Chapter 13

It was a crisis.

It was the most difficult crisis I had ever faced since leaving the Lizardman Village.

At first, it was just a small spark.

But like all fires, by the time I came to my senses, the flames had spread uncontrollably, and there was no way to stop it.

I wanted to eat meat.

Since I started traveling with Mari, I had been preparing meals tailored to her vegetarian diet.

If I made meat dishes, Mari couldn’t eat them, and making two separate dishes would double the time and effort required.

But more than that, even though I knew it was unavoidable due to our species differences, I felt like I was excluding her by eating meat while she stuck to a vegetarian diet. So, I ended up reluctantly joining her in a vegetarian challenge.

But now, even that had reached its limit.

At first, I secretly snacked on Basilisk jerky whenever I craved meat, making sure Mari didn’t notice. But the amount I could carry in a traveler’s backpack was limited.

The Basilisk jerky soon ran out, and it had been nearly half a month since I last ate meat.

Like most humanoid species, except for a few exceptions, Lizardmen were omnivorous. So, sticking to a vegetarian diet wasn’t a big problem, but since we were fundamentally more carnivorous than herbivorous, going this long without meat was causing withdrawal symptoms.

Meat.

The light of my life.

The flame of my body.

My sin.

My soul.

Meat.

The two syllables that rolled off my tongue without even clicking my teeth.

Meat.

I wanted to eat meat.

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…

…

And so, today, I was once again eating a salad filled with greens and no meat.

Even the rye bread I had bought in the village had run out.

Of course, the salad wasn’t objectively bad.

When preparing the salad, I always thought about the best dressing to complement the ingredients and the greens, and I kept experimenting with different dressings to avoid getting bored.

But despite that, the continuous vegetarian diet was taking a toll on my mental state.

Hoo. I want to eat meat.

“Hey. Kurt. Are you listening?”

“No. I wasn’t listening at all.”

Suddenly, I snapped out of my thoughts to see Mari waving her hand in front of my face, asking a question.

At my response, Mari puffed out her cheeks in a gesture of dissatisfaction and then asked again.

“So, what I’m saying is, why do you keep eating only vegetables? Don’t you eat meat?”

“What? Of course, I do…!”

Already frustrated from not being able to eat meat, I was about to retort when I suddenly remembered something.

Here, I could honestly say, “Actually, I really wanted to eat meat too, but I’ve been holding back because I was considerate of you, an Elf.”

Then, naturally, Mari would respond with something like, “Oh, Kurt. You didn’t have to do that! From now on, feel free to eat as much as you want!”

And then I would reluctantly accept her offer.

A perfect plan.

“Of course, it’s because of you. Elves can’t eat meat.”

Now, you’ll be flustered realizing that you’ve been unconsciously receiving my consideration and will urge me to eat meat.

That way, Mari would be the one to bring it up, and I could subtly emphasize that I’ve been considerate all along, creating a harmonious world where no one’s feelings are hurt.

“Huh? I can eat meat, though. Didn’t I tell you I’m a Half-Elf?”

“You never said that!”

“Kyah! Why are you suddenly shouting?!”

“Why did you hide such an important fact until now?!”

“Well, you never asked!”

“Well, that’s true, but!”

I couldn’t help but shout in frustration.

Tonight’s dinner was now officially going to be meat.

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…

“But is meat really that delicious?”

“What? Have you never eaten meat before?”

“No, I have. My mom made it for me a few times, but it always had a weird smell and was tough and dry…?”

“Your mom, was she human? Or an Elf?”

“Ah, an Elf. My dad was the human one.”

Then I roughly understood what had happened.

Elves weren’t particularly skilled at cooking with fire, and on top of that, if someone who had never eaten meat and never would in the future tried to cook it, what kind of result would you expect?

There was no butcher shop in an Elf village, so the meat must have been hunted and prepared by themselves.

But since they had never eaten meat, they wouldn’t know the common knowledge of draining the blood to remove the gamey smell or that cooking meat over high heat for too long would evaporate all the moisture, making it tough and dry.

And since they couldn’t taste it while cooking, they wouldn’t know what was wrong with the dish before serving it.

Ah, they don’t know how to cook meat.

“Is it really necessary to go this far?”

“Of course. This is all for the sake of giving you, who has never had properly cooked meat, the best meat dish.”

“Hmm…”

Mari looked at me suspiciously but, curious about the meat dish, didn’t protest further.

Mari and I had temporarily deviated from our path to go on an impromptu hunt.

I would have loved to hunt a wild boar and have a barbecue, but such a large ingredient would take too long to prepare, and we couldn’t process it all while traveling, so a significant portion would have to be discarded.

If we were near a village, we could sell the boar meat we couldn’t eat, but in this forest with no village in sight, hunting more than we could consume went against my principles.

A hunter should only hunt what they can handle.

Therefore, the target was downgraded to chicken.

Of course, hunting an actual chicken was impossible, so the goal was to catch a bird of a suitable size.

After much effort, Mari and I finally found a bird worth hunting.

It was slightly larger than a regular chicken and resembled a pheasant.

No, it wasn’t just resembling a pheasant—it was practically a subspecies of pheasant.

“It’s a Golden Bird.”

“A monster, but an edible one.”

The Golden Bird was a monsterized pheasant, and like the One-Horned Rabbit, it was one of the few monsters that could be eaten.

Hmm. That would be perfect for tonight’s dinner.

“Eek. We’re eating a monster?”

“What’s the problem? You ate French fries fried in monster oil not long ago.”

“But, but…”

“No complaints accepted.”

Mari made a disgusted face at the word “monster,” but I was too excited at the prospect of finally tasting meat to care.

“Sigh. Fine. You’ve been accommodating me a lot, so this time, I’ll accommodate you.”

Mari, with a completely resigned expression, took out her bow and nocked an arrow.

“No. We’re not using arrows.”

“Why not?”

“It might ruin the meat.”

“…Then how are we supposed to catch it?”

“I’ll catch it myself. Wait here.”

Before she could protest, I quickly dashed forward and reached out to grab the Golden Bird.

Startled by my sudden attack, the Golden Bird flapped its feathers and released an electric shock.

The Golden Bird had a magical organ that allowed it to release electricity through its golden feathers, not for hunting prey but for self-defense against predators and for courtship during mating season.

But the level of electricity it released was no more than static to me, and I simply wrapped my hand in aura and twisted the Golden Bird’s neck.

This size should be enough for the two of us to share.

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“I can’t believe you just ran out there and caught a Golden Bird barehanded.”

“It wasn’t a dangerous monster. What’s the big deal?”

“But still, catching an electricity-releasing Golden Bird barehanded?”

Mari had been grumbling about eating a monster since earlier.

Though, despite her complaints, she was meticulously plucking the Golden Bird’s feathers one by one.

“You’re complaining, but you’re plucking the feathers very carefully.”

“That’s because Golden Bird feathers make good arrow fletchings. I’m just saving them.”

Mari insisted that she wasn’t doing it because she wanted to eat the monster meat.

“You really don’t want to eat monster meat, huh?”

“It’s not that… Can’t we just eat salad? Salad is delicious.”

“Oh? After I went through all the trouble of hunting, you say that?”

“No, that’s not it…”

Well, in that case, there’s no other choice.

A picky eater needs to be disciplined with pheasant meat.