Tondemo Skill de Isekai Hourou Meshi

I was enjoying myself, shopping and browsing through the various wares at the market when two towering shadows fell over me.

“Surely that’s enough?”

“Master, are you done with your shopping yet?”

“”You’re done? Right? Right?””

“”Food stall~~ food stall~””

Fer and Grandpa Gon had crowded around me with the smaller familiars on their heads.

I was not frightened at all.

Totally not.

At all.

“F-food stalls was it? Ah, I guess now is fine?”

Honestly, I’d rather just continue shopping but from the looks of things… it would not be advisable.

“Right, let’s- eep!!”

Fer suddenly poked me in the back, herding me towards one particular direction.

“Hurry, this way.”

“Master, here!”

We easily waded through the crowd with my familiars rushing through and we quickly broke out of the groceries section to where the food stall section of the market had been set up.

“Woah~”

As expected of a Royal Capital market, even their food stall section was quite extensive.

Aside from the usual meat skewer, soup and stew stalls, there were also stalls selling drinks and cut fruits.

“I knew it! We should have come here right away!”

“I shall feast well today!”

“”Woah, lemme at ‘em!””

“”Eat~ eat~””

“Oi! H-hold it!” I shouted at them, but unfortunately, the call of their bellies was louder and they soon gathered in front of one stall. Fortunately, they did not scatter… I’d rather not think about the consequences if that were to happen.

“This place!” Fer was staring at a pot of stew with very intense eyes. “I had been tormented by this smell through the entire pointless walk through that raw vegetable place…”

[1]

“Hey! Stop it! You’re scaring the proprietor! Sorry, sorry, he’s just hungry. Oh, no, no, don’t worry! Ah, he just wants your stew, um, it’s fine. I promise…” I said to the person cowering behind the stall.

“Oh? Oh! Oh, um, help yourself. Um, should I serve you? I should serve you, right?”

To his credit, the stall owner quickly stood up and ladled out one bowl of the stew.

“Wow, this looks… kind of spicy?”

“Ou, yes! Spicy! Our stall is famous for its spicy food! We’re very popular with the drunks- I mean the drinkers of this city, hahaha.”

“Hey, Sui, it looks really spicy, are you sure you want to try it?”

“”Want to eat it~~””

[2]

“I’m saying this for your own good,” I tried to caution her again, but she immediately began to bounce around, crying ‘want to eat~ want to eat~’.

“Hahhh, fine, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

I took out three deep bowls and handed them to the stall owner. “Fill these up and charge me for it. Oh, and two regular bowls of stew from you.”

Sui may be stubborn, but I still couldn’t bring myself to torture her too much. Let’s just give her a normal person portion first and see what happens. I also wanted to try some too.

[2]

After putting everything into my [Item Box], I paid and moved the party to an empty area where everyone could sample their food in relative privacy. By the way, the stew cost 5 iron coins per ladle. The whole thing barely cost us a few silver coins.

I took out the deep bowls and let the other three gluttons dive into their stews first.

“Umu, the meat is mediocre, but the seasoning is nice.”

“Indeed, ah, I feel like having a nice strong drink with this.”

“”It’s a little spicy for me, I think… oh, rice! Lemme have a big bowl of rice!””

Ah, a dragon after my own heart. I quickly took out a pot of freshly cooked rice and set it out between myself and Dora-chan. As I was dropping a ladle full of rice onto his bowl of stew, [2] Sui started bouncing around.

[2] “”Aruji~ where is Sui’s?””

“Eh? Ah, yes. Hold on, I think you should eat this with rice…”

Too late. Sui had already bounced over and allowed her body to flow over the bowl. Just as quickly, she shrank back with a ‘Pya–!!’

“Sui?”

[2] “”Pain~! Spicy~! Aruji~ it’s painful~~””

[3] “What did I say to you just now?”

“”Painful~~!””

“Didn’t I already warn you just now? Here, have some rice.” I said as I pushed the pot of rice over.

Sui quickly bounced over to dissolve the rice.

Personally, I have no idea how Slime physiology works, but rice is one of the best things to have after accidentally eating some spicy soup. “You can have this fruit milk afterwards, but only if you promise to listen to me from now on.” I said sternly.

Sui was vibrating in place, looking very pitiful. However, I have resolved to be firm.

“”S-sui is good…””

“Yeah? Well, make sure that Sui is good all the time, hmm?”

With that, I handed over the fruit milk and Sui quickly latched on to it and began to dissolve the carton as well as the milk into her body. I looked at my bowl of spicy stew dipped a spoon into it and-

“Ugh, spicy!”

Even my tongue has gone numb from that little taste. I looked at the miserably vibrating Sui and took out three more bottles of fruit milk for her.

[3]

“Kukuku, looks like this is too early for a child-like Sui,” Fer looked especially ferocious with his mouth dripping red from the spicy stew.

“Umu, this is more of an adult palate.”

“”Well, I think it’s delicious!””

I gave Fer the side eye. This was the fellow who wanted to eat a poisonous fish because it tasted ‘tangy’, so I couldn’t be bothered to argue with him. Instead, I distributed the remaining stews to Fer and Grandpa Gon. Both were very happy about the extra food.

““Right! I’ve been eyeing that stall for a while now, let’s goo!!!””

Dora-chan spread his wings and flew forward towards… a skewer stall. Of course, it was a skewer stall. The stall owner was a young man in excellent shape. However, what interested me was the smell coming off the grill.

“Woah, this smell…is it garlic?”

“That’s right, have a taste of my special Cockatrice skewers in special Garlic Sauce!” his sharp eyes rove over my party and he grinned. “This brother, you’re an Adventurer too, right? My stall’s really popular with Adventurers. Partly because I’m a former Adventurer, gahahaha!”

A former Adventurer? A young man like him? Well, there must be a story behind why he left that life to open a store, but it would be impolite to ask, right?

“”Hey, enough chat! Feed me!”” Dora-chan was clinging to my back and complaining. So, I don’t have time to ask this young man about his backstory.

“Fine, fine, we’ll have 41 skewers, please.”

“Ou! Thanks for the purchase!”

[4] Dora-chan immediately seized one skewer and started eating it. I set down Sui and Dora-chan’s skewers first and got started on removing the meat off the skewers for Fer and Grandpa Gon.

“Gunu, how inconvenient to not have thumbs…”

“I wonder… should I just eat the skewer as well…”

I ignored those two and continued my work.

Once everyone was eating, I got out my skewer and started on it. Hmm, it was a little tough, probably a little over-marinated. However, one can’t go wrong with garlic as a sauce for skewered meat.

However, if I have a date tomorrow, this kind of thing is out of the question.

Not that I have a date, haha.

Nu… why do I feel so empty…

For the rest of the day, I was pulled from one stall to another. That’s fine, I have to fill up that emptiness inside of me. Might as well try filling it up with food.

[Gumihou: Aww, poor Mukouda…]

[1] Redid the first stall scene and gave the proprietor a bit more character.

[2] Redid scene to make Sui act super spoilt. She’s mostly hangry.

[3] Redid Mukouda’s reaction to make him sterner. This is canon per the offshoot manga Sui’s Adventure

[4] Replaced ‘delish delish’ remarks with actions