Chapter 42: Abandoned Dog’s Pasta I (1/2)

【70th day】

I,

After an unexpected turn of events, was sent to an alternate world and am spending my days as an adventurer.

There were fun times, but there were also painful times.

I contracted with a beautiful god.

I also got (pretend) married.

I got a younger sister.

I met trustworthy party members. And then, parted with them.

After many twists and turns,

As I met and parted with people repeatedly, I grew just a little.

However, as an adventurer, I’m still a greenhorn.

Moreover, my personal evaluation is only getting worse due to the fact that my infamy had spread.

I must work hard. To clear my bad name, it would take several times as much fame. And as a party leader, I have to put my party members first.

From now on, I won’t let the party members in this party die no matter the reason.

This is one thing that I’ll definitely fulfill.

Should there be a next time that someone is to be sacrificed, then it’ll be me. I haven't said anything about this to the other party members, but it's my atonement for letting my friend die and the fate that I had decided for myself.

This is one thing that I’ll definitely fulfill. It’s my pride and my duty.

With fresh determination, we explored the dungeon.

It was tough after all. There were no easy paths. It was a cycle of moving forward and going back, but little by little, we turned it to food and advanced. It wasn’t as if I had time to spare. But I didn’t let myself get impatient, and moved cautiously at walking speed.

That is our adventure.

Putting that aside, I’m boiling pasta right now.

For some reason, I’m boiling pasta.

It all started five days ago.

Nine cargo ships owned by Libera・Araruledo, a wealthy merchant from the center continent, arrived at the port near the Kingdom of Lemuria. Rather than say they arrived, it might be more accurate to say that they somehow limped into port on the verge of shipwreck.

Having plunged into a storm in order to escape from pirates, the fleet was half-destroyed, and the masts of all of the remaining ships had broken, leaving them to be swept by the currents towards the right continent………………It was a story like that.

The cargo onboard the ships was wheat from the left continent.

There was a large amount of it.

Putting it simply, if it was all made into bread, it would be equivalent to three years of the kingdom's consumption of it.

The wheat, which was originally supposed to be bound for the center continent, was sold by Araruledo to the Kingdom of Lemuria at a low price. It might be better to call it a giveaway price.

I’m going to go off on a small tangent here.

There is a Japanese term called “staple food”.

It’s a concept that isn't very prevalent in Western countries and so on. That's because the food called rice has a good balance of nutrients. If two dishes are also added to it, it’s a perfect food that’s enough for a person to live on everyday.

In that respect, there are many people who eat the food called wheat in the sense that “it’s the food they mainly eat”, but I don’t hear much about things like it’s taste, nutritional balance, or eating a wheat-only diet every day.

Here, the dietary habits of the Kingdom of Lemuria were Western.

Wheat, potatoes, meat, and beans were the dominant portion of their diet, and they filled their stomachs with various other ingredients.

In this situation, even though it was cheap, there was no place for wheat from other continents.

And even though it was cheap, it had to priced higher than whole wheat flour, which was unrefined wheat. Circulating strange price-disrupting products would cause confusion in the market. As it was sold to the kingdom directly, it couldn’t be priced in a way that had adverse effects on merchants.

In addition, wheat from the left continent was more yellowish compared to wheat from the right continent. From the perspective of a person unfamiliar with such things, it looked like it had gone bad.

Also, it wasn’t very suitable for making bread.

It was the type that was hard, chewy on the inside and had a uniquely coarse texture.

As a trial run, I had a baker in the kingdom bake it for sale, but it was very unpopular.

To me, it didn’t have a particularly bad taste or texture, but it didn’t surpass the taste of the bread that was currently in circulation. In the first place, to defeat an existing food, it needed to be tastier, cheaper or more convenient.

The wheat from the left continent didn’t meet any of those requirements.

And the clincher was,

Araruledo, who had sold the wheat, had fled the right continent. He had run away without saying anything about the original cooking method of the left continent.

I’ll touch on the reason for that later, but what remained was a large amount of wheat. There were people from the left continent in the kingdom, but none of them had a solid background in cooking.

For that reason, I received an order from the king.

It was a broad order that said, ”Make something with this wheat.”

As an adventurer who was more or less affiliated with the Kingdom of Lemuria, I couldn’t very well refuse.

For some reason, the king had confused me for a foreigner chef. I mean, the food that I served the king was instant ramen, and it was cooking that was at the level that would get me beaten black and blue by my deceased grandfather if I confessed to him that I had served royalty something like instant ramen, but for some reason, and in a very troublesome way, I had been mistaken as someone who’s good at cooking.

