We wandered through the forest to secure wild animals for food.
After hunting a sufficient number of them, before heading back, we mixed our bodies passionately twice, slightly deeper into the forest than its entrance.
As we tangled together in the dark forest, fully clothed, driven solely by lust and taking the same posture as wild animals, it truly felt as if we had become beasts ourselves.
After completing our affair, feeling a strange sense of immorality and thrill, we returned to the campsite with our hunted prey.
Elfin, who had been sharpening a knife in preparation for processing the game, tilted her head upon seeing me and Ravi.
“…What’s up?”
“Huh? W-What?”
“Ravi, why are you sweating so much?”
“!!”
“Come to think of it, Alvis, you too? Was it that exhausting?”
Having something to hide, Alvis and I desperately tried to act natural as we explained the situation.
“Uh, well… Hunting wild animals in the forest at night is tougher than I expected!”
“Y-Yeah! Monsters just charge at you, so they’re easy to spot, but wild animals keep running away…”
“Hmm… Really? That’s strange, especially with Ravi there. If I had known, I should’ve gone instead since I’m more familiar with the forest.”
“Y-Yeah… Next time, we’ll ask you for help. Hahaha…”
Barely managing to divert suspicion, we sighed in relief as Elfin, holding a dagger, skillfully skinned the animals and gutted them.
Blood splattered everywhere, yet Elfin didn’t seem to mind at all.
She continued breaking down the carcasses, setting aside the edible parts.
Once the meticulous butchering process was done, Elfin distributed enough meat for everyone to have their fill, then handed the rest to Lenis.
“Lenis, can you freeze this?”
“Of course! What do you take this Eluit for?”
A simple magic circle glowed from Lenis’s staff, and the reserved meat instantly froze solid.
Elfin wrapped the frozen meat in large leaves, which she summoned using her boots’ abilities, then packed them into her bag.
The rest of the meat was skewered.
“Alright, all done. I prepared it, so there shouldn’t be any problems. Now, everyone, cook and eat however you like.”
Saying that, Elfin took out some spices from her bag, sprinkled them over her raw meat, and added a bit of sauce before calling Lenis.
“Lenis, can you crank up the fire on my side?”
“How strong do you need it?”
“Around high heat for cooking?”
Fwoosh!
Another magic circle appeared from Lenis’s staff, and the campfire in front of Elfin flared up higher than the others.
“Thanks. Having a mage around is really convenient.”
“Why do I feel like I’ve become a household appliance…?”
Lenis grumbled lightly but soon took out her own set of seasonings and prepared to cook her share of the meat.
Ravi and I also took the skewers of meat, but…
‘I’ve never cooked outdoors like this before. How do I even do this?’
The problem was that we had been relying on food bought from the city for our meals while traveling.
Even though I had knowledge of all sorts of things in this world, I surprisingly lacked basic life skills like cooking.
Ravi, a princess who had never needed to cook for herself, was in a similar situation.
Originally, we should have bought food supplies from Aldebaran before setting out, but with Aldebaran in ruins, we ended up in this unexpected predicament.
As Ravi and I hesitated, glancing at each other without knowing what to do, Elfin, who was grilling her meat over the fire, looked at us and chuckled.
“What’s this? You two don’t know how to cook?”
“Well, we’ve always just bought food from the last city we stayed in…”
“I-I’ve only ever eaten meals prepared by the royal chefs or the academy’s cafeteria. I’ve never cooked myself…”
“Oh, come on. You two are really showing how spoiled you are. I mean, I have a noble lineage too, but I still know how to cook, you know? You both need to pay more attention to these basic survival skills.”
She had a point, so Ravi and I hung our heads in shame.
“Hand them over. I’ll cook for you. This is a simple traditional dish that we elves eat often—you’ll probably like it.”
Elfin took our skewers, sprinkled them with spices and sauce just like her own, and placed them over the fire.
After a few minutes of watching Elfin cook, Lenis tilted her head and asked,
“By the way, Elfin, why do you need such a strong flame? Is there an elven dish that requires that kind of heat?”
“This? It’s called ‘Blessing of the Earth.’ You can make it with any cut of meat as long as you have our traditional elven spices and sauce.”
“Blessing of the Earth…? I’ve had that before, but wasn’t it supposed to be cooked over low heat? I don’t remember it being crispy or anything…”
“Oh yeah, traditionally, you’re supposed to grill it over low heat for ten minutes. But that’s a waste of time, right? If low heat takes ten minutes, then high heat should only take five—”
The expression Lenis made at that moment was one I wouldn’t forget for a long time.
“You idiot, Elfin! What are you doing?! Take them out right now!”
Lenis shoved Elfin aside and snatched up all three skewers.
But it was too late—they had all turned into pitch-black lumps of charcoal, completely inedible.
Lenis smacked Elfin on the back repeatedly as she scolded her.
