Celia was just about to get closer to examine the results of her scientific farming when she suddenly felt a faint, lingering sense of being watched from behind.
She turned her head—nothing but emptiness.
Was it just her imagination?
At the same time, at the edge of the forest, a pair of eyes stared fixedly at the church’s backyard.
It was a gray rabbit, much larger than its kin, its nose twitching as drool dripped from the corner of its mouth.
Food.
The most exquisite food.
The next second, that gray shadow vanished from sight.
In the church’s backyard, Celia’s brow had just furrowed, and she hadn’t even had time to speak when a gray blur darted through the fence, leaving only a ghostly afterimage in the air.
“What was that?” Elent reacted the fastest, stepping protectively in front of Celia and Lynn.
But the shadow’s target wasn’t them at all.
It lunged straight for the half-human-tall carrot.
Only when the blur stopped in front of the carrot did everyone realize—it was a rabbit.
“Isn’t this the rabbit from a few days ago?” Elent recognized this cunning opponent at a glance.
“You actually dare to come back!”
Elent felt his dignity as a Hero Candidate being challenged.
He whipped out the sword from his back, the blade pointing straight at the rabbit about to bite into the carrot.
“Take my sword!”
With a whoosh, the sword swung down.
However, the rabbit seemed to have eyes on its back; with a light push from its hind legs, it dodged the attack effortlessly.
Elent’s strike missed, causing him to stagger half a step before regaining his balance.
The rabbit continued to eye the carrot greedily, completely ignoring the Hero standing before it.
Being ignored like this was more infuriating than having his face trampled.
Elent charged again. Sword light flashed as he tangled with the rabbit—a scene that looked almost comical.
Every one of Elent’s attacks was powerful and heavy, yet the rabbit dodged them all by the narrowest of margins, slipping nimbly between the heavy blows as if dancing.
Celia watched the fierce fight between Elent and the Demonic Rabbit.
Basically, it could be summed up as a high-strength Hero versus a high-agility rabbit.
Celia turned and went back inside, brought out two small stools, and pulled the still-stunned Lynn to sit down.
“Come on, Lynn, don’t just stand there—let’s sit and watch.”
Then Celia fished out a few dried fruits from her pocket and handed some to Lynn.
“Go for it, big brother Hero with the sword!”
Elent, glancing over during a brief lull in the battle, nearly choked on his own spit.
What’s going on here?
Normally, if a monster invaded, your companions would fight alongside you, wouldn’t they?
Why were the two of them sitting so leisurely off to the side, treating this as after-dinner entertainment?
Elent couldn’t understand it.
But his pride as a Hero would not let him back down in front of two girls and a rabbit.
He, Elent, would never make the same mistake twice!
“Prepare to die!”
With a loud roar, Elent channeled all his strength into his arms and swung the Broad Sword down at the rabbit.
But the rabbit dodged again.
“What?”
The force of his all-out attack threw Elent off balance, and his grip on the weapon failed; the sword spun out of his hand and flew away.
“Pfft—”
The Broad Sword landed right in the carrot, leaving a wound. Orange-red juice began to slowly trickle down the blade.
“……”
The rabbit stared at the wounded carrot, disbelief in its eyes before turning into fury.
At the same time, a surge of equally intense anger rose from the side.
My carrot!
I toiled over this—tilling the earth, researching—finally managing to grow this precious carrot!
And now it’s been sliced?
That damn rabbit! And this clumsy Hero who can’t even beat a rabbit!
Celia’s anger burned half at the rabbit, half at Elent.
She couldn’t let this go on; if they kept fighting, her precious carrot would be hacked to pieces.
Celia took out the Holy Codex.
“Close your eyes, now!”
She shouted at Elent and Lynn.
The two, confused, still did as told.
The next moment, a dazzling, blinding light burst forth from Celia at the center, spreading through the whole yard.
The rabbit, just about to leap at Elent, was swallowed by the glare, its vision flooded with nothing but white.
“Now! Finish it!”
Elent had already closed his eyes at the first flash of light. Hearing the command, he instantly opened them.
He saw the rabbit clawing at its eyes in pain, stumbling in place, defenseless.
A perfect chance!
Elent sprang forward, scooped up the Broad Sword, and without hesitation, stabbed.
The rabbit let out a painful wail, then collapsed, unmoving.
The battle was over.
Breathing heavily, Elent hurried over to Celia and said gratefully, “Priestess, thank you so much! Our teamwork just now was perfect!”
In his mind, this Priestess’ tactical judgment was frighteningly sharp.
If not for that timely support, he’d probably be wrestling with the cunning rabbit for a while longer.
But Celia wasn’t listening at all.
She was crouched beside the carrot, tenderly stroking the sword-cut wound with a heartbroken expression, muttering to herself.
“Sigh, it’s scarred. It’s even leaking juice now. I wonder if it’ll affect the taste.”
Elent looked at her profile and felt all his earlier gratitude go to waste. This Priestess’ priorities seemed a bit off from normal people.
Scratching his head, he walked over to the rabbit’s corpse and began skinning it with practiced ease.
“This is first-rate material!” Elent muttered as he worked.
Although this rabbit wasn’t very strong offensively, its incredible agility earned it a D-rank in the Adventurer Guild. For him, an E-rank Adventurer, independently defeating a D-rank monster was proof of his own skill.
Even if it was with the Priestess’ help.
Celia finally pulled herself out of her heartbreak. She looked away from the carrot’s wound and set her sights on the neatly cleaned rabbit meat at Elent’s feet.
Beside it, even with a wound, the carrot still gave off a tempting, sweet aroma.
Rabbit meat…
Come to think of it, what does rabbit taste like? In her previous life, twenty-four years, and she’d never tried it. Plus, this was Demonic Rabbit—the meat had to be special.
Surely, it must be utterly delicious!
With that, Celia waved her hand grandly and announced to the two nearby:
“Tonight, I’ll cook a feast for you both!”
“Huh? Lady Celia, you can cook? I don’t recall you ever setting foot in a kitchen,” Lynn blinked, puzzled.
Celia’s movement paused for a second, but then she replied, as if it were only natural, “Of course I can!”
She said it so confidently, but inside, Celia was far less calm than she appeared.
Truth be told, not only in this life—she’d barely touched a kitchen in her past life either.
At most, she’d watched a few food bloggers’ tutorial videos online.
But, since they were tutorials, if you followed the steps, cooking should be fine, probably, maybe, more or less…
Right?
Celia glanced at Lynn, feeling a bit guilty.
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A word of warning, carrots are actually bad for rabbits due to high sugar content.