Chapter 312

After the noisy dinner, the group went downstairs to do the dishes as usual. Marin, who had been chattering all day, started dozing off as her stomach filled, so we left her in Mari’s room and returned to my room.

The satisfaction from cooking fades away after the meal, leaving behind a slight sense of exhaustion and quietness.

On days when I eat alone, that exhaustion and quietness can feel a bit lonely, but on days like today when I’ve served a satisfying meal, the feeling of satisfaction outweighs the loneliness.

“Hoo… Today’s meal wasn’t bad either.”

But today, even after finishing the meal, I couldn’t bask in that satisfaction.

Marin, the mermaid from the sea beyond Leila.

Surely, the information she’s hiding holds the key to solving this strange phenomenon, but the problem is that she’s not willing to open up to us easily.

It’s understandable.

From her actions and words, it seems the mermaid species as a whole greatly fears and avoids humans.

If her secret is tied to something sensitive, like the safety of her species or the location of their village, it’s no wonder she wouldn’t easily reveal it to us, given her fear of humans.

Anyone would do the same.

That’s why cooking is necessary.

Specifically, incredibly delicious cooking.

Most problems between people can be solved with delicious food.

Just like how she started dozing off after dinner, regardless of her will, when people eat delicious food and feel full, they instinctively relax, and their inner tensions and stress melt away.

Delicious food has the power to move people’s hearts more than any eloquent speech.

This is my perfect plan.

But there’s one problem with my meticulous plan.

It’s the speed at which her wounds are healing.

Fortunately, her wounds are shallower than we expected, comparable to a human sprained ankle.

It’s a relief that the injury isn’t severe enough to leave lifelong aftereffects, but it also means I don’t have much time.

Right now, we’re keeping her under the pretext of caring for her until her wounds heal, but once they do, she’ll likely leave Leila and return to the sea.

If we try to keep her longer, even someone as clueless as her might suspect we have ulterior motives.

If that happens, breaking down her walls and building trust will be impossible.

It would essentially be a failure.

And at most, she’ll fully recover in a week.

At the longest, maybe two weeks…

Even if she seems foolish, she wouldn’t share information that could harm her species with someone she barely knows.

It won’t be easy.

But I have to do it.

I need to build a relationship of trust with her within two weeks at most.

Will her guard come down faster, or will my cooking melt her tongue first…?

Can I break through her defenses and extract the information by then…?

Later, Mari, Karina, and Serena came to tell me they’d finished the dishes, and I gathered them to explain my plan.

And so, the first day came to an end.

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The next day arrived.

After much deliberation, what I need to do hasn’t changed.

For me, it’s about making the best possible food to satisfy her palate.

Yesterday, I thoughtlessly served assorted fish cakes without considering her species’ different lifestyle and culture.

Fortunately, Marin ate the fish cakes without any cultural or taste-related aversion, which was a relief.

Mermaids are a species shrouded in mystery, even more so than vampires, who are known to suffer fatal food poisoning from garlic.

If the fish cakes I served yesterday had been something mermaids couldn’t digest, like how elves can’t handle meat, it would’ve been a disaster.

So today, I decided to play it safe.

With that, I headed to the kitchen to prepare the meal.

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.

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“Here. It’s done.”

*Clatter*

*Bubbling*

“Soup, a broth dish…!”

“Wow…! What kind of dish is this?!”

Karina’s eyes lit up as she saw the broth dish I brought, and Marin, not even knowing what it was, also looked excited and asked me.

“Ah. You don’t know? This is a dish called oden.”

“O…den?”

Yes.

The dish I chose was oden, made with the assorted fish cakes from yesterday.

A dish perfect for cold winter days, and one that fully utilized the fish cakes Marin had praised.

In my previous life, fish cakes and oden were often used interchangeably, but strictly speaking, in the country of oden’s origin, the two are distinctly different.

Fish cakes are literally made from fish.

But oden refers to a hot pot dish where ingredients like fish cakes and other side dishes are simmered in a broth.

In fact, even if fish cakes aren’t included, as long as the dish meets the criteria, it’s still called oden, making it a completely different dish from fish cakes.

Perhaps the widespread popularity of oden in snack bars and food stalls has led to the confusion between the two.

In that sense, the oden I made was closer to the original style rather than the snack bar or food stall style.

The broth was made with soy sauce as a base, simmered with fish bones and seaweed for umami, and included fish cakes made from man-eating piranha, thickly sliced radish, shiitake mushrooms, and boiled eggs.

Up to this point, the ingredients were fairly ordinary, but I also added beef tendon.

In Japan, it’s called “suji.”

Like all animals, tendons are tough and chewy if not cooked properly.

But when cooked correctly, their unique soft and chewy texture offers a distinct flavor unlike any other meat.

Rich in collagen and fat, the texture and taste are similar to tripe, but unlike tripe, which is attached to bones, tendons are surrounded by muscle tissue, giving them a meaty aroma.

Additionally, unlike the lumpy form of tripe, tendons are long and fibrous, making them easier to tear apart.

However, boiling them for just an hour or two isn’t enough; they need to be simmered for three to four hours to become tender, making them a dish not easily recommended for home cooking.

That’s why beef tendon dishes are typically time-consuming and more commonly found in professional restaurants.

But for oden, this characteristic is the opposite.

Oden requires long simmering to extract flavors from the ingredients, making it the perfect dish for cooking beef tendon. The tendon absorbs the flavors of the broth and other ingredients, becoming one with the oden.

And just as the tendon is influenced by the oden broth, the broth is also enriched by the tendon, as the umami-rich juices released during cooking blend into the broth.

Moreover, the broth from beef tendon, while not as rich as bone broth, is several times richer than broth made from regular meat.

Personally, I wanted to add tofu pockets and konjac to make it more authentic, but since those aren’t available in Leila, I had to give up.

Konjac, when fished out of the pot, has a bouncy surface with the oden broth dripping appetizingly, and biting into a tofu pocket releases a burst of oden broth, adding to the dish’s variety. It’s a shame.

“Mmm…! It’s seeping into my body…! On a cold winter day like this, a hot broth dish really warms you up from the inside!”

“Really! It’s not as shocking as the first bite of yesterday’s assorted fish cakes, but with every spoonful of broth, it feels like my fins are melting away!”

But despite my regrets, the oden was a huge hit.

Fortunately, it seems that both fried dishes and hot pot dishes suit the mermaid’s palate.

Being a dish that extracts the flavors of its ingredients into the broth, it’s hard to imagine anyone disliking it.

To make Marin’s meal even more enjoyable, I shared a tip.

“Ah, by the way, cut the boiled egg in half and soak it in the oden broth until the yolk absorbs the broth. It’s a delicacy.”

Egg yolks are dry, but that dryness means they easily absorb liquids.

The same principle applies when eating tteokbokki—some people crush the egg yolk and mix it with the broth for added flavor.

While soft-boiled eggs have their own charm, egg yolks soaked in oden broth are the epitome of oden.

“What?! I’ve been missing out on half the egg’s potential!”

“Kyaa!! But you can’t just spit out the egg you’ve already eaten!!”

“Hahahaha! The oden broth really soaks in, making it so delicious!!”

It seems the first day’s dish was a hit.

And so, the first day of gaining Marin’s trust ended with her fully satisfied.