The Royal Military Academy's Impostor Owns a Dungeon [BL] novel Chapter 219

Chapter 219: Baked Fish

With the disastrous fishing expedition behind them, the group stood gathered in the expansive kitchen.

The countertops gleamed, now occupied by an absurdly large pile of fish. Salmon, bass, catfish—all still intact, wide-eyed, and undoubtedly in need of a good cleaning.

And that was precisely the first lesson.

Cleaning the fish.

Luca, with his sleeves rolled up, stood at the center.

His hands hovered over a particularly massive salmon, which sprawled across the wooden counter like it owned the place.

Hopefully, this was actually a salmon because, admittedly, it looked a little too big.

"Alright," he began while trying to stay calm.

He also wasn’t good at this, but between all of them, he likely had the most experience.

His knowledge only came from the wet markets, which he visited to look for the cheapest possible food. There, he saw the vendors cleaning the fish.

And Luca, a poor boy, could only wait for those fish that couldn’t be sold.

Like those with popped guts.

Although for many of the other things he was going to teach them, most of it actually came from the cookbooks he bought.

"First, we’re going to clean these. That means removing the scales, gutting them, and then rinsing."

He scanned the room.

And everyone, including the Elders, looked back at him with a mixture of fascination and mild apprehension.

Then, with surprisingly deft hands, he demonstrated the process from the beginning.

But the funny part is that he’d likely be better at this if he used his spiritual tendrils instead. For after making that biomecha, he felt like his fingers and tendrils were more agile.

The act was methodical— scrape, cut, rinse —and while Luca wasn’t an expert, he managed well enough.

"The key," Luca continued, "is to be efficient and careful. And most importantly—don’t destroy the fish."

"And the gallbladder!"

Definitely not that! He didn’t want them to taste their first fish like that, especially not when their fish was kind of free already.

"I’ll try." The Duke coughed awkwardly, which got him a pointed look from Butler Gary.

"For scaling, you don’t need to apply too much pressure. You just have to scrape."

The sound of metal against scales echoed through the room as Luca ran the blunt edge of the knife from the tail to the head.

Silver flakes burst off like glitter, fluttering down onto the table.

"See?" He held the fish up, showing the now scale-free patch.

"You want to get rid of all of this. Otherwise, the skin’s unpleasant to eat."

The Elders nodded sagely, remembering how the fishes back in their world had scales as tough as rocks which would certainly be unpleasant to eat!

"Next, we’ll clean out the insides."

The Duke’s brows furrowed, and even Kyle, with all his battle experience, shifted uncomfortably.

A ripple of unease swept through the room.

"Uhm...Everyone, this isn’t going to be pretty, but it’s really necessary, and this is where we need to be really careful."

He flipped the salmon over, positioning it belly-up.

With a precise stroke, he inserted his hand by the gills to grab onto the fish as the blade slid smoothly, parting the fish from the belly to the head.

"This is how we can make an incision," Luca explained. "You want to go shallow so you don’t puncture any organs. Just follow the line back."

The fish opened neatly, exposing the dark crimson innards. Ollie slightly trembled and paled at the sight, but Luca remained unfazed.

"Now we remove the guts."

He slipped his fingers inside and carefully pulled the organs free, depositing them into a nearby waste bin.

"Just grab from near the head, give it a firm pull, and most of it comes out clean."

Now, to the little chef who was so concentrated, this was probably routine, but for those watching, this looked like surgery!

And to think they haven’t even known this kind of surgery since medical pods normally healed injuries without this ancient technique.

Luca looked like a reaper.

A very awe-inspiring one.

"But don’t forget this part." He pointed to a film-like material that hid gunk that had to be cleaned out as well.

Luca used the tip of his knife to scrape it away, rinsing the fish clean with water from a large basin. The pinkish flesh gleamed, pristine and ready.

I think.

*Scrape, scrape, scrape.*