After having so much fun that we broke a sweat and were starting to get tired out from all the activity, the First Cushion War came to an end. The adult gang set up the collapsible table and chairs to take a short break, and the little-girl gang went off to play by themselves. They opted not to swim, instead playing in the sand on the beach and exploring with their pet army, searching for a new secret base. The wind carried the sound of their happy voices to us.
We grown-ups were totally relaxed, in a good mood, drinking coffee and chatting. Even though we were together every day, I still found it strange how we never ran out of things to talk about. In fact, we talked nonstop.
“All right, ladies, I think this is the perfect time for some barbecue! Who’s ready to eat?!”
“Your love for barbecue truly is boundless, eh?”
“But I love it too. We get to chat together like this and enjoy ourselves while eating lots of delicious food.”
“Makes you wonder why barbecues are so much fun in the first place, huh, Nell? Especially when we already do everything you just said every day.”
“Tee hee. Well, Lew, I’m certain the ambience of the outside world has a lot to do with it. The smell of the fire, the ingredients—it all comes together for a different kind of pleasure from the ordinary.”
“Good, good. At least you two understand the charms of barbecue. You’re well on your way to becoming barbecue meisters, which makes you even worthier of being this demon lord’s wives.”
“Bah. What a ridiculous requirement for the position.”
With the sun beginning its descent in the west, we adults started prepping for the barbecue before it got dark. Camping equaled barbecue. That was just how it worked. I would hear no objections. Besides, we always hosted, and the little girls always looked forward to them too. No denying that I loved barbecues so much that I had them even on regular occasions. We held one about once every two months, so everyone already knew what to do.
First, I pulled a set of tools from Inventory and worked with Lefi and Nell to stoke the charcoal in the homemade brick barbecue grill I’d installed here. Leila and Lew went back to the dungeon to grab the ingredients they’d already prepped in the kitchen, and we helped arrange them on the table. The meats this time around were tenderloin, skirt steak, sirloin, kalbi, spare ribs, pork belly, various chicken parts, sausage, and salted beef tongue. I’d made sure to buy a wide variety since my family loved meat of all kinds. And that went double for the little girls. The adults couldn’t compete with their love of meat.
There were also a ton of tasty vegetables. The main one was cabbage, but we also had asparagus and bell peppers, which were incredibly delicious when grilled. The rest of the ingredients consisted of seafood. I loved seafood in particular, so I always bought it to indulge myself. In addition to steamed giant clams, which were absolutely delicious drizzled with soy sauce, we had scallops, turban shells, octopus legs, shrimp, tuna steak, and more. There was also cooked rice and fried noodles to round things off. Naturally, I hadn’t forgotten about the wraith triplets. I’d crafted special ingredients full of mana for them. I wondered if Shii would want to try those too. Damn, just looking at all this is making me drool.
“Oh yeah, can one of you bring Mrs. Rir here? Let’s have her eat with us.”
“Very well. I shall do it.”
“Omigosh, she’s coming too?! I’m so excited!”
“You never change, do you, Lew?”
“Rir doesn’t mind your fawning, but don’t be rude to his wife. Got it?”
“I feel like the fact that you even have to warn her is the real issue here, Mr. Yuki.”
Just as Lefi headed back to the dungeon to invite Mrs. Rir, Iluna and the kids returned, satisfied with their adventuring.
“Yaaay! Dinner’s almost ready! Tee hee hee! I looove barbecue!”
“You girls can keep playing, you know.”
“We good! We ’splored lots!”
“Yup...we’re fine. I’m so hungry I can’t move, though.”
“What En said! We went on so many adventures, we’re starving!”
“Starving!”
The wraith sisters nodded in agreement. Guess we’ve got some hungry, hungry hippos, huh?
“Then we’ll start grilling as soon as Lefi gets back.”
“Yay!” Iluna and Shii squealed in unison.
“Yay...!” En followed a beat later.
“Heh heh! I’m dying to eat too after seeing what a great job Leila and Nell did with everything! I know it’s gonna be delicious!”
“Agreed. When those two put their minds to it, every dish is guaranteed to be scrum-diddly-umptious.”
No lies detected.
“Tee hee, we try!”
“All those ingredients simply had me itching to put my skills to good use.”
A few minutes later, Mrs. Rir arrived, and the pet army came over. The gang was all here.
“Grr.”
“Grr.”
“Rir, my man, relax, will ya? And Mrs. Rir, don’t be shy, just enjoy yourself. That would make us happy.”
“Indeed. Let us eat and drink together today.”
I had meat for the pets—huge chunks, probably weighing several hundred kilograms—and a huge barbecue grill for them all ready. Rir could handle it just fine. When it came to stuff like this, he worked the hardest and got the most done. With his off-the-charts talents, he did a better job of things when he did them himself instead of leaving them to his subordinates. In other words, he wound up doing most of the work. But now that he had a wifey of his own, she’d probably help him out. I wished them all the happiness together.
“All right, folks... Let’s do this!”
At my words, my family, including the pet army, all started grilling meat, vegetables, and seafood. We laughed, ate the most delicious food, talked about all kinds of things, and just enjoyed our time together. Times like these really were the best. Priceless, irreplaceable moments.