huge crabs expanded their living space, they cannot do anything against us!”
Today we’re hunting here after getting permission from Alfons, but usually he’d have to mobilize and dispatch his army, magicians, and adventurers as Duke Philip.
Assuming the crabs really expanded their living space, no one would undertake the subjugation request, if the Duke Philip house didn’t set detailed rules about the subjugation rewards and the handling of the crab parts. There’s no way that freelance magicians and adventurers would take a risk in hunting the crabs without any guarantee that the Duke Philip house won’t use their position to snatch all the loot.
We accepted the subjugation request under the premise that we get to keep all the loot from today to ourselves. If we had waited until all the rules for an official subjugation request were set, the huge crabs could have devastated this area of the sea for an extended period of time.
“We can simply defeat the crabs around here and take them back.”
“I am fine with that.”
“Noble sirs…are we going to be alright?”
“Yes, no need to fret.”
It’s fine. The crabs aren’t strong and I know their weak points.
If you boil crabs while they’re alive, they will thrash around and their legs will come off. If you do it like that, the delicious parts of the torso will flow into the hot water, so it’s necessary to tie them up directly before cooking them.
A crab’s vital spots are located between the eyes and inside their mouths, so you just need to deeply stab those places with a sharp blade or a drill.
“Their movements are slow, so they aren’t that much of a challenge either.”
I used my mana to create a sharp drill-shaped blade with a length of ten meters and threw it straight between the crab’s eyes. The crab couldn’t react because my attack was just too fast and sudden for it and thus my mana drill dug deep into its head.
“How is it?”
“It stopped moving.”
No matter how huge it might be, a crab remains a crab and the same can be said about its weak spots.
Once my mana drill disappeared, the crab stopped moving altogether. Its life signs were completely gone, meaning I managed to safely defeat the crab.
“It’s weaker than a serpent.”
“Those things move a lot faster and better!”
It’s more aggressive than a serpent, but its movements are slower, so it’s not difficult to deal with. Given that its weak spots are easy to tell as well, it’ll become possible to defeat them, even if you’re no magician, as long as the research advances a bit more.
“Uh-oh, before the next one shows up…”
If I leave the crab, which I tied up, just like that, its freshness is going to deteriorate, no matter how cold the sea out here might be. Therefore I stuffed it into my magic bag in a hurry.
“Margrave Baumeister, the next one has appeared!”
“Noble sir! It’s a different kind of crab!”
“(Oh! This time it’s a snow craaaaab!)”
The next huge crab had a height of fifteen meters and a width of more than fifty meters. It might be different, but it resembles Earth’s snow crabs very much.
“It looks very tasty.”
“Noble siiiir… it’s not the time for that.”
“Isn’t that the most important part of it all?”
If it’s monsters and animals which look disgusting, I won’t mind to burn them to cinders except for the parts that can be used as materials, and if their materials aren’t worth quite a bit, I won’t even mind turning them into dust to save time, but our current targets were crabs.
I must tie them up carefully to avoid the legs coming off or something like that.
“This crab also packs quite the punch…”
“It’s fine. It’s weaker than the previous crab.”
Compared to the red king crab, the snow crab’s offensive ability is inferior.
No, wait. If it keeps attacking like this, its delicious legs could come off.
“In that case, it’d be a huge waste.”
Once again I created a mana drill, stabbed it between the crab’s eyes and tied it up.
“Now, if there’s one with hair growing, we’ll be able to conquer all types.”
Hair crabs have delicious miso. If it appears, I have to tie it up more carefully than the red king crab and the snow crab. I have to think of a method on how to boil it after returning with it quickly. After all, all of them are pretty big.
A special pot…will take time, if ordered now, and seems to be difficult, I think?
“Earl Baumeister, there is another type of crab!”
“Ooohhh!”
This crab had a height of ten meters and a total width of twenty meters, making it smaller than the two before it. Hair was growing all over its body, so it’s definitely a hair crab.
