episode_0022

It’s bustling outside the house.

I took a nap and slept for quite a long time, so it was quite dark outside.

‘···Head hurts.’

Water was desperately needed.

“Are you awake?”

Jules must have already woken up.

But he didn’t even get up and stayed by my side.

I used to do this too when I had a dog.

“···Yes. Just now. The town is a mess.”

“The hunters are back.”

“A hunter?”

“Look outside.”

I woke up half-asleep and looked out the window.

There were many hosots gathered in the square, and they were still gathering.

At first glance, it looks like it’s over a hundred.

“It is a tradition where half of the group catches game once every ten days for five days.”

‘Half the pack?’

Are you saying that these are all the people I’ve seen so far?

There was a feeling that the village was somewhat quiet.

“······If such a large number of people went out hunting so often, wouldn’t the seeds of the surrounding animals all dry up?”

“The hunting location changes depending on the period. This hunt is to the north, the next hunt is to the south, and so on. And we don’t hunt animals with babies.”

At least you have something to protect.

If there were half of the group, Juul would also go to the hunting festival.

If Jules leaves for the hunting festival, is it possible that I will have to look at the house alone?

‘Then where do I get food?’

I’ve never thought about what slaves do when their masters aren’t around.

“Are Jules leaving too?”

The corners of Jules’ mouth went up.

“I can’t go.”

‘You can’t go?’

I guess it’s because it’s a precious bloodline.

Hunting is ultimately a fight against prey.

If you ignore your prey, the carnivore may die.

Aren’t there many cases where lions are beaten to death while trying to hunt buffalo?

but.

‘The more I think about it, the more I think this person doesn’t apply.’

In my opinion, Juul is the type of person who would kill an elephant and stick it in his head.

And isn’t he a hunting genius who catches rabbits with his bare hands?

“Why can’t I go out?”

“That’s something to enjoy in Hosott. Who hunts more, catches something delicious, things like that.”

“Jul is good at hunting.”

“I’m always unique, so I don’t go out of my way to be considerate.”

‘It makes sense for some transcendent reason.’

Even though she is a woman, she is tall and strong like a ghost.

If all Hosotts were like Jool, Drekkar would have collapsed already.

Jules stood up straight away.

“Now, I’m hungry, so let’s go eat!”

The village square looked like a festival had begun.

Thanks to this, my butt didn’t come off easily.

…I don’t think it’s a place for me, a slave, to be included.

“I’m a slave.”

“There is no one who cares about that.”

Jules gently grabbed my hand.

Although it was much larger, it was not as ferocious as Shir.

At the same time, I was hungry, so I was dragged out obediently.

I was quite nervous, but the hosts didn’t pay much attention to me.

In fact, the Dbergs were also enjoying the hunting festival.

‘It’s not as cruel as Ymir’s tomb.’

The square was busy.

The deverges were busy running around helping to clean the meat, and they mercilessly threw away the meat that was not in good condition.

“Why are you throwing this away?!”

The hunter looked very embarrassed.

“I got sick and my flesh became inflamed.”

“Hey! Did you catch that for us to eat?!”

The meat is cut into large pieces and grilled on the spot.

It seems that there was also Deberg, who majored in cooking.

The skill with which he removes the meat from the ribs is dazzling.

The Dverges were collecting animal intestines in buckets to use some of them as ingredients for cooking.

After all, they are great people.

‘···Why on earth are you here?’

In front of the heated brazier where Deberg was cooking, young and small hosots crowded together in groups.

Contrary to what Jules said, most hosots also seem to like grilled meat. And like kids, they only ate the meat and didn’t even touch the grilled vegetables.

I was really drawn to the grilled vegetables and side meats.

It seems that Korean tastes are ultimately going nowhere.

Just as I was about to go there.

“Seollang!”

One of the hosots approached Jules, seemingly knowing him.

His hair was reddish-brown and he was smaller than Jules.

“Rest. Did you catch something good this time?”

