Chapter 132 – Sarah the Foodie (1/2)
Yum!”
Chomp slurp munch slurp
”More!”
”Yea, yea...”
I grabbed the outstretched bowl and topped it off with some more borscht, dabbed a spoonful of sour cream, and handed the steaming bowl back to the dirty woman who's lips were dyed so red if I didn't know better, I would've sworn she was either wearing someone with no concept of moderation regarding lipstick, or a recently gorging vampire.
The fact that she was gorging though, did match that latter perception to a reasonable degree at least.
The bright red stew who's colour even stimulated my own appetite a little, ruined only by the what dollop which acted like a garnish, was quickly disappearing as the woman in dirty armour.
”The colour's a bit scary, but it's not bad.”
”Tasty!”
”Hot!”
”I'm a vampire too now!”
Together along with the woman who had appeared out of nowhere, the fairies were enjoying the borscht as well, though going at it at a much more sensible rate. One of them was showing off how red her mouth had gotten after chewing the bright red beets.
As they all ate, my eyes ran up and down Sarah's figure.
She was still wearing that same pearl white plate armour and even had that sword of hers still on her belt. Her helmet was placed on the ground beside her though, blending in surprisingly well into the light snow which covered the forest floor this winter despite all the grime and old blood splatters which covered it.
As there still wasn't many buildings large enough to accompany full sized people on this side of our little country, we opted to eat outside all due to the weirdo who came all the way to the middle of nowhere for no ascertainable reason.
Reluctantly, I quickly set up some cooking equipment and boiled up a large pot of borscht. And the way she ate it, it seemed like she was fine with having nothing but it.
Frankly, even though my own diet forced me to consume nothing but blood, I still would be pretty bored of having to feed from the exact same source all the time. It was really fortunate that different monsters had their own unique flavours. Even similar appearing monsters could taste quite different.
That aside...
”I've got to say I'm pretty impressed by the work you did on this though.”
I held up the rifle Sarah had made using the one I gave her as a base.
The barrel was quite long, the whole thing standing about as tall as I was, on top of being quite large. I could easily fit my thumb inside, even if my hands were a bit small. The rifling inside was a clearly defined octagon and ran quite smoothly through the body. On the other side, the stock was a bit hefty but shaped to be easily cradled on the shoulder, and there was even a shaped cheek piece.
Then there was the action itself. Instead of the break apart design of my own version, there was a bolt handle which rotated and slid to reveal the chamber to insert a new bullet. And to add to that, there was even a trigger which lead to a valve connecting the back of the bullet to a reinforced chamber inside of the stock for prepressurized gasses which gets released all at once when the trigger was pulled. It was far better than simply propelling the bullet as the water inside of the expansion chamber boiled off like in my version.
I was thoroughly impressed as I felt around the internal system with my shadow.
”Mihte! Ith thook a tohm ohv wohk!”
”Eat or speak. Choose one.”
I gave the red mouthed woman a glare.
She in turn alternated her gaze between the bowl of borscht in her hand and the rifle which her outstretched spoon pointed at. Looking back and forth, twice, then three times, before sheepishly swallowing before bringing her spoon to her bowl and lifting more food to her mouth.
(Seriously?! She picked the exact same way as Claret?!)
In the end, I gave up and just put the weapon back down beside the armoured woman as she continued to eat.
I've checked it out as well as I wanted and there wasn't really any questions which I was interested in asking. Guns weren't really a field which held much interest for me anymore. Not when I had the power of magic and could fly even better than an airplane.
”More!”
”Yea, yea...”
I had no idea how this woman managed to fit so much food inside of her body though. While it was difficult to tell since it wasn't like plate armour conformed to the shape of its wearer's body and had plenty of gaps to help absorb and deflect impacts, unless if she had an unusual body type, just looking at her face told me that she was pretty thin under all that metal.
In fact, her cheeks were pretty sunken. If memory served me right, and while it often didn't in these sorts of cases, I was pretty sure she had lost quite a bit of weight since the last time we had met.
(Is it due to travelling so far since we last saw each other?)
Unlike me, she was merely human. She was limited to the same sort of travel methods as most people of this world, and so was quite slow at getting anywhere. Travelling long distance was also quite arduous if you weren't used to it.
Things were much, much worse the moment you stopped following the roads as well if you couldn't fly, and there wasn't a single road which lead to this place.
(Just why did she even come here in the first place?)
I couldn't help but wonder, but outright asking could wait until she was finished eating. Presuming that the stomach of hers wasn't bottomless.
When making her borscht, I had used one of those massive restaurant grade pots remembering how the smaller pot I had used the first time ended being cleaned out by her, as well as the fact that the fairies would complain if I didn't have enough to serve them as well.
Sarah did glare at them a bit at first, so maybe that was part of the reason why she was practically racing to get her next serving?
Regardless, it would be nice if she could still fit in her armour once she was done. While there were gaps in lots of key places under those sturdy plates, the waist didn't seem to be one of them, and was even pinched slightly there.
Sarah was human. She didn't have the luxury of an unchanging figure like I did. Maybe because of that, I ended up being concerned about her getting fat from eating so much. Then again, it would be good for her cheeks to fill out a bit. Being so underweight was almost as bad as being overweight.
Maybe it isn't so bad to feed this poor woman a bit.
”So, why did you come here anyways?”
Sarah still had some borscht in her bowl, but she struggled to bring another spoonful to her mouth. Despite that, she refused to abandon her bowl, and kept making greedy glances at the huge pot which was still a third full.
More fairies had come to sample the new dish, but as it wasn't particularly sweet, the crowd wasn't that big, and very few asked for a second serving. The fact that their bowls were comparatively small to suit their bodies meant that despite their numbers, they couldn't deprive the weird woman of her favourite food.
