Who Is The Strongest Appraiser? Volume 1 Chapter 1-2

Who is the Strongest Appraiser? V1 C1 & 2

Prologue

Kugimiya Yuri was a 「girlish boy」. 

He adores cute and pretty things, love home economics, and likes ch.o.r.es such as cooking, sewing, cleaning and laundry. But please don’t misunderstand. He might be a girlish boy, but that didn’t mean he wants to be a girl. He is just a normal boy who likes home economics, and cute and pretty things.

When he was a child, everything was calm before kindergarten. The boys were engrossed in play sword fighting, and didn’t want to play house with the girls. Yuri was the only boy not opposed to the idea and played with them, and got along well with the girls. The girls would invite him and say 「Yuri will be the Papa!」, and he would play house all the time. The days pa.s.sed by peacefully.

But good times wouldn’t last forever, and he had a hard time from elementary to high school.

It wasn’t clear who set the rules that 「girls have to act like girls and boys had to act like boys」, but even kids firmly believe in this preconception. Yuri was a boy who liked girly things, so he was seen as a deviant. The boys would say 「how girly and disgusting」, while the girls laugh at him and say 「how queer」, and demeaned him. However, he didn’t change his nature and spent a long time as an outcast.

Being an outcast was fine too.

Just seeing cute and pretty things were blissful to him. He had fun helping his mother with ch.o.r.es, and he enjoyed home economics. If he was serious and worked hard, his teachers would praise him too. Yuri seemed introverted with low self esteem, but his academic results and physical abilities were above average. He was seen as introverted because his hobbies were girlish, so the only thing about him that others couldn’t accept was his girlish boy nature.

However, even though he likes cute and pretty things, he paid little care to his appearances. He had the potential to look outstanding if he took care of his appearance, but he grew his bangs out longer than other boys, and they covered his face. And even without his bangs, he always wore a pair of dull black framed gla.s.ses.

He didn’t take care of his outward appearance, and was a girlish boy on the inside, so both boys and girls looked down on him.

And right now, the girlish boy Kugimiya Yuri...

「... Where am I......?」

On his way back home from school one day, he was suddenly surrounded by lights, and brought to an unfamiliar place. He stood stiffly by himself in a dungeon built with stone.

 Chapter 1: I Got a Guardian

The youth looked around him, and the scenery was completely foreign to him. 「Strange, what happened? Why is this happening?」 His face showed what he was thinking, as he stood in place dumbfounded.

Right now, he was in a stone dungeon commonly found in games and anime. Speaking of which, one of his middle school cla.s.smates was engrossed with a dungeon RPG franchise. That cla.s.smate wouldn’t mock his girlish boy nature, and would admonish others by saying 「He can like whatever he wants, what’s the problem!?」 She was one of his few friends. Following her recommendation, Yuri started playing, because she said: 「The characters are cute, you will definitely like them!」

And that game was from the series, 《Attack☆ Dungeon Academy》.

That was beside the point.

「... Yes, now isn’t the time to avoid reality...」

He was wearing his usual uniform, with a plain school bag in his hand… There wasn’t any decorations, but inside it was his favourite charms and straps, and many cute accessories that seemed too out of place for a boy. In short, he was transported here on his way home. He was a highschool boy who knew about light novels and game culture (and also a girlish boy), so he quickly realized he had been caught in a strange phenomenon.

It was sudden, however...

「... Aren’t there monsters in dungeons...? I can’t fight...」

He didn’t possess combat abilities.

He could hear howling from a distance, decided that staying here was meaningless, and started walking. His attention was suddenly drawn to the walls, and with a buzz, a strange sight appeared before him, which made him blink repeatedly.

This screen was the Basic Information menu often seen in online games, and was translucent. Yuri reached out but couldn’t touch anything. When he focused on a specific spots, a b.u.t.ton seemed to have been pressed, showing even more information.

── Dungeon name: Sh.e.l.l of Foreigners

Level: D＋　Material: Stone　Condition: Good　Dungeon Boss: Present

The rest was omitted. There were all sorts of information before him, but Yuri just browsed through them quickly. He didn’t know what the contents meant or what they were. Even though he was a girlish boy, he was also an otaku who loves games and anime, so he was sure this information would be of use.

...When normal people were transported to a different world out of a blue and gain mysterious powers, they would get confused. However, Yuri wasn’t fazed at all. He was actually a little dense and out of it, and as a girlish boy, he had a gentle nature and wouldn’t get mad when others were hostile. His friends would always tease him for being 「out of it」, 「dull reaction」, 「slow witted」, but his character helped him this time.

As he scrolled through the menu briskly, a notification appeared. He chose it and a message popped out.

── Exploring the dungeon: 《Scarlet Lynx》 Clan

「Clan」 probably refers to a team or group. Yuri seldom joins one, but this term could often be seen in online games. This notification informs him that there were other people in the dungeon. No, they might not be people, this was a different world after all. But no matter who he encounters, he would obtain more information. At this point, Yuri had already set information gathering as his top priority.

He didn’t know where he had to go to meet them, but he started jogging anyway. A highschool boy in uniform and a school bag jogging along… Yuri had a small build and would often get mistaken for a middle schooler. He thought it was strange and wondered 「How could they get it wrong? I just pa.s.sed my 17th birthday recently」 But his friends would say 「It’s not strange, you do look like a middle schooler」, so he decided not to pay it much mind.

He continued going in the direction where the sound came from, and a while later, Yuri peeked into a room from the pa.s.sageway, and saw a group of five people inside. A bald young man was bellowing instructions, and seemed to be a Captain. There was a swordsman slas.h.i.+ng at the monsters as per orders, a martial artist girl, a bowman girl shooting arrows to cover her teammates, and a youth with many pouches hanging on his waist, doing something. Yuri thought: 「So they are the 《Scarlet Lynx》?」 

In any case, he decided...

「I will speak with your group after the battle ends.」

Yuri bowed, then stuck close to the walls to avoid detection by the monsters. That group was strong and proficient with battle. Yuri thought casually: 「They will make quick work of the monsters～」 and observed them.

Speaking of which, despite being 「thrown suddenly to a different world, into a dungeon and bestowed with abilities he didn’t really understand」, Yuri wasn’t fazed at all, and even felt a little lucky. After all, he encountered humans in a place foreign to him. If this was a different world, he might not be able to communicate with non-humans due to racial differences. Now that he thought about it, meeting fellow humans was great.

… Basically, Yuri was an optimist.

He looked at his own hand on a whim. He saw details on the dungeon when he looked at the wall, so he thought he could see his own Basic Information if he looked at himself. His guess was on point, and with a buzz, a strange screen similar to just now appeared.

《Basic Information》

Name: Kugimiya Yuri

Gender: Male

Race: Human

Age: 17

Job: Seeker

Status: Healthy

Level: 1

HP: 20

Strength: 10

Agility: 10

Technique: 10

Defence: 10

Luck: ∞

Skill: 【G.o.d Eye】Level ∞

【Cooking】Level 50

【Sewing】Level 50

【Blending】Level 50

【Smithing】Level 50

Equipment: School Uniform (Endowed with the Blessing of G.o.d ∞)

「... Hmm, there are too many strange things.」

Even the relaxed Yuri had to retort after seeing this Basic Information. He was an average high schooler, so it was normal for his ability to be on the low side and expected to be a weakling in this world. What he wanted to retort about was his Job and Skill. And there was too much of a gulf between his level and stats, and his Skill level. His luck was abnormal too.

First was his Job. What was a 「Seeker」? Wouldn’t it be fine to just put 「Student」? Or that Job didn’t exist in this world? Or he couldn’t be a 「Student」 since he wasn’t enrolled in a school here? And what kind of job is a Seeker, and what abilities does it grant him? He couldn’t understand.

And he couldn’t understand what the skills meant. The first was 【G.o.d Eye】, he didn’t know what kind of skill that was, and the Level was ∞. It wasn’t a number or the maximum value. What was this ∞?

He thought as he stared at the word 【G.o.d Eye】. If things went well, he could get further details. And his prediction was right, as expected of a modern child familiar with such culture.

──【G.o.d Eye】

The highest appraising skill.

