Cheese (3)

“You know how to swim?”

“Of course!”

Rurin floated in the sea with only her head above water, smiling triumphantly.

“You, stay still! It’s my turn next! I’ll give you a water spray attack!”

“Hey!”

Rurin, extremely excited, started creating a whirlpool in the water, laughing gleefully. She seemed like a dragon who didn’t know moderation.

“Hey, wa-wait! You foolish dragon! Take it easy!”

A fierce vortex appeared in the water. Rurin and I got caught in it, spinning wildly in a huge circle.

It felt like riding an amusement park ride. Where does this end? The afterlife?

“Shouldn’t you stop? We’ve drifted too far from the beach!”

“It’s fun, so why are you complaining!”

“No, this is too much! Stop it! I won’t give you food!”

The rotation gained speed, stretching our voices like cheese. Thankfully, the threat of no food worked, and the magical effect soon subsided, leaving the sea calm as if nothing had happened.

I floated on the sea, disheveled, and looked at Rurin.

“By the way, the sea is amazing. This fish is really big!”

Rurin lifted a huge fish floating in the sea with both hands. The fish was unconscious with its huge teeth showing.

Seeing the abnormally sharp teeth, I wondered if it was a type of monster, but it looked very familiar. Only the teeth were unfamiliar.

It looked very much like a bluefin tuna. No, it wasn’t just similar; it was definitely tuna.

What is a tuna doing in these coastal waters? It’s an incomprehensible current. Is it the effect of the whirlpool? Or do tuna-like monsters naturally inhabit these shores in this world?

The second hypothesis is probably correct.

“It could be a fish or a monster.”

“Hmm?”

“Rurin, let’s go back to the beach with that.”

Seeing the fresh tuna made my eyes light up. So I decided to retreat to the beach. When we arrived, Rurin was still standing there holding the bluefin tuna with both hands.

She looked like she was being punished.

“It looks like it’ll be delicious, so hold it for a bit longer.”

“Is this delicious? I don’t like fish! It’s too fishy.”

“Wait and see. This one might be different. Besides, you haven’t tried such a big fish before, right?”

“That’s true, but…”

While Rurin held the fish, I cut down a nearby tree and put the pieces together. We couldn’t place it on the sand.

It was an improvised wooden plate.

“Okay, okay. Put it down here.”

Pointing to the wooden plate, Rurin nodded with curiosity and placed the bluefin tuna down.

‘Tuna’ refers to various species of the tuna family, and if this fish, which looks like a bluefin tuna, is similar to the real bluefin, it should be the most representative sashimi ingredient. There’s no guarantee that it will taste the same just because it looks similar.

First, I used magic. Onyx Blade is a spell that can cut through anything. I used the magical blade to start preparing the tuna. First, I drained the blood. Then, I used a 2nd-class water spray spell to rinse it.

Using magic made it easier than using a knife, but preparing tuna was still a very tedious and difficult task.

After sweating and completing the basic preparation, I first carved out the tuna’s fatty belly. After all, the fatty belly is considered the prime part of the tuna.

It’s only natural to taste it first.

When I cut the belly out, the tuna looked like beef. Not only the appearance but also the internal structure was identical to tuna.

Rurin squatted down, resting her chin on her hands, and watched. Seeing the fine red belly, she asked with a puzzled expression.

“Is this meat? Fish are supposed to be white!”

“Right?”

“Yes! It looks like uncooked meat. It’s meat, meat!”

Ignoring Rurin for a moment, I started slicing the belly near the gills for sashimi. It’s a beautiful part with a marbling of red and white, resembling beef. It’s a delicacy that comes in very small quantities from a single tuna.

I offered a piece of the sliced sashimi to the squatting Rurin.

“Here! Try it.”

“Eat it just like that? I like the food you cook the best! I used to swallow it raw, but now it’s different!”

“No, this is sashimi, and it’s best to eat it fresh like this.”

“Really? If you say so, it must be true. Hehe.”

Rurin nodded and opened her mouth wide.

“Ahhh–”

I didn’t tell her to make a sound, though?

I put the sashimi in her open mouth.

“Hey! Are you eating my hand too!”

She closed her lips around my fingers and started chewing.

Slurp, slurp.

Why are you sucking someone else’s hand?

The warmth of Rurin’s mouth pressed against my fingers. At least she didn’t bite, which was a relief.

“Hehehe. Your hand doesn’t taste good!”

She probably meant that. Exasperated, I forcibly pulled my fingers out. Only then did she start chewing the sashimi.

“You! It melted. What you just put in my mouth melted!”

Seeing her amazed expression, I started to feel hungry too. Quickly, I picked up a piece of the belly and ate it. It was indeed tuna. A tuna-like monster.

The sashimi melted in my mouth. A storm of savory flavor spread in my mouth. This melting texture was fantastic.

Rurin is a gourmet. She has a very refined palate. If Rurin says it’s delicious, it really is. I probably played a part in refining Rurin’s palate.

