The Reincarnated Lizardman Wants a Hamburger

On the first day Kurt’s party arrived at the mountain village, they eventually sighed in resignation at Kurt’s stubborn attitude and decided to join the search.

After all, they had already come all the way to the mountain village for the request, and turning back now would be a waste of effort. Besides, with Kurt’s abilities, there wasn’t much danger, so they figured a few days of tagging along would pass quickly.

Thus, Kurt’s party went out of the village every morning, searched designated areas, gathered information about the zombie bear from the villagers, and returned as the day darkened.

One day.

Two days.

Three days.

Four days.

By the fifth day, they hadn’t even caught a glimpse of the zombie bear, let alone defeated it.

As the lack of progress continued, the expressions of the party members, except Kurt, gradually darkened.

On the morning of the fifth day…

“Ugh. Mr. Kurt. Isn’t searching for the zombie bear taking too long?”

“It can’t be helped. If this were our first zombie bear request, it might be different, but the creature has become highly cautious due to repeated requests and has even learned how to deal with people. Such a cunning monster isn’t just hard to defeat—the process leading up to it is tough too. We should prepare for a long-term battle.”

At Kurt’s mention of a long-term battle, Mari couldn’t hide her fear and asked, “A long-term battle? How long will it take?”

“Hmm. If we’re lucky, it might end within three days, but it could take up to half a month.”

“Half… half a month?!”

“There’s something bothering me. I want to proceed carefully and not rush the search.”

“Mr. Kurt, can’t we just… give up and try a different dish?”

“…What?”

“Of course, I don’t doubt that the cola drink you’re trying to make might be delicious. But honestly, everything you make is delicious anyway. So, why not give up on the cola and just return to Astram? Hehe…”

“…Return? What are you talking about?”

“But it’s already been three months. Ever since we returned from the Empire, we haven’t had a proper break, just taking requests non-stop. And now you’re saying it might take another half a month? If we’re going to suffer this much, why not just give up on the cola and go back to Astram?”

“But we can’t just abandon the request and leave. What about the villagers?”

“The villagers are planning to leave for another region soon anyway. They were thinking of canceling the request soon, so do we really need to keep hunting the zombie bear?”

“No. We absolutely won’t cancel the zombie bear request.”

At Kurt’s unchanging attitude, Mari finally slumped her shoulders and stood up.

“Is that so…?”

“Why are you standing up all of a sudden?”

“Hmph. If we want to finish the request quickly, we need to keep searching without delay. I’ll go ahead and ask the villagers for information. The sooner we defeat the zombie bear, the sooner we can return to Astram.”

“But you haven’t even had breakfast yet.”

“It’s fine. I’m on a diet these days.”

With that, Mari left the inn with a pouty expression, and Kurt muttered in confusion as he watched her leave.

“Why is she acting like this? Without even eating breakfast…”

“Well, can you blame her?”

Though Kurt hadn’t expected an answer, one came immediately.

“…What do you mean?”

The one who answered was Karina.

“Mr. Kurt, you’ve been taking requests non-stop ever since we returned from the Empire, all to gather ingredients for that cola drink. We haven’t had a single day off in three months.”

“Why? But I haven’t taken any overly dangerous or exhausting requests. I considered everyone’s stamina when accepting them. With our skills, we shouldn’t be physically exhausted.”

“Idiot. Physical fatigue is one thing, but mental fatigue is different.”

At Kurt’s puzzled question, this time it was Serena who answered.

Rarely for her, she spoke to Kurt in a blatantly reproachful tone.

“It’s been over three months. Three months might not sound like much, but that’s 100 days. 100 days without a single break, just taking requests. Even if they were safe requests, of course, we’d be mentally exhausted.”

“Not to mention, right before this, we went to the Spine Empire and fought ancient spirits. Any normal adventurer would take at least a few months off after such a big request.”

Though Mari was the only one who openly expressed dissatisfaction, the other two had also accumulated quite a bit of frustration.

The two of them, in unison, pointed out that Kurt’s actions had gone too far.

In reality, the requests Kurt had led them on were quite grueling, even for seasoned adventurers like them.

Karina and Serena felt it too, but how much more so for Mari, who had less experience?

The schedule Kurt had pushed for the past 100 days was physically manageable for silver-ranked adventurers like them, but the mental fatigue was the real issue.

They had just returned to Astram after a grand journey to save the Empire, only to be dragged into more requests without a break.

It was like finishing a massive project in crunch mode, only to be handed another one immediately.

And this new project was far less important than crushing the Empire’s conspiracy, with no clear end in sight.

The only reason they had stuck with Kurt this long was because of his strong reputation. If he had been even slightly less respected, they would have snapped and left long ago.

But Kurt seemed genuinely surprised that the two were blaming him, not Mari.

At the same time, he still couldn’t let go of his obsession with cola and argued back.

“No. I just wanted to share the taste of cola with you all…”

“Of course, we know your goal is to let us taste cola. How could we not? You always share your delicious dishes with everyone first. But honestly, we’ve never tasted cola before, so we don’t know if it’s as amazing as you say. In fact, we don’t understand if cola is worth all this suffering.”

“Kurt, we’re not saying cola might not be delicious. In fact, we don’t doubt it would be, since everything you make is delicious. But what we’re saying is, while it’s good to care about cooking, you need to care about your comrades too.”

“I…”

As Karina and Serena continued, Kurt clutched his head in confusion.

‘Why don’t they understand my heart? It’s clearly because they haven’t tasted cola yet. Once they try it, they’ll change their minds! They’ll see it’s worth the effort.’

But as he thought this, Kurt suddenly realized he was trying to control people for the sake of cooking, rather than cooking for the sake of people.

The moment this realization hit, his mind cooled instantly.

Cooking is for the people who eat it. People should never exist for the sake of cooking.

That is the most important premise of cooking.

Yet, his current actions were paradoxically exploiting his comrades to let them taste cola.

Kurt, who had been obsessed with cola, finally opened his eyes.

“What have I… It seems I lost myself for a moment.”

“Have you come to your senses now?”

“Yes. I’m sorry for causing worry. I’m also sorry for everything over the past three months.”

It felt like he had been under a spell.

Like a card game player who completes a new deck and becomes corrupted by its power, Kurt had been enchanted by the allure of cola and had become a different person for a while.

“I’ll put the cola research on hold after this request.”

“We’ve been adventurers for a long time, so we can handle a few months without a break… But this is Mari’s first time experiencing such a grueling schedule without rest, so you should be considerate.”

“Ah. Right. I should make something delicious for her right now. And we should take a break today. I’ll go find Mari and bring her back. Of course… I’ll apologize too.”

With that, Kurt, looking somewhat dejected, left the inn to find Mari.

But no matter how much he searched around the inn, Mari was nowhere to be found.

Eventually, after circling the village, the party realized Mari had disappeared.

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