☆★☆★☆★
“Hawawa—! What IS this?! It’s SO delicious~!”
Carrots, bean sprouts, boar meat.
Sonya shouted it with her cheeks stuffed full of yakiniku-sauce stir-fry.
“I’ve never eaten anything like this~♪”
“It’s guuud, it’s seriously guuud~!”
“Are YOU a god~?”
“Meat, meat, carrot~♪ Meat, carrot~♪”
“This is legit INSANE!”
“It’s the beeest~”
“A miracle of the gods~♪”
Big hit with the palm-top rabbits too, apparently.
Well, as long as everyone’s happy, I’m happy.
Then I tried the sauce-fried boar myself.
—G… g… IT’S SO GOOOOD!
One bite and sweet, umami-loaded juices came flooding out — that alone nearly melted my brain.
Thick-cut yet tender, more flavor with every chew, and then the aroma of yakiniku sauce hits the back of your nose, all toasty and fragrant!
Halfway ascending to heaven, I tried the bean sprouts too.
That satisfying crunch, soaked through with boar fat — also violently delicious.
And the carrots tie the whole dish together with this exquisite sweetness… no, seriously, this is GOOD.
I demolished my plate in one go, and Sonya gave a small, deeply moved nod.
“It’s truly, TRULY delicious. I went back for thirds without even thinking~♪”
“Yeah, even I didn’t expect it to be this good.”
“Fufufu~? Did you know~?”
“Hm?”
“When rabbits eat lots of meat~”
”…Hm?”
“They go into heat~♪”
Oi oi. Every night so far has already been brutal — are you telling me that was WITHOUT the heat?
Sonya settled in beside me and squeezed my hand tight, and—
—let’s just say that night’s number of “seconds and thirds” reached catastrophic figures, in every sense.
・The Fox-Eared Salvager, the Succubus, and the Adventurers’ Guild
Next morning.
Honestly? I’m wrecked.
Day after day of keeping up with Sonya has me approaching several kinds of limits.
They’re not ready for harvest yet, but since garlic alone clearly isn’t cutting it, I planted garlic chives and mountain yam.
Chives work for stamina for the same nutritional reasons garlic does, presumably.
Mountain yam — no idea why, but you always hear that slimy foods are good for stamina.
“Skill: Seed Creation.”
Do chives come as seeds? Do yams even HAVE seeds?
The questions surfaced and immediately dissolved.
Seed potatoes. Seed potatoes came out.
This skill really is convenient.
And everything grows at a frankly ferocious pace…
So there I was, hard at my fieldwork, when—
“Who’re you?”
“Ah? Me? Name’s Arisa, o’ the fox tribe. I do adventurin’ for a livin’.”
Fox ears… a beastfolk.
Like Sonya, aside from the ears and tail she looks basically human.
Early twenties, maybe?
Around 155 centimeters. Chest is respectable. An extremely healthy-looking body, all told.
“So what do you want with me?”
“Whaddaya MEAN, what do I want — I’m the one who oughta be surprised here! A human, farmin’ a field in the Forest of No Return… right on the border of the demon realm an’ the human realm…”
So the obligatory fantasy “demon realm” exists too. Good to know.
“But hey, big bro, you okay with the monsters out here? Lookin’ around… I don’t see no scent pouches, no spirit wards, nothin’…”
Oh, I’ve met plenty of monsters.
Every one of them got one hoe-swing and a “ka-boom.” Swept the series.
“Scent pouches? Spirit wards?”
Arisa produced a small pouch and a parchment inscribed with a magic circle.
“Scent pouch: does what it says — puts out a smell monsters hate. Spirit ward: makes a force field monsters don’t wanna touch.”
So like mosquito coils?
Okay, probably very different, but “keeps the unwanted away” is the same core concept.
Probably the same family as the monster ward that cleric cast on me at the start.
“I got a whole bag o’ monster repellents on me, but… how in the world are YOU livin’ out here?”
“Well, you know. Stuff happened.”
If I honestly answered “ka-boom,” she wouldn’t believe me anyway.
“Hmmm… this here’s supposed to be a nest o’ high-level monsters, y’know…”
Unsatisfied, Arisa tilted her head and stared at me. Hard.
