“First time in my whole LIFE butchering a Kaiser Dragon.”
The butcher was shedding actual tears of gratitude — no exaggeration — so upper-tier Calamity-class individuals must truly be the stuff of legend.
“Eat the organs quick, y’hear? Cooked through, they’ll hold till end of day, no more.”
My Item Box does perfect time-stopped preservation for small quantities, so no worries there.
Saying so out loud might make him faint again, though, so I kept it to myself.
“By the way — can you eat dragon liver raw?”
“Further north o’ here… I’ve heard folk eat liver raw in winter. But that’s a cold-climate trick an’ nothin’ else. Organs spoil FAST.”
With my preservation box, it’s viable.
I have sesame oil, and I’m growing a small crop of green onion for garnish.
And salt, obviously, waiting back at the house.
Which means—
—LIVER SASHIMI!
Dragon reads as supreme wagyu, so the liver should follow suit. The arc dragon’s grilled liver certainly did.
Man… Japan banned raw beef liver sashimi years ago, didn’t it.
I LOVED the stuff. Nothing to be done about it, but still.
Whoops — drooling just from the memory.
Liver sashimi washed down with cold beer… that would be transcendent.
“Which is all to say: when we get home, it’s BARBECUE.”
“Baa-be-kyuu?”
“Yeah. A yakiniku party.”
Dragon meat is criminally good, remember — and this time it’s KAISER grade.
A little extravagance is permitted. Earned, even.
Settlement came in orichalcum currency — fifty-five thousand gold coins’ worth — so the wallet has real depth again.
Plus, modest as it is in yen terms… we now have projected recurring income.
And it’s only modest for NOW — the plan is to scale the sugar shed into a proper sugar factory. A celebration won’t anger any gods.
So: the moment we’re home, I’m ordering a case of 500ml beer cans and a decently good wine.
Oh — and yakiniku sauce, obviously. And ponzu.
The meat’s essentially top-grade wagyu, so the palate WILL get fatty.
I’ll grate daikon from the field, grate some garlic too. Eat it with ponzu and everything resets to refreshing.
Feeding Maria garlic sends her into abnormal overdrive, so I normally ration it — but today of all days, fine.
Right. Now I’m genuinely excited for the trip home.
—Yes, yes, THIS is exactly the spending pattern that bankrupted us.
But appetite is undefeated, and there’s nothing to be done about that either.