He’d been left with no choice but to dump the body in the mountains himself. It had reeked right up until he dug a hole and buried it.
The rotten stench had lingered in the storeroom too. For a while, he’d had to fight the urge to vomit every time he got ready to work in the fields.
He could feel the trio’s pitying stares on his back as he told the story.
“Oh,” he said, trying to lighten the mood, “one time, I saw a mama bear and her cub walking right through my garden! Now that was a surprise!”
“Damn... Okay, so it was more than just a little dangerous out where you were. You could’ve been killed if you were unlucky!” Ado said.
“No, I was fine,” Zelos said. “I had a crossbow and a kukri in case I needed them. I did use them once, actually. Took down a deer.”
“Okay, so you were living in a totally different world!” Lisa cried. “It’s not that you’re better than us at adapting to new environments. It’s just that your old lifestyle was pretty similar to how we have to live here, so you had an easier time accepting everything when you got here!”
“I used to make naan in a brick oven, by the way. Oh, and my own kimchi. Plus plenty of prosciutto and sausages, of course!”
“Look, Ado—you make sure you keep on Zelos’s good side, okay?” Shakti said. “He’s too reliable an ally to lose!”
He was also a high-level mage and a master of all sorts of crafting skills.
His title of Great Sage wasn’t just for show. His abilities made him more than deserving of it.
“The guy’s seriously just invincible...” Ado murmured.
“Anyway,” Zelos said, “enough of that. Shouldn’t we start getting dinner ready? Collecting firewood’ll be much harder if we leave it until dark.”
“I suppose. Are you sure bandits won’t be a problem, though?” Shakti asked.
“According to my familiar, there are no other humans nearby,” Zelos replied. “It did spot a six-legged bear, though.”
“Wait—a hexabear?!” Ado shouted.
“I don’t know if I could deal with one of those at my level,” Lisa said. “Even if I did beat it, I definitely couldn’t butcher it...”
“I’d hate to get attacked by one of those things,” Ado said. “Guess we just pray they stay away...”
“For now, let’s just get started on dinner,” Zelos said, completely unconcerned. He then took some outdoor cookware and charcoal from his inventory.
The other three weren’t sure whether Zelos was super adaptable or simply prepared for any situation; whatever the case, they were impressed by how reliable he seemed right now.
At that moment, the coccos—who’d rushed off into the mountains earlier to hunt some game for dinner—returned with a massive haul. And about an hour later...
“This wyvern prosciutto’s delicious, isn’t it?” Shakti said. “It’s just too bad about the bread. It never seems to make me feel full...”
Lisa nodded. “You really miss your rice, don’t you, Shakti? I understand...”
“Yeah,” Ado said, “I’d kill for a donburi right about— Wait. Huh?!”
As they took a closer look, they saw Zelos and the coccos eating donburi.
Zelos was shoveling his meal into his mouth with chopsticks, while the coccos were pecking away at theirs with beaks moving as fast as jackhammers.
These chooks had some epicurean tastes.
Coccos were omnivorous, though, so perhaps the trio shouldn’t have been surprised.
“W-Wai— Zelos?! There’s rice in this world?!” Ado exclaimed.
“No way! I need some! Nice, piping hot, white rice...” Lisa said.
“So you already managed to find rice in the short time we’ve been here, hmm?” Shakti said. “I should’ve expected as much from one of the top players. You really are a force to behold, aren’t you?”
“Oh? You want some of what I’m having? Mine’s a tempura don, for what it’s worth.”
“A tempura don?!” the three of them shouted. “Seriously?!”
Culturally, this world resembled medieval Europe. Bread was the staple food here, and it was the firmer European type, not the sort of soft, fluffy Japanese bread that Ado and the others were used to eating.
While rice wasn’t part of the diet here, there were dishes like oatmeal. As nutritious as it might have been, though, oatmeal didn’t taste amazing. Nor did it leave Ado’s party—who’d grown up eating their fill—feeling satiated.
“Anyway,” Zelos said. “Sure. I don’t mind making you some.”
Zelos finished his meal a little quicker than he’d planned and started frying up more tempura in a little pot.
The sound and smell of sizzling, crackling oil whetted the trio’s appetites.
There was plenty of cooked rice left over in a large camping pot—Zelos must have been planning to really pig out tonight—so he could make tempura don for all three of them.
He topped each bowl of hot rice with tempura and a sweet sauce, and just like that, three large tempura don, Great Sage style, were ready.
Zelos placed a bowl in front of each of them. “Your second course.”
They were lost for words. “O-Ooh... Oooooohhh...”
It was their first time even seeing Japanese food in a long while.
Zelos had fried up prawn tempura, as well as whole crustaceans that looked like large crabs. The tempura, piled on top of the bowl, made their stomachs growl.
“I-It’s a tempura don... An actual, proper tempura don...” Ado murmured.
“It looks so good...” Lisa said.
“Th-Thanks for the meal,” Shakti said.
They used improvised chopsticks to pick up rice and tempura. Then, with trembling hands, they brought the food to their mouths.
The sweetness of the rice and sauce danced across their taste buds and harmonized with the delicious, rich flavor of the tempura. It stirred something deep within the trio, instantly evoking a sense of nostalgia.
“Ish sho gooooood!” they said together.
It was the first tempura don any of them had had in a long time, and it tasted like heaven.
Tears of joy streamed down their cheeks as they shoveled food into their mouths. They’d all been longing for the taste of home, and now that they finally had it, they were entranced.
“The prawn tempura’s so sweet! This is amazing!” Lisa exclaimed.
“When was the last time I actually ate until I felt stuffed?” Ado said. “I’m so glad I’m alive!”
“How’d you even manage to find soft-shell crabs here?” Shakti asked. “I guess they could’ve been in your inventory, but wouldn’t they have gone bad in there?”