”I wanted your schteev.”
”...That's it?”
”That's it.”
(Seriously?!)
But the expression she was making suggested that this woman was entirely serious.
”A while back, I noticed that you stopped moving, so I tried heading to where you were.”
”Wait, you knew where I was?”
”Yea. Since you made me your familiar, I could feel where you where when I concentrated, so I kept checking here and there. I was hoping you'd come back to Knossos and I could get another pot of schteev from you then.”
That made sense. At least the tracking bit. It was the same thing that I was capable of, but as I had no reason to bother checking where Sarah was, I didn't know what she was doing. I never really bothered asking Claret if she could do the same to me, but it wasn't really a surprise she could when I thought about it.
”I spent the last few months heading this way. Even when you did move, you quickly went back to where you started, so I figured that this was where you made your home.”
”Ah, I see.”
”The last month was really rough though. This forest was so huge, and there were so many strong monsters. I kept checking to see if I had made a mistake, but that feeling kept saying that you really were this way. Thinking about the schteev you made was the only way I managed to make it this far.”
”You got this far because of food?”
Seriously?
”I did! I ran out of food a few times on the way, and got sick several times eating monster meat as well. Not sure what went wrong. Isn't meat supposed to be better when it's still red rather than all brown? Anyways, all I had was my dreams of eating your hot schteev to keep me going. Ah! It was so good! Your schteev was even better than last time too! I can die happy now!”
(This woman...)
”Then you don't mind if I kill you then, you smelly dung beetle?”
”Quit that.”
”But Master...!”
”I mean it. She hasn't done anything yet. Have this instead.”
”Yes, Master...”
In an attempt to placate this overprotective goose, I handed over a mana treat. It wasn't one of the special ones I usually gave her, but giving her something immediately was more important than getting her a better one later.
Like they say, imperfect action is better than perfect inaction.
Claret was a bit hesitant at first, but the moment she bit into her snack, her expression loosened up all at once and the world around her disappeared entirely.
”So the only reason why you came all this way was to eat my cooking?”
”Yup!”
”Seriously?”
”I am!”
Sarah looked me in the eye with as serious of an expression as she was capable of. The fact that it was entirely ruined by all the red around her mouth wasn't lost to me though.
”And that's why...”
Miraculously, the woman with the unorthodox makeup put her bowl to the side, surprising me.
What didn't surprise me as much, was her kowtowing to me.
”I beg of you. Let me eat your schteev everyday, and I'll do anything.”
And delivering her most heartfelt words, which more repelled me rather than made me feel for her.
Normally you begged for something really important in exchange for your services, rather than some food, right?
But realistically speaking, this girl was probably quite similar to myself in certain ways. She had the power to do whatever she wanted, but had nothing in particular to do. She had no real ambitions, and no real forces keeping her bound to anything.
Things were a little different at the very beginning, but once I forcibly relieved her of her mission, there wasn't a thing for her to want or chase after. He had no life to live, yet all of her life ahead of her.
If I hadn't meat Alicia, I'd have probably ended up wandering around with nothing to do once I finished clearing the dungeon. Even that wasn't really much of an objective, as I was just doing it for fun.
Even worse, I was a vampire. That meant that I had a much longer amount of time to be lost in.
Frankly speaking, I couldn't really guarantee that it wouldn't happen either. Once Alicia grew up, I'd be lost as to what to do as well. It was doubtful that by the time she became independent that I'd haven't finished the dungeon, and once that happened, I'd have no real reason to continue supporting the Hourai Commonwealth either. There wasn't any need for me to maintain control over the dungeon as my own goals would have been accomplished and I could easily get enough blood to survive anywhere.
For Sarah, this borscht was basically the same as Alicia was to me. It was her reason for living, as she didn't really have anything else to live for. Maybe we'll find our own purpose beyond our immediate goals in the future, but such a thing wasn't certain.
I couldn't really pity this woman, or even belittle her for finding a dish more important than her well being.
It was quite amazing, but the very fact that I could sympathize with her just showed me how similar the two of us were.
But there was one thing I was a bit confused about.
”Why me? I mean, it's a dish, and I gave you the recipe already. Couldn't you just make it yourself?”
”I did, but no matter how hard I tried, it wasn't anywhere close to as good as the one you made for me. Maybe my [Cooking] skill was too low at rank three, or maybe you're just better than me at it.”
The skill could be the only difference. I thought I had taught her everything she needed to know about making borscht, but it was possible the [Cooking] skill made that much of a difference.
”Well, I guess that's fine. But I think you should work on raising your cooking skill anyways. It'll be better if you were able to make it just as well as I could.”
”Yes! Thank you!”
Once again Sarah lowered her head and pressed it against the snow.
If Alicia could see this, she'd probably have something to say about it.
But maybe it was better that she didn't see it.
I couldn't help but wonder as I gently stroked my ever expanding belly.
”By the way, can I take the rest of the schteev?”
”...Sure.”
”Haa...this again?”
”If you don't like it, I'll take it.”
”Stop, you gluttonous fool. I will eat it. But no matter how delicious a food is, it is hard to continue eating the same thing every day.”
”It's not the same though. She served variety with the schteev this time.”
As if to emphasize on the point, Sarah skewered a potato and sheep cheese filled pierogi and waved it in the face of her dining companion before scooping some sour cream from her bowl and devouring the dumpling whole.
”Mmmm! You really make the best vareny as well Scarlet! Everything you make is so good! How about some garlic bread next time?”
”I'll think about it.”
I turned away as I answered.
As much as I liked seeing how much this woman enjoyed her meals, the scent of garlic was a bit harsh for me. Even trying to use something like garlic spread would assault my nose to the point that I'd worry it might affect Alicia inside of me.