Those with this skill can see the truth of all things. A skill bestowed by G.o.d, and can’t be obtained through training. Those who possess this skills are known as 「Seekers」, the highest grade of appraisal Jobs.

「... Hmm, so in short, this is a cheat.」

Yuri muttered. He didn’t know what effect the skill 「appraising」 would have, and the importance of appraising differs depending on the game. But he knew that in adventure games, the appraising skill could drastically affect the game difficulty. From this explanation, he deduced that appraising was a high level skill in this world.

And he also discovered that this skill was the reason for his mysterious Job, and glanced at the Seeker column. It was important to know himself, since it was the first step to knowing the world. Probably.

──Seeker

The highest grade of appraisal Job.

Those who possess 【G.o.d Eye】, can appraise all phenomenons, and observe the true nature of all things. Hence, they are proficient in creating all sorts of items, and many have secondary jobs as blenders and alchemist. 

Illusions are useless before a Seeker, so people revered them as apostle of G.o.d. There are few who possess 【G.o.d Eye】, and none in present times has been found.

「... Oh, this is bad.」

Yuri had grasped the situation.

After learning about his Job and Skills, he knew that this must be hidden from the authorities. In the light novels sold at retail shops, the authorities might a.s.sign him to a bothersome position if they found out, and he wasn’t interested in that.

Yuri didn’t want much from this world, and just wants to live quietly in peace and pursue his girlish boy hobby to his heart’s content. Since this was a different world, he wants to meet cute fairies, beautiful elves, and heart soothing beastkin… He was a boy in p.u.b.erty, but he didn’t have any ulterior motives. Instead of a harem, he wants to make friends with girls and go shopping with them. As expected of a girlish boy. 

「Hmm, if anyone ask,  will say I’m an appraiser, and a rookie at that.」

He could tell them honestly that he came from another world and was trapped here, but he had a feeling that would get him involved in troublesome matters. Depending on how common people from another world were summoned or wandered here, it would affect Yuri’s future. In any case, he planned to lie about being an Appraiser when he talks to the 《Scarlet Lynx》/

He looked at his other skills to change his mood, but they were all girlish boy in nature, being the likes of cooking and sewing. And he was bothered by how high level they were. He was just Level 1, so why were his skill levels 50… There were mysteries everywhere.

Wasn’t this a cheat skill in a different world? However, Yuri didn’t want any cheat skills. He didn’t want to be a hero in a different world, erect a harem, or grow strong enough to defeat the demon king. Strictly speaking, he just wants to engross himself in cute and pretty things.

So he didn’t want his abilities to be on a cheat-like level.

G.o.d or whatever sent him here probably did this out of good will, but he wished the skills could be less conspicuous. Because right now, his Job was unique and on the verge of extinction, and even if others had high expectations of him, he didn’t have any grandiose plans.

In conclusion, the important thing was to talk to them, and make them accept him despite being a suspicious person.

When Yuri heard the deafening death throes from the monster behind him, he was pulled back to reality. He thought with a carefree mindset that 「oh, the fight is over」, then peeked into the room from the pa.s.sageway. The members of the 《Scarlet Lynx》 he saw earlier were keeping their weapons and wiping away their sweat. They emerged victorious, as expected.

When he took a step forward to speak with them, he noticed 《something》, and shout at the top of his lungs:

「Everyone, please stick to the walls!」

The members of the 《Scarlet Lynx》 had good reflexes, and despite being surprised by the sudden shout, they dashed to the wall immediately. With a boom, the ceiling fell onto the centre of the room. Or should it be called a hanging ceiling? Anyway, this was a cliche trap in the dungeons, and if they had stayed in the middle of the room, they would have been skewered.

With a rumbling noise that shook the ground, the chains were retracted upwards. On closer inspection, the ceiling had reverted to its usual state… The traps in dungeons were brutal, and the group would have been squashed by the falling ceiling if not for Yuri’s warning.

「... We are saved… Who are you, kid?」

「... Erm, I’m just lost. h.e.l.lo.」

The bald Captain asked Yuri. Not only was he bald, he had an eye patch over his right eye, which made him look dignified. Plainly put, he was fierce looking, but his eyes and expression was that of a stable and reasonable person. There was a strange, rainbow colored light in his eye.

The bald young man looked at Yuri who claimed to be lost suspiciously. The other four uttered their thanks and walked up to Yuri, some patting his head while others shook his hand, welcoming Yuri warmly… Which was natural, since Yuri just saved them from Death’s embrace.

And of course, Yuri noticed the trap on the ceiling because of his 【G.o.d Eye】. It seemed to be the devious kind that would activate after defeating a monster, so after the monster was subdued, the ceiling flashed red with danger. Yuri realized something was wrong, and shouted at them to stick to the walls and away from the trap.

Yuri still didn’t understand what kind of cheat his skills were, but it was obvious that it was a cheat. Normally, appraising was done to inspect the item before you to obtain information. It was activated by the person himself, and didn’t have the function of detecting danger like just now, and pa.s.sively inform Yuri of impending disaster… At least, that’s what Yuri thought the appraising ability was.

「I’m Ari, Captain of the 《Scarlet Lynx》 Clan. You saved our hides just now. What’s your name, and how did you get lost?」

「I’m Yuri, and I was suddenly in the room over there before I realized it...」

「...Were you transported here by some trap?」

「... Probably.」

He was actually from a different world, but he decided to keep his secret. Although the cliche of other world transportation dictates that the people he meet at first were usually good natured, he didn’t know how much he could reveal about himself. It was better to be safe… His time as an outcast at the bottom of the school’s food chain wasn’t spent in vain, he still knew he needed to act with caution.

Ari stared at Yuri, probably to observe what kind of person he was. At this moment, Yuri felt a numbness like that of a static charge. It made him uncomfortable, so he furrowed his brows to shook off this sensation.

Ari looked surprised and opened his eye wide. He pulled Yuri by the collar to an empty area.

He was thinking carefreely 「Uwah～ As expected of someone from another world～ he’s really strong」, as he looked at Ari’s serious face. He didn’t understand what the bald young man noticed… However, Yuri was definitely a suspicious person with dubious origins.

「... Who are you exactly?」

「... I’m just lost.」

「... And your Job is?」

「... I’m an Appraiser.」

「You are lying!」

The young man smacked Yuri’s head, making him squat down and groan in pain. The young man didn’t hold back at all, and it would have been worse if he used his fist. Yuri peeked at his Basic Information, and almost cried in tears. Thack smack took off half his HP, which was absurd.

Simply put, Yuri’s ability was incredibly low. He was just Level 1, so this made sense. Although his School Uniform had the Blessing of a G.o.d with Level ∞, it didn’t increase his defences much. It was really painful to him.

Yuri looked at Ari with teary eyes. Seeing Yuri’s eyes were watery like that of a little critter and looking up at him, Ari felt bad about this. He apologized, but continued pressing on.

「... Kid, can you see my Basic Information?」

「... What?」

The baffled Yuri focused his eyes on Ari, and the Basic Information screen popped out as expected with a buzz. Yuri thought this sounded just like the sound effort from an online game, and nodded to inform that he could see it.

… Yuri was on guard, but he still wanted the other party to know he had a carefree nature.

The moment Yuri nodded, Ari looked up with an 「Oh my G.o.d」 face of disbelief. Yuri couldn’t understand, and more question marks appeared in his head. Ari looked even more exhausted when he saw Yuri’s face:

「... Since you can see my Basic Information, then you can’t be an Appraiser. For appraisal job cla.s.ses, those in the lower cla.s.s can’t see the Basic Information of those in the higher cla.s.ses. The proof is that just now, you rejected my appraising.」

「... Uwah.」

Ari didn’t want his companions behind to hear, so he whispered quietly. Yuri now knew his effort was in vain. He raised his guard, but ended up smas.h.i.+ng his own feet with a rock. From what Ari said, Ari either possess a unique skill from the Appraisal job cla.s.s, or his skill levels were very high. Since Yuri could read Ari’s Basic Information easily, that was as good as telling Ari how special he was. Yuri drooped his shoulders in disappointment.

He thought the footsteps moving further away from him sounded peaceful and steady.

