Warming Up [Part 3]

“Rocs must be prepped and soaked in hot water of 60°C or above within 120 seconds after dying, or else…”

[T/N: 60°C = 140°F]

Emma suddenly put away her smile and started explaining with a serious face, the prince readied himself to get into a fighting stance. Hunters mustn’t relax even after the monsters are dead. He had learned from the Monster Science class that many of them were difficult to dispose of. For example, some would explode or evaporate into a poisonous mist and disperse if left alone. There were even monsters whose eggs would hatch from its corpse within a few seconds of dying.

“Huh? …No, there shouldn’t be any need to process roc after defeating it…” muttered the Monster Science teacher.

“Huh? What are you saying?! Professor?!” William was shocked.

“That’s right. Professor, it’s a race against time with rocs. Even I know about that, ya know?” George also shook his head at the teacher in disbelief as if saying, ‘What are you saying? Are you in your right mind?’

“…No, in the first place, you would usually be totally exhausted after defeating rocs that you couldn’t even move a muscle, right?! Just what was that earlier?! Dr. Arban, you are a researcher, are you not? What’s up with you shooting down a roc with one arrow so effortlessly?”

The Practical Skill for Hunters teacher shouted that there was no way an arrow could reach a roc that was circling around up high in the sky. Although defeating flying monsters with projectile weapons was the standard practice, he would never tell his students to imitate it.

“Hm? Because, y’know, if Emma asked me to shoot it down while pointing at it with sparkly eyes, of course I would give it my all, right?”

“Is there anything wrong with that?” replied Arban casually, to which Leonard nodded deeply in agreement.

“…! …Just what’s going on with House Stuart…?!”

“W-Well… There was also the possibility of His Majesty and His Highness being snatched by the roc. Let’s just be glad here… shall we…”

The Monster Science teacher patted the shoulder of the Practical Skill for Hunters teacher, who had slumped down to his knees, and comforted him, saying, “It will be your loss if you think about it deeply.”

Normally, the best they could do was only killing the roc. But when it came to the family of the borderland lord with abundant experience, they would even pay special attention to do the subsequent processing thoroughly, a step he and other hunters didn’t know about.

When the Monster Science teacher thought about how he had gained the opportunity to come in contact with such fastidiousness, he felt that studying monster science for more than 20 years was totally worth it…

“Emma Stuart, please tell me. Tell me the reason House Stuart is uncompromising about the 120-second rule!”

Starting now, he, as a Monster Science teacher, could reach new heights. Wolfgang Galliano was even beginning to feel refreshed.

But,

“It’ll deteriorate in flavor.”

“Huh?”

“Roc must be prepped and soaked in hot water of 60°C or above within 120 seconds, or else it won’t taste very good anymore!”

Emma’s answer was different from the new heights in Wolfgang’s mind.

“HUUHHHH?!”

The most important thing when House Stuart hunted monsters was based on whether the monster was edible or whether it was delicious.

♠♠♠

“We’re back~ Eh? Did something happen?”

Arthur returned from the pond with Marion, Francesca, and the twins. He looked at the teachers and students gathering around the Stuarts and asked Prince Edward.

“What… happened is… it happened… I guess?”

The prince’s answer was incoherent.

“Ah! Marion-sama and everyone, how was it? Was there any fish?”

Emma trotted across to her Embroidery friends.

“No, we’ve tried our best but couldn’t catch anything.”

Marion, holding a fishing pole in her hand, shrugged her shoulders apologetically.

“It’s a pity we can’t make fish curry, Caitlyn.”

“Yeah, it’s a pity we can’t make fish curry, Catherine.”

“ “We’ve been looking forward to it…” ” muttered the twins downheartedly.

“I’m sorry for not being of much help,” said Francesca.

Some time earlier, the young ladies looked at how Emma started a fire by herself and wanted to contribute something too, so they decided to go fishing.

“Fufufu, don’t mind it, everyone, it’s just one of those days. It’s alright, we can have bird meat curry today. We’ve got a hold of very, ve~ry delicious meat, so please look forward to it, okay?”

“Oh my, fowl?”

“Yup, it’s a kind of bird meat♪”

“Can’t wait to try it! Right, Caitlyn?”

“Yup, I can’t wait to try it, Catherine!”

It goes without saying that the students had lost all their appetite after they saw the giant roc, how its feathers were plucked, how its head got severed, and how it was chopped.

First day of the extracurricular lesson.

No, the lesson started the next day, so D-1.

The Stuart family had already stood out.

Just that the people themselves only behaved like they normally did, so they were now just sitting around the dining table, laughing together while saying, “Let’s be careful to not stand out too from tomorrow onwards,” in blissful ignorance.

♠♠♠

Author’s corner:

*beep…* *beep…* *beep…*beep…* *beeeeeep*

Crisis: Serious? Eh? Oi, Serious? OOOOIIIII?! SERIOUSSSSSS!

Doctor: Mr. Crisis… He has already…

Crisis: That can’t be! Doctor! Please, I beg you, save him. He did nothing wrong. He only got a little too carried away. That’s all!

Doctor: It’s already his second time. The Earth Drag*n Balls can’t save him anymore…

Crisis: …So does this mean I have no choice but to go… to Planet Nam*k!

Comedy: I’m craving some curry.

Reader’s Corner:

[Reader A’s comment]

Uncle Arban… How could he lose to his older brother even with those specs…

George in Monster Science: Didn’t know the correct answer so just wrote randomly on the answer sheet

The teacher: “Ughhh, no wait. Could this be how they do it in House Stuart…” Got a head splitting headache just from correcting George’s test paper (LOL)

[Author’s reply]

Arban is intelligent, so he acts as the combat service support, helping to identify monsters and send out instructions.

Leonard is in charge of crushing the opponents that can be defeated physically on the front line.

Prof. Wolfgang: “Is it true that slimes can be defeated with salt? Argh, even the textbook becomes questionable when George is involved.”