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“Mary, could you bring some steak from the servants?”

“Do you need it raw?”

“No, I want it rare.”

“How much should I bring?”

“Uh, enough for the three of us and Gordon.”

“Understood.”

Mary, tasked with the job, grabbed a large tray and headed towards the cart. It was unfortunate for those who would miss their chance to feast on the last remaining meat.

But there was no choice if they wanted to accommodate Gordon’s appetite.

Meanwhile, I had entrusted Gordon with a hefty pot filled with tomatoes, tomato paste, salted pork fat, garlic, onions, and bell peppers.

Karem, equipped with cooking utensils, made his way to the campfire where the table was set.

“What, tomato stew? The ingredients seem a bit lacking for that.”

“It’s not stew. You asked for steak and broth.”

“Right. But the ingredients are still lacking.”

“True, but I hope you don’t mind a sauce that’s tangy and fresh like broth?”

Gordon shrugged, seeming to agree.

Following the request, Karem placed the emptied pot on the campfire and tossed in the salted pork fat.

Sizzle—

As the fat fried and melted, releasing a savory aroma, Karem took out his favored chef’s knife and got to work chopping the ingredients—finely mincing garlic and onions before roughly chopping the tomatoes.

“Tsk. I’ve brought the steak from the servants.”

“Thank you. But why do you look so grim?”

“Wondering if the tower is being properly maintained by the servants and maids dispatched from the estate…”

Karem gave Mary a knowing look.

She had been handling the tower on her own, claiming it as her territory.

While she had threatened Narque, who had cleaned a bit during her absence when she went to Fungusbee with Catherine, it was only natural she would keep tabs on the servants and maids from the estate.

“By that logic, you should have taken it up with Sir Atanitas.”

“But it doesn’t seem right for Karem, as the contractor, to solely be assigned the task of meeting the esteemed one.”

“I dislike this, I dislike that. Enough with the nonsense; get to frying the onions.”

But what’s done is done.

Karem handed Mary a wooden spatula.

Swish—

He tossed the minced onions into the hot oil, and the white steam and sizzling sounds filled the air.

Mary, who had been sulking, couldn’t maintain her frown anymore.

The pot was getting too hot.

She had to focus on frying to prevent the onions from burning.

Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle—

“Are you planning to caramelize them?”

“No, that would take too long.”

“What then?”

“Just a moment. Let’s see… Ah, indeed, it’s all about the heat in cooking.”

How long had it been since the onions were added?

In no time, the onions piled high in the hot oil began to fry up golden brown as the moisture evaporated.

“I’ll do it this way.”

He added the chopped tomatoes and garlic next. Then, he took a large spoonful of the tomato paste, which looked a bit like gochujang, and plopped in two generous scoops.

For a moment, the strong raw smell lingered.

The tomatoes started breaking down in the hot oil, releasing their moisture as the paste began to meld.

A fresh and appetizing aroma began to fill the air.

“I almost forgot about adding the bell pepper and meat.”

“Oh, that can wait.”

“Weren’t we supposed to be making a stew?”

“It’s not a stew. By the way, it would be nice to have some wine. Didn’t Gordon bring any earlier? Hey, where did that guy go?”

Just moments ago, Gordon had disappeared, leaving only a trail of footprints leading into the forest.

“How annoying.”

With no other choice, Karem went to the cart in the corner.

He retrieved a barrel of soy paste secretly hidden behind it and poured the wine into the pot.

Bubble, bubble—

The pot, which had been boiling furiously over the intense heat, calmed down in an instant as the cold wine was added.

“So it’s still not a stew, huh?”

“Yep. It’s closer to a sauce now.”

“Is there that much need for it?”

“Considering the noble who just left his place, I’d say we need at least this much.”

Is that why he snatched that much steak?

Karem pointed towards the heaping steak on the plate.

Mary couldn’t dismiss Karem’s piled-up steak, which was as large as his upper body—even if she exaggerated a bit.

Though honestly, they didn’t even need to go for the steak this much.

One could say that Mary was practically managing the magicians at the wizard’s tower all on her own, and it was impossible not to notice the noticeable increase in food supplies before and after Gordon’s appearance.

Particularly since due to the Swordmaster’s appetite, not just one but two supply carts were filled with food, this could lead to a situation where they might run out of sauce.

Work had multiplied, and Mary felt happy.

