(33) Fermented meat

Mangrel stayed till the end, looking at the burning corpses with cautiousness. 

The ground was dry, with no grass, so the chances of the fire spreading were close to zero. Nevertheless, Mangrel kept his mind alert and tightened up the whole time. 

The smell of burning corpses drifted in the air, it was an odor that made many nauseated, back on Earth.

However, in this world, it was an odor that was a semblance of death. 

Sniffing the extremely familiar odor, Mangrel felt himself thinking about many bloody scenes he caused in the past.

It made him smile viciously involuntarily. 

'The demonic path is like this. It can never be traversed with peace and negligence. Only by stepping over the dead bodies of thousands of people, can I reach the top. I am a demonic path cultivator not because I want to kill, it's because staying in that faction would give me higher chances of growing stronger.' 

'If the righteous path provides me more benefit, I won't hesitate to jump to their faction either. Benefits are all that matter, good and evil are nothing but shallow ideals made for the weak. They are not a bind that can stop me.' Mangrel looked at the ashes that flew through the air, leaving behind a desolate atmosphere. 

'....No guards were attracted as I thought. So the guards in this city are working for the beggar organization as I thought.' Mangrel was not surprised by this fact. 

He had found their movement questionable from the beginning. He was more than eighty percent sure of this matter before.

Leaving a place like this unguarded, it went beyond questionable. This fact was proven by Jwarlen and his group's blatant movement to capture other beggars to sell them as slaves. They were truly unafraid of anyone and unrestrained to the extreme in this area. 

Every superior wants total control over the people and territory below them. Especially lacking the power to reach every corner of the territory, might lead to the birth of unruly organizations. 

These could be used as a weakness by hostile parties too. 

It was the basics of the basics in the ruling. 

It was clear that the guards were wantonly keeping their distance from the area, not bothering to check what was going on. 

'This helped me in return though. The reach of this beggar organization is really beyond my imagination. The whole of sector five is probably under their control.' 

'Thankfully I didn't try anything funny like using the guards to look into the deeper part of the alleyway, to distract them. I had my doubts back then too after all.' 

Every step of life was filled with traps that might normally not be visible. Unraveling those traps was the only way to move forward in life, going around it would only pose greater problems in the future. 

"Let's clean ourselves now." Mangrel didn't hesitate to use the water stored in the clay pots, within the house.

Throwing away the clothes, stained with blood, they changed into the clothes in the house. They were very loose, but there was nothing else that could be done. 

'I don't have the time to alter the clothes size...'

Rumble~ 

Mars's stomach growled in hunger, breaking the silence.

"We should eat up before we do anything else." Mangrel felt hungry too, so he led Mars to the kitchen of the house, with no hesitation. 

Because of sleeping the whole evening, Mangrel felt no sleepiness, even though it was deep into the night. 

Though weakness the next day would be unavoidable, the reaction would be reasonably lowered compared to normal. It might pose a danger but Mangrel had to stay up tonight nevertheless.

'The weakness would be cleared up once I became a cultivator, so it's nothing to fear excessively.' Mangrel's gaze traveled through the kitchen. 

Simple masonry construction was in the middle of the kitchen, used to hold the wood and food. And a metal cauldron was hanging above the woods used to make a fire. 

The shelf with food utensils on the walls was also surprisingly organized. From the look of things, Jwarlen cooked for himself, which was unlike his personality. 

People were not to be judged by their impressions all the time. 

'The chances of him keeping servants to cook is close to abysmal, with his cautious mind.' Mangrel thought, before walking towards the shelf. 

One of the things on the ground caught Mangrel's attention. There were two wooden barrels below the shelves. 

Walking up to it, Mangrel uncapped it immediately. 

'Meat.'

The meat was rubbed with salt, placed in wooden barrels, and topped off with water, making a brine. Storing it this way, no harmful bacteria would be born within the meat either. 

Mangrel pulled one of the barrels out into the middle of the kitchen. 

"What is that?" Mars, who was looking around, asked with curiosity. 

"Meat." Mangrel spewed out a single word. 

"Meat? I heard that it was a kind of food..." Mars peeked at the barrel's content, causing his eyes to shine in brilliance. 

It was food!

Mars felt happy instantly, extending his hand to pick up a piece of meat immediately. 

"Stop, it's not ready yet." Mangrel stopped Mars after thinking for a second. 

"Not ready?" Mars revealed a bewildered expression. 

"Didn't I tell you that I will let you taste something better than the bread? Just do what I tell you to do from here." Mangrel smiled mysteriously. 

First off, Mangrel ordered Mars to change the cauldron and place a pan in its place. And next to start the fire, using one of the lamps, and of course without breaking it. 

Mangrel collected the ingredients around the kitchen, like oil and salt. He replaced the wood below the pan, while Mars tried reaching out to the lamp, above his height. 

By the time Mars brought a lamp, Mangrel took out the fermented meat and started cutting it into appropriate sizes with a kitchen knife. 

Making four pieces, enough to fill both of their stomachs, Mangrel put the leftover meat back into the barrel and sealed it again. 

Snip-snap-whoosh~ 

The sound of wood burning rang out within the house. Mars curiously looked at Mangrel's action, he had no experience in cooking, or more specifically, it was his first time seeing someone cook. 

Mars's eyes went to the meat, placed on a wooden plate. They were still red, evidently fermented for around only three days. The white fats on it were on the lower side. 

Sizzle!

Mangrel seared the meat on the pan to dry it off first. Doing the same with all four meat pieces, Mangrel took them out and put the oil, which was stored in amphorae — jar with two handles. 

'There is no proper seasoning, so roasting it directly is all I can do. Well, it would still be tens of times tastier than bread, so it shouldn't be a problem.' Mangrel waited for the oil to heat up, before placing the meat on the pan. 

He was sure enough to add some salt too. Mangrel's once again professional movement made Mars doubt his eyes. 

'Where did he learn to cook?' Mars questioned himself, before just losing himself in the heavenly fragrance of the meat.

Sizz~ 

Two lops of meat on a plate were handed to Mars, making him gulp involuntarily. Just the fragrance was enough to make Mars impatient to eat the glossy meat before him. But, he controlled himself, the meat was still too hot. 

Sitting beside Mars, Mangrel looked at the meat with his signature blank face and night sky-like eyes. 

'...The meat has been stored for around three days, so the chances of it being poisoned, a trap, are low. I deep-roasted it to kill any germs too, so the chances of getting harmful effects from eating this are low.' Mangrel relaxed, thinking this far. 

Jwarlen made Mangrel think over all of his actions multiple times. It wouldn't be strange to fall for a trap in this house. 

But in the end, it turned out Mangrel was just being paranoid. 

Jwarlen had not left any traps in his house.

'Still, just in case....' Mangrel waited for Mars to eat first.  

After a few minutes, Mars couldn't control himself and took a bite out of the meat at last. Only to freeze in his position, it was like his body had stopped functioning. His eyes were wide upon, unblinking and the meat in his hand was still near the mouth.

'Hmm, So the meat is alright.' 

The Moment Mangrel concluded, Mars began taking a bite out of the meat like a crazed animal. 

While Mangrel also began eating at a faster pace, to finish up quickly. He had no interest in enjoying the food, it was just something he did out of necessity. 

"....This is heaven..." 

Mangrel ate the meat while hearing the faint muttering of Mars.