“I’ll defeat this one with the same method!”
This time I took the initiative and defeated it before it started to hit my Magic Barrier.
“With this we have conquered the three northern species.”
There’s no 100% guarantee that the crabs are edible, but currently I feel like boiling them as soon as possible. I’m sure they’re going to smell delicious.
“Margrave Baumeister, I sense four more crabs!”
“There are no other other responses, huh?”
“Maybe they really just came south by coincidence?”
No one knew the answer to that, but on that day I succeeded in securing two huge crabs resembling red king crabs, two huge crabs resembling snow crabs, and three huge crabs resembling hair crabs.
＊ ＊ ＊
“Such creatures are living in the northern seas, huh? We have been planning to explore the area up north in the near future, but with this…”
“Ah, so you had such plans.”
“The idea is to increase the Empire’s national strength by including the north in our territory, thus raising the national prestige. The Kingdom is also interested in managing the south, so they had you explore the area and made you unify Akitsushima Island, correct Wendelin?”
“Well, yeah.”
In the end, the seven crabs we defeated were the only ones without any further signs for a swarm of huge crabs hiding somewhere out there. You can’t deny the possibility of more crabs moving south again, but it’s Alfons’s job to deal with that.
He was troubled by how to secure more magicians, but it’s not like it’s a pressing issue that has to be resolved right away.
I returned to my mansion in Baulburg in order to cook the huge crabs we caught. I had also invited Alfons to come with me, seeing how he was the one who ultimately provided us with the crab. Interested by the huge crabs, Peter and his party also tagged along, now looking curiously at our haul.
“Dear, how are you going to prepare those crabs?”
“We will boil them.”
There’s nothing better than boiling crabs. That way you won’t need to do any other pointless cooking.
“But, we don’t have any pots allowing us to put in such huge crabs.”
“What if we cut them down to fit the pots we have?”
“Aaaaargg! If you do something like that, the delicious innards are going to blend with the cooking wateeeeer!”
“Is it something you have to reject so strongly?”
I objected to Ina’s idea with all my might. It’s meaningless unless you boil crabs just like that. In the first place, even when it comes to the big prawns and shells that can be caught in the southern seas, you won’t cook them after cutting them down into small pieces. After all, it#d result in the tasty innards escaping.
“But, it’s going to take time if we order a pot big enough for those crabs. Just how many months would it take to make pots allowing boiling such monstrosities anyway?”
Luise told me to give up since we wouldn’t get such pots in due time and to go with Ina’s suggestion.
“But, I cannot accept that! I will boil them with magic!”
In short, I just need to uniformly boil the whole body of the crabs in hot water for a set amount of time.
“Sensei, what method are you going to use for cooking them?”
Agnes, my pupil, seemed to be very curious.
“Are you going to create huge amounts of Steam with magic?”
“Cindy, there’s no method to lock in such steam, it requires a lot of mana, and it’s also going to trouble the people around us.”
Cindy and Betty earnestly thought about the problem presented by me. In order to boost the applicability of one’s magic, you need to polish your own imagination by honestly considering even the most silly themes.
All three of my pupils were eagerly pondering what they’d do in my shoes.
“How about roasting them in one go?”
“Now listen, Katharina, there’s no point in just burning the outer shell while leaving the insides uncooked, is there?”
I think roasted crabs are great as well, but first you have to resolve the issue of boiling them.
“What would you do, Wendelin-san?”
“I wouldn’t look for overly complicated methods.”
If we’re talking about pots you can fill with lots of hot water and big crabs, you can simply form your Magic Barrier to be like a pot. The barrier will make sure that the water doesn’t escape. If it does, it’d naturally scald the user and soak them in water in cold weather.
First I materialized the magic barrier in the shape of a huge pot, then I put lots of water into it, and made it boil with Flame. I didn’t forget to put in salt at that time either.
If you don’t boil crabs in salt water with roughly the same saltiness as ocean water, the taste is going to become bland and nasty.
