“Actually, don’t tell anyone this, but...”
“Yes?”
“I spent more time on this dragon’s food than the food the village chiefs are eating right now.”
“I figured.”
“Keep it a secret between us, okay?” She put her index finger up to her lips in a coquettish manner. I coughed awkwardly and averted my eyes, because at that moment I recalled all I’d done to her daughter. I couldn’t help but feel embarrassed. That said, Iria was being treated as another key player in the orc extermination and currently enjoying her own moment of fame and recognition from all of the partygoers.
Still, from a future perspective, I was a little anxious about introducing Claimh Soras to food that took this much time and effort to prepare. What if it got picky and refused to eat raw meat from now on?
Sorry, partner, but if you think you’re going to get food like that every day, you’re sorely mistaken.
Lunamaria was a skilled cook, but like most elves, she had an aversion to meat dishes, and perhaps because Seele was originally from a large family, she automatically equated deliciousness with how many cheap, easily obtainable ingredients were used in a dish.
As for Suzume, who’d been living on her own in Titus Forest, cooking comprised one of two things: boiling something in water or heating it with fire. And my own cooking abilities could probably be determined by the fact that, lately, I’d seriously been looking into hiring a house maid. So if Claimh Soras started expecting the same quality of food as Priestess Sela’s every time, we’d have a problem.
Or, wait...maybe I could use this as an excuse to visit the village every now and then? It took seven days by horse and buggy to travel from Ishka to Merte, which wasn’t an easy distance, but on my wyvern, I could make the journey in half a day. If I came to visit Priestess Sela on a regular basis for no real reason, it might look suspicious to outsiders, but if I was coming to have Sela whip up my wyvern’s favorite food, I could probably avoid that. Of course, the easiest thing would be to invite Sela to join my clan, but a village on the outskirts of the kingdom like Merte would never be able to find anyone else to employ such eminent miracles as Sela could. If she left the village, it would surely cause a terrible commotion. Even before that, she ran the church here and had orphaned children to look after. She wasn’t going to leave so easily. I supposed I’d have to give up on recruiting her for now.
No, wait again. In that case, wouldn’t I just need to find someone who could replace her? And as for the three brats, I supposed I could take them under my wing. Luckily, my home currently had an excess of rooms, so I had the space to accommodate three children and Sela. Oh, but she had told me her late husband’s grave was here too, so she probably wouldn’t want to leave. There was also her daughter to consider. I’d taken pains to ruin Iria so that I’d have a larger stock to eat souls from, so if we were all living under the same roof, Sela would definitely notice that her daughter was behaving strangely. And my slaves Lunamaria and Seele were there too. From an outsider’s perspective, anyone without context would probably just assume I was some playboy with a new woman every night, huh? I didn’t even want to imagine what Sela’s eyes would look like when they were clouded with revulsion.
So let’s not get greedy, I told myself. Let’s just focus on making sure my connection to Sela stays open in the future.
With the sincerest expression I could muster, I spoke to her. “Er, Priestess Sela, there’s something I want to ask you...”
“Yes? What is it?”
“Well, since you pickled this meat, doesn’t that mean it’ll keep for a while?”
“Yes, well, longer than usual, at least. But the weather here is about to get hotter, so we’ll want to eat as much of it as soon as we can. In this case, though, I don’t think we’ll have to worry about having too many leftovers,” she said with a smile as she looked at Claimh Soras.
Yes, I doubt we’ll have to worry about that. It looked like the wyvern had licked the barrel clean. I almost thought I saw it let out a satisfied sigh before noticing my presence and turning its round eyes toward me. It brought its face closer, looking almost apologetic that it hadn’t noticed me.
Hey, you’ve got vinegar all over your face, you know. Naturally, since you had your head all the way in the barrel...
“Was it really that good?” I asked.
The wyvern chirped happily. When Sela took out a cloth to wipe its face, it slammed its tail on the ground even more energetically and even flapped its wings. I guess that meant the food was a hit. And it wasn’t just the meal Claimh Soras liked. The creature had apparently become fond of Sela as well. As she wiped the other side of its mouth with her own cloth, it didn’t reject her hand at all. Considering it had never let any human but me touch it before, this was a pretty significant development. Perhaps the closest way to the heart really was through the stomach.
“Pretty soon, it’ll start bringing its hunted prey to you instead of me,” I joked.
“If it’s a request from one of the key figures who saved this town, I’d be happy to whip something up for it any time,” she replied, grinning back. “Well, I don’t think I’d have the time to do it every day, but...”
“I understand, but I appreciate the offer. In fact, I think I might take you up on it. Not every day, of course, as that would be asking too much, but I’m prepared to pay you for your cooking services from time to time.”
“Of course! I wouldn’t mind at all! As for payment, rather than paying me directly, I would rather you donate the amount to the church instead,” she said with a bright smile.
Guh! N-No, I can’t!
For a moment, I casually felt that I wanted to eat her soul right then! I was losing confidence in my ability to restrain myself while talking to her, so I walked away.
A-At any rate, mission accomplished! Rejoice, Claimh Soras.
Now I wouldn’t have to come up with some new excuse every time I visited. With that, I could return to Ishka without any regrets.
Then Priestess Sela turned to me, her eyes wide with surprise. “What? You’re leaving so soon?”
“O-Oh, yeah, you know, I’ve been away from Ishka for a while now, and I need to check up on my clan. I’m also worried about the Sea of Rot.”
Of course, the Sea of Rot itself probably wouldn’t be an issue anymore, but there was no guarantee that some other abnormalities wouldn’t pop up as a result. I was also concerned about the demonkin Suzume. I’d asked Lunamaria and Seele to look after her while I was gone, so I probably didn’t need to worry, but those two were problems on their own. An elf woman and beastkin girl wearing slave collars were, in a sense, just as conspicuous as Suzume was. To be honest, I was really throwing caution to the wind by being here.
Since saying so would sound rather high-handed on my part, I’d made my explanation as brief as possible, but Sela must have somehow sensed that I had my own circumstances, as she bowed her head deeply in gratitude.
“Thank you, truly. I can’t even begin to thank you enough for all you’ve done for us.”
“No, no, the pleasure was all mine. We’ve got to help each other out in our times of need.” I smiled gently, trying my best to seem like a kind, agreeable young man.
Did I really seem like that to her? I wondered, then I suddenly realized something. Come to think of it, the kids have been awfully quiet recently.
I turned to look in the trio’s direction. They were all rubbing their eyes sleepily. It was probably way past their normal bedtime, so that was no wonder. Ein opened his mouth wide in a yawn. The other two seemed to be half asleep already.
“Ein, could you take Zwei and Dora back to their rooms, please?” Sela asked sweetly.
“All...right,” Ein answered with another yawn and a nod, rubbing his eyes again. He guided Zwei forward with his right hand and held Dora’s hand in his left as they made their way back to the village.
As I watched them go, I had a thought. Ein’s a good big brother, huh? I feel like there was once a time where Ragna and I held each other’s hands like that, but the memory’s far too dim for me to recall now.
How long ago had that been, anyway? I remembered my mom and Ragna’s mom were both there, so we had to have been younger than seven at the time. As I struggled to recall the bitter nostalgic memory, I felt a gaze from my side. When I turned to look, Sela, who I’d assumed had followed the kids back to the village, was staring at me intently. There was a sympathetic look in her eye, almost as though she was worried about me. It was like she’d sensed the loneliness in my heart without me even having to tell her. Ashamed by the kindness in her eyes, I turned away.