Volume 8 - CH 7

Chapter 7: Cooked and Ready to Serve 

Late at night, as the date was about to change... 

The moon was hidden by the clouds, making it feel very dark. 

Amid that darkness, there were eight people, Aisha, Roroa, Naden, Halbert, Kaede, Ruby, Julius, and I, standing near a watch fire lit on one of the city walls. 

Illuminated by the swaying red flames, I handed a letter I had written to Aisha. “Send this to Hakuya in Parnam Castle.” 

“Understood.” 

Aisha accepted the letter, tied it to the messenger kui she had brought with her, and sent it off. The messenger kui flew south through the dark sky, 

“A letter?” Julius asked, to which I nodded. 

“A letter to the prime minister we left back at the castle, informing him of our situation and the lay of the land here. If there are tens of thousands of lizardmen beyond the Dabicon, we’re still going to want to take some measures against them even once the reinforcements arrive. I’m sure Hakuya will come up with a plan that’s appropriate to our situation and pass it to Ludwin, the commander-in-chief of the reinforcements.” 

“I see...” Julius nodded his head. “We’ll be leaving all the planning to the Black-robed Prime Minister then.” 

“Do I detect spite? Because I’m leaving everything up to someone else?” 

“You’re overthinking it. I’m still impressed.” Julius smiled wryly, and then let out a little sigh. “In the former principality, the opinion of the ruling prince was absolute. The prince led without hesitation, and his retainers followed without comment, whether his decisions were right or not. That may...be what created the gap between us and you. I feel, as late as this may be, that I understand why my father lost now.” 

“Big Brother...” Roroa gave him a look of concern. 

Julius broke out laughing. “Roroa, you and your fiancée were troublesome opponents for me. However, I now have those troublesome opponents on my side. Nothing could be more reassuring. Am I wrong?” 

“For me...I never found myself thinkin’ the old you was all that troublesome an opponent.” 

“Bold words...” 

“But I wouldn’t wanna end up fightin’ the new you. Ya seem way tougher than before.” And Roroa grinned. It felt like the ice was melting between them. 

Considering their past strife, it was hard to tell whether they could fully accept one another, but it seemed they wouldn’t hate each other without cause from now on. 

Looking at the two of them, I could feel my guilt for taking Roroa’s family away from her lighten just a little. 

That’s why...no matter what happens, I must defend this country. 

I put a hand on Naden’s shoulder. “Well, shall we get going, Naden?” 

“Okay.” Naden nodded and then, with a single breath, turned into her massive ryuu form. 

As I mounted Naden, Aisha rushed over with a worried look on her face. “I’m worried about letting you two go out alone after all, sire! I should go with you...” 

“Like I explained before, mobility and enemy detection are the important factors for what we’re about to do. It’s more efficient to have just me and Naden. If we take a bodyguard, we’ll stand out too much. We’ll get in and out quickly, so don’t worry.” 

“You say that, but...I can’t help it.” 

Aisha still had a worried look on her face, so I gave her a grin. “We all have to do what we can to get through this situation. I’m pushing my retainers hard, so I must do what I can myself too. It’s okay. If something goes wrong, I’m sure Hal and the rest will come for us.” 

Hal thumped his chest proudly. “Yeah. If you get in a jam, we’ll go pull you out of it. Right, Ruby?” 

If there was anything else I got compliments on...it’d have to be swimming. I was even better at swimming than Owen was, but winning against a man who was over sixty wasn’t much to brag about. Even if Owen was super frustrated by it. 

With things starting to feel kind of awkward, I grabbed the string tied around my waist. This string was silk, which was being used as a stand-in for rubber. It was strong, flexible, and not prone to tearing, and on the other side of the string was tied to the bolt I had just fired. 

As I pulled on the string, the little monster it had stabbed into was dragged along the ground. I couldn’t feel the monster moving, or the bolt pulling free... Good. 

With that confirmed, I placed my hands down on Naden’s back and said, “Okay. Let’s go home, Naden. No need to overstay our welcome.” 

“Roger that!” 

Before the monsters could gather around, Naden danced up into the sky. 

With the dead body of a monster dangling beneath us, we headed straight back to where our companions were waiting. 

When Naden returned to human form and set down on the wall with me, Roroa and Aisha rushed over. 

“Welcome back, Darlin’. How’d it go?” 

“Thank goodness you’re both all right,” Aisha said with relief. “You’re not hurt anywhere, are you?” 

“We’re fine. Neither of us are hurt anywhere, and things went well.” I patted them both lightly on the head. 

Naden, watching jealously, extended her own head in my direction, so I gave her hair a good mussing too. 

“Nice work out there, Naden. That was quite the thunderclap.” 

“Heheh, of course it was.” Naden puffed up her chest with pride. 

While we were bonding, Julius and Hal and all the rest looked on in exasperation. 

Before dawn, inside the tower near the castle... 

This place was dimly lit by the sun in the middle of the day, and was almost entirely dark by night, but now there was a roaring bonfire lit on the stone floor, lighting the cell where the lizardman was held in sunset colors. 

There were five people around the fire: Aisha, Roroa, Julius, Tomoe, and me. That was because if there were too many, the lizardman might get agitated. 

“Okay... Let’s do this,” I said. 

I pulled out the plump, winged snake monster (henceforth called a flying tsuchinoko for the sake of brevity). There was a metal spit running from the already dead flying tsuchinoko’s mouth to a hole near the point where its tail was attached (was that hole for defecating, maybe?), and the metal spit had a handle on the end of it. This was a tool for spinning the meat over the top of the fire as it cooked. 

The spitted flying tsuchinoko was rested on two Y-shaped metal racks on either side of the fire. When I started turning the handle, the flying tsuchinoko spun over the fire that was cooking it. 

Nothing special had been done to the flying tsuchinoko. It wasn’t plucked or descaled, and no spices were added; it was just put over the flame and cooked. This wasn’t for us to eat, it was purely to teach the lizardman to cook monster meat and eat it, so this was good enough. 

The continued exposure to flame made the feathers burn off, and fat dripped off its plump torso. The dripping fat made the fire burn stronger, so we cautiously added water to control it. 

The savory smell of cooking meat gradually filled the room. 

“You’re good at that...” Julius remarked as he watched me cook the monster. “Maybe you would make a better cook than a king.” 

“Hahaha... I can’t deny that.” 

“No, no, Darlin’. Aren’t ya supposed to be denyin’ that?” Roroa said in exasperation. 

No matter what job he suggested, I’d probably be better suited to it than being a king, but...well, I’d just have to focus on cooking this monster for now. 

I called Tomoe over and whispered to her. “Well? Is the lizardman watching us?” 

“Y-Yes, Big Brother. Mr. Lizardman can’t look away,” Tomoe responded, also in a whisper. 

It was top secret that Tomoe could converse with monsters and demons, so I didn’t want Julius finding out. 

Then, somewhat timidly, Tomoe looked at the lizardman. “Until just a little while ago, it only saw us as food. But ever since the smell of fried meat filled the air, it’s been only looking at the cooked monster. I’m hearing, ‘I want to eat that meat.’”