「... I will ask you the details later, just follow us out of the dungeon for now.」

「... What?」

「Aren’t you lost? You saved our lives, and seemed unfamiliar with fighting. I will feel bad about leaving you here… And also, it would be a pain to leave you here without making things clear.」

「Alright～ I will be in your care～」

Seeing Yuri respond immediately with a salute like he was playing around, Ari sighed deeply. Ari was bald and had an eyepatch, so he looked ferocious, but he was actually sensitive and took great care of others. Was sensitive the right word, or would being a professional retorting straight man be a better description? In any case, Yuri could obtain some information later, so he felt relieved.

If he was treated like a monster and left behind here, Yuri would be in deep trouble. He couldn’t defeat monsters and had no food on him, so he would either be killed by monsters or starve to death. Or maybe fall into a trap and die.

In the end, Yuri headed for the dungeon’s exit with Ari’s group. Yuri didn’t know how he got lost here, but Ari’s companions said that some of the traps would teleport people to other dungeons, and stated that possibility. Yuri knew that wasn’t the case, but he went along with it. They asked where Yuri came from, and looked baffled when Yuri answered 「j.a.pan」. Yuri explained that j.a.pan was a small country far away, which wasn’t exactly a lie.

「Yuri is wearing weird clothes.」

The giggly martial artist girl was Lelei. 

She had short red hair and a pair of golden eyes, and her pupils would sometimes turn tall and narrow. Yuri was puzzled at her appearance. She explained that she was a beastkin and human mixed blood, with her mother a human and father a beastkin… Yuri could learn all that by checking her Basic Information, but he didn’t want to invade her privacy, since Ari said that appraising others without asking was rude. Yuri asked Ari why he attempted to peek at Yuri’s Basic Information, and Ari said he wanted to scan a suspicious person. Yuri couldn’t refute that.

… And normal people wouldn’t know that Ari was appraising him, which meant Ari’s Job cla.s.s was rather high. Yuri thought about the information he looked at just now, and it did feel impressive. Ari’s Job was a 「Truth Appraiser」, which literally means he could see through lies.

「Is it strange? In my hometown, all the students dress like this.」

「Student? Is Yuri from a rich family?」

「No, all the kids in my hometown are students, and will only start working after they graduate.」

The young swordsman Brooke looked surprised when he asked that question.

Brooke was a cool handsome guy with green hair and dark eyes, and looked like a western samurai, but was somewhat different from a knight. He had the aura of a samurai, but his appearance and equipment were western style, so it would be more apt to describe him as a knight influenced by the samurai spirit.

「Uwah～ I thought only rich people can attend school.」

「Well, football in America is called handegg in Canada.」

「... What does that mean?」

「It means the same things will look dissimilar in different environments.」

「Yuri sure is smart, as expected of someone who is schooling.」

Glacier, the Thief, complimented him with 「Amazing」. His nickname was Clay.

Glacier was the youngest amongst them, and was about Yuri’s age. So he felt close to Yuri, and was curious about him. He opened his orange eyes wide and kept asking questions, and Yuri answered with a smile on his face.

… In any case, Glacier’s communication skills were strong.

「But you are really down on your luck to teleport so far away from your home country.」

「... That’s right… But I’m lucky to run into good guys like you.」

「Hahaha, same for us too. Thanks to you, we get to save our hides.」

「I’m glad to be of help.」

Frau, the woman bow user patted Yuri’s head with a faint smile.

She could be described as dignified and righteous, and makes others want to call her 「Lady Boss」. Her dark blue hair was tied in a ponytail, and there was a stern glare in her brown eyes, that were seldom found in girls. But it wasn’t a fearsome look either, but filled with righteousness… Yuri thought: 「If she wears j.a.panese clothing, she would definitely look like a big sister in a yakuza movie.」 But no one would understand if he said that, so he kept quiet.

In any case, they had grown on Yuri during their way out of the dungeon. When a monsters show up, the 《Scarlet Lynx》 would fend them off, while Yuri would remind them of traps they weren’t aware of from time to time.

And so, Yuri made companions in a different world.

「So, tell me what’s going on here.」

Yuri nodded and took a sip of the water before him.

He was now in the residence of the 《Scarlet Lynx》 Clan. Many adventurers live in the Royal Capital Dorahern, and in one of its corners was the base of the 《Scarlet Lynx》. This mansion was bought by the clan’s previous Captain before he retired, and Yuri felt this was a grand mansion. But by 「grand」, he wasn’t referring to its size.

Instead, this place was well suited to be a dormitory, as it was bigger than the other buildings around here. He asked for the reason, and it seems that Clan members wouldn’t normally live together, and just needed a common meeting place, and would usually rent their own place. However, all the members of the 《Scarlet Lynx》 stays together, which was a rare sight.

But there was a reason for this, and Yuri understood after learning it.

《Scarlet Lynx》 was a training center for treasure hunters.

There were no schools in this world. No, there were schools, but they were organizations for n.o.bles and wealthy children to learn proper etiquettes. In such a condition, it wasn’t hard to imagine the hards.h.i.+p that a rookie adventurer would face. If a rookie didn’t go through the necessary training, and just barge in recklessly, they would definitely die quickly. And the livelihood of treasure hunters was dungeon diving, so those rookies would fall like flies, and it would be a miracle for any of them to survive.

And so, the previous clan Captain who was concerned about this founded the 《Scarlet Lynx》, so the rookies aspiring to be treasure hunters could train here. Ari, Brooke and Frau were trainers. There were two other trainers in the clan, making up the twenty members of the 《Scarlet Lynx》, which was comparatively smaller than other Clans.

The rookies who had grown strong enough to be independent would leave, while new aspiring treasure hunters would join. The new members would gradually replace the old ones, that’s the strange training clan known as the 《Scarlet Lynx》.

Back to the topic.

「... My Job is Seeker.」

「...... Huh?」

「... Sorry, I don’t mean to lie. I just… don’t want to be too conspicuous.」

Ari was speechless as he looked at the depressed Yuri. How could this be? He could only look dumbfoundedly at the frail youth.

Seeker was the Job of legends, and on the mythological level for people in Appraisal cla.s.s Jobs. And not just within its job cla.s.s, people called them apostle of G.o.d because their eyes were bestowed by G.o.d, and could see the truth in all things.

This frail looking youth before him was a Seeker? Ari couldn’t believe it.

However, Yuri didn’t seem to be lying, and most important of all, he could reject the appraising by Ari, a Truth Appraiser, which meant he wasn’t your average joe.. Right now, Truth Appraisers were the highest rank amongst the Appraisal Job cla.s.ses. With no way of knowing if any Seeker exist, the Truth Appraisers which was second only to Seekers were recognized as the top of the Appraisal job cla.s.s.

But a Seeker was in front of him. Seeker was born with talent, and even though many craved for it, it couldn’t be obtained through hard work. They were the king of appraisal from their birth.

「... If you are a Seeker, then you can see my Job and skills, right? Let’s hear it then.」

「Oh, alright. Your Job is Truth Appraiser. Your skill is 【Magic Eye】, Level Max… It also says 『halved』.」

「... Your appraisal is on point. Even other Truth Appraiser might not be able to see that my skill had been halved. My Level is at Max after all.」

Ari held his head and groaned. Yuri’s appraisal was right, Ari possessed the high appraising skill 【Magic Eye】. Simply put, a high level 【Magic Eye】 wasn’t too far off from a low Level 【G.o.d Eye】. He had far better appraising skills than normal, but he still couldn’t see through everything.

Ari was blinded in one eye during a dungeon battle in the past, so his 【Magic Eye】 skill was halved. Despite that, his skill Level was still at Max, and his 【Magic Eye】 made him more outstanding than a normal Truth Appraiser. As his skill Level was at Max, no one could tell that his 【Magic Eye】 had been halved. 

Actually, no one knew that this skill was dependent on their real eyes, and Ari only learned that after he lost one eye… Those with 【Magic Eyes】 could see a rainbow light in the pupil of someone activating this skill, but normal people would just see normal eyes. And now, Ari felt he should have paid more attention to this phenomenon.