“I can’t deal with you! If you don’t follow the recipe properly and start improvising, you’ll just end up with food waste! What made you think you could cook for Alvis and Ravi too?! Now we have three times the trash!”
With a deep sigh, Lenis took the spices and sauce away from Elfin and started cooking herself.
“Haa… I’ve never cooked ‘Blessing of the Earth’ before, but I’ve eaten it, and there’s someone here who knows the recipe, so I’ll just follow along. I’ll handle the cooking, so you just sit back and tell me the steps.”
“Tch… I mean, isn’t it common sense to think that if something takes ten minutes on low heat, then five minutes on high heat should work? I’m sure I’m not the only one who thinks like that. Why am I getting treated like some kind of kitchen disaster…?”
As Elfin muttered complaints to herself, the sound of the crackling campfire filled the air.
It was such a peaceful moment that, for a while, I forgot we were in the middle of a tense mission to stop the conflict at the Carat Dutchy’s border.
Since today was just the day of departure, and we still had plenty of time before reaching our destination, Ravi and I were able to sneak away and indulge in our secret rendezvous.
But as we got closer to the border, we would no longer have the luxury for such distractions.
As I thought about that, I watched the smoke from the campfire rise into the star-filled night sky and vanish.
And to my genuine surprise, the food Lenis cooked was incredibly delicious.
Linian, the blue dragon Linialas, had left behind her mundane days of running a fortune-telling shop in Liberta and stepped into the domain of one of her kin.
Deep within an unnamed mountain, in the innermost chamber of a cavern.
On either side of the vast hollow chamber, underground waterfalls cascaded into an abyss so deep that the ground below was nowhere in sight.
A single hole in the cavern’s ceiling allowed the moon, eternally fixed in place, to shine down, illuminating the chamber’s center.
Despite being an inhospitable environment where plants rarely grew, the very heart of this cavern held a lone tree, and though small in size, a patch of grass and a field of flowers had taken root.
Floating slightly above the damp, moss-covered ground, Linian glided forward.
She soon spotted a woman sitting against the tree, basking in the moonlight—her hair a mix of gold and silver.
She possessed an otherworldly beauty, almost unreal.
But across her abdomen was a deep, festering wound, blood still flowing—
“?!”
Sensing that something was terribly wrong, Linian rushed forward, closing the distance in an instant.
“Lunarin! Lunarin! What happened to you?! Who did this to you?! Are you still alive?!”
The wounded woman—one of the last three dragons left in this world, known as the “Daughter of the Two Moons”—was Lunarin.
Linian had come after so many years to visit her kin, only to find her in a horrifying state.
Panicked, she tried to heal Lunarin’s wounds.
But the gaping injury on Lunarin’s abdomen had already festered beyond recovery.
It was rotting, far past the point where Linian’s power could restore it.
Realizing that she could not save her, Linian’s face twisted in rage, her teeth grinding audibly.
“Who… what kind of cursed bastards dared to do this…?!”
“Cough… c-cough…! Li… Linian…?”
Barely clinging to life, Lunarin slowly opened her eyes and gazed at Linian.
Linian immediately called out to her, locking eyes with her fading kin.
“Lunarin! Who did this to you?! There’s no way you could be taken down this easily! Who was it?! Don’t tell me…”
“Cough… the underground… worms… cough!”
Lunarin suddenly vomited a mouthful of dark, coagulated blood.
Judging by her condition, she had only moments left.
No, she had already died long ago—her body was merely clinging to a single, fragile thread of life.
How long had she been suffering like this?
It had been thousands of years since Linian had last interacted with her kin.
She had no way of knowing how long Lunarin had been trapped in this agony.
Trembling with fury, Linian bit her lip hard enough to draw blood and called out to her.
“Lunarin, I swear, I will avenge you.”
Tears streamed down Linian’s face as she vowed burning revenge.
Lunarin, with a trembling hand, reached out and grasped Linian’s.
“Linian… the underground… worms… Solaris… is in danger… you must stop them…”
Lunarin tried to say more, but her long-dead body could no longer even complete a sentence.
Her lips moved soundlessly, exhaling only faint, wispy breaths—until, finally, she collapsed, her eyes closing forever.
Linian lowered her head, grief-stricken by the death of her kin.
Under the moonlit cavern, she dug into the earth and laid Lunarin to rest.
If she still had the power to return to her true dragon form, she would have howled in sorrow and fury, tearing through the cavern and destroying everything in sight.
But having lost her draconic abilities, all Linian could do was leave, just as powerlessly as she had watched her kin die.
Blood dripped from her clenched fists.
“You underground worms… You dare to do this to one of my last remaining kin? I will never let you live. Whether or not the human who carries the light comes for you… I will hunt you down myself. I will kill you all and devour your hearts.”
And with that, she forced herself to teleport—no matter the cost—to the last of her kin, the “Son of the Sole Sun.”