The Royal Military Academy's Impostor Owns a Dungeon [BL]-Chapter 376: Lobsters

But for now, "free" was the word that his little wife loved especially since all of the good things they were using now came from his very own backyard.

A backyard so large it apparently had these monsters in it.

Xavier caught a glimpse of these creatures when Elder Pao Xi showed them to Luca, but he and Cece were probably the only ones mentally prepared for such a display. And it was evident with how everyone else changed into a fighting stance the moment Luca came out with it.

Because what the golden boy came out with could only be described as a monster.

No—worse.

It was a mud-colored, armored abomination straight out of someone’s nightmare.

But not Ollie’s.

The slightly taller mop froze mid-step, one foot half-raised and hovering in the air like he’d just caught sight of an enemy mecha.

"Brother! WHAT is that?!" he yelped, voice cracking as he pointed at the massive, spiny creature sprawled across the cleaning slab.

The thing looked like a war beast.

Its thick, dark greenish-brown shell gleamed faintly like hardened battle plating, segmented and jointed with the confidence of something that had never once known fear.

Because how would it know fear when it was striking at the heart of one blonde mechanic?!

And look at those claws. CLAWS!

They were the size of those small plates, one even slightly larger than the other, but both twitched ominously as if still deciding who to pinch in its afterlife.

Not to mention those eyes! Those beady and unblinking eyes sat atop alien-looking stalks close to the long antennae that dragged across the table like slow-moving whips.

But see, it wasn’t just all that because those legs screamed "I’ll come after you!" with how many were splayed out in far too many directions for anyone’s comfort.

Ollie took a wary step back.

It was the type of mecha that would scare him, and the type of mecha that he ought to be building!

The type of abomination to aspire for!

"I-is it dead?"

Luca, who was humming softly as he rinsed a bowl, looked up innocently. "Mmhm! No brother, they’re actually quite fresh since Elder Pao Xi just handed them over to me!"

"So then, brother, what are we supposed to do with that? Is that also going to be food?"

He knew it! Because to Ollie, it sure as hell didn’t look dead. It looked like it had just retired from frontline warfare and now spent its days haunting the dreams of whoever could see them.

Like Cece, but for a totally different reason, as the dwarf chuckled at everyone’s fear.

"Everyone! You only react like that right now. But you must know that this creature could and deserves to be the cutest of them all."

"And while I am sad to share such a discovery, it seems like you must all know the magnificence of this one called a Lobster!"

A lobster?

The Lobster, if only Cece could hear and correct the thoughts of these uncultured people!

But she couldn’t, and in her excitement, the dwarf volunteered to start lighting several grills so the wood chunks could be ready for use once they were done preparing the items for grilling.

"Really? Thank you, Auntie Cece!" exclaimed Luca who realized that was a good way to save time. Since she was the only other being who knew how to operate them, and it would be bad to ask the Elder to do it considering he said his bones would feel too dry if he stayed close by.

"Of course! But if you can remember to save a few lobsters for me, I’d really appreciate that!" Grinned the shorter woman, who was right on the money!

"Don’t worry, Auntie! I will prepare them on your behalf! Thank you!"

Now that shouldn’t be too hard!

For what was harder was teaching everyone how to clean one.

Apparently, that sounded like a foreign idea to the people who never thought that the worst thing besides being attacked by a monster was realizing that you needed to clean it first!

Thankfully, he had another kind of lobster, one that didn’t have those claws.

"???"

"Son, now what’s that?!" asked the Duke, who saw another enemy and was starting to get worried for his precious son.

"Oh! Papa, it’s another kind of lobster!" He replied excitedly.

"Because I realized that I was probably cooking the other lobster wrong, because I think I wasted the claws and much of the other meat."

"So these lobsters with claws, I think it would be better if we boil them. While these ones we could use for grilling, as shown in the book!"

But for anyone who could see the photos, they saw something much smaller, so how come these creatures looked this big? But then again, Luca did say that their watermelons were so much bigger here, too.

So, maybe more food then?

And more food, it really was!

Provided they could get over cleaning them.

The first step was apparently killing the lobsters, which for the boiled ones would be easy as they just needed to be divided into soft versus hard shells before being boiled for different times.

In fact, the hardest part was probably looking for pots that could accommodate the size of that thing!

Now this was also going to be Luca’s first time doing this, and while the book said eight to ten minutes, that was likely for these itty bitty lobsters and not for these ginormous ones.

So, he was going by the note that if the smaller pincer comes off without the meat, then it should be ready after a cold water bath.

Everyone watched him with worried gazes, but nothing seemed too hard about putting them in the pot.

Until the dedicated demonstrator got his knife and inserted it right in the middle of what was apparently the head of the spiny lobster!

Crack.

Thunk!

Ollie shivered at the sound and even shivered more when his good brother said that apparently they might twitch and move a bit even when they’re dead, but it was supposed to be normal due to lingering nerve reflexes.

And it really did!

But Luca seemed unfazed, and they would’ve continued to think that way if they hadn’t heard him murmuring apologies and thanks to the lobster for providing food for them.

Duchess Amelia watched from the side and wanted to take over the killing part so that his son wouldn’t have to do it, but realized that Luca was just starting with the cleaning process.

Because the boy wordlessly proceeded to take sharp scissors to cut down the legs and the antennae before using a knife to cut the lobster in half.

It was then that Luca said to leave a bit of the bottom so when they open the lobster like this, it’d stay connected.

Now, when he first opened the lobster he was cleaning, everyone looked bewildered at the white meat inside.

And then he said, "This part is the part that we can eat."

"While this vein right here, we want to take out because that and this part right here can’t stay there." Luca pointed at the parts for the intestines and the waste and showed how to pull them out while referencing the book.

"Now this one should be ready to be grilled. But for both the grilled and the boiled lobster, we’ll need the garlic butter sauce."

Better yet, the lemon garlic butter sauce!

And the people who knew what that was suddenly stood at attention, surprising those who were new to the scene.

Like Killian, who felt like he suddenly needed to imitate everyone’s stance.