It’s been a while since I wrote and posted a fic here. But I thought this story suited it. I’ve been imagining Mukouda competing in the Meat Dungeon Festival and kept wondering which food he would cook.
At Mukouda’s first meat dungeon festival, he participated just for fun. For his second festival, he invites his whole household along. At least, that was his intent until he realized that they weren’t eager to accept his mode of transport - flying on Gon’s back. Not even the adventurers seemed keen, quickly citing out how they had to guard everyone else.
Ironically the children were more eager to visit another city, except their parents were frantically holding them back.
Saddened, Mukouda offers to bring them back souvenirs in the form of every meat dish from every stall in the festival.
At Rosenthal, as Mukouda prepares to rent a house, the guildmaster asks if he will participate. Mukouda agrees and admits he plans to stick to one day again because he is just here for fun, nor does the prize of recognition interest him.
His familiars were also in agreement. They didn’t want to spend the day at his stall. They wanted to try new food! At least until their sharp hearing picked up something very disagreeable.
“So that’s the hot dog merchant? He doesn’t look like a chef.”
“I heard his cooking was what won him such mighty familiars. In that case, he probably just serves them raw meat. No wonder they want to try our food. Obviously they must regret choosing such a lousy chef for a master.”
“I guess that means it is really easy to tame such monsters.”
That was a heavy blow to the pride of Fel, Gon and Dora. (Sui was sleeping). They did NOT eat raw meat. And while the participants in the meat dungeon festival did serve decent fare, their master’s food is far superior. How dare the merchants insult their standard fare? How dare they call legendary and rare beings EASY to tame?
Fel: change of plans. You will be participating for the whole festival and you will win!
Mukouda: what? What about exploring the food stalls?
Dora: we can just open up during the day only. At night, we browse. Though, I doubt the food here will be worth our interest!
Gon: indeed. We must let everyone know you are the best chef, and that is why we chose you to be our master.
Mukouda: what are you all talking about? I thought you were all excited to eat everyone else’s meat?
Fel: cough…we knew we could eat more here. It was about quantity, not quality.
Dora: Ye-yeah, what Fel said. Besides, you’re the one who actually has the higher evolved dungeon meat. Everyone else was mostly selling the standard stuff!
Gon: I am interested to try all kinds of food but if it is a choice between your cooking and someone else’s, I would choose yours without hesitation, my liege.
Fel: it is settled. Now let us decide what we should cook.
Dora: not here though. The competition is all around.
Gon: Dora is right. Let us make haste to our current residence.
Despite Mukouda’s confusion, he eventually got caught up in his familiar’s debate over what to serve.
In the end, it was decided that Mukouda would serve 4 different dishes decided by his familiars. At first Mukouda complained that was a lot of work for one person until Gon pointed out he could cook a lot of it in advance and just store it in his item box. In fact, he can cook in the dungeon while they hunt and gather all the meat. The idea of saving his back was admittedly tempting. Mukouda disliked picking up countless meat drops after his familiars.
Gon: double-fried karaage
Sui: cheese-stuffed hamburgers
Dora: gyoza (Mukouda will make this in public while everything else will come out of the item box.)
Fel: pork or beef bowls topped with egg (he recalled that the people weren’t used to eating eggs like this.)
takoyaki (Mukouda has experience making it but hasn’t tried making it with dungeon meat instead of octopus)
okonomiyaki (Fel complained there was too much veggies in it for a meat festival)
Garlic beef steak (Fel and Gon wanted this but Mukouda thought it might be too filling and large a serving for a festival)
Curry (Mukouda wasn’t sure if the other merchants would appreciate the strong smell)
His ingredients decided, Mukouda decided to purchase the burger buns from the orphanage after telling them what he wanted. Naturally his ‘students’, Maynard and Enzo, came over begging for more lessons.
Fel, Gon and Dora warned Mukouda not to share the same recipes he is going to use. Fortunately Mukouda had a new recipe they could use.
While some of the orphanage children would clean the intestines for a silver coin per day’s work, the rest of them, including his students, would learn to make pork floss, which can be sprinkled on a bun or even a cake. He had learned it after trying a pork floss bun and wanted to try making it at home in Japan. While delicious, it was a long, tedious process.
Mukouda himself prepared for the festival by cooking all four chosen dishes in the privacy of the lower levels of the dungeon, using the freshly-killed higher evolved dungeon meat his familiars brought over.
The day of the festival, the familiars had a large breakfast, mainly buns from the online supermarket since Mukouda would be cooking for the rest of the morning.
As Mukouda set up his stall, Fel asked him to bring out just one serving of karaage so Dora can use wind magic to spread its scent.
Either it worked or everyone visiting the festival remembered Mukouda and wanted to try his food in case he was only setting up for one day again.
Indeed, many elves, including Gabriel, flocked to where they heard the fenrir and tiny dragon were resting. As soon as they bit into each dishes, their eyes popped open and they practically inhaled the entire plate, giving it rave reviews as they hurried to queue up again. Practically everyone ordered one of everything when it was their turn to order.
And the sight of so many elves was an advertisement in its own right, luring other customers over. There were some who remembered Mukouda and how he only wanted to participate for one day last year, quickly spreading word and spiking panic to get his food before he closed up his stall.
Mukouda: just so you know, I will be here for all three days, at least until the afternoon.
