Chapter 144

Don't be Cold

"This might be a little unpleasant Katie."

"What's the matter nya? Ah-nyan."

"We're probably the targets of President Ellis's preaching when she gets here."

"Nya...…."

Katie and Ah-nyan remembered when Ellis made Reeve and Su-chan kneel on the ground while being forced to listen to a lecture. If they remembered correctly, that was also after Reeve had gotten into a fight with some monsters.

"I wouldn't mind the preaching, but I'd prefer to be spared from having to kneel on the ground so long nya."

"In that case let's come up with a cover story Katie."

Ah-nyan returned to human form, and before Ellis and the others got here, they kindly asked Gattis and Selkis keep their mouths shut. Simply put, she wanted to get their stories to match so that it would seem like the Whale Beast had been captured without incident thanks to everyone's help, and the warriors were allowing Katie to bring the leftover food back to Warren because there was just too much.

Unfortunately, the rest of the girls ended up arriving in the village earlier than had been expected.

Gattis and the other warriors went out to greet Ellis and the other girls feeling a little fl.u.s.tered. The arrival of three new dragons left the seal beastmen especially dumbfounded. From there, one by one a group of young girls jumped down off of the dragons' backs, and the youngest of them all, a small blonde girl who looked like a doll, politely greeted the cat beastman mayor.

"Chief Gattis, thanks for inviting me. What happened?"

Gattis's face cramped up a little, but he still did his best to lie on his daughter's behalf.

"No problem Ellis. Thanks to the help of these seal beastmen, we were able to safely capture this Whale Beast gya. As you can see, it's a lot of meat, so we called you for help in transporting some of it to Warren."

This guy, he was a G.o.d awful liar, and the girls were able to figure him out immediately. Pretending that they didn't notice for now, the girls turned their heads to the other seal beastmen.

"How do you do? My name is Ellis, from Warren. Thank you ever so much for sharing your day's catch with Katie."

"Well now, my name is Selkis, the chief for a village on an island not too far off sh.o.r.e. And Katie helped us out a bit, so...um"

Selkis was babbling and eventually just shut his mouth. Unfortunately for him, a young seal beastman boy with a flushed face popped his head in from beside the village chief and finished the story.

"That white girl and her dragon were amazing! They killed those demons like they were nothing and then froze that Whale Beast in one shot!" The boy would have probably said more, but Selkis quickly covered the boy's mouth.

"Chief, I'd like to borrow one of your huts for a bit."

Ellis pointed at a nearby fishing cabin before she and the rest of the girls made their way over before the village chief even had a chance to answer.

"Oh • Ka • tie. Come sit over here."

Ellis called Katie over, visibly angered.

"It's been leaked nya."

"We were exposed."

And so Katie and Ah-nyan were made to kneel before the other girls inside the hut and explain exactly what had happened in the village.

"Okay nya. I'm ready for the all-night sermon nya."

That night when Reeve was getting lectured, Katie remembered Ellis persistently chiding Reeve on and on. This time around Katie planned on listening to what Ellis was preaching. Although Ellis probably would have continued going on regardless if Katie was paying any attention or not.

"We need to keep our fighting strength a secret. I wonder what would happen if one of those demons didn't partic.i.p.ate in the fight and got away. The strength of an unthinking blue-haired girl and a catgirl with a head filled with flowers leaked to the world. Why didn't you just leave it all to that dumba.s.s Frost Dragon!?"

"Dumba.s.s dragon is a nice name for him!" Rchin laughed loudly.

"Dumba.s.s, dumba.s.s, Haaaah!" Su-chan started to tease the Frost Dragon.

"So you went right for some more dumba.s.sery eh, Mr. Dumba.s.s?" Fe-rin piled on with the ridicule.

"Ellis, calling him a dumba.s.s is a little cruel. Just calling him an idiot should be good enough," Pi-tan finished it all off.

"Why shouldn't I kill all of you!?" and so Ah-nyan started losing his temper.

"Frau, if you would."

"Roger Ellis."

Each of the dragons were saying just a little too much like usual, so Frau had each of them eat a little physical punishment from her hammer to calm them down.

Meanwhile Katie timidly tried giving Ellis an excuse.

"But Ellis, we already showed off our strength in those one-on-one fights in Wisdom, so I thought this time would be fine nya."