To be honest, I've already exceeded the limit in terms of recipes, I tell you.

In any case, I had the A.I. that I had brought over to this world analyze it first.

The wheat from the left continent was very similar to modern world’s Semolina flour.

In short, it was wheat suitable for pasta.

Thus, I ended up boiling pasta.

「Well then, first is to boil it. As for the amount of water, you should have enough for the pasta to be moderately immersed. There should be 2 percent salt in the water」

「Excuse me-nya. How much is that 2 percent that you mentioned-nya?」

An adorable blonde-haired cat beastkin asked me after raising her hand.

「I see. There’s no concept of percentages here, huh」

「Nya?」

Other than her, there were about 30 people of all kinds who were involved with eateries in front of me. Further behind them, a steady flow of adventurers, who were passing by, came and went as they came to see what was going on.

I was in front of the main store of the Zavua merchant company, which was located on the main street of the Kingdom of Lemuria.

Cooking utensils had been laid out on a long table, signboards had been put up and people were being invited to take a look.

Written on the signboards was 『New dishes, cooking methods, explanatory sessions. Free, take note, it’s free!』 in the alternate world language. I had also borrowed people from the merchant company to call out to those who were illiterate.

「For a pot of water like this, add this amount of salt」

The capacity of the stock pot was about 6 liters. I measured out the appropriate amount of salt by eye and added it in. I also put the pasta in.

「I see-nya」

The blonde-haired beastkin, Tyutyu, noted it down.

The pasta that I had just put in was dried pasta.

It was produced by the materials collection section・butchering department of the Adventurers’ Guild.

It was something that I had made after renting the smoking room on the 3rd floor of the dungeon.

It was the first time I had made dried pasta, so its shape was a little bad. It had warped subtly. Also, the smell of bacon had seeped into it.

「The time needed for the pasta to become soft is until the sand in this hourglass that comes with every purchase runs out」

That would take about 10 minutes.

「By the way, how much does one of those bags of pasta cost-nya?」

Bags containing dried pasta had been lined up next to the cooking stand.

At Tyutyu’s question, the people behind her also perked up their ears.

「Each bag of this dried pasta that’s produced directly under the Adventurers' Guild contains 5 ruths of pasta and costs 9 copper coins. As a special offer for right now, it comes with an hourglass that can be used to tell the boiling time」

『………………』

I had expected it, but the reaction was bad.

「It’s expensive-nya」

「Expensive, isn’t it?」

「No way. I’m leaving」

「Let’s go」

About three beastkin turned to leave.

By the way, with regards to the prices in the Kingdom of Lemuria, one loaf of bread cost one copper coin. It was a loaf bigger than a person's face and still, it cost one copper coin.

This was the city of adventurers. Most adventurers ate well.

If I converted one meal of an average adventurer into its equivalent amount in pasta, it would be 300g. Thinking simply, that would mean that each bag was 8 servings. As something to sell to others, that made it a bit tricky to set the price. Especially in stores operated by beastkin and such, simple calculation showed that it wouldn’t be profitable.

「Now now, please wait」

I took out the flour made from the wheat from the left continent.

「”Specially” for the people here, I'll teach the method of making the pasta from this flour」

「Seriously-nya?!」

Starting with Tyutyu, everyone’s attitude changed. The beastkin who had been about to leave also came back.

「Well then, first, put two handfuls of flour onto the cutting board」

I made a mountain of wheat flour.

「Eggs go right here」

I dug a hole in the middle and broke two chicken eggs into it.

「Today, I’m using eggs from the Zavua merchant company, but there are no problems with using the egg liquid of the large egg as well」

I took out a fork and mixed the egg and wheat.

「You aren’t pouring water in-nya?」

「Don’t pour water in-nya」

「I see-nya」

Her way of speaking had rubbed off on me-nya.

I mixed it, and when it had become a lump to some extent,

「After kneading it well and letting it rest, it becomes like this」

I replaced it with the finished product casually.

『？！』

For some reason, everyone was surprised.

「Well, work the dough the same way as when you’re making bread, and when it’s about the same hardness as an earlobe, please let it rest in a cool place for half a day」

Next, I took out a rolling pin,

「Flatten it out as thinly as possible……and it becomes like this」

『？！』

I replaced it with an already flattened one.

「After that, cut it as thinly as possible……」

I placed the cutting board in a hidden space in the cooking stand, and in exchange,

「……and it becomes like this」

I took out the raw pasta that had already been cut into thin strips.

『Woahh!』