At first, there were only three.
Looking at the number displayed in the upper right corner of my smartphone screen, I froze while still holding my kitchen knife.
Concurrent viewers: 127.
No, this is wrong.
It was three just a moment ago. There were only three people. I thought perhaps one was myself due to a misclick, another was someone who happened to wander in, and the last was someone just bored.
Now, that number has exceeded one hundred.
Moreover, the comments are not stopping.
“Wait, what? Is this for real?” “Did you just say monster meat?” “The cat is cute.” “What are you doing in a countryside kitchen?” “That cat just talked, right?”
“Um, can you see me?”
When I spoke up timidly, the comments flowed even faster.
“We can see you.” “We can hear you, too.” “Keep going.” “Show us the cat.” “Show us the meat.” “Show us both.”
“Both?”
As I tilted the angle of my smartphone down slightly, it displayed the Horned Rabbit meat on the cutting board and Mikoto, the white cat sitting beside it with her front paws neatly aligned.
Mikoto puffed out her chest with a look that said it was only natural.
“Hmm. So, the children of man have finally realized the magnificence of me.”
“It talked?” “The cat talked?” “Ventriloquism?” “Cute.” “The voice is so haughty, but the appearance is so squishy. Lol.”
“I am not squishy. Call me divine.”
“Squishy.” “Divine squishiness.” “White dumpling.” “Cute.”
“Grr…”
Mikoto narrowed her eyes in dissatisfaction, her tail tapping the floor with a rhythmic thump, thump.
Breaking out in a strange sweat, I cleared my throat.
“Well, then, I will continue. Today is miso-grilled Horned Rabbit. I will be using the preserved meat I have left.”
“Horned Rabbit?” “The one from the dungeon?” “Can you just eat monster meat like that?” “It’s poisonous, you know.” “Isn’t that the stuff that gives you mana sickness?”
“Ah, of course, you cannot eat it as is.”
I dipped the rehydrated Horned Rabbit meat into a bowl filled with water.
“Horned Rabbit retains bitterness and a mild paralytic poison around its internal organs, so after draining the blood, I remove the fascia and the silver tendons where mana tends to accumulate. This has already been processed before preservation, but I check for anything left behind when rehydrating it. Like here.”
With the tip of my knife, I smoothly peeled off a thin silver tendon remaining on the edge of the meat.
This was a task I performed every single day when I was in the other world.
Taking the monsters that the heroes had defeated and making them edible. That was my job.
Extracting the poison, dispersing the mana, observing the quirks of the meat, and applying heat.
No one ever praised me for it, but since I would be the one in trouble if someone got a stomach ache, I could not afford to be sloppy.
“Wait.” “What did you just do?” “Did you pull out that silver tendon in one go?” “Is that where the mana gland of a Horned Rabbit is?” “Even a state-certified artisan cannot do this process.” “Wait, isn’t that insane?”
“State-certified?”
I tilted my head.
I knew that this world had artisan qualifications for handling monster materials. I heard that since incorrect processing causes food poisoning, or even mana disorders, the standard is to handle them in specialized facilities.
However, a Horned Rabbit is just a beginner’s task.
In the other world, I was made to butcher a hundred of them when I was an apprentice.
“It is not that difficult. Mana collects at the base of the ears and the base of the hind legs in a Horned Rabbit, so it is much easier if you remove those parts. After that, you lightly rub it with salt and remove the odor with sake and ginger.”
“No, no, no.” “Don’t make it sound so easy.” “Isn’t the base of the hind legs a trade secret?” “Where is this cook from?” “Where is your restaurant?” “The cat is cute.”
“I do not have a restaurant. This is the kitchen in my grandmother’s house.”
“Grandmother’s house.” “Too much information.” “Are you processing S-rank material in a countryside kitchen?” “Isn’t that real S-rank material?” “The mana concentration seems high for a Horned Rabbit.”
“S-rank?”
I looked down at the meat on the cutting board.
Indeed, this one retained more power than a normal Horned Rabbit. Since it was caught on land near a divine realm, it might be rare by the standards of this world.