“No. An ogre intercepted and ruined the oxygen I had been hunting for for several days. He was really the size of a house──.”

“Oger?! What a crazy guy! Get your nostrils pierced!”

Jules patted the back of Hosot called Huso, put his arm around his shoulder, and headed downriver. Their tails were wagging low, as if they were quite close friends.

Hueso’s eyes turn to me, who is being held in Jules’ hand.

“What is that?”

Is that it?

“My slave.”

“My?”

“Okay. You are my slave.”

Hyuso tilted his head and looked at me.

“Humans can’t speak our language, right?”

“I can speak all Ain languages. And I have a lot of trivia.”

“How long are you going to treat me like a child?”

Hyuso smiled and shook his head.

“Well, don’t believe it.”

Juul also laughs and takes it easy.

Hyuso glanced at Juul and then looked at me.

“Hey. Say something.”

The way he speaks seems to be asking an animal to do a trick.

······What do you want me to say?

“Hello?”

Hyuso’s face changed into a flower lantern.

“Huh?”

“Ahaha! With an expression like an idiot!”

Bang!

Juul slapped the dumbfounded Hyuso on the back.

The sound of flesh exploding was very loud.

“Ahh─?!! just now! I told you, right? How do humans speak our language?!”

“I received Dragonia’s blessing.”

“Oh, shit! Maal.”

A look of awe suddenly appeared in Hyuso’s eyes.

“Where did you pick up something great? But this time… what happened to the kids who had the accident?”

“He died while fighting with a cat.”

Hyuso stiffened like a stone at Juul’s answer.

But even for a moment.

Immediately he sighed and smiled.

“Ha, you crazy bastards. Why did you attack Terup?”

“You probably thought it was just one. In fact, one was dead. I think the other one made a surprise attack.”

“I was told not to do anything crazy, but I ended up doing something crazy.”

Were you close to those rapists?

Huso’s expression was not very bright.

“I put its head in the window of the tallest house.”

“······Thank you.”

Hyuso, who had been going down with Jules, turned around and headed towards the highest house.

I heard those three were idiots, but even if they were idiots, I guess that didn’t mean that my friend was also an idiot.

Especially in a village like this, people of the same age have no choice but to become close friends.

I am confident that the evil habit of bullying only exists in cities where people are overrun with corruption.

“Are you close to me?”

“This is the guy who proposed to me a long time ago.”

“To Jule?”

“I dumped him, and less than a year later he married another bitch.”

Come to think of it, Jules’ younger sister, the chieftain, even has a child.

‘Hasn’t Juul already reached the point of marriage?’

Maybe there is a family I need to take care of.

“Isn’t Jule married?”

“I can’t have children. Marriage is a luxury.”

Are you saying it’s infertility? Or because of social position?

Although he says it without saying it, this kind of story is sensitive to everyone. I think this is something I can say in passing since I am still young.

I closed my mouth and looked away.

The river flowing next to the square was stained red with blood.

Some hosots were chewing their long intestines, rolling them up like spaghetti noodles and putting them in their mouths.

What on earth is that doing?

“Today is the first day, so the hunters will return every night for three days.”

Every night?

“Didn’t they come all at once? There are so many?”

“Today is the most and the last day is the least. I’ll be able to eat meat until my stomach explodes for a few days.”

Juul looks at Mt. Kogi with happy eyes.

Even in the snow, dozens of animals weighing from 0.1 to 1 ton have been slaughtered and piled up. But more coming?

I can’t imagine.

Jules took me here and there.

The acquaintances and greetings with the village people seem to show that Juul is a ‘popular person’.

The place where Juul stopped was in front of Hosott, who was smaller than the other Hosotts.

“What did you catch?”

“Ah. hello! therefore! Two cassowaries and thirty rabbits…”

“Give me one leg of the cassowary.”

“Wait a minute!”

Hosott, who looked young, used a knife to hastily cut off the cassowary’s leg and handed it to Jool.

