"Hwaaaaaah..."
Letting out a massive yawn, Rei sat up in bed.
Unsurprisingly, he was the only one inside the Magic Tent.
Between staying up all night and making camp, Rei had crashed the moment his head hit the pillow.
They'd set up camp in the afternoon, and he had slept straight through until now.
He was usually groggy on waking, but since he was in the middle of a request—not an official one through the Guild, but one from a Centaur settlement in another world—his senses sharpened quickly enough.
Of course, the fact that he'd been sleeping continuously since yesterday afternoon made that somewhat beside the point.
After tidying himself up, Rei stepped out of the Magic Tent. The first thing to catch his eye was the sun—more precisely, the morning sun.
The surroundings were already bright, but it was still early enough to be called early morning.
As Rei took in the area, Set noticed him emerging from the tent and immediately raised its head from where it had been lying down.
"Gruu!"
He's up! Set let out a joyful bark and came running toward him.
From Set's perspective, Rei had passed out the moment they made camp. There hadn't been a single sign of him waking since, so it was only natural for the griffon to feel lonely.
The fact that Set felt lonely rather than worried that something might have happened to Rei spoke volumes about the depth of its trust in him.
"Sorry for leaving you on your own. My bad."
Rei stroked Set, who was busy rubbing its head against him, and offered an apology. In response, Set pressed its head against him even more vigorously. Being petted by Rei made it that happy.
Rei spent about ten minutes stroking Set before looking around at their surroundings once more.
"Figured as much."
He muttered it under his breath. The reason was simple: there wasn't a single monster or animal corpse anywhere—not in the campsite, not in the surrounding area, and most notably, not anywhere near Set either.
In other words, nothing had attacked them during the night.
Just as Rei had predicted, every monster and animal in the area had likely been devoured by the Dragonias.
Then again, flying monsters would be beyond what Dragonias could handle, so it wouldn't be surprising if some were still around.
Even if the Dragonias couldn't reach them, there were plenty of means for long-range attacks—and more importantly, Set itself could fly. Given all that, it wouldn't have been strange to find bird, bat, or other flying monster corpses scattered about.
But there were none.
Which meant that not only ground-dwelling creatures, but flying ones as well, recognized this area as dangerous.
Well, even without high intelligence... no, precisely because they lack it, they'd sense that Dragonias operate on instinct.
Keeping the Dragonias in mind, Rei set about preparing a meal. Since he'd gone straight to sleep after making camp yesterday, he was now quite hungry. Even if all he'd done was sleep, a person still woke up starving.
"So, Set, what do you feel like eating?"
"Gruu!"
Set replied instantly. It was just a cry, but Rei understood exactly what it wanted.
Meat.
Rei already knew Set loved meat, so he had no objections.
"Let's see... You seemed a bit lonely, so how about I grill some Gamelion meat?"
"Gruruu!"
Set let out a cry of pure delight from the bottom of its heart.
Gamelion meat was normally something that could only be eaten during a limited window from autumn to winter—and only if Rei wasn't around. But thanks to his Misty Ring, he could have it whenever he wanted, without a second thought.
Set watched happily as Rei produced the Gamelion meat.
To get it cooking as quickly as possible, Rei cut the meat into manageable pieces, skewered them, and planted them near the campfire.
"I've got some sauces and the like, but even so, I still can't hold a candle to the professionals."
"Gruruu? Gruu, gruu."
Set seemed to be encouraging him.
The "professionals" in this case meant people who actually cooked for a living. The skewers sold at food stalls by adventurers looking to earn a little pocket money or pursuing a hobby were, in the end, mostly made by hobbyists. And hobbyists generally didn't produce particularly tasty skewers.
There were exceptions—people who grilled inexplicably well—but they were a small minority.
Rei naturally fell into the majority. He could grill skewers without burning them, but he couldn't make them delicious enough to make anyone who tasted them marvel. They were perfectly edible, though, and Set was satisfied.
As the meat sizzled over the fire, the aroma apparently roused the others. Centaurs began emerging from their tents, following the scent that tickled their appetites.
Rei hadn't even seasoned the meat with salt yet, but the smell of Gamelion cooking was potent enough to stir hunger even in someone who'd just woken up.
"Rei, that meat is..."
"Gamelion—it's a type of monster. They don't live around here, do they?"
For some reason, this world and Elgin shared a common language and identical word meanings. That being the case, Rei thought there was a chance Gamelion existed here too, so he explained what kind of monster it was.
Fortunately, Zai shook his head after hearing the description.
"There are rabbits, but nothing that enormous... or vicious. If such a monster did exist, we could have set it against the Dragonias... but that's too late now."
Too late indeed. Rei had been about to say as much, but whether it was truly too late remained unclear. It was possible—however remotely—that aside from the golden-scaled Dragonias, there could be higher-ranking Dragonias whose existence couldn't be ruled out.
