CH 124

Then there was a copper star student who approached with a smile.

“Marcus-san, I caught a snake! It’s meat, meat!”

A boy named Conrad who was younger than Sophie happily grabbed a snake and brought it with him. The snake no longer had its head and didn’t even twitch since it was already dead.

“Hih!”

Lars screamed a little.

Snakes were generally consumed in the royal capital. There was no religious prohibition in the Orlando Kingdom, so beef, pork, and chicken meat could be eaten without any problems, but those who ate snakes and frogs were generally lower-class people even among commoners. Considering Lars’ pedigree, not to mention even recognizing it as a food ingredient, he would hardly see a snake to begin with.

“Eh… wait, are you intending to cook and eat that?”

Next to Lars, who was completely creeped out, Sophie raised her voice as if witnessing something unbelievable.

“Hey, I told you earlier! It meant we would hunt and eat things around us. It might be something unthinkable to eat for ojou-san, but for us, snakes are precious meat…”

“That’s not what I meant, why did you cut off the head!?”

“Heh?”

Does she find the snake pitiful for losing its head? thought Marcus as he tilted his head, which was then answered by Conrad.

“It would die immediately after the head is cut off, so it’ll be easier to cook, right?”

Conrad, who was known for his potential in the sword and for being not so smart among the bunch, gave a casual reply to the purple star without any sense of fear.

“Byakuya snakes have a small venom gland on their head. Why did you cut its head off without removing the gland first? The moment you did, the venom spread all over its body.”

“Heh~ so it’s called a byakuya snake. And what is the venom gland again?”

“It’s this little black lump you cut off. If you want to cut its head off, you have to make sure to cut it lower than the venom gland.”

Sophie took the snake away from Conrad and pointed to a black part.

Since Lars was near Sophie, he got to see the cross-section of the snake and immediately passed out. Luca hurriedly supported him.

Without paying attention to Luca and Lars, Conrad asked Sophie with a soft voice.

“So there’s poison in this snake? But we normally eat it though?”

“All you need to do is make sure to remove the venom gland beforehand. The snake would have been edible if you did, but you ended up cutting the head along with the venom gland, so the poison flowed through its blood vessels and poisoned its whole body.”

“Eeh~? But I’ve never heard that we are supposed to remove it beforehand.”

“There’s just a little amount of poison so it’s not completely inedible, but those who aren’t in good condition or those who are sensitive to poison would feel nausea, dizziness, and stomachaches. If you ate it on the battlefield or during night watch when your immunity is lower, you’re likely to get sick if you eat it like this. You wouldn’t say you will make do with guts and patience, right?”

“I can make do with that!”

Marcus hurriedly covered Conrad’s mouth when he was saying, “I’m pretty lucky after all.”

“Sorry! This guy came from a considerably good pedigree among the copper star but he’s stupid!”

“Luck is certainly important. But I couldn’t agree with your way of pushing through things by relying on luck and guts alone.”

Conrad is an idiot, but what the heck is this ojou-san saying? Was she not angry with his disrespectful attitude?

Just as Marcus thought of that, he suddenly recalled something.

“Ah…”

As Marcus frowned as if noticing something, Lars called out worriedly while still supporting Lars.

“Marcus-san, what’s wrong?”

“I gave him a snake yesterday…”

“Him?”

“Doni…”

As they recalled Doni, who often suffered from stomachaches, silence fell on the field.

“Now that I think about it, he only got stomachaches during the mountain exercise…”

Marcus was exasperated by the fact Doni suffered from stomachaches all the time, but he realized it was his fault this time and got a cold sweat.

“Seriously… But, there’s no problem for me eating it though?”

“There’s a difference in poison resistance for each person. Marcus is fine since you are still energetic now, but you have to be careful consuming it when your immunity is lower. You might end up dehydrated and die just like that.”

Everyone there swallowed their breath at the girl who casually said something scary.

And for some reason, a simple cooking lecture was carried out by the purple star young lady then.

“First of all, cut the byakuya snake carefully so as to not damage the venom gland. Since it’s near the mouth, it should be around this spot… Hey Conrad, you have to make sure to drain the blood of the birds properly. Wash it thoroughly and remove its inner organ carefully. Rudolph over there! Cook your stuff properly. Since we’re not in a dangerous location like in the midst of a battlefield and we have water to spare, you shouldn’t be lazy in cooking. Sasha, you’re grilling it half-assedly! Make sure to grill it properly, or else that thing is no different than eating it raw!”

Luca and Marcus were stunned at Sophie’s figure giving instructions to the copper stars one after another while having her personal kitchen knife in hand.

By the way, Lars was still unconscious.

“Hey, Marcus! Your local procurement group all think that everything can be eaten as long as it’s grilled a little, don’t they?!

“Ah… this group mostly consists of people who came from the capital, so they more likely have no idea how to cook. Well, I also think everything can be eaten if we grill things a little, though.”

No, it’s not like we just hunt and then eat them as is, right? Hunting is forbidden in areas near the capital. And even the local procurement group only did it since they wanted to eat meat firsthand, not that they considered things that would happen if they ran out of portable food… such were the long excuses of Marcus, which took Sophie several seconds to think over.

“Anyway, it looks somewhat scary looking at you speaking with that bloodstained, weirdly shaped dagger in hand. Did you bring it from your house?”

“It’s not a dagger, it’s a kitchen knife. It’s made of iron from the Daksha kingdom, so it cuts really well.”

“Why would an ojou-san carry such a thing around…?”

Marcus would understand if it was a sword for precaution and self-defense purposes, but he couldn’t understand why an aristocratic young lady would bring a personal kitchen knife with her. The people who would bring their personal kitchen knife would normally be a chef or a commoner who was responsible for cooking food.

However, Sophie didn’t answer Marcus’ question and asked back instead,

“That means you don’t have an objection to eating tasty food, right?”

“Eh?”

“You said, ‘We did it because we want to eat meat firsthand,’ didn’t you? In that case, even if we make use of seasoning to cook tasty food, it won’t deviate from the purpose of the exercise, right?”

“Well, I guess… But we don’t have seasoning with us.”

“Conrad and others, wait a moment! We’ll prep the food first!”

As Sophie called out to stop, Marcus muttered, “I told you we don’t have seasoning with us…” as if he didn’t give up on convincing her.