─Cassowary.

I have seen my father hunting.

It was a bird that resembled an ostrich, but it was colorful like a peacock and had vicious claws like a bird of prey.

If you get kicked, your flesh will tear or puncture.

‘That little kid caught it?’

Jules cuts off the cassowary’s skin with his fingernails.

Then, after peeling off the skin, they started chewing the flesh.

That image suddenly reminded me of a kobold.

“Can Hosott rip off a deer’s leg with his bare hands?”

“······Do you think that will happen?”

Can’t you?

“I have hunted deer before.”

“I know.”

How do you know?

Anyway, this is not what I wanted to ask.

“That day, the deer that was running away after being hit by the arrow I shot was caught in a kobold’s trap.”

Is it because I’m into hunting?

Jules was chewing meat and looking at me with interest.

“But?”

“While a group of kobolds were eating a deer, I found the arrow I had aimed at the deer. After examining it, he tore off one of the legs and threw it to me who was hiding. And with bare hands!”

“Crazy sound.”

Jules chuckles.

Did you see that there was nothing in my hand?

Deberg, who was passing by, handed me a huge piece of meat that looked like something you’d see in a cartoon.

“Thank you.”

“You need to eat a lot when you’re young.”

Deberg smiles and leaves.

It’s okay if you don’t treat me this well.

I took a small bite of the meat.

The texture and aroma were excellent.

“Do you know what kind of fruit meat is? Even if I can tear it apart, I can never tear it apart from a kobold.”

“No! I really ripped it off! The muscles and leather stretch like a rubber band──!”

“Then it must be a wild dragonia.”

‘Dragonia?’

Jules was looking at me with a suspicious look in his eyes.

“To begin with, kobolds have a habit of catching any prey they see and gathering them in a hideout. If you look at them through their eyes, you are naturally prey.”

“Dragonia doesn’t speak or use magic, right?”

Jules shook his head.

“But his strength was abnormally strong, and he decided to let you go. Don’t you eat that?”

“Eat.”

Doesn’t Dragonia only use magic?

It seems like Juul is trying to steal my share.

Before that, take a big bite of meat and drink it.

“Oh, it’s hot!”

I couldn’t do it. Of course, it was hot. To the point of screaming.

“Ahaha!”

Jules burst out laughing.

Wow, it’s starting to get tight. Jules, who saw the look in my eyes, shyly avoided my gaze and opened her mouth without a smile.

“Maybe it could be immortal.”

Immortal?

When my father explained the demi-humans, he didn’t mention the word “immortal.”

“What is Immortal?”

“An immortal monster. It is said that he can change his appearance at will. Because of its characteristics, many people treat it as a mere legend. I’ve never seen it either.”

‘Are you talking about a doppelganger?’

There are legends like that everywhere.

Well, in a world where there is magic, isn’t there such a thing as a doppelganger?

“Still, if I were immortal, I don’t think I would particularly want to become a kobold, right? The teeth look like some kind of anglerfish.”

“That’s his preference.”

That’s right.

I took a bite of the now somewhat cooled meat.

Just chewing makes the juice drip out.

Not only that, but like meat for soup, the juices continue to flow out every time you chew.

It doesn’t seem to have been seasoned, but the flavor is deep.

Looking closely, I found that the leather had been peeled, seasoned, then covered with leather again and baked.

The more you chew, the sweeter fruity flavor spreads in your mouth.

Even though the seasoning penetrated deep into the dish, the scent was not strong and penetrated well into the inside.

“Isn’t it delicious?”

“···Yes. It’s so delicious.”

“It is made by filling it with seasoning and aging it for two weeks. It’s meat I can’t eat because I don’t have kids.”

Jules looked at my face and smiled.

It was a vicarious satisfaction born of pride.

I had something to be proud of.

I feel sorry for the two mothers on Earth and in this world, but this was more delicious than the food you two cooked.