"Anyway, you're all probably hungry after just waking up. Want some? It's the meat of a monster that doesn't exist around here, so you must be curious."
When put that way, there was no way Zai and the others wouldn't be interested.
From the time they'd left their settlement to come here, the Centaurs had had multiple opportunities to eat Rei's cooking. Every dish had been delicious—which was exactly why they now showed keen interest in the skewers he was grilling.
Through his cooking on the journey here, Rei had earned their trust.
Among those who held that trust was Dratt, who harbored no goodwill toward Rei—hostility, even. He didn't like the man, but every dish Rei produced was delicious. Caught in that dilemma, Dratt ultimately couldn't overcome his hunger and ate.
Once everyone was up and gathered around the campfire, they brought the skewers—seasoned with nothing more than a light sprinkle of salt—to their mouths.
"It's delicious!"
The words burst from the Centaurs' mouths in unison.
Rei, however, had no intention of taking credit for the praise. The exclamation was a product of the Gamelion meat's flavor, not his cooking skill—though among the diners, some felt that simply being able to produce this meat at all was impressive enough.
"Yeah, it's good. Really good, but... still can't match the professionals."
"Professionals?"
One of the Centaurs who'd overheard Rei's mutter asked, puzzled.
Rei nodded as if the answer were obvious.
"Take fighting. Anyone can fight—a child, an old man. But that's amateur fighting. For professionals... like you lot, who've actually been in the thick of battle, it's still fighting, but the difference should be plain to see."
That analogy hit home. The Centaurs' faces showed clear understanding—framing it in terms of combat made the explanation easy to grasp.
"That's how it is. For someone who cooks for a living, even if it's the same task of grilling meat, there are all sorts of differences."
Each one might be subtle, but those fine differences stacked up, and the finished dish would differ vastly between an amateur and a professional.
The Gamelion meat Rei was eating was by no means bad. It wasn't... but knowing what a professional cook's Gamelion skewers actually tasted like, he couldn't help but feel his own fell short.
Of course, that was only because Rei knew what truly delicious Gamelion skewers were. The Centaurs, eating Gamelion meat for the first time in their lives, honestly found his grilled skewers delicious.
Come to think of it, I remember seeing somewhere that iron plate grilling is supposed to be quite difficult.
Recalling a TV feature he'd watched back in Japan, Rei nodded to himself. Actually grilling skewers like this drove home just how true that was.
"Rei, could I have a bit more?"
"Hm? Yeah, go ahead. ...Still, just this for a meal feels a bit lacking."
He produced soup, bread, and several fresh fruits. As a spread, it was far from extravagant—though the Gamelion meat made it luxurious in terms of ingredient value. But everyone was hungry, and they ate with gusto.
"Now then, listen up while you eat. Anyway, one night has passed since yesterday. After this, I want to make one last check of the Dragonias stronghold. If there's nothing, we head back to the settlement. Sound good?"
No one objected.
Given that Rei had handled everything from start to finish in this affair, that was only natural. They understood all too well that voicing dissatisfaction now would be thoroughly unseemly.
"Seems there are no objections. Once we're done eating, Set and I will go take a look. Zai, you all—gather up the gear here. When we get back, I want everything packed up and ready to go."
The "gear" in this case meant the Centaurs' tents. They were portable, and far more comfortable to use than the standard tents Rei was familiar with—which was exactly why they took longer to fold and added to the load they had to carry.
For the Centaurs, though, who'd used these tents since birth, it was second nature. It wouldn't pose any particular difficulty.
With that settled, Rei mounted Set and took off.
"Grururuu!"
For Set, soaring through the sky beat walking on the ground any day. With Rei on its back, it was in high spirits.
Rei enjoyed flying on Set's back too.
...Even if they were heading toward the place where he'd burned countless Dragonias to death.
"All right, it's coming into view. From up here, nothing looks out of the ordinary. Set, let's land. We might spot something from the ground."
"Gruu!"
Set let out a confident bark and angled its wings, descending toward the earth below. It touched down without a hitch.
A fair amount of wind had blown from yesterday into today. The Dragonias corpses, reduced to charcoal and ash, had likely been broken apart and scattered by those gusts.
"There's slash-and-burn farming, but would this count as a variation of that? ...Well, I can't imagine plants growing from Dragonias charcoal and ash. If anything did sprout, it'd probably be something bizarre."
If the remains of Dragonias—creatures driven by insatiable hunger—were used as fertilizer, the possibilities were grim. A vicious carnivorous plant... no, a man-eating plant sprouting from this ground wouldn't be out of the question.
Maybe I should just salt the earth here thoroughly so nothing ever grows again. ...No, even then, nature would probably recover eventually.
Rei surveyed the surroundings, turning these thoughts over in his mind. Once satisfied, he and Set turned their backs on this place and left.