Sorry for not writing for the past 2 weeks, I’ve been really busy with personal stuff but I am back so lets go !
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-Master… when is the meat going to be done !?
Milky chimed in, her stomach making her signature growling noises while her lips went moist watching me cook.
-It’ll be done Soon, so be patient, the food isn’t going to run away, furthermore after this we’ll be doing a lot more hunting and cooking so please focus on getting some rest whenever you can since its not going to be easy from now on understood ?
-Understood !
Milky said, quieting down for a moment seeming to take my advice, but not really as she stared intensely into the flame from the [Ignite] spell that was hovering above my palm, roasting the [Rat Meat Skewers].
Delicious smoke was coming off as the meat sizzled underneath the flame and the fat from the meat liquified becoming grease flowing down the skewer into a small container that collected the oil cleanly.
The amount of grease I collected for the past 2 weeks doing this wasn’t much but enough to fill 2 cups, why I collected the grease even I didn’t know but I still did since I thought that keeping something flammable wouldn’t hurt.
All in all it took only 30 minutes with the combined work of me and Milky to finish skinning and gutting the rats for breakfast, ending with the cooking process which only I could do since only I could use fire magic and held the [Cooking] skill which would allow the [Food Buff] to manifest.
By now [Cooking] had already become a very routine and bland task to me, even more so when I prepared the exact same meal every single time without any spices or side dishes but just a flame and nothing else.
I swear I could even do this with my eyes closed and it would still make no difference, that’s just how good I became with roasting skewered meat.
-Here these ones are yours, they’re still hot so don’t eat them too fast, lest you burn yourself.
Finishing my first batch of skewers I gave them to Milky who was the most excited and hungriest of us all, Milky gladly took those skewers from me but just as she was about to eat them she uncharacteristically stopped herself before looking at me with a hesitant look on her face.
-Ehm…Master are you sure you don’t wanna eat first ?
Hearing her question, my eyes couldn’t help but momentarily jump ever so slightly, it wasn’t as if I didn’t already know she was considerate but the fact that her consideration was even more powerful then her sense of hunger made me think that she was really some special piece of work.
-Hmm..Master, why do I feel like you are thinking something rude right now…
Even you huh…why are the Woman in this world so damn perceptive ? In my old world woman never seemed to have this almost psychic ability, or maybe I just never noticed ? Could be since I was a bachelor my entire life, or more fittingly a workaholic who wasn’t interested in romance.
In any case I stopped thinking about silly things and simply continued roasting the meat whilst explaining to her.
-The [Chef] always eats last, my job here is to make sure you aren’t hungry and that the food tastes good, what kind of [Chef] would I be if I stuffed myself first with a delicious meal when you didn’t even get a chance to eat ? There is a difference between a [Chef] and a cook, one chases the art of [Cooking] for reaching newer heights while the other cooks out of necessity or other reasons, at least thats how I was taught or made to understand..
I muttered, remember my past life as I recalled the times I used to travel and do all sorts of work, the service industry by far was the place I used to work in the most, my first real job in fact was working in a fast food chain and flipping burgers all day, I remembered that I used to hate that job and quickly moved on from it not because the workplace was bad or anything, but because I just simply didn’t enjoy flipping burgers.
As far as cooking went the only thing I could do at the time was create something edible to let me survive, in most cases simply putting it over a fire was what I considered [Cooking], but as I went from job to job, from food place to food place, I started to discover a whole lot more about [Cooking] that I didn’t even know existed.
For example, how spices and ingredients interacted with each other, how different methods of [Cooking] like steaming or frying could create a different flavor and how not only taste, but smell, presentation, consistency, even sound could change the entire dining experience, listening to the opinions of different cooks and [Chef’s] I couldn’t help but be entranced by the art of [Cooking] even when I didn’t like it at first, if it wasn’t for the fact that I had more passion for video games, I would have likely become a [Chef], though if it wasn’t for the video game I had created through this who knows if I would have been transmigrated like this ?
