Slave Harem in the Labyrinth of the Other World (LN)

Volume 3 - Ch 5.11

The most important thing is to not allow whats happening around me to get to my head too much. Thats the safest thing to do after all. Do that, and nothing will be able to stand in your way, inconvenience you or upset you.

Rapid Rabbit jumped towards me with it teeth bared, but I just slashed it diagonally with Durandal. See? If you take the calm and collected approach to the fight, there will be nothing that will be able to stand in my way, even allowing me to seize victory without having to rely on Overwhelming too much.

After suffering a direct hit from me, the monster changed the course of its actions and this time opted for charging towards Roxanne, but even that attempt has failed, because she shifted her upper body slightly to avoid the incoming attack and then immediately countered with a fast spinning slash. That attack alone was enough to send the Rapid Rabbit flying backwards. Needless to say, its attack did not even reach her. I always thought that Roxanne should be kept as far away from the frontlines as possible since she does not have my levels of DPS, but even against a Floor Boss wielding overwhelming speed, she was still able to hold her ground. It is not that she is in danger here, she is the dangerous one! With her in the front and me in the back, this guy is already as good as dead!

GHYYYYYYYIIIIII!!!!!

It screamed as it took another hit from Roxannes Scimitar and switching its attention back to me. Sorry buddy, but now that you have taken so many hits, this next one is bound to be the last, so prepare yourself!

I used Overwhelming to slow the Rapid Rabbit down, and then unleashed a flurry of attacks on it while it was completely defenseless and at my mercy, or rather, the lack of it. There can be only one conclusion to it then: it falls onto the ground and disappears in a puff of green smoke, leaving behind another piece of Rabbit Meat.

Now this should take care of all the ingredients we need, right, master? I am so looking forward to our breakfast today.

Same here. By the way, how exactly should we cook the Rabbit Meat to get the most out of its flavor?

I asked Roxanne as she picked up the leftover Rabbit Meat from the boss.

Rabbit Meat is pretty versatile in that regard, being able to be prepared in a variety of ways, so the more appropriate question here would be: how would master like it to be prepared?

Well Even though she asked that of me, I cannot really answer that since I have never cooked rabbit meat before. She says that there is a myriad of ways po prepare it, but which one would be the correct one? You might think that this is a pretty trivial matter, but to me it is actually rather important. My mother died when I was a very young lad, so throughout the most of my life I had to learn how to cook, since my father was an asshole who could not prepare even the simplest of meals even if his life depended on it.

At first most of my attempts always ended in a culinary disaster one way or the other, but gradually, throughout the systematic process of continuous trial and error, I finally learned how to prepare pretty decent meals. But that was back on earth, where I had the modern technology that made the entire process that much easier, as well as a virtually limitless pool of ingredients I could choose from. But here, things are going to be a tad bit more difficult. Not only do I not have access to all the tools I was so getting used to handling, but the supply of ingredients is also heavily limited, meaning that if I want to make something truly tasty or exquisite, I will have to rack my brain pretty hard to achieve the desired results. The only saving grace is that this time around I am sharing my house with someone who also is able to cook, and she is more than willing to help me prepare the meals, so at the very least the entire work will not be riding solely on my shoulders.

That being said, throughout all those years where I had to cook for myself, I never once had to cook rabbit meat, or any kind of Japanese wild game for that matter. I know that it is generally said that pretty much all kinds of meat can be prepared in the same way but with different tweaks to them, but since this will be my first time doing something like that, I would like to know for sure how should I prepare it in order not to let a perfectly good piece of meat to go to waste or become heavily underutilized, forcing us to throw some of it out.

Hmm. In that case, how about preparing in in a Shema-yaki style?

Shema-yaki style?

Since she used the word yaki, then I am assuming this will have something to do with frying the meat?

Yes.

And how exactly does that work?

Basically, you just slice the Rabbit Meat and wrap it in Shema leaves before frying them.

Okay, sounds easy enough. What about those leaves? Are we going to have to buy them?

I think that will not be necessary. The Shema plants we planted in our herb garden should be sprouting about now, and there should be enough of its properly developed leaves to be harvested.

Roxanne explained to me. Recently, I noticed that she has been taking more initiative when she was talking with me, not limiting herself to only offer explanations for the myriad of questions that I was throwing her way on a daily basis. It is a very good thing, and I sincerely hope that she will continue to do so even more in the future.

Sounds good. Let us prepare it in this Shema-yaki style then.

All right!

This is the first time I have ever heard of such a dish, but since it is something recommended by Roxanne herself, then there is no way for it to be bad, so I agreed to her suggestion before she changed her mind. Personally I enjoy eating grilled meat to a great degree, so I cannot wait if this Shema-yaki is going to be on par with what I used to know in Japan. Well, of course it will not, but who knows, maybe I am in for a pretty pleasant surprise?

After we finished hunting for the Slow Rabbits, we briefly went to the town to buy bread and some vegetable that would be served together with the meat for our breakfast, and then we went back home.

While Roxanne went to the garden to gather all of the herbs we would need, I took it upon myself to do some preparations with the meat. First things first, I took the Kobold Knife that dropped from one of the Kobold Kampfers as a rare drop and whacked the meat with its blunt side for a minute or two. I do not know if rabbit meat is the kind of meat that has to be tenderized before it is actually cooked, but this method seems to be working for other kinds of meat like chicken, beef or pork, so it should probably be fine. When I was just about done with that task, Roxanne went through the door, carrying the herbs in her hands.

Done gathering herbs from the garden?

Yes. Thankfully, Shema is a type of herb that sprouts pretty quickly, so I had no trouble gathering as much as four servings worth of it. But I think that we should still wait with harvesting its roots and other things we planted, just to make sure that they all had enough time to mature properly.

Oh, so we can eat the roots as well?

Looking at these Shema leaves from up close, they kinda look like giant ginger leaves. Who would have thought that we are going to have herbs like that in our garden? So, based on what Roxanne told me earlier, we are going to be wrapping those leaves around the meat and then fry them, correct?

Yes, the roots of the Shema herbs are primarily used for the purpose of masking the meats bad smell. It is one of the most commonly-used herbs around here. Ah, and before I forget, I also happened to sharpen some skewers while I had a moment of free time. We can use them to hold the leaves wrapped around the meat together and prevent them from falling apart when the meat begins to fry.