「... Did you hide your Job as a Seeker to the people in your hometown too?」

「... I didn’t tell them. My cooking and sewing skills are high leveled, and they are my hobbies. Those are the things I want to do...」

「I get it, don’t ever say that you are a Seeker. But since you warned us about the trap, everyone knows you have the appraising skills. They aren’t people who would blabber about other people’s skills, but words will spread with time. If need be, just say that you are an appraiser.」

「... Okay.」

Yuri nodded. Ari actually wanted him to pretend to be a Truth Appraiser, but Yuri’s eyes looked normal. Truth Appraiser could see the change in each others eye colour, and since Yuri’s eye wouldn’t change colour, it wouldn’t be convincing for him to claim to be a Truth Appraiser… There weren’t people that run around appraising others at random anyway, so that should work for now. 

Ari held his head and groaned again, and thought 「How did things turned out like this」. It was fortunate that they made it back safe from the dungeon. He was careless and didn’t notice the trap on the ceiling, so Ari was very grateful to Yuri. That might be so, but why did he run into this bothersome matter? Ari lamented to the G.o.ds.

「Before you find a way back home, you can stay here.」

「The situation is different for each country, and if you are not careful, you might get conned and sold out. Literally.」

「I don’t want that. I will be in your care then.」

Yuri bowed obediently. In this short time, Yuri could tell that Ari was a trustworthy person. Yuri wasn’t sure if this was the effect of his skills though. Ari may be a little crude, but he had Yuri’s best interest at heart and was like a big brother who took good care of others.

Yuri thought this might be the effect of his luck being ∞, but it was annoying to think about it that way, so he gave up on it. These stats were a.s.signed to him, he couldn’t do anything about them. Yuri never had great luck, so he didn’t understand why his luck stat became ∞ after arriving in a different world.

On the other hand, Ari sighed because of the sudden addition of this new member. Yuri’s skills were too outstanding, but his stats were similar to those of a rookie. When Ari heard Yuri was just level 1 with average stats, he thought it would be unwise to train him by roaming around in dungeons. For Yuri’s safety, Ari decided to raise his level through non combat methods.

And so, Yuri lodged with the 《Scarlet Lynx》 temporarily.

Ari said he would explain the details of the work a.s.signments tomorrow, and then left. Yuri wandered around the base alone. The room he was given looked similar to a student dormitory, with a bed, table and closet, giving him privacy. Ari told him to buy his daily necessities tomorrow, and Yuri nodded docilely.

He then started exploring the layout of the base, or rather, he was wandering around like a curious child. He was a little hungry, and started looking for a place like a kitchen. His curiosity was now stronger than his shock of being thrown into a different world.

...Yuri was really carefree.

News of Yuri being the new member spread, and everyone he saw greeted him warmly, and taught him a lot of things. The members of the 《Scarlet Lynx》 had a high turnover rate, so they were friendly to all newcomers. Because of how kind everyone was, Yuri who had always been an outcast felt pleasantly surprised to be here.

He didn’t know the civilization level of this world, but it had a complete system of water supply and sewage. They brought him to the bathroom, and the taps here had warm water since water affinity magic stones were used── but Yuri didn’t really understand the logic on how it works.

… Actually, he could solve a lot of problems by appraising, but Yuri just couldn’t be bothered to do so. He was satisfied with taking a warm bath.

There were was.h.i.+ng machines in this world too, but they were different from the ones Yuri was familiar with. They needed to be wrench dried manually, but just not needing to wash clothes by hand was a G.o.dsend. Speaking of old was.h.i.+ng machines, he saw one in his grandmother’s place before. The shape was completely different, but the functions were similar.

… He could get a lot of information by appraising the was.h.i.+ng machine too, but Yuri wasn’t too interested. He was happy that he could do his laundry easily.

Although the cleaning of rooms and laundry were done individually, the cleanliness of the common areas, bathroom, and cooking were performed by newcomers. The other members would take turns to help, but the newcomers were basically in charge of this. To learn the skills needed to be a treasure hunter, one had to start with the ch.o.r.es of one’s daily life. Yuri thought this was like the training in a temple.

「... Is someone there?」

Yuri heard a noise when he was near the kitchen. It sounded like a groan, as if someone was deeply troubled. The intrigued Yuri leaned his head in and looked.

There was a youth who seemed younger than Yuri in there, a normal human with brown eyes and hair. He had some freckles, looked ready cute, but his sullen face looked utterly depressed. Yuri wondered what happened, so he walked into the kitchen and asked… In Yuri’s heart, resides an angel that couldn’t leave a person in trouble alone.

「May I ask what’s troubling you?」

「Uwah!? W-Who are you!?」

「Ah, h.e.l.lo, I’m Yuri, I will be staying in the 《Scarlet Lynx》 from today onwards.」

「A new guy? I see, I’m Yak, the youngest apprentice here.」

Yuri introduced himself, and Yak offered his hand with a smile. Yuri took the hand and shook it, but Yak was so strong that Yuri almost cried… It seemed that his stats were lower than the people in this world. He didn’t want to offend anyone, so he didn’t appraise their Basic Information. 

「What are you troubled about?」

「... Well, I’m in charge of dinner...」

Yuri was baffled by Yak’s sullen face. He wanted to say 「In that case, don’t you just have to cook a meal?」, but he couldn’t say it after seeing Yak’s disappointed face.

Yuri never thought that today’s encounter in the kitchen would decide his position within the Clan. 

Chapter 2: I think I got to their heart through their Stomach

Yak was on the verge of tears as he explained the whole situation to Yuri, the newcomer.

In the 《Scarlet Lynx》, rookies were in charge of cooking meals and cleaning the bathroom. The other members would take turns to help out, but cooking meals was handled by the apprentices. They had to live on limited food supplies when they go dungeon diving in the future, so this was part of the basic training for apprentices. Unfortunately, not all rookies understood this reasoning.

「I know that food is precious, and cooking a meal with whatever ingredients are left are the fundamentals.」

「Yes, that’s the basics.」

「But the monthly food budget is limited, and the biggest problem is, there are still ingredients left, so the Captain won’t let me restock. Because that will be wasteful.」

「The ingredients will spoil with time, so it will be best to use it up first.」

Yuri nodded as he listened to Yak, concurring with him. It was natural for an experienced senior to do so, but having a newcomer agree with him made Yak feel really moved. Yuri might be a newcomer that appeared suddenly, but to Yak, he was more reliable than his apprentice seniors. Especially when Yak was facing a crisis.

This was only natural, since those who grew up in the prosperous capital or city didn’t cherish food. They only know how to spend money on food, and didn’t know how to cook, and would often waste ingredients.

「Only bread and potato had sufficient quant.i.ty. These two are staple food, so the Captain will buy a lot of it.」

「Oh, so potato is a staple food here? What about rice or noodles?」

「We have those, but we don’t eat it often. We have a contract with a bread store nearby, so they will provide us with slightly more bread than our numbers.」

「Uwah, the bread store makes deliveries here every day? That’s wonderful.」

For Yuri who grew up in modern j.a.pan, this was like a dream. So if he matched their delivery time, he could eat freshly baked bread? How wonderful. Although the bread store only does deliveries in the morning, it would turn cold by lunch time. In any case, bread baked on the same time would definitely taste better. As he thought about it, he started looking forward to tonight’s dinner.

「And by the month’s end, we will run out of ingredients… Because they don’t cherish our ingredients.」

「... This is bad.」

「Yes, really bad, so I will make steamed potato at the end of the month. Eating potatoes is more filling too.」

「Well, potato is an all purpose ingredient after all.」

「All purpose ingredient? No, I thought potato can only be steamed?」

「... Huh?」

That can’t be, Yuri thought.

Potato seemed to be lowly regarded in this different world. And from Yak’s tone, they would only steam and eat them. Steamed potato didn’t taste good, and one would get tired of eating it easily. Unless you add some b.u.t.ter while it was piping hot, or cook it in salt water, it wouldn’t taste good.

Yak ignored the surprised Yuri, and continued grumbling. No, he wasn’t just grumbling, but explaining the situation:

「I would always use the ingredients reservedly at the end of the month, but my seniors would always splurge them. And whenever it was my turn to cook, I could only make steamed potato, they even have the cheek to say 『Can’t you make something else』...」

「... Erm, Yak?」

「I-If I had the ingredients, I want to make proper meals too! But they would always use up the ingredients, leaving me with leftovers to make my meal, so what do they expect!?」

Yak smacked the kitchen counter with a bang. You could even say that he was slamming his fist on it. Yak had been holding this grudge for too long, and Yuri patted his head to soothe him.