Though it was hard to tell due to her expressionless face.

Karem was the only one troubled.

“Hey, Karem. Guess what I brought?”

Gordon, oblivious to Karem’s feelings (and not caring), pulled a white mushroom from a leather pouch. Wait, was that a button mushroom?

“I followed the scent of the tasty earthy smell and found a cluster nearby.”

“Great timing; we were running low on ingredients.”

“Yeah. When I tried them before, they complemented the tomato sauce well.”

The button mushrooms filled a small pouch.

Karem, cleaning the dirt and moss with a cloth, began slicing the mushrooms with Mary, ensuring they kept their shape.

“Is it nearing meal time? Hmm? Tomato stew?”

Then, drawn in by the smell, Catherine, who had been spending time in the wagon, opened the door.

“I told you it’s not tomato stew. Everyone keeps saying the same thing.”

“Well, if it’s not, then it’s not, right?”

Catherine looked down at the cutting board with confusion.

“Button mushrooms? There weren’t any mushrooms in the cart.”

“That guy over there collected them.”

“What? Gordon? Didn’t he say he was new to this area?”

“He found them just by smell, they say.”

The neatly sliced mushrooms were added to the now-boiling pot.

Karem also chopped the bell peppers into long, thick pieces and tossed them in, mixing it all together.

With the sauce simmering again, the process was simple.

In a large pan piled generously with the sauce, Karem placed the rare steaks snugly in, setting them over the remaining space on the campfire.

The cold air and skillet heated up quickly, bubbling away.

“We’ll be done once the sauce reduces.”

“Is that why you wanted the steak rare?”

“Because if you cook beef for too long, it gets tough.”

“Well, well-done is a skill only a few can master even in Winterhome.”

Many seem to confuse the notion that well-done steak is tough and dry.

But that was a mere misunderstanding.

Karem had only tasted a true well-done steak once in his former life.

And during that time, the belief that beef must be consumed rare or medium was shattered like glass.

The tenderness that didn’t seem possible down to the center, yet retaining all its juices.

Admittedly, it was tougher than rare or medium.

But it certainly wasn’t the kind that you’d chew on like gum.

And he understood why people misjudged well-done steak. After all, the first well-done steak he had tasted was burnt to a crisp, losing all its juices and becoming tough.

“Still, if that’s the case, wouldn’t it be easier just to chop that up and make it into stew?”

“Who wants to eat steak together with a fresh and tangy broth?”

“Hmm, that is indeed an enticing combination. If only it were possible.”

“Well, that’s exactly what I made.”

Karem checked to see if the steak’s doneness had shifted from rare to medium and carefully placed the pan down on the plate prepared on the table.

After laying down the sauce, he placed one piece on Catherine’s dish.

And two pieces on Gordon’s.

Karem then introduced the dish to both of them.

“Beef Pizzaiola. Enjoy your meal.”

“Hmm.”

Catherine and Gordon stared down at the dish in their bowls.

They couldn’t understand what this had to do with pizza and sauce, but the intense aroma of tomato sauce wafting from the bowl combined with the unique smoky scent of the tarred bell peppers and the nuttiness of the button mushrooms filled the air.

As always, they felt this way, but there was a fear of familiar flavors.

Yet it had barely been a year since either of them had started eating tomatoes.

Of course, it was enough time to be captivated by the deliciousness of tomatoes.

The well-browned steak’s meat and fat contrasted beautifully with the red sauce, enticing their eyes.

Catherine gazed appreciatively at the dish, while Gordon, unable to fight his hunger any longer, picked up his fork and knife, distracted by the smoky aroma tempting his senses.

“What’s that unique smell?”

“Unique aroma?”

“Yeah. A subtle smoky smell. Feels like nothing was directly added.”

“Oh, that’s probably from the bell peppers being grilled over the campfire.”

“Really? Just from being grilled, there’s a smoky scent?”

In any case, that distinct smoky aroma only intensified the growling of Gordon’s empty stomach.

Quietly, he quickly cut into the meat to quiet his moaning belly.

Though the steak was quite thick, after being cooked once and then simmered again, it was cut effortlessly like butter with his knife.

Gordon speared a hefty piece of steak with his fork.

As the juicy and oily rare steak piece was lifted, droplets of juices fell into the bowl.

