Slave Harem in the Labyrinth of the Other World (LN)

There doesnt seem to be any instrument here to squeeze lemons, so you have to do it with bare hands, and my hands feel sore by just imagining it.

Squeeze fish apply tasty, okay?

I hand the lemons to Miria and tell her in broken Brahim.

Okay.

S-q-u-e-e-z-e.

Squeeze.

Roxanne translates, and Miria repeats.

F-i-s-h.

Fish.

Shouldnt she already be familiar with how to say fish?

A-p-p-l-y.

Apply.

T-a-s-t-y.

Tasty.

She seems to be learning quickly, so Ill let her taste what tasty is. This way, she will learn what tasty really means that much faster. Because my words get automatically translated into Brahim, I dont know how difficult it is, so I have to pick them carefully to avoid saying anything too difficult.

I add the lemon juice, which I received from Miria, and wine to the bouillon, which I received from Roxanne, and leave it to simmer after sprinkling some salt and pepper onto it. Afterwards, I apply flour to white fish meat and roast it in olive oil, and present it with lemon sauce.

Miria was staring fixedly while I was roasting the fish th entire time, so intensely in fact that I was afraid that she might stare a hole in what I was preparing.

Roast fish.

Roast fish.

Eat fish.

Eat fish.

I take the opportunity and teach her more Brahim words, since the words related to fish must be easier to remember for her.

I want to eat fish.

I want to eat fish.

When I eat fish, Im happy.

When I eat fish, Im happy.

I feel like Im learning Brahim myself in the process as well, but was the sentence structure really okay? I glanced at Sherry to check her reaction, but the look that she gave me back was not saying anything in particular.

After dinner preparation was ready, I line the dishes up on the table.

Miria sits by Roxannes side. Its natural because she does interpretation for her, and Sherry sits on Roxannes other side. The three of them sit on one side of the table while Im all alone on the other side. Even though we have one more person now, Im still lonely.

W-What?

When I was sulking, Miria stared at me expectantly

She probably wants to eat right away.

She does?

I distribute the soup upon Roxannes indication. When I ask Miria as to what she would like to eat, she jumps at meuniere. Shes not good at using knife, and immediately stuffs it into her mouth using her hands

Tasty!

I appreciate her using the Brahim word which I taught her earlier. Im glad to see that shes learning so quickly. However, when she said the word tasty, I wonder if she was referring to the fish alone, or to the dish in general?

I mean, Miria looks like that kind of person who would find just about any fish tasty, so I was really curious to hear what she thinks about the entire dish. Knowing her, she mightve indeed praised only the fish for being tasty and were the ones who failed to catch up on that because shes only now learning Brahim, so she cant communicate any nuances of her words in it properly just yet.

I take some meuniere to try it out myself. Hmm it tastes great, just as I expected it to. It seems to be a success, so I think that it is fairly safe to assume that Miria called the entire dish tasty, and not just the fish component of it. But while were on the subject of the fish, theres something thats been going on my mind.

Now that I think about it, did you use to eat raw fish before, Miria?

Uhm, master? I know that our appearance might be suggestive in some regards, but I want you to know that even though we are called Beastkin, we are different from ordinary unintelligent beasts.

What I was intending to ask about was whether or not there are things like sashimi in this world, but instead of receiving an answer I got myself reprimanded by Roxanne for saying something that was insensitive and apparently quite racist as well?

It was a needless thing of me to ask, but Im only now realizing that I shouldnt have done that.

I mean, when you think about it, it should be really obvious to anyone with more than two braincells in their head would be able to put it together that only beasts would eat things when they are raw and uncooked, and that just because they possess beast-like features doesnt necessarily mean that they are the same as beasts.

My bad. I didnt mean it that way. I realize my mistake and Im sorry for making it in the first place!

Not at all, master. I should apologize to you as well, because I jumped into conclusions without allowing you to finish saying what you wanted to say properly, so Im sorry for that.

The main reason for why I even asked about if Miria ever happened to eat raw fish is because I was worried about her, since theres a risk of contracting parasites if you eat raw fish. However, that is how it is for the raw fish from my own world, but I have no idea if the same principles would apply to it here in the games world, or if the fish meat that has been obtained as a Drop Item even counts for that at all.

Ultimately, I guess that topic of sashimi is not that important, because as far as Im aware there are no things like wasabi or soy sauce I this world and lets be honest, what is even a good sashimi without those.

Not paying any kind of attention to all of my internal struggles, Miria is stuffing meuniere into her mouth like crazy, but when she was done with it shortly afterwards, she had her shoulders drooped and her head hung low, as if all air has been drained out of her body.

It doesnt seem to be a compliment. Did she not find the dish to her liking after all? Or perhaps she only now found some kind of flaw in it that ruined her enjoyment of the meal? Or maybe she simply wants more? In that case

Do you want to eat more, Miria?

Eat! I want to eat more!

Thought as much. Well then, here, you can have some of mine as well.

When I hold my platter out to her, she snatches half of its contents immediately.

Looks like when it comes to the fish and eating it, shes not someone who would think of being modest or restrained.

She just stuffs the fish in her mouth with a joyful expression and eats wit without a care in the world.

X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X.

She says that shes happy that master was the one that bought her.

Ah, so it was about that. Well, I am flattered that she thinks like that, and also hope that I will be able to live up to her expectations of me.

X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X.

She also says that she is going to serve master for the rest of her life.

All right, okay! Now see, this right here is what is making me think that what she is feeling towards me is not genuine gratitude but something more akin to a debt that she is going to have to pay to properly thank me for providing her with a place to live and food (fish) to eat, and I cannot say that I like that all that much, so were definitely going to need to do some work on some of those aspects of her.

After that, Miria receives some fish from Roxanne and Sherry as well. And although I used the word receives, it was more like she actuallysnatched if from their plates just like she did with the fish that gave to her, and I cansee that the desire for more fish is still burning in her eyes even as she munches on the one that we have given to her.

Roxanne reprimands her for it initially, but gives her the fish in the end nonetheless, because honestly, there is something about her that makes it hard to be mad at her.