Cooking Swordmaster [EN]: Chapter 119

Gourmet Dish

Keinzel put the buttermilk chicken made by Oracle into his mouth.

He tasted the crispy skin and the tender meat, perfectly fried to preserve the juices.

‘Delicious.’

The sauce lightly brushed on the skin was especially unique.

Keinzel savored the flavor with his entire tongue, realizing that the sauce was made by mixing honey with coarsely ground peppercorns.

‘Fragrant and deliciously spicy honey? So, there’s a way to cook like this.’

He understood why Goethe had constantly praised the buttermilk chicken while eating it.

[You have tasted the 5-star dish ‘Buttermilk Chicken with Collard Greens.’]

[Due to the influence of the Gourmet level, you have absorbed the experience and aura contained in the dish.]

······.

···.

[Your level has increased!]

Keinzel’s eyes widened.

He knew Oracle’s cooking skills were impressive, but he didn’t expect her to be able to create a 5-star dish.

If Oracle’s body had been normal, wouldn’t she already be a very famous chef?

As expected of a 5-star dish, it gave him a tremendous amount of experience.

Keinzel’s level rose to 57 in an instant.

“Thank you so much. I wouldn’t have regained my health this much if it weren’t for you, Sir Keinzel.”

Oracle decided to stay at Well-ride Manor for a while.

As long as there were people targeting the chef, it was dangerous to wander around carelessly.

“But is your friend okay? He looked really dangerous…”

“He will have to focus on treatment for at least two months. Still, it’s fortunate that Caroline is constantly casting miracles on him.”

Keinzel also planned to stay here until Abel and Nimue’s wounds healed.

However, he didn’t know when Count Algedi would find out that Nimue was alive.

He had to develop the strength to fight the Sword Master before that happened.

Oracle, who had been watching Keinzel eat the buttermilk chicken with a pleased expression, got up from her seat.

“Sir Keinzel, there’s one thing I’m concerned about. Would you like to try handling some fish?”

“Fish, you say?”

Keinzel went to the kitchen and prepared salmon for steak, recalling when he had acquired the ‘Disarm’ skill.

Oracle’s face showed surprise when she saw the neatly prepared salmon.

“You’ve even removed the fat attached to the skin so cleanly. It’s hard for me to do that… But there are some salmon dishes that use the skin.”

“Even the skin?”

He had definitely heard of such dishes.

“Yes, even the skin. And sometimes we grill it without removing the fat. Perhaps Sir Keinzel needs this.”

Oracle took a small book out of her pocket.

“This is…”

“My father said he wrote down the techniques I would need when I stood in the kitchen someday.”

Keinzel widened his eyes and began to skim through the book titled ‘Health Kitchen.’

It contained various cooking techniques that Gordon Lambolton had secretly researched.

‘How to dress fish according to its use… How to cook delicious rice with basmati rice… The types of dishes that go well with hors d’oeuvres…’

It contained everything Keinzel had learned so far.

It felt as if it had been left for Keinzel rather than Oracle.

‘Wait… What? If you prepare it this way, you can capture the flavor of the fat under the salmon skin in the dish?’

Keinzel frantically flipped through the pages of Health Kitchen.

Then he felt it for sure.

‘There are ways to fill my shortcomings here. If I learn all of this…’

Surely the cooking skills he had would be upgraded.

Oracle smiled brightly and said.

“I hope you accept it. Don’t feel pressured. I can already do everything that’s written there.”

Keinzel felt like he knew why Oracle’s cooking skills were so outstanding.

The disease had taken away Oracle’s life force and stamina, but it had not touched her passion for cooking.

“Thank you for entrusting me with such a precious item.”

Oracle shook her head, smiling as brightly as a blooming flower.

“This is nothing compared to what Sir Keinzel has given me.”

@

The industrial zone, Crollt, was a name that combined six villages and three cities.

Its size was nearly twice that of Britannia’s capital, Britain.

Zeke unfolded a map of the entire Britannia.

His finger pointed to the Forever River, which led to Crollt.

“Brother, to get to Crollt, we have to take a ship from Britain.”

“Hmm…”

That would take almost ten days just to arrive.

Besides, going to Britain, where Emperor Aslan and Hector were staying, was still unsettling.

‘If there’s another route, it’s that one.’

The Red Mountains were full of dangerous monsters.

However, merchants, for whom time was money, had created paths where there were none.

They dug tunnels that crossed underground, passing directly through monster habitats.

It was unknown what they used to dig the tunnels.

However, it was an anecdote that clearly showed the merchants’ determination for money.

“Wouldn’t it be difficult to use the tunnels? Big brother doesn’t have any shares in the tunnels.”

The Edelweiss Company had opposed digging tunnels to the end, citing the risk.

In the end, to use the tunnels, they had to go through another company.

Keinzel was troubled as he looked at the list of companies that owned shares in the tunnels.

Then a familiar name caught his eye.

‘Oh! The Great Deer Company also has shares in the tunnels.’

Lorenzo de Medici, the head of the Great Deer Company. He was the man he had met at the ball that Frellia had attended for the first time.