-I see, I don’t understand fully but its like the difference between the path of a [Warrior] and the path of a [Fighters] right ? [Warriors] fight to protect something while [Fighter’s] fight to hone their martial arts or weapon arts.To think that [Chef’s] had something similar is fascinating, to be honest I also thought about becoming a [Chef] instead of a [Hunter] since I liked to eat more then I liked to fight, unfortunately I couldn’t do so since my tribe only allowed combatants in their community. Everyone was supposed to get their own food, no one usually cared how it tasted as long as it filled your stomach, even without being a [Half-breed] I likely would have gone separate ways with my tribe since my thoughts were different from the very beginning.
-Your thoughts were different ? How so ?
Milky didn’t seem to be bothered about my question as she answered easily.
-Well..since Master knows about the [Forest Imps] you should also know how they usually act and think, to the people of my tribe power is everything while aggression is a everyday occurrence, if you aren’t strong then you have almost no rights whatsoever, only those who have proven themselves to be powerful combatants can stand on the forefront of our tribe while everyone else bows and serves those who are at the top no questions asked, I at first followed the ways of my tribe but the more I did what was expected from me the more I thought that such thinking was wrong and that I didn’t belong, In a sense I couldn’t bring out the type of rage like my peers did eventually ending up in the bottom rung of the tribe until it was discovered that wasn’t actually a full-blooded [Forest Imp] but a [Half-breed] which explained why my thinking didn’t align quite well.
-So what happened then ? You said you were exiled, but knowing the things I do about the [Forest Imps], to me it seems like a miracle that you are alive so how is it that you are still here in one piece ?
Milky made a wryly smile at my slightly rude comment about her tribe, but looking at her expression more closely it more seemed as if she was amused then she was offended, maybe she agreed with me more then she liked to admit but that wasn’t really important.
-Well actually things went more smoothly then I thought, once the [Shaman] discovered that my blood was impure they didn’t cut me into pieces like you assumed, instead they immediately went after the person who birthed me in the first place my biological mother, it turned out then that my mother had broken the tribal rules and mated with a [Human] she took a liking to by kidnapping him and then later killing him to hide her crime, she confessed to everything under the torture of my father who also personally executed her and made sure that the rules would be upheld, after all it was his duty as our chieftain.
My eyes went wide for a second as I couldn’t help but feel surprised by this unexpected reveal, Milky was actually the daughter of the chieftain that ruled her tribe, she had the blood of the strongest [Forest Imp] coursing through her veins, since only the strongest of the [Forest Imps] are allowed to mate it ensured that every generation of the [Forest Imps] would be stronger then the ones before, to become the strongest of the [Forest Imps] you need to become a elder of the tribe to annotate your status as one of the strongest which is done through the approval of the chieftain or becoming the chieftain himself, male or female doesn’t matter only strength.
But beyond this I had no clue as to how they operated as I hadn’t written too much in depth about them which is why I continued to listen to Milky quietly.
-After that I was put out on the stand and it was then decided that I would be exiled from the tribe since a [Half-breed] like me couldn’t continue staying with the tribe and risk contaminating the tribe with something or cause the bloodline to become muddied, the reason they didn’t kill me was because my tribe believed that the crimes of the parents aren’t the crimes of the children, strength is everything but rules and order must be upheld no matter what, my father being the chieftain needed to be impartial to keep the tribe together, I also didn’t feel like it was wrong and accepted my fate leaving the village and living by myself until I was picked up by lady Sonnia.
She smiled at the end, her story coming to a close and with a rather happy ending as she made that dazzling smile, if it wasn’t for the fact that we were on a literal poisonous island full of violent criminals maybe this smile would have been a little bit more touching, but no such was not the case.
Furthermore I found it interesting that she wasn’t sad about the death of her birth mother or the cold heart’ed decision that was made by her father that exiled her from her tribe, normally a tale like hers would be especially tragic, but listening to her and watching her expression, she didn’t even look slightly bothered or saddened by anything that had happened to her in the past, from this alone I could only assume that Milky wasn’t really that well attached to her tribe and neither was she very close to her parents which was somewhat understandable since the only thing they care about is strength.
Milky probably has many sisters and brothers since she is the daughter of the chieftain who is obligated to make a harem and mate with as many females as possible, from this alone it can be inferred that there was no love to speak of when the sole goal of mating was to breed a powerful descendant, parenting in this case was also only given to those who showed promise to become powerful which Milky obviously didn’t explaining her weird indifference since she never got an opportunity to make a connection with her parents.