“And what about you? What’s your deal?”
“Ah, me… I’m a salvager.”
“A salvager?”
“This forest’s basically a dungeon itself, but you know there’s an even nastier dungeon nearby, yeah?”
I did not know that at all, but I judged it wise to play along, so I nodded.
“Sure.”
“So — ‘round these parts there’s piles of dead high-level adventurers. I haul their gear back to the Guild. Even I ain’t crazy enough to solo the nasty dungeon itself, mind.”
“I see. Hence ‘salvager.’”
“That’s the one. Names come off their guild plates, the gear gets sold, an’ the money goes to the bereaved families as inheritance. I take ten percent as handlin’ fee.”
Risking her life for a ten percent fee… I don’t know the market rate, but that sounds like a remarkably honest business.
“Well, no point standing around talking… want to come in for tea?”
“Aw, ya didn’t have to offer—” she said, then followed me to the cabin, beaming, with a “I was DYIN’ of thirst out here!”
“Huh. This here’s some mighty fine herb tea.”
It’s an herb Sonya taught me — steep it in hot water and it’s honestly great.
Calms the heart, or something like it. Similar effect to a warm green tea.
Oh, and per her info: walk about forty kilometers southeast and there’s a town.
Politically unstable, bad public safety, she says… so I shelved the town trip until I gather more intel.
Life here with Sonya isn’t bad for now anyway.
Exhausting. But not bad.
“So anyway, big bro? Seriously, how’re ya handlin’ the monst—”
Right then, one of the palm-top rabbits wandered into the cabin.
“Ooh, is that herb tea~?”
She bounced her way up my knee and onto the table.
“Oi oi, don’t drink my tea without asking.”
“What’s yours is mine~♪”
Which schoolyard bully raised you… I chuckled and glanced over at Arisa—
“P… p… pa… palm… palm-top… palm-top rab…”
Eyes blown wide, mouth flapping open and shut.
“What’s wrong with you?”
Arisa rose from her chair and staggered two, three steps backward, trembling.
Then, with visible dread, she asked:
“H… how… how in blazes… did ya TAME one o’ those?!”
“Fed it, basically? I gave her a carrot and she got attached.”
“You… grew a carrot… good enough to satisfy a PALM-TOP RABBIT?!”
“When she ate it she said something like, ‘I’ve never had anything like this~’…”
Jaw hanging open, Arisa looked back at the palm-top rabbit like she was staring at something that shouldn’t exist.
“This is a long shot, but… devil boar… I mean, boar hides, tusks, that kinda thing… ya wouldn’t happen to HAVE any here?”
We’ve taken in two boars since the palm-top rabbits moved in, so.
“I kept the pelts — figured they’d work for clothes. Was planning to throw out the tusks and bones though.”
Arisa’s face twisted into something tremendous.
“NO! Don’t ya DARE throw ‘em out!”
“Eh? Why not?”
“WHERE?! Where are they?!”
“The pelts, you mean?”
Arisa nodded like a woodpecker, and I led her to the storehouse.
“BINGO!”
She nodded to herself in deep satisfaction, then held out her hand for a handshake.
“A handshake?”
“Sell ‘em to me! Pelts, tusks, bones — ALL of it! An’ if ya sun-dry the livers, I’ll buy those too!”
”…As long as it’s not the meat, I genuinely don’t care?”
“Then we got ourselves a DEAL!”
Delighted, Arisa seized my right hand in both of hers and shook it like a paint mixer.
Handshake complete, she handed me a bag stuffed with gold coins.
A solid, hefty weight — fifty coins in there, easy.
Then she held up four fingers.
“Four days! Gimme four days, yeah?! That there’s the deposit… an’ ya let me take the pelts an’ tusks an’ bones up front! Once I sell ‘em in town, I’ll sprint the rest o’ the money back here, minus my fee!”
I don’t really get it, but apparently these boars sell HIGH.
Right then, Sonya wandered into the storehouse with an “About tonight’s dinner~”
The instant Arisa laid eyes on her—
“A… a… there’s a QUEEN here too…?!”
—her legs gave out and she collapsed right where she stood.