“Is this much enough?”
“Just what I’d expect of you, Lisa.”
After transferring huge amounts of salted water into the pot-shaped magic barrier, I skilfully made it boil with Flame.
“I’m going to put the huge crabs in this.”
I put the bottom part of a crab into the barrier pot with Telekinesis. First I went with a snow crab as I loved those the most in my previous life.
“The shell is upside-down, isn’t it?”
If you don’t do that, the miso is going to spill into the water before solidifying.
I explained that reason to Lisa, getting her to understand.
“It’d be best to place a weight on the crab so that it doesn’t float up during the boiling.”
“Understood.”
Having said that, Katharina had to push down the crab with Telekinesis because we couldn’t prepare an appropriate weight on such a short call.
“Sensei, is it possible to do this process by oneself?”
“Today we’re splitting the work because there are several people here, but I think I could do this alone as well.”
Rather, if I can’t do that, I won’t be able to boil crabs, if I should get my hands on more of them. But, even if I can’t do it, I’ll frantically train to master it.
“The vivid red color comes from the boiling, huh?”
“I feel like it could be quite tasty.”
Luise and Wilma curiously looked at the crab being cooked. The crab had taken on a bright red color and a very nice smell was filling the air. This smell is undoubtedly that of a freshly-cooked snow crab.
“Once it’s cooked, you immediately pull up the crab and put it down until steam stops to rise from ih.”
Since the crabs this time were quite bit, I had cooked it slightly longer than you would usually do, but it’d be necessary to find out the perfect cooking time through experiments from now on.
I cut off one of the cooked crab’s legs and checked it for poison and such with magic, but it didn’t seem to have any problems.
The shell was pretty hard, but its hardness apparently dropped through the boiling. I peeled the shell off with Wind Cutter, revealing the insides which were stuffed with tasty-looking crab meat.
I think this is my first snow crab since my previous life. As soon as I sampled it, that nostalgic…I don’t recall having eaten so much of it as a salaryman that it could be nostalgic…delicious crab meat taste spread all over my mouth.
Awesome. Crab is really awesome.
Even if you don’t put it in words, crab has a deliciousness that silences those eating it.
“Dear, how does it taste?”
“It’s very delicious. It was definitely worth it to be so fussy about how to cook this. Elise, you try it as well.”
I cut off some of the meat and had Elise eat it. She immediately fell silent.
Yep, as thought, crab has the power to silence people.
“Okay, please go ahead and try it at your own risk.”
“There’s no way I wouldn’t eat it after being shown all this.”
“Wendelin has already tested it for poison anyway. Emela-dono, did crabs have poison?”
“No, they don’t.”
As soon as Emela approved of it being alright, everyone swarmed the crab and started to eat.
“It’s incredible, considering it was merely cooked in salt water.”
“It easily beats any unskilled cooking. Maybe I should put up requests with the adventurer guild’s headquarters to subjugate these from now on?”
“I’ll try to put up such requests at the branch in the Philip Dukedom as well.”
Peter and Alfons kept devouring the crab wholeheartedly. Lured in by them, Emela, Mark, and the others also ate the crab meat while looking blissful.
“It’s great.”
“Yes, it is such a pleasure!”
Wilma and Doushi naturally started to eat as if competing against each other. Elise and my other wives as well as Lulu and Fujiko, who had been at the Baulburg mansion today, also happily dug in.
“Whoa! Man, this goes so well with wine!”
Burkhart-san gave it a taste alongside his wine. But, since there’s a lot of it due to its huge body anyway, we also treated the retainers, soldiers, and maids of the Margrave Baumeister House to it. All of them silently enjoyed the crab meat.
Everyone was very satisfied with the freshly-boiled pseudo-snow crab.
“Thank you. This is also very delicious.”
Amalie-san had boiled pasta and made crab pasta. After adding the crab miso to it, the rich taste of the miso made one recover their appetite. In addition, Amalie-san and our cooks prepared all sorts of dishes with the silly amount of crab meat we had.
