Chapter 236: Grado Clan's Culture

“Alright, guys. Isn’t it about time to lay off on bullying me now?”

Due to my earnest pleading, the topic of my female relationships was finally dropped. Well, at least Tinia and her attendants finally understood that I, Mimi, and Elma got along really well and acknowledged each other.

Actually, Mei should be included as well, even though she was a maidroid. And from their reaction earlier, I get that Tina and Whisker were serious in getting into ‘that’ sort of relationship with me, but let’s put that aside for the time being.

Mei wasn’t really all that assertive when it comes to matters like this, and as for the situation with Tina and Whisker, they do understand my current situation and were simply expressing their favorable feelings toward me without reserve.

Well, it does feel like I’m sort of backed into a corner though.

“Now then, let us talk about ourselves as well.”

“We’d be happy to hear all about you. What’s a good topic to ask though?”

“I’m curious about the lifestyle of the elves. What does life on a planet look like?”

“What is it like……?”

After hearing Mimi’s question, Tinia tilted her head and organized her thoughts for a few moments.

“We of the Grado clan are a tribe of hunters. Everyone wakes up at dawn, and the women wash and cleanse themselves using freshwater from streams or watering holes. The men gather firewood in the meantime, and once the women are back, they would take their turn in cleansing themselves as well.”

“I see. And after performing your morning routines, the men would probably go out to hunt, right?”

“Correct. Our main prey are dingirs, mumbas, lezarias, pirurus, and kinjas.”

“I can’t tell what kind of creatures they are just from their names.”

Mimi tilted her head. I also couldn’t imagine what those creatures would look like.

“Dingirs are ferocious creatures that would even attack people in some cases, and mumbas are usually cowardly, but are extremely dangerous when they go into a frenzy. Lezarias are dangerous beasts with large bodies and tough scales and skin. Pirurus and kinjas are birds.”

“There seem to be a lot of dangerous creatures though……”

“Well, even if they’re dangerous beasts, they shouldn’t be as dangerous as the monsters you fought before, Hiro. You know. Those Twisted. They’re all wild beasts in the long run, so they probably won’t attack with no reason.”

“Have you won against beasts before, Hiro-sama?”

Tinia tilted her head curiously after hearing Elma’s words.

“The ones I fought were actually biological weapons rather than beasts. They were created with the instinct to attack every creature apart from themselves. It wasn’t just limited to people. They would kill everything apart from the one controlling them.”

“……So they were beasts that were made to kill everything apart from their own kind?”

“That’s basically it. There are actually lots of creatures similar to those things and people who make and take advantage of them outside Refill IV, or rather, Theta.”

“……That’s quite a frightening story.”

Tinia-san gasped and drew signs in midair with her right hand. It was probably a prayer or ward of some sort.

“But even so, you still managed to fight and overcome such frightening creatures, Hiro-sama.”

“That’s basically true, but it’s not like I fought them with just my flesh and blood body. I did use power armor to fight off those white abominations a while back.”

“But you did fight those Twisteds unassisted though. They were far more dangerous.”

“I didn’t exactly want to get thrown into such a situation y’know……”

I definitely don’t want to experience being thrown into a planet that’s in the middle of being terraformed a second time. I’m definitely gonna buy lightweight power armor once I get the chance. It might be a good idea to head to a high-tech star system specializing in those products once we’re finished with our business in the Refill system.

“Hey, hey, what kinds of weapons d’ya guys actually use to hunt those creatures? I think using laser weapons would do a number on the quality of the meat and stuff.”

Tina, who’s been listening in without commenting previously, finally opened her mouth to ask a question while raising up a mug of alcohol. As a tech-loving dwarf, it makes sense that she’s curious about that stuff.

“Basically, we do not use non-local weapons when hunting for game. The hunters use spirit silver arrows, spears, and hatchets to hunt.”

“Spirit silver?”

I tilted my head after hearing an unfamiliar term. It seems Tina and Whisker’s eyes were also gleaming with curiosity after hearing about unfamiliar material.

“Yes. Metals are generally incompatible with spirit arts, with the sole exception of spirit silver.”

“Spirit arts…… So basically, you’re talking about magic, right?”

