One day when I opened up my Online Supermarket to stock up on seasonings, I found a colorful banner plastered across the top of the menu. It read “Winter Specialties from the Hokuriku Region, on Sale Now!”
“Oooh, Hokuriku specialties, huh? Come to think of it, I remember getting some really good oysters when I went on a trip to the Noto peninsula.”
They had been pretty small, as far as oysters went, but they’d been plump and incredibly flavorful. I remembered having them raw, grilled, in hot pots, and even cooked into rice, all of which had been delicious as could be.
“Whoops! Just remembering them’s making me drool. I sure could go for some oysters right about now. Raw ones, in particular...”
Seafood in this world, fish and shellfish alike, was host to some really nasty parasites that meant that eating it raw was absolutely out of the question. Like, when I say “really nasty,” I mean “very likely fatal.”
“Maaan. Wish I could have some oysters...” I muttered as I glanced over the list of items available in the event...until my eyes fell on one particular entry. “Wait, seriously?! They’re selling those?!”
There it was: an entry for fresh, in-shell oysters straight from the Noto Peninsula.
“Oh man, for real? Now that’s tempting,” I said. All I had to do was push one button, and I’d have the oysters I had just been dreaming of. I wanted them. I mean, I really wanted them. I wanted to eat my fill of raw oysters for the first time in who even knew how long. “Should I go for it? But then again, it’s practically guaranteed that Fel and the others will throw a fit if I eat them on my own... But I want them so bad... Oh man, they have sashimi too?!”
I’d been so fixated on the oysters, I almost missed the luxury assortment of sashimi listed right next to them.
“And there’s even yellowtail in it! Winter yellowtail’s the best—it’s fatty in the most perfectly delicious sort of way! Wait, what’s this...? They have a yellowtail shabu-shabu set too?!”
Yellowtail shabu-shabu? Oh god, that sounds so good!
Now my attention was fully fixed on the yellowtail section...but not quite enough for me to miss what was listed right next to it.
“Crab! They have snow crabs!”
Raw crab, grilled crab, crab shabu-shabu, crab hot pot... My dreams of seafood were rapidly expanding. It all sounded so delicious, it was driving me crazy.
“Agggh, I wanna eat all of it, right now! I have to! Hell, I’m going to!” I shouted. All that delectable-looking Hokuriku seafood had me worked up into a frenzy. That’s it—tonight’s dinner’s gonna be a Hokurikan seafood spectacular! I’ve made up my mind!
There was just one problem I’d have to deal with: them.
“How much sashimi would I even have to buy to fill my familiars’ stomachs? Would that even be possible...? I have a feeling they’ll complain about me not serving meat if I try to,” I said to myself. I browsed a little more, and quickly found the word I was looking for. “Aha! They do have meat!”
I’d always thought of the Hokuriku region as being a seafood hotspot, but as it turned out, they had a variety of meat as one of their local specialties as well.
“Noto peninsula beef and pork, huh? Okay, this is starting to sound like a plan! I’ll get some seafood for them, and bulk their meal out with this meat as well!”
Though not too much bulking, of course. I knew exactly what sort of trouble I’d be in if I accidentally fed them too much Earth food and raised their stats past the point of reason. I’ll throw in some dungeon beef and pork too, just to be on the safe side.
“I guess dungeon beef steak would be good? And as for the dungeon pork...well, you can never go wrong with cutlets.”
Steak and pork cutlets were among the gluttonous quartet’s all-time favorites, so I couldn’t imagine they’d complain if I served them those. Making steak and frying cutlets for a single meal did seem like it’d be a bit of a pain, but...
“It’s all for the sake of Hokurikan seafood. I’ll do anything for my oysters!”