However, it was not anything special in the other world. If I were serving the tables of the gods, there were plenty of magical beasts with much stronger characteristics.
“Well, it is just a slightly energetic Horned Rabbit.”
“Slightly energetic lol.” “His perception is glitched.” “Energetic Horned Rabbit (S-rank).” “This streamer is dangerous.” “The cat is cute.”
About half of the comments were about the meat, and the other half were about Mikoto.
Mikoto sat in a loaf position in front of the screen, narrowing her eyes with an unnecessarily haughty expression. Occasionally, she would twitch her nose and look at the container of miso sauce.
“Not yet. Not until I grill it.”
“I am a divine beast. I have the noble duty of tasting for poison.”
“You just ate a moment ago, didn’t you?”
“Do not force the concept of quantity upon a god.”
“Divine beast lol.” “Too much backstory.” “But I’ll forgive you because you’re cute.” “The poison tester is cute.” “What’s the cat’s name?”
“Her name is Mikoto.”
“I do not recall permitting you to drop the honorific, Yuma.”
“Yuma?” “Is the streamer’s name Yuma?” “Mikoto-sama.” “Mikoto-sama is cute.” “Yuma-san, show us your hands.”
“Ah, yes.”
I moved my smartphone a little closer so that my hands were visible.
I mixed sake, mirin, and grated ginger into the miso. The miso left in my grandmother’s house was the traditional type with a slightly strong saltiness. This suited the subtle sweetness of the Horned Rabbit well.
Into that, I added a little bit of finely chopped Japanese pepper leaves.
“If you add too much Japanese pepper, the aroma of the meat will disappear, so only a tiny bit. Meat with high mana concentration tends to have a strong aroma, so rather than suppressing it with condiments, it is better to create a space for it to escape.”
“A space for it to escape?” “It sounds like magic theory despite being a cooking explanation.” “Does that mean letting the mana escape through the aroma?” “This guy is the real deal.” “Are any state researchers watching?” “We’re watching.” “Who are you?”
I thinly coated the meat with the miso sauce and placed it into a heated frying pan.
It sizzled.
The fat melted, and the sweet aroma of the searing miso spread through the kitchen. The surface of the meat tightened, and clear juices began to well up from the edges.
My stomach growled.
It was not mine.
Mikoto, still keeping her composed face, had only turned her ears red.
“That was the sound of the floor.”
“The floor doesn’t growl.”
“Mikoto-sama lol.” “Sound of the floor lol.” “Cute.” “Hungry divine beast.” “Too much food porn.” “I can eat rice just from the sound of miso searing.”
I flipped the meat once it was seared.
White steam rose up.
In this old kitchen, a battered divine beast was growling, and unknown people were making a fuss on the other side of the screen.
Even though it was a strange situation, I felt a little bit easier to breathe.
“It is grilled.”
I plated it and topped it with chopped perilla leaves.
The sheen of the miso shimmered faintly on the surface of the meat. The edges should be fragrant, and the inside should be fluffy.
When I lifted a piece with my chopsticks, Mikoto’s eyes went round.
“Wait.”
“I am waiting.”
“I am first.”
“Is that because you said it was for tasting for poison earlier?”
“Indeed. It is a sacred duty.”
Faster than I could place a piece on a small plate, her white front paws reached out.
“Ah.”
Mikoto deftly snatched the meat and began to eat it with small bites on the tatami mat a little distance away.
“It is hot, be careful.”
“Hafu, mu, muu!”
Mikoto’s tail stood straight up.
The next moment, it began to sway left and right.
“This is, the aroma is better than before. The sear of the miso brings out the sweetness of the meat. The freshness of the Japanese pepper is not bad either. Yuma, I shall praise you.”
“I appreciate that.”
“A cat that gives good food reviews.” “Mikoto-sama has a vocabulary.” “Tail lol.” “Looks delicious.” “Food porn.” “The divine beast’s standards probably aren’t a good reference.”
I also put a piece into my mouth.