Simply put, Yak would carefully ration the ingredients to use, and his seniors would waste all of his efforts. They didn’t even know what they did wrong, and picked on Yak’s cooking. It was the month’s end again, and the ingredients were depleted, so Yak didn’t know what to cook for dinner.

His senior even cooked a sumptuous lunch with the dwindling ingredients. Yak was devastated after looking at the terrible state of the kitchen after lunch, because there was no food left.

「Erm, can I see what’s left? Maybe I can help.」

「Yuri, can you cook?」

「I can cook as a hobby, but not anything that can be served to paying customers. If it is just a home cooked meal, then I’m capable of that.」

The girlish boy said sheepishly. He had never worked in a cafe or restaurant before, so he only knew how to cook home recipes. Some times, he would browse recipes online or follow the instructions from cooking shows, but his repertoire was basically what his mother, a housewife, taught him. Hence, the taste was normal and homely too. He could only make simple meals, and would be stumped if anyone ask him to make strange dishes.

Yak’s eyes shone when he heard Yuri’s answer, since there weren’t many men who could cook. Everyone was just cooking as part of their training, and his seniors were all bad at it. A newcomer who could cook showing up was like a messiah.

「Then I will start the explanation.」

「Yes.」

「Aside from the potato, these are the ingredients we have left.」

「... Uwah, they really are leftovers.」

「...Right.」

When he saw Yuri smiling miserably while he looked into the distance, Yak made the same expression. What they saw couldn’t even be called 「peeled vegetables」, but vegetable that had been mostly hollowed out. Yak said with detest: 「That’s the remaining vegetables」 , as if he was looking at rabbit feed.

Yak then opened the refrigerator to show him the meat… No, it wasn’t really meat, but bones with some meat attached. The real meat had all been used up.

「They grilled a bunch of meat for lunch...」

「... I see.」

「And only left me the bones and sc.r.a.ps, what do they expect me to cook?」

He got more miserable as he spoke, and started sniffling. How pitiful, why must the innocent Yak suffer like this? If this was the fate of rookies, then this was too harsh.

Yuri looked around him to check for seasoning and crockeries. Since there was tap water and gas… Well, the stove might not be using gas, but it had a k.n.o.b that could adjust the heat, and wasn’t too different from a gas stove. Unfortunately, the only seasoning here were salt, pepper and soy sauce.

There were plenty of milk and eggs in the fridge though. Yuri asked with his eyes: 「Can I use the eggs and milk」, and Yak answered confidently with a smile:

「The eggs and milk are delivered here daily from a nearby farm, so you can use them! That’s why we can have milk, bread and eggs for breakfast every morning...」

「... Hmm, without other ingredients, I can’t make anything else.」

They managed to last until today, thanks to the large quant.i.ty of potatoes, and the daily supply of milk, egg and bread. Yuri was hoping for more vegetable and meat, but he could make a simple breakfast with all these… They probably had access to an almost limitless amount of such ingredients, because the Captain Ari foresaw this might happen, and made a big sacrifice.

Yuri looked at Yak and smiled. With these ingredients, he could make a simple dinner. If they had to use up all the ingredients before buying more, then they just need to make it through today, then eat a simple breakfast of milk, eggs and bread tomorrow. They could then buy fresh ingredients tomorrow.

「Okay, let’s prepare dinner. How much time do we have?」

「Hmm? It’s different for everyone, so the first one will dine about 3 hours later.

「Got it, let’s work hard together then.」

Yuri’s eager voice made Yak blink puzzledly. Yak didn’t understand what Yuri meant. The ingredients couldn’t be used to make a proper meal, so what were they going to do for dinner? He was stupefied.

「How many portions? Is everyone here?」

「No, some are out in the dungeons… Including Yuri, that’s eleven portions for dinner tonight?」

「Okay, this should work. Actually, I have never cooked for so many people before.」

Yuri said with a smile: 「It’s difficult to gauge the quant.i.ty.」 It was clear from his smile that he didn’t think this was a tedious task, which baffled Yak. Even though there were no ingredients, Yuri was still happily thinking how much they should cook. Yak didn’t understand what Yuri was trying to do.

… Not just that, Yuri was eager to try too. He was a girlish boy, so he loves to cook. This might be a different world, and he got transported here out of the blue. But he had a place to stay, a guardian, and he got to cook, which made him excited.

...... It had been mentioned several times, but it was important to repeat this: Yuri had a carefree nature.

「W-Wait, Yuri.」

「Hmm? What is it?」

「C-Can we really make dinner!? With just these ingredients!?」

「With just these ingredients, we can make some simple meals.」

「Huuhh!?」

Yuri let Yak scream, and took the bread out from the rack. The bread had probably been placed here for a few days, and had turned hard. It wasn’t just normal hard, and would still be too hard to eat if toasted. Yuri took out a plate, and placed a grater there deftly.

「...Yuri?」

「Anyway, just help me. After you slice the bread, use the grater to shred them into this bowl.」

「...O-Okay.」

After seeing the smiling Yuri, Yak decided to go with the flow. He had no idea what to do, so he might as well leave it to the eager newcomer… If anyone complains 「aren’t you responsible for cooking」, he would just say「that’s all the ingredients I have!」. 

And so, Yak and Yuri grated the bread quietly, and made a large amount of bread crumbs.

Yuri quietly peeled the potato. His knife work was impeccable, and the skin kept piling up on the table. Yak looked at Yuri with surprise, and carefully sc.r.a.ped off the meat on the bones. The meat was too scattered to eat, but Yuri asked him to gather all the sc.r.a.pes into a bowl, so he did as he was told… After scooping it all up, he found there to be more meat than he expected, but not enough to make a main dish.

Yuri tossed the peeled potato into a pot, add a dash of salt, and cooked it over a small fire. While he was cooking the potato, he took the miserable pile of hollowed vegetables and carefully peeled them and slice them thinly.

His knife work was incredible, and Yak gasped in awe when he saw it, and Yuri would smile bashfully when Yak did that… And that made the one cooking realized that his action had grown more nimble. His slicing movement was as smooth as b.u.t.ter

… Ahh, could this be the effect of my skills...?

Yuri’s cooking skill was Level 50, but he didn’t know what the standard level was. He had checked, and the highest level was 100, so 50 should be respectable… Yuri didn’t know himself, but a cooking level of 50 was on par with the chef of a normal restaurant. Ignorance really was bliss.

Yuri didn’t think further about it, and continued cooking as he hummed in a great mood. The girlish boy Yuri loves activities related to home economics, especially cooking since everyone loves good food.

Sewing and cleaning had similar effects too, but he felt happiest seeing others eat his cooking. He would feel happy when others were happy, which spurred him to work harder… But when bringing his home made lunch or snacks to school (he would occasionally make Character Bento on a whim), his cla.s.smates would just say 「disgusting」.

However, the hungry male students would still eat Yuri’s snack, and occasionally comment that they were 「delicious」. The female students who stayed away from him because they felt he was disgusting, would seek help from Yuri during the eves of valentines and their boyfriend’s birthday. During times like this, Yuri wouldn’t bear any grudges and help them, that was the kind of guy he was.

「Yuri, I’m done with the meat, what about the bones?」

「Oh, the bones. I want to boil them to make stock, can you fill a pot with water and boil it?」

「Okay.」

Yak was following Yuri’s lead without any questions now, he had seen Yuri’s exemplary knife work after all. Yak wasn’t good at cooking in the first place, and was at a loss just now. With Yuri, he could just follow every instruction easily.

Yak placed the large quant.i.ty of pig, cow and chicken bones into the pot of water and boiled it together. The meat he sc.r.a.pe off just now was a mixture of pork, beef and chicken, but Yuri intended to make mince meat in the first place, and didn’t mind. The meat was just a side dish today.

「Can you help mince the meat with a knife?」

「Of course, leave it to me!」

Yak wasn’t good at delicate works, but mincing the meat was a piece of cake. He answered and started mincing the meat gleefully… And for some reason, his face looked scary as he cut up the meat a little too happily. Yak must have a lot of grudge built up, those at the bottom sure had it hard.

