Chapter 73

Logwin stared blankly at the stew Kurt had made, watching as others grabbed ladles to fill their bowls and began eating with delight. He snapped out of his daze.

“Wow, Mr. Kurt! It’s so delicious again today!”

Mari said this while picking out only the meat from the stew.

“Nothing beats a warm soup dish on a chilly night outdoors.”

Karina looked at Serena with a triumphant expression.

“Hmph, hmph! The stew isn’t bad either…”

Serena, embarrassed by Karina’s gaze, picked at the stew’s ingredients one by one.

Gulp.

‘Is it… really that good?’

A Lizardman and delicious food? As mismatched as fire and water spirits, or Elves and Dark Elves, the three of them genuinely enjoyed Kurt’s cooking.

‘Thinking about it, it was strange. If Kurt’s cooking were truly terrible, the others wouldn’t have stood by and watched.’

Logwin’s group could have stuck to preserved meals that didn’t require cooking or taken over the cooking themselves if necessary.

But they seemed to have no complaints about Kurt’s cooking, even happily eating what he made.

‘Is Kurt really that good at cooking?’

Only then did Logwin realize he might have been under a huge misconception.

Kurt’s confident cooking, the others enjoying his food, and the overwhelming aroma from the stew—it all pointed to one thing.

Especially the stew’s aroma, which directly stimulated his appetite, was an irresistible temptation.

It was an exotic scent he had never encountered before, but in the face of hunger, a universal language, such unfamiliarity posed no barrier.

“Then, I’ll dig in too…”

With significantly less resistance compared to his first invitation to Kurt’s cooking, Logwin scooped up a spoonful of the stew and brought it to his mouth.

…

Haaap.

The first thing he felt was the sweet and salty flavor unique to soy sauce-based bulgogi.

‘What… what is this? Sweetness?’

Sweetness was extremely rare in nature before mass production of sugar became possible.

Occasionally, one might taste a bit of it from seasonal fruits.

Even with unimproved varieties, the sweetness was much weaker compared to fruits from Kurt’s previous life, but it was enough to satisfy the average human in this world.

The only other source of intense sweetness was honey, but honey was rarer than fruit and also used medicinally, making it unsuitable for casual snacking.

Let alone sugar, which wasn’t mass-produced.

White sugar could be worth its weight in silver, depending on the region.

‘But this sweetness in the stew…? Surely, he didn’t use sugar for a meal during travel…? Did he use some kind of magic?’

But his astonishment didn’t end with the sweetness.

The salty flavor that harmonized with the sweetness was different from ordinary salt.

It lacked the cheap, pungent smell of low-grade salt and was distinct from the clean taste of expensive, high-grade salt.

‘Was this salty flavor the source of that exotic aroma?’

The deep, savory flavor of the soy sauce combined with the meat and mushrooms to create an indescribable harmony.

The warmth of the broth not only dispelled the chill of the spring evening but also seemed to soothe his entire body.

After swallowing the broth, he naturally closed his eyes and let out a contented sigh.

‘This… it’s like it’s gently healing my body, sore from battling monsters.’

Satisfied with just the broth, he looked back at the bowl and noticed the Scorpion-tailed Wolf meat.

Gulp.

‘Ah, right. This is a meat dish.’

Only then did Logwin realize he had been so engrossed in the broth that he forgot the essence of the dish.

In an instant, satisfaction was replaced by anticipation.

‘Clearly, the meat was a sinister crimson when he cooked it.’

The Scorpion-tailed Wolf’s meat should have been a normal red, like other animals’, but it had turned a dark crimson in a short time.

It was a color more likely to repel than entice appetite, and rationally, combining Lizardman taste buds and culinary norms, it was an ominous food not recommended for consumption.

Even the cooked meat’s color was unnaturally close to a dark gray.

But his rationality, no matter how much it protested, held no power over Logwin, who was already completely enchanted by the stew’s broth.

‘If the broth is this good, how much more…’

Gulp.

Having tasted the broth, his appetite only grew, and he no longer sensed any ominousness in Kurt’s cooking. He scooped up a large spoonful of the monster’s bulgogi and put it in his mouth.

Haaap.

Chew… chew…

‘Ugh!?’

After a few chews, Logwin’s eyes widened as he realized something.

The rich aroma from the stew’s broth.

It was merely a trace.

Like footprints left on snow or mana waves from a mage’s spell…

The heavenly broth he had tasted was just a trace emanating from this bulgogi.

Realizing this, Logwin felt chills run down his spine, despite the warmth from the broth.

‘What kind of food is this!?’

Of course, the star of the stew wasn’t the broth but the ingredients within. But Logwin had forgotten this simple fact, overwhelmed by the broth’s flavor.

As he ate the bulgogi, he tasted the sweetness and saltiness controlled by soy sauce and sugar, with pepper masking the meat’s gaminess and adding a spicy aroma. The oil amplified the umami from the fatty parts.

Unlike the thick steaks he was used to, this thinly sliced meat, marinated and curled, held the stew’s broth in its wrinkles like pockets.

With each chew, he felt a concentrated essence of the broth he had just tasted.

Each bite sent shivers down his spine, compelling him to keep eating.

Logwin, as if possessed, alternated between meat, broth, mushrooms, more broth, and meat…

He ate the stew frantically, forgetting to share the meal with the others, as if he hadn’t eaten for days.

…

“Ah, I’m tired of jerky. It’s only been a day since we left, but I want to reach the city and have a proper meal.”

“Then why not join Kurt’s group and eat with them?”

At Jerry’s cold remark, Matilda laughed and waved her hand.

“Eh~. Joking aside, Kurt’s not a bad Lizardman, but Lizardman cooking is still a no-go.”

“Nyahaha. True. Lizardmen traded strong muscles and stamina for taste buds, after all.”

“Speaking of which, what do you think Logwin’s eating?”

“Probably some bloody meat with bitter, dirt-covered grass haphazardly thrown in a bowl. Nyahaha.”

“Thinking about that makes me grateful for jerky and oat bread. Hahaha.”

As they chatted, teasing the absent Logwin, Minya was the first to sense something odd.

With her keen feline senses, she caught a whiff of something delicious on the wind.

“Nya? Sniff. Sniff. Don’t you smell something delicious?”

“Eh. In a place like this? Wait… I do?”

“What?”

The other two closed their eyes, focusing on their sense of smell, and soon realized Minya was right.

“Mm~. It smells really good.”

“Ha! That merchant. Said they’d eat alone. Probably hogging all the good stuff.”

“How selfish!”

Assuming the delicious smell came from the merchant’s meal, they grumbled.

But grumbling wouldn’t make the smell disappear or bring the merchant to share, so they changed the subject.

If their pitiful situation wouldn’t change, it was better to console themselves by thinking of someone worse off.

“Well, at least we’re better off than Logwin.”

“True. At least we have something resembling a meal. He’s probably eating bloody meat with bitter grass in a bowl!”

“Compared to that, our situation is a blessing! Nyahaha!”

Comforting themselves with thoughts of Logwin’s worse meal, they continued eating their dry oat bread, washing it down with water.