It was a sight that made him want to pop it right into his mouth, but he decided to wait a bit and instead used his knife to gather some sauce, bell peppers, and mushrooms to top off the meat.

The juicy pink interior of the meat turned red with the tomato sauce while its beautifully browned exterior was hidden beneath the mushrooms and bell peppers.

However, what Gordon was really curious about was the sauce.

There had to be a reason it was simmered down in the sauce.

And the tangy scent only heightened his appetite.

Just at that moment, Mary, found herself offering Catherine a piece of steak, cut even smaller than what Gordon had prepared.

Just then, Gordon eagerly downed his piece of pizzaiola.

“Yum.”

As the tangy yet rich tomato sauce entered his mouth, the subtle sweetness and elaborate floral aroma were immediately apparent.

The sweetness of the vegetables that had been fried plentifully—onions, no less.

This was a sweetness that could never be imitated by simple fruit juices, sugar, or honey, blending seamlessly with the tomato sauce.

Along with that, the fruity aroma undoubtedly derived from the wine.

But that familiar aftertaste was—

“This has wine in it, right?”

“Yes. The sauce to pair with the meat should definitely have wine.”

“I recognize this familiar scent. Could it be?”

Karem held aloft the green bottle of wine that had been stuffed in the corner.

It was an item Gordon couldn’t help but be familiar with.

The irony being, it was something he himself had tucked away from earlier.

“Damn! That’s the bottle I secretly stuffed away in a corner of the cart! How did you even find it?”

“Well, you should know who handles the supplies, right?”

“Mary, I guess. Damn it!”

“Anyway, isn’t it a good thing that it tastes good?”

Frustrated, Gordon couldn’t deny that statement.

He took a bite of the steak with pent-up exasperation.

But before his teeth fully closed together, the differences in the two cooking methods allowed the meat to tear apart effortlessly, as if it were butter.

It was then that Gordon realized.

He could probably cut this with a spoon, it was that tender.

And then, the distinct beefy aroma exploded in his mouth.

The smaller the pieces of meat became, the more juices erupted from them.

The delightful flavor and scent of the meat elevated the flavors of the sauce.

Especially the button mushrooms in the sauce truly shone in this dish.

Though they had dumped in a whole bag, they were still undetectable.

It wasn’t until he bit into them that he finally noticed their presence.

The button mushrooms hidden beneath the tomato sauce and bell peppers revealed themselves after being brushed by the intense beefy aroma.

The concentrated umami of the tomato mingling with the sweetness of the onions.

The bell peppers, which impart a smoky note, and the button mushrooms finally asserting themselves.

And the beefy flavor of the meat was delicately masked by the fruity notes of the wine.

He hardly made a sound as he chewed.

Before he realized it, Gordon had long swallowed his first piece of meat and sauce.

Despite the beefy flavor leaving him wanting more, its subtle garlic aroma swept through his mouth.

And the ensuing refreshing bitterness of the bell peppers swiftly cleaned out the lingering umami and slight oiliness left by the tomato sauce.

“Honestly, this is so good I’m forgiving you.”

“Well, well, I’m sure you’d be happy to come visit in the future,” Karem added, rolling his eyes.

“Really? You? Do you know how much that costs?”

“I’ve been steadily accumulating money from this side, so there’s no need to worry.”

Ah, then it’s no problem.

With the lingering taste of wine clearing out his mouth, Gordon moved his knife.

Without hesitation, he speared half the steak at once.

Eating it was more akin to swallowing it whole, reminiscent of a snake.

This sight before her made Catherine scold him.

“Chew your food properly, will you? I’ve been thinking, but can you even taste your food with the way you’re eating?”

“I assure you I’m tasting and chewing it properly.”

“Now that you’re a noble, shouldn’t you act fittingly?”

“Let the future me handle that.”

For now, gulp. Swallow.

Gordon downed the remaining half of his steak in one go.

Catherine shook her head disapprovingly and focused instead on the pizzaiola piece Mary was offering.

But Karem couldn’t afford to be leisurely.

“Oh dear. I only have two hands. Please chew your food properly and take your time!”

“Gulp. I could just take one skillet in each hand, you know?”

“Ah, you’re driving me insane!”

What a thankless task this was.

However, contrary to Karem’s thoughts, his body was already retrieving another pan from the cart.

There was still a long way to go before meal time ended.

 

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