Seeing that Yak had started work, Yuri scooped the cooked potato out of the pot. He couldn’t find a masher, so he cleaned one end of a rolling pin and mash the potato. The potato was cooked to the verge of breaking up, so, he mashed it in no time. Yuri hummed as he battled against the large number of potatoes.

Could you guess what Yuri was making? The answer was croquette. There wasn’t enough flour, so he grated several days old bread into crumbs and used that as a subst.i.tute. With enough flour, eggs and potatoes, making croquette was easy. There was just sc.r.a.pes of meat on bones left, but by mincing and seasoning them with salt and pepper, that would make the croquette taste even better, like a cherry on top of a cake.

Yuri let Yak who had finished mincing the meat take on the task of mas.h.i.+ng the potatoes, while he took out a frying pan to grill the minced meat. It would taste better if he grilled it with onions, but there were none. And if he used onions in the croquette, it would make the other dish dull by contrast, so he just had to make do. Yuri sprinkled some pepper and salt on top, and then some of the spices hidden deep in the cabinet that had been left untouched for a long time, seasoning the minced meat.

There was a trick to seasoning the meat for croquette, and that was to make the taste stronger. The meat would be mixed together with the potatoes, so by making the taste stronger, it wouldn’t be too bland after mixing them. This would also enhance the flavor when frying it. And so, there wouldn’t be any need to add condiments when eating the croquette, and reduce the salt in take. By: Yuri’s mother.

「Yak, mix the minced meat into the potato.」

「Okay!」

He handed the fried minced meat to Yak, and looked at the sliced vegetables in the plates. He then took out a flour bag and a cup of water. He poured some flour on the vegetable, then mixed it with long chopsticks. When the flour was evenly spread on all the vegetables, he added a little water to mix. He used the viscosity he felt from the mixing to adjust the ratio of flour to water, and control how thick the mixture was.

Yuri wanted to use the vegetable sc.r.a.ps to make kakiage. Normally, if the shape of the ingredient was strange, the fried product would have weird shapes too. But kakiage was different, as it was literally fried cut vegetables. And if it was a home meal, then it was fine for it to look a little funny. Normal shops would use molds to fix the shape, but home cooked kakiage were small enough to be picked up with chopsticks── at least that was so in the Kugimiya house.

As Yak stirred the potato and minced meat, Yuri slipped the dough into hot oil. It started with a hiss, and then made sizzling sound as the moisture come into contact with the oil. Yak was surprised, unable to tell what Yuri was doing, but Yuri didn’t explain anything as he picked up the kakiage that had turned golden and put it on a strainer. He felt lucky to find something to strain out the oil… There weren’t things like kitchen napkins here.

Yuri sprinkled some salt on the kakiage freshly scooped out of the oil. The kakiage was basically deep fried vegetable, so it would mesh well with tempura sauce. However, Yuri prefers simple salt seasoning, as it brings out the sweetness of the vegetables, and retain the crispiness of the coating. He tried one loose piece, and it was fried just right.

「... Want to try some?」

Seeing that Yak had stopped his hands, Yuri asked him with a wry smile. Yak nodded repeatedly at that, and Yuri offered him a piece too. He reminded Yak that it was hot, and Yak puffed his cheeks at the heat, but was still shocked by this unknown taste.

「What is this, Yuri!? It is crispy and taste wonderful! What is it!」

「This is 『kakiage』. We only have leftover vegetables, so I added some flour and water to coat the vegetable, then fry it in oil. Do you like it?」

「It’s super yummy! I never imagined those sc.r.a.ps can be used to cook such a delicious dish...!」

「Hahah, you are exaggerating too much, Yak.」

Yuri smiled awkwardly at Yak who kept heaping praise on him, and turned off the fire. Fried food taste the best fresh from the stove, and since the kakiage tasted fine, he needed to prepare the next dish. There wasn’t any plastic wrap here, so Yuri covered the plate with a clean piece of cloth, and put it carefully in the freezer. It would be terrible if he dropped the scant amount of food they had left.

「Well then, knead with me, Yak.」

「Knead?」

「Yes, can you help me knead the potato mince meat into ovals? The next steps will be troublesome if it is too big, and can easily break apart, so about palm size will do.」

「Okay.」

After was.h.i.+ng their hands, they started kneading the potato minced meat. They took turns scooping out one spoon of the fillings, and knead them into ovals. Yak did so stiffly at the start, and with some advice from Yuri, he started kneading them better. Yak continued kneading bafflingly, doing as he was told despite not knowing what they were doing… Yak was thinking that this was already ready to be eaten.

He was right, the minced meat had been grilled and the potato had been boiled, so they could be eaten since they were already cooked. But that would just be potato meatb.a.l.l.s, what Yuri wanted to make was croquette. The reason was simple, mashed potato wasn’t a main dish, but a croquette was.

They kneaded a large number of fillings quietly, piling them up on the largest tray… There were plenty of potatoes, so they could make loads of fillings.

Yuri roughly estimated the quant.i.ty to be three times that of a normal household, because the residence here were strong young men with ferocious appet.i.te. Yuri ate less than normal highschool boys, but he knew very well that boys in their growth spurt eat a lot, and he settled on three times that of his household, and hopes it would be enough.

「Next would be the coating, I will take care of the flour and egg, please do the coating.」

「Coating...?」

「Yes, cover it with flour first, then dip it in egg, roll it in bread crumbs and then fry it. This is a 『croquette 』.」

「Oh? Is it tasty?」

「... Yes, I think croquette is tastier than kakiage.」

「Yes! I will work hard!」

Yak was very pragmatic, but who could blame him. He was a growing boy, and the kakiage was so delicious that he couldn’t imagine that was made with vegetable sc.r.a.ps. Now that he learned that croquette tastes even better, it was only natural for him to get fired up.

They put the flour, egg and bread crumbs into different bowls, and quietly coated the food. As expected, Yuri’s Level 50 cooking was amazing, with one hand coating the flour and the other dipping into the egg. Yak was clumsier, and had to shake off the excess bread crumbs after coating them. And slowly, a mountain of coated fillings appeared before them.

「I will fry one as a sample.」

Yuri started frying the croquettes with a smile, and Yak who had never fried anything before watched Yuri closely. The white flour slowly turned golden in the oil, and the color was deeper than the kakiage just now. After finis.h.i.+ng, Yuri put the croquette onto the strainer and cut it in half.

「It’s still hot, this half is for you.」

「Yes!」

Yak received the croquette, and looked as excited at the prospect of eating delicious food. Yuri blew on his half to cool it, then took a bite. The croquette taste nice, probably due to the ingredient itself being good. Yuri only seasoned it with pepper and some spices, so it didn’t have any deep and complex flavor. However, the sweetness of the potato, freshness of the minced meat and the fragrance of frying it made the simple croquette into a delicacy.

And fried food fresh from the pot was impeccable.

「Super yummy!」

「Great, will this do for a dish?」

「Yes, of course! Yuri, you are really good!」

Yak ate the piping hot croquette with puffed cheeks, and looked at Yuri with a big smile. He was really a messiah.

「Okay, next will be the soup.」

「... Huh? We are still going to cook?」

「That’s right. The foundation of dining is 『three dishes and one soup』, although there will just be two dishes and one soup today.」

「... Tri-diss-want-soop? Is that a spell?」

「It’s a saying from my hometown. It means three main dishes and one soup, which is the ideal portions of one meal.」

Yak felt baffled as he looked at Yuri who was all smiles. It seems like the phrase didn’t exist in this different world, and Yuri thought 「j.a.panese sure is hard」, and checked the stock that was cooking. The bones had been successfully boiled to make stock, the sc.r.a.ps sure was powerful.

Yuri did this because there wasn’t any b.u.t.ter or anything that could be used to make stock… And he didn’t think there would be bouillon cube to make stock here either. Even so, he was hoping there would be b.u.t.ter… After asking, he realized the amount of b.u.t.ter they bought was limited, and the aforementioned seniors had used up all the b.u.t.ter. How troubling.

He didn’t have any excess vegetables or meat to make stock, so he decided on using bones… Actually, Yuri prefers seafood soup, and the j.a.panese style of dried tuna and kelp. These ingredients weren’t available, so he decided to make stock with the bones.