‘He definitely told me to contact him anytime if I wanted to join him in business, right?’

Keinzel sent a letter to Lorenzo.

The reply came back in less than three hours.

Moreover, the head of the Great Deer Company himself brought it.

It seemed they also had some minor problems.

“Hahaha! It’s as if the goddess of fair trade and honest merchants is helping us!”

He introduced himself as Tas. His bear-like, innocent eyes were strangely endearing.

“I was about to depart on a business trip, but the mercenary who was supposed to escort us ran away, saying he had a disturbing dream.”

Since ancient times, mercenaries and sailors have been susceptible to superstition. However, it is rare for them to break contracts in this way.

“For a mercenary to run away… He must have had a pretty scary dream.”

“That’s what I’m saying. But I think it’s all Deus’s [God’s] arrangement to meet Sir Keinzel!”

Keinzel was a Sword Knight who had even defeated the Wolf King.

Who would refuse to be protected by such a skilled person?

‘Besides, my identity is guaranteed by Lorenzo…’

It was understandable that Tas was making such a fuss.

Thus, Keinzel and Zeke easily joined the Great Deer Company’s business trip.

Unlike his taciturn appearance, Tas was a talkative man.

From the moment the business trip started, he kept talking non-stop.

“We’ve only known each other for a day, but I feel a strong connection with Sir Keinzel. Do you happen to know what’s loaded in the wagon?”

“…Judging from the small volume, it doesn’t seem to be food or leather. Then it must be valuables.”

“That’s right. Magic stones. Crollt is the best magic stone consumption area, isn’t it? I only deal with magic stones freshly mined from the northern dungeons. They are highly pure and sell for a very high price.”

A bitter smile appeared on Keinzel’s lips.

If it was the northern dungeon, wasn’t that the very place where he had caught the werewolf Sirius?

As the wagon passed through a large tunnel, Zeke made a fuss.

“Brother! I’ve never seen such a big tunnel! Wow, wow! It’s really big! How did they dig it?”

“The dwarves in Crollt must have dug it. They are masters of mining who can do things that humans can’t do without any difficulty.”

In Crollt, there was a village of dwarves, few of whom remained in Britannia.

They were skilled craftsmen who worked as miners and blacksmiths.

They dug into the ground to mine minerals and cut down trees to use as fuel to smelt iron.

‘It’s a good thing Nimue isn’t with us.’

Elves couldn’t even stand breathing in the same place as dwarves.

The same was true for dwarves.

They were like water and oil that could never mix.

‘At this speed, we should be able to reach Crollt tomorrow.’

Mana tools that emitted bright light were embedded here and there in the tunnel.

Instead of replacing torches every time, using mana tools, even if they were a little expensive, would allow them to be used semi-permanently.

‘It’s really bigger than I thought. At this rate, I’d believe it even if it was a dragon’s lair.’

“We should be able to reach our destination in about half a day. No monsters can enter the tunnel. You can rest comfortably.”

It was then.

Thump-!

Suddenly, the entire tunnel began to vibrate.

Dust fell from the walls made of thick bricks.

A small but heavy reverberation.

‘What is it, could it be…’

Keinzel’s expression hardened, and Tas waved his hand with an indifferent expression.

“Hahaha! You don’t have to worry about it collapsing. It’s made very strong so that it won’t collapse even if a dragon wrestles on top of it.”

Then why is it shaking so uneasily!

The wagon was already about halfway through the tunnel. It was an ambiguous situation to turn back.

Thump-!

Thud thud thud thud…!

The ground continued to rumble. This was not a normal movement.

It was the horses pulling the wagon that noticed the anomaly.

Suddenly, they started foaming at the mouth and rampaging.

For the first time, agitation appeared in Tas’s eyes.

“Huh? That’s strange. Usually, it ends after thumping a few times…”

‘Damn it, this isn’t just a tremor of the earth’s veins!’

Keinzel jumped out of the wagon and put his ear to the ground. Then he felt the thumping sound getting closer and closer.

‘Fallen Star!’

He reflexively activated Fallen Star [a combat skill].

Then he felt a huge hostility hidden deep in the ground.

At least 10 meters in size. There was only one thing that lived underground with such a large body.

“Sand worm? Could it be that this was a sand worm habitat?”

“T, that can’t be! Even when carrying so many magic stones, sand worms have never appeared!”

The tunnel was vibrating as if it would collapse at any moment.

Sand worms that had not even been stimulated by magic stones. What on earth had attracted it?

Suddenly, Keinzel thought of the dragon meat in his dimensional pocket.

It was the best ingredient with tremendous mana.

Perhaps what the sand worm was aiming for was…

Whoooooooooo!

And the sand worm’s massive body appeared, breaking through the tunnel wall.

Keinzel bit his lip. There was a possibility that the entire tunnel would collapse if he made a mistake. He had to defeat the sand worm before that happened.

‘But I heard that sand worms are a delicacy in the Ottoman Empire.’

Aura emitting a brilliant light dwelled in the Mithril Sword.

Gourmet Dish #2