No Step On Slime

Chapter 15.5: Supper And Dessert And A Drink, Oh My!

First interlude chapter. Will be written in the third person.

I know pronouns may be confusing with Talleigh, who's in a female body but still privately identifies as a male. For all interludes in the third person, Talleigh will be referred to as a female unless Talleigh is speaking as Hunter, in which they'll be identified as 'he'.

. . . . .

"You're shutting down early for today?" Rimuru asked.

"We've got some metal plates being air-cooled inside," Talleigh replied, pointing to the interior of the smithery. "We can't cool it with water cuz it'll cool unevenly and crack... found that out the hard way, in the first batch."

"Shouldn't you do it overnight then?" the humanoid slime asked. 

"Kurobe said it'll take about fifteen hours to cool, so more than a night. It's noon right now, it'll be finished cooling by tomorrow morning."

"I see."

Rimuru watched as the Automaton grabbed a lever attached to the steam engine and slowly pulled it back. The humanoid slime could see that the lever was attached to some clamp that was gradually dampening the spinning flywheel on the engine.

"Has the engine been useful?"

"Ridiculously so," Talleigh replied. "But it's also kinda dangerous. We gotta eventually build a shroud around it 'cuz of all the moving parts, otherwise someone's gonna get a limb caught in the thing."

Rimuru nodded. After a few moments, he switched the subject to something that he was looking to talk to her about.

"Talleigh, this is a bit of an odd question," Rimuru said. "But are you able to cook?"

"Cook?" the Automaton asked. "I can, a bit. Why you ask?"

"Well," Rimuru replied. "I'm mostly looking to expand Tempest's menu. I know a lot of Japanese foods and adding some American ones would diversify our options."

"American foods," Talleigh repeated. "Like...?"

"Like, err—"

Rimuru was trying his best not to say fast food.

"Burgers, hot dogs, and fries...?"

"Our reputation precedes us, it seems," Talleigh murmured. "And I ain't really surprised at our international impressions for food. But there's more to it than that."

"Yeah, I'm sorry."

"Don't be," the Automaton replied. "Do you want me to write a recipe, or...?"

"I was more asking if you can show me and Shuna how to make the dish, but we were worried that you might've been busy."

"Not like I have much to do at the moment, so I'm willing to. Just need to know what ingredients we already have. Rice?"

"The rice is under development," Rimuru replied. "The lizardmen are still experimenting on how to grow it the best they could."

"Huh, so no rice... what about potatoes, carrots, celery? And chicken?"

The humanoid slime nodded. "We have most of that, I believe. The chicken... well, we don't specifically have chicken, but we have other forms of poultry that the Goblin Riders hunt for."

"No chicken, huh..." the Automaton trailed off. "Well, if it's similar I can work with it. I think."

"Did you cook a lot with chicken?"