Actually, Elma can also use spirit arts. She actually demonstrated it to me a while back. Well, she just conjured up a small flame that was only good for substituting a lighter though. Elma said outer space didn’t have a lot of the stuff that made it possible to conjure such arts, so as a result, she couldn’t use anything that was reasonably powerful.

“Oh yeah. Now that you mention it, I’ve heard of elves talking about psionic compatibility and stuff in the past. So that means this spirit silver stuff is some sort of PAM, I guess.”

“PAM?”

“Psionic Amplification Material. That’s the long version. Its acronym is PAM. In other words, it’s a material that can amplify mental and spiritual powers or something like that.”

“A material that can amplify mental powers huh.”

“Yep. Most of them have metal-like properties, and they’re also produced in very limited quantities, so they’re very rare. And they’re also very difficult to process. They’d get ruined the moment you processed them the same way as regular metals.”

“Even so, they have few other redeeming qualities apart from being able to amplify mental power, so they aren’t really valuable as raw materials. They aren’t that tough, nor are they heat resistant, despite the high difficulty of processing them. But they’re still rare and mysterious, so it seems there are enthusiasts who expressly collect PAM out there.”

“I see…… So Theta’s inhabitants fight dangerous beats with bows, arrows, and spears made of such rare materials huh. Do you ask the wind spirits to make the arrows fly faster, ask the earth spirits to enhance the penetration power of your spears, and stuff like that?”

Tinia, who was listening to our exchange with great interest, showed a surprised look after hearing my remarks.

“Yes, that’s correct…… But why do you know of such things, Hiro-sama? Ah, perhaps you’ve heard of them from Elma.”

“You can say that.”

Elma then discreetly elbowed my side in protest. Ouch.

I simply just said what was on my mind, but it looks like some of the knowledge I brought over from Earth either strangely clashes or jives with a number of elements in this dimension. If I made a careless remark, it might lead to the exposure of my unique circumstances – my being suddenly thrown into this dimension along with Krishna. In order to prevent that from happening, Elma often backs me up, and constantly reminds me not to blabber on carelessly. I’m glad she’s expressing her concern for me, but can’t she be gentler about it?

“Um, what do you do with the beasts you hunt?”

“Oh. The hunted beasts would be drained of blood, cooled with water, and brought to the settlement to serve as our food. The skin and fur are tanned and processed into various items. They haven’t served any to us right now, but offal dishes are also quite delicious.”

“O-Offal dishes……”

Mimi, who’s heard of offal dishes for the first time, got a bit blue in the face. Well, offal dishes might seem a bit iffy for those who aren’t used to them, I suppose.

“Yes. The internal organs don’t last very long, so they aren’t widely available, unlike meat. However, I don’t hate them since they have a certain deliciousness that you won’t be able to find in regular meat. It is our belief that, as much as possible, we should try not to waste anything once we take lives for our sustenance.”

“I see…… Well, it’s something we personally can’t relate to that much, but we do understand the concept.”

“It’s something unthinkable for us considering our usual lifestyle huh.”

“That’s true.”

Our lifestyle as mercenaries is far removed from the elves’ ways of respecting the blessings of nature and trying to minimize waste. Well, we do go out on hunts, but it’s not like we consume the flesh of our targets. Uh, but perhaps we do consume them in a sense, huh?”

“We have our ways and you have yours. I think there is no problem as long as there is mutual respect.”

“There’s a saying that when in Rome, do as the Romans do back where I’m from, so I suppose it would be better to follow the local customs as much as possible while we’re on Theta. We’d want to respect the local culture as much as we can.”

“That’s right. And I would like to try eating offal dishes as well.”

“Yeah. I wanna drink more elven alcohol too.”

“Right. This alcohol’s really tasty after all.”

It sounds like you only care about filling your bellies, guys. Well, I suppose that’s just normal tourist behavior. Or rather, I can’t exactly mouth off to Mimi and the others since I’m heading planetside for the express purpose of seeking cola. I’m pretty much of the same mold huh.

The rest of the dinner proceeded in a peaceful manner, and we continued to exchange stories even after finishing off the food. Tina and Whisker have been gulping down alcohol nonstop since earlier, but they showed no signs of being drunk. Just where were they stuffing all that liquor anyway? The dwarven body sure is filled with mysteries.