Everyone in line cheered, especially those who haven’t even tried Mukouda’s food yet and were worried it would be sold out soon.
Their fears came true, before it was even noon, Mukouda had run out of the day’s prepared food. Fortunately for the elves and the children from the orphanage, they were quick to queue up for Mukouda’s food.
Dora: can’t you just cook more on the spot?
Mukouda (telepathically): it was too much for me to handle just serving hot dogs! Serving four dishes to this many customers is impossible for me.
Fel got up. “I suppose we should try the other stalls then.”
Gon sniffed. “Let us see if there is anything worthy of interest.”
Sui bounced up and down. <<Sui wants to eat everything!>> It had remained entirely innocent of why the other familiars wanted Mukouda to win so badly but it naturally didn’t mind bragging his master is the best chef.
As Mukouda and his familiars wandered and bought food from each stall, he couldn’t help but notice how the merchants all eyed him warily, now aware the adventurer was competition.
Fel and Gon gave relatively more stingy reviews than they normally would. So did Dora but since he could not speak aloud, no one else could hear him. Mukouda warned Fel and Gon not to be so mean in their reviews in front of the merchants or he won’t buy them any more stall food.
Unwilling to praise the merchants, Fel and Gon joined Dora in telepathic reviews. Sui was the only one who gave everything an honest review, in that everything was yummy.
The next day, a crowd was waiting for Mukouda to set up, eager not to miss out on his food.
“I never knew egg could be eaten like this. And these grains, this rice…it goes amazingly well with the meat and egg.”
“I know. I don’t even know what this white sauce is with the fried meat, but it is the best sauce ever! And the chicken is so crunchy!”
“Another way to eat bread and meat together! The cheese filling really makes it so rich, in my opinion. And Mukouda’s tomato sauce is the best I’ve ever had.”
“Watching Mukouda make gyoza makes me wanna try making some too. But what is the dough he used? It’s not bread dough.”
Again Mukouda sold out before noon, and again, he browsed the festival, visiting new stalls, including the one run by his disciples. While not as popular as his own, they still had a pretty long line, being the only one to serve chitterlings and pork floss.
Maynard: Master! You came!
Enzo: Thanks to you, business is more popular than ever!
Gabriel the elf, who happened to be there as well, overheard. “Oh, Mukouda, you taught these two boys?”
Before the teacher or his students could answer, Fel spoke first. “Of course! All their recipes were shared freely by my master. He is the one who taught them how to clean and cook intestines, and how to make meat floss.”
Gabriel’s eyes widened. He had tried their food and it was indeed superb, comparable to Mukouda’s own stall. But now that he knew their relationship, of course that was to be expected. “I see! Mukouda…is there a chance you have more students participating?”
Mukouda laughed awkwardly. “No. I’m not really a teacher. But they came asking me for advice and I couldn’t say no.”
Fel sighed. “You really are so weak-willed.”
Mukouda: why can’t you just say I am nice?
On the third day, to Mukouda’s surprise, he had more customers in the form of dwarves and those who were religious to the pantheon who blessed Mukouda! According to them, they received a divine oracle instructing them to offer Mukouda’s food on their altars as a way to bring him business and to thank him for his previous generous donations. In the case of the dwarves, Hephaestus advised those in the know about the phantom liquor shop that Mukouda was a merchant who sold rare and exceedingly delicious booze at affordable prices. He did not promise them that Mukouda would open shop but many of the dwarves still persisted in asking Mukouda if he was. Pressured, the weak-willed Mukouda agreed to open after the festival. Happy, the dwarves each bought one dish from his stall (they wanted to save money for the booze).
“Your food really would go well with some booze!”
The gods had been aware of Mukouda’s participating in the contest, not just because they pretty much followed his everyday movements out of boredom, but because the familiars had been praying to them to have their master win and show up those smug merchants.
And also because they wanted to eat his food too without spending their own budget.
At the end of the day, despite the fact that everyone was told to vote for five different chefs, everyone voted for the food that impressed them most. As a result, while fifth place went to Maynard and Enzo who thanked their teacher again, Mukouda won all the other spots.
Mortified to have stolen the other merchants’ chance to shine, Mukouda asked for the merchant guildmaster to announce runner ups and invite them up onstage. PLEASE!
The guildmaster agreed because he could feel the other merchants glaring at him.
At the end of the presentation, Mukouda was asked to speak. “Ah, thank you for the votes everyone. While I am not really a food merchant, I do have fun cooking.”
Fel butted in, “indeed, his cooking is the best, and that is why we have chosen to be his familiars.”
Gon added, “We do not eat raw meat, but only the best food anyone can dream of.”
Mukouda stared at them. It was as if they had forgotten they used to eat raw meat, and why did he have the feeling they weren’t so much as bragging as warning. There was a distinct air of malice about them rather than arrogance…
The merchants who unintentionally started all this saw the familiars were glaring at them in particular and realized that the beasts must have overheard them, consequently spurring Mukouda’s party to win the contest. The merchants silently cursed themselves.
The next day, instead of resting, Mukouda tiredly prepared to open his liquor shop.
Mukouda’s one consolation is that no one else learned that he can also sell exquisite cakes, sweets and pastries like no one has ever seen before. But I do want to see how the elves react. Elrand actually cried after seeing and eating a strawberry shortcake.