「I will cut the potato, can you scoop out the bones into that bowl there?」

「What are you going to do with the bones?」

「I can’t use them anymore… If there are dogs, you can feed it to them?」

「... I will throw them out as garbage.」

「Right.」

Yak smiled awkwardly and scooped out the bones without a word after hearing Yuri’s reply. Yuri saw Yak getting to work from the corner of his eyes, and started peeling the potato, and cut them into bite size, which was just right for curry rice. Potato would break apart if you cook them too long, so cut them a little bigger. He didn’t have any other ingredients, so his plan was to fill the entire pot by cutting the potato a little larger. It would look like there were plenty of portions visually, and its effects should not be taken lightly.

After cutting up the potato, Yuri put them in water so it wouldn’t discolor from exposure to the air. He looked at the pot of stock, and realized that a lot of the water has boiled away. It was fine for Yuri though, and he took out milk from the fridge with a smile. The milk was in a large lead box, and Yak looked at Yuri baffledly, wondering what Yuri was doing.

Yuri poured milk generously into the pot, before Yak’s eyes.

「What are you doing ahhh!?」

Yak yelled on reflex, but Yuri just tilted his head with surprise and continued emptying the milk container. As you might have guessed, Yuri wanted to make cream soup, with potato as the main ingredient and the stock made from the bones of pork, beef and chicken. He wanted to make normal soup, but just having potato as the ingredient felt too bland, so he added milk which they had no shortage of.

There were plenty of eggs too, but he wanted to 「work on them」 a little and leave it for breakfast. If he could get permission, he planned to make breakfast tomorrow too.

「Y-Yuri, wait! Why are you pouring milk into the pot!?」

「Hmm? Because I’m making cream soup.」

「Wouldn’t milk taste awful if you heat it up!?」

「You are mistakened～ I will seasoned it properly, so don’t worry～」

Yuri smiled at the panicking Yak. After sampling the kakiage and croquette, he was certain that his sense of taste wasn’t too different from the people here. Cream soup might be uncommon here, but it wouldn’t be a problem. Maybe there wasn’t any stew or gratin here, but Yuri didn’t mind. He just wants to eat a sumptuous dinner.

After adding in the milk, the soup increased in volume. Yak looked like he was witnessing the end of the world, but Yuri ignored him and continued heating the cream soup over a small fire. The milk would solidify if you boil it, so the trick to cooking cream soup was to not be hasty and heat it slowly. It would have a thicker taste if he could add b.u.t.ter or fresh cream, but he couldn’t whip out things that didn’t exist. As mentioned before, Yuri hoped that he could use cheese, even powdered cheese would be suitable in adding flavor to the dish. But since there wasn’t any, he had to give up on that.

When Yuri saw the surface of the soup bubbling and would boil soon, he used a ladle to scoop some for a taste test. The mixture of stock from animal bones and the fresh milk was delightful, but there was still something missing. He sprinkled some salt, pepper and spices on a whim to season it. Yuri only knew how to cook homemade meals, so his seasoning was whimsical. He would make proper measurements for dessert and bread, but when cooking home meals, he prefers to make minute adjustments while he try the taste.

After seasoning, the tried the soup again. He wasn’t too pleased with this soup without cream, b.u.t.ter or cheese, since it was blander than what he was used to, but he still found it palatable.

「Yak, would you like to try some?」

「... I-Is this edible?」

「I already seasoned it, and don’t find it nasty...」

Yuri scooped the soup to a taste testing saucer, then pa.s.sed it to Yak. Yak received it cautiously, and opened his eyes wide when he caught a whiff of its fragrance. It wasn’t nasty at all, and smelled really tasty. Yak then grit his teeth and drank it.

And then...

「This is super delicious!!!!」

Yak yelled again, he didn’t expect it to taste like this. He always thought hot milk would taste nasty, but the bone stock and milk blended perfectly without diminis.h.i.+ng the other. And with Yuri’s seasoning, this was a delicious soup that could be presented in a restaurant.

… Aside from that, even though Yuri wasn’t aware of it himself, his Level 50 cooking skill probably played a part too. For example, the 「adequate」 amount of seasoning he added, became a 「G.o.dly ratio」 through his hands. It also allowed him to control the heat perfectly, and cook this amazing soup… No one knew and it was intangible, but the skills definitely affected this outcome.

「Will this taste do?」

「Yes! It tastes wonderful, so is this done?」

「Not yet, we still need to add the potatoes.」

Yuri smiled at the energetic Yak, then strained the water from the potato before adding them to the pot. After all the potato chunks were added in, he stirred with a ladle to avoid the potato from touching the pot and burning. He had to boil the potato patiently until it softens, but it would dissolve into the soup if he cooked it for too long.

「... You are adding potatoes, even though you are making soup?」

「Huh? Aren’t vegetable or meat added into the soup? Otherwise, it would be tasteless.」

「... I thought the soup was just the liquid itself.」

「Hmm? That’s true.」

In response to Yak’s serious answer, Yuri said with a smile: 「But it will taste better if you add ingredients in.」

j.a.panese style vegetable soup and pork soup had a large amount of vegetables added in, and was very nutritious. From what Yuri knew, western and chinese cuisines would add vegetables too, and mushrooms would make the soup sweeter. But it seems that the soup in this world didn’t include that many ingredients.

The soup in this world was similar to onion soup. Traditional onion soup uses a lot of bouillon, and took a lot of effort to cook. But the onion soup in this world was the simplified version, and was like instant miso soup without much accompanying ingredients. That was why Yak was surprised when Yuri added the potato chunks into the soup.

「If there were cream, b.u.t.ter or cheese, the taste would be fuller, and adding bacon would make it taste better with more variety to the texture.」

「...Yuri, you are really good at cooking.」

「Not really, I can only cook some home made dishes.」

Seeing that the potato had turned soft, Yuri said with a smile: 「Okay, it’s done.」 He turned off the fire and covered the lid to keep it warm. He will reheat it right before serving dinner.

They cooked the large pot of cream soup, and a large pile of uncooked kakiage and croquette. Yak wanted to fry all of them, but Yuri stopped him. Fried dishes taste the best when freshly cooked, so he would make them right before they eat dinner, even more so for this clan where the diners would drop in at different times… After all, one person couldn’t eat ten or twenty of these.

「Okay, let’s clean up before the others come for dinner.」

「And wash the plates and bowls!」

「And wipe the counter too.」

Yak started cleaning up cheerfully when he saw Yuri who was all smiles. They worked together, and since Yuri wasn’t sure where to put back most of the items, Yuri took care of was.h.i.+ng, while Yak wiped it dry before putting them back. Yuri wiped down the counter and working area until it was sparkling clean. It wasn’t very dirty in the first place, and got even cleaner with his efforts.

「By the way, will everyone be fine with eating this?」

「Of course! They will definitely enjoy eating this!」

「Is that so? That’s great～」

Yuri asked out of the blue, after getting Yak to help him with so much. Yak retorted without a second thought, but he actually wanted to say: 「You can tell how happy the others will be by observing my reaction.」 However, this was the careful and free spirited Yuri, so he held back.

Yuri was bad at reading the mood though.

And so, Yuri and Yak became good friends before the others came for dinner.

When Ari had taken care of his administrative ch.o.r.es, it was already late, but he still headed to the dining hall for dinner. In this base, the dining hall was connected to the kitchen, so the layout was like a cafeteria, and the dishes could be served directly from the kitchen. Why was the layout like this? Because there were many residents here, and it was designed to have enough seats for everyone… But the treasure hunters from this clan would go dungeon diving from time to time, and it was rare for everyone to be present.

As Ari walked to the dining hall, he thought sullenly that it was the end of the month. He brought a troublesome person back already, and because the ingredients were running out at month’s end, he knew that dinner would be awful… It seemed that a few r.e.t.a.r.ded apprentices grilled a bunch of meat for lunch while he was in the dungeons, which made the matter even worse. Ari could tell that they were out of ingredients.

「... Sigh, dinner will be steamed potato again, huh...」

Right now, the youngest clan member was Yak who came from a farm. He knew that food was precious, the importance of being thrifty, and was a boy with a lot of potential. However, he wasn’t the only one in charge of cooking, and Yak’s stupid seniors would always waste a lot of ingredients, forcing Yak to change his menu pitifully. So when it was Yak’s turn to cook, he would usually serve a set meal of potato, eggs, and meal. It wasn’t Yak’s fault, as there were plenty of these three ingredients and bread.

