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

Volume 4 - Ch 5.20

Yeah. . . . . . . no matter how I look at it, this looks an awful lot like teppanyaki! ! ! How could I have messed up even something that is so simple to prepare. . . . . . no. No, this is not teppanyaki. Since I am the only one in here who knows the actual difference between teppanyaki and Genghis Khan, that means that I am the one who has the right to decide what this dish is and how is it going to be called. And so, I hereby declare that this dish is a Genghis Khan hot pot! And to those who might be complaining that it is not a genuine Genghis Khan hot pot, at the very least I used the fish sauce to make the Goat Meat look similar to twice-cooked pork, one of the staple dishes that tend to be utilized in hot pots, so there you have it, Genghis Khan with my own twist added onto it!

Now that I have explained why this is a Genghis Khan hot pot even if some parts of it are clearly unorthodox, it was time to start making the finishing touches so that it could finally be served, so I used the leftover gravy in order to season the vegetables with it for a bit until they reaches just the right amount of softness and crispiness.

Just a little bit more time and the meal should be ready.

Of course. Thank you for going out of your way to cook for us, master. I am sure it is going to be delicious.

Thanks, and you bet it is going to be delicious. I personally guarantee it, or my name is not Kaga Michio!

All that is left to do now is to see if the meat and the vegetables are not burnt anywhere, and we are good to go. Since I was the cook responsible for the preparation of the entire meal this time, it was my responsibility both as the chef and the head of the household to divide the meat between all of the residents.

Daddy Cool.

It would have been nice if we had some chopsticks that we could eat the meat with, but since we do not have them, forks will have to do instead. Also, even though Genghis Khan that I have prepared is the main dish and the star of the show here, we also had some side dishes to go with it, mainly: Roxannes cream stew and Sherrys soup, both of which have been brought in and served together with bread right after I finished distributing the meat to all of us equally.

Taste wise, I have to say that it was nothing that would obliterate your taste buds with tasty goodness the moment you put it into your mouth, but it does not mean it was bad. Quite the opposite, actually. It was much better in comparison to the previous meat-based dish that I prepared last time, so I guess I could say that I was able to improve a bit as a cook thanks to that previous experience, and that is what cooking is all about: learning from your previous failures and using them as stepping stones for improvement.

Master, it is delicious!

Roxanne also said that the meal I have prepared was delicious, so I guess it paid to experiment with this Genghis Khan hot pot, even if I was not entirely sure how the end result was going to turn out, so all that is left for me to do now it to enjoy the taste of my deliciously-made meat and vegetables as I continued grill more of them while enjoying the mundane conversation about everything and nothing with my two beautiful slaves, which makes me feel the same level of luxury like Lieutenant General Mutaguchi when he surrounded himself with beautiful geishas during the battles in Meimyou. But even though I certainly enjoy such a cozy atmosphere, it does not change the fact that there is something that I wanted to ask Sherry about, and I think that right now might be as good of a time as any to finally get this matter out of the way.

Sherry, I know that now might not be the best time to be asking something like that of you, but. . . . . . . . if you do not mind, then would you tell us how exactly you have become a slave?

I am certain that just like in Roxannes case, there has to be some kind of story behind it, so if possible, I would like to learn what that story was.

Uhm. . . . . . . . . . . . . I, w-well. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

No, no, no, it is something that you would rather not talk about, then that is perfectly fine with me.

It is true that I want to know about Sherrys past and how she became a slave, but if this subject is something that makes her remember particularly bad memories, then I am not going to force her to share them with us just so that I could satisfy my own curiosity. So far, all that we know about her is that she must have come from a family that was doing pretty good for themselves because they were wealthy enough to have a number of books at home, but that is pretty much it.

. . . . . . . . . . No, it is all right, master. I knew that sooner or later you would want to know about it, and I do not intend to hide anything from you. The main reason, or rather, a cause behind me becoming a slave was because my brother got seriously injured while he was exploring the Labyrinth that was near our village.

Your brother. . . . . . . . got injured?

Yes. Ours was mainly a family of Master Smiths, but my father was not as talented of a Master Smith as my grandfather was, so he was unable to create items could be sold for a lot of money, therefore he relied on my brother for being the main source of income after grandfather passed away.

So it would seem that the generation to which Sherrys grandfather belonged was the one that was filled with pretty skilled Master Smiths and Sherrys grandfather was an especially good Master Smith even among all of them, but his son, Sherrys father, did not seem to inherit his fathers abilities when it came to smithing, and that must have caused him to fall from grace, similar to what happened with Sherry when she failed to obtain the Job that everyone around her seemed to be obtaining pretty much effortlessly. The question now is: how big od a social stigma it was to be a bad Master Smith in the eyes of the Dwarven communities? Was it something that was seen as inconvenience, a kind of impotence, or something that would result in the ostracization of the entire family?

So your brother got injured while in the Labyrinth, which made him incapable of providing further income for the family. What happened then?

We had to borrow money in order to buy the medicine that could help with his injury.

Borrowing money just so you could help heal your injured brother. . . . . . oh, Sherry, I am so sorry for you.

Well, if your brothers injury was a serious one, then I guess no ordinary medicine could help him, but rather a high-end one, right? In that case you would really have to pay a hefty amount to get that kind of medicine, which. . . . . . damn, I cannot even imagine how tough it must have been for you.

Even if I did not want to patronize Sherry, I had no choice but to agree with Roxannes words here.

That is right. Normally we would not have been able to pay for the medicine that my brother needed, but with the money we borrowed, we were able to get our hands on it pretty easily. The thing is. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Let me guess: the real problems started only after you already bought the medicine, but you lacked the means of returning the money to those whom you borrowed them from?

That is just how it is with debts: once you end up taking one, getting out of it is going to grow harder and harder with each passing day.