Eating it plain was good, but it felt a bit dull.

I turned over the backpack I had left on the sand. Although we were on our way to catch water buffalo, I had packed various seasonings just in case we found interesting wild animals to eat.

Salt, soy sauce, and monton mushroom powder fell out of the backpack. Also, a pot. It’s a shame I didn’t bring red chili paste and wasabi. I had thought of hotpot, not knowing we would find tuna.

I couldn’t use teleportation just for wasabi or red chili paste.

Using too much teleportation would exhaust Rurin. Teleportation consumes tremendous mana. Of course, being a dragon, 4-5 times is fine, but we need to save it just in case.

So, soy sauce would have to do.

“Rurin, just dip a little of this, and it will be delicious.”

I poured some soy sauce into the pot and started a simple dish. I heavily salted the large cut of belly and seared it with a fireball to add a hint of char, creating lightly seared salt-grilled belly.

Eating it plain is a delicacy, but this way gives it a different flavor.

Just then, seeing what I was doing, Rurin started mimicking me with the gill belly she was holding.

She began copying me exactly. She suddenly started heavily salting a small piece of sashimi. Her eyes showed she had no doubt that following me was the way to eat it tastier.

“Rurin! Wait a minute!”

It was already too late. The salted sashimi went into Rurin’s mouth.

And two seconds later.

“Ptooey!”

She spat the half-chewed tuna out onto my face. Why my face, you dragon.

“Salty, salty, salty! It’s salty!”

I took a bottle of water out from the backpack and handed it to her. She drank half of it and shrugged, sticking her tongue out.

“What is this! I did exactly what you did! Ugh!”

She pointed to the salt-grilled belly while grumbling. Of course, I responded to her foolishness with laughter.

Then, I cut a piece of the salt-grilled belly and handed it to her. She frowned, having seen me sprinkle salt on it.

So she probably thought this would be salty too.

“If you don’t want it, don’t eat it.”

So I ignored her and put it in my mouth.

The warmth of the tuna’s surface and the melting softness of the inner flesh. I could feel both tastes. The salt enhanced the savory flavor of the tuna. Ah, the taste of happiness.

Seeing my expression, Rurin opened her mouth.

“Ahhh! Me too!”

She seemed to have let go of her doubt.

I put it in her mouth, and she started chewing. She hesitated a bit because of the earlier shock, but soon her face changed to one of ecstasy as she tasted it.

In the end, Rurin and I had a tuna feast right there.

After savoring it sufficiently, I used wind magic to roughly dry our clothes, then sprawled out on the sand. It was such a delicious meal that I considered coming back to catch tuna here later.

Of course, our current goal is the water buffalo. We’ll catch the water buffalo first, and this can wait.

Rurin, tired from eating, climbed onto me as I lay down. She straddled my stomach and looked down at me with a bashful smile.

“Hehe, I caught you.”

“Yeah… Could you move aside?”

“No! Oh, you! You have tuna on your ear! You always call me clumsy!”

“Do you think I wanted to get it there? It’s thanks to our dragon lord who spat her food out on my face earlier.”

“I don’t remember that? It never happened! But since I’m kind, I’ll clean it up for you.”

The dragon suddenly moved her body towards my face and started licking my ear.

Rurin’s black hair brushed against my neck. The warm sensation of her tongue stimulated my ear. She was licking the tuna off my ear, but it felt a bit…

Lick.

Lick.

The ticklish feeling stimulated my body.

Then the dragon suddenly nibbled my ear.

“Hey! Why are you sucking on my ear? You just need to remove the tuna.”

“I heard you’d like it if I did this… Don’t you like it?”

“Again, that woman…?”

She planted too much useless knowledge. On a pure dragon, no less.

“I don’t know. She said it was a secret!”

Rurin then burrowed under my armpit and started laughing.

She looked up at me. It was cute.

To be honest, at times like this, my desires as a man surfaced slightly. If you ask if I have feelings, I definitely do. I don’t intend to deny that.

Sometimes, when she closes her eyes and leans on me to sleep, she’s a lovely dragon. If she just kept her mouth shut, my heart would sometimes skip a beat.

If she stayed still, she could even outshine an elf with her beauty.

But every time, I think about her age. If converted to human years, she’s 19. Less than a year until she’s an adult. Of course, her actual age is 799. Even by dragon standards, less than a year until she’s fully grown.

Sometimes, I feel nothing even when bathing her. But other times, like now, my heart wavers without her realizing.

And then, before I knew it, she was purring and had fallen asleep. She was the fastest at falling asleep.

I think every time, will something change when she turns 800?

Rurin hugged my waist and smacked her lips.

“Mmm, you…”

It seemed like she was even dreaming.

And then she continues to babble.

She looks happy. It’s a look I couldn’t have imagined on her when I first met her.

I close my eyes slightly. The sea breeze rustles in the shade of the trees.

The water buffalo gets up and catches it.