When he reached the dining hall, he realized that the turnout was really good today. The clan members would usually return to their room immediately after dining, but they seemed to be lingering around today. There were around ten people in there, so everyone except him was there.

「... What are they doing?」

He entered curiously, wondering if they were holding a welcome party. Ari picked up an extraordinary kid in the dungeon today, and at a glance, Yuri seemed to be a dull boy in his teens, without any special skills or awareness of danger. If that was true, Ari would think that he did a good deed by taking in this lost child who wandered into the dungeon.

But the extraordinary part about Yuri was too unreasonable.

Ari forced himself to stop thinking about it. He couldn’t discuss this with anyone or deal with it either. The only one he could talk too was the top authorities like the Adventurers' Guild Master or the head of the Appraisal a.s.sociation. Frankly speaking, he felt it would be a lot of trouble, and didn’t want to meet those people either.

「Oh, Captain! Thank you for your hard work!」

Yak noticed Ari before anyone else did. He leaned out from the dining room door, as if he was looking forward to Ari’s arrival. Yak went back into the dining hall after seeing Ari, and he heard the following conversation:

「Yuri! The Captain is here!」

「Okay, I still start the preparation.」

「Okay!」

Hey, what are you guys doing?

He swallowed the retort that was right at his lips. He decided not to be bothered by these trivial matters. He really hopes he misheard, but unfortunately, he had keen hearing and great memory. That voice just now was definitely the lost sheep he picked up today.

Ari entered the dining hall, and saw that all the members of the 《Scarlet Lynx》 on base was present. Before he could ask what they were doing, his clan members yelled.

「「Captain, don’t chase him away!」」

The members under him were really agitated. He was puzzled, and looked towards Brooke and Frau. They were both outstanding adventurers that Ari knew, but they merely smiled wryly at Ari. It was a wry smile, but they didn’t admonish any of the clan members. Ari was still confused.

「You will understand after eating, Ari.」

「Hah?」

「Yuri couldn’t bear seeing Yak being troubled, so he helped with dinner. No, instead of helping, most of it was made by Yuri.」

「... What did he do...」

After hearing Brooke’s explanation, Ari sighed. He took on some work before Ari a.s.signed anything to him. But Ari still had some expectations, since he knew Yuri had levels in cooking skill.

After that...

「Sorry for the wait. Be careful, it’s hot.」

「... Oh.」

Yuri served dinner with a smile. They were all things Ari never saw before, but it was clear from the fragrance that it was delicious. Two of them were something fried golden, with one in a weird shape, and the other an oval. He had never seen the white soup in the bowl before. He narrowed his eyes. Only the bread on the plate was normal food.

He thought about using his appraising skill, but that would be rude. This carefree youth would never use poison, and it was clear from everyone’s reaction that the food was palatable.

「I’m digging in.」

Ari used a fork to pick up the strangely shaped fried food, and everyone watched intriguely as he ate it. The texture was unique and crispy, and after biting down, he knew this was made from vegetable. It was only sprinkled with salt, but the simple seasoning brought out the tastiness of the vegetable.

「... What’s this?」

「There’s only vegetable sc.r.a.ps left, so I made kakiage.」

「... Carnage?」

「It’s a dish from my hometown, I only added some salt for seasoning, is it fine with you? If not, I can get you some salt.」

「No need, this is fine, it’s quite tasty.」

「Great.」

Not expecting the crispy kakiage was so easy to prepare, Ari felt impressed. Like Yuri said, all sorts of vegetables were used, and all of them were cut into thin slices… The leftover vegetables were probably in a terrible state, which left Yuri with no other choice.

Ari then tried the oval object taken fresh out of the oven, and cut it into bite size with his fork and knife. It was golden on the outside, white on the inside, and easily cut. The brown colored fillings was probably meat. He thought as he took a bite.

The sweet potato, tender meat and the fragrance of them being fried made Ari open his eye wide. It was a miracle that he identified the potato, purely because it had similar texture to mash potato. He didn’t know what the crispy surface was, but it was delicious.

「... And this?」

「This is croquette, made with potato and minced meat. As there wasn’t enough flour, I grate the bread into crumbs as a coating.」

「... Bread crumbs?」

「Yes, bread crumbs.」

Ari decided to ask the details later as he looked at the smiling Yuri, and decided to enjoy dinner for now. He thought dinner was just steamed potato, so when such a delicious dinner was served, he had to taste it carefully.

After eating the bread, kakiage and croquette, he finally looked at the white soup. The chunks in it was probably potato… The only proper vegetable left was potato after all. Ari felt sorry for Yak, and respected Yuri who managed to cook with the less than ideal ingredients.

The white soup might look dubious, but the fragrance was fine, and he drank it directly. The taste was incredible, meat, milk, pepper, salt and spices mixed together to produce a complex taste. The hot soup warmed his entire body when he drank it. He ate the potato chunks in the soup which had grown soft after soaking up the soup, and it was simply exquisite.

And finally, Ari continued eating without a word. Delicious, he never thought he could eat something so delicious in the base. Normally, dishes of this standard could only be eaten by forking out money in a restaurant.

After Ari finished eating, the members started making a racket again. They were sitting on the ground and desperately pleading.

「Captain, don’t let him go anywhere else!」

「Please, Captain! If we can’t eat his food, it will be torture!」

「Me too, it will be too painful to give up on his cooking.」

「Me too!」

「... You guys...」

They were completely enamoured by Yuri. Ari could empathize with them, but they were adventurers, and felt like retorting 「Don’t let him take hostage of your taste buds so easily, and advocate for him so desperately」... However, one of the youths remained quiet, and looked at Ari with serious eyes── That was Yak. 

「...Yak, what’s wrong?」

「Captain, Yuri is really amazing. He is so good that he can even cook with vegetable sc.r.a.ps.」

「Yes, I can tell by looking at the dishes… You can’t cook this by yourself, right?」

「Yes… So Captain, I hope Yuri can stay, so I can learn from him.」

The other members wanted Yuri to stay because they want to eat his cooking, but only Yak was doing so to improve himself by learning from Yuri. Taking in Yak was the right decision after all. He might be young and frail, and had to start with physical training, but Ari admires his foresight and matured thinking. Even now, he was the only one thinking about the future.

Ari patted Yak’s head. Yak wasn’t like the other idiots, and was matured. Ari really liked this newcomer. And Ari didn’t plan to chase Yuri out in the first place… He didn’t know what trouble Yuri might cause if he evicted Yuri.

「Yuri.」

「Yes?」

「It’s delicious, thanks for the meal.」

「You flatter me.」

Yuri’s smile seemed to be saying 「I’m glad that you like it」, just like a kid. Ari would probably feel sincerely happy at the sight of Yuri’s smile, if he didn’t know about Yuri’s extraordinary side. But that was just an afterthought.

「Anyway, you should stay here for now and do ch.o.r.es together with Yak. I will teach you some basic things when I’m free.」

「Thank you, so I will be doing things like cooking and cleaning together with Yak?」

「Right… Yak, there are too many things that this fellow doesn’t know, so you will teach him.」

「Alright!」

「I’m in your care, Yak.」

Yuri and Yak high fived and smiled at each other. Their friends.h.i.+p had grown after cooking together. Even though Yuri’s knowledge was still lacking in many aspects, Ari thought it would be fine to leave him to Yak. Yak was quick witted, and would take care of her younger siblings back home, and had a knack for teaching others. Seeing that the two had hit it off, Ari decided to leave the details to Yak.

Ari then looked at the apprentices who were gleeful after learning that Yuri would be staying. Those fools would never learn how precious food was.

「All of you learn to cook from Yuri properly, especially the way he uses the ingredients.」

「「Huh?」」

「Because you lot don’t cherish the ingredients and think well ahead, we always fail to eat proper meals… If you can’t do that, don’t even think about making it on your own out there.」

「「Yes!」」

Ari said with narrowed eyes, and the apprentices nodded dutifully. The Captain might be a softie with a scary face, but they all knew how scary he was when he gets mad.

And so, Yuri started taking charge of all the household ch.o.r.es in the 《Scarlet Lynx》.