"Oh that. That was fine since our opponents were a bunch of lazy, idiot students. We won't create much of a buzz beating kids like them. And the fights we had with Ares and Izerina were both close. Almost stalemates. But now a girl was able to turn a whole group of demons into a bunch of red stains on the ground in an instant without a second thought. Now don't you think people would want to get their hands on a girl like that?"

Katie was at a loss for words. Unexpectedly receiving a little bit of damage from Ellis's point as well, Reeve's body went rigid.

"There's no question that we will never be strong enough to match up against the Hero or the Demon Lord. That's why it would be dangerous if we were to end up directly involved with either one of them. Understand?"

Reeve and Katie's faces both started to turn pale as the seriousness of what they had done gradually became clear. Ellis started to feel a little sympathetic seeing them look like that, so she continued with a softer tone.

"But well, we can't do anything about what's already been done. And it's a great thing that all the villagers are safe."

That one line was able to give both of the girls a bit of relief.

"Now then, should we go grab some of that free meat?"

"Nyes, there is a stupid amount of meat out there nya! Everyone should eat nya!"

Thus the girls' lecture time ended a little sooner than expected, and they all left the hut towards the newly formed mountain of meat.

"This is amazing."

The girls stood in mute amazement at the literal mountain of meat in front of them.

"It's our first time dealing with a Whale Beast this large. This could feed hundreds of people a couple times over. And that's not including what could be done with the organs, fat, and leather."

The seal beastman Selkis began talking beside the dumbfounded girls with a happy albeit slightly overwhelmed look on his face.

Ellis took a moment to think about it.

It would be unreasonable to think that all this meat could be handled even with the seal and cat villages working together. But then again it would be impossible to just bring all this back to Warren as well. So what should be done?

Hmmm.

Ellis talked to the Land Dragon that was strapped to her back.

"Hey Rchin, you said you were good at digging holes right?"

"You could say it's my strong point. I used to move almost exclusively through underground tunnels I built myself."

Thereupon Ellis turned on her heel and invited the two village chiefs to follow her to where she had built the hot springs the last time she was here. After checking some of the nearby bedrock, she whispered something in Claire's ear.

Claire nodded her head once and started circling around the rocky area. Soon she called back to Ellis after examining an especially large portion of solid rock.

"Ellis, I think right around here should be fine."

"Then Rchin, if you would."

"With that size, my human form would work better. Ellis, could you use {Change Human} and get me a change of clothes?"

Ellis walked away and hid from the others behind some large rocks, dropping the Land Dragon from the bookbag on her back, and using {Change Human} to turn Rchin into his Ellison form. He put on a spare set of clothes that Ellis had started carrying around with her regularly before both of them appeared once again in front of everyone else.

"Well then, let's begin."

Rchin put out both of his hands in front of the spot Claire had pointed out. Rchin cast the spell {Excavate Arm}, and an innumerable number of fine grains of minerals began rotating around both of his arms. It looked like they had become a pair of drills.

Both arms were making a thunderous roar, and as Rchin placed his hands on the solid rock, bits and pieces immediately started flying behind him.

"Make the entrance narrow and the inside a wide room," Ellis spoke directly to Rchin's mind since she was sure her voice wouldn't be heard over the noise of the drills.

It didn't take long for Rchin to dig out a cave large enough for an entire house to fit into.

"One more step to finish it up."

Ellis beckoned over Katie and Ah-nyan. Before telling them what to do, she asked just to make sure what Ah-nyan's breath could do.

"It's just as you think President Ellis. My breath is just pure coldness. It's a much more elegant breath than some other stupid dragon's that can only break stuff."

"Hey Claire, it sounds like even a dumba.s.s dragon can have an elegant breath."

Ellis clicked her tongue, knowing that if left alone these stupid dragons would each hop in one after another to pick a fight with each other again, so she motioned towards the cave, cutting off any more responses that would waste her time.

"Well then would you go ahead and release your breath into that cave there?"

"That's easy!"

Katie and Ah-nyan followed Ellis's instructions, firing their {Extreme Cold Breath} into the dug out hole. The inside of the cavern froze over without the shape changing at all.

"That's good enough. Thanks."

