novelAfterstory 2 - Congratulations, Prosciutto e Melone Has Evolved!
| ← Ch.197 | Ch.199 → |
(Author note)
This chapter is slightly shorter than usual.
But then again, afterstories are basically like four-panel comics, so they'll be like this every once in a while.
(Author note end)
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One day, something happened.
A certain man arrived at the King Crab chain restaurant in Laevateinn that Karkinos was running.
He was wearing a suit, which was rare in Midgard. He had slightly yellowish skin as well as black hair and eyes, just like Sei.
Although it only became apparent after the fact, the after-effects of the battle between Alovenus and Ruphas were still persisting up to this point, and there were still distortions in the space-time continuum.
This man had unfortunately been caught up in it and had come wandering into Midgard from Earth.
When he saw Prosciutto e Melone, a food from Earth, despite being in a fantastic world, he was greatly moved and decided to order it.
But the moment he put it in his mouth, he froze and then gave some blunt criticisms about it to Karkinos, who just so happened to be at the store as part of his occasional inspections.
"This Prosciutto e Melone is fake. I can't eat this."
According to the man, Prosciutto e Melone was created because the melons that once grew in England had a grassy smell, so people started eating it together with ham in order to mask that smell.
As such, if one were to combine ham with melon and make it as close to the original product as possible, one had to use a slightly smelly melon which had its sweetness suppressed. This was the sophistry used by the man.
But in the end, because the man did not have any money with him, he ended up running away from the restaurant after eating everything and was subsequently apprehended by the knights. After that, he ended up meeting Ruphas and was sent back to Earth. However, the man's words still struck a chord within Karkinos.
"The Prosciutto e Melone that me made was... fake...!?"
Serving a customer a fake product... was something that should not be allowed to happen.
In practice, customers did not care that it was fake and were just ordering the dish with the intention of eating a melon. In fact, 70% of customers removed the ham before they started eating it. Unfortunately, Karkinos was so shocked by this revelation that he did not even realise that was actually happening.
As such, Karkinos made a decision.
Let's selectively breed them - this was the decision that he made.
Midgard's melons were too sweet. Therefore, they did not pair well with ham.
But selective breeding was not something that could be accomplished overnight. It required a lot of time. In fact, it required a number of years.
But the place that Karkinos was in was Midgard. In this world, there were ways to change things very quickly.
Thus Karkinos quickly took matters into his own hands and decided to employ those methods.
"Deform and mutate according to my devilish powers... the power of darkness, gather at the roots of this melon!"
Karkinos first decided to rely on Aigokeros.
But no matter how one looked at it, from the very start, Karkinos had definitely made a mistake picking who to ask for help.
Needless to say, a miracle did not happen. The melon, which absorbed the power of darkness, mutated into something grotesque.
"The big melon warp mutation! Devil melon!"
The outcome was this unfortunate thing.
The big melon had mutated into a devil melon, a strange and creepy purple mysterious thing.
Its level had increased to 150 and, in terms of battle prowess, it was a big success. Unfortunately, it was meant to be consumed as food. What good was it to have strengthened a food?
But Karkinos did not give up. After learning that it was pointless to mutate it using mana, he decided to try using alchemy next and headed towards Ruphas.
"You can leave it to me! Alright... alchemy!"
Ruphas activated a skill and then applied alchemy to the melon.
Alchemy and cooking were very much alike. In essence, they both used something as an ingredient and changed it into something else.
For example, suppose there was a bean. That bean could be turned into soy milk or even into cheese.
One could say that doing something like this was smack-dab in the middle of the field of alchemy.
After having an alchemical skill applied to it, the devil melon shone and mutated further.
"Devil melon, ultimate mutation! Metal devil melon!"
The outcome was this unfortunate thing.
The melon was now enclosed in steel, and it even had a bazooka equipped for some reason.
There was a claw at the bottom of its body, and it looked like something that would fit right into a space war that would continue all year round.
Needless to say, something like this could not be eaten. One should not turn food into a metallic substance.
As opposed to Ruphas, who was looking satisfied for some reason, Karkinos was depressed and disappointed.
"No, but... this isn't even a melon anymore, is it? How did it become like this...?"
The next person that Karkinos decided to rely on was Dina.
When he thought about it properly, time was what was needed to selectively breed something, and that was something that could be solved by her.
One should not forget. This cheating strategist was able to manipulate time to her will.
Dina, despite saying, "It'll definitely get weirder", reluctantly activated her time manipulation skill.
She sped up the metal devil melon's time.
Dina, you're wrong. That's not how selective breeding is done.
"This is super melon 3. Sorry that it took up some time... I'm not used to the new changes yet."
The outcome was this unfortunate thing.
The melon had elongated.
Its body, which used to be round, had greatly elongated. At this point, it was not even shaped like a melon anymore.
Furthermore, it shone a bright golden colour and was shooting off sparks by itself.
Not only that, its level, now at 300, rivalled that of the Seven Luminaries.
After seeing what had happened, one of the Seven Luminaries of the demons, Luna, muttered, "Could it be that we're actually really weak...?" having lost her self-confidence.
Even after this attempt, Karkinos kept trying and failing, but he did not give up on it.
In truth, it was smarter for him to give up, but he still did not give up.
There were those who thought that he should have at least prepared a new big melon and restarted from the beginning, but he still did not give up.
Hey, I'm telling you as an author to just give up already!
And the following day.
"... So, this thing... what are you planning to do with it?"
"Umm... what is... this?"
What exactly was the thing that Scorpius and Aries were exasperatedly looking up at?
At the very least, it was no longer a melon.
It had managed to reach a height of 30m.
Near the bottom, numerous steel legs were growing out of it, and it was walking around with a gashungashun sound.
It also now had an arm, and there were two bazookas on what would be considered its shoulders.
Because there were streams of fire being blasted out of its back, it could even take flight.
Its body also shone a bright gold colour.
As a side note, its level was now 400. Its strength now made it truly befitting to be called the ultimate evolution available to a melon.
This was the outcome after Karkinos continued to try despite those prior mistakes and went to seek Mizar's, Pollux's and Alovenus's help.
"My name is Ultimate Prosciutto e Melone."
"Prosciutto e... where is the ham even...?"
There was not even a trace of what could be called a melon left. There was also no ham on it.
Yet the individual (?) decided to call itself a melon.
No, it was a mistake to say that there was no ham on it.
After being questioned by Scorpius, the melon showed her a small slice of ham on top of its head.... Then ate it.
"My name is Ultimate Melon."
"Fine, be whatever you want to be..."
Scorpius muttered, after becoming as exasperated as she could possibly be.
Afterwards, the Ultimate Prosciutto e Melone was added to King Crab restaurant's menu, but the number of customers who ordered it suddenly went down to zero.
On the other hand, thanks to how ridiculous it looked and its unexpectedly reliable battle prowess, the Ultimate Prosciutto e Melone ended up becoming King Crab's mascot and was adored by the people.
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(Author note)
By the way, the first people on Earth have no particular relation to Oishinbo.
Maybe someone just saw the book and was influenced by it.
(Author note end)
| ← Ch. 197 | Ch. 199 → |