“This is the taste of a crab with great meat quality, huh? It seems like it’s quite a chore to catch these, though…”
The Mizuho-styled dishes had been prepared by Akira and Delia, who were running various stores in Baulburg, so they tasted very nicely. (T/N: Skipping praise of some Japanese-only food crap)
“I didn’t expect for crabs as big as these to live in the north. If my father in the capital hears of this, he will probably want to get his hands on it.”
“It seems like the crabs traveled southwards by coincidence. The north hasn’t been explored yet, so it wouldn’t be strange for those crabs to inhabit that area. I mean, the south also has huge creatures like serpents.”
“True.”
Since I still got plenty of crabs, it’ll be a good idea to have Akira cook Mizuho-styled dishes with crab meat every once in a while.
“Wendelin, thank you for the treat. I’d love to form an exploration group filled with magicians and take down more of those crabs.”
“Unfortunately we don’t have any such spare magicians.”
“Figures…”
Alfons immediately shot down Peter’s plans to form an exploration group. Many magicians had died in the civil war and even though they were educating minors in magic, they were currently lacking magicians in great numbers.
Given the plans to rebuild stuff and develop new things, they probably don’t have any margin to send magicians over to explore the north. There are plans to explore the area, but those plans are actually stalling.
“If crabs show up again, we will somehow manage with the magicians of the Duke Philip House. I got Wendelin to show us an efficient way to take down these crabs.”
“That’s great news. Listen, it’s going to get all spoiled, if you don’t hit them in their weak spots.”
“That’s the part you’re worried about, eh?”
I mean, it’d be a bummer if the crab legs came off or the miso inside the shell spilled out, right?
“It’s only natural since I’m going to import it from the Philip Dukedom once my own stock runs out.”
“Is it going to become a new special product?”
“Only if you can catch those crabs regularly.”
However, those seven, huge crabs appeared to genuinely be straddlers. It’d take another few decades for the Duke Philip House to expand its fishing grounds to the area where the huge crabs lived naturally.
＊ ＊ ＊
“Man, that crab was really delicious.”
“No kidding, Erw.”
“Milord, today I have brought the dorayaki (pancake with red bean paste) made by Akira.”
“Nice. Let’s eat them together with everyone while drinking some tea.”
After the crab-food party came to an end, Peter, Alfons, and the others from the Empire quickly returned since they were busy with all sorts of things. As I was spending a relaxed time after lunch with just my family, my MHCD suddenly rang.
When I picked it up in a hurry, I found His Highness Wald to be on the other side of the line.
『Wendelin! Why didn’t you invite me?』
“Pardon?”
『Today I heard about you eating the haul which Peter-dono, Alfons-don, and you caught』
“Haaah…”
As might be expected of the next king. Because he’s quite capable, his ability to gather information is very decent as well.
But, there are many annoying retainers around His Highness. They’d never have allowed him to eat dishes made out of some unknown huge crab.
I told Peter and Alfons that they’d eat it at their own risk and both participated in the dinner party after agreeing to that.
We all trust each other and our family has many magicians, so even if someone got poisoned by some odd chance, we’d have noticed it right away. And because Elise is with us as well, it’d have been possible to detoxify right away.
If His Highness, who would be close to having the highest rank among the attendants, couldn’t have eaten the crab, it’d have spoiled the whole crab-eating feast, so I naturally avoided inviting him over.
“Even if I had invited Your Highness, I couldn’t have offered you anything to eat.”
『That’s…』
“For this reason, I had no other choice this time.”
『…Please invite me next time. After all, we’re friends who will become family soon』
After saying this at the end, His Highness ended the call.
“Somehow, he’s a rather troublesome character, isn’t he?”
“Yeah, no kidding…”
“Moreover, you can’t be too blunt with him either.”
“…Don’t put it that way…”
I and even Elise nodded at Erw’s disrespectful comment.
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