When you see the main dish piled so high that you don’t even need to savor it, you feel like you’ve landed in food heaven.

It’s impossible to believe that you can eat a whole cow’s leg.

Even the flesh doesn’t have the slightest odor.

I was full with just one leg, but I was disappointed that my stomach was full.

It was tastier and more plentiful than the steak I sometimes ate.

It was thoroughly cooked to the inside, so there were no worries about parasites.

But now vegetables are starting to appear… Huh?

“···Are there any vegetables?”

“Vegetables?”

I open my eyes and look up.

“You want to eat grass? With meat in front of you?”

It’s a shocked expression.

Didn’t we explain this before?

“Yes. Don’t bake it like that. If you don’t have any, are there any grains like mushrooms or eggs?”

Jules shakes his head.

“There is only meat here.”

All you have is a main dish?

Jules quickly snatched the cassowary that the young child was trying to pick up and handed it to me.

The young Horsott looks up at Juul and glares at him.

“Don’t eat things like grass, eat more meat.”

“I’m full.”

I don’t even have any intention of eating any more, so I took it away from the kid.

Jules felt embarrassed and handed the rabbit meat to young Hosott.

“······Humans gain weight if they only eat meat.”

I wondered if such a thing would ever come out of my meat-loving mouth, but this was a matter of survival.

“Even if you do, how much weight will you gain?”

“Casual food is easy to digest.”

“I know.”

So, if you eat that way, you will gain weight?

This guy really has no solution.

Also, there seems to be alcohol in there, and there is a smell of alcohol coming from the side.

Jules must have noticed that, too, as he took a refreshing drink from a glass the size of my face.

“What kind of alcohol is this?”

“Beer. It’s so fucking tasteless. Do you want to eat too?”

“Yes.”

I tried the beer Jules offered.

Just one sip. But it was barley beer, not wheat beer.

─How?

“······Where do you get this?”

Beer can be made from any grain.

The important thing is that this is barley beer.

Barley grows in places where there is fall or winter.

In other words, it is impossible to grow barley in the hot south.

The only places where barley can be grown in four seasons are the central and northern regions. This means that trade with the outside world is somehow possible.

“It was stolen.”

“····Yes?”

“It was stolen.”

‘Oh, I see. okay. ‘I’m a fool for expecting that.’

“···Did you just exploit it? Or did you kill them all?”

“Is there a need to kill him?”

Fortunately, there seems to be common sense.

Common sense is not to kill people.

“I just went and brought it. Secretly.”

but.

How can we conduct trade when we can’t communicate?

for a moment. It was as if he had been there himself.

“Did you go and get it yourself?”

“There is a human village nearby.”

Jules grins.

I just thought this was the base of the Southern Ains.

Still, there is a human village nearby.

‘If this continues, I might die before I even become an adult due to adult disease.’

“Is it okay if I bring a few pounds of meat?”

“It doesn’t matter. Because there are many things that are rotten and cannot be eaten.”

The most delicious part of meat is sirloin. After looking through the mountain of meat, I quickly picked up a large, thinly sliced deer loin.

Several hosots’ eyes were on the back of their heads, but when they saw him go to Jule with the meat, they withdrew their gaze.

As soon as those gazes disappeared, I headed towards the valley.

I soaked the sirloin in stream water to wipe off as much blood as possible, covered it with a wet cloth, rolled it up and placed it in a straw basket.

I stole a few pieces like that.

At this rate, you will be able to get all kinds of fruits and vegetables.

“If it’s okay, can you go to the human village with me tomorrow?”

“Okay. I’ll go with you.”

It looks like it’s no big deal.

Finally, you can enjoy proper food! Ten days later, finally! Happiness burst out.

“Thank you.”

Jules, who was enjoying alcohol and meat, glances at me.

Then he immediately stretched out his hand and started messing with my hair.

“You’re cute when you smile.”

“···Yes?”

“Smile.”

Before we knew it, an infectious smile was blooming on Juul.