With that, a huge freezer kept at a couple dozen degrees below zero had been made.

Ellis called over the two chiefs Gattis and Selkis and had them store the meat in the village's newly crafted warehouse. She also told Gattis he would want to craft a door to be set at the entrance.

"This should remain cold for a while. And you can use it from now on as cold storage to keep the fish and sh.e.l.lfish you catch."

The two men looked down on Ellis astonished, but she ignored the looks they were giving her and returned to the mountain of meat.

Ellis next began whispering in Frau's ear. Afterwards Frau stepped forward inspecting the whole pile.

"I think it can go Ellis."

"Then Frau will head back to Warren first. Go to the Merchant Guild first, and then talk to the Workshop Guild."

After giving an enthusiastic nod, Frau grabbed a few small samples of the meat and returned to Warren on Fe-rin's back. Meanwhile Ellis once again engaged the two village heads, discussing how exactly to handle the bounty.

It was decided that Selkis and the other seal beastmen would handle the quick to rot organs and hard to manufacture leather, beginning work on processing the two ingredients immediately. As for the fat, it was said that it could be used for anything from a cooking ingredient, to tallow, to a wonderful fuel source, so it would be split in half with the seals taking one portion and the cats taking the other. For now it would be kept inside the freezer until it was ready to be moved.

As for the meat, both chiefs agreed to the proposal Ellis made to them.

"Well then Gattis, Selkis, be sure to eat your fill of whale meat today."

The girls left those words behind as they got on their Magical Horses, and headed home.

By the time everyone had made it home, Frau had already started using the sample meat she had brought with her to cook dinner.

"Ellis, Maria and Flint both gave their enthusiastic approval. I also gave a sample to some chefs in Gentleman's Street, Freedom Promenade, and Lily Garden to have them cook something up and give me a report. All we have to do afterwards is make a decision based on the details and adjust the schedule accordingly."

"Thanks Frau. How are you seasoning it today?"

"I thought I'd start off simple, using just a little salt and a few extra spices while cooking it alongside some of the Whale Beast's fat."

And then it was time for dinner. Each of the girls were licking their lips after tasting some Whale Beast Meat that was far more delicious than they had been expecting.

Eventually, it was time for the long-awaited nighttime activities. Katie waited for the inevitable sermon Ellis was sure to give her tonight, trembling with excitement.

The catgirl strained her ears, doing her best to listen in.

"Yosh, Reeve's done nya."

...…..

"There goes Frau too nya."

...…..

"Claire is almost done, so it's almost my turn nya."

...…..

However no matter how long Katie waited, Ellis never showed up to her room.

...…..

Katie strained her ears even harder. In doing so, she was able to just make out a conversation between Claire and Ellis.

"Hey Ellis, why aren't you visiting Katie tonight?"

"She's being punished. It's the so-called neglect play. I'm going to make that stupid cat cool her head tonight."

...…..

Mrooooooooowr...…..

Mrooooooooowr...…..

Mrooooooooowr...…..

Katie continued making a strangled cry as the night wore on.

Mrooooooooowr...…..

Mrooooooooowr...…..

Mrooooooooowr...…..

"So noisy, that idiot cat!"

"Ellis, go. She's too pitiful like this."

"Yeah, I suppose. Then I'll head over right now."

"Ah, please, before you go...…."

Ellis made her way to Katie's room after Claire had been kindly knocked out.

Mrooooooooowr...…..

"Shut up you stupid cat!"

Ellis burst through the door, raising Katie's chin up and forcing her to look directly into her eyes. The catgirl's grey eyes were turning red, tears running down her cheek.

"Nyam sowwy Ellis, nyam sowwy Ellis...…"

Ellis cut off Katie's babbling apology by plugging up Katie's lips with her own. After a moment, Katie began to calm down, and Ellis whispered in her relaxed ears.

"Tonight, you'll be physically punished all night long."

"Phew, that's good. Katie will be happy to have Ellis vent her anger until tomorrow rolls around."

"Good. Ellis sure is tolerant."

"I was ready to hear that cry all night."

"It's good that everything's calmed down."

"Be sure to give Ellis your thanks dumba.s.s dragon."

"Let's take this to the front."

Thus another another night pa.s.sed into day, and all was peaceful inside the mansion.