Here's the bait!

　In the dark basement, Zeldo was feeding a treasure chest with meat on a stick.
　From the side, he looks quite dangerous, but from his point of view, it's quite a serious task.
　After all, if you're not careful, you'll be eaten.

　As the meat lodged at the end of the stick approaches, the lid of the chest jumps open and the meat is bitten off with the stick.
　Then it begins to lease the meat like a living creature.

A wild beast.

　That's right, Zerdo was not feeding a wilderness chest, but a magnificent demon called a mimic.
　Lasse and his friends went to the ruins to search for the jewel of the magical treasure where the demon's power was sealed, and they decided to raise a large number of mimics they found there.

　The purpose of the mimic is the motsukabe. Mimics are so tasty that they are called live motsu-nabe, but they are also precious and only found in dangerous ruins.
　Moreover, they decay quickly after being defeated, and can only be eaten locally.

　They could be tied up in boxes and transported by carriage, but the mimic was very weak in sunlight, and by the time it reached the town, it was so weak that it tasted very bad.
　For this reason, if you wanted to eat fresh mimics, you had to hire an adventurer to search for them, or pack them up tightly during the night and cook them in a place where they would not be exposed to the sun.

　Even if a mimic was transported in such a way, the taste of the mimic was said to be worse than that of the mimic eaten in the area, so the demon food experts suspected that there was a problem with the transportation method.

　But this time, a large number of mimics were found in a labyrinth, so Lasse decided to farm them and take them to the room where he fought the golem near the entrance of the labyrinth, where they were raised and observed.

Zeldo, I've got a new container for you.

　A lantern light approaches from the entrance of the maze.

"Oh, Lord Dryad.

　Zerdo interrupted his feeding to greet the dryad as it arrived.

"Here are the new mimic shells. Here are the large, medium, and small ones, so take care of your journal.

　Then the dryad left a large and small chunk of metal that had been tangled in the ivy on the floor.

"So this is the mimic's new shell. It's a strange shape.

　Zerdo was right, the dryad brought a mimic shell shaped like two round woks joined together.
　One side is connected to the other by a hinge. It seems to be shaped like a seashell.

Yes, master had the blacksmiths make these mimic pot shells for him.

　Normally, a mimic pot heats up the bottom of the treasure chest to steam the mimic inside.
　You would think that this would cause the chest to burn and the mimic to spill out, but in reality, the mimic casserole is used to eat the inner organs and the outer parts are inedible.
　In other words, a mimic pot is a dish made by sticking a bag of ingredients and water into a container.

　However, it is too unattractive to be a dish made from a treasure chest.
　To put it bluntly, it looks dirty.

　So Lasse devised a new type of pot that can be used not only as a shell, but also as a cookware.
　Mimic is a hermit crab-shaped demon that lives in a box with a lid.
　The idea was that if the new mimic's box was used as a pot, it would not look bad, and cooking would be easier.

And then. How are the mimics doing?

Hmm, she's got a good appetite. The mimics that I've given meat to eat as much as I've given them, and the ones that I've given only occasionally don't seem to be particularly weak. Even the mimics that I haven't given them anything are doing fine, judging by their reactions.

　Zeldo explains, reading out the progress of the mimics' observations in their diaries by lantern light.

Yes, that's right. The rest is just a matter of how they tasted when they were fed and when they weren't.

Well, and if the new mimics can live in this pot, we'll have a better aquaculture system.

We'll have to wait and see on this one. No one knows anything about the mimic's breeding conditions.

　The dryad was right, mimics are rare, standby-type monsters that are encountered in the maze, so their detailed biology was not clear.
　If you want to observe a mimic, you have to dive deep into the labyrinth.
　The problem was that the danger was too great for researchers to get into.

In a few months, the mimic's cellar will be completed under the ranch, so until then, I'd appreciate it if you could keep her here.

Mmm, okay.

　When it was decided to farm mimics, there was a debate about who would raise them, but it was decided that Zerdo was the right person for the job because of his dexterity and the fact that he could get into the basement and he was the one who was the first to say it, so it was decided that Zerdo would be the one to take care of the mimics here ever since.

"I can't let my master work in a dangerous place, can I?

　Even though it's underground, this place is in the great demon forest where demons roam.
　It's a very good idea to have a certain amount of competence in order to keep them on duty.

By the way, has that gem been recovered yet?

　At a lull in the conversation, Zeldo asks what happened to the treasure found in this labyrinth.

There's still no movement. I just heard that the king's capital sent a holy knight and a group of priests to get the treasure a few days ago.

It's a long story.

　Zeldo was taken aback by the church's slow pace of action.

It can't be helped. After all, it's the devil. At the risk of being attacked during transport, it was necessary to gather the most competent people.

　Admonished by the dryad, Zeldo inwardly chides himself.

(Indeed, I have suffered a painful reprisal for underestimating the power of my opponent.

"Then I'll be on my way.

"Mm, have a safe trip home.

　Having seen the dryad off, Zeldo turns to the mimic again.

"Now then, shall I resume feeding?

　A few months later, the first ever mimic motsukabe restaurant would open in the town of Dexi, and it would be a great success.