When I chewed, juices overflowed from the fragrant miso. The grassiness peculiar to the Horned Rabbit was mellowed by the Japanese pepper and perilla. Even the heat of the slight mana remaining in the aftertaste was just right due to the saltiness of the miso.
“Yeah. It seems fine.”
“It’s beyond seems fine.” “What about the rice?” “Bring out the rice.” “Prepare some white rice.” “I shouldn’t have watched this at this hour.” “I subscribed.”
Looking at the screen, unfamiliar notifications were popping up one after another.
It seems the number of subscribers is increasing.
The number of concurrent viewers had exceeded one thousand before I knew it.
My stomach tightened in a strange way.
“Um, wait a moment. This is not really something you should watch…”
“You should watch it.” “Keep going.” “Next is searing.” “I want to see the butchering.” “Fix the camera on the cat.” “Who is Yuma-san?” “A former explorer?” “Can I clip this processing video?”
“Clipping? Um, I do not really understand, but as long as you do not do anything strange…”
“Permission granted.” “I’m spreading this.” “This will blow up.” “The state-certified artisans are going to foam at the mouth.” “I’m making a compilation of Mikoto-sama.”
I had a bad feeling about this.
I want to live quietly, if possible.
Abandoned by Ren Kurose and his team, suspected of embezzlement, I had only just reached my grandmother’s house. It would be a lie to say I had no desire to be recognized by someone. However, I am afraid of being seen by many people.
What if I make a mistake again?
What if I am conveniently discarded by someone again?
As such thoughts grazed the back of my chest, Mikoto sat back down in front of the plate.
“Yuma.”
“Hmm?”
“It is going to burn.”
“Ah.”
The meat for searing was sizzling in the frying pan.
I hurriedly turned down the heat.
Mikoto huffed through her nose.
“Do not worry about the eyes of men. First, food. Divine punishment shall befall those who make light of their food.”
“I suppose so.”
“Great quote.” “Food first.” “Thank you, Mikoto-sama.” “Divine punishment is scary.” “But cute.”
I laughed softly and finished the seared meat.
The stream continued in that strange, lively atmosphere afterward.
Miso-grilled Horned Rabbit, searing, and a simple dressed dish of perilla and Japanese pepper. By the time I made rice balls using the remaining fat, the comment section was completely filled with talk of food and talk of Mikoto.
Not knowing how to end it, I bowed my head at the end and said, “Thank you for watching,” before cutting the stream.
The kitchen suddenly became quiet.
Only the low sound of the old refrigerator and the chirping of insects outside remained.
“What was that just now?”
“It must have been a ritual of offering.”
Mikoto, who had become full, was curled up on the tatami. She was speaking haughtily, but her eyes were half-closed.
Looking at my smartphone, the notifications would not stop.
It seems that a part of the stream earlier was already flowing as a short video.
A mysterious man processes S-rank Horned Rabbit in a countryside kitchen.
A talking white cat, its food review is too good.
A streamer who casually performs mana extraction, which is difficult even for state-certified artisans.
Such words were lined up on the screen.
Among them was my name.
Yuma.
Even though it was just that, my chest felt unsettled.
Meanwhile.
In a room in a boarding house for explorers in the city, Reina Shiratori was staring at her smartphone.
She rested her body, which couldn’t shake off the fatigue from returning from an expedition, on her bed and casually opened a video application.
In the short video that flowed there, she saw familiar hands holding a kitchen knife.
Fingerprints that did not hesitate.
Those unique eye movements finding the tendons of mana.
The man in the screen was a little thinner and had a quieter face than before.
“Yuma-san?”
Reina’s voice reached no one.
In the video, the white cat stole the meat, and the comment section was filled with laughter.
Yuma was also laughing, just a little.
The moment she saw that smile, a small, thorn-like discomfort pierced Reina’s chest.
Ren Kurose had said it.
That Yuma was incompetent.
That he couldn’t handle dangerous materials and was only holding them back.
But that processing just now…
That manual dexterity…
Reina played the video again from the beginning.
Without arriving at an answer, only Yuma Kamishiro in the screen was butchering the Horned Rabbit as if it were a matter of course.