Sonnia was likely the only thing that was remotely like a family to her and maybe even her first family at all which is why she is so attached to her, what role Sonnia filled in this family was still up to airs honestly since they regularly switched roles from younger sister to elder sister, in either case Milky listened to Sonnia no matter what which should count as Sonnia having the dominant role in their little family if anything.
Anyways, I decided to not continue this line of conversation any longer since I felt that we were starting to reach topics not yet suited with one another, Milky didn’t seem to be bothered by anything she said even though she should be aware of the fact that she was giving away quite a lot about herself even if it was non-consequential, keeping a respectable distance between each other until we were sure of our relationship was necessary since boundaries needed to be made clear.
Of course I doubt Milky understands complicated social structures like these, luckily Sonnia was here to guide Milky along even if she didn’t understand.
-Hehh, smells delicious ! So Breakfast is finally ready ?
And speaking of the devil, Sonnia finally arrives from her corner looking as if she had finally thought through a difficult problem with her loosened brows and hungry expression.
-So Lady Sonnia seems to have finally finished brooding in that corner, any longer and we would have likely started without you !
I said, finishing with another batch of a skewer meat before laying it inside a bowl and lightly pushing it towards Sonnia.
-Ahh ! Thats not true ! Master is lying ! He even just said that the [Chef] always eats last so he would have waited no matter what !
-Yes, yes, Milky I heard, geez if I didn’t know you that much I would have thought that you fell for Master with the way you are adamantly protecting him, basically I heard your entire conversation, this room isn’t that big after all and I also have the [Listening] skill so even if you two whispered sweet nothings to each other I still would have caught every single word.
-Wah ! I wasn’t…I mean we weren’t doing anything like that !
Milky was flustered by Sonnia’s playful comments, being surprisingly weak to love affairs as she furiously denied everything in a frantic manner while glancing at me a few times with a embarrassed look on her face before quickly averting her eyes, if it wasn’t for her charcoal skin I would have likely seen her red all over which was a shame but still amusing to see as I smiled before turning back to Sonnia.
-Wow, and here I was thinking that you were quite engaged in your head, or maybe you didn’t even need to think at all ? Did you already reach a conclusion ?
-Lets just say that I am quite a multi-tasker and leave it at that, but in regards to my conclusion..I have a idea, but thats only because you already showed me the way, honestly I wasn’t really thinking the conclusion as much as I was thinking about something else entirely.
I furrowed my brows, not sure where she was now getting at as I continued cooking a portion for myself.
-And that is ?
Sonnia didn’t answer at first and merely sat down next to her bowl, composed, taking a skewer before putting it into her mouth gracefully and pulling a piece, unfortunately she mustn’t have listened to us entirely like she claimed she was since she immediately made a very pained expression after putting the hot piece of meat inside her mouth which was scalding her tongue and cheek.
Once again I was smiling, watching her juggle the meat inside her mouth while blowing air acting like a monkey, it looked to be very hot and she quickly decided that instead of bearing with it until it cooled down she rather swallow it instead, which is what she did gulping that entire piece of meat, I gave her a cup of water too which she immediately snatched from my hands and gulped down with all her mind, finally looking as if she had made it through with a haggard breath.
Both me and Milky were watching this the entire time, I myself didn’t feel inclined to say anything and simply let my expression speak for myself, but Milky seemed to want to hit her while she was still down to pay back for earlier making a dubious expression.
-Didn’t you hear what master said ? “They’re still hot so don’t eat them too fast, lest you burn yourself”.
Upon saying that she instantly went back to her bowl dodging Sonnia’s furious swipe as she gave Milky a dirty look before finally calming down.
-So you were saying ?
I asked with a bit humor in my voice, Sonnia didn’t seem to entirely take the humor but she still smiled for some reason holding the skewer which she had just eaten from painfully.
-Well, the meat is really delicious especially when its hot, but thats not what I was going to say, rather, after thinking about it for a bit there is only one thing I want to know at this point.
She stared at me, her eyes hidden behind her blindfold but visible to my eyes as they passed through those curtains revealing those pitch black eyeballs that was fixated to me, for one reason or another I could momentarily guess what those eyes wanting to know and not soon after that guess was realized.
-Master…who are you ?
A Place Of Legends 